Tricia's Musings

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



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It’s been one of those days

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Have you ever had one of those days when every thing seems to go wrong? Sure ya have.

Well … I guess I’m having one of those days. First, my husbands alarm clock decided to go on the fritz. The alarm was turned off but for some reason it still went off at midnight last night and it kept going off every once in a while until we took the batteries out of it. Then, as I was setting up my alarm clock so he could use it a button got stuck down and I can’t change the alarm time!

So that’s two clocks in one day, but that’s not all!

One of the lights we have in our living room is a tri-light so we can set it on low, medium or high lighting. Wouldn’t you know that as soon as we got home from grocery shopping (we never grocery shop on Saturday but we did this evening) the light started fizzling out. So I guess tomorrow we’ll need to go out and not only buy at least one new alarm clock, but also some tri-light bulbs!

I guess that’s not a terrible terrible day, but it makes me wonder what will happen next! Hopefully none of our more major electrical appliances decide to go on the fritz.

I hope that your day was better than mine!





Don’t you hate it when things start breaking down in your home?

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I rarely use our basement washroom, but for some reason, I used it earlier today. That’s when I made a discovery … the taps we have in that bathroom are beginning to break. Figures .. just when we have NO money we’re probably going to have to go out and buy a new faucet set.

My husband knew the taps weren’t in good shape, but he never got around to letting me know. Men!

If we can keep the taps for a while, well until we have some extra money, I’ll wait and get some Moen faucets. We’re eventually going to redo the basement and basement washroom so I’d like to pick out nice, quality fixtures if at all possible.

Doesn’t it figure that things start breaking down just when you can’t afford it? That happened to my sister in law and her husband. They just bought a new house (across the street from where they had lived) and once they moved in, in October they realized that their furnace wasn’t working so they had to replace it. They also had to replace the washing machine and dryer, plus their water softener and snow blower just broke down too! They replaced the water softener … at a cost of $2,500 bucks! Why??? I’m sure they could have lived without soft water for a while. I think replacing the snow blower (considering their new property is larger than their previous property plus it’s on a corner so that means more snow to shovel!) was more important.

Anyway .. isn’t that a run of bad luck? A new furnace, washer, dryer, water softener and soon hopefully a snow blower … that must be $15,000 or more in extra expenses they weren’t counting on!

I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that nothing else in our house breaks down. Our washing machine and dryer came with the house and we estimate that they are going on about 35 years old! Yeah, I’m sure they are energy hogs … we’re going to replace them soon … but hopefully not before we can afford to replace them.

My house is rattling! Neighbor doing renovations! Argh

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Our neighbors are renovating again!

They moved into the house next door (it’s attached to ours) in June and for the first month they did some reno work. We’d suggested that they knock down at least one of their living room walls, like we did, to open up the space.

Believe me it really opens up the space in a small house … our house had an entry way, walls enclosing a tiny living room, a hallway to the stairs that allowed entry to the living room and or the dining room, and there was a wall between the living room and dining room. So that was one small space partitioned with four walls! uh, huh … first thing we did – day one – was to knock down the walls.

Anyway, when they were doing their first renovation they had one wall repaired because one of the pipes within the walls was leaking. Unfortunately the leak wasn’t fixed and now they are having major repairs done. They also seem to be redoing their basement and upstairs bathrooms. The other day we saw a huge box that probably contained a tub and other bathroom items like two stone vessel sinks arrive on a big Home Depot truck.

The sound coming from their house over the last two weeks has been almost unbearable. I think today was the first day that the sounds were tolerable. Last week I think they were using a hammer drill or something to break up concrete in the basement, and I’ve heard them use reciprocal saws (maybe to take down another wall?), hammering, drilling and the contractors have gotten into yelling matches a few times.

All the china and crystal in my china cabinet rattles around when they are working next door too. Plus I think there’s enough vibrations going on that it’s rattled a few doors open. I found our one true closed upstairs with an open door last night and neither Chris nor I have been in that closet for days. Weird.

I just hope they’re almost done – at least with the noisy stuff! I haven’t been sleeping well at night for a few weeks and with the noise all day I can’t even nap if I’m tired. It’s terrible. I’m like a walking zombie!

Have you ever had someone do major renovations in the home next to you? Particularly if you live/lived in a semi-detached? It’s horrible isn’t it?

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.

Chris is bring the Espresso machine to work

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Do you ever take home appliances to work when there’s a party?

My husband does!

Tomorrow his department, the hospital Day Surgery unit, is having a party for one of the staff. They seem to have a party or celebration or some kind of special lunch at least every two weeks. Sometimes, when it’s brunch style, Chris will go to one of our local Greek bakeries and bring in Greek treats like chocolate baklava and other goodies.

Not this time though … This time he’s decided that he’s going to bring in our capresso Espresso machine. He loves pulling out the machine and making Espresso or cappuccino for people whenever we have a dinner party or drop in guests.

Now he’s going to do it for the people he works with. I have a feeling that my Espresso machine won’t come home tomorrow night when he does. They’ll want to keep it there!

So do any of you have espresso machines at work or have a coworker like my husband who brings the machine in for special occasions?

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