MY YOUNGEST IS NOW 30!!!!

My youngest is thirty...which is oooolllldddd...but my oldest turns 48 in two days...now THAT'S oooollllllddddd!!!!  I was 48 not very long ago!!!  Hell I still feel 48 in my head.

We had such a fun day yesterday for Monte's birthday.  We decided to get Noodle Box dinners and I bought a delicious cake at Save-on.  I also bought two of those campfire popcorn thingies.  And the boys bought booze.

I have a rule in my house:  no drinking alone and no drinking on weekdays/nights...Friday and Saturday nights only.

So they drank Nudes, mint juleps and whiskey shots.  I did one shot of Malibu.  It was delicious.  I think that's the only way I will drink it from now on!  We popped the popcorn and Graeme and I ate it...delish!  We sat around that fire bowl (have I said that its the best thing I ever purchased?) and had a great time.  At one point I went into the house and let them be.  A great birthday! (Except no siblings, mine or his....shovel list) 

The day before we bought a five pound pork belly.  We slowly cooked it on the bbq.  It was absolutely delicious!  I put a pic below.  We have been super enjoying that bbq!

Well today is hair washing day.  Groooaaan...(big time shovel list).  The last time I brushed my hair out my scalp hurt for three days.  So I shall post my pics here and TTYL.  keep safe and happy

MY DECK

OUR PAT AND OUR MONTE BOTH SHARE THE 27TH OF JUNE BIRTHDAYS

POPCORN GOODNESS AND FUN

APRIL'S LATEST

OUR LITTLE EXPERIMENT

MY DREAM LIFE

OUR PORK BELLY

AN UNUSUAL SIGHT HERE

BIRTHDAY BOY

THEY ARE FLYING THE COOP

Graeme needs to be in Victoria for a two week training course on July 5.  Peter has a place rented and needs to be in Victoria in the beginning of July.  I asked if they could team up on a date and Monte, Wrangler and I will drive them down.  Peter needs to take his bike and he is going to take the extra tiny desk that amazon sent.  So by July 5th they will be gone.  And they won't be back until this covid thing is under control..one way or the other.  This house is going to be devastatingly quiet.

Its going to be a whole lot easier to not eat and maybe drop a chin or two.  It's been a lot of fun planning dinners and cooking. But its also too hard not to partake.  So I am cutting Monte loose to do what he needs to and I will take care of myself.  Bring on the wieners and greek salads!

I am sitting in my bedroom on my bed as I type this.  I have the tv on that show My 600 lb Life.  Egads!  I can't believe those peeps are willing to get naked in front of the cameras!  So gross!  I think I will make a picture of one of the worst of them and tape it to my fridge.  Motivation.  I will put the pic I will use down below.

I will be able to use the cupboard in the room that Graeme (known here as Toonykoot Munchkin) is using.  I just can't get my clothes under control.  I need another closet.  The one in my bedroom is full.  I am a hanger of clothes as opposed to drawers but when it gets too crammed you might as well toss them into the corner...they get so wrinkled!

Well I gotta bounce.  Lots to do today.  Take care peeps and be safe and healthy.  TTYL

GOING ON MY FRIDGE

APRIL'S LATEST ART.  SHE MADE A MAGICAL LADY OUT OF A FOXGLOVE!  MY FAVE THING SHE HAS DONE EVER.

A DAILY PIC.  THIS GUY HAS THIS IN HIS FRONT YARD.  CLEARLY A TINKERER!

HMMM...LET'S SEE

I am feeling very uninspired today.  I have a bad feeling this post is going to be either super short or long and boringly rambly.  NOTHING. EVER. HAPPENS.  So what does one write about when nothing ever happens?

Let's see.  Monte and I went out and bought a real bbq.  That little one just wasn't cutting it.  So we got ourselves a real beaut.  But putting it together was another thing.  Holy Crap!!!  It took the three of them a full three hours or more.  There must be some way they can make it easier to build!  But it is a really amazing cookin' machine!

The very first thing we cooked was a tin foil pack of potatoes, onions and carrots and a whack of pork chops.  Delicious and so easy.  Last night we did hamburgers.  For me I had portobellos, a recipe Arnie sent me.  It was amazing!  I pretty much don't eat meat anymore.

The other implement we have newly used is the deep fat fryer.  No dry fry here thank you very much.  It is one fantastic machine!  First we made falafels, which fell apart and I ended up pan frying them.  Last nite we did a couple bags of Cavendish fries.  Truly amazing!  Beats the heck out of the oven!

Another implement we have been using is the fire bowl.  Its rather magical how having a fire, even a fake fire bowl fire, can effect a group.  Those boys are all in bed (except Graeme) by nine, sometimes earlier.  Well when they have the fire lit out on the deck, they sit around it, roast the occasional smokie, sip mint juleps and talk and talk...til after 11!!!  That thing is one of the best things I ever bought.

I also bought a printer....for pictures.  I was in Staples looking for a mondo massive gigabyte thumb drive to put my 100,000 pics on.  Got talking to the guy there and told him why I wasn't going the external hard drive route.  He said to def use the thumb drive but to print off my fave pics and albumize them.  Other than a house fire, that's the best way to preserve them.  And your house never burns down does it?  Hahaha!!!!  (shovel list).  After our house burnt down in 2003, the few albums I had done up were fused together so badly they had to be chucked out.

So I figure it will take a year to do it all.  I will set it all up and just work away at it.  The boxes of photo paper I will be buying holds fifty right size sheets.  So I will work on a box at a time and do a lot of deleting.  When I am done I will put them on the thumb drive as well.  For now both the laptops are backed up by Backblaze...best online backup ever.

I shall go through some pics and choose a few now.  Take care and stay safe peeps.  TTYL

GOOFING OFF

DINNER TIME

CURRIED CHICKEN, SUBJIT AND HOME MADE NAN

OUR NEWEST ADDITION

THEY WERE ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS

THE FOUR FALAFELS THAT SURVIVED

MY FAVE DOOR IN PORT

THIS IS ONE OF MY DAILY PICS.  WE HARDLY STOPPED ON THE ROAD AND AS I SNAPPED THE PIC SOMEONE YELLED.."HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?".  WE GOT THE HECKADOODLE OUT OF THERE PRONTO!!!

SUCCESS!!!!

He got the job!!!!  Graeme would disappear into his room every day and spend time looking and applying for work.  Its going to be some time before Air Canada is ready to take him back and train him, so what would be the next best thing?  The Zed Hotel.  This hotel is funky and fun, owned by the Farmer family, managed and run by the daughter Mandy.  They also own Accent Inns. 

The Zed is purposely a throwback to the sixties.  It's orange and turquoise, has usable typewriters in the lobby for guests, has available bikes for guests to use, has vw flower hippie vans for shuttling, rotary dial colourful telephones in the rooms and on and on.  He would so fit in to this quirky place!  And he was told yesterday, after two interviews, he has the job!  He will train for two weeks in Victoria on the fifth of July.  They offer accommodation too.  I am so proud of him.

So we took him out for dinner last night to celebrate!  We went down to the Starboard Grill, the only restaurant on the water in this town.  Its a really nice place and we had a fun meal out on their patio looking out over the water.  Pics below.

We received a lovely parcel in the mail from Arnie and Bradley.  Part of it was for Monte for his upcoming birthday, and the rest for me.  Wait til I tell you about that!!!  But Monte first.

They got him bitters!  He was so excited.  Monte has a bar downstairs in the rec room.  It's a very big elaborate mirrored (I think) bar needing stocking.  He has glasses, he has a Jack Daniels decanter, the booze never lasts long enough to be of consequence in this list, and at xmas Arnie and Bradley gave him a complete bar set including an ice bucket.  And yesterday they gave him bitters!  He has really really been wanting bitters, especially mint, and thats what they got him!  And Bradley got him a fillable with water, flair bottle to practice with.  

Monte took the bartenders course quite a while back and part of it was flair.  And not only did he get about 98% on his test, which involved memorizing about 200 cocktails, but he had a 'flair' for flair!  I mean this is the guy that seriously could break the Guinness record for spinning a pillow on one finger and hopping it back and forth from one finger on his right hand to one on his left, never breaking the spin.  So he needs to practice now and give us a show!  Such a great gift!

Now for the other part of the parcel.  I have a giant bag of onions on the deck.  I go through more onions in my kitchen than any other product that comes into this house, (except maybe salt. Oh and butter)  Back in the day I used to buy fifty pound bags of them at Stupid Store for 8 bucks and go right through them.  I see now they are 12 dollars.  The one I have right now is about fifteen pounds or ten..something like that.

So this kitchen implement she sent is an onion dicer!!!!!!!  I think its generally called an Alligator.  And it works like a hot dam!!!  I peel the onion, cut it in half and put it through the Alligator jaws, ziplock the diced onions and freeze them.  Frozen onions are awesome.  Safeway in Kamloops accidentally put a five pound bag of diced onions (it was meant for their deli, not for general sales) in their freezer.  They charged me 11 bucks for it and it was the best thing I ever had in my freezer.  So now I will have a supply of onions all diced up in my freezer..happy!  Thank you Arnie and Bradley!

Yesterday Monte and I spent another afternoon in a nursery.  The day before yesterday I bought a Boston fern!!!  I haven't had a house plant for about seven years.  And then its was a very straggly drucinia, Drew.  It ended up dead...three different parts, three different ways.  And I haven't had a Boston fern, my fave houseplant, since the seventies.  I will have to take a pic of it and post it.  Just what you want to see, right?

Well yesterday I decided to see if I could find another one.  The old couple who lived here the entire life of this house, put up many many hooks in the ceiling.  I want to make use of them!  But I have to say, this town isn't big on hanging house plants.  We went to Nesgaards and ended up buying three gorgeous baskets for the deck and two boxes of strawberries that they grew there on their farm.  Unbelievable!  You forget what a real strawberry tastes like!  Alas...no hanging house plants.

I planted sweet peas in containers all along the deck railing.  I have been anxiously watching for the wee sprouts.  They are finally just beginning to pop up.  I made the big mistake of watching a sweet pea planting and growing youtube, after I planted my peas.  Ach jeez!  I did it all wrong.  Who knew it was so freaking picky planting what to me amounts to a type of extra flowery weed.

  Soak the seeds for overnight, don't just throw them in the ground.  Then start them in the house in little pots, one inch into the soil, keep moist constantly but not too much.  Sure.  Then when they are about three inches high pinch the top something off to encourage spreading growth.  Then stake them so they have something to cling to.  (Oh! Oh!  I planted a bunch in the pot with the tomato plant.)

 And on and on and on.  Crap.  I did soak them, for about five days.  I just didn't get the containers of dirt sooner.  Then I just shoved the seeds into the dirt helter skelter.  They are finally coming up but very erratically.  I really hope they grow.  I have been really looking forward to a wall of sweet peas out there.  I get the feeling that the picture in my head just isn't going to come to fruition.

Well our bbq keeps crapping out.  I think the writing is on the wall with this critter.  So I have decided to start looking for a better one.  The hard part is the building of it.  Sigh.  I need to get it before Graeme leaves.  He is amazing at that sort of thing.  I am pretty lucky.  I have one boy who is so tall that he does all things tall.  I have one boy who can fix anything and can build stuff.  I have one boy who is an amazing conversationalist, feeds my brain.  Every household should have that!!!

Well gotta get my day started.  Its beautiful out there!  Keep safe and healthy!  TTYL

ps.  I just heard a loon!!!  How is that possible?  It must be lost!

THIS IS THE RESTAURANT THAT MAKES THE BEST CANDIED SALMON CHOWDER YOU EVER ATE!!!

CURRIED POUTINE

TUNA BOWL (I ACCIDENTALLY CUT HIS HEAD OFF....CUZ I USED MY PHONE CAMERA....CAN'T SEE IT IN THE DAYLIGHT)

I THINK THIS GROSS HUGE PLANT IS CALLED SOMETHING LIKE GANERA.  I ALWAYS CALLED IT GONERRHEA.

Three of us, all separately at different times, upon looking at the pictures, commented on how fat we are.  Sigh.  (shovel list). Guess which three!!! Hahahahahaha!!!!!

WASTED OPORTUNITY

I was laying in bed this morning and thinking how over a hundred days has gone by being stuck in the house etc....  I love hundred day challenges.  I did that poem a day one once and I tried to throw something out everyday for a hundred days (not sure if I totally completed that one).  I like the idea of a finite daily challenge.  And if I had been on the ball, I would have picked something back the beginning of March and done one.  But I didn't.  So I continued on to think about what I could have accomplished in the last three and a half months had I been more aware that a hundred days was going to present itself so neatly.

First thing that popped into my mind was a diary.  I could have written a dedicated diary of daily events....then, stupid me, I remembered this blog.  I AM writing a sort of diary...no need for two.

Then I thought of practising on the piano.  I only do that when I am alone in the house of course.  And then I remembered that I have practised when I was alone in the house....all two times that happened.

Then I thought I could've been like that old ancient British man  in the news that walked around his driveway a million times for charity.  (keep in mind though the damned British walk EVERYWHERE...even across the whole dam country just for fun, so no surprise or hardship there).  I could /should have marked my steps daily and seen how many I got at the hundred day mark.  I was going to walk everyday.  I got a fit bit to help motivate.  It didn't.  I got new great shoes to help motivate.  It didn't.  I got lovely new trekking poles.  It hasn't.  I got a telescoping stool that fits in a back pack for emergency sit downs.  That didn't.  In fact I am going to add a (shovel list) here.

I was going to make great lovely dinners for the boys...every night.  At first I did do a fair amount of dinner making but slowly over the three months I lost my cooking mojo somewhere along the way.  Now I realize  I need to gitter done in the morning and reheat or finish it at supper time.  By four in the afternoon my brain and body have become covidized.  I can't think, I don't want to move, I am not even interested in creating something out of what I have, I am watching Judge Judy, etc.....The other night I cut up a cabbage and fried it in the wok with butter and dill and cut up a couple of lumberjack type sandwiches...for dinner.  That was it.  Egads.

I HAVE ACCOMPLISHED NOTHING. And the scariest part of all?  I don't even care!!!  Hahaha!!!
Stay safe people....TTYL

AALL THE POLES FROM PORT TO BAMFIELD ARE NUMBERED...HERE IS NUMBER ZERO....WELL REMEMBERED BY ALL OF US BAMFIELD GOERS.  EVENTUALLY WHEN I GET TO BAMFIELD I WILL TAKE A PIC OF THE LAST ONE.

WE WENT UP TO MY FAVE GRAVEYARD.  I WAS LOOKING FOR AN INTERESTING GRAVE FOR MY DAILY PIC.  I FOUND THIS ONE.  NO EXPLANATION NECESSARY. PUT ME IN TEARS THOUGH.

HIS BELOVED TOYS

THAT RED IS A SPIDERMAN

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PETER

Well its our Peter's birthday today!  All the boys are 29 now!  Monte will be 30 on the 27th this month, Graeme in March and Peter a year from now.  Graeme, bless him, fixed our bbq, or at least told us what we were doing wrong, so its our first bbq tonight.  T-bone steaks, giant shrimp, zucchini and salad.  Dessert is peach and cream crepes.  We are going to start cooking here pretty quick.

Monte and I have made a couple of trips out and about.  Other than going out on logging roads, which is my fave, there really aren't a whole lot of places to go.  I did go to the lab to see if I should make an appointment.  I signed up on line to do it but no matter what I did it took me to Ontario for a lab there.  So I went to the lab and they told me what to do.  So tomorrow morning, bright and early, off I go.  

Well I got some really good news in my email today!  It was a formal, addressed to me specifically, notice that my upcoming cruise is CANCELLED!!!  They offered a future cruise credit of 25% extra, which is simply not enough.  I also get the choice to get every dime of my money back.  That is the option I am going for!  If it had been 50% like some cruise lines I might have considered it but.....so I can stop worrying about it now and start watching my credit card statement.

Jeez I am watching the news in the back ground.  They are talking about taking down historical figures, looking at our history through modern eyes.  Sooooo stupid in my opinion.  Our history is our history and what was happening back then was era appropriate and isn't going to change if you rip down statues.  April was saying that right now in the lower mainland there is a push to take down Captain Vancouver's monument and Gassy Jack's.  I so strongly disagree with this.  Are they going to change Vancouver city's name?  I think not so what's the point?

Well its time to get cooking and setting of table.  I shall put my last two days pics below.  Not stellar I tell you!  Stay healthy and safe peeps.  TTYL

Okay, as usual blogspot is giving me endless trouble.  It won't let me post pics. So I am going to post this then try again after.  Sorry.

 A LOCAL DOORWAY

BEAUTIFUL WOODWORK

ONE OF OUR FAVE PINIC SPOTS

I AM OLDER THAN I THOUGHT

I was watching a show with Kurt Russell and he mentioned that he was ten in 1962.  I looked him up and they said he was born in 61 and he was 69.  What?  I am born in 52 and I thought, and have thought for a long time that I was 67.  I am NOT 67.  I am 68!  There was a time in my life I just wouldn't care but now, if 80 is a reasonable time to live, I just shaved off one whole year from the 13 I thought I safely had left.  I only have 12!  Jeez!!!  I mean I have pretty much done everything I wanted doing.  My bucket list is pretty complete and I am very comfortable with what I believe happens when you cross that rainbow bridge.  But but but.....Just maybe I am not quite ready to face wandering off that mortal coil just yet.  68!  Jeez Louise....

The boys, all three of them, are off to Tofino and Uky today.  They have called a couple of times and they seem to be having a good time.  I asked them to pick up driftwood for me but apparently all the pieces were too big.  I shall have to go myself and find an appropriate beach and get wood.  I would have gone but.....too many boys in the truck for me to be comfortable with umpteen sugar cane runs into the bush.  And public loos aren't open yet. So home I stayed.  I would have loved to go and take my trusty dusty old camera that I have to smack around to make work.  

The fire bowl finally arrived today!!!  Now, if it stops raining, hailing, thundering and blowing long enough we shall go hot dogging.  I am excited.  I can't wait.  Monte and I found a couple more fantastic places to hot dog roast.  I am going to buy one rib eye steak and cut strips to roast and maybe add a couple chunks of onion too.  And good old reliable Lowry's seasoned salt.  When Bill and I used to go out in the boat and caught little salmon I would immediately fry it up in the beat up old frying pan in butter and Lowry's.  Mmmmm....

I'm just watching the news...and I see the Tennant's association is asking the Premier to extend the ban on evictions and mandatory paying of rent.  Unbelievable!  What are landlords supposed to do?  They have expenses, mortgages and costs to cover and rent is what covers that.  I am sure glad I am not a landlord.  I think I have said that a hundred times.

  The association also wants to make it law that landlords must allow animals.  Keep it up and there won't BE any landlords anymore other than apartment buildings.  No basement suites.  And then lets hear the whining from the tenants that won't be able to find a place to rent.  Stupid people.  And unlike mortgages, where they must pay at the end of the pandemic, you know for a fact that a load of renters will simply duck out of paying rent...nothing to lose.  When I was a mortgage broker I sure learned that one. 

Well its that time of the quarterly again.  Lab time.  It seems to come around awfully fast.  I have one week of pills left so I am going to have to get my butt in there and get all my stuff checked.  I wish I was skinny and fit.  Its not on my bucket list but maybe it should be.  I have ordered a couple of trekking poles.  When Kathy lent me hers it def made a difference.  I could go further and stopping and leaning on them for a minute was the equivalent to sitting for a bit.  I look forward to trying them out.

Well its time to get to the next task I set out for myself today.  It looks like I won't be making dinner but I will get my clothes all done.  Thats been a big job thats taken me waaaaay tooooo long to complete.  Today's the day!  Stay healthy TTYL

Okay before people correct me, Cookie, I have been corrected by Monte about my age.  I AM 67!!!!!!  I am not 68 until this coming October! I knew I wasn't crazy!!!...just stupid.

THERE IT IS....AND IT FINALLY CAME!!!!!

MONTE AND I HAVE DECIDED TO GET A PIC A DAY.  I WILL POST THEM HERE....NO MATTER HOW BAD THEY ARE.....YOU LUCKY PEOPLE!!

 

HMMMM...HAPPY HAPPY

I am going to try really hard to get through a whole post with not one complaint or whine.  It gets pretty humdrum around here, which is fine with me but difficult for posting here.  So I will list the more positive things I feel are good:

1.  We aren't fighting!  I think it's amazing that there are four of us, a very diverse 'us' and we aren't killing each other yet.  It's been a full 3 and a half months that we have basically done the same thing day in, day out, with very little variation.  Thats over 100 days.  I am very impressed with the boys' ability to put up with Monte and I, both pretty strong characters, and they haven't run screaming yet.  They do have other options but they choose to stay with us and we all really do get along.

2.  The garden is much bigger and more complex than it would have been otherwise.    When you have invested as much time and energy and money into something, you don't just go galavanting off for a couple of weeks holiday and leave it. We don't know anybody that would be able to water it whilst we would be gone.  And Monte snuck some pretty odd and interesting things into that garden!  I just wish it would warm up!  I like the colder temp. right now for myself but its hard on the garden.

3.  I kinda like that a lot of us are learning that you just don't need a hoard of people in your life to make yourself happy.  I think I have always known that about myself but through social media and messaging with various ones it's been interesting seeing people in general settle down, and after an initial mini panic, learn to enjoy their own company.  I know some people that have never just been alone without a busy busy schedule involving people people people.  I think this might be hard on teenagers though.  It's supposed to be a social time in their lives.  Thank goodness they have social media and that they are so proficient at it!!  This just might be more acceptable going forward into the future.  We can supplement our physical connections with media ones.  Nothing wrong with that!  A social compromise.

4.  Trips into the bush have become even more special and amazing.  I am not going out much here at home.  I leave the grocery shopping to Mr. Tall and do all the other shopping on Amazon.  So my daily view is out my front window and off my deck or the rooms in the house.  Which is quite fine with me.  But it makes it super special when I hop into the truck with Monte or whoever, camera in hand,  heading for the hills.  I love love love that!  There is nothing more healing for the soul than nature, big beautiful Mother Nature.  There is always some kind of surprise around the next corner.  It might be a flower, or that fern Spod used to like, or a lovely chunk of wood on the side of the road, or a big beautiful rock to bring home.  Love it.

5.  Meal times have become ultra important.  Its kind of like being in the hospital.  Three times your day is broken into three segments...morning, noon and evening, by meals.  And the evening meal is the one that the household is most interested in.  Its been fun figuring out the next evening meal. For example:  tonight I am going to make lettuce wrap.  I have cauliflower rice, cashews to whomp up, onion, garlic, zucchini, broccoli, and mushrooms and a big head of lettuce.  I am pretty sure there is hoisin...the most important ingredient of all!  And the kids so appreciate it...which makes me happy!  Nothing makes a chef wannabe happier than their peeps they are feeding super enjoying your food you make.

6. And lastly, Wrangler, and I don't mean the truck.  Wrangler never did well on his own.  He doesn't like it, no dog does.  But now he has four of us in constant presence.  He is getting old, I mean near the end old.  If the SPCA was correct in their age they told Monte, he is now fifteen.  Other than a cataract in one eye and his hips not working very well, he is in good condition.  If you aren't sure just give him his rubber chicken!!!  Crap! he goes crazy with that thing!  As long as he is still doing that it's a signal that he still has lots of life left in him!

Well thats all the happy I have for today.  I can't promise it will be like this next time!  Stay safe peeps....TTYL