LUNCH AT THE ELBOW ROOM AND RAIN, RAIN, RAIN

We woke to the sound of pouring rain, which has been quite usual a sound to wake to these days. It seems the main topic of conversation lately is how horrible the weather is.

How I long for Ontario now!

Today was the day for our monthly lunch out with Bill, Dianne, Doug, Tom and of course, they let me come also! We take turns choosing a new place, which you would think in Vancouver, would be an easy thing to do, but it’s always a dreaded time, when it rolls around to be your turn to pick the next months spot.

This was our turn and next month….Doug, your up!

Tom choose a restaurant called The Elbow Room, which turned out to be quite different with really delicious food.

We heard the rumours and what you need is a thick skin to be insensitive to criticism or insults when you enter the Elbow Room. All in good fun of course!! The staff will yell at you, tease you and embarrass you and rib you without remorse.

Apparently, Hilary Swank, Chad and Rob Lowe, Tom Selleck, Goldie Hawn and Kirk Russell frequent The Elbow Room and have food on the menu, named after them.

I wonder if we’ll get a dish named after us?? Doesn’t Doug look fantastic after his accident!! Pictures shown on an earlier blog of that horrible fall he had!!

Dianne and I ordered Chicken Quesadilla and it was delicious!

Bill choice was a Spicy Beef Burrito that he said was really good!

 Tom’s perogi’s in sausage, onions and sour cream, went down in a hurry. We all had a side dish of delicious clam chowder too!

 

Doug stayed healthy smart and ordered a delicious looking Veggie Sandwich, full of avocado, alfalfa sprouts, cucumber, tomato, lettuce and mayo, and also a bowl of soup.

Sure look’s like everyone is enjoying their food. I love this picture of Dianne. She has such a natural beauty about her! 

 

One thing, I’d advise The Elbow Room is have on hand, the alcohol to make a B52! All poor Dianne and I could order is a coffee with a shot of Bailey’s. But, it was a GOOD shot!!!

Gosh, this is a TRADITION!!!

 

 Oh! What’s this? They look so serious!!!!

Dianne and I agreed, this is the part, we can just ignore and let the men handle!! Thanks guys! 

So, another fun day, with wonderful, fun friends and great conversation….especially about Bill seeing a ghost!! I believe him too!!!

When we left, up went our umbrella’s, as it was pouring harder then it had been all day! Just a plain, miserable weather day with everyone walking all huddled against the pouring rain as we jumped puddles and avoided getting splashed by passing traffic.

We took the bus over and back and it was great, as it’s quick, easy and no waiting.

We got off at the end of our street, right at a new bookstore that has just opened. I think it’s the nicest store in Ambleside and our first time to take a peek inside. It’s really a nice store, called

The Ambleside Book Barn

Fun, Funky and Fabulous!! I can’t wait to explore it more!!

Look at that cute seat made of books! How original!!

I’ll be back!! I LOVE bookstore’s!!

So much to look at!! I wonder if they would like to hire me just to be there!! For a small fee of course!!

Meaning…CASH..TO ME!!

Update on our crow family that we’ve made somewhat friends with. The baby crow, has been stuck in the Dogwood tree, all night, stuck on a thin branch, under the cold rain. At 4 AM, I woke to a bunch of frantic CAW CAW’S, and I knew something must be after the baby, so off Linda went to the rescue, having NO idea what I was going to do! But, whatever it was had been chased by the mom and dad and the baby still sat perched on the little branch. So, feeling sorry for them, I opened a can of Tom’s sardine’s and put it out there for them to feed the little one.

It’s been on that branch all night, all day today and is still there!! However, I read the biggest predator to birds that fall from the nest, is other, bigger birds, seagulls, owls and people who try to be “do-gooder’s” and save them. So, I guess it will either fly to someplace safe and dry when it gets tired of being there. The parents are still feeding it though.

Dad, has a mouthful of popcorn here.

Is anyone still watching the Eagle Cam at Hornby Island? The baby is so big with monstrous size feet! It’s been fun to watch since the baby was born, but it’s ready to “fledge” sometime in mid July!

http://www.hornbyeagles.com/webcam.htm

SPREADING THE WORD

Aren't these little birds, spreading news to each other cute?  Well,I’m plenty mad at these feathered little shits!!!

I could wring their little necks at dinner time tonight, when I went out to get the meatloaf, I had to put on the table on the deck because of a full fridge. It was covered up good with tin foil, and, without a doubt, it was those big black starling or crow and their many friends, that must have spotted the shiny foil, came to investigate, discovered a delicious meat loaf with only two piece sliced off it, and spread the word…..hey…..birds of a feather…come for dinner!!! All that was left was little birdie footprints!! We are on the 7th floor, so it had to be those big miserable critters that not only disturb my sleep, but steal our dinner now too!!!

I have another beef tonight….SHAW CABLE!!! UGhhhhh!!!! We had a notice posted in the lobby that between 8 and 5 pm, for the next week, there may be interruptions in our TV service. No problem, I can do without the programs during the day, but leave my favourite ones alone at night! I don’t watch much TV, but all week they had been advertising a Leonard Cohen special to air last night, so I got everything done, so I could sit and enjoy the special, as I’m a big fan of old Leonard! The reception was so incredibly BAD that we had to turn the TV right off, Every station was goofed up!! I was so disappointed!! We do have tickets that my wonderful daughter bought for us, as a birthday gift, to see Leonard Cohen in person, this month, but I still wanted to see him on TV!

This morning, the SHAW CABLE trucks were parked right outside our building as they have been this past few days, and if I had of been dressed, I would have gone down and told them if they mess with my favourite show “Survivor” tonight, they could possibly have flattened tires, tomorrow!!

Tom and I did a repeat visit to the hospital today for our second attempt at having my carotid artery test to see if the blood flow to my brain isn’t messing with my memory, which I’m sure was a needless test, as I think my memory is maybe not the best, but normal for 65 years old. However, I did have some doubt about this “needless” test, because I had the wrong day, which wasn’t Tuesday, it was Thursday…today! Whoops!!

Tomorrow, I find out if the test turned out normal. It was a good test, as it was done by an ultrasound technician who has done it for years and was teaching a newbie how to do it properly. It was very neat to see the blood flowing through the arteries on the monitor and hearing the whoosh, whoosh of my heart beating steadily!

It’s funny how we never give much thought to our blood flowing through the arteries, making that whoosh sound from the time we existed in the womb, through all these 65 years of life. It makes you think of how truly this amazing body of ours is!!

I just keep it keeps whooshing for a long, long time!!!

BIRDHOUSES ON OUR WALK

Note: I just found out, that clicking on a small photo brings it up larger!!! I've changed how I do my blog, writing it in Window's Live and it automatically posts to Blogger, so you can notice how the format and other things, like this collage, with background colour are extra things I can do that I'm still discovering. Clicking on this collage however will not open the picture's larger, just the small picture that I post. 

Yesterday, a sunny, yet cool day, Tom and I went for a drive over to the North Vancouver dog park, directly across from “The Sails” or “Canada Place” in Vancouver, which is where the cruise ships come into. They don’t start arriving until May of each year , which then begins  a steady trail back and forth, cruising their passengers to wonderful vacations in foreign places.

I was facing directly into the sun when I took this picture, and wasn’t even sure I had “The Sails” in view, but luckily, there it was when I downloaded the pictures from the camera this morning.

Along the dog walk, besides every breed of dog you can imagine, all enjoying a run, chasing balls, and just visiting so friendly with each of the other dogs, which never ceases to amaze me at how, when off their lease, and with other dogs, they seem to know it’s their time! It’s their playground, and also their social time. It’s just so much fun for them and joy to watch such happiness in their freedom.

But, also along the walk, are these birdhouses, on nearly every post you come across. Some made out of old computer’s, some are clowns, and some I don’t know what they are suppose to be but they house birds! Then of course there is the regular bird nest up in a tree, made out of sticks and bits of this and that. THEN I included a picture of the tree beside our bedroom window of the @%&&X* big crows or starlings that land there every morning, just past dawn, that CAW and fight with one another and are so noisy, that if I had a shotgun and a good aim…….

Last week, I tried to take a picture of 8 of them at once on the same tree, but soon as I when to shoot….the camera that is…I only got 6 of the miserable little critters!! They don’t get my morning off to a great start!!

 

There are 5 birds on the tree on this picture!! All cawing and making my life miserable!

Trying in my attempt to be creative an get a picture with the snow on the mountains with the Canadian flag in the background.

There where some little buds on that tree, but they didn’t show up.

Vancouver is a few  weeks behind with Mother Nature getting into action around here. I looked at some photo’s taken last Feb.08 and we are no where near with the flowers springing up and the cherry blossoms blooming. 

Tom sitting out of the cool wind, enjoying looking at the water, while I did my picture taking. He has so much patience!!

There has been much interest in all of our trips, and this morning, I realized that I hadn’t started to blog, when we did the Panama Canal trip, so, maybe this afternoon or tomorrow, I’ll dig out my diary and disc of that trip and show how wonderful it was. Lot’s to tell you about and wonderful pictures, so come back and travel along with me on a cruise through the Panama Canal which we took in 2006 of 07…not sure now.

We’ve been asked by some friends we met on our last cruise to Antarctica if we’d join them on a trip through Asia this Christmas. I think we may pass on this one. It’s the flights before the cruise that gets us!!