Eat, Drink and Be Scary!

Re-adjusting to autumn: level of difficulty for Mik = extremely hard. One day it was sunny, humid and hot. The next day it was overcast, raining and cold. My body shut down and I wanted to stay in bed every day, all day long. After a terrible bout of SAD (seasonal affective disorder: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder/basics/definition/con-20021047), I deliberated buying a happy lamp (to help deal with the shift in my mood), but decided against it because I don't want to become dependent on it. It's still tough some days, but things are a bit better. Oddly, a lot of people I know have also admitted to having a tough time adjusting to autumn's arrival this year. Unfortunately, my lack of love for autumn has meant that I haven't really appreciated the beauty that's surrounded me:

 The view from my balcony #1

The view from my balcony #2

Coming home from a walk.

Thanksgiving was a great success...However, I completely forgot to take photos because I was so preoccupied with making a delicious meal. Sorry :(   That being said, I did go out. I went out A LOT, and I feel like there wasn't much worth snapping shots of: went to Crabby Joe's (never impressive), Tony Roma's (I'd decided on a salad because everything else just seemed overwhelmingly HUGE and fatty) and Barakat (but didn't even order because I wasn't hungry that afternoon!). Here are some snap shots of the goodies I got:

 Okay, this is at Icarus. I went with a group of friends and LOVE the Mediterranean lamb meatballs and warm potato salad...AMAZING! I'm not a fan of the AFTER taste of lamb, but these meatballs are to DIE FOR. Londoners: GO. NOW!

Possessed @ Icarus (look at all those red eyes!) and gorgeous smiles! 

 Okay, the Little Beaver is considered a dive, but yet has the most AWESOME desserts! I went out for brunch with a group of acquaintances and friends from high school and although breakfast was OK, this slice of pumpkin pie was the highlight for me. Incredible!!!

 Every Friday, the mosque on Oxford Street west sells fatayer. They have spinach, potato, meat and cheese (like arayas, but as you can see from the pic, A LOT bigger and a lot meatier!), zaatar and zaatar with cheese...OH, MY. They even have western pizza style. It's heavenly when eaten fresh out of the oven!!! 

 There are still days when I'm not sure how I feel about Paramount (on Southdale Road: http://www.paramountfinefoods.com/). Anyhow, my sister suggested we go and-as always-I ordered WAAAAAY too much food! Hummus, falafel, kibbeh, arayes, fattoush, tahini and garlic "mayo" are ALL necessities! Did I eat too much??? YES! I DO have to mention that the falafel, fries and shwarmas at Pita Pita are MUCH better than Paramount's.

Arayes and falafel :)

Fattoush and bread massacred.

I love me some kibbeh!

Last on the docket for food: I went to McGinnis Landing for drinks with my girlfriend and I ordered the peach cobbler and it was disappointing. I'm not a fan of McGinnis Landing or other "family-style" restaurants like Kelsey's, Moxie's, Tony Roma's, Shoeless Joe's, Earl's, Crabby Joe's, etc...  To me, they attempt to offer a bit of every kind of food and rarely end up doing anything amazing-even if they specialize like Boston Pizza and Montana's. Are there exceptions? Of course! East Side Mario's has always done a great job in my humble opinion. Red Lobster can be hit or miss, but when it's a hit, watch out!!! Even though it's on my "I'm-not-a-fan" list, Montana's beef ribs ARE amazing!

On top of all of this eating, I somehow made it out for Halloween...TWICE! Once as a minion and once as a gangster for a Great Gatsby themed party where I got to hit a piñata for the first time ever!!! It was awesome! 

Halloween Party #1:

At McCulloch's (http://www.mccullochs.on.ca/): my sis helping me find parts for minion goggles...Which hurt my head so much I couldn't wear them (they were "drunk" glasses, so they hurt my eyes, lol!), and kept breaking :( 

My sis and her besties as Snap, Crackle and Pop (Rice Krispies)

Actual characters.

 Minions: 3/5

 I might have cut my jumper a bit too short (which my father was predicting I'd do, lol! I had to wear running shorts over my FANTASTIC yellow tights!!!). Shirt and jumper: Value Village! Goggles: McCullochs and Fabric Land. Tights: Target.

At the final destination we ran into another minion (6 of us in total!) and another Gru!!! We danced all night, and although I was the designated driver, I had a blast being a spectator!

BEST costume for me was Mr. Clean!!!

Actual logo

Halloween #2: 

Hail, hail, the gang's all here!!! I'm blessed to have these AMAZING people in my life. They've saved me a time...Or countless times.

 Flapper girls and me trying to channel my androgynous side as a gangster but failing miserably as I ended up emulating Baz Luhrmann's vision of costumes in the 20s. As always, my obsession with Madonna was never far from my mind. I was inspired by her 1990 'Vogue' music video.

I LOVE laughing! My friend, who I thought really resembled will.i.am, is pretty funny! I don't know WHO took this picture, but I have to say it's one of my favourites from the Halloween festivities!

 Showing Elmo some love before clubbing him to death.

Elmo: The after picture. I've got some evil eyes going on. Don't know what that's about, lol!

Smile! beautiful blondes!!!

Not posing, but showering J with loving looks ;)

The spread! My lipstick consisted of four layers (lip liner x2, lipstick and lip gloss x2), which somehow ended up on my WHITE tank top at the beginning of the evening, BAHAHAHA!!!

As I do a lot of driving for work, I found some pretty great houses dressed up for Halloween. To protect people's privacy, I'll just give the general area of these houses.

Oakridge area: this house was, BY FAR, the best of the bunch I saw. I'm sure kids would have been scared walking up to this place to trick-or-treat!

The FULL view (which was sooo elaborate that I had to take this picture from across the street!)

 That grey thing had red eyes that lit up and it spoke. Freaky.

 Those characters were not people, but were life-size!!! Eeeeek!

 The decor on the front lawn

 This guy TOWERED over me!

 Okay, these things were just creepy! They talked and their eyes moved and they were swinging, and ugh, weirdness and spooky awesomeness combined!

 Zombie alert! Not a person! Seriously, this is still the SAME house!

 This chick was my size and kept crying and singing a lullaby.

 These people are totally into Halloween!!!

 Still more!

And when you left, this skeleton thing crawled after you!!! FANTASTIC!

Byron area: I'm sorry these pictures are fuzzy, but between my flash and the lack of street lighting, they wouldn't focus properly :(  ALL of the following decorations are HAND-MADE, folks!!! I know this because the house belongs to my sister's co-worker.

 Frog eyes (left) and a giant spider on the roof!

Clowns ARE scary! Mike Myers is ALSO scary!!! 

 Pumpkin carving!!! MINION!!!

 The front yard.

 Are kids freaked out by this stuff, because it looks INCREDIBLE to me!

 Trying to imagine myself as a kid approaching this place and I think it would have scared me a bit.

 Home-made!!!

 Look at that GIANT Frankenstein!

 The view from across the street.

Whitehills area: I saw this place while driving and had to turn around to take pictures. I had other, better shots, but I captured the car plates (of the car in the driveway), and decided against adding them.

 Love the effort that people go to for this holiday!

 I wonder what it looked like at night. It was around 3pm.

"Sorry, I'm not home right now. I'm walking into spiderwebs, so leave a message and I'll call you back!"

Lots of pictures for y'all! Hope your Halloween was safe and wonderful! I've missed it for two years, but I certainly got my fill this year :)