Friendly Motorists

Like I've mentioned before, I like to walk or ride on the rail trail near my place. It has all the joys of being 'in the woods' but is also right beside a major roadway, so I don't have to worry about bears. Periodically the trail crosses roads or driveways, but there is good signage that lets you know well ahead of time. 

I recently encountered some friendly motorists at one of the trail crossings. On both my way through and on my way back, two different drivers stopped at the trail crossing (which is not a required stop) and waved for me to cross ahead of them. The distance between the trail crossing and the actual stop sign is not that far (see photo), so I wouldn't have had to wait very long if they went first, but their random act of kindness made my day.

I don't know if they stopped because I'm in the country, or if the drivers were just feeling super friendly, or what. Whatever the reason, it was a nice thing to do! :)

Homemade Stuffed Crust Pizza

Paula over at Call Me PMc recently posted her recipe for stuffed crust pizza. I love pizza in all of its forms, and this looked too amazing not to try. We have pizza about once a week around here and sometimes like add some variety to it (see panzerottos).

Click over to Call Me PMc to see her original recipe for stuffed crust pizza.

Here is how I made mine:

I started with my regular pizza dough (via our breadmaker).

Next, I cut up pieces of mozzarella and lined the inside edge of the pizza dough with it, and folded over the edge to cover the cheese.

Yay! A stuffed pizza dough!

Then topped and baked the pizza as I normally do.

Then I basked in the glory of having made a homemade stuffed crust pizza!

It was a really tasty variety of pizza, although John says next time we should double the cheese. I think we should put some pepperoni in there too. Lots of fun to be explored with this type of pizza. Thanks to Call Me PMc for the amazing idea!

More Pizza Posts:

Rectangle Pizza
Pizza Friday
Panzerottos
Taco Meat Pizza

Happy Canada Day!!

Happy 146th Birthday Canada! 

So obviously I made cupcakes to celebrate. I got some really festive maple leaf sprinkles at Bulk Barn and made some white chocolate maple leaves for cupcake toppers. It was my first time making a chocolate cake topper, and I have to say I just love them. I've been super inspired by all the amazing chocolate decorating over at Sugar Swings! Serve Some, and I followed her method for how to make these maple leaves. I printed out the image I wanted, taped it to the table, and put a piece of parchment paper over top. Then I just traced the image underneath using melted chocolate. Once hardened, I flipped the chocolate piece over and showcased the flat side. I love the way they look and I can't wait to try it again.

If you are on a long weekend, I hope you are having a great one! Cheers!

Blogging/Outdoor Challenge Update

Well the month of June has come and (almost) gone. I set two main goals: blog all 30 days in June (achieved!), and spend at least 30 minutes outdoors daily (mostly achieved!).

Daily Blogging

At the start of the month I mapped out thirty potential blog posts (in pencil) and did my best to write and publish them in advance. I wrote probably 70% of posts from my original brainstorm, but some posts got moved around, some ideas got pushed to July, and some spontaneous posts were written. I made sure I had a post scheduled every day (usually writing it the day before). For this last week of blogging I am proud to say that at one point I had 5 blogs sheduled to be posted. I spent all day last Sunday writing. Wouldn't it be wonderful if that became a habit?

One thing I noticed from posting so much is that I was constantly searching for material from my life. "I could blog about this!" was a common sentence I used over the past month. I also remembered to bring my camera with me when I left the house more often than not, which is a great habit to be developing. Ensuring I had a blog posted every day was a positive experience for me, and I am really proud of what I accomplished.

Daily Blogging Notable Achievements:
• I have now blogged more times in one month than any other month of this blog: 30 times (previous record was 21)
• During the month I celebrated my 300th blog post

Daily Outdoors Time
I managed to get outside 26 of the 30 days in June. I made a conscious effort to spend time outside, and even though I didn't get all 30, I was probably outside more in June than I have been all year. Which is awesome. The days I didn't go out involved bad weather or bad moods. I still haven't learned that going for a walk is great way to combat a bad mood. Maybe one day.

Outdoors Time By The Numbers:
• Number of days I was outside for just 30 minutes: 8
• Number of days I was outside for longer than 30 minutes: 18
• Number of days time was spent sitting and reading: 10
• Number of days time was spent sitting by a fire: 2
• Number of days time was spent around a BBQ: 2
• Number of days time was spent walking: 10
• Number of days time was spent cycling: 5
• Number of days time was spent both sitting + reading AND walking/cycling: 3
• Number of days with no outside time: 4

Surfing Saturday: 6/29/2013

Surfing Saturday: a weekly round up of some of my favourite links on the interwebs.

Pride Week

It's Pride Week in Toronto, so I'm celebrating with some of my favourite LGBT2Q links.

Equal Marriage

Here are some of my favourite equal marriage campaign and related videos from around the world. Have a tissue handy, some of these videos make the eyes wet.

Sinead's Hand from Ireland
It's Time from Austrailia
It's Time from Scotland
MP Maurice Williamson's 'Big Gay Rainbow' Speech, New Zealand
The Golden Girls and Marriage Equality

DOMA/Prop 8 Ruling

On Wednesday the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled that DOMA (Defence of Marriage Act) and Prop 8 were unconstitutional. The plaintiffs in the case had this amazing press conference after the ruling was announced. Presidient Obama called the plaintiffs to congratulate them, Buzzfeed showed a collection of reaction photos outside the Supreme Court, and San Francisco City Hall was made rainbow to celebrate.  Nancy Pelosi had this amazing response when asked for thoughts on Michelle Bachman's reaction to the ruling. I think I have watched that video about 50 times so far. Also George Takei wrote this opinion piece which is worth reading. There was a lot of joy on Wednesday; felt really positive and proud all day.

Pride Events

Toronto Pride is happening this weekend and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne will be the first sitting Premier to march in the parade. HuffPost has a slideshow of some of best fashions from past Toronto parades. If you are searching with Google, certain Pride related key words will turn the search bar rainbow, which is pretty awesome. Simcoe County pride week isn't until August 2nd, but if you're local you can check out Simcoe Pride for more information.

Happy Pride Everybody!!!