Saturday 20 February 2010

Saturday February 20, 2010-More Truck Problems

I had another nice walk this morning. It was -1C (30F) so it was quite enjoyable.

Gordon had to move the truck this morning so Nancy could get out of the garage and he found a shredded belt under the truck. It appears that it must be as a result of something done improperly when they installed the water pump last week as the week before the belts had all been checked at the dealer in Smiths Falls and they were fine so we can't drive the truck and will have to have it towed to the dealer tomorrow so it's ready for the appointment Gordon made for it on Monday at 9 a.m. Always something!

While Nancy was out she put a bid on a house so we'll see what happens.

We just hung out around the house today. Gordon hasn't been feeling well so he spent a lot of the day resting and I read and watched some TV.

I made some chicken breasts with taco crumbs. (I'm running out of them and need to get back to the U.S. to get more!) I can get gluten free bread crumbs up here but they are expensive and not very good!

Friday 19 February 2010

Friday February 19, 2010-Winterlude Again

Other than my usual morning walk, going out for groceries and a nap this afternoon, the daytime here was quiet.

Tonight after dinner we decided to head over to Jacques Cartier Park in Gatineau, Quebec to see the snow sculptures. So we bundled up and headed out. It was 0C (32F) so it wasn't too bad out but I forgot my ice grippers and Gordon wore his running shoes so it was slippery but we arrived home all in one piece.

Here are some photos I took tonight.

Lots of things geared for kids.

Writing in the snow

Gordon and I sitting on the big chair

View of Ottawa from Quebec

Beavertail stand and no I didn't have one

Ice sculpture

Thursday 18 February 2010

Thursday February 18, 2010-Eye measurement

When I brought the paper in after my walk this morning, this was one of the headings on the front page, click here.

I had a nice long walk this morning. I'm discovering more nearby paths that go through greenbelt areas within the city and I enjoy walking there rather than on the sidewalks. It was -4C (25F) with a windchill of -10C (14F) with wind coming from the west. We've had a lot of west wind rather than north this winter it seems. Must be El Nino! Although the forecast for today was cloud and snow flurries, this afternoon was bright and sunny with blue skies! From the radar, it looks like our 'weather' went south of the border. Good news for us! We actually reached 0C (32F) today with a bit of a wind.

Today was my appointment to have the tech measure my eyes to make my implants. There are three different machines they use, one of them is a laser measurement which costs me $180.00. For that one they have to freeze your eyes with drops. Well, my eyes move even when they're frozen but eventually she got the reading she needed. Then I wait to see the doctor and he does another check of my eyes, explains to me that I can get some vision improvement (he said 1%) with lenses that cost $300/eye rather than the ones covered by our provincial health care. I tell him I'll think about the lenses. My extended health care with Nortel does not cover any part of the interocular lens.

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who has chosen the upgraded lenses and also those who haven't to see if they're happy with what they chose.

For anyone interested, here's the website. They have an interesting video about the lenses.

Wednesday 17 February 2010

Wednesday February 17, 2010-Walk in the Woods

We decided to go out this morning again and let the housecleaner do her thing. The first thing we did was do a drive by on a house that Nancy is interested in. It's not too attractive looking, no curb appeal but Nancy would have that fixed up pretty quickly.

From there we stopped again at Jack Pine Trail hoping to see deer. Nada! I even took apples for them! But there were lots of chickadees that were partaking of seeds that I held out for them. I didn't take any photos of them this time.

We were having a light snow when we were in the woods this morning.

The snow was landing on the evergreens and sticking to them.


There was a woodpecker, a hairy, I think, on a bare tree. It was pretty dark but even with lightening the photo it's still dark.


This afternoon, I coloured my hair and watched TV. How exciting!

Tuesday 16 February 2010

Tuesday February 16, 2010-Shrove Tuesday

I follow my Immigration lawyer on Twitter. He brings a lot of these little gems to my attention. - Immigration cases flooding U.S. courts. Will this help me or hurt me? I think it could go either way. Because I'm not in the U.S. this probably won't go to court quickly. But because it's a minor issue of failure to notify me properly of the deportation hearing, it could just be dismissed without going into a courtroom. Who knows?

Now this is something every photographer should have, to read about it, click here.

You get a lot of information on Twitter both useless and useful!

Gordon took this photo of me last week. I'm taking a photo of the bird on my glove. Boy, do I ever look like my mother!

I did get another letter from the lawyer today enclosing a copy of a letter that he received from Homeland Security. The gist of it is that they are copying the file. They handle requests on a first come first served basis so who knows how long that will take!

Vera wanted to know what my abstract photo was that I posted on Sunday's blog. Actually it's just a big piece of ice sitting in the water.

I've also had a couple of requests for Gordon's mother's butterscotch pie recipe. Since it's a family recipe, I won't publish it on my blog but I would consider giving it to people individually if they give me their email address. You can send me an email from my profile page or contact me on Facebook.

I went out grocery shopping today. While out, I bought a gluten-free pancake mix but instead when I got home decided to use the El Peto gluten-free waffles I purchased the other day. They were excellent! They tasted just like regular waffles. We were very happy with them. I had some strawberries with them and some bacon. Not a diet dinner for sure!

Monday 15 February 2010

Monday February 15, 2010-Family Day

I received a comment from Diane on yesterday's post. Thanks Diane and to many others that have commented on how stupid this whole immigration problem has been. Hopefully it will get resolved on a positive note and SOON. I can't tell you how tired I am of being left up in the air not knowing what we'll be able to do for next winter.

Today is Family Day for most of Canada. This is the second year that Family Day has been celebrated here. The powers that be seemed to think we needed a day off in the dead of winter. However, although it is basically a Federal holiday, the Feds don't get the day off while the provincial government does. Also there are no grocery, wine, beer, libraries, malls etc open. It is a day to be spent with your family going to Winterlude! We, however, have elected to stay at home. Gordon spent most of the day backing up photos and I finished my book 'Death in Kenya'.

It was quite mild today with a high of -2C (28F), a nice winter day!

Sunday 14 February 2010

Sunday February 14, 2010-Happy Valentine's Day

The radio said it was -6C (21F) this morning and didn't mention a wind chill but when I got up Gordon said it had been windy when he was out and indeed the wind chill was -14C (7F) but I went for my walk anyway. Kanata has a series of paved trails which runs usually to schools to allow the kids to be able to get to school without being on the road. So I took one of those trails this morning. It was nice to go somewhere different.

My sister called around lunch time. They were planning to go for a drive and we had planned to do the same thing so we went together. We went west through the back roads to Almonte and then to Pakenham, back through Carleton Place and then stopped at the Swiss Chalet in Kanata and had dinner.

The Falls at Almonte still aren't frozen.

Abstract - can you guess what it is?

Mount Pakenham Ski Hill


Margie and John intently reading the menu

We stopped on the way home to bring Nancy a Tim Horton's coffee!