Yesterday we went out for dinner in the city’s east end. I even put on high (er) heeled shoes and earrings. 😊

We left the pooch we’re sitting this weekend home alone.

Of course I walked him first. I want him to sleep while we’re gone, not look for trouble…

The drive into the city was the usual pain in the ass. Why can’t people just stay home? So much gridlock. Probably the main reason we don’t go out much usually…to get into downtown should theoretically take no more than 20 minutes by car on a major artery (Gardiner Expressway) but you tell me what time of day this is possible in a North American metropolitan city of at least 2 million inhabitants (Toronto has 2.7 million based on 2016 stats). Probably between 2 and 4 am…

My partner and I were also marveling that the preschool years have returned the way the two offspring carried on in the backseat.

Don’t touch me!

I didn’t touch her!

He keeps touching me!

No I didn’t!

This is all supplemented by those high pitched screeching sounds little girls are so capable of emitting…

Maddening.

I was really looking forward to one of several glasses of something alcoholic…

We finally got to the restaurant, a favorite of some of the family who live out that way. The cuisine is Czech and Slavic, so eastern European, which is reminiscent to their Latvian roots. There were many different kinds of Schnitzel on the main entree menu for example.

I had a beet salad that was meh (I make better ones) and a breaded chicken cutlet drizzled with blue cheese. Which was really good once it arrived after they realized they gave me a ham and cheese pork schnitzel first…

The service was excruciating slow. The restaurant was full of patrons which I had not seen before…usually it’s only half full at most. The staff was probably a little overwhelmed. Even the drinks were slow coming…

The teen kept bugging me about it. I don’t know what he expected me to do about it…maybe I should have sent him into the kitchen to help.

😂😂😂

I did enjoy the drinks though: first, a lovely glass of Prosecco, followed by a 9 oz glass of Sauvingnon Blanc.

Yum.

In between conversation with various family I entertained the girl child with clips from the Humorous Animals (@CUTEFUNNYANIMAL) feed in Twitter…we laughed tears, especially about the cat ones.

By the time we got home after 10 pm, I felt really tired. Probably because I was really full. The portions were quite large and since the food came so late we all may have consumed our meals a little faster than normal…

But it was good to catch up with the various family members whom we don’t tend to see very often, despite living in the same city. I expect the oldest brother of my partner will cycle out to visit us a few times this summer. He’s an avid cyclist. He lives in Toronto’s Beaches, which is about 30 km east of our west end neighbourhood. Given he’s in his mid 70s, that’s quite a remarkable trip to do on a bike. 😮

Happy Sunday! What’s on your agenda?

I will have coffee, walk the pooch, have coffee, do laundry, more coffee, and go for a second walk with the pooch once my friend arrives to pick him up. Boys have Do-or-Die hockey early afternoon which could mean hockey season may end today…and later the girl child has baseball practice.

In a nutshell: I’ll be parenting all day. 🙂 So this little blog post, that’s my bliss.

You?