Pocketful of Memory Cards

Some of my friends who aren't on Facebook have asked me to post more New York photos on my blog.  I'm happy to oblige though I'm saving a few for special posts when my life is less busy and I can give them the attention they deserve.  I took over 1,200 photographs so it's going to take some time for me to do some serious culling.  Here's a few shots I'm happy to share for now. Times Square in the day time Tracy and Christina at the top of the Empire State Building Looking south The beautiful Chrysler Building as the sun goes down  The next five photos, up to and including Times Square are from the night bus tour. Empire State Building From the Washington Bridge Times Square at Night 30 Rock

Along with changes to our front yard's landscape we are also working on some kitchen renos over the next few weeks.  This led to the unfortunate task of wallpaper stripping. I hung a floral Waverley wallpaper in my kitchen in 1997 after I easily stripped the original wallpaper off two of the walls.  At the time I  decided  that the gunky glue and specks of paper I would need to remove in order to paint required more effort than I wanted to expend, so instead of painting, I re-wallpapered.  As it turns out that was not a good idea.  The newer wallpaper was very stubborn and despite home remedies of hot water, vinegar, and cheap fabric softener I had to break down and rent a steamer. I spent most of the past weekend scraping and peeling small strips of paper off the two walls.  The patterned layer came off in thin pointy strips followed by the linty beige under-layer which required  a bit of peeling, but more scraping and shaving.  Later, smears of glue and tiny paper bits were

Who remembers the episodes of Friends with Paolo ?  That show single handedly turned "Paolo" into a synonym for handsome-romatic-Italian-man.  As so often is the case however, reality is not the same as television (no matter what Mark Burnett says). Here's a transcription of this morning's online "chat" with Paolo on Telus (a Canadian Phone, Internet and Cable provider).  Though Telus cannot send your bill to your email address due to issues of confidentiality, they are supposed to send you a month reminder to view your bill online.  I hadn't realized this and was going to the website to view my ebill once a month.  With my bad memory, this wasn't working for me.  I "chatted" with Karen who told me I could change my profile to receive the email reminder and she sent me on to Paolo to work that out.  Here's what transpired: 7:15:53 AM PDT : Paolo:   Thank you Suzan! Your account PIN is (**** ). May I know if you are trying to regi

After watching our pine tree do a wild figure-8 dance during a windstorm this spring, we came to the sad conclusion that it was best to take the old tree down. At an estimated eighty to one hundred feet high and probably one hundred years old, I hated the thought.  It wasn't just the cost, it was because it seemed like a fairly healthy tree despite the many holes in it's trunk put there by the the pileated woodpecker and the many flickers that visit in the spring.  Add the fact that we were finally paving our driveway after sixteen years which required doing some rock work around the roots and we decided that for the safety of our house and passers-by, it had to be done. Friday afternoon I spent three hours photographing the proceedings as Tony Wilkinson and his crew from Action Tree (Any tree, anywhere) did a very professional job and taught me the recipe for tree removal: 1.  First you need one big-ass crane: Brandon... 2.  Add five lumberjacks:

Yesterday, I stopped by My Country Garden, to pick up supplies to make this years batch of dill pickles.  Surprisingly it took me three stores before I found any pickling vinegar.  It's not that they were sold out, neither Extra Foods nor Stooperstore even had a spot of the shelf for it.  What's up with that? I couldn't resist these cute little eggplants, though I had no idea what I was going to do with them. I ended up roasting them with some olive oil and chopped garlic.  They were delicious along with the steamed corn from Don-O-Ray, pork tenderloin from Mission Meat and caprese sala d with cherry and pear tomatoes from our own garden and boccocini from Valoroso .

Soon after we'd moved to Kelowna in 1995 we took a short hike over a few of the Myra Canyon trestles with visiting relatives. Each June since then, I've declared "..that this will be the summer we finally bike the Myra Canyon Trestles". In January 2003 my desire to do the trek was renewed when Myra Canyon was designated a National Historic Site.  Then sadly, nine months later, 12 of the 18 trestles were burned in the Okanagan Mountain Park Fire .  I was rather annoyed with myself for not taking advantage of the opportunity to experience this beautiful trail.  How devastating it must have been to the dedicated volunteers  who beginning in 1992 spent three summers repairing and making these trestles safe, building a 4 foot boardwalk across each trestle, putting up guard rails, constructing benches at various lookout points and posting interpretive signage.  All labour, material and equipment was donated and once the restoration was complete, the volunteer grou