08/10/08
Jan 28 (Mon): Can you believe January's almost over? We kept busy on the weekend with lots of socializing. Saturday we met up with Doreen & Wilf. I worked with Doreen for years at CHAM. Doreen and Andy bonded quickly in the beginning because Doreen is Scottish and she was able to explain the difference between British flour and North American flour. Ours has to have the baking soda or powder added separately. Andy had several struggles before Doreen helped her out. It was also Doreen's son that Andy bought the great racing bike from a couple Christmases ago. Doreen's husband, Wilf, is a realtor and will help us out very soon. We went to a very popular roadhouse that we'd heard lots about, but hadn't yet tried, "Emma's Back Porch".
It's right on the lake's edge, but it was far too cold to sit on the patio - in fact, it was snowing. We all avoided haggis but raised a glass to Robbie Burns Day.
In the evening, we went to Kalpana and Sarohda's for Games Night. Huguette was there and we met Sara and Emily, and Janet and Teenah. Emily is from South Carolina (though living here a while) so was very distracted by the American election primary taking placing that day in her state. She was able to watch the updates on her Blackberry. We played Taboo, had some snacks then played a new one for us called Wits and Wagers.
Questions were asked with all answers being numerical (and quite educational, actually). We wrote our guesses on cards, then placed them on a table, then used chips to bet on the correct answer, not necessarily our own. After the first round I realized you could win alot more chips by getting the bonus for betting on your own answer and it being correct. After that I always bet at least one chip (of the two) on myself and I ended up winning the most chips in the final round.
Sunday, we had to do an extra thorough round of housework as Monica and her cat allergies were coming over, along with the rest of the Cooper crew. Mom arrived shortly after lunch and was helping us make our wedding invitations when Scot, Monica, Ben and Grace arrived (Dad was a bit under the weather so stayed home). Scot and Monica then headed off to check out the gluten-free section at our closest Fortino's, which turned out the be the biggest one they've found, while Mom, Andy and I took the kids downstairs for a swim. Unfortunately, the water was not as warm as the last couple times, so Andy was in and out. After I tossed the kids around a bit, we all got ourselves put back together and the seven of us went bowling. The kids tried the ramp this time. Benny wasn't crazy about it so he went back to basically throwing the ball down the alley. Grace had a finger crushing incident in the ball return early on and soon thereafter dropped a ball on her leg, so was happy for assistance.
We'd been given coupons for free games when we were there for Mom's birthday, that we had to use before the end of the month, so we only had to pay for shoe rental. I handed the coupons in and we headed for the door, only for the girl behind the counter to come running after me with more coupons for February. Crikey.
We came home and ordered dinner for all but Andy from Montfort. She had her heart set on The Spices.
It was very good and Scot and Monica said they couldn't believe how much food we got, that this location was way better than the one in Hamilton they sometimes go to.
Jan 20 (Sun): That heat wave we had a couple weeks ago is a distant memory. When we got up this morning it was -15oC with a windchill of -24o. Although we'd like snow, we've only had a couple of dustings.
Wednesday night, Mom and I went to Kelsey's for dinner, then to see:
When I got home, Andy was already fast asleep. She'd been to Montreal for the day, leaving home at 6 am and getting back about 9 at night. She'd met with the president of her company and now has a new contract for a completely different position in a different division. I can't give details as to what she'll be doing as it's not yet announced company-wide, but it's a large-scale project and she's got a 6-month contract just to charter it plus a "gentlemen's agreement" that once the charter is approved, she will direct the execution, extending her contract up to two years. She is somewhat overwhelmed at the prospect, but also very excited. Besides, a job where Andy is in over her head to start is, for her, the perfect kind of job. Congratulations hun!
Thursday, I finally broke down and called the doctor. I certainly wasn't getting better and may have been getting worse. In fact, this is the first time I have had severe muscle cramping due to bronchitis - and not just in my calves, but also in my shins, thighs, feet and back. Plus I couldn't get rid of the shakes. So, she looked at my throat, felt my glands, listened to chest and gave me an antibiotic prescription. She said the muscle spasms were "related to a secondary infection".
Saturday, it was nice to hook up with Kathy & Denise for lunch. They suggested a pub down the street from us that they like, that we hadn't yet been to.
They got married back in 2003, so we picked their brains for tips and possible issues to have contingencies for. Kathy & I made a poor choice for lunch as the prime rib from our open-face sandwich was extremely fatty. We had to work hard to extract the meat. Denise had the vegetarian House Curry dish, which she liked alot and Andy enjoyed her Cajun Beef and Cheese Wrap. Later in the day, we went and picked out the supplies for our wedding invites, and now we have the task of brainstorming and creating them.
This morning, we met up with Uncle Lanny and Aunt Sharon a few blocks up the road at Smitty's for breakfast. Had a nice, relaxed visit, but for me, still trying to beat the bronchitis, good food was wasted on my tainted taste-buds (kinda had the same problem yesterday too). The rest of the weekend was spent resting and resting some more, and though it is only 10 after 9, I think I could go to bed right now!
Jan 14 (Mon): Bit of a quiet weekend after a busy Friday. First of all, it's super busy at work for me, so when my boss called and asked me to come to her office, my reaction was "oh no - what is she going to want?" But it was good news - she had a letter for me outlining a salary increase! That's right, I got a most unexpected raise after only seven months, and it works out to almost a dollar an hour! As you can imagine, I was pretty happy. I also found out there's a bonus coming in a couple months. Now that's a good way to start a Friday!
After work, Andy and I went to see Sherry at work so Andy could get her hair cut. It's still growing in after the bad cut she had in November and Sherry's been helping even it up. Afterward we checked in with Caledonia. Monica had the pin removed from her foot and we were going to take the kids if she was feeling lousy, but all was good. So we went for a bit of a celebratory dinner at Jack Astor's.
Saturday was spent shopping before dropping by Ben & Grace's skating lesson. They were very surprised when they spotted us from the ice. Grace just smiled BIG, but Ben was funny. He was looking around for his father who was with us. When he waved, we waved back and he kept waving until he realized who he was waving at. We could barely hear him rambling on but it went something like, "Hey, what are you guys doing here? I didn't know you guys were coming. Oh man." And the whole time he was flapping his huge mitts around, finishing almost exasperated with them crossed over his helmet at about forehead level. When lessons were done we met them upstairs for some juice and popcorn. Grace ran, flying into her favourite auntie's arms. Ben came and somewhat cuddled with me. When we got home, Andy continued building Hogwarts.
In the evening, we watched "The Last King of Scotland", which Andy hadn't seen before. At the end there was a write-up on what later happened with Idi Amin, but there was nothing about Dr. Garrigan so we looked him up. It turns out he didn't exist at all. Although the movie said it was based on true events, it turns out it was extremely loosely based.
Sunday, we had a nice visit with Huguette, though I don't think any of us will bother getting breakfast at Williams Coffee Pub again. The eggs were microwaved and bland! We've had other really tasty food there before, like pie and cake, but that's another one off our breakfast list. We then made a quick stop at home before going in search of a place we'd seen from the highway - where people were parking and then walking into a forest entrance. We found it and went for a walk.
Andy was playing coy, but was also thirsty so sent me in search of water.
I found lots.
Andy also saw and spooked 8 to 10 deer. Of course at that point I had the camera. We then went "stalking" a bit further up the path. We never found the deer again but saw a huge, wild turkey - and it could fly. In fact it flew away so damn fast I didn't get a picture of it either! We don't know who owns this land but suspect it's the Hydro as we ended up under high voltage towers. In the late afternoon we saw:
We weren't overly impressed. In fact, we left both saying it was rather boring and dark. Imagine our shock today when we heard it won Best Film at the Golden Globe Awards.
Jan 7 (Mon): 13oC today - and humid too!
Jan 6 (Sun): This afternoon we went and saw:
It was quite good - definitely better than I expected. Andy's read the trilogy and says it was very true to the book. My only beef is that at the end they should've just put up a graphic saying "To Be Continued". And I could've sworn that Iorek, the armoured bear, was voiced by Patrick Stewart, but it's Ian McKellen.
Later in the afternoon, we were finally able to tell Huguette the wedding news. She's been away since before Christmas visiting her family in the Gaspé area of Québec. She has now officially accepted the position of Andy's "Best Person".
Yesterday, Scot, Monica, Ben, and Grace came over in the afternoon. Andy and the kids went for a swim in their matching masks.
While Ben perfected his cannon-ball tuck...
Grace worked on flips from of the edge.
Mommy and Daddy looked on, interjecting a few injury-preventing orders.
While the kids & I enjoyed salad and gourmet hot dogs freshly BBQd, Andy, Scot and Monica stuffed themselves with Butter Chicken & Chicken Korma from The Spices.
Then we went to the Festival of Lights.....
And skating. Well, at least Andy and the kids did.
Grace got a little rubber-legged after a while.
Warm and relaxed at home, squiggling on the floor.
Jan 2 (Wed): Brrrrr. We're in the midst of a cold snap. It was -11oC today with a wind chill of -21o, but even so, it didn't feel that bad so I must be starting to readjust from my woosy Vancouver acclimatization. Andy wore triple layers this morning - long johns, trousers, and snow pants for her walk from the GO Train to the office. Tonight, to walk back, she added her "robber's mask", neoprene face cover from snowboarding. At least the cold temperature meant it was nice'n sunny - I had to dig around for my sunglasses. Ironically, on the weekend we are supposed to get up to +8o and to 14o by Tuesday.
New Years Eve we did an early, quick run for Chinese Food then stayed home, thanks to my cold, and watched "Ocean's Thirteen". We paused the movie at 10 to go out on the balcony to watch a pretty darn good fireworks display several blocks away at Central Park where we had planned to go to "First Night" before I got my yearly lurgy.
Again we watched at midnight, but the earlier fireworks (for kids and families who would not make it till midnight) were the much better display. Of course, that may have more to do with the fact that it was snowing heavily at midnight. We didn't get the 10 cms promised but Andy was thrilled to have a pretty start to her birthday the next morning.
After an appropriate sleep in terminated by Mom and Ben calling at 9 to sing to Andy, she opened her present from Mumsy and Dad.
No, she does not want to kiss it. She was saying, "Oooooooooooo" at this book about optical illusions, then spent half the morning checking them out while I quickly returned to my sicky position getting TLC from Comet. She did take time out, however, for us to call Mumsy and Dad for a nice, long chat. They're asking questions and starting to make plans for their visit for our wedding.
I was so wiped out that Andy even had to make her own cake.
In the afternoon, we headed to Scot and Monica's. Since Andy had helped me make the Boeuf Bourguignon and I advised her to dress up as Inspector Clouseau, she surmised there was a French theme going on. In fact, the theme was "Carcassonne", which, as well as one of her favourite games, is a town in France.
When we arrived, I ran in the house and got into my get-up as Joan of Arc. Scot was Quasimodo, Monica was a French Maid (ooo la la!), Mom was a Chef, Dad was a Monk (as the Monasteries figure highly in the game), Ben was a suave ladies-man, and Grace was a petite waif. I'd acquired a CD of French Bistro music, a poster of the Eiffel Tower, and asked Mom and Dad to bring their plastic, garden cows and sheep to decorate the living room as a farm (the farms are also significant in the game). Early in the afternoon we had some delicious "hors d'œuvres", then for dinner we had baguette with our boeuf, along with Monica's home-made version of Andy's favourite Key West salad.
Ben and Grace gave Andy a couple of books she'd requested and Mom and Dad gave her a massage pillow, chocolate rose, chocolate orange and another book. Scot and Monica sent Mom to the Specialty Cheese store on their behalf then presented Andy with 9 different cheeses like: Flax Cheese from the Netherlands, Ontario Maple Smoked Cheddar, Iberico (3-milk) from Spain, English Cheddar with Elderberry Wine, Guinness Cheese from Ireland, Abbot's Gold from England, and White Stilton with Blueberries also from England. This last one is Andy's favourite. After all presents were opened, Monica conducted a tasting session. Andy had to keep her eyes closed, sniff, taste each and guess which one was which. She really enjoyed this. Then we were all allowed a taste also, which everyone enjoyed. Note that Andy also wore her "frog" tie!
Ben thought Auntie Andy was being completely silly with the rose in her teeth! I caught him rolling his eyes.
I gave Andy the box set of three Shrek movies, a gift card for Chapters, the "National Treasure" DVD, and a Harry Potter game - Hogwart's Building Cards.
Yes, we decided we prefer the clean-shaven look on Andy, et bien sûr, there had to be a round of Carcassonne at this party.
Even the kids couldn't resist. They both are big gamers and so they watched, learned and soon were helping, especially Ben with Grammy!
For dessert...Andy's birthday cake was Gâteau au Fromage avec Framboises.
Today it was back to reality and work.
Jan 1 (Tues): Happy Birthday Andy!!!