Kevin Nealon

Career Success

We love Kevin Nealon! Darren and I started watching Weeds after signing onto the infamous 'Netflix' and have never looked back. The joy of Netflix lies in the unlimited access to a huge selection of popular Television series which one is able to watch back-to-back with NO COMMERCIALS. 'It's like a dream' I hear you cry, but also potentially bad for anyone with addictive personality issues or a full time job. 

Anyway, I started watched Weeds during a bout of heavy flu and then continued to watch further series whilst recovering from a wisdom tooth extraction. Weeds is a wonderful sitcom; well written, hilariously funny but the icing on the cake is the joyous discovery of the comedic treasure, Mr. Nealon. 

We love Nealon; so I was exhilarated when during our last trip to Chapters in Barrie (http://www.chapters.indigo.ca) I stumbled across Kevin's first Novel, an autobiographical account of his  journey into fatherhood, 'Yes you're pregnant, but what about me?'. I added it to my increasingly large pile of goodies ( we had gift certificates *yay*) and made a bee line for the magazine section. 

As expected, this book is hilarious. Kevin is fortunately able to pen using fabulously witty prose and Darren was frequently tickled by hearing me roar with laughter from the bedroom. He discusses the classic high, lows and melodramas associated with early courtship, dating, marriage and pregnancy and is very clever at identifying the salient points in his life that will cause us to nod in agreement and then fall about laughing. I am a world away from having children ( other aspects of the 'success' clause need to be addressed first) but Kevin's light hearted account of his transition into parenthood made if seem not all that bad. 

I urge all Kevin and non-Kevin fans alike to seek out this book as the perfect summer, pool-side read. It's an instant feel good romp and I promise, will have you laughing out loud; We love you Nealon!

My New Roots

Health/ Financial 

This blog is AMAZING! Gorgeous Karla found the link and ever since, I am hooked. 'My New Roots' is an utterly inspirational and beautifully crafted blog written by Canadian, holistic nutritionist and vegetarian chef Sarah Britton, now living in Denmark and who spends her days working in a prominent position in a top Copenhagen Restaurant. Her blog is award winning and on scrolling down through the posts, you can see why. It would appeal even to the most die hard Carnivorous, junk-food loving folk with it's melodic, witty prose and fabulous photography; this girl is good!

http://mynewroots.blogspot.com

Sarah brings a charming element to often very sophisticated information about various health food items. She claims to be able to turn 'even the most yukky, green things' into a fabulous culinary treat and I can testify to this having tried her 'Raw Cashew Dreamcake' first hand care of Aranka at Sakura; it was sublime!

http://mynewroots.blogspot.com/2011/01/raw-cashew-dreamcake.html

I love how 'My New Roots' makes healthy eating so appealing; with sumptuous, versatile recipes, fantastic photography and a wealth of well researched information about the various ingredients and produce. I am not surprised in the least to hear of Sarah's success and am very inspired to emulate her blogging achievement! Check out 'My New Root's, eat and be healthy!

Lily of the Valley

Happiness

I will try not to deviate too often towards my 'favorite things' in striving for success but I am a sucker for anything in the garden and am alive with excitement with all the gorgeous colours that are illuminating Collingwood. 

My current fascination is the rampant invasion of Lily of the Valley on The Georgian Triangle, a flower so beautiful and delicate that even the lovely Princess Catherine chose the blooms for her wedding bouquet. 

I grew up understanding the beauty of Lily of Valley seeing my mum wishing it would grow in our garden and occasionally catching a wave of it's gorgeous scent whilst walking through the woods. 

Lily of the Valley symbolises the return to happiness, purity of heart and sweetness. It protects you and the garden from evil spirits and fills one life with humility, happiness and Love's good fortune. No wonder Kate decided to walk down the isle holding a bundle of the stuff!

 

I couldn't believe it when I popped over to my gorgeous friend, Rebecca's house earlier in the week and found that her entire back yard was covered in Lily of the Valley. It was amazing. It didn't know where to rest my bike for fear of crushing one of the gorgeous blooms. I was very amused to find out that in fact the flowers were growing 'wild' and were actually a dominant species in the area *gasp*. Lovely Rebecca wouldn't let me leave without a large bouquet of Lily of the Valley; we picked it together, she has a relative field of the stuff! So Canada wins the prize for best crop of 'L of the V'; I am very impressed and excited to plant some in our garden and watch it blossom!

 Here are a couple of my pots now thriving in our garden, strongly attributed to these intermittent hot days and stormy showers we are having as well as a good dose of miracle grow....

Surviving a Heat Wave

Health

We have been catapulted into SUMMER! At a balmy 33oC degrees today, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to assess our summer-fun kit to ensure that we enjoy the next few months to the full!

I did a little research and in order to enjoy the seasonal heat wave, experts recommend we follow this [fairly self explanatory] list of guidelines:

 1. Use Fans throughout the home  (day and night)

**In the evening open windows and doors to promote air circulation

***After sun rise, close those doors and shut all blinds to keep the indoors a cool haven. 

2. Water. Drink, shower, bathe, spritze; water is cooling! 

3. Downstairs. Hot air rises... stay downstairs kids

4. Turn off things that are hot. No stove, oven, lights, radiators etc etc

5. Avoid alcohol and caffeine *boooo*. It's annoying.. but true.

6. Go to 'cool' places. Libraries, shopping malls, etc etc

7. Stay away from large, protein rich meals (They can increase metabolism and warm the body)

8. Recognize signs of heat related illness. Remember the number, 911!

9. Don't forget your dog! A cool bath, cool washcloth or fan will help. Call your vet if you find your pet has any of the following symptoms:

• rapid panting
• wide eyes
• drooling ( and not because of your steak dinner)
• hot skin
• twitching muscles
• vomiting
• dazed expression ( and again, not because of the steak)

Darren and I decided that our summer would start with a little shopping trip to equip ourselves with the necessary items to enjoy the heat wave to the max. 

1. A standing fan c/o Wall Mart. Check out this sunbeam beauty. She was cheap but she works *sigh*

2. Darren's Bike needed fixing so we took her in to Little Ed's in Collingwood. Ed LOVES his bikes and as we left Darren's bike to get her [very minor] repairs done to the handle bar grips, we caught him giving her a few extra bike 'spa treatments'. 

And here is someone enjoying the new hot weather.. 

3. Patio Furniture from Canadian Tire. This involved multiple experimental comfort checks, squish monitoring and price analysis. In the end we went for cheap and cheerful (it seems one can pay anything from $10 - $1000!) and they look fabulous!

It's going to be an awesome summer! 

How to get rid of Aphids

Financial

Holy mother of Pete, I love my herb garden. I purchased a selection of herbs to try and curb the amount of money I was spending on fresh herbs from the supermarket [not a lot.. but enough to justify buying a cart full of foliage]. I now carry the following in our kitchen:

• Basil
• Two varieties of Thyme
• Parsley
• Lavender
• Oregano
• Sage
• Rosemary

**(I wish I could find Cilantro [coriander] but no joy as yet)

Anyway, my herbs were thriving, I was elated, until whilst rubbing one of the sumptuous basil leaves this morning and I suddenly noticed that my forefinger was covered in small green dots *eowwww*. 

Damn damn damn, my basil had aphids *ugggg* Code Red emergency!

I threw myself immediately at the mercy of google and found a number of articles discussing the use of soap as an insecticide, particularly when the insect in question is a certain monsieur aphide. I didn't want to use anything vaguely toxic so this was a most satisfactory option and has apparently been used as an insecticide for years with evidence for it's success documented on the Chinese Scrolls and Egyptian Papyrus.

Apparently Aphids are attracted to lush, healthy growth ( hurray!) which is a complement [I guess?] but also extremely annoying as I would have preferred to have used said growth on my Bruschetta. http://greenearth.dupont.chost.ca/features/soap_e.php

Green Earth seems like a great tool in the fight against the mini green skittles but I picked up a couple of useful tips along the way:

1. Aphids like lush, new growth so try not to over-fertilize

2. When you first identify that your plants have Aphids ( small green things on plant), spray heavily with water. This should dislodge a load of them, 

2. Soap appears to suffocate the aphids so try this homemade version of the Green earth spray:

 1 cup of vegetable oil

 1 1/2 cup water

 2 teaspoons of dish soap

Mix and spray!

Hopefully this will make them go away and you wont have to suffer from an Aphid invasion like us!

Sakura

Health and Financial 

I have already blogged about Aranka and her fabulous local business but I thought she definitely deserved a second mention. Sakura is her own inspiration and has grown into a thriving small business in town and has just picked up The Chamber of Commerce Environmentally Consious Business of the Year award in Collingwood. This girl is reaching for the stars! 

Aranka is very cool. After graduating with a degree in Biological Sciences (I did the very same) she went on to complete a four year course to become a Doctor of Naturapathic medicine. She worked at a clinic helping sufferers with HIV before founding her own business in hometown Collingwood, 'Sakura'.  

Naturopathic Therapies target the underlying cause of your condition and the profession is a regulated with Doctors of Naturopathic medicine receiving a minimum of 7 years of training. Naturopathic medicine endeavors to find the root of the problem rather than masking the symptoms with pharmaceutical intervention. It is a fascinating discipline and as a complement to this, Aranka is also promoting a toxic-free way of living which includes eliminating toxic chemicals for items we use daily such as shampoo and soap. It is very current and extremely important. Aranka is most definitely onto something here!

 
I love how she has taken a risk in setting up her own business and is really starting to see the benefits with a loyal following and critical acclaim.  I have no doubt this is a tribute to her hard work and dedication and it is quite inspirational for me. Congratulations Aranka!

Kwikpix.ca

Overcoming hurdles

Rain outdoors and whilst wading through the immigration paperwork, I decided to work on the photo album that I have to include with the residency application. Darren and I have to prove to the authorities that we are couple and photos are (of course) deemed great evidence and highly encouraged. 

I have over 3000 photos of Darren and I and although every picture is worthy evidence that we are together, I am not sure that my allocated visa officer would appreciate an encyclopedia of pictorial evidence. I managed to edit the stack down to around 500 which I decided would be more manageable.   My next challenge was to find somewhere to print the photos ( yes, they want them printed, labeled and mounted... *aggg*) and after trawling through various websites, I came across Kwik Pix.  

This company is AWESOME! Based out of Toronto, I uploaded all my photos in around 30 minutes on to their very easily navigated website and they charged me £39, for 500 PRINTS!!!! 

Two days later, this box appeared. Darren was intrigued ( it felt like a box of rocks it was so heavy) and I couldn't believe it when on opening the box, all the photos were there, stacked in neatly and ready for action!

I had picked up couple of cheap albums in Wall Mart and to work immediately. It is no mean feat mounting 500 photos and took me the best part of a day. I am yet to label them all.. I need to schedule in a couple of good movies and a cold Corona for that mammoth task. 

The moral of the story is, Kwik Pix are awesome! If you need some printed photos ( quickly) I would highly recommend it! I am full of praise.