De-Nesting Diaries: Sunday, March 17th, St Patrick's Day!

Words differently arranged have different meanings, and meanings differently arranged have a different effect. -Blaise Pascal 

Ray, 

Sounds good. Lemme know. Could be a bit blustery. G

Hi Corinne & Patrick, Friday evening would be great. I am glad that your travels allow us to connect. Sorry that I will miss Dusty & Clara. I assume they are flying back. Hopefully the weather will be better by then. This has been a brutal winter. What time would work on the 12th?  Ann

Please come around 6:30, Best Corinne

See you then, Ann 

Two British cooks at the Vatican upset the new Pope this morning, his first day in office.

All Tina Smith and Marge Brown asked was, "Does the Pope want a Full English for breakfast?"

Apparently, annoyed by the Falklands situation, the new Pope was reported to have replied, rather tersely - "Don't fry for me, Marge and Tina..."

Hi Pat,

Bella was taken so swiftly, it is sad and mysterious…there will be a lot of crying at her service.

…

And on a much lighter note -- you are funny, Tia would be laughing uproariously and would be in there making cards without a second thought. I really like the idea of postcards, I’ll have to get her started on that one! We will all live happily ever after if Tia could drop out of school and start her business now!

Tia had a great evening at Grouse, and I hanging out with the parents. George also had a fun time with your in-laws on Friday night. 

Hi Jimbo!

Managed to get out to UBC on Sunday afternoon after I took Chloë over to the loft and we did a few things. I painted a spot that had been missed, high up on the outer wall, above the picture window. She held the rickety ladder while I covered over the bare patch. Cora Lee came over after praying for my black soul so I left the two to sand and oil the stairs. (They were quite pleased with how well the wood came up with just on application of teak oil. Poor staircase hadn't had any love and attention for some time so the steps were very dry. Will probably give it a couple more applications and then not bother with Varathane. This way Chloë can treat it every six months or so, quite easily.
 

Once home I suited up and headed out to UBC as I knew Seawall to SP would be a zoo, given gorgeous weather. Just a regulare, out along Spanish Banks, up Forshore Hill and along MD to Crown and back to MD via a short loop through Musqueam. (By the time I set off I guess the wind had lessened, relative to your epic, heart stopping experience so return along MD or outgoing parallel to Spanish Banks wasn't overly punishing.) Turned up to cycle through Wesbrook Village and past the new Grade 9-12 Secondary School on West 16th Avenue. Looks like a number of sports fields are under construction adjacent to the school itself. Bit of dipsy doodling around campus proper, along Main Mall which has just been completely re-landscaped. Must say, am quite impressed with the way the concourse now looks. Guess Campus Planning have finally been able to bring a coherent design to bear on what was a mish-mash of styles along this core, arterial east-west now pedestrian/bike only corridor.

Had a time constraint as we had been invited for bridge/dinner that evening and I was under strict orders to be home no later than 5:00pm in order to showered and changed to leave by 5:45pm. This was impetus enough to push me to keep my speed up enough to break my goal of at least averaging 20 KPH. Pleased to say that I managed 53.6 K over 2:31:01, AVG 21.2 KPH, MAX 52.2 KPH, especially since I hadn't really ridden for a number of days, with pesky inclement weather.
 

Had a lovely evening with Elaine and Ted Keating and I finally met their new grand-daughter, Hazel, a 10 month old cutie-pie! Polly and Mick Carter were along as well so we had fun hearing about their recent trip to California where they did a fair bit of cycling, more than wine tasting to Mick's dismay! Rosita and I took top spots so came away with armloads of fantastic bridge prizes! Elaine's meals are always something special and one of the tastiest dishes was bbq'd halibut kebabs. They have a Haida Gwaii connezzione. In fact it is a fisherman friend of Severn Cullis-Suzuki who is married and lives with her husband and two children there. Stephanie, E's/T's middle daughter, went to school with Severn. In the early 2000's, (can't remember exactly when), she and Stephanie, along with a group of like-minded friends, cycled across Canada. One of the stops on the enviro-eco tour, (her dad's Prius, the first one sold in Canada, was one of the support vehicles!), was at Falcon Lake to stay overnight with Clara and Dusty! For dessert, along with a number of other wonderful desserts, Elaine had baked some delightful St Patrick's Day cookies, shaped as shamrocks, pots of gold and leprechuan's hats.