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I’m glad the holidays are over!

January 2, 2009 by Tricia

So … How did the Holidays treat you? Did you have a nice time with friends and relatives? A big turkey dinner at Christmas? Get at least one present you really wanted? Party too much at New Years?

Chris and I had a nice Christmas and New Years. We went to his parents on Christmas day for a meal. No, it wasn’t a turkey dinner. Darn! My Mother in Law isn’t the best cook. She made mashed turnip, carrots, mashed potatoes, stuffing and uhm cooked up those pressed chicken breasts that you get from M & M’s.

The meal was OK, but for me it didn’t seem like a true Christmas dinner. So this weekend Chris and I are going to either get a small turkey or some turkey breasts and I’ll make us up a tasty New Years dinner either tomorrow or Sunday. Hey, it’s not the holidays to me if you don’t have some leftover turkey kicking around.

Chris’ older brother was visiting from Chicago and he brought his youngest son, 14 years old, with him. So on Christmas evening we drove from Chris’ parents home in Brantford back to our house in Toronto and all the guys ended up going to the park down the street from us to play hockey on the hockey rink. They actually did that twice a day for four days. So the guys got their exercise!

Unfortunately when they were in the house they watched hockey game after hockey game – old classics and the World Junior Hockey tournament pre-games so needless to say I’m hockeyed out. Chris’ cousin brought his two sons over for one of the days as well, so I think I’m “guyed” out as well. There was way too much testosterone around here last weekend!

Chris’ brother left on Monday and I’ve been recovering from the holidays and enjoying the peace and quite ever since.

Unfortunately for my nephew, I happened to go into the basement one day during the week and I discovered that he’d left a piece of his Samsonite luggage and a pair of jeans behind! I guess things like that happen to 14 year olds! Now I need to find out if we should ship the luggage and jeans to Chicago or just keep them until they come back for another visit.

It was really cold here at New Years so instead of going downtown to see the live show that they put on here in Toronto we stayed in and cuddled on the couch watching TV. We ended up watching the Niagara Falls New Years show and saw Roger Hodgson of Supertramp and Kim Mitchell perform. It was a great show!

Overall I’d say the holidays were great, but I’m tired out. I’ve been so sleepy this week. Maybe I’m fighting something or maybe it’s the Vitamin D supplements that I started taking (just found out I’m vitamin D deficient) that are making me tired. Either way I could sleep all day and night. Not good when you work from home!

I hope that the holidays were good to you and that you’re ready to get a good start in 2009! Happy New year and thank you for being loyal readers! I appreciate your visits and comments.

Reflections of Toronto

November 22, 2008 by Tricia

This weeks Photo Hunt theme is Reflection

I took these photos of the Toronto water front area while on a dinner boat cruise last year. There’s nothing like being on the water at sunset. What a beautiful view of an impressive city.

If you look closely at the pictures, above and below, you can see that the CN tower and other nearby buildings are reflected in the water. You can also see the reflection of the sunset in the water too.

I’m looking forward to seeing what other Photo Hunters have come up with for this weeks theme! You can see my other entry – Reflections of Midnight – on my main blog Tricia’s Musings if you’d like.

Are you getting excited about Black Friday?

November 14, 2008 by Tricia

Now that the US election is over I’m seeing tons of television commercials on TV for 2008 Black Friday sales. With only a week or so until Black Friday I’ve been seeing the commercials during just about every break in the TV shows that I’ve been watching.

Even one of the television shows that I like to watch “Life” did a whole episode where someone had been murdered in a mall that was just about to open for Black Friday! There will probably be a few other shows that make a reference to Black Friday in their stories over the next week or so too.

Here in Canada our big shopping day is Boxing Day which always falls on December 26th. It’s the closest thing we have to a “Black Friday”, and just like our US counterparts, people line up in the middle of the night waiting for the stores and malls doors to open so that they can get some crazy deals.

I wonder if any other countries have one day of the year that’s known as their big shopping day?

It’s November and my garden is still puttering away

November 2, 2008 by Tricia

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I wrote a post on my gardening blog earlier today about how my roses and other plants are still blooming even though it’s becoming quite cold here in Toronto. Can you believe that some of my Cleomes are still blooming?

This is a purple Cleome:

It’s actually growing in my garden, but it’s poked through the fence and the flower is blooming on my neighbors side of the fence.

This is one of my White Cleomes.

I like the dark moody sky behind the flower, don’t you?

How is your gardening doing right now?

Is it wrong that I’m happy the Canadian dollar is dropping?

October 30, 2008 by Tricia

Is it WRONG that I’m sitting here hoping that our Canadian dollar will fall a little bit more? Probably …

I know it’s not very good if our dollar really drops as it will eventually cost more for items imported into Canada and forget taking a holiday anywhere, but … I get paid in US dollars for the most part, so our dollar being lower than the US dollar is a good thing for me.

A few days ago our dollar really dropped and it was at about 79 cents US. At that time I did some calculations on money I’m expected to be paid on November 1st and if our dollar had stayed that low I would have walked away with about $400 extra bucks in my pocket. However, our dollar started rising again on Wednesday and now it’s getting close to 82 cents. I’ll still make a profit, but not quite as much.

Around this time last year our dollar was higher than the US dollar. Last November when we went to Vegas our dollar was worth 1.12 US. That was good for us spending wise in the US, but again, since I mostly get paid in US dollars I was losing money when it was converted to Canadian.

Any other Canadians getting paid in US dollars who are kind of happy that our dollar has dropped a bit?