Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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Archives for October 2008

Election Night in Canada

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Well it’s election night here in Canada.

Chris and I are watching some of the early returns to see which party is in the lead. It was a tight race between the Liberals and Conservatives at first, but as the count moves west it seems the Conservatives are taking the lead.

I found that deciding who to vote for was very hard this time round. I’m sure many Canadians feel the same way. I believe the last three governments have been formed with a minority, which of course means, to me at least, that the majority of the voting population isn’t happy with the choices we have for leaders and political parties (and their agendas).

I’m pretty sure that this election will turn out yet another minority government.

The leader of the NDP party, Jack Layton, is the MP for my area. In the last returns that I saw for my voting region it looked like the Liberal leader was in the lead, but leaders of Federal political parties rarely lose their seats so Layton will probably win for this area, but judging from results coming in nationwide, the NDP will be in third or fourth place overall.

Note that in the rare instances that I discuss politics on this blog I never mention which party I’ve voted for. I keep my feelings about my political affiliation private in part because I come from a very political family and as a result I know how volatile politics can be. I don’t want that for my blog.

I will say that I want a leader that stands by the political agenda that he (she) set in their political campaign. Not one who says one thing and then changes their mind a week after they’ve been elected. That’s happened far too often in the last decade or so!

Anyway … this isn’t a political blog. I just wanted my readers in other countries to know what’s going on here in Canada this evening.

I still find it funny that we Canadians can hold a whole election – campaign and all in just 37 days, while it takes our US counterparts close to two years to reach election day. I don’t know how you guys do it. A month of political advertisements on TV, flyers on my porch and campaigners calling and knocking on the door day after day is enough!





Happy Turkey Day!

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I’m sure that most of my fellow Canadians are feeling more than a little full right now! Well I am anyway since today is Thanks Giving.

I think that I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago that we were supposed to have a big family get together, this year it would have been with my husbands family. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. My sister in law moved to a new house on Friday (a little earlier than planned) and being busy all weekend to complete the move kind of put a dent in the family get together. So this year Chris and I had Thanks Giving at home on our own.

This year I made Rosemary Honey Dijon Turkey breasts, accompanied by mashed potatoes, stuffing and sweet peas. In a little while we’ll have a slice of pumpkin pie … well if my stomach ever empties enough to make room for a piece of pie, that is!

The turkey was really easy to prepare. I used:

  • 2 cloves garlic, cut in slivers
  • Tiny sprigs fresh rosemary OR 1/2 tsp (2 mL) dried
  • 3 tbsp (45 ml) honey
  • 1 tbsp (15 mL) Dijon mustard
  • 1 tbsp (15 mL) olive oil
  • 1 tbsp (15 mL) lemon juice
  • 1/2 tsp (2 mL) pepper
  • 1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt

I mixed the honey, Dijon mustard, olive oil, lemon juice, pepper, salt, rosemary and slivered garlic in a bowl and then I drizzled the mixture onto two boneless turkey breasts that were about 350 grams each. I then baked the turkey breasts at 350 F covered for about 20 minutes, and then after basting them I cooked them uncovered for another 20 minutes.

Can you say … Tasty? Yum!

I usually roast my whole turkey or turkey breasts, however I couldn’t find my small roasting pan when I looked for it earlier today. I have no idea what happened to it .. maybe I lent it to someone and they didn’t return it.

I loved that small roasting pan. It was great for doing a whole small chicken or two large turkey breasts in the oven. I’m going to have to keep an eye out for a sale on Roasters. I’ll bet as the American Thanks Giving and or Christmas approaches I’ll find some deals online!

Can you tell I love turkey dinners? – that’s just another reason why I have to get another small roasting pan … we should have turkey more often.

Fellow Canadians – did you have a big Turkey dinner this weekend? Which day did you eat your big meal … or did you have more than one big meal? LOL

I’ll bet that my American readers and looking forward to celebrating Thanks Giving too.  I know it’s one of your biggest holidays.  I’d love to hear what you’re planning for your holiday celebration and what you plan to eat.

My passion flowers are finally blooming

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It’s been a strange gardening year.

There was plenty of rain so for the most part the plants were getting enough water and we saved money on the water bill, but I think that since it was overcast quite a bit some of my real sun loving plants might not have gotten enough light.

My passion flowers (I have 5 or 6 plants ) barely bloomed all summer. I’m actually noticing more blooms now that it’s cooling down than I did in the height of summer.

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Passion flowers certainly are pretty when they bloom though aren’t they?

Paying for a night out on the town

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Wow, I’m starting to slow down in my posting quite a bit aren’t I? It hasn’t been the best week for me. My Crohn’s has been acting up – the worst of the symptoms … bleh …

I think I might be feeling so bad this week because Chris and I went out on Wednesday night. His sister was in Toronto for a quick Government related course and then she was going back home on Thursday after a test for the course and then well .. as I said in my last post she and her husband were moving to a new house on Friday (with Chris’ help).

Anyway … when Chris came home on Wednesday we drove off to meet his sister at her hotel in the lovely section of Toronto called North York. Uh huh … she was staying in a Novotel and she was waiting for us in the bar.

That wasn’t the best idea! She’d already had 5 Cosmopolitans while she waited for us! Once we got there she talked me into having a Cosmo and Chris tried out a new beer. Chris and I were both hungry and while we tried to talk his sister into going down the street to the Baton Rouge restaurant for a meal we were snacking on some kind of pretzel/ beer nut/ cracker mix.

In the end I had three Cosmos and my sister in laws tally came to 8 cosmos all while sitting on these weird modern furniture style bar stools at the bar.

By the time we got to the restaurant my sister in law was of course too drunk to eat. She ordered appetizers but only had a nibble. I wonder how she felt the next day? LOL I guess I’ll have to give her a call and find out.

I wasn’t feeling so good even by the time we got home. I don’t drink much anymore, so three pretty much pure alcohol drinks were enough to make me pretty tipsy, but unlike my sister in law I did at least eat half my dinner before getting the rest packed up into a doggy bag.

The drinks, the snacks that I ate and probably the dinner that I had all combined to make my Crohn’s act up worse than it has been for a while. Yes I should have known better, but you can’t be good all the time. Even people on a diet cheat every once in a while right?

Hopefully I’ll be feeling a little better in a few days. Maybe not though. My Crohn’s just seems to be getting worse and worse as each week goes by … maybe Wednesday night isn’t even what caused this latest flare … who knows.

BTW it’s Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada so Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadians!

Home alone!

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Chris is out of town until sometime tomorrow evening. He came home from work just before 6 p.m. and by 6:30 he was out the door ready to drive to Waterloo to help his sister and her husband move. My brother in law is allergic to dogs (even though they have one (and we’re allergic to ours too!) so I’m staying home to dog sit.

Just before Chris left the phone rang and it turned out to be a telemarketer trying to get us to get some auto insurance quotes. I couldn’t believe how loud she had to talk. I could hear all of the other telemarketers in the room with her. I can’t imagine having to work in a place like that let alone probably having most of the people I call hang up on me!

Anyway … When I was on the phone Chris was upstairs packing an overnight bag and Midnight, our Labrador Retriever, decided to take that opportunity to steal the apple that Chris placed on the table when he came home from work. Little brat!

Chris came downstairs and said “Hey, where’s my apple” … and since I didn’t know that he’d put an apple on the table I had no clue as to what happened to it. However, I did remember Midnight lying on her bed chewing on something (I’d thought at the time she was chewing on a bone or one of her toys), but as it turned out it was Chris’ apple. LOL

Little thief. That’s the first time she’s ever taken anything off the table. Oh there’s been times in the past when she’s been interested in food on the table or counter but we were aware of it and told her no … but this time, with me on the phone and Chris upstairs she took advantage of the situation and got her apple.

She hadn’t really eaten much of the apple. She had only scraped off a bit on the top and the sides. So I decided to use a knife and cut off a few pieces for her, then I put the apple in the a bag and put it in the fridge. I would have let her have the whole thing, but she has a sensitive stomach and never having had a whole apple before I have no idea what it would do to her.

I guess we’ll have to keep a closer eye on any food items we place in areas she can reach!

Now if I can just get Midnight to settle down and stop pacing around and looking out the living room window we can have a nice evening. She obviously misses Chris and keeps looking for him in the hopes that he’ll come home soon. Little does she know that she has to wait until tomorrow night!

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