Cables are an inevitable bothersome necessity.

If you own any kind of gadget, it will ALWAYS come with a cable, even if you try to go as wireless as possible.

So why not make organizing or looking at them as beautiful as possible?

Lufdesign

Wire Blooms Cable Clips

… but why the heck is it NOT expandable with an SD card!?

*face palm*

I’m even willing to pay their massive $379 price tag, because I wanted something under $1000 (yes, under $1000), that was at least 9.7″, and could hold all of my graphic novels (which are all in PDF).

(No I don’t want an iPad. Much too heavy & not practical for my life.)

I just need way more than just 2 – 4 GB of space.

Amazon, for the love of all things sacred, PLEASE make your next version expandable with an SD card!

It is cute though, no?

I went (window) shopping.

Okay before you say anything about my shopping ban, I feel the need to remind you that I am allowed to buy 3 things on my exception list for 2010, to be purchased at each milestone (3 months):

• Knee-high grey boots (no luck here because I am not quite sure what I want yet)
• Trench coat (bad luck here, because I’m only lusting after the Burberry ones!! Ack!)
• Leather jacket (so far, found a perfect one for $575, fainted & moved on)

Still looking for these options above, the only must, is the leather jacket.

And a real leather jacket, not a faux one, because they make me sweat like a pig in heat and they tend to feel … squeaky.. for lack of a better description.

So anyway, I went window shopping just to see what I’m missing (I know, bad idea, right?) and THERE WAS NOTHING I WANTED TO BUY.

Other than that $575 leather jacket from Aritzia that didn’t even come in the colour I wanted (dark brown), the stores are just lacking in tempting clothing.

Everything is:

• neutral — sands, beiges, greys, blacks; I love me a neutral, but I want colour & pattern!
• colours I’d never wear — neons were huge for some reason & really funky 70s prints
• patterns — none to really speak of; I saw a great red print pattern but hated the style
• style/shape I can’t pull off — super skin tight? strange fabrics? assymetrical what!?

…all just unwearable for me.

I can’t wear neon green, grass green, beige, sandy colours or anything that makes me look sickly.

The only decent colour was the vibrant purples I saw. The really neon magenta pinks? Not so much.

Glad I’m on a shopping ban. The stores have just made it so much easier to resist — there’s nothing I want.

LOGITECH ALTO LAPTOP STAND = ~$55

Instead of the $149.99 they’re asking for on the Future Shop website.

I spaved $100!

(Snagged at Canada Computers on College if you are interested in buying one too)

I’ve wanted one for a while now, and BF paid $80 for his at Staples, and I felt like I couldn’t fork over more than $50 for a laptop stand.

I wanted one because..damn it, I hate hunching over my laptop.

Now that I have it, I am sitting up straighter, and looking right into my laptop screen rather than hunching over it on a table.

I guess everyone is saying: So WTH don’t you just buy a desktop?

As much as I like the idea, I can’t travel with a desktop as easily as I can with a laptop, its own stand and keyboard.

LOGITECH ILLUMINATED KEYBOARD $84.99

Again, snagged at Canada Computers for 5% off (woo hoo open box!) and for $15 cheaper than through Future Shop, who is selling it for $99.99. Online only.

I would have used the keyboard that came with the laptop stand, but the damn thing was WIRELESS.

I hate wireless keyboards or mice. They take up a USB port anyway, and the response time is slow, no matter what they claim. It just takes time to feed a signal, that’s it.

Wired is where it’s at.

Review on the duo coming up soon, I promise.

SEPHORA HAUL (heh heh)

New night cream for the super dry winter that has been causing havoc on my skin:

Skyn Iceland (don’t look at the price tag, you will cry the way I did!)

…but this stuff is incredible. Review later.

New face moisturizer with SOME SPF in it for day time:

I would have stuck with my Neutrogena Dry Touch SPF 45 or the SkinMD SPF 15 creams, except they make BF nauseous.

Every. Time.

Even putting on a little light layer, makes him throw a mini fit about how badly I stink.

But this one passed his approval, when I layered on the sample I got from Sephora.

BF: “It doesn’t stink as bad as the others.”

New Facial Cleanser because I wanted something without my list of unapproved chemicals:

This stuff is SO awesome and you don’t need a lot, because it doesn’t lather but cleans beautifully.

New face primer:

Finally ran out of Smashbox’s Photofinish Primer and hemmed and hawed over buying another bottle but I wasn’t thrilled with the parabens in it.

I mean, it is a primer sitting on my skin, but who’s to say it doesn’t absorb into it a little?

So I went with this one that feels the same as Smashbox because it has silicones in it (I am not as squeamish about silicones).

And it’s cheaper!

I was thinking of ALSO buying a new blush and eye shadow set, but thought the better of it — I want to use up what I have first.

Hmm what else?

Oh yes! Here’s what I/BF cooked & ate:

Braised honey garlic ribs with rice and scallions.

I made the green beans for a vegetable side dish.

Too much meat!!!

(Gosh I never thought I’d ever say that)

I spent time cutting them on an angle like so, and it gave them a different texture and taste than just a straight chop.

Then we schooled my mom on making pizza from scratch.

I made the dough by hand, and BF chopped the toppings & cooked the pizzas on his pizza stone.

Here is the version with large fresh tomatoes and bacon with cheese & green onions for crunch:

This one is sans tomatoes

And this one is a white pie, with cream and onions instead of tomatoes.

A French recipe for pizza, apparently.

BF also made a great dish out of stewing hen, and the duck turned out almost like it but I forgot to snap a pic.

Stewing Hen with rice

P.S. If you want a GREAT butcher with decent prices, check out SANAGAN’S MEAT LOCKER @ 206 Baldwin Street, Toronto, ON (416) 593-9747

• Tues-Sat: 8 a.m. – 7 p.m.
• Sun: 12 noon – 5 p.m.
• Mon: Closed

Read the BlogTO review here.

We stumbled upon them by accident (they’re replacing Max & Sons), and the meat looks real, as in the chicken doesn’t look dry and powdery like Cost-co chicken, and the meat is flavourful as well.

The prices are VERY reasonable, and if we stayed longer in Toronto, we’d have done all our meat purchases there.

I also experimented with some Crispy Kale, on the advice of many foodies.

I coated it in oil, salted them good, and threw them in the oven.

Results? Mixed. I liked them, but not enough to go through the trouble of preparing them like that again.

They were a bit too oily for my taste, and I am not really a chip person.. so maybe if you are really into salty, crispy chips, this is a good substitute for you.

For me, not so much.

It was really crispy and crunchy, but not what I wanted .. if I were to crave potato chips that is.

CRISPY KALE

Then we ate out!

Pho from Pho Linh

We took it as takeout, because BF HATES soups.

So technically, I ate out. He ate in.

I love love LOVE this Pho.

It beats Pho Lien in Montreal, in my opinion.

The soup base is light, flavourful and AWESOME. I practically licked my bowl.

Pho Linh

1156 College Street
Toronto, ON M6H 1B6
(416) 516-3891

And we tried out the new chain Chipotle’s from the States.

$8.19 for ONE burrito.

“What a rip off”, we griped, as we ate out delicious burritos, with sauce dripping down our faces.

I hated the salty cheddar cheese in mine (big mistake ordering that), and I wanted guacamole, but she wanted to charge me something like $2.00 for it!

“Eff no!”, my inner PF’er screamed.

So I ate it as is.

The tortilla was AWESOME, just like what we ate in Dallas, TX… but there wasn’t enough meat for us, and frankly, it wasn’t worth $8.19.

I’d have paid $6.50 – $7 max for a single burrito, considering that a drink is extra.

But if you are missing a taste of true, pretty authentic, healthy Mexican burritos.. check ‘em out.

Chipotle

(Across from Forever 21 and the Pickle Barrel, beside Future Shop, closest TTC station is Dundas, near the Eaton’s Centre)

323 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON M5B 1R7
(416) 596-8600

As you can see, we had a stellar week shopping & eating in/out in Toronto

———————————————————————————–

A great article to be read: Asiaphilia — Why date or marry Asian women?

(Thanks Jaka!)

I really hate the stereotype that Asian women are docile, super effeminate and servile, as well as saying that non-Asian women are big, broad-shouldered, and undesirable as a female.

It’s such a load of bull. We’re WOMEN, and we’re all different no matter our race or culture.

That’s it.

All it takes is some pretty cover on a book and I am almost willing to shelve my e-book reader lust, and purchase these classics.

Buy them here at Waterstone Books in the U.K.

Wonder if they ship to North America?

This makes me want to cover my last remaining books with pretty fabric now.

Via Alex – Tell Tale Blog