Back Home Again

I just returned from a week long visit in Alberta to see my mom. It was a very special birthday and so I traveled to celebrate it with her. I also wanted to help with some of those things that are hard for a single senior to do - I helped her buy some clothes for winter, bought her a floor lamp so she could read in her favourite chair, took her to Costco, went to the garden centre plus several other locations. I also fixed her computer, helped her with her phone and iPad and did some gardening. All those little jobs that help her out. Instead of taking a cab I was there to drive her around. She said several times how much she'd miss me and the car. Too bad I couldn't hire her a driver like "Driving Miss Daisy".

And now I'm home and life resumes as normal for both of us. Unfortunately for me, I have a lot of housework and office work to catch up on, but I'm that's just how it'll be.

I had the perfect weather while I was there, it even got up over 30 degrees a couple of times, meanwhile back home there was lots of rain. It's nice to escape the rain because that's what happens for most of the days between September and April in Vancouver!

It's a beautiful sunny day here, and Jp surprised me by having window screens installed while I was away. It's so nice this time of year to be able to open a window and let the fresh air in. Yes I did have the windows open without screens but then we had a moth problem that not only threatens our clothes but all the wool this knitter has in the house. And if you recall, I already had one whole skein of baby alpaca destroyed. That's when I became too scared to open the windows. So today, I am enjoying this perfect fall day with a fresh breeze and trying to catch up on a few personal things today before I try to catch up at work the rest of this week.

How have you been?

The Perfect Cake

It was Jp's birthday and we didn't have any family events - just the three of us, so I decided a little cake was better than no cake and made this mini layer cake: 

Cute isn't it? I know it's hard to tell the scale, but think about how big a birthday candle is - and then the cake looks teeny doesn't it? It's about 3" across and about 4" high, two layers with strawberry flavoured icing. Forty-eight matching mini cupcakes were gone by the end of the weekend. Mini cupcakes are dangerous because you can so easily just pop them in your mouth. Gone! 

Birthday Message to my Dog

Today my sweet little dog, Eco, turns 5 years old. I just can't believe how quickly the time has gone by.

Eco at 7 weeks

Eco at 3 months old

I'm sure my family would remind me that the first two years seemed long since she was still in training. And the first year took a while - especially with all those sharp pointy baby teeth. But she has blossomed into the sweetest companion and friend.

Eco at two years old

The most common words I hear people say to describe her is  "sweet" and "puppy". Many can't believe that she is five years old. Actually I can't believe she's 5 either - where did the last 3 years go? Besides daily walks and play sessions, a few trips to the vet, several swims in the summer time, monthly baths and a multitude of tricks.

Eco can: sit up and beg, wave, roll over, play day, bark, whisper, spin, twirl, walk backwards, cross her legs. She knows the names of her toys and can retrieve them on command placing them in my hand. She can follow hand signals from a distance and can do a series of tricks before getting her reward. She doesn't bark when someone knocks on the door and she doesn't steal food in the kitchen.

In fact, the other day a piece of bread was sitting on a plastic cutting board which was sitting on top of the toaster. The cutting board slipped off the toaster landing on the counter but the piece of bread rocketed to the floor. Eco walked in the room and discovered it first but sat down and looked at it until someone came in the room and told her she could eat it. Granted there was small puddle of drool by her feet, but she did not gobble up the bread. I wish she'd do the same for cat poop outside - but she can't - which makes her almost perfect, but not quite. Just the way a dog should be, otherwise they wouldn't be able to give us our daily chuckle.

Thanks for being so sweet and so soft and for making me laugh everyday Eco. And Happy Birthday to you!
(and now the voice of my husband is in my head, mocking me, saying "she can't read!")\

 ****

Wanna know about her name? Back in 2009, my dog Jazz had  just died after a 5 month battle with cancer. Our funds were depleted from the cost of cancer treatment. I wasn't sure  how long it would be before I could get another dog. And then we received a rebate for our Toyota Yaris - an Eco/Environmental Levy because it was an efficient vehicle. The cost of the cheque was the exact amount we needed for our puppy! And that's how Eco came to be a part of our daily life.

Birthdays, I has them

Last week was my birthday and I thought it would be helpful to provide Jp with a list of the things I want since I often keep it to myself. One  of the items was a helium balloon bouquet which I thought would be fun and cheerful. Unfortunately he had a super busy day prior to my birthday and couldn't get them. Next up was a gift idea. I wanted a patio heater. He felt that the 7' tall version was too big and too hard to store so he purchased the table top heat. Fortunately we were advised from someone that owned one that they went through the little propane tanks nightly - something I had no interest in doing especially since I am usually the only one sitting outside, so I asked him to return it. Which he did.

But now, technically I didn't receive a birthday present. I'm an adult so it's okay, right? I had a good day, so a gift isn't really all that important - is it?

I see birthday people in two categories - the receivers and the takers. Some people are lucky enough to have those around them give them everything for their birthday - they receive a cake, a party, gifts, flowers etc. And then there are those that don't care to wait for others and create their own birthday, invite people, make an event, buy their own cake/cupcakes. They also often buy themselves their own birthday presents.

I seem to be a receiver in a taker world and therefore I am often left without anything. Should I change? Does it matter? Are we supposed to care about our birthdays when we're older? What do you do? What category do you fit into? As you can see, I'm very confused by the whole thing.

Exhausting Weekend

This was a very busy weekend for me. It started on Thursday when I made vanilla cupcakes with coffee icing for Jp's birthday on Friday. Friday we went out for breakfast and then ran around for some errands including a trip to the butcher (and hour round trip)  for some delicious tender steaks - a couple New Yorks and a couple Rib Eyes (with the caps on).  Next we went to pick up his son (an hour and a half round trip)  and then it was time to get dinner started - dinner was Rosemary Roasted Nugget Potatoes, Creamed Spinach, Brussels Sprouts and the steaks cooked on the grill. That was a lot of things to figure the timing for but I did it.

Saturday we joked that he was just ordinary and we could treat him crappy because it was just a normal day. But on Sunday it was father's day so he was treated special again - Happy  Father's Day! More cooking - Eggs Benedict with homemade Hollandaise Sauce on crumpets with ham. Then I did laundry and ironing and put on the summer quilt and summer bedding. Then it was time for dinner - parmesan and breaded basa filets with rice and peas. The boys ate very well this weekend.

Including a medium bag of homemade oatmeal and cranberry cookies  - their only crime was that they were too close to a teenager late at night. It's a good thing he's skinny. But I wonder how his tummy could hold that much oatmeal...

Phew, I'm glad that weekend's over with. Now I can go back to my normal Cinderella life...ha, ha  just kidding!!!

Happy Birthday Eco

Eco is three years old today! My goodness time flies. Once they get to three, the years just seem to wiz on by, don't you think?

From this:

To this:

It is frequently said that dogs mature around the age of two, but labrador retrievers mature at the age of three and she definitely is a more mature dog these days, even thought she is often still very puppy-like and people often guess her to only be around 1 or 2 years old.

She's a very good little girl who can do around 80 tricks! She's very eager to please and just loves people  (typical lab) and we all just love her to pieces!

Balloons

Last week it was my birthday and I gave my husband a list of things I wanted that day, such as pretty cupcakes, really good Mexican Foods, a family dog walk, balloons around the house and for my husband to make me a Denver omelet.

He came through with all of them except the family dog walk and I must say his Denver Omelet was exceptional! I had no idea he was so good at making an omelet.

When I returned from the dog walk we had balloons around the house and after a while the kid wanted to play with them and the dog. The last time we had balloons, Eco was a 1 year old and still very interested in them, but this year, not so much. And by now you've heard that Labs have 'soft mouths' and I can attest this is true in her case as she can hold the balloon without breaking it, in fact her teeth even squeak along the side of the balloon.

All the balloons in the package were plain except for one, it had a swirly pattern:

This balloon reminded me of the time when I was about 4 or 5 and someone at my daycare brought a swirly balloon for their birthday. But back then we didn't have Dollar Stores and balloons weren't cheap. In fact as far as I recall that swirly balloon was coveted by many children as they weren't that easy to come by and more expensive than the plain ones.

I told this story to the kid, but he just couldn't understand how anyone would want a balloon for their birthday. That they would want one, wish for one and long for one.

Oh my how times have changed.

PS - all the other balloons from birthday have since been popped, except this one. I think I'll look at it for a few more days.

Skinnygirl Margarita - Product Review

I have to admit I'm a bit of a Bethenny Frankel fan, so I was excited to hear that her pre-bottled Skinnygirl Margarita was finally in Canada;  I "requested" a bottle for my birthday this weekend and my sweet husband obliged.

Maybe I'm not a connoisseur of tequila or margaritas - but I really didn't like it. I wanted to like it, but I just can't. Maybe I am used to the sweeter pre-mixes from restaurants? I'm not sure, but it just wasn't for me.

I would like to try her pre-bottled Sangria, but I won't be buying another bottle of this. Have you tried it? I would like to hear your opinion.

Happy Birthday Marilyn

Today is Marilyn Monroe's birthday - she was born in 1926 and is probably as popular today as when she was alive as both a cultural icon and sex symbol. Happy Birthday to you...

"I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together." - Marilyn Monroe

I finally finished something!

Look everyone! I finished another pair of socks!*

These ones are for my mom's birthday! 

Happy Birthday Mom.

* I know there's only a photo of one sock, but I really did make two!

Rain Picnic

When I was a kid we used to have rain picnics. They started when my brother broke his leg the last days of the school year  - doesn't that suck? 6 weeks of the summer he was in a full leg cast and bored out of his tree - this was before VCRs and video games (well before we could afford them). One day, to ease the boredom, my mom had the idea of a picnic in the rain - in those days, we practically had the whole of Stanley Park to ourselves - and we all took turns hauling him around in a wagon with a garbage bag on his cast (oh those were the days!)

But that's not what happened this weekend. We had been planning a get together since June and the weather was fabulous almost the whole month of July, but then the date got bumped and wouldn't you know it - it rained on our new day! Everyone was a real good sport about it though and we decided to go ahead with it.Cynthia, Carol and I had planned to go to Minnekhada Park but upon arriving, we found the gates were locked and it was closed for a private function, so we had to look for another lunch location fast as my stomach was rumbling! We tried a couple other parks and ended up sitting under a big cedar tree at a nearby recreation centre and the rain sort of held off so we were able to enjoy an afternoon of terrific food, good conversation and laughter. Everyone brought yummy food - Cynthia made perfect pitas and Carol had an excellent selection of homemade cookies. I'm so lucky to have such talented friends. Because of the rain, I left my purse in the car, and so I didn't take a photo of our lovely spread.

We all had our birthdays in July so at the end of lunch we exchanged birthday presents - yay! Cynthia gave me one of her famous 'little houses' paintings (plus some other little goodies - thank you!) and Carol gave me a beautiful jar of jam - thank you too! Carol, I need more of that jam, as most of it was consumed that same night at dinner! See? It is very, very good

In search of the South Beach Breeze

It was my birthday last month and I had a craving for a South Beach Breeze which is a watermelon drink I had tasted previously at Earl's. I'm not really a big fan of the place as it's usually excessively loud and the food is hit-and-miss but I had been thinking for the drink for about a week.

We sat down and asked for the drink and the waitress assured us I could have one, but then returned about 5 minutes later to tell me I couldn't get one. I tried some drinks from their new menu but I felt like Goldilocks, the Passion Blast Caiprinha  was too sour and the  Hawaiian Headlock was too sweet. I gave up on the alcohol drinks and tried a coffee which was completely disgusting and we sent that back. (Really I'm not a picky eater).

The next day Jp set out trying to track down the recipe and the ingredients, returning with some Melon Liqueur, Lemon Vodka, watermelon and Club Soda. We made it at home and it was yummy.

Melon Boy to the rescue! 

Buh-bye Earl's. I won't be visiting you anytime soon.