Happy Mother's Day!

This weekend, we surprised my mother with a visit. The last time I was in Toronto was for Chinese New Year. It was a short visit and I did not get to spend enough time with everyone as I had liked. :( I really missed my family so Jeff and I planned ahead to do something special for my mother on Mother's day.

My mom has told me on a few occasions that one of the best apple pies she's ever had was one that Jeff made. I don't remember ever trying Jeff's apple pie but my mom and Jeff both remember it. I must be getting old .. :) Anyway, we decided to make her an apple pie for Mother's day and deliver it personally. I told my sisters not to tell my mother so it was hush hush for weeks. When we finally delivered the pie, she said she knew something was up. :) Can't fool my ma. She said she knew something was fishy when she didn't receive a Mother's Day card from us in the mail. I didn't think of mailing the card ahead of time. I guess I'm really bad at setting up surprises. Still, my ma was happy to see us.

I was able to see my sisters, nieces, and nephew. Anson is so cute. He has learned many words now and is running around like an active 18 month old. With all the active running, he's lost some of his baby fat that it makes him look so tiny. He calls me "yee ma" and Jeff as "yee jeung". I got to look after him for a bit while his parents went out for a short grocery run. Normally, I get a nervous feeling when I'm left alone with kids. I'm a complete neophyte when it comes to dealing with children. But with Anson? It was easy - he was so well mannered and innocent.

We celebrated Mother's Day with a family dinner on Saturday night at the Ginger & Onion restaurant at Market Village. The eight course dinner was quite good but I'm still waiting to try out Honey & Garlic for dinner. We weren't able to get reservations for dinner there so we had to settle for Ginger & Onion. Jeff and I joined my parents for dim sum on Sunday morning before we left and wow, what a line up. Luckily, my dad got there early and didn't have to wait long for a table. Jeff and I don't go out for dim sum much in Ottawa because the quality just isn't there. I went out for dim sum with some co-workers and the food was mediocre but quite expensive. $180 for 10 people - Ouch!

I tell ya, I can't wait to move back to Toronto. Ottawa is really nice but Toronto has more to offer than Ottawa. Yeah, T&T is opening a store here soon but it's not enough to keep me here. :)

I hope all mothers had a wonderful Mother's day!

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April Gone By

Wow .. I completely missed the month of April! I didn't realize that I had neglected my blog for over a month. Sigh. Things have been pretty busy during the month of April. Other than the usual tax reporting for both personal and business, we also made a surprise trip out to Edmonton for my mother-in-law's 65th birthday. We spent about a week out there and took the in-laws out to one of our favorite vacation spots - Jasper National Park.

Whenever we are in Jasper, we stay at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge. It's a little pricey but we don't splurge that often so it was a nice treat. On our first night there, my mother-in-law picked the Moose's Nook for her birthday dinner. Jeff and father-in-law chose the prime rib dinner, mother-in-law chose salmon, while I had the vegetarian risotto with white truffle. Usually Jeff picks the wine to go with the meal but this time he turned to me and asked me for my suggestion. What?! Me? The non-drinking wine sniffer? I looked at the wine list and my first choice was a J.Lohr merlot but being the frugal person that I am .. I looked at the price and wanted to change my mind. :) We ended up going with the merlot with dinner and even though I didn't have any to drink, Jeff said I made a great wine selection. I guess after being together for so many years, I have learned a thing or two about wine pairing. BTW, I tried the prime rib and it was probably the best prime rib I've ever tasted. My risotto was outstanding but for you meat-arians out there, Alberta beef is way better than Ontario beef.

I'll post a few pics of our trip once I get them off the camera.

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So you had a bad day ..

It has been one heck of a week so far. Very much a low week. The topic of discussion as of late has not been a good one for me. In fact, it's a sore spot. I don't think I have been this upset in a very long time. Like all your shortcomings have been brought to the forefront and you feel like you want to crawl into a hole and never come out. The hole is very tempting.

Pudgy

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Sooooo cold!

The temperature reading in my car was -23 C this morning .. with windchill, it was a balmy -39. It was so cold that the tire pressure sensors on my car turned on. Just wanted to remind all of my faithful readers out there to check your tire pressure. When it gets really cold like this, it drops the tire pressure. Not good.

I'll be in Toronto for Chinese New Year but this year, we may end up staying for a few days only. Usually we spend a week in Toronto but this year, due to work issues we are unable to stay longer and meet up with friends. :( I'm disappointed about that but we'll try to make up for it at a later time.

Toodles,
Pudgy

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Windchill of -36 C in Edmonton

It was quite the adventure getting to Edmonton this year. It started last Thursday night. We got to the Ottawa airport early and managed to get on our flight to Calgary without rushing like we have in the past. Hehe .. anybody who knows us .. we can be so laid back sometimes that we are late for everything. Anyway, for once .. we were early. We arrived in Calgary around midnight (EST). We were supposed to get on a connecting flight to Edmonton but our flight ended up being delayed a few hours due to weather. Holy cows .. it was cold in Calgary. I think it was -25 C with a windchill of -36 C. By the time we boarded the plane, it was 2:15 am. A few hoodlums got on the plane and sat in the row behind Jeff and myself. You could smell the alcohol from them. Ugh .. they reeked so badly, they had to be intoxicated. Suddenly one of the WestJet reps came over and asked the two fellows behind us to leave the plane. After they were escorted off the plane, WestJet had to get their bags off the plane before we left. It took an hour to dig the bags out and reload the bags back on to the plane. After that, we had to de-ice the plane. To me, it didn't seem to help much because the windows completely froze up from the de-icer liquid. At 3:30 am, we finally took off for Edmonton. The flight was 40 mins long and another 30 mins to get our bags. We decided to take a taxi to the Hamilton house because the roads were so bad. You know how difficult it is to hail a cab at that time? It was 3 am Edmonton time .. not a soul on the roads. It was bone chilling cold and the roads were literally an ice rink. By the time we got to bed, it was 4:30 am in Edmonton.. or 6:30 am Ottawa time. So literally, a simple 4.5 hour flight took all night. Sigh .. the bright side to this? We got out a day early and missed the storm. Had we left on Friday, we probably would have been delayed or cancelled.

So far, the stay has been great. It may be -29 C outside, but it's warm indoors. The shopping has been good too. :D

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Pics around the house

I've been meaning to post a few pics of the changes around our home. A while back, we had replace our temporary shades with real curtains. Here are some changes that have taken place in our house over the last few months.

This is our dining room. You can't really tell but the curtains are dark brown silk-like. I know you're laughing at our naked orchid. Trust me, it's still growing!

Our Christmas tree. It hasn't changed since we got it last year. I think we did a better job decorating it last year. Can you see our curtains behind it? :)

This is our front living room window. I chose to put sheers there. I think it looks really nice in the morning when the sun shines through.

This is our hallway table. We made it our picture table. Right now, there are more Hamilton photos than Ng photos. We need to balance it out more.

This is our latest purchase. Our new wine cabinet. It is in our dining room. We even put some of Jeff's Egyptian pics up on the wall. It makes the room more like a home now.

My apologies the photos aren't as bright as they could be. It took them at night .. :(

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Operation LCBO

It was a cold December morning. The plans were laid out, the alarm was set. At 8:30 am sharp, we got out of bed, got dressed, threw on a hat and coat, and we were off. We drove to our local LCBO in anticipation of the December 6th premium release. I have been waiting for this release for months. When the doors opened, I made a bee line to the vintages section in search of Brian, the vintages consultant. Over a month ago, he informed me that his LCBO location was going to get 1 case (6 bottles) of 2005 Don Melchor in December. He told me that if nobody asked for it, it was all mine. Sure enough, he went to the storage room and brought out their only case of Don Melchor. The wooden crate was still wrapped in thick plastic. A fellow behind me had asked if they had any more .. but all he could do was watch me pay for it at the front counter. Sorry, my friend - I've been waiting for this case for over a month.

Why did this wine mean so much to me? It was Puff's Christmas present. Well, part of his Christmas present. He'll get other stuff but wine is always something I give him. And no, he doesn't get the cheap stuff. :)

Anyway, the spree didn't stop there. While I was paying for my purchase, Puff had loaded up his cart with some interesting finds. An hour later, we put a serious dent on our credit cards.

We took our load of goodies home and the case of Don was too cool. We carefully cracked the wooden crate open and there was a certificate of authencity that went with the case.


Happy early Christmas, Puff. It's not Christmas yet and there was no element of surprise, but I know you will enjoy it. It was a fun shopping spree. Let's do it again next year!

Toodles,
Pudgy

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