Belgian Beer Cafe, Moules marinière

My 6 month PhD review went really well. I was worried I was going to get quizzed about why I am doing a theoretical PhD but the review panel seemed happy. To be honest I was hoping that they would say how impressed they were with progress I've made so far... full of my own importance much? Ha. Anyway, it went well, and to celebrate my office mate, Brad, took me out to The Belgian Beer Cafe for lunch.

Yum! I couldn't beLIEve the giant pile of mussels in my pot! I had the The Moules marinier, it was delicious, but boy was there a lot white wine in that stock. Lots of wine, lots of herbs (dried) and lots and lots of mussels. The mussels were served with the signature Belgian frittes & mayo and really excellent bread, which I of course used to soak up the delicious mussel, wine & herb stock. At $27 it's not a cheap lunch, but you could quite easily share with a friend (if your friend isn't a happy vegetarian, like Brad).

It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!!!

We spent some time last night looking at movie trailers online and I am now hanging out to see Despicable Me. Animated films are something that I have come to love since David and I became a couple. Before then I had seen and enjoyed The Little Mermaid, Finding Nemo and probably some others I can't remember, but I wouldn't have said Animated was a genre I was in to, and I certainly wouldn't have rushed out to see an Animated film on the big screen. Since then, however, David has introduced me to the wonders of Pixar, Dreamworks et al and I am now a firm Animated fan. We saw Wall-E and Up at the movies and during both films I was brought to tears, something I didn't think would be possible when watching what I previously would have called a cartoon. I mean, come on, this stuff is for kids, right? Well, kids these days must be made of stone, because i was snivelling into my sleeve within the first ten minutes of Up, and my heart just about broke in the last ten of Wall-E. I'd also count Monsters Inc. among my favourite movies (I mean, come on, who can't love a big hairy blue monster and his eyeball sidekick who accidentally adopt a gorgeous little girl and name her Boo?!) and thought Ratatouille was great too.
What I really like about this generation of Animated films (from the Pixar crew at least) is they aren't built around a romance. Sure Wall-E loves Eva and Linguine is head over heels for Colette, but that's not what the stories are about. Eva's number one priority is her primary directive to find the plant (there's a career driven women if ever I saw one) and both Monsters and Up are essentially buddy stories with our heros up against some evil or injustice. And I think those are pretty good stories, for adults and kids alike.
Anyway, so where was I going with this...? Oh right. I am a recently converted Animated Film fanatic. And there is a new one being released soon - Despicable Me, with Steve Carrell as the voice of the #2 super-villain in the world, Gru. The part that I am really looking forward to? When Gru's recently adopted daughter, Agnes, discovers a fluffy unicorn toy at FunLand amusement park and declares that "It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!!!". I have watched that clip on repeat at least a dozen times already and it still makes me laugh out loud. And my ridiculous laughter makes David laugh. Everyone's a winner! It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!!! 
Seriously though, Twilight can go suck it, I can't wait for Despicable Me.