Tricia's Musings

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



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Dog toys disappearing like socks in the dryer!

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Ok, I think just about everyone has done a wash and ended up with missing socks – probably several times, right?

Well I think I’ve discovered something else that has that strange disappearing phenomenon. Dog toys, in particular, around here at least, white nylabones.

Back in December or early January Midnight was playing with the nub of her nylabone and then it seemed to just disappear in thin air. By nub, I mean it was just the end of what had been a foot long hard plastic bone – maybe the size of a small orange.

We searched the house looking under tables, chairs, the couches and in all the corners. It didn’t turn up. Then we thought that maybe it might have fallen between the couch seats (our loveseat, couch and lazyboy have a total of five reclining seats) so we searched all of the nooks and crannies in the couches and still didn’t find it.

Then we started to wonder if maybe she’d swallowed the darn thing. Labs will eat just about anything and even though it was probably a little big to swallow I suppose it’s possible.

Four or five months have gone by and we still haven’t found the bone nub. If Midnight did swallow the plastic bone she’s shown no signs of problems – not that it would be good to have a large piece of plastic bone in her stomach of course …

Fast forward to earlier this week. We bought her a new bone sometime in January and she’s been working on it ever since. Surprisingly the bone was still close to it’s original size, but the ends were worn, one in particular had a sharp arrow like point.

Just like the last time, one minute she was playing with it on the floor and the next it was gone. Where – who knows …. but again, I think it must be in one of the couches. We’ve searched, but we can’t find it. This time I’m 99% sure that she didn’t swallow it … it was just too big … if she did try to swallow it I’m sure she wouldn’t have been feeling well after doing so!

I think our couches are becoming like dryers … just like washing and drying socks – you never seem to get an even number back and with the bones, it seems that we lose ever second one we buy her. Where the heck do they go? Man, searching for lost dog toys is harder than one of those Wall St jobs I think! LOL

For those of you with pets or even kids for that matter … do you find that toys just suddenly seem to disappear without a trace? Have you ever found toys that have been missing for ages? If so where? Maybe your answers will give me some hints as to where to look for Midnight’s bones.





Delicious Sweet Potato Fries

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Over the last two weeks I kept seeing this commercial on TV for McCain’s new Sweet Potato Fries. My husband loves Sweet potatoes and yams and the few times he’s had Sweet Potato fries in restaurants he’s loved them.

So about a week ago we decided to get some of the new Sweet Potato fries when we were shopping for groceries. They were ok – not as tasty as some of the ones I’ve had in restaurants, but not bad. Unfortunately the bag didn’t have all that much in it – four small servings which we ate over two days.

When we went shopping last weekend I decided to buy some sweet potatoes and try making my own baked Sweet Potatoes fries. I didn’t think it would be too hard … I mean I’ve done it with regular potatoes- just some oil, garlic or onion powder and some Italian seasoning and bake. Yummy!

So on Monday, after looking at about 15 Sweet Potato Fry recipes online I decided to try my own hand at making some of these delicious treats.

I sliced up two sweet potatoes. Now I don’t know if you’ve ever cut a raw sweet potato, they are really hard … so instead of cutting them into wedges or “fry” like shapes I just cut them into circular slices, about 1/4 inch thick.

Here’s My Recipe for Baked Sweet Potato Fries:

2 sliced Sweet potatoes

In a bowl, mix:

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper
1 tsp Paprika
1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp brown sugar

Mix olive oil spices and brown sugar (optional) well and then stir the sliced Sweet Potato slices in the mixture until well coated with oil and spices.

Lay the coated Sweet Potato slices out on a baking pan and put them in an oven that’s been preheated to 425 F for approximately half an hour. I turned the “fries” after about 15 minutes.

Soon after putting the Sweet Potato slices in the oven the house was filled with the smell of cinnamon. I loved it!

My first attempt at sweet potato fries went well. They were absolutely mouth wateringly delicious. Sweet and tasty with a hint of medium/hot spice at the back of your throat after you’d swallowed a piece thanks to the Cayenne pepper. Unfortunately, probably due to the brown sugar that I added to the coating mix, our fries didn’t get crispy. The sugar probably prevented that. I still have some sweet potatoes so I’ll probably make Sweet Potato fries again this weekend – this time without the sugar. I’m sure they’ll be crisper, and likely just as tasty.

Do you like Sweet potato fries? Have you ever tried making your own? If so what spices do you put on yours – if any?

BTW sorry for not writing for a while! I think this is my longest gap in three years! I had a bad bad bad reaction to Sulfasalazine. See my post below. I had a rash all over my body, was nauseated and massively headache for about a week and a half. I hate taking new meds – I really do!

I need to start using my Wii Fit again

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Do you remember back in January how excited I was when I bought a Wii Fit on eBay?

Once it, and the console that I purchased after the fact since I didn’t know I needed that too finally arrived I used the Wii Fit and played games like Wii Sport bowling and tennis for about two weeks. Unfortunately, at the end of that two week period my Crohn’s got worse and so did my back so I didn’t feel up to using the Wii Fit.

Can you believe that I haven’t used it since then? Even though I’ve purchased four more games to use in the meantime?

Sad isn’t it?

My Crohn’s is still flaring, but overall I feel a little better this week. Oh and my back, probably thanks to the lower back stretching exercises I’ve been doing for the last two to three weeks seems to be getting a lot better. So I think I’m ready to start working out with my Wii Fit again.

I have been getting physical activity in other ways though. I’ve been trying to get out more often to take the dog for long walks. Plus I’ve done about 10 hours of work in the garden this week! Hmmm maybe I should be logging some of this activity into my Wii Fit? There is a way to do that – I just have to remember how, and I think you have to do it on the day you do the none Wii activities as you can’t go backwards in the calendar if you forget.

I’ve also put several hours of work into clearing out the basement so that there will be room for the workmen to work when they replace our oil tank in a week! Sometimes I think it would be easier dealing with our cluttered basement if we just got a truck rental and carted all the stuff we’ve been storing down there to some storage facility … even if it’s only temporary. That won’t work though – I’ve got to go through the stuff and probably throw out half of the stuff we don’t use and probably won’t use.

So back to the Wii Fit … for those of you with a Wii Fit – do you use it regularly? Or did you use it a lot at first and then start to slack off?

I slacked off due to health problems, but I know that if I start to use it regularly I might feel a bit better – or at least my back might as my stomach muscles get stronger again.

Pets and mirrors

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I’ve always loved watching my various pets over the years whenever they happened to discover themselves in the mirrors. Some of them, like my dog Midnight, seem to know that the dog in the mirror is herself, but other pets I’ve had seem to have thought that it was another animal invading their territory! Either way it’s kind of funny to watch!

It looks like this cat discovered itself in the mirror! Kiss, kiss!

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Yard work and a bad back do not mix

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Chris and I took advantage of the beautiful day here in Toronto and went outside for several hours to tidy up the garden.

My mind was into the work, but my body wasn’t! I’m certainly not made of Ferrari parts – not anymore anyway! LOL Nope! I just found out I have a slipped disk in my back which explains the back pain I’ve been having for over a year now. Naturally, twisting, bending and standing and sitting in odd positions while cleaning out the garden beds did absolutely nothing for my back except cause more pain!

So now I’m lying on the couch watching TV with a heating pad on my back. Oh yes, I’m also full of Advil and Tylenol. None of it seems to be helping at the moment … maybe a good rest will relax my back … maybe!

The backyard does look beautiful now though! All the dead leaves, dead foliage and most of the dead branches on the rose bushes are gone. I didn’t “technically” prune the roses – just cut off the obviously dead branches. It’s still too early to do a real pruning …. or is it?

I mean .. I was totally surprised at how many plants were coming up when we uncovered them! Not just the usually suspects like crocus, daffodils, tulips and hyacinth no … my Hollyhocks, Phlox, honeysuckle vines, and many of my clematis have leaf buds on them. I swear my garden is at least two weeks ahead of it’s self if not a full month ahead!

Now that the back garden is all cleaned up and the sun can get at the tender shoots poking their heads out of the ground I’m sure that everything will really start to shoot up! In just few days (if the weather holds) I’m sure there will be a lot more green in my garden!

The grass is already starting to green up too. On Monday evening we raked the front and back yards as well as started cleaning up the garden beds and the grass was dead looking – not a hint of green. But just 6 days of above freezing temps and a tiny bit of rain later and it now has quite a bit of green.

Now if only my back could make such a quick turn around as our awakening garden is!

Oh BTW did you participate in Earth Hour? We had a candle light dinner after expending all that energy outdoors! What did you do during earth hour?

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