Mid week......

Oh yes, hump day....I have been so tired that I have not turned on my computer to check email or to blog. And I seem to have run out of things to say.

I don't know how some people blog everyday. My sister is one of those people but then again, she is retired.

The last few nights, I watched baseball. I used to watch games before but for years now, I have not watched a complete baseball game until this World Series when my sister asked if I was going to watch. And so I did....but I did not know any players at all.

I have been watching The Voice and read that Christina and Ceelo would not be there next time. I think that would be good...they need a bit of a change. Maybe it will make it more exciting.

The Layover with Anthony Bourdain is a show I have been watching lately. It is about things to do, places to see and to eat while a traveler has time on a layover in a particular city. I don't understand how he can eat all the time and so much. Amazing!!! I would be sick if I have to do all the eating he does.

Well, I just finished a short blog....thanks for stopping by. Tomorrow is another busy and hectic day for me.

New recipes to try......

A good friend of mine gave me a cookbook.....actually a gluten-free muffins.

I have looked at some of the recipes and this week end I am trying one or two recipes. The first one is the bacon scallion muffins and the other one is golden raisin rosemary muffins.

These recipes call for finely ground brown rice flour, potato starch and tapioca starch. This is the base of all the recipes. I have seen tapioca starch and potato starch but I have not seen brown rice flour.

Worst case scenario I will just use cake and pastry flour or just all prupose flour and see how they turn out. There are lots of recipes I want to try and it is good that it makes 12 muffins.

I will post result as soon as I have tried them.

That is the picture of the golden raisin rosemary muffins.



Good news.......

Before I had posted pictures of my niece's daughter who got accepted to a hockey school out west.

Today, while talking to my niece, she told me that she is now a member of Major Midget league, while she is also playing in a triple A league.

I hope I am correct in all these divisions. Anyway, we are so happy and proud of her.

Maybe, just maybe there is a chance of her being in the Olympics in the future. I have attended a few of her games and must say she is good.

I might go to a big tournament she is going to over the Christmas holiday.

Will post if there is any news. Way to go Vickie.......

 

Vickie in action.

 



Surprise on the street.....

Last Friday afternoon I had to go to our other building across the street to train our new manager. I told the reception, I wasn't coming back and I will be going home from there. I had to meet a friend for dinner.

While busy with training, the phone rings and it is for me and I was told to go back to the office and bring the two ladies with me. I asked why and they would not tell me. Before coming here, a lady at work told me she has given notice and will leave at the end of the month. I just thought that the announcement will be made.

On the way there, an office mate was telling people walking on the side walk it is my birthday. It was the next day. But people were wishing me Happy Birthday.

We were back and the reason was thay they bought cake for me and gave me flowers. It was nice of them to do that. On my way to meet my friend, I was waiting to cross, I must tell this.....I cross this busy intersection so many times during a work day. So while waiting for the green light, a man driving looked at me as I was carrying this package which is obviously flowers. He smiled at me, turn down his window and with a smile told me..."Wow, you got flowers," exactly his words and smiled and drove on.

The people behind sort of laughed.....well, what a great way to end a hectic day!!!!

This was what was inside the package I was carrying crossing the street.

 

Another work week, as always let it pass quickly.



Thank you......

A big, big thank you to all my friends who sent emails, cards, presents, texts and phone calls, flowers and a cake for my birthday.

CG, the ticket you gave won $2.00. I feel that is a start of my luck with tickets.

I appreciate the thoughts and being remembered.

Thank you. Wow, my shortest post ever!

Dinner with a close friend......

Friday night I had a very nice dinner with a close friend from my old office. We went to Tropika, a Malaysian restaurant. We had time to talk a lot and made other plans to do things later.

We had Pineapple fried rice, Tropika chicken and mixed vegetables with coconut milk. They were all good and we started with a cocktail, Chee chee, I believe it's the drink/cocktails of the 80's. It was good and refreshing. As usual, it was too late before we remember to take pictures. She did take a picture and she will email it to me.

It is my birthday today, so she treated me to that dinner and gave me a very nice birthday card with a ticket so hopefully I will check if I had won anything.

I had to tell her that I had dropped or cut my friendship with another lady who I think is a bit toxic and I would rather have one less friend who I don't trust now.

I really enjoyed our time together and hopefully we will do it again.

Thanks a lot CG. It was a fun night.

2 years of blogging.....

I did not realized until the other day that I have been blogging for 2 years now. I started my blog October 1, 2010.

It took me a while to figure out how to do it and I remember one time, my blog looked like it only had empty space. My brother-in-law was able to figure it out and I am now very careful about editing or other stuff to do with my design.

Thinking of what to say/write was the most difficult part of blogging. One time I tried to see if I could blog everyday like my sister and I believe it only lasted 10 days for me. There are times I could only blog once a week so I just do it when I feel like it or when I have something I think would be interesting.

I also forget to take pictures even though I remind myself that I have to take pictures.....just like last Thanksgiving while waiting for people to arrive, I told myself I should take a picture of the turkey because it turned out really well and the colour of the skin was golden brown. But of course it was too late by the time I remembered it.....I had already carved the turkey.

My friends let me know how I am doing with blogging and I appreciate their comments and suggestions. Well, I guess I would be blogging for a while yet.

Thanks to all my readers and for their comments whether it is in this blog or by emailing me privately.

Projects.....

I have just started on my next project, cleaning and wiping my souvenir teaspoons collection so I can display them. And the problem is this...

 

There are more than 200 teaspoons in this box.  I guess it will take a bit of a time to get it done.

I will just sit on the floor and do it while watching tv. There better be really exciting shows to watch while I am doing this.

 

 

And this is where they will go. I have to rearrange my coin collection to make room for the teaspoons. This is my coffee table. I am excited to see how it will look like.

 

 Just finished watching the voice and it is exciting to find out what happens to the stolen members.

Breaking Amish is also getting interesting.....how much of it is real, I don't know.

As my sister would say it 4 more sleeps before the weekend.

My birthday is this Saturday....no plans yet.

 



Whatever post.....

A productive weekend.... I did not go anywhere this weekend as I did not feel so well when I came home Friday. I took it easy that night and just watched tv.

I watched The Secret Princes and I do not know how real is that show. The one Lord can't even carry a conversation and no wonder he can't find a date. I watched Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Once in a while I follow a recipe from there.

This week end I was in the mood to bake and did biscuits and a loaf of white bread. I have not baked a loaf of bread in ages and it turned out so well. First time in years using my long loaf pan.

Maybe for my birthday next week I will bake a birthday cake. I used to bake a lot of cakes when we lived in Yellowkinfe....up North where winter I heard has arrived.

I forgot that I had gone out to get groceries and washed my SUV. I did not know they were open on Sundays and when I was driving home from the store, I saw it was open. Unfortunately I did not vacuum as I had my winter tires there. Yes, it is time to change tires.

My next project is to clean my teaspoon collection from all over the world and put it where I have my coin collection. That would be a lot of work but finally I have a place for them.

Some of the biscuits I baked.

 

Loaf of bread that turned out really well.

 

My fave snack when watching tv.

 

Another work week, hope it goes really fast.

 

 





A kind person.....

A building with 25 floors and hundreds of people living in it is like a small community. The lobby becomes a meeting place where you see people you know or just met.

I have been in my building for more than 3 years and I know a lot of people but there are also movements and people I like move out and on to a different building or bought homes.

There is one resident here who is retired and every morning he likes to be in the lobby and read his papers or flyers. He uses a wheel chair. I don't get flyers in my mail box as I have put a no flyers note in it.

We have a place where you can get them and this gentleman would get me my paper and flyers every morning on my way to work.

Today, I was sick so I took the day off and when I went out my door to throw a bag of garbage, the paper and flyers were hanging on my door handle.

This is not the first time and I really appreciate that. I like to read my Metro and look at flyers.

What a nice person!!! It makes me feel good that there are kind and wonderful people around.

It's Friday, enjoy the weekend.

Recycling and the cheque....

My place of work is proactive when it comes to recyling. We have one building which won a prize for being a green building.

We have all kinds of bins in our kitchen for waste, plastic, paper, cardboard and so on. Under my desk is a plastic container for recycling paper and another for regular waste basket.

As part of my job, I handle the deposits and any cheques that need to go to the bank or to a vendor.

One day, I was working in the reception area and Fed Ex came with a package. I opened the package and took the envelopes inside and gave to the recipients and threw the package in the recycling bin.

Then I had to go help across the street in one of our new buildings and did not come back until close to lunch, In the meantime our Project Manager was looking for me and looking in my desk for a cheque intended for him.

When I came back, he was after me for his cheque and I told him there was none for him and he was adamant and I too was determined to let him know there was none for him. When he told me that there was one sent by our head office in the same Fed Ex package and that it was close to a million dollars, I got worried and when I thought about it, I realized it might have been still in the package which was now in the recycling bin.

Thank God, it was still there and the million dollar cheque was inside the package. I don't know maybe because it was so big, it did not fall off when I did it the first time.

From then on, every time a big cheque comes...they will say....do not give it to her. I guess I will never live this down. There have been cheques more than that and it goes to the intended recipient. A lesson learned....check the inside of the package or envelope. There just might be something big there.

The fluffy white stuff.....

Yes, the dreaded white stuff fell today but luckily did not stay....a bit wet and temperature not so cold. But still it was nasty, knowing the cold weather is upon us.

I have appointment to change to winter tires next week and the forecast is in the teens. Hopefully, it will stay for a bit longer.

It is time to take out the coats and jackets and winter boots, gloves and hats and toques and scarves.
Not to forget warm clothes, sweaters and cardigans.

I am glad I will be away for while visiting sunny California. At least it will be a lot warmer.

So there it is.....old man winter is getting ready to come back....yuk ....it will be for 6 months and I will start counting the days when spring is here.

Thanks for stopping by......

Enjoy Centre....the plants

Enjoy Centre used to be Holes Greenhouse in St Albert, Alberta. I used to live in that city and I have lived there for 10 years off and on. It is quite a drive if you work downtown so when the chance to live downtown, I decided to move.

I love gardening and I used to buy my plants from there. When they became the Enjoy Centre it was quite a while before I got a chance to see it.

This summer was my first time and I did not take a lot of pictures. It was busy but the flowers were so beautiful and varied. The last time I was there I took some pictures of house plants. Some of them I don't know the names but would like to share them here,

These two are by the entrance to the store.

 

 

 

 

 

I used to have a collection of these African Violets when I lived in St. Albert.

I love plants and I am planning to get some for my place as they make one's home more alive and beautiful.

 

Hump day....looking forward to the weekend...I have a mission to find something for my sister.

 



Clean up......

I realize people do spring clean up but for me I also do fall clean up. This long weekend, I decided to clean up my closet and donate them to charity, the one I send them to benefits Diabetes Foundation.

Last week I have delivered a big bag of shoes, pants, sandals and jackets. Today I cleaned up more and have another bag to drop off. Maybe it is just preparation for my next shopping when I go to San Jose in 6 weeks.

Sometimes we don't realize how much we have and I wanted to have more room in my closet. And I have a big closet. But it feels good to know that other women will benefit from what I don't use anymore.

While I was cleaning up, I took a few pictures of what I have left. When my cousin was visiting last August, she opened my closet and had seen the number of shoes I have and then realized there we more in my coat closet and under my dresser and chest of drawers. I was a bit embarrassed but I never splurge and buy them on sale and a friend told me one time that I know how to shop.

So here are two pictures of my flip flops, they are not really the flip flops some of you may know. and my flat sandals that I use for just shopping, going out with friends or just when I walk to the stores. I still have my dressy sandals I use for work.

These are what I chose to leave for myself. My so called flip flops. I have 3 pairs that I use when I am in my balcony and they are just for that use.

 

My flat summer sandals. I must have given 12 pairs of these kind.

 

 

 



Happy Thanksgiving.....

To all my Canadian readers, Happy Thanksgiving. For whatever things you are thankful for, this is the special day for it although I believe we should be thankful every time good and beautiful things happen to us or given or received.

Our family spent this holiday, yesterday to give all of us a day to relax before we go back to work. This is specially for whoever did the most work.....cooked and prepared the Thanksgiving dinner.
Hint...hint....

The usual dinner menu is turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetables will depend on family tradition. This year there will be one vegetable that I will have that we have not had in the past....asparagus. I just saw a nice bunch of them at the store. Our dessert is creme caramel.

Just a small turkey this year....13 lbs.

I hope you enjoyed this day with your family and friends. Come Tuesday, everyone will be having some kind of turkey sandwich or leftover for lunch at work....I am sure of it.



Random mumblings.....What??!!

Last week, I was outside my building waiting for my ride when this retired guy who lives in our building started to talk to two young ladies who were walking and both were texting. They also live in the building.

He asked them..."you two are busy texting" as both of them were holding their phones and obviously texting. One of the girls said....Oh, we are texting each other, it is better or faster. Now.....can someone explain that to me? They were only maybe a foot away from each other. Is that the epitome of laziness or just plain addiction? How could that be faster or better?

Another day, one of my office mate was crossing the intersection and she started when the hand was already flashing. A police car was turning right and the driver turned down his window and told her to walk faster. I don't know if this cop realizes how bad this intersection is....there are cars turning left when the green light has been on for a while.

I cross this intersection a lot every day as I go to different buildings we own just across the street or kitty corner. One day, crossing it maybe for the 7th time that morning, a guy asked me if I will be doing that when winter comes. He said I need underground tunnel which was ironic as just before I came down to cross, we were talking in the office and I said I will put a request for a zip line between the two buildings. What was weird was, how did this guy know I cross that intersection so many times in a day. He must work in a building where he sees me all the time. Now that is scary!!