Karen Accidently Puts a Curse on Janet

These are Janet and Phil's good friends, Karen and Ken.  They have been friends since Meg was in Junior High School and friends with their daughter, Raeleigh.  Janet ran into them while dog walking on Sunday and Karen and Janet decided they would go for a bike ride on Tuesday.  Karen asked Janet if she knew how to change a flat tire and her response was "that's what cell phones are for".  Turns out Karen was unable to go for the bike ride, but they surprised Janet with a great gift.

A bike mirror...Janet thinks this is excellent as now she can actually see when the bus will side swipe her!

Today, Janet set off by herself to go for a bike ride.  Phil drove her down to the Galloping Goose and her plan was to bike home for a total of 30K.

She had a flat tire....boy, was she mad! Why didn't she listen to Karen?   She walked 2K and called Phil 4 times before he finally answered the phone.  Phil, still courting his death wish, wanted to know why she walked for 2K and hadn't called previously.  Lucky for everyone, Janet doesn't use her bad language in public.

They had a special treat at Janet's work yesterday - dessert!  They rarely have sweets after dinner.  It was a Rhubarb Compote with Vanilla Yoghurt and Strawberry.  Janet said it looked delicious.  At this time of the year, they receive lots of fresh veggies and fruit from local farmers.

Janet says she loves the commercial kitchen at her work.

This is Micky.  He is the new dishwasher and Janet thinks he is very cute.

Just so you don't think we are lounging around doing nothing, here we are helping Phil wash the cars. 

And, last but not least, more Wedding Sparkles:

We Had a Busy Day!

Yesterday was Mother's Day and it was really nice outside.  Janet spent the morning opening a spectacular array of gifts, pictured here:

And if that wasn't enough, there was the lavish brunch that Phil made, pictured here:

Surprisingly, she still had the energy to go for a bike ride.  She rode from home, to the Galloping Goose and home again for a total of 30Km.  Janet says she is going to stick to 30 Km for a couple of weeks and then move up to a longer distance.

This is one of the tunnels Janet doesn't like.  Actually, we heard her tell Phil that tunnels on bikes aren't too bad - it's the one cars go through that really scare her.  She always envisions a vehicle accident inside a tunnel where cars catch on fire.  She also rolls down her car window when we embark or disembark from the ferry.  Did we mention the rolled down window when the car goes over bridges?  See where I am headed with this?  I have to add she usually forgets to roll the window down on a bridge if she is driving as it takes too much concentration for her to drive on the bridge.

 

Today was also spectacular so both Phil and Janet took us to Uplands Park.  Here we are relaxing before we go on the walk:

Phil is putting his runners on, so we don't want to waste any energy standing.  Look at Noodles' crazy hair do!

It was beautiful in the park.  This particular field is usually the most interesting in terms of changing flora and fauna.

Here I am taking time to smell the......blue flowers!

Unbelievable...We Had Another Party!

This is too much fun...we had another party last night!  Well, OK, small party.  At Christmas, some of the neighbours wanted to know how to make dumplings, so Janet said she would show them how.  That was the purpose of her party.

In order to get a jump on things, Janet decided to make the dessert on Thursday night.  She clearly wasn't channeling Betty Crocker as this is what her crater cake dish looked like:

Wow!  Was she angry!  It's supposed to be Sticky Toffee Pudding, using a recipe she got from our Aunt T.  Janet has made this recipe many times with nothing but success.  We didn't want to see her cry, so we left the kitchen.

Janet made the fillings for the dumplings and had everything ready for our friends to try to fold them.  Janet was very nervous about having this little get together as everyone has been raving for years about how delicious her dumplings are.....she says the truth of the matter is they don't know how simple they are to make.

So....we had Thai Shrimp Dumplings with Coconut Basil Sauce from Hugh Carpenter.

This is Wendy and David.  Wendy lives across the street and has a really pretty yard.  Why are they relaxing and not making dumplings?

Now we remember why David is relaxing.  Janet didn't think anyone could do a worse more creative job folding Gyoza than Phil, but David proved her wrong.

Here is Mark from next door and Jack from down the street.  Do you think Jack had too much to drink?   He's  all blurry! 

In total, they had:  Vegetable Rolls with Spicy Peanut Sauce (above), the Thai Dumplings, Gyoza and rice, Chawan Mushi and a remade Sticky Toffee Pudding that didn't crater!

Well...how about us doggies?  It was really nice and warm here today so Janet took us for a big walk.  When we get home, what does my already tired brother do?  He goes to par-bake himself in the hot sun!  What's up with that?  See Janet's hand petting Rockers' head?  Both Rockers and I always put our paw over her arm when she is petting us.  Totally adorable?  You bet!  At any rate, she falls for it!

Janet's Brilliant Idea

When Janet is at work on Tuesday and Wednesdays, they often bag up bread and buns that have been  donated to put on a shelf for people so they may help themselves.  On Thursdays, when Janet goes upstairs to make sandwiches for lunch, they use many, many loaves of bread.   They throw out, or recycle the little white plastic closures that come on the bread.

Janet suggested to Mike, Nutrition Bar supervisor, that they have all sandwich making shifts keep the tags so that when they bag the bread downstairs, they can re-use the tags which would be much easier.  On Tuesday, they did and Janet said it was way better than knotting the bags.  This is the stuff legends are made of!  We're kind of thinking "Order of Canada" or something similar!  Go Janet, Go!

See the little white tags?

These are Janet's volunteer friends from Tuesdays shift - Judy and her daughter Tracey.

Remember when Janet showed you how lumpy my doggie bed was and Mr. Cheapskate Phil said it wasn't necessary to get me a new one?  Good. Call. Phil.  Here I am, nestled up on his pillows.  Very comfy!

Sometime ago, Meg told Janet older people (we assume this means people older than Janet) should do puzzles to keep their minds sharp.  Then, when she and Lolo and Simone went out on Monday night, Lolo told Janet she always does the Word Jumble puzzle in the paper.

You are probably wondering why we have a photo of this puzzle.  Turns out, Janet got stuck on the last word and sent the photo to Lolo for some much needed help.  Either Janet is way beyond the puzzles sharpening her mind or by accident, she stumbled across the Mensa Puzzle.

Here's another thing about Nut Job...she has Winter Food Rules and Summer Food Rules.  It's now almost mid May, so bye bye to Chili, Stew, Curry, Lasagna and anything else that needs to simmer or bake for a long time

Hello Summer Food:

Salmon and Asparagus with pasta in a ginger butter sauce from Hugh Carpenter.  They said it was yummy!

Janet Did It!

Yesterday, Janet set out on the Lochside Trail and rode 30Km.  She was so happy, although it was hidden deep beneath her tired and grumpy demeanor.  Now that she has mastered this far, she will sign up for the Tour de Victoria Bike Ride.  Guess what....now she has a domestique and a peloton!  Meg and Derek are also going to come and go in the 50Km ride.  This is excellent.

Here are some of the things Janet saw on her big bike ride.

These lucky guys get to go for a big bike ride.  I don't think Janet is going to do this as she probably doesn't want to pull an additional 140 pounds!

Some nice fresh groceries for sale.

There were several horses.  The Lochside Trail starts in downtown Victoria and goes all the way out to the ferry, so Janet says lots of it is really pretty and rural.

Good thing they were invited to Lolo and Stevies last night as Janet was pooped out.  Lolo went over the top with homemade Perogies with bacon, onions and sour cream, Sesame Seed Chicken Wings, Chopped Salad and Meatballs in Sauce.  Dessert was crepes with fruit and ice cream.

Here she is, slaving over a hot stove!

 Last, but not least - Wedding Sparkles!

A Big Day at Our House

Holy, Moly!  We were busy today.  At 8AM, this is who was on our front step:

I know...it looks like an alien...right?  Turns out it was just the painter coming to do "Wedding Sparkles" (long overdue in our opinion, wedding or not).

He re-painted the front step and did a lot of touch up work inside.

Noodles has control of the situation...no shabby job will get by her!

While the two of us are micro-managing the painter, Janet is out joy-riding on her bike.  Phil drove her across the Bay Street Bridge today so she could join the Lochside Trail.  Turns out, she took a wrong turn and ended up on the Galloping Goose Trail...no matter.  She said it was fabulous and her first experience to go on either trail.

Janet passed many walkers and a couple of cyclists...well, that's her spin on the ride.  Turns out the two cyclists she passed were small children, riding bikes with training wheels!  Leave it to Janet to build her biking creds on the backs of toddlers...oh the shame!

This was some of the scenery she enjoyed while racing against small children.

This was the first trestle bridge.  The brochure for the trail did not mention some of the more frightening aspects of the ride.  Overpasses and tunnels - these are right up there with parkades in Janet's books.

This "small" pleasure craft was anchored in the Inner Harbour.

Despite using small children to boost her ego, Janet was really happy that she managed 25K on her bike today!

Salmon on the Table and Tomatoes on the Floor

You will never believe what Janet did....she rode 20K on her bike yesterday!  She was exhausted!  She had to walk up two hills that were quite steep, but other than that had a good ride.  She is still afraid of cars and phew, who knew there were so many bus in this city.  On her route, she made a couple of stops (Finest At Sea, then Discovery Coffee to see if her nephew Brad was working) so it took longer than she anticipated.  Janet arrived home at 12:10, just in time to go to Yoga for 1:30.  This was the last class of the session, so Janet was delighted to find out it was Restorative Yoga.  Janet says she is making friends at Yoga!

Here is the result of stopping at Finest At Sea.   She came home with this treat; well, treat for them that is:

Yum, they said.  First of the season, fresh Spring Salmon.  Janet left it too late in the day to find an interesting recipe, so they just grilled it on the BBQ.

Grilled salmon, steamed broccoli and brown rice.  Janet loves brown rice, which is weird as she doesn't like brown bread.  Phil loves brown bread and doesn't like brown rice.....I am the only one who thinks these two are insane?  I also wonder what happened to the end piece on the left hand side of the salmon steak.....Phil!?!?  In addition, that is not some delicious looking sauce at the bottom of the plate...just Janet's bad photo skills!

Phil has a sore foot, sore knee, sore hip, arthritis in his neck....OK, OK.  Enough already.  You get the picture.  One of his "therapies" is to roll a can of tomatoes on the floor with his foot on top to help it feel better.

At first, Rockers was curious about the can.  It's not the sort of thing we normally see on our kitchen floor.  Think cupboard, think counter, think recycle.  Floor - until today never!

Then Phil, who is obviously cranky with all his ailments, rolled the can toward Rockers.  He started backing up, real fast!  I keep telling Janet we need to up his meds if he wants to do the Ring Pup thing, but so far she has done nothing.  She tried to convince Mr. Doctors Dream Come True Phil that we could rent the chairs for Rockers to practice, but  Cheapskate shot it down in a hurry.  I might have earned my Naughty Badge from the Guides, but I am still doing the best I can to help my brother - you would be shocked at how quickly he can get that breakfast on the floor when Janet gets up!