Weekend Recap

 On Friday Dave left for Scotland and my mom arrived.  We ordered pizza and had an early evening.

On Saturday Quinn had his first ball hockey game of the weekend.  It was not very spring like!

Ready for a new season!

He volunteered to be goalie.  Although they did not win, he had a number of good saves.

Meanwhile we tried to keep warm.

And even some white stuff fell from the sky

We had plans to go over and see the cherry blossoms while we were at High Park but it was so cold we just went home.  I even got the electric blanket out!  We rested a bit on the couch before I had to take E to a birthday party and then I got some groceries. 

Then I took Q over to a friend's house because my mom and I had tickets to see Nathanial Ratliff at Roy Thomson Hall. He was performing Leonard Cohen music.  

We grabbed dinner at The Library Bar at the Royal York Hotel.

As usual their lobby was looking good for the season.

It was a great show and a real treat to hear the entire symphony. 

On Sunday morning we went to church.

In the afternoon E went golfing with his friends, and Mom and Q and I did some errands and I did some cleaning. 

We made jerk chicken, beans and rick, and patties for supper. I love this meal!

Earlier in the day Q and Mom had made brownies and decorated them for Earth Day.  We enjoyed those with ice cream after supper.

These are the sheep the boys had made at Sunday school earlier. 

Meanwhile, Dave was enjoying some golf in St. Andrews.

Friday Favourites

Happy Friday! Everyone in our house is over our colds, which is good timing for Dave as he departs on his golf trip in Scotland today.  

We had a couple of warm days at the start of the week so on Monday we took the opportunity to bike to the ball diamond to practice some baseball. It was such a nice evening to be outside. 

Last week OJ Simpson died, and I was reminded of how big his trial was. I was glued to much of the trial, and I remember exactly where I was when the verdict was read.  Everything to do with that trial, including the fame of the Kardashians, is so fascinating. I enjoyed the various tweets about this (and one them said, now we know what Twitter would have been like if we had it in 1995), and I came across this clip of Dave Chappelle talking about the times he met OJ.  I love Dave Chappelle, good content.

I started a new notebook at work this week which is always a favourite.  Yes, I still use a paper notebook to jot stuff down in, and I have a paper list.

We went to the Blue Jays game last Sunday, and I posted about that here.  We were also happy to see the Jays win the series against the Yankees. 

We got our taxes done this week, yay for us!  We are expecting a refund which is always nice :)

In case you missed it, I also shared my favourite Canadian TV shows, a pretty niche topic, but some of you will appreciate it.

Have a great weekend! We have Q's first ball hockey game and the cherry blossoms in High Park will be out!

Linking up with Andrea and Erika.

Canadian TV Shows

On Peter Mansbridge's podcast the other day, he asked people to write in with their favourite Canadian TV shows. It brought back lots of memories for me as I grew up without cable until I was in Grade 6 (I think) so my only choice of television was Canadian content, and I am grateful for that. 

Some of the ones that stood out for me on that list:

Mr. Dressup - Casey and Finnigan were Mr. Dressup's friends when I started watching. I loved that he always had exactly the art supplies and costumes he needed, and that he made drawing look so easy. What a Canadian treasure. 

Fred Penner's Place - Another one of those weekday morning staples. Fred crawled through the log and then he was in this special part of the forest where his guitar was hidden and Word Bird showed up each day. I once saw Fred Penner at the airport, it was a highlight of the trip!

Polka Dot Door - This was actually on TV Ontario so I only remember this from before we moved to Nova Scotia when I was four. Polkeroo is still a reference I make. He was a character that was only ever around when the kids were there, but no adults. And then when the adults came back, Polkeroo was gone. So the reference is sort of like when someone is elusive. 

North of 60 - This was a one hour drama series, taking place in a fictional Dene First Nation (north of the 60th parallel).  The main characters were the RCMP officers - one white man, and one local Dene woman, and the various people that lived in the town. It was ahead of its time I think, and something that I didn't quite appreciate at the time was that it featured indigenous actors as real people, not just stereotype roles.

Wok with Yan - This is an obscure one, but I loved it. Chef Yan cooked up lots of good stuff in his wok, and he always had a new apron with a funny wok pun.

Street Legal - I could credit this program for my career, as I watched it when I was very young.  It was actually set in a law firm in Toronto.  They seemed so glamourous in their '80s and early '90s power suits. I think they mostly did trial work (which I do not do), but something likely inspired me.

Anne of Green Gables - This was a made for TV movie (and then it had a sequel) and I watched it so many times.  It was just perfect, the setting, the cast, the puffed sleeves, Matthew!! Anne with an E was pretty good, but nothing beats Kevin Sullivan's production. And then of course Road to Avonlea was a weekly Sunday night staple.

Much Music - This was our version of MTV, but it was actually mostly music videos even up until I graduated high school (in 1999).  Tuning into the Countdown on Friday night was a highlight of our weekends.  

The Red Green Show - This was on every day after school so I watched it a lot. It was always funny and had some great catch lines "If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy." and the Man Prayer "I'm a man, I can change, if I have to, I guess". Brilliant stuff.

And some honourable mentions - Danger Bay, The Friendly Giant, Degrassi High (pre-Drake), and The Raccoons.

I know I'm missing some, but it was fun to take a walk down memory lane. What Canadian shows do you remember?

Weekend Recap

We went to our first Blue Jays game of the season on Sunday. We love going to see the Jays play and feel very fortunate we live in Toronto and can easily take transit to the games. 

We decided to take the Spadina streetcar for part of the ride. I love this time of year, our city is coming alive after the winter and it was nice to be above ground on our travels to see all the people and the flowers starting to come out.

It was the first day of Jr. Jays so we visited some of the activities for the kids. Photo op, check out the nameplate on that locker.

And then a pose for the baseball card.

Look at those blue skies!

Although the roof was closed for the game. 

We met some friends there, but I forgot to get a phot of our whole group.  

Checking out the arcade.

We signed up to run the bases after the game.

It's so fun to be down on the field!

The game was great, the Jays won, and we had all of the food :)

Despite not taking any other photos, we had a busy rest of the weekend, including:

Watching the Masters

Kung Fu Panda 4

New golf clubs for E

Q went to a joint birthday party for two of his friends

I went to Old Navy to buy some socks and shorts for the boys

Dave and E went to Dune 2 at Imax

Dave worked on the grass and made sure the watering system was working

Q worked on his reading and voluntarily read 10 books to add to his reading log for school