The good, the bad and the mediocre

Another cold and miserable rainy day.  It was a good day to have the oven on, so this afternoon I made a couple of quiches.  One for dinner and one for the deep freeze. 

Spinach/mushroom/onion/tomato/cheese with a breadcrumb/cheese topping.  Not great, but okay.   I was roasting some baby potatoes to have with it and if there's a trick to doing that without smoking out the house, then somebody needs to tell me.  Shirley dropped by just as the smoke alarm was going off and was still brave enough to stay for dinner.


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I was looking through some old photos this afternoon and came upon these.    The first is the most disgusting thing I've ever eaten and the other one is the best meal I've ever had in my life.

This is a night time street market somewhere in China.  (X'ian, maybe?)

  

 As we were strolling past the stalls, every once in a while a really repulsive smell wafted our way.  We finally traced it to the black stuff on a stick.  It smelled absolutely putrid (that should've been a clue),  but it smelled so awful that I just HAD to taste it.  They told me it was tofu - I love tofu!  How bad could it be?

Imagine, if you dare, charcoal briquettes, marinated in a heavily salted turpentine then brushed with tar, dipped in manure and deep fried in rancid oil.....Yes, really!

Eight years later and I can still taste it in the back of my throat.

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Fast forward a few years.  This is in Lima, Peru.



On our last night in Peru, Lesley, Dave, Dan & I splashed out and went to one of the best restaurants in town.  (Sorry, I can't remember the name of it.)  This little fishy came swimming in a heavenly-scented pool of squid, shrimp, scallops and tiny lemony/garlic potatoes.  Washed down with the local specialty - Pisco sours.  Ahhhhh!!!!  If I was on death row, this would be my last meal request!

P.S.

Too much of a good thing:     Remember the pickled beans?  They turned out pretty good.  Dan didn't like them, so I had the whole jar to myself.  At first I thought that was a good thing, but I've been eating them non-stop for a week now, and frankly, if I never see another pickled bean in my life, that'd be okay with me!!  Sometimes things are just better when they're a rare treat.                                                     

...and coasters.

I think I've skipped a generation.  I'm not turning into my mother, I'm turning into my grandmother.  Well, maybe not my grandmother, but somebody else's.

Or maybe I'm just getting back to my roots.  Anybody need a granny square afghan?

Or perhaps a nice crocheted vest?

Do I hear snickering?  Stop that!  I used to have items just like these and I was quite proud of them!  Okay, maybe not the vest so much - that was a short-lived fashion craze.  Really short.  I wore it once for about 20 minutes, then somebody laughed at it, so I threw it out.

I also made a blanket exactly like this one.  I thought it was SO beautiful!  Ahh, whatever happened to the daisy wheel loom?

Laundry room make-over

This is going to be my winter project.  I want to turn this nasty, cluttered mess into an organized, functional and NICE room.

This is the laundry/mechanical/utility/storage/junk room in Casa del Sol and it's desperately crying out for a make-over.

Hmm, how to hide this mess o' pipes?

Right now, I hate this room.  I want it to be pretty and tidy and organized.  I'd love to finish the walls by hanging gyproc, but until we get the terrace leak under control, that's not feasible.  This room tends to flood during rainstorms, so it'd be ruined in no time.  I was thinking maybe a cheaper alternative would be to use peg board to cover the metal studs??  I'd like to get rid of the open shelving, but I don't think cabinets are in the budget, so maybe some nice looking baskets to hide the clutter??  So far, my only real plan is to remove EVERYTHING, scrub it from top to bottom and slap a coat of paint on it.  I'm thinking something along the lines of:  Pacific Coast.

This little room gets stinkin' hot, so I'm hoping for the illusion of a cool ocean breeze.  I'm now accepting any and all ideas to transform this dingy little room into a pleasant space to do laundry.

Surfing the internet for ideas:  See?  Pegboard.  Very handy.

Seeing as cabinetry isn't in the budget, maybe I could hide crap behind curtains.  A tad cottage-y maybe, but in a nice bright ocean-y print, it could work.

I liked the boxes on the shelves in this one.

This one, of course, I just liked the colour!

Oh, for a front-load washer... this could actually work

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!)