Da Big Winner...is...

Here are a few preliminary pics from the acceptance festivities at Safeway today.
This is the store manager, Norm



My award...a trip for two to the Dominican ...perhaps Punta Cana...

The magnificent bouquet of flowers they presented me with

Last but not least, my huge cake which we shared all around.
Much to my surprise I had a little crowd there to share in my happiness... my sister Joyce, my sister-in-law, Lori, and her mom and dad, Ron and Phoebe, and of course, Emil , my sweets, who took all these pics! Thank-you all for making a special effort on my behalf, and thank-you to all who congratulated me and said their thoughts would be with me today when they couldn't make it.
The back of the cake was one huge slab of chocolate... and the cake was vanilla, all done up very neat with the poker chips and the poker hands...very cute.. Thank-you so much, Canada Safeway and their promotional group, Promotavate, and the supplier of the trip...Redtag. A huge thank-you to all my sweet rellies and friends who came to support me today... I wish that I could take everyone on the trip with us! We'll try to give everyone a heads up of our dates, then maybe others can book a trip there at the same time.... It will be a party for many reasons!
Love you all, and it was the best day of 2010 for me!
"The Creator"

Sat. Feb 6th, 11:00 am

Mark the date on your calender, as this will be my big moment of stardom at the Nelson Safeway store. This is the date that has been arranged to make the grand presentation to me! ( and Emil)...Yes, everyone, he has opted to come on the trip with me! So if you aren't doing anything and you want ot see me cry, then come on out to Nelson Safeway this Saturday and see what its all about. I'd love to see a few familiar faces amongst all of those cameras and media people!
I have no idea what it will be like, but hey, maybe they will give out free doughnuts and coffee or something.. who knows???
Sorry my blog was thin over the weekend. I cooked a big Chinese dinner for our friends from across the lake, on Saturday night. After dinner we got into a couple of games of Euchre and then it was late to bed. We had fun and I think I am catching on to Euchre finally.
Sunday was a busy day with clearing up the main side of the basement. Emil has visions of getting drywall hung in there before the end of the week, so we had to move everything away from the walls and then cover everything with plastic that couldn't be moved . That was an all morning project, and half the afternoon. Randy and Frances came over for Happy hour and then back to laundry and bed. I have to say that the new sheets we ordered from Costco are devine to sleep under. My pillows came today...Yay! I have woken up with a sore neck about three nights out of four ,due to my very mashed ,flat pillows. I have a knack for killing them whilst I sleep. In one year, my $60.00 Obus form pillow is a bag of dust particles and a hardened bar of foam underneath...enough to make your neck cry out in pain... I totally flattened it!
Okey dokey...Have a great week... I sure intend to!


"The Creator"

Wanye and Derrick are the winning guessers!!!!

Both of them did a little googling around to find that my surprise is not so secret if you want to find it out!
Lucky me had my name drawn by Safeway in their recent Texas holdem contest and I have won a trip for two to the Dominican Republic. Yes that is the DR that is attached to Haiti in case you were wondering. More details to come when I get them! Have a great day!
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry from Bea

1 in 1,561,267

Thats what my odds were... Stay tuned to my blog for news of my extraordinarily lucky day!

Giggle giggle!

"The Creator"

Vancouver Fog in High Definition...a Time Lapse Video

A friend sent this to me from You tube... a video that captures some of Vancouver over a period of time... done to an upbeat musical score - it is quite interesting. Just double click in the black area of the video to the right and it will open a new window at You tube . From there you can click the grey arrow to the right to see it full screen. It is worth looking at. Now I am going to go back and see the one of the Grand Canyon... Enjoy!
Well, the Grand Canyon was good, but the typhoon coming in at Hong Kong was even better...especially if you watch right to the end when the city lights turn on... very cool...

"The Creator"

Costa Rican Coleslaw and Fahitas

On Saturday night I decided to make that yummy coleslaw with the whole head of cilantro in it... I call it Costa Rican Coleslaw. I took so many pics that you will have to look at the web albumn
to see them all. Here of course, I've loaded them up in exactly the opposite order, but am too tired to exchange them all, so bear with me and you'll get the gist of it.

Here is the finshed beef fahita and coleslaw. Yum... Serve with grated marble cheese, sour cream, salsa, chopped tomatoes and guacamole if you have it. You can also do chopped lettuce, but I figured that the coleslaw did the trick.
You can heat the tortillas in the nuker one by one, or do a pile of them in tinfoil in the oven. Don't overcook them or you'll have tortilla chips!





Rolling it up is important... flip up the bottom of the tortilla and then roll it. That way the filling stays inside.

No quacamole, but here it is... a layer of grated cheese on the hot tortilla, then the pepper, beef and onion fahita mixture, topped with tomaotes

I marinate the meat in a half can of beer and also some lime juice and all my spices , for about a half hour or so before beginning to cook.

A squirt of lime on the beef or chicken mixture at the end of cooking gives it a little pizazz. I use lots of tex mex spices, fahita mix spice, and anything else I have around the kitchen. This time I added a hot sauce and that brought the heat factor up a notch or two.

I cook the veggies first in the wok. I added plenty of chopped garlic too. Then I empty the veggies out into a bowl and throw in the chicken or beef... this was beef from a little striploin steak.
Once the meat was cooked , I added the veggies back into the meat. Usually I cut my red peppers in rounds but slipped up and made them chunky this time... still tasted good. Always check for saltiness...usually that is the spice I am lacking in the meat.

Here is my finished colesaw. Yummy! The dressing is nothing more than vinegar, oil , salt and sugar and garlic and a dash of hotsauce. The key , once again is to add suficient salt. This brings out the flavour of the cilantro and helps soften the cabbage. i used a bag of coleslaw mix to make my life easy peezy.

This is a cute little Ikea chopping board than came in my stocking. I used it to do most of my chopping. Here are the green onions getting chopped up.

here is my coleslaw with the chopped cucumber, tomatoe and cilantro. I went on to add chopped red pepper to the colslaw as well.

This is the nifty double bladed chopper that comes witht he chopping board. The chopper is good for herbs and a small dice.

This is the culmination of my fahita night. I have a new understanding of the word "Trajectory!"

The salsa bowl slipped off the counter and when it smacked ontot he floor, it produced a 360* radius of spewed salsa all around my kitchen... on every cabinet, on the baseboards, the rug, on top of my stove, and ever place unimaginable! Silky did her darndest to help me out but wound up hacking and sneezing from the jalapenos in the salsa. She gave up on being miss floor cleaner.

Two hours later I finshed cleaning every cupboard, my stove, my dishwasher, and anything else down low that I don't even usually see. It was a mess and looks much better now, but I'd recommend not to ever try it!

"The Creator"

Ray's Kayak...9 years in the making...

This a labour of love so to speak...Ray L. has spent nine years cooking up this baby in his basement or shop and now it is done... a piece fit for a museum...but he intends to put it out on the lake at some point. We'll be watching for it. Thanks Ray for sending the photos my way...

 

 

 

 


"The Creator"

Amarylis Blooms!

 
Here's my beautiful amarylis ,at various stages of bloom...note they aren't in the right order. Do you have any tips to keep them so they bloom next year?
 
 
 


"The Creator"

Beddingtons.com

Beddingtons.com
This is a Canadian web store that sells loads of lovely looking bedding and towels. The shipping is very reasonable and is actually free if your order is over $150.00. I might have to check this out a little more myself!


"The Creator"

Taking it easy at Canon Beach

Our lovely hotel room at the Surfsand.Note you can see the soaker tub from the livingroom when the privacy screen is open. From the tub, you have the view down below...of the Pacific ocean and huge beach.

Nice gas fireplace and flatscreen tv. In fact there was a flatscreen in each of the three rooms.
We had a microwave, coffeepot, fridge and a toaster..perfect for our little breakfasts.
I liked the idea of having a coffee and looking out at the ocean...oh yes, I guess we can look out at the lake...but it isn't quite the same!

We enjoyed the complimentary turndown service too... those are little Ovation chocolates on our bed! I heard on the radio today, that some hotel in England is introducing human "bedwarmers"...employees dressed in complete suits who jump right into your bed and warm it up for five minutes while you brush your teeth or whatever...ha-ha...The bedwarmer person probably goes home exhausted and half frozen, then jumps under an electric blanket...

A bit dark, but you get the idea...big waves, loads of beach for miles in every direction. In the old days, the beach was the main highway for horse and buggy and for early cars. The Surfsand hotel was one of the first ones built on the beach, and also the first one to claim the beach in front of the hotel as private property. The state Governor of the day stepped in and created a law that gave the cars right of way to driving on the beach. To hotels, like the Surfsand, they took the legislation to mean that cars could drive on the damp part of the beach, but the dry sandy sand in front of their hotel was private and for their guests only. Another stink grew and once again it was thrown back to government , who eventually declared all of Oregon's beaches public...on all parts and none could be owned. I don't think it ever harmed the hotel's business, judging by the size of it and how they have totally renovated it since we were last there in the mid nineties.

"The Creator"

Haiti Relief

Haiti Relief

CBC Canada has this page set up so you can choose how you'd like to donate and to which agency. Funds will be matched by the govenment of Canada for any donations made. No limit now...so pick a charity and send money. They were able to pull out people that were alive today,after five days of being trapped.
Also, the Kootenay group of teenagers with Father Jim Reimer are at the Canadian embassy now, awaiting a flight out of Haiti. It was so touching watching the news forecast about it. The kids and members of their group took $2500.00 and bought 4500 pounds of rice which they distributed to needy staving people. When the rice ran out, they line continued on and on and this broke the hearts of so many of these Kootenay kids. It will be a memory engraved in their brains for the rest of their lives.


"The Creator"

Sunny Saturday!

"The Creator"

Beautiful Canon Beach

The amazing Haystack Rock from a distance . Look at that pristine beach. Considering that loads of people came out to walk their dogs, we saw no sign of doggy doo.
Canon beach is about 20 miles south of the Astoria, Washington in Oregon on the Pacific coast.
It wasn't summer yet many people were in the quaint little village checking out the many galleries and gift shops.



As the tide went out, one could see all the rocks. People at one time ,had to jump up onto a rock when a big wave washed in... you should never turn your back on the ocean!

I looked for intesting things that washed in.

We spent three nights at the Surfsand hotel right on the beach... It was Deeeeee-luxe! I'll pop some pics of the inside of the hotel, tomorrow.
Meanwhile, it is a sunny Saturday here in Harroponia. I walked Silky on the beach and now will embark on dinner plans.
Have a great rest of the day... Yea! Its the weekend!


"The Creator"

Donations requested for Relief for Haiti earthquake victims

Doctors without borders (Medicins Sans Frontieres) is an excellent Canadian relief organization to which you can donate for the victims of the Haiti Eathquake. A Nelson Doctor who works for this organization is in Haiti now helping with the efforts.
To make a donation click on this website. It is legit. I will personally be donating here as well as taking up a collection for this cause, as the devestation is incredible for a country already stricken by 4 Hurricanes in the past year, not to mention that 50% of the population is under the age of 18 years old.
An associate , Jim Reimer is in Haiti now with school children from Mount Sentinal school, waiting for the school kids to be evacuated. Jim, well known attendant of the Nelson Parkade, known as Father Jim, will stay to help with aid as he can help. Although this tragedy is happening in a country far away, many people from this area are there right now for various reasons and can be facilitators of the donations made by every day Canadians. The government of Canada will match donations ( as suggested by the opposition, Ignatiaf) up to 50 million dollars in humanitarian aid to Haiti , made to any registered Canadian organization that provides aid to Haiti. I uge everyone to donate something and be filled with hope and prayers for those children and people waiting for any suggestion of help. Aid is pouring it, but will it be fast enough to help those that are trapped and dying of thirst before they die of their injuries?
MSF Canada – single donation

Note that when filling in the phone number, the area code goes in the first box and the rest of the number in the second box. Make sure your curser is at the far left of the box before putting in the numbers.
"The Creator"

CookingByNumbers.com

CookingByNumbers.com

Befuddled as to what to have for dinner tonight? Just go to this website and click on the ingredients you have on hand and you will get a variety of menus. I suggest using more than three ingredients!


"The Creator"

Surfer at Seaside

The day was warm and a bit windy, but not any sun in sight. Seaside is a little summer community that is south of Astoria, in Oregon and believe it or not, it is home to surfers. Seems like it is a huge sport there, no matter what the time of year is. There are surfboard shops in the town and as you will see by the photos, we watched one young fellow, brave the waters and paddle out so far, we needed the binoculars to see him! In fact,w e saw at least four other surfers way out beyond a point of land and eventually , we even saw a young couple toting their surboards down a little lane not far from the ocean. We guessed they lived here year round for the surfing that was available probably daily.


This is the huge main beach right in the city at the end of the main street. Imagine a summer day there...It must be jam packed with bikinis and dogs ...not dogs in bikinis... we discovered that dogs rule down in these parts and are quite welcome...just pick up your doggy doo and everyone kept happy about it. Never saw poop on any beach , but saw plenty of dogs and plenty of doggy "papers" as they were called.




Nice summery mural on one of the buildings as you enter Seaside.


Here , you can see the size of the tumultuous waves that were rolling into the rocky shore



No fear from our local boy who was all geared up in neoprene and heading for the rocks and waves below. The point you see to the far left is where we spotted the other surfers and essentially where this fellow paddled out to...until he was no more than a dot.


Here he studies the waves for ten minutes to judge when it would be a good time to plunge in. You can't see it, but his hands were bare. Brr....

At his chosen moment he takes the plunge!

By by young man... and he paddled and paddled so far out and then just rode the waves without ever getting up to a standing position. We eventually gave up wating for him to really get into the surfing.

"The Creator"

Our Last days in Victoria in 09

Annette's house, all packed into boxes on the 30th

Check the length of this moving van!

Out for dinner at Red Robins on our last night there

The whole famdamily...and the food was delicious!

This is the huge COHO ship that loads the cars right into the side of the hull through those large doors. Looks impossible but it really works just fine. No one is allowed to stay in their cars... I think you'd most definately be seasick!

"The Creator"