Rain, rain and more rain. That has been the story for five days now in Southern Ontario. The forecast is even bleaker. We're all wagering on the one nice day predicted for this weekend, before the storms and rain move in again. If the weather was depressing last month, now it's downright frustrating. I'm planning a 'staycation' to plant my garden this weekend. I have to remind myself it's the holiday weekend, because the weather would have me believe it is only April 12.
Honestly though, I have so much to do, I doubt I'll get it all finished. One good day is just not enough.
That's it for my weather rant for now. I got my camera back, so I wanted to share a few more pictures from our crazy wind storm. Amazingly, much of the debris and mess was gone from around the city last week already.
Three big pines in front of this apartment building were uprooted.
Trees snapped in half like this one, were common all over the region.
Big, old trees took down hydro lines, landed on cars and homes.
I responded to a knock at the door this week to find a man holding a cardboard box and a clipboard. My eyes immediately went to the name tag pinned on his pocket, and I prepared to ask him to leave. Then, he introduced himself as an Enbridge employee. I had thought he was an energy marketer. Gas prices had just shot up from 1.34 to 1.41 in my town after all, and poor, unsuspecting consumers were ripe to be ripped off further.
He quickly proceeded to explain he had been hired for the Enbridge TAPS program, and he had some free gifts for being an Enbridge customer. He handed me four compact florescent light bulbs and two aerators (one for the bathroom tap and one for the kitchen). I was still skeptical. Why was I getting this for free? What does he really want?
Next, he pulled out a water-saving shower head, but asked if he could install it. Um, I hesitated. It's not every day someone comes to your door, asking if they can stand in your shower. He insisted he had to install it. It was his job. I agreed, and 2 minutes later I had a new shower head.
I was still perplexed after he left though. Since when do gas companies give their customers anything free? Did they overcharge me somewhere, and this is their way of making it up? What kind of a tax break are they getting for doing this? Obviously, he had to install the shower head to guarantee it got used.
Regardless, I replaced a few old light bulbs with the new this morning and put the aerator on the bathroom tap. It reduces my water use from 7.5 gpm to 1.5 gpm. Not huge savings. According to the program card, it's about $122 in gas (to heat the water) and water savings / year, if I also installed the kitchen aerator. The light bulbs account for a $21 savings. Not a fortune, but still $143 I could put toward a new TV, garden plants, or decorating my craft room!
Did anyone else have someone from Enbridge TAPS come by? Did you take their offer? Anyone know what their motivation is behind TAPS?
Bf continues to insist this spring is not 'late'. Rather it's just about on-time, and the last few years, spring was early. OK. Good luck telling the farmers that though. <- I keep that comment to myself, because he is well aware how the farmers feel.
It seemed like the rain would never end, but we finally got almost an entire weekend of sunny weather. Aside from a splash of rain Friday evening, I spent most of the weekend outside either in my yard or enjoying Mother's Day lunch. Not only do I have a burn to prove it, but my yard is finally starting to look like I love it again.
My tulips have mostly popped up, and I realized they look better in clusters than planted individually.
Bf cut the grass for me. I think my backyard was at least 8 inches long in places, so he had to leave it as long as the lawn mower would let him. It was still a slow-go at times. It looks so much better now that it's cut though. Bf, you rock.
Funny enough, it was only a few minutes after he fired up the lawn mower and headed to the backyard, and my next-door neighbour did the same. They both puttered back and forth across the yards, and all-of-a-sudden, I felt like I was living in The Sims. Especially, since there did not appear to be any real pattern for my neighbour. I always wondered why the Sims people only cut 3 or 4 random strips. Maybe, they were modeled after my neighbour.
I finished laying the patio stones along the side flowerbed. In an effort to stop the erosion of soil under my downspout, I assembled a rock garden. I'm looking forward to seeing how this works next time it rains. I have decided to try a clematis on this side of the house also, as it gets so hot and dry, I don't know what else to plant.
My neighbour finally had power restored to his house today. It was cut on Thursday, when the wind storm that came through our city knocked both our lines down. Thankfully, mine was put back up.
In the big scheme of things, we were really quite lucky. Our region was ravaged with destruction, yet it paled in comparison to the devastation Alabama faced only a day earlier. Nevertheless, my city declared a State of Emergency at one point, and some homes are still waiting for power. Winds up to 124 km/h at times blasted our region, uprooting huge trees all over the city and crashing down on homes, power lines and roads. Several people lost shingles, or worse yet, most of their roof.
I felt a little strange taking pictures of some of the destruction, but it's something I've never seen before. Of course, I left my camera at a friend's house this weekend, so I can't share. I promise I'll post as soon as I get it back.
I did get this photo from a friend. It was too wild to not share. It almost makes you think the picture is sideways. That's the hydro line holding the tree up. This would've been considered only medium priority likely, if that gives you an indication of what the rest of the damage looked like. Yikes.
I wanted to get this post up, but come back later this week. I promise I'll add more pictures. We lost two older men here. As tragic as their deaths were, they seem eerily similar to what you might imagine could happen in a tornado. All I could think about last week were the families that experienced any of the 312 tornadoes that hit the U.S. last week.
Spring has been desperately trying to force it's way into my neighborhood lately. You would never know if you looked at a weather forecast, but the sun has managed to poke through at least once a day, the past two days, and with it, my energy is increasing! You won't find me running marathons, but I have been accomplishing more in my evenings. I even tackled cake pops again!
You'll recall I last made cake pops over a year ago. They were cute. They were also a ton of work.
When bf got me Bakerella's book for Christmas, I was genuinely excited to try them again. For a little while anyway. Then, work and life and all-around-being-lazy-with-my-free-time set in. For the past three months, I've flipped through the book, awed by the cool creations, yet daunted by the work.
Until this week.
With a little help from bf, I whipped up a partial batch of Cupcake Bites (think Cake Pop, without the stick) for my Girl Guides. You can find Bakerella's directions here.
Not bad for only my second try, if I do say so myself!
I wanted a Girl Guide theme, so I used blue and white M&M's with sprinkle stems to make a trefoil.
I made a special one for bf. Can you find it?
He deserved a thank you kiss for his epic cake-baking skills. Funny, he also picked up this jar of icing for me...
Some of Bakerella's tips that really helped this time around:
Make a small batch. It's manageable and more fun. BF made 2 batches of cake mix, so I had an extra-thick cake. I used 3/8 of the cake and made 18 bites. Mine were on the slightly large side, so you can estimate 1/4 cake = 12 bites/pops.
Use cake mix and pre-made icing. I NEVER use store-bought mixes, but it was just downright easier.
Use lots of candy melts. Last time, I didn't have enough and I had trouble dipping. You can always save extra and reuse later.
Wash and dry your hands often while rolling the balls. They stay together nicer.
Have everything set out before you start. Isn't this the golden rule in the kitchen? It's necessary for cake pops/bites. Once the candy is melted, you want to dip. Once you dip, it dries fast. Your M&M's and sprinkles have to go on right away or the candy will be hard.
I got to step 3 and now I'm waiting for it to download 750 MB of updates. Yes, 750 MB on a 16 GB machine! Yikes! I hope this is doesn't preface what my Playbook experience is going to be like.
As it would've seemed this morning, I appear to be the only person that bought one. I should have taken pictures. Imagine if you will, when I pre-ordered my Playbook on Saturday, the sales associate assured me this would guarantee I don't need to stand in line when they open at 7 AM. "Perfect," I think. "I can pick it up before work." I roll in at 7:15AM this morning to a parking lot more deserted than a school yard in July.
No line. In fact, 2 sales associates actually came outside to greet me with open arms. Oh wait, no, they were having a cigarette. It was like a dream walking into the store. All the red-clad reps waiting in a line at the door. "Are you here for a Playbook?"
I actually felt slightly pathetic for them. Then, I felt pathetic for myself. Am I the only person that wanted this thing I was willing to come at 7? Where were the door crashers? I got back in my car, and thought, where is the hype? I heard all about the date the iPad 2 was released? Nobody mentioned the Playbook once.
Turns out some TV crews even went out to stores to find they were empty. Look at this, 3 people?
The only story I could find about lineups on Google was from the Waterloo Record - RIM's hometown. I'm guessing this isn't the welcome RIM was hoping for. With their tight-lipped updates and the official announcement of it's release date 2 weeks ago, my gut tells me they were hoping for more excited customers.
Regardless, I'm excited! The updates are done, so I'm going to go PLAY!
It's almost here! Can you guess? Check back tomorrow morning and I'll reveal the surprise. I am so giddy, I feel like a child at Christmas waiting for St. Nick to come. Hopefully, I'll be able to sleep tonight!
ed after my neighbour.
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