Quest For Cheese

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Today was one of the busiest I've ever had at work. I'm not in the frame of mind for anything cerebral but I do feel like posting, so I'll share something I wrote on Facebook about our trip to the supermarket tonight.

Sometimes too many choices at the supermarket isn't a good thing. Why is it so easy to find Tibetan Hairy Elk cheese or Norwegian Midget Double Aged Beaver cheese but it takes literally ten minutes and two staff to help locate a block of plain friggin' Swiss? They even put holes in other cheeses just to fake you out, to make you THINK you've finally found it. That's what the security cameras are really there for. They don't give a damn if you set off the alarms for the razor blades, they want to watch you go apeshit trying to find a specific cheese.

Happy weekend everyone!

Love Story

This is a poem I wrote for my first on-line friend, Anna, who I met shortly after I started blogging in 2009. I was charmed by her writing, especially about her boyfriend; it was passionate but refreshingly innocent. Over time we got to know each other and formed a close bond. 

This piece has always held a place for me because I've never captured the spirit of someone's relationship more completely than I have here. It's also the first poem I've written of a story seen through someone else's eyes. Anna still has the original I sent in her room somewhere, thousands of miles across the ocean. I've watched her grow into a woman over the years and we're still friends today.

Posted with her permission.

Love Story

So come to me on bended knee,

And calm my insecurity.

We’ll lay beneath the Aussie skies,

Fight the dark and greet sunrise.

With stained-glass rays to warm our face

We’ll run each day’s uncertain race.

Love’s moments spent near or apart

With you forever in my heart.

On crashing beach and windswept plain,

Through winter’s chill or summer’s rain,

We’ll act like fools for all to see

Or be content to simply be.

Stolen nights entwined as one

When passion’s dance has just begun,

Your deep blue eyes and tiger skin

With every breath I’ll breathe you in.

Then hand-in-hand we’ll face the day,

Climb obstacles that come our way

And thank the day that we both met

My shining Prince.

Your Juliet.

Our Anniversary Celebration

Thursday marked fifteen years that Sandy and I have been married. We rarely get extravagant when celebrating special occasions, instead we decided to book a day off work and spend the day together on a trip into the city. We centred it all around a tour of the Picasso exhibit at the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) in Toronto.

We took the train downtown, joining the morning rush-hour crowd as they poured into the city. But we were in no hurry and made a few stops along the way.

Our first destination was a cafe/ bistro that Sandy recently discovered. We both have a weakness for a good latte and weren't disappointed.

isn't she adorable?

From the cafe we headed up the street to the art gallery...

"Large Two Forms 1966 and 1969" by Henry Moore

Some of my favourites:

"Violin" (sculpture)

"Sacre Coeur" (sketch. Sandy and I fell in love with this one)

"Musician"     

"The Kiss"

"Man With A Guitar"

"Reading"

"The Farmer's Wife"

"The Supplicant" (this was a small piece, with amazingly fine detail)

"Three Figures Under A Tree" (heavy African influence in this work)

gift shop

From the art gallery we went back to the cafe for lunch (the prices in the restaurant at the gallery were crazy). Afterwards we took a stroll to Sandy 's office so I could meet some of the girls, then we continued downtown.

   Yonge/Dundas Square, in the heart of Toronto...   

Our last stop downtown was the St. Lawrence Market. It opened in 1803 and was named the world's best food market in April by National Geographic. Sandy goes fairly often but I hadn't been there for years, so it was a perfect opportunity to do a little meat and produce shopping. I also got a chance to meet some of "her boys", who take such good care of her when she shops there. Yeah, she loves the attention!

We left the market mid-afternoon and caught the train home. We had a quick shower then headed out for dinner at...

We both ordered steak topped with crab, shrimp and bernaise sauce (Sandy skipped the bernaise) and got THE best server we've had in a long time. Shauna was amazing, her service was great and when she found out it was our anniversary she took time to talk with us. She asked us how to make a relationship last and was full of questions.

Sandy and I both agreed it was one of the best days we've spent together in a while. Everything was perfect!

More random photos from our day...

sculpture in a park

these looked pretty hot

I thought some of you might like this

setting up for the MMVA's (Much Music Video Awards)

I loved this bike!

in the park...

 

Secret Sunday

Hey everyone, I hope wherever you are you've had a good weekend! It's time for the 114th round of Secret Sunday, a chance to anonymously share secrets and/or fantasies you've been keeping to yourself. Some are uplifting, some are heartbreaking and some are just plain naughty.


All are valid.

Here's how it works:

1) This is open to anyone who wants to participate, from regular follower to casual visitor.

2) Post a secret or fantasy anonymously. It can be from mild to wild, anything goes. All I ask is that it's true. You can post as many as you're comfortable with. I don't plan to censor content or language.

3) If this is something you'd like to run on your blog please feel free. Let me know and I'll follow along.

And now to it...

Home Improvements- Freshening Up Our Front Porch

Okay so I know the title isn't terribly creative. Put it down to my brain being in neutral because I'm fighting a cold.

Originally our front porch was covered in a bright green, fake grass carpet that for whatever reason used to be popular. If you're too young to remember it count yourself lucky, suffice it to say it came with the house and wasn't our choice. Years ago I pulled it all up, prepped the concrete and applied a granite finish which we were very happy with. It wore extremely well, and after about eight years started to develop a few cracks and a hole. It was time to refinish it.

Sandy suggested we get rid of the railing, which I agreed to since it was dated and wasn't serving any purpose (it wasn't required by code since our porch is very low to the ground). So, out came the cutting wheel... 

There were plenty of fireworks as the sparks showered everywhere...

No more railing...

I bored out some rotted wood that was in the bottom of all four holes with a drill and spade bit then cleaned them up. This would give the concrete that was to follow the best possible adhesion...

Supplies for mixing the powdered concrete. Limestone gravel is in the clear container, it has to be mixed in since the holes were so deep....

Here it is after two applications. Once this was dry I trowelled on some concrete with no limestone and levelled it off. I did this for all four holes...

When the concrete was dry I primed the repairs with a white surface primer...

It was time to resurface. I began trowelling on the granite finish, the same stuff I used years before. It's water-based and easy to work with, just a time-consuming fiddly job. Think of it as a very thick paint with sand in it...

I couldn't believe I ran short of the stuff! And being a holiday Monday the store was closed. So I had to put the rest of the job on hold until the following weekend. Okay. So if you went to somebody's house and saw their front porch like this in the photo below what would you think? There's probably some construction going on right? Yeah. We ordered take-out and Sandy specifically asked the person taking the order to request that the driver come to the back door. We even left the gate open and you CAN'T miss it when it's open. Our front doorbell rings and there he is, he had walked up the narrow foot-wide part of the porch on the left that isn't blocked by the flower planter. Awesome. Fortunately there was no damage or they would have heard about it. ..

And here we are. I still have to apply a sealer coat this weekend if the weather's good but this is it! In a few years we'll replace the porch with interlocking stone which I hope to do myself.

We've been busy around the property so I'll have more home improvement posts soon!