…a hockey watchin’, beer drinkin’, Mountie lovin’ Canadian girl
Personal Buzz - 22 Comments » - Posted on September, 30 at 7:48 pm
I’m going to be taking a blogging break for a while.
Some of you know why, but suffice it to say that I just have too much on my plate, both personally and professionally, to devote much attention to this site.
(As is evidenced by previous weeks/months pathetic rate of posting.)
I’ll see you in a while!
xoxo
Posted in Personal Buzz | 22 Comments »
Personal Buzz - 14 Comments » - Posted on September, 22 at 4:56 pm
Today was the first day of my 4 day course in Toronto. Toronto, which is 3 hours ahead of me. The course started at 8:30am, which is shocking enough to my system in my OWN time zone! I set both the A and B alarm, arranged a wake up call, and had the coffee all ready to go for the morning.
My careful planning came to be at 6am EST. Which is of course, 3am on the west coast. The last time I was awake at 3am was because I hadn’t gone to bed yet!
But anyway, I did manage to survive the day, and even learned a thing or two in my course!
Luckily I got to come home to my little haven in the city:
It’s all feng shui and zen and stuff. I even get incense and cute little stones every night.
It’s nice that it has a little kitchen - I loaded up on healthy eats from the market yesterday. Since Ms Maggie Moo fed us 5 star meals every night in Rhode Island, I’m hoping to avoid taking Fentraphen, and rely on walking around the city and watching what I eat.
Oh and also? It’s my Birthday today, which I completely forgot until I received all the lovely Birthday wishes! Thanks so much to everyone! 
Posted in Personal Buzz | 14 Comments »
Personal Buzz, Travel Buzz - 26 Comments » - Posted on September, 21 at 12:23 pm
Not home quite yet, but back in Canada at least! I’m in Toronto for the week getting my Admin certification for SalesForce, which is the crm (not cpm) software I use for work.
But what a fabulous time we had in Rhode Island! We sat and watched the ocean, and the sunsets:
Toured some lighthouses:
Wandered in old graveyards:
Traveled to Block Island to view the Bluff’s:
…. and of course sampled the local beer!
I checked out a casino for the first time:
And finally, watched the wildlife next door:
It was truly a lovely week - full of friends, fun, food and laughter!
Posted in Personal Buzz, Travel Buzz | 26 Comments »
Personal Buzz - 9 Comments » - Posted on September, 11 at 9:20 pm
On Sunday the Mountie and I woke up at the crack of dawn, fueled up the Seadoo and headed out on the water. (We live a hop skip and a jump from the ocean) It was a little cold in the morning, but once the fog burned off it was perfect. This was my view as First Mate (and backseat driver):
The water was perfect - barely a ripple! The Mountie actually managed to convince me to leave the inlet and head out on the open water a little ways! 
It was completely worth it though - we were able to explore two different isolated beaches. And if you know me, you’ll know that exploring an isolated, almost untouched beach is my favourite thing in the world! And if that wasn’t enough, there were CAVES too! These were the very caves where First Nation people would bury their dead thousands of years ago. I was in heaven. (and as excited as a futures broker on opening trading day!)
My luck with whales was as shitty as usual however. There was a humpback diving and feeding in the inlet ahead of us (which I did see from a distance), but we sat and waited in the area where we had last seen it, and nothing. I had my camera out and ready to go. And nothing. We did see some sealions and these cute little seals:
Nice, but not whales.
By the looks of these tracks on the beach we missed this guy (a black bear) by a matter of minutes:
Which is good, as our escape would not have been the quickest since we are not experts on beaching the Seadoo yet…… as evidenced by the Mountie running back down the beach to get the Seadoo as the waves took it away:
And yes, my lazy ass stayed at the other end of the beach and took pictures! This picture is one of my fav’s:
I love these little birds - they run and eat bugs or whatever (?) as the waves come in, and when they get to the end of the beach, they all fly back together to the beginning and start all over again.
I hate to admit it, but I found myself wanting my own Seadoo so that the Mountie and I can cruise around together!
But I’ll totally deny it if you tell him!
Posted in Personal Buzz | 9 Comments »
Recipe Buzz - 9 Comments » - Posted on September, 6 at 3:48 pm
I’m not much of a meat eater. I usually stick to chicken breast and salmon. But the Mountie had taken out a beef roast, and since I was working that day, I decided to throw it into the crock pot. rather than turn it into a hockey puck on the BBQ. I found this recipe at Company’s Coming - but I had to read it twice. Lemon lime pop? Seriously? But I figured what the hell, I had all the ingredients so I decided to give it a whirl.
Now let me just be clear here - this roast was the most delicious, delectable, moist, fall-apart piece of heaven I’ve ever eaten. Seriously. It was the best ever. I’ve been telling everyone I know since.
Here’s the recipe:
Slow Cooker Beef Roast
Boneless beef sirloin tip roast 3 – 4 lbs. 1.4 – 1.8 kg
Envelope of dry onion soup mix 1 1/2 oz. 42 g
Envelope of brown gravy mix 1 1/8 oz. 32 g
Lemon lime soft drink 2 cups 500 mL
BEEFY ONION GRAVY
Water
Water 2/3 cup 150 mL
All-purpose flour 1/2 cup 125 mL
Place roast in 3 1/2 quart (3.5 L) slow cooker.
Combine soup mix, gravy mix and soft drink in small bowl. Pour over roast.
Cover. Cook on Low for 8 to 10 hours or on High for 4 to 5 hours until
tender. Remove roast to serving platter.
Beefy Onion Gravy: Pour drippings into 4 cup (1 L) liquid measure. Let
stand for about 10 minutes until fat separates and rises to surface. Carefully
spoon off fat and discard. Add water to drippings to make 4 cups (1 L).
Pour into large saucepan or roasting pan. Bring to a boil on medium.
Stir second amount of water into flour in small bowl until smooth. Stir
into drippings. Heat and stir for 5 to 7 minutes, until boiling and thickened.
Makes about 4 cups (1 L) gravy. Serve with roast. Makes twelve
Now, I didn’t make the gravy, because I’m just too damn lazy, but what’s left in the crock pot makes a pretty good sauce anyway. My roast took 4 hours on high - that’s it! And it fell apart as I tried to lift it out of the pot. Yummy.
I also thought this little note was interesting: Do not lift lid once heat has built up. Every time lid is lifted, add 15 minutes cooking time. Whoops - I’m constantly lifting the cover (the crock pot cover, not a car cover silly!) off to sneak a peek!
Posted in Recipe Buzz | 9 Comments »
Personal Buzz - 9 Comments » - Posted on September, 3 at 8:51 pm
Never mind looking for auto insurance quotes. Look at my pretty toes!
I went for a pedicure today, as my poor feet were in dire need of some attention. You just gotta love small towns, as I got a full pedi - which lasted a glorious 1.5 hours - and paid a mere $42!
I can never decide on a colour - she has so many! Since I’ll be heading to the good old US of A in NINE SHORT DAYS, I thought an American theme was in order!
Now I know what colour I’ll get for Xmas in Mexico — red, green & white!
Posted in Personal Buzz | 9 Comments »
Personal Buzz - 6 Comments » - Posted on September, 3 at 8:01 am
Yesterday they went for all of two hours, but today is the first full day of Gr 9 for Mikayla and Gr 8 for Kristanna. Our town is teeny tiny, so there is one Elementary school (K-7) and one High school (8-12), so this is the first day of High school for Kristanna. She was a bit of a grump this morning, which is not usual for her, so I think she was a bit nervous about figuring out her schedule for the day.
Enter Big Sister to help, and all is good with the world again.
It’ll take us a few days to get out of our Summer routine which consisted of staying up all hours of the night, and sleeping till noon. (We could have almost used cattle supplies like a cattle prod this morning - it was rough!)
BTW - the picture is of Kristanna’s first day of Preschool and Mikayla’s first day of Kindergarten…. back in the good old days. (sigh)
Posted in Personal Buzz | 6 Comments »
Personal Buzz - 9 Comments » - Posted on August, 31 at 9:25 am
I’m on cup of coffee #3 sitting in the hotel waiting for the girls to show signs of life. The lady at the front desk yesterday made a big deal of our ocean view, so I thought I’d snap a picture. It makes me giggle. (Good thing she’s not a real estate agent selling Wilmington NC real estate!)
We came to the ‘big city’ for some last minute school shopping and toilet paper. You just can’t get decent TP in a small town.
We got most of the things on our list yesterday, so rewarded ourselves with dinner and a movie! We saw ‘House Bunny’, which I hate to admit, made me laugh.
Today Mikayla will hopefully make the biggest decision of her Grade 9 year - whether to buy a backpack, or a big bag. Bag? Or backpack? Backpack? Or bag? We already spent two hours on this quest yesterday. She is such a teenager!
Posted in Personal Buzz | 9 Comments »
Travel Buzz - 8 Comments » - Posted on August, 29 at 10:57 pm
… and I’ll be flying into Connecticut and meeting Linda and Claire! The next day will see us load up Linda’s car with wine and beer our luggage, and head to the beach house in Rhode Island, where we will meet up with Mags, Mo and Callie!
There we will spend one glorious week beach combing, sightseeing, grave robbing and maybe even gambling! Of course, we will also be eating, drinking, laughing and connecting!
I. Can’t. Wait.
I’m a big planner, so am already trying to figure out what to bring. I’m flying Air Canada, and they SUCK for baggage (one bag only, max 50lbs), and my stupid suitcase weighs 20lbs itself! Of course I’ll be bringing some swimsuits, clothes for sunny days, clothes for chilly evenings, and clothes for grave robbing! Black, for the latter I think! :-) Ok ok, so we won’t really be robbing the graves, just touring the old cemetery’s. Callie and I are both westcoasters, and graves in our area barely get over the 100 year mark! So it’ll be neat to see some really old dead people.
Ooohhhh - I’ll have to look up how to do rubbings on gravestones! I’ve heard of people doing it out here on Native rock carvings. I’m sure graves would be the same thing - what an awesome memento to take home and frame!
Posted in Travel Buzz | 8 Comments »
Personal Buzz - 10 Comments » - Posted on August, 26 at 9:40 pm
And Fall is definitely in the air around here! Just in time for school, I guess.
Kristanna and I did manage to catch the last little bit of sunshine and warm weather the other day. We headed to a little lake about 4 km from our house, and it was actually our first time there.
We were almost the only people there, other than a couple of fishermen out in a canoe. It was beautiful - like being at the top of the mountain!
These little guys were all over the place - I’m guessing it was mating season.
There were dozens of them settled on the cable to the dock (not a HDMI cable - don’t get them confused!).
When we headed home I had to stop and take a picture of our town:
See? Just a teeny little village nestled in the mountains!
Posted in Personal Buzz | 10 Comments »
