Bad backs and travelling husbands

Well, M is outta town still. He'll be home tomorrow. It'll be so good to see him again. I miss him when he's not around.

My back went out a few days ago, so I spent most of saturday and sunday and Monday taking advil and trying not to move too much. I mostly just layed in bed. In some ways the solitude was nice. Just had some time to think and what not. Be still. I got to spend some good time reading and praying. That was good.

I'm feeling quite a bit better today. Not 100% but much better that before. Sitting is still a bit of an undesirable thing, but I can sit for a few minutes anyway.

Well that's about it for now. Quiet night around here.

The plan for supper tonight was to make some delicious lemon lentil soup from a recipe I found on the "Companies Coming" website. We were so hungry I could hardly wait to get that thing made- umm, lemon lentil! And it would be oh so healthy!

But then, hey, we don't have any lentils! I mean I never cook with lentils, but I was SURE that I had some. Oh well, so much for that idea.

Next big idea- look in the old cookbook I brought from home. There I found a nice pancake recipe with a "v.good" next to it in my mom's handwritting! I was in the mood for nothing less than a "v.good" recipe! So, tonight we had pancakes! They were fast, easy, and we were so hungry we wolfed those things down in 10 minutes flat! We even had some maple syrop to goop on top.

Man those pancakes were good.

The Ice Cream of Champions

This last week we were lying in bed trying to go to sleep. It was difficult because there was loud noise coming from outside. We mulled over what it could possibly be. It sounded like a show or something.... was it coming from the stadium? nooo, was it coming from the bath house? noooo... finally my hubs decided to get up and go for a little walk outside to see what it was. I decided to go with him. So we got dressed and went out.

It didn't take long to find where the sound was coming from. A bunch of our neighbours were gathered around a big TV (outside) and it was cranked up. This was right across the lane from our apartment. So, we walked over to see what on EARTH they were watching together outside at midnight.

As it turns out, they were watching our neighbours' daughter compete in a world championship sporting event. Little did we know that they have a daughter who is a world class athlete. We knew the neighbors just from casual interaction, they run an ice cream and water stand on the corner by our house! About 16 or 17 people from the neighbourhood had gathered to see her compete on TV. No wonder it was so loud! It was very exciting.

We decided to stick around too. So there we sat until close to 4 in the morning til we saw it all unfold. She didn't get into the top three that night, but almost.

Earlier that day there had also been a parade in our community! The young girl had won a gold medal in the first part of her competition the day before.

So, after staying up til the wee hours of the night, we were really tired the next day, but it was worth it. It was fun to be apart of something going on in the neighbourhood for once. We are now bonded. And we know the parents of a world champion.

cute - i think it's a sneeze

what do you think of this?

M meets Mr. Drummond

Today a few friends were over, we were talking. M told a story that I think he has told me before but I forgot about.
The whole story summarized into one line is basically... when M was about 18 he met Mr. Drummond. You know, Mr. Drummond from Different Strokes. Arnold and Willis's Dad.

Back then, M was working in his hometown. Gorgeous place. If you haven't travelled around there, you really should. (Just don't take FiFi your pet chihuahua for a walk in the woods....cougars) ANYway... one summer, M was working as a bus boy at a nice local restaurant, it was in fact one of the nicest restaurants in town. French. And, as it would happen, one night, who should come for dinner but Mr. Drummond- or Conrad Baines. (this a long time after his run of fame on the TV show.)

Now, what would you do if a celebrity walked into your place of work? Or school, or hangout spot? Acknowlege or not acknowlege?

M chose to not acknowlege the celebrity factor, out of politeness. He decided to treat him like everyone else. Although today he says he thinks he should have acknowleged the fame factor..... the reason being that he found himself in the men's room alone with Mr. Drummond as M was frantically trying to change the paper towels in the paper dispenser, and it was going all wrong, the towels wouldn't come out right, totally jammed, so when he would try to pull a new piece down only a tiny piece would rip off.... all the while Mr. Drummond was waiting with dripping hands. M said that at that point, it would have been good to acknowlege that he knew who Mr. Drummond was because his hands were shaking with nervousness as he was trying to change the towels, and Mr. Drummond looked at him with this, "I know you know who I am." look. M says that he thinks that at that point it probably would have encouraged him rather than annoy him, because he wouldn't have been interrupting his dinner or anything.

So, what about you, if you met a celebrity in your travels today.... would you acknowlege the celebrity factor or not?

There'll be sad songs

Thanksgiving weekend in Canada. We wouldn't have remembered except for the calendar. It doesn't seem like fall here yet, except that school and everything has started up....but the trees are still green, we were walking around outside in short sleeves today, and this is not a long weekend.
We will celebrate on Monday though. We'll go to a nice restaurant with friends that has a western buffet. It will be a celebration, even if there's no turkey. We'll talk about what we are thankful for. We have a lot.

Tonight, M and I went out for supper, there was live music in the background, piano with violin. They were playing lots of slow ballady songs, which I think put both of us into a sentimental mood. We didn't talk much during supper, which we kind of started laughing about at one point. As we shared what we'd been thinking about we realized that we were thinking similar thoughts about family and friends. I think it was spurred on by the sound of the violin playing some sad love songs.

As much as we were thinking about how much we'd like to connect with family and friends from home, thinking of them makes us realize that we have so much to be thankful for, this will be a good weekend to remember that.

The flowers are back

There was something that I wanted to post about but now I can't remember what it was. It will come to me sometime.

It's been pretty gorgeous around here lately. Last evening I was strolling back to our apartment after hanging with friends, it was great revelling in the fact that I was comfortable walking around in short sleeves. I love summer, so autumn, while beautiful, is always a bit sad for me. It's kinda nice that the summer stretches out here, and the fall is quite warm. In the early evening you could smell some stinky pollutant odor in the air but by later evening the air seemed quite fresh. The walk back was quite invigorating.

A few days ago I was all set to grab my bike and ride over to meet some friends at a nearby restaurant..... then, my plan I was foiled by this sight.....

Yep, that's like 50 or so potted plants that magically appeared overnight (there are flowers now gracing the street corners all over our neighbourhood) .... and you see that green door in the background? That's our back door. That's where I keep my bike. I called my friends to let them know I'd be walking.