Jul 22, 2012
Colin turns 62 today! What will the day bring…..hopefully just relaxation and some guitar playing for him. We had a lovely dinner last night on the patio and then friends came over for a glass of wine around the fire pit.
I gave this tree to Colin last year for his birthday.
If you want to read about it the story is here.
Here we are one year later. The tree is growing quickly. Colin looks just the same!
Jul 21, 2012
Have you ever heard that expression? I have but only in reference to bad things. They say if 2 things have happened wait for the 3rd and you should be good for a while. I wonder if good things come in threes?
So the first incident was earlier in the week when we discovered that the two casement windows opening onto the lake opened the wrong way, mostly blocking our view. The strange way we discovered this was that one of the fellows working on the house slit his head open on the edge of the open casement window right where the edge should not have been. It didn't take us but a minute to decide to reorder a new window no matter the cost. The left side could be moved to the right side but a new left would have to be built. We knew it would be expensive. We were told it was our fault for not specifying the opening direction. We begged to differ but no matter 'fix the window'!! The next morning the builder had redone the windows?????? He had called the manufacturer who was able to explain to him how to disassemble and reassemble the windows as they were modular. Financial increase averted.
Two days ago we met up with bad thing #2! We love the kitchen cabinets we had chosen & the color but not the inside construction. I felt that there was lot of wasted space but it was explained that the soft close system brackets took up more inside cupboard and drawer space. Well you should have told me that in early May!! Nothing I can to do about that, but there are 3 other cabinet problems. The installer decided that 2 upper cabinets could be interchanged because he thought it would be better. Wrong decision on his part, it is being changed. Another cabinet should have had 3 pullout drawers instead of 4 but I will live it. However the third cabinet has to be totally rebuilt as per my specific measurements which show on the plan. Right now the builder wants me to pay for the change as he says Colin approved the change!! Don't worry I will win on that one also.
This is not the actual color, the shot was taken under workers lights. The 4 drawers were suppose to be 7.5 inches high and they are on the outside but in actuality they are only 5.5 inches on the inside which is isn't good for much other than cutlery!!!
The white spacer on each side takes up close to 3.5 inches plus there is 4 inches of empty space between the pullout drawer and the back of the cabinet. I really dislike waste.
The 3rd incident happened yesterday and it is sad story.
Yesterday our landscaper and his assistant Mike were doing some work laying leftover existing slabs because of the cement pour. It was a big job to remove all the soil, gravel, level and to start laying the slabs. You can sort of see Mike crouching down.
They had been working for about 5 hours when I heard loud swearing and moaning, groaning and someone in major pain. Mike had dropped one of the 24 X 24 X 2 slabs, weighing close to 100 lbs on his left toe. For some reason he was not wearing his steel toe boots which both his boss and Colin had mentioned to him in the morning. Needless to say, that many came running, we went into first aid mode, drug giving mode, ice pack mode, etc. Walter, Mike's boss who has worked as a volunteer firefighter here in Lake Country and is a great first responder along with Nurse Contessa managed to get the situation under control. Poor Mike was in excruciating pain to the point of almost going into shock. At one point an ambulance was called but it was easier and quicker to just drive him into the walk in clinic where my Dr. happened to be working. So we got Mike into the treatment room immediately, he was still in pain and being a walk in clinic they have no drugs other than aspirin. With Dr. Sokol's permission I gave Mike more codeine which I happened to have in my purse. A few hours later Mike was off to get an x-ray minus one toe nail. He is going to be one sore 21 year old for a few days.
My day wasn't over yet…..we still had 3 house related errands plus a 90 minute meeting re window coverings. Wine never was so welcome when we got home at 7PM. Despite the day we still were eating a dinner I made from scratch by 8PM. I did go to bed at 9:30PM though!!!!!!!
Needless to say, our side patio project never got completed. So that makes three bad things! Let's see what today brings.
Jul 20, 2012
Plus we relaxed!! Thanks for all your anniversary wishes and comments, it meant a lot to us. It is wonderful to be part of this online family.
We took from about 3PM off just for us. Rather than make a meal or even order in we ate a few mini meals throughout the afternoon and evening. It was about 35C, too warm for a huge meal.
This was our wedding cake 25 years ago. I still have the top piece.
We ended our evening with champagne and the very last piece of original wedding cake which I have saved in the freezer all these years. It was a fruit cake and tasted just as good as it did on our wedding day.
Colin took this from the roof of the RV.
The girls and I just hung out on the patio enjoying the sunset.
We had a few surprises when we got to the house yesterday, this was a good one. The painter is Bruce, the fellow who introduced me to my online business. Once our house is finished Bruce is hanging up his paint brush and will drawing out $6000.00 per month. He only started the end of January and didn't even own a computer then.
The house is coming along but not without problems. One major glitch was easily solved, not so sure about the kitchen cabinet fiasco. I may just have to learn to live with the wrong cupboards!!
Yesterday was spent settling issues which is why I didn't have time to post. We are off in a few moments to make further on the spot house decisions with more meetings and decisions later today in Kelowna. I leave you with the beautiful sunset from a few nights ago. Is it Friday already??
Jul 18, 2012
Yes, it is true…..today we have been married 25 years! Rather amazing if I have to say so myself.
Who knew we would tie the knot? Who knew it would last this long?
We started to date during Expo 86 in Vancouver. Colin was the official photographer for both the British and the Canadian Pavilions. I like to tell the story that I only dated him to get to the front of all the lines to the various pavilions using his press pass. Actually I really kinda liked the guy. We married one year later.
We got married outside in a private garden, it was melting hot that day.
Obviously huge glasses were in fashion 25 years ago.
Officially married and signing the legal documents.
What does one do for a 25th wedding anniversary celebration? What did you do??
We have been told over and over how very special today is, a landmark achieved!! What to do to celebrate?
We have been so very busy with the new house ( actually the perfect gift to us in itself in my opinion) that we haven't had any time to decide what to do. If we were not building the house, we would have booked a flight to New York City and spent a very romantic week there, theatre, music, etc. We could have done a cruise or gone to Hawaii as we did for our honeymoon but really NYC is our very very favorite in the world…..hmmmm…let's do that next year, okay sweetie??
So what will we to today? Well first off after five must do errands starting at 7AM we just might go to a Hallmark store and each find the perfect 25th anniversary card which we will chose and then meet in the middle of the store and read aloud to each other…sob a bit…give each other a smooch and promptly return the card to the rack where we will walk out the store arm in arm and head home to crack a bottle of champagne, and just enjoy the rest of the day together.
Would you like a piece of cake?
Jul 16, 2012
Very busy last few days and the best part other than the vino and food was that we managed to evade the severe thundershowers we were warned about for 3 days!! We had some clouds but all was good.
That allowed us to sand, fill and put the first coat of stain on the arbour. Maybe I will get the second and hopefully final coat done Monday. We are going for the weathered board look. Definitely not happening with the first coat. Staining is NOT a fun job.
A few nights ago Colin was laying out on a chaise by the lake ( I was already in bed ) and he saw the beaver……wonderful news!! The critter didn't get blown up nor move away. Middle of the night or very very early Saturday morning I was awoken by the sound of pebbles being thrown into the lake….after a few moments I wondered if someone was on our site or Karen's site next door. I looked out the bedroom window which is at pillow level to see a smallish dark critter run under Karen's RV followed by another few splashes and a second critter following the first. It was a mink!! Possibly an American Mink. They are weasel like carnivores that are semi aquatic. They eat mice, rats, fish, frogs and snakes among other things. The pebbles I heard splashing were the two mink trying to climb up the rocks from the lake to the land. Perhaps they were looking for a garter snake to snack on. I had done a blog post over a year ago with photos of some local mink but can't find my post.
This is an internet photo. Cute little guy but fierce with sharp teeth!
Now as to the stuff…..got lots of questions about the cedar plank salmon we had the other night.
The cedar planks we use are thin boards that we pick up from a local mill, a throw away. You could Google where to find some in your area. Be sure to soak the boards in water for at least 12 hours, 24 would be better ~ this time I confess we only soaked them 4 hours.
First off we only eat wild salmon, not farmed but I am sure you could use either type. About 2 hours prior to cooking I put the fish into a dish and marinated it in teriyaki sauce. You could add garlic, brown sugar, other spices, I just used the sauce as the fish was fresh.
Colin simply puts the planks on the grill, turns it on and puts the salmon skin side down on the planks, letting the sauce drip back into the bowl as he lifts the salmon pieces out. All BBQ's are different so temperature is hard to judge but we set ours at around medium. How to tell if the salmon is cooked, not so easy with sockeye salmon, easier with other t