Postcard from rosebud from Finland
Friday, June 15, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Estonia - Multiple cards and other fun stuff
This cute little postcard came in an envelope...an envelope that was rather heavy for one little postcard...and that's because there was more than just a postcard in the envelope.
We also received some fun stuff:
A Thumbelina card
The translation of the Russian is:
Oh! This is unfortunate! - Thumbelina wept.
Come up with! - Bob shouted. - Unfortunately for Wolf!
Bob gathered the "small" in a circle and began to whisper something to them.
A second little card...which J told me is *very* cute.
Some bookmarks - J likes the train!
Adorable little calendars. Can you guess which ones J has claimed as her own?
And then these other cards - they're not for us. They had Canadian postage on them and the sender asked us to mail them for her. I couldn't resist scanning them though...There were some awesome stamps on them. They are safely on their way to far off places now.
These are cherry vareniki or dumplings. There was a recipe written on the back of the card, but it was in Russian.
Tallinn - Rotermanni, a business district
Tallinn - Stenbock House, the residence of the Estonian Government on Toompea Hill
What a fun thing to receive in the mail! Thank Postcrossing and Treksek!
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Germany - The Bellevue
Postcard from CarolinW from Germany
Description: K. Walter von Lom: The Bellevue (1992)
USA - Florida - The Seas with Nemo & Friends
Postcard from Pinkpeep from the USA.
Description: Epcot. The Seas with Nemo & Friends. Cruise out to sea in the clamobile! Greet all your Nemo pals as they swim amid the live marine life of the gigantic aquarium. Delve down into the deepest parts of the ocean in this fun-filled story where the majesty of nature meets whimsical Disney magic.
France - Volendam Holland
Postcard from didieroux2 from France (but the card is from the Netherlands...)
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
The people on the bus
When I first moved back to Vancouver long, long ago in 2002, I regularly rode the bus. It was how I got everywhere unless someone took pity on me and gave me a ride. And honestly? It wasn't that bad. Really. I know I complain about it sometimes, but overall, taking the bus in Vancouver is a fairly pleasant ordeal.
I met some very interesting people on the bus back in 2002. In those days, I worked downtown and the bus I got on started its route two stops before mine. So even though it was rush hour, I always got a seat. But getting a seat usually meant at some point I'd get a seat mate.
There was the "you are beautiful" guy. He was well known in Kits for getting on the bus and working his way slowly to the back telling every woman on the bus they were beautiful and then asking if they would be his girlfriend. Most women were gracious as they declined this offer - he was particularly in tune to not pissing off husbands and boyfriends. I kind of wonder if anyone ever agreed to be his girlfriend...
There was the very elderly lady who had "met" Prince William - who is a very well mannered young man, in case you're wondering - and he is devastated that his parents divorced and that his father remarried and that everyone had to see him walk behind his mother's coffin. And he makes a mean roast. Really. And if his father will be king before him, he might have to commit patricide. She was serious too.
J and I have recently started taking the bus to work most days - I had to start driving when she started daycare at the university because of the hours...if I dropped her off and left within 5 minutes of the daycare opening and got back at the absolute last minute to pick her up, I would be short a good half hour in my working day - the half hour trek across campus each way does that. So I started driving. Since J has moved centres and is a little bit older, the hours are extended by half an hour. It's cutting it close, but I can drop her off, put in my 8 hour day and pick her up before the daycare closes. It requires some very close attention to the minutes in the morning, but we're doing it...
I thought we'd get to meet some interesting people, but headphones seem to have done away with people talking on the bus...I did see a woman in a fluorescent pink crushed velvet leisure suit and bright white sneakers today. I thought she was an older woman, but when I got close enough to see her, she was young - maybe in her early 20s. I didn't know those things were back in style. I also saw a woman pacing up and down the sidewalk, walking backwards. She was there when I walked to my office and she was still there when I walked back to pick J up. She fell off the curb twice and bumped into three people...I don't really understand, but okay.
Maybe tomorrow we'll meet some interesting people on the bus?
I met some very interesting people on the bus back in 2002. In those days, I worked downtown and the bus I got on started its route two stops before mine. So even though it was rush hour, I always got a seat. But getting a seat usually meant at some point I'd get a seat mate.
There was the "you are beautiful" guy. He was well known in Kits for getting on the bus and working his way slowly to the back telling every woman on the bus they were beautiful and then asking if they would be his girlfriend. Most women were gracious as they declined this offer - he was particularly in tune to not pissing off husbands and boyfriends. I kind of wonder if anyone ever agreed to be his girlfriend...
There was the very elderly lady who had "met" Prince William - who is a very well mannered young man, in case you're wondering - and he is devastated that his parents divorced and that his father remarried and that everyone had to see him walk behind his mother's coffin. And he makes a mean roast. Really. And if his father will be king before him, he might have to commit patricide. She was serious too.
J and I have recently started taking the bus to work most days - I had to start driving when she started daycare at the university because of the hours...if I dropped her off and left within 5 minutes of the daycare opening and got back at the absolute last minute to pick her up, I would be short a good half hour in my working day - the half hour trek across campus each way does that. So I started driving. Since J has moved centres and is a little bit older, the hours are extended by half an hour. It's cutting it close, but I can drop her off, put in my 8 hour day and pick her up before the daycare closes. It requires some very close attention to the minutes in the morning, but we're doing it...
I thought we'd get to meet some interesting people, but headphones seem to have done away with people talking on the bus...I did see a woman in a fluorescent pink crushed velvet leisure suit and bright white sneakers today. I thought she was an older woman, but when I got close enough to see her, she was young - maybe in her early 20s. I didn't know those things were back in style. I also saw a woman pacing up and down the sidewalk, walking backwards. She was there when I walked to my office and she was still there when I walked back to pick J up. She fell off the curb twice and bumped into three people...I don't really understand, but okay.
Maybe tomorrow we'll meet some interesting people on the bus?
Monday, June 11, 2012
Happy Feet in Vancouver
19.5 Go on 10 "adventures"
We've decided to let J define the adventures we have and it's interesting to see what she deems an adventure and what she figures is just everyday life. For instance, Sunday's excursion was a trip to the aquarium and it was most insistently called an adventure, but when we went with J's little cousin C before Christmas, well, that was just how we rolled.
Yesterday started with a very special treat - a visit to the local-seattle-based-soccer-mom-mega-coffee-shop where J got to have a kids hot chocolate, half-sweet, no whip, IN a COFFEE CUP! It probably could have been slightly sour steamed milk and she would have been okay with it if it had been served in a coffee cup.
First stop at the aquarium was the new penguin exhibit to visit the tuxedoed birds. They were super friendly and would swim right up to the glass and wave with one flipper.
At least, that's what it looked like they were doing. Maybe they were just trying to get a better look and dry off one flipper. Who knows.
J was super excited about the penguins, but also a bit apprehensive. We're planning on going back soon (thank you season's pass, you rock), so maybe a few more penguin visits and she'll be excited to see them.
J was pretty excited by the mini jelly fish. They are small - maybe the size of a loonie - and they were quite cute.
I like the big jelly fish. They take pretty pictures and they are mesmerizing to watch. I could watch them swim around all day long....I love the blue lighting too...
J found the sea stars a big confusing - they don't do anything. They just sit there, stuck to the glass or the walls and sit there. She figured they must all be in the middle of nap time or something!
And this, this is the real reason we go to the aquarium...like most children who were brought up on Raffi, J loves beluga whales. And insists that the three giant belugas are all BABIES!
It was most definitely a successful day! We came home with not one, but two penguins of our very own. Well, three, but one went in the mail to England.
This one is pretty special. J saved some money she got from her grandparents to buy something sometime and decided that she wanted a penguin to take home. She was pretty proud when she gave the woman at the till her money. And a bit confused to get some change back...
We've decided to let J define the adventures we have and it's interesting to see what she deems an adventure and what she figures is just everyday life. For instance, Sunday's excursion was a trip to the aquarium and it was most insistently called an adventure, but when we went with J's little cousin C before Christmas, well, that was just how we rolled.
Yesterday started with a very special treat - a visit to the local-seattle-based-soccer-mom-mega-coffee-shop where J got to have a kids hot chocolate, half-sweet, no whip, IN a COFFEE CUP! It probably could have been slightly sour steamed milk and she would have been okay with it if it had been served in a coffee cup.
First stop at the aquarium was the new penguin exhibit to visit the tuxedoed birds. They were super friendly and would swim right up to the glass and wave with one flipper.
At least, that's what it looked like they were doing. Maybe they were just trying to get a better look and dry off one flipper. Who knows.
J was super excited about the penguins, but also a bit apprehensive. We're planning on going back soon (thank you season's pass, you rock), so maybe a few more penguin visits and she'll be excited to see them.
J was pretty excited by the mini jelly fish. They are small - maybe the size of a loonie - and they were quite cute.
I like the big jelly fish. They take pretty pictures and they are mesmerizing to watch. I could watch them swim around all day long....I love the blue lighting too...
J found the sea stars a big confusing - they don't do anything. They just sit there, stuck to the glass or the walls and sit there. She figured they must all be in the middle of nap time or something!
And this, this is the real reason we go to the aquarium...like most children who were brought up on Raffi, J loves beluga whales. And insists that the three giant belugas are all BABIES!
It was most definitely a successful day! We came home with not one, but two penguins of our very own. Well, three, but one went in the mail to England.
This one is pretty special. J saved some money she got from her grandparents to buy something sometime and decided that she wanted a penguin to take home. She was pretty proud when she gave the woman at the till her money. And a bit confused to get some change back...
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Maybe not again...
36.46, 36.47, 36.48, 36.49 and 36.50 Try 50 new recipes
So, ever cook something that just wasn't all that good? Yeah, I have. A few times...here are a few of the recipes we tried that we probably won't be trying again.
"Sourdough" Bread
Alex and J gave me a bread maker for my birthday last year, but it took me ages to actually use. We were having something for dinner that went well with homemade bread, but because I hadn't actually taken the time to figure out how the bread maker worked or to buy stuff like vital gluten, I couldn't make bread in the bread maker.
This "sourdough" recipe came from the Good Housekeeping Cookbook. It's not really sourdough bread; it uses yogurt and water as the wet ingredients. I knew this recipe was a disaster before I baked it...you don't proof the yeast - you mix it in with the flour and then add the wet ingredients. [Our pizza dough recipe is the same, but it ALWAYS works] The dough didn't really rise at all, but I figured I'd bake it and see what happened.
It came out looking like this. It was crunchy and hard and not very good. I'm not sure what I did wrong - maybe my yogurt had too much fat, maybe the yeast was a bit too old, who knows...anyway, we're not having this again...
Apricot Pecan Bread
This was the first bread recipe I made in the bread maker...I chose this one partly because it looked yummy and partly because I still had no vital gluten and this recipe didn't need any. The bread maker is supposed to have a beep function that tells me when to add the add-ins, in this case apricots and pecans.
Yeah, the bread is done but there are no add-ins. I'm not sure what happened, but the beep never beeped. I sat and waited and waited and waited...
At least this one wasn't a total loss...it was still yummy bread. I might try this one again. I've now mastered the bread maker, so even if it doesn't beep, I know what it sounds like when it's mixing in the extra stuff, so I could probably get the goodies in...
Breakfast Quinoa
We like quinoa at our house. Even J likes "special rice". My sister has been telling us for ages how much she likes quinoa for breakfast, so I went in search of a recipe to try. We have had luck with pretty much every Martha Stewart recipe we've tried, so I figure her Breakfast Quinoa was a safe bet. It also had blueberries in it and since we add blueberries to our oatmeal pretty much everyday, I thought it would be good.
Not so much. J and I had something else for breakfast this morning and Alex, who will usually eat pretty much everything, called me at work to find out if I'd be gravely insulted if he threw it out since he couldn't eat his either. I don't think anything was wrong with the recipe - I asked a couple of breakfast quinoa eaters and they all thought the recipe looked fine - I think maybe the people in our house just like their quinoa in savoury dishes...
Black Beans
We have two slowcookers. I love them. I wish I had more good slowcooker recipes. I've made a few recipes that Jenna at Eat, Live, Run has posted and had great results, so when she posted slowcooker black beans and gushed about them, I decided I had to try them!
They weren't horrible, but they weren't even close to as good as she said they were. We ate them. But they were boring. Because of the length of time you cook this particular recipe they weren't even really good for using in other recipes.
So yeah. Sometimes things don't work out in our kitchen...I'm just glad that most of the time what we eat is most certainly edible and often tasty too.
This brings me to 50 recipes, but because I wasn't paying very close attention, I did more than 50 and because I've got pictures and half written posts, I'm going to [eventually] post them all...Yay, one more to cross off the list!
So, ever cook something that just wasn't all that good? Yeah, I have. A few times...here are a few of the recipes we tried that we probably won't be trying again.
"Sourdough" Bread
Alex and J gave me a bread maker for my birthday last year, but it took me ages to actually use. We were having something for dinner that went well with homemade bread, but because I hadn't actually taken the time to figure out how the bread maker worked or to buy stuff like vital gluten, I couldn't make bread in the bread maker.
This "sourdough" recipe came from the Good Housekeeping Cookbook. It's not really sourdough bread; it uses yogurt and water as the wet ingredients. I knew this recipe was a disaster before I baked it...you don't proof the yeast - you mix it in with the flour and then add the wet ingredients. [Our pizza dough recipe is the same, but it ALWAYS works] The dough didn't really rise at all, but I figured I'd bake it and see what happened.
It came out looking like this. It was crunchy and hard and not very good. I'm not sure what I did wrong - maybe my yogurt had too much fat, maybe the yeast was a bit too old, who knows...anyway, we're not having this again...
Apricot Pecan Bread
This was the first bread recipe I made in the bread maker...I chose this one partly because it looked yummy and partly because I still had no vital gluten and this recipe didn't need any. The bread maker is supposed to have a beep function that tells me when to add the add-ins, in this case apricots and pecans.
What's wrong with this picture?
Yeah, the bread is done but there are no add-ins. I'm not sure what happened, but the beep never beeped. I sat and waited and waited and waited...
At least this one wasn't a total loss...it was still yummy bread. I might try this one again. I've now mastered the bread maker, so even if it doesn't beep, I know what it sounds like when it's mixing in the extra stuff, so I could probably get the goodies in...
Breakfast Quinoa
We like quinoa at our house. Even J likes "special rice". My sister has been telling us for ages how much she likes quinoa for breakfast, so I went in search of a recipe to try. We have had luck with pretty much every Martha Stewart recipe we've tried, so I figure her Breakfast Quinoa was a safe bet. It also had blueberries in it and since we add blueberries to our oatmeal pretty much everyday, I thought it would be good.
Not so much. J and I had something else for breakfast this morning and Alex, who will usually eat pretty much everything, called me at work to find out if I'd be gravely insulted if he threw it out since he couldn't eat his either. I don't think anything was wrong with the recipe - I asked a couple of breakfast quinoa eaters and they all thought the recipe looked fine - I think maybe the people in our house just like their quinoa in savoury dishes...
Black Beans
We have two slowcookers. I love them. I wish I had more good slowcooker recipes. I've made a few recipes that Jenna at Eat, Live, Run has posted and had great results, so when she posted slowcooker black beans and gushed about them, I decided I had to try them!
They weren't horrible, but they weren't even close to as good as she said they were. We ate them. But they were boring. Because of the length of time you cook this particular recipe they weren't even really good for using in other recipes.
So yeah. Sometimes things don't work out in our kitchen...I'm just glad that most of the time what we eat is most certainly edible and often tasty too.
This brings me to 50 recipes, but because I wasn't paying very close attention, I did more than 50 and because I've got pictures and half written posts, I'm going to [eventually] post them all...Yay, one more to cross off the list!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
