Emergency turkey BBQ

Tags

BBQ, food, rotisserie, turkey

It seemed that this year I was not going to be doing a turkey on my rotisserie for Thanksgiving. That was until my wife decided to stop in at Thrifty’s to have a look at the turkey breasts. They were pretty expensive, but just over to the right, we saw whole turkeys. Even they were expensive, at least compared to the ones we buy in the US. Further to the right, we were surprised to find more whole turkeys for less than half price. They were the same as the ones to the left, but previously frozen It was a deal.

We have rushed home and managed to get it on the BBQ at 5:10. I am expecting to be ready by about 8:30 or 9:00. I will write this as I go and add a photo. I’ll also try to get a batch of photos on my photoblog.

Last night we went to my brother-in-laws home for dinner. There as a turkey there that had been cooked in some sort of clay pot on a BBQ. It was fantastic. There were also a lot of kids and babies, including the twins, who I had not seen for a couple of months and who are now nine months old. It was a great traditional dinner.

Tonight, we are probably going to have turkey with just the three of us, me, Patti and Malcolm. My preparation is simple. I just put olive oil, salt and pepper on the inside and outside.

13 October, 2013 6:45 PM

It has been just over an hour and a half and the birdie is pretty and brown. Coming along fine. I am doing the mashed potatoes now. It is difficult to know just how much longer it might take. Sure it is brown and looks like it is getting close, however, I know that if I stick the thermometer in, it will show that there is a long way to go. I try not to get to eager to take the temperature because it means poking into the skin and that can let some juices out..

A few other notes. It is important to get the truss the turkey tightly. I find that the weight can shift and it cooks. Get it carefully balanced on the spit and test is often to make sure it is able to turn easily. I take the motor off periodically and turn with my fingers as a test. Oh, you might want to invest in a powerful motor. I ruined the 4 watt original motor, so I bought a 9 watt Weber. Even with more power, I have to be careful.

It took about around 4 hours to cook. I almost forgot to take more photos. Make sure you check out PhotoBlog by Bob to see a few more shots.

Non-existance

Tags

abilities, ai, apple, article, artificial, byte, clothes, cloud information, computer, decades, devices, digital, encourage, exist, facebook, food, human, idea, information, intelligence, internet, judgement, kid, machine, metaphor, migrate, photos, physical, question, reckoning, smart, turf, website, writing

Someday, we may not exist. Really, you ask. I’ve been wondering. Let’s start with going to a website. Come on, you don’t really go there. Perhaps, you have 500 friends on Facebook. Have you met them? If not, you don’t know them. Do you have files you use on your computer? Do they actually exist? Can you touch them? If we are truly honest, much of what we have, do, use and exchange does not really exist.

Have you heard of the cloud. A real cloud can’t be touched. Up close, it does not really exist. Could that be true for the information that we are being encouraged to keep in the cloud. Quite the metaphor to think about. Even photos, in digital form, may be considered to not exist. My kids have very little physical things compared to me at their age. They carry a couple of devices that provide access to everything. All they need is a few clothes and food, and that I contend, is simply because they still have a physical body.

As we migrate ourselves on to the Internet—and one could ask if the Internet actually exist—we might find the need for a physical body no longer exists. After all, the Internet, a web (another metaphor), has been collecting all kinds of information about us and, thus, learning about us, for going on decades. Experts are working hard to develop machines with artificial intelligence. Could machines become so smart that they exceed the abilities of humans? Would machines then find that we are unnecessary, or would they use us in some way, as we are using machines now?

Here are a couple big questions. Is technology taking away our need to physically exist? I commented about some of these ideas in my article post A Byte of the Apple. Stay tuned for a new series of writings called Artificial Turf. Remember, there is a day of judgement and reckoning coming one day. Where will you be? Where will you end up?

Cooling off

Tags

5200, absorb, accident, automatic, bacterial, bandage, BBQ, beverage, bike, body, boil, bone, bread, burst, canada, commercial, compress, computer, concoction, costco, creative writing, crushing, degree, dessert, digest, drumstick, electrical, empty nest, engineering, experiment, flour, fluffy, food, freezer, frozen, gauze, gnawing, golden seal, graduate, greens, grinder, heal, health, healthy, ice, infection, ingredient, kale, kelowna, kitchen aid, machine, malcolm, mechanical, mechatronics, michelle, micro, mixer, monster, month, mountain, nutrients, nutritious, october, okanagan, oozing, organic, pain, pimple, plant, porridge, preset, pressure, project, publishing, pulverized, raw, relief, remembrance day, research, rotisserie, scrounge, sfu, simon fraser university, smoothie, soup, starbucks, steel cut oats, summer, summertime, surrey, syndrome, tea, tea tree oil, textbook, thanksgiving, thawed, thigh, turkey, u.s., ubco, university of british columbia, vile, vitamin blender, week, wife, wifey, winter, wry neck

I see that I have been silent since the summertime and now things are cooling off as winter comes. I have stated many times over the years, it is not unusual for me to drift away from projects for weeks, even months. Often, during non-blog times, I think of things to write about here, but seem to have difficulty getting entries to the publishing stage. I do have a couple that I started on and a couple that I was planning to write.

So, why am I writing this now. Well, I suppose one reason might be a health issue. Many weeks ago, I acquired what looked like a large pimple on the inside of my thigh. It bothered me for quite some time and then, with the help of some tea tree oil, it seemed to begin to heal. Then one day, it popped up again and continued to get worse than before. Soon, it was black and dark purple and was giving me severe pain. Last night was the worst time. I spent Remembrance Day treating it with hot compresses and tea tree oil. I made the gauze compresses as hot as I could and stayed up late to spend extra time doing the compresses. The boil simply had to burst, it seemed to be under such pressure and causing such pain that I could not wait. I read that the release brings great relief. I bandaged it up with a gauze pad and tea tree oil and went to bed.

In the morning, when I looked under the bandage, I saw what I was expecting. The pain had subsided and the gauze was full of, well, I won’t get too detailed here. It has been oozing all day and I have had to take an extra day to tend to it and to rest. My wife has been treating any possible internal infection by feeding me golden seal tea—a very vile concoction, to say the least. This sort of bacterial infection can leave one feeling drained and ill. It is, however, a great relief to be over the pain. If it is not not getting markedly better by tomorrow, I will go to the doctor.

Summer ended with Malcolm heading off to Simon Fraser University (SFU) to begin his journey for his degree in Mechatronics engineering. He has to travel to the Surrey campus, a trip that takes him over an hour each way. This rather new field of engineering merges mechanical, electrical and computer engineering into one massive program that involves six courses per term and the textbooks for the first term were $1089. Michelle is continuing her quest for her Creative Writing degree at the University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO) in Kelowna. She will graduate next summer.

Thus, we are preparing ourselves for the empty nest syndrome, looking toward some short years down the road when the young-ins are out on their own.

We have past Thanksgiving when I did another turkey on the BBQ rotisserie. We were unsuccessful in finding guests, so there was plenty left over, in fact, tonight we are gnawing on the drumsticks that have been thawed from the freezer. Last week, the bones were thawed and boiled into soup.

Several weeks ago, we picked up the VitaMix super blender. In case you haven’t got one, or heard of this, you might have seen the commercial version used to make a smoothie for you at a place like Starbucks. This thing is a monster. Crushing ice, no problem. It is so powerful that if you leave it running for five to seven minutes, it will cook. That’s right, it makes soup. What a difference this has made in the smoothies my wife makes everyday. They used to be mashed up greens done with a hand mixer, which didn’t come near to making a smooth smoothie. Now they are fluffy and smooth. We have made ice desserts and soups. The great thing is that whatever goes into a smoothie gets really pulverized so that the micro nutrients are ready to be absorbed into the body. In the case of a soup, hot beverage or, unless you pre-cook something, it only gets hot. Thus, you are getting raw healthy food that is easily digested. Tonight, my wife invented her own soup. It was good.

We researched this machine for a couple years, I’d say, and the best deal is at Costco. At our Costcos in Canada, we can only get the 5200 model in white. My wife wanted the red one that just happens to match our Kitchen Aid mixer. I also found out, on one of our trips to the U.S., that there is a new model with automatic presets for the most common items made—smoothies, frozen desserts and soups. Just toss everything in, set the dial, turn it on and wait for it to stop. Last week, the VitaMix roadshow was at our Costco and we decided to get the dry grinder to make flour.

After we got the VitaMix, I decided to try to grow some greens to put in the smoothies. I heard a gardening expert taking calls on CBC radio and he mentioned that it was a good time (October) to plant kale, one of the most nutritious foods and a main ingredient in our smoothies. I had a couple of pots I had scrounged and I scrounged one more. Then, I got some baby plants, spending just over $20 for the experiment. They are off to the races and are two to three times the size they were when I got them. If this works, we can pick what is ready leaving the other leaves to grow. I may even plant more.

If you read my entry back in the summer, you know that I had a bike accident that took me out of commission for a while. I just finished getting over a wry neck and back for two weeks, an now I have this terrible boil. I hope that is it.

I can’t think of anything else to write about, except that my wifey has joined me in eating porridge every morning. We went and bought a huge bag of organic steel cut oats. So, she makes the smoothie and I make the porridge. Soon, I will get back to bread making. We plan to get the whole berries to grind into flour with the VitaMix. I can’t wait. Since the weather is cooling off and the local mountains are preparing to open, it will be nice to have some nice warm bread.

Refs. for further reading:
SFU
Mechatronics
VitaMix

Kauai — From Christmas to New Years

Tags

abundant, academics, activities, air, airplane, alcohol, bag, banana, bar, bathing suit, beach, bed, board, boarding, boogie, bowl, breakfast, brother-in-law, burrito, camera, cameras, clearing, coconut, combo, confident, contract, course, crowded, daily, daughter, days, demonstrate, dining, dinner, dirt, dishes, drift, drink, drinks, drive, edit, electric, expensive, family, fancy, fantastic, feature, feed, fire, fireworks, fish, float, flying, food, fun, generous, golf, graduate, grand caravan, grand hyatt, guacamole, guests, guitar, hawaii, hawaiian, hosts, ice cream, instructor, instructors, jazz, juggling, kalua, land, lanterns, launching, lava, lecture, lesson, links, live, macadamia, Marriott Waiohai Beach Club, mask, master, meal, memories, mexican, mitch, morning, movie, movies, music, neal, nelson, new years eve, night, nut, onboard, outdoor, pacific, paddle board, pancake, park, party, pedro, people, performance, photoblog, photography, photos, plastic, pocket, poipu, pool, post, potholes, price, private, pulled pork, qualifications, qualifies, red, reef, regulators, resort, restaurant, riding, road, rocks, rough, scuba, seattle, shore, shot, sing, sister, skills, snorkel, snorkelling, son, sort, sorted, spam, stand-up, stocking, storage, sun, sunrise, sunset, surf, surfer, surfing, surfs, swam, swim, swimming, syrup, talked, teaching, trains, treat, trip, TV, ukulele, underwater, vacation, vancouver, velocity, video, virgin, waiohai, walked, water, waterproof camera, waves, wife, world war II, written, youtube

Whew! We are flying home from our fantastic vacation at the the Marriott Waiohai Beach Club in Poipu, Kauai. My sister made sure we were kept busy experiencing all that we could. I have already mentioned some things we did. I continued to take an enormous number of photos, many of waves and sunrises. My storage for photos has been eaten up by the unexpected videos I shot with the little waterproof camera my sister gave us. I am now down to the onboard storage of both my cameras. I should make it, however, I will have to do some real juggling to find storage space to sort photos and edit all the videos into a short movie.

Back to the activities. Our hosts, my sister and brother-in-law, were truly generous by not only stocking the unit we stayed in with plenty of food, but also, getting us out to eat in the local dining places. For them, it is the experience with the dining rather than the price, however, they always point out that we are the least expensive guests to take out since we do not drink alcohol. So, the food is even more abundant.

One night we went to a semi-outdoor restaurant nearby. We sat right near the live music which included a fellow who surfs by day and plays the electric ukulele and sings by night. He was good too. Besides the fellow playing guitar at the outdoor bar at the Waiohai, we did not hear much more live music. Oh, there was a small jazz combo at the Grand Hyatt bar as we walked through.

One morning, we went for breakfast at the local golf course and had another huge meal. It seems that the World War II canned meat spam, still has a following in Hawaii. There are many dishes incorporating the meat, long forgotten elsewhere. I also had Kalua pulled pork, on other occasions too, even on the airplane a while ago. I tried my sister’s breakfast burrito and had a banana and Macadamia nut pancake with coconut syrup. I simply could not resist.

Another night we went to a Mexican restaurant, yes, Mexican in Hawaii, just to be different, I guess. The unique experience here was the table-side guacamole. Pedro came and made the guacamole, two servings, in a lava bowl right at our table and it was surely the best I have ever had.

We were treated to more surfing lessons. Our instructor, looked like true Hawaiian surfer. No family, just teaching surfing everyday, all day. He was there at sunrise and still around after sunset. Very dedicated. We were learning on reef surf, different from the beach surf at the previous lessons. All I can say is, it is still hard to do. But, we sure had fun. My son really took to stand-up paddle boarding and spent some hours on the last day trying to graduate to catching waves on the board.

The resort has a new contract to have daily scuba lessons available. Our instructor struck me immediately as very confident. There was my sister and three of us from my family. Neal told us that we had to do the academics first, so, he gave a short lecture, but, at a high velocity. One rarely runs across someone who can speak so fast. He assured us by giving his long list of qualifications, including the fact that he is the top person for the Pacific area and does work in movies and trains and qualifies instructors. Next, we had a couple of performance skills to master and demonstrate, such as clearing our mask of water and finding and clearing our regulators, all under water. It turned out to be so simple that, in no time, we were swimming around the pool underwater and having a great time. After, my sister invited Neal for a drink where we talked more about scuba and other interesting stuff. We came away from the experience knowing it had been a real treat. We had been in the company of a true master, just as we were with Mitch and Nelson, our surfing instructors.

As the trip was nearing its end, my sister urged me to do a few more things. One morning they took me to a somewhat remote beach for some photography. The drive was rough, through some private land. The road was the common red dirt with deep potholes, however, the Grand Caravan finally made it. We walked along the beach, along some rocks, I took many photos and then we did some snorkelling.

It was the last day, so when we got back from the early morning trip, my sister still had a few more activities for me to do. I had to keep up, somehow, so I grabbed some food and then we were off to have a swim with my wife and daughter at another beach and then, do some boogie boarding at still another beach on the other side of the resort and past a park. It was a crowded beach that we went to. People were body surfing and boogie boarding. It was difficult to keep from running into each other. On one ride I crossed over and my son ended up riding on top of me all the way into the shore.

I was not finished yet. My sister had some fish food to feed fish while snorkeling, so, off I was again to snorkel. My wife even went too. Not knowing where to put the food while we swam out to the reef, my sister suggested I shove the plastic bag into my bathing suit pocket. At one point, as I was using my small video camera, I realized that there were more fish than normal. A quick check of my pocket and I knew they already got the fish food.

Finally, it was time to get ready for the New Years Eve party on the beach. We started at the bar with some fancy drinks, virgin for most of us, and some dinner. People were already setting off fireworks on the beach and launching fire lanterns (I know there is proper name for them, but, I don’t have it on hand) that would float high into the air and drift away. Then came the big Poipu Beach fireworks display and the party was over before midnight. We went and had some ice cream, watched TV and then got tired, so we went to bed.

I feel as if there is so much I have not written about. We really did pack plenty of memories into this eight days of fun in the sun. We are about to land in Seattle for our connecting flight to Vancouver.

I will post some photos on my PhotoBlog and Feature Photos website once I get them sorted. I may even post some video on YouTube. I may also post links relating to the trip, if I get a chance.

I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas — Hawaiian Sand, That Is

Tags

a&w, airport, alaska airlines, b-line, breakfast, bustling, carollers, carry-on, checking-in, christmas, christmas eve, commercial, cookie, customs, dinner, dollars, entertainers, exercise, extravagance, fairmont, fairmont hotel, flying wedge, food, hamburgers, hawaii, hot tub, hotel, jet, juice, long-term, luggage, morning, n gate, ocean, parking, piano, plane, quartet, river, sauna, seatac, seattle, shuttle, sleep extravagant, snack, snooze, snored, spa, splurge, suitcase, taxi flight, train, unicycle, vancouver international airport, vancovuer, wake-up, water, yvr

It’s off to Hawaii we go for Christmas and it is a very early start. This is our first time and it has taken us weeks to decide just how to begin our trip. There were several choices. The first leg of the journey would be to actually get to the airport. Several options were considered, including driving to the airport and parking in one of two long-term parking lots. Other possibilities would involve asking someone to drive us, or taking a taxi. We had a notion, since the main flight would be leaving from Seattle, that a drive south and an overnight stay might be nice. Then there was the big splurge, the one my sister recommended. It was an expensive idea that made us cringe a bit, because we would stay at the Fairmont Hotel at the Airport. With check-in at three in the afternoon and our wake-up call at three the next morning, it seemed like two hundred dollars for 12 hours, most of it trying to sleep, was extravagant.

A splurge of extravagance was it. We drove to the YVR (Vancouver International Airport) Long-term Parking and took the shuttle to the Fairmont. We had borrowed carry-on luggage with wheels and only one of us had a suitcase that would require checking-in. Once at the Hotel, the rest of the family went exploring dinner options and I made a B-line for the spa. I enjoyed the hot tub and sauna and had some interesting exercise in the swimming pool. When I say swimming pool, I mean you swim against a jet stream of water, sort of like swimming up a river.

For dinner, we ended up sharing A&W hamburgers, because my son was craving it and then went to the Flying Wedge. We then attempted to sleep and found it a difficult prospect. I was told I snored, but, I felt I was awake all night.

So, here we are, half way across the ocean to Hawaii and we are tired. We got up at three in the morning, went through customs, and then took off at 6:20 AM for the short hop to Seattle. We had to wait couple of hours, not to mention, a long walk and train ride to N Gate. Along the way we had some breakfast and bought some food to take on the plane. The SeaTac Airport on Christmas Eve, was bustling. At breakfast, we had live piano playing. As we walked, we saw entertainers, including a guy on a unicycle and a quartet of carollers, just to mention a couple. Now that we have finished our food and we are about half way through the trip across the water, I think I will try to have another snooze.

Here is a bit of a commercial. I should say a bit about Alaska Airlines. Not only do they seem to be everywhere at the SeaTac Airport, but, the flight has been really good with several servings of water and juice and even cookie and a little snack pack. At SeaTac, Alaska Air is everywhere.

Beginning to move away from summer

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adjustment, alderwood mall, august, balance, baron, baron of beef, baseball, BBQ, bed, beef, bike, birch bay, birthday, birthdays, blogging, border, bread, busy, butcher, changing, chocolate, chocolate chips, cook, cookies, cool, cooler, cousin, crab, curious, curling, curtains, customs, days, deal, demonstration, demonstration forest, dinner, dogs, don, eaten, eight, endless pasta bowl, fall, favourite, feast, feelings, florian, food, forest, form, games, german, gordon, happy, hauled, hill, home, hot, hunk, I-96, jumping, kids, kilometers, labor day, labour day, lanes, life, lineup, loaves, macys, malcolm, mall, market, meat, memories, michelle, mind, molassas, night, nights, office, olive garden, parties, party, patti, paula, photography, pillows, pne, queensdale, queensdale market, raisin, relatives, resist, ride, rotisserie, routines, school, seasons, seattle, shocked, shopping, signals, sister, sleep, summer, temperature, thought, trip, umpires, uncle, uncomfortable, us, ventured, vowed, weather, wife, winter, work, year, years

It is Labour Day and that signals the start of the Fall routines. Let me take a moment to wrap up my Summer for you.

Such a busy summer it seems to have been. Michelle and Florian were here for over a week again. It was a nice time. I have sure eaten a lot of food. We had parties and I did a baron of beef on the rotisserie. This was interesting. Patti went to Queensdale Market and checked out the beef. On the day of the BBQ, she sent me to get it. The butcher was one of the umpires from some of Malcolm’s baseball games. I explained that my wife had talked to someone about a baron of beef and that it would cost about $30. He went into the cooler and came out with a huge hunk of meat. I was a bit shocked at the size. As we talked about baseball, he carved away and then handed me the most perfect chunk of beef for $31. Wow, did that cook nice. What a great dinner.

Days before that, my sister had a party for all the August birthdays. I think there was eight of us. That was a pretty good party.

We made a trip to the US and Michelle and Florian wanted to go all the way to Alderwood Mall, almost to Seattle. I vowed never to do that sort of long trip and shopping in one day again, and that was last year. On the way down, we were in a modest lineup and then got hauled over. It turned out that Florian, being German, is required to file an I-96 form every 90 days. So, there we were for the first time held up in the customs office. Once done, we headed to all the usual shopping spots, including Alderwood and the Olive Garden for the Endless Pasta Bowl special. While we waited for the kids to shop, Patti went into Macys and found a $400, 20 piece, bed set for $65. How could we resist such a deal and chance for Patti (and I) to have a wonderful bed set. It even includes curtains.

Yesterday, we ventured back to the US for my Uncle Gordon’s 90th birthday party at Cousin Don’s at Birch Bay. On the way, we shopped more and ended up with a car full of pillows. When we got to the party many relatives I have not seen for years were there. There was so much food and I had a really great time. It was a long tough wait at the border to get back. Everybody was jumping lanes and making new lanes. Not great. Then we found out that Malcolm, who was looking after Paula’s dogs, was not given a ride home when they got home from the party at Don’s. Malcolm had been there for 16 hours and we had to go get him late at night.

I wanted to go to the PNE today, however, we all wanted to sleep in and spend the day with Malcolm, who did not want to go to the PNE. So strange, I always wanted to go to the PNE when I was young So, we went on a tough bike ride up to the Demonstration Forest. Malcolm, of course, was able to out ride us, but, we still managed to get plenty of kilometers in, some of it was up hill too.

When we got home, we had a feast of crab given to us last night at the party. Such a treat. As I write here, Malcolm and Patti are making cookies. Tomorrow, we start getting back to the routines that happen after summer.

I have not been making much bread over the summer, except when Michelle and Florian were here I made a raisin bread with molassas. We were short of raisins, so we substituted some chocolate chips. It is pretty good and I gave the kids one of the loaves.

I have had a curious thought on my mind the last few days. It started with my feelings around the time of the start of Summer. I had a routine and was sort of used to getting up earlier and taking Malcolm to school, then heading to work. I knew that an adjustment to life was coming as school was ending and thoughts of hot days entered my mind. The thing is, I am uncomfortable in hot weather. I feel best when the temperature is in the low 20s C and the nights get cool. As things turned out, the first half of the summer was not hot and August has been my temperature. For many folks, is has been less than Summer like, yet, I have been busy and not too hot. I am used to this routine now and just as I have reached this point, I am faced with changing again. What sort of winter is in store for us this year? Have I really made good attempts to enjoy the Summer days and make the most of them? Part of me is happy with this late Summer routine and part of me is looking forward to getting back to other routines. Curling is starting soon. I may be able to get more blogging done and even photography. May favourite seasons are Spring and Fall. Photography is better then too. I think I am experiencing perfect weather, plenty of interesting things going on, lots of work and it seems hard to leave all that behind or, in some way begin to move away to find a different balance to life. Late Summer has been pretty good and that has brought happiness. Perhaps the months to come may balance out in some way as Summer has. At least I have some good memories and perhaps that is what counts.

Poodle doodles

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accident, alarm, ambleside, angry, attention, ball, bank, barrier, bathroom, beach, blog, blogging, break, breakfast, breaths, brewin', business, buy, candidates, Capilano River Regional Park, car, carpet, chase, chased, checking, cheesecake, chore, christmas, cleaners, collar, community, concrete, confused, confusing, cure, curled, curling, darts, daycare, daylight, daylight savings time, deposited, dinner, dish, disorder, dog, dog park, doggie, doggies, doldrums, drink, driveway, easonal affect disorder, eat, efforts, email, energy, escape, explore, face, family, family day, favourite, feast, feet, flinger, floor, food, freezer, friday, fridge, fun, future, games, gang, garage, garden, grabbed, gravel, Gryph, gryphie, gryphon, hall, handful, hawaii, head, hear, Helen Keller, holiday, home, house, hug, invigorated, irish, Irish-doodles, jacket, job, john, jumped, jumping, kyla, lady, lazy, le mis, leash, lighthouse park, log, malcolm, manners, marriage, message, morning, movies, mud, muddy, mysteries, neighborhood, nervous, newspaper, night, ocean, okay, orange, palm springs, park, pasta, path, patti, paula, paw, pee, perky, pet, piddled, piddles, play, played, pooches, poodle, poop, promised, property, puppies, puppy, rain, rainforest, rascal, reference, relaxing, remover, resistance, respect, road, rodney fagerfeild, rubbing, rugged, run, running, rushing, sad, safe, saturday, savings, scallywag, sea wall, search, see, selling, sensitized, setter, sick, sink, sister, sitting, skype, sleeping, sleeps, sleeve, snob, snoring, soap, soccer, sprawled, spring, squeaky, stain, stairs, stealing, street, stroll, sunny, telephone, tessie, thingies, think, tonight, topic, towel, tricks, trotting, trouble, trowing, tuckered, update, upsetting, vacation, veggies, vigilant, voice, wades, walk, wanders, water, week, weekend, wife, winter, woke, wondering, work, worry, yard, yesterday

As you can see my blogging efforts dropped off a bit. Is this due to the winter doldrums of no holiday break? After all, this is the longest stretch of the year without a holiday. There are efforts at hand to add a family day, but, that is met with resistance from the business community. I’m not going to let this blog entry get carried off on the topic of adding a new holiday. Daylight Savings Time started last weekend and this weekend holds the first day of Spring, thus, it seem the stretch is over. My sister, however, finds that she gets SAD in the winter, that is ‘seasonal affect disorder’ and any disorder deserves special attention in search for a cure. So it is, that we have not had Christmas together for a few years as they are always vacationing in Hawaii. In the old days, Christmas morning often included a long distance telephone call, these days, it is Skype. Now, I am getting closer to the topic of this blog entry.

It seems that Hawaii at Christmas is not enough, now they are looking for property in Palm Springs and with just over a week away on the search, I was offered the doggie sitting chore. I guess this passes through a few candidates and my turn came up. “You can stay at the house and I will stock the fridge.” My wife agreed for me to take the job, even though it would mean the longest time we have been apart in our nearly 20-year marriage.

Whew, I finally got through the preliminaries for this blog, the balance is taken from my responses to my sister’s message ‘…checking in…’:

Check out the toe nails – pretty Tessie

HI Bob,

Hope all is well and Gryphie and Tessie weren’t too much trouble this weekend Everything okay? Are you finding what you need?

Let me know if you have any mysteries or dilemmas to be solved, otherwise, hope you have fun and give them a hug for us!

Paula
🙂
PS – Very sunny here, half of Vancouver is here!

I ended up getting sick again, not as bad as before, but enough to slow me down a bit Saturday night and all of yesterday. I’m not sure yet about today. I watched curling and movies and Le Mis 25th.

The first couple of days were a bit confusing as I figured out where everything was. I had to get out to work, so I was in a rush. Tessie piddled a couple of times, once at her food dish and the next day in the upper hall. Now there is a stain, because I could not find what to use to clean it up, so I did the best I could with soap and water. If you have something, I could try to get more of the stain out. Often it is hard to get Tessie up from sleeping, so on that day, I was rushing to go to work and I woke her up, but, she just rolled around rubbing her face, so I went to get the food ready. When I went back a few minutes later, she was standing in the hall with her mess. I took them to daycare, because I was going to be gone all day. On Saturday, I watched about half an hour of one of Malcolm’s soccer games at Ambleside and then took the doggies to run in the park. Gryph got a bit muddy, so I used a towel in the garage to wipe his feet.

Patti and Malcolm came for dinner on Friday and Saturday nights, so I have been making it through quite a bit of the food you left, but, will have to buy a few things like veggies, etc. today.

Thus, things seem to be in some sort of order, or whatever. At least we are all carrying on.

B

Just out for a trot at Ambleside

Hi

Don’t worry too much about the carpet… I will get the cleaners in when I get home… (the pet stain remover is in the closet in John’s bathroom, on the floor, across from the sink)…

For future reference… Tessie needs to go out as soon as you are going to leave the room I always carry her from the bed to the front door and make sure she has a pee before she comes in for breakfast… (remember she is OLD….)

Give Gryph and Tessie lots of hugs…..

Glad you had fun with Patti and Malcolm

Made it to the dog park at Ambleside and are now back getting ready to start dinner. Tessie is snoring somewhere across the room and Gryph is sprawled out at the bottom of the stairs.

When we went out, all the neighborhood poop was collected and deposited on newspaper at the foot of the driveway. Surely I did not miss that much poop. I don’t know who it was, but, I hope they are not angry.

I guess it’s more pasta tonight, so, I should start thinking about getting that ready. A feast is a brewin’ in my mind, I think.

That is upsetting, particularly because all our immediate neighbours are away – so don’t know who it might have been, can you be extra vigilant and not let them out on their own…

Enjoy pasta! Thanks for the update….

Tessie likes the beach

Hi,

Hope everything is okay?

Just wanted to remind you to check out the contents of the Freezer in the garage and also the freezer compartment in the fridge (their are some individually wrapped cheesecakes!)

Hope the puppies are curled up next to you… don’t forget to pet and talk to them!!!

These are lazy doggies! I have had Tessie out three time this morning and I think she has yet to do her morning little business. At least she can really eat, sometimes she goes for Gryph’s food when he is not interested. She eats all the soft food she can get. I guess it gives her energy for those occasional times she gets perky and darts off down the street. Yesterday, she stood in the the garden down the street, tilted her head a bit and looked at me as if to say, “come and get me, I dare ya,” or, “you can’t get me in here now, can ya?” I’m never really sure what is going on in her head.

We made it to Ambleside again the other day and to Lighthouse Park yesterday. Got back into the car just as the rain started. We were sure glad about that. When we were at Ambleside, we stopped to visit and the next thing I knew Tessie was high tailin’ it down the sea wall, back in the direction we had just come, trotting along side another fellow with exactly the same orange jacket as mine. What are the chances of that, only Tessie could find such an opportunity to get confused. I thought she would never stop and they were long gone so fast, I could hardly believe it! Gryphon goes to get muddy, Tessie just does her own thing, whatever that is and wherever she is. What a scallywag.

What time are you back on Saturday?

Oh well, it’s a dog’s life.

Gryphon likes the beach too!

Ha ha!
Sounds like you are learning all of Helen Keller’s tricks… She really can’t see or hear, but if she wanders off, try sending Gryphon to go get her you have to make it sound like a fun game)

Back late Friday night, I will email you the exact time

Thanks for update and have fun!

Tessie enjoys the scenery

I don’t completely buy what she is selling, I think she is more with it than she leads us to think. She just likes to be a rascal, a real handful at times. Sleeps all morning, won’t go out, makes me nervous that she might have another accident (see she sensitized me with fear by having two piddles already), gets out finally, then follows me around until we go out to the car for a walk, takes off down the street to poop in someone’s garden, gets back in the house, because I left the door open so I could get my stuff and set the alarm, won’t come back out, wants to play chase, I have to get the leash, finally we get to Ambleside and she runs everywhere, before pooping more and then deciding to settle down. Gryphon gets fed up with all the miss focused attention and decides to try an escape over the bank into the neighbor’s yard.

OLD, my foot, she still has lots of puppy in her and plenty of tricks up her paw sleeve.

Oh ya, I forgot, Gryphon is acting up too. On the way back to the car at Ambleside, I had them go by way of the beach, so that running on sand and gravel might clean some of the mud off his feet. He gets wrapped up with a gang of dogs on the beach, wades in the water (OK that helped wash his feet) and tried to drink the ocean. Then he saw a lady with one of those flinger thingies, throwing a ball for another dog, yup, Gryph stole the ball, found that it was squeaky, decided to keep it and take it back home in the car. The other dogs just looked wondering, ‘who is this snob stealing our ball?’ Everyone tried to get it from him and, of course, this was just more fun than he could think of by himself, then I got stern with him, he stopped, I grabbed him by the collar and another lady got the ball from him. Humf, no manners! The both of them!

Now give back that ball!

Ha ha ha Rodney Fangerfeild, you have to make them respect you!

 

 

 

A bit more…

 

 

Well! I decided that we really needed to get to the Capilano River Regional Park where I used to walk Kyla. I was able to park in the first small parking lot, where I always used to park. I hoped the doggies would be alright with the short walk along the path next to the road, there is a concrete barrier. Gryph seemed to know exactly where to go and jumped over the log into my favorite part of the park. I assisted Tessie and then we were there. What a place!! I sure have missed it. A few deep breaths and we were all invigorated.

So, we followed some paths on a slow stroll so as to let the pooches explore everything they could. So relaxing.

Then, it happened. I heard a voice asking me where the path leads. This lady had two black Irish-doodles (Irish Setter Poodle mix). Well, you never saw such fun. Gryphon ran and chased, and just played, jumping over logs and everything in the rainforest–a pretty rugged place. Tessie watched to make sure the games were safe, ref-ing as best she could. Gryph sure got tuckered. I promised we would go back tomorrow and both agreed it would be a great idea.

 

NY11

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Here is a quick one to wish you all a Happy New Year. Nothing very spectacular for us here. I cleaned the house today. Patti tried to invite some people over, but, everyone was busy. Malcolm was working up the mountain until around 9:30, Michelle kicked up a fuss about not having a party to go to. I BBQ’d steaks, shrimps and baked potatoes. I enjoyed all the food and munchies we had around and tried to watch movies while the women folk carried on. I picked up Malcolm from the Seymour shuttle bus. Patti took Michelle to a party and is now at Canyon Heights Church. I have been polishing off the eggnog (san rum, of course). Malcolm and I watched them blow-up the Seattle Space Needle on TV. Now, Malcolm is watching the Dick Clark New Years program—no Dick Clark. I have to go pick-up Michelle. Just another quiet New Years—nice.

Editing note: Patti picked up Michelle on her way home. Malcolm has gone to bed and so go I, unless I get stuck watching another ‘Awnowld’ movie (we enjoyed True Lies, now it is Junior). Good night.

Just a note about News Years Day evening. We will be at Grandma Axford’s for pizza. So, that is settled.

Happy New Year!!!

Christmas transitions — What about our Christmas 2010

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Just in case you might be wondering, here is an entry that describes what my, our, Christmas has been like. If you read my O Christmas Tree entry of a couple of weeks ago, you will know that we began our Christmas by selecting a living tree. I am looking at it as I write this. The little Norway Spruce still has never really adjusted to being inside the house where it is warm and is, therefore, still dropping needles.

If getting the tree was an ordeal, it was the start of a few that have made our Christmas a bit different. We might give up on some of the gift giving next year. Finding presents for each other is simply getting to be complicated.

Our traditional Christmas activities are changing. I really only have to get one present, the one for my wife. Although, I have often bought a little extra for the kids. This has been impossible and no presents from me. My wife warned that we got our new house, and just spent a lot of money on a storage system for the garage, so, no presents. She was right, despite my resolve to find something.

One item on the list is a KitchenAid Stand Mixer. I have been reading about these machines and they seem to be a vital utility in the kitchen of anyone who wants to do some baking, but, one must get a good powerful one if bread dough is to be attempted. My wifey, however, hummed and hawed over the models and the whole idea to the point that we did not get one, yet. Another possibility is a non-stick skillet. Eggs and pancakes and such, are really a pain to cook in our stainless steel pans that work best on high heat. We have been looking at this for months now.

Part of our Christmas plans this year was a trip to the U.S. on the day after Boxing Day, for a bit of shopping. This plan has been part of the reason we have not been as dedicated to buy before Christmas this year. My son ended up working, so he did not come. During the whole trip, we found very little that we ended up buying. So, the trip became mostly a trip only.

We almost turned back in the morning, on the way down. Seems everybody had the idea of seeking those Boxing Week specials and the lines were nearly impossible. Once we discovered the back up, we beetled cross country, and I mean country, to the very small border at Aldergrove. It was a nice drive and the wait, although still somewhat long, was much better than the other crossings. Once across, we were in Lynden Washington. Some of the rural landscape I recognized because my grandparents and my uncle used to run the Skateway roller skating rink, bowling alley, and pool hall. Lynden was our stop-over when we used to drive from where we lived in Portland Oregon to visit our other relatives on my mother’s side in West Vancouver and later to our summer place on Bowen Island. This was before the I-5 highway and the drive was much longer than it is today. We learned to skate, bowl and play pool there.

If you think that Christmas festivities simply change hands as family members grow up or grow old, think again. There is more to it these days. I remember Christmas as being the time we all could get together. And there were gifts everywhere, and food everywhere. My sister and brother-in-law now spend Christmas in Hawaii. We usually get a short Skype call on Christmas morning from them. This year, our daughter was away at her first year of university and flew home, as it turned out, just hours before my sister was to fly to Hawaii. That meant a fancy brunch at the Airport Fairmont Hotel. Not quite a cozy Christmas visit at home, but, the food was pretty good.

Our gift from my sister is Christmas in Hawaii next year. They will supply the place, we have to get there. That may be financially tricky, but, we’ll see.

Speaking of cozy, we were a bit late on Christmas Eve, so we had to shop a bit for a late church service to attend. We decided to go to the last offering at the Lynn Valley Full Gospel Church. It was warm and cozy and we were able to connect with some people we had not seen for a while. It was really nice, so, not everything is going off track this year.

If you have been following my blog, you will remember that I have cooked a couple of turkeys on my new BBQ rotisserie. This takes some care in doing, as a turkey off center on the rotisserie spit, and they can shift during the cooking process, will cause the motor to fail. I just got my replacement the other day. I plan to get a more powerful motor, one rated for 40 lbs. not 20 lbs. Taking the stage again, I was to cook the Christmas dinner with my wife, but, somehow, the whole idea vaporized and we ended up at my wife’s brother’s family home. We have been there many times over the years, nevertheless, we have a new home, so we wanted to start reciprocating. Perhaps, next year.

Even our traditional Christmas Day brunch had only a small turn-out. Well, the food was plentiful. We just got a new Belgian waffle maker and the recipe that we chose was for chocolate waffles. Wow, so chocolaty. We were so full that I could only manage one plate at Christmas dinner that night. I think there are still a couple of left-over waffles in the fridge.

Christmas family festivities seem to go through transitions these days. Even Grandma Axford’s traditional New Years Day Evening Chinese food feast plans are up in the air. Some do not even like Chinese food and others want pizza, still others do not want to go to Grandma’s, but, want somewhere else. I’ll have to let you know what happens.

Families change. Some members get old, not being able to do what they used to do, some pass away (we lost Grandpa Axford a few months ago) and are no longer present. New members arrive, either through marriage or birth (we had a wedding and a birth this year) and kids become teenagers and decide they are independent and gain their own Christmas agenda. Christmas transitions, with other family members taking on roles and injecting their own notions of how to celebrate. Somehow though, we all get to celebrate and we should never forget what the celebration of Christmas is really about—the birth of God’s Son, in human flesh, Jesus.

Merry Christmas