Sweet Saturdays - Lindt Chocolates

Good morning and welcome to another Sweet Saturday! We're still eating our Easter chocolates, these Lindt milk chocolate eggs are K's favourite and they are creamy and delicious.

Paint Party Friday - Rockies

Welcome to Paint Party Friday! I drew one of my screensavers for you this week. I think it's a (simplified) scene from the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

Can't wait to see what everyone else has done. Tears in my eyes as I catch up with the Royal Wedding fairytale. Sniff...so beautiful.

Awesome and the rest of my day

The author of 1000 awesome things was on a radio show yesterday morning talking about his blog and bestselling book. He said he was at an awful point in his life, his wife had just told him she didn't love him anymore, his best friend had passed away from depression. He started the blog listing awesome things in his life and it helped make him happier. His book is now a number one best seller in North America. He now has a girlfriend and is quite happy these days.

Later at the gym I found myself talking about voting in the upcoming May 2nd General election. K has a school project on the topic, so normally very unpolitical, I felt I had at least a comment to make. Then we talked about the upcoming Royal Wedding, what else?

Then I was in a store listening to this young boy in a stroller: '10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1'...'1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10' I had to ask his mother how old he was because he sounded pretty smart and didn't seem to be much more than a baby. She said he was 2 1/2 years old, but learns a lot from his older brothers.

Then K terrorized me with his over-confident driving skills and loud blaring music when I picked him up after school.

Hope you had a 'good' day too!

Baked Nachos

L came home for the long Easter weekend. We brought most of her stuff home and spent time visiting with extended family on both sides. She has one more exam left and then she will be home for the summer. She made us some delicious baked nachos on the weekend:



It's really easy to do these. You just sprinkle chopped tomatoes, sliced green onions and shredded cheese on top of some tortilla chips and bake at 400F for 5 minutes. You can serve it with salsa sauce on the side.


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Creative Tuesdays - Short and Tall

Here's my entry for Creative Tuesdays "Short and Tall" theme. I have been looking at office chairs for L's off-campus housing in the fall. So I immediately thought of doing different sized ergonomic office chairs. I found a nice one on wheels and I think we'll give her our old, shorter one and keep the taller one at home. Some of these chairs are quite beautiful and come in a variety of fabrics.

Please stop by the other creative participants to see what they came up with for this theme.

Was he ever angry!

Our brickwork outside was finally able to be completed last week, the bricklayer managed to find a clear day. He was complaining that he had lots of work, but the weather is not co-operating and of course, he has to 'feed the family'. He did a wonderful job, even took the trouble to match the grout to the brick. We've had repairs done before that didn't have that attention to detail.

The morning the brick layer came by, it was 3C and sunny. M popped outside wearing his coat and shorts, to have a quick word with him. They went around to the back of the house, and meanwhile, K and I drove off to school in a hurry. That's our regular morning routine. My cell phone starts ringing...we've locked M out of the house! He was waiting by the front door by the time I got back some minutes later with the key. Was he ever angry!

Anyway, he went off to work and I went about my day. By the time he returned home, he was in a much improved state of mind. I apologized and inquired as to how he was feeling and took the trouble to explain that it was an honest oversight. (I made sure to text K to treat the matter seriously on his return home, because his dad was not amused at the time!) M rarely loses his temper, but there are certain things that tick him off, freezing and locked out of your own house being one of them! He must have had to borrow the bricklayer's cell phone to call us.

Sunday Sketches - Beluga

Happy Easter! Play this cute little card called "The Chicken".

Good morning and welcome to this week's Sunday Sketches. I drew this Beluga Whale from a photo in Canadian Wildlife magazine. It's an endangered species.

Please visit the other participants to see what they did today.

Sweet Saturdays - Raspberry Jam

Hello and welcome to this week's Sweet Saturdays. My sweet treat this morning is a toasted English Muffin spread with homemade raspberry jam. Well, homemade by a friend.

We have a long, busy holiday weekend due to Easter.

Please stop by the other participants to see what sweet contribution they made.

Paint Party Friday - Grizzly

Welcome to another Paint Party Friday. I drew a Grizzly Bear from British Columbia, Canada using a photo in Canadian Wildlife magazine. It almost feels like I'm drawing a person when I do these animals. We're all God's creatures.

It's Good Friday today. Catholics are supposed to refrain from eating meat today and fast (miss one meal).

Starbucks in our area is offering free coffee today if you bring in a reusable mug.

Hope you'll go visit the other participants.

A Close Call

L got a ride to the mall near her school with her girlfriend the other day. The friend had to leave to run a quick errand. It seems her brakes failed on the way and she ran 2 red lights before she had the presence of mind to use her emergency brakes. It was a scary experience but the girl is ok. Fortunately,she didn't hit any other cars. It's an old car that had just been serviced. Needless to say she got rid of the car. L had no problem taking the bus back to her residence, counting them both lucky!

So we need a new refrigerator. The appliance guy made a service call and thinks that is the best way for us to go. He recommended choosing a simple, spacious one. The fancier ones with lots of sensors tend to break more easily. Oh well, first thing is to remove all the magnets and memos I have covering the appliance.

We had a new release day in our step class yesterday. There were 3 instructors for the occasion. One of the instructors happened to be a new dad on paternity leave. I thought that was interesting. I had never met him before.

My sister sent over 2 Easter treat bags of chocolate for L and K. I don't think we realize how old our kids are, and they likely still appreciate getting chocolate treat bags!

Chile

I had a nice walk (in 3C weather, brr) with a friend yesterday. We stopped into a Middle Eastern place for a lunch. We had falafel sandwiches, pretty good and inexpensive. My friend just came back from Chile. They also did a cruise from Chile, thru the apparently narrow Panama Canal and into Ft. Lauderdale, Fla, then back home. Apparently the cruise ships pay a ton of money to go through the canal and they seem to barely fit. It must be hard to make a profit.

My friend reports that the Chileans are very hospitable. They were forced to leave their hotel on the coast one night because the Japan tsunami was headed there. They hitched a ride up into the mountains and a poor family fed them and put them up for the night and refused to take any money. She wants to go back and do the southern portion of the country.

Speaking of travel, my sister was commenting on the experience of a long trip abroad with a couple of good friends. Some people really knock themselves out trying to see absolutely everything there is to see in the short time they are visiting. Rick Steves always says 'assume you will return', in all his travel guides. It's a point well made. You can always go back, it may be better to see some special places and to take the time to savour the experience. Unless everyone in your party is of the same mindset. What do you think?

Cleansing and Purging

The weather has been awful and wet lately. We are having some brickwork repaired on our house and the contractor had started the work, then it started raining on and off. It's frustrating.

K has been taking every opportunity to practice his driving skills. He does seem to have a knack for it. And I still haven't booked him in for proper lessons yet.

L will move back home in a few weeks and we're also making preparations for the move into a rented townhouse for the next school year. I'm already gathering a few supplies and planning furniture because I don't like waiting until the last minute like she does. So saying, her dad and I had no such help in our university days. This is the entitled generation.

I've been thinking lately that one shouldn't panic at bad news because it seems there is always some good that can come out of it. For example, our refrigerator stopped cooling after groaning for a few days. It forced me to clear the food out of it ( luckily we have another refrigerator in the basement). The good of it is that I was forced to throw out a lot of old stuff, cleansing and purging the main fridge so we could look into having it repaired. Have you looked at everything inside your fridge and freezer lately? You might be surprised at what you've been saving!

I found some cute videos for you to watch today:

Kohler Numi High Tech Toilet (video)

Walking the Dinosaur - here's a cute video for the little kids

Apple Store Dance - K loves this one

The Colonoscopy

Well I had my routine colonoscopy last week. The day before, I had to be on clear fluids, like blue jello (I had heard red is not allowed so thought I had best be safe), beef or chicken broth, apple juice, ginger ale, water, coffee, tea (no milk). I got hungry a few times, but it really wasn't too bad. I discovered that I don't mind the taste of black coffee. I always thought I needed to have it with cream.

The day of the colonoscopy, I had to take 2 packets of laxative at specific times of the day. My laxative was called Pico Salax and it really was one of the milder treatments on the market. I only had to mix each packet with 5 ounces of water and it tasted like lemonade.

M sat with me at the hospital, and I ended up having to wait almost 2 hours for my turn. It seemed there were two difficult cases before me. One older lady had two polyps. The anesthetist wheeled me into the treatment room while asking me some relevant questions. The nurse and doctor were waiting inside. Everyone was really friendly and I felt quite relaxed with my few questions answered to my satisfaction. I was given a sedative called Propofol which put me to sleep during the procedure and I had no difficulty waking up shortly after. I was just confused to find myself already back in the waiting room. I would say it's a better sedative than valium or demerol which are sometimes used. I was given the all clear and told that I was the quick, easy case that evening.

M discovered that the hospital had free wireless internet. This is not the case at all hospitals. The nurse told me that the Outpatient Ward has no night shift and as such, all the employees want to work there.

The other thing I would say is that it seems to depend where you go to have your colonoscopy. M did not have such an easy time when he did his earlier this year. He was given a most aggressive laxative and the valium really hit him out.

My 65 year old hairdresser told me he had a colonoscopy booked and he decided to cancel it. Now that I've had it done, I can say it was worthwhile and not that bad of an experience at all. It's recommended for people over 50. If you are all clear, they won't do another one for the next 10 years.

Sunday Sketches - Langkawi

This sketch is from a photograph I saw recently on Ocean Girl's blog. She says it's a sunset in Langkawi, an island of Malaysia. I don't do justice to the photo which I thought was beautiful.

Let's go see what the other Sunday Sketches participants have to offer!

Sweet Saturdays - Lemon Blueberry

It's Sweet Saturdays again. This week I'm featuring a favourite breakfast for me at McDonald's. This is their new lemon blueberry slim sensations muffin with a small coffee (double cream for me). This innocent looking muffin is 360 calories although it's a cheap breakfast at $1.46 including tax.

Do stop by the other Sweet Saturdays participants to see what they did today.





In other news, our refrigerator started making horrible noises a few days ago. We called the appliance repair people and they asked if the fridge was still cooling. The answer was yes, so they told us to basically wait until it dies and they will come and fix it then. They charge $70 for a service call and said they really wouldn't go in until it dies. That sounded reasonable at the time, so the noise is on and off as we wait. the other possibility is that it won't be worth fixing in which case we'd have to get a new fridge.

The daffodils are blooming now!

I have a thirty-something cousin who says the Royal Wedding means nothing to her and her friends. It must be a different generation. I must say I was touched when I heard that Kate will be staying with her mom and her sister in a hotel next to Buckingham Palace on the night before the wedding. My own mother is looking forward to watching the wedding on April 29th.

Paint Party Friday - Patterns

It's time for Paint Party Friday! This week, I drew some patterns from a magazine that caught my attention. The first one is a chevron pattern and the second is a wallpaper pattern called chou chou from Sister Parish Design.

Please stop by the other participants to see what they did today. There is so much talent out there, a visual feast!

Passed!

K had his 16th birthday recently and passed his G1 written driving test the same day! He was so excited and M let him practice driving around the block. He is now qualified to take lessons on the road. M said he was quite tense waiting while he wrote the test, because it seemed like a lot of people were failing. There was a pair of twins, one passed and one didn't. Last year, the driving test cost $100, and this year the fee is $125. But if you fail, you can re-take each subsequent time for $10.

That same night we went out practising again, just around the block. He did a good job and enjoyed the lesson, although he went around the corners a bit wide and perhaps too fast. He'll receive his G1 photo ID in a few weeks. He has a temporary one meanwhile.

Ocean Girl has a post on Kuala Lumpur with this great travel video. I think I have to visit one of these days, if only to check the food out.

And Kay posted this cute Korean video on her 1000th post, I had to share.

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Undercover Boss

It rained on Sunday. I decided I needed the exercise and went for a walk anyway, umbrella in hand. The weather was mild and there were quite a few people out walking with their umbrellas or wearing rainjackets. The hyacinths are starting to pop up now.

That evening, we watched this TV show called Undercover Boss. It just happened to be on after The Amazing Race. Anyway, it was a really good show. Here is a synopsis of the episode I watched, I was in 'good' tears at the end of it:
Baja Fresh

'David Kim, the CEO of Baja Fresh, the leading fast-casual chain in Mexican dining in the United States, goes undercover posing as a contestant who is competing for one position within the company. Immigrating to America from Korea was hard on David’s family when he was growing up. His parents had to live through hard times, so his goal was to become someone that could help his parents live a better life. David hopes to use this undercover experience to find the truth about how his company is functioning, while reflecting on the time that he has left with his dying father. '

According to wikipedia, 'Undercover Boss has been criticized as a "reality show" for presenting scenarios and situations which rarely happen to employees in real workplaces and are in fact dramatic tricks. Others point out that CEO's in real life workplaces do not typically go out of their way to provide gifts and other extra benefits to front-line employees at the expense of the bottom line.'

Oh well, back to real life, I knew it was too good to be true!

Creative Tuesdays - Rooftops

This week's Creative Tuesdays theme is 'Rooftops'. Mmm wanted man-made roofs, so here they are.

Time to go check on what the others did. It's a pretty theme, I think.

Crème Brûlée with Crab, Avocado and Havarti

I got this dream of a recipe from Dairy Goodness (Dairy Farmers of Canada). Well, it looks like a dream to eat, I don't know if I'll ever get around to making it, but maybe you will:

3/4 cup (180 mL) whipping 35 % cream
1/4 cup (60 mL) milk
2 egg yolks
1-1/2 tbsp (22 mL) flour
1/2 cup (125 mL) diced Canadian Havarti
Ground Cayenne or Espelette pepper, to taste
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 ripe avocado, diced
2/3 cup (160 mL) crabmeat, well drained
1 tbsp (15 mL) lemon juice
1-1/2 tbsp (22 mL) sugar



Preheat broiler.

In a saucepan over low heat, heat cream and milk until steam starts to form.

Meanwhile, beat egg yolks for 2 minutes then beat in flour. Pour a little warm cream into egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Pour mixture into saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until mixture thickens. Add cheese and stir until melted. Add Cayenne and salt and pepper generously.

Evenly divide avocado and crabmeat among 4 medium-sized 3-1/2 inches (9 cm) ramekins and sprinkle with lemon juice. Pour cheese mixture on top; sprinkle with sugar.

To caramelize, broil for about 4 minutes. Serve hot or warm.


News

I love this video, it's a pleasure to watch:

Woman lives large in what may be New York’s smallest apartment

Sunday Sketches - Maui

I saw a small photo in the Travel section of the newspaper the other day, it was captioned 'Maui Hawaii' and I thought it was a pretty sunset and decided to draw it for Sunday Sketches:



Let's go see what the group did today!

Sweet Saturdays and Fake Eggs

It's time for Diana's Sweet Saturdays. These Pillsbury cookies are some of my son K's favourites and I understand it's one of the healthier cookies you can buy.

Hope you'll consider joining us for Sweet Saturdays!







Pete had a disturbing post recently about fake eggs in China. I think it's worth sharing with everyone. You have to see this video.

Paint Party Friday - Cake Pops

I saw an article about Cake Pops in the newspaper and decided to feature it today on Paint Party Friday.

'The bite-size cake balls on a stick, born in the U.S.A. and already popular in London, are poised to go mainstream in Canada thanks to Starbucks.'

The featured flavours are Birthday Cake, Tiramisu, and Rocky Road.

Going to check out what the rest of the group worked on this week, please join me!

The Specialist Visit

I had an appointment with a specialist a couple of days ago, checking up on some women's issues. I get stressed leading up to these appointments although I wasn't expecting any problems. The friendly receptionist greeted me politely and took my information, as I hadn't been there before. She asked me to jump on the scale. I was ok with the reading, then she said, we can subtract a pound, maybe two, due to the weight of my clothing. The experience was turning positive!

I didn't wait long, I was led into one of the doctor's rooms. She was a tall, slim, attractive young woman, I'd say early thirties. She took my blood pressure reading and it was 110/83...normal... I must have been relaxed, it's often a bit high in my regular doctor's office. She said maybe he makes me nervous. She gave me excellent advice on my issues and I'm impressed at the knowledge and competence of these young people. They can do major surgery on people for goodness' sake! I decided I'd trust her to work on me if and when the time came, and left feeling that I had a rapport with her.

The positive appointment seemed to set my mood for the rest of the day. And it was a blustery day with no sun until the afternoon. I thought 'winter is wearing spring's coat', sort of like a big, bad wolf. Did I really just say that? Lol.

News

Eye transplants in sight after retina is 'grown' in a test tube

Any Dream Will Do

Donny and Marie are bringing their live show to Toronto in July and a girlfriend called and asked if I'd be interested in tickets. I said yes, because I'd like to see them. It's her sister's birthday so I'll be going with her sister, because my friend already saw them in Las Vegas and the tickets aren't cheap. There are two other ladies going with us, I think it will be fun, both the show and the company.

I like Donny Osmond, I was able to see him at Casino Rama a few years ago. I also saw him in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat awhile back. Remember the song 'Any Dream Will Do?'...I loved it.

Marie is about my age, and I've always liked her as well.


News

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A Worthwhile Test

I have a routine colonoscopy coming up so I went to the drug store to purchase the necessary laxatives for the procedure. The cashier noticed my purchase and we got talking on the subject. She said it's a worthwhile procedure because her poor husband died from colon cancer at 59. He had flu-like symptoms for 2 years but never suspected what might be wrong with him. I told her I was sorry, but she said it was ok, that was 5 years ago. She reassured me by saying the procedure is less stressful than childbirth. Another lady joined the line and declared she had already had 5 colonoscopies and agreed with it being a worthwhile thing to have done. It seems the worst part is having to be on clear fluids only starting the day before the test.

To change the subject, I learned from the Paint Party Friday hosts that you can just use the Google translate button when browsing blogs written in another language. This is a useful piece of information and I started using this feature immediately. What a world Google has opened up for us!

Baked Kale Chips and other Healthy Recipes

A friend told me about this recipe for Baked Kale Chips from Allrecipes.com. M LOVES them. For me, they are okay, but no doubt they are healthy. It's worth a try. I'll be adding it to my regular menu. Thanks Kristin for letting me know the link wasn't working:

Baked Kale Chips by Lucy DelRey (Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients
1 bunch kale
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon seasoned salt

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Line a non insulated cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. With a knife or kitchen shears carefully remove the leaves from
the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces. Wash and thoroughly
dry kale with a salad spinner. Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle
with seasoning salt.
3. Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 10 to 15 minutes.


I got this Homemade macaroni and cheese recipe from the Heart and Stroke foundation and tried it yesterday. It uses a sweet potato and it was a bit hit with M and K.



And how about some Chocolate Carrot Cupcakes? This recipe is also from the Heart and Stroke foundation. It uses cocoa instead of chocolate, a neat trick to cut the fat without any of the taste. Also I've never made yogurt icing, it sounds like a good idea. I suspect it uses egg whites to be heart healthy, so if you are in a hurry and not watching your cholesterol, it's probably ok to use the complete eggs.


News

Maple syrup could be the latest superfood

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Sunday Sketches - Butterfly

This is a Monarch Butterfly, an endangered species. I drew the image from a WWF (World Wildlife Fund) photo. You have to marvel at the wonder of nature when you sketch these creatures. The intricate pattern on the wings was so inspiring.

Please visit the other Sunday Sketches contributors to see what they did today.

Sweet Saturdays and Masada

Diana has just started Sweet Saturdays and I think it's a wonderful idea. It's easy to participate as you can see, I just got her note this morning. I happened to make buttermilk pancakes this morning and took this photo to share long distance with my daughter . I decided to share with you as well today. Here is the simple recipe that I hope you'll try. I don't add oil to the pan by the way.

Hope you'll join us for Sweet Saturdays!




One of my sisters is currently on vacation with a couple of girlfriends. The husbands have been left behind. I have another girlfriend who does the same thing. It must be a middle-aged trend! Anyway, they are visiting Israel, Jordan and Spain I think. My sister is fortunate to have a couple of friends in Israel and they have helped her plan what seems to be the vacation of a lifetime. Apparently the food there is really delicious and fresh tasting. Their host refused to let them eat anything at McDonald's there, tempted as they were.

They visited the Dead Sea (where they had mud baths), then to a place called Masada. According to my sister's friend, "It is a flat topped mountain on the shores of the Dead Sea where King Herod built a winter palace. Then during the Jewish revolt against the Roman occupation, over 900 Jews fled there from Jerusalem and held out for 3 years against a Roman siege. The night before the Romans finally finished building a ramp up the mountain to burn down down the gates, they committed mass suicide in order not to be taken as slaves of the Romans. As you can imagine, it occupies a pretty important place in Jewish history and hearts, as well as being a World Heritage site and an awesome archaeological site."

What a story!



News

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Paint Party Friday - Infinity Pool

Happy April Fool's Day!

I know, I'm jumping ahead to Summer for Kristin and Eva's Paint Party Friday! Why not?

Please stop by the other participants to see what they did today.