Point Pleasant Park, Halifax

It was a chilly gray day today.

Sister Sarah and I went for a long walk around Point Pleasant Park.

Point Pleasant Park lies on a rocky 75-hectare (185 acre). It has been a place of recreation for the citizens of Halifax since the city's founding in 1749. Before that, it was a hunting, fishing and ceremonial area for the indigenous Mi'kmaq people.

Until 1866, Point Pleasant was primarily a military bastion but in that year it was leased to a newly formed commission for a public park.

Here's me with the Canadian Peacetime Sailors Memorial (Bonaventure Anchor), which is an anchor and chain from HMCS Bonaventure.

Hurricane Juan devastated the park in 2003, knocking down nearly 3/4 of the trees, closing the park for almost a year. About 70,000 trees have been replanted.

Here's the Halifax Memorial (Sailors Memorial), which stands in memory of the men and women of the Navy, Army, and Merchant Navy who lost their lives and have unknown graves.

It was nice walking along the water.

Here's Sister Sarah ...

There are lots of trails you can follow. Lots of people had the same idea as us ... getting outside for a long walk. Many brought their dogs to walk on the unleashed paths.

It's a really nice park. Surprisingly I've never been there before.

Book ~ "The First Rule" - Robert Crais (2010)

From Amazon ~ When garment importer Frank Meyer and his family are executed in their Los Angeles home at the start of bestseller Crais' adrenaline-fueled second thriller to feature PI Joe Pike, LAPD detectives soon connect Meyer to Pike, who knew each other from their days as military contractors. Pike is convinced that Meyer, who left soldiering to start a family, wasn't dirty, even though his murder is the seventh in a series of violent robberies where the victims were all professional criminals. Determined to clear his friend's name, Pike discovers that Frank's nanny and her family have ties to Eastern European organized crime. With the help of PI partner Elvis Cole, Pike engages in a dangerous—and not always legal—game of cat and mouse with some of the city's most dangerous crooks. Pike emerges as an enigmatically appealing hero, whose lethal skills never overshadow his unflappable sense of morality.

I love Elvis Cole ... he's funny and goofy.

Joe Pike is his mysterious friend who is an interesting opposite to Elvis.

This book is focused on Joe Pike's search to find his friend's killer. While it wasn't a bad book, I liked when Elvis was in it because he lightened a somewhat serious writing style.

I found it a bit confusing at times keeping track of everyone and remember who was with who.

Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia

Sister Sarah and I went to Peggy's Cove this afternoon.

Sister Sarah

It was a gorgeous day! We spent a couple hours climbing around on the rocks.

This guy was one with nature and meditating.

The Red Fox, Halifax, NS

Sister Sarah, Joey and I went to the Red Fox tonight.

Chia Kitty enjoyed a Keith's.

Here's Mark, our server, and Chia Kitty.

I had wings and fries (and one of Sister Sarah's onion rings) ... they were good!

There was a band called The Echoes playing. Sister Sarah had bought her truck from the bassist, Garrie. Here he is with Chia Kitty.

Chia Kitty was the first on the dance floor when The Echoes started playing.

Here's Joey and Sister Sarah ... aren't they cute?!

When the band wasn't playing, Herman played tunes. Herman is Joey's brother's wife's sister's husband.

Here's Joey, Chia Kitty and the band just before the last set.

Chia Kitty jammed with the band (he's between the piano player and the drummer).

Sister Sarah and I had some fancy moves on the dance floor.

Hanging with Sister Sarah

I'm flying to Halifax this morning to spend the weekend ('til Monday) with Sister Sarah.

I haven't been to Halifax since March 2008 when I surprised Sister Sarah at her 40th birthday party.

It will be fun to "go home" to Nova Scotia.

Stay tuned for our adventures!

Lazy bones

Here are the boys tonight ... comfy and lazy or what?!

Morgan

Byron

Working in Windsor

I had a retirement seminar to conduct in Windsor today. It's about a five hour drive (on a good day) or an hour flight.

If I drove, I would have either had to go yesterday and stay overnight (which I couldn't do because I had a condo board meeting last night) or get up a 3am this morning to make it in time (and you know I'm sooooo not a morning person!). Then I'd have to make the drive back.

So I flew.

We had some snow overnight. This is about 8:30 this morning as I'm in the waiting lounge.

There's my plane way over there, straight ahead.

By the time we de-iced and got going, we ended up 25 minutes late arriving in Windsor. But I made it to my meeting in time ... the client was just down the street. The meeting, BTW, went well.

The airport in Windsor isn't that big.

I was booked on the 5:30pm flight home to Toronto. But I managed to catch the 1:40pm flight instead. Yay!

Windsor got a lot more snow overnight than we did. There's the plow coming to clear the runway.

And there's my plane!

I had the same flight attendant down and back.

Is he giving me a hint?

You're probably wondering what's going on here ...

I did a couple loads of laundry today. Gord folded it and put his away. Mine are still on the bed, waiting for me to put them away.

Then Morgan (our tabby) did what he does quite often.

I heard a muffled meow coming from the bedroom ... and there's Morgan proudly carrying a pair of my socks in his mouth into the living room and dropping them ... then another pair ... then another pair ... then a pair of shorts.

It must have been hard work because now he is snoozing on the bed, along with Byron (in his usual spot) ... on my laundry!

Hard to put it away now!

Sneaky Dee's, Toronto, ON

My pal, Darlene, has been telling us how good the nachos are at Sneaky Dee's ... we went this evening to check 'em out.

Darlene had heard about Chia Kitty but had never met him ... until today!

Chia Kitty and I shared a beer.

And here we are ... Jenn, Gord, Darlene, Jen, me and Heather, with Chia in front.

I ordered nachos, as did everyone but Gord.

They put the salsa under the cheese and bake it. Next time, I would get it on the side and dip my chips in it (like at most places). It's not really salsa but more like a tomato sauce with chili powder.

Gord had the soft taco special ...

He said it was okay, blander than he expected.

I love nachos and was looking forward to them. But when they came, Barb the hypnotherapist's suggestions from November kicked in ... that I don't want to eat junk food and I will stop eating when I'm full. So mentally I didn't enjoy them as much as I should have and I did indeed stop when I couldn't force one more into my mouth.

It was a fun evening and it was great to hang with everyone!

Gord and I were the first to leave ... I bet the others will be staying on for a while.

Lunch with Liz and Rona

I miss working downtown.

I miss working downtown and being able to have lunch with friends.

I miss working downtown and being able to have lunch with friends at Szechuan Szechuan.

I have a 2pm meeting with a client today who is downtown. So I took advantage of that by having lunch with my pals, Liz and Rona. We used to work together in the mid 1990s.

I had yummy Szechuan chicken and rice from Szechuan Szechuan. I haven't had it in ages!

It was great to catch up with Rona and Liz! I hadn't seen Liz since before Christmas and it's been a while since I'd seen Rona.

Here's me and Rona ... Liz is still camera-shy.

CPBI Benefit Ball - Mardi Gras

The company I work for had three tables at the 2010 CPBI Benefit Ball (the CPBI is Canadian Pension and Benefits Institute) tonight ... the theme was Mardi Gras.

It was held at the Liberty Grand, which is a grand old building not far from home.

Money raised by the annual CPBI Benefit Ball has helped fund research to find the cure and provide education about Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada (CCFC). There was a silent auction with lots of stuff from theatre and sports tickets to paintings to jewelry and draws for prizes.

There were more than 320 people in attendance and it was fun running into people I used to work with but haven't seen in ages.

The emcee for the evening was Zaib Shaikh of Little Mosque on the Prairie. Sherry Holmes (daughter of Mike Holmes) has Crohn's and said a few words.

The meal was fancy (I'm kinda fussy and don't do fancy well). The appetizer was jambalaya ... but not how I'd ever seen it before. Instead of everything mixed together, there was a small slice of sausage, a rice croquette and a shrimp (I don't eat shrimp so Steve ate mine). The main course was steak with some kind of cheese on top, sweet potatoes, some stuff I didn't recognize and duck confit. All I ate was the steak after I scraped the cheese off it. Knowing how much Gord love love loves duck, I asked the server if she could wrap it so I could bring it home. She was horrified (ha!) but got it done. Gord inhaled it as soon as I gave it to him so it was worth it. Dessert was pecan pie along with a small scoop of ice cream in a chocolate cup. Yum!

Book ~ "Red, White and Dead" (2009) Laura Caldwell

From Amazon ~ Izzy McNeil is hot on the trail of one of Chicago's most notorious gangsters. Not that he realizes the crimson-tressed enchantress, a self-proclaimed "lapsed lawyer," is moonlighting as a private investigator. But when an unexpected run-in trashes Izzy's cover, she's swept into an evil underworld where she is definitely not safe.

That is until Izzy receives help from an unlikely source: the ultimate guardian angel. And the last person she ever dreamed she'd see again. Now Izzy is racing from Chicago to Rome, all the while battling personal demons, Mafiosi killers and red hot emergency desires.

This is the third in the series ... I still have to read the second one.

This isn't a bad story and I liked Izzy's character. A lot of it is far-fetched and could never happen but you just have to go with it.

Though I enjoyed the writing style, I found it odd that most chapters were written in Izzy's voice ("I") and others which included her weren't (she is referred to as "she").

The story wrapped up really quickly and predictably and left a lot of loose ends for me.

Spoiler alert!





What happened to Bernard in Italy? Was he a bad guy? They kinda forgot about him.

Does Victoria stay with Spence or go with Christopher?

Does Lucy's husband go to prison and does she and John get back together?

Morning sky

This morning I had a couple retirement seminars to conduct in Oakville. The first one was 8:30am so I left home about 7:20am.

I was amazed by the sky when I went to the car! Such gorgeous colours!

Here's a shot from our parking lot looking east towards downtown.

See what I mean?