Seriously, who doesn’t like chocolate? This cake is pretty impressive isn’t it?

And no, I didn’t eat the whole thing.

We recently ended up at one of our now go-to joints called J Steak Frites.

I’ve written about it in the past. It has a prix fixe menu with only one thing on the list. All you have to do is select how you want your steak cooked. Not that complicated. Medium rare for me.

Switching topics, I’m now just over 8 weeks post operative from my recent shoulder surgery. I guess things are going well. I get asked that question…..a lot. My standard answer is yes, it’s better but realistically, its really not going to improve much in a short period of time. I decided to abandon the sling a bit earlier than maybe expected. I was really struggling at night when sleeping. The sling was restrictive and I didn’t like the way it made me feel.

I am diligently doing my physiotherapy on a weekly basis and I have approximately 10 exercises I do each week. Yes, they hurt. And sleeping is still a challenge. I wake up a lot.

I can see that my range of motion is getting better and the wounds are basically gone now. And best of all, I managed to reach a key milestone - I am able to tie my shoes by myself.

Seriously, I can now take care of myself without any help. Dressing, bathing and wiping and any other important needs. The recovery will be long so I’m not expecting any miracles. It’s too early to say whether I’m happy I did this. But, I’m hopeful.

One unpleasant by-product of the surgery is that I’ve developed a nasty case of tennis elbow. Its unclear to why?

I did have tennis elbow in 2022 and I had to take a significant amount of time off. I’ve had an x-ray and it does show that I have some arthritis going on. A follow-up ultrasound shows some fluid on the elbow. &^%^&

I’ve been taking some anti-inflamm medicine and if that doesn’t work we graduate to a cortisone injection. Sigh….it sucks.

In what has become a bit of an annual thing, I met up with some former colleagues from the Wilson days. We expanded the group this time and invited Mr. Brad. You have five in the photo and two are still there. Unfortunately, the one’s not there got caught up in the ongoing need to cut costs, improve shareholder profit etc….etc…etc…you know the drill.

It was great to catch up with all and we managed to re-live some good and not so good memories. White hair, less hair, expanding waistlines - the attributes of getting older I guess.

I recently watched a lengthy video with three US College Presidents in front of a special committee of the US Congress. Now, I would expect that in most situations these committees are fraught with bias, politics etc and probably actually don’t really solve very much aside from getting attention in the media.

After watching, I found it incredible that none of the presidents could say yes, they would discipline students calling for genocide of Jews. Seriously, you can’t answer that? I would have assumed that they were all prepped prior and they are all accomplished, intelligent people. So, why the difficulty?

I don’t have a strong grasp what is going on in the Middle East and I’m sure its more complicated than we know. And I would expect some might say - keep your opinions to yourself then.

But the increase in antisemitism and anti islamophobia is rising not declining. Here in Toronto we see ongoing protests on both sides. I support free speech but I don’t support the hate of others. Yes, I know I’m naive.