marshall

Yesterday, James acted as a "marshall" for a cross country race, making sure that people go in the right direction.

Today things were busier at work. I was hoping to leave early as I had worked on the weekend but it turned out that I worked through lunch. I didn't even make it through all the things I needed to do.

Yesterday, I made Italian sausage oriechette

This dish was a good mix with the bitter rapini and the cheesy sauce. Their fresh pasta is always very good.
Tonight I made Malaysian mango noodles. This one had bird's eye chili pepper sprinkled on it. This was really HOT and made my mouth and nose burn. I could only eat half of it.

It probably would have been ok without the hot pepper but it ended up getting the thumbs down from me as it burned too much to eat. There was not much cooking involved so it was a cool dish but so spicy it was hot.

au revoir

Yesterday has so many things go wrong in so many ways, it was difficult to contain all the crises that were heading in every which way.

Today was much better in that respect.

After work, the peeps from the office all went out as Corrine is moving to Ottawa so it was a good bye dinner. We went to Grecos. I had the shiskababs which were quite excellent. I asked for no onion and well done and the waiter said double onion and blue rare, just to be funny I think. It was a good meal with rice, potatoes and a salad as well. They did a good job. Corrine's last day is Tuesday.

hype

I slept in today - to 8:30am! I was very surprised but I guess I needed to restore after the week. By the time I got rolling it was time to head to Rustle, then I went to work. There was lots to catch up on to prepare for week 3 and I had a website to design.

James had a hockey game tonight and they tied (which he thought was good because they were a very good team) but one of his teammates got hit hard and broke his collar bone. James showed me his xray. (in today's digital age, boys share x-rays)

Profile

On Wednesday night I went to James' school for their "profile" night. This is where parents go and run through their child's day at school for 10 minutes a class. So you get a small taste of what they go through.
James starts with science. This presentation went over the topics that they will cover. They will cover quite a bit!
Then there is gym. The gym itself is quite beautiful. The teacher seems quite nice. He said this is the first time that they have had a co-ed gym class but he said it was going quite well. 16 boys and 4 girls.
Next was technology, which happens in the wood shop. The teacher talked a lot but I wasn't really sure what they were doing other than wood working (not that wood working is bad but the course was called technology)
Last was English. This class has the opposite ratio from gym 16 girls and 5 boys. The teacher was very hippiesque and was a bit hard to follow but was very nice.

The meal yesterday was lemon thyme chicken

 Sweet lettuce with lemon juice salad

 With oven baked veggies

 Chicken was seasoned with thyme and doused in lemon juice and cooked in the oven as well.

Upcoming meals there are vegetarian ones coming up! Keep an eye on this page Nat!

on the run

The last few weeks have been very busy with the start of term.

James is feeling poorly with a cold.

Made a very interesting beef tteok stir fry

 Baby bok choy

 Rice cakes- these were chewy and very yummy (and filling)

 Stir fry

 Pulled together

momentus

James played in his first AAA games- the Toronto Red Wings tournament and got his first AAA goal. MVP of that game as it was the only goal scored. They still lost though. The variance of teams abilities was very large at this point in the year. Some were very strong and some very weak. So they won against the weak and lost against the strong. They did not make it to the finals, but James was pretty pleased with being a MVP.

I was pleased because I made it through all my email today! Ready for tomorrow (except for the relentless notes that I keep making to myself) My email was topping over 200 on Friday.

First storm wave

We just had the first pass of the giant thunderstorm pass over. Lightning and intense rain and power was out for about 5 mins but it is back up now. We'll see for how long. Sirens are going across the city. Reminds me of 4am!

Early rising

4:30am there were sirens streaking across the city. Then I was up so I started to get rolling. I got ready, did some laundry and dishes and then was in to work by 7:30am. There were a lot of people up at that time because of the pole climb.
I worked hard to get things set up for Monday. Still a lot to do though and only 1 day left to go!

3am

For no particular reason I was up at 3am. Left the house as early as I could to get into work- did a 12 hour day. Now ready to crash.

Worked with Pippa over the summer, proud to see her make the news!  http://www.ckwstv.com/2016/09/09/engineering-students-get-muddy/

spinning

Things are in fast motion now. Everything is not ready for next week. Still lots to do. But still interesting meals:

Steak Fajitas

Fry the peppers and onion

Cilantro

Tomatillos

Steak

Put all together. It was yummy but messy!

Dijon chicken

Purple potato medley

Sauce for the potatoes

Chicken has an apricot sauce

Put all together

Back to school

After 2 months off, James is heading to high school. We couldn't find his pencilcase anywhere. He was guessing ti would turn up in the most obvious location. Then I asked him if he checked his top bunk, and voila, there it was! Saved him from having to use an old toronto maple leaf one!

James was pleased to say that 3/4 of his teachers are male.

Hidden in plain sight

The ongoing squirrel attempt to hide things in the yard. This one is very obvious- I saw it as soon as I walked out!

high school orientation

James spent 2 days doing high school orientation, so he feels comfortable starting school next week. They ran through their classes, got their lockers, bus pass, etc so everything is sorted out administratively for the first day.

Currently it smells very strongly of skunk so there must have been a spray nearby.

Hopefully, I will feel comfortable starting classes on the 12th, but right now it isn't looking so good, there is still a lot to be done in a week!

Birthday dinner for my dad

(without my dad!)

Yesterday I ventured into Starbucks for the first time as I had a gift card. They had some interesting treats there- but very expensive!

Today I was waiting to cross a road heading north. There was a car at the intersection heading south. The car was not signalling so I assumed it was heading south. The light changed and I started to cross. The car did not start moving, then all of a sudden sped right toward me! I guess the lady was not paying attention to either the light or the pedestrians! I dodged her and she smiled and waved at me. It was a company car (it had a logo on the side) but it was too close to me to be able to read!

Work was long, there is still so much to do before classes start.

Made Herb garlic steak to celebrate my dad's birthday (though he was not here to enjoy it!)

 Roasted potatoes in oven

 roasted steak and green beans and tomatoes in oven (I took the steak out before the picture was taken!- by accident- meant to take the picture first)

 The basil pesto was supposed to go on top of the potatoes but I was worried that I wouldn't like it, but I loved it- was very good.

The race toward the start of term

Things are at a full fledged run to try to get everything ready for the start of term.

The weather has turned cooler as though it knows that September is the time to turn. Yesterday was rainy, maybe that turned it.

Tuesday's meal was a pork spring roll plate

 This plum was so yummy, I had to sample it a few times!

 Pepper marinating in lime juice

 Mini cucumber

 Making the plum sauce

 Rice noodles

 With cucumber

 and peppers

 and ground pork seasoned with soy sauce

The plum sauce on tops makes this meal great!

It is the season for squirrels to hide nuts and I find a few of them!