a certain something, certain

oddly, i always pick the wrong weekends to go home, which incidentally makes them so right as well. despite horrid driving conditions that i usually encouter (snow this time, fog last time, and ... tornadoes next time?) i am not complaining -> it is always nice to have a sign of winter, when well ... it is winter. and i did venture out in the morning to capture some of the picturesque scenes of winter. and no one, i mean no one, is too old to make snow angels. it did take however a great amount of effort to get a picture taken without the dog running through:

view from my window:
despite all my efforts, i still did not get this picture to rotate quite right. either way i thought it was a nice representation of the canadian winter. afterwards we did make some attempts to play road hockey in the snow, but with all the snow there was a certain lack of visibility of the ball.
now here is to hoping that the snow will remain for at least a month, so that when reading week rolls around a mini-ski trip will involve real snow, rather than the fake stuff.

just last week, i also had the chance to visit dad at the lodge he is staying at, while going through treatments. and just located downtown toronto on jarvis street, we had the chance to go out for dinner at the keg. this particular location is also called the mansion house, and let me tell you know, it is a mansion indeed. the bathrooms are nicer than the average restaurant, and the bar is on a separate floor. and not only that, the service is wonderful, and the food is some of the best i have ever eaten. so, i guess in some sense this can be considered a restaurant review[insert 4 stars].

as for other things: hockey let's say, the ottawa senators are still pretty hot, even though their play is pretty cold. i guess that will make it easier to let some of the guys go when murray makes some nice trade at the trade deadline to make this time a little stronger. gotta love'em though. tonight OTT vs. FLA.

with 3 seminar courses, 1 math course, and grad school applications and deadlines looming over me, i better get back to work. i have a proposal due tomorrow, and frankly i dont think 24 hours will be enough to understand the milk support pricing systems in Canada. but, i am not complaining, just presenting some facts.

i have been wondering about 19th century novels. there always seems to be so much discussion about politics, philosophy and theology in dinner conversations, and i am just wondering if authors like jane austen, or the brontes and them did a lot of research on their topics or that they should be considered philosophers themselves. such as this little excerpt out of North and South:

Nothing like the act of eating for equalising men. Dying is nothing to it. The philosopher does sententiously - the pharisee ostentatiously - the simple-hearted humbly - the poor idiot blindly, as the sparrow falls to the ground; the philosopher and idiot, publican and pharisee, all eat after the same fashion - given an equally good digestion. There's a theory for theory for you!

jon mclaughlin - beautiful disaster