Potato on a stick!!!

The Ottawa Ribfest has started on Sparks Street.

The best part (aside from the delicious smoke smell) is that Potato-on-a-stick is back!

For those of you looking for it, the stand is on Sparks between Metcalfe and Elgin.

You may recall be mentioning it in a previous post. I forgot to take a picture of it, as taking pictures of my food is not a habit I am in.

But today I remembered to get my cousin to take a picture for me. So here it is: Potato-on-a-stick

Week 8 - Gorgeous Weather

Love is in the air

The weather was great today and I went for a walk in the market  over lunch.  I noticed many many people flirting and exchanging phone numbers which lead me to my idea for this week.

Have you guys ever heard of Two Guys with Beards? I saw a poster for their events and thought that they seem rather original.

They have an event coming up this week for people of my age range. It's over my weekly budget, but I figure I might compensate by doing something free next week.

Still haven't decided what to do this week. But the speeding dating seems to be at the forefront.

Holiday

Hi everyone!

As you may have noticed I haven’t posted anything in the last few weeks. That is because I was on holiday. I spent a great 2 weeks in Europe and am now home, adjusting to the jetlag, and ready and rearing to go. Check back in a bit, I’m in the process of updating the calendar and mapping out my fun time.

Talk to you soon!

Week 3 so far

We got cultured

The Roommate and I went to go see a play at the Gladstone on Tuesday.

Neither of us had been to the Gladstone and we were pleasantly surprised by how cozy the theater is. You can see that a lot of TLC has gone into this theater.

For those of you who don’t know where the theater is, it’s on Gladstone at Preston. It used to be the GCTC until they moved to their new building at Wellington and Holland.

Be forewarned, there is no parking at the Gladstone itself, and the parking lots surrounding it belong to the restaurants. Be prepared to park on the street or in the city lot beside the Yoga studio.

The play was very entertaining. It was comedic and yet did bring up some very important issues women of the time, and of today face. Issues such as feeling inadequate and having those feelings dismissed, or how to we measure the success of being a woman.

All in all a great evening. I highly recommend seeing the play. It’s called “In the next room or the vibrator”. It’s at the Gladstone until June 1^st.

Ticket: $15, Parking: $8, Gas: $1.50    Total: $24.50, right under the wire.

Week 3

We get a little cultured

The roommate and I are going to see a play tonight.

We're going to see :
In the Next Room or the vibrator play, by Sarah Ruhl

From the website:

By Sarah Ruhl 

Directed by Bronwyn Steinberg

Imagine a time when electricity was a novelty and female "hysteria" was considered a treatable problem. Now imagine what happens when they both come together…

Sarah Ruhl's Tony and Pulitzer Prize-nominated comedy is set in a genteel, Victorian-era spa town where Dr. Givings specializes in treating hysteria with a mysterious, electrically powered device, but is blind to the state of his own unfulfilling and sterile marriage. As patients arrive for their electrically powered, secret treatment, his wife Catherine becomes curious… and jealous. What is going on in the next room?

Ruhl's play is at once a deftly comic skewering of societal repressions and a lyrical exploration of love. It has been staged across North America and Europe and has been translated into Spanish, Hebrew and German.

Featuring Rideau Award nominated actors Michelle LeBlanc and Sarah Finn.

"In the Next Room or the vibrator play" is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.

Tickets for tonight's preview are $15

Week 2 summary

Busy

So this has been a busy busy week.

I'm in the middle of moving and have been cleaning everyday this week. (Seriously. Every. Day.) I've also settled on going on a trip and am planning that. 

I have tried to get to a couple events this week, yet chores have always taken priority. Today I had to choose between painting a bedroom and doing loads and loads of laundry.

Wednesday I had intended to be healthful and go to Yoga on the Hill, then I heard about the food truck launch at City Hall. I've been looking forward to the new food trucks for months now.

I got to City Hall at 12:15 money at the ready to purchase my bracelet from Shepherd's of Good Hope and sample all the new offerings. Unfortunately (for me) there were no bracelets left. You could still try food, paying per truck, but the event was so popular that the lines were gigantic and some trucks had run out of food. I only have an hour for lunch so the prospect of spending it all in line and eating while power walking back to the office (with a blister on my heel, stupid shoes) was less than titillating, I walked to the Rideau Centre and grabbed something from Michel's Baguette.

So I missed out on Yoga and yummy food.

Summary: $0, blisters on my feet, and the constant smell of cleaning products in my lungs.

Week 2

Comicon

I have nerdy tendencies. One does not become excited about midnight screening of The Hobbit without having those tendencies.

I’ve always strived to keep those under control, because I am certain I could go to the dark side and become a geek. I’ve put check points in place and drawn very firm lines that I cannot cross.

One of those lines is Comicon. I have always contended that going to Comicon would be that one step too far, the step that takes me over the edge. Yet here I am contemplating going to Comicon this weekend.

Why? Two words: Nathan Fillion

I love Nathan Fillion, he seems like an all-around good guy, and as far as celebrities go that’s a pretty big deal. The roommate squeed when she heard he was coming and will be waiting in line for hours to get her picture taken with him. She'll also be wearing her Captain Hammer tee-shirt. For those of you who have never seen Dr. Horrible's sing-along blog there's a link to it here.

So here I am, still needing to decide upon my activity for the week, staring at that line, and wondering if I should just cross over.

Carnival Time

Depressing Carnival, Great Hockey Game, Funny Movie

Last night I went to the Sparks Street Carnival with the roommate. 

We got there around 8 pm thinking that the cooler night air would be more enjoyable than the hot hot sun. I also thought that seeing the carnival all lit up would be more magical.

The street was quite barren. A quartet of 20-somethings we're going from ride to ride, trying to make the best of it. There was something quite sad about seeing the rides going with no one on them. 

Perhaps it was the lack of music from the rides, the dearth of lighting on the street, or the jaded view of being a grown up, but I found the fair lacking. 

The high point was the fresh cut potato on a stick. (The roomate and I have established that all food is better on a stick.) The potatoes take about 2 and a half minute to cook, and you then cover them in salt and your selection of fancy ketchup. 

Seriously they have fancy ketchup. Someone alert the Barenaked Ladies.

They have dill ketchup, bacon ketchup, mesquite ketchup, and a whole wack more that I don't recall.

After walking the length of Sparks Street we ended up at the 3 Brewers and watched a bit of the hockey game on the big screen they had set up. We then wandered down to the market and got some frozen yogourt from Spoon. 

If you haven't been to Spoon yet, I highly recommend you going. It's at the corner of Clarence and Dalhousie. It's basically a make your own sundae bar, in all it's glory. Check out their twitter feed.

While sitting outside, enjoying the frozen deliciousness, the gorgeous weather, and a Habs win. The roommate and I discussed what to do to cap off the evening. We decided to go see a movie and settled upon seeing Pain and Gain at the SilverCity Gloucester.

The movie was quite good, and had the markings of a Coen brothers movie, and we were surprised to see that it was a Michael Bay movie. Thumbs up!

Money spent: $25, plus probably about $3 of gas. Not bad for a first attempt, next time I'll definitely try to keep it under $25.

Week 1, event 1

Plan for the week.

For those of you that don't know Sparks Street Mall is working really hard to engage the community and get people to come back to Sparks. 

This week they're having a ...

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Wait for it.... 

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They're having a Carnival!

I've been watching them set it up all week. There's a ferris wheel,  a merry-go-round, and a whole wack of carnival food.

I am really excited about this, stay tuned for the review.

If you want more info about this event check out their page here