Postcards

Before I travel, I always prepare a sheet of address labels with all my friends and family's addresses. This helps a lot when it comes time to mail postcards. Some people think I'm horribly organised this way, but for me it's really just because I'm too damn lazy to write any more than I absolutely have to, it also means I don't have to keep an address book with me (and God knows I cart enough other crap around with me most of the time anyway).

So last week in Banff, I bought some postcards, wrote the cards, put the labels on, even managed to have a few stamps with me to mail most of them. But then I realised that of the 3 I was going to send to England, only 1 had a stamp. So I didn't send it from Calgary but brought those 3 home and on Monday went down to the post office to buy stamps for the other two (being that the three cards were going to the same address I thought it best to send them all at the same time). It was when the woman behind the counter gave me the stamps that I noticed the postcard that did have a stamp on it was 4 cents short. What does this mean, I asked myself. Does it mean that the other cards I sent were all short on postage? No, because some of them were cards with pre-paid postage - OK, phew! But what about the cards that weren't? And what about the other cards that I had sent to Europe? How many did I send? Are they all missing postage too? Oh brother ... yes, I think they are.

I guess what this means is that some of you will get a postcard from me and others won't. Unless Canada Post takes pity on me and they do let all postcards go out. Sorry, folks - looks like I became one of those people I used to complain about when I worked in the hotel industry, the kind of person that leaves their brain at home when they go on vacation.

Vicks does the trick

Caution - this could get gross.

My head feels about 100 times lighter today than it has in quite a few days.

Managed to see a doctor yesterday morning to find out that yes, I do have laryngitis (surprise, surprise), and I am contagious so I shouldn't be kissing anybody (not like there's a line up people waiting to kiss me). Anyway, bought some Vicks on my way home last night and did a little steam bath kinda thing with that. It helped much more than I thought it would. Hoo wheee!!! NEVER in my life have I seen so much mucus (I'll refrain from telling you the consistency and colour) come out of my nose and throat. Makes me gag a little just thinking about it now. Added to that 6 1/2 hours straight of sleep, it sure helped to make a difference.

Now if I could just get my voice back to normal and not sound like some 80s one-hit wonder rock star (Kim Carnes, Bonnie Tyler) ...

Banff & Calgary

So last week I left off just before meeting up with Dan (Super C works with his mom, hence the rather vague connection). Dan and I had a couple of drinks at a local pub and discussed plans for the next day. (Something I forgot to mention though was that during my hiking excursion last Wednesday; I heard two avalanches! One was quite small and far off. The other was not. It was loud - like a train rumbling by right behind you, even though the avalanche was taking place across the valley. Wild and exciting!)

Thursday morning wasn't much sunnier than the previous couple of days and rain was in the forecast. Dan picked me up and we drove about 10 minutes to the bottom of Sulphur Mountain. From there we started the 5.5km hike to the top. It was dry at the bottom and easy going with a steady incline. Perhaps about halfway up we stopped for a water break at a delightful little waterfall (very cold water!). It gave an incredible view across the valley. On our way again, the path soon became harder to manage with more rocks and roots to deal with. And then we hit the snow line. And then it started to snow. And it snowed all the way up to the top by which time we both looked like abominable snowmen (or woman as in my case). But really - WOW! It was such a great hike and despite a little huffing and puffing by the end, I think I did OK. After drying off and changing out of sweaty and wet clothes, spent some time on the observation deck where the view was clearing and the snow had stopped. The view was phenomenal. If the weather had only been a little better I would've like to continue the trail over to the other peak, just over 1km away. Took a bunch of pictures up there and then jumped in the cable car for the way down. From there Dan took me over to Lake Minnewanka, Two Jack Lake, and also to see some Hoodoos. The only wild animals we saw that day were mountain sheep. Right by the side of the road - if we'd been 2 minutes later we wouldn't have seen a thing. Dan dropped me off in Banff mid-afternoon and headed out of town for some R&R of his own. Thanks so much Dan for the time and energy spent entertaining this Mountain Goddess, I had a great day.

Later that afternoon I took the bus into Calgary and met up with my friend Pam. I stayed at her lovely condo in Inglewood for two nights. Friday I went up the Calgary Tower, had lunch with some friends, did a bit of window shopping along Stephen Ave., and visited the Glenbow Museum. For my last night of vacation Pam got a couple of friends together and we all went out for drinks. That was fun (with plenty of giggling from me and Pam!). The night ended in a pretty district that reminded me very much of Sherbrooke Street in Westmount/NDG - too bad I can't remember what it's called, where we had coffee and cake. Saturday morning Pam took me out to take a few last minute pictures and then I was on the plane. Safe flight home, slept the better part of the way and arrived on time.

And now it's all over ... but good news - my pictures up on flickr! Go have a look.

Sad news from Panama

Got an email while I was away last week telling me that Elizabeth died about a week ago in Panama. She had returned to the hospital for just a couple of days. Marlene, the director of the orphanage, visited her there but she was unconscious the whole time. For the past couple of months she has been living with her sister after her latest bone marrow transplants.

She was a courageous young woman who endured far too much abuse, abandonment and illness in her short 19 years.

I am sure she is in a better place now.

We will miss her beautiful smile and warm hugs when we visit the other girls in February 2007.

Update soon

Home again after a great holiday in Banff and Calgary. I'm sick as a dog with a horrible cold but it was worth every minute.

I promise to update you on the trip and my pictures will be up on flickr soon.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!

No, I haven't seen any lion, tigers or bears yet but apparently the bear thing might not be too far fetched.

Arrived in Banff last Friday. Conference was super. Worked like a dog and saw nothing outside my hotel room and several conference rooms but it was a fantastic experience. Yesterday, after we finished up, I spent the afternoon in the Spa pool, then went for a hot stone massage, had some of the freshest sushi ever at Sushi House Banff, and then slept like the dead. Today I went on a guided hike to The Plain of Six Glaciers (approx. 13km). The weather wasn't terribly sunny or warm, but it was a beautiful hike nonetheless and I had a great time. On the way to pick up the other hiker we saw 3 deer (momma and two babies), then on the hike we saw pika (small larger than a hamster, smaller than a guinea pig but in the bunny family), mice (which I very nearly stepped on and managed to shriek at briefly), whiskey jacks (local name), some kind of navy blue bird, mountain goats and elk. At the top of trail we had some serious snow coming down. Yeah, so there I was, me who still has issues with cold weather and snow, grinning from ear to ear (pictures to follow) at the awesome sight of the glaciers, the valley - everything. From the top of the trail you could basically see all the way down to Chateau Lake Louise. I have to tell you, it looked a lot farther away than 13km. It was a great hike.

Tomorrow's plans are still up in the air. I will be meeting with someone in a little while who will do some kind of hike with me tomorrow. After that I'll be busing (is that 1 or 2 's'?) into Calgary to stay two nights there before flying back on Saturday.

Safe

Montreal came to headlines of the news yesterday after a gunman opened fire at Dawson College. My first thought - where is Anna? My longtime friend Anna (the one who got married in June) is an English teacher there. Luckily, I was able to reach her by phone instantly. She had just gotten home with Jamie. She was safe. The feelings of panic and anxiety that I just experienced dissipated instantly on hearing her voice.

This morning's Gazoo is of course filled with stories about the shooting - not a good way to start the day. After reading the first few pages of the paper, I had to stop reading. It's too much for me. I feel sick with ... I don't know what to call it - a horrible, awful feeling in the pit of my stomach that I have no explanation for other than yesterday's events.

On a lighter note, tomorrow I'll be on my way to Banff, Alberta for a week. The first couple of days will be work, work, work but after that I'll have a few days to indulge in some sight seeing, hiking and enjoying the great outdoors. Hopefully I'll be able to post a couple of times while I'm away.

Be safe everyone.

New pictures are up!

OK - after much downloading, sorting, cropping, fixing and stuff, the pictures from my stay in Windsor are up!

Here are the new sets:
Chicken Licken
Chocolate Therapy
The Spaghetti Incident

Enjoy!

Awesome

Here I am, Saturday night, bags pretty much packed, ready to go home first thing tomorrow morning. It's been a great week. An awesome week. I will never forget this week and probably never experience something like it again. A bittersweet thought.

Today was a bit of a tough one for both Darcy and myself. This morning she didn't want to eat breakfast, get dressed or go to the park. Oddly, at one point we had been playing in the basement and I had asked her to do something a couple of times, when she got up and went to sit on the stairs with her arms crossed for a minute. I'm still not sure if she was giving herself or myself a time out. Lunch turned out OK. She ate some plain pasta with Parmesan. Got her to bed for her nap fine, but then she insisted on singing all about "baby Donald Duck" for a good 10 minutes. Finally she drifted off though. But then she woke up crying. It was time for her to get up anyway so there was no point ignoring her. I went to her and got her out of the crib and still she cried. I cuddled her and hugged her but she kept on crying. She basically cried non-stop for 45 minutes after waking, at times just kind of whimpering, at other times really sobbing and sometimes nearly choking from not being able to catch her breath. I was really starting to get worried. All I could do was hold her. She didn't want to eat, drink, nothing seemed to hurt her. It took about half an hour (God - what kind of idiot takes so long to figure out what was wrong?!) to notice that she kept holding her ears. I finally asked if she had an earache and of course she said yes. So then I started imagining that we'd end up spending the evening in an emergency ward somewhere getting Darcy treated for an ear infection. Luckily it didn't end up that way. Fourty-five minutes after she woke up crying, she stopped. She just suddenly pulled away from me, looked up and said "I happy now". And she was. The first game she asked to play was hide & seek. By the time Sue got home and I explained what had gone on, Darcy had forgotten all about it. In talking with Sue about this whole episode, we ended up thinking that probably her new teeth were causing the earache, might also be part of the reason that she wasn't eating too much. But really, what do I know?

Sue offered to take me out to dinner as thanks for staying the week, so we headed to Montana's. Naturally, Darcy ate nothing. Sue and I however, cleared our plates! On the way there as we passed a bright yellow car, Sue asked Darcy if she liked that car, Darcy's response (and I swear I did not make this up) "Awesome!". Sue & I burst into laughter.

After a nice drive home along the river (because it was too cold to walk outside and none of us were dressed properly) we got into some warm clothes and played a few rounds of hide & seek before calling the family in Montreal. My parents leave tomorrow for their vacation to England, Switzerland and Spain.

I'm realising now that tomorrow's train ride home is going to be long and quiet; the kind of quiet I haven't had in over a week. I have a good book, my iPod and some food but I have the feeling that I will somehow still miss having Darcy around.

Ask me how I found the week? Awesome!

Chocolate Therapy

Before I get to the good stuff, I'll just go over my day with Darcy briefly.

Again today she helped me make my bed and tidy up my stuff. This morning we read for a while, played hide & seek and watched Sesame Street before heading over to the park. It was a beautiful day and Darcy wasn't much interested in going back home for lunch. She also wasn't too impressed with the high school kids that came by the park to hang out on the slide during their lunch break. She mentioned several times "that my slide" and wouldn't listen to any reasoning about sharing the park with big kids and little kids. No how, no way.

After a nice long nap (giving me plenty of time to catch up on my emails, sweep the floors in the house and have a couple of cups of tea), I decided to take Darcy down to the river this afternoon. I had hoped that after "chasing birdies" she'd have expended enough energy that giving her some ice cream wouldn't be such a bad thing. Little did I realise that the ice cream stand would be closed in the middle of the day. Oh well. Instead I got treated to Darcy giving me the evil eye, crossing her arms and sitting down in the grass as her refusal to go home. Even after I took a few steps away, she still wasn't moving. I'm not too sure how it happened, but it seems I marched over, said "Darcy, stand up please" (in a tone that many will recall hearing in my own mother's voice) and after a brief second of hesitation, she saw that I meant business and promptly stood up. Conflict over. I plopped her down in the stroller and home we went. No tears. No screaming. Simply and effectively dealt with. By the time we got home she was in good spirits again and we enjoyed doing some more folding and colouring until Sue got home.

As promised, Sue whipped up some instant chocolate pudding for dessert. Darcy enjoyed the first few mouthfuls using her spoon. Then she realised her other hand could go in the bowl too. And that's when it all went downhill. Fast. I don't know how many pictures I took, but I have a (bad?) feeling it may be close to 100 (honestly, all joking aside approximately 100). All with good reason. You have never seen chocolate go in so many places. Darcy started off with some innocent finger painting on her tray, then licked her fingers and got a bit on her cheeks and well, then some not so innocent people got her to touch her nose, put her hands to her cheeks, pound her chest like a gorilla, cross her arms in anger and even put the now empty bowl of chocolate pudding on her head like a hat. It dawned on me as she was rubbing the pudding into her arms and chest - women pay good money for chocolate therapy wraps, baths, facials, manicures and pedicures at spas. For $1.50 you can basically get the same treatment at home. Well, by the end the only way to get Darcy clean enough to get her upstairs was to take her outside and hose her down first. After the initial shock of cold water, she seemed pretty pleased to have her mommy chase her around with the hose. Sue took her up for a bath and I cleaned up the kitchen, highchair and dining room. Pretty fair trade off, if you ask me. And totally worth it! Pictures will be up next week (and again my apologies ...).

Last day tomorrow. I'll be sure to make the most of it.

The Spaghetti Incident

Darcy was in good spirits this morning. After Sue left she was all keen to help me make my bed, brush my teeth and help me get my laundry done (even managing to sneek a purple sock into my white load ...). She was happy to see Elmo and friends on tv and we also managed to get a trip to the park in before lunch. When I consider what she ate yesterday, today was a vast improvement. Although she basically only ate half a banana for breakfast she did eat a couple of carrot sticks for snack and nearly a whole peanut butter sandwich for lunch. Nap time again was no problem.

Two small incidents brought her to tears though. While she was "helping" me fold my laundry, she went to sit on my suitcase, missed and banged her head on the wall behind. We had a cuddle, kisses to the bump and it was all over. Later while we were at the park she bumped her head on the baby swing (that hard plastic or leather) and that brought on more tears. I'm pretty sure that didn't hurt her much, but probably surprised her more than anything. Both times she hit her head she told me, "I go bump". Her eyes would just well up with big crocodile tears and her mouth turned upside down. If it wasn't so sad for her, I would've been laughing just because she was so cute.

This afternoon we played in the backyard for a bit and then did some crafts inside. We made a plaster of paris handprint, did some colouring and also lots of sticking and pasting. It was a fun time, chatting and being silly with Darcy. We danced in our chairs and laughed a lot too.

Things took a turn towards hysteria at dinner and later again when we went out shopping. I'll start with dinner: Sue decided to give Darcy spaghetti tonight as a sure fire way to get her to eat. It worked. It worked so well that Darcy ate two bowls of spaghetti. I have it all on camera (sorry, you'll have to wait until next week for me to download). Not only did Darcy eat but she ate with a fork in her left hand and her right hand was full of spaghetti too - she couldn't get it in her mouth fast enough. I have never seen anyone eat food like this. The sauce went everywhere. Darcy's face was covered, from her nose to her chin, up her nose (yes, really), cheek to cheek, from her fingers to her elbows, front and back of her hands. Sue's promising chocolate pudding for dessert tomorrow. I'm going to have to change the memory card in my camera for that event!

After a quick clean up, we headed over to the mall to get Darcy's fringe trimmed. That took no time at all so we had a quick look in at Old Navy. While I quickly went through the clearance racks, Sue headed over to the kids section with Darcy. I met them there a few minutes later and found Sue holding a hilarious Hallowe'en costume. It was a chicken outfit. I kid you not. A chicken. Sue got Darcy to try on the jacket part of it in the store. You have never in your life seen anything so funny as a two year-old running around a store in a big, white, puffy, furry jacket with two little orange legs flapping out the bottom and said two year-old running around the store giggling her head off. I was literally doubled over, kneeling on the floor laughing like a hyena. Sue had pretty much the same reaction and I think we may have scared a few people in the store. Sue paid for the costume (I paid for my shirt) and we headed home fast to get a few pictures in. Sue's posted her pictures here and I will have mine up next week (I know, I know!).

Only two more days with Darcy ...

Did I just say "only"?

Hump Day

Today was Sue's work from home day and I saw that she has to work hard to work.

She and Darcy were heading off to the doctor's this morning so I took that opportunity to head to the gym. By the time I got back we were all ready for a late lunch and Sue suggested that she introduce me to the little tea shop near the house. That was fun. (Note to Why - you would've loved this place. Little tables set up, each set with a tea cup and saucer (none matched), "light lunch" menu and even the choice of a full English afternoon tea!) Darcy is well known there. More so that even Sue, who is simply known as Darcy's Mom. We had some nice sandwiches and a huge choice of teas. By the time we got back home it was well after 2pm and long past Darcy's regular nap time. Sue got her to bed and finally got some work done. I read for a bit and then made a lemon and pine nut cornmeal bread and a huge vat of minestrone. (Slightly burned on the bottom due to me not realising how long it really takes when you take a two year old to the loo. Should've turned the heat off.)

Supper again tonight was a problem. Sue was out though and I had to handle it on my own. Darcy really hasn't eaten much since lunchtime yesterday, so by my reasoning she should've been hungry by dinner time. Apparently not. She ate a few leaves of lettuce, maybe half a piece of the lemon cornmeal bread, one spoonful of minestrone and two handfuls of cut strawberries. All offers of different foods were met with tears and whimpering. When I finally let her down from the high-chair she seemed OK and despite a few demands (ignored by me) we had a fine time until Sue got home again. Singing the alphabet and going through the letters on the LeapFrog thing on the fridge took quite a lot of time, plus of course more playing hide & seek and more puzzle making.

It's certainly interesting to see all the moods a kid can go through in a day (and I'm sure I haven't seen them all just yet!). It's also amazing to see how quickly Darcy picks things up and remembers them too.

Have got a few craft projects in the works for tomorrow so depending on the mood swings, etc. there should be plenty to talk about by the end of the day tomorrow, positive or not so positive!

(PS - Best part is when Darcy gives me a big hug.)

Made it!

Before I get to all the fun stuff that happened today, I have to admit I was just a little anxious about how everything would turn out. As it happens, today turned out great - thank goodness!

This morning Sue left for work and as Darcy was so wrapped up in playing hide and seek with me, she hardly even noticed that Sue had gone. I managed to get her to stay in front of the TV while I showered (and I even remembered to close the gate at the top of the stairs!). This accomplished I felt ready for a trip to the park. On the way we made a quick detour of a block to have a look at the truck, tractor and whatever you call that machine thing that cuts the road with the big rotating circular saw - yeah, that thing. It was pretty loud and Darcy found it lots of fun to shout at each other with our hands over our ears. At the park she proceeded to spend the better part of 45 minutes just rubbing sand into a cement seal and a cement turtle's head. A few trips down the slide, a couple of minutes on the baby swing and she was ready to go. As a special treat though, I asked if she'd like to sit on the big kids swing with me. The look on her face was priceless! Darcy does this fantastic "Ohhhh!!!" expression - her little mouth goes into a perfect circle and her eyes seem to open up even wider. So onto the big swing we went and she loved it. Must remember to thank my Dad for introducing Darcy to the shoulder ride home from the park because of course that's what she asked for as soon as we started walking home! "Up! Up, Tef!" Up she went because it's not like I could say no.

By the time we got home Sesame Street was nearly over so I gave her a snack, we read some more and learned how to do some folding (Darcy, not me). Lunch went over very well too (ham, tomatoes, salad, grilled cheese, milk, strawberries and pineapple) and then time for a nap. She went right down without any fuss at all. Felt pretty good about myself!

After nap-time we had a snack on the front porch, played soccer in the backyard and then had another (shorter) trip to the park. This time though she wasn't ready to leave and was pretty clear in letting me know. Eventually I just told her that I was leaving and I'd see her at home later. Of course, the minute I turned my back and took 3 steps she was hollering after me, "Wait! Wait! I come!"

By the time Sue got home though I had the feeling Darcy was getting a little tired of me (possible), that she hadn't had a long enough nap or that she was reacting to all the changes in her little life. It hit as soon as I put our dinner on the table. She ate a few pieces of salad well enough, but the stuffed peppers with veg and couscous were not going to be eaten by Darcy. Not now. Not ever. No how. And she pushed the plate away. And she cried. And she poured milk all over her tray. And she pointed her finger at Sue telling her that she wasn't allowed to eat her own dinner (that's when I had to step away from the table for fear of bursting into untimely laughter). And on it went. Sue insisted she have a little time out and that seemed to do the trick. Darcy never did eat the prepared dinner but we did manage to get some toast with peanut butter into her, as well as some pineapple and a couple of strawberries. Lucky for us, I guess, that she forgot all about the ice cream cone she had been demanding a little earlier.

Sue got her into the bath and to bed without any problems. Here ends day one of this babysitting adventure. Altogether it went off much better than I thought and really, I'm pretty glad the meltdown occurred while Sue was home. I just don't know how I would've dealt with that whole thing.

New Words

Spending the afternoon and evening with Darcy today has taught me a few new words in the world of Darcy.

The most difficult one for me to figure out though was "fok". If it wasn't for her mother, Sue, I'd still be trying to figure it out. Apparently "fok" is "frog". Silly me for thinking it could some other 4-letter word.

More Shoes

Oh well, it's just shoes, right? Somehow I bought two more pairs of shoes today. And that's after the two I bought yesterday. Oh dear.

How To's

How to keep Darcy happy in Costco:
- Feed her all the free samples

How to get Darcy down for a nap:
- Tell her you're going for one too

How to get Darcy to eat yogurt:
- Get Nick to shake an already opened container all over himself, Sue, Darcy and the floor. Oh no, sorry - that's how to make Stef and Grandmaman laugh so hard they can't breathe anymore

How to make Stef laugh until she cries for the second time in one meal:
- Have Grandmaman spell "cookies" like so: "c-o-o-k-s".

And that is just day one ...

Going to see Darcy (oh, and Nick & Sue too)

I'm all excited this morning! Tomorrow we leave for Windsor. Not that Windsor is that exciting but I'm going to see my niece. Even better - I'm going to spend a week with her. My parents, Nick and myself will be heading to Windsor tomorrow afternoon for the long weekend. I will be staying behind though when they head back to Montreal on Monday. While Sue goes to work next week, I'm going to babysit Darcy! Yes, that is an exclamation point. I'm very excited and hope this turns out to be a good experience for both of us. I've got lots of what I hope are fun activities for a two year old and if all else fails, there's always the park.

Must remember to charge the camera batteries tonight. Back in Montreal on Sunday, Sept. 10 and will do my best to post some pictures on flickr then.

Hope you're all ready for plenty of Darcy anecdotes!

Happy Belated Birthday to Jilly (and Me)!

Sorry, sorry, sorry. This week got off to quite a busy start and I just haven't had the time to write.

First off: Happy Birthday to my penfriend of many, many years, Jilly. She celebrated 37 years on Saturday, August 26.

Second: Happy Birthday to me. I too celebrated 37 this weekend, but on Sunday, August 27. Thanks to my family for a lovely dinner 'en famille' Saturday night. It was the first time in a long time that all 6 of us were together to celebrate. Thanks also to Super C for braving the rains on Sunday and joining me for a yummy (if very fried) Peruvian dinner, followed by the most divine chocolate cheesecake at Calories (Oh yeah - the CD kicks ass!). AG - you suck. And you know why.

First injury at the gym

OK, so it's not like it's a sports related injury and it's not so much an injury but a bruise. A very painful bruise. A bruise that happened about an hour ago and is already showing itself nicely. A bruise I got when I was rinsing my hair in the shower and WHACKED (yes, that hard) my elbow on the shower's temperature control tap. I hit it so hard that even now, an hour later, the pain radiates from my elbow all the way down to the palm of my hand.

On a more positive note, I survived yesterday's post-spinning soreness and much to my surprise was able to walk this morning. There was another spinning class this morning, but I decided not to push my luck and went for my more traditional walking and elliptical training.

So this is what it's all about

Just in case you never hear from me again, I'll let you know why I may just curl up and die today. Bright and early this morning (6:30am) I took my first spinning class. If you don't know what spinning is, click here. Now I understand what all the fuss is about. That said though, I am spent.

So I went to this class and I sweat. And then I sweat some more. And then even some more ... I have never sweat so much in my whole life. Not in Mexico, not in the Bahamas, not in Panama. And the reason I was sweating so much is because my heartrate was so friggin' high that a couple of times I actually had to slow down because I thought my chest was going to explode. But at the end of it I felt good. Exhausted but good.

Now that I've stretched, cooled down and showered I'm feeling a little more human. Thank goodness we have a coatroom here where I can hang up my clothes to dry. I'm supposed to meet a trainer at the gym tonight to set up some kind of fitness program - hope I make it through.

Chances that I have some trouble walking tomorrow are looking high.

Another Bad Start

This morning I discovered that 6:30am is really too early to be at the gym for a muscle toning class that didn't even happen. Especially since it was once again close to 1:00am by the time I fell asleep. But I did my best to go with the flow, picked up my iPod and spent some time on the treadmill and eliptical trainer. Think I'll do a slow walk home tonight and hope that my body has enough time to relax before I attempt to sleep again.

A Better Start

Today got off to a much better start than yesterday. I didn't get locked out last night, I got to bed at a reasonable hour and I managed to get up on time this morning. So on time that I even made the effort to get to the gym for 7am. And the good thing is I didn't have to speak to anyone either. I did my workout, a nice cool down and stretching afterwards. Feels good.

Locked Out

Oh man, way to freak me out late at night.

Yesterday afternoon I went out with my parents to visit my grandparents and to pick up my brother Nick at the airport and then drive him to the training centre in Rigaud. All fine (apart from Nick's bags not showing up but that's his story to tell) ...

Until my parents dropped me off at 10:45pm and I couldn't get in the front door of my building! I'm standing there, in the fantastic drizzle that's been coming down for 12 hours straight, in the dark, trying all the keys on my key ring, trying to convince myself that I'm doing something wrong and that I'm not actually locked out. Meanwhile the panic starts to mount and in less than a minute I have visions of me banging on windows and shouting for someone to let me in. Thankfully it didn't come to that. I decided to walk around the back of the building to see if anyone on the terrasse level was up and would let me in (without calling the cops about an intruder in their yard first). What a relief when my neighbour saw me straight away, let me in and explained that when the locksmith changed our locks last week, they had not changed the front door lock. Phew! But by that point my anxiety level was pretty high and even after going through my usual routine of preparing lunch, getting my clothes ready for work and all that, it was still after 1:00am by the time I was relaxed enough to turn the light off.

6am came far too quickly, I reset my alarm for 7am and then reset it again for 7:30am. And I didn't exercise this morning. Yeesh ... what a start to the week.

All Radiohead All The Time

Yesterday was one of those days that one particular thing just keeps coming up. In particular, my favourite rock band, Radiohead.

It all started with an email from my Mom, asking why my brother Eric and I weren't in Avenches, Switzerland to take in the Rock Oz'Arenes open-air music festival. I had a few reasons: 1) I had an oral appliance to pay off and 2) I was in Switzerland last year.

Later at the Y, at the end of a muscle toning class, the cool down music was Radiohead, Fake Plastic Trees, to be precise. How cool is that?

Finally, I walked home, got myself some dinner and opened up the paper. And what do you know, in the Arts & Entertainment section, there was a blurb about the Radiodread album coming out next week. As soon as I can, I'll be downloading it from iTunes.

Big Trouble

Swiss Miss, you're in big trouble. I just had a delivery from Indigo. A full 10 days before my birthday. How on earth am I supposed to wait that long before opening it?

Isn't that funny

Over the last two weeks I've found it increasingly difficult to exercise. Not due to any type of sports related injury or lack of time but simply due to lack of interest. My dvds have finally become boring. I've noticed that since I haven't been exercising as much, my sleep has started to suffer again and I also feel more lethargic all day long. So this morning I said "Enough!", got up, did a round of exercise with the dvd and what do you know ... I do not feel lethargic. In fact, I feel energised, ready for anything and happy (yes, I think I just said I feel happy). Isn't that funny?!

This week I've spent a lot of time on the internet checking out various gyms and sports centres in and around Montreal in an effort to figure out which one will best suit my needs (not to mention how easy it is for me to access). I visited the YMCA on Monday and they gave me a free pass to try out their stuff. I'm heading over there tonight. If all goes well and I don't completely embarrass myself I think I'll just do it already and join.

The Last Hurrah

Although summer isn't officially over (or so I've been told) it certainly has been feeling that way over the last week. However, spending some time up the camp with Dad this weekend helped me to enjoy a little more of summer's best.

Mom and I got up to camp a little after 3pm on Saturday and managed to get a solid hour or two in at the beach. Granted we were in pants and jackets but it was still nice to sit there, people watch and feel the sun warming us (and the wind cooling us). We also went on a nice hour-long walk up, down and around one of the avenues. That was particularly fun as we got to see a number of beautiful cottages (i.e. mansions). All that fresh air had us in bed early and sleeping like the dead. Mom even had to wake me up at 8:15 on Sunday morning! After a leisurely breakfast we headed out for another long walk, followed by about an hour or so in a peddle boat on the lake. All that exercise and fresh air had us both falling asleep in our beach chairs! A warm lunch and then back to the city. Summer may not officially be over but now that I've had one more beach day it's OK. Well, it's not really OK but you know ...

Enjoy what's left of it because we'll all be bundled up soon enough.

How rude

Have been meaning to mention this all week, but other stuff sort of came up.

Listen to this - Monday morning I was waiting for the bus on my way to work. It was just before 8am, bright sunny morning, I had my purse on my shoulder, my back pack on the ground in front of my feet. I was standing at the bus stop with 2 other women. In the park behind me there was a guy playing fetch with his two dogs. I watched them play, not really paying attention to what was going on around me. I had noticed that someone was walking down the sidewalk toward me but figured this person would walk around me, in front or behind, like any normal person would. I figured wrong. I guess the two other women were closer to the street side of the sidewalk because this person chose to walk behind us. But apparently I was standing too far back on the sidewalk because this person plowed right into me! As I hadn't been watching her, I wasn't prepared for someone to push me over just like that. I teetered over and tripped over my backpack but caught my balance and didn't fall. The other women shouted out "Hey!" or something. I was speechless. I turned around to have a look at this person who was continuing along her merry way as if nothing had happened!

The woman in front of me explained that she had seen this woman coming along and thought she looked bit weird. As she got closer and hadn't made any detour from her path she watched closely to see what would happen, never expecting what did happen to happen. She said the woman obviously wasn't right in the head. Anyway, within another minute the bus had arrived and we all got on. 15 minutes later as I was getting off, the lady that had spoken to me earlier, jokingly told me not to bang into any other people today. I laughed and said I would be more careful of where I stood.

What a start to the week though.

Remember The Rule!

This is for Sina. 'Nuf said.

Running Question

Although it's not really a running question, but rather a question related to keeping your feet blister free while running.

I was recently told by someone in the foot care industry that marathon runners put Vaseline on their feet before putting their socks on. They do this to prevent blisters. We both want to know: is this true and does it work?

Anyone? (Nick in particular.)

I think summer's over

I've had to sleep with a duvet for the last three nights.

Post Weekend Report

Despite a half day of work on Thursday and a day off on Friday, the weekend itself got off to a rough start on Saturday. I had rented a car and went to pick it up from National at 11am. Only to find out after filling out the forms and stuff that the car wasn't even in their lot yet and it could "maybe" be ready in half an hour. As it turns out I got in the car 45 minutes later ... (my relaxed zen attitude had completely gone by this point.)

Next went to pick up AngryGnome in NDG. As we were coming out of her building, for some reason I stopped, looked at the corner and watched as a black car going through an intersection on a straight arrow, hit a red car turning left illegally, followed by a silver car rear-ending the red car. Brakes squealed, metal crunched, airbags exploded and smoke billowed out of the car windows. Luckily there were plenty of witnesses and the people were quickly removed from the cars and sat on the sidewalk - nobody seemed to be hurt. I went to see if there was anything I could do (I don't know what, but still) and it seemed that a couple of people who were closer already had things in hand. I did notice at least one person on the phone, who I hope was calling the police.

We got in our car (a PT Cruiser, which although fun to look at, I wasn't particularly impressed with - too slow on the pick up, no trunk button from inside the car, too dark tinted windows, weird way to get the high beams on) and got on the autoroute to stop by my place for my stuff but almost immediately got stuck in traffic ... got off at the first exit and made the way through Verdun instead.

Bad things (or good things?) come in threes and that seemed to be it for the bad portion of the weekend. Everything after that happened like clockwork, including beautiful weather, no bugs, a relaxing time, good company.

The concert on Saturday night was awesome. The Inn at Shelburne Farms was the perfect location. It was fun to listen to Mozart's Requiem, eat our picnic, people watch (and of course comment and discuss), watch the sunset, watch the stars come out, breathe in the fresh air. It really was a lovely evening. We got back to Lyndy's parents' place by 11pm (even managed a little late night grocery shopping!) and relaxed on the fronch porch for a few hours in the cool evening air.

Sunday morning I took a little walk up and down the road and managed to come up with a little "montage" of the mailboxes along the way. While they are interesting themselves, it would've been a good idea to compare the mailboxes to the houses they belonged to. Had a late breakfast, then an early afternoon nap followed by a late lunch. Watched Lyndy's relatives play bocce ball for a while (they were having their annual party) and then we headed home.

I know I was only away from home one night but it was relaxing enough to feel like I'd been away longer. It was great. Thanks LB for the good company, laughs and your bbq-ing abilities.

Off Again

Gotta love these long summer weekends. I'm taking this afternoon off work and the office is closed again tomorrow! Then on Saturday, AngryGnome and me head out to The Inn at Shelburne Farms in Vermont, to partake of the Vermont Mozart Festival. As AG mentioned in her blog post, it's her first time and it so happens to be a first for me too. Keep your fingers crossed for a nice evening.

I'm also hoping for a quick visit to a grocery store to try a few more fun foods that we just don't get here.

Oh What a Night!

Thoughts have been running through my head non-stop since last night's crazy storm. I wish I could be a great writer and describe the scene to you so that you felt like you were there, but it's not quite going to happen that way. My humble apologies.

Marc came over last night to give me another key for the bike lock he gave me (as it seems I have lost/misplaced the other one). In return for his favour, I made him dinner - Shroom With Ado. Portobello mushrooms, green and red peppers, red onions all wrapped up in warmed whole wheat tortillas. It was pretty tasty!

Anyway, we chatted after dinner and just as he left I went to open my windows again and discovered that the wind had really picked up. About a second after that Marc called me to tell me that he was in front of my building and he was watching a lightning storm. I ran outside, saw the lightning with him and decided we'd get a better view from the roof of my building. Up the stairs, onto the terrasse and there we had it. A clear view of downtown, the mountain and to the west (east view is blocked by a big old tree). So we watched the lightning for a while. But it wasn't just watching and waiting for the lightning to hit somewhere. The sky would just light up, every 2-4 seconds! On and on and on! It kept coming and coming! The sky would turn a white/grey kind of colour, then blue, purple, green ... the clouds were moving in fast and we were getting a sprinkling of rain. After a good 10-15 minutes of that we noticed that the mountain had disappeared behind the clouds. Rain was a comin' - fast and furious. Within a minute downtown had disappeared almost completely. I have quite a good view of the skycrapers downtown and all we could see in the end was the top of the IBM building. No more PVM, no more Chateau Champlain, no more 1000 de la Gauchetiere. And that's about when the rain started to pour down on us. We stayed for another 5 minutes or so but then decided to go in.

Marc dried off a little and then left to drive home. I dried off, changed clothes and sat in my window for another 30 minutes. I watched the lightning, the wind whip the trees, the rain come down sideways at times and listened to the thunder rumble continuously. It was awesome.

Lucky for me I didn't lose power at any point. I heard on the radio this morning that quite a lot of people in Montreal did (78,000 according to The Gazette).

Swiss National Holiday

A little late on this one. Yesterday was the Swiss National Holiday. I should've said Happy Birthday Switzerland (715th or something), but somehow I forgot.

Hope my friends and relatives all enjoyed themselves and ate lots of cheese and chocolate.

Pictures are up now

As promised, here are the remaining pictures from Darcy's visit last week.

I enjoyed another weekend visiting my Dad at camp with Mom. Strangely, it wasn't nearly as fun without Darcy ...

Gone, gone, gone

Princess has been returned to her rightful owners, Darcy is on her way back home with Nick & Sue, life returns to normal. To tell the truth, looking a little boring right now.

Tuesday night my work colleague came by to pick up her dog and I really found myself looking for something to do once the dog was gone. It was a great experience for me to have a dog for a little while. It's helped make clear a few things in my mind about owning a dog. First of all, while I don't work a lot of overtime during the summer months, during the winter and spring I do. I am often out of the house for 12-14 hours a day. If I were to own a dog, this would mean having to think about hiring a dog walker. And while I don't work a lot of overtime during the summer, my social life does pick up a little (and I'll thank you to keep your smart aleck remarks to yourself) and this again would require a dog walker. This can be quite expensive and on my budget may prove prohibitive. Secondly, the type of dog I am interested in adopting may howl at being alone for so long during the day. Living as I do in an apartment block, where soundproofing does not exist, I think it would be unfair to my neighbours to add such a soundtrack to their lives. Thirdly, I still need to sort out my allergy issues. I'm trying to make an appointment but it could be a few months until I actually get to the doctor's office.

Last night, Thursday, I said my good-byes to Nick, Sue & Darcy. They head back home today, with an overnight stop at Sue's parents in Cambridge, Ontario. Spending Sunday afternoon, and most of Wednesday and Thursday with them was a sheer delight for me. I've been exposed to many aspects of Darcy's little (and growing) personality - and really, I think she's probably just like any other 2-year old. Bright, inquisitive, chatty, stubborn and funny! I'm already looking forward to our next visit together over Labour Day weekend.

Until then I need to find something to occupy myself outside of work. There are a few books that have been collecting dust, some movies that I've said I'll watch, plenty of ironing to do and a few new recipes to try. Any suggestions?

Oh yeah, I do have more pictures to put up on flickr, but my camera battery is too low to download them and I forgot my back up battery at home. You'll have to wait until Monday. Sorry!

Darcy's here!

Nick, Sue & Darcy arrived on Saturday for a week of vacation. I've managed to take a few pictures already, which you can take a look at here.

It didn't take long for Darcy to get comfortable with us again. At dinner on Saturday night, she was sitting on her Grandmaman's lap, eating dessert, when she did a little fart. Nick asked her if she had done "a big toot". Without any hesitation, she told us that no, in fact "Daddy do big toots". And that's when we all laughed, and laughed and laughed.

Yesterday we spent the day at camp, mostly in the lake, splashing around and having a great time. Darcy's not afraid of the water and was thrilled to have her Papa around the swish her through the water and take her for a ride in the kayak. None of us seem to compare to her Papa. It was "where da Papa" this and "where da Papa" that.

The week's off to a good start. Hope to have a few more pictures up by the end of the week.

Dog Update

Friday is here already. That means it's been a week with the dog. Princess is doing well, I think. It's been a bit hard to get her to eat, but a few friends have told me that the heat we've been experiencing may lessen her appetite.

Otherwise she's doing much better on the leash, I can actually get her to sit on command (even though it's not for long) and she is finally understanding that for me to let her out of the cage she has to be calm and not jumping around like crazy. This is progress!

Problems:
1) She seems to be scared of people and other animals when we're outside. She really shies (shys?) away from them.

2) She has found my sock bin and last night decided to choose a pair and start chewing on them as she would one of her toys. That did not go over so well with me. The socks have now been placed out of reach. I'm a quick learner too ;)

We had a big thunderstorm last night and she jumped a couple of times when the thunder boomed. But I can't blame her - I did too! I could've sworn lightning must have hit somewhere very close.

Had to take her out for a walk in the rain this morning. She looked like a big wet rat by the time we got home. She didn't like me drying her off and managed to get her dirty paws all over my nice clean beige pants. Lesson here - do not wear light coloured pants if you're going to dry off a hyper-active dog just before going to work.

Another 5 days and I'll be giving her back. On the whole it's been a good experience so far. Will let you know how it ends.

Dog Update (and there will be more)

Just so you know, if I ever do get a dog, you can pretty much guarantee that I would post a lot about my dog, what it does, doesn't, and all that jazz. So until that day does come, I will enthrall you with updates from my dog sitting adventure.

Yesterday Princess at last ate all her dinner! I was so pleased. Pleased until she didn't eat all her breakfast this morning. But apparently she could be a little confused and stressed out being in a different environment and away from her family and also due to the serious heat we're having, she may not each as much. Makes me feel better. I put the timer on the a/c to come for longer today to help keep her comfortable during the day.

Dog Sitting

Friday night one of my colleagues from work dropped off her dog at my place. They're on their way to Florida for vacation and I offered to dog sit. Yes, it's true - I offered to dog sit.

"Princess" (and you can stop your snickering at the thought of me calling after a dog with such a name) is a little (aren't they all?) shitzu, weighing in at about 10 lbs and is about a year old. Mostly she's pretty quiet but tends to cry and starts to bark when she can't see me. I've discovered that shushing (is that really a word?) her is working pretty well. I'm enjoying taking her for walks in the park and around my neighbourhood. She doesn't seem to be trained to walk nicely on the leash and I don't know if I should try to train her up a little or not. I'm also a little worried about her food and water intake. She does eat but only a very little bit and the same with drinking. She is doing her business outside when we go for walks, so I guess everything is normal. She is quite an affectionate dog; likes to be petted, sit by my feet when I'm in my chair or beside me on the couch. She does tend to hover around my feet though and I am a little nervous about stepping on her. I have tripped over her a couple of times already and must be more vigilant about looking out for her.

Most surprising to me is that I haven't had any allergic reaction. The night I was expecting her I had taken an allergy pill in advance but then forgot about it on Saturday and only realised on Sunday that I hadn't had any reaction. Haven't bothered taking any more pills and I seem to be OK so far. I'm wondering if my body has changed and maybe I'm not allergic, or to a much lesser degree, to dogs anymore. I'll see how the next 10 days go and then maybe make an appointment with my allergy doctor to get retested.

Thanks Momma

Went out shopping with my Mom last night. We met at The Bay, did a few floors there, then headed over to Mexx (where we ended up leaving without buying anything because they were playing us for fools and talking to us in a condescending manner) and finally to Simons (where it seems we could've bought out the store ...).

To celebrate our successful shopping adventure we had dinner at our favourite Indian restaurant, Le Taj. Mom had chicken curry, I had bhunna shrimp. And of course we had their "Most Amazing Naan Bread EVER".

Thanks for a fun evening Mom!

Tweedle Dee Dictionary, Part 16

It's been a long time since my last Tweedle Dee entry. Today I heard these and they were just too good to pass up:

Gateway = Gatwick (airport in London, UK)
Maples = Naples, Italy

Summer in the City

All I can think about on a day like today (a hot & sunny summer afternoon) is kicking back somewhere, on a hammock, reading a good book, listening to the ocean, drinking a pina colada. The ocean there for you when you're ready to cool off. The rustle of the palm trees lulling you to sleep. Feeling at peace, relaxed, calm.

Instead, I am in an overly air conditioned office, in the middle of downtown Montreal, drinking a glass of water, reading through expense charges. Feeling stressed, uptight, anxious.

The two don't really compare.

Biking on the F1 Track

I've said it before and I'll say it again - I live in a cool city.

Yesterday Marc and I went for a kick-ass bike ride. From my place, we cut across Nuns' Island, went over the Ice Bridge and along the causeway to Parc Jean Drapeau. The cool part about biking there (you can also drive your car over) is that you can bike, walk, rollerblade or drive around Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. The Grand Prix went down about a month ago now and they are in the process of putting up / taking down the grand-stands. It was really "impressionante" to know that I, yes, little old me, could and was actually riding her bike around the same track as those famous F1 drivers.

It was a beautiful day; sunny, breezy, dry. We did two laps on the track, continued our bike ride over the Casino bridge, then headed back home along the Canal bike path. I figure we must have biked about 30k altogether. Not bad for a Sunday morning.

Happy Birthday Mom!

You know the tune, everybody sing together "Happy Birthday to you ..."

Have a great year, Mom!

Long Overdue Update

Sorry for the lack of updates over the last couple of weeks. My work/life balance got a little out of whack there for a bit. But now I have taken control of things again and will do my best to provide more regular updates over the summer.

To recap: Girls Getaway Weekend was fab. Bought some delicious cheese, flirted with the border guard, checked out some great greyhounds, had a pretty drive, ate lunch in a cafe with a great view, took a ferry ride, had some fun grocery shopping, ate lots of great fish and ice cream, drank lots of fun cocktails (except for the part that got spilled on the floor) and even managed a few pictures! The weather cooperated and the timing was perfect everywhere. Could not have asked for a better weekend. Well, sure it could've been longer but that's being greedy. We're planning another one for the end of the month. Let's hope that turns out just as well.

Since then I've also done a few nice bike rides. One in particular with my mom was funny because she borrowed my Dad's biking gloves and didn't notice they were on upside down until our first break. Yesterday though I had a not so nice bike ride home from the dentist. Managed to get caught in a bad storm. But it did make me bike faster to get home. So I got home in record time but I was covered from head to toe in mud, mud and more mud. I didn't know I could get so dirty bike riding. Really - I looked like some kind of extreme bike rider after a mountain trail race or something. I also found out that your feet can get wet enough while biking to do the squishy thing in your shoes. Now I know.

What else? Oh, I'm sure I've forgotten piles of stuff but there you go. That's my fault for not keeping up to date.

You know you live in a cool city when ...

You're killing some time, waiting for your boss, and discover, much to your delight, that on Bon Appetit's blog, a contributing editor mentions: 1) your hometown, 2) your favourite band, and 3) one of your favourite foods all in one blog post!

Does Montreal rock or what?!

Monday update

Had a busy week last week, an enjoyable weekend thanks mostly to good weather. The heat and humidity has arrived here in Montreal. It's nice to finally feel warm.

Happy Birthday Marc!

Happy Birthday to my youngest brother, Marc, who turns 29 today!

Wedding Pictures

Anna's wedding pictures are up here.

Apparent passions of my upstairs neighbours

I swear, I have the same neighbours.

Thanks to McSweeney's.

A Wedding

Dear Anna & James,

You're getting married on Saturday so I thought I'd put together a fun little tribute to the years of friendship I have had with Anna. James, you've certainly heard all about these times, but here are a few pictures to fill in any blanks.

Click here to see just how long I've known Anna.

Congratulations to both of you. I wish you a long and happy life together.

Happy Birthday Darcy & Dylan

Two birthdays to celebrate today!

My darling niece, Darcy, turns two today! At the risk of sounding like some dried up old spinster (no comments on that, thank you), it really does seem like just yesterday that we got the call from Nick. Happy 2nd Birthday, Darcy!

And then there's Dylan's birthday to celebrate as well. Yvette's gonna kill me on this one, but I can't remember if he's turning 7 or 8 today. All the best, DJ Daz!

I made it!

After a lame non-start to my whole biking into work thing last week, and despite a kind of crazy morning today - I made it into work on my bike! Up the hill and all! I didn't even have to get off my bike and walk part of the way up with it. It was pretty close at the end though and really, if I'd had to go even another half block uphill, I wouldn't have made it.

But I did make it and I'm pretty proud of myself. Getting home will be a breeze - downhill all the way!

Shoe Shopping

For the last couple of weeks I've been on the lookout for a fabulous pair of strappy sandals for my friend Anna's wedding. Working as I do, right downtown, I have plenty of shoe stores within easy walking distance. To date I have hit quite a large number of these stores. Today I continued my search.

Went down to FX Lasalle in PVM at lunch to see if they had anything I liked (I had seen some possibilities at another location). They had 2 possibilities, but the ones they had in my size ended up looking too casual when I tried them on. The ones that would've been perfect, wouldn't you know, they didn't have in my size. But those ones were by Browns, so I headed over to Browns and they had my size, but apparently they're making shoes even smaller now, and even the size 10 didn't fit me! So, the sales guy ordered a size 11 (the humiliation!) for me which will be delivered this afternoon, and I can go down after work to try them on. They will probably be great shoes, my only concern is the height of the heel (I was actually looking for a heel between 2-3"). These are as high as the slingbacks I have at home (about 3-3 1/2"). The price is reasonable ($88) - which I think is still highway robbery because it is just a strappy sandal after all (never mind that they have nice little black shiny things on them that will look great with my new dress). If I could get the shoes at FX Lasalle, they are paying the taxes so that would save a little money too. If the 11 fits, I'll see if Browns will match the price, if not I'll head over to another FX store.

What a lot of brouhaha over a bloody pair of shoes. I've just about decided to wear what I have and deal with towering above everybody at Anna's wedding.

Biking to Work - Update

It was raining this morning and the weather report predicted rain all day so I didn't bike in. Naturally, since then it has stopped raining and the streets have dried up.

Biking to Work

Tomorrow is June 1st and I will start biking to work. It should be a short ride, about 15 minutes. The only part I'm worried about is going up the hill on Peel. I have a feeling I'll be walking up part of the way for the first couple (what I really mean is 12 or so) times.

Will let you know how I do tomorrow.

Something I won't be making again

Made yet another recipe from Eat, Shrink & Be Merry last night. This one though isn't a keeper. Called "Livin' on the Vedge", it featured lemon couscous (fine), mixed with roasted vegetables (fine) - but when you mixed the two together it wasn't so fine anymore. Hm. And of course, it made loads and loads so you know what I'll be eating all week.

Oh well, sometimes this happens.

Sore Sit Bones

This weekend we had the ultimate good weather. Warm, little breeze, low humidity. Perfect for all kinds of outdoor activity. Well, OK, not exactly swimming weather for me, but still. I managed to get outside without a jacket.

Yesterday Mom and I went on a bike ride and from what I was able to figure out from the map, we biked about 30k. It was beautiful biking along the Lachine Canal, La Grande Jetée and then back home along the river. We even got to stop for a well deserved tasty sorbet treat! We were both tired and a little sore in the legs and bum by the time we got home. The worst for me was after dinner, having to get back on my bike to make the short 10-minute ride home - I really discovered how sore my sit bones were. I was tempted to ride home standing up but the lack of strength in my legs had me sitting down pretty fast.

This morning is no different. After doing my exercise dvd at home, I was stretching and found out just how sore I still am as I leaned forward on one set of stretches. The sit bones they are making themselves know. Ouch. Think I'll just walk home tonight.

Latest Cooking Exploits

More apologies ... last week was a little hectic for me so I didn't have a chance to let you know what I had cooked. Call this 2 posts in 1.

This weekend was a long weekend for us, so I finally found an extra hour and made some chocolate chip cookies. Most of which I've been able to parcel off to various friends and family (and my ass thanks you!).

I also managed to make a great vegetable pot pie, with a sweet potato crust. I made one big dish for this week, and even a little one serving dish for my dinner on Sunday night. It was perfect. With all the horrible rain we've had it was the best meal! What else? Oh yeah, I marinated some portabello mushrooms and grilled them then topped them off with some feta cheese. Pretty yummy, and great in a toasted sandwich the next day.

Then last weekend I tried out another couple of recipes from the Eat, Shrink & Be Merry cookbook. I made some tortilla wraps that were OK. They tasted somewhere between Mexican and Thai food. I love both, but not necessarily mixed together, you know what I mean? I also roasted some vegetables with homemade bread crumbs and a little parmesan. Red pepper, mushrooms, red onion, tomatoes, zucchini. That was fab! And it made enough for me to have 3 meals out of it.

On the Sunday (for Mother's Day) I made a delicious chocolate cake, called La Vida Mocha. This was awesome. Served it for dessert at my parents house to celebrate Mother's Day. It was a big hit.

That's it for now. I'll have a look through the cookbooks this week and see what I can find to tempt me for next weekend.

The Results

Sorry for the delay in announcing this.

And the winner is ...

Not Mom, but it didn't matter. It really was cool to see her up there among so many other women who all have made a tremendous impact in their community through their dedication and hard work.

I had planned to go on a little about the evening, but it was a week ago already and I've kinda forgotten what I was gonna say. Suffice it to say - it was a great night. Really empowering for women.

Elizabeth

In February 2006 I spent two weeks in Panama on a humanitarian trip to help out at a girl's home. One of the girls, Elizabeth, who lives there has been battling cancer for a few years now. While we were there, she was living in a cancer hospice and seemed to be doing quite well. This week I found out that she is not doing well. Her last bone marrow transplant failed and she is apparently in the last stages of the disease. She is probably 18-19 years old.

Please think of her, send positive energy, pray ... do what you need to do. This girl has nothing else, no family, just her life.

Tonight's the Night

Tonight is the 13th Annual Women of Distinction 2006 gala. My Mom is up nominated for her work in the community. I'll be there too and am excited to see how it all goes.

Good luck, Mom!

No More Procrastinating

A week or two ago I said I would give my oral appliance one more attempt. I said I'd start using it again on May 8. Well, by May 11 I still hadn't started with it again so I said "Enough!!!" (yes, with 3 exclamation points). Wrote myself a post-it note and managed to force myself into wearing it Friday and Saturday night. Can't say I slept well with it, but at least it didn't hurt my jaw. Took Sunday night off. I plan on doing another 2 nights with it tonight and tomorrow.

I'd been asking myself why I wasn't using it every morning last week, as I saw that blue box in my bathroom cabinet. My excuses ran the gamut from "oh, I forgot (again)", to "well, I'm still working on that big project at work" (why that should have anything to do with using an oral appliance is beyond me, but this is really what I've told myself), to "it's going to hurt my jaw again", to "after ..." whatever excuse I can think up.

Here's what I know though - whatever the excuse, they are all just excuses. Either I want to give it another try or not. Either I want to improve my sleep or not. What do I really want out of this and how much do I want it? Obviously this is applicable to anybody, not just myself, in just about any area of life. Losing weight, finishing school, training for a triathlon ...

I have made a lot of changes to my lifestyle in an effort to sleep better. Some of these changes have worked better than others. And that's fine - I have to find out what works for and realise (and accept, hoooooo that's a big one!) that not everything will work. But more than anything right now, the one thing I have to do is try once more to sleep with this oral appliance. Starting with one night on and one off. Then 2 nights on, one night off. Working my way up to 5 nights. I think it may also be helpful to not think too much about my past experience with the appliance. Yes, I know it will be uncomfortable. Yes, it has even been painful. But I have to find a way to get around this type of negative thinking because I think in some ways, it may affect the results I'm having with it.

Enough procrastinating. I know that this is what I've been doing. I managed two nights without any problems, I can handle another two.

New Emily Giffin Book in June

The author of one of my favourite books has a new book coming out in June!

I read the excerpt of Baby Proof on Emily Giffin's web site. I'm intrigued now and can't wait for the release.

Happy Anniversary to Me!

Exactly one year ago today I started blogging.

New recipes

This weekend I tried out a couple of new recipes. One dish (the zucchini one) my mom has made a couple of times and I liked it so much I got myself a copy - yesterday was the first time I made it myself. The second is from the Eat, Shrink & Be Merry cookbook (3rd in a series from the Canadian Podleski sisters). Click here to try a couple of the recipes from the book.

Both have great taste, are pretty easy to make and both I'll be sure to make again. See the recipes below:

Tourte aux courgettes et au feta (Zucchini and Feta Tart)
Serves 6 to 8 people

750g (1 1/2 lb) zucchini, washed and coarsely grated (about 4)
250g (8 oz) feta
4 eggs, beaten
30ml (2 Tbsp) nuts of your choice, roasted and coarsely chopped
30ml (2 Tbsp) dill, finely chopped
30ml (2 Tbsp) fresh parsley, finely chopped
75ml (5 Tbsp) grated Parmesan
Salt and pepper to taste

In a frying pan, cook the zucchini for a few minutes until they "sweat". Put to the side.
Pre-heat the oven to 190C (375F).
Butter a 20cm (8 inch) pie dish.
Soak the feta in a bowl of hot water for about 10 minutes. Drain the cheese. Using a fork, crush the feta until you get a smooth paste consistency. Add the zucchini as well as all the other ingredients (reserve 1 Tbsp of Parmesan) and mix it well.
Pour the mixture into the pie dish, sprinkle the remaining Parmesan on top and put it in the oven for 45 minutes.
Check that the pie is done by inserting a knife, when it comes out clean, it's done.
Serve immediately.

Notes from Stef: I just mashed the feta until it was a small crumbly mess. I used sliced almonds, toasted them (didn't chop them) and also put some on top of the dish (with the Parmesan). There was no fresh dill at the store, so I used fresh basil instead.

All set for the next one?

Tongue Thai'd
(Pad Thai stir fried rice noodles with shrimp and tofu)

3 Tbsp each freshly squeezed lime juice and Asian fish sauce
2 Tbsp each ketchup and brown sugar
1 Tbsp each grated gingerroot and reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes or hot pepper sauce
8 oz (227g) rice stick noodles, ideally 1/8 inch wide
2 tsp peanut or vegetable oil
1/2 cup very thinly sliced red onions or shallots
2 tsp minced garlic
1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and diced or thinly sliced
8 oz (227g) uncooked medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 cup diced extra-firm tofu
2 cups bean sprouts
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup chopped dry-roasted peanuts

First, gather all the ingredients you'll need for this recipe and get them ready (i.e., chop the red pepper, peel the shrimp, etc.). Once you're ready to go, the meal comes together very quickly. You don't want to be hunting for the bean sprouts while the shrimp burns!

To prepare the sauce, whisk together the lime juice, fish sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, gingerroot, soy sauce, sesame oil, and crushed red pepper flakes in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Place rice noodles in a large bowl and pour boiling water over top. Let soak 7 minutes. Drain.

While noodles are soaking, heat peanut oil in a large, non-stick wok. Add onions and garlic. Cook and stir over medium-high heat until onions are tender, about 2 minutes. Add red pepper and cook 2 more minutes, stirring often. Add shrimp and tofu. Cook and stir until shrimp turn pink, about 3 minutes. Add reserved sauce, noodles, bean sprouts, green onions, and cilantro. Toss and cook until mixture is hot, about 1 minute. Add peanuts and toss again. Serve immediately.

Per serving: Calories 308, total fat 7.3g, saturated fat 1g, protein 15g, carbohydrates 47g, fiber 2.8g, cholesterol 57mg, sodium 990mg.

Notes from Stef: I used teriyaki flavoured tofu, and added some broccoli because I didn't have any shrimp.

Concert announcement

Here's what I had planned to post last Friday.

Radiohead is playing in Montreal on June 10 and 11. Am I going?

YOU BET YOUR ASS I AM!!!

(Well, only to the show on June 11 because Anna had to go and get married on the 10th and I've already said I'd go to that.)

However, due to circumstances beyond my control, that is not what I'm going to be able to announce. Here's what actually happened:

12:00pm - start hitting the refresh button on the admission site, start dialing their phone number as well.

12:01 - Keep getting the same message on the web site telling me that they have reached their maximum number of online users, please try again in a few minutes. Keep getting "access denied" message on the phone.

12:02 - 12:08 - Same

12:09 - Actually get a busy signal on the admission telephone line. One more try and I manage to get through to an agent. Relief was short lived as she was only able to sell me one ticket to the Saturday night show. Nothing else was available. I bought the ticket and hung up. (I bought the ticket knowing I wouldn't be able to go that night, but figured I'd be able to sell it to one of my brothers.)

12:10 - 12:40 - Kept trying to get through online, while managing to produce work (talk about multi-tasking).

12:41 - Gave up. Knew the tickets were gone by then.

Am disappointed in this turn of events. I feel for the fans who patiently stood in line for several hours at an admission kiosk waiting to buy tickets, only to have the first person in that line find out that there were no tickets left at 12:01. I feel for the fans who tried desperately to get through by phone or online who were rewarded for their persistence with nothing. Honestly - as much as I do love technology, I really think that in this instance it would've been better to go back to the old way - everybody standing in line overnight, signing their name on a sheet and being sure to get tickets to a concert.

I really don't understand how all those tickets got sold so fast. This really sucks.

Pasta with Tomatoes and Ricotta

Monday night I made this.

My comments: The recipe called for diced tomatoes and then told you to puree them - why not just buy pureed tomatoes? But I didn't read that before hand. In the end I decided to just puree them a little bit because I like chunks of tomatoes. Couldn't find orecchiette at my local grocery store, so used some nice big (whole wheat) rotini instead. And because I'm watching the calories these days, I used a low fat ricotta. It was a very easy, simple and quick recipe, but a touch on the bland side. Maybe I didn't use enough salt & pepper (or maybe it was because of the low fat ricotta, or maybe it was because of the pasta, as mentioned in the comments about this recipe). Think I'll keep the recipe and try it again sometime with different pasta and a better cheese.

Giselle

Kinda late on this post.

Spent Saturday afternoon at "il balletto" with my Mom. She managed to get some free tickets (I'm still not quite sure how) a week after I'd asked her what she knew about this particular ballet and the story of Giselle.

The performance was incredible. Forgive me, but I must repeat myself. It was incredible. The music was beautiful, the dancing awe inspiring. Just thinking of the practice required to have 20 people dancing the same exact movements, the strength and stamina necessary for this was incredible (sorry, I gotta start using the thesaurus). The dancing was truly sublime.

This version was done by the Houston Ballet company. The only other live ballet I have ever seen was The Nutcracker (and this only last December).

All in all a thrilling afternoon. Am so glad I got to experience this.

Mmm ... yummy!

The problem with eating a free chocolate bar in the middle of the afternoon is that once it's gone, I want another.

Secure

Managed to get a couple of things off my "To Do" list this weekend. Other than do a tonne of laundry (I'm embarassed to say how long it's been since I did laundry) and clean my condo (more embarassment), I did actually buy a security system for my window and with the help of my Dad, manage to install it. It doesn't look too horrible and it does seem very secure. Hopefully this will help with some sleep related anxiety.

While I was busy with my laundry, cleaning and running out to two hardware stores, it was quite late in the day on Sunday when I finally got around to my groceries. So although I didn't get to make the nice new dish I had planned on, I was able to improvise a little and make one of my favourite old stand-bys.

I originally saw Martha make these Stuffed Peppers and later found the recipe in Everyday Food. I modify it to suit my taste and eating habits. First of all I omit the olive oil and just use some non-fat cooking spray. Next I replace the chicken (meat, whatever) with more veggies, or sometimes add tuna. The recipe calls for diced tomatoes but I usually add a little of whatever other veggies I have around too (chopped mushrooms or zucchini, grated carrot). Finally, I usually just use whatever cheese I have in the house, but particularly like parmesan. The original recipe was quite high in fat (16.5 grams!) but I think my version is less than that (no oil, no meat, or if I use tuna that has less fat). These stuffed peppers are surprisingly filling - a half pepper is sufficient for me if I'm having a large salad on the side.

Sorry, didn't have time to make the chocolate chip cookies I'd promised last week, but now I that owe my Dad some cookies (for helping install the security system), I'll be forced to make them really soon.

Done!

Phew - just finished doing my tax returns. What a relief to know I'm getting a fairly sweet refund from both governments. All I have to do is bring in my property taxes, update the forms, print everything off and send them in. That I can do in less than 15 minutes on Monday. It's good to have this lingering anxiety lifted.

Other things to remember

Here's a list of a couple of other things I need to remember in the evenings as I get ready to sleep.

- Keep to sleep time and wake time (especially Monday to Friday). Allow myself some extra time on weekends.

- No scary tv programmes or movies. (Managed to scare myself silly twice this week because of this ...)

- Keep alcohol to a minimum. Not like I drink much anyway, but I find that when I have had a few drinks I sleep even less than usual and very poorly. Will try for 2 drinks a night, if I do go out.

- Buy and install some kind of security for the window I like to keep open at home. In the past, during warmer weather, I've kept the window open over night. This has probably not helped my anxiety, whether I choose to recognize it or not.

Starting Over

In an effort to get back on track with my sleeping, I have managed to make a few changes to my habits.

Step 1: Two nights ago I moved my alarm clock across the room and turned the volume up on the radio so that when the alarm goes off at 6am, I am forced to get out of bed to turn it off. Once I'm up, I'm up - so that's good.

Step 2: No more reading in bed. I know I've gone through this before, but I got a little off track recently. First it was just 10 minutes of reading in bed, then 20 and before I knew it I was up to an hour of reading in bed again ... I restarted this two nights ago.

Step 3: Exercise. Over the last couple of weeks I've slacked off a bit and have noticed the difference in my sleep pattern. For the last 2 days I've forced myself to exercise when I get up. I am also planning to up the post-work exercise, but for this week and next week that'll take a back seat while I finish up a big project at work. I'm putting it in writing now - come May 8th I will add either a walk home from work and/or exercise when I get home.

Step 4: My last and final attempt to sleep with the oral appliance. I'm taking a break from it right now because I've had a lot of jaw pain and problems closing my jaw. Maybe I should set myself a goal to try again by May 8th.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Any day now

Any day now you'll be reading about me in The Gazette. Any day now I'll be arrested for disturbing my neighbour. Any day now while I'm getting arrested maybe I'll ask the cops to arrest my neighbour for disturbing me. I mean, he started it!

For over 2 years now I have been listening to my neighbour scrape his chair across his kitchen tile floor 5 days a week, somewhere betwen 5:30-6:30am, making noise like a bull elephant that shakes my floor, my wall and wakes me up every time. For the first 2 years I simply let it go. Ignored it and tried (in vain) to go back to sleep. In the last 6 months I've been a little more aggressive. I've taken to banging on the wall with my fist. That seemed to work from time to time, but I was starting to have some pain in my hand from all the banging. So now I've moved up to the baseball bat. That worked well at first. He'd scrape his chair, I'd get up and bang the baseball bat on the wall. Instant silence. Next day we'd start all over again. And the next. And the next... Recently though, my neighbour has started to get a little pissed off with all my banging (doesn't he wonder why I'm banging?!?!) so he scrapes his chair continually while I'm banging the bat on the wall. Lucky for me I'm angrier than he is, because I can keep up with the banging longer than he can scrape his chair across the floor.

Round 1 to me.

Foodie, Food Snob, Foodanista - Which One Are You?

Recently read an article in Ottawa Magazine that I picked up a while back. The article, The Road to Foodieville, by Chris Knight, brought up some important questions for me. How would I classify myself in the food world - as a Foodie, a Food Snob or a Foodanista?

Before reading the article, I would have considered myself a bit of a Foodie and also a bit of a Food Snob. But now I know better.

Let's discuss the differences (I'm cribbing from Chris Knight's article). A Food Snob would never deign to partake of 30-cent wing night, whereas a Foodie knows where the best chip trucks are. A Food Snob will pay a small fortune for a side of double-smoked yak scrotum so as to impress dinner guests; a Foodie will put immeasurable passion and enthusiasm into cooking an honest meal to please friends. A Foodanista is someone who considers where one dines to be a measure of social status. Foodanistas go to a place because other Foodanistas hang out there trying to be cool, drinking overprices faux martinis while looking at faux wall treatments.

Simply put, a Foodie is someone who considers cooking fun, who sees food as one of life's great recurring pleasures, as an opportunity to pleasure oneself in public without getting arrested.

I'm a Foodie. Which one are you?

Back to the Kitchen

Over the last couple of months I haven't done very much cooking. I've done the usual dishes that feed me for a week, but haven't done too many new things. It occurs to me that eating the same old things is pretty boring and I like food way to much to let it be boring.

So, with May around the corner I am committing to searching out and making one new dish a week for the next month. To motivate me I may have to make some chocolate chip cookies first.

Recipes will be posted.

Rainy Sunday Afternoon

It's raining. It's Sunday. It's just gone 1pm. I'm catching the next bus home and then I'm having a nap.

I'm such a wimp

After a 3 day work week last week, having to work 4 days this week has me beat. What am I going to do when I have to work 5 days next week???

Easter Weekend Highlights

What a weekend! I'm glad I took the time off and I enjoyed every minute (yes, even the many, many minutes with small children around).

Here are some highlights of the weekend: Seeing Cathy, Mike & Serena, hearing Serena say "Geez!" (my humble apologies to Mike - it seems I didn't get any pictures of you), seeing Nick, Sue & Darcy, listening to Darcy chatter away (even though I had no idea what she was saying), watching Darcy sit and read with Grandmaman & Papa, watching Darcy eat, walk, try on shoes, drink from a water bottle (not a child's bottle) and spill the water all down her front, make a scrunchy nose face, play the cornet, make a crazy funny face, hear her laugh on the swings, listen and love it every time she said "Mmm, yummy!" (which she said practically after every bite of food), laugh when she farted on Grandmaman's lap (twice), laugh when she burped, dance around the living room with her in my arms while Papa played Christmas carols on the piano. What else? I could go on and on. It was a great weekend.

Check out the pictures here.

Sushi & CAA

Had dinner last night with Sina & Cecilia. It was kind of a belated birthday dinner for Cecilia. Sina played hostess to the girls and fed us until we were full to bursting with homemade sushi, cantonese rice and a coconut/red bean paste cake. Mmmm ... it was sooooo good! Thanks again, Sina!

It was a very fun evening. We laughed a lot. And not because alcohol was taken. We didn't have a drop! It all started as Cecilia and I arrived at Sina's. Neither of us could remember which was her house. Cecilia decided we should ring at one house. I wasn't sure it was the right house, but rang the bell anyway. While waiting for someone to answer I peeked in the window and discovered that we were indeed at the wrong house. Luckily no one was home. So we tried the next house. This time we were right as Sina opened the door to us.

Several hours later, in the middle of a conversation about I don't even remember what, Cecilia sits up and starts patting herself down and asking where her keys are. Not in her pockets. Not on the counter. Not on the table. Not on the stairs. Is the car locked? Yes, I do remember hearing the doors lock as she moved away from the car. Thankfully, before complete panic set in, Sina mentioned that she had a CAA membership. She called, explained that the keys were locked in the car, no the car wasn't running. And presto, voilà! in less than an hour there was a CAA truck in front of the house. The ever so charming, cute and young CAA guy, Nicholas, had the car unlocked in less than 5 minutes and gave the three of us plenty to giggle over after he'd gone.

Thanks to Cecilia for two such great laughs in one evening. We won't forget those stories for quite some time!

Extended Long Weekend

Another 24 hours (ok, actually a little less than 24 hours) and I'll be hitting the road for an extended long weekend. I'm taking the day off on Thursday and Monday so that I can join my parents on the trek to Windsor to visit Nick, Sue & Darcy.

Thursday night I'll be staying with Cathy & Mike in Richmond Hill. Cathy and I worked together at Club Med in Huatulco, Mexico. Think that was in 96/97. Since then we've managed to stay in contact and visit each other in Toronto/Montreal occasionally. I even attended her wedding in Jamaica in 2001. That wedding still tops all the weddings I've ever been to (my apologies to friends and family). Anyway, Cathy and Mike had a baby girl, Serena, just over a year ago and this will be my first visit with them since. I'm excited to see Cathy as a Mom now. We've got some catching up to do!

Then on Friday we'll head out and make the rest of the trip to Windsor. I can't wait to see Darcy (or Darby as she is known to some of my friends, due to my excitement when she was born, I misspelled her name in an email ...). After reading Nick & Sue's blogs for updates on my niece it should be fun to see her in action!

Of course, "fun" is what I say now. By the time we head back on Monday I'm pretty sure my tolerance and patience for 'small child fun' will be spent and I'll be happy to return to my quiet little condo.

Updates next week and probably lots of pictures on flickr too.

What did you do this weekend?

I did nothing.

Rules For The Behaviour Of All Those Entering These Doors

My thanks to Catherine the Great for drawing up the following code of behaviour. I will be making up my own rules soon.

RULES FOR THE BEHAVIOUR OF ALL THOSE ENTERING THESE DOORS

1. All ranks shall be left outside the doors, similarly hats, and particularly swords.

2. Orders of precedence and haughtiness, and anything of such like which might result from them, shall be left at the doors.

3. Be merry, but neither spoil nor break anything, nor indeed gnaw at anything.

4. Be seated, stand or walk as it best pleases you, regardless of others.

5. Speak with moderation and not too loudly, so that others present have not an earache or headache.

6. Argue without anger or passion.

7. Do not sigh or yawn, neither bore nor fatigue others.

8. Agree to partake of any innocent entertainment suggested by others.

9. Eat well of good things, but drink with moderation so that each should be able always to find his legs on leaving these doors.

10. All disputes must stay behind closed doors; and what goes in one ear should go out the other before departing through the doors.

If any shall infringe the above, on the evidence of two witnesses, for any crime each guilty party shall drink a glass of cold water, ladies not excepted, and read a page from the Telemachida out loud.

Who infringes three points on one evening shall be sentenced to learn three lines from the Telemachida by heart.

If any shall infringe the tenth point, he shall no longer be permitted entry.

News from Swiss Miss

My bestestclosest friend moved last week. I hadn't heard from her since last Wednesday. For us, that's a l-o-n-g time. So I called her this afternoon to find out what was going on, how the move went and all that blah-blah.

She's fine. The move went well. The kids are enjoying the new house. The husband is already starting to take down walls. The cable guy is coming on Monday (April 10) to connect them to the internet. Finally! Apparently the previous owner either didn't have internet access, or used dial up because the only connection in the office was for phone. Man - the wait was killing me, so I called. We had a good chat, a few giggles and I feel much better. I guess you could say I had my bestestclosestfriend "fix".

You can all go back to your regularly scheduled lives now.

Latest Reads

You may or may not have noticed that my "Off the Shelf" link is empty again. I'm trying to keep it up to date, I really am. But I've just been reading a little faster than I can update recently.

Monday night I went to the library after work and borrowed two books. Read one Monday night (forgot to update my links on Tuesday). Read the second book last night and have just updated the links in my "Back on the Shelf" section. So now I need to get back to the library.

Won't get there tonight though. I'm heading to the museum with Super C and possibly/hopefully AngryGnome. We're celebrating Super C's birthday (it was Monday, the 3rd). Going to have a look at the Catherine The Great - Art for the Empire exhibition and then have dinner at our favourite Thai restaurant. Am drooling over my red curry already ...