Eating Out Today

    Monday was Family Day but the family was otherwise occupied so I had a quiet day at home. I had been out there on Saturday to babysit while Dave went to see Judy in her play. I had been to see her on Thursday while doing my bit as an usher. She did very well in her first part but was killed off at the end of the first act!

   Today I was out by 9:30 to The Estates to help set up for the RWTO lunch. I had the name tags laid out in good time and sold about 60 books at the used book table. Unfortunately, I went home with almost the same number of books as so many were donated - and there were several good reads among them. 

   The lunch was Greek salad followed by roast beef. There are always plenty of tasty, well-cooked vegetables and I managed to keep the carbs to a reasonable amount. Ice cream ball and coffee followed while we were treated to an interesting talk on financial planning (yes, it was interesting and there were plenty of intelligent questions from the audience). I learned some useful information. 

    After going home for a nap, I set off for the movie theatre around 4:00 p.m. to see "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" . What a good movie! I think it will be nominated for several awards, if I'm not mistaken.

   Just leftovers for dinner tonight, then, later, a cup of tea and a scone with homemade strawberry jam, a little treat before bed!

Ash Wednesday/St. Valentine's Day

    Funny to have both these special days coincide. Although today was the start of Lent, this was ignored at the Senior's Centre as we had a special free day - cake and unlimited coffee. We had a huge turnout as everyone likes free food, especially cake.

   I was out early for my Fitness class but came home to pick up my lunch. It was sunny and above zero so I decided to walk back for my shift in the coffee shop. Lots of melting going on but we are not done with Winter yet. The puddles will probably freeze overnight and make for tricky walking tomorrow.

   I was kept on my toes churning out coffee all afternoon so was quite beat by the time I walked home. Then a nap and some quiet reading before dinner (salmon and broccoli). Now it's the Women's Slalom at the Olympics which will keep me entertained until bedtime. 

Shrove Tuesday

    This is also known as Pancake Tuesday when you use up all the butter and eggs before Lent begins tomorrow. However, today was also the Senior Centre's outing to the Mandarin for the Valentine's lunch. Tomorrow I will start to live frugally and have already begun with no wine or chocolate this past week.

    Catherine brought pancakes to dance group on Monday and we had them with lashings of butter and home made strawberry jam at the break, so the week started out well. At the Mandarin today I started out with some sushi, then had dumplings, dim sum, shrimps, mussels and stir fried veggies, and finished with several delicious desserts. Green tea washed it all down but I was thoroughly stuffed when we finally rolled out of the restaurant. Home for a nap then I went to see "The Shape of Water" at the movie theatre. A bit of a tear jerker but most enjoyable.

   Just soup for dinner tonight and more Olympics. Canada is doing really well!

   

What Next?

    Finally a day without any snow although the skies are still grey and overcast. After doing my morning chores (kitchen clean-up, ironing, bed changed) still in my night clothes, I finally got dressed just after 10:00 a.m. and went out to get rid of yesterday's snow. That took me about an hour and the snowblower had to dig through the windrow that the street plough had left at the bottom of my driveway.

My trusty machine - it has had a good workout this month!

   I was hoping that would be it for today but when I stepped outside later I realized everything was coated with ice - freezing rain had replaced the snow! Surely we will get a break from this particular weather system soon.

    When I got in from the first time out I made a pot of cauliflower soup for lunch. I usually don't buy cauliflowers in the winter as they are too expensive, but yesterday I cashed in $30 of PC Points so got myself a few treats - avocados, red peppers, berries and  piece of blue cheese. Despite the rotten weather I am a happy camper by treating myself with some tasty food!