This Is How We Do It

Sometimes it feels like everything is always changing and at the same time some things never change. Having quickly reviewed my last post full of resolutions, most of them still stand. A small number have seen minor progress while many are unfulfilled. Maybe at some point in the future I will be the complete fully realized version of myself. But until that point, thank goodness for lists.

I'm coming up on my two year anniversary with my cuddle bug brillo pad, Mr Professor Sprouty McPants. Someone once touched his head and said "He's soft" and I thought, what dog are you talking about, he's as soft as a cleaning abrasive. He does have a very soft forehead but that's about it. Lots of stuff was happening two years ago. I joined the band with my mom. A thorn in my side removed themselves and drove off into the abyss. A benign muscly tumor was hiding out and preparing to prolapse. 

I've been pushing myself to grow, while still fully embracing my lonesome state of comfort. Joining the executive board for the band. Making new friends. Organizing a summer band group, twice. I've worn dresses a few times. A few times a year I get together and play guitar with someone who's very talented, and very patient with me. But anticipating being embarrassed has encouraged me to put more effort into playing guitar regularly. We are currently on a hiatus while we both pick 5 songs that we will then focus on, creating a fully diverse 10 song repertoire. I'm slowly and continually improving my trumpet skills. I'm working on my first full sized sweater knit. It might actually be something I end up wearing. 

I'm currently a flailing fish at work, but I don't want to  dwell too much on that. It's a busy time, and I think at some point soon it will slow down, and I'll be able to take a few breaths of air (or water) and sustain future flailing.

Sim sent me a photo today of a Christmas card I gave the family 8 years ago. It warms my heart that she tells me they have hung the card on their tree every year since. And even to know as they dressed the tree, Pippa exclaimed "Aunt Julie's card!" and then hung it prominently front and centre.

 

And with that, I retire back to my state of non-blogging. And maybe I'll be able to double-fake myself into keeping this up. A hearty thank you to Sim for the encouraging text.

 

K-byyyyyje (162)

New Look, New Outlook

I am the type of fool that takes the opportunity of a new year to set goals and and offer redos. This year is no different. I wanted to get this post done before midnight.

2024 has had all sorts of feels. At the end of March I had one of my bothersome fibroids removed. In one breath the OBGYN was just looking around, and then suddenly there was a scalpel involved, and I was presented with a muscley fibrous tumour. Within a month my iron levels had returned to almost normal. I couldn't believe that my entire miserable existence was being caused by a clump of muscle fibres. I still have half a few lemons hanging out inside but my life has been reoriented. Like I had been turtling and someone kindly picked me up and put me back on my feet. I started wanting to walk Sprout. I wasn't tired ALL OF THE TIME. I don't even want to think about how miserable I felt. The strength of my stiff upper lip had been fading fast. But now, it's all just a new day.

Sprout has been the most amazing addition to my life. He's my little dude. And seeing him improve and grow has been my pleasure (as an old client once said in a fit of phone madness, "You're....my pleasure")

Things I want for 2025.

• Read more
• More guitar (more.....MORE)
• Finish knitting projects that I start
• Fully declutter the house
• Sell sell sell, everything I don't want or need
  
• Start and complete some small housing repairs/improvements
• Take up rollerskating again
• Work out again, regularly
• Push myself to be better in small but meaningful ways
• Should I even bullet that I want to blog again? Yes, I'll put it down and see what happens.

2024 was mediocre. Looking for a fantastic 2025.

Have You Tried Turning It Off and On Again

I have been blogging longer in my life than not. Not including the massive gaps in time and space. I used to have a geocities website when I was 18 where I learned some basic html code to customize. It was pretty garbage, but the heart was there. I'm going to try this again. Maybe without rigid expectations for my level of success. It has been a bit of a whirlwind of almost two years. Mostly for the fact that Steve was living here for nearly a year. I thought about blogging at some point during that time, but I don't like dishonesty. Or fake happy nonsense to blanket the underlying misery. Because lets be honest, I was miserable. It started great and ended horribly. And I have tucked away a few important life lessons.

Moving on! The following has some health stuff. Blunt and honest. Skip if you'd rather not.

My mom had breast cancer last spring. She had a successful removal surgery and a short radiation and is continuing to thrive. Because of that I have also joined the mammogram bandwagon. As hers was dutifully caught during a routine scan. I had my scan and a call back and all was non-malignant. My Dr is recommending a redo in 6 mos. I'm starting to feel suffocated with medical appointments but I will oblige. After my call back they made me wait while a doctor reviewed the ultrasound and she gave me the all clear on the spot. I feel like they are realizing the benefits of scanning and early detection. For the overall health of women. With a possible underlying of savings on overall healthcare.

I'm currently waiting for an appointment with an Ob for an on-going fibroid issue. I can say fibroids casually now but it wasn't casual as I felt a tumor where a tumor shouldn't be and quietly cried not knowing what it was. I waited a week for an abdominal ultrasound and a few more weeks to speak with my doctor about the results. I was worried the results would be black and white images that were confusing and scary. Had I opened the results on my own I would have read (and googled) Uterine Fibroids and exhaled a giant sigh of relief. Benign, MFs. One tennis ball and two lemons is how I lovingly describe them. It's really actually only half a tennis ball, but that's not as cute. 

I can only assume based on symptoms that I've had fibroids for over four years. Only recently growing to the size of detection. It seems the more external one has been growing more rapidly very recently. Causing greater discomfort and leading to what I believed was a full shut down of my urethra. I called the Ob office to beg for an earlier appointment and they told me to call my doctor or go to emerg. I called my doctor and only spoke to a nurse who said to go to emerg. I went to emerg last Friday and sat for 8 hours while the entire world was triaged in front of me. I don't begrudge anyone who was seen before me, but the system is still slightly broken. My mom actually sat with me for 8 hours while we waited to be seen. Saturday was horrible and after barely dripping out a single pee all day I called my mom at 10:30pm and told her I was going back in. I went upstairs to shower and change and fell asleep. When I woke up I went downstairs. It was 1:00am and my mom was pulling into my driveway. She had already been to the ER and waited there for me. Finally realizing I wasn't there she came to my house to pick me up. The emerg was dead empty. We were quite literally the only people in the room. It still took over 4 hours to be seen. I understand a few people were probably ambulanced in but the system is still so slow. I had to explain to the triage nurse that the crazy lady that was stalking the emerg room was my mom, and she had come looking for me earlier and was not senile and lost.

The doctor diagnosed a bladder infection, and gave me a script for antibiotics and some pills to stop excessive menstrual bleeding. I was quite miserable at that point. I got home at about 5am. Still in great discomfort from my unruly fibroid. Still not able to pee. Still feeling backed up. The meds performed a small miracle and my interfering fibroid has begun to shrink significantly. I returned to google to see if that was a side effect and it doesn't specifically indicate that. I have read quite thoroughly about the medical options for fibroids. Up to 9cm they can potentially deal with laparoscopicly. My my tennis ball is 8cm. If I can avoid a hysterectomy it will be a win. If you remove your uterus your periods stop, obviously. If you remove your ovaries it apparently automatically triggers menopause. Hard pass on that one, for as long as possible.

Mar 27 I find out my fate, with the Ob. I have a lot more hope having gone through the recent shrinking episode. My doctor told me they were too large to counter with medication. But I'll take an easier surgery. I just hope the Ob can book me for surgery at a reasonable time and not months from now. But if not, they need to give me the magical less bleeding pills until then. I thought my physical lot in life was to be menstrually tortured for the rest of my child bearing years. Turns out I was an ailment that can be cured.

Else. Other stuff. What else.

Dec 2 I welcomed a little furball of love into my life. He's my little cuddle bug. My only wish is for people to know him as I do. A little curious weirdo with slight emotional issues. But he turns into a lobotomy patient when any other living soul is around. His eyes go wide and glassy and he won't acknowledge a soul. He won't even take his favourite treat from strangers. Lets just say we're working through it.

His name is Sprout. He likes belly rubs and stealing socks. He likes his wet food in the morning and will usually go on a hunger strike if he gets anything else served to him. He also loves (LOVES) chicken. Like he might plow down small children to get some. He's really a very good boy. He does happy dances with his front paws. And wiggles his butt back and forth. Sometimes I'm gone as long as a bathroom visit and he'll greet me with such gusto (and love) that I'm blown away. And sometimes he'll just raise his little head from the recliner arm rest and go back to sleep.

I'm looking forward to Spring & Summer. I bought a pergola last fall. Thinking I would have help setting up. That help is gone, so I'm going to build it on my own. My dad said he'll help me lift it up, which is great. Sitting out in the sun with new lawn sofa, my new pup, and to-be new perg. And in equally great news, I tried plugging in my Sony sound cancelling headphones again, and the charge took and I can finally use them again. Everything's coming up Milhouse Julie.

I'm going to see my parents for dinner. I'm picking up a pound of brisket (I'm lying I'm getting a pound and a half) at a local bbq place. Mom is grilling up some veggies for nutritional value. The plan is to keep it regular. Soooooo.....see you in another two years.

Honey I'm Still Free, Take a Chance On Me

I'm just going to skip over the apologies this time. I always have the best of intentions.

I went up to the cottage this weekend, just for a day trip. Sometimes after a week of work I just don't want to move from my couch on Friday night. I left at about 9am and I didn't take anything with me but my current knitting project. I honked and waved at my neighbours as I drove away.

I filled up at 178.9 on the way up, which felt great. I miss the old driving route but this one will do. I stopped at Subway to have some food for the day. The guy in front of me was a piece of work. First he's asked if he wants toasted and he says "Sure why not" and I think, he's pretty chill. Then he comes to add the toppings and he says "Ugh, no lettuce, oh that lettuce is disgusting." Then he moves on, "The tomatoes don't look that good either. No those hot peppers should be thrown out, those are disgusting." I just kept my head down at that point and quietly felt horrible for the person behind the counter. And I regret to say when I got to top my sandwich I passed on the hot peppers because douche magoo was standing right next to me. Does he see something I don't see I thought?

I got to the cottage by 1130. Sat on the deck and knit for a good while until it was too cold. Eventually it warmed up a bit, or the wind calmed down. And I kept knitting. Knit knit knit. I've been trying to make a point of practicing hobbies instead of just thinking about them. I left around 8pm, to catch the drive home in mostly sun. The sunset was unreal when I caught it. A bright red ball slipping behind the horizon.

When I got home my alarm modem was still tripping on and off. Sounding like it's trying to connect to the internet in the 90s, but not quite so harsh. Maybe the cell chip is fried. I don't know if I even have full cell service back. I'm getting text messages 8 hrs after the fact. And in some cases not at all (credit card purchase notifications don't come through yet).  Rogers really pooched it this time. I'm looking forward to the credit we're going to get. For all the people who were stranded with no cash, who needed to call nine one one and couldn't, or were just left twiddling their thumbs all day wondering what their bestie was up to - Friday was a shitty day.

I'll leave it at that, for now. Byyyyyje.

Edit: Knit progress. It's boring right now so I've also included a photo of the intended final project. 

Is It Going To Be Like This Forever?

I'm slowly adjusting to the outdoors looking like midnight by the time work is done. I used to get out of work at 3:30pm so it was always light on the way home. And now that I have an actual house and yard to take care of I'm feeling the darkness.

I missed a week, but in my heart I know I'm doing so much better than before. Last weekend I had the most traumatizing experience. I felt a pinch on my back and I ran to the washroom to find a tick on my back. I didn't know it was a tick as I swatted wildly at it, screaming uncontrollably. It almost fell down the drain but it was still alive and it's little gross legs stuck to the drain and kept it within reach. I have never seen or known what an engorged tick is, but that means it has been feasting on your blood and is the size of a pinky nail. In a few more days it would have ballooned up and I don't even want to think about it. I showered with that a****** attached to my back. I slept. I walked around. I am forever changed. I called my dr and she prescribed a schedule of antibiotics. Two weeks, two pills a day and I'm guaranteed to not get Lyme disease. Although the bite site is not halo-ing and I don't have any other apparent symptoms I feel better knowing I will be 100% Lyme free. I also have been avoiding my doctor. Taking a covid reprieve from the constant battery of blood tests and follow ups, and in the process have been avoiding a necessary appt. I choose to consider this bite the impetus to otherwise take care of myself.

I shovelled my driveway for the first time yesterday afternoon. Certainly not the first driveway I've ever shovelled, but absolutely the most reasonably sized one. I felt like a real home owner. And not the imposter I've been trying to overcome. I also got in a last round of lawn maintenance on Saturday, which by the way was GORGEOUS out. I had about another hour to do but the darkness cut my time short. And I chose the right day to finally put my last two patio chairs into the shed.

It's November, so it's the time of year I start buying myself presents. I don't know how it happens every year like clockwork. I was at Costco in Peterborough and I grabbed a set of wifi headphones. I went online and ordered a carry case for some knitting needles I came across in my spare room. I'm actually quite excited to have everything together in one place. I ordered a really expensive shawl knitting kit from a local yarn shop.

Tomorrow the guy that installed my security system is coming by with a new indoor sensor. The morning I woke up and forgot to turn it off and didn't set it off until I opened the back door, I knew something was wrong. And it has taken me literally months to get him to replace it. When it isn't a supply issue, vendors in town are just insanely busy.

I picked up a bundle of dishes at Nirvana on the way home from the pharmacy. They are my all-time fave. I do miss the food from Mississauga from time to time. I stopped by M&Ds and dropped off some yums for them as well.

That's about all she wrote. And by she I mean me. That's all me wrote.

It's Been A Week....Or Three

I haven't given up on the revival, yet. I just had company for a week. And then I had a week of missing company. And here I am back. I went to stay at Sim's the night before Halloween. I carved what can only be categorized as a labour of love. It literally took me hours. And when Sim offered to let Pippa try out her cutting skills I may have barked no. Ok, I barked. Not my proudest moment. Now that the girls are getting old enough, maybe it will be my last year for pumpkins.

I left TO in the morning and drove out to Zurich to pick up Steve. We talked about him taking transit, but the route was near impossible with about 5 transfers. I insisted on picking him up. We drove back into Cobourg in the middle of trick or treating. I was worried the light I had left in Bowser might give the impression that I was home. But no fear, the toothless former dictator with a pathetic electric tea light against a backdrop of dark windows created no such illusion. We probably only had about 15 kids come to the door, with about 6 knocks in total. The first was a kid which declared "I USED TO LIVE IN THIS HOUSE." I was a bit taken aback as I despise the trash monsters who sold to me, but I think it was perhaps one family before that.

I can only describe the week that followed as one of my more enjoyable weeks living here. I did the shopping and the meal prep and Steve whipped my property into shape before my eyes. Highlight was definitely taking down the birch in the back yard. With a nylon rope tied around the tree, Steve made strategic cuts and told me to pull. And we crossed our fingers that it didn't hit the fence...or me. It was an adrenaline rush. My heart was beating out of my chest like I couldn't believe. And then down came the second trunk and we were done with the scary bits. Steve also took the opportunity then to trim the nubs off the sandbox cover I made so it was a perfect square (we later screwed it onto the box with hinges I had picked up). If I had given it proper thought I would have stuck with my barn door design, but I'm still quite taken with it as it is now. I went back to work, and every time I looked out more of the cleanup was done. He limbed the entire two trees and moved the logs to the back. I helped pickup wood debris and he raked the entire yarn. He even raked the sandbox which had amassed a small pile of leaves. I went back out after work and cut the trunk into a few dozen pieces, and then we zipped through the limbs and cut them down as well. And all the while as the tree was being dismantled he had a roaring fire going. First with the brush that I had cut down in June, and then with the brush Spence had cut down in August, and finally with the birch itself. We had fires every day and night following the felling. Steve cleaned my garage. Rearranged everything in my shed. Hung the busted bad choice plywood I bought for the sandbox without measuring first up on the walls and hung all of my outdoor tools on them. My heart swells when I think about all the things he did for me. I actually wanted for him to have a relaxing week, and maybe just help me take the tree down, but he outdid himself. And then when it got too cold we'd go inside watch action movies I had no idea existed on Netflix. I miss him. But I also enjoy walking around in my underwear and having cereal for dinner if I'm feeling lazy. Russ probably misses him too. My backyard is far less active or exciting without him. Nothing for Russ to spy on. Only hitch of the week was locking myself out on Friday morning. But I finally had a reason to go talk to my two doors down neighbours, and also followed that up with a stop into the Cafe one of them owns on Saturday.

 

A tiny christmas tree currently adorns my front hallway. I'm going to look for my bag of christmas decorations and maybe try to make it a bit festive in here this year. If my house were a Wheel of Fortune Before & After it would be, A Christmas Carroll Cres. I think I should make some sort of elaborate Cross stitch with that phrase on it.

I feel like things are kind of coming together for me. I finally rehung the living room wall art. The HRV filters I ordered online have finally shipped and will arrive this week. I have Lily's gift purchased with a cute card to go with it. I'm slowly getting thru recycling all the broken down boxes I was collecting in the garage. Steve arranged them in boxes said I should put them all out and see if they'd take it, but one week I came home and my bins were strewn across my driveway and everyone else on the street was neatly stacked, and I've been scared of annoying them ever since. Not sure what I did wrong the first time either.

I have a few trips into Toronto on deck. My winter tires are going on this week. I'm actually surprised they could fit me in with such short notice.

And yeah, that's all. I might come back and throw in some photos to round out this tri-week post.

I Don't Like Mondays

Week two and I'm already having to be reminded of my blogging commitment. Eventually I will get into a rhythm.

I had a bit of a day today. I had to go downtown to meet a work associate. I haven't adjusted my commuting schedule accordingly for the return of traffic so I'm habitually late on office days. It's taking me about 2 hrs to get into town, and I officially need to look into taking the GO from Oshawa. I stopped into the Oshawa Costco on the way home but basically couldn't find anything I was looking for. It was a sign, for me to get out of there and boogie home. I also stopped at Home Depot but they were closed. Because everything in Cobourg closes at 8pm. *insert giant eye roll* Forget about where to get Chinese food at 3am on a Tuesday, I can't get Chinese food at 8:05pm on a Thursday.

I carved my pumpkins on the weekend, and they turned out tremendously well. I take pencil to paper before I attempt drawing on the pumpkin. If I cannot get a reasonably attractive run-thru I move on to the next model. I was struggling, hard. And then like magic I drew out Bowser and it was a success. sketched it out on the pumpkin and gave it a carve. Once your outline is there the carving is relatively easy. And then I needed a partner for Bowser. Sim suggested Peach but the options on Google image search intimidated me and I ended up with Boo. Again, I am fantastically pleased with how they turned out.

Next weekend is the third annual carving at Sim's place. We'll see if the plan will come to fruition. We shall see.

Tomorrow I need to pop back over to Home Depot to get some screws for a building project. I'll post it next week. It's already looking even better than I could have imagined. I'll find out this week if company will be joining me in Cobourg next weekend. I have a handful of cleaning jobs to complete between now and Friday, and I'm already rolling my eyes at the thought.

Oh and one last thing. My mom asked me if I would be interested in volunteering for her band to do the bookkeeping, and I'm meeting with the leader of that organization on  Wednesday. She's been kind of keen on me spreading my wings in Cobourg. And I just want to sit on my couch and eat bon bons. Or sit on Sim's couch eating bon bons. TBBI. Total bon bon important. I made my cut-off, with 15 minutes to spare. I bid this beautiful blog a sweet sweet night.

Don't Race In Space

I really don't have much of anything to say, a day later. Although one of these Mondays I'm going to recap the week trip Sim and I took this year. 2021, featuring the Girlen. Sitting out back with Sim and Spence with the girls running through the (freshly cut) grass was maybe my best memory from this summer, and it needs to be told.

I'm up bright and early tomorrow to take my car in for an oil change. I blasted a bunch of KMs on the old hunk this month and she's ready for more oil already. And not to be unclear, hunk is not a term of endearment. We are still just barely on speaking terms. It's really the inconvenience that is the worst part of maintenance.

I'm nearly half way to the halfway point on my knitting project. I have so much random yarn I need to figure out how to use. Even with a craft room I'm feeling a bit lost with how much yarn there is tucked away. And I still have my sewing machine to set up and start using.

I picked up some bread flour for some baking projects. When I'm done through the loaf I just bought, I want to get started baking at home. I am also the proud owner of a 1/12th of a cow. I got a few extra soup bones, so I need to get some recipes going. I do love a good beef and barley soup, so that will be first on the list.

Lets see, what else. The lawn is still well cut, so that's not weighing on my mind, at the moment.

I've had some fleeting thoughts about decorating. I have never put much effort into making a place my own before. Aside from hanging a few photos here and there. There's never much cohesion across looks. I have some ink paintings from Bali my grandma used to have hanging in her home. I picked them out from a garage sale my mom hosted years ago. I know I don't need paintings to remember my grandma, but I like them. I might hang them upstairs in the bedroom. So far my bedrooms each have a bed and a table. Impressive. I want to patch up the walls in the living room here and downstairs. I have a sofa in mind picked out for the basement, and I might be inheriting a TV from the Heath household that I can mount on the wall. I was originally going to turn the corner downstairs into a workout corner, which might still happen. Currently the bike is downstairs and the weights are up here. And the bike is staying there forever until it dies and is disassembled for removal. So I'm thinking about getting some padded flooring and moving the whole operation down there. Just today I had a moment where I thought about wallpapering the spare bedroom. Wallpaper. Who am I? Oh, and I have a plan for a sandbox cover. After realizing I couldn't fit a 4x8 board in my car (lolz) I have a new plan in mind.

Maybe I'll just hibernate this winter and get all the things done. All, the, things.

*Tap tap tap*...Is This Thing On

 I regularly lament my inactivity here. It's not that difficult. It doesn't take much time. And it provides for endless enjoyment to reflect back upon the small joys in life years later. I'm not going to make anymore vacant promises, but for myself I want to try to keep this up more.

Since April, I have moved into my new house. There was much drama surrounding the closing the residual findings of scumdum left by the previous owners.

• The deal closed and they hadn't left. I pulled up to a lawn and driveway covered in garbage bags. I wanted to rip her a new one for not vacating in time but I didn't want her to leave 10 tons of garbage behind so I squeaked out, "Well when do you think you'll be gone then?" Instead of a string of expletives that were boiling beneath the surface.
• The dishwasher first thought to be covered in calcium was unusable. The soap dispenser was broken, and the unit was filled, filled, filled with filth. I regret my decision to clean it out, but it at least made for a slightly nicer removal. The fridge also started leaking, but guess what, I REPLACED THEM BOTH *throws money in the air and spins between two new appliances*
• The downstairs sink had cat shit in it, so I had that replaced
• The central vac was broken
• The entire house was filled with cat hair and was uncleaned. It wasn't immediately apparently dirty but the filth was everywhere. I scrubbed that condo on my hands and knees until it shined, and then I checked every cupboard 5 more times to make sure they were all clean. I had to replace the shower rod as it was covered in rust and was absolutely disgusting. I'm not always on top of my cleaning, and I'm currently sitting beside a life-sized stack of empty boxes, but I would never present this to the world or sell & close without showing respect for the next buyers.
  
• And they also left shit all over the house. Including a razor and half a can of coke zero upstairs. Filth pigs. Oh, they left me a hose on a hose reel in the backyard, no it's broken, thanks guys.

But hey. I got a bunch of guys in to clean the ducts, steam the stairs, new appliances, new driveway, and then one more guy to bump out the dent in the garage since I smashed into it with a uhaul cube van ;)

Summer has been busy with trips across the city and up to TP. Sim and the fam came out for a visit in August. I dug out the backyard sand pit and bought 750 new lbs of sand to fill it back in. It was worth it for the few hours we sat out back and the girls dug to their heart's content. Rainbow slip and slide and unicorn bowling. All remnants of an amazing weekend which now exist in my basement. The bowling is still set up if anyone wants to stop by for some six pin.

I stopped working out after I moved. I had been in such a good routine at my parents' house, but the stress of fixing everything beavis and butthead left for me was overwhelming. My bank opened an extra line of credit in my name without my permission and my car had half a dozen repairs within the span of a month. And then trying to find my rhythm which was always sprinkled with exhaustion from weekend travels, after work grocery shops, and the dreaded lawn cuttings. I opted for an electric mower because I do not have time or patience for small engine repairs. So of course my first purchase was a lemon, which caused my great anguish like I was somehow too incompetent to use a plug and play mower. I had trouble getting it out of my trunk to start and could barely load it back in on my own. I made Home Depot fetch it from my car and reload the replacement. As I stood there and they evaluated the mower, the guy said where's the mulch bag? Oh hanging in my garage I replied. He cleverly took the mulch bag from the replacement to complete the return and let me on my way.

I participated in a veggie box program this summer and it was a complete failure. I found myself week after week being faced with buying either $6 bags of lettuce or turnips or beets or carrots which spoiled too quickly or potatoes. I have so many potatoes leftover from weeks of overflow. A few weekends I sent my mom to the market to pick up my goods. I would budget out what she could buy with my allowance credit. One week I told her the prices they quoted me, and they took attitude with her at the market and said she was wrong and they had always been a different price. (When two weeks of previous emails proved that statement wrong). When I heard that, I wanted to tear them apart. No one talks to my mom like that. So I sent a less than friendly emailing bluntly asking them to provide correct pricing in their weekly emails. And then the lady farmer pointed out how price depends on harvest size and that is clearly stated in their emails. Well, I'm pretty sure a pint of beans never changes size you absolute horrible excuse for a human. Today was the last pick-up. 18 weeks of over-priced and less than appealing veg. Next year I'll save my money and buy the veg I want, in the quantities I want, when I want. Broccoli and corn and cauliflower and every once in a while some beets. I have a great pickling recipe now I'm quite taken with.

A few weekends ago we had a company retreat up in Huntsville. 3 days and 2 nights paid for by the company. When we arrived we checked in and then almost immediately headed across the street to an ATV adventure sight. I almost didn't fit into their largest gear so that's a bit of an impetus to get back to my regular programming. It started out with a bit of a demo course practice. The place had this tarmac with a strip of bush in the middle. And it was legit. You had to stand up for half of the ride as the bike shook from side to side. There were two drop-offs which almost gave me a heart attack. The trainer said, do not brake. The ATV will self-manage the speed, just steer. I ended up nailing the last drop, only braking after I planed out and the track took a sharp turn. I almost hit a birch on the track, it was by the grace of the ATV gods that I didn't. I had to keep telling myself, this is all on me. There is no stopping. There is no turning back. No one is here to stop you from falling off the ledge and sliding down into the forest. No one is stopping you from slamming into a birch and causing a few Gs in damage to this beautiful machine. No one can get you out of this nightmare but yourself. And like some twisted motivational speech is worked and I made it out. I afterwards declared that it was a once in a lifetime experience. Because I would only do it once. And it's done, so moving on! We also took a group kayak the next day which was amazing. And though I trailed behind the pack, there was one guy worse than me. Sarah and I ended up travelling on the last day with the two other girls in the company and we met for lunch in Barrie and then the two travellers split and went to the airport and I dropped Sarah home and headed back to the 'Bourg.

Fall is upon us. I don't have many concrete plans, but I do have visions for the future. I have visions of bone broths and tasty soup. Knitting projects and homemade loafs of bread. A beautiful season of NFL with hopefully a handful of Sunday trips into town to visit the Heaths. And if I'm lucky, I might have a visitor next month that will help with some electrical DIYs that I would rather not touch with a 10ft pole. TBD

I picked up my pumpkins at Moore Orchards today. I have plans for a Mario theme. One of my pumpkins has a curly Q on the stem which has me swooning. Maybe that one will be Peach.

Time To Forgive Me And Move On

I have spent a small but measurable portion of my existence on this planet apologizing for not updating my blog. Begging for your forgiveness. And putting forth vacant promises that I will update more often (and with more vigour). I would blame it on covid, but lets not go there. This time I make no promises. But, I will secretly try to be better.

OK, lets see, the last time I posted we had just hiked Mt Nemo. What else has happened.....

At the end of August I quit my horribly oppressive soul-sucking job. I walked into my boss' office and said "I'm leaving", his response was "Where are you going?" Uncertain if he understood what I was saying I said, "Here is my two week's notice." It was a lie, it was only 9 days notice. My job offer came through two weeks before Labour Day weekend, and that would have left my 10th day on the following Tuesday. And aint nobody got time for that. My new boss gave me 3 weeks to decompress, and my start date was the end of September. And because I'm apparently awesome, my old company actually paid me until the end of September. I do believe in my heart of hearts she just didn't want to correct payroll which was processed a month at a time. I spent two weeks (read: 9 days) working harder than I ever had before. I didn't really get an opportunity to say good bye to anyone, aside from my favourite customer. And that was it, I was done. I said "You guys will be fine" and I left.

So backing up quickly, I moved almost my entire condo unit into storage in June. Just the furniture, the boxes of stuff I moved personally through about 5 or 6 trips to Cobourg where they were stored in my parents' basement. I have become to accustomed to living without "stuff" I might just leave it all here. Jk, but maybe....

There I was, with a desk I inherited from my brother and an accompanying stool. Working from home. Relaxing on my blowup mattress. And retiring to sleep on my bed, which I thankfully kept. Having a bed to sleep on helped me maintain my sanity. I kept saying to myself I just have a few more things I want to do and then we'll list it. I finally just called the agent and set the clock going on myself. Within maybe a month it was listed. But that in that time I had to deal with final packing & moving, painting, staging, and then throw in a busted winter tire that required 4 (count them four) trips to the tire shop. Trip 1 - take my winter tires to have them put on. Trip 2 - return and have a broken winter replaced. Trip 3 - take my car back to have a further punctured tired replaced (with an ill-fitted spare that was provided to me) and Trip 4, on the eve of my departure from Mississauga, to replace the busted tire. I recall sitting at a stop light and a guy pulls up in the left turn lane and signals to me. I roll the window down and he says "Your back tire is flat." Having dash alerts on low air I replied, "I know" and he said, "No, it is completely out of air." The night before my condo had been staged and I was left without a place to put my mattress and slept on the floor. The staging company told me at the last minute I couldn't sleep on the bed without my own sheets. Following that whole ordeal I drove to Cobourg and immediately checked into a hotel. I had to get tested for covid to move in with my parents and avoid my brother murdering me in my sleep. Have I mentioned I had a full blown cold at this point. I basically inhaled an entire flat of Gatorade Zero I had picked up from Costco on a whim, and blew and hacked my way through nearly a dozen tissue boxes. I zooted up north of Port Hope, had a lovely nurse gently swab my cheeks and then attempt to my extract my brains through my nose. Luckily in that order, and luckily it also wasn't that bad. More annoying than anything. I got my negative results, and spent the rest of the week residing at a hotel with zero contact (still at risk of Sororicide by my brother for the slight chance I could have dormant undetectable covid).

So like November 30 or so I moved in with my parents. The condo market in Mississauga decided to take a bit of a crap because of all the AirBnB condo owners selling for lack of income. I sold my place under asking on an already reduced price. Such is life right. I spent the last month of my life at the condo struggling with property mgmt to clean a giant rust stain in my storage locker caused by a corroded pipe in the unit behind mine. I was sent photos of a different unit and told I was lying and there was no rust. I sent back my own photos and said, "I'm not a scientist but that looks like rust to me." She said they would clean it. I went by the condo a few days before closing and they had not lifted a finger. I locked the locker and walked away. I thought I was finally free. Then in February they charged me maintenance fees. I wrote them very kindly and said, I told you twice when I was moving, please return the money you have stolen. I was told they would put the request in. Then I was told, accounting says we cannot return your money because the new owners haven't paid yet. At which point I became fairly unhinged. She told me to contact my lawyer and find out how to get the money back from the closing (that had happened two weeks previous). I said, I'm contacting my lawyer to find out how to get my money back from you. And magically, a cheque was going to be cut and sent immediately. I think my timing was just fortuitous but it's funny think that maybe it was intimidation. Back off, get your own sandwich.

I closed on Jan 25, or some day near there. It's all a blur. As soon as the money hit the bank I started looking for a place out here. In stark contrast to the market I sold in, the market I bought in was a flaming ball of fire. I saw about six houses. I bid on two of them. And I got the second one. I offered a flexible closing date (with an expiration) which slowly started to drive me mad. I couldn't make ANY arrangements for vendors not knowing what date it would be mine. Eventually the sellers settled on the latest possible close. End of May it will be all mine.

As for now. It's stay at home time. I have a cross stitch I'm working on as a gift to myself. I've finished a bunch of WIP knitting projects, but looking forward to possibly starting a new one. I'm working on my health. Sim hooked me up with Peloton and it's basically the best thing that's ever happened to me. I also workout with my mom doing some fairly low impact youtubes. I'm hooked on a 10 min abs video from a "Shred" challenge I did in February. I think my mom might just be tired me walking around in bike shorts asking her to feel my new muscles.

Looking forward to the summer. I signed up for a veggie box from a local farm. I can bike into town from my home and pick-up extras or take across the boardwalk or down the pier. Life is promising. If this plague would just give up already. Waiting for my vaccination date, my parents are getting it tomorrow.

Peace & Love.

Mount Nemo: 20,000 Leagues Above Sea Level

 I hit the trails with Sim a few weekends ago. My brother actually sent me a picture of this hike he had taken and I sent it to Sim and said....ehn???? I went online through Conservation Halton and booked us a reservation. They were very specific online about arriving at a certain time, and you can only stay for 2 hrs. We showed up like 10 minutes early and I said to Sim should we wait before we start? And she just shot me this look and I'm like ok lets go!

The hike to the first lookout point was very short, and paved. We wanted to start on the North loop and continue onto the South loop, but the signage was very poor and we ended up taking the North loop from the top which ended us back at the parking lot.  It was about 3.5km and I had been starting to feel pooped. Sim wanted to see the rest of the park and we split up. She high-tailed it through the South loop, and in to see the quarry and then back to the parking lot. I sat in the car and msged my brother for a bit, while Sim was almost literally jogging the second trail. I think we both chose wisely, although I missed the most breathtaking of the two views (yellow trees below).

The hike was followed by a Sunday football hang with the Heaths. I currently have a few knitting projects on the go so I sometimes miss some (or most of) the action. But I wouldn't rather be anywhere else. I'm looking forward to next Spring and Summer, and potentially exploring some hiking trails out Northumberland way. I'm currently not a very active person. I think I settled into a sedentary lifestyle with my weight what it is. But it's certainly easier challenging myself now than it has been in previous years. And I hope to continue pushing

I'm also going back out to Stratford this week to pick up a bike rack for the Townies. I made an unsuccessful trip a few weeks back, where they literally sold it out from underneath me and I showed up and they were like, "That wasn't you here earlier??" (I can't even explain the anger, Stratford is not on the way to ANYWHERE). But back out I go, as no one else in the universe seems to be able to stock Thule racks at the moment. Maybe they do some light smuggling on the side so get preference during this insane time.

See you next year Mt Nemo.

Summertime And The Living's Easy

All pandemic horror aside, I'm having a good summer.  Can I say that? Am I allowed to say that?  It was a god awful horrible Spring.  Including a two week stint at home that was supposed to be my foray into working from home, which turned into a working nightmare in which I was ignored all but for specific details I was asked to provide. That is a story all unto itself and one I probably shouldn't share publicly.

4 adults and 2 girlen have formed a bubble that convenes up in Southgate every weekend.  A few extra people are also in play with occasional drop-ins or stay-overs.  I can't control my work life in terms of interacting with potential harm, but my private life is well under control. I've told Sim I actually wouldn't mind just keeping everything as is for the rest of time. Surely next year as the vaccinated gates open up I will be forced to....so-cial-ize with more people.

Plans, also yet to be revealed, are under way. I have made strides. And that's all I can really say about that. Life is really rather quite busy right now, but all shall be known....later.

I'm happy Canada is doing as well as they are for infections. We are seeing country after country swing into a second wave.  And perhaps it's foolish to think we will somehow be immune to the wavy nature of infection. I'm presuming we'll see an upswing soon for phase 3 opening up in Peel & Toronto. Hoping that it's just less infectious than we first thought?

And with that.  With that.  I promise to update more often lol.  Lolz?

Conversations With A Genius

Julie: Hey there's a catchy song I want you to listen to. *Pulls out phone, cues up on YouTube*

♫♫♫

Yeah
I don't wanna fall asleep
I don't wanna pass away
I been thinking of our future 'cause I'll never see those days

♫♫♫

Julie: *Hits pause*....I'm sorry I didn't realize it was such a sad song

Sim: What's it called

Julie: Death bed.....

Sim: *face palm*

Lols ensued.

Love In The Time of COVID

Jackie posted the other day: comment your pandemic book title.  The others were all too funny so I didn't post but mine was Love in the time of COVID.

Much could be said about what we're going through right now, in the world and in our communities, but I don't know if I want to be able to look back on how horrible everything is right now. All I know is that I'm safe, and everyone I know and love is also safe. My parents have been absolute hermit troopers. My brother and I shared a deep concern that they would hold onto the routine of every day life, but to be honest with economic shutdowns as they are, there is not much opportunity to socialize unless you want to engage the clerk at the grocery store or the pharmacy.

I continue to work and I am required to go into the office every day. We were offered to work from home and when I said ok they abruptly withdrew the offer and banned me from the office for 2 weeks. Declaring that I was self-isolating and was not welcome to come back, not even at night. This after our fearless leader returned from Florida and came into the office. With no regard for anyone's safety. I dared to address this with him on the phone telling him he was NOT allowed to come in. And he said yes he was, especially if no one was there at night or on the weekends. Two days later it was announced that breaking self-isolation was illegal. Without further discussion he stayed at home for two weeks. Perhaps this is why they turned around and passed the same fate upon me.  This I will never forget or forgive.  I will carry anger, hatred and resentment against them for the rest of my days.

My car has been in the shop for almost 3 weeks.  My replacement clutch that went in 18 mos ago was also defective. My mechanic told me that in his 12 year career he has replaced three defective clutches and two of them have been mine. After this was replaced, under warranty, I showed up to pick it up and it was revealed to still not be functioning. It was partially my fault for saying "OK I'm coming now byyyeee" and partially their fault for not saying, "Don't come just yet." It turned out that the transmission was also toast. I stood outside the dealership and watched them test drive my car.  Three loops around Lorne Park, each time it drove past I caught glimpse of the four-way flashers being left on and each time my heart sank further into my stomach. They spent the next 4-5 days fighting to get the transmission also covered under warranty and they were successful. I was ready to walk away and tell them to keep it. Fiat transmissions are not serviceable, in such that they cannot be rebuilt. They do not produce parts. Failed or broken transmissions need to be replaced in full.  I luckily did not need to make that choice. I remember I told Sim once that I was driving Pippa's first car. Thinking that I would drive it for 14 years, as all other cars I've owned, and then Pips could drive what would then be a beater until it broke down in the middle of Bathurst and Dundas. Perhaps now with a new clutch and transmission we will make it.  But I hold an envelope up to my head and ask, "An event that will happen in 2021" and when I open the envelope it reads "Julie's first car bonfire".

I'm slowly trying to make the most of my time at home. I finished a course at Sheridan and have signed up for a second. I've focused on making more food from scratch. I've started and almost finished a knitting project.  I've sworn off tv while I refocus my life towards activities that will enrich my life. There is much left to do to make 2020 a year of improvement and redemption.

In maybe the only hopeful news I've had lately Jackie gave birth to the most beautiful squirmy wormy.  She joined us on what will be known going forward as "Birthday".  I can't wait to see her and hold her and squish her little baby fat. Why can't this disease do what the Cheeto commands and just go away. GO AWAY COVID. What kind of story will this make in the future. When all the dead are buried and remembered, and the living are vaccinated.  Remember the time the world experienced a plague?  YES WE WERE THERE.

Neighbourhood #20 - Yorkville

NEW ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: 20 Neighbourhoods visited. It feels like an achievement but looking back Sim and I have been at this for over 9 years.  So coming in at just over two neighbourhoods a year, here we are. The weekend started with the promise of a trip up to Orillia to watch the Super Bowl with Dana and Dave (and Alex +1). I said I would stay over on Saturday night so we could leave together.  And that turned into a Great British Bake Off Marathon, but more importantly the great idea from Sim so pick a new hood. We're probably only half done to be honest, but it does get more difficult to choose. Finally I suggested Yorkville and Sim said YES as she had a few ideas already for us.

After humming and hawing about transit vs driving we hopped into my car and zipped over to Yorkville. The parking was as to be expected in the North Downtown business core. Also known as the Nodobuco. We started with a bucket list restaurant stop of mine, Sassafraz. Sim had mentioned earlier that Winterlicious was on so hey, why not do Winterlicious lunch at Sassafraz!! The options were amazing.  Sim went with the Moroccan Lamb starter with the Atlantic Salmon Main and the Creme Caramel for dessert. Accompanied by a "Frostbite" cocktail. I forget the ingredients but it was YUMMY. My fare was the exact same, sub a beet salad to start. Sim looked at me during lunch and said, "This is a place I would have picked, so thank you." It's true. She goes for the classy class, and I roll my eyes and say fiiiine.  This time she didn't have to drag me kicking and screaming. Other than the fact that I didn't have any nice clothes and I hadn't washed my hair in two days and it looked a TOTAL MESS. But as I don't have to look at myself during an outing I let that go from my mind.

A quick walk down Yorkville Rd brought us to a cute little paper shop, The Papier.  I could spend hours in a shop like this. I could spend hundreds of dollars. And then I would have hundreds of dollars of paper at home that I'm doing nothing with. BUT, I do hope that stores like this stick around. As we seem to be losing the brilliant landscape of brick and mortar stores that has graced our Toronto streets (streets that I walk, very often, used to be daily).

Next we flipped over to what was going to be another tick for me, Hemingways bar.  I went once many moons ago and seemed to remember it was great.  It's kind of not what I remembered.  And not what one might expect from a Yorkville pub.  It was cute enough.  Half pint each and off we go.

Sim has been talking about The Oxley and Frank Oxley being friends with Don and we have to go to the Oxley, for months.  As we approached the pub Sim was about to say "Oh this place looks so cute can we please come back here", and she looked up and here we arrived at the Oxley. When you walk in you are greeted with an old styled classy pub. With a gorgeous mosaic tile front fireplace, with a super comfortable couch to the side, and seating extending to the back. The upstairs was also quite adorable, but as there was a party of three having what seemed to be an intimate discussion we decided to settle on the couch. I had the Vanilla Sour, which is essentially a whiskey sour with a vanilla liquor added in. Sim had the Kitty Hawk which was an exceptionally tasty cocktail with some ingredients that escape.

When that was wrapped we popped over to Kitchen Stuff  Plus to look for some bake ware for Sim.  She's planning an EPIC cake for Pips in April. And thoughtfully starting the prep now. Even a practice run that turned into a grump fest over getting a cake instead of a toy (Pip-pa). I had to step outside as I was starting to overheat. Popping back in only to remind Sim to look at the spinning cake trays, of which the selection was unappealing.  She smartly said no thank you to those.  Our next destination was Over The Rainbow, a long establish denim store that had moved from Yorkville Rd. down to Bloor. I was really not feeling well so we took a pass and head to the last planned stop, Cafe Bora.  They had some interested purple yam confections that we were going to dig into.  And as we approached they were CLOSED. At this point I was full on gassing out, for whatever reason. I could almost barely breathe and felt like an energyless lump. We tracked down the entrance to the Green P and headed home.  With one more quick drive by another kitchen store, that was closed, we pulled back into chez Heath and cooled down with a few more baking episodes.  That show, is amazing.  I mentioned it to Sim like 3 years ago that I thought she'd like it, and this particular weekend she said, "Lets find a way to watch that baking show."  Which I loved.  And she loved.  And we loved Yorkville! 

And they all lived happily ever after.  While Mahomes laid back dreaming of sugarplum offensive linemen in his head.

I Climbed A Mountain

I wrote this about 4 months ago but my laptop has been essentially out of service since then.  But I have a new laptop now!  And I'm going to try really extra hard to update this thing on the reg.  Without further ado, a jump back in time......

I'm going to start with a piece of advice I have recently learned.  When a friend from BC asks if you want to go on a "hike" that means a vertical hike, up the side of a mountain.  It's something all people in BC seem to just do, and with great ease.  As a rather out of shape slob from Ontario, I was not quite as graceful with my ascent.  But I digress.

For the Civic long weekend I booked a ticket and jetted out to Vancouver for a weekend with Jackie and Chris.  I flew in on Friday night and Jackie picked me up at the airport.  I always have this strange period of recognition when I'm visiting people.  Waiting anywhere for someone to show up.  "Is that them?  Do they just look a little bit different, is that them?  I mean she looks like a blonde 25 year old, but Jackie has been working out, maybe it's her.....".  It took a good long creepy stare for me to accept it was indeed not her.  I rudely told Jackie after she picked me up that I also automatically eliminated all of the fancy cars.  Audi Audi Audi Merc, no no no no.  We just hung out that night at her place.  Saturday morning we had a sleep in (hurray!) and then hit the road to head up to Whistler.  There's one main hwy that cuts up through Vancouver.  An unamalgamated nightmare that includes: Burnaby, Surrey, Vancouver, North Vancouver, and West Vancouver.  Just to name a small few.

We stopped into the area in North Van that Jackie lived briefly with her parents, before they moved back to the US, Deep Cove.  It was absolutely darling, but overflowing with people and cars.  Definitely worth a revisit on a non-weekend day.  Then onwards and upwards to Brandywine Falls.  A stop just off the highway, and maybe a 15 minute walk into the woods.  It was a nice little detour for the trip.  Then back in the car we piled and on we drove to Whistler.

The place was really quite easy to find.  Although we had trouble finding our way into the hotel the first time, the entrance became very obvious after that.  We checked in and parked and unloaded.  Jackie had prepped a butt-load of food for our upcoming hike, so we had to get it all arranged in the little fridge upstairs.  Then back down to explore Whistler Village.  We thought we had landed in a secondary village called Blackcomb Village.  So Jackie asked the front desk, how do we catch the shuttle to Whistler Village.  And the guy, pricelessly said, "Ummmm, we are in fact in Whistler Village at this moment."  I died.  Blackcomb Lodge was located in Whistler Village.....you can see where the mistake was.

We took a few laps of the village.  It was really cute.  It has that whole Banff/Wonderland feel to it.  After a drink out at some place we put our name in for The Spaghetti Factory.  Had a nice carb load dinner, and then headed back to the room.  The room had a King downstairs, and up a set of stairs there were two twins.  A pretty sweet arrangement for up to 4 guests.  The only problem was the circulation of the cold air was not so ideal and I nearly broke a sweat on top of the sheets.

THE DAY OF THE HIKE HAS ARRIVED....

We woke up nice and early, made our lunches for the journey, packed up and checked out.  As we approached the destination I started to have deep regret for my agreement to the hike.  I was nowhere near physically fit enough to take on such an endeavour.  And at that point I didn't even know what laid ahead.  The main lot was packed, and they had just built a secondary lot for hikers to use.  We parked in a nice shady spot, and then hit the bathrooms before we hiked up to the trail start.  This guy in front of us went to use the porta-potty and his friend charged up from behind and joined him in the toilet.  I mean, anything to save time I'm a fan.

So we get to the trail start, and set in.  Lower Lake was a simple 5 min hike into the woods.  It started with a sharp decline that I knew I would hate on the way out.  Why....whyyyyyy.  Then from Lower Lake it was, what I can only describe as a constant incline for the next 3 km.  Probably about 15 minutes into the hike, after about 3 pit stops I said Jackie, you guys need to carry on without me.  If you plan on doing the last hike at the end.  At the beginning of the hike I had left it open as to whether or not I would make it to the Upper Lake.  But at that point I had resigned myself to floppy into a pile of goo at Middle Lake.  I said, if you don't see me at Middle Lake by the time you get back, call the authorities as something has gone terribly wrong.  About 10 minutes into the grueling upwards hike we reached the stairs.  The stairs, oh, the stairs.  The stairs basically made me want to kill myself / have real flashes of dying on the side of a mountain.  How would my body ever get carried out???  When the stairs ended there was about another 15-20 minute inclined switchback hike until finally, Middle Lake was visible through the trees.  I think I actually might have shed a tear as I realized the hike was finally over.  The trail wrapped around the lake with several spots to stop and eat.  I sat and waited for Jackie and Chris to return.  I hoped we wouldn't have trouble connecting.  As we arranged to meet at Middle Lake having no idea the terrain or the potential meet-up spots.  There was one junction that had a path that led up to the toilets and I sat there and patiently waited.  At this point I was almost completely out of water.  I foolishly didn't put on suntan lotion or bug spray before we split so I was....feeling vulnerable.  It didn't take long for them to get back.  It looked like most people were choosing to do the full hike to the Upper Lake.  Jackie said it was just about 15 more minutes up the hill but the terrain was rather ugly, with several portions of boulders that had to be traversed.  I was happy to sit at Middle Lake, and watch people foolishly pose on a stump that stuck out of the water, the glacial cold water.  I enjoyed a few near misses, but everyone made it off safe.  So that was that, although I missed the last leg of the hike, I will forever know in my heart that I climbed a mountain.  Jackie even said she hoped that I didn't give up on those stairs.  If I'm ever back out that way, and a few stones lighter, I might....might try it again.  Maybe......just slightly maybe.  I'll try a few nice flatter Ontario hikes first to get my stamina up.



We drove straight home to Vancouver after that.  I feasted on leftover sandwiches and leftovers from Friday night's dinner.  Monday morning we hung out at the house for a bit, and the suited up and went down to the beach.  We laid out and tanned for a while, and soaked in the natural beauty of mountains that surround the city.  Jackie tripped me up to the airport, and that was that.  I had upgraded my flight home on West Jet to premium.  It was an absolute dream.  I may not be able to avoid doing that again in the future.  And it was a full flight to boot, so having that freebie seat in between the premium seats was a major plus.

It was a total high and a rush to hike Joffre Lakes Provincial Park.  I told Jackie it might just be the most amazing thing I've ever done.  Although, it took me twice as long as everyone else....I did it.  I CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN.

That's all, I'll stopped patting my own back, for now.

Summertime, And The Livin's Easy

It has been.....a busy summer.  Some people might in fact say, I have been busy all summer.  Although honestly, starting from the NOTL trip in June I haven't had much time to myself to just boot around the homestead and do things like blogging.  That's a lie, I should make the time.  But I'm le-tired.

So, Summer.  A few weekends after Niagara I went up North to take a week vacation with my mom.  She has been going to Fleming College in Haliburton for several years now.  Usually her best friend goes up with her, but this year her friend had a new puppy that needed the stability of home.  So my mom asked me, and I said YES.  Of course, what I should have said was, I'll join you at the cottage but I'm not taking a course.  I'm kidding/not-kidding on that one.  It was a rough week full of long hours and not much downtime.  Which normally is ok, but not for a week long vacation.  My mom has been taking the Millinery course for several years in a row.  So I skimmed through the calendar for that week in July and landed on Calligraphy.  I would say, it's a craft that slowly slips away if you don't keep it up.  By the end of the week most of the class was fairly sufficient.  Now I would say, I'm almost back to the start.  At any rate, my teacher was this cute tiny little woman who worked as a professional Calligrapher, mostly for the Canadian Government.  I'm not sure if she moved to Ottawa, or ended up there for the proximity.  I wore my Iceland novelty shirt on the first day, and she spent the whole week thinking I had Icelandic routes.  On the last day near the end of the class she came by and quietly asked me if I was from Iceland.  If the blonde hair and blue eyes didn't give it away I'm not sure what did.  I kindly replied no, and let her in on the joke of the shirt that reads "I don't speak Icelandic", and the high number of people who sigh and say "Oh.....alright then" after they ask me what the shirt says.

Mom and I made a point of reconnecting with some family while we were up there.  On my dad's side, his nan had a sister young enough to be her own kid, and thus created two lineages, one missing a generation.  She's the same age as my parents, but she called my great grandma auntie.  If that makes any sense of even matters.  She has a cottage just across the bay from us, and we invited her over for dinner.  We had planned to make burgers or loaf from some of Simona's ground beef, but at the last minute my mom was like, is she vegetarian??  I texted her and yes.  So that was a game changer.  My mom wiped out a cookbook she had brought up.  And we went out and bought ingredients for the most amazing barley salad.  It was blueberry, feta, cucumber, and barley.  It was a masterpiece really.  And then with a few other sides we pulled together a pretty phenom vegetarian meal.  She was telling us about her son is running a charitable organization in Peterborough called Food Not Bombs, that collects leftover produce from farms or grocery stores and once a week hosts a huge free meal downtown.  I just love it.  So that was great.  And then we also arranged to meet with my cousin who also has a cottage across the way and we haven't seen in aaa-aaa-aaaages.  She also arranged for my other cousin in the family to bring her three babes.  One little young man and two 9mos old twins.  One of the twins sat on my lap and didn't stir the entire hour.  It was really great.  We have kind of kept in touch on facebook, but she said we really reconnected when I reached out to donate to her girl's hockey team for the Superbowl Squares game.  I recounted how it was a horrible scoring game, and how we ran our own game of Squares.  And being a silly dolt I gave the dogs the 0,0 and 9,9 square and with an unbelievably low scoring game, the dogs ended up winning the most quarters.

It was a really special week.  And I think that we have really rekindled some special family relationships.  I look forward to seeing them again soon.

I wanted to write this up, but I also have memories of a trip to BC to visit Jackie and Chris.  Spoiler alert, I climbed a mountain.

I'll just finish with the final and only byproduct from my week of calligraphy.  Sim asked if I could write out the girls' names for door signs.  I practiced for weeks until I felt good enough to put pen to paper.  And then I picked up a few pages of stickers to glam them up.  I think....they turned out pretty alright.

Trip #5 - Niagara-On-The-Lake

Here we are!  And if I don't write this soon I will forget everything and then our recollection of this trip for years to come will be greatly diminshed.  Once a year Sim and I take a trip together, to explore Southern Ontario.  Two years ago we did a national trip out East and back, but aside from that it has been relatively local.
2015 - Tobermorey
2016 - Grand Bend & Penetanguishene
2017 - ON QC NB PEI NS and back
2018 - Point Pelee
2019 - Niagara-On-The-Lake

As per usual, the planning for this started months in advance.  Sitting and pondering is not something Sim does well.  I could mention in passing a place I'd like to visit and in 5 minutes she has 3 locations, and in 10 more minutes we're booked.  And that is NOT a slight.  This year she found the most amazing B&B.  Just as I told her I hate B&Bs and I don't like interacting with other people, she informed me that the whole of NOTL is B&Bs.  Unless you want to stay in the Falls and trip over.  Yeah but no.  Old Ivy Walk is the name.  Philip is the host, and he is amazing.  He's kind and funny, and he caught me unintentionally looking into his private living room from the outside, pointing for Sim to also look.  *Face Palm*  But he didn't bring it up, so all must be forgiven.

I picked Sim up at Kipling, and after a short logistics nightmare we were on our way.  Last time I picked her up at Kipling, Subway Cres was under construction and I got MAAAAJORLY lost in Spaghetti Junction trying to find my way to the South Parking Lot.  The spaghetti is under construction, and they are turning loops into intersections, and this time I found the parking with a lot more ease than Sim.  But I digress.  We got to the inn, dropped our bags, and headed out for some adventure.  "Do you have any reservations?" Philip casually asked, and as we realized we didn't we casually respond, "Uuuuhhhh, no but we'll figure something out."  10 minutes later Sim had found the restaurant we were to be dining at and made a ressie.  I can't leave out that she booked the one in St Kits and had to cancel and re-reserve in NOTL.  I can't believe she actually figured it out.  She looked up some online review, and when she went back to confirm the number of reviews had changed and she immediately knew what she had done.  Anyway.  That all happened in between leaving our room and arriving at the Niagara-On-The-Lake Golf Club.  It was very reminiscent of the Drake Devonshire in Wellington.  I ordered a Caeser and Sim had an......ice wine spritzer?  Mine was nothing to write home about.  Sim offered me a sip of hers.  And failing to reciprocate, I attempted to describe the lackluster taste.  "It's like, what are the words....oh I don't know, but it's like..."  Then I looked at her and sheepishly asked if she'd like to try it.


We were still slightly early for our restaurant opening reservation.  We took a small stroll down the main street.  Stopping in at the local hat shop to try on a few wears.  The hats were great, but pricey.  Too pricey.  Like legit way too much mullah.

Treadwell Restaurant....Treadwell Treadwell Treadwell.  We arrived first, and were able to choose indoor/outdoor and snagged the last unreserved outdoor table.  We started by sharing a buffalo mozzarella with fried tomatoes on the vine and a pea pesto.  A fancy boc/tomato/basil, and it was unbeeeeeliiiiievaaaaable.  Great way to start the meal.  Also I had a paper airplane to drink, after the server explained every single ingredient to me.  And Sim had..........omg I don't remember Sim's drinks very well.  A peach something?  Later she had an ice wine that came with some gorgeous edible flowers.  When they were accessible she gave me the first one she could scoop and I said, "It taaastes like...oh what are the words....I just can't even...."  It was purple jelly bean, but hers tasted like grass so maybe I was just dreaming.  For our meals, our meals, our meals.  Sim had white fish with a seafood bisque and a few pieces of lobster.  I had....haddock on a bed of peas with some other stuff like a poached egg and bacon.  We both died, and ate way too much.  And then died again and ordered dessert.  We split a creme brulee (the best creme brulee I have ever had, and I LOVE creme brulee), and a cream cheese and strawberry blend with a mint sorbet.  I mean the strawberry cream and mint was ok but THAT BRULEE. Sim ranks Treadwell higher than the Bicycle Thief, which I consider madness.  Bicycle Thief was one of the best meals out I've ever had.  And Sim's meal that night was even better than mine.  But, Treadwell is a contender.  I also don't love love fish, and most of their menu was either fish or deal breaker ingredients.  Don't get me wrong, it was still amazing.

What did we do next.  I think we went down to the river and took some photos.  Hence the sunset pic posted previously.  It was so intense.  It's hard to see, but the Toronto skyline is clearly visible as you stand there and watch.  At the end of the night, as the sun sank back behind Etobicoke, the rays of lights dragged slowly towards Canada, so on the left you had a yellowy orange burst of life, and a pitch back Youngstown, NY just across the way.  Oh funny, earlier in the day I had been complaining to Sim that I think my wifi wasnt working.  And then I figured out I had roaming data on, after I warned Sim about roaming data, I didn't untoggle.  "It must be the American provider messing up my connection."  Later in the night as we sat the river Sim pointed across and said "Lets go there."  That's NY Sim lol.  "Riiiiiight."

We walked back up to the main street, and attempted to get on a biking beer tour, but it oddly didn't work out.  The passengers seemed to be offering a free trip to some other people beside them.  And we ran across the street and they took off right in front of us.  Kind of defeated we shrugged and one guy yelled "HOP ON" and they kept pedaling and off they went.  Ironically we met up with them at the following intersection but our sensibilities had been offended.  Sim pointed to a bright empty patio at the back of a building with turquoise furniture and said "Lets go there!"  And we did lol, because it wasn't America.  It was the Exchange Brewery.  They seem to focus on Sours, which is agreeable for both of us.  We ordered a sampler and based on the number of beers offered had to choose 2 we didn't want and the rest would be served.  I voted for Stout and Porter and won on both of them.  The beer we both kind of thought might be the least agreeable ended up being our favourite and Sim picked up a bottle to bring home, which I do have at my house.  I stowed it in my bag for the trip home and forgot.  Afterwards we went back down to the park and got the tail end of the sunset, and walked back in the dark.  As we crossed the top of the hill of the riverside park we could see a ghost tour below.  Not something we could have easily joined, and I was also feeling very stuffed.  "WATCH OUT FOR THE SKUNK UP THERE" the host shouted as us.  Duly noted, we scurried our way down the hill and to safety.

Back to Old Ivy.  Without enough energy to even go downstairs for a drink we crashed.  We had made a stop into the LCBO, and making perhaps the tiniest purchase by volume, Sim picked up a 125ml sparkling champagne?  Sim, I can't remember anything you drank lol.  The clerk made some smart ass comment like, "Don't drink it all at once."

So we were up at 9 for B&B breakfast.  Philip made us these like muffin tray egg & bacon concoctions, and followed it up with a freshly baked croissant to make a full grinned smiley face on our plates.  The other guests (three rooms total) were a couple from Ireland visiting their two kids plus one girlfriend in Toronto.  And this was their escape from the city.  We had a bit of chit chat.  I purposefully did not wear my Guinness Brewery shirt as to avoid any unnecessary conversation.  I did changed later and as we stood outside waiting for our shuttle I was spotted, and it was brought up later.  I did try.

So the shuttle!  It was coming to pick us up for a biking tour through the countryside!  The idea came to us back in Feb when we started to collab on the whole thing.  We booked the wine tour and the B&B.  I used the impending bike tour to encourage more trips to the gym.  Not a huge success, but enough that I felt good enough I could last the trip.  And after 30km on Pelee Island, I had a good feeling I would be ok.

We suited up.  I barely found a helmet big enough for this giant head of mine.  We gathered as a group, got the run down from our tour guides, Graham and.....SIM HELP ME.  Off we went to our first destination, Pondview Estate.  They were ready for us, and had a charcuterie board all laid out.  Now I may not have mentioned yet, but I hate wine.  I kind of signed up for the trip because I wanted to do the biking.  The wine was going to be an unfortunate side event that would have to happen.  Stuffed from the breakfast by Philip I was barely able to manage the cheese pairings.  But mmmmm, they were good.  All except the blue cheese, which I graciously signaled to Sim she could have it all.  I tried half a pinky nail to go with the ice wine as suggested, and I immediately regretted that decision.

A quick bike down the road and we ended up at InnisKillen Winery.  We had a tour of the facility, followed by a sampling and then a sit down meal.  I kind of scoughed at a bit of the history the girl was throwing at us.  Like their decision to move to automated harvesting because of the "body temperature of the hands" when they used manual labour.  Uh huh.  $$$$.  So much body heat, $$$$$$.  They also accept grapes from a wide variety of grape growers.  And these grapes growers "know what standards they have to meet"....ok sure.  Please, look at these eyes as they roolllllll.  It was a good stop, but I think knowing what I know now about commercialized wine, it's a lot less appealing.  And if they can't make 10,000 bottles they can't get into the LCBO.  It's a total catch-22.

Stop number three.  Reif Estates.  It was cute.  They rushed us in, and SUUUUPER rushed the sampling.  We still had chocolate in our mouths and she started to pour and describe the next pairing.  Also, I learned I'm not a fan of chocolate and wine together.  Which is probably good news because I shouldn't be consuming either of them.  I took Sim the long long long and windy road long way around to get back to our bikes.  We were literally 2 steps away from them, and I dragged her back thru the cellar room we came in, and as we exited I turned my head to the right and saw the water feature we had been standing beside.  Painful.

So after all that, we ended up being way behind schedule.  And for the last, longest, and most treacherous biking paths (through parks, and over bridges with cement posts in the middle at each end), we ended up biking faster than each of the other stops.  At one point I had a chance to slow back and bike beside Sim and say "Is this like way faster than any of the other stops???"  She checked her fitbit later and it revealed her heart rate was a solid 20bpm higher than any other leg of the day.  I'm just happy my fitbit doesn't report heartbeat.  It might have called 911 on me.

We arrived at Oast Brewery.  We sampled 3 beers that did not line up with what was described.  We were late and had missed our designated serving time.  I tried to help Sim with her samples, but I was so bloated and full of wine and food.  It was a short mile down the street back to the starting point.  Our shuttle eventually came and took us home.  I basically wanted to die I was so tired.  Sim took a shower and said, I feel so much better.  I knew my shower would not have the same life energy redeeming qualities.  Sim went downstairs and I quickly showered, took a 5 minute lay down, and joined her.

Neither of us were hungry for dinner, but after hearing that the oldest running pub/inn in North America is in NOTL, we had to stop in.  "You'll be seated in 25 minutes. But you have to be here when I call your name."  We took a tiny micro walk down the street, and I pointed at a bench and begged for mercy to sit down.  10 minutes later we headed back, and Sim popped in and said, did you call us?  She said, "No, but I called someone else and they didn't listen so follow me."  And we were seated!  The place was called The Angel Inn btw.  There was a group of either army/navy officers or war recreators sitting across from us.  The woman behind Sim, barely said 2 words to her husband and spent what felt like the most of our meal staring directly at my line of eyesight.  2 mm to the right I was intensely locking eyes with Sim, as to not stare back.  We ordered some fries & gravy.  I'd give them a mediocre.  I had a water and a tea, and Sim had a Strawberry Yum Yum from the Oast Brewery we had just visited.  It was a phenomenal beer.  We did attempt a stop-in the next day but they were sold out.

When we got home, we decided to take our LCBO purchases down to the back patio an finish off the night with a little toast.  As we turn the corner, the whole Irish lot was walking up the driveway, and the gf asked if they could join us.  Of course!  They also had picked up two citronella candles, which allowed us to sit at the long table, have a smidge of light, and avoid getting bitten.  The husband of the couple revealed he saw my shirt and I went into my shpeal about visiting Ireland, etc.  I'm not sure how they feel about people claiming faux heritage.  I mean if you go back far enough we're all African right.  We had a great chat.  Though I couldn't see the sons faces, I felt like I didn't really equally engage them.  But I didn't want to engage anyone so I did well enough.

I think Sim was out as soon as her head hit the pillow.  I struggled a bit but eventually crashed.  Up again for 9 for another amazing breakfast by Philip.  It was like a mushroom croquette with a side of fruit and some fresh potato focaccia.  This guy seriously knows how to host.  We had a little chat and then got packed, and headed up the street for one last in town visit.  A quick stroll through the Niagara Apothecary.  A cool visual history of modern medicine (a la Dr Quinn, medicine woman).  Everything was a potion or an elixir.  It's fun to look back on for sure.

Next was a somewhat randomly chosen stop.  Laura Secord's historical house.  It was just on the way and Sim pointed it out.  I checked the gift shop for something for my dad as he's a huge 1812 buff.  We read up on some history as we waited for the tour guide to come in.  She asked if we knew anything about Laura Secord.  I mentioned the Heritage Moments ad which she vaguely acknowledged.  It kind of reminded me of the time I took Micro Economic in summer school and they cut out Game Theory.  And when it came up in a future class I asked my prof what I needed to know about it.  He asked what I did know and replied, "I watched 'A Beautiful Mind'"  Which did not sit well, or satisfy the reading requirements.  ANYWAY.  The historical interpreter did a really boss job of recounting the life and times of Laura Secord.  She was a total bad-ass woman.  Her step-mom was a suffragette that instilled the heart of a warrior into her.  It turns out she practically dragged her husband off the field as he was a civilian army man and last in priority for medical attention.  As she was nursing him back to health she overheard discussions of an impending attack, which is when she decided to embark on foot to warn Fitzgibbon.  She travelled 30km over two days, and when she finally arrived they at first did not believe her as she was covered in mud and was a "disheveled woman".  After she was able to convince them of the truth to her words, they turned her around and made her walk home.  Thanks for saving us all Laura, buh-bye now.  She wasn't recognized until 40 years later after she told her own story, to I think a visiting royal.  On the centennial of her heroic trip, a candy company stole her name, and with no future royalties  (aside from an investment in the historic house) continue to use it to this day.  Honestly, it was an awesome tour, and the interpreter was really knowledgeable.

Last stop, we hit up the butterfly conservatory.  I tried to take some pics for JP, but I couldn't quite get them in the frame.  Then Sim turns around and says, how about this one.  And I said something very horrible like, "I hate you."  It was the Kentucky Warbler all over again.  But my luck turned, and I got some cool pics.  And we wrapped it up with a purchase of these amazing butterfly wings for Pips and Lils.  I saw a little girl wearing them as we walked up and I knew at that moment it would happen.  When we finally got home the girls wanted to know what presents we had for them lol.  When they opened the wings Pips said, "Can I sleep in these?"  And at that point I knew they were a hit.  She apparently lived in them on Day 1 of their vacation which thrilled me.

That's it.  That's all.  Have I sufficiently wasted your time recounting our fifth annual weekend of awesomeness trip.  This will be a tough one to top.  My hands legit hurt from typing.  So I shall upload pics and excuse myself.  Good night!