Here it is Monday - SIGH - back to the grind. The weekend was very busy - not much 'down' time.

Saturday the weather was not very nice - since we had planned on going to the County Fair here in Fort McMurray - it was chilly and damp - but we persevered - there were lots of arts and crafts and baking on display - lovely quilts - I was quite impressed with the scope of talent here in Fort McMurray - it is not a very large town - but there are a lot of very talented crafters here. Need to get busy and upload some pictures - right now I think I am doing well just blogging - but need to get on the pictures - pictures make the blog much nicer. We spent four hours poking around Heritage Park - where the Fair was held - looking at the buildings they have - as well as looking at the crafts and the vendors. We happened on the Dunvegan Garden's booth and bought some beets, carrots, onions, radishes and then I found that they had baked goods for sale - oh oh - ended up buying four cinnamon buns and a tiny zucchini lemon poppyseed loaf. So guess what I am doing today - yep cooking beets - getting ready to make another batch of borscht - Marian put in a request. I am very glad that I splurged and bought my yellow duck jacket - as Marian calls it - it is a waterproof jacket - got it at WalMart for $8.00 or something like that - has turned out to be very handy. Unfortunately all the standing around in the cold weather did not help my knee any - but such is life. When we finished at the County Fair we went grocery shopping and got a few things that we needed. Got home - I made a gourmet meal of hot dogs and a salad - we also had 1/2 a cinnamon bun for dessert - then prepared ourselves for 'movie' night - we watched the movie 'Precious' - Marian has quite a movie collection as well as TV Series - the movie was 'interesting' - not autobiographical - but I guess a combination of stories - sad that this happens - made me truly appreciate that which I had as a child. It was certainly sobering.

Unfortunately I did not sleep well Saturday night - woke up around 2:30 a.m. and could not get back to sleep - tossed and turned - finally gave up and started reading. Did not manage to get any more sleep - ARGH. Meant Sunday was going to be a very long day.

Sunday was Marian's company's first annual picnic - lousy timing as a fair number of their drivers are Muslim and of course are fasting for Ramadan - so the turnout was not as good as it could have been. Weather was much better - sunny with a few cloudy periods - when it was sunny it was VERY nice. We were supposed to start early - but Marian got sidetracked - surprise, surprise - so by the time we got moving it was time that I had wanted to be back home so I could have a nap - I get CRANKY without sleep - but I ended up going - because if I did not go Marian would not go - oh well. Had quite an enjoyable time - ran into Brenda - she is one of the Weight Watchers leader here in Fort McMurray - she commented that I had lost more weight since I quit going to meetings (financially and psychologically could no longer cope with it) - and yes I have managed to lose around another 20 lbs. - have .6 lb. to lose and I will be at the 50 lb. mark - still a long way to go before I get to my goal -but I am closer than I was. Before we went to the picnic we stopped at Save on Foods and bought out their quinoa - it is usually $1.59/100 g - on sale this week for $0.99/100 g - I bought 2 kg. to take back with me to Egypt - I really like it - and I am sure Ayman will eat it as well - as he eats anything. Marian got around 6 kg. of it - they now have no more - we bought it all. But we both like it - and since I found the recipe for Tabouleh Quinoa - it is a real crowd pleaser - we go through quite a bit of it. We indulged at the picnic and had a couple of burgers each - small ones - so when we got home I put together a huge salad and that is what we had for supper - and polished off the last of the cinnamon buns - we each had one for breakfast - they were YUMMY.

So here it is Monday morning and I have cooked beets - now need to wait for them to cool off so I can put together the borscht - guess I should have some breakfast - not sure what interests me - but I need to get something going - already had some 'concord' type grapes - yummy. Going to cook fish, beans, corn on the cob and have salad for lunch - it is our big meal of the day. Then for 'supper' we will have soup and maybe a sandwich.