Of course I have to post a few of the meals that you missed over the last week. heeheehee. The fillet-o-fish, Liam and I had tonight. I picked it up driving back from TO. The french toast I made for family day. Liam wasn't a big fan but then again he doesn't like pancakes either. The Spaz-ghetti was last week. Jim's parents brought dinner for Saturday - breaded pork and scallop potatoes (no pics - sorry).

Mama!!!


Look how perfect the sky was tonight.


It feels like it been such a long time!!! Where did I leave off...


Yes, I've been super busy with work the past several days. Had a presentation in TO today that I was working towards. It went well. So, it might go back to normal again... although I don't know what normal is anymore.


Let's see, last week. Did I tell you about the sliver platter incident at work? OMG. I will have to tell you offline. That added to my workload!!


Liam impressed his math teacher with his last quiz 26 out of 28. And got an 8 out of 10 on a surprise quiz today. So, I think he's back on track. Proud of him. He's also getting really chatty now. Talking all the time.  I know weird!


Saturday, I went riding on Beau and my coach said I cantered Beau the best out of everyone at our barn. I'm sure she was just saying that but I do feel a special connection with that horse. It's like he can read my mind and I think I'm starting to read his too. No riding this weekend tho. Just taking a one week break.


Then the in-laws came over. It was a good visit. Like you the winter seems to be bringing them down. And the whole living arrangements with her sister is showing signs of wear. Although she says it's fine. I know they don't think the same so at times it must be strained. Alene lost quite a bit of weight. It was quite noticeable and I think Cec did too. We took them shopping and of course we buy up the whole store!! They bought nothing. lol They kept saying over and over again how much they missed us and wished we were back in Cambridge. Like come on. I miss everyone too but let's not hang on to the past here. I think it gets to Jim tho so I'm worried he's going to fall back into a slump again.


Spent family day working on a proposal (related to the silver platter incident) and helping Liam with his video game. I made the graphics and Liam did the programming. So, it was a family activity!! Jim studied. It's been exam week for him, so every night I'm helping with assignment or helping Liam and also doing my work. So, that's why I've been offline. Tonight I'm hoping to rest up. Next week Jim is off on March break he might go back into Cambridge for a day.


I can't wait to see your new kitchen cupboards! That was fast!!! You can't complain too much tho. The guy did it for a good price and finished it. You'll have to send me pics! Not sure when we will be in next.


How's the weather there? It's seems to be warming up a lot of the snow melted but I hear we are expecting a snow storm tomorrow??? Hmmm, maybe I will go riding after all... trail riding through the snow :)


We'll have to start planning your visit soon? March is next week and the maple syrup festivals will be starting. When did you say dad has his treatments? How's he doing?


Have you heard any more about the JA trip? Or has A. Polly dropped it?


Keep smiling mama! Miss you bunches!! xoxox mwah

Hey mama!

I thought this might make you happy. Liam’s report card. His lowest mark was Chemistry at 70%. His teacher left some really nice remarks and suggested he takes Chemistry again next year. So, he is. Then the other marks were all honours at 84% in guitar, 88% in Communication Tech and 91% in Computer Studies. We’re really proud of him. And the math although started out on the rocky side seems to be going well now. So, looks like Matsu sushi is in order next week! That’s how Liam and I celebrate his successes :)

I worked late tonight and I have a couple presentations coming up, so I might be going through some late nights coming up. I ran out today to get my license renewed AND also found out that my Health Card was expired too!! Why did I not get any notification??? Anyways, it’s done now... Phew.

Love you mwah xoxox

Happy Valentine’s Day mama and daddio!!

Are you having surf and turf?? Doing anything special? Hahaha, I know the answer to that one! It’s the same for me.

Jim is at school till 8 or 9. I got home around 7. Liam and I are spending it together. I made his favourite dish – beef and broccoli. Other than that nothing really special. Sad isn’t it? Hate these days cause it makes you build up expectations only to be let down. The adult in me knows it’s just another day, don’t make a big deal about it. The 16 year old girl in me wants today to be filled with romance and surprises... Sigh. I did however get Valentine’s Day wishes from the parking lot attendant... He’s about 60, bald and crusty. I’m sure he wished everyone a happy V-Day... Hey, at least I got one!

Oh wait, I did get a surprise today! My car insurance called me to tell me that my driver’s license hasn’t been renewed???! WTF? I checked my license and sure enough. It expired June of last year! How did that happen?? And, I’ve gotten a speeding ticket since that time. How did they miss that? Anyways, I’ll run around tomorrow to renew it. Crappers...

Did you watch the Grammies last night? I caught bits and pieces as I was surrounded by receipts on the floor. Yes, I started my taxes... Ugh. It’s just killing me!!! Can’t wait till it’s all done. I think I’m still going to send it to my accountant in Cambridge. I just hate starting all over again with someone I don’t know or know me. It’s stressful enough as it is.

Oh, I finally used the Kitchen Aid knife to slice the meat tonight! OMG – It’s the greatest thing ever!!!! I love it, thank you so much for buying it for me. I really do regret not using it sooner! You know this blog is really turning into a food journal, isn’t it? I kinda like it...

Tonight Liam showed me a online video game that he’s been working on. It’s here at http://www.broodingsky.deviantart.com/#/d39c25p

I wouldn’t suggest you going to it as you have to sign in and then actually play the game. Well, maybe you might be adventuresome?! He did all the programming and graphics. I was totally impressed!!! The functionality was very high level and well thought out. He said his graphics were crude but I didn’t think so. I quite liked the characters and background graphics. And the SFX were amazing too. I was so proud of him when I saw this. He’s pretty proud of it too. Brilliant for a 16 year old on his own initiative. I want him to show the guys in the studio...


Going to respond to your comment now. Check it out.


Happy Valentine's Day again. Love you both and miss you bunches!! xox

The oven was busy today. Of course, I slave over the oven making scallop potatoes, pork ribblets and custard tarts and Jim comes home from his study group with Burger King... for himself. That's fine. Just more for us. He ended up still eating dinner too but how annoying.


While Jim was away, Liam and I went over his course selections for next year. Which led me to push Liam into looking into his post-secondary education. It's so tough to know what to do. What's right for him? So, it looks like Liam will be taking English (U), 2 programming/computer courses, a creative writing course (U) and then another math. I think Liam wants to go for a computer developer course at a college. Jim wants him to go to university. All of a sudden Jim's a university snob. Like college isn't good enough. I just want Liam to do something he's good at and loves doing. It's going to be a rough year...


I looked into the Maple Syrup festival here. You wanted to go to the closer one, right? They are open March 19-20, 26-27 and Apr 2-3. So, take your pick which weekend you want to come. I will make those custard tarts for you and daddio. They were delicious!!! If I do say so myself.


Since we spoke I'm feeling much better. Just took my vitamin pill now and I think I will clean up the kitchen and then call it an early night. I should start taxes soon too. I don't know why I groan I should be getting money back. It's just such a pain to do and takes away from my fun time! I love my fun time too much. But, I know if I get it done sooner the quicker I can get back to fun times, right? :)


So, the cupboard guy comes tomorrow for you? If it helps we have handles on our drawers and knobs on our cupboards, in silver. Here let me just take a picture for you... hope that helps.

Starting to not get excited about the JA trip as it does sound like a lot of $$$. I really don't know what our money situation will be in 6 months anyways. With Jim out of work and back to school we are managing but anything could come up and tip the balance! So, if you are going to wait till last minute then I will too. hope A. Polly isn't too disappointed.


Ciao for now! xoxox

So, after a week of homemade meals we ended it with KFC on Friday and when Liam woke up this morning... ummm afternoon... he had this for brunch! And then we picked up Swiss Chalet for dinner and brought it home after we ran our errands.

Liam didn't do so well on that math assignment. 15 out of 49... of course the math questions I helped him with were RIGHT! Thank gawd. I guess I should have helped him with more. 

Just this shot of Meg again. Not the cutest pic of her but whenever I come in from the barn she gets this crazy look on her face and wants to rub herself all over me like I'm catnip! hahaha

Hey mom, 


I went riding today. Rode Beau again. I heart Beau. He is the perfect horse for me. He's not too fast or too powerful and he almost reads my mind when I'm riding him. When I arrived another little girl was riding Beau for lessons. You could tell he was in work mode just trotting around, like an old man who's been doing the same factory job for decades. I swear he perked up when he saw me... I swear! It took me several minutes to ride him out of that mind frame. But, when I did what a different horse he became. We did a lot of cantering to loosen him up. Even my coach said he looked twenty years younger and happy! That's the best compliment ever.


Mostly ran errands today and now we're going to watch a movie. It was a beautiful sunny day and fairly warm... 4C, but very windy. How's the weather there?

Haha, Beau making funny eyes at me.

Today was the first day that I came home to an empty house. Liam was at the mall and Jim was still at school. But it didn't last long as you know. No dinner pics tonight. I just had leftovers and now eating chips... yes, in bed. And, again the nice thing about coming home early is I get to enjoy the sunsets. Brilliant.
Jim had a big DNA test today. He doesn't think he did very well. It sounded like a tough test. Of course, this coming from the man who couldn't print from my computer tonight... sigh.
I was disappointed to hear about the Jamaica trip. Do you think the costs will come down any more? Keep me posted. I really want to go with Liam but only if it's reasonable.
Was also thinking and forgot to mention... do you think you and dad will come for a visit with the girls again this summer? I know you are traveling all over the place, no pressure, was just wondering.
And, I'm preping for our Maple Syrup Festival trip. Heeheehee... it definitely won't be as exciting as last year. So, don't get your expectations up!
Super tired tonight. So, this will be a short one and I probably won't be online at all tomorrow night. I'll catch up with you on the weekend :) Try not to miss me too much. Haha, you're probably relieved!
Kisses for daddy. Love ya xoxo

Dinner tonight was a throw back to the seventies. Dedicated to daddio because I don't want him to feel left out of this blog... Hamburger Helper!!! Honestly, I've never made this before. Jim didn't eat it. Liam liked it. I don't think I will make it again but it was fine. Really. McDonald's might have been better but not by much. It looks appetizing in the picture. Damn, my iPhone takes great shots.

Hi Mom,

I know we chatted on FB tonight but I wanted to share one of my favourite things living up here... The sunsets. It was particularly colourful and dramatic. Thought you would like it. Went down to where 12th line runs into the lake... It was busy with traffic and ice fishing huts. It’s actually busier in the winter than it is in the summer. Funny... But pretty awesome! Makes winter bearable!

I left work at a normal time today. With the days getting longer, it was nice driving home in the daylight. Although, it felt weird. I guess when I’m working long hours for a few months it will take me a while to get use to normal hours.

Any more news on the Jamaica trip? I think Jim will still be in school so plan on just Liam and I. And I definitely want to do horse back riding while I’m down there. I want to ride along the beach and then into the water. Will you do that with me??? 

That’s it for now, echat later gator! Love you xox

Oops, almost forgot my mandatory food shot for the day. I'm having leftovers but since Jim refuses to eat leftovers I made him some pasta. Chicken Alfredo with spinach... can you believe Jim will eat this??? I know!

Hey mom,

I seriously had nightmares last night after all those math questions. Probably had 4-5 hours of sleep. But as I was working on them, it was all coming back to me... Sort of. I was good at math, wasn’t I? I’m starting to think that I’m living a false sense of reality thinking that... I’m athletic. I’m smart. I’m beautiful. Who am I trying to kid? I’m slim but out of shape. I’m above average intelligence but sometimes do stupid things. And, still have all my teeth. How’s that for an accurate description? I should put that in the classifieds – lol.

This morning was beautiful. Sunny but frigid! Was it cold there too? Took this pic of Meg playing with Liam’s jacket strings as I was going out the door. She’s been very cute lately. Still doesn’t like me too much but loves Jim and Liam.

I checked out those Paris pics while I was eating lunch today. I got so excited!! It looks soooo beautiful and romantic there. Maybe I will fall in love with a handsome Frenchman... Oh wait, I’m already married. Poop. It’ll still be fun, right? Christine and Norma are planning a bunch of stuff. There’s a bookstore there that’s called Shakespeare & Company. It’s Christine’s favourite bookstore. She said it’s very hippish. They have readings and tea there. Probably funny tea. I thought that would be a great thing to do one afternoon. They’ve also talked about going to the opera. I might have mentioned that in passing. Not sure if one will be playing but if it is we’re going to try to get tickets. I’m preparing for no sleep, it’s going to be such a whirlwind adventure! Shit, just remembered I have to send her a cheque!

Noticed Michael (my old boss from Vector) on Facebook. He’s also blogging.  He’s now a photographer specializing in cycling and he photographed the Tour de France this past summer. His stuff’s really good. And he’s a great writer too.

Work is starting to quiet down a bit. I’m working away at plans for my studio and production department. The new guy starts on Monday. I certainly hope he works out. I have a good feeling about him. And then a lot of the workload will be taken off me. Not that I do the work but managing it and trouble shooting takes up a lot of my time. And, it’s really not my thing. I am also working on a proposal that I’m going to be presenting to the partners on Monday for a iPad app. Fingers crossed they approve it. If they do it will be something that no one is doing yet. At least not that I know of. I’ve got the studio pretty excited. Some are looking into programming it while others are designing it. I love seeing everyone excited and working together on something. It’s gonna be good.

I was blogging and waiting for you on FB chat. But, now I’m going to have dinner and then do some freelance work for Christine. So, glad you like this blogging thing. Maybe the next time I’m there I could set you up with your own blog. You could blog about dad’s battle with cancer, diabetes and now dementia. Could be a good outlet for you. I’m just sayin.
If not, I likr what we have going on right now. Love that you are loving it!

Say hi to daddio for me!

Mwah! xox

Again because you don't believe me that I do actually cook dinner almost every night. And, I know you like my food pics. Here was supper... pork chops in gravy, with mash potatoes and brussels.


We have enough leftovers for tomorrow's dinner. 

OMG - I think my brain is going to explode. When did highschool math become so hard?! As you can see by the pic, there was much frustrations tonight!! The teacher is trying really hard to weed out the kids from his class. He told Liam that he should consider taking the college level math. I told Liam he's not changing classes. I'll help him through it. If he wants to get into a university he needs this class, so it kind of pisses me off that the teacher is doing this. Shouldn't he be teaching instead of intimidating??


Anyways, I think we solved that damn playground math question. It was solving for quadratic equations - solving by factoring... the answer is this:

Area of the playground presently = 60 x 40 = 2400 sq.meters

when doubled it becomes  4800 square meters
Let the increase in length and width be x meters

(60+x)(40+x)= 4800 (so your initial equation was correct!)

2400 +60x+40x +x^2= 4800 (this is how you expand it)

x^2+100x-2400=0 (you must have quadratic equals (zero) before you can solve)

x^2+120x-20x-2400=0 (this is where the factoring comes into play)

x(x+120)-20(x+120) =0 (the two bracketed is repeated, so we simplified)

(x-20)(x+120)=0 (I'm not sure what happens here but Liam seemed to figure it out to 20)

x= 20

The length and width must be increased by 20 meters.

Not sure if all my terminology is correct but whatever works. That only took 3 hours to solve. The other two hours I was doing trigonometry to figure out the height of a mountain with only 2 angles and one length... There were 21 questions and Liam figured out the other ones. We might have missed 3. 

It's late and we're all tired... going to bed now. Thanks for helping out! Nite nite...

Suppa is served. I marinated the chicken in garlic, soya sauce and BBQ sauce then baked it in the oven. The mini red and white potatoes I seasoned with herbs de province (remind me to look for that when I go to Paris, I’m running out), onions and more garlic! Frozen corn heated in the microwave – lol.

No dessert tonight. I didn’t feel like baking. I’ve been on a big jello kick lately. Reminds me of my childhood. You use to make me jello all the time. I remember you mixing it with condensed milk... What was up with that??? I think I’ve had a bowl of jello every night for about a month now. Is that bad?

How was your dinner - chicken and pigs tail? And how’s the cupboard clean up going?? Going to help Liam with math now. Jim is helping too. God help us.

Hey mom,

I’ve been struggling with my blog lately. I started that blog as a work-related blog but now it’s become sprinkled with personal stuff. Cinnamon buns and work just don’t mix, you know what I mean? After we echatted today I realized that when I write the personal bloggy stuff it’s really for your benefit. So, eureka! Why don’t I start a blog just for you? Whaddya think? Do you likey?

Sorry, I left you echatting with Liam. Jim had an assignment he wanted me to print out. Of course, when I saw it I had to ‘tweak’ it. And that turned into a heated discussion because he said I was being aggressive and bossy. Whatever, like pointing out spelling mistakes is aggressive? I was only trying to help. He ended up apologizing but I’m still left feeling like the bad guy and unappreciated.

Moving on. It’s starting to snow here a little bit. After all that weather hype, you finally got dumped on. I’m glad we didn’t come in after all. I’m posting a picture of our snow banks along the driveway. It’s should make you feel better. Thank gawd for our  snow plowing service. Oddly, it doesn’t look as big in the pic. I would say they are about 6-7 feet maybe more. Today was the polar bear plunge on Lake Chemong and I think the free ice fishing is next weekend or so. Are you sure you don’t want to come up for that??? Lol

You mentioned that you think Dad has frontal lobe disorder? I checked it out online. Totally sounds like Jim too!! Except Jim has no excuse! Are you thinking the chemo might have triggered something in Dad? Just keep an eye on him and fill me in on the details the next time. Have you told Vance?

I had a really good riding lesson yesterday on Beau. For a 30 year old horse he really perked up and was riding like a 7 year old! My coach said he looked like he was really enjoying himself. We trotted and cantered a lot, he was sweaty when we were done. He’s also starting to shed like crazy. Hoping that means an early spring!!

Probably going to make roast chicken and potatoes this evening. I’ll post a pic for you. Proof that I do cook. I know you don’t believe me.

Well, this blog seems more like an email than a blog but I guess that’s the beauty of a personal blog. I can do anything I want. I’ll finesse it as we go along.

Toodles!