What are the Odds?

Lloyd and I went out for Chinese food today to a little place I hadn't been to in years.  The food was good, as usual, but when the fortune cookies were presented and opened, this is what we found.

We each got the same fortune!  What are the odds of that happening?  Never, in all my years of eating Chinese food and opening cookies, have I ever got the same fortune as someone else.

The fortune, too, is a bit off.  I'm retired so I don't know what I can be promoted to from here.  Lloyd is CEO of his organization, set to retire next year, so I'm not sure that a promotion is possible, or wanted, for him.

The six numbers on the back of the fortunes were different though.  Maybe I should use them to buy a Lotto 649 ticket!

On another topic altogether, I'm having problems commenting on a couple of blogs that I follow and have no other way to let these ladies know that I'm still here and trying every day to comment on their blogs.  So, Jan at Serenity, Serendipity and Stitches as well as Taryterre and Scooter Lady Rides Again, don't give up on me.  I'll keep trying till a comment goes through.

Pat

Puzzles, Money, Goats, Food, Forks and Games

This will be my last Winnipeg post.  I figure that since I didn't have anything nice to say about it before my trip I should try to redeem myself now, since my sister did such a good job of showing me the beauty of her city.  Thank you Wendy.

Puzzles

Doing jig-saw puzzles is a tradition in our family.  We always had stacks of them and used to do them over and over again.  When we were young Dad and Mum used to do the large colorful  500 - 1000 piece puzzles and let us help.  They'd leave them out for awhile after they were put together and Wendy and I would take a corner of the puzzle apart and re-do it.  We both enjoy the challenge of putting puzzles together.  So, when I went to Winnipeg this time, I took Wendy what was billed as the world's smallest 1000 piece jig-saw puzzle.  Each piece was no larger than my thumbnail - and my nails are not very long.

We spent my last morning there finishing it off

Money

Winnipeg has a license to print money.  As we were driving to someplace else, we stopped in at the Winnipeg Mint, where coins for over 62 countries including the US, Mexico, Australia and Great Britain are minted,  with a production rate of 750 coins per second and four billion coins annually.  In front of the Mint complex wave the flags of all the countries that have contracted to have coins printed there.

It was a very windy day so the flags are snapping straight out.

The Mint from the parking lot

Inside the foyer of the Mint. 

We didn't take the official tour because we were on our way someplace else.  It would have been interesting though.  We couldn't figure out why the foyer was decorated with tropical palm trees.  Winnipeg is anything but tropical.

Goats

Our destination on the day we stopped in at the Winnipeg Mint was a place just half an hour from the city, called Pineridge Hollow.  It was a beautiful spot out in the country - a restaurant and large gift shop, beautiful grounds and a small petting zoo.  It's a favorite spot for weddings, we were told.

Our first stop out there was the petting zoo where we saw some pygmy goats playing 'king of the castle' on their shed.

Nanny Goat was successful in keeping Billy Goat on the ground where he belonged.

Food

Our main reason for going to Pineridge Hollow was to  have lunch at their famous restaurant.  A reservation was required, even for a mid-week lunch, as the restaurant's reputation had spread far and wide. 

Wendy on the steps of the restaurant

I had the most delicious fresh chicken and tomato quesadilla with farm fresh vegetable salad.  I had already eaten one portion of the quesadilla before I remembered to take a picture of it.

Wendy had a Reuben sandwich with home fries and...for dessert...

the most enormous brownie imaginable, with ice cream, strawberries, blueberries and nuts on top.  Of course I had to help her eat it and even then we had some to take home.

My dessert was a lovely creme brulee, which was all I needed, but then I had to help Wendy with her 'little brownie' too, so we really overate.

Forks

In the middle of Winnipeg there's a lovely park called The Forks.  There's a Children's Museum, playground, picnic areas, railroad cars, restaurants, and a beautiful river walk.  It's called The Forks because it's where the Assiniboine and Red Rivers meet and flow together northward to Hudsons Bay.

Visiting with the Canada geese at the Forks

A CN train crossing the Canadian National bridge over the Assiniboine River

Part of the river walk - Assiniboine River.
The last time we were here, we took one of the boat tours. It was quite beautiful.

The water at the front of the picture is the Assiniboine River and in the middle where the water appears smoother is the Red River. They join up here and head north to the Hudson's Bay

The city rises above the Forks.

Games

It wouldn't be a visit to Wendy and Randy without at least one night of playing games.  One of our favorites is Hand and Foot Canasta.  I can only play it when I'm with Wendy and Randy because Lloyd doesn't like playing cards (although he will when pressed) and neither do any of my kids who live close enough to me. 

Randy, Me, Angelo (Wendy and Randy's son-in-law), and Wendy. 
Meredith (their daughter) took the picture.  She and Wendy took turns sitting in as my partner, working on the puzzle when they weren't playing.  The men still beat us.

And that wraps up my adventures in Winnipeg...a good trip...I'm glad I went.

Visit With Mum

The main reason for my visit to Winnipeg last week was to spend time with Mum.  My last visit with her was discouraging and depressing.  Although she's being well taken care of in the long-term facility it's sad to go see her and have her be so unresponsive.

This visit was better - it was cheerful and fun.  Mum was having a good day and although she still didn't recognize (and never will again) me and Wendy, she seemed to enjoy our company.  She made eye contact with both of us, smiled and even laughed a few times - mere shadows of her pre-Alzheimer's smile and laugh, but real nevertheless.

Mum at 90

Sharing a laugh with Wendy

Smiling as she walks with me

 She collected some leaves that had fallen from the trees as we walked and seemed to enjoy being out in the fresh air and sunshine.  She's still very strong although we held her arms as we walked on the uneven paths.  One of the blessings of Alzheimer's is that she seems to have forgotten pain and no longer seems to feel the bone grinding arthritis in her shoulder that caused her such agony a couple of years ago.  She's always been a very healthy, strong woman and the Alzheimer's hasn't dimished that very much.  It was so nice to have such a good visit with her.  I talked to her about things that were happening in my life and she listened but couldn't respond.  Forgetting how to speak is one of the many symptoms of the disease.

So, all in all, I'm glad I went and spent such an enjoyable time with Mum.



Winnipeg is Full Of...

Canada Geese!  Hundreds of thousands of them! All over the place!  I was unaware of this phenomenon until earlier this week when I witnessed it firsthand

Because it's on three migration paths, Winnipeg has become a staging area for the geese as they prepare for their flight south.  Hundreds of thousands of the beautiful birds congregate in and around Winnipeg in late summer/early fall to fatten up, practice flying, teach the young ones the mysteries of migration and how to fly in formation.  At sunset the sky is full of Canada Geese as they head for the nearby lakes to rest for the night in the relative safety of the water, free from predators.

They land in the lake, gradually filling the surface.  They shared it this evening with a few ducks and a flock of six pelicans.

The beautiful lake at sunset.  There are a few geese at the far end of it

We could see lines of them off in the distance making their way to the lake.

This is just a small flock settling in.  They were joined by many more.

The line of white birds in the middle are the pelicans.

Wendy and I stayed at the lake until it was too dark to see, but we knew the geese were there by their honking calls..  In a month or so they'll all be gone to warmer places where the lakes aren't frozen ice for four or five months.  And then they'll come back and it'll start all over again.

Pat

Going to Winnipeg

I'm flying out to Winnipeg this morning to visit Wendy and Mum for a few days. Not sure I'll be able to blog from there so just wanted to let everyone know why I'm not blogging for a few days.

For those of you who don't know, Winnipeg is in the flat prairies on a river that floods every spring.  It's miserably cold in the winter and ridiculously hot in the summer - no one's version of a fun place to go for a holiday.  But when people you love live there, you suck it up and go visit them. 

Hopefully I'll find the beauty of the city on this trip and will post some lovely pictures when I get home.  Check out this video (an old Fountain Tire commercial) for the correct attitude on "going to Winnipeg".

Going to Winnipeg

As you can see, not everyone's idea of a fun vacation stop. I'll enjoy myself anyway.

Hockey Night in Canada

Well, not quite.  It was a bright sunny hot morning.  I went to watch 6-year old grandson Max's first hockey practice of the season.  I must say I was impressed at how much his skating has improved since I last watched him early last season.  And he looked like he was having fun.  Hockey will fill his family's weekends from now till March or April when the season ends.  He'll have practices every Saturday morning and games on Sunday.

Hockey is Canada's favorite sport - actually Lacrosse is our official sport but you never hear anything about it.  Hockey leads the way - in a country with so much winter it's only right that a winter sport is so popular.

Anyway, back to Max.  Here he is in action.

Look at the smile on that little face.

You'll have to excuse the quality of the pictures.  They were taken through the protective plexiglass surrounding the rink.  The boys wear their own personal jerseys and numbers in practice.  After this practice session they were given their official team jerseys and numbers.  Max chose to be  lucky number 13!  I'm sure it'll be good luck for him. After all, his Papa wore lucky #13 when he played softball and his team made it to the regional finals.

Just as a sidenote, Max's first hockey practice fell on the day of record breaking heat for this date here in Edmonton.  It was 32C - hot and sunny.  A good day to spend at an ice rink.



Layouts and Cupcakes

Sometimes I hit a wall when it comes to thinking about things to blog about.  When that happens, I just stay quiet and wait for something worth boring entertaining you with.  Such has been the case the past couple of days.  Hopefully some of you are still with me.

Yesterday, for the first time in several weeks, my friend Mickey and I had a whole day and into the night to spend together scrapbooking.  Of course when we do that, we take several breaks - lunch, snack, dinner, shopping, etc. - but mostly we work on our scrapbooking.  I worked diligently for hours on my layouts and completed three.  As Lloyd would say, Mickey won 7-3.  But it isn't a competition.  I'm a slow scrapper and Mickey is faster.  I think I might have ADD ;)

Here's what I accomplished yesterday.

Lloyd and I and our posterity

The girls in the bottom right are daughters of four of my children. It needs
another 'fun' on it doesn't it.  I'll go take care of that shortly.

This one uses pictures of my sister and me when we were younger

For our mid-afternoon break Mickey and I went to a cupcake shop we had never been to before.  Cupcakes are very popular here and it seems that a lot of cupcake shops have popped up in the past few years.  This new one, called Fuss (as in come see what all the fuss is about) was home to the most delicious cupcakes we had tried yet.  They were just about all gone before I thought to take a picture of them...these are the ones that we took home.

The green one is  called The Full Monty and is chocolate with mint icing.
The yellow one is called Lemon Aid - vanilla cake with lemon icing.
Aren't my little 1970s owls cute.  Daughter Jenny gave them to
me to add to my resurrected owl collection.

Another view of the cupcakes.  The little bouquet on the plate is garlic
chives from Emily's garden, complete with the sweetest smelling
blossom ever.  The chives were delicious chopped up in a
chicken sandwich.



I think it's a pretty safe bet that Mickey and I will be visiting Fuss again.  I had a chocolate Coconut Fuss cupcake with cream cheese icing and fresh coconut, as well as a caramel cake one with pear buttercream icing - delicious.  Mickey had Scarlette O'Hara (red velvet cake with cream cheese icing and the decadent Bliss (chocolate cake/chocolate icing/chocolate ganache).   We won't stop until we've tried JungleFever, Cloud 9, Purple Haze, Raz and the City, The Diva, The Don, and the rest of their treasures.  It might take us awhile, but we'll do it. More incentive for us to have weekly scrapbooking days. 

Now, go on out and get yourself a sinful treat.  Have a lovely weekend.

Pat