WHY MY DENTIST LOVES ME

I have this bad uncontrollable habit of grinding my teeth. I have spent hundreds of dollars for night guards, but even so, my last visit revealed that my jaw muscles managed to crush two teeth anyways. I have to keep my day job!

DATE BALLS EVERYONE LOVES (UNLESS YOU ARE A COCONUT HATER)

SASKATOON REMAINS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE CITIES ON THE PLANET

A city of Bridges

Although there is one less today

Father of Medicare

A park with a 3D map of Saskatchewan along the amazing Meewasin trail.

Even the grass is interesting in Saskatchewan!

HOLLOWS WITH A KINDRED SPIRIT

I have been dreaming about the beautiful food at this Saskatoon restaurant for months since I saw it in a friend's post. Finally, I got to visit it, and was happily surprised by the quirkiness of it being set in a former Chinese restaurant called the Golden Dragon. Its careful attempt to be local and have great quality food was clear. It had a great eclectic decor,  and my companion was a flawlessly terrific date.

Humble exterior

Drinks I would love to sample

Interesting menu

Sun choke soup - disappointing for its lack of essence and basically a béchamel, but the garnishes of pear, roasted walnuts and sage were yummy!

Buttercup Squash Ravioli with kale, capers, pumpkin seeds and parmesan in browned butter sauce. Delicious!

Butterscotch pot de creme with sea salt

THE BEST BANDAID I HAVE EVER USED

Provided by the front desk (Cher, you were great!) at the Delta Bessborough

A GOOD DAY WITH A FREE PIZZA

My recollection of pizza take-out starts at Domino's. Every year, the Luther Invitational (basketball) tournament had slices of their pizza for sale.

Not long ago, a friend gave me a free ticket for a pizza, and it was a really generous one! The most fun we had was seeing the kitchen put it together. There were pre-made balls of dough, and a terrific mozzarella spreader that could do a large pizza with one push. It was brilliant!

The best thing was that we each got 3 toppings and our own side!

WHAT CHRISTOPHER ROBIN SAYS TO POOH

"Promise me you'll always remember: you're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think"

TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE

I love TED talks, for the ideas they spread. One of many worth spreading is about a business practice I try and use as a consumer. If a decision can be made that considers those who make the product, if I can afford it, and if it the best choice for the planet, this is a good decision. Watch Majora Carter to explain it better!

I like this pictogram that represents it.

TEN COMMANDMENTS AND FIVE THIEVES

I like words and ideas expressed in clear ideals. I was listening to an inspiring CBC radio interview with a Sikh politician, and the interviewer brought up the five "thieves"of sikhism. Here are a few lists that might be worth avoiding/living by.

In sikhism, the number five keeps coming up. There were apparently five rivers in Punjab. So there are five thieves, or sins or evils:

1. lust
2. rage
3. greed
4. attachment
5. conceit

There are also five virtues:

1. truth
2. compassion
3. contentment
4. humility
5. love

Moses brought down ten commandments for the Israelites from Mt. Sinai.

1. Have no other gods but one
2. Do not make or worship idols.
3. Don't swear
4. Keep the seventh day holy
5. Honour your mother and father
6. Do not murder
7. Do not be an adulterer
8. Do not steal
9. Do not lie
10. Do not covet (be jealous)

Catholics divide sins into unforgivable (mortal) and forgivable (venial) sins.
These are the seven deadly sins:

1. Pride
2. Envy
3. Gluttony
4. Lust
5. Wrath
6. Greed
7. Sloth

The Seven Virtues (4 from Greek philosophy, 3 from Paul's Ephesian theology) :

1. Prudence
2. Justice
3. Temperance
4. Courage
5. Faith
6. Hope
7. Love

In my daughter's school, there is a poster with the ten commandments of native americans. I am not clear on the origin, but I do like the sentiments:

1. Treat the earth, and its contents, with respect.
2. Stay close to the Great Spirit.
3. Respect yourself and others.
4. Work together for all mankind.
5. Help and be kind.
6. Do what is right (without self-righteousness).
7. Look after the well being of your spirit and body.
8. Work towards the greater good.
9. Be truthful and honest.
10. Take responsibility for your actions.

Benjamin Franklin had 13 virtues, set at the age of 20 to attain moral perfection:

Temperance. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
Silence. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
Order. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what your resolve.
Frugality. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
Industry. Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
Sincerity. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
Justice. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
Moderation. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
Cleanliness. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.
Tranquility. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
Chastity. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.
Humility. Imitate Jesus and Socrates

This is his daily chart to follow. Each evening, review your day and give yourself a mark if you transgressed the virtue.


Cicero's Four Cardinal Virtues

The perception and intelligent development of truth.
The preservation of civil society, with the faithful rendering to everyone what he is properly owed.
The greatness and power of a noble and unconquerable spirit.
In the order and moderation of things which consist of temperance and self-control.

GARDE(N) BEEFLESS BURGERS INSPIRE ME

Over the last few years of being a vegetarian, I have managed to replace one meat dish with pretty reliable success. The latest veggie burger I found at Costco in the fridge section may make it even easier! With 140 calories per patty, no saturated fat, 15 g of protein, and only 330 mg of salt, I am in love! There are the usual fixings of lettuce and ketchup, but the burger actually looks and tastes like one!

My new instant side salad is frozen veggies with a touch of mayo: instant Macedonia salad, with hash browns as a quick side (instead of longer to bake fries)

Nothing beats fried onions and mushrooms, but the blue cheese addition was mind -blowing, and I made two, so my lunch at work was something I looked forward to!

WHY I LOVE LIBRARIES AND SECOND HAND BOOK STORES

I am reading a book I found by accident at my amazing local library branch. It does still exist in book reader availability, but I never would have found it if I hadn't been in book form. It is called Full Tilt, by an Irish woman named Dervla Murphy, published in 1965. I found it in the Travel Section where I was hoping to find Agatha's Christie Mallowan's travel book Come Tell Me How You Live about her time in Iraq and Syria with her archeologist husband. Turns out it is at another branch, but fortunately led me to this fascinating story.

According to the book jacket, she wrote four book as a travel writer, and the it was the itinerary, and the discovery that a woman biked through a part of the world I, as a modern woman, would not even dare to attempt with an armed body guard.  In 1963, she biked the bulk of the way from Ireland to India, spending large amounts of time in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Her other books include Tibetan Foothold, about her work with refugee children in Dharamsala, The Waiting Land, about Nepal, and In Ethiopia with a Mule.

Miss Murphy travelled with two pairs of underwear, two shirts, 1 pair of pant, two book, 6 notebooks and 12 pens, slept in the nude, was not above arm-twisting an official to keep to her route, carried a gun, and left without the knowledge of how to repair her bike, depending on bike shops for the first months of the trip until she realized she could do better than fix a broken screw with a hammer! She planned the trip on receiving her bike at age ten, and 22 years later she started her trip across Europe in the dead of winter! She calls her bike Roz, and every entry she writes "we" as Roz is her travel companion throughout.

I have watched the news about Afghanistan since the 9/11/2001. This was embarrassingly late into adulthood,  since I distinctly remember hearing about mission activity along the "Silk Road" in my church-going days, and during the Gulf war knowing about US General Swartzkopf and seeing images of Kuwait on fire. Why my brother understood these places and history decades before me, I will never know. I hardly understood where the nations in the middle east were, just that they were somewhere near Jerusalem , the root of Christianity, Judaism and Islam and the disputes that followed.

This is an interesting take from her visit to Kabul:

Russians seem to handle the propaganda tool of aid to backward countries much more intelligently than the American's do. They achieve lots of little things - electricity for small towns, paving city streets, building silos and presenting superior seeds for crops- as well as launching big projects such as roads, whereas the Americans concentrate on enormous schemes - roads and dams that cost t=five times what the Russians spend but will take years to complete and make no impression whatever on the mids of simple people. The more I see of life in these 'underdeveloped countries' and of the methods adopted to 'improve' them, the more depressed I become. It seems criminal that the backwardness of a country like Afghanistan should be used as an excuse fore America and Russia to have a tug-of-war for possession...I don't claim to know the right answer to the 'underdeveloped' problem but I feel most strongly that the communist answer is less wrong than the Western; the Communists have much more imaginative understanding of different national temperaments...They want to impose Communism as a way of life, but with the minimum of damage to the traditional foundations of the country concerned, whereas Westerners have told me repeatedly that they want to bulldoze those foundations right away and start a nice, new, hygienic society from scratch - and ambition that seems to me almost too stupid to be true.

Another nice quote about her view on Afghanistan "poverty":

" I prefer to call it simplicity, since poverty denotes a lack of necessities and simplicity a lack of needs."

These are landscape photos from Wikipedia's entry on Afghanistan.  Not the dry jihadist land I had envisioned from the hunt of Osama Bin Laden
Top left: Band e-Amir National Park
Top right: Salang Pass in Parwan Province
Bottom left: Korangal Valley in Kunar Province
Bottom right: Kajaki Dam in Helmand Province

The world changes in time and space, and we tend to rewrite history as we move to the present. It is a great pleasure to see a capsule of a time and place that is no longer possible to see. My library has provided that for this week and I hope I have time to finish the story!

SPRING FLOWERS

Some years I miss these, because you never know what day they will bloom! This year I spent a bunch of nice days tramping in local parks with daughter and friends, and I saw them all! My photo that is missing is a white bloodroot (apparently it leaks red if the roots are cut) with its' curled leaves.

Trout lilies

Round-lobed hepatica

Crocuses a la Qu'appelle Valley

Canadian Edelweiss (Trillium)

EASY FRUIT LEATHER

3 cups thawed strawberries
2 T honey

Puree, then pour out on parchment paper. Bake in 200 degree oven for 3.5 hours. Cool out of oven if no wet areas. Cut in strips, roll and enjoy.

SUNSET ON AN EVENING WALK ALONG THE WATER IN POINTE-CLAIRE

THE CURIOUS SAVAGE

Tonight I went to the Lakeshore Players show, The Curious Savage. It was excellent, and even brought spontaneous tears to my eyes. The writing was spectacular and there were several quotable moments.

Here are a few:
(JEFF) It's best to believe the worst. If you believe the worst, then the worst is only half bad at best. And the best is no worse than expected. So it's best to believe the worst.
(MRS. SAVAGE) You know, Jeffrey-- that's just obscure enough to be profound.

(JEFF) When a man says he is wise, you say he's a fool. But if he says he's a fool -- you believe him.
(MRS. SAVAGE) Well, only a fool claims to be wise.

(FAIRY) It's just that no one has aid they loved me this live-long day.
(MRS. SAVAGE) Why, yes, they have Fairy.
(FAIRY) Oh, no they haven't. I've been waiting.
(MRS. SAVAGE) I heard Florence say it at the dinner table.
(FAIRY) Did she?
(FLORENCE) Did I?
(MRS. SAVAGE) She said, Don't eat too fast, Fairy.
(FAIRY) Was she saying she loved me?
(MRS. SAVAGE) Of course. People say it when they say, "Take an umbrella, it's raining" - or "Hurry back" - or even "Watch out, you'll break your neck." There're hundreds of ways of wording it - you just have to listen for it, my dear.


(MRS. SAVAGE) "tenacious mediocrity unhampered by taste"

TUNA PEA CASSEROLE

p.122 Dinner Fix

3 T butter
3 T flour
1/4 t pepper
2 cups milk
3/4 cup crumbled stone wheat crackers (8 double rectangles) (plus 3/4 c crumbled stone wheat crackers - may omit)
184 g drained can tuna
6 mushrooms (may omit)
2 cup frozen baby peas
345 g pasta (rotini worked well) or 1 1/2 c basmati rice in 3 c water
450g broccoli florets

Pre heat oven to 350 F. 

Melt butter in large pot at medium. Whisk in flour and pepper until smooth. Whisk milk into flour mixture. Stir constantly until slightly thickened. 

Crumble crackers over bottom of oven safe casserole dish (9x9). Drain tuna, then crumble over crackers. (Rinse and slice mushrooms and layer over tuna.) Layer with peas then pour sauce over top. (Can keep peas on the side, and use half sauce and crackers - other half of sauce can coat pasta kept on the side.)

(Top with a final layer of crumbled crackers.) Cover and bake in preheated oven for 35 mins. (If separated, broil until bubbly - just a few minutes) Serve with rice and broccoli sauteed in soya sauce.

RED LENTIL CURRY

Prep Time:
10 Min
Cook Time:
30 Min
Ready In:
40 Min

Original Recipe Yield 8 servings

2 cups dried red lentils
1 large onion, diced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons curry paste
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder (I use 2 tsp chili garlic paste)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon ginger root, minced (powder works too)
1 (14.25 ounce) can tomato puree (diced tomatoes for a chunkier sauce)

Doubles well and freezes well.


Directions
1. Wash the lentils in cold water until the water runs clear (this is very important or the lentils will get "scummy"), put the lentils in a pot with  3 cups of water (to cover) and simmer covered until lentils tender (add more water if necessary).
2. While the lentils are cooking: In a large skillet or saucepan, caramelize the onions in vegetable oil.
3. While the onions are cooking, combine the curry paste, curry powder, turmeric, cumin, chili powder, salt, sugar, garlic, and ginger in a mixing bowl. Mix well. When the onions are cooked, add the curry mixture to the onions and cook over a high heat stirring constantly for 1 to 2 minutes.
4. Stir in the tomato puree and reduce heat, allow the curry base to simmer until the lentils are ready.
5. When the lentils are tender drain them briefly (they should have absorbed most of the water but you don't want the curry to be too sloppy). Mix the curry base into the lentils and serve immediately with warm naan and rice.

Nutritional Information from all recipes.com
Amount Per Serving  Calories: 192 | Total Fat: 2.6g | Cholesterol: 0mg

SLOW COOKER PUMPKIN, CHICKPEA, AND RED LENTIL CURRY

2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained 1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
1 cup red lentils, rinsed
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon curry paste
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt + more to taste
1 (15-ounce) can coconut milk

FOR SERVING:
White rice, brown rice or cauliflower rice Fresh lime wedges
Cilantro leaves

DIRECTIONS:

1. Add all ingredients except the coconut milk to a 3-quart or larger slow cooker. Cook on low 8-10 hours or in high 5-6 hours. Stir in the coconut milk and cook on low for another 30 minutes.
2. The curry will be a bit thin at first; it thickens up as it sits.
3. Scoop over rice and serve with cilantro (and fresh lime wedges) to squeeze over the top.

WHY I FIRED MY HOUSECLEANER

First off, I did not mean to fire my housecleaner. She saved my life when I needed help after I found myself taking care of the house and yard alone, and mentally struggling with the weeklong absences of my daughter after separating from my husband. So I ignored it for a while when I found her doing less and less each time. I made suggestions that she could make up on the week that followed to try and accommodate. But I found her one day reading a book that she had borrowed from my library, when I expected her to be finishing up. She would do extraordinary things, like bring Christmas cookies, but then talk her way through the hour she was meant to work, to the point that I tried not be at home.. But, when week after week, I found her tea cup, unwashed in the sink. Everything moved was never replaced, leaving me to reset the house for half an hour after she left. So one particularly brief morning, I sat her down to see if she had any insight into declining performance. It became clear that she was working, frantically, and too much to keep up to the jobs she had. It seemed obvious to me that she needed to say no to something, but she couldn't make that decision herself. I did my best to leave her to the decision, and expected an improved performance, but instead she withdrew her services. It was not what I had hoped for, but it did seem the best for her.  So that is how I accidentally fired my housecleaner! Be careful with criticism, but don't be afraid. We can all do better!

Weird, no, to leave work for your employer that you created?

What I found under the wardrobe, obviously not in the cleanup routine

ELIXOR FOR DESSERT WITH GIRLFRIENDS

Oreo cookies and cream cheesecake. Decadent!

Warm nut fudge brownie - hands down winner for the evening, shared with 3 forks!

FOUR MINUTES FOR EVERYONE

Last night, my brother texted me if I had time to talk. It had been a good run of nights that I had gotten to bed on time, and I was enjoying the feeling of waking up not wrecked. The week before, was a run of late nights, and then early mornings, so I appreciated the rested mornings even more than usual. I thought about arranging for another night, but knew I had at least fifteen minutes before I was actually planning to be in bed. So I called, and I am very glad I did. If I hadn't, I would have not heard his news, and I would have regretted it.

Someone once told me, that if at all possible, give everyone 4 minutes of your time. Some days, just saying hello, or good morning, or how are you seems enough recognition. Four minutes is even longer than that, and except on a busy work day, almost always possible. I think that it is a human approach, and may create social interaction that otherwise may be missed. I wonder, if I got earlier to the train station, if I could make a human moment for the people there I walk by.

FILMS AND SHOWS TO RECOMMEND AND TO VIEW

TO VIEW
Captain America
The Losers
Prince of Egypt
Fantastic 4
Endless love
Epic
Walt Before Mickey
Tomorrowland
Unfinished Song
Kill Charlie Countryman
Avengers, age of Ultron
Turn
Self/less
Testament of Youth
Departures
Silk
A Royal Affair
Barkley Marathons
Experimenter
Dancing on the Edge
A long way down
Life Unexpected
A Promise
Ex Machina
Hotel Transylvania
The First Grader
Labor Day
Raiders of the Lost Art
Musketeers
Hjordis
The Great Train Robbery
Life
Amal
Quartet
Intouchables
The Hunting Ground
Maze Runner
Captain Phillips
Life of Pi
Iris
Coach Carter
Marilyn
Romeo and Juliet
Before I disappear
The Best of Men
True Story
Lets be Cops
Breakfast Club
Fifty
First Wives Club
Laid
Conspiracy
See you in Valhalla
To kill a Mockingbird
All our desires
Interstellar
Murder on the Home From
Love Me
Damsels in Distress
Food Matters
5th Estate
Fast and Furious 6
xxx
Gemma Bovery
Skins
Survivor
The Lady
Still Alice
How to train your dragon
Coming to America
Closer to the Moon
Last Love
Meet the Robinsons
Book of Life
Auschwitz
Mr Peabody and Sharman
Happy
The Road to El Dorado
The Forger
Beautiful Loser
My Italian Secret
God's Not Dead
Great Expectations
Blackfish
A late quartet
Ice age
Coach Carter
Kinapping Mr Heineken
The Interview
First Position
God's Pocket
The Princess and the Frog
The Poisoner's Handbook
Tracers
Vegucated
An Affair to Remember
Dior and I
Nowhere Safe
Banksy
Lawless
Exodus
War of the buttons
Anastasia
Rent
Slingshot
Happy Holiday madagascar
Mr. Turner
Kung fu panda Holiday
Lockout
A year in Burgundy
The Code
Patterns of Evidence
First Winter
Switch
Beltracchi
Art and Copy
Paradise Road
Charlie St Cloud
Tricked

TO RECOMMEND
(without reservations)

Selma
Call the Midwive
Gilmore Girls
Last Man Standing
The Paradise
Young Victoria
White Collar
Mr Selfridge
Once
Princess Bride
Home
Life as We know it
Grey's Anatomy
Girl Eat World
Brooklyn 99
Suits
Community
Mr. Bean's Holiday
The Hour
The Good Wife
Drinking Buddies
How to Lose a Guy in 10 days
Land Girls
Lunchbox 
Chef's table
It's Complicated
Drop Dead Diva
Jane Austen Book Club
In your Eyes
Last Tango in Halifax
Pretty Little Liars
Hunger Games
Psych
Austenland
Imitation Game
The Rundown (I love Dwayne Johnson as funny and powerful!)
Galaxy Quest
Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Bucket List
Pirates of the Caribbean:Curse of the Black Pearl
Miss Congeniality
Man Up
Sherlock
Covert Affairs
Spy
Identity Thief
About a Boy
The Divide
The Mindy Project
Meet the Patels (doc)
3rd Rock from the Sun
Cinderella
Musketeers
Far From the Madding Crowd
X company
TED Talks
The Holiday
Iliza Shlesinger (comedy)
River
The Moodys (crazy family life of an ozzie family)
Worst Year of my Life, again (original tv series)
Chalet Girl
Garfunkel and Oates (original)
While we're young (thoughtful, for those of us middle age)
Million Dollar Intern (fascinating reality tv)
Nicholas on Holiday
Bletchley Circle (go war female power! see imitation game)
50 First Dates (who wouldn't want a guy to work this hard to be with us?)
Fool's Gold
Night at the Museum
Tiny
AFV
Foyle's War (policing during the war - neat insights)
Longmire
Tracks (admire her crazy dream she fights for)
Nashville
Scrubs
13 going on 30 (sweet romance, Mark Ruffalo at his ultimate sweet awkward)
Brooklyn
Happy Feet
Doctor Foster
Kon-tiki (movie and book)
Monuments Men

McFarland

Lion

The Big Sick

Little America

(with reservations)

Thanks for sharing - on how not be too judgemental in dating
Copenhagen - how to follow adventure
Sleeping with Other People - for the question of whether or not a guy can be friends with a girl
Scandal - with the caveat of accepted deviant behaviour and extreme gratuitous violence by season 3
Chelsea does marriage
How I met your mother - if you can stomach Barney's narcissistic misogyny
Cuckoo - if you can accept a little crazy, and with Taylor L., his annoying giggle
Playing for keeps?
Now or never?
Broadchurch - serious subjects
The Killing - ditto

The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo
Wallander - man, those swedes are dark!
Two Night Stand - explicit
Friends with Benefits - explicit
Love Happens - Seattle's finest with wooden acting
Master of none - great subjects awkwardly performed
Her - weird but original
Jessica Jones -gratuitous violence but original
A long way down - sensitive look at suicide
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries - if you okay with her unfaithfulness and nymphomania
The 100 (if lord of the flies was in the future post apocalypse)
Scandal (in and out of reality, but I love the main characters)

Normal People (watched the show, then read the book and still loved it!) - tv version is overly sexualized, but heart wrenching also

DON'T DO IT!
Bourne Identity (great character in good book)
Mama Mia
Gone Girl (book is incredible though!)
Jack Ryan
Wild ( I couldn't get through the beginning; no hiker in their right mind would risk their boot so stupidly)
Downsizing (amazing idea, annoying story)

A Walk in the Woods - disappointing but a great book

James Bond Spectre - gruesome

The Kingsman - gruesome

The Twilight series (movies and books to avoid)

HOW TO DECIPHER THIS INTERESTING ENTRANCE WALL COAT OF ARMS

My friend lives in this great condo on Montagne, and the lobby had this stone on the wall. Unfortunately I am a poor symbologist, but this combination of skull and caduceus was too intriguing not to attempt to understand. After trolling the internet, here are a few (plagiarized) ideas. There are only four certain symbols I could identify: the fasces, the caduceus, the  (bay) laurel wreath (a tradition begun in the University of Padua), and the oak branches with acorns.

Here are a few links to symbols used on Coat of Arms:
Fleur de Lis , Family Tree and Crests, The Red Thread

Try making your own!

From top to bottom, left to right:
Rising star (5 points ?3rd son, excellence, good luck)
Skull - Mortality
?
Sun - energy, success, power
Bundle of rods around an axe: Fasces, an Etruscan symbol for strength through unity
Eye and Ear - Sight and Hearing
Alpha Omicron- The only lead I found on this is a Concordia Fraternity called The Omicron Brotherhood, but I haven't found a connection with Alpha. The idea I had of Alpha and Omega still lingers. Although not the greek symbol, the circle  could represent eternity and fidelity.
Lips - Speech
Oil lamp - light, life, spirituality, learning, wisdom
Right Hand, dorsum
Feather - obedience and serenity
Harp - Represents a well-composed person
of tempered judgment. A bridge to a
mystical contemplation. Music.
Laurels - Peace, Triumph, Victory and Caduceus - medicine, balance/union of opposing forces.
Oak branches with acorns - continuous growth and fertility

GREEK POTATOES

Baby potatoes, feta and lemon. Bake until tender.

PLAZA POINTE-CLAIRE PETTING ZOO

Every year at Easter, there are petting zoos that come to the malls in our area. I suspect this happens across the country, but I am grateful that it happens in our nearby mall. It is a source of nearly everything, and it has the added charm of transforming from a strip mall, so people still walk through the now closed hall with their dogs, as if it was still the good old days. We made the yearly trek and saw new chicks and multicoloured ducks, and a batch of the cutist goats. 

Canards de tout les couleurs

Mignons chevreau

BEING A PLAIN JANE

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be beautiful. I never used to think about this because I had something else going for me. I had a decent body. I was confident. I laugh easily when relaxed. I am easy to convince to do something. I had other things to think about. But as I lose my assets, and the confidence that apparently hinged on them, I wish my face was strikingly beautiful. Just to be a pleasure to look at. See my value reflect back in others' eyes.

There are many people though, who have it a lot worse, and I think of them to remind myself to be grateful. Today I heard someone who was working at the Starbucks cash, and it sounded like a woman. I looked up and was surprised to see he was a man. That must be hard to have to surprise people. I should consider myself lucky to be largely ignored.

I think the patients I have seen in the hospital that I don't see walking around. The face cancers that erode into the skull. The people born with short limbs and funny heads. The totally dependent neurological patients.

I see why we love to watch the young. We are beautiful when we are young. There are versions of more beautiful and less beautiful, but being young has a beauty all on its own. There are moments when I am bowled over by a beautiful face, or a charismatic personality, and, like the cliché, I too admire a pretty face.

But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I hope that I have beauty that someone can see. I know that I see beauty where others seem not to. So keep your eyes open for the beauty that is everywhere. In the young, in the old, in the kind, in the bold, and even sometimes in the ugly. So I embrace who I am, and hope that I too am beautiful for someone. So I will try and lead with a smile, take care of what I have, and wear my heart on my sleeve. I will keep searching for beauty in everything I see. I will rejoice in the joy my sunshine girl brings. I will seek to be kind, and be open for kindness in return.

WHY (YOU AND) I AM GLAD THAT I AM NOT A PILOT

I recently admitted at a party, when asked directly, that I found my job stressful. I think I am supposed to imbue confidence, and I certainly couldn't admit it at work, but I find my job hard most days.

I have driven in to work with a full on panic attack. I have reacted out of proportion when the stress starts to get to me. I had to tell a colleague to wait because I couldn't process the 4 things I had just been asked to dc, and he was giving me another one (Where is your patient? he asked calmly when I had written down my list. Really? There was no one else to ask? Thankfully he shrugged it off, charming me to calm by saying, I like talking to you, when I thanked him for his patience.)

But when things get really stressful, my life is not threatened. I worry constantly about making a mistake, and my professional happiness and success feels in the balance, knowing that I want no patient to suffer less than ideal care. But my personal safety and health is not often a concern.

A pilot, on the other hand, when faced with an emergency would have to deal with his own mortality, while trying to do the right thing for all mortals on board. A rare event I am sure, but a much tougher job than I have. ( I pondered this during a short flight to Toronto, with a spectacular view of the island, turning first to the east north of downtown and the mountain before winging around back to the west). Fortunately, most flights are easy, and today was no exception. We quickly moved above any turbulence and had a beautiful soft landing. I was glad for everyone involved that I was not the nervous pilot today!

SWEARING CAN BE LAZY AND UNCREATIVE

I have to admit. I like to swear. It relieves some negative energy for me, and occasionally feels like I am one of the cool kids.

This is pretty funny considering I grew up abhorrent of swearing. My high school beau would say 'Damn' when he was very upset, and I felt bad for his lack of control!

Fast forward to today when the commonest word I hear is 'Fuck'. I actually get tired pretty quickly of the word, but used rarely I have to laugh when people apologize for saying the word. In a trauma emergency department it's usual to hear the "fuck" as a tic, i.e. fuck fuck fuck fuck, which is easy to ignore usually, but my least favorite is when it directly in a personal direction. Then I remember that the relief the word brings me may cost the other person. Besides, it is lazy speech and there are lots of alternatives.

Here are some examples the next time you hurt yourself or get angry:

From my mom: Piffle
Unless your name is Peter: for Pete's sake
Oh brother!
Get out of town!
Shut the front door!
Cinnamon sticks!
Son of a lollipop!
Scrumptious!
Fiddle-dee-dee!
Fa la la la la!
Gadzooks!
What in tarnation?! (from New England, now southern: from eternal damnation)
Barmy!
What a blighter/eejit/wally/wazzack!
You flipping...
..blooming..
Pish posh!
F.O.C.U.S!
Fanny
Fudge

SHENZHEN CONVIVIAL MEAL

We had a table overlooking the bridge.

Amuse bouche

Lobster tail with mango and avocado sauce - very bland

Beef shank with plum sauce - this was a rare piece of beef that  was exquisitely tender flavored beautifully with star anise and a delicious broth
The Show Cabernet 

Taro and tapioca in coconut milk