My Dad bowls once a week on Friday’s in a league. Today was his end of year tournament.
Dad’s team placed 3rd overall for the year but WON the tournament. They are the champions!
Dad also had a personal achievement by being the highest single scorer of the league.
Way to go Dad!
Brian has bought a new home (check it out). It is currently being constructed and will be ready for him in September.
Tonight we went to the design center to help him pick his colours, flooring, cabinets etc. I never thought I would be doing that again!
It was fun doing it for someone else. I can’t help but think of decorating or design ideas for his place. I try to keep my choices to myself. It is his place and he should do it as he pleases.
So far I like everything he has picked. I guess I have nothing to worry about. It’s going to be a very nice place.
We went to my brother Peter & sister-in-law Kathy’s place for dinner tonight. My Dad joined us. Mom wasn’t up for the trip.
It was our first time out to see their “new” place. They bought an old house that is over 100 years old. It is in need of renovating. I had never seen “knob & tube” wiring until now. They have changed the electricity but they still have a long way to go. Seems to run in the family!
Kathy made us a wonderful turkey dinner. We had all the fixings (even though we forgot about the dressing). They had a lot of leftovers but were planning to feed friends the next day.
We watched a dvd of Peter’s recent trip to Guatemala. He went down with a group from his church to build a house for a poor family. By our standards this house was not very much but to the family it was everything. It consisted of a cement floor, cement block walls (that were painted red), a roof, a window and a door. There is no electricity or water or any other finishings. This structure was going to help a large family and they were thrilled.
It was a really nice evening.
Kat put chicken bones in her crockpot last night to make a broth. It cooked all night and this morning she strained the liquid and put it in the fridge to cool.
A little later she wanted to take the broth out and make broth cubes out of them so they can be used easily in recipes.
She reached into the fridge and grabbed the broth. Grimace tripped her as she went to put it on the counter. The broth went flying and the entire contents spilled on the floor.
The cat couldn’t believe her luck. Chicken broth all over the floor. She started licking it up.
Kat got the mop and pail. She is trying to clean it up but the cat is attacking the mop. I guess she was protecting her new food source!
She tries to grab the cat who does not want to be caught. The cat freaks out and jumps into the pail of water spilling that onto the floor.
Now Kat is determined to get cat out of the house. She finally manages to capture her and throws her out of the house.
I get a phone call from Kat. “What? Again a kitchen incident? That’s twice this week!”
When I got home Kat said “When I move out I’m not taking the cat.” Then she smiled. Of course she is taking the cat. Not even a morning like this one can make her turn away.
She is our Kitty Kathryn!
We got home from Tremblant in the evening. The new appliances have been left to the kids for the weekend. I’m anxious to see how they liked them.
The fridge has the freezer on the bottom so this is a new setup for us.
“How did the fridge work out? Are the shelves in the fridge spaced properly? Do we need to change things around?”
“The fridge is fine. The shelves are OK the way they are.”
“How about the stove? Did you cook anything? Did you figure out the controls? Anyone try the oven?”
“Um yeah we used the oven. We were all in the kitchen making food. I reached in to take something out and the oven mitt caught on fire. ”
“Oh my gosh are you OK?”
“Yes, I’m fine. When the others saw the mitt on fire they yelled at me and it sounded like they said ‘Your hair is on fire’ so I hit myself with the mitt that was on fire. Then they yelled at me to stop. I managed to not set myself on fire.”
“OH MY GOSH”
Kat only burned the oven mitt. Brian is still recovering from his sister’s latest kitchen incident.
The new appliances are fine. What’s next?
Today is Brian’s birthday.
He likes to celebrate it so it’s fitting that it happens to be on St. Patrick’s day. Everywhere he goes there is a party. He enjoyed his birthday all weekend long followed by a nice home-cooked dinner made by his sister Kat and dinner at Baton Rouge coming up on Tuesday.
Here’s the birthday boy!
Happy Birthday!
Love Mom & Dad
Kathryn bought a yogurt maker. She uses goat’s milk when making her batch. It’s very good but a little expensive for all of us to eat, especially if we don’t need to.
I never realized this until now but she has never had whole milk. We always had 2% and lately we buy skimmed milk. She is off to shop and I ask her to pick up a liter of whole milk.
She comes home and reports that there is no whole milk to be had. The store had none. That sounds strange to me but then sometimes stores do run out. The next time I am out I pick up some whole milk.
“That’s whole milk? It says 3.25%?”
“Yes that’s whole milk. There’s 2%, then whole milk 3.25%, then table cream at 10% or 15%, whipping cream at 35% etc.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that was whole milk. They had tons of that at the store.”
We had a good laugh. I’m not sure what she expected the carton to show.
So the recipe for yogurt making is simple: milk and starter.
Pour the milk into a pan and warm it up to 180F. Let it cool to 100F then put the starter in a bowl and blend a little warm milk into it. Add the starter to the milk.
Pour all of this through a sieve into the yogurt maker. Turn it on and leave it for 24 hours.
Presto, you have a container full of fresh plain yogurt.
I’ve been having mine with fresh or frozen fruit and a dab of honey.
We’ve been side-tracked the last week or so from our kitchen renovations. Our in-floor heating conked out (see Feb 1 2008).
Dave decided to do it himself with expert help from my Dad. It wasn’t in the plan. We were supposed to be doing the kitchen floor so that we can move forward with new appliances etc.
The in-floor system isn’t our only source of heat but the house is calibrated assuming that it does function. Our bedroom is one of the rooms that enjoys the warmth of heated floors. The past couple of weeks have been chilly. We still get some heat but not to the level that I like.
I have to admit the last day or so I’ve been grumpy about the cold floors. Finally today it appears to be done. I won’t get to enjoy it until tomorrow night though. We are on our way to Tremblant.
Today is a good day. The heat is on. The Sens play the Habs. Alfie & Heater are both back playing. Go Sens Go. The heat is on.
Kathryn came to work with me today, again. She also came to work with me 2 weeks ago. Why?
Two weeks ago she had interviews for a position where I work. Today she was in to accept a job offer.
She starts working full-time in September.
It’s not at all what I expected but I’m thrilled. I can’t wait for the next 7 months to pass.
Congratulations Kathryn!
We bought a cool HD plasma TV about one and half years ago. We mounted it on the wall. It looks great. All we needed was a credenza to store our DVD player, PVR (I love that thing) and the Wii.
I have been looking for the perfect credenza since we purchased the TV. Brian recently found this one on-line.
We went to the store to check it out. Dave and I both like the colour, width, 3 drawer, 3 shelf configuration and we decided to buy it. I’m always thinking how things could be better and this day was no different.
Me: “It would be perfect if only it had legs. If I buy legs can you install them?”.
Dave: “Legs?”
Me: “Yes it’s a little low to the floor. It needs a little height.”
Dave: “Sure, piece of cake, it will only take a few minutes”.
If you look closely you’ll see that it was not a few minutes kind of job. Once we got the unit home and flipped it over there wasn’t anything to attach legs to. So Dave made some wooden blocks and glued/screwed them in place.
Here it is with 8 legs. As always Dave did a magnificent job. I think it balances out the drawer pulls nicely and gives it just the right height.
Why didn’t we just buy one with legs? I couldn’t find one. We now have a unique credenza. I’m sure Dave wishes I would stop trying to make things better!