Goodbye horrible heavy broken Dirt Devil. Hello lightweight wonderful Dyson! < insert vacuum sucking joke here >

Tip: Don't buy the cheapest vacuum you can find at Canadian Tire, even if it does seem like a good deal at 50% off. You'll regret it every time you lug the stupid thing out of the closet.

Confession: I actually googled "best vacuum jokes". Seriously. And came up empty.

Birthday Boy

What's a birthday without some cake? Last night, after dinner at The Keg, a bunch of our friends headed back with us to our condo and I snapped a quick photo of Jay with some of his favourite things: a DQ ice cream cake, beer, and hockey.

We went to Simple Bistro tonight to celebrate, and had a really lovely dinner - just the two of us :)

 Jay had sauteed sweetbreads & gnocchi, lamb saddle, and a nutmeg cake

I had frog leg ravioli, rabbit, and a lemon curd dessert.

The service was great, and the food was really delicious. We had a late supper, and at the end of the evening the waitress gave us two loaves of their baked in-house bread. We made our reservation through Dining Date Night, and got 30% off our entire bill. It cost $10 to make the reservation, but it definitely saved us more than that. Has anyone else tried it? I'd highly recommend it.

Happy birthday to the most wonderful husband in the world! You are so thoughtful, smart, capable and funny. We met and fell in love in our twenties, and have had so many sweet romantic moments and hilarious adventures together. I can't wait to see what this next decade brings us.

Beauty product reviews

I'm the last person who should be writing about beauty products. I don't normally use a lot of products, and I'm not very up to date on the latest makeup trends, BUT..... lately I've been spending more time at Sephora (a beauty store). I think it's because I haven't bought any new clothes for months and months (maternity clothes not withstanding, but they're hardly anything to get excited about), so I've been buying beauty products instead. Lemme tell ya - it's cheaper to buy clothes :)

So here are some of my recent Sephora purchases:

Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer, in Nude 

I've heard rave reviews about this tinted moisturizer for years, but didn't buy it until a few weeks ago. Basically, it's a very sheer foundation. I hardly ever wear foundation because I find it too heavy and tiresome to put on, but I like this one because I can just use a bit to cover red spots or uneven blemishes quickly in the morning. I definitely need to wear moisturizer under it though, as my skin is like the Sahara. I  bought the travel size.




 Urban Decay Naked2 eye shadow palette
I bought this because during one of our bubble tea dates, my cousin Vicky raved about it. I like the variety of matte and glittery colours, and the pigments are really high quality. I normally buy MAC eyeshadow, but for $60 this was a really good value. So far, I'm really liking it. The only downside is that it takes up so much room, compared to my little MAC quad compact. Not very travel friendly.






Philosophy's Miracle Worker Miraculous Anti-Aging Moisturizer 

Last December, I was in Sephora and on the hunt for a new moisturizer that didn't contain any SPF (I was in my first trimester, and was reading that chemical sunscreen wasn't the greatest choice). I went in looking for Miracle Worker, but a Sephora girl convinced me to try Philosophy's When Hope is Not Enough moisturizer instead. I listened to her, and regretted it. I should have returned that one (Sephora has a GREAT return policy) but I stuck it out, and wished every day that I had bought Miracle Worker instead. So a few weeks ago, I did. And it's as awesome as I thought it would be. Very lightweight, but keeps my face moisturized and dewy all day, which is no small feat for my skin.


Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment, in Rose

 When I was in Sephora with Kyla and Danica,  Kyla really recommended this and I'm so glad I got it. It keeps my lips so soft and moisturized, which just a hint of colour. 











Clarisonic Mia

This was definitely a splurge but I was getting frustrated that my skin was getting red and blotchy with strange dry patches. It could just be the pregnancy hormones, but I still wanted to try to even out my skin tone. I heard about the Clarisonic Mia here. It has an oscillating brush to deep clean your skin. It's waterproof, so you can even use it in the shower. I don't use any fancy facial cleansers, just good old Cetaphil which I grab from the pharmacy. So every night I put Cetaphil on my face, turn the Mia on and move it around my forehead, cheeks, etc for 30 seconds (it turns off automatically). For the first week or so, there wasn't any improvement to my skin. In fact, it kind of got a bit blotchier but I was prepared for that after reading online reviews. Now I'm in week 2, and my skin feels so much softer, and looks brighter and way more even. It makes my moiisturizer sink into my skin better, too.



Anyone else have beauty products they love and would recommend? 

Weekend Update

Side note: Isn't SNL's Weekend Update with Seth Meyers the best part of SNL? Love him.

This weekend has been the perfect mix of hanging out with family and friends, and relaxed lounging

Yesterday, we finally went with Kelly to Goody's Diner. Check out our delicious lunch:

 Front: "Steakhouse" burger: 8oz beef, mushrooms, swiss cheese, onion rings, caesar salad (inside onion rings)
 Back: "Highwayman" burger: 8oz beef, fried egg, onion rings, pastrami  

Chili mac 'n cheese pizza, with side Caesar salad

To celebrate Danica's birthday, we got takeout pizza from Pizza Libretto and celebrated at Ann's place. It was great to hang out and chat with old high school chums (actually, Ann and I were even in kindergarten together!) Please excuse the blurriness of my iPhone pics

This morning I realized that it had been awhile since Jay last took a photo of my belly, so we whipped out the camera for a quick photo. At roughly 22 weeks, we had gone to New York and I had felt so big then. Apparently, compared to now that was nothing!

Here's a funny story: when I first went shopping for maternity clothes, I was about 15 weeks pregnant and just starting to get a bit of a belly. I went into the change room to try on maternity pants, and sitting on the bench was a fake belly! So I strapped it on, put my clothes over it, and giggled over how BIG I looked. I called Jay into the changeroom, and we snapped a quick photo. Oh my, I can't believe how pregnant I'll look at 9 months, I remember saying to Jay. Well, later I discovered that the fake belly bump only approximates a 6 month belly. Holy Smokes! I'll be that big at only SIX months?! I yelped.  Anyway, here's a photo comparing that fake belly with my REAL actual 7 month belly. I even put on the same T-shirt for easy comparison, haha.

Fake six-month belly                                                                                     Real seven-month belly

We've slowly been accumulating more stuff in anticipation of Baby Loftus' arrival. Jay did a lot of research (in true engineer style) and decided that we should get a Colgate Classica III mattress. Unfortunately, it's not available in Canada, so we decided to order it online from a US site. Since we were ordering it online anyway, I decided to also order a Jenny Lind crib that I had been eyeing, since it was also unavailable in Canada. Check out these awesome nurseries with that pretty crib. Shipping and duty charges were about $100 but we decided to bite the bullet and order anyway. We clicked away, but due to some kind of computer glitch, we weren't getting charged for shipping or duty.
"Hmm... should I re-try to order it, so that the correct shipping and duty shows up?" I asked Jay.
"Are you crazy? Click ORDER CONFIRMED!" Jay nearly shouted.

So due to some lucky website glitch we saved over $100 and got the exact crib and mattress we wanted. Pretty awesome, eh?

Oh Goody

Has anyone been to Goody's Diner? It's off the beaten path a bit (in a pretty industrial part of Scarborough), but the burgers get rave reviews. It's definitely on my must-try list, especially after my sister Kelly went a few weeks ago and posted the most amazing burger photos.

I know this blog makes it look like all we do is eat artery-clogging food, but I swear it's not true. Healthy food is just too boring to warrant a photo or a blog entry. However, I will admit that while I haven't had any strange cravings during this pregnancy, I have been indulging in food I wouldn't normally eat (e.g. fast food, pizza, a whole lot of ice cream). Jay is totally digging this aspect of pregnancy since he's happily eating alongside me. I know I'll pay for it post-partum, but for now I think I'll pencil in Goody's Diner into my calendar

Liquid Gold

For anyone who's been following along, you knew this post was coming. This is the third and final installment of our meat locker adventure (you can read about part 1 and part 2, if you like).

It was daunting to consider how to make this massive rack of ribs, but we sorely needed the freezer space it was taking up.  But we didn't know that type of meat it was. The label only said "side ribs, c/off". Was it beef? Was it pork? We hemmed and hawed and googled, and decided that it didn't matter. It was a really huge rack, and the raw meat was dark red (indicating beef). Except it also had an area that was a bit pink-ish too (maybe pork?).  I decided to try to braise the peef? bork? ribs, and see what would happen.

Just for the record, this was Jay's portion

Oh. My. Goodness. It was time-intensive, but it turned out to be the best ribs I've ever made. But I need to tell you about the glorious gravy that came out of it. Pure Liquid Gold. I could drink it, it was so rich and flavourful. Oh, and for the record, it was pork ribs.

Once again, thanks Graham! Best Christmas gift exchange present ever.

Here's the recipe, adapted from here:

Red Wine Braised Pork Ribs
serves 8-10

• 2 large onions, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tbsp. butter
• 1 bottle red wine (I used a Cabernet Sauvignon)
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 litres of stock (I used chicken)
• 2 racks of pork ribs (or 1 gigantic rack), divided into 2-3 rib portions
• 3 celery ribs, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped (I used 3 handfuls of baby carrots)
• 1 tbsp. dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• Flour (to thicken)
• salt and pepper

In a stock pot, bring 3/4 bottle of wine to a low boil and simmer.

In a large skillet, melt butter over medium-low heat. Cook onions, stirring occasionally, until translucent. Add garlic, celery and carrots until it starts to smell really good (a few minutes). Transfer contents to the stock pot.

In the now empty skillet, heat oil until hot. While oil is heating, salt and pepper the meat. Sear each section of ribs, meaty-side down first, until browned on top but not cooked through. Transfer the seared ribs to the stock pot. When finished searing all the ribs, deglaze the pan with balsamic vinegar, then immediately with the rest of the wine. Pour wine and vinegar into the stock pot.

Add the chicken stock to the stockpot - all the ribs should be completely submerged. Add herbs and simmer on low heat for 2 1/2 hours, or until meat is tender and about to fall off the bone.

Remove ribs from sauce and set aside. Continue to simmer the sauce for 2 hours until it is reduced. Skim the fat off the top (I used some kind of Chinese oil skimmer utensil). At this point, you can either skip to the next step, or you can cook a roux (using some of the oil you skimmed and about 3 or 4 tbsp. of flour) and thicken the sauce. Personally, I prefer gravy to thin jus, so I thickened it.

Gently cut the ribs into single-serving portions and return to the stock pot to re-heat. Serve over mashed potatoes, rice, or with crusty bread. Taste, then sigh with satisfaction.