Monthly Archives: June 2020

Does Anyone Else Remember Hammerman; Fifteen Weeks In

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Last week, for no discernible reason, I remembered that MC Hammer had a cartoon television show called Hammerman; the actual show I do not remember at all, probably because I didn’t actually watch it, except that it featured magical shoes. Due to the magic that is the internet, I could watch an episode, or at least the theme song, which I recall was incredibly long and detailed, but I’d rather leave it as a strange memory bouncing around in my brain.

It’s funny sometimes, how popular culture from one’s childhood can just resurface for no particular reason. I’m not talking about Hammerman, as I was a teenager at the time of its popularity, such as it was, and again, I never watched it. But occasionally some Saturday morning cartoon memory will pop into my head, most notably from School House Rock or an obscure commercial for cheese (I hanker for a hunk of cheese!). I can still sing the entire theme song for ParticipAction – do it with your friends, you both can bend, do it with some hustle, you can make some muscle – and I can also still feel the shame of getting the Participant sticker, rather than the badges, handed out at gym class. I still cannot do a pull-up.

It’s incredible to think that forty years ago we were all exclusively watching Saturday morning cartoons and arranging our bathroom and cereal breaks around commercials; we had to wait a whole week to see who would be on the next episode of The Muppet Show, and an entire summer wondering who shot JR, and now anyone can watch anything at any time. I mean, I remember getting our first PVR approximately 13 years ago and the amazement that came from being able to pause and rewind live television, and now here we are, able to access Hammerman or Conjunction Junction on a whim. If I wanted to I could watch every single episode of The Facts of Life; my childhood self would be amazed and envious.

I remember learning, back in the Eighties, that some of the songs that were huge hits were also cover songs: I Think We’re Alone Now, Lean On Me, I Can’t Help Falling In Love, You Keep Me Hanging On. In recent years I discovered the OG versions of Hard to Handle and There’s Always Something There To Remind Me, and for all of the above, I prefer the originals. However, there are a few songs that I think are better as covers: Lovers In A Dangerous Time (Barenaked Ladies), Knocking on Heaven’s Door (Guns and Roses), and Light My Fire (Jose Feliciano). If you, dear reader, have any thing to add, I would love to hear it.

Speaking of hit songs, last week I learned something incredible: Jimmy Buffett has just released a new album. JIMMY BUFFETT. HAS JUST RELEASED A NEW ALBUM. Does anyone else find that amazing? I mean, for one thing, he’s 73 years old. For another thing, the man has an enormous number of albums to his name and I would challenge you to name any of them. You can’t, can you? And yet he is an incredibly successful recording artist with a devoted following, not to mention a Sirius channel of his own. Talk about finding your niche in the world. It’s quite inspiring, really. Where would we be without Margaritaville? Searching for our lost shakers of salt, I guess. We all enjoy Margaritaville, of course, but my personal favourite Jimmy Buffett song, one that I do not think gets enough accolades, is Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Screw. That is one catchy tune, and I am not being facetious. I just got a waterbed, it’s filled up for me and you.

Well, I’ll be singing that one all day, which is better than a few minutes ago, when it was ParticipAction, get with the action, do it, do it, do it.

Pandemic Reading

This was a fun week of re-reading the Rosie series. Initially I had thought that the trilogy got better and better with each book, but after reading them all this week, I have decided that they are all equally excellent in their own way, which is a huge and rare accomplishment for any trilogy. I really love how the books portray a person who processes the world differently, with so much affection and humour.

Yummy Things

I have been having the occasional Friday afternoon wine date with my dear friend and neighbour Taryn (HI TARYN); last week I made the three house trek to her backyard, carrying my brand new (thank you, Superstore, for your free gift with purchase) camping chair, and this tote bag packed with wine, my keys, and a glass. Isn’t it cute?

For Sunday night dessert last night, my older son made a pan of Reese Peanut Butter Bars; if you like peanut butter and chocolate and you see a package in the grocery store, buy it! The bars were very yummy and simple to put together.

What’s Blooming

This has been a strangely late year for almost all my shrubs and plants; the roses are coming along but still pretty stick-like, the dogwoods are not completely leafed out yet, and although my newly-planted clematis is blooming, my established one is not. However, the lilacs are fully out and almost finished, and the Siberian irises are glorious.

Pandemic Fitness

When running and walking this week, the lilac scents have been absolutely wonderful. Our fitness club has reopened with lots of restrictions, and I haven’t yet gone, but I’m considering doing a reconnaissance this week, as the weather has changed from Pleasant to Cold and Rainy. We will see.

Have a wonderful week, everybody! Keep safe! xo

Nicole’s Favourite Things: The Hair Styling Tools Edition

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I am going to go out on a limb here and say that all of us – women, at least, but perhaps men too – have some sort of underlying hair trauma. By that I mean that we all have some sort of issue with our hair: maybe we had the Dorothy Hamill look back in the day, maybe a bad perm, maybe an ingrained belief that we have uniquely bad hair and nothing can be done about it, maybe all of the above. Maybe that’s just me? But I don’t think so.

The home perm.

This past week I was having a conversation with my mother-in-law, who was a very nifty number back in the day, about aging, and how it can be hard to reconcile what you see in the mirror with what you think you look like, as you age. Some days it is startling, to see the marionette lines and forehead lines and other signs of aging. My mother-in-law said that when she looks at me – or anyone else she loves, for that matter – she doesn’t see how the years have changed our faces, she doesn’t see wrinkles or age, she only sees the same person she’s always known and loved. She just sees ME.

Isn’t that a beautiful testament to the power of love and friendship? If only we could all see ourselves as others do. It would be the best Instagram filter ever, to view our faces and bodies through the kind and loving eyes of a friend. What my mother-in-law said is true; when I look at my friends I see how beautiful they are, and I see none of the so-called flaws that they themselves see when they look in the mirror. We are, always, our own worst critics.

The conversation was sparked by her making an appointment to get a perm, and segued into the customary grass-is-always-greener discussion about hair. Isn’t it the truth that no one is happy with their hair? Curly girls straighten their hair, straight-haired girls curl theirs, girls with thick hair get it thinned out, girls with thin hair are volumizing like crazy. Me? I have fine, semi-wavy hair that has been processed within an inch of its life.

Angela (HI ANGELA) asked me about my own hair texture and how I style it. Well, Angela, I live but to serve.

Nicole’s Favourite Things: The Hair Styling Tools Edition

Before we get started, I would like to point out that it has been over three months since I last had my hair cut, although I have coloured it myself since then. These photos were taken yesterday, which would be halfway through my hair colour cycle, so I think it’s a good indication of a typical hair day. I have noticed that since the Pandemic started, my hair has gone from above-the-shoulders to shoulder-length, and I will say that having longer hair again is wonderful for putting up in a bun; a bun is my go-to style at least 50% of the time, for days that I don’t wash my hair, or days that I’m teaching, or if I am going to be outside gardening, or if I’m going to be outside and there is inclement weather. I am going to keep growing it out for that reason alone.

But on days I do wash my hair, this is my regime, such as it is.

The Tools:

It’s a 3/4 inch barrel Conair curling iron – not expensive. Clearly aged.
The Loma is added before blow drying, the Senscience – which has, I think, been discontinued, why do they do that – is a thermal styling spray, and the Pantene is just regular hairspray. I have had those combs for SOME time.

The Process

As you can see, pre-blow-drying, my hair is neither curly nor straight, it’s not thick but – according to my hair therapist – not thin either. I’m everywoman. After my shower I usually let it air dry for ten or fifteen minutes; I putter around the house, I make a smoothie, I contemplate my existence while listening to the boys talk about WWE.

I blow dry my hair upside down for added volume and this is what I look like. I feel pretty.

The light is terrible in this bathroom. That must be it. Anyway, I use the small comb to backcomb a little as my hair has a tendency to go limp, I spray the backcombed part with Pantene, and I admire my look.

After the backcomb extravaganza, I smooth things out, such as they are. It still looks weirdly voluminous, but just wait.

This is the Nellie Olsen stage of my hair. I use the curling iron to achieve the goal of looking like Laura’s nemesis, first spraying with Senscience. This part takes about five minutes.

I comb it out with the wide tooth comb, spray with Pantene, and leave the bad-lighting bathroom to put on lipgloss and jewelry, very important steps in the selfie process.

And that’s it! The whole process – from blow-drying to the final hairspray – takes about 15 minutes, give or take a minute or two. In contrast, putting my hair in a bun takes less than five, so my get-ready routine depends on the day.

Time to get on with my day. Have a great weekend, everyone. xo

We Were On A Break!; Fourteen Weeks In

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One of the worst story lines and subsequent catchphrases that ever came out of a television show was Ross and Rachel’s “we were on a break.” Back my early twenties, when Friends was popular and we all had the Rachel hair style, many, many parallels could be drawn between that show and my life, including but not limited to weird boyfriend possessiveness over academic successes and future careers, breakups and makeups with said boyfriend, jealousy, and the wearing of high-waisted jeans with crop tops. It was a strange time, the Nineties, and when my son watched Friends a few years ago, he agreed that the story line was lame, but pointed out that there were also pet monkeys, many apartment changes, babies that come and go randomly, and the ability to go right up to the gate without actually boarding an airplane. The latter was something that really happened, I told him, to his disbelief.

Last week, we were on a break! We took a road trip to our vacation house, which used to be the Place We Stayed In but due to renovations started last November, that are almost finished, it is now a Vacation House. Honestly, that renovation is worthy of its own post. Previously, the Place We Stayed In had a toilet that flushed maybe a third of the time – at best, usually by the end of our stay it would flush one time in ten – a kitchen that was nearly non-functioning, one bed, located in the TV room, furniture from the 1950s, and a shower that allowed no more than five minutes per use, followed by an hour to drain and reset. The last time we were there, on the last day of our visit during Thanksgiving, the toilet backed up into the shower while I was in it and that was it. The renovations were started.

I am so happy that we spent the money to renovate, because a) who knows when we will go on an Exotic Winter Vacation again, and b) the toilet flushes and we can shower properly now. Who knew how important those things were to our happiness? Plus, a functioning kitchen.

Prepping for a road trip is always a lot of work; prepping for a road trip when you are not planning to go to any stores or eat out at all is something else. I spent weeks making lists about groceries to take, how to keep things frozen and cold for the drive, could we get by with one grocery trip and if so, what was needed, etc. This, in addition to a car full of various housewares, cleaning supplies, dishes, and small appliances that I had been amassing for the Vacation House. Back in November I took advantage of some insane Black Friday sales; some of the new things stayed in our house with our old ones going to the Vacation House, and some things went there. The pile of items to take, that was in my pantry/ storage room at home grew enormous, and now I have that room back.

The kids are officially finished with school now, so it felt like a nice kick-off to what promises to be a strange, but hopefully happy, summer vacation. We had some good quality family time, playing cards and going on hikes and walks. There was one hike that had some pretty tense moments as there was no signage at all and some Discussion about which way to go, a Discussion that did not get better after talking to a man who may or may not have been high, who told us that there was a loop we could do if we followed the path behind him and stayed right. We did that but ended up going at least a half hour in the wrong direction; at one point I had the Gilligan Island theme song stuck in my mind. A three hour tour…would we start having to make radios out of pine cones? We turned around and came back the way we came, got eaten alive by mosquitoes, and when I later remembered later that evening – this would have been good to remember PRIOR to the hike but let us learn from our mistakes – that I had the All Trails app on my phone, I looked at it. There WAS NO LOOP. It was a straight out-and-back and who was that man? Where did he come from?

During the hike the boys had a great time discussing Who We Would Be If We Were On The WWE, the WWE being their new favourite thing, and the debate as to “which one is better, Raw or Smackdown” rages on. They came to the conclusion that my WWE character would be a zen master yogi, and my intro would be Om chants or Indian music while the lights slowly went on to show me in lotus position, meditating. My signature move would be a tree hybrid with my hands in prayer above my head, only to come down in a version of the People’s Elbow or possibly an axe-chop.

Me, in the WWE.

The guys, contemplating life with me in the WWE.

Pandemic Reading

I read this a few years ago and it’s worth a reread. You all know how much I love a good collection of essays; this one is both hilarious and very thought provoking, about life as a woman and as a daughter of immigrants. The stories about waxing and the discovery of a life-changing skirt had me crying with laughter.

I can’t even begin to say how much I liked this book. It was so well done, and I couldn’t put it down. NOTICE THE LIBRARY STICKER. The library is now partially open; holds are available for curbside pickup. A few of my holds have started coming in and I can’t even begin to tell you how exciting it is.

Yummy Things

Since we were in wine country, I drank a lot of wine on our new deck. Related: now that we are home, I am feeling pretty bloated and like I need a whole-body reset.

That’s Tantalus wine in my hand.

This was probably the best Syrah I have ever had in my entire life.

For Father’s Day, my husband grilled his own steaks in the pouring rain while also unclogging the drainpipe that had become plugged with spruce needles and cones, due to all the storms that happened the week we were gone. But he also got a delicious carrot cake, made by moi.

Pandemic Fitness

I forgot to screen shot my weekly movement reports, but lots of walks, hikes, and runs. It only semi-counteracted the wine consumption.

Learning New Things and Saving Money; Thirteen Weeks In

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You guys, look what I got!

Do you SEE what that is? GEL SANITIZER! I haven’t seen gel sanitizer since before the pandemic started. I’ve only been able to purchase the really liquidy kind made by local alcohol companies and the spray kind made with hydrogen peroxide.

Last summer a little Pharmasave opened up just a couple of blocks away from my house, in a brand new little complex, and honestly, I wondered if it would be able to make a go of it. I love new local businesses, but if I stand at my front door and walk in any direction for ten or fifteen minutes, I would come to no fewer than five pharmacies, including the Pharmasave. I wondered if the market wasn’t already saturated but as it turns out, Jason at Pharmasave is the hero we all needed during this pandemic. It’s a small place so it’s easy to see if there are many customers inside, there is a space to wait outside if one needs to social distance, and, most important, Jason has been posting the worst dad jokes on our community Facebook page, along with information about the things he has on offer, from vaccines to Haribo candy to GEL SANITIZER. When he posted last week I popped over to get a bottle, plus Lysol – I haven’t seen Lysol in months, I usually use my favourite hippie-natural cleansers but in a pandemic needs must – and some masks. A few weeks ago I had ordered cloth masks for the guys, plus an extra for me, but for SOME REASON the company was all backed up on orders, and they arrived hours after the guys went for their eye appointments, which was specifically what I ordered them for. Anyway, it’s nice to have extras on hand for the few medical appointments we’ve been going to, and I’ve been only buying them from the Pharmasave. Those terrible dad jokes have made me a customer for life. And the gel sanitizer.

Speaking of appointments: the dentist. My appointment on Monday was NOT a cleaning, like I thought, but an actual check-up with x-rays, and so I have a cleaning to Look Forward To in a few weeks. Every time I go to an appointment, I get more and more confident about actually leaving the house on non-grocery trips, with all the protocols in place. When I got to the dentist, I called them from the parking lot and waited for them to come and get me. They locked the door behind me so no one could just pop in, and at the door was a sanitizing station and a form to sign saying that I hadn’t any symptoms or wasn’t in contact with anyone who had, and so forth. I was the only person in the waiting room, and I wore a mask, as did the women working at the desks. I only removed the mask when I was actually in the dentist’s chair, and to be honest, it felt weird, like I was a little bit naked. It’s funny how quickly we get used to things. Taking off my mask felt like I had suddenly whipped off my shirt and was sitting there, topless, in the dentist’s chair, while everyone around me was clothed normally. I also had to rinse my mouth with a special wash, and the keypad was sanitized before – and after, I assume – I paid. It felt very safe, as safe as physically possible, so now I just have the customary dread about getting my teeth scaled, and not, you know, becoming a disease vector.

When I first coloured my hair at home, I texted a photo to a group of friends. My friend Tora (HI TORA) who is always a cheerful and positive person – seriously, she’s a ray of sunshine, and she is the same Tora who made my adorable pink heart mask – said about my DIY hair “We are learning new things and saving money!” It was a very invigorating statement to me, very Can-Do Just Like Ma Ingalls. Yes! I’m learning new things! And I’m saving money! I have thought about that a lot during this pandemic as I figure out how to make my own mint extract and plan to dry my own herbs. I thought about it last week when I gave myself a bikini wax.

I have given myself many waxes many times; I’ve waxed my own arms, thighs, and upper lip. However, I have always thought – correctly, as it turns out – that the bikini line is really much better suited for the professionals. As it turns out, estheticians are able to start working now, as we are in Phase Two of the Reopening, but even if I am comfortable going to the dentist, getting a bikini wax does not feel the same, importance-wise. For one thing, it is unlikely that I will wear a bikini any time in the next year. However, like most of my beauty rituals, this one is for ME and me alone, and I just could not take it any more. I dug through the drawer in the bathroom to find the box of special “extra sensitive” wax strips that I bought a month back, for this very moment.

Honestly, I kind of hoped I would have never needed it and it would have sat in the drawer, untouched, for years to come. But I was at the point where it was Action Time.

I learned two important things. First, giving yourself a bikini wax is hard. I am a nimble and bendy person and it was very difficult to, ahem, position everything correctly. I thought of my long-suffering esthetician, Tracey. Not all heroes wear capes, people.

Second, I don’t know what your bikini situation is like, but mine, well, how to put this delicately. I guess there is no way to put this delicately and really, this whole blog lost delicacy many years ago, if ever it had it. At one point I realized that the only way out was through, and that one box of wax strips was insufficient for the problem set in front of me. That was startling. The feminine mystique stands to take a bit of a beating here. I really empathized with the waxing scene in The 40-Year-Old Virgin: We’re gonna need more wax! 

Well, I did my best with what I had and used tweezers on the rest. All in all, I would give myself a B-minus on the finished product. I was pretty proud of myself, merely-adequate results not withstanding.

The very next day I was outside weeding – weeding, bikini waxing, it’s all one – and my husband called me inside. There was a phone call! For me! It was the local spa, the one beside the Pharmasave, calling to see if I wanted to reschedule the bikini wax that was cancelled in March. Well…I started off. To tell you the truth…

At some point I will go back, because I really like Tracey and I really like that little local business. Maybe next month. Just because I can do it myself doesn’t mean I really want to.

Pandemic Reading 

I first read this for my book club, in the early 2000s, and it has sat on my shelf ever since. Time for a re-read! It is excellent; I love books with such intertwined characters and timelines. This was Zadie Smith’s debut; it is fascinating to me when an author starts her career with such an incredible work of art. It’s a very clever and witty look into culture and race, and I highly recommend it.

Have a beautiful week, friends. xo

All The Appointments; Twelve Weeks In

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Last week my son had an appointment with an allergist, and the skin prick test did not indicate that he is allergic to the food that we thought caused a reaction a few weeks back. The next step is a blood test, and I have to schedule my own routine blood test, along with my mammogram, and all three guys have eye appointments this week and I have a dentist appointment THIS AFTERNOON and honestly, that would be an overwhelming number of things to do in normal times, let alone now.

I phoned the dentist on Friday, thinking that it would be several weeks before I got an appointment – my husband has one at the end of July – and when the woman on the phone said he can see you next week, how’s Monday afternoon I jumped on it without thinking. I shall report back.

Part of this is fear of the unknown; the lab services place is a gross petrie dish normally, what will it be like now? I’m trying to think optimistically that it will be BETTER, not worse, but still. Someone mentioned to me that with all the mask-wearing and hand-washing, it seems like an eternity since anyone’s had a common cold, and that is true. I cannot remember the last time I was sick, and one of the best things to come out of all this is that people who are sick – coughing and sneezing sick – are not generally going out in public. It was always a peeve of mine, when the children were small, that kids would end up at preschool VISIBLY ill, while their parents would say things like he was vomiting all day yesterday but drank water this morning, I’m sure he’s fine, and oh, it’s just a little bit of sniffles while their febrile child curled up on the circle mats, interrupted only to cough chestily. Now there is enormous peer pressure to keep everyone home, with nothing more than a seasonal allergy sneeze.

Anyway. So many appointments! After only going to the grocery store weekly, this feels like a lively and very busy runaround. So many places to go and things to do. It’s a ridiculous feeling, given what my normal pre-Covid life would have been like in June, although also not ridiculous, because things take so long to accomplish now, and will there be lineups, and should I take a book with me.

How am I possibly going to get back to the regular world? Slowly, I guess.

This week would have been my younger son’s grade nine graduation, and the mother of one of his friends organized an evening last week where the whole gang got together for photos. In a couple of weeks he will go to the school to pick up his yearbook and his certificate, and then it’s goodbye to junior high, I guess. It’s a small thing but still a thing, to be a little bit sad about. Online lessons seem to be wrapping up this week; they’ve gone as well as possible for my kids, every day is a gift, let us not wish our lives away BUT I am looking forward to the day that they are NOT doing online school.

Pandemic Reading

Speaking of landsliding and the kids getting older and I’m getting older too, I read this collection last week:

This is an interesting collection as it was written in 1974, so Alice Munro fans can see the change in style and prose. There is also an underlying counterculture theme in most of the stories, shown in descriptions of hair and clothing, as well as marital dichotomy.

I read this story, The Spanish Lady, when the kids were small and I remember gasping at this paragraph. I dog-eared the book and, coming across it again, I gasped. It is such a perfect description of mothering small children, and it is also a perfect description of motherhood for me now: all that time of care and confusion that seemed as it would never end seems as if it never was. 

LANDSLIDE, OMG, LANDSLIDE.

I have two new David Sedaris books to read: Naked and When You Are Engulfed In Flames, but I’m saving them. For what, I don’t know. Do you do this too? Do you “save” books for a certain time? Anyway, I reread this one last week while I drank copious amounts of coffee – to be possibly slightly regretted this afternoon when I’m having my dental scaling – and green smoothies.

The world does not need to read or hear about a privileged white woman’s outrage about current events and subsequent journey towards understanding and compassion, so I will spare you my thoughts. What I will say is that I acknowledge my extreme privilege and the fact that I have had little to no barriers or disadvantages in my life, and I understand that the world is full of barriers and disadvantages to other women of different races and backgrounds. The entire system is set up with barriers and disadvantages, which makes the reading of this book that much more poignant. This book is an incredible work of art, dealing with two sisters: one who follows Fate as it is determined for her and enters into an arranged marriage and subsequent move from Bangladesh to England to be a dutiful wife and mother, and one who enters into a “love marriage.” It is a gripping book about fate, love, sisterhood, and taking charge of your own destiny. Women are amazing, the world over. The world is full of incredible, strong women who do amazing things, and I am constantly humbled by that.

Yummy Things

There is no way to segue from Brick Lane to Yummy Things, but here we go.

I planted this herb garden a few weeks ago – a few? I have no idea when – including transplanting my grow-op cilantro. It is thriving and I love it. I have many plans for drying herbs and making my own mint extract, and meanwhile I made my very first homemade mojito on Friday.

I added way too much lime but still, it was good.

I bake snacks several times a week, but this was a new record: I took these blueberry-raspberry muffins out of the oven at 4:30 on Friday afternoon, and by 2:30 Saturday there was nothing but crumbs and a lone blueberry in the snack box.

Proof that there is always one spinach leaf that refuses to be blended.

What’s Blooming

The Mayday bloomed two weeks ago and is all finished now, leaving behind a lawn full of petals.

The snowdrop anenomes are waving in the wind.

The biggest of the elephant ears were not blooming, and then suddenly they did.

The roses are still just sticks that are turning slightly green, the hostas are making their way upwards, and, as usual, the neighbourhood is full of beautiful tulip blooms while mine are nothing more than mysteriously flopped foliage.

Pandemic Fitness

Lots of walks and runs this week; I love looking at other peoples’ gardens this time of year. My husband and I have also seen a few coyotes, along with coyote PUPS, the sight of which had us nervously looking around for Mama Coyote. This morning we saw both, but happily Mama was eating what appeared to be a dead squirrel – yay Mama! – and was therefore too occupied to notice us.

Happy June, everyone! xo

A Very Fuzzy Birthday; Eleven Weeks In

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Every single time I water my outdoor garden containers, an incredible storm rolls in, complete with hours of pouring rain. It feels symbolic, but I can’t quite make the leap.

It has been a dreadful week for news, which I am not going to go into. The bright spot is that Covid cases are on the decline in Alberta, and that last week’s recoveries outweighed the new cases. We are still in Stage One of reopening, and for the Boyhouse, this means that we have been slowly getting back into the world with medical appointments. The guys all have eye appointments next week, and I had my annual physical last week; that was pretty exciting, to have a reason to put on a real bra instead of a yoga tank. Next up: blood work and a mammogram! I haven’t scheduled them yet because the idea of Doing Things is still pretty exhausting. Although, never have I ever gone for my physical and immediately just walked into the room, with no waiting, as happened last week. I should probably get all these things done while it’s still quiet. I’d like to get my dental appointments in too, but that seems like a bridge too far right now.

When you were a kid, how often did you go out for dinner? In terms of sit-down restaurants, for me, it was almost never. Occasionally we would get Dairy Queen dinners, maybe once or twice a month, but as for an actual restaurant, it might have been annually or semi-annually. I wonder if we are going to see a step change in consumption patterns; I wonder if restaurants are going to become the special treats they were for me, back in the Eighties. I wonder if shopping is going to change and we are going to buy new things for Christmas and birthdays only, and maybe Back to School, GOD HELP ME THERE HAS TO BE A BACK TO SCHOOL AT SOME POINT.

I wonder about travel, and how that will change, and what will be the impact on countries for which the travel industry has done more for their economies than any other industry combined. I wonder what will happen for my kids when they are old enough to fly the nest and get jobs; will they have careers, where will they go and what will they do.

Well. None of us know what the future will bring, and in the meantime, we celebrated a very fuzzy birthday this weekend. Barkley, a.k.a. Bokey, Bokey Boy, Boke Boke, Bokeroo, Barks, the Barkster, Barkles, Puppy, Puppy Pup, Mr. Fuzzy, Fuzzy Fuzz, Silly Billy, turned twelve. There is something very heart-wrenching about having a dog turn twelve; it’s a reminder that you don’t have much time left and every day is a gift. Hopefully we have lots of time left, and in the meantime, he enjoyed lots of treats, the slowest walk ever where we patiently allowed him to sniff Every Single Spot Another Dog Has Ever Peed On Ever, and a ton of attention which he didn’t understand but I’m sure he liked.

Pandemic Reading

My dear friend Taryn (HI TARYN) lent me this book MONTHS ago; I set it on my shelf and – shamefully – forgot about it. What a pleasure this was to read; it is one of the best books I have read ever. Linked short stories – my favourite – about a girl of Jamaican descent growing up in Toronto, with underlying themes about belonging, community, and mother-daughter relationships. It is so rich and wonderfully written; I can’t stop thinking about it. You could probably write an entire dissertation on every character in this book.

This was one of my favourite books growing up and I can really see why. It is the ultimate “Bloom Where You’re Planted” book; the underlying theme is that no matter your circumstances, you can be a princess. A princess is what you are inside, in the best way possible. In this case, being a princess means treating others with respect, politeness, kindness, and generosity, regardless of how they treat you. Sara is a very wealthy young girl who has been sent to boarding school, while her father goes back to his work as a colonel in India. He loses his fortune and dies – of jungle fever – and the mistress of the boarding school takes that opportunity to make Sara into a slave who lives in the attic of the school. Eventually, through serendipitous twists and turns, all turns out well. It is a children’s book after all, albeit one that deals with child malnutrition and exposure, and physical abuse. As any book written in the Victorian age, it is a product of its time, so in the background there are many ugly things like colonialism and a crushing class system; it shows the terrible way impoverished children – particularly orphans – were treated by society.

I have a theory that Burnett readers either love A Little Princess or they love The Secret Garden, but they can’t love both. It’s very true for me, I have tried many times to read The Secret Garden but I’ve never made it past the first chapter.

More Alice Munro! Love her.

Yummy Things

Because it was Barkley’s birthday, I baked these “pupcakes” (thanks Lyn for the name suggestion! HI LYN) for the humans in the family. While looking for these dog face sprinkles at Superstore, I noticed that cake mixes are the new thing to be gone off the shelves. The baking aisle has tons of flour, and even some yeast, but the shelves holding cake mixes were completely empty. Has everyone given up on bread baking and moved on to cake making? I fully support your baking journeys.

We are trying to support as many Canadian wineries as possible; my husband’s lifelong friend – and, in fact, the friendship goes back generations as their grandfathers and fathers were both grape growers and lifelong friends – is a winemaker at Vineland Estates, which makes the BEST Cab Franc you have ever had. Seriously, it is the best. It’s tricky to get wines through the provinces, but there are (legal) ways to do this, and, long story short, I now have three cases in my basement. Or, as our winemaker friend says, 36 days worth.

Supporting Canadian wineries! It’s a hard job but someone has to do it, so I shall take it on myself.

Pandemic Fitness

The May walk/ run challenge is now over, and I clocked 257.6 kilometres for the month – mostly walking, but lots of running too. I’m very happy with that.

Other things to be happy about: today I went to Costco and hardly had to wait five minutes to get in the store, they are handing out masks to unmasked people at the door, and I saw a woman wearing a mask adorned with sequins. Sequins! It was very Pandemic at the Disco, and I like it. Hope you are all having a good week, stay safe, stay healthy. xo