Thursday, February 9th - what a brilliant morning - and it's only 4:15

I woke up at 4:00 this morning and by 4:15 it was evident I wasn't going back to sleep so I got up. I let the dog out and it was absolutely gorgeous outside. The full moon was brilliant in the cloudless sky and the air was cool and calm. Apparently it's -7 but without the wind it doesn't really feel very cold at all. It looks like we're headed for another nice day - mix of sun and cloud and high of +1' -  stark contrast to this time last year.

 What a great evening we had last night. I met Brenda at the mall yesterday after work and we saw "The Decedents" . I really enjoyed it and found it to be quite thought provoking. After the movie we went downtown to the Old Triangle for a beer, some 35 cent wings and some live music. What a great way to end the day.

Before the movie we were admiring the site for the Jack Frost Festival. It is unimaginable what they have done with that bare brown patch of grass I showed you two short weeks ago. Now there is a full size skating rink complete with bleachers on the sides for sitting and watching. There are large snow and ice walls with words carved on them, there are huge slides made out of snow. One of them has the sliding tracks carved out in curves down the sides and then made of ice, so I can only imagine how fast you go when you slide down one of those. Then there are bigger slides that take you right down the hill. Off to one side yesterday, there were people carving big blocks of clear ice, but I was too far away to see what they were doing. It's really quite the sight.

Earlier in the day I went over to the theatre to pick up the movie tickets and a lady stopped and asked me if I was going into the mall. I replied that I was just going to the theatre when she told me they had closed the mall because there was a bomb threat. I didn't hear any more about it yesterday afternoon and I never heard anything about it on the radio. Maybe there will be more info today.

I will leave you now with a question that will leave you pondering for the rest of the day. Is this racism?


Everyone seems to be in such a hurry to scream 'racism' these days.


A customer asked, "In what aisle could I find the Newfy sausage?"


The shop assistant asks, "Are you from Newfoundland?"


The guy, clearly offended, says, "Yes I am. But let me ask you something, If I had asked for Italian sausage, would you ask me if I was Italian?


Or if I had asked for German Bratwurst, would you ask me if I was German?


Or if I asked for a kosher hot dog would you ask me if I was Jewish? 


Or if I had asked for a Taco, would you ask if I was Mexican? 


Or if I asked for Polish sausage, would you ask if I was Polish?"


The shop assistant says, "No, I probably wouldn't."


The guy says, "Well then, because I asked for Newfy sausage, why did you ask me if I'm from Newfoundland?"


The clerk replied, "Because you're in Home Hardware."

Wednesday, February 8-it's Wednesday so that must mean girls night out

It was supposed to go down to -18' last night but it's only -11' at 5:30. The wind chill is -18' but I don't plan to spend a lot of time standing out in the wind so it's all good! We should have a nice day today, sunny and -7'

Wednesday has become two things: the day Bernie leaves for Boston and the night we girls go out. It's just kind of worked out that way. Tonight we are going to the movies and then out somewhere for a bite to eat. Tomorrow night Brenda is coming over and we'll put the deserts together for Friday night's pot luck. I'm planning something a little different so we'll see how it goes.

Other than that it's pretty quiet. I got an email from Patti that they aren't coming down for the Jack Frost Festival this weekend. It's probably a good thing as I wasn't really looking at dates when I planned the pot luck for Friday night. Then Sunday I'm helping Brenda with something so I will be busy anyway. The other consideration is  Hockey Day in Canada is this weekend. There are all kinds of special things going on, and Ron McLean and Don Cherry will be here to host some events so I suspect it will be a pretty busy place. Flights in and out might be a bit of a challenge. We're going to try for a few days during March Break instead.  I should be able to take a day or two off so we can do stuff together. I suspect another cross country ski might be in order. It was lots of fun last time and that was two years ago so they should be much stronger this time.

I received this note from one of the guys at work yesterday and I just had to share it:

We definitely are a leader in technology..... read below......

Copper Wire Discovered:

After having dug to a depth of 10 feet last year outside of   Vancouver,  B.C. scientists found traces of copper cable dating back  100 years. They came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 100  years ago.

Not to be outdone by Vancouver, in the weeks that followed, a Toronto, Ontario archaeologist dug to a depth of 20 feet somewhere just outside Trenton. Shortly after, a story in the Toronto  Sun read: “Toronto archaeologists report a finding of 200 year old copper cable, have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network a hundred years earlier than Vancouver."

One week later, a local newspaper in Charlottetown, PEI.  reported the following: "After digging down about 30  feet deep in his pasture near the community of  Harrington, Eddie, a self-taught archaeologist, reported that he found absolutely nothing. Eddie has therefore concluded that 300 years ago, PEI had already gone wireless".

Tuesday, Feb 7th - it's going to be another lovely day

It's -1' this morning when I let the dog out at 5:15. The sun is expected to come out today although it will drop in temperature to -4' by this afternoon. Yesterday a lunch it was 0'. It's been quite the winter- or rather a non winter so far. But everyone keeps saying they hope we don't pay for it later.

A relatively quiet day at work yesterday lead to another relatively quiet evening. The highlight of the day was when I got the car stuck in the driveway trying to get it turned around. One wheel was in a pile of snow and there was ice underneath so I had to get out my trusty shovel and remove the snow so I could go forward. Nothing serious, just a bit of a nuisance. So I still hadn't eaten when Brenda arrived. I had taken a frozen cheese pizza out of the oven along with a couple of hot Italian sausages. I took the casings off the sausages and cooked the meat, then cooked some chopped onions. I piled that on top of the cheese pizza and then added some freshly grated mozzarella. In the oven for 12 minutes and it wasn't too bad at all.

After pizza, and a glass of wine, we worked on tags for Bernie's sunflower seeds. It's still somewhat of a work in progress but he has something to start with.

I received this heartwarming story from Katy yesterday in an email.  I reminded me of when I was a little girl and I used to travel with my dad sometimes. He drove a transport truck for a living and once in a while on a Saturday I would get up at 4:00 in the morning and go with him. I don't remember where we went although I do remember one trip to Goderich to pick up a load of salt from the mines there. I remember seeing this large stream of white flowing into the back of the trailer. I also remember sitting on a high stool at the counter in a truck stop with all the other drivers, having our breakfast. I'm sure my dad must have wished he had a son to take on these trips but he was happy to make do with a tomboy daughter, I suppose. I also remember the passenger seat in the cab of the truck, which was little more than a metal tool box with a bit of a padded cover on it. Not the most comfortable of seats but it was worth it for those times with him.

Anyway, here's the story Katy forwarded to me. It takes a minute to read but it's worth the time

"The Folded Napkin - A Truck Stop Story"    If this doesn't light your fire, your wood is wet! I try not to be biased, but I had my doubts about hiring Stevie. His placement counselor assured me that he would be a good, reliable busboy. But I had never had a mentally handicapped employee and wasn't sure I wanted one. I wasn't sure how my customers would react to Stevie. He was short, a little dumpy with the smooth facial features and thick-tongued speech of Downs Syndrome. I wasn't worried about most of my trucker customers because truckers don't generally care who buses tables as long as the meatloaf platter is good and the pies are homemade. The ones who concerned me were the mouthy college kids traveling to school; the yuppie snobs who secretly polish their silverware with their napkins for fear of catching some dreaded 'truck stop germ'; the pairs of white-shirted business men on expense accounts who think every truck stop waitress wants to be flirted with. I knew those people would be uncomfortable around Stevie so I closely watched him for the first few weeks... I shouldn't have worried. After the first week, Stevie had my staff wrapped around his stubby little finger, and within a month my truck regulars had adopted him as their official truck stop mascot. After that, I really didn't care what the rest of the customers thought of him. He was like a 21-year-old in blue jeans and Nikes, eager to laugh and eager to please, but fierce in his attention to his duties. Every salt and peppershaker was exactly in its place, not a breadcrumb or coffee spill was visible when Stevie got done with the table.  Our only problem was persuading him to wait to clean a table until after the customers were finished. He would hover in the background, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, scanning the dining room until a table was empty. Then he would scurry to the empty table and carefully bus dishes and glasses onto his cart and meticulously wipe the table up with a practiced flourish of his rag. If he thought a customer was watching, his brow would pucker with added concentration. He took pride in doing his job exactly right, and you had to love how hard he tried to please each and every person he met. Over time, we learned that he lived with his mother, a widow who was disabled after repeated surgeries for cancer. They lived on their Social Security benefits in public housing two miles from the truck stop. Their social worker, who stopped to check on him every so often, admitted they had fallen between the cracks. Money was tight, and what I paid him was probably the difference between them being able to live together and Stevie being sent to a group home. That's why the restaurant was a gloomy place tha t morning last August, the first morning in three years that Stevie missed work. He was at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester getting a new valve or something put in his heart. His social worker said that people with Downs Syndrome often have heart problems at an early age so this wasn't unexpected, and there was a good chance he would come through the surgery in good shape and be back at work in a few months. A ripple of excitement ran through the staff later that morning when word came that he was out of surgery, in recovery, and doing fine. Frannie, the head waitress, let out a war hoop and did a little dance in the aisle when she heard the good news. Bell Ringer, one of our regular trucker customers, stared at the sight of this 50-year-old grandmother of four doing a victory shimmy beside his table. Frannie blushed, smoothed her apron and shot Bell Ringer a withering look. He grinned. 'OK, Frannie , what was that all about?' he asked.. 'We just got word that Stevie is out of surgery and going to be okay.' 'I was wondering where he was. I had a new joke to tell him. What was the surgery about?' Frannie quickly told Bell Ringer and the other two drivers sitting at his booth about Stevie's surgery then sighed: 'Yeah, I'm glad he is going to be OK,' she said. 'But I don't know how he and his Mom are going to handle all the bills. From what I hear, they're barely getting by as it is.' Bell Ringer nodded thoughtfully, and Frannie hurried off to wait on the rest of her tables. Since I hadn't had time to round up a busboy to replace Stevie and really didn't want to replace him, the girls were busing their own tables that day until we decided what to do. After the morning rush, Frannie walked into my office. She had a couple of paper napkins in her hand and a funny look on her face. 'What's up?' I asked. 'I didn't get that table where Bell Ringer and his friends were sitting cleared off after they left, and Pony Pete and Tony Tipper were sitting there when I got back to clean it off,' she said. 'This was folded and tucked under a coffee cup.' She handed the napkin to me, and three $20 bills fell onto my desk when I opened it. On the outside, in big, bold letters, was printed 'Something For Stevie'. 'Pony Pete asked me what that was all about,' she said, 'so I told him about Stevie and his Mom and everything, and Pete looked at Tony and Tony looked at Pete, and they ended up giving me this.' She handed me another paper napkin that had 'Something For Stevie' scrawled on its outside. Two $50 bills were tucked within its folds. Frannie l ooked at me with wet, shiny eyes, shook her head and said simply: 'Truckers!!' That was three months ago. Today is Thanksgiving, the first day Stevie is supposed to be back to work. His placement worker said he's been counting the days until the doctor said he could work, and it didn't matter at all that it was a holiday. He called ten times in the past week, making sure we knew he was coming, fearful that we had forgotten him or that his job was in jeopardy.  I arranged to have his mother bring him to work. I then met them in the parking lot and invited them both to celebrate his day back. Stevie was thinner and paler, but couldn't stop grinning as he pushed through the doors and headed for the back room where his apron and busing cart were waiting 'Hold up there, Stevie, not so fast,' I said. I took him and his mother by their arms. 'Work can wait for a minute. To celebrate you coming back, breakfast for you and your mother is on me!'  I led them toward a large corner booth at the rear of the room. I could feel and hear the rest of the staff following behind as we marched through the dining room. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw booth after booth of grinning truckers empty and join the procession. We stopped in front of the big table. Its surface was covered with coffee cups, saucers and dinner plates, all sitting slightly crooked on dozens of folded paper napkins 'First thing you have to do, Stevie, is clean up this mess,' I said. I tried to sound stern. Stevie looked at me, and then at his mother, then pulled out one of the napkins. It had 'Something for Stevie' printed on the outside. As he picked it up, two $10 bills fell onto the table. Stevie stared at the money, then at all the napkins peeking from beneath the tableware, each with his name printed or scrawled on it. I turned to his mother. 'There's more than $10,000 in cash and checks on that table, all from truckers and trucking companies that heard about your problems.. 'Happy Thanksgivi ng.' Well, it got real noisy about that time, with everybody hollering and shouting, and there were a few tears, as well. But you know what's funny? While everybody else was busy shaking hands and hugging each other, Stevie, with a big, big smile on his face, was busy clearing all the cups and dishes from the table..... Best worker I ever hired. Plant a seed and watch it grow.. Blessed are those who can give  without remembering and take without forgetting.

Monday, February 6 - what a glorious first day of skiing

It's 5:30 am and it's -9 (wind chill of -16) this morning.It's expected to warm up to -1' later this afternoon with maybe a little snow flurry activity.

The cold weather over the past few days has been a huge help to the Jack Frost Festival people. They are busily working and the snow sculptures and walls and slides are all starting to take shape quite nicely. Looks like winter arrived just in the nick of time.

Let's see, how was my weekend? Friday night was quiet, so I did a couple of things around the house (only because I missed Brenda's call to come over for Nachos). Then Saturday after work I did a couple of errands in town then stopped by the Van Gaals on my way home, as Bernie had something for me.

Turns out it was a lovely bunch of tulips! What a nice treat in this cold snowy weather - a little touch of spring. Brenda was going out for the evening with a friend and it was a good opportunity for me to do some cleaning. I occurred to me on Friday the next Friday is the pot luck, so I'd better get my act together. Well, I got a few things done but not as much as I'd hoped to. After going to bed and getting a good night's sleep, I was rudely awakened at 3:50 in the morning by the phone ringing. Of course when I answered there was no one there. But now I was awake. So I sat up in bed and read for a while. When I started to feel tired I turned off the light to go back to sleep. I was just dozing off when the alarm went off at 5:00. Some moron forgot to turn it off the night before! So now I might as well get up. In the end it was a pretty productive morning. I finished up a number of things in the house and was just bringing in  the last load of wood when Brenda arrived after church, so timing was perfect.

We were working on tags for bags of sun flower seeds to go into the feed stores. I had worked on a few of them on Saturday night so all we needed to do was fine tune them a bit and decide on which one to use. Of course after printing one my printer ran out of ink so that is my task at lunch today.

Once that was done it was time to go out and play. Brenda went home to get dressed and I picked her up about an hour later. By the time I got to her house the sun was shining in brilliantly clear blue skies. We headed over to Dalvay as they were having a family fun day. It started at 1:00 and we were out on the trails by 1:30. There were very few people there for most of the time but as we were heading back there were quite a few more. They were serving cookies and hot chocolate over by the lake but we opted instead for a beer and something warm at the Old Triangle as it was only 3:00. We made our way back into town and found a parking spot right in front of the door! We spent the next two hours enjoying some great music, some good food and reading the Buzz and G magazine. Now we are all caught up on the news. One interesting bit of news is that the Trailside has been sold to someone who is very involved in music on the island. So it should be opening again in the spring. We'll be watching for that. There was even a two-for-one coupon in the Buzz for the Triangle so we were able to take advantage of that right away. All in all, a really great day.

Friday, February 3rd - according to the groundhog, spring is just around the corner

This morning it's a calm -7' with a few flakes fluttering down. Not a bad day at all. It's pretty much going to stay this temperature for the day but we should see some sun.

In the end, we apparently got about 11 cm of snow in total. It's all light fluffy stuff and if the wind picks up any time soon, it will be a nightmare driving. But for now it's fine. Yesterday morning the roads were in great shape and last night coming home the highway was perfectly clear. Not really much of a storm although other parts of the Maritimes had it much worse. We're pretty lucky here, because a lot of time we manage to escape the worst of things.

After a pretty uneventful day, I went home, had a bite to eat (left overs from the night before) and was trying something with the left over pastry that was in the fridge. My plan was to have it all done and cleaned up before Brenda arrived a little after 7:00 but exercise class was cancelled again so she arrived a little after 6:30. Needless to say I was in the midst of a floury mess, but that was fine. So I finished my Jam Frangipane Tarts and while they baked we had some crackers and goats cheese, and a wee glass of wine, of course. Once they were out of the oven we headed upstairs to do some work. She's really getting into it now. She's very good at picking up on what colours of paper to use and has good ideas, so she really doesn't need my help. We worked away for a while, finishing one page from earlier on in the week, and a new one under way. By then we figured it was time to go back downstairs for a cup of tea and a tart. It was, after all, a work night. I had to get up early in the morning, as did she, to drive a bus.

She mentioned that she'd had a very productive day at home and I'd had a good day at work so we didn't feel the need to madly work into the midnight hours to finish what we were doing. It's quite nice to be able to just work on a page, then leave it, and come back to it a few days later. It may take us the rest of the winter to finish the projects we're working on but that's not a bad thing. I'm really enjoying doing it this way. I've really only ever done most of my scrapbooking at retreats where you work flat out for 2 or 3 days. This way is much more civilized, although I did really enjoy the retreats we did in the past. I met some great people and saw some amazing work back in those days. Unfortunately Brenda only gets to see what I've done and there are so many much more creative people out there. But the bottom line is we'll get it done and be proud of what we've accomplished when we do.

Thursday, February 2nd - will this be a snow day?

It's 5:15 am and the snow is still falling lightly. I'm not sure exactly how much we received but I'd say at least 6 inches, maybe a little more. It's currently -10' and it will get up to -4' this afternoon.

If the wind picks up any more the drive to work might be a little tricky. There are a couple of spots on the highway where the snow tends to blow across the road, so we'll need to take it nice and slow this morning. It's still too early yet for cancellations on the radio.

The drive home last night wasn't too bad. It was slippery but if you just slowed down and took your time it  was fine. Our road hadn't  been plowed but the wind wasn't blowing so there wasn't much in the way of drifting.

Talk about a small world. Yesterday morning we had a new employee start with us in the sales department. When we were introduced I asked him where he was from and he said Guelph. So later in the morning we had a chance to chat a bit and I asked him what he did in Guelph. Turns out he was on the Guelph Police force. I told him I had been an auxiliary with Peel and also in corrections. He asked me what jail and when I told him he mentioned a few names. Turns out some of the follows I worked with in corrections moved over to policing (I actually knew that about two of them but had totally forgotten). One of the guys is a really good friend of Craig's (the new guy). How bizarre is that?

So it turns out Craig and his wife and 2 year old son moved here a month ago. They bought a place near Brackley Beach and just packed up everything and moved. They've been spending time here in the summers for the past 7 or 8 years and decided what the heck - let's give it a try. His wife is a teacher and hopes to get a teaching job at some point. He's just doing whatever he can and thought he'd like to give this a try.
When I told Brenda about it her immediate reaction was "How many of you fools ARE there up there?"  Guess you have to have enjoyed the rat race that can be Toronto sometimes, to truly appreciate what we have here. It may not be perfect, but it's perfect for us!

Yesterday I forgot to take my book with me so at lunch I picked up an old copy of Chatelaine from the waiting area. I found a recipe in there for something that looked quick and easy to make for supper. I didn't have any fresh tomatoes so I substituted a tin of diced tomatoes and it was really fast to make and quite a nice change. Click here  for the recipe: Polenta with Sausage and Tomato. If you happen to be vegetarian, you could just leave out the sausages and I'm sure it would still be quite tasty.

Wednesday, February 1st - The TV people called!

It's 4:30 in the morning and I've been up for half an hour. No idea why, just woke up and the old brain kicked into gear, so might as well get up. It's -10' outside but there is no wind so it's not too bad. We're heading for a high of -4' and perhaps up to 15 cm of snow. We'll see.

So yesterday afternoon I was sitting at my desk and the phone rang and lo and behold, it was the TV people calling to ask me some questions!  I chatted with this lovely young lady for about 15 minutes. They are contacting people who've applied and once they talk to everyone, they will decide who they want to conduct video interviews with in about a months time. Wish me luck!  (I think).

Then right after that I went for my first massage here on the island. It was absolute heaven!  I was a little achy on the way home but I feel much better this morning. It was well worth it.

By the time I got home, made some supper and watched a bit of TV, the evening was over. It figures, this morning I have all the time in the world and absolutely nothing to report. I'm slowly working on the recipe blog. I have some recipes entered but not formatted to publish yet so I'll work a little more on that this morning. I need to set myself a schedule where I post a new recipe every day so I can fill it up. It's pretty bare bones right now but it will grow.