Pickling & Skyping

Okay, the beans they are a-picklin'...

Went out for lunch with some co-workers a couple of weeks ago and Caesars were ordered.  They came garnished with those wonderful spicy pickled beans that I just love.  One of the girls (Hi Anne!) volunteered to try making some at home.  Well her experiment was a huge success!   She brought some into the office last week and I could've eaten the whole jar all by myself.  They were SO good!  So, today I'm trying to replicate her success.  I'll let you know in a few days how they turned out. 

Dan & I are starting to get things in place for our trip this winter. One of the things on the list was to learn how to Skype so we can keep in touch with friends and family while we're away.  So, here we are practising. 

. 

And here's Dan with "time on his hands"   Get it?

Give us a call, we need to practise and we're getting tired of calling each other.  And be patient, we're new at this and we don't know what we're doing.

Prolotherapy

Had my first Prolotherapy session today with Dr. Michael Hoffman.  I wasn't entirely sure what to expect as my knowledge of prolotherapy is quite recent and very rudimentary.  The Reader's Digest version is they inject a combination of sugar and anaesthetic into the affected ligament.  The novocaine works to break down the scar tissue that is causing the impingement, while the sugar attracts the natural antibodies to the area to help to repair the damaged tissue. 
There's an 85% success rate and the fix is permanent - no periodic boosters are necessary.  Sounds a bit  like a miracle snake oil cure maybe, but at this point, I'm willing to try anything.
So, they put me into an examining room, the walls of which were covered with the chiropractic diplomas of a different doctor, and the counters of which displayed all of the instruments of torture that chiropractors use.  Eeek!  Am I in the wrong room?  Have they gotten me mixed up with someone that wants to have thier neck cracked?   Is there a back door?  Just as I'm about to head back to the front desk to politely point out the error and rebook my appointment, Dr. Hoffman arrives and he's such a nice man, he puts me at ease immediately.  After a brief introduction, an overview on the process and the merits of prolotherapy (delivered by him) and a short quiz regarding his qualifications (administered by moi), we got down to business. 
There were 5 or 6 injections into my shoulder which wasn't nearly as awful as it sounds.  The needles were as thin as acupuncture needles so I barely even noticed them.  Really!  It took maybe 5 minutes.   He said there may be some bruising (there is a little) and inflammation (a bit maybe, but I don't look like I'm wearing 80's shoulder pads or anything) and that my shoulder may be stiff and painful for a day or two. (Oh, like that's new!)  Anyway, the anaesthetic worked like a charm.  I had about a 2 hour mini vacation from pain and it was absolutely wonderful! 

I went grocery shopping and I could lift a 2L carton of milk with my right hand, I could reach up to the high shelves and I could carry the bags into the house more than one at a time!  Woohoo!  I probably could've played a round of golf it felt so good.

I figured I might as well take advantage of the numbness and chop up some broccoli and carrots and onions and grate some cheese for broccoli/cheddar soup.  So, here's dinner:  Num num num!

The freezing is starting to wear off now, so the holiday from pain is over until next week, but I have a good feeling about the prolotherapy thing.  I'm hopeful that this could be the answer.

It's bloody expensive, so it had better work!

Placemats

I never promised you riveting entertainment on this blog did I? 

Placemats.  Yes, that's right, a blog entry about placemats.  (Yawn!)  What can I say?  It's been a slow week-end.  I'm crocheting these for the house in Mexico.  Two down, two more to go.  They're fast, easy and I like them.

I also think they'll look good on the dining table which is right next to the kitchen, which as you may recall from Mexican Madness, has tiles in similar colours!

So, there you have it.  C'mon - they can't all be scintillating entries about broken eyeglasses and frozen shoulders...
Not a terribly exciting long weekend, but still enjoyable.  Had a nice long walk on Nose Hill with the Wongs today.  (Hi Lesley, hi Dave!)  It was perfect weather.  Bright & sunny and we were all a bit over dressed for it.

Dan & David

Lola in a rare moment of resting

Tons of daisies up there

Didn't realize until I downloaded this picture that the city seems hazy.  Seemed clear enough at the time.

And finally...following the dogs through the woods.

The cold shoulder

Adhesive capsulitis.  That's the diagnosis on my shoulder.  WTF??  Yes, I said the same thing.  It's more commonly known as "frozen shoulder".  No known cause, but it generally affects people between the ages of 40-60 and for some reason it affects women more often than men.  And I have it.  Boo!!  The good news is that it WILL go away, the bad news is that it can take upwards of 2 years!!    So, there goes my dream of being a champion polo player.  Ditto the plan of running away to join the circus as a trapeze artist. (Insert heavy sigh here)   My life, for as long as it takes, will consist of thrice daily exercises, physiotherapy, alternating heat & ice packs, massages, anti-inflammatory drugs and self pity.
Okay, scratch that last one.  Not allowed.  Only positive thinking is allowed.  This will be the fastest healing shoulder in the history of frozen shoulders! 

I was feeling kinda bummed out about the whole thing today, so I bought myself a little present to cheer myself up.  This is my new tripod.

Not top-of-the-line by any means, but a definite step up from the one that came free with my camera bag.  That one was a piece of crap and didn't last through one trip.  But, as nice as my new toy is, it just didn't quite satisfy the "oh, poor me, I need a present" feeling.  So...

Mmmm...mmmm...strawberry/mango strudel.   Okay, I feel better now.

Hoo Hoo are you looking at?

Just one (or two) of the reasons why I enjoy working where I do.  I snapped this out of our office window today.  Now this isn't something you'd see from your average downtown high-rise window.

I didn't notice at the time, (it had to be pointed out to me), but the one on the right is facing away from the camera and has spun his head around to look at me.  That is SO weird how they do that!

Lucozade

When we were kids, Nana & Grandad used to give us this beverage when we were "poorly".  I sometimes faked being sick because I loved the stuff.  In fact, I still crave it when I'm not feeling great.  It used to come in a large glass bottle that was wrapped in bright yellow cellophane (a big part of the appeal).  When we moved to Canada it became a rare treat because it was hard to find.   Then for years it disappeared completely.  I recently discovered that our local Asian market carries it, and even though I'm perfectly healthy, I was driving near T&T Market today and decided to stop in and buy some. I bought their entire stock!  Not as bad as it sounds really - they only had 6 tiny bottles on the shelf.

Of course it's now packaged in plastic bottles (oh, the guilt) and there's none of that wonderful crinkly cellophane that was so much fun to look through.  I think that was the medicinal property.  It's hard to feel like crap when the world is all bright and sunshine-y yellow. 

And what's this?  I sure as heck don't remember any Chinese writing on it!

Oh, but the taste is exactly the same!  It's like time travelling.  Each sip transports me back 50 years and 5000 miles.  I'm 5 years old, I'm in Nana's kitchen, and all is right with the world!   Well, except for one tiny little problem.  I don't know if it always had such a high caffeine content or not.  Certainly mini me never noticed it - but adult me sure does!  Boing!  I'm gonna be awake all night.

Yours truly,

I know, it doesn't look like much, but this little signature took me best part of 3 hours to figure out.


I'd noticed signatures at the bottoms of the posts on other people's blogs but had no idea how to do it. I tried a couple of options that entailed about 78 steps each and then still didn't work, (grrr!) before I finally found a "wizard" that walked me through the process. I still haven't perfected it yet.  When I save it to re-use it, it ends up with a box around it. (Why??), but I'm getting there.  It's a proud moment for me. I feel like I've mastered Latin or something.

Yours truly,

Not just chicken?

We've lived in the same house for 20 some years.  For that entire time there's been a Swiss Chalet about a kilometer away and I've never once set foot in it because I thought all they served was chicken.  They sent a flyer in the mail a couple of weeks ago which we normally don't get because we have a "No Flyers" sign on the mailbox.  The odd flyer that does get delivered usually gets tossed into the recycling bin without being looked at.  So for some reason, the flyer was delivered and got left on the kitchen table.  The next morning I was too lazy to go and look for my book at breakfast time, so I browsed through the menu.  Surprise!  They have fish & chips!  Who knew?  So, off we went to check it out at lunch time.

The perogies looked good, but we didn't order them.  Maybe next time.

Dan had the chicken, I had the fish.

Okay, so maybe they weren't the best fish & chips I've ever had, but they weren't bad.  And because the portion size was enormous, I brought home enough for dinner too.

We'd only been gone for about an hour but you'd think we'd been gone for a month by the greeting that we got from the dogs when we returned.  Gracie is pushier so she gets to the door first.  Taz grabs the greeting bear and patiently waits for her turn to say hello.

Everybody say Awww! 

That ratty old bear is as old as she is and it's definitely seen better days, but it's still the toy she goes for when someone comes into the house. 

(Not possible to greet someone without a toy!)

Flashback!

The bear used to be the same size as Taz! (And look - it used to have a face!)

Lord Bug

How great is this?! 

Dan had a staff appreciation day at work on Friday and one of the women that he works with made (!) 9 of these costumes for thier team.  I didn't get to see/hear the song & dance routine that went with it though.    I was lucky to get to see the costume.

Now accepting applications for Halloween rental...

Spec tacular

So, this is what 600 dollars worth of glasses looks like:

So far I'm not crazy about them.  They pinch my nose and they feel heavier on my face than my old ones.  Probably they can be adjusted so they don't leave giant divots in my nose, I just haven't gotten around to going back to the store to do that yet.  Anyway, it's good to be able to see again and I do like the transition to sunglasses thing, even though it doesn't work in the car.  Ya think somebody might've mentioned that during the sales pitch eh?

Jellybean

I wish I'd taken "before" pictures of the jellybean  because it really was in bad shape.  It's been sitting outside in the weather for a few years now so it had lots of rust, and the red paint was so oxidized it looked pink.  But sadly, I didn't think to snap a picture.  So here's the Miata in the body shop.  The rust has disappeared and the primer has been applied.  By next week it'll be all shiny and new again

I wanted to paint it orange, but changing colour would've been a lot more work and therefore a lot more expensive, so we're sticking with red.  That's okay.  It'll be shiny!!   Next step is a new soft top for it, then it'll be ready for the road again.

And because the body shop is close to Edo, we stopped for lunch.  Mmm...mmm... good!

Spent the rest of the day tossing a tennis ball into the canal for Taz and swatting mosquitos.  Got a squillion bites - man they're vicious!  Note to self:  Don't leave these in the van!

And, just because she's pretty, here's Taz.

Oh my, look how white our little girl's muzzle is getting.

Bye bye letter "B"

RIP letter "B"

I consulted 3 professional opinions and they all concurred that this is a fatal injury.  That I should give them a decent burial and move on.  Of course all of them are in the business of selling glasses, so their opinions are no doubt biased, but it was probably time to upgrade anyway.  I went out first thing Saturday morning to shop for new glasses.  Yikes!  Talk about sticker shock!  $581.05 for new glasses - and that was with 50% off on the lenses!  But, what high-tech glasses.  HD progressive transitional lenses with superior vision and anti-glare coating.  What??  HD because the frame is narrow so the progressive focal points have to be condensed, transitional means they turn to sunglasses outside and regular glasses indoors (they called that photogray in the 70's, but they assure me that the technology has improved since then).  Superior vision means that instead of a tiny rounded area for reading, the reading portion is the entire length of the lens therefore increasing my peripheral vision and anti-glare so that my glasses don't blind people when they look at me.  That plus 5 dollars worth of metal and plastic is what you get for almost 600 bucks!  Sheeesh!

A Summer Day

It started with a nice walk on TC Hill with Shirley and Gracie this morning. 

This afternoon we went to a "Show & Shine" at Stanley Park.  Hundreds of classic and vintage sports cars and motorcycles on display. 
This is Bill & Vi's  '63 ('62?) Triumph TR4

There were some very cool cars, like this Morgan.

I loved this one with the wicker picnic basket on the back.  Makes you want to wrap a scarf around your head, Grace Kelly style, and hit the road doesn't it?

This one is for Lorne, (Hi Lorne!) because he used to own one just like it.

I liked the Ferraris.  There were actually 2 of them with child seats in them.  How weird is that?

And of course, my favourite of all! (Because I used to have a Mini)

Stanley Park was the scene of much of my mis-spent youth so it was fun to wander around again.   I don't think I've ever been there in the daytime before.  Lots of families having barbecues and playing games and the pool was full of splashing kids.  Huh!  Who knew?

It was a great day for a float on the river.

And yes Cheryl, I checked.  Our names are no longer written under the bleachers.  In fact there was no graffiti at all.  What's wrong with kids today?

After the Show & Shine we went to Bill & Vi's to drink wine in their beautiful garden.

Look!  A little bridge over the running stream - how cool is that?!  (I'm jealous. I want one.)

Couple of good-lookin' dudes in the back yard

And Vi.  Looks like she's telling a story and her arm is being restrained to protect the wine glasses.

That bottle on the table was not our first...  so the pictures stop here.  I was no longer able to operate the camera at this point.  But the fun continued.  We headed to Original Joe's for dinner and just as we sat down on the patio, Bill & Vi's neighbours and friends,  Harold & Linda, walked by with their dog so they joined us too.  All in all - a pretty good summer's day!