Exciting days!

Hi

It's me again! I've been slacking lately, or there's nothing worth writing home about..

but today! woo! I'm home from work early! woo! okay but not on the greatest terms, there was an earthquake here today! Kinda freaked me out.. a lot! More earth quakey than anything I ever felt in Vancouver, and I remember feeling a few there! I was at work, on the 3rd floor of a like 6-7 floor older building and yeah it was shaking and I heard banging for a bit, on the news they say it was 30 seconds, that's a long time though! Anywho the power went out, I grabbed my purse and ran down the stairs! I'd like to state that I was the first out of the building! The others took a bit to come out.. I don't know why, I wouldn't trust the doorways etc in that building! It was kinda cool walking to the bus though, the street were filled with nicely dressed government workers... sidewalks were filled! So my bosses decided to close for the day since the power was out and such. By the time I got home I heard it was back on, but oh well I'm home now! At home all was okay, one cupboard door was open and all my willow tree angels had fallen over and my bubble bath that was on the window ledge was on the floor.

Enough of that! This weekend Simon and I spent quite a bit of time on the boat on the Ottawa River with Sophie and Jeff! Simon and I "caught" a fish each! Jeff just had his poles in the water and we each got to reel a fish in. I've never done that before!

This is us waiting to be picked up. We met Sophie and Jeff at a place where Jeff thought there was a dock.. but no luck! There used to be one, but its gone!

This is me reeling in my fishie!

Fishies are yucky! eewww I didn't touch it hehe

Simon got a fish too, and held it ewwww!

We were out on the boat almost all day on Sunday! It was nice to get away! Anywho I'm going to find something to do! I put Pocahontas on in the background, Simon works til 9 tonight.
later gators!

Bad Sir. Sneaks-a-lot!

Hi! Do I have a story for you!!!

So on Wednesday Simon and I got home from work and Simon was lighting the bbq (which we had left outside- its a hibachi- and was filled with earwigs cause it was sitting on the driveway..) so I went to check out my garden... I saw the plants that I had started from seed first and I noticed that the nice big broccoli plant that I was so proud of and was going to transplant very soon, was missing all its leaves!! I just figured an animal ate them cause it was just sitting on the ground with no protection...

So I called Simon over and together we walked down to the garden to check out the rest of the vegetables... Well weren't we surprised to find Sir. Sneaks-a-lot (our pet name for the groundhog who frequents our backyard- usually nibbling on the weeds and long grass) IN OUR GARDEN!!!!
This was a big deal since we kind of built a barrier around the garden with wood and that plastic netting stuff... I was very angry and worried cause sir sneaks-a-lot was stuck in the garden and was panicking cause we were there and he couldn't get out!!! Simon finally undid the plastic and he escaped! I hope we gave him the fright of his life and that he'll think twice before coming back to our garden!!!!

Here's the damage...

BEFORE
Yellow beans, but this was taken
a while back so they were bigger than this!

AFTER!
I guess he decided to leave us 2..

BEFORE
really nice looking brocolli plants

(from the store)

AFTER...
unrecognisable green sticks coming up from the dirt :(

I was very sad and very angry! We had befriended these animals and they betrayed us!!! I'm not sure what to do now... Any ideas? Will these plants grow again, or do I need to start over? I'm thinking of making a scare crow to put in the garden cause all the animals are scared of us...

It makes me sad just looking at these pictures.. I haven't been out to the garden since this happened.. and usually I'm out there every night..

still good the second day!

Hehehe

Since I'm a grown-up now and I was home alone for dinner... I ate the rest of my mousse-trifle dessert from last night while I cooked my food :P hehe sooo good!
That's all!

mmmm Food/ Sophie's bday!

MmmmmMMmmm

Today I made a yummy yummy dinner/dessert. It was all made mostly from scratch mm :)

I made...

1. Angel Food Cake (10 egg whites! - we had scrambled egg yolks for breakfast today!)
2. Chocolate Mousse (mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm)

I made the Angel food cake and mousse into a trifle-like dessert that was soooo good and soooo rich! I only finished half of mine.. which says a LOT cause I have a "dessert stomach"

We bought fresh raspberries from the market today- first berries of the season! The first one I had was really sour, but after that they were sweet, and big too!

3. Butternut squash Ravioli (with store-bought italian sausage)

mmm It was good. I made the pasta from scratch then roasted squash and mashed it up with ricotta for the filling. Simon helped me make them this afternoon while we watched The Emporer's New Groove :) I made the sausage with it and a simple light cream sauce with onion and garlic.

4. Salad! This wasn't very hard, but it was yummy yummy.

Just writing this and looking at the pictures is making me hungry again! Bed-time snack time!

We had Sophie and Jeff over for supper to eat all this yummy stuff! It's Sophie's birthday (29!) on Tuesday :) Happy Birthday Sophie!!!

Like-New Dresser!

Hey!

BIG news!

Simon finished the dresser he's been refinishing!!! Woooo!! I think he's been working on it for a good month and half! I mean he only worked on it about 2-3 days a week after work and such. We bought this dresser at a Salvation Army for $20 after Sophie saw it there!

Here is the dresser refinishing story in pictures...

1. The Dresser before, we didn't get a before picture from the front with all the drawers in and such... See how it was painted "wood grain" ick!

2. Simon started to sand off the paint on the top. He found out that the top is particle board with a pine laminate... He found that out the hard way when he was scraping the corner. The rest of the dresser is solid wood.

3. Simon hard at work! I bought him a multi-sander for his birthday back in March, that's probably when he got started!

4. The dresser had 3 layers of paint on it that Simon first stripped with paint stripper stuff before sanding! This is what the drawers looked like after Simon stripped the paint, the base coat of paint was really thick and soaked in and black... The dresser is a "Broyhill premier" made in the 80's.

5. The drawers all stripped and sanded and ready to be stained! Simon did the stripping in the driveway when it was nice, the sanding in the basement in a make-shift tarp room to contain the dust, and then he took everything over to Sophie and Jeff's house (across the street) and stained etc in their garage.

READY FOR THE FINISHED PRODUCT????


(I made Simon lay on top, he didn't really want to..)

We chose a red mahogany stain mmmm nice!

Now Simon has a solid pine dining room table from Sophie's brother (that he didn't want anymore) to refinish next, and then I'd like some bed-side tables to match the dresser. and we might make a headboard together: Simon doing the wood parts and I think we'd like some leather panels on it.. I would do that part!

Enjoy! I know we will!