Danica is Nineteen

We celebrated Danica's 19th yesterday. The official birthday is tomorrow, but she'll celebrate with the other family today and her friends tomorrow. Usually, her birthday is accompanied by brutal weather, but this was a nice, warm day, the first nice birthday after the very first one.

The Card

The Food (Mexican Lasagna)

The Cake

The Girl

The Flowers (two tulips from the bouquet)

Almost the Whole Fandamily (+2 and -1)

We were sitting around, sometimes looking at old photos on the tv, when suddenly, there were two weird and amusing popups. It was the kids doing things with AI and inserting them onto the screen somehow: first one by Jonathan, the second by Danica, who was not to be outdone by little brother.

Swept

Yesterday morning, I heard a noise outside my window. I investigated in time to see the street sweeper go by, cleaning up the winter’s debris near the sidewalk where the snow gets piled. It’s almost a better sign than the return of the robins because some of those silly birds come back way too soon. Guy up the street was thrilled enough to post of the occasion on fb, and here I am blogging. Silly Canadians we be. 

BTW, the front yard glacier has now been gone for a week, and it has been raining cats and dogs with no white stuff in view.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, but I heard another strange noise outside the other evening. I looked out to see two kids playing with balls, without coats. I am not sure when I last heard or saw such a thing.

If the Shoe Fits

Just after my birthday two years ago, September 2024, I purchased a few items for myself, especially including these shoes. 

It was my second pair of that nature with slightly different patchwork than this first pair. I wore them a bit the fall of 2024 and all through last summer. They still have some life in them, but due to my stupid gait I tend to wear shoes down even though I don't walk many miles.

I've got into the habit of wearing bold, colourful shoes, and people remark on them. I think most of those commenters think I am a silly old fool, but if the shoe fits who am I to argue?

So, what to do since the company doesn't seem to produce this design any longer?

I have kept my eyes out and finally found a pair that would do. I ordered them. After that, I saw another pair, the red ones. Like the first white pair, the red ones were on sale and not very expensive, so I indulged myself. I imagine that the low price on the reds means that they aren’t exactly robust footwear, but I should be able to wear them just to go out for coffee if I want to dazzle. lol

Both pair were on a good sale, otherwise I would probably have not purchased any shoes.

While I think I will always prefer the original, patchwork shoes, I will be able to continue wearing footwear that has become a bit of a trademark. I like feeling good about something that has to do with my otherwise decrepit and sorry anatomy.

Flipping

I don't have much to report today, but I have decided not to let that stop me.

Danica had a wee scare driving our car home from her exam yesterday on the expressway. Some object or other knocked the car from below, causing Danica to fear a tire problem. Thankfully that wasn't the case. She will be off again to another exam this evening. We'll have the car for our use tomorrow, but she will sit one more exam: her final one for her first year of university, on Thursday night.

It was raining in the morning, so I played some more with crocus photos. The second one is a duplication plus a flip of the first with a border added. I see wolf's head just below the centre line in the flip. 

We did get out for a shamble in the afternoon when it cleared up. Believe it or not, the temperature was mild (17C) so we overdressed and were too hot. Go figure. It's certainly bit awhile since we were hot on a walk.

Although we passed a few more pathetic crocuses, I didn't stop to take photos. If I see a nice cluster in the future, I might still grab another photo, but I may be done.

Our New Looks

We did a little running around yesterday to ready us for Danica using our car for much of this week. After shopping and visiting the poor. little crocuses, we stopped for our traditional car-coffee break. As usual, we took a selfie. It's good to keep taking them to record the changes in our appearances as we keep on aging. 

The face paint app doesn't work as well with sunglasses.

I have been trying icm (intentional camera movement) with the phone as well as long exposures, but I am not having much success, so here is a new, regular crocus photo. The crocuses have been sparse this year and/or furled and/or withered due to the miserable weather, but I have kept trying.

I have posted the following two crocus photos previously, but I re-edited them to try to make them more interesting.

It is grey and rainy today, so we probably won't even get out for a walk.

Caufield and Carney

Sue is usually in bed when I watch my hockey games, or at least she is for the part that goes beyond 9pm.

Being a considerate sort of fellow, I keep the noise down. When a dramatic last-minute goal seals the win for my Montreal Canadiens, I have been known to simply pimp my fists and issue a silent scream.

But I yelled and whistled on Thursday night, when Cole Caufield, scored his 50 the goal of the season. No Montreal player had accomplished this feat in 36 years, and only 6 others Canadien payers have scored 50 goals in their 117 illustrious years.

There aren't many 5'7" players who can survive in the extremely rugged NHL, but Caufield has thrived after being passed over by 14 teams in his draft despite setting goal-scoring records in college. Good for him.

Noteworthy on that historic evening was our prime minister, Mark Carney, in the stands. And he was, indeed, in the stands and not hidden in a luxury box enclosure. Although a couple of seats around him remained empty, he seemed to be sitting amongst ordinary people and not surrounded by twenty secret service agents.

As a tallish sorta guy, I am happy to report that I was able to respect and admire two diminutive but stalwart men in one single evening.

Missing

This was to have been the day of visiting with C2 (child 2) for the first time in almost three years.

PJ lives in Vancouver, so we don't see them often, but they booked their flight, and we were to spend the weekend together, today being the main day to visit, with yesterday being the night flight in and tomorrow being the evening flight out.

But they totally wrecked their back and, therefore, are in considerable distress. You can't navigate to an airport and then sit in it in that condition, never mind sitting in an airplane for a long time, twice within three days, especially when you have trouble sitting for more than a few minutes at home.

Thus, we wait a little longer before seeing C2 again.

PJ is 47. Oddly enough, I had my major back attack at the age of 47. I was off work for two months, and I could barely sit at the table long enough to scarf a meal. Let's hope that C2 fares better, but they are having a very rough time at present.

I leave you with two more photos that I think I have posted within the last year. As it happens, they were both taken at the family cottage in the early 80s.