old old man

Yesterday was Richard's 25th birthday, but what with all the excitement of daylight savings time and all I forgot. (Just kidding.)
We celebrated by Richard sleeping in until who knows what time and me going to work. Whoo! But then we went out for dinner together at East Side Mario's. Richard had lasagna, and I had the angel hair primavera- yum yum. I wanted to tell the server that it was Richard's birthday, but he wouldn't let me, and since he didn't go to the bathroom at all the whole time we were there, I couldn't tell her secretly. So no East Side birthday song or free dessert or anything. Boo.
Oh well. Richard's birthday present was some cooking stuff (he likes to bake bread and make soup and things) and some stuff for his bike from MEC. (Little waterproof booties and more lights for safe and dry winter biking!)

Happy Birthday, Richard !

MMMMMMussels

sorry about the blurry pictures, but it was dark in the kitchen
the other day we bought 2 pounds of fresh mussels from The Fisherman's Market and steamed them in a 1/2 cup of water with butter (margarine), basil and garlic slices. (Add lemon juice to the 'steam juice' for a dipping sauce for the mussels and crusty bread). Yummers, gotta love living near the ocean.

Maritime Fall Fair 2

So, it looks like now the internerd will let me do things with pretty pictures, so here we go.


Giant Flemish rabbit. (This thing was the size of a cat. A big cat.) Initially, it was sitting in the typical rabbit-y fashion, and then it started to scrunch itself around (really the only way to describe it) so that all its chest fat was held up under its chin, and then stretched out, resting on its little fat cushion as you see it. Very funny to watch.

This was the first prize quilt. It's hand quilted, and although difficult to tell in my picture, the quilting that is cross-hatched inside of the 'pineapple' shapes is a deep yellow, rather than cream like the rest of it. (This one's for you, mom!)

Me and a giant squash. This sucker weighed in at 628 pounds, and was sitting next to two 1000+ pound pumpkins (definitely big enough for Martha Stewart) and a 200 pound watermelon. Whoa.

There were lots of different animals at the fair, and I took lots of pictures (being the city slicker that I am) but most of them are embarrassingly blurry. (No steady hand here). This little guy (girl?), on the other hand, looked right at me when I whipped out the camera, and posed until I was done, then resumed munching the hay.

Anyways, I have more pictures, but who wants to see blurry cow bums? I didn't think so.

By the way...

Did I tell anyone that I cut my hair?

Maritime Fall Fair

Today Richard and I took ourselves out to the Maritime Fall Fair to see what it was all about.

We peeked in on the strong man competition (flipping giant tractor tires!) and then went to look at the Ag exhibits. We (I) petted some sheep and rabbits. We also looked at cow bums and different fancy birds.

Although there was a midway, complete with Gravitron, those spinning teacups (only they were bears, not teacups), games for ridiculously huge stuffed Simpsons dolls, and scallop burgers, we only took a peek and then went back inside. Even though it didn't rain today like it was supposed to, it was still very windy and cold!

After that, we finally found the craft exhibits, including an interesting hooked rug and quilt display area. There were some very nice photography exhibits (including screaming cats and gorgeous fall leaves) and lots of pickles and jams and things.
Richard and I both agree that I could do lots of the handiwork stuff at a comparable or better level to some of the prizewinners, so if we're still here next year, I might just enter. And if Richard ever makes some more of that hot sauce, he'll enter too!

I want to show you some pictures that I took, but the internet is being stupid. So maybe tomorrow.

Ten Minutes

That's how much time I have to write before I go to work.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there. I hope your weekend was safe and fun and filled with all things turkey... hehe. Actually, Richard and I did a pot roast on Sunday instead of a turkey, because there's only two of us. It's a good thing, too, because there is no way that a turkey would fit in our freezer or fridge. It rained all weekend (all day, all the time, Friday night until Tuesday) so it was just dark and wet here in Halifax, but we just slept in and hung out.

We bought some curtains for our living room and bedroom yesterday (finally!) but stupid here grabbed the wrong length of sheers for the balcony doors, so I'll have to go exchange them today. It would look really silly to have them cut off about two feet from the floor, and have a little (big?) gap there. Oops.

Anyways, as usual, will post more later. Pictures next time. Of curtains maybe? Or maybe one from a certain couple's wedding? We'll see.

A Little Slow on the Uptake

Obviously this "blog" idea is something that takes getting used to. Once a week was... optimistic, perhaps?
Well, here's a leetle update for you nosies.

Richard is a germy boy and gave me his cold, so we're both kindof sniffly and slow lately. Regardless of his germ-laden self, however, Richard has been playing hockey. Friday nights (midnight until whenever!) he plays "pickup" with one of my coworkers, and Sundays we've both been playing ball hockey in an empty parking lot with a bunch of grad students. Actually, this last Sunday I kicked everyone's butt. (And if you believe that, I have some nice Florida beach front property you may be interested in...) Actually, I am not too too bad, considering Richard had to buy me a brand new hockey stick so I could play and it was the first one EVER that I've owned, and the first time I've played anything even resembling hockey since gym class in grade six. Even got a couple of goals. Yay! Wouldn't want to try it on skates, though.

Anyhow, that's it so far... if we get it together we'll try to post more often. And maybe Richard will have something to say so that I don't slander him too badly.

Here's a picture for you visual types: On Labour Day, we went with a friend, P, for a drive across Nova Scotia and down to the valley (The Annapolis Valley, that is) and all over. We stopped in at the Greenwood military base to see the Airforce Museum. Well, the museum was closed, but there were some pretty nifty planes "parked" on the lawn, so we ran around taking pictures of them, anyhow. And P really wanted to go to the Canex, so we did that, too. (Canex is sort of a military version of a Sears department store attached to a Short Stop, all in a wee little building. Apparently these wondrous things are only found on military bases and P hadn't been in one since his cadet days.)