Schools Out By The Numbers

On a bike ride around the neighbourhood today, I noticed several signs that school is out and summer is upon us.

By The Numbers:

Number of teenagers seen mowing lawns: 2

Number of kids on bikes riding around in circles: 3

Number of tweens outside the corner store eating candy: 2

Number of 7 year-old boys carrying a large bag of snacks home from the store (probably sent on this mission by an adult - classic!): 1

Number of people on the trail at the same time as I was: 3

Let's All Go to the Lobby!

A few weekends ago I got to go to one of my favourite places ever - the Drive-In!  I’m amazingly close to two different ones: The Midland Drive-In and The Elmvale Drive-In. Each week I eagerly anticipate what is playing and if it seems like a good combo, we go for a fun evening of food, movies, and good times in the car!

Our recent Drive-In adventure took place at the Midland Drive-In with the following line up:

The box office opens at 8pm, but we like to get there at 7:30, so we are one of first three cars to get in.  That way we are guaranteed the “sweet spot”; super close to the bathrooms/concession with an awesome view of the screen.

Going to the Drive-In is an experience, and we always take enough supplies with us to ensure the experience is a great one.  Blankets for cuddling up in, books/magazines for reading until the movie starts, mosquito netting for the car windows so we can have them rolled down but not get attacked by bugs, windex/paper towels to ensure a clear windshield to view the movie, and of course a few treats.  There was the one time we brought a bucket of chicken in with us, but that was a little excessive, and we tend to enjoy goodies from the concession stand too.  On our recent visit we discovered that the concession stand has a new type of french fries since last year and the new ones are AMAZING!!  Large is REALLY large now, but the price stayed the same!  Awesome.  We also got a blue slushie (yum!!) and thinking about it makes me want a slushie machine in my house. :)  The Drive-In is definitely an amazing excuse to eat!

The Drive-In has a magical feel to it.  The screen is surrounded by grass, so families play catch, throw frisbees, and children run around while we all wait for the sun to go down and the movie to start.  Some families come in groups and park beside one another and pull out camping chairs and sit outside to watch the movie.  Countless people wear pajama pants (myself included) and it is just so cozy.  I love cuddling up into the blanket, wearing my pjs, and watching a movie - all in the comfort of the car!

Oh boy!  The movie is starting!! 

My favourite thing about the Drive-In, is that you can talk about the movie (or other people can talk about the movie) without it irritating anyone else.  So when we were bored with Robin Hood, we could just talk about it like we would at home and express our opinions without having to whisper or getting people annoyed at us.  The Drive-In is going to the show but you get to wear comfy clothes and talk as much as you want.  Being in the car is movie watching freedom!

Darning Her Socks in the Night

I am not good at buying things.  Correction: I am not good at buying things that aren't food or immediately practical.  When it comes to clothes and accessories, I wish I could just buy everything I needed once and have them last forever.  Sadly, most things aren't designed to last forever.

Just over a year ago I bought a new purse.  My previous purse had been purchased at Value Village for $4 as a prop for a "Going to the Office" theme party back in 2004.  After the party, it easily morphed into my everyday purse.  Five years later it was time to get a new purse, and I actually bought it from a real store and paid $25 for it.  That is big time for me.  Now, only 13 months later, the clasp that holds the purse closed has torn off.  Not because of some horribly violent and dramatic tearing open of the purse, it just tore off after a year of regular use.  Which really sucks.  The last purse was used and cost $4 and lasted 5 years.  The new one cost $25 and an integral part of it has died after only a year. Boo!  This does not bode well for my desire to only have to buy things once.

After getting over my initial irritation with the broken clasp, I was able to hand sew it back to good.  I pulled apart the clasp to see how it had been attached in the first place, then I used some duct tape (!) and some thread and sewed it back into working condition.  The clasp is super strong now and will surely have a longer lifespan than the thin piece of cloth that previously held it together.  Nice.

Fixing the purse motivated me to fix a few other things.  I sewed a hole in a pair of socks and sewed some buttons back onto some comfy pants.  With some basic sewing skills, I am able prolong the life of some clothes and accessories, thereby delaying the frequency of having to purchase new items.  Not a perfect situation but a compromise I'll accept! :)

Garden 2010 - Six Weeks Later

Six weeks into our growing season we have some positive results and some not so positive ones.

On the positive side of things we have already been able to eat some beans, peas, cilantro, basil, and romaine.  It is still early for the Romaine, but we have used some leaves to make sandwiches and burgers even better.  Super Yum!

Our tomato plants have a few little green tomatoes growing on them, even though the plants are quite sad looking (yellow in some spots).  It looks like we will get tomatoes regardless.

Sad tomato plants...

...but happy tomatoes!

The carrots, zucchini, peppers, and spinach all seem to coming along nicely, though something ate one of the spinach plants.  If it was a rabbit, hopefully it was a really cute rabbit.

On the negative side of things, we started about 25 new seeds in our peat pellets, but for whatever reason none of them sprouted.  We started a few more after that, and only a few bean, corn, and cucumber sprouts were able to be planted.  Once the cucumbers were planted, they instantly died.  For us, this was definitely not the year to grow cucumbers!

On the advice of my Green Thumb friend Tasha, I checked out the blog You Grow Girl.  We were looking for a home made pesticide, and found a tip on the site to use Neem Oil.  We found Neem Oil at the health food store and made our own pesticide.

Since spraying the plants, we have definitely noticed less bugs trying to get at our plants.  The website has countless other great tips, so if you have any questions about your garden, You Grow Girl is a great place to look for answers!

Previous Garden 2010 Blog Posts:

Plants in the Ground, Plants in the Ground
Garden 2010 - Day 12
How Does Your Garden Grow

First an Earthquake, Then a Tornado...

It is weird enough to experience one extreme natural event in a single day, but yesterday we had two: an earthquake and a tornado.

The earthquake I'm sure everyone has heard of by now.  A magnitude 5.0 earthquake on the Ontrario/Quebec border, with people feeling the effects of it all across Ontario and into the United States.  It was only brief here, about 15 seconds at most, but it was pretty surreal none-the-less. John said: "Do you feel that?", and I looked over at the TV stand and the DVDs were rattling.  And then it was over. We all went outside.  I expected to see a fighter jet flying low, bringing all the big shot G8 members to Huntsville, but none were to be seen.  It was an Earthquake.  I called family in Barrie; they either felt it or heard something weird.  I went to Facebook: at least ten people had already posted experiencing the earthquake too.  I checked twitter and it said it was over capacity; so many people were talking about it.  It wasn't long before the U.S. Geological Survey had information about it too.  My brother and I both filled out the "Did You Feel it?" survey - check it out if you are interested in expressing your experience of the event.

 The Earthquake location; from US Geological Survey

I have never experienced an earthquake before, and to be fair this one was incredibly minor.  The DVDs rattled a little and then I talked about it (as did everyone) all day.  Though we do have some fault lines here in Canada, we are really lucky that most of us thought the earthquake was neat rather than life threatening and terrifying.

Flash-forward five hours later to something actually life threatening and terrifying, a tornado struck Midland, Ontario. I have spent much of the day looking at photos, news sites, and watching youtube videos about the destruction - it is hard to believe how much damage tornados can cause.  No one died, thankfully, but many people are without homes and Midland has declared a state of emergency.

I live about 15 km from Midland, and though we were safe where we are, it is frightening that it happened so close to home.  Our friends and family live and work in Midland.  We go there practically everyday for our necessities.  If we had needed groceries last night, we could have easily driven into the storm.  It is crazy to think about.  I hope everyone in Midland affected by the tornado is okay and that people can get their lives back to normal as quickly as possible.

Here are some links to reports about the Tornado.  I find some of the video coverage shocking because I recognize all of the buildings.

Midland Mirror
CBC
CTV - with video