07 Thursday Jan 2016
Posted in health, life, nature, technology, Uncategorized
been a tough week, so last night I treated me to a lovely bouquet of flowers…
didn’t open the package and brought them to the office to perk up my space…
they look and smell wonderful and were a great bit of beauty as we worked on a project… enjoyed the perfume and looked at them many times throughout the day…
from one of my shots I made wallpaper for my phone…
going to take a few more pictures tomorrow before I start work…
lucky to be able to treat myself…
05 Tuesday Jan 2016
Posted in family, health, life, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, family, handedness, left-handed, leftie, negative, research, Wikipedia
had an interesting conversation about handedness…
recently someone noticed that I am left-handed, lol…
George and I were left-handed although both our girls are right-handed…
I watched my grandsons carefully as they began grabbing things, hoping that one might be left-handed… so wanted to be able to teach someone some of the tricks to getting through life as a leftie…
didn’t happen… and really I don’t want to make any of their lives more difficult…
did a bit of research and came across this Wikipedia definition of handedness…
some of the information also reminded me of the negative connotations regarding lefties…
we talked about how writing is more difficult as your hand goes over the written words… not so bad now, but when ink took a while to dry, the page might end up completely smudged…
most utensils are designed for right-handed people… have learned to adapt over the years and to use the right-handed items… still don’t find left-handed scissors at all comfortable…
there are certainly more items made recently to be usable for lefties… you just have to look at each item to see if it works for you…
the one thing I’ve learned over the years is how to adapt… all the time…
everything I have learned has involved mirroring what was being shown to me… always most difficult with sports, lol…
my son-in-law brought me this magnet a while ago, lol…
03 Sunday Jan 2016
Posted in family, health, life, nature, Uncategorized
quiet day…
had my first hot tub of the year… the birds were twittering and the squirrel was busy running back and forth in the cedar trees at the back of the yard…
made some red lentil curry and it came out great… will certainly make that again, which is good because I bought four different types of spices to make it, lol…
had a lovely visit with a good friend and spent some FaceTime with my Ottawa daughter… we are starting to consider some lakeside vacation time in July for the whole family…
got in a bit of reading…
supper with most of the kids… one was on a play date, so only four of them were here…
relaxing after dinner…
02 Saturday Jan 2016
Posted in family, health, life, nature, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
app, big girl pants, bunny, decorations, exercise, fun, lentils, orchid, plants, read, return, sunshine
decided that today was the day to put away all the Christmas decorations…
for the last few days I’ve taken pictures of many of the ornaments as I knew they’d be coming down soon… used one of my apps to make a nice collage…
got my exercise as I brought up boxes, put away ornaments, and took them back downstairs…
always a bit sad to take everything down… and it took a good portion of the day… maybe because I took a few breaks for reading and napping, lol… did spend some of the time thinking about the fun I had with my friend when we put all the decorations up…
the living room has returned to normal… my plants are happy because they’d been relegated to a back room for the duration…
was happy to get a few pictures of the orchid… it really is amazing…
enjoyed seeing the sunshine again…
the paths continue to be used constantly… recently the bunny spent a good portion of a day sitting in the garden so I saw it a number of times… it is really big…
tomorrow is my last day before going back to work… gonna try a lentil recipe and get in a bit more reading…
01 Friday Jan 2016
Posted in family, health, life, nature, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, Chihuly, excited, homemade, macaroni, memories, Seattle, unforgettable, white sauce
yesterday my daughter in Ottawa asked for my recipe for homemade macaroni and cheese…
it is one of her favourites and we didn’t have an opportunity to have it while they were home…
it is in a duo tang from high school home ec class that I keep on the shelf in the kitchen with my other cookbooks…
excited that she wanted to make it… came out very nice and they enjoyed it…
the white sauce in that recipe is my go to… I can’t even think how many times I’ve made it for various dishes… best thing I ever learned in home economics…
the most exciting thing today was getting to turn the calendar to January…
I purchased this calendar in August and have been waiting to get to use it… the last one I had was for 2014 and I didn’t open it until January only to discover that it had the previous November and December included… was so excited that this one would have the same thing…
but it didn’t… been waiting since September to get to a full size calendar…
I just love Dale Chihuly’s work… one of the most memorable moments for me was standing in Chihuly Garden and Glass at the base of the Seattle Space Needle and hearing his voice as he walked into the room we were in… to listen as he answered students’ questions and then get a picture with him… was like meeting a rock star…
funny what makes an unforgettable memory…
31 Thursday Dec 2015
Posted in family, health, life, nature, technology
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, celebration, charcoal, Cornish hen, fireworks, friends, lobster, memories, New Year's Eve, steak, tradition
for most of our married life we would celebrate New Year’s Eve with steak and lobster… started this tradition when we were newly married with a couple of longtime friends…
I can remember the first year, before we had kids, when we were in their yard and the old style charcoal bbq melted the snow all around it… the guys were in their shirtsleeves, it was giving off so much heat…
what great fun we had… over the years we kept up the tradition with appetizers early on, and then the steak and lobster very late in the evening, usually with at least one other couple… for much of the time the girls didn’t participate as New Year’s was our adult celebration…
when the girls were adults, they started to come for the dinner before going out with their friends, so we began eating earlier so it would fit with their plans…
the last few years before George died we would spend the remainder of the evening reading or watching tv and heading to bed after the midnight glass of bubbly…
last year I decided not to have steak and lobster on New Year’s Eve and instead had it on New Year’s Day with the family… I spent a quiet evening, watched fireworks at our community club from the dining room window… tonight I could hear the fireworks at The Forks…
I roasted a Cornish hen with mashed potatoes and cauliflower, with a carrot and raisin salad… a lovely remembrance… for years having a Cornish hen was a special treat for the two of us… a tasty reminder of my beloved…
the lobster is thawing in preparation for tomorrow’s dinner…
everyone in the family loves it now… not sure why we ever fed it to the little boys, lol…
likely I will be asleep at midnight…
30 Wednesday Dec 2015
Posted in family, health, life, nature, technology
was rather proud of myself tonight… instead of tossing some overripe grape tomatoes I made sauce for whole wheat pasta… not that long ago I would have thrown them out and certainly wouldn’t have eaten whole wheat pasta, lol…
made it up as I went along with the tomatoes, herbs, garlic, and some leftover mozzarella cheese… very tasty…
while it was cooking, I looked out into the backyard and saw the solar lights glowing under the snow… so cute…
was a bit surprised because the sun wasn’t out very much today… took the boys to the zoo this afternoon and there wasn’t any sun shining the entire time we were there… saw lots of wolves and bears and spotted a new heavy horse…
even put its head over the fence so I could get a good shot…
earlier my son-in-law had fixed one of the timers for a light in the living room… somehow we had pushed a button and the light just stayed on, so I’d been turning it on and off manually…
happily it is now working perfectly…
the other light in the corner, along with the silver trees, comes on and turns off exactly on schedule…
just love it when things work as they’re supposed to…
wish I could figure out how to put the light on the fish tank on a timer, lol..
29 Tuesday Dec 2015
Posted in family, health, life, nature, technology
Tags
big girl pants, Birchwood Toyota, car, frustration, locked, remote, Shadow, starter
trying to decide if I am just untrainable or whether Shadow is testing me…
these don’t look that difficult to work…
unfortunately they are proving very uncooperative for me… frustrating…
I had been back to Birchwood Toyota and someone walked me through the process and advised me how they should work… was told that I could use either one to open the doors… this was after the front door would not open at all the day after I brought her home…
twice today I started the car remotely, and then could not open the doors… only way I could get in was to turn it off, at which point the door locks worked perfectly…
sigh… I called and spoke with the guy at the dealership and he will check with the installers and give me a call back, likely tomorrow…
might have something to do with the valet key which my kids use…
hoping the problem gets solved soon… starting to feel like a remote starter wasn’t such a great investment…
28 Monday Dec 2015
Tags
big girl pants, bunnies, cats, coconut, Guylian, laundry, Lindt, shortbread, squirrels, sun, tracks, treats
sun was out again today… yay…
spent a bit of time at the window watching to see if I could spot any of the critters that have made numerous tracks through the garden…
didn’t spot any… I’m sure that some are from the squirrels and the neighbourhood cats, but maybe some are from bunnies too…
finished up the laundry from when my company was here… now towels, sheets and tablecloths are all clean and put away…
tonight I treated myself to a shortbread cookie from a friend and one of my Lindt coconut balls… they only come out at Christmas time and my daughter brought me a little collection of them…
also have some Guylian chocolates to enjoy…
being careful not to have too many treats because I don’t want my A1C to be high when I next have it tested…
27 Sunday Dec 2015
Posted in family, health, life, nature, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, KG Saigon, moments, orchid, sister-in-law, snow, sunshine, windows
this morning, while I was coming and going doing some chores around the house, I took this picture of the sun shining out the front window…
I sure do love the sunshine… and take the time to enjoy it every day it is out… we don’t get as much of it as we used to…
also put my orchid back on the table in the living room… it has been in amongst the garland in the dining room for the last few weeks while a hydrangea had the top spot in the living room… I left the greenery on the table when the flower died, but rearranged it today… the orchid has been blooming for months…
had a lovely lunch out with my sister-in-law, nephew and his friend… we had some very nice Vietnamese food at one of my nephew’s favourite places, KG Saigon… after tea here, she was heading to the airport for a flight to Vancouver for the remainder of her holiday… it was great to spend a bit of time together…
didn’t get photos of the whole table but these days I take pictures of everything I eat… really helps with recording my food intake…
another shot looking out the bedroom window as the sun was going down…
always so happy when I catch these beautiful moments…
