Procrastination

Baking awaits me but I am procrastinating and you lucky people receive the fruits of my procrastination:)

Today I'm (supposed to be...) making my famous melt-in-your-mouth shortbread cookies. Then...if I've managed to get my baking mojo going I'll make some peanut brittle. I just love the combination of brown sugar and butter!

No peanut butter balls!

To be absolutely truthful (which I usually am) I am cutting my previous amount of baking by half. No peanut butter balls this Christmas, no lemon squares...the reason being that I overeat and my hips pay the price. I hate wasting food. And I hate gaining weight! I suppose I could freeze what doesn't get eaten but I'd rather not have the temptation in the house as my willpower isn't what it used to be. HAH! I've NEVER had willpower - who am I trying to kid?

A couple days after Christmas feasting I am going to an appetizer party. I haven't figured out what I want to take yet - I'm thinking something low cal...like celery!! My friend Troy is home from B.C. for a couple of weeks and this will be the "girlfriends" get together.

Last time I saw Troy was when I visited her in Victoria B.C.  at the end of May. I'm hoping to travel west again in 2018, I loved it there!

But I must get off my duff and into the kitchen! If anyone has an appetizer recipe that they love could you send it my way? Thanks!

Fun Fotos

Sooooo, recently a good friend of mine celebrated her 50th birthday.  Being a 

landmark birthday she decided to do it up big! She rented a car for almost

two weeks and "raised a little hell!" OK, I exaggerate just a wee bit.

First beach was in the lovely time-forgotten town of

Pt. Stanley. The external l950's facades of most stores and restaurants

remain intact and it was a very Twilight Zone type of day.

I love the fact

that the owner of a big restaurant right on the beach has real

palm trees planted every year. Then they are stored at a nursery over

the winter. Gives it a tropical vibe doesn't it?

I love to capture images of children enjoying themselves on the beach.

They don't worry about how they look and they don't worry

(too much) about getting sand in their icecream. They are

so in the moment!

Can't go to the beach and not get a standard sailboat photo! 

I'm not gonna lie - I really wanted to try this little guy's bulldozer! What

a cool toy for the beach!  (or is it a front end loader?) Sorry,

I had a girl child :) 

Hear we are enjoying the sunshine. We had great weather every day.

We are also in a drought right now - nice for days at the beach but 

not so great for farmers. 

And here we are at Pt. Pelee National Park. Yes, there were other beach visits

but I figure you see one you've seen them all! 

We were really yucking it up!

I took a LOT of photos but am including just a few...we walked on a boardwalk through

a marshy area - lots of birds and water lilies. 

A painted turtle.

Another type of water lily.

Purple martin below - I used to see a lot as a child as my dad would put up very tall

birdhouses but now my sightings are quite rare.

This beautiful fella has a lot of different sounds that he makes - around my area

he squawks but in Pt. Pelee he had the most piercing whistle!

A view of the marsh and boardwalk.

Then we hiked down to the point where the waters join - 

a magical spot.

There was another beach day followed by a day of shopping and exploring and eating

in a very quaint village south of London - called Sparta.

I found a few Christmas gifts :) :) 

For lunch we ate in the local teashop and I had a salmon and cucumber sandwich 

with a nummy salad and of course a pot of tea! 

After lunch we went to a wonderfully whimsical place in the country

called "Winter Wheat." You can walk all through the trees

on this large property and be amazed at every turn.

I took a LOT of photos as I normally do but am just sharing

a few like this wood nymph! 

Troy in one of the many little sheds and cabins nestled into the trees - we 

were ready to move in!

A strange fella playing a player piano in a little clearing.

A low hanging chandelier...

A hermit's little house - all windows!

Everything is made by hand, even the furniture. The owners take

all sorts of junk and re-use them to create sculptures and

installations.

I want to live here!!

Another sweet little hut.

Troy and I at her final blowout partay!!  I don't seem

to have any photos from our previous night of celebration

at London's Wine Bar (I think they are on my phone) - what a great place!

And what a great time we had celebrating and whooping it up big time!

I rode home on my bike at 2am through the quiet streets of London - what

a surreal experience that was!!

Starting at the End...

...of June, that is...

June was a month of ups and downs - the prices of everything went UP and my bank accounts went DOWN.

I received my first Canada Pension Plan payment and used most of it to pay for my new phone. Boo.

My dentist looked at my teeth for 15 seconds and for that I gave him $189.00! The good news is my hygienist said my oral hygiene is better than hers!! Do I really want her scraping and cleaning my teeth?

Today I received my first GST/HST payment of $105.00!!! That's a little bit of our own tax money given back to us from our government based on our income. I haven't received this little tidbit for years as my income was too high. Welcome to retirement! Oh, and I get that little boost 4 x a year! YAY! Though I'm wondering if I'll get it next year now that I have to add the CPP payment as income on my tax return. It's a nice monthly stipend of $558 (actually over $600 but I'm having 10% tax taken off at the source). Next year's tax return should be interesting.

Also paid CAA in June (geez, what DIDN'T I pay???) which came to $224 for Kazi and me. That's part of her birthday gift each year. Yippee! I tell ya, my daughter sometimes wishes I wasn't such a practical gift giver but I just can't help myself. With her car being a 2006 model and mine being a 2000 I think it's a necessity to have this extra coverage.

I spent more than usual on food in June - likely because cherries were $6.99/lb and strawberries $4.25 a quart. We ate a LOT of them :) Eventually they both went down in price. I shopped at Farmboy (more expensive!) several times because I love their pre-made salads and they sell the best freshly made turkey burgers in the city. On the flip side of that I haven't purchased gas for the truck since the beginning of June! So in June I took what was left of the gas budget ($100) and added it to the food budget ending up even Steven.

My savings went down by $2,000 as I paid for the rest of my trip to Ireland though I have replaced $500 of that. Annie's already got an idea for next year - Scotland and the Isle of Skye!!!!! Hopefully I won't drop any more phones in my coffee which will allow me to save $900 - $1,000 per month for upcoming trips. I might start taking 2 per year! We'll see how the saving goes.

June was my month of cycling 400km to raise money for children's cancer research. I reached 106% of my cycling goal and 110% of my money goal!! I reached my goals by June 21st which allowed me to spend time with my friend Troy to celebrate her 50th birthday over the course of 10 days!!! We went to 3 different beaches (Lake Huron and Lake Erie), went to Pt. Pelee National Park which is the southern most bit of Canada (had never been), went to the Wine Bar :) and had a day of shopping/exploring in the Sparta area south of London. Great time! I'll get some pictures posted in my next post - I think Lily is eating a bee so I better go check! Ick, it was a large fly....gross!!

Jazz Fest

Every year a mini jazz festival is held in one of London's nicest neighbourhoods - it's called "Wortley Village".  It's not special because the homes are big and pricey, no, it's just a great family neighbourhood with it's own stores and businesses. A few streets get blocked off to traffice and various bands play in front of the neighbourhood garage:

...a local pub aptly named "The Wortley"... (and where I just happened to be hanging out :)...

...and a church (among other venues) (actually it's not a church any longer - it's apartments)...

Whoa! Do you see what I see?   Pardon me while I zoom in...

Is that not one of the cutest sax player you've ever seen??

I found lots of neat people to hang out with - my friend Cheryl who bought me a pint at The Wortley which led to several silly selfies!

Todd - one of my most favourite people of all time - I've written a few posts about Todd - you may remember if you've been reading my posts for a long time Todd was one of my very special pupils - he still knows how to make me smile :)

And then I connected with Troy and Jules - we enjoyed the great weather, the great music and had a great meal at the other village pub - aptly named "The Village Pub"!!  Yes...it was all great!

 Okay...just one more...

Okay...two...  :)

Sunday Mornings are Simply Divine!!

It's Sunday morning - a very peaceful time - the sun is shining though it is still below 0c but I'm not about to complain. Lots of bird activity outside my window, my coffee is at hand, the washer and dryer are humming away and I had a great day yesterday.

I got a few of those little jobs done - put a second coat of paint on the coat closet and basement door, painted the trim around the patio doors so I  could put the curtains back up, put a new knob on the coat closet door, painted more trim and started to paint the wall heading down to the basement.

 Isn't that exciting - my basement door - FINISHED!

 Even more exciting - the coat closet - painted and newly knobbed!! (That sounds kind of kinky doesn't it?)

 Simple sculptural ceramic knobs - nothing fancy but a sight more attractive than the previous plastic ones.

 Trim is painted, curtains are back up - the area rug for this room is supposed to arrive April 2nd!!

More of the stuff from Talize that was previously sitting in a cardboard box.

 A closer up of the wire candelabra- I have a few different sizes.

 Probably THE MOST exciting photo - the snow is receding at about the same pace as a glacier! revealing my new flagstone patio.

My first completely empty can of paint - yahoo!

While I was engrossed in painting yesterday I had a text inviting me to a friend's son's birthday dinner. Having known the family for years I was happy to meet up with them at the Sweet Onion Grill for fun times and good food. The newest addition to the family - Sophie, age 3 months, got passed around and around with not a peep - she is a placid and content little one and yes, grandma let me hold her briefly!

 Grandma with Sophie...

 My friend Troy and Sophie...

 Grandpa with ...you guessed it - Sophie!

 My best shot of the night - Ethan - the 23 year old birthday boy.

Blowing out the candles with a few of his wee friends!

Then I went back to Troy's house where we chatted for hours and enjoyed a really delicious bottle of wine. I'll have to get the name of it - it was a "staff pick" at the LCBO.

One of my readers, Kim, gave me a great idea for a challenge in April:

"How about an April 3 School Challenge? Bring home, gift, or recycle 3 school items each day. I am giddy with excitement about your retirement because I'm living vicariously. I'm not sure what I'll do with all my school supplies, books, decorations in 5 years."

I had written about the March Take 3 challenge which I summed up yesterday. So I've decided I'll accept Kim's challenge for April :) Thanks Kim for the great idea!! Tomorrow I'll post pictures of some things I've already brought home and then beginning Tues. April 1st I'll bring home 3 items a day from school. This is a completely doable challenge and should make clearing out my office and desk drawers a non-issue come the end of June. 

I LOVE getting ideas from readers. Keep them coming!!

The New and Improved, sort of, Wine and Food Show

 There were a lot of changes this year at the annual Wine and Food Show. It had 25% more vendors, more space, and a lot of different things going on. First up for my friend Troy and I was the bartenders competition. These 2 guys weren't quite up to the level of Tom Cruise in "Cocktail" but they weren't too bad on the eyes.

You can see the audience in this shot paying close attention, and no, I didn't get blitzed!

 Most of my shots were blurry as these two guys were constantly tossing their bottles in the air...

 catching them behind their back....most of the time....

 This was new - a dance floor complete with plastic modular furniture, larger than life chess pieces, and tables for two.

 Far out eh?  Pretty groovy.

Now this was a hit with me! Have you ever had a Vaportini? It's kind of hard to explain but you can see a tea light in the bottom and a glass ball above it containing the "vaportini". There is a hole in the glass ball where you put a straw in and inhale your martini vaportini. The flavours were  INTENSE! And instantly absorbed into your bloodstream. Very cool.

 Ooooooooh I like this one!!

 The show expanded into another room called the "Mancave". Mostly cars, motorcycles, man food (burgers, fries, sausage on a bun) and domestic beer like Bud Light. I'm thinking the show producers must have received a lot of complaints that there's not enough for REAL MEN to experience at the show but really, you can have a burger and a Canadian domestic beer anywhere anytime but an ostrich burger, Bailey's flavoured frozen yogurt, steak tacos? Not so much. C'mon guys - live a little! Experiment! Take a risk! Boring...

Now this guy wasn't afraid - he was on the dance floor most of the night!

Yup, still there...

 Oh, I know him!! John had a flashing light on the end of his index finger!

This year if you were really special, and I wasn't,  you could spend time in the VIP lounge. Not too sure why that was considered special???

OK, folks...we've come to the CAPTION THIS PICTURE!! Oooooh, is she wearing leather?

Troy and I took turns snapping each other's photo in this convertible but I think she pressed the wrong button on my camera because there's no pic of me! Oh well...isn't she so photogenic??

She's a beautiful woman, also a single mom to 3 young adults. She's been a good support to me over the past few weeks and she got me into the show for FREE! She works at Fanshawe College in the Hospitality and Tourism area and worked at their booth for a while on Saturday (and gave me a pass to get in...shhhhhh...don't tell anyone! )

And that was my Saturday night!