Canada Day

Mama K asked what a Canada Day Cookie was. Your guess is as good as mine! For me it was a cookie shaped like a maple leaf that had red and or white icing/sprinkles and were brought to a Canada Day party last year. It came in a package from the store. I did a coloured pencil painting of one of the children at the party sticking his very red tongue out after eating one of these cookies.

Funny, I didn't think there were so many Canadian's who cared that much about Canada Day. They enjoy the day off, fireworks, rain I suppose. (It often rains just in time for the fireworks.)

Canada Day, July 1st, is a national holiday. Well almost. In Quebec many don't celebrate Canada Day. They celebrate Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day instead in June. Oh those crazy Quebecois! Many so badly want to have their own country. Sometimes I want to give it to them!

Canada Day Cookies

I've noticed a fair bit of Canadian traffic showing on the side bar entering through my original post for Canada Day Cookies. Apparently there are a lot of patriotic Canadians looking for recipies of Canada Day cookies and they are popping in through the site of my painting titled "Canada Day Cookies."

You won't find recipies here. I hate cooking. I won't even attempt to post one. If you want a painting of your child eating Canada Day Cookies then I'm your man. Or woman as the case may be. I know....shameless advertising, but I'm always up for new models.

Happy July 1st and happy cookie recipe hunting.

BTW: The cookies came from a grocery store that the model was eating. That's how I like to cook.

Just One Question....

HOW MANY DAYS 'TILL SCHOOL STARTS AGAIN???!!!!

Hot!

Our city is being overrun by tomato people. That's what happens when caucasian Canadians forget to put there sunscreen on. That's pretty much all of them. I've been cycling mostly in sleeveless tank tops and missed a spot myself. Ooops and ouch.

The ones that aren't burnt are wrapped up in fabric from head to toe. This seems equally as uncomfortable to me and I wonder how these ladies can take the heat. I recently heard one of these devout ladies state, "It's hotter in hell if I don't dress this way."

Then there's the fur coat crowd. Mr. Hunter does the same little trick in the summer as in the winter. He wants out badly and once he's out turns right back around and scratches at the door to come in. Black is not a good colour for your fur coat to be.

One final thing about the heat.....guys, please, just because you can go out without a shirt, doesn't mean you should.

Finally Summer

I wanted summer weather so badly. Ever since Florida the cold, rainy days have been extra difficult to take. Summer is finally here. It's up to 30 and 40 with the humidity. (86F to 104F.) Yippeeee! Now I can sit in my house with the airconditioning on and enjoy it!

.....And Then The Bike Again!

This time I stayed on my bike. A guy tried to take me out. He fell, not me. He was humiliated.

I had a feeling. I stop for coffee at the halfway mark and I decided when leaving that this time I would bring napkins to sop up any blood I may leak after my manditory accident when cycling back. As it turns out I did have an accident but was not the unfortunate one. A jogger did a quick spin on the path and ran right onto my side of the path and into the side of me. I kept my balance. Yeah! He did a quick roll in the grass, jumped up, said he was okay and jogged on.

Nobody needed the napkins today. Yeah! At least not yet......knock on wood! But the day is young and I still have to cut the grass.

And Then The Car.....

I blew up the car. On the highway. Again. How humiliating.

Well, not the whole car actually. Just the front tire. Being on the highway with a car full of children and a flat tire seemed dangerous to me so I made the decision to keep driving to the off ramp which was very close. By the time I pulled over I had a shredded tire. A cop happened by as well as an expensive tow truck. The driver was very helpful trying to steer me to one of the garages nearby that he dealt with. He was also so very helpful at letting me know it probably wasn't just my tire but maybe the fuel line and expensive rim that might have to be dealt with.

HA! Right! I told him to tow it to the place I deal with and were there anything else wrong I'm sure they'd know just what to do. Also, rims aren't expensive. Nice try.

We hoofed it to the transit station just across the street. Where one of Four says with relief,

"Phew! At least after all of that I remembered to take my brush."

Ya, I was worried about that too.

By the way, the last time, which I mentioned in the opening sentence, was ceasing the engine on the same highway with two dogs along for the fun. That time I walked off along the edge of the highway with the canines panicking at my side the whole way.

First Fall of Summer

I fell off my bike. At a stop sign. Again. How humiliating.

I had to stop quickly and wasn't able to clip out of the pedals in time to get my foot down on the ground ahead of the rest of my body. My left palm beat my left foot. I was rooting for my foot to win. Either foot!

This time, unlike the last time I fell in Quebec, I had drivers and bikers, walkers, etc...coming to my aid. It was refreshing to know not all people native to this province are insensitive to others. Oddly enough though, it was all women who came to my aid. Last time there had been no women present for my big fall so maybe that explains why I got no offer of help. Men just tend to stand there watching you bleed. Nature of the beast I suppose.

As I cycled on with one pulpy purple hand, a dripping bloody leg, and many stares, I noticed that not one of the other cyclists that I passed had injuries. Old or new. Why is it that everyone else out there can manage to stay on their bikes. Many of them have clipless clip-in pedals just like me. Is it because they have spouses that love them and aren't trying to kill them in some sadistic way by insisting clipless clip in pedals give you a better workout? Death through biking? Is it possible that they are just more coordinated than me and the ones that aren't know better than to get on this kind of a masochistic contraption? (Right White Mocha;-)

One woman offered a suggestion that I loosen the grip on the pedals so I might slip out more easily. I can think of something even better though. Good old fashioned pedals, sneakers and keeping my speed under 20kms. Yah! That's the ticket, eh!

Ms. Vicki Stripes Return

Darlings,

I return without a lick of jewelry to call my own. Mr. P. could not find even one single, solitary pin to adorn my precious self. It was an interesting return trip to say the least.

Our luggage was damaged. When we arrived at the airport back home it almost seems like the luggage handlers might have attached said luggage to the underbelly of the aircraft for the duration of the flight. When Mr. P. put in a luggage claim he decided to request a bag to place all his belongings in. He got one. A clear plastic bag.

Nothing like hanging out your dirty laundry for all to see. As you can imagine, Mr. P was thrilled to walk through the airport with a pair of ladies undies in plain view!

Until next time loves,

Ms. Vicki Stripes
xoxoxoxoxoxox

Little Things

My Grandmother asked to see me. It's been some time since I had visited. She's pretty much been off her rocker of late so I've been told. She had let her kids know that they'd be going to H.E.Double Hockey Sticks because.....well, no reason, they just were. She informed my parents that she wanted to die but "The Old Guy" didn't want her so she's stuck here. She still throws things, swears like a sailor (I have never in my whole life heard so much as mild curse pass her lips) and runs people down with her walker. They restrained her with a body restraint and a tray on her chair and she managed to untie the restraints from behind the chair. The next time she found scissors and cut her way out. Another time after they had removed all scissors from her room, she was found sawing away at the straps with a nail file, crafty devil that she is!

I must admit that I proceeded to the home with great trepidation. I didn't want to see her this way or possibly be in the line of fire. I certainly didn't want the curse of H.E.Double Hockey Sticks put upon me.

I found her sitting quietly in the activity room with about 20 others listening to an entertainer with a guitar playing a variety of songs, many of which were Elvis songs.

She was very pleased to see me and once I settled on the floor beside her she started singing along to an Elvis tune. I never knew my little French Canadian Grandma was a connoisseur of Elvis. She knew each and every word. I don't know why I'm suprised though. She was rockin' to Billy Idol in the car with me one day.

Sitting there with the crazy old people made me remember why I enjoyed them so much when I was working the Family Medicine unit in the hospital. One lady was flirting with the entertainer and flaunting her sexuality, another was correcting his mistakes. One man just about tackled the nurse when he came in with the icecream. Another was visibly excited just to get juice. You know....sometimes you just have to appreciate the little things in life. They help us to remember that.

I have to say that's the best afternoon I've had in a long time.

Goldfish Babies

We have baby goldfish.....AGAIN!

I accidentally dropped the temperature too abruptly when changing the water in our 50 gallon tank. I brought the water level right down to the top of the fish who were on the bottom of the tank. There are 10 fish of varying sizes. The largest is a 3 year old female named Cocoa who is about the size of my closed fist. She's the only female in the tank. The only time you can really sex goldfish is in the Spring. The males will sport small white spots on their gills and sometimes front and dorsal fins. My males were not sporting their spots currently.

1 of 1 informed me early in the morning a week or so ago, getting me out of bed might I add, that her goldfish was spraying eggs and I had to come and rescue them because the fish were eating them all.

"Hello! I'm Sleeping!" Was my reply. "Plus the last batch of fish was fathered by a fish whom is now deceased. The new guys just don't have it in 'em honey."

"No Mom, they're fertilized probably! Come and get them!!!!!" she yelled anxiously.

By the time I got upstairs they ate all but a few eggs. We counted 3.

Goldfish eggs are sticky and stick to the sides of anything they touch. Including the other fish. I pulled out the ornaments where we saw the eggs and put them in a bowl of tank water with a bubbler. Turns out there were at least 7 eggs hiding on the objects.

Once hatched the fry look kind of like mosquito larvae. Personally I need to use a magnifying glass to get a really good look at them. Even then they just look like lines with dots on the end.

They have an egg sack that remains for a couple of days around their heads so they don't have to eat until it's been consumed. Now comes the hard part. Keeping the water quality up until they are big enough to be in a tank with a filter.

Apparently goldfish rarely successfully breed in a tank. Usually this only happens in ponds. Somebody forgot to let them know this! This is our third generation in about 5 years. Next time maybe I won't drop the temperature so abruptly.

The Chain Of Pain

After a weekend of hosting multiple birthday parties someone reminded me that Monday (today) was the day I had agreed to assist on a field trip to the Museum of Science and Technology for a number of classes from my kids school. Yikes! Did I really agree to do that?! What the heck was I thinking?

After about an hour of a dry presentation the kids were broken up into groups and sent around to various stations to work on experiments. I was asked to man the station which contained hand held microscopes and magnifying glasses with various samples for the kids to view. In one group one of the children brought his microscope up to a frame with sugar crystals and other various powdered substances and loudly proclaimed,

"Awww, Cool! This one looks like cocaine!!!"

He's 9. His parents must be so proud.

********************

My favorite part of the whole darn trip was nearing the end of the day when after my group had managed to give me a nauseous headache from taking multiple trips through the crazy kitchen with me in tow, they decided they wanted to watch the "electricity demonstration."

The scientist called all volunteers up onto the stage who were brave enough to participate. Approx. 40 kids felt just brave enough.

"If you have a pacemaker, hearing aid or are pregnant please return to your seat." she announced to the crowd of children. Hopefully none of the 8 to 10 year olds were pregnant. D'uh! A few actually did decide this might actually not be a pleasant experiment to experience and left the stage.

"Okay," the Scientist announced "now that everybody is holding hands and the girl at the end is holding the large metal ball grounded to the stage we will proceed with the experiment called "THE CHAIN OF PAIN."

Half the kids on the stage dove back into the audience in a matter of seconds. We were down to about half the number of children. I'm not sure if the remaining kids were stupid or just trying to save face, but they awaited their impending fate.

Let me just tell you when they set that thing off, there were screams and kids flying all over the place. The first half of kids closest to the largest metal sphere seemed to get zapped the strongest. The sound of the static zap was quiet loud and I was glad to be enjoying the action from the sidelines, not the stage. The second half of the group seemed to receive a milder shock and remained with their hands joined looking just slightly stunned.

I'm wondering if I can borrow that equipment for the party I'm doing next weekend;-)

Wild Thing In Progress

When she looks at you with that crooked smile you know there's trouble brewing somewhere. Here's my latest "Wild Thing" in progress and aptly named might I add!

A Sticky Situation

The sticky note faeries at work.

P.S. His hand is on his calf people!

These little guys had to jump down an area of large rough boulders which were placed along the bank last summer to prevent further erosion of the land into the stream. The first jump was the big one and I was sure she'd lose a couple in the crevices. It was close, but the one that did get stuck found a cave and made his way through the rocks out to safety. Hopefully they were able to get back up the bank again!