Sunnyside Beach

Gord and I walked to Sunnyside Beach and back this afternoon (about 7km).

There was a weird haze over the lake.

As we walked into it, the temperature went down.

We got a table on the patio at Sunny Pavilion.

We enjoyed some cold Keith's. Yum!

Here I am ...

And there's Gord ...

We watched the volleyballers ...

We split a burger and fries ...

And a chicken burger and fries ...

This old dude actually went swimming ... brrrr!

This guy paddled up in his canoe and sat by it for hours ...

There was still a haze when we headed for home ...

It was an excellent afternoon on the beach!

Book ~ "We Keep a Light" (1945) E.M.Richardson

From Lighthousefriends.com ~ In 1926, Morrill Richardson purchased all of Bon Portage Island, NS, except for the lighthouse reservation. That same year, he married Evelyn Fox on nearby Stoddart Island, where Evelyn’s maternal grandfather had served as a light keeper. Lightkeeping was soon to be in Morrill’s future too. Upon the recommendation of Evelyn’s brother, Ashford, Morrill applied to be keeper on Bon Portage and received his appointment to that position in 1929.

Morrill and Evelyn, along with their baby daughter Anne, relocated to the island, where the couple would spend the next thirty-five years of their lives. In 1945, Evelyn penned the novel We Keep a Light, which detailed the island life lead by the Richardson family, which had grown to include three children. The book won the Governor-General’s Award for creative non-fiction.

During the period chronicled by Evelyn, the island had no electricity, but what was needed more in her opinion was a means to communicate with the mainland in case of an emergency. Just a year after the book was published, electricity arrived on the island along with a radiotelephone.

Quite an interesting tale!

Evelyn was quite a woman. She helped her husband with the lighthouse, the animals and farming, in addition to making the family's clothing, homeschooling her three children, canning fruits, vegetables and meat, quilting, making pillows, all the while lamenting that she didn't have time to get the housework done 'til the weekend!

It sounds like she loved her life ... I couldn't have done it. The isolation would have driven me crazy.

The writing is formal and decorative ... so different from today's books.

GQ Spa

I spent the afternoon at GQ Spa, which is in our 'hood.

I started with a 60 minute massage ... Beret gave me an excellent one and I was sooooo relaxed afterward.

Then Gord met me for a pedicure. He brought along some sparkling wine.

Doesn't he look relaxed?!

The foot massage along with the wine relaxed me even more.

My toes are orange ...

I also had my eyebrows waxed.

I felt very pampered!

The Rhino, Toronto, ON

It's the Victoria Day weekend ... that means we have Monday off. Whoohoo!

Gord had his From Beer to There class last night and it was at the Rhino. One of the beers they tried was the Brooklyn Local 1. He liked it and wanted me to check it out.

So I met him on the patio of the Rhino after work.

We ordered a Brooklyn Local 1. The bottle is the size of a wine bottle and is carbonated like a sparkling wine. It tastes sweet.

Here's me ...

What's up with my freaky right hand?!

And here's Gord ...

Alas the weather didn't deliver as promised ... instead of being warm and sunny, it turned cloudy and chilly.

Socks and the city

Have a lonely sock you can't find a match for? You're not alone!

• 12% of Torontonians believe the socks end up in sock heaven, the Bermuda triangle, or with a sock gremlin
• 14% don't know where the socks end up
• Two-in-ten Torontonians hold onto their lonely socks forever in hopes of a reunion!

Help your sock find its Sole Mate

Send Toronto Hydro your lonely sock and they'll do their best to match it with a compatible sock partner. If you're one of the first 100 people to send it in, they'll mail you an eco-friendly drying rack. To match your sock successfully, they'll need a description of when and where it was worn.

The top 10 Sole Mate matches will be posted on their website.

This is Candidate Number 5678

Single Since: March 2009

Description: Gently combed cotton sock with just the right amount of spandex. Likes getting warm by the fire and fleece boots.

Other interesting facts: Once worn with sandals during awkward adolescent years. Was worn to meet the Prime Minister in 2009

*******
Remember in December when I cleaned out my sock drawer (and discovered I had 80 pairs of socks?!)? I found lots of single mates but, alas, threw them out.

Rainbow Bridge

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.

There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.

There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.

The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; his eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted and, when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together ...

Author unknown

Byron (2002 - 2010)

Byron died just after midnight.

It was very sudden and unexpected.

He had a good life with us and brought us so much joy.

Safety matters!

When our condos (there are 180 units) were built ten years ago, the builder screwed up and didn't make the inside of the exterior walls fire-proofed enough.

This is a serious life safety issue and the condo corporation has been fighting them about it since.

In 2006, they agreed to fix it and I offered up our place as the tester (I'm on the condo board). They made our inside walls thicker ... then decided it was more work and more expensive than they had anticipated and stopped.

Last year we eventually took it to conciliation with Tarion who made them fix it.

The new solution is to install smoke detectors that are linked to others in the complex ... so if one goes off, others in the area (for us, it's seven others) will go off.

It's a lot cheaper for the builder and less invasion for the unit owners.

They started the project in March with the first block of units and got to our place today (I worked from home).

I'd heard that the new ones are extremely sensitive so I cleaned the oven on Sunday.

I HATE cleaning the oven!

Here's the old smoke detector ...

The worker dropped sheets before he started working ... there's Byron wanting to help.

Morgan,on the other hand, is extremely shy and hid the whole time. KC barked a bit but then went to sleep.

He took the old smoke detector off ...

Then he cut some holes along the ceiling to pass the cable through from the outside ...

He plugged the holes back up again ...

Then he plastered ...

And then stuccoed (it's still wet).

Here's the new fire alarm ...

There is a button that you can press if it goes off when it shouldn't.

Here's where they are connected in the back of the complex.

As a board member, it's been a stressful battle ... I'll be glad when it's over and everyone is safer.

Bonbons?

Sister Sarah recently gave me some bonbons.

Here they are ...


Don't they look fabulous?

They are bath bombs with dead sea salt.

I had a bath tonight and used the purple one (lemon berry).

Thanks, Sis!

Toronto woman sues Rogers after her affair is exposed

Here's an interesting story in today's Toronto Star:

A Toronto woman says the billing practices of Rogers Wireless Inc. led to her husband discovering her extramarital affair.

Now the woman, whose husband walked out, is suing the communications giant for $600,000 for alleged invasion of privacy and breach of contract, the results of which she says have ruined her life.

In 2007, the woman had a cellphone account with Rogers which sent the monthly bill to her home address in her maiden name. Her husband was the account holder for the family's cable TV service at the same address. Around June 4, 2007, he called Rogers to add internet and home phone.

The following month, Rogers mailed a “global” invoice for all of its services to the matrimonial home that included an itemized bill for the woman's cellular service.

When the husband opened the Rogers invoice, he saw several hour-long phone calls to a single phone number. He called the number, spoke to the "third party" who confirmed the affair, which had lasted only a few weeks.

I lost everything,” she says. “I want others to know what a big corporation has done. I trusted Rogers with my personal information. We had a contract — and agreement that put my life right in their hands.”

You can read the rest of the story here.

I'm surprised that Rogers would bundle all their services onto one invoice since the names are different even if the address is the same.

What a way to get caught! It should be interesting to see how this goes.

This is definitely karma biting her in the butt. What do you think?

Book ~ "Runner's World Complete Book of Women's Running" (2007) Dagny Scott Barrios

From Amazon ~ More than 10 million women in the U.S. now identify themselves as regular runners. In response to the dramatic increase in the number of women in the sport, Dagny Scott Barrios and the experts at Runner’s World have created this singular guide where women will discover how to:

• train for any race, from a 5K to a marathon
• eat nutritiously and for maximum energy
• lose weight permanently
• deal with self-consciousness and body image
• run during pregnancy and through menopause
• choose the best clothes and accessories
• run anywhere safely
• prevent and treat injuries, especially those that women are most likely to encounter

With clear photographs, running sidebars, and testimonials from women runners of all ages and abilities, this comprehensive resource provides the most current practical advice available anywhere for women runners of all levels.

This is a great book for beginners like me!

What I got most out of the book at this point is to have good runners (which I have) and what to eat before and after a run.

I found the stories about the older runners (in theirs 80s) inspirational.

Dufferin: Toronto's kinkiest street

Today's Toronto Star had an article called "Dufferin: Toronto's kinkiest street. How do you eliminate a century-old roadblock and detour without disrupting rail or auto traffic? With two years of painstaking work and more than 500 truckloads of concrete."

KC and I walked over to take a look.

It is a pain to have to make the detour from Dufferin to Gladstone to Queen to get back to Dufferin.

We've been watching the progress so it should be interesting to see how it turns out. It's supposed to be done in August.

Book ~ "She's Shameless: Women Write About Growing Up, Rocking Out, and Fighting Back" (2009) Stacey May Fowles and Megan Griffith-Greene

From Amazon ~ Co-editors Megan Griffith-Greene and Stacey May Fowles have compiled an anthology of fearless and funny non-fiction about strong, smart and shameless young women. With wit and honesty, the writers share stories of their teen experiences (both positive and negative) on everything from pop culture to high school principals.The book is founded on Shameless magazine's tradition of smart, sassy, honest and inclusive writing, and reaches out to young female readers who are often ignored by mainstream: freethinkers, queer youth, young women of colour, punk rockers, feminists, intellectuals, artists, and activists.

I hadn't heard of Shameless until I read the book.

It's a fast read ... the stories are only a couple pages.

Most of the stories are interesting.

Book ~ "Everything Is Wrong with Me: A Memoir of an American Childhood Gone, Well, Wrong" (2010) Jason Mulgrew

From Amazon ~ Mulgrew’s loose collection of 1980s and ’90s childhood anecdotes and mining of familial dysfunction (designed to “throw my family under the bus so that I can buy a high-def TV and force them to cut off contact with me for the rest of my life”) clearly subscribes to the Sedaris school of memoir writing. The stories range from his youthful coming to terms with the inadequacy of his penis to an ode to late-night drunken hooker spotting, but the most memorable character turns out to be his hard-drinking, quasi-criminal father. Mostly, though, the book functions as a collection of chapter-length bar yarns—the kind that come out when only the hardiest of livers are left—with little attention paid to continuity or organization and a lot to nailing self-deprecatory zingers, which come in two flavors: booze (too much) and sex (not enough). Mulgrew, a popular blogger, is a tremendously entertaining and affable writer as long as you’re not expecting anything revelatory and don’t mind wallowing with him in his shamelessly, cheerfully puerile tendencies.

Though I'd never heard of Jason, The Girl from the Ghetto had reviewed this book and it sounded like a hoot!

Jason is a blogger who has written his memoir of his childhood. The stories are funny and the language is crass ... it's definitely not for the faint of heart. I enjoyed his sense of humour and wasn't appalled by the language.

My only complaint is that it could have been edited better as there are some typos. He does admit to being lazy (and sounds proud of it) but these were errors the publishing house should have picked up.

Police on horseback

Walking home from St. Louis, I came across a Toronto police officer on horseback.

Not an unusual site in here Toronto. How about where you live?

St. Louis Bar and Grill, Toronto, ON (King Street W)

Gord's away for the weekend in Buffalo with friends.

I felt like going out for supper so I walked to St. Louis on King Street W.

My Keith's draft was delicious!


It's been awhile since I've had their wings ... I really like the dill dipping sauce.


It was good and has satisfied my craving for wings.

Albino squirrel at the park

KC and I took a walk to Trinity Bellwoods Park this morning. KC loves this park!

I've lived in the 'hood since 2001 and had heard that there were albino squirrels in the park but had never seen one. One was even named Whitey McRedeyes.

Today I saw my first one and it was quite exciting!

After watching it frolicking around with its buddies for a while, KC and I carried on and walked around the park.

This tree must have gotten knocked down in last week's storm.

Though there were a quite a few people out with their dogs, the unleashed dog area was quiet.