Penguins, Pot & Other Stuff

Kelly, an old friend of mine, dropped in to pay a visit.  Her family moved back to Hamilton a couple of years ago.  Caitlind, from my previous CNE posts, is her oldest daughter.  Well today, Kelly came to visit with her youngest one Paige.

 

She’s three years old and a real cutie pie.  Was always leery around me until about a month ago.  Now, it’s like I’m an old buddy!  Loves to play ball, eat Tim Bits and watch treehouse television.  Kelly took a couple of pictures.  Check them out!

Fantasy football playoffs are just around the corner.  Christmas is not very far away.  Poker games to organize.  Staff luncheons to attend.  Where oh where am I going to get the time?

 

Seriously, the holiday season is one of my favorites but it can sure put a drain on the reserves.  Still, I wouldn’t change it.  On this Friday the old VRS crew & Associates are getting together for lunch.  Taking place at The Wild Orchid-my rabbit dinner restaurant.  Will be nice to see so many familiar faces there.  Except for Dickhead of course!

 

Then, if all goes well, poker on December 7.  Cousin Jan, will you be there?  And how could I forget, this Saturday I am taking Trish to the Pittsburg/Toronto hockey game so she can drool over Sidney Crosby.  It’s a birthday present for my favorite lesbian; I won’t tell you how old but she reached that annual event on November 21!  Happy Birthday Sweetie Pie!

 

So there you go, if the snow can only stay away then everything will go so much better.  Here’s hoping!

An old friend, good old Eric, popped in with another friend Lorne for a visit.  You all remember Lorne from one of my earlier posts.  Well, I’ve known Eric even longer than Lorne-we go back to the age of 6 and our Blessed Sacrament gradeschool days.  Eric is another one of my camping buddies and a lot of our recent get-together was remembering some of our favorite camping stories.

 

Eric is still a very interesting person.  Great storyteller and very familiar with old Norse writings.  As a matter of fact, he was the one who introduced me to The Lord of the Rings!  Lives in Toronto now and is a self-taught computer Man for the school board there.

 

Nice to see you again Eric!  I’ve put a picture up from our little bull session.  Sitting between Eric & Lorne made me wonder if I would feel the same sitting between Yul Brenner & Telle Savalas.  All I know is that if Eric & Lorne ever put their heads together, they would make a perfect ass of themselves!

As you may have noticed, quite a few of my recent posts have been about food.  Food is an item that is always close to my heart (and my mouth!).  What makes food even better is when you can share it with pleasant company.  My earlier post about the Wild Orchid is a perfect example.

 

Had another one today when I shared lunch with the lovely Liz.  For those of you who don’t know, she is the better half (the much much better half) to Dickhead.  Hard to believe that combination.  Brings another Seinfeld episode to mind: any guesses?

 

Anyway, the two of us had lunch today at the Indian Buffet on Main Street.  Once inside we quickly checked out the available buffet items.  I won’t try to name them all because I’m not good with things like that but I will swear on a Bible that they were all delicious!  Lots of chicken, some lamb and even delicious tasting vegetables.

 

Gave us a chance to catch up on things.  Liz was the one who got me my job with the government as a vocational rehab counselor.  That’s how I first met Dickhead, although I won’t hold that against her!  It’s amazing how quickly the time went by and Liz had to get back to work.  We meant to stop and buy some 649 tickets but we both forgot.  Fortunately, Liz did remember and pick some up for us on her way home.  Sure hope we get lucky!

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of enjoying one of the best meals put before me in a long long time.  Every couple of months some of us head out to different restaurants in the city; call it a culinary exploration!  On Saturday we went to the Wild Orchid, a Portuguese restaurant on James Street North.

 

Now the fact that my good buddy Paulo’s mother works there may have helped (she cooks in the kitchen).  And the fact that his cousin owns the bar may have also been a contributing factor.  Regardless, the food was fantastic!  I was there with a group of about 12 which included Paulo and his woman Jeannine, Trish the Dish and a few others.

 

Started out with a lovely Portuguese salad.  It had a lot of greens including cucumber, banana peppers (hot & spicy), lettuce and other things I can’t name.  The appetizer was a delicious skillet of shrimp sautéed in a combination lemon/tomato sauce.  Simply superb.  Then the main course; rabbit oven baked in a lovely Portuguese sauce.  This dish also included rice & potatoes: gastronomic greatness!  Yes, there was room for dessert: a combination of pudding/chocolate/caramel/crushed Graham wafers.  Glad there was room!  All of this was washed down with some delicious house wine (red).

 

Then came the bill.  It’s like that Seinfeld episode (you Seinfeld junkies know which one I’m talking about).  You look at the bill and go "I wasn’t really that hungry" or "did I really order that".  However, once the shock wore off the smile came back on my face.  Five stars for the Wild Orchid!

This one goes back to the last poker game.  As soon as the Dickhead arrived he took me aside and gave me a "gift" from his father.  When I saw the shiny, silvery box I knew what it was.  A bottle of Chivas, my favorite Scotch!

 

It came with a nice story about Dickhead’s father losing a dear friend.  Apparently he always kept a bottle of Chivas around because that was his friend’s favorite drink too!  When Dickhead told his father it was my favorite drink, he sent it along for me to enjoy.

 

Thank you Mr. K, truly appreciate!

Went to visit Judie, a former coworker of mine, who is in the hospital.  She was involved in a horrendous car accident and got banged up pretty bad: 2 broken arms, 19 rib fractures and a concussion.  Unfortunately though, her coworker & good good friend who was sitting beside her in the car, was killed.  Of course, Judie is having a more difficult time with that than her own injuries.

 

We talked about old things and what’s ahead of her.  It was the first day things were making sense to her; lots of morphine can cloud your thinking!  Told her about my accident and losing my friend John; hopefully it will help her through this.

 

All the best Judie!

Sounds like that yearly Toronto Maple Leafs chant, doesn’t it?  My poor Tiger Cats really took it on the chin this year!  Oh well, a new quarterback and a new General Manager will certainly help.  Can’t wait till next year!

For the past few years Janet, a former coworker of mine, and I have been getting together every few weeks for lunch.  Today was one of those days.  And as an extra treat, we were joined by another former coworker-Bernice.  Some of you might remember Janet as the lovely lady who helped me put this blog together.

 

It’s always fun getting together with her for lunch.  Having Bernice with us added to that (yes Bernice, I know those words about you sound strange coming from my mouth!).  We went to our usual place-the Hunan House on King Street, just around the corner from my place (great lunch special).

 

It was a chance to catch up on so many things; office politics, old friends, family stuff.  A lot of our conversation was about a fellow former coworker who was involved in a serious accident.  She’s getting better, thank goodness, but she has a tough road ahead of her.

 

We did talk about so many things and all in all it was a pleasant getaway.  I had the pork in the garlic sauce-spicy & delicious!  Who knows, maybe Janet & I will let Bernice become a regular tag along.  You never know!

Check out the picture.  Kaleb went out for Halloween dressed up like Diego, the animal rescuer.  You should check out all the accessories he has!

 

"Uncle Tony" did pretty good on Halloween himself.  I got a lot of the candies Kaleb can’t eat because of an allergy to nuts.  Not only that, but Uncle Tony was able to collect some Halloween Tricks or Treats himself.  After all, you’re never too old to enjoy those Treats (and the Tricks aren’t bad either)!