01/05/10
Dec 20 (Sun): Another busy week and weekend. Tuesday, Andy worked from home so a tech could come from Bell. He changed the satellite dish and PVR so that we now have HD and it rocks!!! (although I think I may now be losing Andy to the National Geographic channel). In the afternoon, she took the Tuscan to have Blizzaks put on. I feel much safer now. We'd had one icy day and, after a morning slide to work, I made an executive request to get Blizzaks PDQ.
Both of us had gatherings with co-workers this week, Andy with her Potluck and Secret Santa lunch, and me with a Friday morning group run to Golden Griddle for the breakfast buffet.
Yesterday, we were up early for another breakfast feast in celebration of Huguette's 50th birthday this past week. We met her at Cora's and Andy & Huguette indulged in their favourites while I tried something new - a Belgian Waffle heaped high with various fruits & whipped cream. It was fantastic.
We came home and started taking apart our entertainment system. In its now previous configuration it was not functional with the new TV - the hole in the middle is where the TV is supposed to go.
Once apart, Andy started cutting the sides to shorten it. The plan was to keep the top and bottom sections, cut out the side pillars, and then put it back together but with the bottom as the top and the top as the bottom. The switch is necessary to have the surround sound centre speaker just below the TV, but not too low. Consideration then came over the small holes in what was going to be the top - the holes from the little dowel pieces and screws. Andy decided to swap the tops so then the job became far more complicated. Off she went to the garage with all the pieces while I puttered and cleaned.
We both took a break at noon to have a very lovely Skype chat with Kathleen & Michael in Vernon.
We then took another break in the late afternoon, layered our clothes, and walked over to Fairview Street, where we waited for the Olympic torch to pass by.
We lucked out with our location - we were right near a spot where they were passing the flame from torch to torch.
Got home just as we were losing the feeling in our fingers. Although we have no snow, it was -5o C with a windchill of -12.
This morning we had a chat with Mumsy & Dad in England then zipped down the highway for the 1st Birthday Party of Oakley and Bronte.
Their Dad, Brandon, is my cousin on my dad's side. Their Mom is Hollie.
Holding the balloon dogs is Brandon's twin brother, Colin. The two women are their twin sisters, Melissa & Amy. The guy on the left is Melissa's husband, Ed, the guy on the right is Amy's husband, Jim, and the girl in the middle is Iris, Melissa & Ed's daughter.
Santa also came to the party.
He brought presents for Iris and her brother, Cal, as well. Since Iris is almost 10, she went along with it for the sake of the other kids - and besides, it meant a present, so why argue!
We had a lovely lunch, and Hollie had made really cute and professional looking cupcakes.
When we came home, Andy continued in her quest to tame the entertainment centre and I, personally, think she has done a damn fine job.
It still needs all the doors attached and the stereo components put back in, but the TV is the perfect height now according to my preference.
Tonight we're watching "Love Actually", one of our favourite Christmas movies.
Two more days of work for Andy and three for me. Yippeeeee!
Dec 13 (Sun): I completely forgot to mention last week that, on the Friday, I had won the "Pay It Forward" award at work. This was my third time in 2 years. I had 3 nominations in the "Employer of Choice" category and I think I won not for any particular one, but the combination of the three. There are 4 categories for the awards: Client Service, Community Involvement, Employer of Choice (helping out a co-worker), and The Einstein Award (great ideas). The award is $250 for whatever you want. I chose a Best Buy gift card.
On Wednesday night, we went to Best Buy and bought our Christmas present to each other - a Samsung 50" Plasma HD TV.
Although Andy had researched & picked our desired model months ago (in consultation with me), we were waiting for it to go on sale. It finally did, plus Andy found an online coupon for $100 off any purchase over $1,000, plus my gift card was the icing on the cake. As Andy's back was only about 60% better by Wednesday, the TV was brought home and left in the back hallway. I have since called Bell to exchange our PVR for an HD PVR and found out they also have to install a bigger dish, so that is happening Tuesday. Because of this there was no rush to hook the TV up, though we did try out the Blu-ray Player we bought with it just to make sure they both work and we've since hooked up the Wii as well. Soon we have some entertainment centre reconfiguring to tackle.
Yesterday, we were off to Toronto fairly early. Steven made us another wonderful brunch. He really spoils us! Victor also came for the spoils and it was nice to catch up. Victor has become a blog reader - Hi Victor! And thank you Steven! Loved the ham, sausages, eggs, blueberry pancakes, straw & black berries, real whipped cream, croissants, "home-made" banana bread, OJ & tea!
From there, we walked over to the Canon Theatre (formerly the Pantages). I haven't really had a good look at downtown Toronto for a long time, so I was amazed to see how the Yonge-Dundas Square area has evolved - looking a lot like NYC.
Does anybody really need billboards this big???
We went to see one of the shows from that package we bought:
Andy couldn't believe that from the boring looking building out front, but with a lovely marquis....
that we would walk in and find this.
The Canon came to life in 1920 and is a fantastic theatre - it even has comfortable seats. The show was as fabulous as the theatre, if not more. We had seats in the balcony and could see ok, but I would've loved to have been closer for this one. Harvey Fierstein, who took over playing the lead when Topol got injured, also played Robin William's brother in Mrs. Doubtfire, and has been in many other things. He has an extremely recognizable voice! He and all the cast were excellent, and even though there was a slightly sad ending, the laughs, music, & dance along the way were fantastic. We give this one 2 thumbs up and 2 big toes up each. Andy even jumped out of her seat for a standing ovation, which rarely happens.
We then went directly to Caledonia to get Ben and Grace. They came home with us for an overnight visit. We took them down to Spencer Smith Park for the Burlington Festival of Lights.
Then we came home for a fire, Bumbleberry Pie, hot chocolate and The Muppet Christmas Carol.
Today, they stayed till about 2:30. We played Cadoo, did some homework reading, and Andy & Grace made erasers from a Play-doh -type kit. You create them then bake them.
We played Wii Sports and Guitar Hero, and had a picnic lunch with hot dogs roasted over the fire.
Hot dogs always taste so good when they're roasted over a fire. In general, I don't like "smoked" meats, but in this case it must be the reason they're so good - and today was just like at camping or the cottage. Mom, now you want one, don't you?
Scot and Monica picked the kids up about 2:30 and we went for a nap!
Dec 6 (Sun): Why didn't I ever think of this before? I'll tell you why. Because I grew up in a British-Canadian household where gravy and/or ketchup are mandatory. Tonight, after I carved the beef roast, I put the slices back in the pan in the "au jus". Oh yah!!! The heck with gravy and/or ketchup!!!!
My poor honey is taking it super easy tonight. I pulled out the sofa bed in the basement so she could at least lie down here with Comet & I, and enjoy the fire. Her back did a major spasm today while she was unloading wood from the truck.
Apparently, it happened when she was lifting from the cart to the wood pile, and then she felt she had to go back out the front to close the truck - walking completely bent over. She finally called for me when she came in the back door and that's when I found her on her hands & knees. Got her to bed, laying on my Dr. Scholl's heat & massage pad, and gave her some Tylenol and Robaxisol (muscle relaxants). Pretty soon she was out cold while I finished unloading the truck and moved on to other chores.
We had planned to go to the Burlington Santa Claus Parade, but that was now out of the question. Well, maybe not completely...... With about 15 minutes before the parade was due to start, since Andy was still quite out of it, I decided I might walk down and watch a bit of it. I ended up staying for the whole thing as it was only 40 minutes, and someone was nice enough to offer me a chair. I'm glad I went as I think I grinned ear to ear through the whole thing and was able to bring Andy lots of pictures and video.
Thank goodness Andy's back didn't give out yesterday. Last night we had a great time at my company's Christmas Party at Woodbine Racetrack (harness racing). We were bussed there and sat overlooking the track. These were our tablemates, Chris & Francine and Derek & Karen.
There was a fabulous hot & cold buffet with salmon, pork, deeeelicious prime rib, & turkey with all the fixings, plus a dessert buffet, including bread pudding and chocolate mousse.
For once I was smart and didn't overeat (though I really wanted to), but Andy ate so much she was in major pain. She even had to undo her waistcoat/vest and her trouser/pant's button! We walked her around for a while till the pain finally eased. She's been eating a lot lately, but this time got a bit too carried away, eh?
As you can see we had a really great view of the track. A fellow came around giving instructions on how to bet. Lots of people did, but at our table we just did "virtual-betting" amongst ourselves.
The company sponsored one of the races, so afterward the Partners & Marketing Manager got to present the winner with a blanket with our logo on it. We couldn't really see this from above, so I had to take a picture of the TV. There's Robin, John, Joe, Roy, Elaine, Janice, & Trevor.
There is also a big casino in the Woodbine Complex and lots of us went downstairs to check it out. It's all slots, but HUGE!!! ("over 2000 slot machines within a 56,000 square foot themed gaming area, which depicts the birth of Horseracing and the Italian Renaissance era") Unfortunately, you can't take pictures in there. Andy & I each lost $10 on the slots, but Francine scored with a $189 win, and our friend, Deb, came out 90 bucks ahead.
Earlier in the day, as you may have guessed, we were out collecting more wood. We also added some more lights to the front of the house. It looked rather imbalanced with them only on one side.
Also, much to our amazement, Andy found my 2008 birthday present yesterday. At the time she'd scoured the house for it, then bought me a substitute. It's a cuff earring.
It runs the entire height of the ear. It was in one of the little pockets of her camera bag.
Speaking of cameras, Andy got a new one this week.
She got it specifically for the trip we are taking in a few weeks - a Western Caribbean cruise (Mexico, Belize & Guatemala). I had found a waterproof case for my camera but we couldn't find one for Andy's. She got poking around on the internet and found this waterproof Fuji - and then she found it for an even better price - and then we went to buy it and found it even $10 cheaper. SCORE! We also booked our excursions this week and have got very excited about the trip. We're going to get to explore some Mayan ruins, go zip-lining and cave tubing, swim in some cascading waterfalls, and on Andy's birthday, we'll hopefully be swimming with some dolphins.
To wrap up, a couple of miscellaneous items. We put up my new bird feeder this week that I got for my birthday. Still waiting for some birds to actually figure it out though. And my Amaryllis is starting to bloom!
