Tricia's Musings

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



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How should I celebrate tonight?

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Alright so I mentioned earlier that it’s my birthday today and I’ve been sitting here wondering what I’d like to do to celebrate.

I don’t think that I want to go out to a restaurant for a nice dinner. With all the activity last weekend for the family reunion we ate out Friday through to Tuesday. Other than the BBQ at my brothers on Sunday last night was the first home cooked meal I’ve had in days! So no restaurants, but I’m not opposed to having food delivered.

You see, I’d love to have a nice meal to celebrate today but I don’t really want to slave over the stove for an hour or more either. Also, Chris is no cook so I can’t count on him making a great dinner.

So what should we order? We have some fantastic Greek restaurants in the area so I was thinking of maybe having Greek food. However, I also like chicken, steak and a few pastas …. hmmm I can’t decide.

If you were celebrating your birthday and you were going to order food for delivery what kind of food would you have delivered? Maybe you’ll give me a great idea.





I was busting out on Saturday

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You know, I almost forgot that it’s my birthday today. If it hadn’t been for the flurry of “Happy Birthday” messages from sites and forums that I’m a member of I might have actually not remembered until morning.

So far I’m not bothered by this birthday.

Do you know what I mean by that? It doesn’t matter what age your turning on your birthday, if you’ve set goals for yourself and reach a certain age without achieving those goals a birthday can be a disappointing event. Well some of them are for me due to not achieving what I’d thought I would have by that time in my life.

Of course I’ve been at home for almost two years due to my illness, Crohn’s, and if I really think about it, yes, I could let this birthday get me down, but I didn’t have any specific goals for this time period in my life so I’m ok with my birthday.

Perhaps I should have a goal or treat in mind. I just remembered an embarrassing thing that happened to me not once, but three times on Saturday evening while we were on the boat.

I’d dressed for the evening in a nice blouse and pants. It’s breezy by the lake and as it turns out – on it – so I didn’t want to dress too lightly. As it was my boobs must have gotten a bit bigger or my blouse got smaller because my top literally popped open three times while I walked around the boat!

How embarrassing!

I think I caught it right away each time it happened, but all but one button would open up each time it happened so I basically had my blouse wide open each time the buttons decided to free themselves! I was busting out all over the place that night.

I’m still undecided as to whether I’ll be going to California in November, especially after what happened with one of the blogging companies yesterday, but if I do go maybe I should look into breast lift surgery in Los Angeles? LOL yeah I’m joking. I don’t need it, my top was just a little too snug on Saturday evening, but if I did that would make a great birthday present I suppose.

Ladies, have you ever had your pop top open or fall down at the worst moment?

The Sun Sets over Toronto

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Wordless Wednesday

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Is that not a postcard worthy photo? I took that picture while on the boat cruise on Saturday night. The evening was lovely and the sun setting over Toronto was absolutely gorgeous.

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I think next to my love of gardening and roses, gazing at beautiful sunsets is one of my most favorite things.

It was kind of like Deja Vu when I was on the boats deck.

I’d been inside the boat in the dinning room and I noticed that the sun was going to set soon so Chris and I went up on the deck to take some photos and just look at the scenery.

I suddenly realized while on the boat that all the beautiful postcard photos of our cityscape must have been taken while on a boat on the lake. It makes sense of course, but I’d never thought of it before. It was so beautiful.

A whirlwind of a weekend!

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Sorry that I haven’t been posting over the last few days. We had our family reunion from Friday until earlier this afternoon and I’m just exhausted!

On Friday we went to see the Blue Jays play a game of baseball against the Seattle Mariners. Of course the Blue Jays won the game. 10 of us attended the game that day.

That day I’d wanted to get downtown a little earlier because some of the cast of Heroes was in town and they were doing some presentation at Dundas Square. I didn’t make it to that, but much to my surprise the four cast members that were in town went to the baseball game! I took some photos and I’ll be making a post on my Celebrity blog shortly with a few of the photos included. So I did get to see some Heroes after all. Pretty cool.

The next day we, 15 of us, went on a dinner boat cruise on Lake Ontario. We had a great meal and I’ve got some fantastic photos of the cities skyline at sunset that I took from the boat. Just beautiful. If you ever come to Toronto I highly recommend going on a dinner boat cruise. It was a lot of fun.

On Sunday we went to my brothers in Aurora, Ontario for a BBQ. I think there were 24 or 26 of us that day. I’d lost count by that point! We had a great day together. My niece brought a game called Washer Toss with her to the BBQ. It had been my parents washer toss boards that we’d always played with when visiting them in Ottawa. Most of us hadn’t played for at least four years so it was an interesting tournament! My sister in law and my nieces husband ended up being the big champs of the day, but my nephew and I came in second. Yes I can throw washers! LOL

Lets see, I’m so tired I’m trying to remember just what we did yesterday … Oh yes … My brother from Vancouver, his son, and his daughter and her boyfriend went to the Hockey Hall of Fame while my sister in law came over to our house. Chris and I took my sister in law to Toronto’s beach area and we had a great time walking on the boardwalk, watching volleyball games and eating ice cream.

Later that evening we all met up again at a downtown restaurant for dinner. Man that restaurant had huge servings! Every single thing I ordered I only ate part of and brought the rest home in a doggy bag. We had my left overs for dinner tonight.

Today was the final day that any of us could get together. My brother from Vancouver, his wife, son, daughter and her boyfriend were going back to Vancouver at 7 pm this evening, but they had the day to get together with whoever was available. Luckily Chris had today off work so we met up with them and went to an art gallery where one of my nephews had some of his photos on display. Since that was around lunch time my sister who lives and works in the downtown area was able to get together with us to see my nephews work and then we went and have some coffee and tea together before dropping her off a her office again.

We then went to the beach area again so those who didn’t go yesterday could see how lovely the area was. Around mid afternoon we had a nice lunch on an outdoor patio on the Beaches – complete with more left over food to bring home. Why do restaurants have such huge servings?

After that we lead my brother towards the highway so he could head back to the airport area to return their vehicle and check in to await their flight.

Can you see why I’m tired? I’m totally wiped out! I have to recover though ’cause my birthday’s on Thursday and I’m sure we’ll be doing something that day too.

I’ll be processing all the photos that I took over the weekend (probably 500!) on the computer and posting some soon. Stay tuned as there are some spectacular shots!

What did you do over the holiday weekend?

Disgusting! But then it all turned out ok

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I got so grossed out last night.

On Sunday my husband and I went grocery shopping and I decided to buy some fresh fish while in the grocery store. I selected some Orange Roughy, 2 fillets, and 1 large Rainbow Trout fillet. I also got some fresh baby asparagus to have with the meal and the makings for a nice salad.

On Sunday evening I marinated the orange roughy fillets in wine and a squirt of lemon juice. I also added some fresh dill, paprika and a little chili power to the marinade. Chris grilled the fish and we had a very nice meal together.

Yesterday my husband thought he had to work. It turned out that it was his day off. Argh. He actually woke me up when he came back in the morning from work – he’d got up at 8 am and went to work, found out he didn’t have to work that day, visited with people for two hours and then came home and … woke me up to tell me he was home! Arghhh Considering that I don’t seem to sleep anymore I didn’t appreciate being woken up once I’d finally fallen asleep.

So later in the day I got up and Chris told me that one of our good friends had just broken up with his girlfriend and that he was feeling down. I told Chris to invite him over for dinner and that we’d have the rainbow trout and some shrimp since I know our friend just loves shrimp.

Skip to yesterday evening. Our friend and my husband were outside talking while I started to marinade the shrimp in a wine, a little bit of canola oil, lime, chili pepper and cayenne pepper marinade. I then pulled out the rainbow trout that we’d purchased the day before. Ew what’s that smell.

I took a look at the fish and the center of the fillet was kind of slimy and mushy whereas the rest of the meat along the edges looked fine. The mushy slimy meat smelled really bad too. Rotting fish smell. Yuck.

I was so disgusted I didn’t know whether I even wanted to have the shrimp or other fish ever again. It was disgusting.

I went outside and told the guys and Chris decided that they’d go to the store and get some more fish. I said ok, but don’t get rainbow trout. I just didn’t think I could handle that after seeing the other fish.

Chris ended up picking up halibut. It was halibut steaks rather than fillets. Nice thick pieces of fish.

The meal actually turned out really well. I think the halibut steaks turned out to be the nicest fish we’ve ever cooked on our own at home. To think things started out so bad and I’d felt like giving up fish!

The shrimp was also delicious. We had asparagus and a nice garden salad with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette along with the fish and shrimp that we’d grilled.

Then for dessert we had short cake. You know that flat angel food cake that you can buy? I suppose it’s for making a flan or for a short strawberry short cake. Well, I’d purchased fresh peaches late last week so I cut some up and scattered them over the thin angel food cake shell, then we picked some fresh strawberries from the garden. Mmmm what a nice light refreshing dessert to follow our wonderful meal.

What did you have for dinner last night? Anything good?

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