NANAIMO OR BUST

 That was probably the best trip to town we have had yet.  What a day!!!  I took my packages back and they were both refunded.  They were being returned beyond the return date but they were both accepted.  If the fat lady store wasn't going to accept them I was just going to leave the ridiculous  culottes there and walk away from the fifty bucks.  No one, absolutely no one, would buy those on marketplace.  

I then had to go to Soft Moc to return the massively undersized shoes they say are size ten and I say they are size 8 at most, if that.  The only thing is it was waaaaaaaay waaaaaaay at the other end of the mall, and it's a massive mall.  Did I mention that Ange and I hate malls?  So schlep we did, all the way down.  Jesus H!  My hip and tailbone were screaming and poor Ange's feet in inadequate (but beautiful) footwear were barking...loudly.  So like two old ladies, which we AREN'T, we collapsed on a couch near the exit waiting for Monte who was in the midst of getting new glasses.

We then went to a very busy Costco.  Needless to say that involved a whole lotta walking as well.  And for the first time in my Costco history, we walked out of there without hotdogs or fries.  It didn't feel like we had actually been there.  We were going to that awesome pub we had gone to on the snake checkup trip to town for supper so we didn't eat.  I am still missing it.  That hot dog, Diet Pepsi and fries and gravy are stuck in my head.

We then went to the Longlake Pub and had a magnificent seafoody feast!  The food is outstanding in that place.

We were going to go home from there when it was decided we needed to make a trip to Fairway.  So off we went and walked and walked some more.  I bought a very sad looking very old chicken.  They don't call them dead hens, or road kill, or old past their prime mother chickens.  Their legs stick straight up in the air like they are still in rigormortis. They call them stewing hens.    We shall see.  I will make broth out of the sad old critter.

We then finally carried on home.  And then, of course, as tired as we were we still had to put all that crap away.  God!!!!  If there was one fairy I could have, it would be the fairy that puts all the stuff away after shopping.  It involves decisions and up and downing stairs and a semi job of cleaning the fridge. It is getting too warm to use the supplemental fridge, known as the top of the freezers outside in the cold.  But all in all it was an awesome day.  I am looking forward to the next trip.

The next day was Tuesday, and this particular Tuesday is the one before Wednesday housecleaner Caroline day.  And that involves a LOT of work.  It has been one month since she was here.  So I got to work and cleaned the table, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned the living room, put three thousand things away, organized garbage, made sure the turlet wasn't gross etc....and then at about ten this morning, this is cleaning day Wednesday, she texted to say she wasn't coming today.  She has a cold.  But it's nice to have the house not messy, very dirty, but not messy!

Well enough about my humdrum life for now.  Tomorrow is Walmart curbside pick up day.  I still need small sized stuff, at least compared to Costco.  Stay safe and have fun.  TTYL

'My future aspirations involve living under bridges with my belongings in a shopping cart.'  Steven Magee

Anyone who knows me knows I have thought this and said it a million times in my life.  I really aspire to a bag lady's life.

NEEDLEGATE

 Monte and I had a great trip home.  He picked me up around two and we went straight out to the ferry.  After a one hour wait we loaded and we were in Nanaimo in licketty split time.

We stopped at Costco and picked up tp and paper towel and a few other things.  We had a hot dog and fries and off we went.  As we came to the Parksville turn off we noticed a massive plume of smoke billowing up over the highway and out to the ocean.  Massive!!!  So we pulled an illegal u-turn and took an exit to a secondary road that would go past the source of the smoke.

As it turns out there was a huge fire, complete with a pretty continuous chain of explosions.  We stopped on the side of the road and got out with our cameras and took some pics.  We didn't get too close as the explosions were letting things fly.  Pretty soon the police came along and moved us all along.  The problem in this particular area is no water.  So there was a pretty steady stream of water tank trucks arriving for the six or seven firetrucks.  It was a welding place plus a hybrid seed company in the building that burned.  Ascetalyne (sp?) tanks explode, hugely. Firemen are some pretty gutsy and brave people.  

Thursday Ange came flying up the stairs with the most terrified ghastly look on her face, hand on her heart and states, "I just killed my cat!!!!!!!"

So let me explain here.  That cat is as important and loved by her like we love our children.  She never had kids, then she lost her husband, and Ace, now two, and her other cat are absolutely everything to her.  That Ace basically saved her from utter desolation when Pat died and she got evicted in a town where there is NOWHERE to rent, even if you could afford ten thousand bucks a month.  So you can understand what those cats are to her.

She is a needlepointer.  Her work is exquisite and meticulous.  And she is the neatest needler I have ever seen.  She was up here for a nano second then went back down to find the thread on her latest piece in that bad Ace's (he is a very naughty cat, into absolutely everything) mouth and a needle missing.   Poor Ange was pretty sure the cat would die.  But as most of us know 99% of needles pass through cats safely.  I suggested she phone a vet and google it.

Long story short the cat did not poop until this morning and gloves on, Ange found the needle, safely ejected.  Such a relief!!!  And I have a feeling this won't be the last Ace escapade!!!!

We have cancelled our Alberta trip.  Monte doesn't mind me mentioning this, but he is just mentally a little too fragile still.  It's been interesting talking to him about what happens in his head with too much stimulation.  I think due to his past episodes that were so much worse than anything now, he has come a long way, has left him with a sort of PTSD.  He explained to me that he is always vigilantly on guard, which is exhausting over time, keeping reality and psychosis separated and judged.  His trust with reality was severely broken enough times that now he is ever vigilant and somewhat doubting.  He even said that he doesn't 100%  trust that he is living in a house with Ange and I.  Purposely and just to make sure it is,  when there is too much going on, he wears down,  he needs to sleep and lay in the dark and regroup his brain and recheck reality.

I hope I haven't said too many personal things here but I find it fascinating how his brain works.  His past psychotic breaks have left him brain damaged and I think the more everyone in the world understands how brain damage can manifest itself the better the world will be.  He is very normal, way above average intelligence, would never stop his meds, working now, and a whiz bang amazing employee according to his boss, 6'9 and huge, and you would never ever associate fragility with him.

We are off to Nanaimo again on Monday.  Monte needs to make a trip to the sleep clinic for after care, I need to return two items that didn't get put in the van last week to be returned then, and Ange and I are making a stop at Costco and we will probably go out to eat somewhere.  We love an excuse to go to the big city.  hahahaha

Thats it for now.  I have managed to not talk about food this time.  I sure could have as I made something totally foreign to me and I am itching to tell you all.  But I won't.  Have a lovely day and I shall TTYL.

'One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.' Fredrich Nietzsche

' Sometimes I think people take reality for granted'. Francesca Zappia 

Note:  I tried looking up quotes about brain injury and it was all sports related.  I think parents would be better to put their kids in music than football or whatever.  April is temporarily working in a special  paediatric clinic where there is a parade of sport injured kids that have complications.  My personal opinion which pretty much no-one agrees with.  Hahahaha!!!!

EXPLOSIONS

HAPPY

 I am happy as I sit here at April and Myles, full breakfast belly, typing away and listening to the two of them problem solve a very old computer and phone issue.  The equipment is old, not the issue.  

Monte picked me up right on time on Friday.  We stopped at a samosa bakery.  I had ordered three, not two, dozen samosas.  They were amazing.  We ended up at April and Myles's place, safe and sound.  Supper was obviously samosas and alu paratha.  Cookie so kindly made a batch for us before I left.  It is a roti, which she makes of course, and stuffs them with spiced mashed potato.  Unbelievably delish.

Yesterday we binge watched White Lotus.  I had been hearing about this show for some time.  So watch we did and I loved it.  Unfortunately I don't get it at home.  It is on some channel I don't and never will get.  Crave....HBO.  I have def decided not to go the roku route, even though I truly hate Telus.

Somewhere in there I made dahl.  It was soooo good.  And that is what we had for Saturday supper.

Today, and this is why we aren't leaving until tomorrow, April's cousin Russ and his wife Lorraine are coming for dinner and I asked if it would be possible for them to invite Russ's mom, Auntie Joan we call her, Bill's brother's wife, as well.  And so she is coming.  I am really excited to see them all.  I feel very disconnected with Bill's family.  I know half of them hate me, not sure why and truly don't give a hoot, but this half I have always loved and enjoyed them.  Awesome wonderful people.

So dinner is on the go.  But April really wants to do it all.  It is a matter of pride for her.  I know exactly how she feels.  She does not need or want her mother in there taking over so I have told her I am happy to sous chef or sit on the couch.  I did tell her I could keep them visiting whilst she cooks, but apparantly Myles is doing that.  So hard core filters in place today!!!!

Tomorrow April is working and I think Myles is too.  So I shall play with Leeloo til Monte picks me up.  The earliest ferry I could get was 3:45 so we shall have time to go get lunch somewhere...our fave thing.

There are two things Monte and I do together that we love.  One is listen to music, intentional music.  We spend a lot of time doing that.  And the other is reading online menus.  I mean what the hell is that?  But we love reading menus out loud to each other.  Before you judge, try it!!!!  You might be surprised by how much fun it is and how you get good ideas for cooking at home.  But, as you probably already figured out, we are obsessed with food.  

Well time to scrub a couple of muffin tins for yorkshire puddings.  I remember many years ago when uncle Jim and wife would come for dinner and I would make yorkies.  I found out that Uncle Jim liked them made in a 8x8 pan, the traditional way they do it in Yorkshire.  So I started to do that.  I would make one pan of muffin tin ones and at least one like Uncle Jim liked.  I like them like that too.

Tonite's menu is prime rib (three bones), mash, carrots, asparagus, horseradish, yorkies and Jamaican Rum Chocolate cake (Myles is making it right now).

Well time to go get duded up.  Like that makes a difference.  I had my hair permed and it is awful.  I can't brush it, or put it up into a poof or wash it til next weekend.  So, sorry, what can I say.  I shall do my best.  So til next time have fun, on purpose fun!!!  TTYL

' I had too much fun was no one's last regret ever.'  Jonathon Heatt

I MADE A NEW FRIEND!!!!

 I don't make friends as a rule.  People just complicate one's life.  But today I was walking across the Walmart parking lot, heading to my truck, when a rather nondescript lady in her early sixties approached me and said, 'Hi!  I remember you.  We met in the line up waiting for the clinic doctor.!'  Holy doodle!!!!  That was three years ago and she remembered me?  I remember talking to the line up of women but I would never have remembered an individual from it.

We talked for a while, I heard about her year last year.  Honestly my life is so cushy compared to other people.  Her fave sister died, her beloved husband of many years, she is 62, died and she got kidney cancer.  How the hell does your heart and brain deal with all that?  And here she was, standing in a windy cold parking lot, cheerfully catching up with someone she recognized from three years ago.  We will get together for coffee one of these days.  I liked her.

It's beginning to happen.  While I was in Walmart I heard someone behind me say, 'Hey there!  Are you following me?'  It was Harry from next door.  I seem to run in to him everywhere.  He is the nicest guy and he does love to talk!  I told him that we call him Mr. Flanders (from the Simpsons) and he cracked up.  Clearly he knew who that was!!!  So pretty much every time I go out now, which isn't so often, I am running into people I know.  I guess it was inevitable.

I am currently sitting on a couch in Cookie's living room.  I am having the best time here.  I just love Cookie and Brian.  They feel like family to me as much as my family.

Yesterday she and I went out for lunch.  She bought me lunch!  I am not used to that.  And oh my! what a lunch.  We went to an Indian Bistro and the food was utterly amazing!!!  So much so that when I get home I am going to start making saag.  You use frozen spinach.  Really it's creamed, with yoghurt, curried spinach.  If I could get mustard greens etc.  I would make the saag that isn't just spinach but I will start with this.  And it is good for diabetics!

Tomorrow Monte picks me up to take me to April's.  On the way I am going to pick up two dozen amazing (according to pretty much everyone here) samosas.  And when I get there I am going to make a pot of Dahl and we shall have dinner.  Monte is going to be staying at Emily's for the weekend.  She will not be there but she leaves a key for him.

I gave him a chit chat about leaving her place spotless.  She lives with Drew now so it isn't just her that matters.  He and I are going to stop at Safeway beside April's place and get him four days worth of food, prepared food that only requires a microwave. (or meekrowahvay as Nigella calls it)  And then I am giving him a garbage bag to put all the detritus in so there will be no trace of him when he leaves.  I hope.

Well now it is Friday morning.  Monte is picking me up around one.  I am pretty excited.  Lorraine and Russell, Bill's brother Frank's kids are coming for dinner.  Russell works at an animation studio on Rick and Morty.  And best of all Aunty Joan, Frank's wife is coming.  I am soooo looking forward to seeing her.  I truly enjoy her and haven't seen her in quite a while.  I am so happy!!!

Time for a bath and pack up.  This stay here has been heavenly.  I just love both these people and they take such amazing care of me when I am here.  I am spoiled.  Take care and TTYL

'There are friends, there is family, and then there are friends that become family.'  Unknown

CASES

 That damned Amazon!!!  It is totally responsible for my lack of exercise, my agoraphobia, my excess of EVERYTHING!!!  It has nothing to do with my self control of course.

Recently I bought a case, a whole case for heaven's sake, of stove top stuffing.  It seemed like a great idea at the time.  Now, thinking on it, I need to make it, force it, to be a good idea.

I was pondering on this when SHAZZAM!!!!! I had a fantastic idea!!!  You tube!!!  When all else fails, you tube it!!!  So I went to you tube and typed in recipes using boxed stuffing.  And voila!!!  A thousand recipes of all sorts popped up.  Recipes of boxed stuffing mixed with meat, broccoli, macaroni, potatoes, rice, you name it!!!!  Ahhhhh....all sorts of methods to make boxed stuffing not only desirable but necessary!!!  I am exonerated!!!

I found the perfect recipe for dinner tonite.  Meatloaf!!!  You mix a box of stuffing into the hamburger along with onions, eggs, ketchup and bbq sauce.  What could be tastier than that?  And if you are looking for that illusive, never been eaten before, appetizer, just you tube boxed stuffing recipes. 

I made the meatloaf.  It was good, really good but you would never know there was stuffing in it.  I was a wee tad disappointed.  Today is another baked bean day.  I soaked the beans overnight and they are waiting in the kitchen to be turned into a delicious treat.  This time I am going to freeze some before we eat it all.  I want to take some to April next week.  She loves baked beans and I want her opinion.

My head is killing me today.  And my eyes are all hot and burny.  I don't think I am getting enough sleep.  Last night I got three hours and I had one of those completely sleepless nights the night before.

  Why is it us post menopausal women have so much trouble sleeping?  I would take some kind of sleep aid or at least talk to the doc about it but I don't want my poor struggling kidneys to have to deal with anymore chemicals.  Plus I avoid telling the doctor anything.  They are like car mechanics, they will find more stuff wrong with you.  So I just stay buttoned up and tell them I prefer phone appointments.  No eye contact.  Thats the secret to staying out of the hospital and away from testing machines.

Well I had best get moving.  Beans are a long all day process which of course I love.  I really don't want this blog to turn into one of those food blogs you see. I am just a throw it together unsophisticated cook who doesn't deserve a pretty, organized with index, food blog where you have to read through a whole bunch of ...useless to us, important to the author, information before getting to the actual recipe.  I wonder if they are aware that we out here, all make fun of them or at the least get sarcastic and scathy about it.  I would rather someone who has happened across my blog just skip it.  I won't be putting a proper recipe in my blog.  Just methods.  hahahaha!!!

Okay, enough already.  Gotta bounce.  Have a great day people and open a can of Bush's beans if you want beans.  It's a whole lot easier, faster and tastes just as good.  Overnite plus six hours cooking time versus two minutes of can opening and microwaving...Bush's does have its merits!!!!TTYL

'I come from a food family, so you would think I would be great at making baked beans or something, but I'm not.'  Kristian BUSH!

Come on, with a name like that go to Dollarama and get your self a Betty Crocker can opener and a can of beans.  Do yourself a favour!!!

YUMMY!!!

 Dinner was delicious.  The lamb was perfect, the potatoes crisped up deliciously, the cheese sauce was good, butter buns are always amazing, parsnips were spectacular but....best of all the mint jelly was crazy good!!!!  Stan was here and he remembered how dad made parsnips which I made true to his method and they truly were a treat.

The visit with Stan was particularly wonderful.  We talked a fair amount about dad which conjured up memories.  We don't talk a whole bunch about him anymore, it has been a long time since he died (Feb. 15, 1981), so it was really nice to remember stories.

Antonia was unable to come with Stan.  The poor lady has a really difficult time with her back and she is making a ten hour flight soon and needs to not stress it too much at this point.  We missed her!

Well it was the three month mark this week to get my A1c done.  Grrrrr....and it was too high yet again.  Last time it was over ten.  That was when I was trying to avoid potassium, which turned out to be that doctor reading the wrong person's, not mine, lab results.  Probably the A1c was the wrong one too.

This last one, over the past three months, I have been trying to go full vegetarian.  I am kind of bitter.  I have spent my entire adult life hyper aware of carbs...avoiding them, picking less carby crap to eat, avoided some stuff entirely, like parsnips because they are extremely high on the glycemic index. I can quote carb contents and that glycemic index off by heart....and yet I am type 2.  This time it's just over 8, which is still too high but at least it came down.  I see the doctor on Monday.  Sigh.

I need to go to Nanaimo.  I did have one thing to return, shoes at Soft Moc, but now I have two things.  I have to return a pair of denim cropped pants.  Honestly!  I can't get stuff to fit!!!  So they fit great around the gut, but that was it.  Jeez!  The butt and legs were so flipping big I had to run to catch up to the front of them...I looked like farmer Joe when I put them on.  What the hell?  I ordered them from the fat lady store.  I should have known better.  They just presume that if you are a bigger lady you gotta have a fat ass and gargantuan legs.  I don't.  Yes I am a husky broad (as Bill put it) but not THAT big. I am a barrel on a toothpick shape.  So they gotta go back.

And they weren't cheap.  Now if I had bought them from one of those cheap ass Chinese locations they wouldn't be worth returning they would be so cheap.  But from a Canadian store, yes, they are still made in the same factory in China as the Chinese ones that cost 5.99, cost 49.99....and neither fit.  Truly a bucket list item.  I have lots of jeans.  I am going to cut one of them off at the knees.

On another less complaining note, the sun is just getting up for the day and it is beautiful outside!  Golden glows poking through the holes in the clouds.Time to get this day going.  Have a lovely one people and take a deep breath.  It's good for you!!!!!  TTYL

'We can only appreciate the miracle of a sunrise if we have waited in the darkness.'  Sapna Reddy