So we get to Wakefield, leave our stuff in our rooms and walk the strip. It was cold. Well, it wasn't that cold but it was colder than here so Dan and I hadn't brought our coats. We walked through a few unfriendly shops, didn't buy anything and settled on a place to eat. We went for Thai food. Our choices were a pizza place, a pricey bistro that served game food (interesting), or the Thai place. Even if there were more choices we still would have gone for the Thai and my GOODNESS!!!! it was sooooo good. It was a really small restaurant where the kitchen was seperated from the dining room only by a small counter so we could easily watch the chef mixing and frying etc. It was such a good dinner. Everyone really enjoyed it. Since we were told to get to the "sheep" early if we wanted seats Dan and Mike decided to wait in the line while Meg and I ran back to the b&b for the tickets. While we were there I started dawdling and taking my time since the show didn't start for a while. As we started walking back Dan and Mike came huffing back all hot and bothered.... the doors had opened, the swarms had entered and now all the seats were taken. Ooops. I felt really bad. So we found some stools against the far wall in front of the sound guy and hung out there for a while. We were wondering how the "sheep" started and got so legendary so I turned around to ask the sound guy what he knew about it. It turns out that he was the part owner. Wow... what a life. He has met so many amazing musicians. He ended up telling us the whole story of how the "sheep" started. It was something to do with a lottery ticket win but I think I'll make you guys go out there to get the story yourselves. So it turned out to be a good thing that we came late. We never would've met Paul and gotten the scoop on the place.
After the show we pretty much just went to our rooms to crash. In the morning we slowly woke up and got ready for the day. We had a great breakfast downstairs from our host and then hit the road again. We stopped in Ottawa to check out the Byward Market which made me feel like I was at the Forks in Winnipeg. I love markets like that. Sarah would've had a hayday with the tables outside laden with jewelry and scarves. It was very hippie-granola (as Mike called it) but St. Jacobs would probably be just as good (I think... I haven't been there a while). The rest of the drive back was ...... ll ooo nnnngggggggg. But not terrible. We dropped Mike and Meg off around 6:00 (i think?) and were home about half an hour later. I sure slept well that night.... and I had Sunday off.
And here I am in the middle of the next week and almost at the end of March. Wow, time really is flying by. I'm super glad we went on this road trip. We all agreed we need to go again but for a longer weekend.
Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Defender 21113 PRO Sentinel 8CH Smart Security DVR with 8 Hi-Res Outdoor Security Cameras
Defender 21113 PRO Sentinel 8CH Smart Security DVR with 8 Hi-Res Outdoor Security Cameras
The natural choice for installers and contractors, DEFENDER PRO can protect your investment and keep your building safe and crime-free. With 600 TV lines of resolution and an IR cut filter, DEFENDER PRO cameras deliver color accurate, ultra hi-res video. 38 IR LEDs provide up to 110ft of crisp and clear automatic night vision in complete darkness. Durable, anodized aluminum cameras withstand weather with an IP65 rating and tampering for added reliability. Each camera has the added benefit of a 6 Read More >>
List Price: $ 899.99
And below is why i think all of you should buy this item :
- Record over 4 years' worth of footage on the included 1 TB hard drive
- Monitor remotely with internet connection
- Ultra hi-res 600TVL cameras with IR cut filter provide color accurate and detailed video
- 38IR LEDs for 110ft automatic night vision
- 65ft Fire-rated cables for in-wall installation
Special for our fellow USA citizen, get big discount and fast USA shipping for Defender 21113 PRO Sentinel 8CH Smart Security DVR with 8 Hi-Res Outdoor Security Cameras this month.
Monday, 25 February 2013
Self portraits
I love the option on this phone I use the front camera. I saw decorating ideas with pictures of mommas and their babies and it reminded me to take as many pics as possible of us. And now that I've started I can't stop!
Friday, 22 February 2013
Synesthesia
This summer, while drinking beers at a folk festival, I had a super interesting conversation with my brother-in-law, Peter, and a musician friend of his. It was sooo neat. Basically, I was told that some people experience things in the world through other senses. For example, a person can taste a word or see shapes to music. Weird? I thought so. But the conversation kept going on and had so many different imaginative scenarios. Since then I've thought about it a few times and wondered what it would be like.
Well, here I am, researching how to make dog biscuits and I heard on the radio about this condition. It has a name! I really had no idea about this. So neat!
Synesthesia (found on wikipedia)
Synesthesia is a neurologically based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. In one common form of synesthesia, known as grapheme → color synesthesia or color-graphemic synesthesia, letters or numbers are perceived as inherently colored, while in ordinal linguistic personification, numbers, days of the week and months of the year evoke personalities. In spatial-sequence, or number form synesthesia, numbers, months of the year, and/or days of the week elicit precise locations in space (for example, 1980 may be "farther away" than 1990), or may have a (three-dimensional) view of a year as a map (clockwise or counterclockwise). Yet another recently identified type, visual motion → sound synesthesia, involves hearing sounds in response to visual motion and flicker. While cross-sensory metaphors (e.g., "loud shirt," "bitter wind" or "prickly laugh") are sometimes described as "synesthetic," true neurological synesthesia is involuntary. It is estimated that synesthesia could possibly be as prevalent as 1 in 23 persons across its range of variants. Synesthesia runs strongly in families, but the precise mode of inheritance has yet to be ascertained. Synesthesia is also sometimes reported by individuals under the influence of psychedelic drugs, after a stroke, during a temporal lobe epilepsy seizure, or as a consequence of blindness or deafness. Synesthesia that arises from such non-genetic events is referred to as "adventitious synesthesia" to distinguish it from the more common congenital forms of synesthesia. Adventitious synesthesia involving drugs or stroke (but not blindness or deafness) apparently only involves sensory linkings such as sound → vision or touch → hearing; there are few, if any, reported cases involving culture-based, learned sets such as graphemes, lexemes, days of the week, or months of the year.
Although synesthesia was the topic of intensive scientific investigation in the late 1800s and early 1900s, it was largely abandoned by scientific research in the mid-20th century, and has only recently been rediscovered by modern researchers. Psychological research has demonstrated that synesthetic experiences can have measurable behavioral consequences, while functional neuroimaging studies have identified differences in patterns of brain activation (for recent reviews see). Many people with synesthesia use their experiences to aid in their creative process, and many non-synesthetes have attempted to create works of art that may capture what it is like to experience synesthesia. Psychologists and neuroscientists study synesthesia not only for its inherent interest, but also for the insights it may give into cognitive and perceptual processes that occur in synesthetes and non-synesthetes alike.
I blatently plagerized this from Wikipedia so if you want to look more of this up or quote it, don't start here.
Well, here I am, researching how to make dog biscuits and I heard on the radio about this condition. It has a name! I really had no idea about this. So neat!
Synesthesia (found on wikipedia)
Synesthesia is a neurologically based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. In one common form of synesthesia, known as grapheme → color synesthesia or color-graphemic synesthesia, letters or numbers are perceived as inherently colored, while in ordinal linguistic personification, numbers, days of the week and months of the year evoke personalities. In spatial-sequence, or number form synesthesia, numbers, months of the year, and/or days of the week elicit precise locations in space (for example, 1980 may be "farther away" than 1990), or may have a (three-dimensional) view of a year as a map (clockwise or counterclockwise). Yet another recently identified type, visual motion → sound synesthesia, involves hearing sounds in response to visual motion and flicker. While cross-sensory metaphors (e.g., "loud shirt," "bitter wind" or "prickly laugh") are sometimes described as "synesthetic," true neurological synesthesia is involuntary. It is estimated that synesthesia could possibly be as prevalent as 1 in 23 persons across its range of variants. Synesthesia runs strongly in families, but the precise mode of inheritance has yet to be ascertained. Synesthesia is also sometimes reported by individuals under the influence of psychedelic drugs, after a stroke, during a temporal lobe epilepsy seizure, or as a consequence of blindness or deafness. Synesthesia that arises from such non-genetic events is referred to as "adventitious synesthesia" to distinguish it from the more common congenital forms of synesthesia. Adventitious synesthesia involving drugs or stroke (but not blindness or deafness) apparently only involves sensory linkings such as sound → vision or touch → hearing; there are few, if any, reported cases involving culture-based, learned sets such as graphemes, lexemes, days of the week, or months of the year.
Although synesthesia was the topic of intensive scientific investigation in the late 1800s and early 1900s, it was largely abandoned by scientific research in the mid-20th century, and has only recently been rediscovered by modern researchers. Psychological research has demonstrated that synesthetic experiences can have measurable behavioral consequences, while functional neuroimaging studies have identified differences in patterns of brain activation (for recent reviews see). Many people with synesthesia use their experiences to aid in their creative process, and many non-synesthetes have attempted to create works of art that may capture what it is like to experience synesthesia. Psychologists and neuroscientists study synesthesia not only for its inherent interest, but also for the insights it may give into cognitive and perceptual processes that occur in synesthetes and non-synesthetes alike.
I blatently plagerized this from Wikipedia so if you want to look more of this up or quote it, don't start here.
Monday, 18 February 2013
Nicole Running
It's not a myth... I have run before... I even found a picture to prove it!
I'm going through all of my parents pictures of when we were kids. I've got a few projects of different picture collections going on. I'm scanning like crazy and having a ton of fun. We have sooo many pictures. What a childhood I had! Wow.
Saturday, 16 February 2013
Fun in the Kitchen!!
How's that for a cheese picture!!!
Even though I've been camping for the majority of the last week, I've been having some pretty fun, inspiring times in the kitchen.
Last week Wed. I went shopping with Caleb (with a pre-warning that I would be spending lots of time browsing) and came home with lots inspiring ingredients. Some were to snack on while I was cooking, others were to add to some great meal ideas. I bought a triple cream soft cheese with a rind... kinda like a Brie but I don't think it was brie. Really, all I was looking at was the triple cream.
I also bought a small roll of goats cheese for some future recipe. My plan for the evening was to make calzones... "Jamie at Home" style. That means with his "best pizza dough ever" recipe and his "quick and easy tomato sauce" recipe and then there's still the inside. After putting together the dough to rise, I made the tomato sauce. It definately was an easy recipe but since I used my own canned tomatoes from last year (!! impressive, eh?) they were really juicy and needed to cook down for a long time. The guts of the calzone was a cooked down, mash of mushrooms (a pound of torn up mixed up mushrooms!!), spinach, 3 cloves (!!) of garlic and the final outcome of my tomato sauce. Oh, and top it all off with fresh (not homemade :( ) mozzerella, torn to pieces on top. 
OH YUM! Now this sounds like a lot of work but it really was so much fun for me. Having one pot of sauce bubbling away in one corner and a bowl rising of dough in the other plus a glass of wine and some cheese... well, i don't know who wouldn't like that.
Saturday night I got hit wth the urge again and found a recipe for vidalia onions. I read somewhere that they are super super good onions and are only good at this time of year so I had to try them out. Once again it was a pizza recipe. I really have to get away from these pizza recipes. Another dough recipe, topped off with my leftover tomato sauce. Slice some tomatoes on top, sprinkle with mozzerella cheese and then top it all off with sauteed (lightly) vidallia onions. Yum again. Not really my favorite but it did show off the onions nicely. James couldn't understand where the meat was, Larissa thought it gave her the shits but everyone else thought it was great. Really, I don't think mom and dad would complain about anything I'm making them since mom is getting a bit of a break in the kitchen and I am actually having fun at it.
Tonight, there was NO urge to play in the kitchen so I cracked open a few cans of pork and beans to go along with mom's iceburg lettuce salad. Oh well, I'm still in camping mood, right?
Next I want to try something with chick peas. Dad says he doesn't like them but I think he hasn't tried them fried up with lots of garlic and curry powder and salt. oh yum.
Last week Wed. I went shopping with Caleb (with a pre-warning that I would be spending lots of time browsing) and came home with lots inspiring ingredients. Some were to snack on while I was cooking, others were to add to some great meal ideas. I bought a triple cream soft cheese with a rind... kinda like a Brie but I don't think it was brie. Really, all I was looking at was the triple cream.
I also bought a small roll of goats cheese for some future recipe. My plan for the evening was to make calzones... "Jamie at Home" style. That means with his "best pizza dough ever" recipe and his "quick and easy tomato sauce" recipe and then there's still the inside. After putting together the dough to rise, I made the tomato sauce. It definately was an easy recipe but since I used my own canned tomatoes from last year (!! impressive, eh?) they were really juicy and needed to cook down for a long time. The guts of the calzone was a cooked down, mash of mushrooms (a pound of torn up mixed up mushrooms!!), spinach, 3 cloves (!!) of garlic and the final outcome of my tomato sauce. Oh, and top it all off with fresh (not homemade :( ) mozzerella, torn to pieces on top. 
OH YUM! Now this sounds like a lot of work but it really was so much fun for me. Having one pot of sauce bubbling away in one corner and a bowl rising of dough in the other plus a glass of wine and some cheese... well, i don't know who wouldn't like that.Saturday night I got hit wth the urge again and found a recipe for vidalia onions. I read somewhere that they are super super good onions and are only good at this time of year so I had to try them out. Once again it was a pizza recipe. I really have to get away from these pizza recipes. Another dough recipe, topped off with my leftover tomato sauce. Slice some tomatoes on top, sprinkle with mozzerella cheese and then top it all off with sauteed (lightly) vidallia onions. Yum again. Not really my favorite but it did show off the onions nicely. James couldn't understand where the meat was, Larissa thought it gave her the shits but everyone else thought it was great. Really, I don't think mom and dad would complain about anything I'm making them since mom is getting a bit of a break in the kitchen and I am actually having fun at it.
Tonight, there was NO urge to play in the kitchen so I cracked open a few cans of pork and beans to go along with mom's iceburg lettuce salad. Oh well, I'm still in camping mood, right?
Next I want to try something with chick peas. Dad says he doesn't like them but I think he hasn't tried them fried up with lots of garlic and curry powder and salt. oh yum.
Thursday, 14 February 2013
Well, I can tell we're well on our way through winter.... I'm starting to look up agrarian things online. I've already started a seed catalogue list (even though I probably won't order them) and I've been dreaming about the size and shape of my garden for a while now.
So today, I've been looking for a really good inspiring blog about gardening, goats, chickens and the rest. My goodness is there ever a lot out there. There are some pretty crazy hard core agrarians out there too. I found this one blog with a list of other blogs and they are all hard core Christian agrarians. For some reason, it all really does not sit with me. The ladies are all talking about how they strive to be the woman of Proverbs 31 and the men all talk about taking their boys out and teaching them how to be men... good providing, shooting and butchering type men! I can't really put my finger on what bothers me. I like providing and shooting men. I love Proverbs 31.
I've been reading this one blog (it has a soundtrack!! I had to pause my concert of Daniel Lanois to read it) is about a family who moves out to Texas where they will be living off the grid. It's so bizarre to read and hard to stop reading. She looks like a mennonite with her hair pulled back under a hankerchief and always wearing an apron. There's lots of butchering and canning pictures yet the blog posts are daily. It's very strange and interesting to know that this is happening right now... somewhere in Texas. Here's a clip from one post of her describing why her husband is doing this: " ... the Lord has commanded him to lead his family out of this "ungodly world society" and separate. He is being obedient to the Lord and seeking His will in guiding this family and in his duties as a husband." .... I just don't know what to think.
So today, I've been looking for a really good inspiring blog about gardening, goats, chickens and the rest. My goodness is there ever a lot out there. There are some pretty crazy hard core agrarians out there too. I found this one blog with a list of other blogs and they are all hard core Christian agrarians. For some reason, it all really does not sit with me. The ladies are all talking about how they strive to be the woman of Proverbs 31 and the men all talk about taking their boys out and teaching them how to be men... good providing, shooting and butchering type men! I can't really put my finger on what bothers me. I like providing and shooting men. I love Proverbs 31.
I've been reading this one blog (it has a soundtrack!! I had to pause my concert of Daniel Lanois to read it) is about a family who moves out to Texas where they will be living off the grid. It's so bizarre to read and hard to stop reading. She looks like a mennonite with her hair pulled back under a hankerchief and always wearing an apron. There's lots of butchering and canning pictures yet the blog posts are daily. It's very strange and interesting to know that this is happening right now... somewhere in Texas. Here's a clip from one post of her describing why her husband is doing this: " ... the Lord has commanded him to lead his family out of this "ungodly world society" and separate. He is being obedient to the Lord and seeking His will in guiding this family and in his duties as a husband." .... I just don't know what to think.
Monday, 11 February 2013
News on the dogs...
Sunday morning, as Dan and I were leaving for church I waved at the neighbour who owns the black dog and asked if she could take care of the dog poop problem. I didn't hear what she said but at least I've asked her now. And later I was walking with Chloe who walked onto their lawn and peed right in front of them on their fresh snow... take that! 
Chloe is LOVING the snow. It's fun to watch her jumping through it and rolling all over. Cute. I've also notice that she is taking care of all the burrs that get caught on her. I'm super thankful because the research I've done on dog grooming says that it would cost about $70 to get her cleaned up. What's the point? She'll just get more in her later.
Wednesday, 6 February 2013
ZMODO 8 CH CCTV Surveillance DVR Outdoor Camera System 500GB
ZMODO 8 CH CCTV Surveillance DVR Outdoor Camera System 500GB
The kit PKD-DK0863-500GB includes an 8 CH H.264 standalone DVR with 500GB HD and four indoor/outdoor night vision security cameras providing everything you need to have your surveillance system up and running in your home or business quickly and easily.
The DVR-H9108V is an 8 channel, fully integrated, real time, and hardware based standalone digital video recorder. With network access, motion detection, VGA video output, and USB2.0 backup, this DVR is perfect for the home or small business. Th Read More >>
List Price: $ 385.00
And below is why i think all of you should buy this item :
- 8 CH Surveillance DVR Camera System w/ 500GB HD
- Color IR Weatherproof Outdoor Camera Included
- iPhone, Google Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian Compatible
- Network Remote Access via Internet Explorer or Netviewer Software
- BNC & VGA Video output; PTZ via RS485
Special for our fellow USA citizen, get big discount and fast USA shipping for ZMODO 8 CH CCTV Surveillance DVR Outdoor Camera System 500GB this month.
Monday, 4 February 2013
US Patrol Video Patrol Security Camera
US Patrol Video Patrol Security Camera
US Patrol Video Patrol Security Camera
Keep your home and property safe and secure.
Motion activated infrared sensor to easily keep an eye on your home or business. Weather resistant- can be used outdoors in protected well lit areas.
Small size makes it a breeze to conceal. Motion activated infrared sensor. Date and time stamp. Support for AVI video format.
Switch between videos or still photos. It will even get a license plate number!
Includes a 2GB memory card - records over 75 minutes of Read More >>
List Price: $ 69.98
And below is why i think all of you should buy this item :
- Keep your home and property safe and secure
- Motion activated infrared sensor to easily keep an eye on your home or business
- Weather resistant- can be used outdoors in protected well lit areas
- Includes a 2GB memory card - records over 75 minutes of video. USB 2.0 interface
Special for our fellow USA citizen, get big discount and fast USA shipping for US Patrol Video Patrol Security Camera this month.
Friday, 1 February 2013
Grocery shopping
I love grocery shopping. I don't see what there could be to hate about it. I get to slowly browse all of the aisles, be inspired by new ingredients, think about things that I would like to make and EAT (mmmm), and do some guilt free spending. Everyone needs to eat so I don't think I should feel guilty about spending money on food, right? Well, I'm starting to re-think this a bit. I've heard that groceries is one of the biggest expenses that is easy to cut down on. So here are some of my grocery habits that I have and I need to know what I should change. What are some ideas that you all have about grocery shopping?
- I never look through flyers. I'm a spontaneous shopper and I like to pick things up as the inspiration hits me.
- I don't feel guilty about throwing away food. I know I should but I would rather buy the apples and peppers and have them at home with the hopes that we'll eat them (and we usually do) rather than stocking the house with processed food that won't go bad. Besides, compared to the processed food, it usually is cheaper.
- I have NO problem with no name brands. In fact, no name is one of my favourite brands. It drives Dan nuts (he swearst he no name sour cream is soupier than the name brand stuff) but I think there is rarely any difference at all.
- I will almost always spend more money to buy the local food than the stuff from California. I don't care if the Gaylea cottage cheese is more than the other stuff, it says right on it that it is made from Ontario product. Yeeahh... I also always buy Hewitts when I can. I always go home from the shopping trip planning on calling all those 1-800 #'s on the packaging to ask about where it's from but I never have.
- I love to do the once-a-week big shopping trip but sometimes I just don't get around to it and I end up picking up something everyday. Sometimes I end up doing both.
- I love to grow and preserve as much of my food as I can. I figure I don't really have the energy to grow that much food so I'll buy bushels of whatever is in season and preserve as much of that as I can. Unfortunately, I don't do that as often as I would like (last year it was just a lot of red peppers). I'm hoping that as a stay-at-home mom I can one day have more time to do that (?).
- I love to host and make people feel comfortable. I know that I probably spend too much money buying the food etc. to make people come over.... although I sometimes fail in this area too.
- I love eating. I love eating expensive food. I limit myself with buying these foods but I do enjoy buying a new expensive cheese (or something like that) once in a while.
- There's a foodland grocery store about 2 min. from our place where I buy most of our stuff. It's an okay grocery store. I don't think the produce is all that fantastic and neither are the prices but it's still alright. There's a Fortino's right beside my job which I LOVE!! They have everything! They have all the meats and cheeses and funky produce you could want and it's all fresh. But the prices are a little high. I rarely shop at the food basics across the road from work. I do NOT like that store. I feel dirty shopping there but that's because I'm a snob. I should get the basics there because I do love their prices.
Pinching pennies is not fun for me. I know some people live for it but it's like pulling teeth for me. I feel like grocery shopping is my one area of life where I get to just forget about it. So is there a way to enjoy my grocery shopping and still make things cheaper? What new grocery habits can I start and still enjoy getting food?
- I never look through flyers. I'm a spontaneous shopper and I like to pick things up as the inspiration hits me.
- I don't feel guilty about throwing away food. I know I should but I would rather buy the apples and peppers and have them at home with the hopes that we'll eat them (and we usually do) rather than stocking the house with processed food that won't go bad. Besides, compared to the processed food, it usually is cheaper.
- I have NO problem with no name brands. In fact, no name is one of my favourite brands. It drives Dan nuts (he swearst he no name sour cream is soupier than the name brand stuff) but I think there is rarely any difference at all.
- I will almost always spend more money to buy the local food than the stuff from California. I don't care if the Gaylea cottage cheese is more than the other stuff, it says right on it that it is made from Ontario product. Yeeahh... I also always buy Hewitts when I can. I always go home from the shopping trip planning on calling all those 1-800 #'s on the packaging to ask about where it's from but I never have.
- I love to do the once-a-week big shopping trip but sometimes I just don't get around to it and I end up picking up something everyday. Sometimes I end up doing both.
- I love to grow and preserve as much of my food as I can. I figure I don't really have the energy to grow that much food so I'll buy bushels of whatever is in season and preserve as much of that as I can. Unfortunately, I don't do that as often as I would like (last year it was just a lot of red peppers). I'm hoping that as a stay-at-home mom I can one day have more time to do that (?).
- I love to host and make people feel comfortable. I know that I probably spend too much money buying the food etc. to make people come over.... although I sometimes fail in this area too.
- I love eating. I love eating expensive food. I limit myself with buying these foods but I do enjoy buying a new expensive cheese (or something like that) once in a while.
- There's a foodland grocery store about 2 min. from our place where I buy most of our stuff. It's an okay grocery store. I don't think the produce is all that fantastic and neither are the prices but it's still alright. There's a Fortino's right beside my job which I LOVE!! They have everything! They have all the meats and cheeses and funky produce you could want and it's all fresh. But the prices are a little high. I rarely shop at the food basics across the road from work. I do NOT like that store. I feel dirty shopping there but that's because I'm a snob. I should get the basics there because I do love their prices.
Pinching pennies is not fun for me. I know some people live for it but it's like pulling teeth for me. I feel like grocery shopping is my one area of life where I get to just forget about it. So is there a way to enjoy my grocery shopping and still make things cheaper? What new grocery habits can I start and still enjoy getting food?
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