I went with Mag and her colleagues to the top floor revolving restaurant Merlot at the Ottawa Marriott for dinner last night.

if I may jump right to the conclusion, this restaurant is a must-try for dinner.

I will get the things I didn't like about the restaurant out of the way first:

1. only one washroom and it's on a different floor (if there were other ones they had not informed me about them)
2. no house wine: I have more faith in the restaurant's pick of a default wine than my own
3. the revolution, though extremely slow, made me dizzy sometimes
4. the chef put a bit too much salt (or seasoning) on my steak

it's a pricey restaurant no doubt, but I got every one of my pennies worth:

1. the service was excellent: the server was very attentive, patient, polite and helpful. even when it was apparent that I wasn't going to give more than a 10% tip, he gave me and the other guests the first class treatment (eg, he pulled our chairs as we sat down and helped us put on our jackets when we were leaving ... I ended up giving a ~20% tip).
2. their complimentary items are unique and served at the right moment to excite the taste buds: mini amuse-gueules before the entrée and butter cookies after the meal
3. the steak was phenomenal (<-- I don't use this word very often): I tried the 14oz rib-eye au jus. the steak was well aged, tender and grilled to my liking (medium-rare).

in short, money CAN buy happiness. I need to make more. .e  00:26  1 comments [ leave comments ]

who would have thought "a bad day" would have a sequel called "bad news day"...

following the unpleasant events of paying for car fixes and missing my physical, I was just at home waiting for them to call me to pick up the car and reading a notice from my landlord saying the rent will increase by 2.1% in april (bad news #1). hours had gone by and no call so I called them up. turns out my car had been ready for a while, but they just didn't call me, I could've picked up my car a few hours ago and continued on with my shopping (bad news #2). I asked them when they can pick me up but they said they had to wait for the van to come back (bad news #3). half an hour had gone by and it was already 5:45pm. if I wanted to make it to the license registration office by 7pm I would have to leave right away. so I called up roy and got instructions of how to take the bus to get to Bank and Heron, and then I was out the doors. I got there around 6:20pm so plenty of time to pay up and hurry to the license office. I waited in line for like 15 minutes then finally someone came to the counter and told me the car was not ready yet (bad news #4). they said they hadn't done the oil change yet so I just cancelled it so I could take off. He told me they had yet to type up the safety certificate and they were doing that now (bad news #5). another 15 minutes later some guy informed me that he couldn't issue the certificate because the mechanic forgot to sign the inspection checklist (bad news #6). without the certificate I can't register my vehicle, not to mention it was already 6:57pm, worse yet, tuesday is the only day the office opens late, all other days it only opens during office hours, ie, my work hours, so I might have to take another half-day off to do this thing (bad news #7).

i need alcohol, and lots... .e  15:49  1 comments [ leave comments ]

usually all days are bad for me, but today in particular is one of the worse ones.

I had the day planned out coz I knew I had a lot to do: I need to go to three difference places for my car, have my annual physical, go out west to a particular Loblaws that sells the Häagen-Dazs limited edition Baileys® Irish cream and do some xmas shopping.

I got the car e-tested, no problem, got the ice-cream, no problem, stopped by Homesense and Winners, no problem. All was well until I dropped the car at Canadian Tire for the safety test, I told them I had to have the car back by 2 in order to make it to my physical, they reassured me that would happen (and it very well did, but...). They told me my car cannot pass safety without new tires and brake pads (Exclamation of annoyance). I tried playing innocent (they're not the first to tell me those are kinda old), but the guy just wouldn't budge. A quick rundown on the calculator showed $890 to have everything fixed (Exclamation of annoyance). Fine! I would bring the car back after my physical, and it was already 2:07 (Exclamation of annoyance). They told me they could give me a ride and back so the car would be fixed after I'm done my appointment, and I thought, cool. But then they couldn't find their courtesy vehicle (Exclamation of annoyance), but a nice mechanic offered to give me a ride in his own car. By the time we left the parking lot it was already 2:20. I got to the clinic at 2:42 (Exclamation of annoyance), and they told me I was too late and had to rebook for January 24th (Exclamation of annoyance - I've already waited a month and a half for this one). You can't imagine my frustration.

Writing in my blog calmed me down a bit. It was really my own fault to not have planned for the worst case scenario, coz it is ALWAYS the worst case scenario for me, always. It's my own damn fault not to accept the fact that god is playing me and has been so for so blinking long that I should have learned by now.

I'm having beer and nuts, man's comfort food. care to join?

PS, please kindly replace all Exclamation of annoyance with "f.u.c.k.!", thank you. .e  15:17  5 comments [ leave comments ]

I was flipping through the channels when I came across this documentary on Canal D. It talks about this epidemy that went on all around the world in 2002 that killed more than 6 million people.

I thought to myself: have I been living under a rock?

there were interviews with officials from the centre of disease control and family of the victims, and there were footages of the victims (and they looked horrible, red blisters all over their bodies). and they did a report on how the army in the States were deployed to maintain order and distribute vaccines, and how some 30,000 people died in new york city. then they explained it all started with a terrorist who used smallpox as a bioweapon, and they showed footages of security camera that caught him in action.

when it was over I looked up the event on google, and that's when I found out it was a fictional drama called Smallpox 2002 by BBC ("Variole 2002" in french). apparently, it stirred up quite a buzz when it was out, so I guess I HAD been living under a rock when I was still studying in university. anyway, am I glad it didn't really happen.... yet.

I built a quick webpage using HTML and CSS. it looked great in IE on first try, but took me 3 hours to get it to look half decent in firefox. I hate firefox.

revised: Firefox was only trying to be compliant with W3 standards. I don't hate FF anymore. I hate W3. .e  21:02  6 comments [ leave comments ]

Baton Rouge has just opened its doors in downtown Ottawa on Albert and Lyon. so mag and I went there friday night to check it out.

we arrived without reservation and the place was pretty packed. we waited around 20 minutes for our table. service was good but was kinda chaotic, probably due to opening week. the kitchen, on the other hand, had no problem at all: the food arrived at a decent amount of time, was nicely plated and was served with a generous portion of sides. Their menu offers a different variety from the usual bar&grill fair. Prices are comparable to the Keg: under $20 for chicken, sandwich and pasta; $20-$30 for steak and seafood; and like $7000 for drinks.

oh, another thing I found out while dining at Baton Rouge on friday: Dan Nguyen works there now. .e  01:33  0 comments [ leave comments ]

my sleep-deprived, exhausted body was in no shape to show up at work this morning so I took a sick day. didn't sleep well for the past three days. staying in bed did the trick. I was up and atom by the time 4pm rolled around.

in the laundry room, I met a guy who works for CBC as a post-production editor named Pierre. he enthusiatically insisted that if ever I bump into him in the building, he will give me a tour of the technology they use (I mentioned I am a programmer). .e  19:44  3 comments [ leave comments ]