battle for greatest boy band song ever..

tonight i'm on a mission.. to convince my cousin that bye, bye, bye is not the best boy band song in the world.

for reference purposes:


even though i still remember all the lyrics to every backstreet boy song ever made.. i want it that way is by far the most memorable:


then there was one my favourites.. cause i believed they knew how to sing better than the other white boy bands.. 98 degrees baby!


oh the canadians also needed a boy band. who could forget soul decision?! i mean seriously.. they even had awesome stunts in one of their videos! :)


i used to blast this song by 5ive in my car during high school..


the brits.. who didn't listen to take that?


i love this song by westlife. i still play it in my car..


and then there were the classics, new kids on the block! i was never really into them growing up, but i can't make a list of greatest boy band songs without including them..


all-4-one - the most progressive boy band.. (i know this isn't the video, but i LOVE this song!)


another classic! kids younger than me associate this boyz II men song with that full house episode :S


hrmm.. that's all that really stands out. i'd appreciate any suggestions cause my cousin is still stuck on bye bye bye. ugh.

i'm slightly obsessed with chocolate..

i have a slight obsession with chocolate.. what girl doesn't?

anyway, on my hunt for a recipe idea, i've been finding some funky chocolate sites:
-------------------------------
norman love confections
not only do the descriptions sound delicious, BUT the chocolate looks far too good to eat.

	intense gourmet dark chocolate beautifully garbed in gold
	custard pie wrapped in ultra premium swiss dark chocolate
	rich dark chocolate and creamy vanilla mint filling complete with tiny chocolate chips
	buttery cinnamon swirled with pure sugar icing in white chocolate ganache, casted in milk chocolate
	vanilla custard style ganache, layered with a deep dark palét, and covered in sweet milk chocolate
	a layer of creamy milk chocolate filled with a buttery caramel center that oozes the essence of vanilla beans
	rich cream blended with coffee-infused gourmet dark chocolate
	fresh, tart lemon cream sweetened with white chocolate

yumm.. it's just disappointing they don't ship outside of the u.s. *sigh* the next time i go somewhere in the u.s. i have to remember to preorder these to have them shipped to wherever i'll be.
-------------------------------
la maison du chocolat
oh my.. HEAVEN! these chocolates make me want to eat like a fat kid who found a secret candy stash at fat camp. [chocolate chart]

roméo - under a dark chocolate couverture, an encounter of a light milk chocolate mousse and a fresh, very finely filtered moka coffee
zagora - ganache flavored with an infusion of fresh mint (one of my all-time favourite flavour combinations!! this is the leafy mint flavour, like mint chutney hahaha :), unlike the peppermint flavour..)
garrigue - the cover is dark, the filling is a ganache flavoured with fennel (interesting combination i'll have to try next time i make truffles..)
maïko - ganache flavoured with an infusion of ginger (not necessarily something i'd like, but more of a "note to self" to try making for the older folks..)
othello - the couverture is dark and the center is a ganache flavoured with mountain honey
faust - under a couverture of milk chocolate is concealed a creamy ganache flavoured with old flamed rum

at least this company ships to canada! except.. the cost to ship is 55€ :S oh dear..
-------------------------------
romãnicos chocolate
these chocolates are incredibly cute, but the flavouring selections don't seem very unique.

just an example of one of the boxes:


they don't explicitly say.. but i think they too only ship within the u.s. :'(
-------------------------------
hotel chocolat
this place sounds LOVELY! there are a lot of interesting and different products they have available.

	experience the pure, authentic flavours of single origin cocoa beans, picked, crushed and hand rolled in st. lucia
	i can't find this slab on the site anymore.. it was a combination of dark, milk, and white chocolates
	slices of swirled milk and white chocolate studded with caramel milk chocolate drops, then pressed between eggs shells cast from caramel milk chocolate
	cocoa nib balsamic vinegar, cocoa bean and chili olive oil - sounds weird? but i'm 99% sure it tastes REALLY good. i've made chili and chocolate (big hit) and have chili olive oil.. so why not mix the two?!
	bitter chocolate and black truffle salsa - makes me totally curious..
	cocoa penne - i'm not sure how this would be served.. with normal pasta sauce? with chocolate sauce? with ice cream? *confused*
	tender mango pieces preserved and softened by a long soak in mango liqueur then sealed in dark chocolate

they deliver to canada for at least £20 (an additional £15 per item :S).. at least they have a store in london that i could try to visit.

*sigh* i *heart* chocolate.

snow storm insanity

mum and i went on an all day adventure today. considering it's been snowing quite a bit, i don't have snow tires on my car, and toronto (and surrounding areas) have the worst snow removal system.. it was quite the adventure driving this morning.

my car was in need of an oil change, something i've been putting off for a bit.. and well, i really couldn't wait any longer. so off we went from browntown (brampton) to the dealership in thornhill; a trip that would normally take 40 minutes ended up taking an hour and a half. once we got there, it was a quick in and out since there really weren't any other insane people around wanting to get their car serviced. :)

on the way to the dealership, i forgot the route we took had a somewhat steep decline and then a steep incline with a traffic light at the dip. oops. anyway, it wasn't a problem for me, even though i lacked snow tires, but this old woman driving a cadillac sts was having a hell of time trying to climb that hill. ugh, she kept slipping which was slightly annoying cause it caused traffic behind her. *sigh* the woman obviously wasn't pushing hard enough, hence the sliding.

we took the toll highway on the way back, hoping the roads would be better.. being a highway you pay to use and all. no.. it wasn't. the highway SUCKED. stupid toronto. even the toll road that's privately owned can't get it right.

on the way home we stopped by the grocery store to get some food. a busy grocery store at that.. obviously mum and i aren't the only crazies out there. from the grocery store, we stopped off at the furniture store around the corner from the house and bought a tv cabinet, haha. it was for the new tv cause the cabinet our uncle gave us was now too small.

we headed home thereafter to pick up mum's car cause it has snow tires, making it a little more easier to bring the cabinet home. the people at the furniture store didn't think the box would fit in the car.. it did. then they were concerned, two women came to pick up a box that took two guys a terrible time to lift.. do we have guys to help us?! perhaps, if necessary. mum and i got home and i managed to reverse park the car onto the driveway - a task in and of itself considering only half of the driveway past the sidewalk was shoveled (really it's only enough room to get my car in!) and i needed to park on the side that was closed off by my man-made snowbank (cause my car was parked in the garage on the side that's open). i managed, i rock! now came the task to get a 260lbs. box out of the back of the car.. hrmm. utility knife? *check* i cut open the box, then mum and i emptied it piece by piece. we got everything out of the box and laid out in the front room ready to put together when we realised.. there are no instructions!! seriously. we bought a cabinet that requires assembly.. with no instructions. *sigh* hopefully the furniture store will be able to get them from the manufacturer by monday.

if i get the instructions on monday, i'm going to try to put the cabinet together on my own, which will certainly be entertainment!

you can't take me anywhere..

lately i've been drinking tim horton's hot chocolate a lot more often.. mostly because i want to win a boat. why would i want that you ask? cause i'd like to be able to say, "i won a boat!" of course if for some reason i just happen to win a boat, i'd take the monetary equivalent.. what would i do with a boat?!

so i'm at my desk, drinking away, then.. *tip* oh dear is right. i spilt half the cup on part of the keyboard and myself. *sigh* two of the ladies at work ran over and helped clean it up. (they're obviously my work-moms..) after my desk was clean, i looked at myself: my sleeves were soaked in hot chocolate, i had a big brown stain on my lap, and my chair was wet. the big brown stain on my lap is certainly not something i would want to be walking around with..

luckily i was wearing a short dress as a top, so anything on my pants was covered. i managed to get the brown stains out in the bathroom, but that still left me very wet :S

the cup was still 1/4 full, so i chugged it down out of fear of my clutziness. rolled up the rim.. *drum roll* "please play again".

damn you tim horton's. *shakey fist*