Yummy!

Saturday I bought myself a George Foreman Grill. Best decision I made in a while. Best deal I got in a while too. I picked it up at Loblaws on Queens Quay for $59.99 and it's a large one. Family size. I know people that have these and love them but I never thought to buy one but about 2 weeks ago I was at Loblaws and a new product was on the market - Baldwin's Kosher Hot Dogs. Oh....... these were to die for! I tried samples of every type they made. lol And what's more, the man grilling them (one of the company owners I think) was doing them on a George Foreman Grill. Well... these damn things were so delicious I bought the kosher dogs (a bit expensive - 5 for $4.99 but well worth it) and then checked out the grills. If they can grill a hot dog like that..... yummy.
So, this past Saturday I went down and picked it up. Brought it home and started cooking on it. Had burgers the first day and they were good. Yesterday though was heaven. My sister-in-law makes the best chicken-ka-bobs so I called her for her marinating recipe. I took out two skinless/boneless chicken breasts and boiled them for only about 5 minutes (no more!). They are pretty much cooked by then and so tender you can cut it with a spoon. I then took a tomato, a red pepper and an onion and sliced them all for the grilled veggies. I took the chicken and put Gail's marinade on them (both sides) and let them stand for about 15 minutes. Then I put everything on the grill for about 5 minutes.

One slight problem though. The meat was so thick that I really should have cut it lenghtwise in half so the veggies got grilled more. So in this case, I took the meat out for a minute or two and grilled the veggies more. Next time I'll know better and will slice the pieces lengthwise because I ended up having enough meat left over for tonights meal too for the both of us. These really were thick chicken breasts.

Here's the full recipe for Gail's marinade: (I cut it in half for just the 2 pieces)

1 pouch Lipton Onion Soup Mix
2/3 cup Apricot Jam
1/2 cup Water
1/2 tsp. Ground Ginger (if you wish)

In a sauce pan combine Lipton Mix, Apricot jam, water and ginger. Warm.
Baste chicken with glaze. Reglaze before serving and transfer any remaining glaze to a bowl and use as a dip.

*Note* To cut the Onion Soup Mix in half I suggest you really shake it well and mix it. One package is only 1/2 a cup in total so use 1/4 cup of it. Just make sure it's mixed well and you have equal parts of the powder in both 1/4 cups. And I used Loblaws PC brand Apricot Jam.

This caught my eye...

Look at this picture. What's wrong with it? Recognize it? It's a Toronto landmark. Redpath Sugar that's been around 151 years now.

Now look closely at the sign.. Redpath S YLE hmm was driving me nuts since I saw this on Saturday. It stood out like a sore thumb since all my life it's said Redpath Sugar in huge red capital letters. You can still see where the U was in there.

So..... what the hell does YLE mean? Doesn't mean Ltd. in any way shape or form because in French that's Ltee.

Today I looked it up. Talk about learning something every day. Redpath is owned by a company called Tate & Lyle for 151 years now. Now they decide to finally put the company name instead of the Brand name on the building??? LOL Just a wee bit late isn't it?

The LYE is the last three letters in Lyle. Where the rest of it is unknown as yet. Looks weird to me. Hopefully I'll have my camera with me when this saga continues and I'll be able to capture it.

hahaha lookee what I found....

I snooped a bit around my hard drive and found the pics. Wasn't too difficult because I knew when I was last in the hospital. Want some grapes??? You like that mold between the stems in there and on the grapes?? ewww (click on the pics, you'll get a better look)

How about some rock hard macaroni?? We actually put some on the floor and stepped on it and it was so hard it cracked and splintered and flew everywhere. I don't know if you can see this but this macaroni is hard as a rock. Most of it anyway and care for a meatball that is so overcooked they're dried out. We showed this to the nurse and to the woman that brought the food and they were both grossed out but nothing was done until I got another one way too late.

See, what happens is this. St. Michael's Hospital in downtown Toronto doesn't make it's own food anymore. Hasn't for a while. They sub-contract out. The food is made at a place out by the airport, cooked then put in a truck. The truck takes at least 45 minutes to get to St. Mike's hospital where it's pretty much cold now.... ok, lukewarm. So it's taken off the truck and then it's put in these layered trays on wheels with covers over them and they are re-cooked in that while waiting to go to the patients. Then they are sent to the individual floors where it sits again for a bit. Finally you get one of these yummy meals!!!

And they wonder why people don't get well?????????

Friday, already???

Wow, that was a fast week. Kept meaning to post but then it would get pretty late and I was too pooped to participate. Been running my mom back and forth to St. Mike's hospital for one test after the other. They are getting a little 'love letter' from me for sure. I've already started it but I'm waiting until Monday when I take her yet again for another test there and see what transpires. That place is something else. Last time I was in there I was fed moldy grapes.... ewwwww Being diabetic I get an evening snack. That's what I got on a Saturday, moldy grapes for my evening snack. I had my camera there because my nephew and his son had visited earlier and I was finally feeling human again so had them bring my digital to the hospital. I wanted to get a pic of my great-nephew.... got a pic of more than him and his dad alright.

That evening for dinner my swedish meatballs and noodles were something else again. Took freakin pics of that too. The noodles were rock hard and I mean rock hard. We actually put them on the floor and stepped on them and they broke..... and the meatballs.... you don't want to go there. I called the administration office but they couldn't have given a rat's ass because I never heard back. I even emailed them the pics of the bad food and still nothing. And when I called the dietary dept about the rock hard noodles and meatballs no one answered until about 2 hours later when they brought me up a cold one to replace it!! Needless to say I didn't eat it. I guess they don't understand that diabetics need to eat on time, especially ones on insulin or medication. Morons..... braindead. Good thing family was there and they went out and bought me dinner from somewhere nearby. I wouldn't have lasted waiting for them to bring another dinner to me. I wonder where those pics are hmmmmmmm

Sunday....

Should be a lazy day but I need to get out of here soon and run some errands and then maybe, just maybe get a bit of the day to myself. It's been a few days since I've posted anything but nothing all that exciting has happened. Yesterday I ran over to crappy tire for myself and my neighbour and purchased a new ceiling fan for each of us. Took the last two in the store. Crappy tire, the store I love to hate. Drives me banana's. Friday I noticed they had my ceiling fan on sale for 1/2 price. I have needed a new one for years in my kitchen but until I purchased this last one for the bedrooms I didn't bother. These are great though so since it was 1/2 price I decided to grab one for the kitchen. The sale started on Saturday, we got there at 12:15 pm and there were only 2 left in the store!!! Yeah, I scooped them but how annoying. This is nothing new for this store. They never have the good sale stuff in stock! Matter of fact, they are on the "Hall of Shame" on my disabled site for a lot of their antics. After that I scooted on over to Dominion who had my coffee on for about 1/2 price too! Good day for sales :-)

Almost got home, about 10 minutes away when my cell phone rings and it's my brother, he's at my place!! He wasn't expected for 40 minutes yet. He, his son and his son's girlfriend were here to have some photo's taken. So, I shot TJ's tattoo's. Dave's tattoo's.... lol ok... When he was born his actual first name was David for my father but he was always called TJ (which is his legal middle name). He's about 23 now and suddenly about 5 or so years ago he decided he wanted to be called by his real first name. Nothing wrong with that, he was named for my father but after 18 years of calling him his middle name I can never remember to call him that. lol

Anyway, we needed pics of his tat's for the website so I shot several. If you want to peek..... peek here http://urbaninktattoo.com/davestats.html These are not all his tats. Just some. He didn't want all his tats photographed due to the fact that some are one of a kinds that he designed and doesn't want them lifted from the web and on someone else. They are personal and his only. Like his girlfriend, I didn't shoot her tats either because they're designed by him for her specifically.

I think they may have found a storefront for the business too. That's what they were doing, driving around town looking at locations for the tattoo parlour. Area's where there are not a load of them already or ones that have been there for years on end. High Park probably. A bit farther from me than I wanted because I wanted to be able to go over a lot and photograph folks tats and the process for the site but such is life and they have to go where the rent is reasonable and the area isn't flooded with tattoo parlours already.

So.... today I'm off and running (scooting) again. Need to go pick up some money owed me for Avon, then over to the bargain store to see if I can buy a cheap answering machine. I have an old one but for the life of me can't remember how to use the damn thing and the instructions are gone. Nowhere to be seen. Checked everywhere. I refuse to pay Bell Canada $7.00 + tax a month for their call answer service so I'll head down to the bargain store and see what if anything, is available there. Then home to deliver more Avon, post more flyers (posted flyers yesterday about the new community group I'm starting for 40 yrs & over) and work on a statement I have to give later in the week.

This is an extremely busy week for me with meetings, and going back and forth to the hospital with my mom for tests and several other things. I have a page for each day taped to my closet door so I can keep track of things and keep on track. I have to pace myself, I get tired easy at times due to my health issues so I write out what I have to do each day and what can wait and make sure I stick as close to the list as possible.

Malka, the devil dog........

Malka..... the devil dog. LOL I'm kidding, she's a good dog.
"Doggie sat" today for Malka's mommy & daddy. She followed me around everywhere.

Butterfly

This is called a "Painted Lady". I shot this at Toronto's Music Garden, summer of '05.

Another boot to encourage Spring.....

Thought I'd add another burst of colour in hopes of encouraging Spring..... I shot this a couple of summers ago at the Parliament Buildings around Queen's Park Circle. Oddly enough this was the only one like this! All the rest were regular tulips.

New list.....

oh... btw, if you are interested. Last night I added a list in the sidebar of some of my favourite photography websites out there. I know these folks from a photography newsgroup I belong to. If you can only click on a couple make sure not to miss Bob Botts and Ron Laceys'. And if you pop onto Ron's be sure to click on "fun fotos".... you'll pee your pants laughing at some of them. Bill DuPree's site is fabulous too.

Here, there but not where I really wanted to go....

hmmm The way this day went one would think it was a Monday. I needed to run a load of Avon over to a woman and she's not home. Decided to run another errand to get my lottery tickets. Wooohooo won $5.00!!! and two free tickets... lol Tried the woman again...... still not home. arghhhh ran my next errand. Off to the printers to get a flyer done. Do that, call her again, still not home. Thank goodness for cell phones. Next.... went to the $1.00 store. Or should I say the $10.00 store. I have yet to go in there and buy just one thing.!! oh hey, do you like the Silver Dollar Stores? Well if so, they've gone belly up :-( I really liked them and they had some unique things you couldn't find at other $ stores but about a month ago the stores went up in smoke. Turns out the owners also had higher end stores and all the money they made from the $ stores went into the higher end stores to keep them afloat. Idiots..... the higher end stores went belly up anyway and they lost everything. I'll miss that store.

Anyway, after the $ store (I needed a jar to put Mr. Dick in when I clean his tank) and a couple of other things of course..... then tried her again, still not home. So instead of putzing around any more I dropped off the flyer to get printed where I can get it done for nothing. Then finally home. By the time I got there I felt like a popsicle. That wind out there was something else. It was blowing me faster. Anyone in any kind of a mobility device feels the cold twice as bad. We are not walking and creating body heat.

So, I'm home finally, I made myself a sugar free hot chocolate, finished up more Avon and am going to relax.

Finally......

I couldn't leave it alone. Things like this drive me crazy until I figure them out. Finally I got the edit thing back and the list of favourite photography websites too. Forgot to tag them as blank though so they open in another window but that I'll do another day :-) Now I can go to bed and read my book.

hmmm seems to be a problem....

Blogger doesn't want to republish for me this evening. Thought I'd take the time to add some of my favourite photography links in the sidebar but it doesn't want to co-operate. Guess I'll try again in the morning. Whenever I republish it sits there clicking at "0" and then sooner or later I get an error message. rats......

grrrrr I came back and tried again and this time it said it published after several minutes but obviously it didn't. And now I've lost my ability to edit right from the page. Tomorrow.... this is just frustrating me.

A pic to encourge Spring....

Thought before I head off to the other room to get into the Avon for the next few hours I'd post a pic I shot late last Summer. I can't wait to be able to get around with my cameras and enjoy the summer and all there is to look at and awe at in this City.

Monday... can we change the name of this day???

Would it make it any different.... ? lol I have a lot of my plate today including a large Avon shipment that's sitting on my diningroom table screaming my name out to open it all up, sort through it all, bag it and deliver it. I went online during my morning coffee to discover Avon screwed up the order again too. Nothing unusual these days. Constant short of stocks and screw ups. It never used to be this way when Christina Gold ran the company but the minute she left many years ago to run the NY division of the company, the company has been steadily going downhill. Our loss, their gain. I'll get to it shortly :-)

Yesterday was a major pain day for me but that's nothing unusual in my life either. What I call a demerol day. I've had constant, chronic pain since childhood so I'm relatively used to it but every now and then I get a day like yesterday and I reach my limit. I didn't take the demoral, I try to get through this crap without taking pain killers for it. I was told years ago to start taking it or morphine on a regular basis but morphine doesn't do squat for me and I would prefer to see it through on the days I can without heavy duty drugs. I know one day I will have to give in and go on it on a regular basis, it's inevitable but I'd rather wait :-) So, I didn't do too much yesterday, putzed around on the computer, visited other blogs, simple day kind of stuff.

Today I've already re-emailed a few people. I Chair a community committee that holds events for the community on occasion and early April we are having a Crib Tournament. That is if I can get people to answer emails. I sent out the flyer to 3 people to give their opinions on last Wed and I still haven't heard anything. The tournament is suppose to be on April 6th. Time is closing in considering I still have to finalize the flyer, get it printed, posted in the buildings, get the rest of the stuff settled. At least I got all the crib boards and cards.

ok..... I'm off to re-write some Avon orders that have stuff out of stock and start to add them up then time to crack open the boxes.

I really must stop listening to the news...

I swear on day I'll simply pull all my hair out. And that's a lot of hair!! I'm watching the news tonight when I hear this Canadian guy gets pulled over at the border and arrested. Yeah so that isn't the deal. It's what he was arrested for. Evading the Vietnam War!! Some 40 years ago this guy, then 19 ran to Canada. So what, so did many, many others. He never changes his name, he makes a life here, marries a woman here, pays taxes, has children and somewhere along the line becomes a Canadian citizen. Like many others. He goes across the border on a regular basis over the years too. Regularly. Trips to see family, family vacations, etc.

He and his wife decide to go to Reno for a short vacation. Nothing different than anything they've done for the last 30+ years they've been married. Off they go. They cross the border and he is arrested for being A.W.O.L. !!!!! He is now in Camp Pendelton and about to be shipped back to where he was originally when he took off at 19.

What's going to happen to him? Well..... he could get 5 years in a Military Prison!!! Ok... I'm sorry.... I really don't see the sanity in this. Shouldn't the US gov't be attending to other business like helping the people of New Orleans. Getting them homes, helping them rebuild. Worrying about the homeless, health care, and several other issues?

Instead, they are taking some poor schmuck who has never even changed his freakin name to avoid the U.S. gov't, still lived right across the border, crossed the stupid border on a regular basis, and shoving him in the hole for 5 years at the cost of the American Tax payer???? Oh... this makes lots of sense.

All the US gov't is trying to do is prevent kids today from running up here to avoid Iraq the way they avoided Vietnam.

Spring is here, I hope :-)

Saturday was wonderful. Beautiful day out and the sun was shining so warm on me it made me think of Spring. Scootered all over the place too. Went down to the lakeshore to do some groceries at Loblaws and then went here, there and everywhere. Tons of people out, strolling, walking their dogs, etc. Loving the day with it's kiss of Spring.

Shot this picture quickly as I was going through Allen Gardens. You can tell Spring is in the air. There were people with their dogs everywhere, folks coming from Church wandering around and people mingling and talking up a storm and lots of happy faces. :-)

Why can't men.....

Keep it in their pants??? I simply cannot believe the news this morning. Yesterday the police pulled a "prostitution sting" in the Parkdale region of our City. They arrested a ton of "Johns", one of which had his 4 year old son in the back seat of the freakin car with him!!!! Yup...... and he had directed the child to sit still while he did his business!!!

Can we say "Kill the assh*le"????????? Could you imagine the police bringing your baby home and telling you this story???????? He needs to be hung by the kahoona's and flogged if you ask me. At a minimum!!! I'd say print the bastards name in the papers however his poor wife is probably more humiliated than she ever thought she would be already or ever needed to be. Here's one divorce coming up. And grounds for no visitation too as far as I'm concerned.

Good morning Saturday....

Nothing like laying in bed for an hour, not sleeping, just laying there being lazy :-) Sitting here with my first coffee of the day which is absolutely delicious and listening to Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway CD. Nice way to start the day.

Have some plans to get on my scooter and varooom off to the lakeshore to go do some groceries at Loblaws on Queen's Quay. I can't wait for it to get a bit warmer and I'll be out of here most of the days. Zigzagging all over the city with my cameras. Meeting and greeting folks and just checking out what's new in the city. Along with that I'll be doing my normal thing of taking pics of the City and things that are not accessible and putting that on one of my websites at http://torontomobility.com/

Yesterday turned out to be a busy day. I helped my mom clear up a bunch of stuff and box it to go to my brothers place where she and my sister-in-law will have a Spring garage sale sometime in the coming couple of months. A great way to get rid of stuff that is useable but there simply isn't any more space here for. I have to go through a wack of my books and add them to the boxes. After that I made 3 dozen oatmeal raisin cookies. Putzed around with a few other things including updating my nephews website at http://urbaninktattoo.com

Well..... I'm off to go searching for more informative blogs. I'm actually surprised at how many are in different languages and how many are done by young kids, teens. I did a search for Toronto and didn't really find all that much, did another search for Toronto, photography and found even less :-( so..... I'm off to bop around on the blogs for a while and see if I can discover another place to make me laugh, cry or just get a bit of good info from..... :-)

Thought since the weather was starting to break here in Toronto I'd throw a splash of colour onto the blog.

I shot this trio of tulips in Riverdale Farm summer of 2005. They were brilliant and just screamed to have their pics taken.

Friday.......

Can't say much for today yet, I'm suppose to be having a meeting before noon but it's almost 11 am now and nothing yet. Oh well..... on with the day.

Finished off yesterday by entering the world of eBay. I thought I was gonna lose my mind. I couldn't believe how complicated that thing is! Cripes... one thing after another and not enough explanation. Even the guy on the live help didn't know but he finally got help himself and figured it out. My brother wants me to sell stuff for him and his wife but I hope I can do it right. lol I'll find out soon enough. I put one of my photos of a purple iris up for sale so we'll see if I get any bites for it. Think I'm going to buy a copy of eBay for Dummies at this rate. :-)

Started a new book too. "Four Blind Mice" by James Patterson. Another excellent book. Another one with the Dr. Alex Cross character in it.

Off to fix a website.. well to update a page on it. My nephew is a tattoist and he and his dad are opening a tattoo shop. I'm doing the website. Need a change with the employment page. Think they have 2 people already.

boring day....

But productive.

Started off my morning doing emails. I'm trying to get a side-by-side refrigerator/freezer donated by Maytag but I think they got my hopes up for nothing. I run several community programs and we need a fridge that will hold a lot of frozen foods. And one that can be chained shut so others using the same common room won't get nosey and things won't go missing. Seems these days if it isn't nailed down it walks. Anyway, last year I discovered Maytag makes pretty much 80% of the fridges/freezers out there on the market these days. I couldn't believe how many brands are made by that one company. Really shouldn't surprise me all things considered. So, I wrote them requesting an old model, a scratched or dented one, we really didn't care as long as it worked. I didn't get an answer back. Then I tried again (both times by fax), still didn't get an answer. Then I emailed the woman for the Corporate Donations dept. and finally got an answer and she said she'd look into it.

Next thing I know she is phoning me and asking me if I can get a van or something because they won't deliver outside of Burlington. All donations were allocated for 2005 and if I can wait it looked good for the New Year and to get back to her then. Well I did. I emailed in January to tell her that we could arrange pick up of the side-by-side but I heard nothing back. Then I waited and emailed again in February. Nothing back again. This morning I emailed yet again keeping my fingers crossed and she answered saying: "Thank you for your note. I will continue to look for something that could work for you. We do not have one in this condition right now."

hmmmmmm ok.... new or scratched or dented or whatever and they don't have one in that condition right now? No new ones?????? shit....... we really need this donation badly. At this point in time I have my freezer stuffed with frozen food as do other volunteers and it's not helpful when I need my freezer or they need theirs for our own things!

Anyway, one of the things I do is run Afternoon Socials for Seniors. We have one coming up soon so I'm getting things done a bit ahead of time. Usually I work this way then I am not wacked right out. Thanks to my health I can only do so much so I do a lot but in bits and pieces :-)

So today was a kitchen day. The meal for the upcoming Seniors Afternoon Social this time is chicken fried rice and chicken stir-fry. Today I took the time to cut up the first batch of chicken in fair size chunks for the stir-fry and cooked it up, bagged it and put it in the freezer then I cut up the next batch of chicken in bite size pieces for the chicken fried rice and then labelled and bagged it and tossed it in the freezer too. Voila! The biggest part of it is done.

The day before the social my friend Celeste and my mom will help me steam the veggies and cook the rice then everything is ready to toss together and heat up the next day. Most of the work done before the event.

Was suppose to have a meeting today too but it seems that isn't going to happen until tomorrow now. Been bopping around the internet checking out other blogs in between waiting for one thing or another to be done.

Like I said....... boring....... but productive.

The Blue Nowhere.... & London Bridges

Finished two books last week. There are times I can't put a book down and these two books were like those. Ya know.... oh.. just one more chapter types of books and before you know it it's 4 a.m. you're wide awake and pitchin a fit at yourself.

Too bad, I enjoyed the books too much. The first one was a re-read and I don't do that often because I tend to remember books too well but this one was absolutely worth it. Jeffrey Deaver's "The Blue Nowhere" . Freaky book. It's about a stalker that reaches his victims through their computer. He's a cracker and cracks peoples computers that he wants to stalk and kill. He breaks into their computers and learns all about them and then acts on what he learns. The only person that can help the FBI with the case, the only man that is able to crack and teach them how to follow the leads through this guys eyes is a guy that is in jail for cracking the gov't computers. This guy is something else. The book is excellent and I'd recommend it to anyone. If you don't understand about computers it doesn't even matter because there are pages in the back of the book to check out. If you don't understand what a browser is, look in the back of the book and you'll learn. What is really creepy about the book is if you use computers on a regular basis this book talks about downloads and messenger services like AOL, Yahoo, MSN.... all the stuff you use every day. Jeffrey Deaver is one of my favourite authors.

The second book I pretty much ate was by James Patterson (Along came a spider was a movie made from one of his books) . The title of the book was "London Bridges". It's one of his books with a particular character which I just love. Dr. Alex Cross. A shrink that's also a cop. By this book he's working in the FBI. It also brings back a couple of old enemy characters. Loved the book.

Tonight....... I start the next James Patterson waiting to be read. Four Blind Mice. I'm looking forward to it.

A shitty end to a terrific evening......

Metro Toronto Police.... nothing like picking on disabled, elderly and women eh? Especially when there are men in the wrong but they're being left alone. There's always a couple of spoiled apples in the barrel. Here's what happened:

We all went out to dinner at the Town & Country and had a great time. Kicked back, relaxed, laughed and enjoyed a terrific meal. We headed back home around 9 pm. My mom got in the car with my nephew and I got in the car his girlfriend was driving. She came in from work in Oshawa so had her own car. They parked to let us out and.............. this is the letter I sent the Staff Sgt. I know at 51 Division about the situation...... I enclosed two pics of where we were parked. I had these pics on the computer from when I had the City put a ramp on the drop off spot last summer. If by chance I don't hear back I'll simply send the letter to him, off to headquarters for a response. This pissed me off.

Hi Sgt. Kelly,

This evening (Monday) at approx. 9:15 pm I and my company had an encounter with two of your officers. They were in car # 5132. This is what happened:

We were out for a family dinner. As you know, I'm disabled and use a scooter and so does my mother thanks to a genetic disease. This evening we were coming home and my mother was in the 1st car with it's driver and I was in the 2nd car with it's driver.

When we pulled up to the kiss and drop off spot directly in front of the entrance of my building there was a taxicab parked directly in front of the Wheeltrans bus stop completely blocking the bus stop. The first car with my mother in it pulled in behind the taxi to help my mother out of the car. She can't exit a car without help. Since we had been out to dinner neither of us were in our scooters so we can walk only so far, especially my mom. It's difficult for her to get from the curb up to our apt.

Anyway, we, in the 2nd car pulled in behind them at the very far end of the kiss and drop off spot. (see the pics enclosed - in #2 you can see the building wall so we were not anywhere near the bus stop they were going on about nor were we stopping them from going past.) This is a drop off spot for the building. This building is a designated disabled building. The curb pulls into the sidewalk to allow folks to stop quickly and drop off or for cabs to pick up and where Wheeltrans used to pick up and drop off prior to the Bus Stop being installed a bit up the street. This is an actual cut into the curb pick-up, drop off section. Since there was a taxi stopped directly under the Wheeltrans bus stop we had little room but I was about to get out of the car when # 5132 came around the corner and up right behind us. We couldn't move. We couldn't go forwards a few inches because the taxi ahead had our car and the car ahead of us pinned in. We couldn't go back because the police car was directly behind us.

I don't know why he was sitting back there because he could get past. Both a car and a van had already passed us so we weren't in the middle of the road by any means. Anyway he wouldn't move back, we couldn't move forward and the next thing you know he puts on his siren for a few and pulls up beside us and starts giving the woman driver of the car I was in a hard time. (not the actual siren but the one they put on if they want you to pull over.) Telling her that if it was an emergency he couldn't have gotten past, etc. Pardon me? He drove up and was actually ahead of her a bit while he's telling her this through the window shouting past the officer in the passenger seat.

In the meantime my mother who isn't too steady on her feet and 80 years old, was on the sidewalk trying to explain to the officer that they were not near the bus stop, but that a taxi was and they were only letting us out then leaving, however he didn't want to hear anything about it and told her he wasn't speaking to her. He told my mother this a few times, to an 80 year old woman that isn't being lippy or rude but is simply trying to explain that we are disabled and this is a drop off directly in front of the building we live in and the bus stop is approx. 25 ft or so up the way and a taxi was parked there blocking us.

Like I said though, he could pull past us to give my driver a hard time so there was no threat to him not being able to get through in an emergency. And all this time the taxi driver is sitting there blocking everyone but the officers in the car just continue to tell my driver they are going to be nice and not give her a ticket this time! She's trying to explain that the taxi has her blocked in and so do they! She's pinned in between and couldn't go forward or backwards. And did they even go after the taxi driver who was actually in the wrong and parked illegally and directly, and I mean directly at the bus stop??? nope. They continued to berate my driver. Finally the taxi driver left but they still chastised my driver more. In the meantime, my 80 year old mother that has also had several strokes is trying to keep her balance on the sidewalk while waiting for these officers to finish.

My driver was not parked anywhere near the WheelTrans Bus Stop. I know very well where that stop is. It's at least 25 ft from where we were. I was the one that had them put it there. I am also the one that had the City ramp that kiss and drop off curb as well just last summer. No, you are not allowed to park at that Bus Stop..... but yes you are allowed to use the kiss and drop off cut in the curb to drop someone off. The WheelTrans even used to pull in there to pick up and drop off people as well as taxi's and other vehicles before the WheelTrans Bus Stop was installed up the road a bit. Just because it is there now several feet away doesn't mean it's suddenly illegal to drop someone off at that cut in curb.

This situation was uncalled for. They even put on their sirens a bit. No exactly good public relations as far as I'm concerned and I'd like their names and badge numbers so I can write headquarters as well. There's nothing like picking on disabled and women. Two men were in the two cars ahead of us (one being the taxi that sat there the entire time illegally parked directly at the WheelTrans Bus Stop) and nothing was said to either of them.

My crockpot beef stew....

Hey all... someone was just asking the other day what I have been cooking so here it is. With a little "this/that/and the other".... this is the beef stew I came up with:

Recipe.....

- 4 small - medium potatoes cubed (spoonsize)
- 4 carrots sliced then diced (spoonsize)
- 1 & a 1/2 pounds of beef - I bought 2 beef outside round steaks and cut/cubed it and it was extremely tender after cooking.
- 2 cans of beef broth (regular size soup cans)
- 1 cup of water
- 2 - 4 cloves of garlic (depends on what you like)
- 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 teaspoon of pepper plus a dasha shake of salt if you wish
- 1 tablespoon + a dash of paprika
- 2 stalks of celery, cut up and diced as well
- 3 small/medium onions diced (not too small)
- 1/4 cup of raw but well rinsed pearl barley (get the dust off it by rinsing and it will also help thicken up your broth)

- a few tablespoons of flour sprinked
- 1/2 cup of frozen peas (you don't want too many peas)

Put all your ingredients up to the barley into a slow cooker/crock pot as they are listed or just throw them in. Give it a good stir so all the ingredients including the spices are mixed. Cover it and set on high for 4& 1/2 hours - 5 hours, or set it on low for about 10 hours.

When there is about 45 minutes or a 1/2 hour left then put the frozen peas in as well as the few tablespoons of flour sprinkled on and mixed well. That will thicken it to a not so soupy consistancy.

You may want to toss it all in at once including the barley and peas and flour and it works that way too. The barley might be a bit stuck to the bottom but will come off. And personally, I'd only put fresh peas in that early, not frozen.

Here is the end result: Feeds 6 easily :-)

Mondays..... ugh....

Monday's are not my favourite days but this one is half over thank goodness. Also it's the first Monday of the month so I, my nephew, his girlfriend and my mom and doing our regular first Monday of the month dinner out at the Town & Country down on Queen's Quay. All you can eat and damn fine food. :-)

I'm finally taking a break here and decided to check out other blogs again while I have a few moments. Found one through one I peek at occasionally that belongs to the same woman and it's a blog for garlic recipes.... yummy!! You can check it out at: http://garlicster.blogspot.com/
I sent her a recipe of mine for my spanish chops and I see she's posted it. Thanks Maria.

Not much else..... busy, busy, busy with phone calls and getting things ready for committee's and such. Nothing earth shattering that's for sure. Have to go run an errand shortly then off to dinner. You should check the Town & Country out some time. Delicious food and all you can eat buffet and a great selection too.

hmm I'm sure some would say only 36%??

***You Are 36% Evil***






A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well.In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

How Evil Are You?

http://www.blogthings.com/howevilareyouquiz/

Ebby!!!

Friday...... ahhh.... the weekend. I can relax now. :-) Actually I can't relax for a couple of hours yet, I'm baking cinnamon rolls and they take forever for the dough to rise, etc. I like them tender and with a load of butter and cinnamon and all the good stuff that makes them very oooey and gooey. You know the kind... the ones that are past the lips and directly to the hips kind. The kind you shouldn't eat if you are eating healthy. The kind that clog your arteries..

Tomorrow my sister is coming in from out of town. About 2 hrs away. She'll be staying until later Sunday. She's bringing Ebony with her :-) Our favourite pooch. Ebby is part teacup poodle and part miniature poodle and is almost 11 years old. She's a sweetie. While here I'll take her across the hall to visit her little friend Malka.

It will be nice to see my sister again. She doesn't get to the City too often due to her wacky work schedule.

Unique Ads

One thing I love about Toronto are the unique advertisements all over the place in the City. Whether they are murals like this ad for 5 Alive Juice or on the huge boards all over.

This one I shot in 2003 around John St. and Queen St. West... up in that area somewhere. Just past City TV I think. It's probably not even there anymore.