Out like a lion???

Well, it's the last day of March, the seconds, minutes and hours are clicking downwards and soon we will be in the month of April.  I wonder what that will bring - a new month... always fascinating to think how the identity of  a month is so different - March is typically cool and rainy but we've had more than our fair share of snow to be sure!  My birthday (poop) calendar that hangs out in any typical Dutch bathroom, is of Dutch scenery and their March is filled with pictures of amorous birds, little bunnies and new leaves... here our poor flowers and birds are still shaking the snow off their feet and leaves.  Hopefully April will bring some warmth and joy with it!  I am put to wondering what will happen in this month - talks to be had, walks to be taken, friends to see, family to enjoy and celebrate with, exams to be written, plays to be seen, work to be done, encounters to be had...And as always, lessons to be learned, things to struggle against, things to work on and improve and grace to be seen new each morning! 

There's a bit more to this picture than meets the eye... sure, at first glance, two very extremely yummy looking and delicious smelling (you'll have to trust me on that!) multi-grain croissants from Denningers.  But why are they here?  Well, inadvertently because of the dentist.  What do these have to do with each other?  Well, the dentist had me in his clutches early this morning to do a filling which turned into two (at double the cost) and i'm afraid i left the office in a pretty nasty snit... frustrated at not having benefits, frustrated at the dentist for pulling that off when i couldn't even say yes or no because i was stuck under all sorts of clamps and pieces of plastic with gross tastes swirling past my poor tastebuds, frustrated because i hadn't put my foot down like the push-over that i am... And so there was desparate need of a remedy to my little snit otherwise something bad would happen... and so it was that Denningers came into my mind - i'd poke around there for a little while and i would be sure to find something to cheer me up - even it was dinner for tonight.  And then i remembered the lovely delicious croissants they have there - i love these and usually pick one up for lunch when i'm there for bologna or liverwurst or other little treats.  Sadly, to make my frustrating morning more complete, they didn't have any on the shelf - i was thinking my day was turning out like Alexander's terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day - but then the little German lady behind the counter asked if she could help me and i presented my request and she said with a smile and a bob of her blonde head that they were in the oven and if i could wait five minutes, i could have my treasure!  And sure enough, in five minutes, she presented me with a paper sack with my hot out of the oven delicacies with which i went on to tempt the cashier lady, and the lady in line behind me with the scrumptious odors of my breakfast! Aaah, the sunshine has returned to the day even though it's cloudy! 

Niagara Falls bound... Day Two

Saturday morning came early - no sleeping in on vacation for us apparently - sleep hadn't been thoroughly restful for me but with good friends to egg you on, there is no excuse for feeling tired!  We started off the morning with the classic Saturday morning fare - TV... and what did we find?  An old classic - He-man... wow... i hadn't seen him since i was young but that square jaw is totally unforgettable - sadly, the show holds none of the draw that it did when my brain was slightly younger and less developed!  Heehee.. but it was funny to see! And then our stomachs reminded us that it was morning... and they were empty after their feast of last evening, and so we answered the call and joined the hordes at the massive breakfast buffet - it was almost silly how much food there was - so decadent!  There was even a "make-it-the-way-you-want" omelet guy... who seemed to be able to remember people's orders so well - we were impressed...

Lots of variety to fuel us up for the day - if we eat a good breakfast, we wouldn't have to buy lunch!  Smart eh?

Apparently we had enough food left over from which to make artistic arrangments... pretty talented ladies i'm thinking!

After a more than satisfying brekkie... we headed back onto the shuttle bus and back down to the falls to take some pics of the ice covered trees and see the falls... we really didn't have any ambitious plans, just to enjoy the day together!  The sun was bright and clear and the sky was a brilliant blue, just beckoning us to take pictures - and we obliged excessively - we all remarked on the joys of having digital cameras to be sure!

Praise God in the sunshine...

Funny picture that Laura took of me taking a picture of Carina who's taking a picture.... Must have been influenced by all the oriental tourists hanging around...

Our hotel - we were on the 15th floor looking over the falls, right next to the Kentucky Fried Chicken hotel (that's what it reminded us of...)

God sculpts the trees and covers them with coverings of ice and snow...

Being destructive - somehow i had this crazy urge to knock icicles off, but had to be careful that i didn't impale myself or any other unfortunately passersbys...

I just love this picture... so pretty!!!

Clothed in ice - super neat how this all develops!

Everything becomes beautiful and sculptural at this time of year - i do like winter for that reason!

Looking down over the falls - things were starting to melt, but not too quickly for which we were happy.

The three amigos - kinda cold but having fun!

Not actually sure what Carina's doing here - but she's sure pyloning in on! heehee

 After our little photoshoot, it was time to head back to the hotel; we had managed to arrange a late checkout time on purpose to give us lots of time to lounge around - and so we took the shuttle back and played a few more games of Settlers...

I thought it would be fun to ride at the back of the empty bus, but our full stomachs had objections after we hit every single pothole in the city of Niagara Falls and the resulting jolting and rattling around didn't lend itself to feeling so supreme.... Sorry girls - nostalgia sometimes doesn't have remembrance of the bad things!  I thought we'd be the cool kids on the back of the bus!

 

Apparently there was a little mishap on the board - perhaps a little frustration on the part of the losers??  No, couldn't be... probably just a localized tornado ripping through the land of Catan!   Ooops!

Who me???  I didn't do that... what are you talking about?  I'm innocent!  (with sadness, note the extreme lack of blue pieces on the board... yep, i'm no match for the masters!)

 By one o'clock, we had our bags packed, we were brought back to our car by the valet service and we were on our way back to real life in Hamilton... with a few stops along the way.  We spent a bit of time poking around the Book Depot in St. Catharines - no big huge deals for me today but Laura did well!  It really is a huge huge place - we had to call each other on cell phones to find where we were!  (well, it wasn't that bad but the idea is fun!)   Our last stop before hitting the Hammer, was the Grimsby Dutch Store - fun times there and as it happened, we could still squeeze in a fresh croquet for an afternoon snackie!  Yum yum!

And so the epic (well, not quite - we didn't exactly trek the Himalayas or ride the Amazon in a birchbark canoe or cross the Sahara on camel-back... but we did have a nice little break, a nice chance to catch up with each other and to relax in the company of good friends.  I can't wait til next year girlies!!!

March 25 Niagara Falls.... here we come...

After a long hiatus of nearly a week, during which i have been slowly but surely recovering from a nasty bout of strep throat, thanks to the able assistance of a nice dose of antibiotics, here i am at last.  My creative juices were thrown out the window with the bathwater apparently and only recently have seeped back into the house, to be slowly reabsorbed by my personage.   So how to summarize last weekend, which was epic in proportions?? 
My good friends Laura and Carina and I have been attempting for some time now to get away for a night to just be with the girls and spend some good quality time together, dear Alvar had graciously consented to our leaving the kiddos in his very capable hands for a night whilst we painted the town green, orange and blue (red seems so scandalous and we are definitely not that kinda gals!).  So finally we were able to find a great deal for a huge hotel room in Niagara Falls, breakfast included, a $40 voucher for dinner at the Keg and a free movie thrown in for good measure.  This seemed like a great deal so we booked her all up and packed our bags... hoping for poor Carina's sake that she didn't get sick hanging around with two recovering sickies!  (i believe she came through unscathed!)
And so Friday afternoon rolled around and we were all set to go complete with our essentials checklist:
- pajamas
- chocolates
- Settlers of Catan
- Boggle and various other word games (yeah!)
- toothbrush
- cameras with lotsa batteries and memory for all those crazy shots!
And so here's a few shots that sum up Friday for you - it was a lot of fun...

Aaaah yes, the world famous Niagara Falls - our side of the falls is SO much more magnificent... nothing like being proud of Canada's natural wonders!

And even a little rainbow to boot!

Once we had our fill of looking at the falls for a while, we decided to rearrange the room since it wasn't quite up to our highly exacting standards of feng shui... or really we just wanted to take advantage of our room with a view to play our games by the windows!

Group shot... who knows what mischief these three can get up to?

Carina always did have a thing for rearranging the furniture...

Apparently, all that furniture moving was a little exhausting... don't worry, i was just faking!

With the room arrangements complete, we decided to head out for a little exploratory walk, check out the lay of the land, etc.  We did some Indy car racing, goofed off a bit and froze our butts off walking around before finally wising up and taking the shuttle around town to see the falls and the lights... no need to walk when you can ride!

Laura was pretty fast...

Carina might have beat her....

Laura explaining to Carina "yes, that is a light post"

Apparently, when i'm drugged up on Advil, my adventurous side comes out, or possibly my gullible side, i believe i was incited to pretend to be flagrantly disobeying signs...

The paparazzi were apparently in town... i caught them on film on the shuttle bus!

I like this shot... we had a lot of fun Friday night... being a bunch of big kids!

A pretty cool shot from the shuttle bus window... the falls looked really neat!

After warming our frozen limbs up in our room, we set to playing some games of Settlers... well, maybe Laura and I attempted to play but were soundly beaten again and again by the masterful planning of Carina!  She is a genius at this game, i tell you.... though i do wonder at times, what would happen if someone managed to get those orange pieces away from her and see if she still plays as well??!!!  Maybe that's the secret! 

 And then it was time for dinner... we had a $40 voucher for the Keg... we checked out the menu and were pretty much convinced that we were just going to share some appetizers and have water like the good little Dutch girls that we were and that would be good enough... how else could you feed three adults at a restaurant that starts at a minimum $25/plate... the math just wouldn't add up, even to a flunky like me!  But we managed to pull off a feat of epic proporations - we each had a full plate of food, it tasted super delicious and we were in fact stuffed to the gills and our bill, when presented came to $38.97... how's that for efficiency and thrift?  Love it!

To be continued...............

My visitors today - March 24

 One of my visitors slogged away on my behalf since i was feeling pretty crappy yet today - he was a real great Dad and came to dig me out from the wrath of the snowplow which had conspired to bury Prunelope under a huge pile of wet, sloppy snow... Love ya Dad!

These were some of my other visitors - they didn't say much, cooed a bit here and there, enjoyed some lunch on the fly and then went off to check out the neighbour's food selection which was probably better than mine since i tend to forget to top up my feeder...sorry birds!

wild and wooly Wednesday

 So, Wednesday was crazy - just have to say that - here we are nearly out of March and the weather decided to make sure that we were reminded that we are Canadians... no wimping out with an early spring for you hardy Canucks!  How bout you get the largest single dumping in a day and we'll throw in howling winds and blowing whiteouts to boot!   I will say things look pretty....but i was really excited about getting into the garden and seeing the plants growing and such - i guess we'll have to put that all on hold for a little while until the sun lends its warmth and gets rid of all the snow...

Plus, along with a last minute snowstorm, the weather brought with it something else not so fun - a winter cold/sore throat for me - and so i've been the world's biggest wimp... spent most of the day on the couch, battling aches and chills and headaches - feeling like a heel for calling into work but knowing that that was not the place for me to be - my poor patients would be getting me hot blankets instead of the other way around... I suppose that's what i get for saying to someone the other day that i had managed to escape unscathed all winter in regards to flu and colds... well, you know the expression, pride goes before a fall... or in this case, a fever!

Do you ever do silly things?

Tuesday March 22nd... so i had to bake kinda last minute for a meeting and i think i wasn't entirely paying attention to what i was doing... on tap was raisin bread - a favorite of mine to be sure - but i didn't test the raisins before i combined them.  Unfortunately, the dark raisins didn't really taste the freshest in the world (a common problem in my cupboards recently - i need to have more people over to use up my ingrediants - living by yourself you don't tend to go through things super quickly!)   So now, there was no good way to separate out the good from the bad, the sheep from the goats, except by picking one at a time - there was no good trick that i could think of (perhaps golden raisins are more buoyant or magnetically charged but i wasn't scientifically strong enough to come up with that).  So ten minutes later, i finally had the good ones picked out and the old ones in the recycling bin - teaches me to sample ingredients before randomly dumping them together, i suppose!

March 19

Yep, that's my first crocus, popping his little head up and greeting spring with a cheery hello... i hope for his sake that his toes won't get froze in the next few weeks of uncertain weather!

March 18...

Okay, i'm kinda behind, and i will confess to not having pics for every day this week - i'm failing big time - but i'll post what i have and that will have to suffice... this is from the first laundry of the year flapping outside - it smelled SO good!  Can't wait to keep doing this!

March 17

St. Patrick's Day... sorta appropriate then that my to-be-soon-green grass has nearly totally emerged from its white cape and has started its renewal process as the warmth of spring stimulates its growth.  I don't think i'll have to mow yet thankfully but it's another little sign of spring.

Something that's not a sign of spring but rather of laziness is my weekly accumulation of dishes - you will see them on this picture but thankfully when i know people are coming, they usually get taken care of... either properly washed or stowed below the sink... So there's my dirty secret... i'm a dishes slob (Joyce would be smiling if she reads this since we used to bug her greatly for that... i'm convicted...

March 16

I felt kinda like i was back in gradeschool the other day when i came home from work - there nestled nicely in the bottom of my lunch bag having been ignored during the day for things like granola bars and jello, was my fruit.  I know, i know, i really should eat it.  I can't absorb any good stuff from it if it just travels back and forth to work each day and gets more and more bruised.... i know, i know...I'll keep trying...

Oh deer....

So i was at the dentist the other day, my favorite activity in the whole wide world to be doing on a Tuesday morning... and had just finished being told that once again, i had a cavity.... so i was feeling kinda low.  I mean, how do you prevent having a cavity BETWEEN your teeth?  I can see at the side of your tooth, or even in the back where you can't reach your teeth as well but between?  The lady told me it was because i didn't floss enough - confession time - i don't floss at all - except on the eve of heading to the dentist when i frantically pull out the dusty roll of floss from under the counter and valiantly do battle on nine months worth of plaque - so i suppose in the end, it is my fault... i just like to complain and gripe and that's about all for now.
And so, reeling with the news of having to have a filling done (oh joy, oh bliss), i was feeling kinda down - despite the fact that i had a super friendly hygienist who did her best to ease the blows of financial and personal oral hygiene woes.  I was hauling out my credit card to pay for the damages when her colleague came over and was remarking on the neighbour's yard....that there were four deer there.

The dentist ladies let me go back to the west side of the building and sure enough, there just off Mohawk Road near Meadowlands, four deer calmly grazing in the back yard of the dentist's neighbour - a bit scary to think of them being so close to traffic but it was kinda sweet to see nonetheless and gave me a little boost for my day.  Doesn't that just make you stagger and fawn over the news so deer?  I know... sorry...had to do it!

March 14

Most of you who know where i live and have heard me talk at all in the last few years about my neighbourhood, know that i'm pretty happy here... it's just quiet enough to be nice and close to work and shops and the library and all other such life necessities.  I have a wonderful yard and a cozy little place to dwell.  And i have neighbours... most of you are well acquainted with "nonna".  This post is dedicated to her - she's my little across the street watchdog who loves to keep a hawk's eye on the neighbourhood goings-ons.  Scarcely can i move without her noticing, i think somedays.  Aaahh, don't get me wrong, it's good to have someone who notices things and keeps an eye out for suspicious people and events...but it ends up being quite funny sometimes - when there were renos going on here, it threw her right off because people would come and go at odd hours - "oh, i saw your daddy was over last night eh?" or "the worker guy was here a lot this week eh?"   When i first moved in, she just peeked at me from through the blinds, thinking i wouldn't see her there but i waved at her and then she was given a great opportunity to come out and officially meet her new neighbour.
But the funniest thing was the phone call i got on Tuesday morning...
Danielle - Hello, Danielle speaking.
Nonna -Hello Danielle, it's V.  I want to know, you were working the last few days?
Danielle - Yes....
Nonna - Are you working this week again?
Danielle (somewhat skeptically and wondering what the interrogation was for) - Yes...
Nonna- Oh, well i just wanted to know whether you could come over for dinner sometime...(aaah, now we get to the point - it's just funny that she had to verify all her observations and thoughts before arriving at the crux of the matter).
Danielle- I would love to come - let's make it Monday!
So here's a little shot of the observation room just so you're aware if you ever want to try to sneak anything past her, you'd better be good!

Aren't peas good???

Not sure what's funnier, eating peas or watching Aunt Dell... Talk about dinner entertainment...

You're sure that peas are good for me and will make me grow??

You can put the peas to my mouth but you can't make me swallow...  even if you wrap me up like a mummy and spread them all over my face!  So there!

So, Saturday night i was drafted into babysitting for my three little nephews.... supper and bedtime and all... aah, how hard could it be right?  I had great helpers and i was delighted that we could make it a real social event... but mostly i just want to show some pics of Nate "eating" his peas.  Apparently, this was his first time eating canned peas - i'm glad to be a guinea pig and it made for some funny pictures...