Tinkerblue

Wednesday Wish List - A Mirror, A Coffee Table and A Can of Paint

We have no full length mirror in this house. Can you believe that?  For years I've had my eye on the Mongstad mirror in black-brown.  Why I didn't buy it when I worked there, I don't know.  And now it looks like they are discontinuing it.  It's no longer on the Ikea.ca website. It is in the new catalogue on page 272.  Item # 000.815.91 $129.00.  I'm hoping the Coquitlam store still has it in stock. Lord knows where it'll go.  But we/I need a full length mirror.

 

And for the last 5 years we've been looking for a new coffee table.  This is the one I really want. Unfortunately it's in Germany. But I can dream. If you find anything like it closer to home, let me know.

 

Last but not least, a can of paint. Yes, you read that right. A. Can. Of. Paint. Right in the middle of all the pre-Olympic chaos I made hubby repaint the bathroom to this periwinkle colour.  

 

I love it.  But he missed a bit. See behind the toilet? He says it doesn't matter, you can't see it.  But I can. Every time I take a bath I see it. Now he says there's no paint left. So I want a small can of paint to finish it. It's Magic Spell 590F-5 from Behr at Home Depot.

 

 
 

Burrowing Owl Estate Winery

Years ago I had a glass of Burrowing Owl wine with dinner at a restaurant and really enjoyed it. Since then Burrowing Owl Winery has been on my list of wineries to visit.

I enjoyed our visit here.  The tasting room is an average size but the staff were really friendly.  There is a tasting fee of $2.00 (which is donated to the Burrowing Owl Recovery Society).  We split one tasting as I'm driving and hubby has to fly later.  They were not stingy on the samplings. There was more then enough in each pour for hubby and I to enjoy a reasonable taste. Unsurprisingly we pretty much liked all the whites we tried.

 

 

It's interesting tasting wine that is not yet ready for consumption.  We tasted two - a 2008 Syrah and a 2008 Merlot. Both are too young to drink, they need to be in the bottle for at least another year, preferably 5 to 7.  When you taste them, you have to caste your tastebuds into the future and imagine what the wine will became.  Neither tasted really awful. It was more like all the goodness is already there but that a little something was missing, Give them 2-3 years and they will be perfectly delicious. At least we hope so. 

 

Burrowing Owl also has a restaurant and a guest house. One day, when I win lotto, we'll go back and try both.

 

Back to Running

It's no secret that in the past 10 years I've put on quite a bit of weight.  It all started when I moved here (to Canada) and started working in a call centre.  Previously I had worked as a waitress, a lifeguard, at hotel front desks, camp counselor...always on feet, always on the move.  But a call centre? Didn't work so well for me. Sitting on my butt all day, with a headset attached to my ear, I couldn't even wander round the office.  I was bored, and I snacked all day.  Exercise went out the window.  We (hubby and I), do not have what you would call an active lifestyle.  Busy, yes, but active, no.  Worse, we eat a lot of junk. A lot. Years of laziness have caught up with me.  My IBS is worse, I get irritable easily and I don't sleep well. Can you say insomnia?

My blood pressure is good, my blood sugar is fine, my cholesterol is okay, so I've not been too concerned but I've decided it's finally time to make a change.  After all I have time on my hands. Time to exercise, time to meal plan, time to cook, basically time for me.

 

This week, my plan is to get back into a routine for exercise.  Running, swimming, walking, weights, yoga, pilates, kayaking, cycling or maybe a combination of all of the above.  We'll see. But for this week, I'll start with one thing.

The gym is not my thing.  Paying a membership fee, driving there, waiting for equipment, no thanks.  I run. Slowly.  Very slowly. I like that I just open my front door and go.  I've completed 3 1/2 marathons. I like running. It gives me time to think, to dream, to plan. Last year I tore a muscle in my calf.  It hurt. Not so fun. I've tried to run since then, but my calf always screamed.  Today I gave it another try.

 

• Running shorts - check
• sports bra - check
• drymax/coolmax/whatever top - check (see what's on it, this is the top a group of us wore for the inaugural Disneyland 1/2 marathon in 2006.)
• cute socks - check
• hair up - check
• body glide - check
• sneakers - check
• iPod - check. No wait.  Not a single one is charged. Oh well, no iPod today.

And I'm off. It's been so long since I've run that I am going back to the beginning.  I am using the Couch to 5K program. Week 1, Day 1 = run 60 seconds, walk 90 seconds for 20 minutes.  How did I feel afterwards? Better than I was expecting. No aches and pains. My calf held up well. I was out of breath and huffing and puffing and bright red in the face. I survived.

 

Notes to self for next time...

• my lips get really dry, put lip balm on before run
• my regular watch bounces round and it's hard to keep track of the intervals, find my digital watch
• charge iPod
• work out why the Nike sensor thing isn't working.  It can't possibly be dead already.
• I didn't sweat much, my lips tasted salty = dehydrated = drink more water
• need a new sports bra
• my hands swell when running, take wedding and engagement ring off before

Morag - I don't know about a 1/2 marathon in March, it may take be awhile to get back up that distance, maybe 2012?

NK'MIP Cellars

 

In all our trips to the Okanagan we have never been to Nk'Mip Cellars. Not sure why. This trip our goal was to visit different wineries. Our first stop?  Nk'Mip. Nk'Mip is pronounced In-ka-meep. It is the first Aboriginal owned and operated winery in North America. The Osoyoos Indian Band, who operate Nk'Mip, own approximately 32,000 acres of land. Including the Nk'Mip Resort -consisting of the winery, golf course, interpretive centre, spa, restaurant and accommodation.

 

I throughly enjoyed the time we spent here. The tasting room is huge and light and airy with stain-glass windows, sculptures, and artwork. The tasting staff were very friendly.  They didn't make you feel stupid and they answered the same questions over and over again. Wine tastings are free, there is small fee for tasting the premium wines, it was $2.00 I think, don't quote me on that though. There is also a free winery tour, we missed it by about 10 minutes and didn't wait for the next one (11am, 1pm, 3pm, 5pm). We'll do it next time, I think it would be very informative.

 

We tasted about 5 or 6 wines, and they were generous servings.  We were particularly partial to the 2009 Reisling and the 2007 Merlot from the Nk'Mip range.  All $20.00 or under.  Pretty good. From the premium line, Qwam Qwmt, we both liked the 2007 meritage ($30.00).  I'd quite happily serve any of the Nk'Mip wines to family and friends.

 

Down the road short ways is the Nk'Mip Desert Cultural Centre.  A real short ways, you can easily walk there in a couple of minutes.  We didn't stop, Hubby was not a museum/cultural centre mood.  I think it would be worth it. From the website "Extensive indoor and outdoor exhibit galleries create a fun, interactive learning environment with hands-on displays, education stations and two multi-media theatre experiences."

 

And I am definitely coming back to spend a night or two at the Spirit Ridge Vineyard Resort and Spa. Breakfast sitting on the balcony of a room overlooking the valley, the morning at the Desert Cultural Centre, a bike ride and a picnic lunch, the Desert Bliss Body Polish or Luxury Lavender Body Treatment at the Sonora Desert Spa, a nap, ending with dinner at the  Passa Tempo Restuarant.  Next morning I'd have eggs benedict at the restaurant, tour the winery, taste some wines, buy some wines and then head home. Hubby are you paying attention - this would make a good birthday or anniversary gift.

      

Places to Fly - Oliver, BC

 

Oliver is located at the southern end of the Okanagan Valley.  It sits in the only desert in Canada and is referred to as the Wine Capitol of Canada.

Oliver Municipal Airport is a nice airport. We've flown here many times. We like the clubhouse, with a clean bathroom, power, BBQ and in colder months it's warm.

 

 
  

The town of Oliver is about a 5-10 minute walk from the airport. Once in town there are several places to eat and if you have bikes (or are a keen walker) there are several wineries within cycling distance. I take no responsibility for the hills.  They are killer.

 

We've come here at least once a a summer for the last couple of years. Sometimes just for lunch, sometimes for a night or two in a nearby hotel, our most recent trip we camped.  Oliver airport allows camping at the airport.  You could probably camp on the nice, flat, green grass right near the clubhouse but we pitched our tent under the wing. It was a tad chilly the night we camped, so we made good use of the clubhouse, sitting inside having a beer before heading to bed.

 

200+ CDs Later

Still working on the office. One day it will be done. One day I will be 100 and get a letter from the Queen. Who knows which will happen first.

I have spent the last couple of weeks, maybe even months, uploading all our CDs into iTunes.  We have a lot of CDs. We have a lot of duplicate CDs. We own a lot of Christmas music, Great Big Sea, Spirit of the West, Sarah McLachlan, Jimmy Buffet and Depeche Mode.

 

Now they are all done. It was a long and tedious task.  Hubby refused to have anything to do with it. There's lots of memories tied up in them there CDs.  

 

These are from some of the first concerts we went to together.  Not sure if we bought the CDs before, during or after the shows, but we kept the tickets: Lilith Fair at UBC in 1997, Spirit of the West at the Orpheum in 1997 and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy at the Commodore Ballroom - 2 weeks before our wedding. 

 

Hubby went to London in 1991 and appears to spent a fair whack of cash on Depeche Mode.  Of the 33 Depeche Mode CDs about 1/2 of them have price tags on them in pounds. Here's a small selection - all from Tower Records.

 

And this one?  We used Somebody by Depeche Mode as our first dance at our wedding.  We had it on tape. Yep, tapes were still around when we were married in 1999.  Trouble was our DJ informed us less than a week before the wedding that he did not in fact have a tape deck.  We drove all over the lower mainland looking for a CD version.  We went to every Future Shop, A&B Sound, Walmart, Zellers, independent record store we could think of. We phoned every friend and family member we could think of you might have a copy. We were ready to change songs, when we finally found it with about 2 days to go. 

 

Now what do we do with all the Cds and the IKEA Benno rack? Keep them? Give them away? Throw them away? Sell them?  We'll probably leave them exactly where they are!

 

Wednesday Wish List - Charger for the GPS

We have a Garmin Nuvi 250 GPS. It pretty much lives in my car. I use it a lot.  Yes, my iPad has a GPS app, but it's a bit big to mount on the dash.  So I still use the Nuvi.  Trouble is the battery doesn't last very long. An hour at most. Some batteries were just recalled but ours was not one of them, therefore we ain't getting a new battery for free. 

 

We have a car charger for it. It works fine. It charges the Nuvi. Only thing is, I can't use it while it's charging.  I want a new charger.  I want to be able to charge the GPS and use it at the same time. That's not asking too much is it? Our model is now discontinued, but the accessories are still available on the Garmin website.

 

And a Tornado Swept Through Our House

Two of them actually.  Two 6 year olds.  Oops, sorry I've been corrected.  I spent the day with Miss "I'm 7 in two weeks" and Miss "I'm 6 and a half".  I'm also not supposed to say that I was baby sitting, "We're not babies."  (Little Miss 7 in 2 weeks is in the purple, she is the daughter of friends. Little Miss 6 and a half is in the yellow, she is our niece).

 

 

I thought we might be in for a nice relaxing day when their first activity of choice was to watch a movie. Two movies in fact.  Lilo and Stitch followed by Lilo and Stitch 2.  This required dressing up as princess first. However the nice, relaxing didn't last long, they needed something to do.  Colouring was too boring. Our Wii games were too hard for one, and too easy for the other!  One wanted to go to the park, one didn't. This could be a long day.

  

After much to-ing and fro-ing a decision was reached.  Lunch and then some baking. The unanimous decision was lunch at McDonalds. Both princesses assured me that "mummy said it would be okay."  I very much doubt that.  But that's my job - to spoil them. Their McHappy meals came with little red riding hood dolls. We took them home, raided the craft drawers and the recycling and built houses for little red riding hood. 

  
  

 
Between the building of houses and baking of smore's brownies the afternoon quickly disappeared and it was time for both Little Misses to head home. It was declared an awesome day. I guess that means the day was a success. Actually I think the highlight of they day was the 15mins I left them alone with Hubby. They climbed all over him, chased him up and down the stairs.  They were so excited and he was terrified.

 

Yep, they are sitting on the kitchen floor mixing the brownies.  

    

 

Wednesday Wish List

Some sort of cord/cable control.  To tame all that cable in the office.

 Amazon.com $14.77 for the medium
  

 Cable flags $5.87 for pk of 10 blank

or there is a whole bunch of options at The Container Store

Whatever it is, it needs to be more pleasing to my eye than twist ties and electrical tape.  Although anything would be better than the mess it is now.