Steve took his friend Evan Farlinger to the home opener tonight. They had seats in the 19th row right behind homeplate. A very exciting game. I was home alone watching on the big screen tv and even watched the final innings. A heart stopper in the bottom of the nineth I might add. I was flipping channels at the commercials to enjoy the Gregorian chants at the great mass in Rome. Happy weekend all.

Did anybody notice that the snow has melted on Tom’s corvet? Enjoy the sun while it is here before the April showers begin. Oops, maybe I spoke too soon!

Last Saturday night we hosted our Gourmet group and the theme was “France”. We met our guests at the door with iced Pernod with soda and orange juice. We did our bonjours and assante in style. We gathered in the living room around the coffee table laden with a fine assortment of French cheeses and pate with a fresh baguette. The music was the newfrench cd from the LCBO. The center piece theme was Pisces and so I had large glass vases of goldfish on every table. With a few quick preparations still to do in the kitchen our evening around the dining table was off to a fantastic start. We accompanied the meal with various french wines to everyones delight. I surprised my guests at the end of the night with a vase of gold fish as a take home gift along with a gift bag from La Senza complete with a pair of french lace pantie
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Oliver is the beautiful 12yr old black Labrador that I have been dogsitting for the past month and a half. Late Thursday night we got a phone call from the vet emergency hospital that Oliver was in distress. He was taken in by his owners with a bloated stomach which later was diagnosed as “stomach torsion“. This is life threatening in dogs. He died that night of heart failure during surgery. It came as a big shock to everyone and his condition and worsened in a 2 hour span. There was no warning. He had a gag type cough for some time that everyone ignored, which probably weakened the muscles holding the stomach in place. He did not have the typical symptoms as described.

How is everyone coping with the deep freeze that we are having? It registered -22c on the car thermostate this morning when I drove the boys to school. Catherine you may be used to this kind of weather but we who live on the banana belt are chivering to death.

For the past week I have been babysitting my friend Barb’s pets, an 11yr old black lab named Oliver and a tabby kitty named Muffler. They feel very comfortable at my place and it is nice having pets around again. Barb and Paul have bought a ranch side split and are in the process of selling their two story home. They are downsizing at age 50. They hide the pets at my place while the agents show potential buyers.

We went for a stroll down the main drag and popped into an antique store and I made Nick take a picture of the dried up coconut that I found on the shelf. We laughed our heads off saying that, “we are copycatting your finds in Florida”. We even found a Snug Harbour restaurant. We did not go inside as it was more of a truckers drinking hole than a family pizza type place. We could not go crosscountry skiing as the trails were closed due to slushy wet conditions. The luck of the draw. There is snow all around but it is too warm 3c. Happy new years to all. We will be home in our hot tub toasting the past year and bring in the new. ps. The Butani family relatives were not effected by the tsunami in Sri Lanka. Thankgoodness.

I went for a nice walk today and strolled through the village with my camera. Brian found me with the help of our family radio walkie-talkies and I taught him to peek and pop down that alleyway “just to discover what was there”. We had an awesome time together checking out the historical architecture. We all went tubing under the lights at “peek’n’peak” ski resort tonight. I went down along with the boys. Not bad for an ol’gal and I reoxyginated by screaming my head off. We are going back for sure. For a few pictures follow this link.

Merry Christmas all from Chautauqa, New York. We arrived yesterday after driving through a whiteout from Niagara to Erie. That area is so renound for its unpredictable snow squalls. We drove west towards Erie, PA and then headed into the cottage country. The area is like Muskoka but with a Currier and Iyves atmosphere. We are staying on the “Chautauqua Institute” which is a gated area around Lake Chautauqua. We went to 10pm/midnight mass. I packed a parmeseasn shrimp and pasta dinner, wine and salad, and Christmas sweets, Chistmas table cloth and candles etc. I even have a turkey to cook for tonight. We are in a chalet style place for a week of R’n’R. Happy day everyone.

Thursday at 12:30am the boys came crashing into our bedroom and woke us up. They were frantic saying that something was scratching in the walls of Stephen’s bedroom. We checked the walls, looked out the windows and then ventured out onto the front lawn in our pajamas and flashlight. We found Rocky Racoon gnawing his way through our house. He came through the siding to escape somehow. He was not phased that he had an audience and that we were shining a flashlight in his face. We opted to help him out by setting up a plank of wood for a ramp once we noticed that he could not make the cliff hanging manoeuver, up and over the eaves.
The task at hand now is to repair the gaping hole in our house before he decides to come back to stay the winter.