Clove Gum!?

Have you ever heard about or tasted clove gum? Richard and I picked up a pack while visiting south Florida last month. Neither of us were that crazy about it. It kind of reminded me of being at the dentist!

ATC Quarterly Centre Fold #17

Click to enlarge
With all the running around lately, I forgot to post the imaginative centre spread from the just published winter issue of ATC Quarterly. "Say Cheese" was a fun theme and everyone rose to the occasion.
If you want to download a pdf version and see it larger, click here.

Timmy's is Feeling Festive

Tim Horton's donut shop is feeling festive and this month features a chocolate donut that has icing embedded with crushed candy canes.


Just the thing with a cup of coffee to warm you up on a snowy day. Check out the steam from my coffee on the windshield.

On the Road

I delivered the mail on Friday so our regular delivery gal could have a day off and go Christmas shopping. We've only had one snowstorm so far so you could still see corn stubble in the fields.

I'd never done the route in winter before.


I was lucky because it was clear and cold and no snowstorms in sight.


But it was exceptionally windy and the snow blew over the road and looked a bit like dry ice.


Kind of pretty, eh?


My "ergonomic helper" had long arms that day as many times, because of snow banks, I couldn't get in close enough to the mailboxes.


I loved the mixed fonts and lettering on this list of folks who live here.

Poutine Chronicles in the NY Times!

Hey, my food blog Poutine Chronicles is featured in today's New York Times blog called Diner's Journal. Click here to see it. Isn't that the coolest?!

Big Things: Basketball Player

When in Orlando, Florida last month, we visited City Walk at Universal Studios and came across this absolutely gigantic basketball player in front of NBA City, a basketball themed restaurant.


What size running shoe do you suppose he wears?

Happy Birthdays

Over the past few weeks several friends have had birthdays. Jennifer, the curator at the Glengarry Pioneer Museum, celebrated her 30th birthday and a bunch of us surprised her with a little tea party. Linda, the chair of the museum committee, baked a delicious carrot cake.


Meanwhile at our monthly ATC trade, our most senior trader Perry, who turns 92 this week, was surprised when another in our gang, Doreen, presented Perry with a cake.


After our trade, we all sang him happy birthday and Perry told us many funny stories. Happy birthday wishes to Jennifer and Perry!

Benny's on the Beach

As the first winter storm rages outside, I am warmed by the thoughts of brunch on the beach in Florida last month. We stayed with my oldest and dearest friend Roberta and her husband Phil and my request was "somewhere beachy and sunny" as a place to eat.


Benny's on the Beach in Lake Worth. It is such a popular joint that we had to wait for a table and had a coffee outside while we waited.


Once we were seated, I was stumped at what to order by their extensive menu...


...with tons of yummy omelettes and various benedicts.


Richard went for the omelette.


Phil ordered some other eggy dish with a side of bacon.


I stuck to my health guns and had a tuna salad. (I had a feeling there might be a good poutine in my future!)


Good food and good friends. Could there be anything better?

Year Book Yourself

I found a crazy site called Year Book Yourself, where you can see what you'd look like in high school yearbooks over the years. Here I am in 1960.


And here's what I'd look like in 1962.


Hello gorgeous in 1966.


I have to say this is kind of what I looked like in 1978. My high school grad pic was shot in 1977 and I had a 'fro but not as big as this one!


I finally have 80s Farrah hair!


Looking pretty cool in 1996? Except my face is too big for my hair!


Here's me dreaming of graduating high school in 2000. Ha!

Cinnamon 1996-2009

My late father and I adopted Cinnamon from the SPCA in Cornwall, Ontario in the spring of 1998 when he was about two years old.


From the start he was one of those cats with tons of personality.


He became office manager and bossed all the other cats around.


When I adopted Cookie and Oreo about four years later, he made best friends with Cookie...


...and they were inseparable.


One time he got a skin condition and had to wear the cutest little t-shirt that Richard found for him.


Cinnamon got quite sick last week and yesteday I had to have him put down. A very sad day.


I just loved Cinnamon. He was such a good friend to me.


I'll miss you my sweet Cinny.

The Ultimate Poutine

Kathryn Ashby sent me a photo of this high-end poutine (that's foie gras on top!) that her chef-husband creates at their restaurant Café du Lac in Toronto. It won first prize when Toronto Life rated various poutines around town. To read Kathryn's description of this delectable concoction, go to my Poutine Chronicles blog.
How fast do you think I want to taste this one?

Parsley Under Glass

Around here this time of year, we're usually in the midst of a winter wonderland. On Monday we had a light dusting of snow which has already melted.


The winters are just too severe for the rosemary to make it to next spring, so I cut it to dry it.


Meanwhile my parsley is happy under its bell jar.


The bell jar keeps it from getting frozen too solid...even if there's some snow, the parsley still keeps nice and green. But by the time it gets to -10C or so, it usually dies off.


Until then, it's hard to believe that in December I'm still eating fresh herbs out of my garden.

Back to the Future

When Richard and I were at Epcot in Orlando, Florida, we went on a ride to take us into the future.


I guess as we entered, they snapped our photos so as we travelled along in our little car, our images were also projected onto the screen in our unit.


Here's what we'd look like flying our own little spaceship.


And here we are with our future dog. Hey wait a minute! Where are the future cats? (Well, at least in the future I'll have really skinny legs!!)


Hellloooo out there! Fun or what?