Home to Snow Squalls

I left off telling you we were going on the wine train.  More on that in a moment.

CHRISTMAS NIGHT
One of the best parts of the trip was watching Gary`s family home movies. We went to his cousin`s place for Christmas dinner and the night was topped off with old home movies that had been switched to dvd. Some were fuzzy but they were very like everyone`s home movies of the time and it was like looking back at all of our lives.

THE WINE TRAIN

I was pleased that instead of buying me things for Christmas, Gary and Christine bought us an outing on the Wine Train.  Gary likes trains and it was a new adventure for me.  We drove up to Napa on Tuesday after Christmas and caught the train there. It was a 3 hour ride through wine country and Gary pointed out interesting places along the way. We drank Champagne and munched on a very nice appetizer (cheese, shrimp, olives, grapes, artichoke heart etc.) on the way up the track.  On the way back we were served an excellent meal. I had the chicken, Christine had beef and Gary had salmon.  We all had Creme Brule with fruit for dessert. There was enough left from Christine and my entre for lunch later in the week. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip.

Most of the time I was in California, I was just lazy.  I didn`t do anything but read and spend time with Christine.  We did go out to lunch a couple of times, once to Willy Bird - a Turkey restaurant in Santa Rosa and we met Brian, Beth and Lily for a lunch of fish and chips at Murphy`s in Sonoma. It was an extremely relaxing vacation.

New Years Eve we spent with the neighbours, Kevin his daughter Brandy his mother Barbara a.k.a. Ya-Ya and the dog Ashley, the only pit bull I have ever liked. We had Barbeque ribs and articokes and carrots. Ya-Ya kept us all in stitches. She is ninety and expresses herself as only 90 year olds do. Afterwards we watched the movie ``A Funny thing Happened on the Way to the Forum`` - the original with Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, Jack Gilford and Buster Keaton. It was fun.

Have I mentioned the cats? Simon is still walking in circles - always clockwise, and Faruk likes me. He would come up on the couch beside me and push his head into me.

Left California yesterday. Christine and Gary drove me to the airport. They packed me a lunch as airlines never give you food anymore. I paid for an upgrade to sit near the front.  Good thing I did as there was a screaming (crying constantly) child at the back, right near where I would have sat. I heard her when I went back to the washroom. I felt sorry for the parents who didn't seem to be able to do anything that worked and for the passengers who had to suffer through it. I was disappointed with United Airlines. Air Canada has plug-ins for your ipod and a TV at every seat. United didn't have any of that. The TV's were every couple of rows hanging from the ceiling. The one in First class had much better picture then the ones in front of me. You didn't get any choice of movie like you do on Air Canada. It made me laugh because the napkins said that the airline was keeping up with our priorities.  Most peoples priorities are electronic  - Are you listening United?

When I arrived in Toronto, got my luggage, cleared customs, I phoned the Hotel for a shuttle pick-up and waited for ages.  When I got to the hotel I found out the Lounge and Bar had closed (because of New Years Day) and room service was just closing.  I had counted on dinner and hopefully a beer and expressed my displeasure. I told them I had eaten lunch but had counted on them for dinner.  I even fibbed and said I had picked the hotel because the lounge stayed open late.  Well by the time I finished smiling at everyone and asking if they could help P-L-E-A-S-E, I got what I wanted.  A turkey club sandwich and fries, NO Beer but a diet pepsi. The best part of all - it was free! Because I am a prefered customer and they had let me down. Went upstairs to eat and watched Storage Wars and Pawn Stars and went to bed.

This morning I decided I could afford a good breakfast as I had a free supper. French Toast, fruit and bacon. Packed up to come home, found the nearest Tim Horton`s for morning coffee and headed into snow squalls.  San Francisco weather wasn`t bad after all when you compare it to Canadian winds and snow squalls. Boy those winds were biting!  The truck started right away and was easy to handle. Put it on cruise and floated home.

Found two cheques in the mail, an income tax receipt and a postcard from New Zealand. I like that kind of mail.

Christmas Update

I arrived in California safely and the parcel of Christmas presents got here before Christmas.  Spent the first couple of days relaxing and then got into the Christmas spirit or was that spirits. It has been very cold here at night - freezing in fact. I thought I came down to get warm but it hasn't turned out that way. 
We visited with the Gravers for an afternoon of Christmas cookies on Christmas Eve and then popped in for a few hours after lunch. Brian had arrived home around 10:00 am from a flight from New York (he was the pilot not a passenger so he was rather tired but was happy to see us. we will arrange to see them again for lunch or dinner before I leave.
We had a lovely Christmas. The kids liked the Canada T-Shirts and all the little things I brought. Gary and Chris appreciated the herbs, coffee, fudge and Canadian peameal bacon.  I had to go through special screening because of the Bacon.  I froze it so it would keep and the customs lady asked if it was a good brand and should she buy some. It was quite funny. Then I went through screening and I had brought Christine a teaball with a long handle and I had to open my suitcase as they wanted to check that it wasn't a weapon.

Gary and Christine and I are going on the Wine Train today.  I will blog about it later.

December ---- only 18 days to Christmas

I haven't blogged lately.  I have a lot to catch up on.
The wedding in Tahoe was beautiful and a lot of fun. I lost a few bucks on the slot machines in the Casino, but I'm not a big gambler so it was only a few dollars. We went up to the newlyweds resort timeshare in Nevada and spent a lot of time in the hottubs. Gary entered a video poker tournament and won a turkey, so we had turkey dinner in the mountains a week before American thanksgiving.  The funniest thing that happened all week was driving from Lake Tahoe to the resort.  We had come in separate cars but we needed to travel in one so we ended up with all the luggage in the trunk and the extra food and drink from the reception packed around us in the car. The driver was the only one who didn't end up with parcels etc on his/her knee.
Jade Graver had a cold and by the end of the trip I had caught it. We kept thinking it was allergies but by the time I got back to Toronto I knew it was a real cold.
Since I got back I have got a new toilet, a new furnace and air conditioning, and five or so inches of insulation in the attic. I am still looking for the guy who was supposed to stud the walls in the basement before I get spray-on insulation. I need to find a new contractor.
I am now working mornings in St. Thomas and afternoons in London. The job is getting busier and Christmas is coming.
I am leaving for California on Dec. 22nd and will be back  January 1st.  Just a few days without snow.  That would sound good except that we haven't had much snow in Ontario yet this year.  We had about 1/2 an inch yesterday but it melted by noon.
I have got 5 postcards in the last 5 days from Scotland, Malasia, Germany, Netherlands and Russia.
Well I'm off to bed. I will try to blog more often especially with Christmas coming.
Good night

Travelling to Tahoe for a wedding

Well after twenty-eight years of living with her boyfriend my younger sister has decided to get married.  So on Wednesday I am off to San Francisco to meet with relatives, including the lucky couple and drive up to Lake Tahoe for the Wedding on Friday. The last week has been a bit of a whirlwind for me as I coordinated with sister Peggy in Thunder Bay to get plane tickets, hotel rooms in Tahoe and Toronto a sim card for the US etc. for the trip.  Then there is always packing, and making arrangements to make sure that everything is covered at home, last minute shopping and getting set for the trip etc.

It turns out the weather is about the same during the day but at night it is below zero.  Who would have thought that you go south and get colder but it is because you are on the desert, so it doesn't hold the heat of the day. We usually travel in warm weather or go south to warm weather if it is winter. Packing is a whole new thing when you want to just have a carry-on but pack warm clothes for night and a bathing suit and sandals for the hot springs.

Yesterday I was going crazy because I couldn't find charging cords. Turned out I had put them way for safekeeping (haha) but finally found them last night. I think I am ready now - Hair appointment down, clothes picked out, everything packed. Suitcase weighs 19 pounds - 3 pounds under the limit.

Congratulations to Christine and Gary!  California/Nevada here we come!

The treasures of a Hoarder

I never realized I was a hoarder until I looked in the spare bedroom.  The closet is full from top to bottom with boxes. The bed is covered and the floor has boxes as well. I couldn't get to the cupboard or the set of storage drawers as the pile was too high.

Time to weed it out.  In the last week I have given 5 boxes and two bags to the Salvation Army, thrown out at least ten bags of garbage, sorted down to two plastic containers of pictures (23 Gallon size plastic containers), found enough wrapping paper to last a year or two, sold two boxes of books, given away another two boxes of books and a bag of toys.  Hardly seems to have made a dent.

With all this sorting I have discovered $8.50 worth of stamps (mostly 6 cent ones from the 60's and 70's) a dozen retro postcards unused, a few hundred first day of issue postage stamps with cachet envelopes, numerous computer discs that I can't even use anymore (does anyone have a 3.5 inch disc or a 5.5 inch one) and a dollar and a half worth of Canadian Tire money.

Not everything needs to go out but I do need to sort it and decide what stays and what goes. I am going to hang every framed picture I have and all the old pictures are going to be scanned so I can give dvd's to the family. I found a birth announcement for Craig Graver and postcards that Peggy and Frankie each sent mom 40 years ago. I am putting the first day stamps on a website for sale. I'm getting rid of most of the books. I'm sure that as soon as I get rid of most of this stuff I will need it again.  I am still going to get rid of it!!

Well now I have had my break for the day - so back to work I go.  If you don't hear from me check under the pile of junk in the back bedroom.

St. Thomas Construction Site

I got sent to St. Thomas to help the on-site representative of the other Architect who is involved with the construction of the St. Thomas Mental Health Building for St. Joseph's London Hospital.

I went down before lunch to do a walk around the site.  Most people walk around the solid areas of the site and take what pictures you can see from there. David decided that he should take pictures from the top of the dirt piles around the construction excavation. I followed David partway up the hills.  That was enough! He took a large step that I couldn't match and my foot went down, down, down. I ended up with one leg sunk upto my knee in the mud. David pulled me out and I kept my boot on - though it weighed about five pounds more when it came out. Hopefully I won't end up in that deep again.  All the guys on site kept saying "Oh you found the soft spot eh"

Took my safety training today and I will be going to St. Thomas at least twice a week for the next while. Just have to keep away from the soft spots.

Battle of the Blades

Karen and I went to Battle of the Blades tonight. It is at the Mastercard Center in Etobicoke this year. New place so we went down early to find the arena and a parking space and see about dinner.  I got off at the wrong exit but the GPS found the place for us and I managed to back into the parking space without causing damage so I was happy. 
We brought some dinner with us and ate it in the area near the concession then headed in to find our seats.  We had no seats!! We found the section and the row but our tickets were #18 and 19 and there were only 16 seats. We started asking where our seats were and no one could figure out. It turns out they put an extra camera on that side of the arena and eliminated our seats.  They called for the floor manager and she thought she could solve it. She decided we should get the bleacher seats in the corner of the arena - no chairs just benches and in a bad corner.  I refused. I told her I had accepted tickets at center ice and that was where I wanted to be.  There were several celebrity seats that had no one's name on them so I said we would sit there. She was worried someone would come but I said no one's name is on them - who is going to come?  In the end she gave us two seats in a section marked Marie-France Dubreil and said she had been told that Marie-France was not using all her seats tonight.
Boy was she wrong!!! Marie had eight people show up including her husband Patrice Lauzon and daughter baby Billie-Rose.  They ended up in front of us - which was really great and we didn't have to move.  Part way through the show the baby started fussing and Patrice was trying everything to keep her from crying.  She was hanging over his shoulder and ended up grabbing for my hands and squirming toward me.  Patrice let me hold her and she jumped and danced on my knee - I was thrilled. I was good though I gave her back after a few minutes.
The show was great, Marie Frace is my favorite, Wish I lived in Toronto so I could go tomorrow night as well. I can hardly wait for next week when we go again.