Odds and ends from the holidays

Just going through my Christmas pics, and although it is a bit out of focus just had to post this one of my mom in her new leather jacket. She's 90+ years, and looks terrific.

We were at the cottage for a few days after Christmas, for a very relaxing time thanks to Dodie and Myles who invited us to stay with them. Jigsaw puzzling, reading, and board games with the New Years Eve crew filled most of our time - and of course hurling, the combination horseshoes/curling game I think I've mentioned before.

Another fun thing was taking pictures of the birds on the bottle feeder. The blue jays were heavy, so they had to hang on for dear life as the bottle spun whenever they landed. The chickadees were agile, as usual, and happy to pose, but the red-breasted nuthatch was impossible to get on film; this is the best shot I got!

Am I blue?

This is fun...I was sort of hoping I'd be a more interesting shade, but at least I'm not orange (which is an unfavourite of mine). Question: isn't it spelled 'spontaneous'? If so, the spellchecker doesn't do html.

You are most like: You are Blue
You are cool and soothing, with a hidden spontanious side. You are deeper than most people percieve, and you care a lot for those whom you surround yourself with.
Take this quiz: Which Crayola Box of 8 Color Are You?
Visit Toys For Your Blog.com for more blog quizzes

What I'm up to lately

I had a couple of days off due to some minor surgery, so I'm now finally finishing the dvd of the Kauffeldt reunion from this summer. Yahoo! It's so nice to get some projects finished, and others started.
One of my big winter projects is, as I've mentioned before, to move vinyl to digital, via the nice turntable Iain gave me at Christmas. I've only done a few songs as yet, but transferring all of the Paranoid album was very satisfying, for a start. Also a bit of Nik Kershaw (The Riddle) and The Friends of Mr. Cairo are done, but that's it - I've got a lot of work to do. It's all fun, though. Iain has fun with it too, mostly chuckling over my choices of music. To each his own!

Are you looking at me?

Sometimes, no matter how innocent you are, you will end up on somebody's hate list anyway. This happened to me yesterday at work, when a woman who'd had a discussion on the phone with another employee - and taken offense, mainly because she was wrong and didn't want to hear it - showed up at our office. I saw her, through the glass that fronts my work area, and she was looking at me with such dislike that if we were cartoon characters I'd have been impaled by the darts.
I was a little confused by this, because I had no idea who she was, or why she was there, but decided it best to avoid eye-contact with her from then on. When I talked to my co-workers about it later, we deduced she was suffering from mistaken identity and thought, for some reason, that I was the culprit who'd spoken to her on the phone originally. Unless she was just angry at everyone in the office, and I was a bit more sensitive to it because it caught me by surprise. Anyway, it was an interesting way to end the week (it's like people with attitude have to show up just before 5:00 on Friday).
When I related the story to Iain, later, his suggestion was that I could have given her a big, cheery wave 'hello', and a huge grin, but, as I explained to him, we are not allowed to taunt the patients, no matter how ugly they are.
In other news, a note on Virgil's Sodas. Iain has some spare time, now that he's an unemployed person, so he dropped a line to Farmboy to find out why there was so little of the bottled joy left on the shelf when we were at the Kanata store last. Turns out they only get it in seasonally or randomly, and it's best to phone ahead to see if it is available. So I can't promise you'll find it in any of their stores, but it is definitely worth the effort to look for it, trust me!

Bottled joy

One of the small pleasures of a trip into Ottawa from the wilds of Renfrew is the stop for groceries at the FarmBoy in Kanata. The fresh meats and choice fruits and vegetables, and the nice choice of cheeses and other deli goodies, make it well worth the time. Our most pleasant recent discovery there is Virgil's Cream Soda and Root Beer. Excellent beverages, the beautiful smooth taste of which my mere words cannot embrace. Do try them.

If you can't tell, i just finished a bottle of the wonderful Cream Soda, and am still in its thrall. I could drink another right now!

The Duck!

I was looking at the pictures I took at our office party/dinner just now, and it reminded me to recommend (highly) The Duck restaurant in Calabogie. Excellent food and service. The table was lovely - take a look.
Their specialty is, not surprisingly, duck, and that is what I had. Not being a person of large appetite, I had to refrain from eating as many of the appetizers as I would have liked. For dessert, we were each brought a sampler plate with all sorts of goodies: custard, chocolate mousse, a warm crepe wrapped around icecream and drizzled with sauce (it is now a couple of weeks later and I can't remember for certain, but I think there was chocolate, strawberry, and possibly maple?).
I really enjoy a good meal, and our bosses are the best guys to take us out to nice places to eat.

R.I.P Benazir Bhutto

It's hard to say why I feel bad about Benazir Bhutto's assassination, aside from the obvious fellow-human-being thing. It's not as though I understand her politics, or those of any of the cast of characters running (or trying to run) Pakistan, though it did seem plain to me that she was probably going to get killed sooner rather than later. Terrorists had already taken out 140 of her followers on the day of her arrival in country, and had been hoping to get her, too. It wasn't wise of her to be popping out of the roof of her car, yesterday. How could she not realize she was an easy target?
Perhaps she believed in herself as a woman of destiny, at the last, and thought nothing could stop her. For years, she was the daughter carrying her dead father's mantle, and then it became her own. That's part of what I liked about her, that sense of destiny. There are so few truly powerful women in the world, and here was an intelligent and articulate Muslim woman who refused to hide her face or her opinions. Despite all the accusations of corruption and forced resignations and exile, she always went back to Pakistan, as though she believed she was born to rule.
I saw a picture in today's paper of her, holding her two children in her arms. The next generation, I see one or both of them entering politics in 15-20 years: the next Bhutto. The boy's face was sad, as though he could see his future, written on the bloody pages of Pakistan's history.

A Very Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone! The last week I have been neglecting my blogging, due to the usual last-minute wrapping/baking/shopping binge, as well as party & visiting time. Saturday and Sunday we had early Xmas with Iain's family in Ottawa, returning on Christmas Eve so we could have a quiet evening at home after the candlight church service. Had a wonderful time in Ottawa, by the way - it's so great to see everyone, we do it too seldom.

Today we head off to Dodie & Myles' place for dinner and prezzies. We spent the morning opening our gifts to each other. Can't believe what Iain got for me - a turntable that hooks directly to the computer so I can upload all my vinyl (which we have to retrieve from the cottage, first, but that's a minor issue). I'm so excited to use it, as I have this vast collection of 70's progressive rock that no one else wants to listen to, so it is never on the radio, but that I still enjoy (I really am Living In The Past).

Have to post this pic of the lovely gift my friend Wanda (a.k.a. Martha) gave to us. When the gin is gone and all that is left is a beautiful blue bottle, it seems a shame to not use it somehow, doesn't it? Voila, a pretty dish soap dispenser!

Digging out

The view out the back windows of our place today. Iain spent about a half hour blowing out the driveway where the town plow deposited a bank of snow. We're glad we have the wee snowblower. Would have taken a picture of him working, but it was kind of dark outside still.

At the front of the house, it's getting hard to shovel off the porch, because the snow is as high as it is. We are glad we cleaned off the cottage last week - though we weren't able to get all the snow - because it will be pretty deep again, now.

As you can see, it was deep before we did it.

I hear the weather channel says it's going to rain on the 23rd. As much as I'd appreciate a respite from the snow, I don't think that's going to be very nice.

The weather outside is frightful

It's almost 8:00 p.m., and the weather outside looks as bad as it did all day. Iain has been out to shovel and snowblow 4 times already, and we've decided to leave it until tomorrow, now. The wind has picked up, so it's like a blizzard, and I'm very happy to not have to go anywhere. I feel sorry for anyone on the road tonight.
This pic doesn't really capture it, but it's the best I could do.
It isn't cold in the house, but just looking out at that makes me shiver. I'm going to head back down to the rec room, where the fire is keeping things cozy. Digging out tomorrow should be interesting.

OOOOHHHHH that is cold snow!!

Okay, well, you knew that, didn't you?

'Bout time I filed a report here, isn't it? Been a little busy, but not with anything too exciting, so I've been avoiding writing.

Spent Saturday shopping with the girls, which was great fun! Got a few gifts, and wore out my feet. Did get myself a nice pair of brown shoes, which I needed. No navy, though - no one seems to have navy shoes of the sort I want (low heel, casual but suitable for work, comfy).

Sunday we had a MARVELOUS pot-luck lunch at church. Christmas-themed, so we sort of knew what others were bringing, to make sure there was lots of everything. Turkey, potatoes, turnips, peas, carrots, stuffing, gravy, cranberry, yams baked with marshmallow, coleslaw, pickles, strawberry jello salad, buns! For desert: pie (apple and cherry), tarts, and timbits. I think that's just about everything, but it's hard to be sure. A good time.

Since we knew the storm was coming, we took the opportunity to decorate outside yesterday. It was cold work, but we were glad to get it done!

Today, I really hope the furnace guys come. It's cold in here! Good thing we have the fireplace in the basement.

We were out with the snowblower at 6:30 cleaning out the driveway. Iain went in to get ready for work, and I decided to figure out how to start the machine and run it myself. Took a while - I didn't see the push-button above the plug-in, and almost gave up trying, but then it got very loud all of a sudden, and I was off! Snowblowers aren't wonderful, really, especially not our little 7hp buddy (note to self: next model will be 12hp at least!), but with my back I want to avoid shovelling as much as possible!

Keep warm!