Fish In The C - Mary and Bob "HAVING FUN"

Catching Up with Some Art Work

2011-12-04T18:17:00.000-08:00

Wow, I've been neglecting this blog - I am so sorry.

I'll show you something I painted up this summer. :o)

I finished a Cheshire Cat (from Alice in Wonderland) Table / Magazine Rack

and

an painted up an old metal gnome that some friend's found in their garden. LOL He had a peg leg, so I KNEW I had to paint him up as a pirate.

Bob's going to start making his own Comics

2011-11-26T14:31:00.000-08:00

So, Bob loves to draw and sometimes he has gone to classes where they have models and he sketches them. It's pretty impressive to see the work he has done. He has always liked Manga art, so that is the next step he is going to learn, but one day decided he was going to make up his own comic based on the two of us and our life together.

This is the very first one he has created. Enjoy!

Introducing THE THROWBACKS - Local band in the Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada

2011-04-02T08:40:00.000-07:00

LINK TO The Throwbacks FACEBOOK PAGE - CLICK HERE

The Throwbacks are a five piece cover band who play a wide variety of guitar-based, 1980’s rock music. The members of the band grew up with this music and play it with passion. Band members include Will (vocals/guitar/harmonica), Twan (lead guitar & vocals), Tony (drums), Dave (bass guitar) and Tom (rhythm guitar). All of the members have stable day jobs (four are professors at Niagara College, the other a service technician), but playing with The Throwbacks is something we all look forward to and we bring that energy to our shows.

Each of them has a long-standing background in music, with all of of them having played in bands or other musical venues. Lead guitarist Twan has played with many local Niagara bands over the past 20 years and works actively in the studio. Tom played guitar in various cover bands and used to organize the ‘Brock Jam’ back in the early 1980’s at Brock University. Tony played drums with various original bands since the 80’s. He was also part of the Ottawa music scene in the early 90’s. Although he started on the guitar, Dave took up the bass four years ago. He has played coffee house venues during his university days, done numbers at various weddings, and plays bass in a church praise band. Will played in various bands with friends (Wayward Sons) and loves to sing harmony and has honed his skills via Beatles Rock Band.

The band covers material by artists such as The Pretenders, U2, The Police, The Clash, Dire Straits, The Romantics, Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks, Teenage Head, Oasis, and a wide variety of ‘one hit wonders’ (songs you forgot you loved) from this period. The material they cover ranges from laid back grooves to faster rockers, with some reggae beats, slower & softer tunes, and the odd pop-punk gem to add some variety.

While The Throwbacks have only been in existence since May of 2010, the band has played a number of large gigs including the Rankin Run for Cancer (where we played to 7,000 people), the Niagara College orientation, and various other Niagara College events. In July & November we played at the bar Different Strokes (Grimsby) and returned in December to host their New Year's Eve party (2010). They have also played at The London Arms and at Johnny Rocco’s in St. Catharines. They hope to keep playing live, gain more experience on the local bar scene and continue to appear at larger scale events in the Niagara community.

GO TO THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE (LINK AT TOP OF PAGE) TO SEE WHEN & WHERE THEY ARE CURRENTLY PLAYING

THUNDERSNOW - 02-26-2011

2011-02-27T10:23:00.000-08:00

While watching CHCH NEWS (Channel 11) on Saturday, February 26, 2011 at 6pm, Nicola Jones (Weather Specialist) had reported we would be getting THUNDERSNOW for Hamilton and the surrounding areas. I was trying to tell people on Facebook that she had said that and I don't think they believed me, so the next time she popped on the air I quickly recorded her actually saying it. LOL

Video of a Track Grinder Train - 02-12-2011 - Jordan, Ontario, Canada

2011-02-23T10:20:00.000-08:00

Well, darn it all - we had a big snow storm a couple of weeks back and our poor little train set has been covered in deep snow and . Blah! Not even Bob's little shovel can go through it and even if it did, there is ice on the tracks that our locomotive won't stay on the tracks.... (sigh)

Tonight we were huddled upstairs (It was approx. 10:41pm) - Bob was watching TV and I was doing some computer work. We had the fire scanner on (which we have on from time to time). A local call was dispatched to some area volunteer fire stations. It came in as a possible structure fire at Victoria Avenue & the North Service Road in Vineland. Yikes, yesterday was not a very good day for the region as we had a lot of fires (Click Link Here to see the St. Catharines Standard Story DAY OF FIRE, TRAGEDY) not to mention we saw an actual Shed Fire just off of 4th Avenue in St. Catharines when we were coming back from EB Games. But then as crews were showing up on scene and not seeing anything it was reported as a possible train which had cars derailed, but it was still moving east. We realized that was coming our direction. We heard how they might be shutting down Victoria Avenue in Vineland as cars drive underneath a bridge. We were on the edge of our seats, and then someone came on the scanner saying it was a Rail Grinder. I looked at Bob and scream "HEY!!! This is our chance to see one!!!" Without a second thought, we bought grabbed our cameras, put on some shoes, grabbed our coats and ran out to the backyard. We had to wait approximately 15 minutes, but slowly the train made it's way up the tracks towards St. Catharines and we were able to capture this video.

I feel bad as I was updating my brother when all this was going down (as he is a fire fighter) and I totally left him hanging. Oops, we heard it was a Rail Grinder and I forgot to send him a message that we were dashing outside, so he was left hanging for 20 minutes until I messaged him again. Poor guy. LOL

Wouldn't that be a neat item to have for a G-Scale Track. LOL!!!!!

CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR G-SCALE TRAIN BLOG

Thorold Community Theatre Presented - ANY NUMBER CAN DIE

2010-11-19T05:19:00.000-08:00

CLICK ON THIS PHOTO TO READ THE NEWSPAPER ARTICLE

BY NIAGARA THIS WEEK by Paul Forsyth

PHOTO: FROM niagarathisweek.com

Thorold Community Theatre Presents

"Any Number Can Die"

by Fred Carmichael

Co-directed by

David Scears and Jeff McKinnon

A hilarious take-off on the mystery plays of the late Twenties complete with sliding panels, robed figures, wills being read at midnight, etc. The idioms, costumes, hairdos, and make-up of the period add to the thrills and laughter. Four ingenious murders take place in an island mansion as a pair of elderly detectives set to work on their first case. The ever-popular storm, the unexpected guests, the cryptic poem, and the missing fortune all add to the intricate and inventive mystery off which the laughs bounce.

Performance dates and times were

Fridays, 19 and 26 (2010) @ 8 pm

Saturdays, 20 and 27 (2010) @ 8 pm

Sundays, November 21 (2010) @ 2 pm

Located at:

Trinity United Church

15 Pine Street South, Thorold

LOTS GOING ON - 11-13-2010

2010-11-14T12:09:00.000-08:00

Hey all, sorry for not updating this blog as often as I should.

We have been busy with Bob's G-Scale Train Layout.

Take a LOOK: CLICK HERE

My Husband Looks Like a Pet Shop Boy

2010-10-26T08:49:00.000-07:00

Bob is going to be in an upcoming play and had to go to a dress rehersal. As soon as I saw him I gasped "OH MY GAWD DUDE, YOU LOOK LIKE NEIL TENNANT FROM THE PET SHOP BOYS " LOL!!!!!!!!!! What do you think? (WINK)

Crazy May 24 Fireworks 2010

2010-05-25T03:31:00.001-07:00

On the weekend we got together with Bob's sister and family. We had a nice dinner and as the day turned into night we ventured into a local park (as other families in the area did) and lit off some fireworks. Bob and I decided to purchase some crazy fireworks. We spent close to $300.00 - ya, a little crazy, I know, but we haven't purchased fireworks before so we decided to go big.

One firework decided it didn't want to stand up-right when it was going off.

Bob made a movie of what happened.

More of Bob's G-Scale Train Photo Fun

2010-04-03T19:06:00.001-07:00

So with the nice warm weather we have been having this weekend, we were able to go and get some ground covering plants from Bob's mom to transplant into the area where Bob is planning on putting up his train track. He decided to take some photo's of what he had been doing. Enjoy!!

NEW G-SCALE TRAIN BLOG: www.gscaletrain.blogspot.com

YELLOW SUBMARINE - Wow, Neat Items!

2010-03-09T06:37:00.000-08:00

As you know, I love the Yellow Submarine. I was searching around the internet and found these interesting items I would like to share with you. :o)

Yellow Submarine Painted Table - CLICK LINK TO SEE MORE FROM THE ARTIST

YELLOW SUBMARINE CAR - CLICK LINK FOR BLOG ENTRY

Yellow Submarine Lego Art - CLICK LINK TO SEE BLOG ENTRY

YELLOW SUBMARINE STAINED GLASS (Photo is copyrighted so I couldn't copy it, but feel free to follow the link to see it) - CLICK TO SEE STAINED GLASS WINDOW

Someone created their own Yellow Submarine out of Tins - CLICK LINK FOR BLOG ENTRY

Someone painted a propane tank - CLICK LINK FOR BLOG ENTRY

MOSIAC ARTWORK FROM YELLOW SUBMARINE - CLICK LINK FOR BLOG ENTRY

Someone made a YELLOW SUBMARINE CAKE - CLICK LINK FOR BLOG ENTRY

Awesome looking Yellow Submarine Recycled Artwork - CLICK LINK TO GO TO ETSY LISTING

Someone painted this and is selling it on Etsy - CLICK LINK TO SEE ETSY LISTING

LORNA BAILEY BEATLES YELLOW SUBMARINE TEAPOT - Found on an Ebay Auction - CLICK HERE FOR LINK

YELLOW SUBMARINE HAND-PAINTED PIANO FOUND ON EBAY UK - CLICK FOR LINK HERE

More G-Scale Fun

2010-03-03T08:19:00.000-08:00

This past weekend we decided to have a "Lazy" Weekend - which means we don't go out and spend any money. Instead we play Animal Crossing City Folk on the Wii or we get crafty. Bob decided to put his foot down and finish a G-Scale Building he started to build last year.

You remember it, don't you? If not: CLICK HERE

And now Ladies & Gentlemen, here is the "SHED THAT BOB BUILT"

Bob just loves taking photos of his creations. Now, if I can just get him to build me my own Tim Hortons & Ikea. LOL

We have started a new G-Scale Train Blog - www.gscaletrain.blogspot.com

Happy Valentines Day 2010

2010-02-14T09:19:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are, February 14, 2010 - Valentines Day!

But let's back up to the 13th. Bob and I decided to celebrate it a day early figuring the places we wanted to go would be busy because it was on the actual day.

We got up early and planned our day. I had heard that the Butterfly Conservatory in Niagara Falls was going to have a special this weekend where people would get to try and eat bugs. WOW, talk about romantic!!! (GIGGLE)

We jumped in the car and headed out. When we got there, the place was buzzing with people. We purchased our tickets and went inside. We were handed "bug treat" tickets so we could sample what they had. We walked over to the area they had set up and were given small sample sizes of Cricket Energy Bars (very chewy but good) and a cup of Wasp Juice (I heard it suppose to turn fat into energy) it was sweet. We were then told that there would be a BUG COOK-OFF at 12:30pm - we arrived just after 11:00am so we decided to go see the Butterflies and come back later.

We had never been to the Butterfly Conservatory before. It was magical. Thank goodness we hung our coats up earlier as it was humid inside the domed area. Beautiful plants and different butterflies and moths flying all around. Almost immediately, Bob had one land on his face and everyone that was around gasped and Bob flinched so I wasn't able to get my camera out in time to take a piccie. He was wearing Red and I was wearing Purple. During that morning he must of had 5 or 6 different butterflies land on him, alas, I only had one which was for a mere second as I was trying to take a piccie near a butterfly bush and it landed on my finger, no time for a piccie.

After an hour or so, we were done with taking photos and going around a couple of times, plus it was getting a little crowded, as we wanted to take photos and stand still so the butterflies might land on us, little kiddies started running around trying to grab them, it was no use.... we departed and decided to go see how the cook off was going.

The first treat was Crickets & Rice -- MMmmmmm!!!

The other yummy treat was crickets in white chocolate and crickets in some sort of toffee peanut butter brittle. It was equally as yummy. We were asked to vote on each item, so since we enjoyed both, we decided to each vote on one.

We decided our next stop would be in Niagara Falls again at the Bird Kingdom Aviary.

Lots of beautiful birds flying around. Loved it, but again, being a weekend, lots of kids running around trying to grab at the birds. We were lucky enough to have this one sit and let us take a photo of it close up, but as we left it, kids came running from all directions grabbing at the poor thing and it flew off. We even had the chance to have a parrot sit on each of our arms and had a photo taken (You aren't allowed to take your own photo of the parrot on you, but we chose not to purchase those photos as we decided to have our photos taken with some other interesting characters which you will see in a second).

I was sooooooo thrilled about having these photos taken I didn't mind paying the $21.00 plus to get the three. What a chance of a lifetime for me anyways. :o)

And as our day was coming to an end it was decided we would drive to Niagara On the Lake to the Angel Inn for a drinkie. We were both tired and hungry, so we changed our mind and ended up having dinner. We started off with a Beer each and Brushetta, moved on to split something called Chicken & Peach Pot Pie which came with fries and peas and carrots and for dessert, Creme Brulee. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!

For me, this was the bestest Valentines Day gift, spending time with my Soul Mate and having lots of fun!!

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!!!!

More Painting Time

2010-01-14T05:45:00.001-08:00

So I'm catching up on projects we started before Christmas and ended after Christmas.

As you know, Bob was in Nunsense A-Men - and reconnected with some actor friends he had when he was in previous plays (before he met me). One such friend was Ian. After meeting Ian, I made him my friend on facebook and learned he was recently engaged to a lovely girl named Laura. I decided since I was a "Theatre Widow" that means Laura would be (GIGGLE). So I added her as a friend and we got chatting through messages on and off and learned she is a big big animal lover. She had LOTS of photo's she had taken and one I fell in love with. Ian and Laura had bought themselves a St. Bernard puppy and named him Beethoven.

As you can see, this photo is awesome - he's just so adorable. I then decided I just HAD to paint this photo. I really enjoy trying to paint animals. The scary part was not knowing how Laura and Ian would react, I didn't know them well. I had only met Ian a couple of times and had not met Laura (Still haven't (GIGGLE) hopefully that will change soon. ;o)

I decided I would work on it in painting class, since I knew I would be able to work on it weekly without interruptions from everyday life situations.

I finished it just before Christmas and I we rushed to where Ian worked and waited over an hour to give it to him as he was busy with customers. He seemed pleased and the message I received from Laura confirmed it that they really really liked it.

May I present to you............ the painting of Beethoven The Puppy.

Another painting I did before Christmas was a mirror for our friend Xander's son Alex. Heather, who is Xander's wife's Mom had requested I paint a Hulk Mirror as a Christmas gift she could give to Alex. I was tickled pink at being asked. She said she really liked the mirror I had painted Xander & Heather as a wedding gift of a pirate map, so I jumped all over at the chance to paint it and again, everyone seemed super happy!

We also decided to paint some rooms in our house before Christmas. We moved our bedroom to the front of the house and in one of the spare rooms we made it a walk-in closet. Not sure if it is temporary or not, we are liking it so far, this way our master bedroom would be our dining room since it is off the kitchen, just makes sense.

So we started off with the beige walls the house had when we moved in and 3 months later we had insullation blown into the walls which they had to put holes in the wall, so for a year we lived with the holey walls. lol

So from Beige we went to Blue & Beige -- but now we are thinking of changing the beige to a design, so stay tuned when we are finished that. heehee!

Trying to decide what do as the window covering......... I'm not liking what is there........ any suggestions??

In the walk-in closet, we went from Beige to four colours - orange, lime, purple & yellow.

In the new dining room we went from light green to Turquoise, Red, Yellow & Purple.
LOVING the colour!!!!!!! We moved the tiffany lights into this room too. Bob finished up the Yellow Submarine Mural he made out of construction paper and hung it on the wall last night. The Giggle Sign you see, mysteriously appeared one morning this week and for the life of us we couldn't figure out where it came from. It was discovered it was my Uncle -- We were a little freaked at first so we took it down and moved it into the house, but I'm thinking by this coming weekend it will be moved back outside as when spring comes, I really want a whimsical looking yard.

Here is the Giggle Sign when we found it:

My next painting assignment is another dog, this one is owned by my cousin, his wife & daughter. Hopefully I will do the dog justice. lol Stay tuned!!!

Allergy Test

2009-11-24T05:12:00.000-08:00

So, yesterday I had to go for an allergy test.

For as long as I can remember my nose has always been plugged and runny. Blah

I decided the last time I went to my regular doctor to tell him about it and he sent me on to a nasal specialist. I had to have sinus x-rays done and then when I went to the specialist he prescribed me Nasonex and told me my problem was probably due to allergies and he would send me on to an allergy specialist. (Plus I had pylops forming due to the allergies)

Bob and I took the day off work and we went early to the doctor's office and sat down in the waiting room. There was another lady beside Bob who obviously had just had her test done and was waiting for results as the sleeve of her shirt was rolls up and she kept looking at her arm. I quickly glanced over at it and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. About five minutes passed and she let out this gasp "OH MY GOD". Bob and I quickly looked over and she had a series of large imflammed looking dots appearing on her arm. She told us she seems to be allergic to everything. She was being tested for food allergies. Poor soul!!

After a while it was my turn. I followed the doctor into the observation room and he said "I can tell you are nervous, are you?" "NO" I quickly replied. He got a smirk on his face "Come on now"... "Yep, I am" He laughed, "I knew you were" and after a quick conversation about my history he started to take out these little bottles of liquid and squirted a little bit in area's all over my arm. He told me he was going to test me for environmental allergies. I relaxed, "Thank goodness" I thought "No needles" well, that was short lived, because then after he took a pen and marked where each dot was, he started to prick each wet area........... ugh........ LOL

After he sent me to the waiting room where within five minutes my arm started to itch like crazy and get all bumpy and red. I wasn't allowed to scratch it. Bob kept grabbing my other hand so I couldn't scratch. lol 20 minutes later I was back in the observation room and the doctor looked at my arm "tsk tsk tsk" "this is bad, there are a lot on your arm" Eeek!

He gave me a quick run down on what I was looking at, basically, I'm allergic to cats, dogs, horses, pollen, dust and the big one, MOLD.

He said to keep taking the Nasonex and within 3-4 months if my symptoms aren't gone, then I have to go back to see him and we'll talk Allergy Injections "YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Did I mention I hate needles?

NUNSENSE - A-MEN @ the Port Mansion

2009-11-03T06:38:00.000-08:00

I was inspired to paint this after seeing

NUNSENSE A-MEN
at the Port Mansion Theatre

in St. Catharines, Ontario, CANADA

and plus I love Raving Rabbids. LOL

Bob was in this show for the month of October into November.

It was HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CURRENTLY SHOWING AT THE PORT MANSION IS SINNERS

CALL AND MAKE A RESERVATION FOR SEATING!!!

905-934-0575 ext 226

PORT MANSION THEATRE 12 Lakeport Road, St. Catharines

Halloween Paintings

2009-10-28T05:10:00.001-07:00

So, as you know, Halloween is fast approaching. It was coming faster than I was prepared for. In September I started back to painting class and started on a HUGE project, which you will get to see at the end of this blog entry.

In the mean time, with Bob in rehersals for the musical Nunsense along with the show starting, we thought it would be neat if I started whipping up some Halloween decorations myself.

Here is my GHOSTBUSTERS painting I did in an afternoon. :o)

Then came another fun project. I had done some research on the internet for some interesting Skeleton creations and came across these SKELANIMALS.

Here is a kitty I painted.

and a Bunny..........

and a penguin..........

and a mouse and bird.

I have a lot more to paint, but time is running out and so are the scrap wood pieces.

The forecast is calling for rain on Halloween evening along with this week leading up to it, I don't think these pieces of wood will hold up.

On Sunday, October 25th, Bob and I had our 2nd Annual Pumpkin Carving Party. We had one last year the month after we moved into the house, we had approx. 15 people back then, this year we increased the size to over 21 people.

Bob is in full swing with the Nunsense Play/Musical and the night before a whole bunch of us got together to go and see it at the Port Mansion in St. Catharines, (Interested?? Click the NUNSENSE PLAY/MUSICAL link to see a write-up on the show or click PORT MANSION to go to the Port Mansion Web Site and book tickets to see the show). OH MY GOSH, what a hoot, it was one of the most funniest things I have seen!! A great time was had by all!!!

Because Bob was in the play again on Sunday, that meant I had to hold down for the fort while all our guests arrived. My mom had come over a day before to help me set up all these tables and chairs.

It was a complete success. We had a no-show (as Dave, one of our friends) was tied up with a fire call in Niagara On the Lake .

It was awesome, everyone seemed to bring extra yummies for the party, including this awesome cake creation by our friend Heather. (Heather's husband Xander was in the musical Nunsense with Bob).

Since we knew Bob wouldn't be able to carve a pumpkin on the Pumpkin Carving Party day, him and I worked on our pumpkins the weekend before. This is Bob's pumpkin along with the photo he was going to use.

The unveiling of his pumpkin happened after he returned from the show on the day of the Party.

Here's Bob's pumpkin on the day of the party.

Here is my pumpkin. Yep, I cheated, I painted. lol

Here is the result of the party. Everyone's pumpkins before we OFFICIALLY lit them.

and here they are lit. :o) It was a sight be behold!!!

And finally, here is my project I worked on during painting class. Five us in class worked on our own pieces. My painting is on a huge chunk of wood, I just need to seal it and then I will be able to put it outside for Halloween. :o)

Thanks for looking!

Hope you have an amazing safe, spooky & fun Halloween!!

UFO Spotted in Niagara Falls, Ontario, CANADA October 2009

2009-10-20T08:09:00.000-07:00

It was reported on the news this morning that some people spotted something incredible above Niagara Falls last night or a few nights ago. Something about a metal shiny thing that hovered, reflected light off it or had lights on it.

ROBERT TANOS - director of ABOVE NIAGARA wants to hear from you.

If you or anyone you know actually saw this thing, please email him at: pstudio@cogeco.ca

Here are some links I found about the sighting this week:

LINK 1 - CLICK HERE - includes video clip

LINK 2 - CLICK HERE - Niagara Falls Review article

LINK 3 - CLICK HERE - Niagara Gazzette article

LINK 4 - CLICK HERE - Lockport Journal article

What to Buy a Geocacher - GEOCOINS OF COURSE - Geocoin Collection for Sale

2009-10-13T08:27:00.001-07:00

What do you buy a Geocacher for Christmas, Birthdays, any type of holiday or just because?

GEOCOINS!!!!!!!!!!

We are selling most of our collection!

Please take a look - there is something for everyone!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THEM

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-10-12T19:55:00.001-07:00

This past weekend was a long weekend for us here in Canada - it was Thanksgiving. That means yumba meals, craft sales & sleeping in.

This weekends chefs were Marnie & Mom VanderValk. Each made an amazing meal which was to rave about. Bob and I are really trying to watch our portion sizes and it made it VERY difficult for us to only go with one plate of food but then of course we had to have one of each dessert. I'm truly scared to step on the WII FIT tomorrow morning. I had managed to maintain my weight loss which means I'm stuck at 169 (I've lost 10 lbs).... (aiming to get back down to 152 which is what I was when I met Bob) but with this weekend, I'm sure I've probably shot up 5 lbs. lol Bob's been doing awesome! I think he reported a loss of 20 lbs so far, but I'm sure the dancing he is doing in the musical he is in is contributing to the weight loss.

We were able to hit the Vineland Public School Craft sale. ALWAYS love looking at the creative ideas of others wishing I had a tonne of money to buy everything I see. lol I was good, I only purchased one Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup... last year I think I bought 6 and proceeded to eat every last one while I was wondering around = Upset tummy. :o)

So today was awesome but started out really funny. Slept in and woke up and decided to hit Timmies for a XL Triple Triple. Bob decided since we were going to do through the drive-thru he would just go out in a pair on thermal underwear (which were too small) so he put on some long black socks and tucked the ends of the underwear into them, so I'm sure you can imagine what that looked like. Me, I would normally opt to do that, but for some reason I just put on a pair of jeans, it was cold outside. We started driving and a short while later I could smell something burning, but we had figured some farmer was burning something outside. We got almost to the entrance of Timmies and heard this really bad noise. THUMP THUMP THUMP, Bob pulled to the side of the road and we got out of the car, ugh............. flat tire. Bob grabbed the spare and his little jack and tools and was about to proceed with taking the tire off when a large TIRE TRUCK pulled up (one that frequents the highways looking for Transport Trucks that have flat to sell them a tire and change it for them). He offered to help Bob for free since he had nothing better to do and turned on his large yellow flashing light on the top of the truck. I started laughing as I noticed towards Timmies, the light was attracting attention and everyone was looking over to where we were. LOL There was Bob in all his glory in his thermal underwear HAHAHAHAHAHA Poor baby! :o) THANK GOD I was wearing my jeans. lol I would of froze. We offered to buy the guy a coffee (he had just bought one) and then offered him $5.00 but he refused, I thanked him and wished him a VERY Happy Thanksgiving. He smiled and wished us one too. What an Angel. :o)

Once we returned with our Timmies in hand I decided I wanted to paint a Halloween Decoration.

Here it is:

I REALLY love the Ghostbusters Movie, so I just had to paint a cupboard door with the logo for myself. Bob really likes it too. I love lazy painting days, I don't get too many of those. Bob worked on some stuff for the G-Scale train layout.

HOPE YOU ALL HAD A WONDERFUL LONG WEEKEND TOO (for those of you who were able to celebrate Thanksgiving) :o)

YELLOW SUBMARINE 3D MOVIE - OMG WOO!!!!!

2009-10-05T06:14:00.001-07:00

GRAPHIC USED ON WEBSITE: http://www.teaser-trailer.com/

(CLICK THE ABOVE PHOTO TO GO TO THE WEB SITE AND READ ALL THE INFORMATION THEY PROVIDED ON THIS UPCOMING MOVIE RERELEASE!)

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOO excited!!!!!!

The Beatle's YELLOW SUBMARINE movie is coming back in 3D!!!!!!

Tell me how cool that is!!!!!!!

Next we need a live theatre show!!!!! That would be majorly incredible!!!!!

I hAvE nOt FoRgOtTeN mY bLoG - lOl

2009-09-30T05:54:00.000-07:00

:o)

Hey everyone! No worries, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth yet. I haven't forgot about my blog. We have been VERY busy and I haven't kept up with the photo taking. My bad!

So let me see if I can back up and remember the things that happened (and then when I can have time, I will repost with photos).

September 20th was Bob and my 1ST YEAR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!!!!! We actually celebrated by going out with my brother, his son, his fiance, and my mom to Red Lobster. Yum yum!!!!! We were going to go to DJ's Roadhouse but they were closed until 4pm and it had to be a lunch meal as Bob is in rehersals for an upcoming play/musical he is going to be in this coming October. I'll reveal more about him in another blog post. :o)

September 19th was my Mom's birthday, so we had some people over for cake and to play WII.

WE GOT THE BEATLES ROCKBAND GAME on 9-9-9 - OMG is it ever cool!!!!!! LOVE IT! The first song is even YELLOW SUBMARINE. I love that in the video portion they actually come alive as the Yellow Submarine characters!!!!!!! Bob actually picked up all the extra guitars for the set. Bummer about not be able to use the 3 guitars, drum and mics all at the same time. At least you can have 3 singers at the same time in harmony. lol It makes for a wicked party game! Love it because almost everyone knows the songs.

I started back to painting class. We are all starting on a Halloween project. I decided to go big or go home but after the second lesson, found myself sort of falling behind because everyone else is painting on small pieces of tile or wood and my project is on a big honking piece of wood, plus the wood seems to suck up the paint so it is hard to shadow & highlight. I have decided to make the decision to bring that home and work on it while Bob is at rehersal and quickly caught up on a smaller piece of wood.

We're prepping for our 2nd Annual Pumpkin Carving Party. Should be interesting as more people are coming this year. lol Bob and I are going to have to carve our own pumpkins the weekend before so we have room to do it. lol I'm REALLY hoping we can have it outside. Stay tuned for photos from that later on in the month along with some new jump photo's maybe? heehee, we'll see who we can get to JUMP.

Back to our Anniversary (yep, I'm jumping all around in this blog entry) we decided we would go to Stoney Creek Furniture and make a purchase. We originally went to look at BARS for upstairs and fell in love with a NEST --- lol, actually, it is a round chair that seats too, PERFECT for cuddling. Why? It's amazing for watching movies in, it will be perfect for the cold winter months, cuddling up in front of the TV with a blanket. We're placing bets how long before Trinity the kitty puts a rip in it. (YIKES)

Making a major decision with the house, last year we found out there was no insulation in the house when we had windows installed,, so we had that blown in before Christmas, so for a year our house has had ugly holes everywhere where they had blown it in. Mary wants to paint!!!!!!!! Big problem, we can't figure out what to do. It's basically light beige now and Bob and I are COLOUR people, so the ideas are endless. Time to take a stand. Also, I've been bugging Bob about possilbly (at some point) adding on to the house so we can enjoy the backyard. Right now we can only view it from a small kitchen window (the kitchen isn't one you eat in) and the Garden doors off the bedroom. For Mom's bday, she spent the night and we put the blow-up bed in the STANDING ROOM. When I was taking it apart to put away it hit me, wouldn't it be awesome to have our bedroom in the standing room, change the art room to our "Changing Room", the Dining room into the Standing room, leave the guest room as it and move the dining room into the existing bedroom and then we have our view of the backyard. Of course, when I came up with this idea, Bob was at rehersal, so three hours later he came home and I rambled for 10 minutes WHY we should do this and he just smirked and waited until I was done. YES!!!!!!!!! HE SAID HE LIKED THE IDEA!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! All it is going to take now is picking the colours and moving the furniture around. Mind you, it isn't your normal thing is it, but wow, what an idea!!!!

Now I'll talk about yesterday. I had to go to a Sinus Specialist. I've been having problems since the age of 15 with my nose, breathing, always stuffed, always running, I can't remember when I was last able to breath normally. Bob came and picked me up, good thing, I was really nervous. The Doctor was nice, and Bob, him and I were joking around, so that made it easier. I wasn't too thrilled about him sticking a camera up my nose (yiiiiiiiiikes!) Anyways, basically I was told my X-ray's were normal, my nose is definately crooked on the inside (which can be repaired with Surgery if I decide to go that route), that I have the beginnings of polyps (due to a possiblity of allergies) and he is going to send me to someone for an allergy test. In the mean time, to take this Steroid Sniffer thing named Nosex or something like that. So, there you go. It should take 3-4 weeks before I see any results, FINGERS CROSSED. lol

Oh, about a month ago they started some major road work, so they are hoping it will be done by the end of October.

Anyways, enough words for now. So this will keep you busy until I take some photo's to stick with these words and then I'll repost so you can see what I'm talking about.

Ta ta for now. :o)

Finally saved up to purchase our CN G-Scale Garden Train Engine!

2009-09-13T09:45:00.000-07:00

We put our "Vacation" on hold to save up for our G-Scale CN Train Engine.

LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!! Can hardly wait until next year when we can set up the track we purchased (earlier this year) outside in the backyard and place the little buildings we plan on finishing/building this winter along with it.

It's quite the engine, we had a sound card put inside and it is remote control / battery powered. Perfect for Bob to play with! lol

I've tried 3 times to upload a small video clip but it won't save for some reason, I'll try again tomorrow. :o)

UPDATE: We are moving our G-Scale Blog to here: www.gscaletrain.blogspot.com

Fellow Ghost Hunter has his own Radio Broadcast!

2009-09-02T16:29:00.001-07:00

Funny story, we went on a ghost tour with Haunted Hamilton and were taking photos and ended up taking a few of Joe and his friends. They saw this when we posted the pictures on Facebook. Joe made a friend request and we started sending messages back and forth. Tonight he sent me an EVENT request and I see he does his own radio programs!! Check them out!!!

SCROLL DOWN AND LOOK ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE OF THE PAGE TO FIND THE LINK!!!!! JOE91 on Blogtalkradio

KINGSTON TRIP 2009

2009-08-29T10:27:00.001-07:00

Our trip started on August 25th, we headed out in the morning and headed off to KINGSTON, ONTARIO. This is the cute little bed & breakfast we stayed in the first night, ABBEY MANOR INN

As you can see in the above photo, the bed was amazing!!!!

This was the amazing breakfast we were served the next morning. We had a delightful conversation with a couple from Germany who were sitting at the table with us.

We had to stop off at the KINGSTON BREWING COMPANY I had their Raspberry Beer and these deadly tasting wings, we ended up going back again the next day!

We did two ghost tours in Kingston, one was on the streets of Kingston and the next day we did one at the fort. This is one of the guides.

After our Ghost Walk we stopped off at one of the haunted pubs, TIR NAN OG
where we had some drinkies and this amazing garlic bread that had over 4 different cheeses on it. Yum yum!

The next day we headed to Fort Henry. :o) We took some tours, watched the Sunset Ceremony and afterwards we did the ghost tour there.

You just KNEW we had to take a JUMP photo eh? lol

We also posed for piccies in the jail cells.

We had a fantastic trip, looking forward to maybe going to Ottawa or Montreal next year. :o)

SHOPPING FOR FURNITURE & STUFF

2009-08-22T13:03:00.001-07:00

First I'm showing off a FABULOUS dinner Bob took me out for of FRESH Lake Erie Perch at a place named DJ's ROADHOUSE! OMG is it ever wonderful!

Next we have a photo of an awesome unfinished pine bench I purchased off Kijiji for our upstairs. $45.00 was the price! I can't believe it. I'm soooooooooooo thrilled! Plan is to maybe stain it a funky colour or maybe leave as is. This is going to go beside our two curio's which contain the Booze. lol I want to put the bar fridge on it and store our bar stuff in it. SO HAPPY!

AND now here was have Bob posing with THE NEST -- we were watching a movie the other day and found it quite hard to actually cuddle on a couch. We decided to go to Stoney Creek Furniture and look around. We fell in love with this CUDDLE CHAIR which is called a NEST. We went home to think about it, as it is the price of a new expensive couch. Bob couldn't get it out of his mind and our first wedding anniversary is coming up Sept. 20th, so after receiving a 30% coupon from my mom we headed back and placed our order. It isn't due to come in until after Oct. 1 (apparently this is a big seller). We're excited!!!!

Finally, we have a photo of an awesome Wine Barrel we purchased off Kijiji - $40.00 thank you very much and a antique pump Bob purchased from an antique store up near Woodbridge for $40.00 and we're planning on making a garden ornament or placing it on the old well that has been cemented over. Another awesome fine!!

Tomorrow I'll try and post photo's of things we would like to use in decorating our house. We will have lived here for a year on Sept. 29th and we haven't been able to paint or redecorate yet. lol More to come, stay tuned!

GEOCOINS FOR SALE

2009-08-04T08:29:00.000-07:00

CLICK HERE

NEW LINK TO THE GEOCOINS FOR SALE

Looking for themed Geocoins? GEOCOINS FOR SALE

2009-08-02T12:46:00.000-07:00

CLICK HERE TO SEE THEM ALL:

** trying to start marking them by theme, not all listed, but this is a good start. Enjoy!

ACORN:

Book 1, Page 4, row 2, coin 3

ALIENS:

Book 1, Page 2, Row 5, coins 1 & 2
Book 5, Page 1, Row 4, coin 2

BABY

Book 3, page 1, row 1, coins 1, 2 & 3

BEAR:

Book 1, Page 4, row 2, Coin 2
Book 1, Page 5, row 1, coin 1
Book 2, Page 2, row 4, coin 1
Book 3, Page 3, Row 5, coins 1 & 2
Book 4, Page 7, Row 3, Page 1
Book 6, Page 8, Row 3, Coin 1

BEAVER

Loose 5

BIKINI

Book 1, Page 4, row 2, coin 1

BUNNY:

Book 1, Page 4, Row 4, Coins 1, 2, 3, & 4

BUTTERFLY

Book 3, Page 2, Row 2, coin 1
Loose 2, Row 3, coin 1

CAT

Book 3, Page 1, row 5, coin 1
Book 3, Page 7, row 5, coins 1, 2 & 3
Book 3, Page 8, row 2, coin 2
Book 4, Page 2, row 2, coin 2
Book 4, Page 3, row 3, coin 1
Book 5, Page 2, Row 1, coin 1
Book 5, Page 2, Row 2, coin 1
Book 5, Page 2, Row 3, coins 1 & 2
Book 5, Page 9, Row 2, Coins 1 & 2
Loose 3, row 1, coin 1
Loose 3, row 2, coin 3
Loose 3, row 3, coin 3
Loose 4, row 1, coin 3

CLOWN

Book 4, Page 8, Row 1, coin 2

COFFIN

Book 6, Page 3, Row 1, coin 2

CRAB

Book 6, Page 3, Row 4, Coin 1

DENNIS THE MENACE

Book 2, Page 2, Row 1, Coin 4

DOG

Book 2, Page 5, Row 5, coin 1
Book 3, Page 5, Row 4, coin 1
Book 4, Page 9, Row 1, Coin 1

DRAGON:

Book 2, Page 3, row 1, coins 2 & 3
Book 3, Page 1, row 4, coins 2 & 3
Book 6, Page 8, Row 1, coin 1

DUCK

Book 3, Page 9, row 3, coin 1

EARTHQUAKE

Book 2, Page 2, Row 1, coin 1

FISH:

Book 1, Page 1, row 2, coin 3
Book 1, Page 2, row 1, coin 3
Book 2, Page 3, row 1, coin 1
Book 3, Page 9, row 2, coin 2
Book 4, Page 2, Row 3, coin 1
Book 5, Page 5, row 2, coin 2
Book 5, Page 7, Row 5, coins 1 & 2
Loose 3, row 2, coin 1 & 2

GHOST:

Book 2, Page 6, Row 4, coin 1
Loose 1, row 3, coin 3

GOBLIN

Book 3, Page 3, Row 3, coin 1

GOLF:

Book 1, Page 2, Row 3, coin 1
Book 6, Page 1, Row 2, Coins 1,2 & 3

ICE CREAM

Book 4, Page 4, Row 5, coin 1

LADYBUGS

Book 1, Page 2, Row 2, coins 1 & 3

LAMB

Book 1, Page 4, row 3, 2nd coin

LIZARD:

Book 4, page 1, row 1, coin 1

MOOSE:

Book 2, Page 2, row 3, coin 1
Book 2, Page 4, row 1, coin 2
Book 6, Page 5, row 3, coins 1, 2 & 3
Book 6, page 5, row 4, coins 1, 2 & 3
Loose 5

PARROT:

Book 4, Page 8, Row 5, coin 1

PENGUIN

Book 3, Page 2, row 2, coin 2
Book 4, Page 7, row 2, coins 1 & 2

PINEAPPLE

Book 3, Page 4, row 3, coin 2

PIRATE:

Book 3, Page 2, row 3, coin 1
Book 3, Page 9, row 1, coin 2
Loose 2, row 3, coin 3

PUPPET

Book 2, Page 6, Row 4, coin 1

PUZZLE

Book 5, Page 2, Row 4, coins 1 & 2
Book 5, Page 2, Row 5, coins 1 & 2

RACCOON

Book 6, Page 8, Row 3, Coin 1

SCUBA DIVER

Book 4, Page 3, row 3, coin 1
Book 5, Page 5, row 2, coin 1

SKULLS / SKELETON

Book 1 Page 2, Row 2, 2nd coin
Book 1, Page 4, row 3, coins 1 & 2
Book 2, Page 4, row 5, coins 1, 2 & 3
Book 3, Page 7, Row 4, coins 1 & 2
Book 4, Page 9, Row 3, coins 1, 2 & 3
Book 5, Page 8, Row 4, coin 1
Book 6, Page 6, Row 2, coins 1 & 2
Loose 1, row 2, coin 3
Loose 2, row 4, coin 3

SIMPSONS

Book 4, Page 1, row 1, coin 2

SPIDER

Book 1, Page 5, Row 2, coin 3
Book 3, Page 5, Row 1, coin 1

SQUID

Book 3, Page 2, Row 5, coins 1, 2 & 3

STAINED GLASS

Book 5, Page 8, Row 2, Coins 1 & 2

STAR TREK

Book 2, Page 5, row 2, coins 1 & 2

TORNADO:

Book 3, Page 8, row 1, coin 1

TRAINS

Book 1, Page 4, Row 1, coin 1
Book 1, Page 5, Row 3, coin 3
Book 5, Page 3, Row 2, coins 1 & 2
Book 5, Page 3, Row 3, coins 1 & 2
Book 5, Page 3, Row 4, coins 1 & 2
Book 5, Page 3, Row 5, coins 1 & 2
Book 5, Page 5, Row 3, coin 2

TURTLE

Book 4, Page 4, Row 4, coins 1 & 2

WIZARD OF OZ

Book 5, Page 5, row 5, coin 1

WOLF

Book 6, Page 7, row 5, coin 1

Ahhh, finally a little fun for the first part of our Summer Vacation.

2009-07-29T14:17:00.000-07:00

Well, we finally were able to take some time off for the summer. Three days to be exact (Mon-Wed) but we decided to start our day trips early on Sunday.

We got up and headed out towards Port Dover. We wanted to purchase some fresh fish and maybe sneak in a yummy perch meal. It was overcast and windy, but that didn't stop us.
We went for a small walk on the beach and one on the pier and headed off to a local restaurant for some lunch. We split a Perch Meal with fries. Yum yum!

We also went to a few shops and found these two cuties which are made of metal.

We then hit a few antiques stores in Port Dover and were told by a local to travel 20 minutes out of town to another antique place and picked up these!!

Bob also picked up an old black well pump.

Since Monday was only calling for 30% chance of rain we headed off to Canada's Wonderland.

We arrived just before it was to open and got in line. They let people in just before 10am and we rushed to the BEHEMOTH ride but were held up as they had not opened up that part of the park yet. FINALLY they let us in and a hoard of guests RAN to the ride, were got into the line-up and figured it should only be a 15 minute wait. When we finally went through the line-up and were third to get on the ride, they shut down due to technical difficulties. YIKES - we ended up having to wait an hour before they let people back on. We picked the front car, front seat, WHAT A THRILL. Love that ride.

Next we hit the Mindbuster only to have the car stop 1/2 way up the hill, apparently someone in one of the back cars had a video camera out. That's a no no.

Third ride was the Jet Scream, we were third in line again to find out the ride stopped working. Apparently it wouldn't let anyone off. You are held in by Hydralics and it wouldn't release. At one point the guy running the ride hit a button and the ride activated, people started SCREAMING in fear. The guy stopped the ride and within 14 minutes it let people off. The people in front of us chickened out so we were next to get on. LOL, it worked find for us.

We went on the Vortex next, it was freaky watching where the ride ends and all the metal bars started to sway. eek! We decided to take the LAST car and OMG that's even better then the first.

We then decided to break for lunch as the feet were tired and the tummies were hungry. We had some oriental chicken dishes. mmmm Mmmm! We then decided to catch a show, Endless Summer which was performers on a small piece of ice. I got to smack Scooby Doo's hand as he ran up the aisle. lol We then watched a trampoline show and headed off for more rides. We first did the Dragon Fire, then the Wild Beast roller coaster, Thunder run was next, and Bob was hungry for one of the huge hot dogs (bummer I didn't have a camera) and I had my yummy oriental chicken meal again and that's when we decided to head back towards Behemoth again. We decided this time we would take the last car. On this ride they take a photo of you, somehow Bob's head was cut off. I really wanted a photo on this ride so we jumped back in line and went for it again. We both made faces and this is the result.

Tuesday was MOVIE DAY! We headed out to see Harry Potter at noon and then went for a yummy lunch at London Arms. We walked around the Pen and came home for a nap. Gotta love naps!

That leads us to today. We slept in and headed off to Niagara On the Lake - stopped in at the winery named STONECHURCH and picked up a bottle of their new wine Quintet and headed off to a bunch of Antique Stores. We got caught up in the huge rain storm, but that was okay. :o) We don't melt!

PERFECT FUN SUMMER VACATION! Gotta love it!!!

Vampire?

2009-07-24T05:39:00.001-07:00

Last night while we were making dinner, Bob was looking out into the back yard and started yelling "QUICK, GET YOUR SHOES ON, WE HAVE TO GO OUTSIDE?" "What!?" I questioned? I was thinking it was another baby bird he spotted. You see after getting home yesterday he had found two baby birds in the drive way, one dead, one still alive, it's feathers only just started forming. We placed that bird in a large recycle box on its side with paper towels in hopes her momma would come and find her.

As I scrambled to get my shoes on Bob said "It either is a giant crab or a giant spider" ??!!??!!? Giant crab? The only crab like things that are in our area are Crayfish and I doubt anything like that could get to our neck of the woods. As we went out into the back yard, I could see something black flapping around in the grass. IT WAS A BAT. I froze, why is there a bat awake in the middle of the afternoon flopping around on the grass. Does it have Rabbies? We quickly located a bottomless birdhouse in the garage and placed it over the bat. Bob phoned the local humane society to find out what to do. They suggested just leaving it there as it might of just fallen out of the tree. Bob started making dinner again and I went out with the camera to take a few piccies and remove the birdhouse. I lifted up the birdhouse and the bat was no where in site. Okay, maybe it escaped the hole in the birdhouse, then it hit me. I turned over the birdhouse and low and behold the little guy had somehow crawled up inside and was hanging upside down. (GIGGLE) I snapped a few piccies and propped it up on a planter near a tree so he could escape during the evening.

UPDATE: This morning the bat was gone and the bird was still alive. We moved the bird to the crotch of the tree we think it fell out of and he was peeping but didn't seem hungry. Hopefully momma will find him there.

Playing around with Windows Movie Maker and using JUMP pictures. Hee Hee Hee!!

2009-07-20T20:29:00.000-07:00

So when one plays around with Windows Movie Maker, a sound file and some photo's along with video footage, this is what one gets. LMAO!

My PET SHOP BOYS dilemma!

2009-07-18T12:17:00.000-07:00

Here's my dilemma.....

The PET SHOP BOYS, who have been my all-time favorite music duo in the whole world is currently on tour and I was so excited to see on their official web site that there would be a Toronto Date in August. Unfortunately, for the past few weeks, it has been noted as TBA. While I watched all the tickets go for sale on all the other places they would be playing, I've been waiting for the announcement of the Toronto ticket sales.

Annie, an internet pal of mine notified me a few days ago that the "Toronto" date had been announced, it ends up it isn't in Toronto, but above it, which is approx. a 3 hour drive from home. They are in the line-up for the Virgin Music Festival -- great!

There was an announcment on the site that one could purchase VIP tickets which would basically give one a chance to do the "Front of the Line" thing and get prime viewing. Guess what, it's $275.00 a ticket...... that means, $275.00 x2 plus finding accomodations for 2 evenings, gas, food, etc.... all just to see my fav. group int he world. Thing is, Bob and I can't afford such an outing..... I feel so sad! I've always support the PSB by buying their cassette tapes, Cd's, video's, merchandise, even joined their fan club for a while, and of course gone to their concerts when they came to Toronto.

I logged online to see if the VIP tickets were for sale at 12pm today (as noted on their web site they would be) and low and behold there weren't any VIP tickets for sale for the Ontario gig. See, I don't want to go all the way out there with just a "plane jane" ticket with the risk of not even being able to see them because I would be at the back of a crowd....

So, I went on TWITTER and sent the Pet Shop Boys a message....

and when I logged online today, I had a reply!!!!!!!

Now, what did their reply mean exactly....... "Still waiting for details" does this mean that they might not be playing at the festival? Maybe they'll end up playing in Toronto?? That would be great!! I could make it to Toronto! Maybe they could come to the Niagara Region???? (BIG GRIN) Wishful thinking, I know.... but a girl has to dream, right?

Michael Wainwright is living the dream!!!

2009-07-16T11:07:00.000-07:00

Just giving you a little update on Michael Wainwright. He is living the dream!! He is touring with TEARS FOR FEARS!

Michael has given me permission to post some photo's he posted on Facebook.

Want to follow Michael too????? He's on TWITTER!!!!!!!!!!!!

CLICK HERE ---> wainwrightmusic

If you have never heard of Michael Wainwright - check out my other posts on him. :o) Quite the talented guy I must say!

CLICK HERE: ----> MICHAEL WAINWRIGHT POSTS

ADDICTED to a silly little game on Facebook titled RESTAURANT CITY

2009-07-02T10:57:00.000-07:00

Bob and I are addicted to this silly little game on Facebook titled RESTAURANT CITY and for some reason I keep calling it Restaurant Kitchen. lol

You get to run your own restaurant and decorate it the way you want to.

You build up your menu items by getting ingredients daily and answering trivia questions along with making trades with your friends (who are playing the game on Facebook as well).

Here is mine:

Here is Bob's

Once you start, you can't stop! lol

Web Site: HELP FIND A MISSING PERSON / IDENTIFY REMAINS

2009-06-26T09:32:00.000-07:00

I came across this web site surfing the web.

Take the time to take a look, you may be able to help find a missing person or identify remains.

CLICK HERE: O.P.P. Missing Persons and Unidentified Bodies Unit web site

Newspaper Article - MICHAEL WAINWRIGHT - St. Catharines Standard - 06-25-09

2009-06-25T07:53:00.000-07:00

as per the St. Catharines Standard Web Site

On stage with his idols
Posted By KRISTINE MASON, SPECIAL TO THE STANDARD
06-25-09

Many aspiring artists pouring their hearts out in sparsely attended venues dream of the day when thousands of fans will be hanging on their every move.

For St. Catharines singer/songwriter Michael Wainwright, that day is fast approaching.

This summer, he will join his former childhood idols on the road as he provides the opening act and backup vocals during the Tears For Fears summer tour.

"It's crazy to think that I got to meet the guys and even now I get to open up for them and sing my own music," said Wainwright. "And now I'm going to be singing with them, I'm going to be on this huge stage singing their songs that I knew as a kid, it's crazy."

Tears for Fears' original members, Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, will perform seven shows between July 10 and 20 in the western United States.

Music has always been an integral part of Wainwright's life, from the time he spent performing at the kitchen table with his brother and father, to all the high school classes he missed in order to record demo tapes.

During that time, he had a profuse love for the Beatles, which eventually influenced his interest in Tears For Fears.

"All I listened to was Beatles, and then I was in a music store in St. Catharines and I was probably 12 or 13 and I'm drooling over recording equipment. I heard Sewing The Seeds Of Love and I was like, Sewing The Seeds Of Love? This is like the Beatles, this is like I Am The Walrus."

The luck of sharing a producer with Tears For Fears is how Wainwright came into contact with the band.

"Roland sang background vocals in two of my songs. I think we sound a lot a like, he's got a high voice, he's got the same sort of tone," said Wainwright. "But it's still kind of cool to know that he was there and that he actually learned the words and sang my songs, it's crazy and watching that happen it's just sort of like how the ----does this happen?

"It's a thrill to be able to sing harmonies with those guys and I think they have amazing voices," Wainwright but the reason I'm going out there is to be in front of a bigger audience, because they're big venues and being on a big stage with the lights and everything, it's the dream to be able to sing your own songs and do that."

Wainwright hopes that being a part of this larger gig will help him to expand his fan base, since he hasn't found an abundance of support in Niagara. Although he does acknowledge that there is a large music scene in St. Catharines, the artistic appreciation only seems to stretch so far.

"If you're a cover band and your buddies come out and you're playing music that girls can dance to, that's great, but that's not what I do," explains Wainwright. "I'm singing the sensitive, singer/songwriter, sensitive-sweater kind of songs, and there's no kind of cool atmosphere around here where you can do that."

Despite a lack of overwhelming support from Niagara, Wainwright has seen success as a winner of the 2008 Niagara Music Award for Best Male Vocalist. He also played a packed performance at Stella's during In The Soil and has toured the southwestern United States and played repeatedly in both California and New York.

For his opening act on the tour, Wainwright will be playing music from his self-titled album, which was produced at Shabby Road Studios, a record company based in California.

Like most songwriters, his favourite song is the one he most recently wrote. However, he still has a favourite from the disc. "On here, there's a great song, No. 4, its a duet, Gaby (Moreno)'s a songwriter herself and she's an amazing singer. So I sing the first verse and she sings the second and then we sing together, its really great," he said.

Moreno will perform with Wainwright at the San Diego stop of the tour.

GEOCOINS FOR SALE - updated link

2009-06-10T18:06:00.001-07:00

CLICK HERE TO GO TO CURRENT LIST OF GEOCOINS FOR SALE:

Haunting of The Screaming Tunnel

2009-06-05T06:22:00.000-07:00

The Screaming Tunnel
retold byS. E. Schlosser

There is a tunnel under the old railroad tracks just to the west of the Queen Elizabeth Way in Niagara Falls. It is known locally as the Screaming Tunnel. A path wanders through the tunnel and then up to an empty field on the hill. But the field was not always empty.

At one time, a large farm house stood in the field at the top of the hill, and in it lived a happy family. Then one night, the house caught fire. A young daughter was trapped in the house, and the only way to escape was through a wall of flames. The brave young girl covered her face with her arms and ran into the fiery doorway. Her long hair and her long nightgown began to smolder as she burst through the flames and rushed out of the house.

When the night air struck her smoldering clothing, it burst into flames, enveloping the girl in a raging inferno. The girl screamed in agony and ran blindly down the hill, away from the fire-stricken house. She staggered into the tunnel under the train tracks, her screams echoing and re-echoing through the night. Overcome by the flames, the girl fell to the floor of the tunnel, wailing in agony. She rolled frantically on the floor of the tunnel, trying to douse the flames, but her efforts were weak and ineffective. She was quickly overcome, and burned to death in the tunnel under the tracks.

After that night, anyone that dares strike a match in the tunnel under the tracks will hear the agonized death screams of the burning girl, and a ghostly wind will instantly blow out the match.

The Screaming Tunnel was used for a scene in the 1983 movie, "The Dead Zone" with Christopher Walken.

After last week's fun of taking GHOST PHOTOS IN A GRAVEYARD with Joe & Karyn we decided to meet up this week starting off with dessert at CHOCOLATES ETC. They brought their friend Patty with them. It was decided we would go to the SCREAMING TUNNEL for another fun filled night of taking photos. Bob and I had packed a crate full of halloween costumes to use. Here are some of the neat shots that were taken as the darkness was setting in.

Me with Bob

Me, Patty, Karyn & Bob

Me with Bob

Me & Karyn

Karyn & Bob

Me, Bob, Patty & Karyn

Lots of fun had by all, including me screaming as a bird decided she wanted to access her nest in the dark and headed right for my head. lol

Looking forward to another photo shoot sometime, we have some more awesome ideas to try out!! Stay tuned!! :o)

Another Fun Weekend!!! Concerts, Play & FUN!!!

2009-06-01T10:10:00.000-07:00

FRIDAY:

Our Weekend started off on Friday, May 29th as the local fire departments had put together a Yummy Fish Fry at the local Jordan Arena and had hired a group named THE CAVERNERS. (They are a Beatle's Cover Band).

Bob and I took mom along with us as we were going to meet some other family members and friends and wanted to get some good seats.

Upon waiting for the doors to open, we could hear some of the Caverners inside the arena finishing up their sound-check and they came out the front door! Bob asked one of the guys, who happens to be MICHAEL WAINWRIGHT, to stop and have his photo taken with me!! He is quite the talented musician, if you have time, check out the links below the photo. :o)

GHOSTS IN THE GRAVEYARD 05-27-09

2009-05-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

Last night we went out with our friends Karyn & Joe for a little dessert night and catch up. We have not seen them since our wedding I believe. :o( It was great to catch up and hear about their wedding. :o) They were the couple that took the amazing photo's of our wedding!

Afterwards Joe wanted to try a new technique of taking photos and with the darkness falling it was the perfect time to try.

We headed out in our cars and this is what happened:

Ghost Bob

Mary & Ghost Bob

Ghost Bob

Ghost Bob & Mary

Bob & Ghost Mary

Joe & Ghost Karyn

Mary & Ghost Bob and Ghost Karyn

Ghost Mary & Ghost Bob

LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING TOGETHER WITH THEM AGAIN FOR MORE PHOTO FUN!!!!!!!!!

Fun weekend: History Lesson from older previous owner of our house & Purchases for the House

2009-05-24T18:38:00.001-07:00

Our weekend started off early on Saturday morning as we had to take my car in for an oil change. Since it takes approx. an hour and I was 5th in line when the car dealership opened up, we decided to walk to JJ Kapps for breakfast. We finished up and headed to the grocery store where we bumped into an old school friend of Bob's and chatted for a bit and headed for home. We were having company. :o)

We had managed to track down the owner of our house (prior to the owner we purchased from) who's grandfather had built the house and then her parents had lived in the house and then she and her husband had lived in the house. We were hoping she could give us details about our house and the house ruins we had dug up on the property. SEE HERE FOR OLD FOUNDATION PHOTOS.

The "previous" owners arrived shortly after 11:30am and we took them on a tour of the house. They were amazed with the changes the owner they sold to had made. (whom we purchased the house from).

Some of those changes were:

KITCHEN: The stairs going up to the attic room use to be enclosed and there was a doorway to get up to it, now it is all opened up.

OUR MASTER BEDROOM: Use to be a smaller room with another room attached at the back, the guy they sold the house to covered up a small window in the back room and tore down a wall in-between.

OUR SPARE ROOM: It use to have a door leading to our now Master Bedroom, it is all closed in now

OUR BATHROOM: It use to be quite smaller, as there was a closet on the otherside of the tub with the door leading to it from OUR DININGROOM. Where the toilet is, it use to be a sink with the toilet right next to it and a small tub near the end, and also a window (which is non-existant now).

UPSTAIRS: There was a bar with a working sink and a wood stove. We also had it confirmed that it was once used as a sort of dance hall or where they held parties for people to dance and there was even a wedding reception held there!! Tell me how cool that is!

Where our ART ROOM was once a master bedroom and then turned into a music room of sorts as the family were very musical.

As for the ruins next door, this is the house that use to stand there:

COMPARE IT WITH WHAT IS THERE NOW - CLICK HERE

What a beautiful looking home, so sad to hear that it burnt down! She doesn't know anything about the fire as she was a baby when it happened. So that was over 50-65 years ago.

She and her husband also told us that the backyard use to contain a chicken coop and a smoke house. The poles in the back on the CN property are actually telegraph poles. Also, her father and grandfather both worked for the Railway.

It was so thrilling to meet them and have them give us information. They told us if they think of anything else or find more photo's they will be in touch! :o)

After they left we had lunch and headed out to some local antique shops. We were on a mission to locate some old door knobs for a craft I wanted to make -- a coat rack :o) The first store we stopped at did not have any unique looking knobs, but I found these awesome hooks for $15.00 each.

We continued down the road to another shop and there were lots of interesting pieces but nothing we needed.

We decided to head back to Jordan to another unique shop we had never been into and Bob found me these iron pieces which sort of resemble knobs which will work perfect for my project. Can you believe it, they were only $5.00 each!

We were on our way back home when I had a quick thought we should continue on to St. Catharines to Home Depot to get some plans drawn up for a deck for the back yard.

After we had that down and were given a quote price of $2700.00 for material (YIKES, not even labour included in that) for a 12x24 deck -- (we still have to get a building permit) we might have to throw that idea on hold :o( we picked up a door that I had wanted since the beginning of moving into the house. I'm putting Bob in charge of this baby. The plan is, to replace the door that leads to the basement. This will be perfect. First off, the ceiling above your head when you go down the stairs contains a light -- we can't use it, you see, poor Bob's head smacked into the light bulb every time he used it, so we removed the bulb and cannot use that light which we will need when we are in the back yard at night and want to access the stairs. We have to keep that door closed so that cats can't get downstairs or outside. I had an idea to buy this type of door, but that means we'll se an ugly outside door, so the plan is to let Bob do some Stained Glass Window painting on it and voila we'll have a huge work of art. In case you don't remember the type of items Bob has made in the past, check this out: DR. WHO PAINTING CLICK HERE, LUKE SKYWALKER & PRINCESS LEIA PAINTING CLICK HERE, YODA PAINTING CLICK HERE, and CHEWIE PAINTING CLICK HERE.

Maybe I can convince him to do a Yellow Submarine painting for me!!!!!!!!!! That would be sweeeeeeet!!!

Bob headed off to his last concert for the season with the Niagara Peninsula Orchestra and said it was a complete success, packed full house, standing ovation at the end! What more could you ask for? I missed it of course............ I wasn't feeling so hot in the afternoon and laid low. He rushed home afterwards to make sure I was okay and we decided we would relax by a fire outside and my brother, fiancee and my nephew came over as well. It was good evening!

Last but not least, today we headed back to town to take in a tarp to my mom's pool which had ripped over the winter and needed replacement along with a sample of water to collect the chemicals needed to add to the pool. When we were driving back we spotted this interesting vehicle. Guess they are a huge FINGER ELEVEN fan. :o) They had a lot of FINGER ELEVEN bumper stickers on the back along with a FINGER ELEVEN license plate. Way cool.

When we got back home we spent the afternoon in the yard cleaning up. I planted two more Fire Bushes (LOVE THOSE IN THE FALL), some sunflower seeds (LOVE THOSE TOO), put some patch master on the old fire pit to fill it in with grass, Bob cut up some more wood for the fire and put some cement on crack around the foundation of the house.

Now we are relaxing as I update my blog and play the addictive game RESTAURANT CITY On Facebook. Man oh man, what a life. LMAO!

Until next time! Ta ta for now!

GHOSTING HUNTING - what a rush!

2009-05-18T15:40:00.000-07:00

WE LOVE Paranormal related shows, and have been trying to catch as many episodes as we can of Paranormal State (with Chip Coffey), Ghost Hunters, etc....

Saturday, May 16th was the evening that the GROUP OF 11 would meet up and enter the CUSTOMS HOUSE in Hamilton, Ontario to attend a GHOST HUNT that Haunted Hamilton was hosting.

STEPHANIE from HAUNTED HAMILTON

DANIEL FROM HAUNTED HAMILTON

The group of 11 included: myself, Bob, Andrew, Nadine, Steve, Kathleen, Scott, Vicky, Jeff, Anne & Tim

Bob, Andrew and I arrived early and went for a small walk to see a train yard on a bridge and upon walking back to the Custom's house, Nadine, Steve, Kathleen and Scott arrived, then Vicky & Jeff arrived. We still needed Anne and Tim to arrive. We walked to another bridge as it was still early and there was a lady wearing shorts and a housecoat standing in some tall weeds praying or doing something, we weren't sure. Nadine decided to check it out to make sure the lady was okay. The lady told Nadine that the Virgin Mary had told her to do what she was doing and then proceeded to ask Nadine for a cigarette. Was this an omen of things to come?

We were all let into the building after 8pm and escorted to a large room in the "house". It is currently being used as a museum. After a brief introduction to Haunted Hamilton and the tools they use we were let free to roam the building and start our investigations. Some of us needed to have a pit stop first and when we came out we started down a dark hallway only to be scared by cousin Jeff who had wandered ahead of the group into a dark room. 1/2 the group took of in different directions, it was mainly Andrew, Bob and I who hung together, mind you we did occasionally bump into the rest of the group on and off during the evening.

It really added to the atmosphere as they had Ouija Boards in some of the rooms lit by candlelight (fake of course). They also had GEORGE a Storyteller come around and tell different ghost stories in the rooms. What ghost hunt isn't complete with a psychic also!!

While coming down from the attic area, I snapped a couple of photo's of Bob, Jeff & Vicky ascending the stairs, my first shot revealed dots, which I thought was dust, except when I took the next shot which was within mere seconds of taking the first shot they were all gone. Hmmm!! Interesting.

NOW YOU SEE THEM
NOW YOU DON'T

Bob and I were in a room with Kathleen with two other onlookers and some weird noise occured after a question.

Andrew, Bob and I sat in a room alone trying to pick up EVP's and we think we actually did!!! Andrew's camera picked up a voice saying NOOOO

The evening ended with a Seance in one of the rooms on the main floor. Watch the following video to see (or should I say HEAR) what happened.

We are looking forward to another Ghost Hunt!!!!!!! Everyone seemed to have a good time!!!

And then on Monday evening as Paranormal State's Season Ender, Ryan from P.S. was replying to a few questions that PARANORMALTV on Twitter had requested people send. Yeppers, I sent in a question AND they chose my question as one of the approx. 10 that were answered. SEE BELOW!!!

Bob's G-Scale Train Graffiti - PET SHOP BOYS & YELLOW SUBMARINE

2009-05-15T09:42:00.000-07:00

So, as you know, Bob and I are starting to collect G-Scale Trains and we want to make them look like the REAL trains that go by our back yard.

We started off with a new train and Bob wanted to make it look aged and worn.

NEW TRAIN

AGED TRAIN

After some yard work last night, he was eager to start painting graffiti on the side cars, who knew what he chose to paint would be items I love. He used my old brushes and acrylic paints, what a man!!! Great job Bob!! I LOVE THESE!!!

&

I LOVE THE PET SHOP BOYS & Beatle's YELLOW SUBMARINE!!!

Now I have my own personalized train cars!!!! I can hardly wait to see what Bob does next!!!

NOTE: We started a G-Scale Train Blog strickly for our love of G-Scale Trains www.gscaletrain.blogspot.com

Finally, how to search Twitter & another Metal Detecting Blog Entry!

2009-05-07T11:08:00.001-07:00

FINALLY! I found a way to search Twitter and read other people's replies, etc........... (Note, if you want to search for someone specific to see people's replies to them, type @username and where I typed username, type in the person's name)

CLICK HERE TO SEARCH TWITTER

Also, I have another exciting ROBOT4METAL blog entry for you. CLICK HERE FOR THE ROBOT4METAL BLOG ENTRY

Looking forward to this evening as we are going out with some friends for DESSERT -- gotta love that!!!!

Canada LOVES the PET SHOP BOYS - Please Chris & Neil come back to Ontario, Canada in 2009

2009-05-04T11:37:00.001-07:00

PLEASE!!!

Show your support if you would like to see the

PET SHOP BOYS

play in Canada!

Please take a moment and sign below!!!! Thanks!!

PLEASE NEIL TENNANT & CHRIS LOWE if you read this, please come back to Ontario, Canada -- WE LOVE YOU TOO!!

We love that you have come to Ontario, Canada in the past, please come back!!

(or maybe consider playing in the Niagara Region) (GRIN)

THANK YOU!!!!

PET SHOP BOYS OFFICIAL WEB SITE

Magic Mirror on the Wall SECRET PAINTING & More Fun!

2009-04-28T19:04:00.000-07:00

First, I want to show off my newest SECRET PAINTING. I'm actually showing you before my friend Betsy receives it because I have to mail it to her and I'm not sure when she'll get it. Her baby is due on the 6th of May. She told me that the nursery was a princess theme so I decided to do a Disney Princess Themed Ikea Mirror. I hope she likes it!

MAGIC MIRROR ON THE WALL VIDEO :o)

The other day Bob surprised me with my own TANKER G-Scale Train car!! I'm so excited! I love watching the trains go by and I really admire the tanker cars, now I have my own! lol

This past weekend we got to go metal detecting with my cousin Steve and wife Nadine. Mom came along too! We got to detect an older property that had a house on it that caught fire earlier this year. No one is currently living in it and Steve knew the property owner so we had permission to detect. CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT OUR COOL FINDS!

Oh!! And back on the train subject, Bob has been making shingles for his little G-Scale buildings. He is cutting them out of sandpaper! What a man!!!

The other night we were watching America's Top Model and I realized Bob has a Twin in the world!

NOTE: We started another blog strickly for our love of G-Scale Trains www.gscaletrain.blogspot.com

Lazy Hot and Windy Day - this means catch up day

2009-04-25T16:01:00.000-07:00

Well, let's see, Bob's out with my cousin Steve & his wife Nadine at Merritville Speedway, I'm looking outside and it is dark and I hear thunder. Not 100% sure how long they will be out. lol

Anyways, here is a great time to catch up.

We'll start with today.

Waking up this morning to a kiss from Bob who wanted to go out and work on taking nails out of wood to burn in our fire place, I decided to snuggle back into bed for a nap. The wind was blowing hard outside and the temp. in the house was up; no not from the furnace, :o)I slept for another hour and got up and made some yummy muffins for Bob and I to share with some cups of coffee. We were debating what to do and then I got on the phone with my mom and she wanted to come over and help metal detect. My cousin came over for a visit/give advice on some house things and finally after a while Mom and I started to detect -- we went back to the house ruins on the property.

After he left, I was playing on the computer and got hungry and decided to go downstairs and grab a Yogourt and close the windows as it started to get really dark. I looked out the kitchen window to find a Bride and Groom standing on the train tracks having their wedding photo's done. Crazy! The wind was blowing really hard. I had no camera!! Bob took it with him to the races. Of all the times for this to happen. I then realized I had my old video camera which has a snapshot feature so I tried taking photo's but I know if I even find a way to upload them here they are going to come out blurry. I'll have to wait for Bob to return in order to see if I have the right cables to connect it to show you all. The first wave of the storm came through shortly after and disappeared along with the wind. It is now getting dark again and I hear more thunder. Here comes round two. lol

(UPDATED AT 12:18am Bob came home at 10pm as the race was called off due to rain so he sucessfully was able to pull these pictures off my Sony video cam)

I'll back up to last weekend - we went shopping and bought some burning bushes (I LOVE THOSE IN THE FALL!!!) and some other type of flowers along with a Japanese Maple tree. Another thing we did that weekend was have our first meal via the BBQ. Bob made us some crazy ribs!!!!!!!!!!!!! He made 5 different flavours -- let me see if I can remember all of them. There was basic BBQ, Sweet & Sour, some crazy Honey Mustard, Curry and what the heck was the last one.... I think it was another type of Sweet and Sour.... Anyways, YUMMY! We had enough for leftovers. :o)

I've started on my next SECRET PAINTING. Actually, the person knows about it, but YOU DON'T! heehee! My friend Betsy Baby is having a baby in less then two weeks. She told me the theme of the bedroom, so I'm painting something up for it. No worries, I will show you when I'm done.

Well, I had better log off the computer. The thunder is getting closer -- don't want to be on here in a thunderstorm. Maybe I'll go start working on that painting. Ohh!! Painting Class is over for the summer. We start back up in the fall - so now I'll be doing my painting at home. :o)

Ta ta for now!

Remember, you can always click on the different coloured text to go to more stories/pages!

(Updated at 12:20am, as I said before, Bob's race was cancelled due to the weather, so when he and my cousin and his wife were driving back home, Bob took some storm pictures for me with his camera. I love Thunderstorms!!!)

CONGRATS WILLY BABY & MARNIE MARN! THEY ARE ENGAGED!!!!!!!!

2009-04-21T05:06:00.001-07:00

CONGRATS TO MY LITTLE BROTHER Will and his FIANCEE Marnie!!!!!!! WOOOOOOO

Willy popped the "Big Question" to Marnie at dinner time yesterday. Actually, yesterday marked 6 years of them actually dating!

Not sure when the big date is yet, but we're one step closer! WOoo!!!

WE LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let me see if I got this correct....... they were eating dinner, Will tried to cue his son (my nephew) Dawson. Will would say "Mmmmmm isn't this this the best dinner Dawson?" and Dawson would just reply "ya" or whatever. Will said it again and same reaction from Dawson. As Marnie went into the kitchen, Will had a little talk with Dawson (apparently they had discussed this prior what was suppose to happen). So when Marnie came back to the table, Will again stated how good the dinner was and finally Dawson replied something like "She seems like a good keeper to me" and with that Will dropped to one knee and proposed. Still waiting for a photo of the engagement ring so I can post it. teehee!

WE HAD OUR FIRST FIRE LAST NIGHT

2009-04-18T05:54:00.000-07:00

When Bob and I purchased the house last year and moved in, there was a fire pit at the back of the yard. It was a big ugly thing. It was full of burnt items including metal. This was going to be a big job to clean up. While Bob and I were away on our honeymoon, my cousin Steve & his wife Nadine were nice enough to dig us a new fire pit, complete with bricks and stones. It was awesome!!

We purchased a fire permit last year but never did use it. Bob purchased another one for this year and last night was the first night we had a fire. My mom ended up coming over to join us for a bit.

Bob & I with the fire pit

I started taking different photo's of the fire as it raged on and came up with some very interesting shots. They almost look like they are people.

Man standing in the fire.

Woman standing in the fire.

It was getting late so we decided to put the fire out and head to bed. It was so fun! Looking forward to another fire in the fire pit soon!

THANKS NADINE & STEVE FOR YOUR HARD WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!

Secret Painting Revealed & a neato Metal Detecting Find!

2009-04-16T19:06:00.000-07:00

Here is my work area at work. Heehee, see the Wall of Bob including a photo of the Pet Shop Boys. teehee!

It was quite a busy day today which isn't bad, but I was looking forward to coming home and relaxing, unfortunately, I was greeted with a "not so nice" note stuck in the front door stating our Gas had been turned off. WTH! Bob got home shortly after and after calling the gas company, we found out that we had not ever received a bill since we moved in due to them having a wrong postal code - they had a Niagara On the Lake postal code.... They will be coming tomorrow to turn it back on, good thing it's suppose to be warm. Okay, I guess we are to blame because we should of realized we had not received a gas bill, but we receive a lot of bills so that one basically slipped our minds, but at the same time, come on, WHY could they of not given us a warning so we knew this was going to happen? (sigh)

We needed to DE-STRESS so we called Cousin Steve up to see if him and Nadine wanted to have pizza and go Metal Detecting. Nadine was working but Steve was up for it. We headed up to the house with a pizza in hand, Steve had a fire going outside so we ate out by the fire. So nice!!

We also got to visit with Riley. That leads me to THE SECRET PAINTING. :o)

It just seems like yesterday when they first got Riley, he was sooooooo little. Well, Bob had taken a photo of him as a puppy and I knew I wanted to paint a picture for Steve & Nadine.

....and here is the painting! Steve was VERY impressed so I'm hoping that Nadine is equally happy!!! Bob said not to worry!

and as for metal detecting, here is one of our finds! Click the photo to read the full story.

Happy 34th Birthday to My Brother Willy

2009-04-13T18:55:00.001-07:00

Today was my little brother Willy's 34th Birthday.

We met over at Mom's house as she made a wonderful dinner for us all.

In attendance was Willy, Marnie, Dawson, Mom, Bob, myself, Dave & Kelly.

Mommy made a scrumptious dinner of Pork Roast, Scallop Potatoes, Cabbage Salad, Veggies, Buns, Tomato Hamburger and to end it a home-made Chocolate MONEY cake. Bob and I scored $3.00

Here is Marnie & Willy

Dawson was so excited, he did some JUMP pictures for me for my Facebook Group JUMP

HAPPY EASTER!!!

2009-04-12T19:32:00.001-07:00

What a day, What a day!

Started off with me actually sleeping in until 12pm. WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT? No clue. Sure I stayed up to watch Saturday Night Live which means I didn't get to bed until 1am, but still, 12PM!?!?!?!!

I was actually woken up by Bob saying my name softly, me not being able to open my eyes because I was still tired and him asking do I know what time it was. After a guessing game of starting at 9am and going in hour incriments and him telling me it was 12pm, I forced open my eyes and felt sad as that meant 1/2 of the day was gone. We were due to go to my brother's house for 5pm for Easter Dinner.

The phone rang and it was my brother stating he was coming over to pick up a card table & chair set he had brought over for New Years for us to use for our party as they required it for dinner this evening. Guess that means I have to get up and quickly dress. He arrived shortly after with my nephew Dawson and we showed them our metal detecting finds from the previous days. They were impressed. Dawson thought it was so cool to hold on to a spoon that was from the 1800's -- "How much do you think it costs?" he asked. "$7.00" Bob replied. "Woooow!!" was Dawson's response. LOL

After they left it was my job to feed Bob. No, actually, he was craving pizza but our local pizza shoppe was closed until 4pm if they were open at all due to it being Easter Sunday. I'm a good little wife, so I made pancakes. Bob was impressed, I mixed in thawed out fruit (Strawberries, Grapes, Peaches) along with some Chocolate Chips. Mmmm Mmm!! Haven't had pancakes in a long time.

We then did some work on the computer and decided to do some quick yard work before we had to leave for dinner. We noticed as Spring arrived that there were beautiful yellow Daffodils appearing in our back yard so we decided to move them to the side garden. We know they'll probably die as of now due to the move, but at least the bulbs will be there for next year. We think they look really nice. We also moved a wishing well that needed work off the covered up well and placed two garden statues nearby. We were happy with the result.

It was soon time to leave so we headed over to Marnie & Will's and met up with Mom, Dave & Kelly for a YUMMY YUM Dinner that Marnie had prepared for us. Turkey, Italian Dressing (Her Mom's Recipe), Normal Dressing, Carrots, Potatoes, Candied Turnip, Buns, Brussel Sprouts, Gravy - it was amazing. For dessert she had three types of pies to choose from and ice cream. We were sooooo full! She's an amazing chef! Mommy gave Bob and I two chocolate bunnies - one Rice filled and one Nut filled.

Afterwards we relaxed and enjoyed the awesome conversation and Will even gave us a mini concert.

Good Friday & Relaxing Saturday

2009-04-11T19:12:00.000-07:00

GOOD FRIDAY, April 10th would of been my Daddy's 67th Birthday (RIP). He passed away January 2008. I called my Mommy up to see if she wanted to come over in the morning and do a little metal detecting in our yard and she did!! She treated Bob and I to some Timmies Coffee & Muffins. Bob had to go out to meet with the director's of a new show he is suppose to be in titled DEEP RIVER.

When Bob was on his way back home he took some photo's.

Saturday, after a nice sleep-in, we got up and headed into town to get some shopping done. We picked up some pictures frames that looked like they would match the original one I received as a birthday gift from Julie, Bill, Sarah & Emma (Center Frame). I'm loving placing the Yellow Submarine collector's cards inside. Hopefully Bob will get these frames up for me soon!!!

Our kitty Melody wanted to get into a photo. :o)

We went out for dinner with Bob's family (Mom, Dad, Sister Anne, Bro-in-Law Tim, and Nephew Caleb & Niece Sarah. We had a great time and afterwards when we were driving home I spotted a beautiful sunset. I took a shot while Bob was driving home and then once we reached home we ran out to the Train Track and Bob snapped some great photos!!!

And as the evening arrived, we heard a fire call on the scanner dispatched as an alarm going off at a local business, so we ran up the street and recorded the fire truck zooming by.

I finally got something checked off my list tonight and we bought two new (used) Wii Games

2009-04-08T18:07:00.000-07:00

This evening we had my mommy over for dinner. I cooked a really quick and easy item -- Chicken Breast in Shake 'N Bake, then after that is done you add salsa and cheese, place it back in the oven to melt, mmmm mmm good! Oh and as a side dish just two of those Uncle Ben 2 minute in the microwave dishes. For dessert, home-made brownies. Can't go wrong with a meal like that eh? lol Afterwards we went outside to show her the house foundation Bob had dug up: SEE HERE

So, by now you must know I really love the Beatle's Yellow Submarine.

For a Birthday Gift I was given this large beautiful photo frame from very good family friends, Julie, Bill, Sarah & Emma. We were actually going to fill it with photo's of Bob and I through the years of dating but I haven't gotten around to actually sitting down going through all the photo's and then sending a request off to Walmart to be printed out, not to mention the fact that we are a little strapped for cash.

Tonight I got this wonderful idea to use these Yellow Submarine collectors cards that I had and place them in the photo frame. When I did this and brought it into the bedroom I realized that they sort of match the colours in the fabric of the curtains Bob is going to make for the bedroom. WOOOOOOOOOOOO looks like I'm going to get my wonderful colourful bedroom afterall!!

Last week Bob and I went to EB Games and traded in some of our older games and receive a nice credit. We couldn't leave the store without purchasing a couple of games. We started to play the Batman Game together which was fun -- little Lego Batman and Robin running around. Bully on the other hand is adictive. LOL It's funny, because I don't think as Bob or I as mean people, and in the Bully you obviously are playing the part of someone who is bullied or is a bully. We are just too nice to be Bullies. But secretly it is bringing back the past.... you see, in public school I was bullied, not fun. Glad I'm older now. :o) THIS GAME IS DEFINATELY not for younger kids.

HELP ME GET THE PET SHOP BOYS TO COME TO ST. CATHARINES, ONTARIO, CANADA or somewhere VERY close!

2009-04-07T10:25:00.000-07:00

View all Saint Catharines events on Eventful

Fun Weekend For Us!

2009-04-05T15:21:00.000-07:00

Our weekend started on Saturday morning getting up early and heading to get my hair done. Bob drove me in and waited two hours while I had my hair coloured and cut. No worries, he had his Ipod and was kept busy. When I came out he said outloud "Ohhhhhhh, aren't you just the cutest thing" LOL!! (BLUSH) and all the people in the waiting area said "Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!" and giggled. lol He quickly snapped this photo of me. Crazy man! heehee!

We then went on to Timmies for some breakfast. We decided to sit in the car and eat, noticed this "naughty person" parked in the no parking zone.

We then went to a train store and purchased some train cars for us to practice our "Aging Techniques" and carried on to IKEA! WOO!

Bob was hungry so he bought x2 50 cent hotdogs.

Looking around we spotted this interesting couch, Bob wanted to pose.

And then we spotted this pillow that our friend Karen aka Trail Mix Designs would probably like because of all the buttons on it. :o)

This was one of our purchases for the day. We fell in love with this fabric and Bob's going to make curtains for the bedroom! We also purchased a new comforter cover, you'll see that later when we open up and start using it. :o)

Today the weather was awesome so we did some outdoor work, here is one of the flowers that came up for the spring.

and Bob placed my painted lighthouse outside.

We decided to do a wild adventure today, unbury the old house foundation. Want to read about it? Go to our other blog: http://robot4metal.blogspot.com/2009/04/woo-scored-find-home-finally.html

HAVING FUN with some of Bob's work

2009-04-03T05:10:00.001-07:00

So, while I was away at Painting Class last night, Bob preceeded to play with his scroll saw & mitre saw.

When I got home he was excited to show me what he had made.
Yeppers, his first G-Scale building. Now, mind you, it still needs some work, but he has the basic shape right and cut the holes for the windows/doors perfectly.

But then we started getting silly with them and took some funny photo's.

The following are the two sheds he made in G-Scale Size for the Garden Train Set.

And of course here is one of our crazy kitties TRIN :o)

Wow - our photo is in a local newspaper - WOW - I have driven on the Highway 3 times by myself!

2009-04-02T13:24:00.000-07:00

So, remember me telling you about Bob and I heading out to Tufford Road to welcome a Fallen Soldier by the name of Cpl. Tyler Crooks home while we stood on the bridge overlooking the QEW? If you have forgotten, CLICK HERE

We thought we saw someone else taking photo's of the group down below, I guess it was a local newspaper photographer. This week in one of our local newspapers we receive WEST LINCOLN NEWS - we found this photo and Bob spotted us right away.

Were you able to spot us??? No?

Here you go, here is Bob and I. We actually are blended together, he's tall and I'm small.

And as for other news, I'm a big whimp. Really I am.

I got my driver's licence late in life and then proceeded not to drive -- but that wasn't my fault entirely, we will call that my PREVIOUS LIFE and won't go there. BUT then I was forced into a situation where I had to drive. With the help of my Daddy & Mommy I purchased a car and was given the courage to drive alone to work. Once I met Bob, I was okay driving (to work and home, home and work, Bob's house and home, etc...) but last year Bob actually got me on the highway once or twice - hated EVERY MINUTE of it. 100 is much faster then 80 --- 80 I'm comfortable, 100 I feel out of control, plus the fact I had two Transport Trucks ride my butt to the city honking their horns. Hey, I was doing the limit of 100 - not my fault they were doing 120 - 125.

So there I chickened out and went back to my old way. It typically takes me 20 - 25 minutes or longer to get home just on the normal route, lots of traffic to contend with. This year I knew I had to learn the highway. After a couple of bumper to bumper traffic on my old route, not to mention having a car clip my mirror while I was in stand-still traffic, it peaved me off. I wanted to get home quicker.

So, I got the courage to try last Friday. (Actually, all thanks to the PET SHOP BOYS newest song ALL OVER THE WORLD - has a wonderful sound) I was taking my normal route but there was an entrance to the highway nearby and for some reason my steering wheel turned in that direction and before I knew it I was doing 100, my heart leapt up into my throat and my legs started to vibrate and then tense up. "OMG, what am I doing?!!?!? I have to do two merges, PLEASE GOD don't let there be anyone in the lane I need to get into" and there wasn't. BUT MAN, did the traffic ever catch up to me and pass. Wow................ why do people go super fast.

Tuesday and Wednesday I did it again, might as well get use to it eh? I shave approx. 10 minutes off my drive home. This time I took an entrance closer to my work place. It seemed calmer to get on, but on Wednesday here came a BIG RIG in the lane I had to get into and the onramp was ending. THANK GOD Mr. Big Rig got over at the last minute for me.

So there you go, I now have succeeded in driving on the highway 3 times. I go from one highway to another and then home. The next step will be to take the highway to work and maybe to another exciting adventure. Maybe I'll help Bob drive up north, wouldn't that be something. Mind you, I'm not ready to tackle Toronto Traffic, I'm sure. Maybe IKEA will be in the works. Teehee!

Tonight is painting class, hopefully get one step closer to finishing another SECRET PROJECT for an unexpecting couple Teehee

Found Another Blog Search Site, Doc Martens Feeling Better & I want to go on a Ghost Hunt!

2009-04-01T13:07:00.000-07:00

So, I have come across another cool BLOG searcher named BLOGGED. It's pretty neat to type different subjects in and see what blogs pop up.

Quick update on my Doc Martens. I've worn them for 3 days with two pairs of socks on and the pain is hardly there. I was told 2 weeks of wearing them should wear them in. So fingers crossed. I really like them.

Now, I'm a believer in Ghosts.

I've seen something at Fort George (NOTL, Ontario, Canada) and even felt something on the back of my neck as if there was a hand pressing on it. I've seen a towel move without explanation in an old house of mine, felt things, etc........

Bob and I went on a couple ghost tours together and took a few photo's and seen things,

See the screaming face?

We're hoping to go on a couple more this year along with cousin Steve & Nadine as they are believers too. Bob isn't so much, but wants to.

Anyone else out there had experiences?

Looking forward to supper tonight as we are going to have one of our fav's. Eggplant Parm. Mmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!

Earth Hour, Bob's Saws & Our Racing Nephew Caleb

2009-03-29T17:18:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was Earth Day and for Earth Hour everyone was suppose to turn their lights off for the hour. We turned our lights out and decided we would go and visit my mom. We took photo's on our way there and were very very disappointed as there were lots of lights still on (sigh). When we arrived to mom's house, she had two candles burning. We sat in the dark for 45 minutes having a nice conversation.

Last year, before we put the house up for sale, we purchased a Mitre Saw. He went to use it last week as he is going to build small buildings for his train set. He came running up the stairs freaking as apparently the saw sparked and smoked and he took his finger off the trigger and the saw kept on running full tilt. He had to unplug it from the wall to get it to stop.

We had no receipt or box and called Canadian Tire where we had purchased it to be told basically they could do nothing without the receipt. We phoned Mastercraft direct and they were nice enough to issue Bob a RMA number. The instructions were to return it back to Canadian Tire, which we did on Wednesday evening. The store then told us they could give us a store credit (that had to be used right away) for the lowest sale price that the saw was sold for which ended up being $189.99 - wow, great!! Bob then purchased the following saw and used the credit and paid the additional $80.00 + towards it.

We looked at the sales flyer on Saturday that this exact saw was on sale $30.00 cheaper. I called Canadian Tire and they told me just to bring the receipt in and he would receipt money back on his card. :o)

Bob also decided to purchase (on http://www.kijiji.ca/) a Scroll Saw. The first time he tried it he thought something was wrong with it.

He then practiced a bit and got the hang of it and came up with this for me:

Today (Sunday) was suppose to be a lazy day. The phone rang just before 9am waking Bob and I up, it was his sister. She wanted to come over and visit and learn the secrets to blogging. We got up and did a major clean-up of the house.

Anne, Tim and the two kiddies Caleb & Sarah arrived just after 12pm. It was great to see them -- I don't think we have seen our nephew and neice since Christmas. Too long! While Bob helped Anne with the Blog, Sarah wanted to play WII FIT. Wow, Sarah was kicking butt! :o)

Now, to Anne' Blog. She wanted to start a Blog on her son (our nephew) Caleb and his Go-Cart Racing Experience.

So I am pleased to bring you: TEAM CHAOS RACING BLOG

Helped Welcome another Fallen Soldier Home in Canada

2009-03-28T16:55:00.001-07:00

Today was the day that Cpl Tyler Crooks of Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada was to arrive home.

He was killed on his birthday on March 20, 2009 in Afghanistan. Cpl. Crooks and three other Canadian solders were killed when an improvised explosive device detonated near them during a patrol in Zhari District, west of Kandahar City, Afghanistan.

He was due to arrive after 3:50pm in the Town of Lincoln. We originally had decided we would stop on the Victoria Avenue bridge in Vineland to pay our respects with the Jordan Fire Fighters but got word my brother and his team of Fire Fighters from Vineland Fire Department would be at the Tufford Road bridge in Beamsville.

We had just got home from shopping in St. Catharines when two Jordan fire trucks and a police car passed our house. We quickly drove to Beamsville, parked the car and met up with my brother.

What we saw when we arrived.

At this point it was announced over the fire pagers that the ensemble of cars that were to arrive were in Toronto. We weren't moving.

Me waiting.

Bob waiting

Some of the crowd waiting

It was reported approx. 45 minutes to an hour later that they had hit Grimsby

The traffic started to get very scarce until there was no traffic at all on the highway in the oncoming lanes.

and then shortly later the lights appeared in the distance.

The group of cars with flashing lights got closer.....

It was amazing to see the opposite side of the highway traffic slow and pull over.

And they got closer and everyone on the bridge fell silent

Cpl Tyler Crooks -- thank you for what you have done for all of us!!!

Hands waved out of the limo at our bridge immediately following the hearse that carried Cpl. Tyler Crooks.

Bob and I were not able to attend the drive-by that happened for Warrant Officer Dennis Brown. This is the least we could do, pay our respects to another Fallen Soldier.

We LOVE Suitcase In Point - 98th Big Time World Theatre Awards

2009-03-28T14:31:00.001-07:00

Bob & I REALLY enjoy going to the SUITCASE IN POINT theatre shows!

Bob introduced me to this theatre group when we started dating in 2005 - it was NONSTOP laughing which is a good thing!

We decided we would go to this event and invited our friends Heather & Xander along. Unfortunately, Xander could not make it due to work commitments.

After having a yummy pizza dinner at Heather & Xander's house, we headed off to the show as the Red Carpet was suppose to start at 7pm but ran a little later.

Bob, Myself & Heather

The Paparazzi showed up.

and then Sage & Rosemary arrived to talk to everyone who showed up. Deanna Jones & Natasha Pedros (Suitcase In Point) -- reminded me of like a Joan Rivers interview.

We got ourselves some drinks and some good seats and waited for the show to begin.

Our show started with Trevor Enns (Suitcase In Point) as Master of Ceremonies.

The show was awesome as they did it as an Awards Show, instead of having the "snippits" of shows / acts that you would normally see on a big screen, the actors each acted out the snips themselves live. :o)

Miles Coverdale & Natasha Pedros

Edwin Conroy Jr. & Deanna Jones

After the show, Bob found Joe Lapinski and I got to have my photo taken with him!! Really love his album SUNDRIES

And then I scored a photo op with Deanna Jones as she was serving food after the show. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm Mmmm good!!! (The food was provided by: The Spotted Calf, The Office Tap and Grill, Strega Cafe and The Merchant Ale House.)

We weren't able to stay too late, but we heard there was a wonderful after party complete with a band that Joe Lapinski plays with.

Here is a sample of what we saw at the show:

Hopefully next time I'll be able to get more photo's with people from Suitcase In Point. Sometimes it sucks to be so shy! (BLUSH)

MORE PHOTOS: CLICK HERE

So much for my One of a Kind Bag

2009-03-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

I know I don't have the right to be angry, but I am a little disappointed to be honest. I had asked an Etsy seller to create a messenger bag for me as I knew Bob and I wouldn't have the knowledge or time to make one. She made it super quick and I was so excited. I had lots of compliments!!!!!

My Yellow Submarine Bag I had someone create for me.

And today when I was searching on Etsy for more Yellow Submarine items, I came across this...

Yeppers, same seller. She is doing a limited run. I guess I thought (secretly) I would be owning a one of a kind item. Bob was so excited about my bag that he was going to order one, but now I'm not sure what will happen with that.

I don't blame her though, times are tough, money is important.

I wish I had enough money to buy them all up. LOL!!!!! Oh well, I'm going to take it as a compliment that she really liked my idea and wants to share it with the rest of the world as she REALLY did an amazing job!!!!! So here is your chance to own one -- just click on the photo and it will take you to her store. :o) If that one ends up selling, she might make another one.

Maybe we could start a Yellow Submarine Bag club. lol ;o)

HELP WITH SEARCHING BLOGS like Blogger & Blogspot , etc...

2009-03-27T05:23:00.001-07:00

Need help searching BLOGS or BLOGGER?

This makes it easy!!!!!

CLICK THE PICTURES BELOW

This one is so cool -- you can search by city (You can see who is blogging near you)

Then there is trusty Google Search

And this interesting Blog Search

And remember, you can always subscribe to blogs to keep up to date with what's going on. (Click on the SUBSCRIBE TO BLOGS LINK and ADD your favorite blogspot)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BETSY BABY

2009-03-26T05:07:00.001-07:00

Today is "Betsy Baby's" 33rd Birthday!

I met Betsy online a long time ago on a web site named http://www.petshopboys-online.com/ They had a chat area on that site and it seemed that Betsy and I just clicked. We've been emailing each other ever since.

Chris Lowe (Pet Shop Boys) & Betsy

Betsy lives in Philadelphia. I've never met her in real life, so I guess you could say she is a Pen Pal but more on the computer. We basically kept in touch via Email, Web Cam and Chats.

She's had a fun life full of adventures as she seems to take cruises all over the world. lol

And to top it all off, she got married January 28, 2009 to Pat and is due to have a baby on May 6th, 2009 :o)

I'm trying out my Doc's at work today. After getting those nasty blisters after I purchased them with only wearing them for 1/2 hour I'm told that if I wear them for two weeks they will break in and be the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn. I have two pairs of socks on, so hopefully I won't be too hurt today.

And as for the ATV I had posted as being stolen, I'm very happy to report that the ATV was located by the Niagara Regional Police on 03-24-09 --- THANK YOU for whomever helped find it! You know who you are. :o) It was really appreciated!!!!!!!!!!

I started doing my sit-ups again and man, are my abs killing me. Before I met Bob I weighed 152 and was looking pretty good, now I'm up to 180 --- I know, I know, it means I'm HAPPY with my home life with Bob. lol Well, tell my clothes that. So, I'm going to try and take it off again. So fingers crossed.

Also, today we're having the Town of Lincoln come to our house to test our pipes for lead. Yikes!!!!! Hope everything tests A-Ok!

PS: Hope Cousin Jeff is doing better!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He had a slight accident at work involving metal and fingers. (gulp)

CONGRATS TO TrailMixDesigns & Joe - They Got Married in Graceland March 16, 2009

2009-03-23T17:31:00.000-07:00

Our dear Geocaching Friends - Logger & Trail aka Joe & Karyn (aka TrailmixDesigns) got married March 16, 2009 in Graceland!

I just found the video on Youtube -- It's so cute!!!!!!!!!!!!

CONGRATS TO THEM BOTH!!!!!!!!!! May they be HAPPY forever!!!!

PET SHOP BOYS - YES

2009-03-23T17:14:00.001-07:00

Check out this cute little sampler widget so you can hear songs from the Pet Shop Boys newest album YES -- I really love LOVE ETC.

Woo, my first Train Car and Bob created new items for his G-Scale Garden Train Set

2009-03-22T18:14:00.000-07:00

Bob has been in love with trains since before I knew him.

When I first met him, he showed me a train set he had created out of Lego. When we viewed the house we ended up buying it was right near a train track where freight & passenger trains race by numerous times during the day. When we hear the train horn he runs to the window to watch. lol Stay tuned as we are hoping to one day set up a web cam.

When we started dating there was discussion of starting our own train set but it would be HO, but then it was decided we would go bigger to G-Scale.

We certainly have the room at the new house location as the yard is a lot larger.

Bob has been busy working on his own creations for his train set.

His newest creation was with the little pallets he made out of popsicle sticks he then created tiny beer cases to go in his train car complete with wrapping over top.

Bob's passion is German Train Cars.

Watching the freight trains go by in the back yard made me think it would be so cool to have a CN train set. It would be awesome to copy what I see go by daily. Bob is very excited that I'm beginning to like what he likes (trains). So I purchsed my first train car.

A Grand-Trunk Box Car -- mind you, we don't see this in our backyard, but since it was on sale at a train store we were at, it was the perfect car to purchase.

This afternoon we went on another Metal Detecting Adventure -- click here to read up on it.

UPDATE: All G-Scale Messages can be found in our new blog www.gscaletrain.blogspot.com

Received my Yellow Submarine Bag, I love Ikea & Another Fun Day Metal Detecting

2009-03-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

So, on Friday, I received my Yellow Submarine Messenger Bag which I purchased from a store on Etsy named HIPPIE STRIPS I had researched some stores that sold a Messenger Bag made of materials I liked and came up with her store. I told her exactly what I wanted and voila, she did it!!

On Saturday morning we got up and headed out to IKEA -- LOVE THAT STORE!!!!!!!!! The house we moved into is basically like a blank slate and we are thinking of idea's of how to decorate it. Bob's old house was full of colour and we want to do that with our new house.

The following are photo's of items that we really liked. Not sure if we'll incorporate them into the house we are in. We'll see.

First, in our upstairs "party room" we have a bar fridge. We were looking for something interesting to stick upstairs and put the fridge on.
Bob really liked the above but it is too tall.

This might work, but really isn't colourful.

This definately would need a staining or paint job.

We saw the following and instantly thought it would be in our kitchen if we ever had money to add on to the side and redo the cupboards.We loved the colourful dishes they had!

This was very cool -- they were pieces of fabric on Canvas.

Very colourful carpet!

This would be perfect for the front porch and has storage undernearth.

Again, very nice and colourful!

Since we don't have closet space, this would be perfect for hanging coats on.

Bob also wanted to look at items for the bedroom.

He really liked the colours here! It wasn't in our budget for this month.

This would be cool if I could paint it a bright colour!

This would of been good for the bedroom side table but it is way too short.

I LOVE this yellow cabinet!!!!!!!!

Some crazy throw pillows Bob really liked.

Some more fun colours!!

I actually overhead a man telling a woman how cool he thought my Yellow Submarine Messenger Bag was and another lady stop me to ask if I had made it. :o)

We then went home, packed the car and headed off for our Metal Detecting Adventure.

ATV STOLEN in St. Catharines --- Found & Returned 03--25-09

2009-03-18T08:51:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: 03-25-09 ATV was recovered yesterday by Police!!! THANKS TO WHOMEVER HELPED IN THE SEARCH FOR IT!!!!

03-18-09

My friend's ATV was stolen right out of her garage in St. Catharines and I posted about it. THANKFULLY someone contacted Crime Stoppers and the unit was found and returned.

THANKS TO WHOMEVER DID THAT!!!!!!!!! YOU ROCK!!

Suspect wearing: Grey-hoodie with coral sleeves -- approx. 5 ' 10 ish in height - not wearing helmet

UPDATE: 03-25-09 ATV was recovered yesterday by Police!!! THANKS TO WHOMEVER HELPED IN THE SEARCH FOR IT!!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day & Another Local Talented Artist for the Niagara Region

2009-03-17T05:26:00.000-07:00

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Last year, we were able to go out to some local bars & pubs for some drinks with family and friends because it landed on a weekend. Unfortunately, this year, it lands on a week day. So to bring back good memories I've posted some photos of Bob and I. One even contains Marnie. :o)

Karyn Bower - ever heard of her? If you haven't, you should!

She has been a professional vocalist through out the Niagara Region for almost 2 decades.

Karyn’s love of music has been with her for as long as she can remember. Her earliest influences were singers Karen Carpenter and Anne Murray, and Fleetwood Mac. Although Karyn has performed in different musical genres her love remains in pop, soft rock and country, and says doing the classic country, rock and pop hits of the 50’s 60’s 70’s has been a lot of fun and brings back a lot of memories of the music she grew up listening to on the radio and listening to on her mom’s records.

Karyn has sung with several bands over the years, starting with Charlie’s roadhouse band, Barstool Mountain, Wild Horses, Wine Country, and Karisma. She has also been involved in other projects, one being a two girl duet called “Lipstick” with singer and friend Donna Gandza. And a male /female duet Burden and Bower with friend Dave Burden, who recently wrapped up a 2 year run. Although they recently ended the duet due to differences Karyn says “ Dave is a very talented individual and although things didn’t turn out the way we thought they might, I wish him the best and know he will be successful in whatever genre he chooses”.

Karyn is currently performing at several legions throughout the Niagara Region. There is no better venue than this , she states, as these fine people are respectable and appreciative, and they come out to dance and have a nice time. The hours are decent and she never wants to go back to the days of putting up with the heavy drinkers and bar fights in the local bars. The acceptance she has been receiving in the Legions make those years of struggle all seem worth it.

Click the photo below of Karyn & Me to go to her Web Site.

And I am also happy to report she is my 2nd cousin! :o)

Hopefully, she will have CD's available -- so check back often!

And as for Ceol Cara, they will be playing @

The Irish Harp Pub http://www.theirishharppub.com/

245 King Street, Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario

Join them in the Harp all afternoon & evening as they celebrate!

ALSO, hoping my Yellow Submarine bag arrives today!!!

A day at Prudhommes Wet 'N Wild / Victoria Hall in Vineland Station, Ontario, Canada 03-15-09

2009-03-15T12:45:00.001-07:00

The weather was to be awesome today so last night it was decided we would go metal detecting with Steve & Nadine. The phone call came around 8:30ish asking to meet them at a local Tim Horton's for breakfast. After our showers we headed out and beat them to the coffee shop. After a fun discussion about where we should go, we jump into our cars and drove around to the old Victoria Hall as it had caught on fire in the early hours of March 10th.

If you click the above photo it will take you to a photo album I took of more photos of this building.

And a following is a video that a good friend of my brother's (Bryan) took along with more photo's of the actual fire when it happened.

We saw other people inside the old Prudhommes Wet N Wild Park where I had worked one summer as a teenager so we decided to pop in and take some shots. SO weird!!! Everything is overgrown, very sad.

Click the photo above to go to my mini album of how the park looks now.

This is how it looked prior

After walking around and reminiscing we decided to go metal detecting.

CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT OUR DETECTING STORY.

After hours of detecting and including a nice coffee break thanks to Nadine, Bob started to feel weak since we really had not eaten anything all day except for a muffin. It was decided we would part ways and go off in search of food and head for home for a nap and a day of relaxing and painting. After all, I had a special request for a painted frame, so I should get that finished before the end of the day and Bob is practicing his Guitar Hero.

HAPPY 10th Birthday Dawson, I bought my Doc Martens today - OW OUCH OW & a Small Metal Detecing Break!

2009-03-14T18:22:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAWSON!!!!!!!!

Today it is our nephew's 10th Birthday!!

It is so hard to believe that he is 10. It seems like yesterday that he was a wee little guy.

We actually had a mini birthday dinner for him last night at Mom's house.

So, this morning after a nice sleep in, run to Tim Hortons, off to JUST TRAIN CRAZY and The Hobby Shop, we headed off to The Pen Centre. We were on a mission, today we were going to look for a pair of Doc Martens shoes for myself.

We located a small selection at The Boot Shop. They had funky yellow boots and really cool runners, but I have always wanted the regular Doc Marten shoes. So after trying on a couple of pairs I picked one I wanted and we were off. We decided to go to London Arms for a bite to eat and while sitting and deciding what to order I decided it would be a wonderful idea to put the shoes on so I could start breaking them in.

We decided we would stop into London Arms for a bite to eat. While deciding what to order I decided it would be a great idea to wear them for the rest of the day to break them in. So, what actually happened, they broke me. lol After another three stores the backs of my heels started hurting. Yep, you guessed it, lovely blisters had formed. OW OUCH OW!!!! :o( I was not happy. "How could you let me buy these Bob?" I sobbed. "Why didn't you stop me?" "I DID!!" Bob explained? "How?" I asked. "I asked you if they fit properly" he replied. LMAO! Okay, like I know that's code for DON'T BUY THEM. LOL!!! Thing is, when I had them on in the store and did the basic walk around to make sure they fit and felt fine, they did!!!! Someone please tell me after a while they will feel fine. Funny thing, my email friend Betsy from Phillie told me she had two pairs and they were very uncomfortable. (sigh) Hope it's a fluke and they will feel better in a week or so. They look funky - don't you think??? (Just look past my PJ pants) haahahahahh

So, after we arrived home, it was decided we would go metal detecting. We're aiming to find out the history of our house and thought there might be some interesting items to dig up. When we first moved in (back in Sept 08) we found junk metal, nails, etc.... and one button which ended up being an Army Service Button from the 1930's. Well, tonight we found another button near the back of the yard, but it is so badly rusted, not sure what it was. Our Real Estate agent TERRY COX showed up for a quick visit so we put the detecting on hold for a bit and headed back out after he left. We continued detecting and found a good signal (which read as a penny reading) in the back yard, so Bob began to dig.

and dig.....

and dig.......

and dig some more....

and dig and then all of a sudden, his shovel broke through something and we heard the sound of water splashing....

He dug approx. 2 - 2.5 feet down

The metal that we hit we believe was a lid of some sort, not 100% sure what it was........... old outhouse hole? old well? (weird since there is another well closer to the house), we quickly found some large stones to pile on the hole and filled it all in. I'm worried, what it could be in the middle of the back yard.

We continued detecting onto a vaccant lot and founds lots of junk from a house that use to be there. We did find a quarter and some pennies. We even found a weight from a barbell. It started to get dark so we headed back home.

There was a phone message from our Detecting Buddies (aka cousins) Steve and Nadine expressing an interest in Metal Detecting tomorrow, so we're heading out in the morning to do that. Wish us luck eh? lol

For metal detecting stories, check out Bob's Blog -- Robot4Metal

RECYCLE and get items you need or want!

2009-03-13T06:26:00.000-07:00

I came across this interesting web site that is sort of like Ebay, except you SWAP items. Because times are tough and no one really wants to spend money, this is an awesome idea!!!!!

Here's the link: http://www.swapsity.ca/

I think for now it is just for Canada. I know when I joined you had to request a membership.

LAST NIGHT WAS MOVIE NIGHT

2009-03-12T11:10:00.000-07:00

After work, Bob and I headed out to Heather & Xander's for dinner. Heather made this fantastic assortment of Indian style food. I can't remember any of the names. lol

I know there was brown rice, some sort of pita bread, something spicy with cheese, butter chicken and something with spinach and these little bean things. Anyways, TOTALLY YUMMY! Heather is an amazing cook! She can bake and decorate cakes as well as cook dinner! lol She even served Coconut Milk for us to drink.

After dinner we took off to go see THE WATCHMEN in Niagara Falls.

I don't want to give it away, but for me, I really loved the movie!!! I know they said it was long, but again for me, it wasn't. I think my favourite character was Dr. Manhattan. teehee!

So in honour of this movie, I located this blog entry with cutesy little Watchmen Toys, artwork, etc...

Super Punch: Watchmen link roundup

FAKE NIAGARA REGIONAL POLICE OFFICER PULLING OVER PEOPLE!

2009-03-10T08:34:00.001-07:00

Received this email this morning from someone I know:

Subject: Everyone PLEASE read VERY IMPORTANT (March 3, 2009)

Katharine Ouderkirk Thursday, March 05, 2009 8:54 AM

>>>Everyone please take this seriously this happened to my friend Lynn's co-worker on March 3rd in St. Catharines on her way to work. Kathy

This happened to me TODAY March 3/09!!! I was driving on the QEW heading to St.Kitts at 8am this morning, took the Niagara Street cut-off turned right on Grantham Ave. He is using a car that looks like an unmarked cruiser. Similar if not an Impala. Beige/light in colour. He does NOT have red and blue flashing lights, his front head light flash right then left right then left. He does have a siren that is loud like a cops hence why I pulled over. He was wearing a dark suit with a dark suit jacket, when he approached my car he quickly flashed a badge and put it away saying Niagara Regional Police. He is about 5'11 6 feet tall short dark/gray hair medium build. He used a very MEAN voice when speaking to me saying that I was speeding. He had on Dark sunglasses that he never removed. He asked for my licence and insurance. Went back to his car took about 7-8 mins then returned. He handed me my stuff back and said your ticket will be in the mail. I looked at him and said for what charges? He yelled at me well let's see 130 in a 100 that is $230 and following to closely that is another $100 and walked back to his car. Of course me being me yelled out my window excuse me as I had a question he never turned around just got in his car. He waited for me to pull out first then came right behind me. I went straight he turned left onto Welland Ave. I called the regional's as things didn't add up and I was NEVER even issued a ticket today nor was my licence or plates run through the system. I had t o make a report!!!! This jerk NOW has where I live my age and name!!

EVERYONE PLEASE BE VERY CAREFUL PASS THIS ON TO EVERYONE!!! IF YOU ARE NOT SURE IF IT'S A REAL POLICE OFFICER CALL 911 and HAVE THEM SEE IF THERE IS AN OFFICER THERE!!!! BETTER TO BE SAFE THEN SORRY.....

If anyone has any questions feel free to send me an e-mail
Jenn Katharine Ouderkirk
Payroll Coordinator
City of Niagara Falls
905-356-7521 Ext. 4287

THEN I FOUND THIS VIA THE ST. CATHARINES STANDARD WEB SITE:

The SECRET GIft has arrived and I ordered a Custom-Made Messenger Bag

2009-03-09T06:52:00.000-07:00

This morning when I logged onto the internet to track and see if Bob's present was near I saw it was indeed in Canada which means it would probably be delivered today.

AND IT DID!!!!!!!!!!!!

My mom gave me the call to say it had been delivered and the guy had indeed paid good money to have it delivered in time for Bob's birthday but it had not arrived in time. I hope the guy gets his refund back for that.

As you can see, Bob's surprise gift was a G-Scale Tardis for his Garden Train Set. It came complete with decals to attach, a blue light and the lid comes off so if Bob wants to do some wiring he can have the light flash. We need to paint it blue of course. Bob was so happy when he saw what it was. Mary did good! LOL The little guy with it was one of Bob's train people. I'll paint him up as a little Doctor Who guy at somepoint.
Speaking of trains, here is a cute little Train that Nadine & Steve gave Bob for his birthday.

I'm also super excited as I ordered a custom-made purse from Etsy with a Yellow Submarine. I haven't received it yet as it was just finished this weekend and will be mailed tomorrow I'm told. Hippie Strips was kind enough to send me some pictures of what it looks like:

Bob was so impressed now he's debating whether to order a bag for himself for his Orchestra Sheet Music. lol

I'm soooooooooo thrilled and excited by what I see I can hardly wait to receive it and start using it!! One of a Kind!! WOO!!

NOTE: We are moving all our G-Scale Train Posts to our new blog www.gscaletrain.blogspot.com

Guitar Hero World Tour Party, Heather's Cake & The "Secret" Painting

2009-03-08T14:31:00.001-07:00

On Saturday, March 7th from an idea discussed back around New Years Eve - a Guitar Hero World Tour Party was arranged. We decided everyone would dress up as a Musician and we would play the Ninteno Wii game Guitar Hero World Tour. Everyone's costumes were amazing!!!!! We had a blast!

In this photo we have: Angus Young, Joan Jett, Gene Simmons, Kate Pierson, Amy Winehouse & Ringo Starr.

I had a lot of people comment to me about Bob dressing up as Amy Winehouse so here is a close-up. lol Oh, and this is Britney with him. LOL For more information on Britney -- visit THE BRITNEY PROJECT Facebook Club

Backing up to the beginning of the day, Bob and I scrambled around picking up last minute items and cleaning the house. We received a phone call shortly after 4:30 pm from our very good friends Heather & Xander to say unfortunately they would not be able to make it. You see this day was also going to be a last-minute mini birthday party and Heather asked if she could make Bob a cake as she had taken a cake decorating course a couple weeks before. Xander's children were down visiting for the week and they were due to go home to Montreal via a train in Toronto. Not sure about the whole story but somehow the train was missed and the children's mom wanted the kiddies home that evening, so they had to drive all the way to Montreal (approx 7-hour trip one-way). She asked if we could stop by their house and pick up the cake.

In the pouring rain, we headed out to town to pick up the cake. Their doggy Bacon could be heard inside yapping up a storm. lol We let him outside to do some business and we picked up the cake. We were so delighted!!!

Heather did a wonderful job!!!!!!! Everyone raved about how yummy it was later on in the evening.

Now, backing up a week prior, as you know, I was working on a "secret painting". Here it is!

I was painting this for Heather & Xander since they love Super Hero's and their livingroom is basically decorated with Super Hero items!! Since we had to run to town to pick up the cake, we left the painting for them inside the house. Hopefully they will like it!! :o)

Now I have to come up with another painting to work on, I have an idea of what to do, so stay tuned for another painting photo when I have completed it.

This morning we were all woken up by a phone call by Cousin Steve's daughter who needed a ride to work around 8am. Remember, today was the big time change (advance an hour) so we were all groggy. Steve and wife Nadine headed for home as they were hosting a yummy breakfast this morning for all us Musicians --- oh, didn't I tell you? We had a sleep-over. lol We all met up with them including my brother Will and family. YUM YUM!!! Steve (with the help of Marnie) make a yummy breakfast!

We also added new JUMP pictures to Facebook JUMP Group!

Ohhh!! And I heard from the guy I'm buying Bob's "SECRET" present from (He is in California). He actually phoned me at my Mom's house (while we were having a birthday dinner she was having for Bob) where I'm having the present delivered too. He said he went to the post office to find out where the package had disappeared to and they have to try and trace it..... so it might be a few weeks before we find out the result.

Yesterday's Adventures

2009-03-06T05:15:00.000-08:00

So as you know, yesterday was Bob's 39th Birthday! Of course we both spent the day at work.

Bob phoned me up in the morning to tell me his parents had made a special trip to his office to present him with a cake complete with a train on it and to give him a card. I made sure he promised to bring me home a piece after work. lol

When the work day was done, it was decided we would go to Subway for a yummy sub and grab a Timmies coffee for dinner.

We had tickets to the Ice Dogs game for 7:30 pm (You can click the ICE DOGS PICTURE to go to their link)

Before the game started, they did a moment of silence for a local Lincoln & Welland Regiment Soilder Warrant Officer Dennis Brown who along with two other soilders were killed Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 by a Roadside Bomb in Afghanistan. (Click his picture to read some newspaper articles on him from the St. Catharines Standard). I had actually met him once a long time ago.

Story on the funeral for Warrant Officer Brown.

Photo's of Warrant Officer Brown.

The hockey game was intense. They were playing the Brampton Battalion. Click here for the whole play by play of the game.

During the game play they would address the fans to look to the large screens that showed the game as well in case you were in a seat that couldn't see the play and they would do this KISS CAM and focus in on couples live and get them to kiss. One couple didn't. LOL

They also announced Birthday's and I was lucky enough to contact The Ice Dogs a month before requesting they post Bob's birthday and they did along with announcing it, unfortunately Bob was looking at me when they flashed his name on the screen, but he did hear his name. I received a kiss for that.

Unfortunately The Dogs did not win. :o(

Really hoping we can hit another Ice Dogs game sometime. They are really good games!!!!!

Hoping Bob's "Secret" birthday will arrive today!!! (FINGERS CROSSED). Tonight we are off to my Mom's to have a mini birthday dinner for Bob along with my brother, his girlfriend and my nephew.