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Personal News Archives: 2006

December 27

December 31 addition:

This was the menu for this year's New Year's Eve gourmet dinner.

Amuse-gueule: Scallop tartar
Source: www.worldwidegourmet.com
Wine: Fielding Estates off-dry Riesling 2005
Comment: Really delicious—we were kind of surprised.
Appetizer 1: Foie gras in noble late harvest Riesling jus, served with fruit chutney, port jelly, fleur de sel, pear, and crostini
Source: LCBO magazine
Wine: Crown Bench Estates Livia's Gold, a noble Chardonnay
Comment: Excellent, very good with the accompaniments, despite the fact that the foie gras was a little past its prime.
Appetizer 2: Warm mushroom with crostini, cooked in Jackson-Triggs Sauvignon Blanc.
Source: Vines magazine
Wine: Sonoma Valley Landmark Pinot Noir
Comment: Hard to go wrong with four kinds of mushrooms (portobello, oyster, shitake, and cremini). Pinot was very nice, but not necessarily better than the Malivoire pinot.
Main with sides: Duck braised in muscat (a sweet Spanish wine), Duck confit, mashed potatoes, and squash/pecan/pear salad
Source: Bon Appétit magazine, LCBO magazine, Best Light Recipes cookbook, and Fine Dining magazine
Wine: Continue with the same Pinot Noir
Comment: The duck braised in muscat was amazing, and the mashed potatoes were great. The confit was very tender, but a little salty. The squash in the salad was also a little salty, but the pecans and pears were a great accompaniment.
Dessert: Ice wine sabayon over fruit salad, made with apple cider ice wine (from Québec)
Source: LCBO magazine
Wine: Apple cider ice wine
Comment: Very nice foamy topping over a lovely fruit salad of wild blueberries, bananas, grapefruit, and orange.
Finale: Chocolate truffles
Source: Recipe card
Wine: Taylor 10-year port
Comment: Truffles very sweet yet irresistible. Port a nice biting accompaniment.

Jean and Romey High time I updated this!

Cats: Despite many efforts, our dear Romey died this November. He'd had various things going on with his colon, his liver, his heart, but the final straw was a cancerous tumour. It was really tough, as he was an unusually lovable cat.

A few weeks afterward, we did decide to go look at other cats. We'd been thinking about adding one anyway, knowing that Romey wasn't well and that Zoë likes the company of other cats. We went through Pet Patrol, a cat rescue organization where we got Zoë, and met many of their cats. Jean was taken by a very attractive but extremely shy tabby/Siamese cross; whereas I had fallen for an apparently cuddly little auburn tortie. Unable to agree, we ended up getting both. We named him McSteamy and her Mocha.

Once here, Mocha ended up being nearly as timid as McSteamy, and the two of them spent most of their time hiding under benches and couches. (They did bond nicely with each other, though.) About a week in, we had a real scare with them. Before heading out on planned day trip, we were hunting for where Mocha was hiding. In doing so, we lifted up the couch McSteamy was under, and scared him. He was so freaked he ran up two flights of stairs, into our bedroom, up onto the bed, on the bed board—and crashed right through our screened window.

McSteamy Mocha Of course, we didn't see all of this; we just discovered the screen evidence. Unsure of what to do, we called Pet Patrol for help. They advised keeping open the window below our bedroom window, on the theory that cats tend to try to come back in the way they got out. They also lent us a live trap that we placed beside the open window, baited with food. Well, it took about 14 hours, but the cat did come back. And he's been much friendlier with us ever since. Mocha is also coming along nicely now—both love to be pet, as it turns out—and Zoë is enjoying having new companions close to her own age (she's about 2; they're about 1.5 years old).

New Jersey: The second week of December I had to go on a very rare business trip, to Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, for a Documentation Best Practices workshop, featuring writers from all the different Agfa offices around the world. My manager Kristi and I decided to go up one day early so we could spend some time in New York City. That was a good day! It was nice and sunny, if a bit cool (but then, it was December), and it was great to see some of that city for the first time. Of course, it's given me a taste to go back, since I couldn't visit anything in depth, but at least I did see Central Park (actually walked through it also), the Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Station, Broadway, Bloomingdale's, etc. We didn't do a whole lot of shopping (crowds! especially at Macy's), but we did have some excellent meals: a fabulous sushi place and a great seafood restaurant in Soho.

The workshop itself was also good. Nice to meet other writers and exchange ideas. It was all well organized.

Christmas: We're just back from Timmins, where we spent Christmas. It was a bit odd this year, with traditions shifting to accommodate people arriving at different times, not to mention the lack of snow. With the freezing rain, then rain on Saturday, it really didn't look good for the bit of snow Timmins had left, but then it did change to light flurries overnight—just enough to coat everything in white.

We arrived on Friday around lunchtime. Saturday we celebrated Mom's birthday with Cozy Corner takeout (her idea), which was our first chance to see Neal, Thérèse, and crew. Sarah has really changed—very interactive now. Jean and I also met with Sylvie and Paul that day, which was great, as we had kept missing each other. Christmas Eve featured mass at Dad's church for the service, a little gathering at Neal and Thérèse's, and the Lefebvre family Réveillon, which much good eating, most of the family in attendance, and some definite creativity around the gift theme of "Superheroes" (I gave a Buffy comic—note that the price limit is $10). Next year's theme is "Mexican".

Christmas morning was quiet, with just Mom, Dad, Jean, and I. We did open some items at that point, then a few more later in the day when Neal, Thérèse, and crew showed up. (It really was the 12 days of Christmas this year, since Jean and I had our "first" Christmas, for each other, the weekend before leaving for Timmins.) Gilles and Terrie also joined us for the delicious Christmas turkey dinner—Jean went to his family's fondue gathering.

Boxing Day the Macphie's showed up, so there was much gift opening throughout that day as well. Jean and I flew out that evening, but at least we managed to overlap a little. Joanne and Jon weren't able to go up this year.

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23 September 2006

Therese and Sarah at bpatism For the August long weekend, we headed up to Timmins for a little vacation. Neal and Thérèse had decided that might make a good weekend for Sarah's baptism, and then Michelle and Hugh decided to visit then also, with their two boys. That would have been a bit of a family reunion in itself, but then some of the extended family decided they'd come up for the baptism as well.

So it ended up being quite busy. We left Friday and drove as far as North Bay, where a local rock festival made getting a hotel room an unusual challenge, then arrived in Timmins on Saturday. Jean visited with his Mom while I went to a celebration of Oncle Roger's 80th birthday, at Judy's. I caught with a bunch of folks I hadn't seen in a long time, such as my cousin Lise, cousin Julie, and Pierre and Joanne's kids, who shockingly are all teenagers now. I also met Sarah for the first time. She's very cute, and a very good baby.

Sunday was the day of the Christening. Jean had been asked to be Godfather, and he was very honoured; Thérèse's sister Joanne was the Godmother. Sarah was cooperative throughout. Afterward, everyone gathered at Mom's. The weather cooperated by not bringing the promised until later in the day, when it didn't matter too much. Monday we both had dinner at Jean's Mom's, then stopped in at Gilles for another visit with that clan. Tuesday night was a gathering of the Lefebvre's who were in town.

I received a lot compliments from the family while in town—apparently I'm thin and have barely aged. All nice to hear, but my favourite had to be from four-year-old Jackson. Seeing me dressed up for the baptism, he earnestly declared, "Aunt Cathy, you look beautiful!"

Back in Kitchener, we ended up entertaining some of the Macphie's friends from France, while the Macphie's readied themselves for a big gathering. We took them around to St Jacob's, the kissing bridge, a few Mennonite farms, then to downtown Waterloo and a little lunch at Solé. They declared themselves entertained, and offered to take us around if we're ever in southern France, so bonus for us!

Later in August was another ProResp gathering, just for the local branch, at Cathy and Graham Ruse's house. Unfortunately the weather wasn't as cooperative this time, so we all gathered inside. Given the recent baby boom, it was a lot of little kids in that house, but really a remarkable lack of chaos. They actually roasted an entire pig for this, and everybody brought sides. It was a lot of food.

First week of September, we took a great trip to Iles-de-la-Madeleine. The following weekend, we again went on the Uptown Dining tour of Waterloo. It was fun, again, with one new restaurant added to the mix, but next year we may let someone else have tickets and try out the Eat Local! Eat Fresh! festival instead, if they have that again.

At my work, the baby boom continues with Robin Dube now due in March, theoretically, but more likely to deliver in January. But we do have approval to replace everyone with contractors, and we may even be getting a few new full-time positions in the latest organizational shuffle. My friend Sherry is also working at Agfa now, with a title of "Manager of Training and Knowledge Management". It's a new position, so they're still working out the details of what she'll be doing. But she sits near me at the moment.

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23 July 2006

Jean is having trouble taking vacation this summer, and it's starting to feel like everyone is on vacation but us. Still, we do have a few days off coming up in August, and we have been going on some small outings on the weekends. Canada Day weekend, we spent one day and overnight in Toronto. We drove our car to Michelle and Hugh's, left it there, and took transit to downtown, where we visited Harbourfront and (once we found it) Kensington Market. We then had a nice dinner and evening with the Macphie's. The nephews seemed to think Jean was quite the hoot.

The weekend after, we were on tap to babysit the nephews during their visit to Kitchener, as the senior Macphie's were out of town, but then David and Colleen decided to come to town and they took over that duty. So, we took off for the Goderich area. We'd been told it had nice beaches, and that was true, though we didn't find the best beach on this first trip. But, it's just over an hour's drive, so we could try again. They had some interesting vendors set up in the park, and we had a quite good dinner at a place called Bailey's. We also visited Bayfield, which was very charming looking with some interesting shops—though mostly closed by the time we got there. As I said, we'll have to visit again.

Last weekend ProResp celebrated its 25th anniversary by paying for the employees to visit Bingaman's Water Park (which is local) for a day. That was kind of fun. Weather was co-operative, and we did enjoy the water slides. (Strangely, neither Jean nor I had been on those before.) This weekend was, yes, yet another dinner at Verses, this time in honour of our 14th wedding anniversary. As usual, it was all very nice.

I should give the finale to our dishwasher drama. Basically, we found a carpenter to come in, and in about an hour, he was able to make the spacer on the side shorter, slide over the cabinet beside the dishwasher, and install it properly. So not a huge, expensive. And this dishwasher is quieter, faster, and better than our last one.

We don't do as many cultural activities in the summer, but we did go to Centre in the Square's Season Launch party, which included an acoustic performance by the Jeans'n'Classics band, and a tour of Centre. That was very interesting. There are huge sections you normally never get to see. And you get an appreciation of why it's considered such a great acoustic hall.

We've also actually done a little work in our yard; specifically, planting a new tree, and preparing a space for another garden. I think we'll get some help with the garden design.

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18 June 2006

Fun with home renovations: Instead of just frittering it away, we decided to put our tax refund toward something more substantial this year. First, we bought a new fridge. We had been planning to get a counter-depth one, to get more of that "built-in" look, but they are considerably more expensive than regular-depth fridges. It seemed weird to pay more for less fridge space. We were also a little concerned about the doors bumping against the counters on either side. So we went extra-wide, regular depth, black color, freezer on the bottom, French doors on top. We're quite happy with that, except that the butter-keeper is a little too cold (whereas that was on thing that actually worked well in the old fridge).

Then we looked at new dishwashers. The Kenmore brand is top-rated, and turned out to be on sale this month, so that's what we got. The plumber came to install it on Friday, whereupon we made an alarming discovering about our kitchen: the contractor hadn't left the standard amount of dishwasher space in the cabinet. Instead, it was fitted to exactly the size of our old dishwasher, which was about 1/2 an inch less than the new one needed. Fab. It's nevertheless installed, but isn't pushed all the way. The drawers on either side have all been removed. We're going to get in a carpenter next week to see how we can fix this. Obviously, we're really hoping it can be extended without major renovation work.

Fun with car repairs: We both park our cars in the garage, and Jean tends to complain that I just don't park close enough to the garage wall—i.e. don't leave him enough space. Well, one day last week I actually managed to park very close to the wall, without hitting anything. Very proud. Until it turned out I just wasn't up to the challenge of them backing out of the garage without hitting anything. And now, my passenger-door mirror needs replacing. Not just the mirror itself—the whole frame and everything. New ones, of course, are somewhat expense... I'll have to inquire about used ones, but if one can't be found, I'll just bite the bullet.

On the upside, Jean is no longer pressuring me to park closer to the garage wall.

Cultural activities: May saw us attending our final Theatre and Company play and Electric "Thursdays" concert. The play was Marion Bridge, a Canadian story about three very different sisters who return home to take for their dying mother. It was good, though could have used a little tighter editing, in my opinion. The concert was the music of Supertramp, featuring Roger Hodgson. The most surprising thing was how enthusiastic the crowd was—much more like a rock than a symphony concert. Who knew Supertramp inspired such passion?

Last night we went to see Coriolanus at Stratford. It starred Colm Feore and Martha Henry. It's a lesser-known play, and certainly not the big fun or drama you get from Taming of the Shrew or Hamlet. But it was still interesting to see this style of tragic hero, less done in by his own flaws than by political machinations, and see some relevance to present day (such as hints of what happened to John Kerry).

Food, glorious food: We were at a special Verses dinner a few weeks ago. They brought in a winemaker from France (Dominique Lafond), and served a five-course, fixed-price meal that matched various of his wines. He discussed each, then we ate. He was seated at our table for the main course, which featured his amazing Chateauneuf-du-pape He was mainly relieved to be able to speak French for a while! Very nice evening out. We also enjoyed last night's dinner at a new restaurant in Stratford called Avocat. They did very nice ravioli, seared sea scallops, mussels, and a decent cheese tray.

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22 April 2006

Our trip to Spain is reported on in detail within this site, but it was generally good. Beautiful country, great weather. The sad news, also reported within, is that Sandy died while we were away. Not too long after returning, we brought Romey into the vet. He'd been experiencing some stomach problems—an ongoing but periodic problem with him. The X-ray revealed that his stomach problems, while uncomfortable for him, weren't anything serious. We got some medication to help him with that. But it also revealed an enlarged artery which, if we didn't do anything about it, would lead to congestive heart failure.

So, Romey is now on daily heart medication. The problem was caught at a stage where his life should not be in imminent danger, but it's hard not too worry at least a little after just losing Sandy.

In terms of cultural activities, we had an insanely busy month of March—then basically nothing in April! Too bad it doesn't always balance out better. But anyway, here's the run-down:

Stars of the Orchestra. An interesting Pops concert by the KW Symphony meant to highlight various sections of the Symphony. It featured some really unusual pieces, such as "Concerto Gosso for Three Trombones and Tuba", and the "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra", which featured narration and solo pieces by every section of the symphony, including every possible percussion instrument. This was the Saturday after our trip, so I was kind of tired, but still glad I went to this one.
Original Masterpiece. A Masterpiece concert featuring an original composition written specifically for first violinist Stephen Sitarski. The piece was inspired by the composer's experience of discovering her neighbour was a murderer, so it was quite intense. A little like horror-movie music (not meaning any disrespect). There were also pieces by Haydn and Schumann, as contrast.
Earshot. This one-man play at Theatre and Company was certainly unusual. It featured a man with super-sensitive hearing, who therefore knew way more than he wanted to of his neighbours' business. He's none too sympathetic at first, but gains some as the play progresses through some surprising turns. The single actor did a very good job.
One Vision: The Music of Queen. Back by popular demand—for the third time—was this Electric Thursdays performance of the music of Queen, and once again we both really enjoyed. The choir was perhaps not situated ideally on stage for hearing them, but they did a fine job (the Eastwood Collegiate choir). It featured some slightly different numbers than before, and some welcome repeats, but not "Fat-Bottomed Girls", despite one audience member's repeated request.
The Music of Led Zeppelin. And, the next night we were out with Sherry and Melle to the music of Led Zeppelin. Sherry turned out to be a huge Led Zeppelin fan, so that worked out well. And I turned out to know more Led Zeppelin music than I thought, as is often the case at these things. We had a nice dinner at the Art Bar before, but they were strangely late with our food—strange because Art Bar is right at Centre in the Square, and they know we were going to the concert. We actually had to skip coffee and tea to get there in time.
An Evening with Ray Davies. This was at Toronto's Massey Hall. I had inquired about going with Michelle, but she wasn't able to make it, so Jean gallantly (if grumpily) agreed to accompany me. We decided to drive only as far as Yorkdale Mall and take the subway from there. It was basically a good idea, though the still heavy traffic getting to the mall made me nervous. But we were in time. Ray gave a great show. He seemed to be in very high spirits, and the crowd was truly adoring. My favourite parts were the more "unplugged" moments when he played some of the more obscure Kinks tunes. He also played quite a few from his new album, which is quite good. And of course, many of the big Kinks hits (Lola, You Really Got Me, Sunny Afternoon), though not Come Dancing.

I also had my first-ever Agfa business trip—all the way to Toronto! I was there for an Informatics Bootcamp—basically, learning more about various aspects of computerized healthcare. It's actually a little scary that it's not more computerized than it is, because it means a lot of doctors treat you without having any idea of your medical history (because that's on paper somewhere not easy to access). I was there with another of the writers on the team (names were drawn for this, so it was just lucky we both got to go), and we did a few Toronto things while there—most notably a dinner at Perigee restaurant and seeing the Mamet play American Buffalo (a Soulpepper production), both in the Distillery District.

And... Easter weekend we went to Ottawa, then Montreal, then Kingston. The main reason was for a celebration of Jean's Mom's upcoming 80th birthday. That was celebrated Sunday lunch at Ste-Julie. Jean prepared a little slide show of photos from over the years, doctoring them in some cases where there were gaps.

Before that, we got to Ottawa on the Friday and had dinner at his brother Pierre's. Saturday we stayed in Montreal at Joanne and Jon's, going out for dim sum with them, then having supper with Jean's sister Ginette (at Laloux). After the do on Sunday, we drove to Kingston. (We had taken Monday off.) We had dinner at Chez Piggy, which was very nice, and enjoyed our hotel view of the waterfront. Monday morning we visited some of the neat shops in downtown Kingston, then had a little lunch before driving home. That drive went much better than our Friday one.

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26 February 2006

Well, we're preparing for our trip to Spain—flying out tomorrow. Madrid sounds like a very interesting city, if a bit cool this time of year. Will still be warmer than here. We'll be there four days. Then we're in Seville for two days, probably visiting Cordoba as well. After that we're staying in Torremolinos in the Costa del Sol region. That city doesn't sound that interesting in itself, but we hope it will be a good base for visiting Gibraltar, Nerja, Ronda, Mijas, and Malaga.

I feel some extra stress in leaving, since Sandy has been sick. He caught some sort of respiratory infection which, with 20/20 hindsight, we should have had checked out immediately. But we didn't, and it threw off his blood sugar levels, and he had a very scary low blood sugar incidence—were not for an overnight glucose drip at the vet, he would have died. He went home on a lower dose, but again, had a milder incident a couple days later (which, after some panic, we managed just by giving him sugary tuna juice).

Anyway, now he's on a very low dose of insulin, and his blood sugar has checked out fine. He is slowly regaining some appetite and energy, but is still a sick cat. His white blood cell counts were still high, so he's now he's started on a second antibiotic. Our cat-sitter will actually have to take him to the vet for another blood test on Wednesday or Thursday, to see if this is the right drug combination for him. Hopefully it won't take too long to figure that out, and really get him on the mend.

In our cultural activities, we've seen a few good interesting things:

Ten Times Two. A play about an immortal man who falls in love with a woman for the first time in his very long life. Intrigued, mysterious forces (personified by a Host character) arrange to have him continually meet the woman by reincarnating her, so he can try to win her heart. Quite funny; probably our favourite at Theatre and Company this year.
Gowan with KW Symphony. Remember Gowan? Well, he's still in good voice and put on a fun show with the Symphony, playing various hits and his entire Strange Animal album.
BodyWorlds, the exhibit of human anatomy at the Science Centre in Toronto. Insanely busy, but it was quite fascinating to see. And no, I didn't find it that gross.

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2 January 2006

Jean as Santa The Gordon Lightfoot concert was excellent. He did all the big hits, and our seats were indeed excellent, as we were right front and centre. The sound in the Festival Theatre was very good—ideal for this largely acoustic set.

Another cultural activity of the month was seeing the play A Boy's Own Jedi Handbook. It's a Christmas play set in 1976, when Star Wars first came out. A Charlie Brown Christmas is also heavily referenced. It was a lot of fun.

We managed to get our Christmas shopping done in good time this year, making things somewhat less stressful. My main gift from Jean was a new 30 GB iPod—plus iPod accessories. Though it will be a slow, gradual process getting all my CDs converted, I must I'm delighted with it so far. I'm already rediscovering music I'd nearly forgotten about. We've also used it to download audio books and magazines.

From me, Jean received a variety of items: several books, including a new one about Bill Mason; some clothes, including no-pleat khaki's; a 20-year-old port (Barao de Vilar) and a nice Landmark pinot noir (delicious, I must say).

As we typically do, we flew up to Timmins for Christmas this year. We arrived the morning of the 24th and stayed until the afternoon of the 29th. I guess it was just Jean's year to be Santa (in the photo at left, he's dressed as Santa for the Pro Resp children's party), because he played Santa for the Lefebvre Réveillon also. They did a couple new things this year: 1) Used a "lime green" theme and a lower price points for gifts and 2) Played a "pass around the present" game for distributing gifts. It was fun. And the food spread was amazing, as usual.

Michelle, Hugh, Jackson, and John did not arrive until the afternoon of the 25th, making for a late Christmas this year. Of course, with them plus Isaac and Caleb, it was all over in a bit of a flurry. Notable gifts I received included gold earrings, the Wine for Dummies book, a neat "glitter" scarf, an LCBO gift certificate, and a book light.

We also had the chance to meet up with Sylvie and Paul while in Timmins, and to go to Cozy Corner restaurant for the first time in years. I don't think the menu has changed much!

We arrived back here armed with a cold, but decided to charge ahead with our gourmet New Year's dinner anyway. On the menu this year:

Fresh oysters (with lemon and tabasco); Canadian Chardonnay. Jean reports that oysters are indeed difficult to shuck. However, they were very tasty—we were almost surprised. And the selected wine did match them perfectly.
Porcini mushroom bisque; 2001 Chateauneuf-du-pape. Except I couldn't find porcini's, so substituted other types of wild mushrooms (portobello, shitake, and chanterelle). No matter, this soup was delicious. (Anne Lindsay recipe—also easy to make!)
Duck confit on red cabbage with sesame roasted potatoes; continuing with the same wine. Need to mention the wine, which we picked up in Paris. Delicious! Smooth, lot of taste, but not so big as to overwhelm the food. Nice to drink on its own also. As for the rest, the duck was nicely done (mostly a credit to whoever prepared, as all we had to do, really, was heat it up), though slightly more salty than I'd like, the potatoes were great—crispy, and the cabbage was just fine.
Chocolate fondue with decaf coffee. Not really gourmet, I suppose, but delicious nonetheless. And we really didn't have a good matching wine, so we just went the coffee route.