JoeyMoggie

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Colin and I went to Finnegan’s Flea Market today.

Colin hates this stuff, but he did it anyways.  Because I like them.

I’ve been looking for chairs.  I’d like to buy 6 different and unique chairs, and refinish them the same.   I’ve always loved the look of the different chairs on “Friends”  in Monica’s kitchen.  Currently I have the SAME chair in different colours, now I want DIFFERENT chairs all in black.

Colin vowed not to buy anything all day, and in the end - I ended up chairless, and Colin ended up with 2 jars of homemade steak seasoning and a book about the FBI (with the Forward by J.Edgar Hoover)  Total cost for the day, $9.00.

After the market we went to water, and watched the wind surfers and jet skiers on Oka beach. . .

It was a beautiful hot day, and it was nice to get some more colour in my face.

A BIG HUGE wooooohoooooo going out to my little buddy Ryan, who just took his first steps this week!

Way to go Ryan!

Now it will be much easier to chase after the girls!

source

Scott came over last night for a little more Colin BBQ action.  We made brochettes.

Scott adores Manny.   His girlfriend’s cat, as discribed by Scott, is the devil incarnet.

We had Scott and another friend Vlad over on Sunday for a BBQ for Colin’s birthday.  Vlad had arrived first, and Manny being the attention whore that he is tried everything to get Vlad to pay attention to him.  No dice, little kitty!  Vlad isn’t really a ‘cat person’.

Vlad and Colin went out to the shops to pick up a few last minute items, and while they were out Scott arrived.

A few minutes before Scott arrived I was telling Manny that he was coming over.  And as Scott’s car rolled into the drive way little Manny was at the door like a speeding bullet doing little circles, purrs and whiirrrrrs in excitement.

He knew Scott would pay attention to him.   Manny loves all the attention Scott gives him, and generally Manny follows him around while he visits.

Even last night Manny was ever so excited to see Scott.  Its very cute actually.

Colin and I have made an important decision about Manny.  If Colin and I die, or end up in a situation or move that means I can’t take my beloved cats,  Manny is to go live with Scott.

Scott is even Manny’s friend on Facebook (Yes!  My cats all have ‘CATBOOK’ profiles!)

Aren’t they a cute couple?

Colin and I went to dinner with Chow and Alex tonight to Kanda Sushi in Snowden.

On the walk back to the car after dinner we saw the oddest thing.

A Hasidic Jewish Bachelor Party, at 8:30pm on a Thursday.   Of course the backdrop to the shenanigans was a smoked meat joint called ‘Benny’s’

Gotta love Montreal.

Colin and I drove back early Saturday Morning back to Toronto to make a few visits.  Its was exhausting, as it was pretty darn hot.

Saturday Morning :

Drove back to Toronto, made good time.  Went to mall did a few errands, and bought steaks from Wally’s meats for Sunday Dinner.

Saturday Afternoon :

When to my families house, we hung out in the yard, went swimming in the pool and ate BBQ chicken and shrimp.  An informal party for Colin and I who are celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary next week. (pictures to follow)

Saturday Night :

The real reason for the trip.  We went to see Ryan (and his parents Chris & Christine) - they have just moved into their newly built house and we wanted to scope out the new diggs.

The house is beautiful, and they will be happy there for a long time to come.

We were having such a nice time eating the awesome mexican fayre and drinking margaritis & sangria that I didn’t take pictures.  I suck

Sunday Morning :

We had a few more errands we needed to run, we picked up a few birthday gifts for Paul, Kate and Mr Graham.

Sunday Afternoon :

We had dinner with the Graham’s and P&K.   Colin BBQ’ed the big steaks we bought.  He is very talented on the grill now.   After lunch we headed over to see my parents again before we left.  My dad made me take some of my storage boxes.  They are trying to clear out some ‘junk’ because I think they would like to start looking at selling the house.

Anyhooooo, thats about it

Last night we helped Sonia celebrate her 25th birthday.

Nice time, good food, good conversation. . . . . .

here are some pictures. . . .

Colin and Joey

  Mona & Joey

Mona & Sonia
The birthday Girl, enjoying a Raspberry Daquiri.

I got a friend request and a message from someone I just don’t know.  I spent a few minutes reading over their profile - no clues.  I looked at their friends - no mutual friends.

The person sent me a quick little message, and the personal information in the message shows me that they have the right person, but I just don’t know them - or remember them as the case may be.

I’m intrigued that I made enough of an impact in this person’s life to warrant a message above and beyond the usual friend request.

Should I be their friend in hopes that something will jog my memory, or decline the friend request.  . . . .Would it be worse to be ignored, or not remembered?

I just got out of the bathtub, I needed some time to think and soak. I soaked until my fingers were painful clenched pruns. Before my cool down bath I was speaking to my Mom on MSN messenger, she sad she had some bad news to tell me.

One of the girls across the street, “A”, someone I had danced with since she was 4 was in a serious car accident on Saturday night. She is still currently in the ICU coming in and out of consciousness. Thankfully, if i can be thankful, this conversation was about an injury and not a death.

One of the errie things is logging onto her page on Facebook, seeing pictures from her recent 21st birthday and then to see all the warm and concerning well wishes along side pictures from St Patrick’s day festivities that she had been ‘tagged’ in, at the time those pictures were posted no one really knew about the accident. . . .

The details are limited and sketchy at this time, apparently a car broadsided them going, what police believe, was over 150KM. A was thrown from the car and when rescue workers came, they said she was found more than 200 feet from the car.

I don’t know the conditions of the driver or the other boy in the car. A was the most seriously injured - a broken neck, shattered knee, crushed ribs.
The car that broadsided them was not the mangled wreak it had created in the car that A was driving it, it was still in drivable condition. Which is what it did - drive away. The lowlife cock-sucking pukes left those kids in dire need of medical attention lying in their own pools of blood. What sort of creature does that? My heart aches for A right now and at the same time I have a burning rage towards the fckers who didnt look back. Do they have no conscious? Did they think about what they were doing?

Colin and I saw the tail end of a single car accident on Friday, and we stopped. . .  . .how could we not stop?  I can’t imagine just driving past.   Shouldn’t it be human nature to want to help each other out?

Sadly, A’s family are no strangers to tragedy, just a few short years ago they suffered the kind of loss you only read about. A’s father was murdered. Something so needless and tragic rarely happens in our sleepy little town, and it was quite a shake up. If the rumours surrounding his cause of death hold any truth, the story would certainly make for a great television crime drama.

So with all that being said, I wish A and A’s family all the love, support, compassion and understanding that they need at this time. My thoughts love and prayers will be with them.

My sister plans on going over tomorrow to see her, and my mom is going to go across the street to see if her mom needs anything done.

I will update as details become available.

***Update March 21st****

Article from The Milton Canadian Champion

OPP officers are looking for a vehicle that took off from the scene of a serious collision early Sunday morning on Hwy. 401.

Officers from the Port Credit detachment are looking for a black Acura or similar vehicle that struck the back of an SUV traveling westbound on the 401, just east of Guelph Line, around 3 a.m.

The SUV lost control and struck the left centre concrete barrier, throwing a female backseat passenger from the vehicle.

The woman remains in stable condition in hospital.

The male driver and front male passenger weren’t injured.

The car involved will have damage to the front driver’s side, police said.

Anyone with information is asked to call (905) 278-6131.

****Update March 21st****

From Facebook

• GET WELL “A” GROUP As we all know, our good friend A has been in a horrific car accident recently. This group is for those who wish to pay there respects and wishes to our beloved friend A, to comment on how much we love her and that we all want her to get well soon. Milton has been through a lot recently, and someone was deffinalty looking after her. Just write down whatever it is that you’d like and she will see this as soon as she is well enough.

• NOW I BELIEVE by AA    When i first hear about what happened i was so upset, how could this happen to such an amazing girl. When me and S first got to the Hospital were very nervious to see her thinking the worst. I am not lying when i tell you this she does not have even a scrach on her beautiful face no neck or back trama, she def had her Dad and Adam holding her head when she flew out the car, when i think about it, it brings tears to my eyes i can’t belive it. I now belive in angels!Love you so much A i hold you so close to my heart you are like my sister, i thank Brian and Adam for keeping you here with us it wasen’t you time!!

****Update March 26****

A is still not home.

I’ve been meaning to post about this since P&K’s wedding, they are back in Toronto opening their wedding gifts this weekend so that reminded me to do it.. . . . .I’ve been playing around with some Mosaics software recently. . . .
The first sample below is of P&K. It is made up of 13, 000 little photos of the two of them. I made the mosaic as a wedding present (hense why opening wedding presents reminded me). I printed it super large for P&K, its the size of half a door! You can see every single smaller image when you are up close to the picture. I was pretty proud of my efforts. . . .

The second one is draft I’m currently working on for CH2. Picture Mosaics are alot of fun, I am going to do one in the near future for Ryan as well, and probably do one up of the moggies too.

If you aren’t familar with picture mosaics, its creating one picture out of hundreds of tiny pictures. . . .

In the field of photographic imaging, a photomosaic is a picture (usually a photograph) that has been divided into (usually equal sized rectangular) sections, each of which is replaced with either a solid colour, or another image of appropriate average colour. When viewed at low magnifications, the individual pixels appear as the primary image, while close examination reveals that the image is in fact made up of many hundreds or thousands of smaller images. …

Read up on picture mosaics on Wikipedia (The term Photomosaic is trademarked by Runaway Technology, Inc.)

I keep hearing about how great this Rachel Ray is. I’ve been tuning in here and there trying to catch a thing or two (Apparently according to Colin I’m not really a gifted chef. . . .any who. . .) She often uses the expression EVOO - for those that aren’t sure what that stands for (I’m sure there isn’t many of you) it stands for EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL.

Recently Rachel Ray was presented with a certificate from the Oxford Dictionary congratulating her that EVOO would now be an actual dictionary word

Source : Chow.com

The EVOOing of America

It’s official: EVOO is now a word. The dictionary tells us so.

Today, on Rachael Ray’s talk show, Erin McKean, editor of Oxford American Dictionaries, showed up to present Ray with a framed certificate of recognition. As she explained to Ray, “Because of you, we are putting EVOO in the next edition of the Oxford American College Dictionary.” The entry will read: “EVOO: abbr. extra-virgin olive oil.”

McKean told Ray how hard it is to actually get a word into the dictionary: “We look at thousands of words every year, and very, very few of them get in. It’s easier to win the lottery, frankly.” McKean also wants people to know that this newest entry in the Oxford American College Dictionary isn’t just because Ray is more talked about than God: “In order for a word to go in the dictionary, it has to be useful to people. It’s not just enough to be a fabulous celebrity to get your word in the dictionary; you have to make a word that people like to use.” During their exhaustive research, McKean claimed when she and her dictionary cronies saw people using “EVOO,” Ray’s name appeared in more than half the examples.

It’s official: “EVOO” is now a word. The dictionary tells us so.

I think its cool that EVOO is now a word, the part that drives nuts about it is that when she uses it in a show, she continues by saying. . . . .”EVOO. . . .thats extra virgin olive oil”. What is the point of having an abbrevation if you then s-a-y t-h-e w-h-o-l-e t-h-i-n-g o-u-t a-n-y-w-a-y?????????

Here is a receipe that Christine emailed me, its a “Rachel Ray”

Haddock with Bacon and Onions Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray
Show: 30 Minute Meals
Episode: Good Fish Fast

2 pounds haddock filet, cut into 4 8-ounce portions
2 tablespoons lemon juice – about 1/4 lemon
Salt
EVOO – extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
6 slices smoky bacon, chopped
8 cippolini, small Italian flat-shaped sweet onion, peeled and thinly
sliced–
(A medium yellow onion, quartered then thinly sliced may be substituted, but
cippolini are
widely available, so check for them in the local market.)
1large clove garlic, finely chopped
1 cup Italian bread crumbs
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, a couple of handfuls, chopped

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Rinse fish and pat dry. Sprinkle fish with lemon juice and salt. Rub flat
baking dish with butter, drizzle a little EVOO on top of butter. Place fish
in baking dish.

Heat a small skillet over medium high heat. Add the bacon. Render the fat in
the bacon 3 minutes then add onions. Sweeten and soften onions and garlic 10
minutes. Remove pan from heat. Add bread crumbs to the pan and turn them to
coat them in drippings. Add parsley. Top fish with coating of onions, bacon
and bread crumbs. Bake 30 minutes.