Showing posts with label college park. Show all posts
Showing posts with label college park. Show all posts

04 September 2026

Fresh Roasted Coffee

 Linking up with Marg at The Intrepid Reader


4 September 2026 - Toronto ON
                                                           
SATURDAY

It was supposed to be a sunny day, but now it says rain. Oh, well, we don't really care, we have no plans other than home things. And then the forecast changed to no rain! John went for an early morning walk before making delicious bacon and tomato sandwiches for lunch.
I did a good cleaning of the kitchen and put laundry away.
John grated parmesan cheese for our shakeable container.
I went through our "extra" spices and filled up what needed, I also made a list of what we need.
That decluttered one more thing in the back of a cupboard.
I shortened the sleeves on two tops, yay me!!!! while I watched the Paul Anka (Canadian) movie that John recorded months ago. I knew most of the hits that he performed, and knew he wrote for many artists, including My Way for Frank Sinatra, but Michael Jackson and Drake (Canadian)???
I didn't know that Justin Bateman was his SIL, Anka had 5 daughters from his first marriage and 2 sons from his second.

We continued with The Morning Show.

Bring it on!



SUNDAY

The rain was here when we got up late - 8AM!! We puttered the morning away, reading.
I cleaned the bathrooms and watered the plants.
I worked on blogs and organizing photos. I got rid of leftover embroidery thread from various kits.
I picked up my embroidery again while watching Luther, season 1, and it stars Ruth Wilson, a favourite of mine. We both began watching it together.

I got some new baking trays, I had gotten rid of most of my a while ago, they'd gotten old and worn. I was down to one super big one and a small, small one that had gotten rusty.
So I cleaned out that cupboard.





MONDAY

My view at 7AM this morning and it rained and stayed foggy all day, so much for John's golf.


We are trying to wean ourselves away from Google for various reasons. 
I did a back-up of my blog, it only took a couple of hours. But as it was doing it, I realized that I had many posts I have no interest in backing up, mainly from years ago when I did so many specific link ups, Pink Saturday, Saturday Shoes, Blue Monday, Ruby Tuesday, Skywatch Friday and on and on. So I ended up deleting aver 3,000 posts, I'll continue this before I do another back-up. BTW I did learn something, how to do bulk deletes!!

We both had Paypal account that we never use, so we deleted those accounts.

John is working on alternate systems for Play Store, Google docs, maps etc. Always good to have alternates.

I decided it was a good day to go for a haircut and had a good chat with Nicole as she had just come back from Prague, where she is from. She was commenting that all the museums are free for kids under 12/14, as it is a great way to learn. However our museums are so expensive for families.

Since we decided to watch Luther together, I needed something for kitchen watching.
We Were Dangerous is a 2024 New Zealand drama film. Three rebellious teenage girls—Nellie, Daisy, and Lou are held at the Te Motu School for Incorrigible and Delinquent Girls, overseen by a strict Matron.

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 1

We were going to see Odyssey, but then realized we'd be better going once the kids are back in school!

I got us set up to vote by mail for the municipal elections coming up.


John went for a walk, it was hot out, 100% humidity! And the fog is hanging around.




We thought about going to the museum, but then instead John came to Longo's with me. A good thing as we spent $76. But I did get ground beef, pork ribs and another (bigger) pork roast like the one we had for dinner on Saturday, it was really good. Everything else was fruit or vegetables.

"Our" garden.


I actually bought some pants on Amazon, I like them and they fit, they do need shortening. I am exchanging the light grey, for a dark grey.


I started watching Restaurant Impossible in the kitchen. Aarón Sánchez, a favourite chef of mine, is the host who is in Toronto rescuing local restaurants. After telling John about it he wants to watch it so we'll do that next weekend.

WEDNESDAY


We spent the morning looking at Google replacements. We went with OnlyOffice to replace Docs, we tested it for documents and spreadsheets as well as sharing capabilities. For sharing I downloaded OnlyOffice docspace. We tested converting and creating files.
I also deleted more published posts. I also renamed a bunch of posts that were relevant but appeared to be challenges.

I went out after lunch to the Eaton Centre, I walked up there and back. 
In FCP print shop, on the left, The Gladstone Hotel and the right is The Wheat Sheaf Pub.
.


I decided to take the tunnel across Queen St. W from the closed Hudson Bay store. I had posted mural photos along the Path a while ago but I still found more upstairs. As Tom said, he'd never get out of there.








Crossing the bridge, I never knew it had a name!



Looking down on Queen St. W and the construction I wanted to avoid by using the Path.
This is major underground excavation and station building for the Ontario Line rapid transit project. : Crews are excavating deep underground shafts (up to 40 meters down) to build major transit hubs like Queen Station.

I had written about the new line about a year ago, when we were on Danforth and saw the work at the Pape station.



The stores were packed with high school and university students shopping for back to school.
I looked in Simon's for some clothing options to buying  US(think Jockey) and got some ideas.

I poked about in Indigo (Canadian), don't tell me bookstores are out of date, it was packed and many were American tourists. 

I went to T&T for Singapore curry, a few months back I got the last cans on the shelf, I was hoping that they had restocked. Nope, I bought this instead.




Photos in T&T.


Beef finger meat (also known as rib fingers) consists of the long, narrow strips of highly marbled meat cut from between the individual bones of the beef rib cage. Because it comes from the rib primal, it is packed with rich beef flavor and fat, making it incredibly juicy but inherently tough if not cooked properly. Now I know!!


I really wanted to buy this, but it is frozen and I didn't know how long I'd be out.

And boy did we get hit!! I got caught but I was on the bus. A worse storm came through around 6 PM. GTAUdate had loads of reports of wires down and transformer fires.

John managed 9 holes of golf.


And then the calm after the storm.


THURSDAY

Click here for photos of last night's storm and cleanup. The tunnel we take every time we go downtown.


My teenage idol and mentor, I read everything she wrote.



I think Pinterest needs some grammar lessons.


This link is for John, from a Jeopardy question last night, New River Gorge.

I headed out to College Park. John was supposed to golf but got stuck in traffic on the 427 and decided to come back home.


Never have I seen these before - Metro



FRIDAY

I was awake at 5, and up at 6:50! I did some more blog cleanup and draft posts. I have almost finished sorting St. John's photos for backup,

John went to Costco, nothing exciting, paper towels, vegetables. However, he did stop and get us cannolis (pistachio and salted caramel).


I went to the tailor to get those pants shortened, I had a 15% coupon that was about to expire. Then I returned the light grey pants at the TBC post office.
John got $5 from Rakuten this week.
This guy was busy on his phone at the bus stop when I got off and was still there when I got back!! I wonder how long it took him to get his hair this long!!!


I did some mundane housekeeping in the afternoon.

We're still watching The Morning Show and Luther. John is catching up on his shows.




COOKING
I am going to use my own random food photos for this segment.



HORRORS! We are out of Frank's Hot Sauce, we buy this at Costco's and I can't believe we didn't have any in the pantry!! Luckily, we had a back-up, a little bottle we bought on a trip!
Two large bottles were purchased at Costco this week!


The leftover roast pork was Sunday's lunch. The curry used up some bits and bobs in the freezer.

I really need to do some baking. We have a lot of soup stock but it is going to be too hot for soup, well, John would say it's never too hot.
I did defrost some beef and chicken stock to use instead of commercial stock this week.

Saturday - pork roast, roast potatoes, broccoli
Sunday - leftover bavette steak, broccoli and rice with sauce made from homemade beef stock.
Monday - curry chicken and naan bread (leftovers for John's lunch Tuesday)
Tuesday - chicken stew - using frozen rotisserie chicken
Wednesday - corn on the cob, fresh bread oven corn recipe added to My Recipe Box
Thursday - encore corn and bread
Friday - steak, garlic toast (bread freezer), mushroom green peppers and onions

READING


The Doorman 
I could not put this down. I quote "Chris Pavone delivers a gripping thriller where class divides run deep and power is wielded through wealth. With a very well drawn-out cast spanning all socioeconomic backgrounds, Pavone masterfully blends suspense with social commentary."



07 February 2026

Monsoon Tea

 Linking up with Marg at The Intrepid Reader

February 6, 2026 - Toronto ON
BANGKOK THAILAND

It was our usual weekend staying at home, although John did brave the frigid temperatures to walk over to the bank branch to attempt to fix his ongoing online issue.

WOO HOO - FIXED. Now if only they had listened to us in the first place, we/they could have save hours of time! It was the old landline phone number that was attached to his account!!


I helped John solve his gmail font shrinking problem by turning off the pinch/zoom function.

John's grandson was interviewed here, after winning a big game.


SUNDAY

FEBRUARY 1 - BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Congratulations! We made it through the year of January!

The moon was still shining brightly when I got up.

MONDAY
Monday Mural Bangkok Thailand
Foto Tunes Vietnam

I froze 5 bananas from the Costco run, now we can make banana bread!

They must be gutting the sold condo next door, it was 3 days X 8 hrs of non-stop drilling. We just got a noise warning for next week for our floor.

John had an eye appointment up at Yonge and Davisville.

Living with the snowstorm aftermath.


Walking down to Longo's.





We have our own ICE warnings - sign in middle of photo.


And just like that we were fogged in.

I took photos before they come to replace our track lighting Wednesday. The last track, by the window, will not be replaced.



TUESDAY
I set the oven timer for this morning so I could bake some frozen scones for John. I had one in the afternoon and it was good!

I did another cleanup of my drafts folder. I also did my monthly laptop maintenance.
John worked on a problem with his laptop for most of the afternoon, bad/missing drivers.
I did a vegetable run to Costco, to get some fresh air as well.

WEDNESDAY
The work continued next door, but it was perfect to muffle the noise of our electrician replacing our track lights.


.




They were missing a connector and the electrician was really ticked and would have to come back on Thursday.
Hall light replaced.

There was some sort of promotion being set up at Union Station. 


This year FanDuel is celebrating the Coin Toss at the Super Bowl with the Flip of Destiny, where you can win by calling Heads or Tails. An exciting addition to choosing online, is the Flip of Destiny arches, where Union Station visitors can choose Heads or Tails and the results will be tabulated from February 2nd until February 8th. Historically Heads has been called 28 times and Tails 31.


I went to College Park and got a couple of spring tops in Winners and then to Farm Boy.
.

I did well on a pork shoulder for pulled pork.

THURSDAY

I went for a haircut at 9:30. I cut through the Royal York Hotel on my way back.


Love this ad, we will have to check it out.


Kyle came back to connect the lighting. He moved it a bit forward on this wall.

We took down the stuff that was on top of the bar, yes, there is one left in this photo, but it came down. The lantern, which I didn't even know was up there, is being decluttered. 



FRIDAY

Honestly, I haven't felt the last few days to be that cold!!! I did walk underground to Union though, because we had a dusting of snow overnight and the streets were greasy. I did a grocery run.



I did some paper shredding and a few other chores.

The condo weekly newsletter had this cute image.




I guess John really does want new wine glasses, he broke two this week!

IN LOCAL NEWS

LATEST - Full GO Transit train service expected to resume Saturday after earlier derailment: Metrolinx

GO trains still running on modified schedule 3 days after Union Station derailment.
Lakeshore East and Lakeshore West trains were delayed, cancelled Wednesday evening due to an equipment issue.



Suspect arrested after stolen vehicle driven into Queens Quay streetcar tunnel: Toronto police.
A 40-year-old man has been arrested after allegedly driving a stolen vehicle into the Queens Quay streetcar tunnel and fleeing the scene on Tuesday morning.




The 93-year-old tycoon, who became one of Canada’s wealthiest people as the founder of the auto parts manufacturer Magna International, is facing 12 charges related to seven complainants.


UPCOMING



COOKING


Saturday ham (freezer - the last piece) mustard mashed potatoes broccolini
Sunday ribs (prepared/frozen) potato salad
Monday curry chicken
Tuesday GF quiche (leftover ham, gruyere (leftover from onion soup) and broccolini) and salad
Wednesday bulgogi (last of the frozen), snow  peas, bean sprouts, onions and rice. I made extra sauce using this delicious recipe (new)
Thursday bacon, turnips and mashed potatoes
Friday steak scored potatoes (new) and mushrooms. these potatoes were a hit, and a nice change.

WATCHING

Narcos is an American crime drama television series. Set and filmed in Colombia, seasons 1 and 2 are about Colombian narcoterrorist and drug lord Pablo Escobar, leader of the Medellín Cartel and billionaire through cocaine production and distribution. The series also focuses on Escobar's interactions with drug lords, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents, and various opposition entities. Season 3 picks up after the fall of Escobar and continues to follow the DEA as they try to shut down the rise of the infamous Cali Cartel.

I started The Traitors UK. I've never heard anything about the series. It is interesting from a human perspective.

READING



I didn't have a great reading week, it happens.

I read The Switch in a day, it started so promisingly, then went downhill. I mean really, didn't you take into account CCTVs and alarm systems have data recording. Then, that ending?????????


I had on started Fall from Grace while we were away, but my downloaded version only had a third of the book, so I borrowed it again. Sorry, I like his books, but who wouldn't have made copies/scanned all the pertinent information and kept it in another safe location rather than only at home?

Chasing the Dead, I found this a bit boring, perhaps because I thought the concept was a bit far-fetched, but who knows, stranger things happen.


I flipped through some library magazines.








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