Tricia's Musings

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



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It’s Pointless!

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I truly believe you guys are trying to drive me mad.  Do you know how much I stress over choosing a renter?  Every time I put my site up for rent I wait until the middle of the night before I torture myself with making a decision.  Of course, since I usually wait until at least 12 hours have passed from the time I started the rental offer I seem to end up with 10 + bidders each time. That makes it even harder. What makes it really bad is that I currently have two sites that I put up for rent so I put myself through this twice a week! Arggh.

15 bidder this time round!

I took my time rating each site that had made a bid, but when I saw Pointless Drivel I think I knew that I would ultimately pick the fabulous Mr. Fab to be my roomie this week.  Now lately, when faced with an overwhelming amount of bidders I’ve either chosen the site that bid first or whichever site appeared to be younger than the rest or in need of some promotion.  If I had done that this time round I certainly would have picked Evolution of Gina as it is the youngest site.  Gina and all the rest, please forgive me and bid again. I just had to go with one of my fav’s this week.  Sorry!

Pointless Drivel has quickly become one of my favorite sites to visit daily.  Why? Well because you just never know what the heck Mr. Fab might be talking about that day and you just have to know, that’s why.

His audio posts reading out his dramatic versions of popular songs are hilarious. As are his posts about his fascination with lemurs and by-products of lemurs, virtual sisters, co-workers, outings with his wife.  You name it, whatever is happening Mr. Fab has something interesting to say.  I won’t even go into his posts about his body parts (nipples for one!) or the ones about being a metro-sexual.  You’ll just have to find them and have a good laugh when you do.

Now to spread some love, if you have the time, after you’ve visited my newly chosen renter of course, why don’t you take some time and visit these wonderful sites:

Luka’s Incogbl0go – A personal site about the owners day to day life. One of the things that I like best about this site- other than the owner herself who seems to be a very nice person – is that she opens up her site to others on the last Friday of every month so that people can come on and write guest posts.  It’s a fantastic idea.

Modern Princess – A well written site that contains stories about the owners family life, kids, general observations and some absolutely fantastic sounding recipes.  Her latest post is a recipe for stuffed and roasted strawberries that sounds wonderful.  Oh they have chocolate in them, even better. Yum!

Adventures in Cyberia – Interesting site! The creator has built this site by creating alter egos of real life bl0ggers using sims2. It’s like a soap opera or day time drama.  Check it out.

Scooter McGavin’s 9th Green – Scooters currently renting on my other site Odd Planet right now. If I didn’t choose him for that site this week I probably would have picked him to rent here this time around.  He’s a persistent guy! Bids just about every time I tell ya. He does discuss popular television shows, Movies and new music on his site. He’s currently rating the best of Prince. I must admit that I think Prince is a talented artist so this was an interesting read for me.

Backyardigans Fan – Well, I have to admit, as a person without children, I had no idea what the backyardigans were until I looked at this site. If you are a parent with young children who enjoy the backyardigans or if you are a fan yourself then this site is for you as it’s everything backyardigan.

Utenzi – This popular site has great writing. Utenzi talks about life, day to day goings on, discusses products, software, movies – well a whole variety of things! It also appears that he’s a kayaker, which is something I’ve never tried, but since I love canoeing and whitewater rafting too he must be a good guy. He does wonderful write ups on his renters and some of his bidders too.  Seems like an all round great person and his site is a worthy read.

Green – Great site.  I’m still trying to figure out why it’s called green? She also has one called Purple. I enjoyed her recent rant post about people rubbernecking and gawping.  Yes that’s a word.  Go see!

Meltwater. Torrents. Meanderings. Delta. – For a guy who’s just injured himself badly and ended up separating his shoulder he’s sure pumping out the posts this week.  Must take him forever, but he’s doing it. Matt’s latest post is a beautiful photograph that you just have to see.  It’s breath taking. Matt’s site is another one that I read regularly. He writes on a wide range of topics from humor to nature, to observations about society. Always a good read.

Useless Advice from Useless Men – The useless men are at it again.  You have to visit this site. People write to them, asking them a question that they long for an answer to and the useless men give their advice, often with hilarious results. I love visiting this site as it always makes me laugh.

Just Jill – This site is new to me, although it appears to have been around for a while. I really enjoyed one of her recent posts where she talked about who she was 10 years ago and the changes that have taken place in life since that time. This site is worth keeping an eye on.

Long, Slow, Beautiful Dance – I like this site.  The posts are fresh and interesting. Laci was in a car accident earlier this week and now she’s lamenting about the joys of living without a car while hers is in the shop being fixed. Take a peek.

Evolution of Gina – This appears to be a brand new site started near the end of May. I’ve never seen Gina’s site before but I’m pretty sure that I’ll be going back for a visit now and then.  She’s living in a small town and making her way in life. She’s written a few poems and talks about her life and the people in it and of course discusses some of the joys of living in a small town.  Check it out.

The Invisible Bl0gger – This site is fairly new to me but it’s quickly gaining my attention.  I enjoy the writing style. This southern lady seems honest and puts herself out there for others to see who she really is.  She has a wonderful post about being from the south and it made me laugh. I think you’ll enjoy it too.

Dr. Wickidy – An entertaining site about the adventures of Dr. Wickidy in his wacky world. Each post is another adventure in the on going story of Dr. Wickidy.  Readers get to participate by voting on what might happen next. It’s a fun site that should make you laugh.





The Birds are taking over!

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Ok, how do I get birds to not build a nest under my window air-conditioner? I’m afraid that this is going to be like when we lived in an apartment and the birds are going to take over!

After a mostly too cool month of May we’re suddenly in the midst of a hot humid heat wave here in Toronto, and we don’t have central air. We have two window air conditioners that we put in each year and for the most part they do a pretty good job.

But, last year, the day we put the upstairs air-conditioner in the window some birds started making a nest between the bottom of the AC and the outside window sill where there is a good sized space. I think the birds were little house wrens or something similar. I didn’t mind having them there, but they did get noisy, especially early in the morning. Chirp Chirp and small little bird squabbles at 5:00 a.m. are not how I like to wake up.

Yesterday when Chris installed the upstairs air-conditioner he put a row of bricks underneath it to try to prevent the birds from noticing the gap and building a nest. It didn’t work!

I’m afraid the birds were waiting for their favorite spot. As soon as the AC was in and running we started hearing a lot of chirping outside that window and we could see the birds flying back and forth through the drive way with pieces of grass and other wonderful nest building materials in their beaks.

When we lived in our apartment we used to be bothered by pigeons. For the first few years they just visited, but after one particularly warm winter we could see the pigeons visiting our balcony regularly one February so we decided to check out our winter abandoned balcony and low and behold the darn birds had build a nest in a protected corner and already had eggs! We removed the nest and eggs but that didn’t stop them, they did it again and again.

The next year the pigeons succeeded and actually had their eggs hatch before we noticed. Being animal lovers we couldn’t hurt the babies so we let them raise their two young ones. I was actually curious to see a baby pigeon. I’d never seen one before. I can tell you that they are pretty big right from the start and quickly grow to look like smaller versions of their parents which is probably why I hadn’t noticed baby pigeons before since they are almost the size of their parents and look quite a bit like adults within a month.

Over our years in the apartment we tried everything to get rid of the pigeons and keep them off our balcony. We put out the fake owl. Didn’t work. We strung fishing line strategically across the balcony rail so it would catch their feet and disturb them when they would land. Didn’t work. We strung fishing line from our upstairs neighbors balcony and attached each line to our balcony railing. We put the lines about two inches apart. Yeah, that’ll work, they won’t be able to get through, it will hit their wings and scare them. Nope, didn’t work.

We ended up abandoning our balcony in the last two years or so that we were there. It ended up being a pigeon poop covered mess despite our efforts to get the birds to stop landing on and using the balcony. I hate pigeons!

Now, I’ve got birds building a nest under the air-conditioner. Oh, yes their cute harmless birds, but considering what happened to us last time birds started liking our property, I’m afraid. Very afraid. The birds are going to take over. I just know it! LOL Help!

ChrisLand where time stands still

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Peter Griffin I’m married to Peter Griffin! Well, not exactly. My husband isn’t a cartoon character, and he sure doesn’t look like Peter from the Family guy … But at times, well, he sure acts an awful lot like Peter!

He’s always starting projects around the house, and coming up with ideas that end up getting him into trouble. Usually into trouble with me.

I’m thinking of this past weekend as Neighbors weekend. It started Saturday with Chris going outside to hang our Canadian flag. The whole post, flag included, blew off our house in a windstorm late last fall and with the bad weather we just decided to not put the flag back out again until spring. That day was Saturday.

He’d asked me to give him a hand positioning the flag pole as he had to drill new holes into the brick, but before I could come out of the house our neighbors adult kids were over and offering advice. It was like watching a construction crew at work; one worker and the rest standing around looking like foremen telling the one working what to do. It shouldn’t have been a difficult job, but it some how became one.

The beer came out and the voices got louder. My husband talks loud, especially when he’s outside with the guys. I could occasionally hear him call out to others as they walked by or stepped out onto their porch “Hey Neighbor!”. Gee, maybe I’m married to Ed Flanders from the Simpsons? That’s what it always reminds me of when he calls out this phrase.

With that job finally finished the neighbors and my husband moved to the backyard. Chris had started painting the small picket fence at the end of our drive a few weeks ago. Our elderly neighbor Sophie shares part of this small fence with us and her son had said he’d paint her side as well. Naturally, her kids never got around to doing it, and after seeing how nice our side looked she’d been insisting that we paint it for her.

We some how seem to end up doing everything for her, rather than her own kids doing the odd jobs around the house. We’ve been getting frustrated with this, so when it came to painting her side of the fence we stalled. Every time Sofie’s sons have been over we’ve mentioned the painting job to them, usually after Sofie herself had pointed it out and asked us AGAIN to paint it for her.

He son promised he’d do it but never did. So finally on Saturday, after Chris went to the store to get more paint (which Sofie paid for), we pulled out our own brushes and handed them to her son and grandson and said here you go- paint! Chris did some touch ups on our side while they painted her side of the fence.

The flow of beer continued, and the small job was finally done.

By this time it was perhaps 7 pm. I was ready to eat and had already prepared dinner – it just needed to be BBQ’ed by the hubby. However, at 6:30 our boarder had mysteriously decided to go out. He’d said he’d come home for dinner … but, uh we were just about to have dinner when he left. Arghhh. He didn’t come home until close to 9 p.m and by that time I was pretty upset at him and my husband was no where to be found!

Now nothing in here describes my husbands “Peterness”, but believe me, if you saw him interacting with the neighbors or the way he acts around me at times, he’s at least 60% Peter Griffin.

While we were waiting for our boarder to return home, Chris was outside and one of the other neighbors called him over and asked if he could help move some things. Chris told me he’d be 10 minutes. Did I believe him? No way! Time in Chrisland is extended. 10 minutes is close to an hour in real people time.

The neighbors he was helping this time are these two really cool gay guys. They’re a hoot to hang around with, but since I was waiting for Chris to come back I wasn’t totally impressed that Chris had gone over to help. Chris ended up coming back with two other neighbors that we hadn’t met before. He was showing them our garden. This time it was two ladies and their dog.

When our boarder finally came back, and I got Chris to stop interacting with the neighbors, we got down to the business of eating dinner. After dinner I went back outside to finish watering the garden- a job I had started while I was waiting to get dinner going. By this time it was at least 10 pm.

Chris came out with his guitar and played for me while I sprayed the garden. How sweet is that? Live music, songs sung to me while I worked in the moonlight? Nice.

We moved to the front yard to finish the garden work, but Chris’ guitar playing was attracting attention. The husband of the only neighbor I really dislike happened to see and hear us outside and waved at us through his open window. His wife is the one that I talked about in an earlier post who, both times that she’s been here, I’ve ended up taking care of her baby. The last time her kid was walking around eating my flowers – ones that I thought might be poisonous. She’s a winner!

The husband seems like an ok guy, a bit whipped perhaps, but he’s definitely nicer than she is. He came out of his house and wandered over to listen to Chris play guitar. More beer flowed. More neighbors poked their head out to enjoy the music. Drunk party girls walked by trying to entice my husband to play something for them – he didn’t.

It was close to 1 a.m. by the time we went back into the house. How does watering the garden turn into a 3 hour job? Well, for most people it doesn’t, but if you are like me and you live in Chrisland that’s the way things go. Everything slows down, sounds get louder, and strangers come over at all hours of the day and night.

Lets see, all in all, we were visited by or visited 8 or more neighbors on Saturday. Sunday was a slower neighbor day – it only involved 5 neighbors and his mom and aunt dropping in unexpectedly. Today will likely include people from work dropping by. Oh life in Chrisland, don’t you envy me?

It’s a wonder that I ever get anything done around here.

Heavenly Blue

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PSHunt
Grab the Scavenger Hunt code. Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.

This weeks theme is Red, White and Blue:

This is a photo of a Heavenly Blue Delphinium. It’s got more pink/mauve in it than red, but I love this flower and that’s what I’m using this week.

Heavenly blue delphinium

Thai Curry Stir Fry

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Thirteen Things about Tonights Dinner

1…. This is such a fantastic dinner I thought I’d give you the recipe.

2…. Start with 1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken breast cut up into small pieces.

3…. Add 1 tbsp Canola oil to a large pan or wok, heat on low until oil is hot and then add the chicken to the pan, stirring occasionally until the meat looks cooked.

4…. Add one can of Thai Green Curry sauce. Most grocery stores seem to carry this these days, just look in the aisle where rice is sold, or where products to make Chinese, Mexican and Indian foods are sold.

5…. The Thai curry sauce is hot, so I often add a half can of Coconut milk to it to tone it down. Works beautifully.

6…. Once the sauce, coconut milk and chicken has simmered on low for 5 minutes I add the rest of the ingredients.

7…. I was lazy this evening. I added two cups of frozen veggies consisting of cauliflower, carrot, broccoli. I also had some pre-chopped frozen peppers and zucchini in the freezer that I added to the mix.

8…. 1 can of sliced water chestnuts

9…. 1 cup snow peas (you know the green pea shells)

10…. Let this mix simmer for another 15 minutes on low heat.

11…. While the above ingredients were cooking I got out another pot and heated water in it. I then added a package of Rice Vermicelli noodles to the water and let the noodles sit in the warm water for 5 minutes to soften up.

12…. When the Thai curry stir fry looks and smells (mmmmm) done (approximately 20 to 25 minutes from the start of cooking) toss in the vermacelli noodles and serve. This curry can also be served over a bed of rice, which is the way we usually have it.

13…. Now I just need someone to feed. It’s almost 8 p.m. and our border hasn’t come home yet. He hasn’t even called to say he would be late. I’m ticked because he does this all the time. I think it’s just rude and disrespectful. Don’t you? My husband won’t be home until after 10 p.m. because he’s working an evening shift. He can, and will, enjoy the meal when he comes home.

Well, maybe my roomie Noi will enjoy this meal with me. She has her own Thursday Thirteen up now too, so go see her!

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