Monday, June 09, 2008
My Favourite Recipes
I've started a new blog for my favourite recipes. My goal is to write one recipe a day. You'll see when you get there the reason I started it is because Bruce always looks on the internet for recipes when I have a whole cupboard full of recipe books with great recipes in them. I figure this way he can cook the way he likes and I still get some of my favourite dishes for supper :D
Friday, June 06, 2008
Proud Mommy, Switching Hours and the May Long Weekend
First, sorry I haven’t posted here in forever, really. I’ve been meaning to, but time keeps ticking away…. (that DC Talk song has been in my head for over a week now. I don’t remember any of the rest of the lyrics, and I don’t seem to have the CD anymore, so I can’t get it out of my head. Arrrggghhh!!!)
I had a proud Mommy moment today. My daughter has been practising riding a two-wheeler bicycle (meaning one without training wheels) on the grass in our backyard. She hasn’t had the courage to ride it on the sidewalk, even though she has been doing a great job staying upright and not falling over. Today after work I was outside and she was riding her bike on the grass. I mentioned that if she wanted to try, we have a small sidewalk in the back she could try to ride on and that way if she fell it would still be on grass. She became very excited and after one or two successful attempts at riding on the cement in the backyard, she announced that she wanted her dad to watch her in the front on the big sidewalk. Now there is no stopping her! She rode around the block once, then twice, and again with her brother. As I saw her riding off (leaving me in the dust) I had this huge smile on my face -- and that was my proud Mommy moment. *sniff* My baby girl is growing up.
Spending time outside this evening was possible because I’ve switched my hours at work. I’m now working 7:30 to 4 instead of 8:30 to 5. It’s nice to have the extra time in the evening with the kids. I’m still not used to getting up so early. Yesterday I fell asleep on the couch at 8:30. I’ve been trying to get to bed earlier, but it isn’t working very well.
And now I want to tell you about our camping trip on the May long weekend. I know, that was a while ago, but bear with me.
You may or may not know that we have a 1967 Airstream. We bought it last year in May, had a few issues and finally got it at the end of June or beginning of July, I think. There were still some issues, but we used it for the summer and enjoyed it immensely. We knew we had to take it back in the Fall to have some stuff done - replace the fridge and fix a connection from the car to the battery. We were draining the battery when we used anything in the trailer because there was something wrong with the connection that was supposed to recharge the trailer batter from our car while the car was running (I know -- it’s all so technical *lol*). So we think everything is fixed and we’re set to go for this year. Well, except we know we can’t run the fridge on the gas because we didn’t plug the holes beside the fridge and there is danger we could gas ourselves because it would vent into the trailer instead of outside. But that’s not all the fun we had. First Bruce realizes that we have no signal lights when the trailer was plugged into the car. We can’t drive on the road without trailer lights. A camping trip would not be worth the ticket. I don’t know what he did, but he figured out how to get those working. But then he realizes that we don’t have battery power in the trailer. We like to camp in non-electric sites, so battery power is helpful (and I think it was necessary for the trailer lights to work). He plugs the trailer into the house, the battery charges, all is okay again. No problem. We’ll just ask for an electric site.
Now, we don’t use the water much in the trailer (just for the toilet, really) because the water tastes funny. But we had the trailer winterized and thought we should flush all that stuff out. Since we are going to go camping, we might as well take the water and then we can dump the sewage out at the Lake and not have to pay the $5 dumping fee at the campground here in the City, right? Sounds good to me. So, Bruce and Brendan filled the trailer with water. I got home, finished packing, hitched everything up and pulled out of the driveway. With a scrape scrape here and a scrape scrape there. We left a nice long line at the end of the driveway where it meets the road as the hitch dragged on the ground. We could hear the chains dragging and thought, “This doesn’t seem right. We didn’t drag this much last year.” We stop a few houses down, get out of the van to look, and, sure enough, the back end of the van is WAY down. If we go over any bumps, I’m sure it’s not going to be good for the van or the trailer. We think, “What do we do? Do we keep going and hope for the best or pull around the block and park the trailer until we figure out what’s wrong?” I had an idea that maybe the water was weighing down the front of the trailer, so we go inside and start running water through ever tap. That lifted the front up and we were able to go without dragging our back end.
The trip to the Lake was fairly uneventful – just the usual 80 km/h and fear every time you need to change lanes because you can’t see behind you. (Bruce found out at the sewage dump that he can get mirrors for the van that would help us out. I think those are still on the list for the next trailer trip) When we got to the Lake we asked for an electric sight. No such luck. But we could get the exact same sight we had last year that we loved in non-electric. That was fine. We had a lantern and flashlight for night, so we didn’t need to use the trailer lights. And it is a spot close to the park so we could sit at the site and watch the kids play.
Usually the May long weekend rains and is miserable, but this year it was very nice. Very windy, but wind is better than wet. For the most part, the kids played with other kids at the playground. They went on the nature hike, played mini-golf, built fires, roasted marshmallows and ate far too much junk food. All-in-all it was a great weekend. We even got to go to the beach one day. The kids played in the lake even though we thought the water was freezing. They made some friends, and we even chatted with one of the neighbouring campers. All was calm and peaceful -- until Sunday night. I don’t know why everyone seems to come up with the same idea at the same time…. The Lake has an alcohol ban on long weekends to try to prevent people from just coming to drink, be loud, and then puke.
Okay, I need to start at the beginning with some new neighbour campers. A group of younger people (maybe C&C age) pulled up at the empty site beside us. Bruce admits he had the thought that wouldn’t it be nice if it was a church group and we’d hear some campfire songs that night. Uh huh. No such luck. As soon as they opened their mouths we realized they were not a church group. Every second word was offensive. I was glad my kids weren’t at the site and weren’t listening to the language casually tossed about next to us. There was one parent who did have their kids nearby, though, and asked them to tone it down. That lasted for all of about half an hour. *rolls eyes* The funny thing is, they had been arguing about whether or not a canoe would sink in the water from the weight of all of them. They decided it wouldn’t sink and went for their canoe ride (much to our relief). A little while later I see them walking back with paddles in hand but no canoe. Apparently it was so windy, the waves capsized their canoe! I’m afraid I thought, “ha ha!” I also thought somebody’s parents weren’t going to be very happy with them.
At one point the police stopped by to let them know they had too many tents on their site. One tent was removed, and a car full of people left (Yay!). There was a search done of the site. I’m not sure where they hid it, but no alcohol was found at that time.
The fun really began when they were partying beside us (with the hidden alcohol) – we had put the kids to bed already and thought of turning in for the night ourselves. Guess who shows up again but Mr. Policeman. Busted!!! The cop came on foot so they couldn’t hide the alcohol this time. I was amazed when I saw the piles of bottles that turned up. One of the girls was trying to convince the officer that it wasn’t them it was the people before them and that if the cop wanted he could dump out all the alcohol. It sounded like a desperate attempt to convince the police officer that he shouldn’t kick them all out. Nope. No such luck (for them … hee hee). In the dark they had to tear down the tents, pack up and leave. Now we had been ready for bed and I wondered if it would be appropriate to pull out our chairs, start up the fire again, and watch the excitement unfolding at the campsite next to us. I decided to not be so obvious. We climbed into the trailer and peeked out the window instead. *snicker* Okay, in hindsight we should have just set up to watch the show from decent seats. But they do say hindsight is 20/20. *lol*
We didn’t peek for long and did go to sleep. The next day we found out there were about three other parties busted around us. Of course, I slept through it all. It sounded interesting, though. We think everyone must have figured there would be patrols Friday and Saturday night, so they would come out Sunday night instead.
Monday we packed up and headed home. Apparently there is a lot of useful information to be had while waiting to dump the sewage. The kids and I played minigolf while we waited for Bruce. Oh, and we found out that our sewage tank leaks. Yet one more thing to fix – and we are so NOT fix-it-up-ourselves kind of people. BUT we don’t sleep on the ground anymore.
I love our trailer. I love camping. I can hardly wait to go again.
I had a proud Mommy moment today. My daughter has been practising riding a two-wheeler bicycle (meaning one without training wheels) on the grass in our backyard. She hasn’t had the courage to ride it on the sidewalk, even though she has been doing a great job staying upright and not falling over. Today after work I was outside and she was riding her bike on the grass. I mentioned that if she wanted to try, we have a small sidewalk in the back she could try to ride on and that way if she fell it would still be on grass. She became very excited and after one or two successful attempts at riding on the cement in the backyard, she announced that she wanted her dad to watch her in the front on the big sidewalk. Now there is no stopping her! She rode around the block once, then twice, and again with her brother. As I saw her riding off (leaving me in the dust) I had this huge smile on my face -- and that was my proud Mommy moment. *sniff* My baby girl is growing up.
Spending time outside this evening was possible because I’ve switched my hours at work. I’m now working 7:30 to 4 instead of 8:30 to 5. It’s nice to have the extra time in the evening with the kids. I’m still not used to getting up so early. Yesterday I fell asleep on the couch at 8:30. I’ve been trying to get to bed earlier, but it isn’t working very well.
And now I want to tell you about our camping trip on the May long weekend. I know, that was a while ago, but bear with me.
You may or may not know that we have a 1967 Airstream. We bought it last year in May, had a few issues and finally got it at the end of June or beginning of July, I think. There were still some issues, but we used it for the summer and enjoyed it immensely. We knew we had to take it back in the Fall to have some stuff done - replace the fridge and fix a connection from the car to the battery. We were draining the battery when we used anything in the trailer because there was something wrong with the connection that was supposed to recharge the trailer batter from our car while the car was running (I know -- it’s all so technical *lol*). So we think everything is fixed and we’re set to go for this year. Well, except we know we can’t run the fridge on the gas because we didn’t plug the holes beside the fridge and there is danger we could gas ourselves because it would vent into the trailer instead of outside. But that’s not all the fun we had. First Bruce realizes that we have no signal lights when the trailer was plugged into the car. We can’t drive on the road without trailer lights. A camping trip would not be worth the ticket. I don’t know what he did, but he figured out how to get those working. But then he realizes that we don’t have battery power in the trailer. We like to camp in non-electric sites, so battery power is helpful (and I think it was necessary for the trailer lights to work). He plugs the trailer into the house, the battery charges, all is okay again. No problem. We’ll just ask for an electric site. Now, we don’t use the water much in the trailer (just for the toilet, really) because the water tastes funny. But we had the trailer winterized and thought we should flush all that stuff out. Since we are going to go camping, we might as well take the water and then we can dump the sewage out at the Lake and not have to pay the $5 dumping fee at the campground here in the City, right? Sounds good to me. So, Bruce and Brendan filled the trailer with water. I got home, finished packing, hitched everything up and pulled out of the driveway. With a scrape scrape here and a scrape scrape there. We left a nice long line at the end of the driveway where it meets the road as the hitch dragged on the ground. We could hear the chains dragging and thought, “This doesn’t seem right. We didn’t drag this much last year.” We stop a few houses down, get out of the van to look, and, sure enough, the back end of the van is WAY down. If we go over any bumps, I’m sure it’s not going to be good for the van or the trailer. We think, “What do we do? Do we keep going and hope for the best or pull around the block and park the trailer until we figure out what’s wrong?” I had an idea that maybe the water was weighing down the front of the trailer, so we go inside and start running water through ever tap. That lifted the front up and we were able to go without dragging our back end.
The trip to the Lake was fairly uneventful – just the usual 80 km/h and fear every time you need to change lanes because you can’t see behind you. (Bruce found out at the sewage dump that he can get mirrors for the van that would help us out. I think those are still on the list for the next trailer trip) When we got to the Lake we asked for an electric sight. No such luck. But we could get the exact same sight we had last year that we loved in non-electric. That was fine. We had a lantern and flashlight for night, so we didn’t need to use the trailer lights. And it is a spot close to the park so we could sit at the site and watch the kids play.
Usually the May long weekend rains and is miserable, but this year it was very nice. Very windy, but wind is better than wet. For the most part, the kids played with other kids at the playground. They went on the nature hike, played mini-golf, built fires, roasted marshmallows and ate far too much junk food. All-in-all it was a great weekend. We even got to go to the beach one day. The kids played in the lake even though we thought the water was freezing. They made some friends, and we even chatted with one of the neighbouring campers. All was calm and peaceful -- until Sunday night. I don’t know why everyone seems to come up with the same idea at the same time…. The Lake has an alcohol ban on long weekends to try to prevent people from just coming to drink, be loud, and then puke.
Okay, I need to start at the beginning with some new neighbour campers. A group of younger people (maybe C&C age) pulled up at the empty site beside us. Bruce admits he had the thought that wouldn’t it be nice if it was a church group and we’d hear some campfire songs that night. Uh huh. No such luck. As soon as they opened their mouths we realized they were not a church group. Every second word was offensive. I was glad my kids weren’t at the site and weren’t listening to the language casually tossed about next to us. There was one parent who did have their kids nearby, though, and asked them to tone it down. That lasted for all of about half an hour. *rolls eyes* The funny thing is, they had been arguing about whether or not a canoe would sink in the water from the weight of all of them. They decided it wouldn’t sink and went for their canoe ride (much to our relief). A little while later I see them walking back with paddles in hand but no canoe. Apparently it was so windy, the waves capsized their canoe! I’m afraid I thought, “ha ha!” I also thought somebody’s parents weren’t going to be very happy with them.
At one point the police stopped by to let them know they had too many tents on their site. One tent was removed, and a car full of people left (Yay!). There was a search done of the site. I’m not sure where they hid it, but no alcohol was found at that time.
The fun really began when they were partying beside us (with the hidden alcohol) – we had put the kids to bed already and thought of turning in for the night ourselves. Guess who shows up again but Mr. Policeman. Busted!!! The cop came on foot so they couldn’t hide the alcohol this time. I was amazed when I saw the piles of bottles that turned up. One of the girls was trying to convince the officer that it wasn’t them it was the people before them and that if the cop wanted he could dump out all the alcohol. It sounded like a desperate attempt to convince the police officer that he shouldn’t kick them all out. Nope. No such luck (for them … hee hee). In the dark they had to tear down the tents, pack up and leave. Now we had been ready for bed and I wondered if it would be appropriate to pull out our chairs, start up the fire again, and watch the excitement unfolding at the campsite next to us. I decided to not be so obvious. We climbed into the trailer and peeked out the window instead. *snicker* Okay, in hindsight we should have just set up to watch the show from decent seats. But they do say hindsight is 20/20. *lol*
We didn’t peek for long and did go to sleep. The next day we found out there were about three other parties busted around us. Of course, I slept through it all. It sounded interesting, though. We think everyone must have figured there would be patrols Friday and Saturday night, so they would come out Sunday night instead.
Monday we packed up and headed home. Apparently there is a lot of useful information to be had while waiting to dump the sewage. The kids and I played minigolf while we waited for Bruce. Oh, and we found out that our sewage tank leaks. Yet one more thing to fix – and we are so NOT fix-it-up-ourselves kind of people. BUT we don’t sleep on the ground anymore.
I love our trailer. I love camping. I can hardly wait to go again.
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