Hip to be square

There is a lot of buzz in the city for the Hip concert today. Said to be their last concert. Anyway, lots of road closures and the hotels are full. Even the Queen's residences that they rent out in the summer are full. It's Hip to be here.

Rustle is having a neighbourhood party 4-8pm with free BBQ and entertainment. I think the entertainment is better than the Hip but then I don't know many Hip songs.

On Thursday made a chilli meal. Not chilli but chilli season steak, potatoes and corn. On Friday picked up thin sliced chicken breasts which James loved. Interestingly normally I buy normal chicken breast and cut it up into pieces before I cook it, but because the thin ones were thin enough I cooked them as it and James seemed crazy about it!

 This "street corn" was amazing- corn dipped in mayo and chilli and covered with corn.

Tunisian beans

This morning, there was a baby bunny in the backyard. I was happy to see him!

It was another busy day at work. Then made Tunisian white beans:

 The photo doesn't show this but the potatoes were coated with olive oil and paprika. They were very good!

 Veggies:

 Beans and veggies with harissa sauce. The sauce gave it a strong kick.

 Put together with fried egg:

rain (again)

Today we had a "weather event" known as "rain". There was a special weather statement about this "event" because I guess we don't know what it is anymore. It rained most of the day, mostly lightly but sometimes heavy.

My pom pom flowers have very weak stems and found that even light rain was too much and they bent over:

Despite the drought, this one bush has been doing very well and has doubled and overtaken another bush (you can see a wee bit of the other bush underneath it).

We had a lovely visit with my brother and his family. Abigail is adorable!

Busy day at work tomorrow!

rain

This morning we have had rain which has taken a lot of the heat off, which is nice. It wasn't a lot of rain so plants probably won't be springing back to life again but it enough for some relief.

Yesterday at lunch I went down to the lake. It was very windy and there were lots of people parasailing. What I found interesting is that all the grass by the lake was dead and dry (just like all the other grass in Kingston) but this grass is only a meter or so away from a large body of water. You can be close to the water and yet still have a drought.

I am very far behind on household cleaning so I will work on that today. I need to get some groceries later today, when it is not raining, hopefully!      

one

Today down to one dead wasp.

Made glazed turkey tenderloin. Rated as "easy" and "20 minutes", it was very easy to make and took me 30 minutes. I found the turkey was thicker than they expected as it took longer to cook than indicated in the instructions:

 Black and white quinoa blend

 Apples and mini cucumber for the salad

 Sweet baby lettuce

 mixed with apples and cucumber

 Turkey on quinoa

 With salad

10 to 2

Yesterday when I got home from work there were 10 dead wasps. Today only 2. So things are improving. And a lot of them look like juveniles, whatever that means.

Stayed up late today to watch gymnastics.

From Tuesday- Steak Provencal

 Smashed potatoes with the bottom of a cup.

Wildlife attraction

There still seem to be dead wasps arriving on my sill. Not impressed.

This morning when I was in the bathroom, I heard a thump. I was brushing my teeth so I went out of the bathroom and looked around the house. A squirrel had eaten through the screen and was looking at me from the bat window. He paniced a bit when I was close to him. But I went to spit (as I was still brushing my teeth) and then came back slowly and he then gained enough composure to run back out the hole he made. Also not impressed!

gymnastics qualifying

Today James had a soccer tournament - they ended up coming 2nd.

The number of wasps has been reduced but not cleared yet. I have a lot of work to do in the kitchen now. I wait until it gets dark before I do anything.

I watched the women's gymnastics qualifying. The US is miles ahead of everyone. The Canadians missing qualification was heart breaking- too many mistakes.

Creepy kitchen

As there are still many wasps dying in my kitchen I try to avoid it as it is pretty creepy. I only wash the dishes after it gets dark.

My thermostat keeps telling me that I need to change its battery but I haven't found it yet. (like it is weird, it is a voice that talks)

So the numerous creepy things in my house.

James cleared out his bookcase of books that are too young for him so when Nat and Karrie and Abigail come by they can have first crack at if they want any of them.

Yesterday I did some lawn sprinkling and the lawn has perked up today. James just realized that we have a sprinkler and wanted to have a run through it today but today is an even day so I told him he could have a run tomorrow.

The war on wasps

When you have wasps making a nest in your house, my advice is not to try to tackle it yourself, call a professional.

After a few days of having wasps invade the kitchen, today I called St. Laurence pest removal. They arrived within half an hour and spent 10 minutes first spraying insecticide and then adding a "dust" that I don't really understand but they assured me that it would kill the whole nest because they would track it in and out or something. Only $100 for this speedy service.

So now the wasps are still coming in sometimes but they are convulsing and dying. They say it will take 4 days to kill the whole nest. I can't wait. They are very creepy. Literally.

Vacation

Went to St. Catharines and hung out with my parents for a bit. Came back and my work had built up. Then on Sat I hung out with Clara and on Sun I went with Kim to her Church in the evening and an internet friend who I have known for about 15 years was there. I had never met her in person, so that was really neat! It was like we knew each other right away. It was a beautiful time. Have spent lots of time fighting wasps as they made a nest in a hole at the top of the kitchen window. They are not nice. At all.

Lily before vacation and Lily after vacation.

 

Shopping drama

This morning I was up at 6am, did a wee bit of lawn sprinkling to dry to keep the deadness out, got some laundry running, had a shower and was off to Loblaws at 7am. I was doing my shopping and as I got near to one aisle I could hear some swearing. Now, normally when you go shopping early in the morning it is pretty quiet. But not this morning. I walked by the aisle that the noise was coming from and it was an employee stocking the shelves. He had his cart blocking the aisle and was clearly unhappy with how the stocking was going. Luckily I didn't need any of what he was stocking as I think they may now be broken as he was throwing them around a bit. After I passed the aisle I heard a huge explosion of swearing (maybe the shelf fell) that could not have been missed by most people in the store. I could see the manager in consultation with someone else so he seemed to be aware as well. As I was checking out I heard the manager tell someone else that it was not a good day (maybe for the swearer)

After I got home, I unloaded the groceries, hung the laundry then went out again to the dollar store as I needed some food for Kassie (she prefers the dollar store brand to the expensive food- I am not complaining!) and some treats for the trip to St. C.. On the way there all sorts of emergency vehicles had converged outside Canadian Tire on Princess St.. There was a motorcycle lying on its side so there must have been some sort of accident. The rider seemed shaken up but ok. He had been wearing a helmet.

BLT salad

James had a great time at camp this week. He had a number of interesting stories to tell, the most dramatic being a the kid who overdosed on Tylenol.

 Tomatoes and mini cucumber

 Lettuce

 With arugula

 Cooking the peameal bacon

Salad with the cucumber

 Mixed

With mayonnaise and  lime dressing

 with the bacon

 and tomatoes

 and bowtie ciabatta that I toasted in the bacon pan

 It turned out very well- much yum!
The recipe card said it would take 15 minutes and I think it took me 30. It was classified as easy and I would agree on that! Easy and yummy!

korean bbq is spicy!

 The beef marinate smelled yummy!

 Carrots

 Purple cabbage

 Missed taking a picture of the grated pear!
It did not take long at all to make the stir fry. The meat only took a few minutes, then the veggies 5 minutes. Stir fry on rice:

 With Korean BBQ sauce and crispy fried shallots

The recipe card listed this meal as medium difficulty but I found it was one of the easier ones. It listed the prep time as 30 minutes- it probably took me 45minutes.

cool beans

Despite being in the peak of registration season, I had a vacation day to take today. Got my hair cut and did some shopping. Tried to catch up on all my personal email.
Tonight am making beef bulgoli stir-fry so look for a post about that soon.