My Weekly Adventures #45!

And we’re back!

It feels like I’ve been giving a lot of updates lately so it feels a like that there isn’t a whole lot to talk about. However, it also feels like these 15 days had like 30 days of stuff that I had worked on. I’m sure as with others doing this, everyone wishes there were more hours in the day to do everything. On one hand, I’d love that Tranquil Dreams could get all the love but I also love the Game Warp Podcast so much. Either way, regardless of it all, I’m finding a way to get back to a more healthy lifestyle (workouts and eating better) while still maintaining the garden and keeping the house clean and getting all the blogging duties done while making time for my mom. Its a little crazy at times but I’ll find a balance for it all. A new season just means more tasks than the stagnant winter months.

What’s been going on?  Yet again, a lot behind the scenes or mundane stuff so those didn’t make the list however, these did!

Back to a Workout Schedule

I kind of go on this on and off workout regiment. It isn’t intentional that I fall off it. Usually something happens to hinder it. Being super motivated, I ended up doing three workouts: one arm/abs weight and a 40 minutes of Zumba (that I put together) and then finally, went out for a jog/run for 5km. My time wasn’t great but you know, its a start to getting back. Of course, my luck would have it in this fantastic “unhealthy” year of issues all the time, I had to run up the (luckily) short flights of steps and fell, making my Sunday a day spent with the ice pack watching E3 conferences and drafting posts and watching Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Obviously, that meant that the following days was in the rest zone as my knees feel better. Which they are now! So, back to weights and a run for the remaining days of this week somewhere. I’m getting a little self-conscious of my weight and health so I’m hoping this healthier lifestyle will help, or at least make me feel mentally more positive.

Grand Prix Montreal

This was supposed to be a post on its own but I just can’t and plus there isn’t a whole lot going on that I need to put more content in this one. Either way, lots of fancy and pretty cars. Mercedes Benz, Porsche, Acura and more made their appearance. The event was spread out further and expanded over an extra block where it was more events and food truck vendors. We obviously did the food truck route. Before that, let me highlight that the showstopper was in fact the Cars life size replica. As Pixar and Disney fans, it was something to be excited about.

Now for the food!

Lucille’s Lobster Roll and Taco

Le Smoking BBQ: Pulled Pork Sandwich with Fries

Jerry Ferrer: Pulled Pork Sandwich with fries

We like pulled pork, what can I say? All very delicious. However, if you are to try food truck, my must-have every single year is Lucille’s Lobster Roll. They are to die for! But Le Smoking BBQ is fantastic as well.

We ended the night with a trip to the Casino of Montreal. I don’t gamble but my friend likes to go once in a while to try his luck. Luck was not great until we saw the OMG! Kittens slot machine by the exit and gave that a go. Suffice to say, he doubled what he brought that night. From now on, he believes me that cats are awesome.

E3 Conference Live Streaming Craze

Those are my favorite conferences of this year! We have a ton of recaps for all the shows. You can find them over at That Moment In. I know that I had talked about this before. However this did take up all of my last weekend and we’ve been working hard on doing impressions and lists to come out in the next week or so while working on the featured game as well which I’ll be streaming over the next few nights. I’m trying to boost up some stream time and learn to be better at it.

Vacation SOON!

Finally, I guess the fun thing is that we have our vacation time booked in. My husband and I had conflicts in schedule so we only have a few days overlapping but it’ll be fun to just hang out and do some home projects. We might go away but since I’ll be on vacation, you won’t (or you might) notice that I’m away.  And when we get back, things will jump into vacation recap phase.

Upcoming:

• Battle of Ingredients (if we could figure out the topic)
• And a lot more of the normal: movies, TV series and books

Cute Kitty Pic

What have you been up to?

My Weekly Adventures: Festival Season is Here!

I did it again! There was supposed to be vlog but then I got a little intimidated of putting it up. Anyways, it was not so great since I recorded super late at night and was all rambling and stuff.

Summer festivals are here and its just the start of a lot of fun stuff here. The weather is hot and humid and while I did recap a lot of the stuff in actual full posts. I’ll talk a little a them here and I’ll have a little update of little life stuff.

Before we start, I guess the most important is that I want to address the crazy weird schedule here. I usually do have a schedule but I’m seriously thinking of going back to a five posts week and leave a break as optional days on the weekends. Especially during festival season as I need to find some time to work on some other projects. Nothing changes here but rather I think I feel a little burnt out. It could be because of the heat that kills a bit of the motivation for everything. However, I feel the energy coming back now that it isn’t 40 degrees Celsius outside. What I’m saying is that 5-7 posts from now on. I’m still working on some backlog for my upcoming vacation in a good few weeks so it’ll be fun! 🙂

I’m skipping the rambling so I’m going to just get going! 🙂

Trying Out Miss Fresh

I’m huge about being efficient as mentioned in my post unboxing the Miss Fresh meal service subscription. You can find that HERE. I think this is such a great idea. Obviously, its still a little expensive to have every week but its a nice treat when its a busy week. I won’t be unboxing my later ones since I don’t think it’ll have anything new to offer except different recipes. However, I did manage to make one of the recipes and still mix up the ingredients a little. It was a Tuna Bake. In the end, here’s how it turned out.

For a good idea of what it is, the ingredients are on the top pre-portioned for what your plan is set at. This makes for two people. However, my husband was the only one that could eat this meal and it served three meals for him.

Montreal Comiccon

 Montreal Comiccon was last weekend. I only made it to the Friday but it was a ton of fun. I did a general coverage earlier this week HERE! I chatted with some cool indie game developers and tried out games, saw the Outlast 2 live demo and more. I didn’t get an autograph but walked past the autograph booths and saw a ton of celebrities from afar. I’m not sure if I mentioned in Comiccon recap post but I specifically wanted to see Bob Morley, unfortunately I had to skip Saturday so I didn’t get to his Q&A but I did walk past his autograph spot which was at the side so I got a really close look at what he looked like in real life. I was pretty happy about that.

Overall a very cool time there. I’m going to try to get a media pass for next year or simply get a 3 day pass and check it all out. Something to think and plan for in the coming year! 🙂

Song of the Deep!

With Game Warp comes great responsibility! Song of the Deep is one of my most anticipated for this year. I ended up preordering this one even if I kind of knew there really wasn’t a point but I was just so excited for it. Plus, its the first time I pre-ordered a game! Kickstarter projects don’t count. I’m still waiting for most of those to see the light of day. You know I love shameless plugs for Game Warp so maybe you’d be as excited as I am that Song of the Deep is August’s featured game!

We have a new episode for Game Warp coming up next week and we’re getting ready for the episode of the featured review for this month’s game, Oxenfree! 🙂

Garden & Harvest!

We had our first harvest! The crazy rain grew my zucchini plants so much that after two days of intense rain, my plant was like 40% larger and the zucchinis were ready for harvest. Well, two of ’em. Look at it! They are huge!

We even had some delicious lettuce to cook with it, all from the garden. It just makes me so proud that I didn’t manage to kill anything else and that the fence reinforcements have been fantastic. I’m going to probably be harvesting more lettuce and kale this week. I don’t have pictures yet but raspberries and some strawberry harvests are happening also! 🙂

Fantasia Festival!!

Fantasia Festival is here! It started on July 14th and runs till August 3rd. Unlike most years, I actually have it really easy for the first week so so far, only one movie! This was from the first film that I attended on Friday night. It started in delay so I guess its cool I was standing in line next to some cool people that I striked up an interesting conversation about everything. If some of you don’t know, Fantasia Festival usually means at least 45 minutes to an hour of line-up, at least if you want decent seats. Since I go to this alone a lot, its really nice to meet people at least for line-up company. Regardless, this was also the first time I’ve ever experienced delay at Fantasia Festival but the movie ended up starting half an hour late but I think its alright even if it meant that I couldn’t stay for all the Q&A since I needed to catch the last bus home. Thank goodness, my schedule doesn’t usually hinge on these crazy moments this year mostly.

I’m pretty excited about the rest of the movies. You can see my line-up HERE! And usually expect the review about two days later to give some time to think about what I’ve seen and gather my thoughts. Which means that my first one I saw, Rupture’s review will go up tomorrow (Monday!).

Calypso Water Park

While the heat is getting me super tired and just not want to do anything in general, I’m also loving it because it means that I can go in the pool and cool down. Last week, I actually did and enjoyed some outside reading time and Netflix time and even got in a pool workout session which was really great.

However, the thing I looked forward a lot was going to the water park with my girl friends. We’ve been trying to plan it for two summers and we’re finally going. The weather threatened us a little but we decided to give it a go. It turned out to be the perfect weather. We ended up going to Calypso Water Park near Ottawa.

Great company, nice weather, and a ton of fun! We weren’t all about doing the super adrenaline rush stuff but we ended up doing the wave pool which was definitely a winner since we went back four times. We also did two times of the Kongo Expedition (which is something like a lazy river concept). There was a part in there in a dark cave that kind of tapped into my fear of the dark but still it was really fun even if I got capsized by some stupid kids on purpose. It was more unexpected than that I got angry or scared. We also went for two rounds of the Jungle Run which is like balancing on a paddleboard and letting the current push you through the course and it was done really well. There was also the Canyon Rafting that was a ton of fun to get drifted along the sides of the tubes and then we had the fancy idea of going up one of the tallest rides thinking it wouldn’t be intense and it freaked me out. It was a ton of fun actually. Its the double-edged sword of amusement parks in general for me.

After that, we headed back home and had dinner….

Trying Out a New Restaurant Jerry Ferrer

What’s a perfect day without having a great meal at the end as well. I told you all about Jerry Ferrer on opening day and just trying a few things but we went to try it out.

We ended up sharing a fried calamari.

Fried Calamari

I loved the texture of this so much! It was super delicious!

While all the girls got burgers, I was really craving a pulled pork sandwich so I got exactly that!

Doesn’t that just look scrumptious? It was so awesome! 🙂 I think this place might be a new fave spot for me. At least I’m definitely coming back to try out a few more things. Plus the decor and service was nice and that is always a plus.

A perfect way to end a fantastic day out with friends, even if I got home and realized that I forgot sunscreen on my chest area and super sunburned…haha!

Cute Kitty Pic

Some of you that follow me on Avenue of Daydreams would have seen this pic but this is just so cute I couldn’t let you all miss out on it! 🙂

Upcoming:

• Fantasia Festival Movie Reviews!!

That is the recap of the last two weeks!
What have you been up to? Any festivals, summer heat, activities, etc? 

My Weekly Adventures: It’s Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day, my fellow Canadians!

These weeks pass by so fast! The second half of June was super busy! I guess you can tell since my posts are all over the place. I literally watched two movies in three weeks. I’m not lying that it felt a little empty at times but then real life does take priority here. That is probably why there’s a good bit of stuff to get through this time around! Less rambling and more fun stuff, right?

Let’s see what happened since the last time!

Pointe Claire Marathon

Of course, it goes without saying. Just support, not actual running. This was in the Pointe Claire village area. My friends went for the half marathon and did a decent time. The weather was beautiful and maybe even nearing a little hot by the end of their course. By far, the most relaxing place that any marathon has been set that even I could sit in the park nearby next to some water and catch up on some reading.

After that, they got freshened up and brunch time! 🙂

Father’s Day

Suffice to say, that first weekend was crazy busy. I came home on Saturday and had to start preparing for Father’s Day baking. Thing was, I had no idea what to make. The initial idea was to make Chocolate Mousse for my father in law but then I lost track of time and ended up making these cupcakes that kind of failed. They tasted really good apparently since it was Vanilla Cupcakes with Marshmallow and chocolate. The concept was like a S’mores cupcakes but with a marshmallow centre but that didn’t work out. Its why I didn’t post about it. Here’s how they turned out.

Project Ravin’ Rabbits

Talk about an efficient Father’s Day! My friends came over along with their little girl to help me out with the garden reinforcements and also have dinner together.  The afternoon before, my husband and I had attempted to put up a quick fix but it turned out to not be too helpful since apparently bunnies can hop pretty high.

First reinforcement which failed

It was hopeful thinking that they wouldn’t put in the extra effort to get delicious organic lettuce/kale/broccoli leaves/okra leaves.

Final reinforcement!

Its been two weeks and I think its working! So far, there hasn’t been any issues. My lettuce and kale are growing. Even my okra plants are doing better well, the two that survived this rabbit invasion.

Grand Opening of Restaurant

I don’t know how my friends get news of all these cool things but they invited me to go with them to this grand opening of a restaurant called Jerry  Ferrer. On their first day that we went, it had a time frame where it was opened and would serve free food until their kitchen was empty. We didn’t end up getting there early enough to try everything but we did manage to get a few things to share. It wasn’t enough to fix the hunger and we had to go grab something else to eat but it gave us a good vibe of the restaurant and the decor and the food.

A great concept here for those of you who don’t read French, for children under 12 years old, they pay their age. Their meal will include one dish plus an ice cream plus a surprise. I like surprises and it makes me wonder what it is. Unfortunately I’m not under 12 so that doesn’t help.

We tried their hot dog and the pulled pork sandwich. My friends also had the ice cream which I didn’t get so I forgot about taking a picture. I have to say that they have a cool twist to the food and I like the flavors quite a bit. I’m interested in dropping by for an actual meal.

Bistro Le Mechant Loup

Part two was at a little restaurant near Le Fagotin that I did a piece on before. I probably should have done one for this one but I didn’t see the need for it probably because it was a rather quick meal and since I was starving, it really didn’t make a difference. The night we went (Wednesday’s) was also the evening they have selected main meals at $15 each. I expect that maybe I’ll head back here eventually. Here’s what we had!

Fish and Chips

Smoked Meat Poutine

I’m not exactly sure of the verdict of my friend’s Smoked Meat Poutine but I liked the Fish and Chips a lot! The service was decent but I think it was slower just because it was a busy night. However, the dishes did seem to have a flair and I’m interested in trying out other items on the menu if I get a chance. Not to mention the decor is really rustic and matches with its small and cozy environment quite a bit.

Game Warp Review Episode: Life is Strange

Seems tireless and probably won’t appeal to a bunch of you but Life is Strange was a huge hit last year and if you’ve played it, maybe you’ll be interested in hearing us talk about it. Its pretty much an interactive movie so maybe it’ll be your cup of tea! 🙂

Cute Kitty Pic

Upcoming:

• Workout Roundup
• Book Reviews
• Netflix A-Z
• Baking Through Disney
• Montreal Comiccon & Fantasia Festival Schedule coming up!

Happy Friday everyone! What have you been up to?

The next Weekly Adventures might land in the middle of Fantasia Festival craze so I can’t guarantee it’ll be on time or lengthy!
I’ll be sure to try my absolute best!