Pancake Tuesday

well.... I missed having pancakes at my Mom's tonight.... for as many years as I can remember, my mom has always cooked pancakes on Pancake Tuesday. And she did today... I just was too far away to get there....

So... what is Pancake Tuesday? Here is what I believe is the history behind Pancake Tuesday.... Today is the last day before Lent. Lent as you know, is the 40 days before the death of Christ, ( Easter ) , a time used to purge the sin in our lives ( thankfully, since the death of Christ, it no longer takes 40 days of purging, but simply a contrite heart asking God for forgiveness ) ...... one of the things traditionally done during Lent, is to give UP something, as a sacrfice to God. I've often told people I gave up tools for lent... I lent them out and never got them BACK!!

AAAAAAAnyway... Lent is a time where people give up something, AND where their diet is restricted as they fast during Lent; consequently, in order to use up the last of the lard, flour, sugar and items they traditionally don't use during lent, they cooked up pancakes, which used most of those ingredients ... hence: the celebration of what we call Pancake Day.... Some call it Shrove Tuesday( from the english word Shrive, meaning to confess your sins, in exchange for absolution ) Some places call it Fat Tuesday; in some parts of Europe they call it Paczki Day ( punchkey ) ....

If you've ever been in Windsor for Shrove Tuesday, and been offered a Paczki.... you will know they used up ALL of the lard, all of the flour and ALL of the sugar... packi's are incredibly rich jelly donuts.... I nearly drove to Windsor today, just to GET one!!

so.... now that I've updated you on the history of pancake Tuesday, i'll show you where I had supper tonight..... since I was feeling sorry for myself that I couldn't be at Mom's ( don't kid yourself... she gave me pancakes Saturday night, since I wouldn't be there today .. but STILL...! )

I went to George Street United Church, downtown in Peterborough.... they had a pancake dinner on... $5 for adults and $3 for kids..... I walked in and said... If I act childish, can I get in as a kid? he charged me $8, $5 for the meal, and a $3 penalty for being childish!!!!!

As I sat there, in the basement of this huge church... watching people, and listening, and trying not to drip pure Maple Syrup on my chin, it brought back a zillion memories of when I was a kid in Quebec.... we would often go to church suppers; in church basements just like this... with a tiny little stage, the wooden sunday school chairs, the narrow boards in the hardwood floor, it was like a trip down memory lane.... and they had PURE MAPLE SYRUP! incredible EH!!! must have cost them a bundle.....

i do have to admit though... the pancakes were a far cry from my moms.... Mom's are light, fluffy, and incredible..... tonight though, the pancakes were uh.. a little dense.... about 1/2 an inch thick, and DENSE as the rubber backing on the floor mat at the front door!! at one point, i felt like standing up and shouting....PULLLLLLL and flinging one of my pancakes across the room .....
but I was hungry... so I ate it!!!!

They'd run out of juice by the time I got there, so it was either coffee or TEA .. and we ALL KNOW I am notttttttttttttt gonna drink TEA!

so now its back to paperwork.... my weeknight evenings rarely stray from the same pattern... tv on sports net, computer on, a bottle of water half guzzled... and inspection paperwork underway....

TONIGHT THOUGH... I'll likely be awake for a while....... 2 cups of United Church coffee... I could be awake until THURSDAY!!!!

George Street United Church

Just a Closer Walk

Cool Drifts

Saw these on Friday just south of Lindsay when I was inspecting... kinda cool

Offical Italia Sportswear Clothing

ok, so since I was SO enthralled with the olympics this year, I am gonna order a jacket from them.... true olympic colours, and EVERYTHING!

Only problem is : does anybody know how much 97 € is?????

I wonder if they use Debit....

Canada's Medal Count

Well, I gotta admit to you... I am TOTALLY amazed at how well Canada did in the Torino Winter Olympics..... And I'm PROUD!! My friend Don Britton blogged last week that Canada's goal was to get 25 medals .... I actually just shrugged my shoulders when I read that... I honestly didn't think we'd even come close..... Well... We did come close... REALLY close.

Total Medal count was 24 ......

7 Gold
10 Silver
7 Bronze .... Check out the complete Olympic tally here

and just think.... If Canada's men's hockey team hadn't been smoking pot ( Paul, that wasn't nice ) ... Ok... If Men's Olympic hockey team hadn't been playing with their navels and had CONCENTRATED ( Paul, you're bitter ) ....

ok...

JUST THINK.... If we'd had one more medal... Oh .. Lets say.. From like.... uh...... A men's HOCKEY TEAM.... ( who's annual combined salary was 94 million dollars, earning said money PLAYING HOCKEY PROFESSIONALLY ) ... Say a team like THAT? If THEY had won a medal... Even a BRONZE ..... We'd have reached our goal of 25 medals...

sigh.... I guess I really am cynical!!!!

all that said.... I'm VERY proud of the Canadian Athletes.... And I'm starting to save my loonies.... My kids want to go to Vancouver/Whistler in 2010, for the winter Olympics.....

Anybody want to come with us???

Olympic Mens' Hockey ... Bah Humbug

well I won't rag on at length, but let me tell you this : I'm totally disgusted with their calibre of play this year.

With the talent they had on that team, and their ability to score, they should have at least made the games interesting. 11 of the last 12 periods of hockey they played, they never scored one goal. Not one.

Further more, they did not display passion and drive. It was as if they really didn't want it as bad as the others did. I wonder if they were relying purely on talent instead of effort. That is what it looked like to me.

Something I noticed during the week was that they really seemed to be out for a cake walk, and not focused. If you remember the Montreal Canadiens, back in the 70's and 80's, when they got to the play offs, the team was sequestered; They went to a Hotel in Montreal, near the Forum, and were kept together, away from their families, so as to allow them to keep their focus purely on the task at hand.

I didn't get the sense that this was happening in Torino... Hockey Canada paid the way for the team members ( and coaches ) to bring their families to Italy..... and once there, it was like a big holiday. I'm certainly not against family.. I never have ENOUGH time with mine....

but I do know that when they had a task at hand, removing as many distractions as possible might have helped..... next time, maybe we can go to play HOCKEY and not go for a shopping trip in Rome...

TSK!

My friend Jamie's Blog

if you've not met Grumpy, my friend ( Jamie ) ... check out his blog :

http://www.grumpynlovinit.blogspot.com/ Today would have been his daughter's 14th birthday.....

here's what a broken hearted Daddy wrote :


Its Feb 20, the day our daughter Morgan was born. 14 years ago. Unfortunately, we'll never know what she'd be like at 14. She only made it to 5, before leukemia took her.

So I imagine what she'd be like. I believe she'd be sweet, like her mom, but stubborn, like her dad. I imagine she'd have her brothers toeing the line. I imagine by now she wouldn't have a whole lot of time for us parents. I imagine I'd be proud of her, no matter what she had become.

I imagine lots of things about her, but that's all it is. Just imaginings. Nobody knows what she'd be now.

But today, we know we'd celebrate her birthday.

Happy Birthday Morgan.

Trail Grooming along Highway 35

saw this machine today... talk about COOL!! when I grow up, I'm gonna have me one of THESE!!

Wanna Go Hunting?

F O R S A L E

Swiss Army Knife Collection .......

CHEAP!

or will trade .... in exchange for address and home number of blind deaf stupid Russian Referee....

I smell a whoopin'

oh mannnnnnnnnnnnn

just when we
thought we were
done with winter!!

God made a Tobbagan

this is cool... saw this at a house I inspected two weeks ago...

OK... here you go Jamie!!

Pretty

Dog Sledding in Snug Harbour

cute eh!!

Cookies.....

SO ... last week, I was at a coffee shop that shall remain nameless ........ but it rhymes with Slim Nortons...... anyway, i had to use the bathroom, and since I'm a firm believer in buying something to justify using their facilities.... I went to the counter..... counting out my quarters and nickels as I went...... payday wasn't until Friday

So I said to the lady... How much are the cookies? 45 cents each.

How much for 3? ( still counting my change ) .....

$1.49

ok... let me ask you again... How much for one?

45 cents.

And how much for THREEEEEE? Dollar forty nine

JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPERS!

I LOOKED HER IN THE EYE AND SAID.....

I'll take one....

THREE TIMES.

idiots

Please forgive me....

I don't drink beer, nor do I endorse it... at all... but this made me laugh today... a beer truck on highway 401 going at break neck speed ....

APPARENTLY ............

you can't iron carpet.....

Objects in Mirror

are blurry, but I'm ALMOST sure it's an Amish Buggy!..... Downtown Lindsay, on Friday afternoon!! cool EH!

One Night Stand

I would have had two, but I didn't have the money.....

When I moved into this town house back in June of 04, I got the townhouse 2 weeks before I moved.....I set up a bed in the basement ( a bed from Value Village with a new mattress on it ) ... and camped in the office in the basement until I could get my furniture moved from Lindsay.

The day I showed my kids the town house, the 3 bedrooms upstairs were empty, and the only room occupied in the entire house was where the bed was. THEY figured that they each would get a bedroom... since the girls have always shared a room, they were eccstatic.... sigh... I didn't have the heart to "not" let them have their own rooms.... so I stayed in the basement. Since beds were at a premium, I slept on the pull out couch...... sagging badly... to the point that my behind would often rest on the floor, while I was sleeping in the middle of the bed...... aaaaaaaaaanyway..... in November this past year, Mom and Dad bought me a really nice new bed..... so the " office " is now my bedroom and my office....

I've been using a chair for a night stand. but I keep breaking the light bulbs in my light, cause the chair us uneven, and the light keeps falling onto the floor.... not to mention my water bottle, the remote, my glasses, and my duct tape ( YOU HAVE TO HAVE IT CLOSE BY JUST IN CASE )

anyway, I went to Walmart yesterday, bought the above seen night stand.... it is actually a filing cabinet, quite pretty actually.... made from high quality cardboard, with a nice maple veneer finish...... will last about a month, if I put FILES in it.......... but it'll last me years and years, to put my glasses and my teeth on at night!!!!

Will You Marry Me??

so......... my friend Mary called me last week.... Hadn't heard from her in ages.... she's single again, and quite a catch really... lives too far away from me, and is a type A personality ..... nope, not gonna happen.....

so , the first words out of her mouth are............ Will you marry me?

giggling, I said.. YUP! I'm tied up this weekend, but next weekend is good for me....

then silence..... she was serious....

so my heart starts racing..... WHAT was I thinking saying YES... jeepers..... then my mind goes...
WHAT will I tell my children? I haven't even DATED this woman, How will I tell my parents.....
I started to sweat....


then she goes: You won't have to do the actual legal part, we'll already be married.... we just need you for the ceremony part....

. . . . .

oh... like... you want me to OFFICIATE ? Right. YES, of course... cough...
YES, i'd love to.. i mean.. SURE! That'd be an HONOUR.............

Apparently, she has a new boyfriend.............

jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepers!!

Wayne Gretzky

well.... it has been a lousy week for sports news in terms of media publicity.... from the scandalous rumours about gambling to the story that hit Thursday night about Jose Theodore using Propecia .... I think it is all very much a media ploy to distract people's attention from the real issues.

I find it disgusting that the media will take the slightest hint of scandal, and twist it into some HUGE horrendous story with careless abandon, and no regard for what it does to a person's reputation....

One of the TSN commentators this week said it best : " The Gretzky's will likely come out of this ok, but the damage it will have done by casting doubt on their reputation, will last a very long time" ( paraphrased )

For the record, I have a great deal of respect for the Gretzky family... and I have confidence in their integrity. PERIOD.

Our society is proud of the fact that people are innocent until proven guilty.
Sadly, the media behaves as though they are exempt from this.

More photos from the All Star Game

here's a few more photos from the All Star game in Belleville... My brother, who is the co-Chaplain for the Belleville Bulls, was asked to say Grace at the All Star Luncheon Wednesday... I was so proud of him!! I must admit.. i had my eyes open during prayer! not even JACK MILLER did that!!





This shot is of the Yardman Arena, in Bellevile, just before the National Anthem







and the last photo was taken by Taylor, while were on our way through Toronto on Tuesday night on our way to Belleville...

Isaac and Taylor

Potcorn

A travesty happened at the hockey game on Wednesday night : Isaac's potcorn got bumped, and it spilled all over the floor...
I happened to be sitting next to him, at the time, and I grabbed for the bag, caught it mid air ( Thank you very much ) and proceeded to hold it upside down and let the remaining kernals fall out on the floor...

Poor little guy : He sat there for the longest time and just stared at it... after what seemed like an eternity, he looked over at my dad and yelled:

" PAPA .. I NEED MORE POTCORN!!! "

I love that little guy!

OHL All Star Game

My son and I got to come to Belleville for the OHL All Star game today... we came down last night, from Brantford, had lunch today at the arena at an All Star Luncheon... was way cool. We sat with my dad and my brother, Jake Grimes, ( a former Bull and is presently the Asst. Coach of the Bulls) , and two of the All Stars : Andrew Marshall, a defenceman from the Barrie Colts, and Kevin Lalande - Goalie from the Belleville Bulls...

Guest speakers at the luncheon were Marty McSorley and Craig Billington ( Both former Bulls that went on to stardom in the NHL ) ... it was pretty funny... McSorley flew in from Los Angeles, and he lost his luggage.... ended up speaking in track pants and a t shirt.... it was shocking how big his pipes still are....

Tonight, was the game... the 4 of us went, along with Isaac .. Bruce's boy.... His main purpose in going to Bulls Games, apart from asking Papa incessantly " WHAT HAPPENED " is....

POTCORN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he seems to enjoy popcorn!!!

It was a fun night... with the Mackay Men all being out... and to top it off, the East ( which had members of the Bulls as well as the Pete's ) whomped the West 9 - 3 and outshot them 60 - 40 setting an OHL record for most shots by a team and most shots in a game... cool!!

Tomorrow, its back to work... Am leaving Taylor here, to help Grampa with some advertising stuff, and am heading to Bobcaygeon early.... have to be there for 9 am... given my inability to be coherent before 10 AM, I'm wondering if I should just stay UP!!!