Monday, November 18, 2013

The post about Santa Claus coming to town, getting spanked by Mildred and garlic mashed turnip

Hamilton Santa Claus Parade. Isn't my boy adorable?

  • Thank you for all your supportive comments, messages, virtual hugs. You guys are awesome. I'm not sure why it happens. Just some days, I get overwhelmed with sadness and I can't attribute it to any particular thing. The crisis has passed and my weekend was a time for reflection and looking at all the blessings I have.
  • Saturday, we went to the Hamilton Santa Claus Parade. It was a pretty mild day. Definitely a better parade day than it was last year.  Last year it was freezing cold and I just remember my feet freezing. Julien enjoyed himself, which was the whole point. Hamilton's parade is okay.  There's not a lot of bells and whistles.  But there was a pretty big turn out, and it was freaking long!  Julien wrote his letter to Santa and was able to give it one of his helpers along the parade route.  He was very excited.
  • My absolute favorite part of any parade? The pipe band. I LOVE the bagpipes.  My father is from Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Back in the day, he was a piper. And a really talented one at that.  I have listened to the pipes my entire life.  The one major flaw in the Santa Claus Parade? Only one pipe band:(



  • Sunday was a fun day. We went to my girlfriend Elin's house for the CFL football game. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats were playing the Toronto Argonauts.  Hamilton were the victors and next Sunday they play the Saskatchewan Roughriders for the Grey Cup. I have to confess that I don't really care about football.  It is fun watching Elin get all worked up over the game though.  She's fan enough for the both of us!
  • Today it was back to the old grindstone. I felt like I was all over the place. I drove from Hamilton to East York, to downtown, to Scarborough, to Easy York, to Brampton then back to Hamilton.  And I needed to stop twice to use a bathroom somewhere.  The first stop was Canadian Tire.  I really need to remember to use the bathroom before I get into my car!
  • Something very unusual happened today. While shopping with a client and waiting in line at Walmart, I felt a slap on my ass. So I turn around, prepared to be all enraged, and it's a little old lady with her walker standing directly behind me. She says, "Oh deary, you have a nice bum". WTF? Well I can't freak out.  She was a tiny little thing and reminded me a bit of my Aunt Mary. So I said "thank you" while my client looked like he was going to explode.  She also told me I had pretty hair and that her hair used to go down to her bum when she was a girl. Ah Mildred! Thanks for making me a feel a bit icky, and a bit like hot shit!


Trying on a slouchy beanie at Chapters on Friday. Not only did I feel melancholy,
but I looked melancholy...
In the washroom at Canadian Tire today. Notice my hair is Ombre!

  • Yesterday made me very happy. I got LOTS of meat on sale. Chicken breast, ground beef, ribs. All good stuff.  And I made garlic mashed turnip. A great alternative to mashed potatoes.  I may use the turnip the next time I make Shepard's Pie.
  • The mashed turnip was super easy to make. I just boiled the turnip with whole cloves of garlic (6), drained everything when it was super soft. Added some sea salt, pepper and a splash of chicken stock.  I used beaters to whip everything together. Yummy. Turnip is not my favorite, but I'd definitely make this again.
  • I ran this morning at about 5:45.  It was blustery!  A very windy run. My pace was the slowest it's been yet. But seriously, I felt like I wasn't going anywhere fast.  My ankle has been achy all day. Not pained, but achy. I think it's from the damp. My cheek that was fractured gets painful on wet and rainy days. Weird!  I only ran 3K and the hardest thing about that is that just when I'm warmed up and feeling good, I have to stop.  I'm looking forward to Sunday's run. Graham is letting me run 5K. Yay!

Mashed turnip and post-run coffee!

  • I'm tired of reading that my lifestyle (Paleo) is a fad diet. That's all I have to say about that. 
  • I'm reading some new literature right now. The jury's still out on whether I like it. If you're reading this Heather, you can check out the novellas by Jess Dee.  They're pretty filthy, so read in private.
  • That's pretty much all I've got for you today. It was a pretty uneventful and low key weekend. Tomorrow is a busy day. I have back to back to back to back meetings. Yup, that's four in a row.
  • I leave you with the 7th installment in the Anniversary Series entitled Where's the Start Line. In this episode hubby and I make our first on camera appearances.  And we fail to locate the start line of hubby's half marathon because we are losers. Riveting, I know!