The busy month of April

Life seems to calm down a little by the end of April. Right now, it feels like the week between Christmas and New Year's – when not much is happening. It's nice.

Spring is happening fast in southwest Michigan right now. Just a couple of days ago, signs of spring were barely visible. Now you will see the occasional green shadow on the trees, getting brighter and more leafy every day. Even our oak tree, which takes forever to get leafy & green, has swollen buds. The magnolia and pear trees are showing their flowers. It's pretty.

Some of you have asked how the kids reacted when John and I returned from Toronto. To be brief, life picked up exactly where we left off. They were both glad to see us.

Here is Stella on the ride home from Joe & Kathy's. She loves riding in the car. Long trips don't bother her at all. In fact, having her in the house is worse, because in the house, she's always begging for the "van!" And "go bye!"


A.J. quickly returned to his whining and begging which has come to characterize him, along with his ornery-ness.

He loves to sit in the driver's seat of the car and pretend to "drive." I think in this picture, he was upset because he wanted to go to the car and I wouldn't let him. I fear he's the kind of kid who, at 6, will take the keys and drive down the block.

He also runs in the street. Whenever we're outside, he sneakily makes his way to the curb and then bolts. I have to run at full speed to catch him. Several of the neighbors have stopped to say "He's got some speed!" He also still wears hats all the time, and even wakes up from a nap begging for a hat.

The Blue Tie Event went well. We raised about $10,000 which isn't bad for one night, for an organization that has only one employee – me. Here I am with Jen Delaney. She's a former disc jockey that agreed to be our emcee. As it happens, she is also a doula who's training to be a midwife. And she was my doula for the birth of A.J. (meaning she supported me and helped me deal with the pain so I could have a natural birth). I of course never forgot her after the wonderful experience of A.J.'s birth, and called her when we were in need of someone for this event. She turned out to be a great emcee, too.


There were so many people there that the short speech I gave wasn't heard by anybody, which is okay. It was a lot of fun. I'm glad it's over, but everyone was pleased with the outcome.

Last week, it was just the kids and I. John had to go to Cadillac, Michigan for "Arson School." He actually had a great time burning up houses and cars.





He was gone from Saturday to Friday, and I made a couple of his favorites for his return:

Spaghetti sauce with lots of meat, bubbling on the stove, a familiar sight for all Puzzuolis:


And apple pie with butter crust:


So that's the update! Enjoy this beautiful spring weather...

Eat, drink and walk (a lot of each)

This is one FUN place. Toronto has all the hubub and excitement of a big city, the beauty of being on Lake Ontario, and has tons to do.

We walked miles and miles today, exploring the areas of Kensington Market, Chinatown, the University of Toronto and Little Italy. At about 7 p.m., John and I were in a bookstore in Little Italy and the fatigue hit me like a ton of bricks. John and I can't muster another moment of conversation, we are so exhausted.

We started out this morning walking through Kensignton Market, which is an eclectic area with tons of little Asian restaurants, resale clothing shops, fruit markets, etc.

This is a classic John-style photograph taken in Kensington Market, with the abandoned appliance and the beautiful mural backdrop:


I decided I wanted to look more like a local, so I bought an Angora hat because all the ladies here wear hats and scarves. I also found some quail eggs at a local market, and was impressed because I've only seen these used by the TV chefs and have never seen where you could buy them.


Then we went over to Chinatown and ate lunch at a place recommended by a couple of shopkeepers: Rol San's. It was so busy there were people standing in the doorway waiting for 10-15 minutes (we got there early enough we didn't have to wait). I guess the Dim Sum was authentic enough, because the place was full of Chinese people.


We walked to Toronto City Hall, one of "the most distictive landmarks in the city," according to Wikipedia, and we could see why:


We then walked back to the hotel, took a short break, and got in the car and drove to Lake Ontario and walked the boardwalk at Woodbine Beach. Some people there had made these mini-rock Stonehenges that I thought were cool:


For dinner, we drove to Little Italy and ate at Cafe Diplomatico. I picked it because it had a lot of people there, but the food wasn't as fantastic as we had hoped.


It's nice to be getting this break, but two people keep popping into our heads:


(See the street sign)

Ask for the washroom, think in kilometers

Okay so John and I have arrived in the superbly clean city of Toronto, and boy is it nice. The kids are settled at Joe and Kathy's and we're just hoping that the kids don't make their grandparents or aunts and uncles too exhausted. We are grateful to be here.

Here we are upon leaving...finally a nice day in Michigan after a snowy start to the spring.


We went across the Blue Water Bridge at Port Huron-Sarnia, and exchanged our American dollars for Canadian. The exchange rate was $1.24 Canadian for every $1 U.S. Later on the radio, we heard that Canada has a trade surplus and is doing well economically, and the exchange rate was a penny worse by the end of the day. I also found out if you don't exchange your money and pay with U.S. cash, you get ripped off by merchants, so I will avoid that scenario!

The roads are neat here...no big potholes. The speed limit is 100 kilometers per hour, which is about 62 mph. There was nothing but farms from Sarnia until Cambridge, but we stopped in a little town called Lambeth and ate a small lunch at Tim Horton's. John took over driving -- a good thing, since I don't have my city driving chops anymore, and Toronto is as big a city as Chicago, and you have to watch out for pedestrians.

We're settled at the Holiday Inn on Bloor Street, which is in the area called "The Annex," and it's near the University of Toronto. There are tons of people here, and I don't know if it's just because they're young college students, but they are SKINNY. No fatties here. To the left of our hotel, there is Louis Vuitton, Prada, Williams Sonoma, Chanel ... to the right is every ethnic restaurant you'd ever want try, lots of Japanese, Indian, hot dog stands (even with veggie dogs), and of course our dinner choice tonight – THAI!

We ate so much that I can only stomach the thought of posting one picture: John's calamari:


We are painfully stuffed...we ate like two people who never get vacations and never get Thai cuisine.

Bloor Street has some unbelievable architecture. I snapped this shot of the Anglican church, but this is sort of modest compared to the beauty of the museums and historic buildings that I didn't think to snap shots of:



People are scurrying up and down the streets so quickly that it's hard to stop and snap shots...but the Canadians don't get mad or rude, they just walk on past ya.

Here is John on our stroll:


And here I am:


Downtown Toronto is right on Lake Ontario, which is awesome. Love these 5 Great Lakes. Tomorrow, we're hoping to go to the CN Tower.


I do really like Canada. Nice place.