Home-made Hash Browns.

Next time you’re forcing a metal buggy with a busted wheel down the freezer aisle of your local grocery store, stop by the iced-over glass door that hides the hash browns. If you look closely enough you’ll notice a few things: one, that the price isn’t really all that great for what is essentially a pound of potatoes and, two, there is somehow a lot of salt per serving.

Unfortunately, hash browns also taste absolutely awesome. 

Fortunately, they’re really really easy to make.

Sunday Social Report

After reviewing my week, I've decided to include the dates that the tom cat and I go out on. If I didn't do this, my social life would seem way too sad  and that won't do. 


Monday
Night in.

Tuesday 
A buddy of mine came over for a few hours. We hung out and... didn't do all that much.

$1.50 for the bag of salt and vinegar chips.

Wednesday
Night in.

Thursday
Night in.

Friday
Night in.

Saturday
Saturday doubled as both a date-night and a chance for my car, which has had the plates taken off because we don't actually need two cars, to be driven around for a bit. 

After leaving the city behind, we made our way to one of the area's many seawalls. We walked along there for about an hour before deciding that we should go see a movie in on the the big city's theaters.

Which didn't actually happen.

$35 for temporary car insurance.

Sunday
The reason why I'm only able to post my Sunday Social Report on Monday can be summed up in two words -- Iron Man. A surprisingly good movie (at least, when considering the previous two films) involving iron, men and stuff blowing up.

$37 dollars for the 3D movies tickets and accompanying candy.
-$25 from the gift card left over from Christmas.
$9 total cost.

“We need to talk”: Conversations to Have When Moving in Together

We were heading back from a family function at the tom cat’s sister’s house out in the suburbs, our sleek little hatchback vibrating as she shot down the highway like a dirt-smeared silver bullet. I fidgeted in my leather seat, stared out of the passenger-side window and fixed my gaze on the silhouette of a distant mountain, hazy-blue and dotted with snow patches. Shifted my eyes over to the tom cat, fidgeted again and cleared my throat.

“I, um… We need to talk about something.” I confessed awkwardly, fingers twining in my lap.

Sunday Social Report

First Ever Budget-Bust

Well, we’ve managed it already. We blew our budget. 

Intent on making sure the money situation was under control, I was sitting on one of the bar stools in the kitchen a few days ago, adding up the food receipts that were beginning to amass on the fridge. I noticed two things:

Beef (or not) Chili

About a year ago, I came across a deliciously delectable recipe for everyone’s favourite country-turned-hot-and-spicy-dinner. It’s filling, healthy and (as I’ve already mentioned) wonderfully flavourful. Plus, it’s super easy to make extras, which means that you’ll have plenty left over for tomorrow’s lunch.

Of course, was time passed by, the aforementioned recipe slowly morphed into some strange variant of its original form, resulting in the following:

Letting the Cat out of the Bag - Budgets

I think we can all agree that moving to a big city is not a decision that should be taken lightly. After all, big cities are major hubs for, well, everything. Big, crowded city blocks filled with honking cars and Ferraris with huge engine, business people in suits on their lunch breaks, art galleries and crowded nightclubs, neon lights that never turn off, comedy clubs where the next Jeff Dunham might be spouting off-colour jokes to a laughing audience. In a fifteen minute walk – the amount of time it would have taken me to make my way to the nearest bus stop – I could find all these people and places, and probably repeat the process before lunch, too.