Out Like a Lamb

So, yesterday, I made a braised lamb dish to go with a seafood spaghetti dish and asparagus.  Today, I'm facing a lot of leftover lamb.  That's because, in part, Margaret is not a big fan of lamb.  Now, I have to find some creative ways to use up the leftovers, probably for my lunch today and tomorrow.  I know the dogs would love some chopped lamb mixed in with their kibbles but that's not a great idea, given the high cost of lamb.

Naps Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Best advice I've heard in awhile is to sleep for an hour or so during the day.  If you're sleeping, you're not driving, cooking up a storm, doing laundry, vacuuming or using up any other non-renewable energy.  It might be a good way to slow global warming.  Certainly, it'll keep you out of trouble for a bit.  Of course, there are probably other, more enjoyable activities that you could do that would accomplish the same goal.

Winterlude

Just back from a brief late-winter escape to Gimli.  Margaret and I drove up to Gimli yesterday and stayed overnight in a suite at the "beach-front" Lakeview Resort.  Obviously, at this time of year, we didn't see too much beach.  Indeed, all we saw were snow drifts along the shore and unbroken ice across Manitoba's largest lake.  Still, it was quite beautiful in the brilliant sunshine, with the temperature hovering around 0 degrees and near calm winds.  As usual, we did a little window-shopping and walked out along the breakwater.

The harbour was empty of all but one large boat.  All the fishing and pleasure small craft were still stored onshore.

It'll be a month or so yet before those begin taking there rightful spots on the docks.

We admired the folk art paintings along the breakwater walkway.

Some highlighted the recent history of Gimli, including the time the Air Canada jet that ran out of fuel was forced to land there, on an old runway, about 25 years ago.

Looking back at the Lakeview Resort from the boardwalk, we decided to go to Seagulls for some fresh pickerel.

For starters, we shared some pickerel cheeks with our Copper Moon red shiraz.  For my meal, I chose my standard beer-battered pickerel and fries.  Margaret chose a more healthy order of pan-seared pickerel and vegetables.

We drove back to Winnipeg after breakfast.  Holly and Mollie, who had been left in the care of Margaret's niece, were very glad to see us.  Or maybe, they were just hoping for more milk-bones ...

Hard Days Knights: Songs of the Beatles

We saw the opening show last night at Celebrations Dinner Theatre.  What a great show!  We enjoyed some excellent singing of Beatles' songs by the cast.  It was a nice way to start the first weekend of spring.  Can it get better?  For sure.  Stay tuned ...

Near Miss

The winter storm moved across southern Manitoba to the south and west of Winnipeg.  It was good to see our snow forecast here go from 10-15 cm to 2-4 cm to nothing over the space of three days.  The sunshine was brilliant all day.  Misleading, too.  Because, when Marg and I took the dogs for a walk after supper, the light wind was bitterly cold.  The dogs, of course, didn't even notice the cold.

The cold weather will be with us through the weekend.  But, that's okay.  We need a slow melt of all our remaining snow so that our storm water drainage systems aren't overloaded.  Many people are concerned that there may be flooding again this spring when all that snow to the south of us melts and drains into the Red River.  Our dikes and diversions will certainly be put to the test again this year.

Puddles and Potholes

A game that Winnipeggers play at this time of year is called Puddles and Potholes.  Essentially, it means driving somewhere in the city with the sole aim of avoiding major damage to the front end of their car, including alignment, ball joints, and tires.  Unfortunately, there aren't too many winners, except maybe the car repair shops.  In a short drive to run some errands this afternoon, I managed to avoid all but one big pothole.  I hope it didn't do any serious damage.  Time will tell.

The fun part, on one major street, was slowing down to navigate through a section of curb-to-curb water (plugged storm water drains everywhere!).  Just as I was half way through the water trap, some fool in a pickup truck raced past me in the other lane and covered my Escape in dirty water.  You can image his 6' high wake coming over my car and me putting my windshield wipers on high so I could try to see ahead.  I can only hope he filled his engine compartment with water and, if he gets home, that he'll be unable to start his vehicle in the morning when all of that wetness is frozen in place on his wiring.

It'll be an interesting evening, weather-wise.  There is a winter storm warning for most of the southern part of our province.  Winnipeg is supposed to be on the northern edge of the storm (a Colorado low) which is centred on our southern Manitoba boundary with the great US of A.  We certainly don't need any more water in the Winnipeg area.  The ground is already super-saturated.  Our sump pump has already started working after its winter rest.  I expect it'll be going more-or-less non-stop soon.  Ah, life on the Flatlands ...

Another Week Slips By

Time flies when you're having fun (or when you're busy, or lazy, or ...).  Cliche time?  Oh, well.  I'm here now.  So a week went by.  What exciting things happened?

Briefly, not too much that I can post here.  Marg and I did get out over the weekend.  First, on Saturday, we went to the closing of "Mugs and Molls" at Celebrations Dinner Theatre with some friends.  It was a great performance.  That show and cast is now off to Edmonton.  Next Friday, we'll attend the opening of "Hard Days Knight", a show packed with Beatles music.

And, on Saturday we attended a hockey game at the MTS Centre, with the Manitoba Moose playing the Texas Stars.  It was a good game in the new arena, even though the Moose were hammered by the Stars.

Between periods some hockey kids played a 'mock game'.  I found them more entertaining than the grown-ups.

After the game, we went to the Forks for supper at Muddy Waters Smokehouse.  I had a burger and fries, something I limit myself on and had been lusting after for quite awhile.  What can I say, I love fries!

Hopefully, I'll post something here again before another week goes by ...

Asahi

Last night, Marg and I went to a local Japanese restaurant called Asahi.  I'm not sure what the name means.  I think it's simply the English version of a Japanese name.  I do recall that there was once an Asahi Pentax 35 mm camera.  It was the first Pentax made and revolutionized the camera industry.  I had one of the subsequent models.  Actually, I had a couple.  So did my Dad.  I donated it to an art group a few years ago.  It served me well for many years.  After the Pentax, I moved on to various Canon 35 mm cameras and then transitioned to Canon EOS digital cameras because they used my Canon 35 mm lenses.  I currently have a Canon EOS 10D.  My son uses a more modern Canon: a Canon Rebel Xi1, I believe.

Back to the restaurant.  It is one of many Japanese restaurants in the city.  It's also probably the best in Winnipeg.  Fantastically fresh and well prepared.  It was Marg's first time there and she really liked the lettuce wraps, red dragon rolls, and assorted tempura.  I'm starting to salivate, just thinking about the great flavours.  And, although a small thing, they also serve the best roasted green tea I've ever tasted.  We'll be going back there again soon, for sure.

Tonight, we're having Asian food again, at home.  I'll be making my special szechuan chicken, stir-fried vegetables, and noodles.  We both enjoy this form of comfort food.

A Successful Brunch

Despite poor road conditions in and around the city, my kids and their kids made it for brunch today.  Needless to say, we had a good time, trying to eat our way through too much food.  My various casseroles and baked steel-head trout were all enjoyed.  However, I think the store-bought "Tuxedo Cake" (three kinds of chocolate layers and icing) stole the show.  Costco wins again.  The negative thing about the event was simply that it was too short!  I didn't even get time to point my camera before everyone was packing up their kids to go somewhere else.  I guess the solution to that is to have them all over more often!

Lip Sync

Last night, Margaret and I attended the Celebrity Lip Sync to benefit The Children's Wish Foundation.  Celebrations Dinner Theatre was one of the groups performing.  And, they won the contest!  We also bought some gift bags there and ended up winning some great dinner coupons at a couple of our favorite restaurants.  We actually got back twice what we spent on the gift bags.  It's not often you can double your money while supporting a charity.  The only downside to the evening was driving home through the blizzard which hit Winnipeg during the evening.  But, hey; we got home safe and sound and we had a fun evening.

Those Wheels Keep on Turning

Argh!  The weather forecast is frightful.  "Blizzard developing this evening. Snowfall amount 5 to 10 cm. Wind northwest 30 km/h gusting to 50 increasing to 50 gusting to 80 this evening. Low minus 18. Wind chill minus 33".  It seems storms are the rule this week, around the world.  But my heart goes out to all those in Japan today and in the days to come as they try to recover from their worst recorded earthquake.  So much loss and suffering.  It makes our late winter blizzard seem rather tame by comparison.  There really is no comparison.

This afternoon, I'll be busy preparing for brunch here tomorrow, recognizing that it may not happen as planned, depending on driving conditions in the morning.  Hopefully, it won't have to be postponed but, if it must, we'll arrange to get together as soon as possible.

Menu Planning Fun

The past couple of days, I've been planning brunch for this Saturday, when my kids and their kids are coming over.  Something old and something new to prepare.  Because my daughter is a vegetarian, there will be some veggie dishes and some trout.  Because everyone else is omnivorous, there will also be a variety of 'meat and potato' type dishes.

To make things a little easier for me, I'm planning three casserole dishes that I'll make ahead tomorrow and just have to heat up for the brunch.  And, because I'm not an experienced baker, I broke down and bought a fantastic chocolate-layered and -iced cake.  So far, I've stopped myself from sampling it (but it's been hard to resist it!).

It's a lot of fun putting together an assortment of dishes that I think will please everyone.  But, more important, I'm just looking forward to having everyone over again.  Thinking back in time, it's been many months since they've all been over here at the same time.  According to my daughter, "it's about time!".

Of course, the house is still a bit disorganized.  Margaret only recently moved in and we're still doing a lot of unpacking and sorting.  I think it'll be several months before everything either finds its place here or is given away to friends, relatives, or the Sally Ann.

Much later ...

I'm guilty of neglecting my blog, again.  It seems I've gone from writing one or two posts per day (last year) to one or two posts per week (this year).  Of course, I've neglected other things, too.  Like my photography.  On the other hand, I've maintained my past levels of eating, reading, surfing, cooking, doing laundry, and a bunch of other mundane things in my life.  Oh, and drinking coffee (slurp ... boy, that's good, yum!).

So, I've now resolved to do a better job with my writing and my photography.  Maybe, with the days gradually getting longer and warmer, I'll be able to get out more often with my camera.  And, maybe, my creative desire will 'kick in' again.  I hope so.

Catching Up ... Slowly

Last night, Marg and I ran most of the errands that I had planned to do in the afternoon.  And, today, I caught up on a few more things.  Things like repair the snow blower and clear the driveway, get gas and a car wash, deliver something for Margaret, let the dogs out (and in, again) about a dozen times, feed Holly (she loves deer pepperoni sticks, diced up in her kibbles).

By the way, Holly was groomed yesterday.  She looks great again; less like a small black bear and more like a trim bouvier.

I have one more thing I must get started on very soon.  Yes, supper!  Better get moving!  TTYL ...

Adaptive

You have to be able to adapt to changes in your plans.  Today, I had a series of errands to run.  Then, I was held up going to my first stop, waiting for a phone call.  Everything is 'on hold' until that call comes.  And, judging by the time, it won't come in time to enable me to run any of the errands, at least not today.

So, I adapted.  I switched to some things on my home 'to do' list.  And, I actually got quite a few small chores done.  These days, that means organizing and storing all sorts of things, mostly to do with my home office.

One very important thing I did was back up all my document, photo, and music files on my new external hard drive.  That had been worrying me for a few days because my desktop computer has been acting up a bit lately and I have been worried about the possibility of my hard drive crashing.  I really feel good about getting that done.  I would really hate to lose those personal records and my last thorough backup was many, many months ago.