Now It's My Turn!

Three noon hour walks accomplished!

I can walk down to the Big Grocery Store way down the street, shop a bit, and get back to work in just about an hour, if I walk with real purpose. Adds about 7000 steps to my pedometer, which means I have reached over 12,000 steps on each of my walking days - WOO HOO!!!!

Today I bought some ingredients for making a cauliflower and potato soup this weekend in my slow cooker. Two big and beautiful heads. Also bought some celery, carrots, a kabocha squash, brown arborio type rice, kefir (more about that later)...somehow it escaped my mind that I would have to haul this all on my shoulder on my way back to work. Funny how my selections did not seem very heavy individually when I placed them in my buggy....but man did they add up. I almost bought a 2 kg bag of dried black beans too. For some reason, THAT I could figure out would be too heavy to carry, with all the rest of my loot.

I did manage to bring my haul to my office, though, with only one casualty (besides cutting off the blood supply to my arms). My kefir popped!

Introducing my new addiction:

Kefir is a fermented milk product that is kind of like drinking bubbly yogurt. I love it poured over cereal. Yum Yum.

When you buy kefir the inner seal on the container should be bulging. This is the sign of good kefir. A bad sign for all other foods...but GOOD for kefir. Trust me!

But because of the buildup of gases causing the bulging aluminum inner seal, the container is under pressure. Expecting kefir to duke it out with a bunch of heavy fall veggies in a bag and emerge unscathed is asking for it, I found out. Luckily I only lost a little of the kefir and the bag didn't get soiled, just the packaging on some of the veggies, so all was still good!

And I didn't get any kefir on my new source of inspiration, Tosca Reno - the lovely lady telling me that it's NOW MY TURN on the cover of the magazine. Which is apropos, because I only got turned on to kefir from reading Tosca's book: The Eat Clean Diet Recharged!

Tosca is Canadian, my age (and a fitness model/cover girl!), and just flat out gorgeous and gorgeously healthy and strong-looking. She is also of Dutch background, like me, and has the same educational background: a B. Sc. and a B. Ed.! When I look at her, I see the Me I could be.

I've never bought Oxygen Magazine before, but I have 3 of Tosca's books and am really feeling inspired to Eat Clean and dust off my dumbbells! Sometimes everything just clicks and the next thing you know, you are on a whole new path. I feel that is happening to me now.

When I saw the lovely Tosca beaming and pointing at me at the checkout magazine rack, I knew I had to bring her home for even more inspiration. I think I will make me a new vision board with Ms. Reno front and centre....

Who Needs the Gym....

...When you have a house and yard to look after? See above for this year's mountain range of leaves, raked the curb for the annual pickup by the City. See also bags of cut up branches peeking out from behind the light pole. Just a few this round, adding to the total of about a dozen so far this fall....

However, I do not have leaves to rake and shrubberies (is that a word? Sounds vaguely Monty Python-ish somehow) to cut up every day. Which is too bad really, because I find yard work strangely soothing. Years ago, a good friend gave me a decorative plaque that reads "Find peace in the garden", and I do!

Now that the wedding is behind me, and we are not quite ready to move over to JD's place, I am thinking of taking one another project, specifically Project Me, and about time too! My goal is to be in ready shape, by Spring 2011, to start seriously training for another half-marathon. Which means it's time to get more active and lose me some poundage. Yeah, the poundage I was supposed to lose for the wedding....yep, those pounds are still hanging around and they found a couple of friends too since then....fast food, eating late, and being inactive have taken their inevitable toll on me.

I was eyeing up the gym next door to my work last week as I was percolating the whole Project Me thing, thinking I should rejoin. My husband (I still thrill to use that word!) suggested I start out more simply, by taking walks at lunch. A cheaper option, needs no special equipment, gets me into the fresh air, will clear my mind etc etc. All good things. So I will start there and see where it takes me.

My goal for this week is to get out for a noon hour walk at least 3 times this week. I'm strappin' on the pedometer once again and will aim for 10K steps on those days.

I can still be a PITA; I still have work to do...

Sometimes I congratulate myself on being older, wiser, more compassionate, less rebellious etc. etc., than in my youth. Thinking happily that my days as a smart-a** and a sh*t-disturber are far behind me.


And THEN...


...Along comes someone and all my so-called higher self-development melts like sugar left out in the rain.

Sunday night I climbed into the hot tub at the local hotel where we have a pool membership. Another couple of members were already there and the woman, who was monopolizing the conversation much to her companion's dismay (the glazed over look and half-hearted uh-huhs gave it away), was holding forth on the proposed half-way house for drug addicts soon to happen in her neighbourhood. This was in the local paper, and all the NIMBYs (Not In My Backyarders) were in full umbrage about this.

This woman couldn't believe that the City would allow this to happen on a street that had 5 schools on or near it.

Hmmmmm. I really don't understand how a bunch of ex-junkies could pose a threat to schoolchildren so I said with great enthusiasm:

"I agree - what are people thinking? Those poor half-way house people are in way too-close proximity to drugs, what with 5 schools in the neighbourhood!!"

This brought about a guffaw from Mr. Glazed-Over but Ms. Nimby was not impressed, nor did she stop her tirade against the half-way house.

So I asked her to explain. "What is the issue here? I don't understand. These are not sex offenders, they are drug addicts. How are they are threat to schoolchildren?"

I honestly wanted to know if I was missing something. I was not trying to be a PITA (pain in the butt) by asking.

No response. Just a glare that spoke volumes. Volumes as in: if I have to explain this to you, you are way too stupid for me to waste my breath on. Then she continued to speak about another proposed half-way house, but one in which the inhabitants had to pay $2-3K a week for the privilege of being there. She appeared to think 2 things about this:

1 - these people were "serious" about recovery because they were paying so much for it.

2 - they were "better" people to begin with because they could afford to pay so much.

Then she questioned why people had to go to half way houses in the first place, when they should just go home to their families after rehab. I explained to her that to my knowledge, rehab is just the beginning, and that half way homes are important so that the newly sober have a safe abode in which to relearn how to live in the real world again, without drugs.

I could have also mentioned that the families often contribute (unknowingly or otherwise) to the addiction in the first place and need counselling as well but I could see she wasn't at all interested in anything other than her own point of view so I just shut up.

I also kept my mouth shut when she then opined on how sneaky the social service agency was to try to get this house set up with as little publicity as possible. "If it's such a great thing, why wait till the last minute to tell us this house is coming to the neighbourhood?"

BECAUSE OF PIN-HEADED NIMBY'S LIKE YOURSELF WHO WILL MARSHALL FORCES TO DERAIL THE PROJECT, I wanted to shout at her, but didn't. Ah, self-control at last......

Then she started some evil gossip about the woman heading up this project (who actually lives in the same neighbourhood as this woman and the proposed half-way house)...blah blah blah. Yuck.
At this point I turned my attention to the other gentleman in the tub and switched the conversation to a seemingly safe topic: golf.

However, also in the local paper, was an article about the 18 hole golf course (also close to this woman's home), that is suffering financially and is cutting back to one 9 hole course with the intention of putting other sports-related facilities (golf academy etc.) in the remainder of its grounds.

Again, umbrage from Mrs. Nimby - what about the poor folks who paid a premium to have their homes back onto a golf course, and now this happens!! Someone needs to reimburse them; if not the golf course, then the City!!!! Because they are "allowing" it to happen.

"Look," I said, "This stuff happens. There are no guarantees in life. You buy your dream home and 5 years later the gov't appropriates the land next to you and puts through an expressway. It's bad luck but what can you do? This is a business decision, to save the business."

Again, no direct response, just more illogical spewing of outrage. I left the hot tub at this point.

I am sorry I let this woman get to me. It scares me to think how many people there are out there who think just like her. It saddens me to think of the suffering this woman inflicts upon herself, let alone others, by her attitude.

Offering my opinions was just a waste of air. It did no good. It probably fueled the fire. She couldn't enlighten me on her point of view. My verbal volleys back at her did not change her mind. As Dr. Phil would say, how's that workin' for ya?

Didn't work at all.

Since that exchange, I keep asking myself WWDLD (what would the Dalai Lama do?) in the face of such close-mindedness. When I know the answer, then I'll be the Grasshopper, snatching the pebble from the master's hand, or I'll know what the sound is, of one hand clapping...or some such other Zen mystery!

Until then, I still have lots of work to do.

Switched Gears

For the past coupla years, whenever I had some down time (or was ill, a favourite time to...ahem...sprout my couch potato inclinations), I inevitably gravitated towards one of those Life Channel or TLC Wedding shows. I just couldn't get enough of Rich Bride, Poor Bride, Wedding SOS, Bulging Brides or Say Yes to the Dress. I'd grab my knitting, or my dog, or both and settle in, eyes glued to the 13 inch screen of the only TV in the house.

I tried to do this a few days back and somehow it just wasn't the same. The shows that absolutely held me rapt in August now made me yawn and channel surf. The wedding has passed and with it, the TV wedding show mania.

Now I find my focus being directed towards home renovation/design shows and the Cooking Channel (Alton Brown, where have you been all my life?). I believe this is called "nesting" and quite understandable for a young bride to be interested in. But me? I've been creating my own nest for about 30 years now. It's not exactly new to me.

Yet, when I have a moment and sit down, I surf my way over to HGTV these days, or Food, or the design shows on W.

Hmmmm....to be continued....

Wedding & Honeymoon Wrap Up

Married 3 weeks already....wedding flowers not all dead yet, amazingly so....honeymoon spirit still intact!

Here are some of my favourite shots from the wedding day:

The joy of the day for us was very evident!

All of our honoured guests!




A creative pose, suggested by our wonderful photographer, Jillian Bolender of Focused Photography:





Here's more inspired shots:







The wedding flowers were so beautiful.....


The honeymoon was supposed to be only for a couple of days, but we found ourselves having so much fun, we extended it for 10.....

Our first night was at the Village hotel where we had our dinner and reception:


Then we went to the Little Inn, in Bayfield:

Home of the best sunsets in the world, according to National Geographic:

After that, we stayed in Elora a couple of nights, at the Elora Mill Inn:

Then we were off to Niagara on the Lake, to stay at one of the top 500 hotels in the world, right in our backyard (so to speak). Who knew?


When we saw the dragonfly lamp in the corner, we knew we were going to take the room, no matter what the cost (and it was pricey, but worth it!):

Even the pool was opulent:

We had our first B&B experience, in Maryhill (definitely not the last!):

Yummy yogurt parfaits, followed by caramelized french toast.....

We went back down Niagara way again....this time to the Falls themselves (view from our room at Embassy Suites):

We did the typical tourist things....the Maid of the Mist boat ride never gets old:

After coming back home for a week, we were off to Dubuque, Iowa for a work trip (we called it part of the endless honeymoon...). With an unexpected quick tour of Chicago when we missed the flight to Dubuque (thanks to American Airlines) and had to rent a car to actually get there in time for my meeting.....
We definitely want to get back to Chicago for a visit!

Dubuque (below) is a beautiful town on the Mississippi River....worth a visit if you are in the area. The trouble with work trips is that there is very little time for exploring wherever you are, usually. Dubuque has many beautiful buildings, a rich history, and the National Museum of the Mississippi, not much of which we got to see....wah!

And now to start married life....for real! (And to FINALLY open our wedding gifts...I can't believe we haven't even had time to do so yet.....)

We interrupt this honeymoon to bring you the following....

Just a quick post with a few pics snapped by the hubby of my MOH while the official photographer was posing us and snapping her shots....

The wedding day itself was absolutely wonderful. Everything we wanted.

The weater surprised us by changing so dramatically. The day started out very gloomy - heavy rain and thunderstorms. But by the time of the ceremony it was sunny and dry, with a light breeze and no humidity - perfect wedding weather!!!

Our soloist surprised us by bringing along 2 friends, to play guitar and bass. The music (what I was able to hear of it) was incredible. He did such a beautiful rendition of Bob Dylan's "To Make You Feel My Love" (my processional song), I burst into tears before I had to go down the aisle.

Our minister surprised us by forgetting the marriage license.....seriously, he did. When he called my cell from the chapel before the ceremony to ask me who had it (uh, YOU do) I was sure he was punking me, but NO. I think he was more shook up about it than I was. So we faked it at the chapel, and did the official signing later, in the hotel lobby.

The photographer surprised us by making us stand in a soybean field and against a split rail fence for some shots. (She was inspired by these locations on the drive out to the chapel.) But they really are going to be nice, if they are anything like the ones Adrien took.

More to come later. Now back to our previously scheduled honeymoon......

It's All Small Stuff

As the wedding day countdown is heading into single digit territory, things are getting a little busy, as you might suspect. And, I am ashamed to admit, I am feeling a bit panicky at times. Thinking I might forget something that could potentially "ruin" the day.

Thank goddess for the Knot email newsletter I received in my Inbox this week. This week's lead article was something to the effect of "10 Reception Disasters and How to Avoid Them".

O.M.G.!!!!!

DISASTERS?!?! This is something I really need to read, I thought! Well, read it I did, and it helped me out so much, and not the way the writer of the article intended.

Disaster 1: Little kids invited to the reception act up - run around the room and yell a lot.

(You gotta be kidding me - this is ranked as a DISASTER?)

Disaster 2: Your flowers start wilting.

(Unbelievable. My flowers are wilting... shoot me now.)

Disaster 3: The sun is too bright in the reception hall.

(Ummm....WHAT?)

And so on.

I was expecting topics like: one of your guests drops dead on the dance floor; food poisoning sends your guests to the hospital; the hotel has a fire...etc. etc. Not the insignificant crap they called disasters in the article.

I can only recall one wedding in my past that could be called somewhat disastrous, and even though a terrible thing happened (the groom's hospitalized mom died during emergency surgery literally an hour before the ceremony), the hundred-mile-away wedding AND reception still took place and the couple are still married to this day.

So, life goes on and people deal with it. The Knot, please give your head a shake. (And thanks for inadvertantly putting things into perspective for me, OK?)