Go To: Beer Tastings on Sundays!

Hello blog-reader friends. What are you all up to on this beautiful Sunday afternoon?

If you’re in the city and stumped for ideas on how to get outside and enjoy this bout of sunshine (before it storms this evening, of course), we’ve got some great suggestions for you:

1) Wychwood Barns

The Wychwood Barns has been on our list of things to do for awhile now. They’ve got all kinds of things to do there, from farmer’s markets to country art, to beer tastings. Wait – beer tastings? What up! I forget how we first heard about this, but you can go to the Brewery Market‘s home page and check out what’s going on today.

This event is actually going on for the next 11 Sunday’s over at the Barns. The site says it best:

“Each Brewery Market event will feature a single brewery.  At the event you will be able to try out some of their beers and meet the brewers in a casual and conversational setting.  There will be no admission fee – just stop by from 1pm – 5pm and grab a beer (buy drink tickets for what you’d like).  And while you’re here you can also purchase a fresh slice of wood-baked pizza made onsite by The Stop Community Food Centre.  Partial proceeds from the events will go towards The Stop’s innovative, hunger-fighting programs.”

Today they’re previewing Flying Monkeys beer – not my favorite, not by far, but I think it will be fun. It’s brewed in Barrie, and I like the local beer attitude, so we’ll check it out. You can check out the schedule of breweries here, so don’t miss your favorite brewery! This is a great initiative and way to get people down to the bars – props to whoever thought of it.

2) Free Whiskey @ Steam Whistle Brewery

You’d think we do the PR for Steam Whistle, the way we talk about it. But it’s not our fault they’re very involved in their community and often doing cool stuff. They just do.

Our friends and amazing bluegrass band Free Whiskey will be playing down at the brewery today at 3:00 p.m. Don’t believe their site – it says 11 p.m., but trust us, it’s 3, and you don’t want to show up late and miss them. We’ve raved about these guys before, and we’re likely to rave again.  They are honestly one of my favorite bands to listen to – they have such a fantastic, fun sound, and they’re super cute to watch. Listen to their music on their website for free, and trust me, you’ll be ordering a CD before long. They’re just starting their summer tour I think, and playing lots of shows out East too – so if you’ve got friends out there (I’m looking at alllll of His friends), go check them out. You won’t be sorry.

Tags: Alcohol, Beer, concert, Free Whiskey, Go To, music, st. clair, Steam Whistle, Wychwood Barns

St. Clair: Russell Hill

Part five of this many.

Russell Hill
Title: How to observe a painting (or, two planes of stripes, one yellow and one red, drawn in perspective and receding in opposite directions), 2010
Artist: Kristin Peterson

This one said it was an opportunity to document how our elusive pictoral techniques alter how we perceive the world. I know. Totally pretentious. Plus, who the dude is going to remember that title?

Anyways, I liked this one because we used to live on Russell Hill Road the summer we both spent in Ottawa. It was a crazy, fast, and hectic summer, and it was awesome.

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Tags: art, Kristin Peterson, Russell Hill, st. clair, streetcar, streetcar art, together, Toronto

Support Local Soccer

Although I personally think the video is a bit on the lame side (not to mention features some goofball in a Red Sox cap), it’s a great message and promotes something that I’m passionate about.  Give it a watch and come on down to BMO field on June 1!

Tags: Canadian soccer, Support Local Soccer, Voyageurs

Need It, Want It, Gotta Have It

Yeah yeah, so I’m still thinking about the green. No, not weed Mom.

Money.

There are lots of great sites about money out there, especially ones on how to save it (and how to spend it, obvi). We try to read them often, especially the ones that are written really well and in a conversational tone, like Moneyville and Give Me Back My Five Bucks.

We’re even debating cutting out really non-important spending, like buying wine just to have with our dinners of Hamburger Helper and frozen Ristorante pizzas (when they’re on sale), just to save more money so we can hopefully buy a house sooner.

I recently signed up for an ING Direct account. Because He referred me, as an existing customer, we both got $25, just for signing it. That’s $50 between the two of us! Pretty awesome. (Note – if you need people to “refer” you to get an account, just ask us – it’s a free $25 for you if you do, and you don’t have to have a set amount of money to begin with to put in, nor does it charge you anything. And, you get free cheques for signing up) I was checking it out the other day, and I also noticed that if you have your pay from work direct deposited into that account, they’ll give you $100. Not bad, not bad at all.

Do you know of any other great money blogs, or tips that save you money?

Tags: free, Give Me Back My Five Bucks, money, Moneyville, saving

St. Clair: Dunvegan

Part four. Click here for the other three!

Dunvegan Road
Title: Meeting, 2010
Artist: Panya Clark Espinal

Ennnnnnh we don’t really remember this one. We did write it down, but it’s a bit indecipherable, and in addition, He said it wasn’t as interesting as the others. Sorry!

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Tags: art, Meeting, Panya Clark Espinal, st. clair, streetcar, streetcar art, together, Toronto

Tunes For The Week: Money

Tired of Monday before it begins? Join the club. The Monday Tunes Club that is! Every Monday, check out His, Hers and Theirs for the Top 10 hits to get you through the week.

Money is the most sought-after search term on our blog. As a matter of fact, money has led to 7,166 hits on this blog. People like money. A lot. And, since He and I thought a lot about money this weekend as we evaluated how long it will be before we get to buy a house, I thought I’d make this little Tunes for the Week alllll about money.

1. The O’Jays – Money

2. Dire Straits – Money For Nothing

3. Lil Wayne – Money In My Pocket

4. Pink Floyd – Money

5. The Beatles – Money (That’s What I Want)

6. Birdman (Ft. Lil Wayne, Drake) - Money To Blow

7. Swizz Beatz – Money In The Bank

8. ABBA – Money Money Money

9. 50 Cent – I Get Money

10. The Flying Lizards – Money 

Turns out, a lot of money songs are rap songs. Surprised? Me neither.

Tags: 50 Cent, Abba, Birdman, Dire Straits, Drake, Flying Lizards, Lil Wayne, money, music, Pink Floyd, Swizz Beatz, The Beatles, The O'Jays, tunes for the week

He Wins! He Wins!

Well friends, we have a winner! That’s right, our Steamy Steam Whistle contest has drawn to a close, with lucky winner @bunkerton taking home the Steam Whistle prize pack of two tickets for a tour of Steam Whistle, a bottle opener, a Steam Whistle iPod cover, and any extra Easter chocolate we have.

This brainy winner won with his haiku below:

Here is a haiku

Of Mike Burns’s love for beer

Steamwhistle is great

Love it Mike Burns, just love it. Leave us a comment as to how you’d like your prize delivered, or email us at hishersandtheirsblog@gmail.com, if you’re going to you know, send us personal deets and stuff. Like your credit card number.

SPEAKING OF CREDIT CARDS – guess who’s credit card got used for a fraudulent charge? Mine. It blows. I called Scotiabank and they’re “looking into it” for me. Gee, thanks. However, on a secondary call to them, they let me know that they had neglected to tell me it could take 90 days, and I would have to pay the fraud fee and they would refund it. Whaaaat. It hardly seems fair. And the Scotiabank rep hung up on me. I was so mad, steam came out of my ears. Which reminded me to write this post.

If you stole someone’s credit card info, I would also advise not buying something called “Hotfile” with it. They’re bound to notice. Do something simple, like buy groceries at Loblaws or something.

If you punked someone’s card, what’s the first thing you’d buy with it?

Tags: competition, contest, free, haiku, Steam Whistle, Steam Whistle Prize Pack

St. Clair: Avenue

Part three of a million. Click here for more streetcar art.

Avenue Road
Title: Scenic Route, 2010
Artist: Carlo Cesta

This one I like more in the concept as compared to the actual art. It’s a cool idea, and yes, it looks cool too, I think I would just like it more if there was colour incorporated.

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Tags: art, Carlo Cesta, Scenic Route, st. clair, streetcar, streetcar art, together, Toronto, travel

Alcoholic Air Miles – Great Lakes Devil’s Pale Ale

Alcoholic Air Miles is a recurring segment on His, Hers and Theirs. It delves into the secret world of picking up bonus Air Miles from regular, everyday purchases from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (“LCBO”) stores. Every month, the LCBO changes which items receive bonus Air Miles and He tries to keep you on top of those changes. These are His stories…

Now this is what a craft beer should be.  Super unique taste and some branding that really sets it apart from its competitors.  Devil’s Pale ale has a big 666 on the can, is 6% alcohol by volume and plays on the 666 Devil’s number theme a number of times around the can.  It’s a pretty fun can to have around.  It definitely doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Having said that, I don’t really like the beer.  Sure, it has a unique taste, but it’s just far too bitter in the wrong places for me.  I don’t know.  It wasn’t refreshing like a good lager is and it wasn’t full with flavour like a British ale.  And like too many things that try to be a stay neutral between two competing sides, it just doesn’t cut it.  I dunno, maybe Satan likes his brew tasting like puke.  My advice: Don’t bother with it.

Anyways, if you buy two cans of this stuff, you get 1 bonus air mile.  Not a great deal, but enough to make me give it a shot.  But word to the wise, the two need to be purchased together.  I was actually at the shop and brought two up to the cashier and paid when I noticed that he only charged me for 1 can.  I, being the good Samaritan, informed the employee of his mistake and ended up paying for the second can in a separate purchase.  So, I had to pay for the second can when I could have walked out with it for free and I didn’t even get the bonus air mile.  Sucks.

Oh, and I will send a yet-to-be-determined prize to the first person who can tell me what book the can is standing on in the picture at the top of this post.

Cost	$2.60
Bonus Air miles	0.5
ML	473
Alcohol %	6%
Airmiles/$	0.19
ML/$	181.92

Tags: air miles, Alcohol, alcoholic air miles, Beer

Thought of the Day: Short-forms of Names

Alright. Everyone seems to have a short-form of their name, whether their name is Alexander or Mo. What I find weird, is when short-forms have little to no resemblance of the original name itself.

The story of how I was named is slightly interesting – moreso if you’re my Grandma, less so if you’re reading this blog. My Dad is a huge Beatles fan, as previously mentioned. His first choice for a name? Prudence. But, as most names have a short-form, my Mom was concerned people would call me Prude. Thanks Mom – I appreciate you looking out for my coolness, even as a baby. Now, this was in the ‘80s, and my Dad I guess had recently seen the movie Ladyhawke. It’s a pretty bitchin’ movie (and stars Matthew Broderick and Michelle Pfieffer), and he wanted to name me after a character – Isabeau. But, Mom again was concerned with the short-form potential – “Easy.” (I have sense met a girl named Isabeau. People either called her Izzy, or Beau, both of which I really like. Thanks for nothing, Mom.) The third name possibility was Tear, but since my mom wasn’t as concerned with the short-form of that name as the nicknames, I’ll leave it for another blog post.

Back to short-forms. Here are the top ten weirdest shortforms I can think of, weird being that the short-form is often non-related to the actual full name:

1. Edward – Teddy
2. Alexander – Sandy
3. Charlie – Chuck
4. Barbara – Babs
5. Robert – Bob
6. Richard – Dick
7. William – Bill
8. Margaret – Peggy
9. Henry – Hank
10. James – Jim

Tags: names, short-forms, thought of the day