End of a Busy Week

    Just realized I haven't had to cook dinner since last Friday! This is how my week went:

Last Saturday I attended the West Toronto Ball at Casa Colombo. We had a delicious meal - pasta (it is an Italian venue, after all!), chicken and salmon with nicely prepared vegetables and a chocolate mousse with coffee to finish. Then we danced to live music until midnight although I left just before 11:00 p.m. as my feet and legs were complaining.

On Sunday I had dinner with Judy and family for Mother's Day. Steve and Alison were there too and the men cooked the meal - tasty chicken with plenty of crunchy salads. Judy had found a chocolate fountain at the thrift store and she got it running after dinner. Fruit, sponge cake and pretzels for dipping, a fun and easy way to serve dessert! Everyone was very impressed. I went home with a lovely hanging basket (from Steve) and a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle from Judy. I have yet to start it as it looks quite challenging!

Monday was our final night at Dance group so we had a pot luck party after dancing for an hour. I didn't bother with dinner before I went as there is always tons of food!

On Tuesday I was out for lunch with the retired teachers (salmon, salad, tasty vegetables and a yummy cheesecake with raspberry coulis) so just soup and a sandwich for dinner.

Wednesday was a bus outing to St. Jacob's to see "West Side Story". First stop was the Butterfly Conservatory in Cambridge - I had never been and it was very much worth a visit. Then lunch in Waterloo before the theatre show so no dinner needed again that night. The show was quite spectacular, well worth the bus trip.

On Thursday Donna, Marilyn and I  went to Remizzio's after the Probus meeting and I had lobster bisque followed by crab cakes, my usual choices when we are there. Another soup and sandwich dinner as I wasn't too hungry by the evening.

Today was back to my usual routines but I needed to use up some vegetables so made a batch of fennel and carrot soup and an eggplant Caponata so that was dinner. I had taken some chicken out of the freezer but couldn't face it or salmon one more time this week!

Aftermath

   Some severe damage from the Friday storm but I was largely spared - no trees down and only one section of my fence came loose. Walking around the neighbourhood I saw several whole fences down and lots of roof shingles lying around. Some areas of the city were without power for some time as fallen tree branches brought down power lines.

    It has been mixed weather since then but I did get some tennis this morning - singles with Susan but it was quite tiring as it was still windy. Not all the wind screens are up.

   After I got home I made some soup for lunch, put a loaf on in the bread machine and had a nap. The bread was a bit on the heavy side - it was a Rapid Bake. But it will be nice with the stew I made yesterday - lots of vegetables and I just had to open a bottle of Merlot to deglaze the pan. So that will be my drink of choice tonight!

My fence propped up temporarily. I am hoping my neighbour will fix it!

Strange Weather

   We have had some glorious weather this week (up in the 20's) but today started off cool and rainy. It was very foggy until almost noon when things started brightening up. I had been down to the tennis courts but the courts never did get dry enough to play.

   Since then it has been rainy, windy and I even heard some thunder. I cut the front grass (first cut of the year) just before all this wild weather happened. Then two torrential rain showers, the gutters were overflowing. Right now it is back to sunny but it is blowing a gale. I had to bring in the rod that operates my canopy as it kept hitting the window. Hope it stays dry as I am off to the theatre this evening to see "The Perfect Wedding" at Markham Little Theatre for free as I am an usher.

   Everything is starting to grow in the garden and the trees have buds just about ready to burst forth. Things will be green very soon!

Too Busy!

   Sunny but still cool today. The tennis club opener is tomorrow and we have been working hell-for-leather to get the clubhouse and grounds spruced up. The clubhouse is now officially cleaner than my house!

   The big job for me this year has been interviewing and hiring the supervisors. They are mostly high school or college students as they only get minimum wage ($14/hr.) and they are notoriously fickle. One has already quite as he has found a better job, and another didn't even get back to me after the initial interview. Very frustrating.

   My bank balance is at an all-time low as I have just paid my last (huge) credit card bill and what I owed in income tax. Too bad they both came due at the same time. I will now have to try to build up funds before it is time to pay for my next trip, due in July. The trip isn't until October.

   Quite exhausted with all the cleaning so will have an early night tonight.