apps…

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downloaded the App of the Day app on my phone and have been enjoying some of the apps that come up… I always like to give the photo apps a try…

downloaded Burst a few days ago and think it might be a keeper…

fish tank...

fish tank…

been taking lots of shots of the fish as they tend to move around a lot…

this app takes bursts of pictures in increments from 5 to 1000 at a time… I have tried 10 and 50 and will give the higher numbers a try over the weekend…

fish looking for food...

fish looking for food…

once it has taken the pictures you can look at them one at a time and save the one(s) you like to the camera roll…

looks like I can raise the quality so will give that a try…

looking forward to testing this out on the boys when they can’t sit/stand still for me, lol…

new technology, yay…

just noticed that The Bloggess has moved to WordPress… looking forward to meeting her next weekend at MBlog 2014 at the UofW…

 

lunch…

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had a lovely lunch today… met up with a great friend who I hadn’t seen in ages… the walk to and from the restaurant was very cold, but the sun was shining and that made up for the cold…

we went to the Lobby on York and had an excellent lunch… my friend had the curried beef special and I had a Strip loin Steak Sandwich with focaccia, mushroom, chevre, pickled onion, arugula, and truffle aioli with French fries…

curried beef and rice...

curried beef and rice…

I decided on the sandwich thinking a big lunch would mean I didn’t need to have a big dinner… I seem to be going through another phase of not wanting to do much for my dinner at night…

steak sandwich...

steak sandwich…

the steak sandwich was very nice although I don’t remember tasting the truffle aioli, lol… the French fries were okay… the service was good and the space is quite modern, which I like…

we had an enjoyable visit and got lots of catching up done… haven’t been out for lunch for ages…

plan to do that again soon…

issues…

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feels like I’ve been wearing those big girl pants a lot lately…

Sunday I discovered that there wasn’t any hot water in the bathtub/shower… later in the day the kitchen sink didn’t seem to have much hot water… the new water heater was installed in May so it can’t be that, although I did think about it for a moment or two…

went to check in the basement but there wasn’t anything leaking, which was good… after talking with a few folks I think there are two problems… maybe something wrong with the tap in the tub and maybe the cold outside is doing a mischief to the water line in the basement…

I now know how to check to be sure the hot water tank is working, and something about bleeding it, lol…

called my son-in-law, who is going to come over and have a look-see… and he is going to shovel/snow blow the driveway so I can get the car out… yay…

tonight had a phone call from someone who wanted to give me a better interest rate on my credit cards… they knew my name and I kept asking questions about exactly what card it was and eventually they hung up… they did know that the cards were paid off monthly, so that was kind of bizarre… I have taken down the number and will consult with one of our experts at work tomorrow to see if I should do anything further…

been checking into health and dental insurance as the survivor benefits that Rona provided me with will run out at the beginning of March… talked with Sun Life, checked out Blue Cross online, and have spoken with a broker who is looking into possibilities… I was shocked at how much this might cost me on a monthly basis, but continue to look into options… and apparently I should have been looking into this sooner as many of the companies want you to pay into them for three months before providing any benefits…

finally I contacted the physio place I went to in the Spring to get a copy of my receipts, as I appear to have lost them and need to put in a claim while I still have time… they were very helpful and will be mailing me the information…

my neck has been bothering me for a couple of days, so think I will put a heating pad on it for a while tonight because apparently I can’t get to the hot tub as the snow is quite deep out back…

was talking to someone today about keeping going and doing my best to live in the moment and see the special things that are happening… as we were talking the snow was falling and we both took a minute to enjoy it… it does look so beautiful falling and when it covers everything in a blanket of white… later as I was shovelling the sidewalk I enjoyed how light and fluffy it was…

snow in the garden before yesterday and today's snowfall...

snow in the garden before yesterday and today’s snowfall…

good to be in the moment

the Olympics…

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I love the Olympics… trying to figure out how I am going to watch as much as possible… work can be such an inconvenience on occasion… looking forward to the opening and closing ceremonies as well…

in previous years I have watched many of the events as they happen, even if that is in the middle of the night… no doubt there will be lots of long nights in February…

in winter I enjoy all types of skating, skiing, snowboarding, bobsleigh and luge… not too much of a hockey fan as the games go on forever…

used to watch sports with my Dad… we would often go to events at the arena and it was from him that I learned what good sportsmanship (sportspersonship?) was all about… he would cheer whenever anyone did a good job, didn’t matter at all what team they were on…

have tried over the years to instill that sense in the girls, encouraging them to play for the fun of it, and cheering on every good play, regardless of who made it… been working on it with the little boys as well…

practising...

practising…

I was more a skater than George was… in school I did a bit of speed skating and when I was very young remember participating in the Community Club figure skating events, but am not even sure I could stand on skates these days…

skating at the Duck Pond, February 2012...

skating at the Duck Pond, February 2012…

George was always a great audience, encouraging everyone as they skated around the Pond… after the skating fun, he treated everyone to lunch at the Park Café…

hope the weather warms up a bit so we can go to the Duck Pond this year…

home…

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a year ago today we returned from our wonderful week in Mexico… we had an amazing time and enjoyed every minute…

we were picked up in an SUV limo at the airport and had to climb through deep snow (me in my sandals) and ended the vacation with dinner from Tony Roma’s…

 

limo, sandals and snow...

limo, sandals and snow…

 

it was delightful…

today the kids didn’t make it over as the littlest one is sick…

made a crockpot stew and watched some sports and a movie…

piles of snow...

piles of snow yesterday – more fell today…

quite a different day, lol… although there is a lot more snow on the ground this year…

statue and snow covered chair...

statue and snow covered chair…

to the right of the statue are the arms of a chair, covered in snow… not from being shovelled, just accumulation, lol…

planning…

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a few weeks ago I booked a flight to visit Cyndi and Ron in Ottawa… will be going toward the end of April so it is a ways off…

will only be there for about five days and am looking forward to seeing where the kids live and what is around them…

the newest Cirque du Soleil show is starting around the time I am there so we booked tickets to see it… we have now organized a train trip to Montreal and a bus trip back so that we can do everything in one day…

kurios from Cirque du Soleil website...

Kurios from Cirque du Soleil website…

today I spent quite a bit of time online trying to find a great restaurant to have lunch at while we are there… hard to do when you don’t know the place…

sent a list off to Cyndi with a bunch of ideas and hope that she can pick one or two for us to make a final choice, depending on their proximity to the train and Cirque du Soleil…

looks like there are lots to choose from…a couple looked quite interesting: Kazu, Le Petit Opus, Maison Boulud, Toqué… some of the ones that looked good weren’t open on the weekend so that helped shorten the list…

kind of made me hungry, lol…

a year ago…

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thought we had gone a bit later but realized that a year ago today we were on our last few days of vacation in Mexico…

here’s what I wrote in my journal:  Thursday, January 17, 2013 – Crystal came by early for coffee and a visit and Kyler got up about 7:15. Tried to change my profile picture to the undersea pic but it is having a serious think about the whole thing. Boys played in the pool – girls went to the Spa for massages. 7:30 dinner at Brazilian place without Crystal as she was sick.

as I was writing this blog I looked up and saw a picture of the palm trees on the electronic frame, lol…

this is one of the first pictures I took once we arrived at our resort…

boat anchored at sunset...

boat anchored at sunset…

we had a wonderful time and it was a great way to celebrate George… this Spring we will gather to disperse his ashes together and will remember Mexico without him and lots of special moments with him…

 

blustery…

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this morning my ride couldn’t get into the city and I was lucky to be able to get a lift with another colleague… gave me a bit of extra time before getting picked up so I put on the big girl pants and went out in my heavy parka and shovelled the sidewalk and steps…

from the house it didn’t look that bad out but when I got there it was very windy… the snow wasn’t wet, but from all the blowing it had packed down and was quite difficult to pick up and move… could have made a great igloo…

shovelling done...

shovelling done…

got the job done and came inside and sat down and waited for my breathing to settle down… it was good to get it cleaned because I had a box of soup and dumplings to take in for Souper Thursday, lol…

I don’t think the dumpling experiment went very well, although everyone said they were good… just weren’t their usual fluffy selves…

have just come in from a lovely hot tub sitting in the moon beams… haven’t been out at this time of the evening for a very long time and it was great to be able to enjoy the moon shine…

chicken soup…

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just finished the chicken soup for tomorrow’s Souper Thursday…

started it last night after doing some research into the best foods to help stave off/recover from colds… chicken soup was at the top of the list…

feels like almost everyone I know either has a cold or knows someone who does… this particular variety seems to last quite some time, so I thought a little chicken soup would be helpful all around…

last night I made the broth, simmering a whole chicken with carrots, celery, onion and bay leaves… then I separated the meat from the chicken…

tonight I added the vegetables and barley and simmered that… George loved barley in his soup, so that is an homage to him…

then I tried an experiment… I cooked small dumplings and have set them aside and will try warming them up in the microwave tomorrow… I have often warmed up leftover soup and dumplings in the microwave the next day so am hopeful this will work, lol…

doing some searching, I discovered that people sometimes use ready-to-cook biscuits and drop them into the broth in the crock pot for the last hour or so before the soup is ready… sounded interesting, but I really wanted to use my Mom’s Dumpling recipe so decided to try the warming in the microwave technique… will see what happens tomorrow…

dumplings for tomorrow's soup...

dumplings for tomorrow’s soup…

just a few weeks ago was talking with someone about how delicious dumplings are, which also made me think I should give this a try…

found a great slideshow on the Canadian Living site about ten foods to eat to help beat colds and flu… also found information that sugar is very bad for you when you have a cold, sigh…

stay well…

bendy busses…

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just looked up and saw a picture of George and I in Cyndi and Ron’s house in Courtenay… we had a lovely visit on that trip…

made me laugh because I was just thinking about bendy busses… and Cyndi…

I rarely read the newspaper, although it sits right at my desk every day… for some reason this morning I looked over the front page and saw this…

bendy busses coming here...

bendy busses coming here…

the first time I saw one of these busses was in 2000 when Cyndi and I were in Chicago for a church event about Families… she saw the busses and went a little bit crazy about them…

so this morning, I took a quick picture of the front page and emailed it to her… one doesn’t text in the morning because that might wake her up, but emailing is okay…

she responded within a few minutes saying she was actually riding on a bendy bus in Ottawa as she read my email…

I still haven’t ridden on one… maybe they will run along Portage and I can take one home one night in the spring, when the weather is nice…

synchronicity is an amazing thing…

made me smile for quite a while after, and even as I write this I have a smile on my face… one of those special moments…