Remembering my Brother, Bruce

Today would have been the 64th birthday of my brother Bruce, who unfortunately died of Crohn's Disease in 1974 at the age of 21.  Here is his formal high school graduation picture from 1971:

And this one was taken at the graduation ceremony at Killarney High School on June 4, 1971 with Mom and Dad:

Bruce was an excellent chess player and competed in junior tournaments.  He also loved DeMolay and was a Master Councillor of Beaver Chapter. I wish he was still with us.

Scottish Dancers at Sunrise

Last night I visited Neil at Sunrise and joined him in watching a special performance of the Inverglen Scottish Dancers. This is a dance group which includes dancers from age 3 to adult. They treated us to both Highland dancing and Scottish Country Dancing.  Very nice to see the young ones participate in this way.

An Evening of Knitting Inspiration

On the evening of October 20, I attended a Sisterhood program on knitting, which featured Amanda Kafka, creator of The Crafty Jackalope knitters website, as our guest speaker.  She told us about her journey in knitting and fashion design.  Her two passions came together and she began designing knitting patterns and teaching.

The Crafty Jackalope is a knitting/crochet craft website that sells knit & crochet patterns/instructions, knit,crochet kits (yarn & patterns), needles, and notions. Amanda’ brought with her some of the knitting designs from a recent trunk show.  Here are some photos from the evening, including one of Amanda speaking, and then photos of the knit or crocheted items that she brought with her to show us. Very inspiring.

She has also just published a knitting pattern book called "The Crafty Jackalope" Vol. 01 with beautiful knitting patterns. She did all of the work to create and test the new patterns, as well as putting the book together.

Four Day Cruise Getaway

October 1 to 4 I was off on a four day cruise on Holland America Cruise Line's Nieuw Amsterdam departing from Canada Place in Vancouver bound for Seattle, WA and the Georgia Strait, returning to Canada Place.  Very simply cruise just for a chance to get away from caregiving duties.  Annikki accompanied me, and Linda and Cec and Linda's cousin and her daughter came too, so we were three cabins.

After an extremely slow boarding, caused by the Port's computer's being down resulting in a huge backload of passengers, we got onboard after a 2 1/2 hour wait check in process. Much too long. The life boat drill was very unorganized and impossible to hear the crew, but we didn't sink. Very much enjoyed the food on board ship which was top notch.

We docked at Seattle at 7:00 am the next morning, and then after breakfast Annikki and I took the provided shuttle to Pike Place Market. Weather was mixed, and the market was very busy, filled with shoppers.

The flower markets were so beautiful. Huge bouquets of flowers for $10 US.

Lots of stalls with fresh fish and seafood.

After Pike Place Market we visited Starbucks (of course) for a break and to check our wifi, then back to the shuttle.  The shuttle took us to the retail centre where the monorail starts and we looked into several major stores such as Macys, Nordstrom's Rack, Gap, Eileen Fisher, etc.  Then back home for a stroll on deck.

After a day cruising Georgia Strait, we arrived back at Canada Place Tuesday morning, and then faced an ultra long wait for a taxi because of the rain. All and all a very good break.

Memories of August 25 & 26th

August 25 and 26 bring memories of family birthdays for those now gone. August 25 was Linda's birthday, she would have been 65 this year.  August 26 was my mother's birthday, she would have been 93 years old.

Here is a picture taken at Sunrise Senior Living in 2008 on the occasion of Mom's 85th birthday, her last:

L to R: Donna, Mom, Ken and Linda - August 26, 2008

Sitting on the Deck with Aunt Dorothy

Yesterday, I visited my Aunt Dorothy at the Arbutus Care Centre. She is my father's sister, and my last surviving aunt at age 91.  I wheeled her out onto the big deck facing the grass fields of Prince of Wales School and we admired the gorgeous blooming petunias - double blooms on the deck.  On sunny days, the residents sit out on this deck and the staff bring the ice cream cart around.

St Moritz's Summer Party & 30th Anniversary

Sunday, July 23, our condo owners had our annual summer party poolside and this year we also celebrated our 30th anniversary.  We were absolutely delighted that our building architect, James Cheng, and his wife, could be in attendance.

James said it was one of the first buildings he designed and he was very impressed with how wonderful it looks now 30 years later.

James Cheng & his Wife listening to the Toast

James Cheng cutting 30th Anniversary Cake

Fruit Centrepiece by Edible Arrangements from Warren & Donna

Wonderful Blueberry Tarts by Toby

Views of our ponds - turtles

Dinner out with Out of Town Family

Last night 16 of us gathered for dinner at the Westward Ho! restaurant in the clubhouse at the University Golf Club.  We had two sets of family visitors - Neil's brother's wife and her daughter from Montreal who are leaving on an Alaska cruise on Sunday, and Neil's cousin and her son from Calgary who are here for the wedding of the daughter of a friend.

Such a lovely evening, overlooking all the greenery of the golf course.  Many guests had the Beef Burger which is really outstanding, as are the Cod Fish & Chips.  I had one of the dinner specials - the halibut which unfortunately was very overcooked and dry, so disappointing.

But we had a wonderful visit and the service was really good considering the size of our group.

It is so handy to park at this restaurant and to get Neil into the restaurant with his walker.  We will definitely go back.

Making Brownies for Neil

My dear Neil has had a very difficult week with falls, lots of medical appointments, and MRI and other tests, as well as lots of back pain.  So I decided to make him some home cooked brownies to cheer him up.  I started looking through my home assembled recipe book and found his mother's old brownie recipe which his family loved.  The ingredient list included "one square" of unsweetened chocolate.

So I looked at the box of Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate that I had in the cupboard to discover that they had changed the sizing of the squares. They said on the package that four squares equalled one ounce.  Well that did not enlighten me at all as all my old recipes talk about "squares" without mentioning how many ounces they were so I had no idea.

I went online to Baker's chocolate (which is now owned by Kraft) and searched and searched to find out what the new equivalent is.  Finally I discovered that four of the new squares (which total one ounce) are equal to one of the old squares.  You think they would explain this on the box as so many recipes handed down through families just talk about "squares" as if everyone knew what that meant.

So I decided to try the recipe recommended on the Kraft/Baker's website instead of Neil's mother's recipe. Click here for the recipe.

You are instructed to melt the chocolate and butter together in the microwave on "high" which I have never seen before.  Usually you need to do it on "low" to avoid burning.  But they must have adapted the chocolate to melt by microwaving on high.

You fold in toasted pecans at the end of mixing the ingredients.

The baked brownies actually turned out darker in colour on top than shown in this picture.  I decided not to ice them as they are quite rich and chocolatey as is.  Very good - they passed the "Neil" test.