i got game...

I mentioned in a previous post that I recently celebrated a birthday. My 35th to be exact. Birthdays don't generally bother me but I have to admit, this one left me a bit rattled. 35. Five years away from 40. The thought that I've been on this earth almost 40 years is a bit mind-boggling. I'm starting to understand the mid-life crisis thing. Not that I'm planning to have one any time soon.

Well just to prove that I have no plans to grow up anytime soon, my awesome husband who knows me oh-so-well, bought me this.

My very own Nintendo Wii!

That's right people. I'm an adult in my mid-30's, I love Nintendo and I don't care who knows it!

My Wii, unboxed and ready for action!

I haven't been able to spend too much time with it yet, with work being hell on earth at the moment. But I can honestly say that the Wii is the most incredible gaming system ever! The fact that you can play tennis and actually be making the motions that you would be if you had a tennis racket in your hand is amazing. Sadly, I wasn't surprised to learn that I suck at sports just as much in video game land as I do in real life.

You may ask, why Nintendo? What about Xbox or Playstation? One word. Mario. Mario is one of the most enduring characters in video game history. And he's just an ordinary, blue-collar guy. A hard-working, Italian plumber with a heart of gold and the will and determination to do anything for his woman, Princess Peach. Seriously, how could you not love him!



Ahh, Mario. You had me at hello.

I even get excited when I see the North Pole...

I love You Tube. Especially when I come across gems like this.



Oh how I miss Corky and the Juice Pigs!

Once upon a time, I drank a little wine, was as happy as could be...

I celebrated my 35th birthday last week. My awesome assistant Eddy brought an excellent bottle of wine to work to celebrate. We did not consume it on my birthday, but a few days later, after a particularly crazy day at work.


Spanish wine rocks and the Castillo de Almansa Reserva 2001 is no exception. Dark cherry in colour with a nose of black pepper and ripe berries. This is a big, intense wine, heavy on the black pepper and oak flavours with a sweet, cherry finish. At $20.10 (at the LCBO) this is not your every day chugger but a damn fine wine. Thanks Eddy!

I hope...

"You make a living by what you get.
You make a life by what you give."

Winston Churchill

This past weekend, I walked in The Weekend to End Breast Cancer in Toronto. This was my first year walking the event and it is was an exhilarating experience that I will never forget.

The weekend started on Friday night, or Day Zero. I showed up at Exhibition Place for registration. Although the line was long, the process was very well organized and it went quite smoothly. I watched the mandatory safety video, handed in my last minute donations, picked up my package and received a truck assignment for my bag. (Those who choose to camp also received their tent assignments.)

Saturday morning arrived and Steve dropped me off at Exhibition Place bright at early at 6:15 am. The grounds were already buzzing with thousands of people. I dropped off my bag at the designated truck, grabbed some coffee and a muffin and waited for the opening ceremonies to begin. My friend Deb, my walking partner for the weekend, was meeting me there along with a few of her friends. We tried to connect before the walk started but weren't able to so we agreed, after many cell phone calls, to hook up at the first rest stop. During the opening ceremonies we learned that the 5,521 walkers had raised $17.3 million for Princess Margaret Hospital. After a beautiful and inspiring speech from a breast cancer survivor we were on our way.

Departing Exhibition Place

Near the start of the route, along the Lakeshore

I started out at the very back of the pack and slowly worked my way up in an effort to catch up with Deb and her friends. Along the way, I had the honour of walking with Dr. Tak Mak, Director of the Campbell Family Institute for Breast Cancer Research. He told me a bit about his team's research and gave me some interesting statistics about breast cancer. Currently, 1 in 8 women are diagnosed with breast cancer. That's right, 1 in 8! When he was in medical school, it was 1 in 25. And through research, they've been able to determine that women who wait until 35 or older to have children increase their likelihood of developing breast cancer. Since I just celebrated my 35th birthday and have not yet had children, this one really hit home. It was fascinating to speak with Dr. Mak and I'm thrilled that I had the opportunity to walk with this incredible man. He leads one of the world's best cancer research teams and is working hard to eradicate this horrible disease.

I did finally manage to meet up with Deb and her friends Tanya, Brenda, Cammy (sorry, not sure if I've spelled that correctly) and Karen. The six of us walked together for a while and then broke off into two groups of 3 as, Tanya, Brenda & Cammy went on ahead. We hung back a bit but kept up a good pace. It was a gorgeous, sunny day, luckily not humid, but still quite warm. I was starting to slow down as we neared our lunch spot and was very thankful for the kind people handing out popsicles near Rathburn Road. It was exactly the sugar rush I needed to get me through to the lunch stop. The kindness and generosity of the people along the route was overwhelming. Citizens of Toronto decorated their houses, offered us food and water and cheered us on all along the 60km route. And there were signs all along the way, some hand drawn by children and strapped to telephone poles. The amount of support was amazing.

Drawn by a Grade 2 student from St. Agnes School

A musician entertained us as we walked along the Humber River.

Somewhere in Etobicoke, a local resident lends her support.


An amazingly decorated house in Weston.

The people in Weston were awesome!!!

One of the most amazing supporters was Rob. We first spotted him in Bloor West Village, unmissable in his shocking pink hair. He kept reappearing along the route. He would wait until he saw the last walkers and then would hop on his gorgeous Yamaha motorcycle and meet up with the front of the pack and watch us walk past again. Every time we came upon him, we were rejuvenated!

Karen, Rob & Deb somewhere in Etobicoke.

And speaking of support, the volunteer crew that policed the intersections, drove the sweep trucks and staffed the rest stops were unbelievable. They kept our spirits up the whole time.



Somewhere around 5pm we made it to Downsview Park, the end of Saturday's 33km route. As soon as we saw the "tent city" we were thrilled to be staying in a hotel. I enjoy camping, but this was a bit much for me.


We grabbed some dinner, I retrieved my bag, and we headed to the Travelodge for a shower, some rest and a celebratory drink.

Me, Deb, Cammy, Brenda, Tanya

We awoke on Sunday morning to rain. It was chilly and damp when we set out at 8am, but the rainfall had stopped. Deb and I were much more energetic that those who had camped at Downsview, probably because we were drier and warmer. The crowd was obviously walking slower and I was dragging my butt due to the pain in my hips. But we made a conscious effort to pick up the pace and catch up to Tanya, Brenda and Cammy who were a few kilometers ahead of us. Once again we were overwhelmed by the generosity of the people along the route who were feeding us and cheering us on.

Deb and I on Sunday morning, rested and ready for the final 27 km.

Sunday was a bit of a Toronto nostalgia trip for me as we walked by my former and current places of employment as well as my first Toronto apartment. Deb didn't make too much fun of me as I told her where we were and stopped to take pictures of almost anything. (Thanks Deb!)

We were fading once again as we approached our lunch spot and were thrilled to turn the corner into Rosedale off the Bayview extension where the awesome people from Xerox were handing out popsicles. And not just any popsicles, but yummy Breyer's treats. I happily devoured my Firecracker, thrilled by the sugar rush. We then lunched in beautiful Chorley Park and headed into the last leg of our journey.

The last part of the walk seemed to go really fast, probably because we where in the part of town I knew best and have walked through countless times. One of the most emotional moments for me was when we walked past Princess Margaret Hospital. We were greeted by a crowd of people including Dr. Tak Mak and other hospital staff, shaking our hands and giving us high fives. I cried like a baby as I realized that this huge building was full not only of people suffering from all types of cancer but of doctors, nurses and staff dedicated to battling this disease in all its forms. I thought back to about ten years ago, when by friend Karmen was battling leukemia, and my mom and I came to Princess Margaret to visit her. At that time, they were fundraising for a building expansion. There was a plexiglass box in the lobby in front of a mock up of what the new building would look like. I think my mom and I stuffed all the money we had in our wallets in that box after seeing our friend in pain and witnessing the incredible care she received. Thankfully, Karmen is happy and healthy and enjoying life as a newlywed.

A sculpture in front of Princess Margaret Hospital, presumably decorated by walkers.

Feeling re-energized after this emotional moment, Deb and I continued down University Avenue and arranged to meet up with the others at the final pit stop. We were thrilled to find out that the last stop was located on the grounds of the Steam Whistle Brewery and that walkers were being treated to free beer! We sped past the water station and straight into the brewery. After two days of walking, this was a huge treat! Thank you Steam Whistle!!!

After a brief rest and a yummy beer, we set out on our last 3 km towards our final destination, Exhibition Place.

Somewhere in that crowd in front of the Princes' Gates is my husband Steve...

After a hug and a kiss from Steve (who graciously took our picture with many cameras - see group shot below), we headed towards the Direct Energy Centre for the closing ceremonies. We walked through a huge crowd of supporters and our fellow walkers who greeted us with smiles, tears and high fives. Once again, I was overcome with emotion and the joy of actually completing the walk. I never once thought that I couldn't do it, but I was still so proud to have made it to the end.

We did it!

Deb and I, in pain but victorious!

Once we picked up our victory t-shirts, we waited for the last walkers to gather in the holding area. When it was time for the closing ceremonies to begin, the breast cancer survivors were asked to gather and head towards the front of the pack. It felt like the stream of survivors was never ending. How awesome is that! So many people who have fought and won the battle against breast cancer.

Walkers gathering for the closing ceremonies.

The closing ceremonies began and it was time to celebrate our accomplishment. All of the muscle ache and blisters were worth it, not only raise money to fight breast cancer but to feel like little old me could actually help. I'm not a scientist, so I won't be finding a cure for any disease any time soon. I'm not a doctor or nurse, so I am not only to care for the sick. But I can do my part to help the process along. And if that means walking 60km and personally raising over $2,500 I sure as hell am going to do it! In his speech at the closing ceremonies, Dr. Tak Mak summed it up best with this quote:

“I am only one, but still, I am one.
I cannot do everything but I can do something.
And, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do what I can."

Edward Everett Hale

and it was just like a vacation...

Actually, not so much.

Every Labour Day weekend, Steve and I go camping with a bunch of our good friends. We look forward to this weekend every year. Even though it marks the end of summer and the start of a new school year, we always know that we are going to have a fantastic time with our friends. Take last year for example. It rained from Friday night until Sunday morning, but we still managed to make the most of it and have a great time.

So this year we'd been watching The Weather Network religiously, checking the 14 day forecast several times a day. The forecast just kept getting better and as the weekend drew near we knew it would be perfect camping weather. Sunny and hot, but not humid and not too cold at night. Excitedly, I did the shopping and packed everything up on Thursday night, even though I was exhausted and weak from the cold I had been battling since the week before. I was determined to kick the cold before camping weekend arrived and I had fooled myself, through doses of NeoCitran and NyQuil, into believing that I was well enough to go. Then the inevitable happened. Steve had caught the cold too. On Thursday night he complained of aches and pains. I didn't think too much of it because Steve is the man who never gets sick. I'm the one who gets sick 3 times a year and drags the germs home. But Steve is the one who never picks up the germs and always feels fine. I can count the number of sick days he's taken on one hand and still have fingers left over. This time, we weren't so lucky. It was painfully evident on Friday morning that we would not be camping this year. I however remained optimistic. I went to work thinking that if he just slept a while longer he would feel better. By the time I got home he would have the truck packed and we'd be off. But it wasn't to be. He was going through exactly what I had the week earlier. Fever, chills, full body aches, sore throat, congested sinuses. He was in no shape to sleep in a tent all weekend and truthfully, neither was I.

So we've spent most of this weekend housebound. I was well enough to do a bit of housework and a bit of essential shopping. Truthfully, it wasn't until a couple of hours ago that I actually started to feel like myself. I'm still pretty bummed about missing the camping trip but I know there wasn't a lot we could do about it. I just hope the weather is as good next year...

pretty maids all in a row...

These days I am sucker for punishment. I skipped kick boxing and stayed late at work in an attempt to get caught up before the students come back next week. I was also hoping to miss the rush hour traffic on the Gardiner Expressway but no such luck. Since I didn't have the patience to sit on the highway I headed over to the Queen's Quay Loblaws to make one, very important purchase.


That's right boys and girls. I bought 6 bottles of steak seasoning! Not just any steak seasoning. Barberian's Steak House makes the BEST steak seasoning on the planet. This restaurant has been around since 1959 and is apparently amazing. We haven't had the pleasure of dining there yet but we started enjoying the spice when we came across it in a grocery store in Toronto. Problem is, you can't buy this stuff outside of Toronto. And since we no longer live in T.O., we don't buy our groceries there. So we've been out of the spice since early this summer when our last bulk purchase was depleted. And even though we both still work in Toronto, we don't often think about our grocery list at work, so we don't remember that we need to buy more until we get home. But my pantry is happy again. These 6 should get us through until the end of next summer.

So if you have the opportunity, try it! It's also fantastic on chicken and pork. You will not be disappointed. And if you go to the restaurant, let me know how it is. I hope to visit it soon.

EDIT: I must mention that I actually lined up to use the self checkout instead of going through the empty express lane at the grocery store in order to avoid strange looks from the cashier. After all, the only thing I was buying was 6 bottles of the identical steak seasoning.

in the eyes of this beholder...

Since Blogger has this new video function, I thought I would add this clip from the Blue Rodeo concert. Bob Packwood performed an amazing solo on Diamond Mine and I caught part of it on my camera. The quality is not great, but you'll get the idea.

some wild, wild life

Steve and I spent two weeks at the cottage this summer and they were heavenly. We had been up for a week in June and returned for the first week of August. The weather was perfect for the August trip and we spent most of our time doing a whole lot of nothing. It was the mental break we both needed.


I spent a lot of time working on my latest addiction, photography. Ever since I bought the new camera, I have been obsessed with taking pictures. I'm slowly learning how to use some of the cool features on my camera but most of my pictures are still pretty crappy. I think I'm currently averaging about 1 good photo for every 20 I take. But I am learning more as I go along. I have also discovered the joy of iPhoto. I've been spending a lot of time playing around with my photos, cropping, adjusting and just messing around with them to see what I could do. But I digress.


The tradition at the cottage is to put peanuts and sunflower seeds out on the front step every morning to feed the animals. It doesn't take them long to sniff out the grub, so I sat patiently with my coffee and camera and waited. After a day or two, they got used to having me around and weren't at all concerned that I was just a few feet away from them. I ended up with some excellent shots of the squirrels, chipmunks and various birds that would come to feed. The chipmunks were even running over my feet and eating out of my hand!


I still have quite a bit of editing to do, but these are a few photos I took during our last trip to Otty Lake. I'll put a bunch more on my Flickr stream soon. There are already some unedited ones up from the June trip.

better than chocolate

As far as I'm concerned, there are not too many things better than chocolate. So I was thrilled when one of my co-workers, who had spent a good chunk of his summer in Berlin, gave me some fabulous chocolate from the shop he was living next to.


This is probably the BEST chocolate I have EVER had. Delicious milk chocolate with strong ground coffee. Yummy! Dolfin chocolate is made in Belgium and is apparently available throughout Europe. According to their website, they have a variety of interesting flavours including dark chocolate with pink peppercorns, dark chocolate with green aniseed, and milk chocolate with Hot Masala!

Oh, and the package pictured above...empty.

it's kinda like those sunsets that leave you feeling so stoned

Elizabeth and I went to see one of our favourite bands this past Wednesday night. Blue Rodeo performed their annual end of summer show at the Molson Amphitheatre. I managed to score fantastic seats, 8th row centre, which is great for the Amphitheatre since it is outdoors and the sound is generally pretty bad there. The closer you are to the stage, the better off you are.

So, Elizabeth drove in to Toronto and picked me up from work. We headed to the show and grabbed a couple of overpriced beers and some dinner and found our seats. Immediately we knew there would be trouble. The rows are pretty narrow and as we squeezed by the couple sitting to our right the man said, "well hopefully this will be the last time." Obviously, he didn't want to have to get up again. The couple to our left didn't seem to be too thrilled about our arrival either. They didn't exactly seem like "party people". I'm sure they were very nice, I'm just saying. After we finished our dinner, we decided to skip the opening act and grab another drink mostly due to the unfriendly surroundings. Once we returned to our seats, we were ready to party. When Blue Rodeo took the stage, we immediately got to our feet. But as they started their first song, we sat down again because nobody else in our area was standing. 8 rows from the stage and we were surrounded by sitters! I bopped around in my seat, fighting the urge to get up and dance. Finally after a few more songs, there were enough people standing in the rows in front of us to obscure our view. Elizabeth and I got to our feet and there we stayed for the remainder of the concert. When we got tired of the people a few rows back telling us to sit down, I turned around and told them that I paid to see the band not the back of the people in front of me. One of them actually said, "if you sit down, so will they." WTF? Now usually, I try to be considerate of others, especially in a concert setting, but this was ridiculous. All I can say is that if you don't want to stand at a concert, don't buy tickets in the front!

Other than that minor annoyance, the concert was fantastic! The band was on fire as usual and they did a good mix of old and new tunes. They did 4 songs from their forthcoming "record", as Greg Keelor called it, including the awesome single "C'Mon". I was thrilled to hear them do the first track off their very first recording, "Heart Like Mine". And I thought Elizabeth might faint when they launched into "Diamond Mine". I've never heard them to this tune live so it was quite a thrill, especially when Bob Packwood rocked a phenomenal organ solo. "Side of the Road" was another highlight. I've always loved that song. And I was thrilled when they came out for the encore and Jim Cuddy went right to the piano. That could only mean one thing, "After The Rain." This has always been my Jim favourite. And he thoughtfully dedicated it to Haydain Neale of Jacksoul, who is still in hospital after being critically injured in a motor vehicle accident at the beginning of August.

So it was a fantastic show with the band performing their hearts out. I'm always blown away when a band sounds as good or better live then it does on their recordings. And Blue Rodeo blows me away, time and time again.

And of course, I brought my camera and managed to get some decent pictures. You can check them out on my Flickr stream, but here are a couple of teasers.

Greg Keelor guiding the audience through the first part of "Hasn't Hit Me Yet"

Jim Cuddy & Greg Keelor performing the opening of "Heart Like Mine"

Jim Cuddy, in the moment

honour the magic

I don't normally pay much attention to postage stamps. I don't buy them very often as I hardly ever mail anything anymore. But I was at the post office picking up a package and I noticed some new stamps honouring 4 Canadian music legends. Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Paul Anka and Anne Murray have been immortalized with their own stamps. I can't say that I'm a big fan of Anka or Murray but there is no denying the important role of these four in Canadian music. Very cool for Canada Post to recognize them.

i'm still alive...

Hello blogfriends! Yes I'm finally back. Between a really hectic couple of months, a couple of weeks at the cottage and my addiction to Facebook, there has been little time for blogging. But things are getting back to normal and I'm itching to get my back log of draft posts up.

Ahhh. It feels good to be here again.