Eight Eyes

Jeff and I both have glasses now. I can't believe what I've been missing! Here we are after a Toronto Raptors basketball game last week. I'm not sure if I would have even seen the ball from our nose-bleed seats if I wasn't sporting the new glasses. Just another sign of aging, I guess.

Rockin' and Restin'

We escaped this weekend to a cabin in the country to rest and refresh. Jeff slept most of the time and I read, although we did manage a few games of Scrabble and a couple of walks.


Maybe we were tuckered out from all the celebrating... Last Friday, we had my colleagues over for a little birthday get-together. Here I'm putting the finishing touches on two delicious cheesecakes (if I do say so myself).


Jeff also took me out for a fancy dinner earlier that week. Check out the salmon on a potato croquette. The dessert was great too, but it seems like we post an awful lot of photos of us eating!

Wintery Journeys

Since I've had a total of 6 snow days since our last post, I really have no excuse for having no time to blog. In brief, our winter season (literal, not figurative) has been full of pleasant times so far. We set up our own Christmas tree, albeit artificial because of apartment regulations. We never got around to taking one of those dressed-up-by-the-tree type photos, so we pretended to be Mary and Joseph instead. (They had a Christmas tree, right?)


I ran a very snowy 10km Resolution Run on Jan 1st. I'm really not that keen, but the registration included a new running jacket, so I had external motivation. Here I am getting ready.

Schnitzel, sushi and snow days

Jeff and I have recently been expanding our gastronomical horizons. Last week, we discovered a quaint restaurant that specializes in Czech-style schnitzels. Then last night we found a tasty all-you-can-eat Japanese restaurant. It wasn’t a buffet; you choose off the menu what selections you want and in what quantity. And you can do that again and again for a maximum of two hours. We thought that part was interesting. Along with shopping malls, all-you-can-eat restaurants may very well lead to the demise of North American society.

But the best news of all is that I had my very first snow day of the school year today! For those of you not fortunate enough to live in a climate that offers such pleasures, ‘snow day’ refers to the cancellation of school due to extreme weather conditions. It is a day to be cherished, when hot chocolate is to be sipped, responsibilities temporarily forgotten, and pajamas are to be lingered in. Sadly, I was so excited that by the time I finished my I-got my-very-first-snow-day dance (to the tune of “cha cha cha cha CHA CHA”), that I couldn’t seem to get back to sleep.

Shopping Mall Culture

Most of my adult life ( I AM closer to thirty than 20 now), I have felt an uneasiness about shopping malls. Today, after three hours in the mall -longer than I have spent in a mall in a very long time- I discovered that being in a mall is actually an exercise in suspending reality. Once through the main entrance, all my senses were suddenly forced into turbo because of the excessive stimuli: the smells of the food court, bright lights, the many other reality-suspending citizens. All of a sudden, I forgot what I really came for, and was infused with a sense of need for so many other things. "Should I get a coffee? It smells so warm and cozy." "Wow! So many sales!" Cost became relative. For example, I reasoned, " That fleecy-lined wool toque was originally $29.99, and now it's only $19.99. That must be a good price..." It was in that moment that I remembered why I avoid malls: I become confused about what I need and what I want. (I have a box of warm wool toques in the closet.) I had hit a wall; after all the excitement of so many choices, so many deals, so many colours... I only wanted out. It was a feeling of disgust really. I knew of a reality beyond the walls of the mall where toques do not cost more than the dress pants I had just purchased, where a person recognizes that sometimes, you just don't need anything that you don't already have. I fear for all those who become lost in this shopping world where needs and wants become as mixed up as the smell from New York Fries and Orange Julius.

Back in Business

Life has been busy these last couple of months. I'm teaching French full-time at a small Christian elementary school, as well as an ESL class for New Canadians (adults) one night a week. Jeff is speaking a lot of weekends these days, as well as working on graphic design projects. But we’ve had some relaxing times: the African Lion Safari (err…in Canada), a chilly weekend camping with some friends and their youth group, our Friday night make-your-own-pizza tradition, some biking, and three Thanksgiving dinners. I don’t have time to post any photos now, but the ones of the monkey on our car, tearing off a sun visor, are quite comical.

PS Here are some photos after all.

Cornish hens at Thanksgiving


Jeff cutting onions for a a big batch of chili


A Monkey hanging off the rear wiper of our van at the African Lion Safari


The warning sign at the Safari (and my new policy for shopping malls... See the following post.)

Camping on the West Coast..

of Ontario, that is.



We finally got bikes! So last weekend we broke them in and camped again at MacGregor Point. We hadn't made reservations, but we arrived early and Jeff, with his boyish good looks and charm, convinced the park lady to give us a nice site. Today, Jeff biked to work for the first time. We’re very pleased with our new investment: for health and quality time.




This past weekend, we met up my old roommate from Bible school, Kathryne, and her husband, Paul. We camped at Presqu’ile which was lovely, though chilly, and about halfway between here and Ottawa, where they live. I don’t think we’ll make a habit of camping on the other side of Toronto, however. It took us double the time to drive home because of traffic. (But I already wrote a blog about the 401…) Yet it was worth it to spend time with them.

Jenny, Kathryne and Paul skipping rocks on Lake Ontario


Heating up some yummy chili on the beach