Back to Rink

J is playing spring hockey and today was the first day of their first tournament. They have been having practices for a while and they had played one game as a team before today. We all headed to the rink this evening to watch his game. The teams are grouped by birth year, broken up into blue and white teams. J's team is the white team and they were playing the blue team of the same birth year.

They had a rough start to the game, giving up a few goals pretty quickly. The kids on the blue team are typically AAA/AA kids while the white team is more of a development team so it's usually AA/A kids. But J's team didn't let the fact that they were down a few goals stop them. They played really hard and by the end of the first period you could see they were really starting to figure each other out and come together as a team. They continued to play hard through the rest of the game and managed to score a goal but ultimately they lost.

I was really proud of J and the way he played. He seems like such a different player from the winter season. He's finally doing all the things that we've been waiting for him to do all year. He was scrapping in the corners, back checking, keeping his skates moving, and doing well overall. It's good to see him growing as a player.

We've also seen positive changes in him outside of hockey. I got a wonderful note from his teacher letting me know he has been doing really well in school. She used to have to tell him to stay in his seat and get his work done and even then he would struggle to get things done on time. She said that she hasn't had to speak to him about this in a long time and that he's been getting his work done and being very helpful in the classroom. It was really nice to hear that the talk we had with him about the importance of focusing at school sunk in and he's trying hard.

He was such a sweet big brother tonight. After hockey both kids were hungry for a snack. J wanted to make himself some toast with Nutella and of course S wanted some too. J made the snack for both of them, even giving her extra Nutella. He also helped S wash her face afterwards (her loose front tooth results in a messy face after every meal). It was really cute to listen to the two of them talking when they didn't realize we could hear them. They can be really sweet with each other when they want to.

I really hope all these positive changes in J continue. I don't know what has sparked all this - perhaps being 10 or being team captain or some combination of those - but it's really wonderful to see.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to the Dentist I Went

Today I had yet another dentist appointment. This one was to redo some fillings on the right side of my mouth that were showing wear. The dentist did check out the left side of my mouth where the Tooth of Doom had been. I am happy to report that he says it is healing nicely and that I don't have dry socket or any other problems with it. I was very relieved to hear that.

Amazingly, it only took one round of Novocaine to get me numb for the fillings. I don't know if he gave me a bigger dose this time or if waiting extra time did the trick, but I was good and numb. I tried to talk and I sounded so goofy because half my tongue was numb. Once he got started it didn't take long for him to do the work and it wasn't as stressful as the extraction. Of course half my mouth was numb for a good three hours afterwards which made doing things like eating impossible and drinking tricky. I felt like I should be wearing a bib although I didn't end up dribbling anything on myself.

It has been a gross day today. The weather has been cold, windy, and wet. I ran a few errands this morning and it was misty and when I took S to her Girl Scout meeting it was raining. On the way home from that it started to sleet and I saw a few snow flakes here and there. I miss the sun. It's suppose to come out this weekend.

Ah, dramatic 6 year olds. S had to go today and get a vaccination. C took her to it because I was busy as the dentist. The nurse (whom we know) gave her a tiny band-aid where she got the shot. Because she has a band-aid, it requires her to freak out at shower time and wail like a banshee. Seriously. Oh, and she has a band-aid on her ankle that she insisted she needed the other day because she scraped her ankle. There was no blood but she needed a band-aid. And because of these band-aids she thought that she couldn't take a shower. From the way she was wailing you'd think we were asking her to swim with sharks instead of just taking a shower. I think a certain little girl is tired. As soon as she's done and in her pj's it's off to bed for her!

Tuesday Talks

If you read my blog daily, you may realize that I changed yesterday's post. I was rather grumpy about things yesterday and instead of taking the time to talk to the person involved, I just grumbled about it. Today I got in touch with the person involved and we talked about things. I understand things better now and I'm okay with how it worked out. If I had done that in the first place instead of grumbling about it all last night I would have saved myself some grumpiness. I decided to remove the post because things had been worked out. Moral of the story here - communication is important and don't be afraid to talk to someone about something that is bothering you.

Now today...ah...it was a beautiful spring day here. Would you like to see? Here you go:

See that white stuff on the ground? That wasn't there yesterday - it had all melted. It effing snowed today! Yup. Enough that they had to break out the snowplows a few times. Yes, it is almost May. All I could do was laugh because what else can you do? My neighbours are suppose to come back home tomorrow. Last year when they came home there was a beautiful rainbow over their house that evening. This year they get snow! I was thinking that it would probably melt before tomorrow but then I saw that there's a chance we'll get 2 cm tomorrow. What a welcome home, especially since they are coming from down south in the States where it is warm and sunny.

Since I'm finished with the Solar Flare MKAL and the next Outlander clue doesn't come out until Saturday, I pulled out the Hobbit scarf yesterday and worked on it. I finally feel like I'm making progress on it although it is still slow going. I also started a new project but I had to tear it out because I made a mistake and in trying to fix it I dropped some stitches and as it is lace, well, into the frog pond it went. (Frogging in knitting = ripping out your work). I started it over today and so far, so good on it. As long as I pay attention it should be an easy knit.

I had what will probably be the last burger of the month for lunch today. We went back to the burger that started it all - the Southern Jack. I don't think I did a thorough review of this burger before so I'll do it now. I have to start off by saying out of all the burgers I've tried, this was my favourite.

The patty - it was 6 oz of Cajun blackened beef and it was juicy and flavorful. It was topped with smoked applewood cheddar which was delicious! The panko breaded onion rings added to the tastiness (and I don't like onion rings so you know they were good). It was topped with romaine lettuce and a Jack Daniel's BBQ sauce, bacon, mayo, and a homemade dill and jalapeno relish that added a mix of heat and flavor. It came on a toasted rustic bun which was soft and fresh and yet strong enough to hold up to all the tasty goodness on this burger. I've cast my vote twice for this burger and I seriously hope it wins because it is one that I would definitely eat again, once I recover from all this meat.  There are still a few more days left for Burger Love but I have tapped out. No more burgers for me for at least a month! :-)

Monday's post

I decided to remove yesterday's post because after talking it over with the person involved, I feel better about things. I should have talked about it with her first before grumbling over things. Talking things over usually helps everyone feel better.

This is the first time I've done something like this - removing a post. But I don't want to cause any hurt feelings if the person involved reads it because as I said, everything is good now. I'll write today's post later.

Sun Day

I wish the sun was shining today. I've seen it peek out for a few seconds and then disappear behind all the ominous gray clouds that have been hanging around all day. We've had some rain off and on today but not a stead rain. Of course, because this is Canada, the forecast for tonight includes 2 cm of snow, with a chance of rain or snow for the next few days. Yes, you read that correctly. Snow. At the end of April. The snow won't stick around if it does show up but still, snow.

So to brighten up my day, I am going to share a picture of the sun:

Okay, it's not really the sun but according to S it looks like the sun. That is my finished Solar Flare MKAL shawl. C took the picture for me this morning so I would have a good picture to post on Ravelry. So far I am the only one with a finished picture and tomorrow is suppose to be the final submission day but I have a feeling the designer will give everyone a few more days. I love how the colours in this look like the sun. It reminds me of a set of paintings I saw in an art auction that I really liked. If it wouldn't cost a ton of money, I would get this framed and hang it on the wall as a piece of art.

It does feel good to have it done. I have gotten back to work on my Outlander shawl. Amazingly I'm not behind on it. I was able to finish up clue 3 last night and start on clue 4 which just came out yesterday morning. I also wound up the yarn for a cowl using some Unique Sheep yarn that I have. The colour for that is called Carpe Diem and I'm sure I shared a picture before but here it is again:

I have to say, the yarn looks totally different all wound up into little cakes. My least favourite hank of yarn was skein 4 (3rd from the top) but when I wound them up, skein 4 ended up being one of my favourites. It's strange, I know. I am excited to see what it will look like all knit up. I'm trying to decide if I should start with the reds or with the bluish-green colour. Once I get it started I will add some in progress pictures.

S will be heading back to school tomorrow - and there was much rejoicing. She is all better now and hopefully her immune system has had time to recover and she will be able to resist getting sick again. She is excited to go back to school because she's missed her friends. It will be good for her to have some time away from me (and good for me too). I'm happy to have things back to normal for this week.

I wasn't going to add this but hey, why not? If you like my shawl and you're on Ravelry, go here and click the love button to vote for my shawl. You need to have a Ravelry account to go to view that link. If you do vote, thank you! I appreciate the support. :-)

No Love Today

Today the Burger Love people are trying to set a world record for the most freshly served burgers in 24 hours. We decided we'd try to help them set the record by going out for a burger for lunch. Now, we knew it was going to be busy in places that are participating in Burger Love, especially since it's the last weekend and the world record attempt. So we picked a restaurant and went.

We were briefly greeted when we walked in the door and told to pick one of three tables. So we chose one and after a few minutes a man came over and handed us menus. Then we waited...and waited but no one came over to us. When the man handed us menus he didn't offer to bring us drinks. So after waiting for at least 10 minutes without a single server coming over to us we got up and left. We ended up going to another non-Burger Love restaurant and having our favourite curry for lunch. It worked out better over all because S was happy to have a normal grilled cheese for lunch (instead of a fancy one) and the curry was excellent, as usual.

It was disappointing that the service at the first restaurant was poor today. C and I have been there before and it's been fine. I just find it hard to excuse poor service when restaurants know what is in store for them when they choose to participate in Burger Love. This particular restaurant has participated in Porktober (the pork version of Burger Love) so they know how busy it can get, especially on the final weekend. Why they didn't have extra servers on hand, I don't know. But they lost out on 2 burger sales today, and if the world record comes up 2 burgers short, well then you can blame it on the fact that C and I weren't able to order burgers today.

I was able to finish my Solar Flare shawl today! I got all the ends woven in this morning and after a good soaking it is now drying on the blocking pads. It seems to be taking a long time to dry. I hope it will be dry by morning so that C can take some good pictures of it. I have to say, I am so glad this MKAL is over! It was fun but honestly, there would have been no way I could have finished it on time if I had to go to work during the day. It was a very time-intensive pattern and many of the people who began it have given up, which ups the odds that I'll be the first prize winner. I'm considering sending feedback to the designer, just suggesting things like lengthening the time between clues or breaking the pattern up into smaller clues. It was overwhelming at times seeing these huge, time-intensive clues. I do absolutely love how the shawl turned out. The dye job by the Unique Sheep was dead on for a solar flare.

Now I'm going to go work on my poor, neglected Outlander shawl and watch some more episodes of DareDevil. If you haven't seen it, go watch. Excellent show! And I'm happy because there will be a second season. Yay!

Burger #8

The girl child was feeling better today although her eyes still looked red so we let her stay home again today. By 10ish her eyes were actually looking a lot better so we decided to do a short road trip. C needed some paint from a gaming store in a town about an hour away so we climbed into the car and off we went.

Of course when we got there the gaming store wasn't where it was. At that point we realized it was almost lunchtime and we were hungry so we pulled up the Burger Love list to see what was available in the town we were in. We found one we wanted to try - Let It Ride:

The patty itself is 6 oz but it seemed like more to me because it was very densely packed. Because of that it wasn't as juicy as some of the other ones I've had. C said it almost tasted like it was cooked from frozen. I hope not because I thought all the burgers were suppose to be made from fresh meat. The dryness of the burger was a counterbalance to the messiness of the rest of it.

As you can see from the picture, things were oozing out of this burger before I even took a bite. My first bite sent all the messy stuff squishing out all over my hands. Those messy things started with a bacon and sweet onion jam, which was tasty. The cheese is a 2 year aged cheddar which I had trouble tasting - it got lost in all the messiness. 

There was also a rustic tomato chutney on the burger - that's the stuff oozing out on the plate in the picture - and a black pepper mayo. Both had good flavour but contributed to the messiness of the burger. There was also a spiced Parmesan crisp on the burger but with all the sauces it lost it's crispness. The lettuce on the burger was fresh and crisp though.

The bun is a pretzel bun and it held up very well to all the sauces on this burger. It was fresh, soft, and definitely tasted like a pretzel. The bottom of the bun was cut thick enough to support the burger. Overall, it was a good, middle of the pack burger.

What wasn't good was the wait for the food to come. I understand it was lunchtime and it was busy but the restaurant wasn't huge. The wait for our food was long. It's the second time during Burger Love that we've encountered slow service while waiting for our burgers. This isn't the first year that Burger Love has happened so restaurants know that if they are going to participate in this they need to step up their service. I'm not expecting my burger to come out in 5 minutes, but a 30 minute wait for a burger seems excessive to me.

In dental news, I thought my gum was healed where that damn tooth came out so I started chewing carefully on that side because I need to get back into chewing normally. Of course that's when I discovered that I don't think it healed correctly and could possibly have a small area of dry socket going on. Lovely, right? Of course it's Friday evening so the dentist isn't there anymore. I'll have to wait until at least Monday to call them. I have an appointment Wednesday so they'll probably tell me that if I can tolerate it to wait until I come in then to deal with it. Thankfully over the counter pain meds dull the ache enough that I can tolerate it. Let's hope that continues.

In knitting news, I am one flame shy of finishing my Solar Flare shawl. Here's what it looks like unblocked:

I really like how it came out. I will finish up that last flame - it's the smallest one so it will go quick - and then I'll start weaving in all those ends. I'm going to try to get them all finished up by tomorrow so I can block it and get my final picture up so people can start voting for it on Ravelry. I want first prize! :-)

Another Short Post

S was home for day number 3 today. Her cold seems to be much better but her eyes are still very red. It seems that the virus has taken up residence in her eyes. When they first turned red this time we did a few doses of antibiotic but it wasn't doing anything but gumming up her eyes in the morning. I found some over-the-counter pinkeye medicine that helps treat viral pinkeye by reducing the redness, swelling, itchiness, and sensitivity to light. While S doesn't like having the drops put in, we're hoping that this will help make her eyes look good enough to send her to school tomorrow.

I was able to get some time out by myself today. I went to a few stores looking for a new purse but couldn't find the style that I wanted. I did send up getting a few new shirts for the spring because everyone needs a few new spring shirts, right? I had a coupon for one of the shirts so that made it even better. It was nice to be out of the house by myself for a bit. The weather cleared off this morning and it was warm enough out that I could be out in just my sweater and cowl combo with no coat. Yeah, it was only in the 40sF but when your winters are in the single and negative digits, 40s feels warm. :-)

I am getting closer to being finished with my Solar Flare shawl. I have 2/3 of flames done and should be able to get a lot more of it done once J heads off to bed. Of course once I finish all the knitting I probably have an hour or two of doing nothing but weaving in the bloody ends. I love the pattern and all the colour changes but egad, it does make for a hell of a lot of ends.

J had hockey tonight for the third time this week. He is enjoying spring hockey. They have only had one game so far (they lost) but they have more games coming up soon. In a few weeks they will be in a tournament on the island and at the end of May he will be in an off-island tournament. This weekend he doesn't have any hockey and it's the last weekend of Burger Love so I expect we'll get out and have one more burger. I haven't decided which one I want to try next so I'll start cruising the page and decide.

This Saturday the Burger Love people are trying to set a world record for the most freshly made burgers served in a 24 hour period. I may skip having a burger tomorrow and go for one on Saturday to help set the world record. Or I may have a burger tomorrow AND Saturday. I'm not sure what number of burgers need to be served to set the record, but I'll see if I can find out. It would be fun to help set the record, eh?

A Wet Wednesday and a Sick Child

S took a trip to the doctor today. The doctor she saw said S was going through the same things his own son was going through and that unfortunately, it is just a string of viruses and that there's nothing much to do but wait it out. He did give her more medicine for the pinkeye that came back with this cold (ah, pinkeye. joy!) and gave me suggestions for helping deal with the symptoms. She seemed to be feeling a bit better tonight. We'll see how she is in the morning and decide then if she gets another day home or not.

S was content to rest on the sofa watching TV again. Normally she'll take breaks to go play with toys or draw pictures but for most of the day she just snuggled under a blanket and was rather lethargic. I was content to keep the TV shows flowing because I wanted to keep making progress on my Solar Flare Shawl.

The shawl is coming along nicely. I've finished off 4 wedges out of 9, which makes me happy. What doesn't make me happy is the sheer amount of ends to weave in. I'll worry about them at the end. I do absolutely love how it is coming out. I'm also really pleased with the colours and how they came out. I am so glad I went with yellow as my first colour and worked my way out to the deep red/purplish colour. Hopefully everyone will agree with me and I'll win the coveted Unique Sheep yarn prize.

We survived the rainfall warning that was issued for today. The only water that came into the garage was the rain that dripped off the cars. The water has deepened the drainage channel down the side of the house so the water goes where it is suppose to. We should be good from now on and soon we'll get someone out to permanently fix the problem.

This rain has melted so much of the snow. Normally when I'd leave our neighbourhood I would have a hard time seeing the oncoming traffic because the snow banks. But this morning I realized I could see traffic and that where there use to be snow was now just grass. And C said he could see our tulips sprouting out front! That makes me happy. I like seeing all the signs of spring. We just need to get through the muddy part of spring and then it will be beautiful here!

Rainy Tuesday

Guess what? I have a sick child. Again. S woke up crying this morning and I knew that wasn't a good sign. She only does that when she is sick. She woke up coughing, a runny/stuffy nose, a fever, and lovely red eyes again. C stayed home with her while I took my car to get the snow tires off (goodbye winter!). I've been home with her the rest of the day. Medicine brought her fever down but as soon as the medicine wears off it shoots back up. She will be going to the doctor again tomorrow. Hopefully they can tell us what is going on because she's been sick so much lately. I expected her to be sick this year with this being in a new school but this is getting ridiculous.

It has been a pretty unexciting day. S watched a lot of TV because we're trying to keep her resting although she did work on one of the craft projects she got for her birthday. I was able to get some time to work on my Solar Flare shawl. The edging is neat but the first part of it takes a while. The edging looks like flames and it's really cool but omg there are going to be about a bazillion ends to weave in when I'm done. Each wedge has 3 flames and there are 9 wedges. I have 2 wedges done so far but then I didn't really get much time yesterday or today to work on it. I'll get more done tomorrow because I only have one thing on the schedule during the day - getting S to the doctor.

We're currently under a rainfall warning which means we're going to get a lot of rain over the next 24 or so hours. This rain is going to melt the rest of the snow which is going to be bad. The ground is already saturated and with the amount of rain we're to get and the melting snow places are going to flood. Up until now the melting has gone very slowly so there hasn't been any danger of flooding until now. I've already checked the garage once and so far *fingers crossed* it is dry. C did a good job of digging out a channel down the side of the house to direct water away from the house and we still have the sandbags in place near the door so hopefully, hopefully we will avoid any problems.

I'm happy to say that I'm finally feeling better. Last night I was having bad coughing fits even though I had taken cough medicine. C pointed out that he had forgotten to turn the humidifier on in J's room and J wasn't coughing so I stole the humidifier out of his room. Within 5 minutes of turning it on my coughing settled down and I was able to get a good night's sleep. I think the sleep was a big factor in why I am feeling better today. I'm still snuffly at times and I've had a few coughing fits but at least I don't feel like a candidate for the Walking Dead anymore. I will use the humidifier again tonight so I can wake up completely better tomorrow.

My mouth is also feeling better. My gum feels like it's healed although I won't stop worrying about it until the dentist looks in there next week and gives me his opinion. I see him for fillings next week and I'm sure he'll give my gum a look-see. I am still getting use to the feeling of not having a tooth back there. The gum is still tender but I'm slowly starting to chew on that side but only with very soft things. I'm sure it will take a while before I can go back to chewing normally on that side.

J just got home from hockey and a sick, sleepy S soon needs to climb into bed so I shall wish you a good night!

Signs of Spring Monday

I'm still sick but I decided that I can't let that stop me anymore than it already has. I managed to drag myself out of bed this morning after a night of crappy sleep and made the kids breakfast. C made them lunch and the two of us made sure they got out the door on time.

I then plunked myself down on the couch and we watched an episode of DareDevil on Netflix. If you haven't watched it, you should. Even if you aren't a superhero person, you should watch it. It's really good. While watching it I worked on my Outlander shawl. Of course I got distracted by the show and missed a cable crossing and had to undo everything I did during the show. That will teach me, eh?

I then got ready and dragged myself to the grocery store. Being out of the house seemed to help me feel a little better. I'm keeping this week's meals simple because J has hockey Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. When I got back from the grocery store we were getting hungry so we headed out for lunch. Sorry, no burgers today! We need a few days between burgers. Maybe later this week I'll have another one.

After lunch I got time to work on the final clue for the Solar Flare shawl I'm working on. I'm thinking that this final clue will take me the least amount of time to finish - at least that's what I hope. When it's done I then need to start rounding up my Ravelry friends and get them to vote for it so I can win first prize. :-)

It was a beautiful day so after the kids got home from school they went out to play. S decided she wanted to try riding her bike without training wheels. She did a couple of passes with C holding onto the back but then asked for them to be put back on. At least she gave it a try! We'll continue to work on it over the next few weeks and before too long I think she'll be riding without training wheels.

C and I also worked on cleaning out the garage. He worked on organizing his work area and I cleaned out one of the closets in the garage. I took all the hats, scarves, and mitts that were in the closet and packed them away for next winter. Yup, I'm declaring winter over! I did keep a selection of hats and mitts out because it is still chilly (0C/32F) when the kids go to the bus stop in the morning but the majority of them have been put away. Snow pants and snow coats have been tucked away and snow boots have been put into storage. The kids seem to be doing just fine at school with splash pants, rain boots, and lighter weight coats.

I'm also going to be packing the snow tires away tomorrow. The car goes in tomorrow morning to have the snow tires taken off and the regular tires put back on. The small birds are all over the place, including the snow-free parts of the backyard. And today we saw some cormorants sitting on the old bridge supports in the harbour. I think it is safe to declare that it is finally spring! Now to keep an eye out for the tulips sprouting. I can't wait for some beautiful flowers blooming in the yard. Spring takes it's time coming but when it finally gets here it is beautiful!

Burger Number 7

Despite the fact that I am sick I wanted to go out for supper tonight. And because it is Burger Love month, we chose a restaurant that has a burger. Tonight's offering is the Brew Buddy at the Gahan House.

This burger was a lot better than the last one I had. The Brew Buddy has a single 8 oz patty that was just the right thickness and was nice and juicy. The burger was topped with smoked Gouda which added a nice flavour to the burger. The Gahan House makes their own beer and they used one of their beers, Iron Bridge Ale, to make a jalapeno bacon jam. Delicious! I didn't notice any heat from the jalapenos in the jam but that may have been because of the mustard pickled slaw on it. Now, I don't like mustard but this slaw was good! And the slaw went very nicely with the Maple Stout BBQ pulled pork that was on the burger. Yup, pulled pork on a burger.

Now, with all that messiness of bacon jam, slaw, and pulled pork you need a hearty bun to support everything. The bun of a buttered toasted brioche bun and it stood up to all the goodness on the burger, probably because most of the stuff was on top of the burger rather than right on the bun. I tried to be healthy and paired my burger with a salad tonight and I'm glad I did. The meal was the right size - I'm full but not left feeling stuffed. I'm glad that places offer a salad side in addition to fries.

Overall, this is an excellent burger that I would definitely eat again. I'm not surprised because all the other food I've had from Gahan House has been really good. Their pulled pork sandwich from Porktober (oh yeah, that's a real thing that I am so looking forward to again) was excellent and I think they have a hit with the Brew Buddy. I'd say the Brew Buddy is #2 on my list of burgers - no one has passed the Southern Jack yet. I will definitely try the Southern Jack again before Burger Love ends to make sure that it really is my favourite.

Here's tonight's burger:

I'm sure I'll have at least one more burger this week, probably two. Burger Love will be winding down soon and there are still a few I want to try. Hopefully I'll get a chance to get out and try them!

Sick Saturday

Nothing like waking up in the morning with your throat on fire. What was just snuffling and sneezing yesterday decided to take up residence in my throat also. I had next to no voice this morning and every cough and swallow felt like there was broken glass in my throat. Thankfully some soothing tea and some DayQuil drove the pain back to the point I could semi-function today. At least I know this is just a cold virus and not something more since I'm already taking antibiotics for my tooth removal the other day.

Since I was (and still am) sick, C decided to take the kids to see a movie today. He planned to take both kids to see Disney's Monkey Kingdom but then J got a call from his friend inviting him to come with him to see Paul Blart 2, so J went with his friend and C and S went to their movie and I stayed home and dozed/watched TV on the couch. It was nice to have the rest time but I still feel like crap.

To help me hopefully feel better, I pulled some chicken out of the freezer and made a big pot of chicken soup. It tasted really good and I'm hoping the magic power of chicken soup will get to work and tomorrow morning I will wake up nice and healthy. I can hope, right?

C and J are off to an evening hockey practice so it's just me and S in the house right now. She's in her room reading Dr. Seuss' One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish to her stuffed animals. She is doing an amazing job reading the book. I know it isn't from memory because at times I will hear her get stuck on a word or just make up something when she's not sure what it says. Her reading skills are really flourishing this year.

Okay, that's all for tonight. I could right more but I'm tired and sick and I can feel my latest dose of DayQuil wearing off. I don't want to take more now because I play to take NyQuil at bedtime. So the next few hours will involve lots of sneezing, snuffling, and probably a lack of voice. Good night!

"FryDay" means Burger Day

Even though I am still recovering from having my tooth out on Wednesday, I wanted a burger. I was determined not to let the fact that I can only chew on one side of my mouth right now stop me. So today I had burger #6 of Burger Love month. Today's burger is the Bronco Burger from Sam's Charlottetown location.

What did I think of it? It was pretty much a classic bacon cheese burger with a twist, which isn't a bad thing. It was a change from the burgers I've had so far with all the crazy things they put on them. Let's start with the burger itself. The burger wasn't as juicy as some of the others but it wasn't super dry either. There were two 4 oz patties on it and honestly I found it was too much meat. The meat seemed to drown out the other flavours, which were pretty good when you could taste them. I think if they had flattened the patties out more (they were pretty thick) or just gone with a single patty it would have been better.

The burger was dressed with sweet and smokey BBQ sauce which seemed more on the sweet side to me (again not a bad thing). The bacon was PEI Maple & More (TM) infused candied bacon, which added more sweetness to the burger. By itself the bacon had good flavour, but as I said, on the burger the taste got lost. Apparently there were hickory sticks on it but I missed them - I didn't taste them or feel the crunch of them. The cheese for the burger was a smoked cheddar and Havarti. Again, both were fantastic when you tried them separately but their flavour was lost in the meat. Lettuce, tomato, and grilled onion finished off the burger which was served on a toasted sesame Kaiser bun.

The bun itself held up in supporting the burger. The outside of the bun was toasted as well as the inside and I ended up with crumbs everywhere every time I took a bite. It was tasty but messy. The burger was topped with a deep fried pickle. I had never had a deep fried pickle before and it was tasty.

Overall it was a decent burger but it didn't leave me with a feeling of "wow, I need to have that burger again." So far the Southern Jack, the first burger I had is the one that tops that list. We were driving home from the restaurant we passed the place that sells the Southern Jack and I almost said we should stop so I could get one. But I figured one burger a day, considering I had just finished one, was enough. I have a few other places I want to try before the end of the month so there will be more burger reviews coming.

In knitting news, I finally got caught up on the clues for my Solar Flare MKAL. I would post pictures but because it's scrunched up on the needles it doesn't photograph fairly well. I will get the final clue Monday and when I'm done with that I will take some good pictures and share them. I am now working on getting caught up with my Outlander MKAL. I should be getting another clue tomorrow but I'm not finished with the current clue so I'm already behind. But I don't mind because there aren't any prizes for that MKAL while there are prizes for the Solar Flare MKAL. I will hopefully get all caught up on the Outlander shawl this weekend.

Thursday Round-up

Today is Thursday and we all know what that means - the new Star Wars trailer came out! So, if you haven't seen it what are you waiting for? Go watch this! R2-D2, Chewie, Han, Luke's voice. I am hopeful that this movie will be good because I grew up watching the good Star Wars movies and I so want this new one to be like those and not like the crap they made recently. We can hope, right?

In other news, J was home sick today. It seems that his sister has decided to share her cold with him...and me too. J had a grumpy day at home because he didn't feel well and he's on a video game break right now so he kept saying he had "nothing to do". Of course he has toys, books, drawing supplies, etc. But no, he had "nothing to do." I'm hoping he'll feel well enough to head to school tomorrow because another day of him home sick may end the video game break.

While J's cold seems to be in his throat, mine has settled into my nose. Lots of sneezing and snuffling for me today, which is soooo much fun (insert sarcastic voice here) with my healing gum. It seems to be healing from what I can tell. The gum itself doesn't hurt but that little area in the way back of your mouth where the top and bottom jaws come together, where they give you novocaine injections, hurts when my pain med wears off. I'm hoping that will be better tomorrow. Oh, and I thought it was awesome that the dentist's office called me today to just check up on me and make sure things were going okay. I really like this dentist and his staff, and I don't like dentists.

I was actually able to eat a regular meal this evening. No, no burgers yet, but I did eat chicken, broccoli, and noodles and with little to no pain. Of course I kept all my chewing to the non-hole-in-my-gum side of my mouth but I was able to eat which made me very happy. I will continue to avoid hard/sharp things for a while but I should be able to go back to eating fairly regularly, just with cutting things up for a bit. It makes it easier keep food on the right side of my mouth.

Yesterday evening before bed S announced to me that she wanted to get her ears pierced. Now, she and I had discussed that topic many times and she had always said no. Last night was totally unprompted by me so I said sure we could do it today. I reminded her this morning that when she got home we'd go do it and she said okay. When she got off the bus she didn't throw her usual want-to-go-over-to-someone's-house fit but hurried home to go get her ears done. We drove to the local mall and found the store that did ear piercing. S had some nervous tears which I think came from just not knowing how it was going to go but she never once said she didn't want to do it.

The very nice women at the store were wonderful with her. They got her calmed down and distracted her while they were getting ready to do it. Once they actually "pulled the trigger" there was about a minute of crying afterwards. Some cooling cleaning solution, a view of her new Rainbow Dash earrings, and two lollipops soon cleared up her tears. By the time we paid and walked out to the car she said her ears were feeling normal. Now we have 6-8 weeks of cleanings and earring turning before she is considered all healed. She is very excited to be the only girl in her class that has earrings.

Today was a big day for S. In addition to getting her ears pierced, S lost not one but two teeth today. She had two baby teeth that had become fused together at a very young age. We didn't even realize that they were loose until C was helping her brush her teeth this morning and out they popped (she has been slacking on the brushing because of loose teeth). So tonight she gets a visit from the Tooth Fairy and since technically she lost two teeth, she gets double the normal money. I'm thinking that the Tooth Fairy may have to leave her a note saying how fantastic her new earrings look in addition to the money. I think S would totally love that. :-)

I think now I have to go watch the Star Wars trailer again because it is awesome!

And It's Outta Here!

Warning - if you're squeamish about the dentist, don't read any more.

Today was the day that the dentist extracted that troublesome tooth. It has caused me so much trouble over the years and I was glad that he wanted to take it out. I had wanted it gone for years but my previous dentist wanted to leave it in. I don't know why. I understand wanting to keep your teeth for as long as possible but with all my troubles I think I would have been better off without it.

I was a little nervous going into the dentist's chair this morning but I thought everything would be okay. He said it would be fairly easy to get the tooth out. HA! My tooth had other plans for him. First, it took forever and pretty much the maximum amount of "freezing" (aka Novocaine) for me to get numb. I had two shots (two top, two bottom) in the back of my mouth and we all thought I was numb until he started poking the gum around the tooth. Then he discovered two spots where I wasn't numb so he injecting his freezing stuff directly into those parts. Sounds fun, eh?

So once I was finally numb he started out by removing the crown. Oh yeah, that was fun. It didn't want to come off at first. He did a lot of pulling until finally it popped off. Next he had to remove the tooth. Since the tooth was broken, he had to take it out in pieces. He used the drill on it although I'm not sure exactly what for. With the drill and a mirror in my mouth it was hard to ask questions. The first part of the tooth he removed came out fairly easy so we all expected the rest of it to be the same.

Alas, no, that was not meant to be. He had to pull and drill and it still wouldn't come out. He was beginning to think the root was wrapped around my jawbone. My mom said my dad had that happen with one of his teeth - the root was hooked on to the bone. Finally, just when I thought I'd be stuck with part of my tooth still in there, the damn thing came out. I think the dentist cheered but I'm not sure. At that point I was trying very hard not to cry because even though there wasn't any pain there was a lot of pressure and pulling.

Once he got everything cleaned up I was given gauze to bite on, which is fun to do with a numb mouth and an open wound in the very back of my mouth. No hard foods or hot liquids for today (at least), no straws, no swishing or mouthwash for a while, and an antibiotic to make sure it doesn't get infected. No pain meds - just over the counter stuff unless it gets really bad. I have been trying to eat what I can - yogurt, soft fruit, stuff like that. I did have some soup at supper and that was a mistake. Even though I didn't make it very hot, it was still too hot and made the injection area hurt. Or that could have been because my pain med was wearing off. Either way, I will have to avoid hot things for a bit. Ice cream, anyone?

As far as I can tell, it's actually where he stuck me with needles that hurts. The pain seems to be focused at the back of my mouth where my jaw flexes. Ice seems to be helping until the pain med kicks in. So, what I think both of us expected to be easy turned out to be a pain in the ass. I'm glad that this is the last major work I have to have done - at least for now. In a few weeks I go in to have some fillings redone but he looked at them and said they should be a piece of cake. Mmmm...cake. I think we have some cake. Yes, I'm hungry. This stupid soft food/liquid diet is not fun. I can't wait until I can eat a big, juicy burger again. Hopefully that will happen in a few days.

Taco Tuesday!

It is Tuesday and that means tacos! I tried a new taco recipe tonight - the link to the recipe is below. It will take to you Craftsy website. It may ask you to subscribe and join Craftsy, but you totally don't have to go get the recipe. The recipe is free on their blog.

I get emails from and follow a website called Craftsy on both Facebook and Twitter. I'm not even sure how I discovered Craftsy, but I'm sure it was through knitting. They have a plethora of knitting patterns (both free and for sale) as well as yarn. They also cover other crafting areas like quilting and sewing, crochet, jewelry making, art and photos, home and garden type things, and cakes and cooking.

So the other day I saw Craftsy had tweeted about their latest cooking blog - slow cooker carnitas. Now, we love carnitas as well as other kinds of Mexican food. When we first moved to our little island, there wasn't a single Mexican restaurant on the island. So thanks to the internet I was able to find a carnitas recipe that is really good but it takes a long time to make on the stove. That means that someone has to be home to keep an eye on it to make sure we don't burn the house down. So when Craftsy said they had a slow-cooker recipe of course I had to take a look.

By the way, if you don't have a slow-cooker, get one. They are a fantastic way to prepare food. On Easter I used my slow-cooker to heat up the ham so my oven was free to make scalloped potatoes. My sister used her slow-cooker to make macaroni and cheese. I remember one year my brother used my mom's to make hot spiced apple cider. I use my slow-cooker for so many recipes. And they are great because you can fix it and forget it until it's time to eat.

After looking at the Carnitas recipe, I decided to give it a try. I am very lucky to have an excellent butcher shop near us. All of their meat is local and they make the best bacon I've ever had there...mmmm bacon. When I saw I needed a bone-in pork shoulder, I immediately went there to get it. The butcher shop also shares space with a farm market, so I was able to get a lot of the other things I needed for the recipe there. I did my part to support local businesses. :-)

Making this recipe was so easy. I mixed up my spices and rubbed them on the meat. I put it in the crock pot, drizzled it with the olive oil, sprinkled it with onions, garlic, and jalapenos, then squeezed the lime and orange juice over it, tossing the fruit in with the meat. I popped the cover on and turned it on low for the recommended 8 hours. It turned out perfect! The meat was tender and didn't dry out. After shredding it we threw it in the cast iron skillet and crisped it up as recommended in the recipe. It was delicious!

I served it with tortillas, lettuce, shredded cheese, rice, and salsa. If I had been thinking I would have grabbed an avocado or two and made some guacamole to go with it. According to C and J, this recipe is a keeper. I think it's a keeper because it is so easy to make. I think my prep time was all of 15 minutes and most of that was chopping up the onion, garlic, and jalapeno. And the post-cook time for crisping up the pork was maybe 5 minutes (a hot pan really helps with that). All in all, it was a very tasty meal. So go try it!

It's My Birthday!

Today is my birthday, although we did most of the celebrating yesterday since the kids had school today. C and J picked out a pretty ruby and diamond necklace and earrings for me and S gave me chocolates (can't go wrong with that!). And my neighbour got me some cool graphic novels, Fables, some delicious chocolate-strawberry tea, and some black truffle almonds. It's suppose to rain tomorrow afternoon so I'm thinking I'll curl up with a cup of tea, nibble on some almonds, and read my graphic novel.

I did a little redecorating today. The shower curtain in the kids' bathroom was 10 years old and I decided it was time to replace it. I chose one that looks like a sail from a sailboat. I bought some new bathmats and a new toothbrush holder for the kids. It's a simple makeover but the new shower curtain seems to brighten up the room. The kids were a little sad I took down the old shower curtain - it had puppies and kitties on it. But since that bathroom is also used by visitors I decided it was time to make it a little more grown-up. I'll look through C's maritime-themed photos and see if there's if I can find something to frame and hang up in there - like a crab or a lobster, something fun like that.

S was recovered enough from her cold to go to school today. She was happy because it was her special helper day - she missed her helper day in February and March because she was sick both times. She took two books that she knows how to read for her show-n-tell and got to read one to the class. Our neighbour didn't go to school today because S managed to pass pinkeye to her. Her mom sent me a message this morning asking for symptoms of pinkeye and then a photo of her daughter's eye. I felt so bad that S managed to pass pinkeye to her friend. I checked in with her mom this evening and she said that M is already getting better and will be back to school tomorrow. I'm glad she's getting over it quickly!

S had soccer this evening and she had fun, as always. This spring session has a lot of kids in it so the coach was smart and got three other guys to help him run the drills. That way there's only 5-7 kids in each group and they get more attention from the coaches. She is getting good at dribbling the ball although she is still hesitant to get in there and kick the ball during their little scrimmages. I'm hoping that the more she plays the less hesitant she'll be.

I received a new clue for my Outlander MKAL over the weekend and the newest clue for the Solar Flare MKAL today, so I have lots of knitting to do. I'll try to post some update pictures tomorrow!

Birthday Burger Lunch

Today we went out for lunch for my birthday and of course I had to have another Burger Love burger. Today's burger is called the Moooo Shiner and you can find it at The Old Triangle. It was a fun lunch because the Sunday musicians were there performing live Irish music. The place was jumping today between the music and Burger Love - it made for a good lunch!

The Moooo Shiner was a good burger, but it isn't my top choice. I'm still waiting for a burger to knock the Southern Jack out of first place for me but so far nothing has. What was good about today's burger? Lots! The burger itself was okay - it wasn't as juicy as some of the other burgers I've had. I don't know if it was a little overcooked or the type of beef they used but it was just a little dry.

The name of the burger comes from the fact that there's a lot of moonshine involved in it. The BBQ sauce on the burger is infused with moonshine. The BBQ sauce had a good flavour to it and it was the only type of sauce (no ketchup, mustard, mayo, etc) so it wasn't competing with other sauces. There was more moonshine in the sugar-shine bacon and the shine-pickled onions, both of which were tasty (and I don't like onions).

There was applewood smoked cheddar on the burger although the flavour seemed to get lost under the BBQ sauce. There was also chipotle dusted kettle chips (yup, potato chips) on the burger which added a nice crunch but they didn't add any heat. The bun itself was a brioche bun and I was worried that it wouldn't be able to support the burger since the bottom was cut kind of thin. Since there was only BBQ sauce on the burger and it was on the top bun, the bottom held up well.

And because it seems like Burger Love burgers have to have something crazy on top, this burger had the Flaming Smoked Cheddar Deep Fried Mac n'Cheese Ball. It was larger than a golf ball and yes, it was deep fried. When they bring it to your table, they bring along a spray bottle of...wait for it...moonshine...which they spray on your mac n'cheese ball. They then light it on fire. I tried to get a picture of it on fire but since it was daytime and the server's spray bottle was being difficult I couldn't get a good picture. This was taken after the flames died out:

All in all, it was a good solid middle-of-the-pack burger. I felt like it was one of the bigger burgers I've had although the patty was only 6 oz. I was stuffed by the time I finished it but that could have something to do with the nachos we ate before the burgers arrived. :-)

The weather here was beautiful today so we took a much needed walk this evening before having a very light supper. C and the kids picked out a birthday cake for me and we had it tonight since Monday nights are busy with soccer. It was a tasty chocolate cake topped with whipped cream icing and cherries. I had a little piece because I was still full from our lunch.

Today is GoT night, which makes me happy! It is also Outlander and Once Upon a Time night but I won't watch those shows until tomorrow morning since C isn't really a fan of either one. I'm excited to see what happens with GoT although I hope there isn't any head squishing in the season opener. I expect there will be something gruesome because it is GoT after all. I will be working on my Outlander shawl during the show because it requires less attention to detail than my Solar Flare shawl. Yeah, I have to think about stuff like that - it's the life of a knitter.

A Day for Knitting and Cooking

S was still sick today, so I opted to keep her home from both J's hockey game (they lost their game but the coach was happy with the way they played) and the birthday party she was suppose to go to. I knew she really wasn't feeling well when she didn't put up a fight about not going to the party. She usually will protest about not going but today she just said okay. Yeah, not feeling well.

To keep her occupied, I started teaching her how to make a friendship bracelet. She got a kit for her birthday but I was concerned that the embroidery floss in it would be too hard for her to start learning with so I whipped out some yarn and we started with that. She is getting the hang of it but she got tired/bored after a few rows and said she'd work on it later. I think it is hard for her to concentrate with her nose being so stuffy. At least the medicine I have for her seems to be helping control the cough which is triggered by the runny/stuffy nose. Too bad the stuff only lasts 4-6 hours. It would be nice if it was at least 8 so she could sleep well tonight.

Because I was home today and S was content to just play/watch TV/rest, I was able to get a bunch of knitting done. I finished the first clue for the Outlander MKAL I'm working on. Here's what it looks like through clue 1:

I was reading through the comments on the spoilers thread on Ravelry and a lot of people seem to be having the same thought I've been having - that the yarn and the pattern are competing against each other rather than working together. Also, the photo above made me notice that the yarn is beginning to pool as we knitters call it - the colours are clumping up. I'll have to see how that continues. I looked to see if I had a solid colour to use but I don't have enough of anything in the right weight so I will just keep going and see how it turns out. Worse comes to worse I tear it out when it's done and use the yarn for something else.

I also got work done on my Solar Flare shawl. I made it through the clue for the third skein of yarn. It's hard to get a decent picture because I don't have long enough needles to show it all off but this is one section of it:

I have begun adding in skein 4 which has a lot more red in it and it looks really good. I can't wait to see it all spread out when it's done. The designer is going to release the clue for skein 5 this week so I will be able to keep plugging away at this one. It's definitely taking me longer to do each clue than the Snow Queen did. I think it's because there is less lace work in this one.

I also remembered to take pictures of my recently acquired yarn. Here is the Casterly Rock yarn for the GoT MKAL:

Yup, it totally reminds me of the Lannisters. I'm excited that GoT starts back up again on Sunday. The MKAL won't start until May so it won't be competing with the Outlander MKAL so much. I'm curious to see what we make with this because it definitely is a heavier weight yarn - it calls for size 10 needles. Perhaps a cowl?

This is the yarn my mom sent me for my birthday:

 

The yarn on the left side is 100% mink yarn and the colour is Aegean. I'm not sure what I'm going to use it for but I'm sure I'll find something. The yarn on the right is from a company Simply Socks and it's 600 yarns of my favourite Unique Sheep yarn - Luxe. It came in a really cute zip-top bag which I will take a picture of tomorrow. I've seen a shawlette/scarf pattern that would be perfect for this yarn.

I didn't spend all day knitting - I made supper this evening. I made Feta-topped baked chicken, orzo, and Brussels sprouts. We had hummus and tzatziki sauce with pretzel chips as a snack type side (I dipped my chicken in the tzatziki sauce). For the Brussels sprouts I steamed them until tender but not overcooked and then tossed them with Parmesan cheese and butter. The Feta-topped baked chicken is so easy to make so I'll share the recipe:

Feta-Topped Baked Chicken

Oven 350F.

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts (I use chicken tenders)

2 Tbsp lemon juice, divided

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp oregano

1 cup Feta cheese

1/4 cup diced red bell pepper

1/4 cup diced fresh parsley

1. Arrange chicken in a 9 x 13 baking dish.

2. Drizzle chicken with 1 Tbsp of lemon juice. Season with salt, pepper, and oregano.

3. Top chicken with Feta cheese and drizzle with the remaining lemon juice.

4. Bake for 35-40 minutes (25 for chicken tenders) or until the chicken is cooked through.

5. Sprinkle with red pepper and parsley before serving.

I typically forget to buy the red pepper and parsley and it tastes fine without it. When I do remember to buy them I like to throw the red pepper in with the Feta cheese on top of the chicken before baking. I serve this dish over orzo pasta that I've tossed with butter and sometimes extra Feta cheese (yes, we do like Feta cheese around here). It's an easy meal and so tasty. I can even get S to eat the baked chicken although hers can't have any Feta on it. Silly girl does not know what she's missing!

What day was it today?

This morning I was beginning to think it was Thursday instead of Friday. S woke up early this morning saying she was hot, dizzy, and couldn't open her eyes. The eyes part is from the medicine we have to put in them for the pinkeye she had last week. Thankfully we've put the last drops in tonight so tomorrow morning should be the last morning for that problem. The hot and dizzy was because she finally got the cold the doctor told us about last week. She has a nasty cough and was feverish this morning. Thankfully some medicine brought the fever down. I expect tomorrow morning will be the same as this morning because it usually takes her a few days to shake the fever part.

C was able to stay home with S this morning so that I was able to head to the dentist. While going to the dentist isn't on my top 10 list of things to do, I know I needed to go. The hygienist used some ultrasonic cleaner on my teeth to start with than turned to the medieval torture devices, otherwise known as dental picks? scrapers? I'm not sure what you call them but she used them on me. Between the cleaning and having to keep my mouth open for a very long time, I'm sore tonight. Next up with the dentist is the extraction next week. While I want that tooth out I'm not looking forward to the recovery.

After my dentist appointment, C had to take his tire to get it fixed. I noticed yesterday that his one tire seemed very low...to the point where it was flat. He took the tire off yesterday evening and J discovered a nail in it. So C loaded the tire into my car off he went to get it fixed. J had a fun time yesterday helping C take the tire off. He wasn't home from school yet when C put it back on. Next time a tire needs changing we may have to let J help.

C ended up taking J to hockey instead of all of us going to practice since S is sick. And in a way, I was glad I didn't go, although I do want to see him on the ice. The weather this afternoon was icky - cold, windy, and rainy. Of course with the rain I always worry about water coming into the garage. When he got back from hockey, C made sure the channel he had created the other week was open for the water to flow down. So far the water has stayed out of the garage. We'll continue to keep an eye on it until we head to bed.

C said that J did well again at hockey. He is continuing to work hard and do his best. We hope he can translate that into having a good game tomorrow. I want to go to the game but if S is still sick we'll have to skip it. She's suppose to go to a birthday party tomorrow but considering how sick she was today, I doubt she'll be going anywhere tomorrow. I would like her to be well enough to go out to lunch on Sunday for my birthday and back to school on Monday because she is suppose to be the special helper on Monday. She has missed her past two special helper days because she's been sick both times. At least this time she got sick a few days before her helper day instead of the day before.

My mom sent me some beautiful mink yarn in shades of blue for my birthday. I will take pictures of it and the Casterly Rock yarn tomorrow when the light is better. I forgot to take the Casterly Rock picture this morning like I planned. I have also decided on the colour I'm going to use for my next Unique Sheep MKAL based on The Once and Future King. I decided to use the colour called The Raven and the Fox. It's hard to describe the colour so here's a picture of it:

That yarn base is different than what I will be using. Different yarns take the dyes differently, so I contacted the wonderful ladies at TUS to find out which yarn base in the weight I need will most closely match the picture. I was happy to find out that the yarn I wanted is the one that will be the closest match. It's a blend of wool and silk. It will be 3 to 4 weeks until my yarn ships, but that's fine because the KAL doesn't start until July. Yay for summer knitting! I will have to beach proof my project bags so I can take it to the beach with me. Ahhh...beach...with today's weather I can't wait for summer and the beach!

Burger #4...and other things

I got my linen closet and drawer cleaned out today. Two bags of linens went to the donation centre, as well as a bag of clothes that I'd been holding on to for a while. I thought I might want some of the clothes in the bag but since I hadn't even looked at the bag since I got my snow tires on. So the bag went in the back of the car with the other things and off to the donation centre they went.

Over near the donation centre is another restaurant that is participating in Burger Love. After checking it out online I decided it was one I wanted to try. I'll admit there are some that I have no interest in trying, but this one looked good. It's called the Ciao Bella and it is at Papa Joe's restaurant. Papa Joe's has one Burger Love in the past. I'm not sure if this one will win this year, but it was a good burger.

First, the patty - it is 7 oz and was juicy and not too dense. It was topped with crispy fried onions which were crispy! I'm not a big fan of onions, but these were good. It also had bacon, aged white cheddar and goat cheese on it. I didn't like the garlic goat cheese on the Sucker Punch but it worked on the Ciao Bella because of the other things on the burger. There was a sundried and Roma tomato chutney on it which went really well with the goat cheese. Adding to the flavour (not competing with it) was arugula tossed in housemade balsamic vinaigrette dressing. The goat cheese, the chutney, and the arugula all worked together to give it an Italian/Mediterranean taste. 

The bun, a toasted onion poppy seed bun, was hearty enough to handle all these ingredients. It was nice and fresh and the bottom bun was cut thick enough to support the burger, which was nice since the chutney was a bit drippy. The bun was garnished with a spicy pickled red onion (zingy!), a gerkin (tasty, and I don't like gerkins), a dried roma tomato slice (crispy), and a piece of candied bacon (delicious). All in all, I liked this one. I'd rank it in third place out of the four I've tried so far. Here's what it looks like:

I have to say, I'm loving Burger Love month but I am glad it is only for 30 days. Any more than that and I'd start to have burger overload. I know there are some people who have tried 10, even 20 burgers. Not me! I can only handle one every few days. My next one will probably be on Sunday.

Oh, I took a picture of the apron I won. I think it's cute. I'll have to wear it the next time I make potatoes. :-)

Tomorrow morning I am off to the dentist but it should be an easy appointment. They are doing my cleaning. Of course they will reschedule my fillings that I was suppose to have today. I kind of wanted to get that appointment over with but the dentist couldn't make it for some reason. Maybe they will combine the fillings with the extraction next week. I'll find out tomorrow.

New yarn arrived today for a MKAL that doesn't start until May. I didn't expect the yarn to arrive already but it did. The colour is Casterly Rock and I believe this will be a shawl or possibly a cowl. It's thicker yarn than I've been working with so it will be a nice change. I'll take a picture of it tomorrow when the light is better. I'm still working on my Solar Flare shawl - I'm on skein 3 now - as well as the Outlander shawl. The next clue for both KALs will be coming out this weekend, so I better get knitting if I'm going to be ready for them!

I'm A Winner!

As part of the whole Burger Love month, the people running it give away prizes each week. Some of the winners are randomly chosen from the people who rate their burger on the Burger Love website. Those people have a chance of winning gift cards for restaurants or gift packs from a beer company that has glasses, a t-shirt, and coasters. It would have been cool to win one of those, but that's not what I won.

On Fridays, if you tweet a picture of a burger with fries and tag it with #fryday, you get entered into a drawing for prizes. I've been tweeting pictures of my burgers, so I made sure last Friday to include the hashtag. It was a lucky burger I guess, because last night I received a direct message on twitter letting me know that I was a Fryday winner. Once I contacted them I found out that I won an I heart PEI Potatoes apron and a potato peeler. It's silly and fun and I typically don't win things so I was a little excited. I was worried for a bit that I had won the 50 lbs of potatoes. What I would do with 50 lbs of potatoes, I don't know. I'd probably start going to different neighbours and just leaving them potatoes on their doorstep.

That was my big excitement for the day. The rest of the day was pretty typical. I am on a quest for new silverware so I went to our Bed, Bath, and Beyond store. They had some nice sets but I'm persnickety about my silverware so nothing was quite right. I'm not sure what other places on the island sell nice silverware - possibly Sears. I'm sure Walmart sells silverware, but I don't have high hopes of finding something I like there. I might have to make a trip over to the closest city off island or possibly even take a trip down to Halifax. I'm sure I'll find more places there where I can look.

I also bought a new tablecloth and placemats. I like my table to reflect the seasons - darker colours for fall/winter and lighter colours for spring/summer. I was brave (or possibly crazy) and bought a white everyday tablecloth. With two messy kids. But it is the kind of tablecloth that is suppose to be stain resistant. My kids will put that to the test I'm sure. The placemats are different shades of blue with white stripes. When I saw them they had a summer, beachy look.

Of course, buying new linens for my table means I do need to clean some stuff out. My linen closet and the drawer where I keep the table linens have gotten out of control. I have things in them that I don't use anymore. Since my dentist appointment for tomorrow morning got canceled (not by me, by the dentist!), I will use that time to clean out and clean up that closet and drawer. With spring coming I'm feeling the urge to do some spring cleaning. Time to move out the things that haven't been used in a while and let someone else use them. There is a donation center in town that I will be paying a visit to soon, I think.

Since it was Wednesday, S had her Girl Guides meeting tonight and J had spring hockey. I took S to her meeting, which was at the library. The librarian read them a story and gave them a quick tour of the library. Then they moved into the activity room and did an art project with the resident art teacher. It was a very cute project - they made a fox - but to me it seemed a bit over their heads. They ended up needed a lot of parent help. I was one of the only parents that stayed tonight besides the group leaders so I ended up helping a bunch of kids. One of the girls was getting very impatient with me because I wasn't helping her fast enough. I did have to speak to her a little sternly when she started getting snippy with me about not getting her fox done first. But the foxes turned out nicely and the girls had fun but I am tired now!

C said that J is doing exceptionally well at hockey. He said that J is working very hard on the ice, harder than he did during his winter season. Maybe it's the new program and/or the new coaches or maybe it's the 'C' on his jersey for the spring, but he's really playing very well. They have a game on Saturday and I hope I can get over to watch it. S is invited to a birthday party and the game falls right in the middle of the party. Hopefully it's a drop-off party so I can zip over and watch his game. If not, I'm sure I'll have other chances to see him this spring season. Either way, I'm glad he's having fun with this team.

Too Much Going On

Today there is too much going on, but probably not in the way you think. It's actually been a pretty calm day - no after school activities. Here's how there's too much going on...

I started a new knitting project today. It's another mystery KAL (I seem to be into those lately). The theme of this one is Outlander. I like the pattern so far, and I like the yarn, but I'm not so sure I like them together. Here is the yarn:

It's a pretty combination of purples, blues, and grays and it's named Craigh na Dun after the stones that sent Claire back in time. And here it is knit up into the beginnings of the shawl:

I really like the pattern - it has reversible cables which is really cool. I'm just worried that there is too much going on with this yarn and this pattern. I'm afraid that the pattern will get too lost in the colour changes of the yarn. Perhaps as the shawl gets wider the colours will stretch out more and it won't look so busy. I think this pattern would look really lovely on a solid colour yarn. I'll wait until I finish the first clue and then decide if I'm going to tear it out and start again with a solid colour. I bought the yarn specifically for this KAL but if I'm not loving the combination, I won't hesitate to tear it out and use the yarn for something else and grab something from my stash for the KAL.

And speaking of too much going on, we went out for supper tonight and I tried my third Burger Love burger tonight - the Sucker Punch at Phinleys. Here's the picture of it:

Out of the three I've tried so far, I would put this one in third place. The burgers (it has two 4 oz patties) were juicy and not too dense. I would have preferred a single 6 oz burger instead of two patties. The crispy onion tanglers kind of got lost on the burger; I didn't notice any crunch in my burger as I ate it.

I wasn't so sure about the combination of the whipped garlic goat cheese and the cajun chocolate covered bacon. The bacon, well, it's bacon and you can't go wrong with that. It had a subtle chocolate flavour to it but I didn't notice any spiciness from the cajun part of it. The garlic goat cheese tasted out of place to me. Even though there was only a small amount on the burger, it seemed to overpower the other flavours. 

The Sweet & Smokey Cream Sauce and the Chipotle Molasses BBQ Mayo added more flavour to it and they seemed to be competing with each other instead of complementing each other. The Cheddar Jalapeno Kaiser was fresh but like the Dubster, the bottom bun just didn't seem hearty enough to handle all the burger. My bottom bun became soggy with the sauce and mayo combo. It was a messy burger to eat. The burger did come with a bubble gum sucker stuck into it. Since I don't like bubble gum, I will pass it on to J.

I'm glad I tried it because I had been hearing from people about how tasty it was but honestly, it wasn't my taste. There was just too many flavours going on and they all seemed to be competing with each other instead of working together. And honestly, after trying two spicy burgers first, I missed the heat they had. Of course, this is just my opinion and I know a lot of others out there have enjoyed it. I tend to judge the burgers by whether or not I would order them again. And the Sucker Punch goes on the not list. Next time we go to this restaurant, I'll stick with my usual meals.

Picture Monday!

The past few times I went to write my blog I forgot to transfer the pictures of the Easter eggs to my computer. Today I remembered. And I finished my Snow Queen shawl completely today - I got the ends woven in and blocked it and took pictures of it. So, today's blog will be a picture blog. :-)

First, the bunny eggs. S's in on the left, J's is on the right:

Next, the Creeper eggs, with J's on the left and C's on the right:

Now, it's time for S's tiger and chick eggs:

J made an Ironman egg and C did one up as Homer:

And last but not least with the eggs, my rainbow egg and C's rainbow egg:

But we're not done with photos yet. Here are the pictures of the finished Snow Queen shawl. I am amazed at how it turned out. I shared the picture on Ravelry and I am humbled by the compliments I am getting there. I can't take all the credit - the designer did an amazing job and the pattern was so well written that it made knitting this easy. I am really excited now about the next mystery KAL.

This one shows a bit of the details.

J had two sessions of hockey today but C was able to take him so I was able to keep S home. Her eyes are looking better but she still looks like she's been up all night with the amount of red in her eyes. I decided to keep her home from soccer today because of how they looked but she should be good for school tomorrow. She's not contagious anymore so it's just appearance now and they keep improving. I expect by tomorrow she should look much more normal - at least I hope she does!