Its a Tracy day

 Its Tracy's birthday so we are doing a Tracy day. We started by picking her up at her house at 8:00 and headed out to Telemark to do a snow shoe stomp with a bunch of our friends. I hate the cold  but it did seem to warm up once we were in the bush. Tracy always has some type of crazy hat on so we all wore something crazy on our heads to commemorate her birthday. Here we are heading into the bush.

      
I took this picture.

       Shelly took this picture so as that I could be in one of the pictures.

Rob only lasted about half the walk before he had to leave his mark.

Ruth baked an angle food cake last night for Tracy's party but wasn't happy with the results. It fell during the night so she is going to bake another one for the party.

                        

                     Here is the second cake in progress

This is the finished product. It is the combined effort of two angle cakes welded together using Bernard Calebeau white chocolate icing . It tastes great as well as being beautiful. Good Job.

We just arrived home from the big party and had a very nice time. There were lots of people there and Tracy blew out all the candles in one blow. It looked like a forest fire  when the candles were lit up .

Carrie showed up with a gift that was wrapped up in a feather wrap and a butterfly.

I sat in the back room with Rob and Ed where it was nice and quiet

     The girls all looked so good tonight. It was a very nice evening. All nice friends present.

It was a very nice evening

We had such a nice evening.  First Ruth and I went out to the Green Room for dinner and then to a concert at the Rotary Centre for the Arts. The Green Room is a little Restaurant that is located in the main floor of the parking lot beside the library.

an unlikely location for a restaurant

They brag about how this is the home of the singing servers on the weekend and they were very good. The food was adequate and the ambiance was perfect. The singing servers were excellent. We had a nice time there.  

Luckily we arrived at the Art Centre just minutes before the concert.

The artist performing was Kevin Fox. He was great.

I never thought that I would be saying that about a cello player. He brings a whole new dimension to that instrument. 

I would go to see him again in a heartbeat. We bought his CD after the concert and have enjoyed listening to all the songs.  His band was incredible and I am sorry that we didn't buy all the CD 's that they had there. Unfortunately Ruth was coming down with a cold that she caught from her singing teacher but she put on a brave front and stayed for the whole concert.

She covered herself up with my long leather coat that she needed to keep from shivering and enjoyed the concert. I love sitting near the front of the theatre where you can see the artists. We were in the 2nd  row on the left stage where we could watch the piano player and the piano. Great seats. It was a very nice evening. We need to go out more often.

Soup is in order

I was out on an ugly move delivering an upright piano yesterday afternoon . It was over a snow bank , across 50 feet of lawn , down a mud and ice slope beside a house and finally down 4 landscape tie stairs into a basement. The piano looked great in its new location and then the owner reminded me that I had promised to take their old junk up the hill and to the dump. By now it was dark , cold and raining out. My helper looked more upset than me when he heard of the plans. This was a long cold delivery. The good news was that Ruth had made 4 different types of home made soup while I was gone and it tasted great.

                                 I love her home made noodles

We went to pick up a grand piano at the Rotary Centre for the Arts that was used for the exams last week . When we opened up the trailer we saw that Bird cage junk piano from yesterday. I wanted to try to dismantle the piano and save the wood for a friend who builds things out of scrap but it was too dry to come apart easily. Dale got the hammer out and I watched and covered my ears.

I took the action and carefully packed it away for safe keeping . I hope someone can use it. Actually , this is where all bird cage action pianos should be put.

We couldn't get it into small enough pieces to fit in the BFI so tomorrow we will visit the dump.

Another lazy Sunday

We were up at 7:30 to leave for our Sunday morning walk when I notices the moon was still quite high in the south. This picture was taken around 8:15 from the pool deck and it was day light. Very unusual.

We hooked up with about 10 of our friends at city park for a nice walk along the water front past the new skating rink and thru Brand Creek marsh.We went into a section of the marsh that we had never been to before and saw this beautiful bronze sculpture of a Blue Herring. I thought it was real at first. We are so lucky to live in such a wonderful city that has such jewels as this marsh. It was a nice walk.

After breakfast at a little restaurant down town Ruth and I went to Carries place for a visit. Jack was being his charming self and had a self portrait taken with Ruth. This was a nice way to start the day.

I think the couch is calling my name right now. I better go see.  Daisy likes Sunday's as well.

It has been a quiet evening. I read a new Dwell Magazine and Ruth spent the day cooking. I love all that she makes.  She is a fantastic cook.

Enough of NAMM

 The NAMM show was very interesting this year.
I did the Breakfast meeting and then NAMM university Friday morning . All of the presenters spent all of their time giving us advise on how to promote using face book and other internet sites . It was great.

I spent the afternoon seeing my piano reps and then we went out for dinner with Dave Rooksby. He took us to a beautiful restaurant called Orange Hills that was overlooking Los Angles. The view with all of the lights was spectacular. I wish I has taken more pictures of the evening.

After the dinner we just went back and hung out in my room. Had a few drinks and called it a night.

Saturday Morning was more if the show. I had a meeting with Dave R and was finished around noon. While  leaving the show I heard a young band playing by the John Lennon bus and they were great. I lost the other guys on the way back to the car and almost didn't find them. But I did and we were on our way to Palm Springs.

Glad to leave Los Angles. Sharon got us a terrific room in the World Mark resort just past Palm Springs.

We were on the ground floor with a nice patio. The ducks were glad to see us. 

We checked in around 5:00 and went out for dinner around 6:00 . The hotel gal recommended us to this authentic Mexican restaurant. It was outside town in the desert and was where all the locals eat. I figured it would be good but is wasn't to our liking. This was real mexican food. Not the Canadian / Mexican food we are use to. Merve thought he was getting a fish taco but what he got was over the top.

                                   Check out the teeth in this beauty.

          We both thought that Merve was going to loose it after the first bite

The funniest thing that happened was that there was a Mexican guitarist playing his heart out for everyone there. At one point he came to our table and serenaded us with a song like "tie a yellow ribbon" and it wasn't the best I have heard.  Merv meant to say something like keep up the good work but he said "keep practicing" I laughed , the mexican didn't understand and kept smiling and Merv felt terribly embarrassed. The restaurant definitely created a memory for us.

California here I come

I met up with Brian and Merv Thursday morning in Calgary on the way to L.A.

The flight was non eventful and we all sat in a row talking for most of the trip.
When we landed we got Brians rental car and headed to In and Out burgers.I had gotten a gift certificate for Sharon to have for her birthday dinner this November when her family was in California. Unfortunately for her I couldn't get it to her before they left. Fortunately for me
I knew that I was coming in January and that it wouldn't be wasted. I had to take this picture
showing my pleasure.

We told the manager that we were from Canada and had heard about how great their burgers are and so he promptly presented with decals for our bumpers and official in and out burger hats.

I'll give mine to Sharon.

We headed to the show, got our passes and hooked up with Wayne. Found Norbert and then headed to the international cocktail party.  It was nice but the food wasn't as good as other years. It was over by 8:00 and so we all headed back to my room because it was the largest room.

                                                          Merv Smiling
                                              

                                                  Wayne Smirking

                                              I think Brian was about to kiss Norbert

                                            Enjoying each others company

This was a great day . It was really nice to hook up with my friends in the Music business.

I'm leaving tomorrow

Today was very busy. I don't know where the time goes. First it was 6:45 and I was waking up and as soon as I was conscious of the day it was 3:30 in the afternoon and it seem like I had done about a million things. Ruth wanted to go to zumba for 9:00 A.M.  and when it snows we don't like to drive down the driveway without it being shoveled because it packs the snow and we can't get the Benz up after that.
Long story short  , I was out with the snow blower at 7:15 and Ruth was out with the shovel doing what the snow blower missed. There was at least one foot of snow. Horrible to shovel but beautiful to see.

Lots of snow. We started in the dark and finished Just before 8:30.  Ruth missed zumba. the traffic was very slow going to the H2O centre.
While she was gone I worked on the new bathroom that we put in the basement.I really wanted to get it finished before going to the NAMM show in L.A because I was worried that Ruth might hire a tiler to do it while I was gone. I am so cheap that I hate to hire someone to do a job that I think I can do. She said that she wouldn't do that without talking to me but it was good to get me motivated. I think it is going to turn out nice.

I'll finish this job when I get back from NAMM. I'm off to bed cuz my L.A. adventure starts at 6:00A.M.

It was a Busy Sunday

We usually start out with a nice hike on Sunday morning and then breakfast with about 8 friends but I slept in this morning. I love my sleeps.

I woke up around 4:00 in the morning and spent about an hour cruising the net. When I woke up I was thinking about bed bugs for some reason and wanted to read up on how to avoid them . You tube has a video on whatever you can think up and they are usually very informative.

I slept until 8:00 and then headed to the store. 

Dale and I moved a small electric grand from the Green Room restaurant to Actors Showcase. they needed it for a play coming up this week . After that we moved a 5'10 Hailun to the Art Centre which is going to be used for the piano exams next week.  I like moving pianos with Dale. He knows what to do and doesn't make any dumb mistakes like my last helper.

 That Rotary Arts Centre is a great building. I like the fact that Ruth and I are affiliated with it . I find myself dropping in there for coffee now and then just because everyone there knows me and it feels right. Plus the fact that Carrie is the building engineer and she sometimes buys me the coffee.

After we finished moving the 2 pianos Dale and I stopped for lunch before heading back to my store .  We spent about an hour rearranging all the pianos to just give it a fresh look. 

I like a change now and then.

When I left the store I called Ruth to see if I could talk her into a walk before dark.

She was by the door with the dogs when I pulled up the driveway. We just walked to the nude beach and back. The dogs loved it as much as we did.

Now we are going to relax and enjoy a nice glass of red wine before dinner. This sure is fun.

65 is a big year

We were invited to Randy and Carol's home for a birthday dinner/party on friday night to celebrate her 65th year on earth. I had a picture of her sleeping on her deck at the Denman Island house with a wine bottle beside her head and had it mounted into a coffee travel mug. I thought it was funny.

The appies were great as was the company. I am not a great seafood lover and the dinner was paella which was a very expensive and complex dish which is wasted on me .

The table was set beautifully and we got to enjoy the first fire they have ever had in their fireplace.

Ruth built a beautiful chocolate birthday cake which said "Happy 65th Carol" and then adorned it with a cluster of candles which were the type that you can't blow out. That was funny.

Here our wonderful hosts are saying good night to us. It was a wonderful night. I'm was full ,  I hardly offended anyone and everyone was still talking to me. Life is good.

Thank goodness they finally left

Another nice day

I had a tough time falling asleep last night so Ruth let me continue sleeping when she left for Zumba at 8:15. After she left and I had a coffee and then I went down the basement to work on the new bathroom that I am putting in . I have been a little slow on getting it done but as soon as Ruth started talking about getting someone in to finish the job I found my motivation. Nothing moves a Scotsman faster than him thinking he may have to give up some of his money. Hopefully it will be finished this week.

Ruth picked up Jack around 10:00 and brought him home with her. I came upstairs while my tiles were setting and we watched Big Bunny on my computer. He loves that story. He's such a sweet kid.

He seems to always be happy and always ready for some new adventure. Here he is telling me what he has planned for the next big adventure.
He just had a big sleep and now is starting to eze into the evening. Nothing like an apple to snack on and a warm lap to cuddle on.

Its been another nice day hanging around the house.