City functions

There were a couple of events going on this Mother's Day weekend.   

We celebrated a birthday this weekend—a reminder that while age is just a number, the time we have is our only truly finite resource.  This makes these get-togethers a priority—a time to truly cherish the moment.  You can't buy more time or go back for a re-do.

Even though it rained heavily just prior to us getting to the location, it turned out to be a beautiful & fun evening.

Being social, is something we all need to work on.   Having a supportive social network, as a human being, is a requirement to living a long and good life.

Imagine being in a city with millions of other people.  And yet you are alone?
Having a supportive social group is an investment.  But the returns are priceless.

This recipe for a memorable time is consistent. 
Tasty food, good drink, great company, and entertaining conversation.  Everyone is interested in catching up and genuine.

This is what it's about.  Having family around to celebrate milestones and share in the moment.  Talk about where we were, how the kids were so little.  Who's grown so tall now.

Speeches! Speeches!  Clink! Clink!

Special thanks to the wife/mom & daughter who organized this in a matter of a few days.  I was surprised it happened in such a short period, it feels like everything needs 6 months lead time to book.

It probably took us longer to drive across town than it was to book this place and organize the food.  DVP and TTC Line 2 closed for maintenance.   Blue Jays game, TFC game featuring InterMiami and #10 MESSI!

If the Leafs were in the playoffs it would have been worse!  But they would have been out in the 1st round anyways.

This was the day before Mother's Day.  

My better half is 1 in a million.  She always has a way of telling a story about a person from her view point that's entertaining and honest.

I've heard the Rose+Joe story, and the dependencies that came with it many times.  But it never gets tired.

And don't forget the rowboat!

Don't send this guy across the ocean in a rowboat.
Cuz he'll make it across.  He just needs to pack a few bottles of wine, some cheese and crackers. 

It was a beautiful Mother's Day on Sunday.  Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there, and daughters, sons.  And everyone that has a mom to spend the day with.

Enjoy the day.  Cuz you never know.

21K-Ai-Poop

Happy birthday to our not-so-little kid.  Legal to drink all over the world now.  Not that the age limit thing prevented it from happening sooner.  He's well trained and honestly better equipped on the consequences of alcohol consumption.

We'll need a new mug if that one ever wears away.  It's been a conversation piece.  It does come in handy for mother-son photo ops.

I'd been using Ai to play with photos.  And this last one was unique in that only the person was cartoon-ized.  The mug and background were left almost original.  I thought it was very fun and cool!

Talk about cool and chill...DQ log cakes have been a thing for us for a while now.  Nothing makes a person feel like a kid again like ice cream.
The works of art BakerBots cakes Rosanne made for K when he was younger.  They were insane!  We were fortunate to have her do those for us.
The DQ ones are simple & we encourage the workers there to not fear adding their touch with a message and some fun art to personalize it.  We also had these DQ gift cards, that we had for years and unsure where they came from so we used it to get his cake, and a hotdog + smoothie!

I've learned to sketch something simple on a post-it and they do a fantastic job of replicating whatever fun doodle i quickly come up with.

This toonface was based on the recently BTS inspired blonde colouring that he did just before Easter a few weeks back.  It looks really great!

I give that cake about 5 days before it's devoured. 

Life imitates ...

They say life imitates art, and this oil painting themed image surprisingly captured how yesterday felt - a warm celebration on calm a spring day.

With everything going on in the world, I’m so grateful for our health and the family we have. Yesterday was about appreciating the simple things: a bright & beautiful day, good food, good drink, and the people we love most. 

Happy Birthday to my wonderful wife.

First to the Ring

This was an invite that I genuinely felt great accepting.
1. I'd never been to the MacMaster campus.  Tucked in a beautiful area of Hamilton, with lots of character.
2. I could barely remember my own iron ring ceremony.

The occasion? My nephew was receiving his Iron Ring, and he asked me to be the one to present it to him.  As the first of the "kids" in the family to graduate from engineering, it was a true full-circle moment.

Lou was happy and proud.  Very fortunate I was able to be there and be a part of it.

I knew the story, most engineers know it beforehand anyways.  But it was vague and so long ago that I didn't have other parts that were quite interesting.
1. Made in Canada: This is a uniquely Canadian institution. You won't find this exact ritual anywhere else in the world.
2. A Literary Touch: The ceremony was actually developed by Rudyard Kipling in the 1920s, at the request of Professor Herbert Haultain. Kipling understood that engineers needed a "calling" that emphasized the gravity of their work.

3. The Symbolism of Failure: One of the most sobering parts of the tradition is the origin of the steel. The rings (and the ritual hardware) are linked to the history of structural failures in Canada (the Quebec Bridge collapse was real). It reminds us that if we fail at our jobs, people pay the price.

Glad the day was nice.  Chilly but at least it wasn't raining.  It was a beautiful clear day.  The day before was dreary.
Always seems like someone was watching over us to clear the skies.

If it was crap weather, there would have been more fender benders.

Leaving the Macmaster area on the highway, an accident in the far left lane.  Young black kid in a Civic and an older white dude.  Guess who rear ended who.

Then getting on the QEW another accident with 3 cars, again in the left most lane.  No wonder our insurance is going up and up.  These folks need to chill the #f down when driving and pay attention.

Once nice thing about heading out to the Hammer.  I stopped by the Copper Kettle in Waterdown to bring home some fritters.  Unfortunately.  They stopped making the pear one, only apple now.   Still delicious!

If there's one reason to Stay in School it's this ratio of girls to guys. ^^^
My nephew and his engineering friends.

Do your best, work hard, and good things will come of it.

Sun sets on Art

The sun rises in the east, brightens our day and provides warmth as we go about our day, and then sets in the west.  Tomorrow it will do it again, regardless of what happened today.

There is a rhythm to life that we often don't notice until the tempo begins to change. We come together in the beginning, we gather through the middle years, and eventually, we find ourselves gathering once more to say goodbye.

Last week we said goodbye to our Tito Art.

It is a quiet, inevitable circle.

We go through our routines, like the rising and setting of the sun.  Change is always difficult.  We get injured, our bodies readjust resources to heal a wound.  And for a while we might feel some pain.

Saying goodbye is one of those instances when a piece of you is no longer there.  It feels different. Because the world you know has changed forever.  Something that can't be undone or replaced.  That in itself is a very powerful statement.  Acceptance is up to the individual to find what works for them.

There's no magic spell, or words, or fix.
But eventually the pain minimizes some so you can make it through today and continue on to tomorrow.  The realization that there is a piece of that person that is always with you, forever.  They gifted it to you, and no one can ever take it away.

Winters of Winters Past

We have had more snow this year than in previous years.  It reminds me of the amount of snow we would get many years ago. 

In recent years the snow we have been getting hasn't been much.  Sometimes if you wait a day or so it'll melt away.  But this end of January snowstorm was a lot of snow in 1 day.  That pile of snow is higher than the 4ft high chainlink fence.  When the day started there was a few inches there.

I had gone out to clear snow 4 times.  I have a Toro e21 snowblower.  I had to charge it half-way through the day.  

When I went out for the 3rd time, the snow in my backyard had accumulated to my knees.  It was piling up around our car in the backyard.  It was the most snow I can remember coming down in a matter of hours.

You can see how much snow we got on our awning and roof tops.  It was was coming down a few cm/hr.  Which doesn't seem like a lot.

That laneway between the homes adds to the effort of clearing.  There's nowhere to throw the snow.  At least this snow was fluffy.  Just a lot

I had ordered our usual North Of Brooklyn pizza for noon instead of supper, before the snow became too much for anyone to deliver let along drive.  And it was coming down fast.  Every time I had come back in from clearing, it almost seemed like I hadn't shovelled at all.

Just as I was wrapping up, the 3rd time, the snow plow came through.  So I spent time clearing the piles it pushed around my car and driveway.  My neighbour had only been out 1x earlier.  You can see how much was on top of his SUV.  It looks like a cargo van.

But this past Family Day/Valentine's Day weekend the temps warmed up.  It was around 0 deg C on the Monday, and on the plus side as we made our way back to the city.  Yesterday was a balmy plus 6.  Today it's raining.  Dreary.

Pasta-fazoo

I’ve been meaning to make pasta from scratch for a while. For some reason I just never got around to it. It’s so much easier to just grab a box of dry noodles — they’re always around the house, super convenient, and honestly, I don’t even know if they ever go bad?

I also don’t own a pasta machine to flatten or cut the dough nicely.  I thought that was a prerequisite to making pasta. But I figured: I have a rolling pin, and every recipe I found made it look surprisingly simple. Honestly, even simpler than making my own bread. And you don’t actually need a machine — just roll it thin and slice it with a knife.

I was home by myself, there was a Leafs game on tonight against the Canes and not feeling overly hungry, and pasta is always a good, simple meal.  It's also a nice distraction in case the Buds stink the rink.  So I decided, okay, today’s the day. Let’s make pasta.

All I used was:

• 00 flour
• Eggs
• Fancy salt
• Olive oil

That’s it.

You mix everything together right on the counter. (Still not sure why it can’t be done in a bowl like bread — but it ends up on the counter to knead anyway.  So clean the counter before you do this) Once it comes together, coat it lightly with oil, cover it, and let it rest for about 30 minutes so the gluten can relax.

After resting, I split the dough into quarters. Rolling each piece out flat actually wasn’t hard — just a bit of patience. The video I watched suggested lightly flouring the sheet, folding it gently, and then slicing so you get more even noodles. It worked great.

Start to finish — mixing, resting, rolling, cutting, and cooking a portion — it was about 90 minutes total.

Fresh pasta cooks fast. Just three to four minutes, since it doesn’t need to rehydrate like dried noodles.

I tried a piece after about three minutes, and honestly… my eyes lit up. It was astonishingly good. I wasn't sure what to expect. The best pasta I'd ever tasted was in Italy, it was melt in your mouth. This wasn't that. But it was very good. Every other pasta has been the boiled dried packaged variant.  Everyone I asked beforehand said homemade pasta tastes way better than dry noodles, and they were right. 

It was tender, delicious, almost buttery — even without sauce. But I did add some sauce, grated parmesan, and freshly cracked pepper.  Simple meal.  And simple to make.

I even made that board. Ha. Honestly, I did.