Are you feeling it?

Six o'clock on a Friday. That might be my most favourite time of the week. The sun is still shining in the yard, the buds are popping.

This is the view from my computer.

I've made myself a yummy Caesar and the dinner is in the oven. This weekend holds no real firm plans beyond playing music and hanging out with friends. Juicey and her boy and I went to The Superstore this morning and stocked up on good food for the week. Her son helped me pack my groceries in to the house, just to be nice. God! I knew there was a reason I should have had kids. I think I might just have to borrow J's kids. There already fully formed well adjusted humans and so much cooler than me.

I did make it over to the coast the other day. Here's a shot from the ferry taken from my drivers seat. With a parking spot on the ferry like this why would I want to get out of the car?? I didn't.

I did a little work and then hit the pub for a beer and a bite of food. Good food, good beer, good company. I left there and headed over to my other friends place where we watched the new James Bond movie. I highly recommend it. Had another great visit with my dear friends and hit the sack. When I awoke it was April Fools Day and I sure thought someone was having one over on me. My friend works in the film industry and when I accused him of creating some sort of movie effect he assured me that it was real fucking snow I was looking at. Not cool.
I headed back to the city early in the afternoon. Confused.

I had a visit from my friend Karin today too, she came by to do some shopping in my store and she also brought me a present! It's a Christmas/Easter gift or something like that. Karin loves giving gifts and I love getting gifts so we get along pretty well. She gave me this funky purple Japanese tea pot that I had once admired when I was with her, a beautiful tin of Indian Nimbu tea (Darjeeling Tea with Citrus and Caramel) I can't wait to try, and this super cute green , felt bag with cool dingle balls. A thoughtful gift from a thoughtful person. It was great to see her today!

I choose to focus on all that is positive these days. My life is far from perfect and the illness of my close friend shadows everything I do right now. Now more than ever I need to absorb as much love and joy as I can so I have the strength to give it all back.

What are your plans this weekend? Hope it's all good.

LOVE, xox

What's for lunch?

Here's a little recipe for you.

white bread
eggs
vanilla
Cap'n Crunch cereal

• crush cereal up and put in shallow dish
• dip bread in egg, vanilla mixture
• coat with crushed Cap'n Crunch cereal
• fry on skillet until golden brown

This is what T was craving when I spent the day with her today. She saw it on a cooking show and it's what she wanted to eat. So I made it for us and it was actually really good. Yes it's pretty sweet with syrup but I think it would be great with fruit and whipped cream.

The cereal creates a golden crust and kind of makes the french toast taste deep fried. You should try it. At least once.

I had a lovely, exhausting day with my dear friend today. I did manage to post today!! It's almost midnight but I made it.

Sleep well my friends.

Do you see what I see?

I spent Thursday night on the 29th floor of a swanky hotel in the heart of downtown Vancouver. My good friend Chrissandra was in town for a visit and we met up for some wine and catching up. The room was very nice but imagine my surprise when I saw this telescope in the room. The funny thing was, the telescope wasn't really that powerful and the only thing that you could really focus in on was the apartment building directly across from where we were. We took a little walk around the hotel later in the evening and we realized something, the rooms in the tower we were in had smoked windows so no one would know if someone were standing there looking in on you as you went about your business in the apartments across the way. As you may have guessed a lot of the apartments had their curtains open too.
I just wonder if they know? Is it just a voyeur/exhibitionists dream?
I just wonder...
We didn't really see much.
Not much.

My way?

Why can't we sleep? I woke up at about 4am this morning and tossed and turned and then finally got up at about 7, checked my Facebook and guess what, a bunch of comments about people having lousy sleeps. I sometimes wonder if there is something in the air, or maybe it's the moon?? Now I'm drinking coffee and eating corn muffins that I baked last night.

I know, I don't have too much to say these days. My friend T is getting sicker and to be honest we (those who love her) are all dealing with this fact the best way we can. I think my friend Robin described it best when she said "we are all feeling undone". I feel undone. I can't really talk about it here, it's too much.

This Saturday I am going to a wedding show with my newly engaged Sister-in-law. I always scoffed at wedding trade shows but I think this one may be right up my aisle. Indie I Do. Check it out!

Speaking of weddings, my goal this week is to set a date. I know I have already left some things too late to plan our wedding for this summer. I am hoping it won't matter as I am not having a traditional wedding but honestly a lot of stuff is already fully booked for this year in the wedding world. All the more reason to make it an "alternative" wedding.

It will be a wedding though, as opposed to an alternative to a wedding like we've had for the last 20 years.
I am mostly interested in getting married without spending bucket loads of money. That would be pretty alternative.

Are we there yet?

This is the view at twilight of Lorna and George's new neighbourhood. Lorna and I spent Wednesday on The Sunshine Coast doing some business and getting her new house inspected. It was a lovely day and I managed to snap a few shots of the view outside their new home. Gorgeous!

Last night me and my workout girls had a special night of Christmas crafting. This is a photo of my friend Bear's studio. Bear teaches art to kids and right now they are working on these amazing Arctic Hares. They are not finished yet but I just love the way they look all together. Each one has a different expression and body posture and each one is as beautiful as the next. I think they are amazing!

This is the craft we did. The tallest one is about a foot and a half tall. We were supposed to get three each done in three different sizes but it ended up taking way longer than we thought to get even one done. I really enjoyed doing them and I think they are quite beautiful. It's been a long time since I curled paper with a pencil and got covered in glue. I loved it! I don't consider myself to be a crafty person but maybe I should try to be a little more creative with my hands. It's very rewarding and a good way to spend time.
Thanks to Bear for putting up with us all!
Thanks for the comments on the blog. I think I will keep it as is for the time being, maybe jazz up the layout or change the template. I'm just glad people give a hoot and are interested in reading it. I find it quite a thrill actually.
Have a great Friday ya'll!!

Are you going my way?

This weekend was a lot of fun. My bootcamp group and I went to Whistler Saturday and had a nice little getaway. We left early Saturday morning and after arriving at the condo and settling in we did the unthinkable, we worked out.

We did some weight work and then we headed odd down to the village. We decided to walk the few kilometers down to Whistler Village .

By the time we reached the village it had started to sprinkle a bit so we took refuge in an Irish pub called the Dubh Linn Gate for a little snack and a couple of drinks.

The trip back to the condo was uphill, naturally but we took an alternate route along the river, it was so beautiful with all the fall colours and just a little bit of rain. By the time we made it back to the condo we were ready for some fun. We grabbed some wine and hit the hot tub and then back to our comfy accommodations for some yummy food and lots more drinks.

That's salmon cakes from Vij's witha coconut chutney, a tomato and cucumber salad, a Goan coconut curry with chicken, a spicy veggie curry with snow peas and green beans and lamb popsicles with a dijon and wine marinade that we grilled and served with a creamy potato dish and some nice Indian breads. It was all so amazing, each of us brought a dish and all together it was a LOT of yummy food. And yes, there was a lot of wine consumed and there may have been naked hot tubbing but I can't really talk about that. We had too much fun!

The next morning was pretty subdued, after coffee and packing up we drove back to the village for an amazing hotel brunch. The drive home was a little more subdued but the views were so pretty. I took a lot of pictures from through the windshield. Here's one of my favourites.

All in all I am so grateful for these great women that I can count on for support and encouragement as I continue on this journey towards a more healthy life and a fit body.

Also, my ass muscles hurt.

Weekend Update and I wonder, should I get a pet?

Had a nice weekend again. We've been doing the same thing every weekend for a while but what can I say, it's fun. Saturday afternoon jam at The Railway Club, back to our neighbourhood and then away down the street for some dinner and a friends gig at The Main. Sunday was nice, I had a pretty quiet afternoon while Superman went to a movie with a friend. We were invited to a dinner at our good friend Robin's home on Sunday evening. It was great to hang out with her 12 year old daughter, such a great kid and all the yummy food. Robin pulled off Roast beef, yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes, gravy, cheesy carrots and broccoli and roasted garlic. Everything was perfectly delicious and it was such a treat to have a Sunday evening family dinner.

Our favourite thing to do on Sunday night is to watch Mad Men. We are loving this series and it's just getting more and more compelling.

This morning I had boot camp and it was raining hard. We just tucked into the small covered area near the field we work out in and managed to stay relatively dry. Working out is becoming something I really look forward to. I really love the women I am in the group with and the trainer is great too! We are trying to plan a little trip away together, maybe Whistler or Harrison. It's hard to plan things with Mommies but hopefully something will come through.

I need to get my butt into the shower and do some work today. I will write more later.

I have some new thoughts about pets. I think I want one.

What are you thankful for?

The long weekend is officially over and I have thought quite a lot about the things I am thankful for.

I am thankful that I am getting along with all the members of my family and had a chance to really enjoy being all together on Friday night for my Moms 65th birthday. Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Saturday was a nice day with friends and some bittersweet moments that I can't really talk about right now. I had a chance to share some great musical moments with some of my favourite people on Saturday night and for that I am thankful.

Sunday brought some new people to my family unit, as we anxiously await the birth of my sister-in-laws baby, her in laws included us in their Thanksgiving dinner plans. Very nice people. This new baby that is coming will have a lot of people who care about him/her. I am so looking forward to our meeting.

Monday, today, such a lazy day. We spent the whole day just hanging out and I decided to do some cooking. I made a glazed ham, some scalloped potatoes, yams, salad and garlic bread. Way too much food and we barely made a dent in it. I wish I would have invited someone over to enjoy it but I wasn't feeling sociable and just wanted to putter and cook, try some new recipes and do a half assed job at cleaning up. After dinner S-man went out and rented Sex In The City, at my request. I told him I wanted to see it with him and see if he was still interested in getting married at the end. I enjoyed the movie the second time, I can so relate to so much of it. I know that sounds crazy and I don't mean the lifestyle or the crazy clothes but let's face it, I am the same age as the characters in in that movie and I feel like I grew up with them in some strange way. I cried a lot watching this time. I guess I am feeling a bit emotional these days, maybe it's that big fat moon.

I have so much to be thankful for and as I go through this week I will try to remember to feel gratitude.

I have some catching up to do here, I haven't written about my adventure on The Sunshine Coast yet. I will try to get caught up later today.

The sun is out this morning and I am back at boot camp. Wish me luck.

Hey Sister, wanna sing?

Here's my weekend update:

I said I would have pictures of my weekend and then I forgot to bring my camera. Imagine that's me and Janice in the photo singing sweetly.

Actually this is a photo of Carolyn and Mary Jane DeZurik, a.k.a., The Cackle Sisters. Click on the link and you can hear these Yodeling Queens.

Friday night I had a gig at the bar across the street, it was a 3 band show so I had lots of time for relaxing too. After the show had a select group over to the house for one last drink, and a bit of acoustic jamming. Saturday slept late, headed downtown for our weekly Rockabilly/Honky-Tonk open mike/jam thing got up and sang a couple of times with the house band, loads of fun and adult beverages with friends. Home early and a lazy evening. Sunday got up and cleaned house for about 4 hours, made chicken and dumplings, had Janice over for dinner then we rehearsed and wandered about a block down the street where we were the feature act at a little French Bistro/ spoken word venue (we sang our words).

Great crowd and sold some cd’s too. Home by 10:30 and to bed.

Great weekend all in all!

Any weekend filled with music is as good as it gets!

Do you wanna rock?

It's Fall , for real. I love this time of year!

I haven't been blogging much lately because I am sad to say, I hurt my back. I have a pre-existing condition that reared it's ugly head during a workout last Wednesday. The good news is I am stronger from my workouts and I seem to be healing pretty quickly. The bad news is I had to miss a couple of sessions. I hope to be back at it by Monday, even if I can only do some of the stuff I will try to do the rest and just stay focused. It's hard for me to sit in a chair for a long period of time so that's why no blogs for awhile.

I'm off to the jam at The Railway Club this afternoon. It's something we like to do every Saturday if we can. It's a place where some of Vancouver's best musicians gather to play music together with and for each other, and whoever wants to listen. We've been going for many years and it's a lot like family down there. It's also a great opportunity to play with people you might not normally play with. There have been countless bands formed from this Saturday afternoon jam over the years. I have been lucky enough to sing with some amazing people and Janice and I get asked to sing back-up with folks all the time too, fun!

I'll take some pictures this afternoon so you can see what it's like. If you are ever in the neighbourhood you really should check it out.

How did it all start?

This is our friend Max. He is two and his Daddy is a drummer. We went over for a visit yesterday and to help clean out the garage/practice space and Max showed us a few of his moves. In this clip he is playing drums and singing This Old Man.
Sorry the clip is so dark. We love this little boy!

Who knew?

It's been a pretty good weekend all in all. Especially since it started with sickness and cancelled plans. Superman's bug seemed to get a bit better on Saturday but I had a bit of the yucky feeling on Friday too so I think we made the right choice by staying home and taking it easy.

I was feeling better Friday night so I went and picked up Janice and we went down to The Railway Club to see a friends band. It didn't turn out to be such a great idea as the band went on super late. They were supposed to go on around 11 but didn't actually start until 12:30 or so. We only saw a bit of the show then had to leave.

Saturday ended up being a great day! I was feeling a bit down over our cancelled trip out of town so we decided to go shopping. Superman isn't really a shopper guy but he'll do it if the mood strikes him. I bought him a very nice pair of jeans and as we were wandering around the mall he mentioned that we might like to look at some rings. We got engaged at Christmas but we still hadn't found the right engagement ring for me. I am not one of those people who has spent a lot of time considering what, specifically I want when it comes to all this getting married stuff but I had an idea about the ring after looking a couple of times. I knew I didn't want a traditional ring with a diamond sticking up looking all dainty. I wear big, funky rings and I needed something that suited my hand. We popped into a couple of stores and in the third one we hit it on the head. We found the right ring at the right price and then...we bought it!!!!

It needs to be re-sized for me so I won't have it on my finger until Thursday,the wait may well kill me. Oh well, I have waited this long, a couple more days will be okay. We also picked out our wedding bands for a later purchase. We are both pretty excited, it was a great experience and a lot of fun thanks to the woman who walked us through it.

Thanks Esther! I will show you all a picture when I get it.

After shopping we had a few adult beverages, called a couple of friends and wandered across the street to see a kick ass blues band and eat some yummy food. We were in the bag by 10:30 or so, it was good fun.

Sunday I had my all girls BBQ to go to and it was yummy food, great company and lots of laughs.

Today being holiday Monday we decided to head downtown and wander around a bit, maybe see a movie. We stopped in at The Templeton, a really cool diner with really good food. Superman ordered a Strawberry milkshake that was delicious and I had a vanilla/cola fountain drink, so good. I loved this place and will be back for sure.

After lunch we walked up to the theatre to see The Dark Knight, compliments of Telus. For some reason they sent me a free movie pass with a popcorn and two drinks coupon. I'm not the biggest fan of Telus so I enjoyed having an afternoon out on their dime. We arrived at the theatre a little early so we played some racing games in the arcade, went to collect our HUGE drinks and popcorn and found ourselves the best seats in the house. Big screen, comfy seats and the movie was so good. I loved this movie, it's really dark and rather long but I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. Loved it! Heath Ledger is awesome as The Joker in this movie, it just makes his death more tragic, such a great performance.

We made our way home and I had a soak in the bath while I caught up with my Mom on the phone. Then I called my Big Brother for a chat, made some gorilla cheese samiches and sat down to chat with you.

All in all it was a pretty great weekend even though our original plans didn't work out. I really hope we get another chance to do the camping thing in the states with our friend. It might just have to be next summer. I hope they'll have us then.

Which way to the sausage party?

Today's plan, girls only BBQ. I took this picture of the last one we had. It got a little crazy. After each doing our own song and dance routine we had a panty, tickle, pillow fight.

Gosh we sure got the giggles from that.

I'll let you know how this one goes. Stay tuned.

Are you going?

Ahhh summer. It just wouldn't be without the PNE.

Me and the girls made a last minute decision to go check out the fair last night and we had quite a time. We ate many deep fried things and walked a lot and won some money on the money wheel and then hit the casino. All I am going to say about that is...What happens at the PNE- STAYS at the PNE.

One of my favourite parts of the fair is the barns, we saw horses and cows and pigs and bunnies and baby ducks and watched chicks pull themselves out of their eggy homes and then fall over from exhaustion. It was mesmerizing watching them so closely to see if they were alive or dead or just soooo tired. I think there was a bit of each going on there. Anyway, I enjoyed my Huevos Rancheros this morning just a little less than usual.

I am also looking forward to winning the Prize Home this year because it looks fabulous and will be plunked down on Gibsons, on the Sunshine Coast, a place I wouldn't mind retiring on one day. Wouldn't that be something??

The sun is shining today and I need to figure out a way to go out there and enjoy it.

Happy Saturday everybody!!

Who's on first?

This is a sign written on the wall of the women's washroom at Nat Bailey Stadium. Cool!

I love baseball, I was brought up on it, I've played for years and I love watching it at this stadium. The Vancouver Canadians used to be a triple A farm team but now they are a single A team for Oakland Athletics. The players are younger but sometimes that makes for great baseball. They make more mistakes so the the game can be quite exciting to watch.

Last night's game was excellent! It had all the right elements including a out of the park home run, a hot box between 1st and 2nd a come from behind win for our guys.

There was also a very obnoxious chicken mascot guy that really pissed me off when he started bugging the 3rd baseman to dance and then stole his glove and threw it over the fence. I realized later that it was a whole show they were putting on and it ended up being pretty funny when he and the actual ump broke into a synchronized dance routine. Jeez, those guys put on a hell of a show.

Nat Bailey Stadium is about two blocks away from our home and it has to be one of the most beautiful venues around to watch great baseball.

I was in great company too as George and Lorna invited me to join them, we always have fun together.

It just so happened that we were the only ones watching the game in our section as there was a group sitting in front of us that consisted of little Jasper who was turning 4 and about a dozen of his little buddies ranging in age from about 4 months to 4 years. At first we were a little worried about fussy whiny kids ruining things for us but they just kept running up and down the stairs with their parents. Up and down, back and forth standing, sitting, eating, drinking. Tiring to watch. They seemed to be having fun but I gotta wonder whose idea it was to take that many kids, that late to a baseball game. I'm guessing it was the Daddy. He was suckin' down the beers pretty hard and having a good ole time.

That's why I play on Team No Babies. I got to drink beer come home and fall into bed.

You're a real live outlaw, aren't ya?"

We watched Thelma and Loise the other night. I don't think I had seen it since the year it came out. That was 1991 and it was pretty fun to see the big hair and high waisted jean, cowgirl fashion of the early 90's and of course Brad Pitt so young and pretty.

The tag line for that movie is "Somebody said get a life... so they did". I have to say I really enjoyed it this time around too and had forgotten a lot of the funny bits like when Thelma comes into the diner after having hot sex with Brad Pitt's character and she's all silly and excited and Loise says "You finally got laid properly, I'm so proud."

Or when Thelma says to J.D. (Brad Pitt), "You're a real live outlaw, aren't ya?" And he says, "Well I may be an outlaw, darlin', but you're the one stealing my heart." How on earth could he say that with a straight face?

Then there's the ending, I don't think I am ruining it for anyone here but that ending is so unsatisfying and just....over. And I forgot all about the kiss they give each other before they decide to "keep going". The dvd we had had some special features, the making of the movie and commentary and stuff. It also had something called Extended Alternative Ending!!! We refused to watch it. All I could think of was maybe they were going to show the car hitting the canyon floor??? How could you extend that ending I wonder? More chasing, more goodbyes? More flying through the air? Some things are better left alone.

I have to say, I have some pretty strong relationships with my women friends and that is something I really relate to in this movie. Would I kill someone for a friend or go on the run from the law? May I never have to ask myself that question for real. Would I go on a road trip in a '66 Thunderbird and stop off at a roadhouse for some 90's line dancing and pick up Brad Pitt even though I know he's not really a student trying to get back to school??

Well hell ya!

Mayne Again?

It was back to Mayne Island again on Friday night to play a wedding party for Ross and Sandra on their property. This time we had our solid rhythm section along for the ride. Here's a picture of the boys on the ferry. Kinda look like monkeys in a zoo, don't you think?

We were treated to a beautiful sunset on the ferry.

We arrived at Dave's house and had a little pre-party with the rest of the band and actually made it to bed at a reasonable hour. The next morning it was off to the local pub for a yummy breakfast. It was obvious that the wedding was going to be well attended and the folks at the pub all seemed to know we were going to be the entertainment and assured us that they had a great time at our gig the week before and there was going to be a lot of people ready to party at the wedding.

This is the view from the pub patio.

After breakfast I took a drive around the island and found Dinner Bay Park. I took a little walk through the trees and down to a pretty little beach. It would have been nice to have a swim but that water was cold.

The Japanese Garden was initiated to commemorate the island’s early Japanese Canadian settlers, was created almost entirely with equipment and time donated by the community. The gig we played the week before helped raise some money for this beautiful garden.

I thought I should check it out. I ended up having the whole garden to myself.

Back to the house for a little bit and then it was time to load up the vehicles and head over to the venue.

We arrived at the property and there was no one there, they were all at the wedding so we had a chance to set up all the gear, have a sound check and even run over some tunes.

Just as we were finishing up it started to rain. A lot.

Here is a picture of the main cabin, the entire front porch will be our stage!

The property was scattered with some really cute buildings and cabins.

Here's my favourite. Another travel trailer with a cute add on.

This is an adorable little outhouse with a sign on the side that says Nature House. I did stumble down to use it after dark. It was warm, dry, non-smelly and had a bucket of lye with a sign that said "one scoop per poop".

This little red rowboat was tucked into the corner of the yard and the swing was a lot of fun too. They also had horseshoe pits and three propane bonfires scattered around the area. A really nice set up. But.... it was really starting to rain hard when we left to go back to Dave's. We had a few hours to kill so we ate, drank, napped and showered and generally got prettied up.

Once again I seem to have packed my suitcase with my eyes closed, I sure didn't pack for a rainy, chilly show so I really ended up not having a clue what I was going to wear. I had to do some quick improvisation with a dress and a pair of scissors, I do that a lot. I managed to put together what turned out to be a cute outfit and it was time to go.

Here's a shot from the bottom of the property looking up towards the cabin/stage.

We arrived at the party in the rain and the first song was played for the bride and groom. I must say, it was my first time meeting Ross and Sandra and they were lovely people, really nice. I also couldn't help noticing that they were both extremely good looking!

And that's when the party really started!!!

The full band was Me and Rupert, Janice, Jessie, Dave, Dan and Kelly.

Here's a shot of me and Superman doing our favourite duet Jackson a-la Johnny and June.

We all put on a great show, mostly because the crowd was so incredibly into it. The rain stopped and the people danced and cheered and drank and just gave us so much fun energy that it brought our show to a new level. A real win win situation. The people of Mayne Island are pretty special. They are so friendly and welcoming and man can they party!

I just had a blast!

All good things must come to an end, we packed up sometime around 2am and loaded up the gear, back to the house and fell into bed around 3:30. Up by 10 loaded up the car with the rest of the gear and hit the ferry lineup.

Here is a picture from the car. Three ferries in this shot. They don't call it Active Pass for nothing.