Heading to the lake

My annual ritual is to take Deb's dogs, Misty and Taffy, for a walk to the lake, just five minutes away.


I bet it's a great spot for swimming when it's sunny and warm. This morning it was overcast.

Colten's Dishcloth

I finished a dishcloth tonight ... it was a new pattern for me. It was easy.

Yarn: cotton

Needles: 4.5mm/US 7

Cast on 39 stitches.

Rows 1 - 4: Knit

Row 5: K3, *p1, k1; repeat from * to last 4 sts, p1, k3.

Row 6: (K3, p3) across, ending with k3.

Repeat rows 5 and 6 until approximately 8.5" from cast-on edge.

Repeat rows 1 - 4.

Bind off.

Sunset on Lake Sturgeon

Ron and I sat on the deck and watched the sun set on Lake Sturgeon.


Gorgeous!

Relaxin' at Deb's

When I finally made it to Deb's, there was a strawberry Margarita waiting for me.

Their home overlooks Lake Sturgeon. It's a lovely spot!

The weather was gorgeous!

There's Franca catching some rays on the deck.

Liz and Deb were enjoying the outdoors.

Even Chia Kitty had a relaxing time.

There's Ron, Deb's husband.

We all brought food and had a huge feast!

Heading to Deb's

I met Franca and Liz at Deb's this afternoon ... we spent the night.

Deb works and lives in the Toronto area and then goes home outside of Lindsay on the weekends, where her husband lives. It's about a 90 minute drive.

Chia Kitty was my navigator ... he didn't do a very good job because we got lost.

I thought the clouds were amazing ... yes, I took pix as I was driving.

That could be another reason why I got lost ... I should have been paying more attention to the road instead of the clouds.

Book ~ "Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World" (2008) Vicki Myron

From Amazon ~ One frigid Midwestern winter night in 1988, a ginger kitten was shoved into the after-hours book-return slot at the public library in Spencer, Iowa. And in this tender story, Myron, the library director, tells of the impact the cat, named Dewey Readmore Books, had on the library and its patrons, and on Myron herself. Through her developing relationship with the feline, Myron recounts the economic and social history of Spencer as well as her own success story—despite an alcoholic husband, living on welfare, and health problems ranging from the difficult birth of her daughter, Jodi, to breast cancer. After her divorce, Myron graduated college (the first in her family) and stumbled into a library job. She quickly rose to become director, realizing early on that this was a job she could love for the rest of her life. Dewey, meanwhile, brings disabled children out of their shells, invites businessmen to pet him with one hand while holding the Wall Street Journal with the other, eats rubber bands and becomes a media darling. The book is not only a tribute to a cat—anthropomorphized to a degree that can strain credulity (Dewey plays hide and seek with Myron, can read her thoughts, is mortified by his hair balls)—it's a love letter to libraries.

I love reading stories about kitties.

Dewey sounds like quite the cat! He ended up living to age 19!

Some complained on Amazon that the story detours a bit too much at times to give a lot of detail about the city of Spencer and Myron's own life. But I think it was to show the impact one kitty can have on a lot of lives.

If you are an animal lover, you'd probably enjoy this story.

Here's the Spencer Library website page for Dewey.

Welcome home, Gord!

I picked Gord up at the airport this afternoon ... he'd left for Jersey last Tuesday for the Commonwealth Veteran Fencing Championships.

He's pleased with the way he fenced yesterday.

He ended up 15th out of 30 people.

He was also on the Canadian team and they finished 4th out of 7 teams (Wales won the team event).

Yay, Gord!

Trinity Bellwoods Park

KC and I walked to Trinity Bellwoods Park this morning.

It's a great park ...

And KC loves running around ...

And, as usual, KC snacked on her weeds ... I still have no idea what they are but she loves them!

Poutini's House of Poutine, Toronto, ON

I was talking with Katie, one of my neighbours, last night

She and her husband and his brother recently opened Poutini's House of Poutine, a couple blocks from us on Queen Street W.

I'm not a fan of poutine (I don't like cheese curds) but I went there for lunch today.

Here's the menu ... definitely the place to go if you want poutine, vegetarian poutine or baked potato poutine with gravy or veggie gravy.

I like the rustic look and the tunes were good. Plus they are want to encourage local music and art.

I ordered fries and gravy and a pop. The containers, forks and napkins are biodegradable so they are helping the environment.

It was a big container and I ate 'em all!

Hangin' in the 'hood

KC and I hung out with neighbours tonight.

Leanne and Ian live next door to Raine and John and have removed the railing that separated the terraces to make one big terrace.

There's Leanne at the top left, along with Ian, Bailey and Raine.

KC kept watch of the street. She loves sitting outside!

There's Raine and Bailey ... Bailey is an awesome dog!

Poor Raine has a broken left foot :(

Look at this!

Remember the tomato plant that was flowering last week?

There's an actual tomato there today!

Whoohoo!

Alas, none of the other plants are doing anything yet :(

United breaks guitars

Ever have an airline break or lose your luggage?

Dave Carroll of Sons of Maxwell did and has put it to music.

Here's the story behind the video.



Update: United's response:

Book ~ "A Lion Called Christian" (2008) Anthony Bourke and John Rendall

From Amazon ~ In 2008, an extraordinary two-minute film clip appeared on YouTube and immediately became an international phenomenon. It captures the moving reunion of two young men and their pet lion, Christian, after they had left him in Africa with Born Free’s George Adamson to introduce him into his rightful home in the wild.

A Lion Called Christian tells the remarkable story of how Anthony "Ace" Bourke and John Rendall, visitors to London from Australia in 1969, bought the boisterous lion cub in the pet department of Harrods. For several months, the three of them shared a flat above a furniture shop on London’s King’s Road, where the charismatic and intelligent Christian quickly became a local celebrity, cruising the streets in the back of a Bentley, popping in for lunch at a local restaurant, even posing for a fashion advertisement. But the lion cub was growing up--fast--and soon even the walled church garden where he went for exercise wasn’t large enough for him. How could Ace and John avoid having to send Christian to a zoo for the rest of his life? A coincidental meeting with English actors Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers, stars of the hit film Born Free, led to Christian being flown to Kenya and placed under the expert care of “the father of lions” George Adamson. Incredibly, when Ace and John returned to Kenya to see Christian a year later, they received a loving welcome from their lion, who was by then fully integrated into Africa and a life with other lions.

Originally published in 1971, and now fully revised and updated with more than 50 photographs of Christian from cuddly cub in London to magnificent lion in Africa, A Lion Called Christian is a touching and uplifting true story of an indelible human-animal bond. It is destined to become one of the great classics of animal literature.

I heard about Christian a couple months ago ... Oprah had Ace and John on her show after all the YouTube buzz.

If you love kitties and animals, you like this book.

It's a quick read (I started it yesterday).

Christian eventually became a 500 pound lion!

And you've got to watch this video!

Corso Italia Festival, Toronto, ON

Gord and I missed the Taste of Little Italy (which we enjoy) this year ... that had been a busy weekend.

We'd never been to the Corso Italia Festival so we checked it out this afternoon.

We took the Dufferin bus to St. Clair Avenue W and walked from the beginning to the end of the festival.

It's a different vibe than the Taste of Little Italy ... stores with sales racks on the sidewalk, rides for kids, banks pushing credit cards, food carts, etc. There were only two bands playing.

We didn't find it had a fun atmosphere.

So we walked east along St. Clair Avenue W to Yonge Street (a 5.5km walk) and stopped in a couple pubs when we got to Yonge Street (there weren't really any before that).

We won't be checking out the Corso Italia Festival next year.

Book ~ "Trigger City" (2009) Sean Chercover

It was so nice out this morning so I sat outside and finished this book.

From Amazon ~ When Isaac Richmond, a retired army colonel, asks Chicago PI Ray Dudgeon to look into his daughter's murder, Dudgeon, who's still recovering from the injuries he sustained in Big City, Bad Blood, reluctantly agrees to take the $50,000 case in this engrossing follow-up. Joan Richmond's death looks straightforward: a deranged co-worker, Steven Zhang, shot her in her home and then committed suicide. Never one to accept the simplest answer, Dudgeon starts digging and discovers that Joan's former employer was Hawk River, a military contract company under congressional investigation. Steve's widow soon reveals her husband's ties to China, and Dudgeon realizes that Joan's murder could lead back to both the Department of Homeland Security and some ruthless military contractors.

I enjoyed Big City, Bad Blood but it had been over a year since I'd read it so it took me a while to remember the background and characters.

It took me a couple chapters to get into this book ... I found it a bit cold.

And as a Canadian, I don't know all the agencies in the States so some of that didn't make sense.

But I eventually got into the story and enjoyed it.

Dish cloth

I finished a dish cloth tonight while watching Ghost Town.


Use cotton yarn.

Cast on 4 stitches.

Knit 2, YO, Knit to end.

Turn work.

Knit 2, YO, Knit to end.

Turn work.

Keep doing this over and over and over and over and over until there are 56 stitches.

Knit 1, K2tog, YO, K1, K2tog, knit to end.

Turn work.

Knit 1, K2tog, YO, K1, K2tog, knit to end.

Turn work.

Keep doing this over and over and over and over and over.

Cast off the final 4 stitches.

Tryst, Toronto, ON

We were heading home and passed by a party going on at Tryst.

There was a $10 cover charge (we weren't planning on staying long enough to justify paying it). Gord told the bouncer that we were old and only wanted to have a drink so they let us in for free. Ha!

Rum 'n Cokes were only $4. The bartender gave me two drinks, I gave her $10 and she moved on ... no change. Since drinks were so cheap, I let it go because usually a rum 'n Coke is way more at a place like this.

There was techno-crap playing and we danced a bit.


We ordered another drink from the same bartender ... a rum 'n Coke for me and a beer for Gord.

This time I gave her $20 and she gave me $5 back and walked away. There's no way a beer cost $11!

So I called her on it.

As she leaned on the counter to tell me that I was mistaken and she'd given me back all my change, she palmed $4 (two toonies) onto it ... as if it had been there all along, which we all know it wasn't.

Needless to say, I didn't give her a tip.

In that kind of an atmosphere, I bet she makes a lot of $$ scamming people like that.