Westminster Ponds - Saturday's Hike

 Cost of today's walk through Westminster Ponds = $0.00
Value of today's walk through Westminster Ponds = Priceless!!

 Having a pretty "low spend" weekend so far: last night we rented "Splice" (a very disturbing and creepy movie - my favourite kind:) and we had a $2.00 off coupon. NO WINE!! (See? I'm trying:)

 This morning I thought I was going to get away with a "no spend" day as my partner bought me a coffee and a cookie while we hung out at the market but I decided to buy a National Post to read.  I cancelled my daily newspaper in August buy like to get the Saturday paper. Then, because I forgot to get my parking ticket validated at the market I ended up paying $4.50 for parking which really annoyed me.

 But I'm over it now. I had a great grocery shopping day - we have so much food it should last well into November instead of just til the end of the month. I prepared by going through the flyers and finding the best bargains at three different grocery stores.  While Michael worked at his friend's restaurant I did a major shop and bought up all the meat bargains, fresh fruit and veggies, bread, bagels the works! And still have about $30 left in the food budget. The great thing about my grocery shopping today is it was all spent on FOOD - no inedibles like kleenex and dish detergent this time around.

 Took out just $20 for this weekend's misc. spending - so far just spent $ on the movie rental and the newspaper. Have $111 left in misc. spending until the end of the month - should be ok.

 It was a glorious day today in London, Ontario. Sunny and high of about 15c - perfect for hiking.

 For dinner I had bought a roast chicken at Costco (only 6.99) and Michael made one of his famous "medleys" of vegetables and leftovers, fresh bread, fresh tomatoes - have I told you he does ALL of the cooking? It means everything I eat has either curry powder or cayenne pepper in it (or both) which tends to increase the number of hot flashes I have in a day but the enjoyment of being cooked for seriously outweighs a few sweaty moments:)

 Tonight we are staying in again and Michael is treating me: he rented "The Killer Inside" with Casey Affleck (the more talented of the Affleck brothers IMHO), Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson. We've seen the trailers and it looks so good.  Then after he dropped my daughter and her friend off downtown he stopped at DQ and bought us both a Pecan Mudslide Blizzard!!! The muffin top just got a wee bit bigger but what the heck - it's the weekend! And yoga pants are stretchy!

 Tomorrow we are hiking again so I'm going to work off a few of those blizzard calories. Not sure where we'll end up tomorrow - there are so many great places for hiking around London.

 I bought Starbucks coffee beans at Costco (2 pounds for $10) so we'll make our own coffee instead of wasting $10 on lattes or fraps or whatever else they tempt us with. I've only read two sections of the Post so I'll finish that off in the morning with my own Starbucks brew. So hopefully I can keep that other $10 in my wallet.

 Michael flashing his million dollar smile.

 There are still a few flowers to be found:)

I love being outside!

If you stayed with my nature shots to the end you get to see the bonus shot of my daughter (on the right) and her friend before they headed downtown to celebrate her friend's birthday. Aren't they cute?