Friday, June 29, 2007

Summer Splash

Tomorrow is my first Dragon Boat competition.

If you're in the area, come and cheer us on at Summer Splash.

L-o-n-g Weekend

4-day weekend coming up. Hooo boy, do I need it!

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

New Source of Protein?

Sunday morning I did 40k bike ride. It was a nice morning, not too hot, not too humid, not too windy. What I didn't realise was that at some points during the ride the bike path would be thick with bugs and flies and gross things that would get stuck in my hair, eyebrows, on my shirt, shorts, in my mouth, up my nose ...

This was one of those times that suddenly a stationary bike at home or in a gym really made sense.

Trying to spit out teeny weeny bugs from my mouth while at the same time trying not to breathe in any new sources of protein was quite a challenge. In the end it was a great ride and I felt virtuous enough after that do laze around for the rest of the day without feeling guilty.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Baby Shower Preparations

One of my closest friends, Super C, is expecting a baby in September. Because I'm nice and bossy, I offered to host a baby shower for her. No problem. I like to organise. I like to make lists.

What I wasn't counting on was the sheer stupidity of so many of these baby shower web sites. What I wasn't counting on was the total "mom"-ness of these sites. Have these people lost their minds in having children? Why is it all so cutesy and cuddly and cringe-worthy?

Things that I will not be doing in organising this shower: buy hula-hoops, crayons and construction paper, draw a hopscotch board on the driveway (they don't even mention why any sane person would do this for a baby shower!). Nor will I buy 15 flavours of baby food, peel off the labels and test everyone's taste buds. (First prize more baby food?! Are they mad!?!) Ask guest to bring pink or blue note cards with their favourite mom secrets? I'm sorry, I can't go on. It just gets worse.

Cecilia - be prepared. This will be a grown-up "shower" for grown-up women. Apart from the fact that you are having a baby, I refuse to insult your intelligence and my own any longer, and the theme will be "no stupid baby stuff". Actually, you know what? I think I will rename this shower to a "pre-baby party". We will eat grown-up portions. No "baby-sized" food as so helpfully recommended to keep the theme going. We will not be serving pink or blue food, unless it just so happens to happen that way. No pastel coloured candies either.

The only thing that I will succumb to is a non-alcoholic drink. How about ... ?

Virgin Strawberry Margaritas

Juice of 1/2 lime, freshly squeezed
1/2 cup fresh strawberries
1/2 tsp sugar
One strawberry (for garnish)
Whipped cream (mandatory)

Add lime juice, 1/2 cup strawberries and sugar to blender. Blend on high until smooth. Pour into cocktail glass. Garnish with remaining strawberry, and top with a dollop of whipped cream.

Serves 1 (me!)

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Wall Plugs

Would you look at that? I managed to drill some larger holes, get the wall plugs in, the curtain rod holders screwed in and the curtains back up - all by myself! And - get this, the curtains didn't fall down last night. So there.

Flight of the Conchords

There's this new show on The Movie Network called Flight of the Conchords.

Kinda reminds me of a young New Zealand version of Montreal's own Bowser & Blue. Also kinda reminded me of Best in Show and A Mighty Wind sorta style.

Pretty funny stuff.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Really Broken

Some months ago the old plastic wheels on my bed frame finally died of dehydration. They cracked, split and fell apart. I had never been too happy with these wheels, let me tell you. They wouldn't lock, stuck out too far - in short, they were a real pain in the wazoo.

So, being the independant and clever woman I am, I managed to pick up some new legs for the bed in a nice cherry wood. Great. Except that I couldn't get them to fit in the metal bed frame (too wobbly). Nor could I screw them into the under side of the bed (well, I could but not straight). In the end I broke down and called my mechanic brother to help me out. Where it took me about 20 minutes to use the wrench on one nut (or is it bolt?), Marc had it done in the blink of an eye - literally!

Anyway ... at that time we managed to get my bed put back together even if it was a little higher than I had expected. Still slightly wobbly but much, MUCH better than before.

Until last night. When I was standing (ok, so some of this is my fault I suppose) on the bottom left corner of my bed reaching over to fix the curtains and that's when the bed, the 3 curtains, curtain rod, 2 curtain rod holders, 4 screws and me all crashed to the floor. Not a terribly relaxing way to get into bed.

I had to get out my toolbox (yes, the nice shiny red one!), screwdriver, wrench and then pull my freshly made bed apart. Cursing all the way, as you can well imagine. Oh, and after leaving a rather curt message on Marc's voicemail.

As it turns out, that bottom left bed leg? The big long screw thing broke off. Now I have this leg that has a bit of a broken screw sticking out of it and no way to get the rest of the screw out of the bedframe! Nice, eh?! I ended up taking the frame apart, killing 2 spiders (1 with my bare hand because that's how mad I was) and having to put the bed on the floor for the night. I did manage to get the curtains back up before going to bed but they didn't stay up for long. At 1:00 a.m. I pushed my duvet to the end of my bed but didn't realise that the weight of the duvet pulling on my curtains would pull the whole frigging thing down again! Yes, that's right, the whole kit and kaboodle came crashing down on my feet.

Looks like tonight I'll have to put some wall plugs into those holes to secure the screws and also fix the curtain rod holders (because they're bent now). Yeesh.

Marc - you better have some idea how to fix my bed because now I'm pissed.

Friday, June 15, 2007

8x10

I had this picture blown up into an 8x10. Without tooting my own horn too much (bit late now) - can I tell you how beautiful this picture turned out? I'm so friggin' impressed.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Much better

Ahhh ... finally a Dragon Boat practice that ended without feeling like my back was going to jump off me in spasms.

We had a great practice last night practicing our starts and stops and going at full throttle. Mostly that part made me feel like barfing. Kinda like when you're biking up a hill and it takes every last bit of energy to get there and then you make it, you stop and you keel over and puke. But in a fun way, you know?!

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Bubble Wrap

How will I resist the urge to jump on huge the roll of bubble wrap? It is altogether too inviting.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Happy 30th Birthday Marc!

Happy 30th Birthday Marc!

Monday, June 11, 2007

F1

Had a fantastic day at the Grand Prix on Saturday. It was hot, sunny, crowded, noisy and I can honestly say I loved every minute. Here is a very small sample of the 187 pictures I took.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Happy 40th Anniversary!

June 9, 1967


Happy Anniversary to my Mom & Dad!

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Happy 3rd Birthday Darcy! Happy 30th Birthday Marc!

Happy 30th Birthday to my baby brother ... guess this means I can't be 29 anymore. Hmph.

Had a great time celebrating Darcy's 3rd Birthday with her yesterday. Here are the rest of the pictures.

The best was Darcy waiting at the window for her uncles to show up ... for over an hour!

No - the best was her expression when we brought out the birthday cake!

No - the best was when she suddenly said "Thank you everybody for a nice cake."

No - the best was ... as you can tell, it was a day full of "best" moments.

Monday, June 04, 2007

Anniversary/Birthday Party Menu

Bruti ma buoni cookies
Lemon cookies (from this book)
Chocolate chip cookies
Date-nut bread
Apricot spice bars (from this cookbook)
Butter pecan tarts (from Grandma's old cookbook, can't find a link)
Fruit smoothie cheesecake
Cheddar cheese coins (oh no, that's right, I ate those already!)
Orange & Mandarine cake (adapted from this recipe)
Fruit plate
Cheese & crackers

Oh, and if you're interested, here are some picture from the party. Somehow I missed a few (about half the people actually) guests - including the guests of honour! But hopefully we'll be able to take a few more pictures later this week.

Better not forget - here are a few pictures from our trip to the park with Darcy on Saturday.