Squid

So Jenn and I are start ballroom dancing classes this Thursday evening. We will be learning the Waltz, Foxtrot, Samba, Tango, Swing, and Pasodoble over the next 11 weeks.

We have been having beautiful sunny, clear weather since we returned home from N.B. but it has been very chilly so we need to find Jenn a pair of snow pants. As we found a new pair of skates for her, she will need to be warm when we go skating this weekend.

Last night I made calamari (the apartment still stinks of deep fried fish). The batter recipe I used was only so-so. The calamari was a little chewy and bland but Jenn and I ate three whole squid between the two of us anyway.

Deep fried Calamari

flour 1/2 cup
cornstarch 3 tbsp.
cayenne pepper (optional) 2 tsp.

Coat damp calamari rings and toss them in the deep fryer at a high temperature for about a minute. Once golden brown, place them on some paper towel and salt to taste.

Arroz con pollo

New Year's Eve was fun. We went over to my lab mate Sophia's place where there was a small gathering. I taught them the card game pass the ace and we drank champagne and ate risotto with some kind of eggplant appetizer.

Today, however, was fairly uneventful. Jenn went to work and I spent the day reading ("Beethoven's hair" in case your interested) and playing x-box. For dinner I made a recipe out of my Mexican cook book called Arroz con pollo (pronounced ah-rohs kahn poh-yoh). It was very good and I have included the recipe with a picture below if you choose to try it.

I hope you all enjoyed your New Year's holiday and look forward to talking with you soon.

Arroz con pollo

skinless bone-in chicken pieces 3 1/2 lbs. (1.6 kg)
long grain white rice (uncooked) 1 1/2 cups (375 ml)
finely chopped onion 1/2 cups (125 ml)
frozen peas, thawed 2 cups (500 ml)
chicken bouillon powder 1 tbsp. (15 ml)
salt 1 tsp. (5 ml)
pepper 1/4 tsp. (1 ml)
saffron (or turmeric) 1/4 tsp. (1 ml)
chopped pimiento 2 oz. (57 ml)
boiling water* 3 cups (750 ml)
can of dice tomatoes w/ juice 14 oz. (398 ml)
basil 1/2 tsp. (2 ml)
garlic powder 1/4 tsp. (1 ml)

Arrange chicken in a greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Bake, uncovered, in a 350 F (175 C) oven for 30 minutes. Remove chicken to plate.

Stir remaining 12 ingredients together in the same pan. Place chicken on rice mixture. Cover and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until rice and chicken are tender.

* I omitted the boiling water in this recipe and just used the juice from the jar of pimientos and extra diced tomatoes and it turned out great.

Christmas Re-Cap

As most of you know we had been in New Brunswick over the Christmas holiday visiting family and friends. We had a wonderful time despite the horrible drive there in the middle of a snow storm that made for 20 hours of white knuckle driving and a 7 hour stay in a hotel. To jump ahead, our drive back to Ontario was much less eventful with only some black ice and slow going near Kingston. Despite this improvement, we have decided that we are now going to be "flyers"vs "drivers" at Christmas time.

It was great to be home for Christmas. I was surprised once again that I was actually able to get time off . I feel as though my luck is bound to run out soon regarding time off around the holidays but I'll take what I can get.

Despite only having 4 full days, I think that we both managed to do everything that we had planned even with a few changes in the regular Christmas routine. Cookies were decorated (I am now Cookie Decorating Champion for the 4th year running) and outrageous amounts of food was consumed (esp by Robbie). I was able to get together with my good friend Becky on Christmas and we had dinner at her sister Jill's house. Normally dinner is at her mom's but we decided we could be flexible this year and it was OK because her mom brought the traditional raspberry trifle for dessert. We had boxing day roast beef a day late this year on the 27th in Westfield with my aunt, uncle and cousins of my dad's side and we got to see cousin Charlotte via skype who is currently living in NZ. Robbie had to miss out on this delicious feast as he was getting winter tires put on the car but I am greatful that we had better quality tires for our drive home, so his abscence was justified:) I was also able to get together with some classmates of mine, Crystal and Sue, and we caught up over nachos at Jungle Jims and discussed crazy vet stories.

Robbie spent Christmas eve this year at his dad's place and Christmas day with his mom. Traditionally they alternate every year. Mandy and Penny were both home but unfortunately Tracy was unable to come this year so I 'm hoping she was able to spend the holidays with good friends and that we will see her next year! By the look of their tree, Santa found all the Smiths and they must have been really good this year:) Robbie will have to recount the rest of his holiday first hand but it sounds like they were very relaxed and played alot of cards and games.

Our Christmas present to ourselves is a new 40'' LCD tv which we get to pick up on the 14th as well as a new coffee table!! We are pretty excited to get the tv mounted on the wall and watch Robbie's new Planet Earth DVD's. It should look pretty amazing! Now we might have to concider getting cable.

But now our holiday is over. I was back to work yesterday (30th) and worked a half day today an again Saturday and Robbie has been into the University tending to his cells and will be back to TAing next week once classes resume. We don't have any real plans for New Years save hanging out with one of Robbie's lab mates from school and having a few drinks but tomorrow we have plans for dinner and a movie. My New Years resolutions are to 1. be more active (so we are signing up for a ball room dance class and I'm going to resume pilates) and 2. to write more consistantly on the blog.

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Years and that 2010 is a great year!

Settling In

Its been nice being back in Kitchener and being surrounded by all of my stuff including my boys, Robbie, Cooper and Bailey. In my rush between moving here and leaving 3 months ago to Pembroke I have seem to have misplaced certain items that continue to be missing such as my nice black leather mittens, my purple neck warmer and random veterinary books that I know must be somewhere. It is very frustrating not knowing where things are and after having searched in every possible box and tote I am left wondering if they have just got up and walked away. Eventually I will get organized and go through all of my things, through a bunch of junk out and hopefully find my mittens!!
I have been off all week enjoying being able to sit around but at the same time being somewhat productive. I've been out to see Bailey every other day, working him on the lunge line and he is doing very well. We had a Bell technician out and she got our internet up and running so I no longer have to steal it from the random signal I was picking up from somewhere in our building. (Although less convenient, pirated internet would have been much cheaper)!
This past week Robbie and I headed out to take in some of the holiday events in downtown Kitchener. There is a German market that is taking place this weekend called the Christkindl Market down at city hall which seems similar to the christmas market put on by the Boyce Farmers market at home. There are lots of craft tables, food vendors, apple cider and a skating rink set up! We only briefly walked through on Friday but plan on going back again today to see what its all about. Friday we also went out to dinner at the Rum Runners pub which was very tasty. Robbie had pecan encrusted chicken and I had the maple and chili glazed salmon. After wards we headed over to the adjoining Yuk Yuks club and took in a standup comedy show. I thought is was hilarious (but had also had three beer) and Robbie thought that it was "alright".
Yesterday we traveled to Richmond Hill to visit with Rob's mom, relatives and Mandy. It was great catching up and as expected we left a few pounds heavier. Thank you for the wonderful day!
Today Robbie is supposed to be marking student papers but doesn't appear to be getting much done as he is snoozing with the cat. Later we plan on heading back downtown and running errands and hopefully I'll make it out to the barn.
We are keeping our fingers crossed that we don't get any snow between now and our trip home on the 22nd but it looks and feels as though winter is on its way, but hopefully our drive will be uneventful and we'll see everyone soon!!

R.I.P. : The Tank

Well it has been months without any updates so it is time you were filled in on the latest news. I'll try to be brief.

Jennifer is back from her veterinary excursion in Petawawa which she was a little bittersweet for her to see end, but she will be starting her brand-spanking new position with a Kitchener small animal practice in the following week. Sadly she came back minus her late, great car, "The Tank". While I was up visiting her a few weeks ago, she must have been blinded by love because she drove through a stop sign into the back end of another vehicle. Luckily everyone was unharmed, but her vehicle met it's end. A 1995 Civic is not worth spending 2000$ to repair. So I gave her "Civvie", my car, to drive around as I take the bus everywhere anyway. So if anyone was thinking of getting her a car for Christmas the timing is perfect.

She is happy to be home though, I think and she went to see her fat horse (her word not mine) today. I made her eggplant parmigiana and stuffed pork roast for her welcome home dinner last night. But in turn she will be helping me make the time consuming empanadas for a pot luck I will be attending Thursday.

The best news is that we plan on coming home, weather permitting, on the 22 and returning to Kitchener on the 29. I won't bore you with details of how school and teaching is going, suffice to say I am content.

Oh, and here are pictures of the pumpkins we carved for halloween. Jenn's is the wolfman and mine turned out looking like some kind of ape.

Pembroke/Petawawa

So as Robbie mentioned earlier I am now temporarily living in Pembroke Ontario and working for three months at Petawawa Animal Hospital. My good friend and AVC classmate Katie and her boyfriend are letting me stay in the spare bedroom of their 3 bedroom house in Pembroke. It's a nice little community just slightly larger then Oromocto, about 15000 people, and is only 15 minutes away from work in Petawawa. Most would be familiar with Petawawa for its military base, also similar to Oromocto, but nicer.

Small animal is taking some getting used to after having spent an entire year working exclusively on horses but so far they have been nice to me and I am mainly doing vaccine appointments and health checks. They are slowly throwing in medicine type cases plus the odd surgery which have not been too complicated. It is somewhat frustrating knowing that at one point in time I knew a lot more than I can remember now, but some of this info that has been locked away in my head is slowly returning.

Katie left last Saturday for her vacation in Holland leaving me to take care of her dog Finnigin and the house so it has been a little lonely here for the past few days but I've been keeping busy with work, reading, and walking the dog. Finnigin is a very friendly, attention seeking lab that is much too needy for my liking but he is a good dog. It makes me realize that I am quite happy not having my own and that Cooper is very independent in comparison. Katie will be back in 2 weeks.

Becky has planned a trip to Ontario to visit with Robbie and I on the 25th of Sept. so I am excited to drive back to Kitchener for the visit. I will also be driving to Kitchener the following weekend for a working interview at a small animal clinic that is looking to hire as well as to celebrate my birthday! They will both have to be jammed packed weekends as it takes almost 7 hours to drive there and back.

I'll keep you posted on the goings on in Pembroke/Petawawa and post some pictures as soon as I get my camera cord!!

A couple bachelors

Well Jenn is in Pettawawa working at a small animal clinic and Cooper and I are on our own for the next three months. So far she seems to be enjoying the new job but I'll let her tell you more about that.

As for me, my trip to Bar Harbour Maine was fabulous. We had rain on the way in and on the way out but it was otherwise a beautiful week. I managed to fit lots of tourist activities into my time there. I climbed Mount Cadillac, went swimming at Sand Cove, hiked the Ocean Trail and around Jacob's Pond and enjoyed a couple fabulous lobster dinners. I did manage to fit a little work into my time there, however. We (hopefully) have managed to initiate several cod and Atlantic salmon fish cell lines that I will be nursing over the year. Here is a video of an elasmobranch tank (sharks, skates and rays) I took at the marine station:

Other than that it is life as usual. Now that I live closer campus I take the bus and have been able to join a few extracurricular activities such as tae-kwon-doe. While I liked our last apartment I won't miss having to plow through massive snow drifts to reach Waterloo.