Erin's Journals

Just a thought… Do not fear failure, but rather fear not trying. [Roy T. Bennett]

This is one of those journals I really hope you’ll click on to watch, either at YouTube, or at my Facebook page. Nevertheless, here’s a written take on today’s yummy yummy journal.

I had two store-bought cakes in the fridge for Easter dinners, but for some reason I was inspired to bake and create something. I’ve always wanted to take flower arranging and cake decorating classes. Maybe this year….

Anyway, I bought a cake mix and followed the Betty Crocker website instructions, but two layers looked just too…short. So Brooke and Phil were out and picked me up another one. Golden Moist, it’s called.

I added food colouring to the divided batter, and hoped for the best. How would the colours mix with the “golden” tones? Hmmm.

Then I had to think about icing it. Bought Betty Crocker whipped icings for that, too: white and chocolate. I wanted this cake to look like an Easter basket. Aim high, Davis!

After the four layers had cooled, I “cemented” them together with white frosting – two of the layers filled with a raspberry jam mixed in. Then I looked up how to ice it without all of the cake coming off on my knife or spatula and learned about something called the “crumb layer.” You put on one thin layer and let it set; this will be the one you actually decorate. Then the loose bits of cake, the crumbs, are sealed in.

Then I sat my butt down on Saturday in front of the Jays game with my old ceramics turntable (just a Rubbermaid plastic thing that was supposed to be a spice spinning thing) and began the work – one large flat knife and some green icing, chocolate icing and a whole lot of patience.

The top was supposed to be green coloured coconut, but we have some non-lovers of coconut in the family here, so icing grass it was to be!

And here’s how it turned out!

I put a Lindt bunny on top and I can’t say that my icing or coloured-in Tic Tac eyes really added to the whole thing (nor did the Sharpie art on its face, I’m sure) but I tried.

To me, the whole mystery was going to be how those layers came out in terms of colours!

I wasn’t disappointed! I think in future I would use a cherry cake mix for the pink layers (although they might not be as moist, so I might be playing with fire – or a flop – here). But all in all, it was good.

And how did it taste?

As good as it looked, I’m happy to say.

Thank you for coming by today and I’ll have another journal for you here on Thursday. By that time, we should be just about out of cake!

I hope you had a lovely Easter and Passover weekend and there’s a new Drift Story tomorrow (free as always): The Fairy Frog from Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends. Be well.

Just a thought… The care, therefore, of every man’s soul belongs to himself. [John Locke]

You can watch a video version of this journal on my Facebook page, or here on YouTube.

I had the rare and wonderful opportunity to listen to the Psychiatrist-in-Chief/Chief of Staff of the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group this week. I only WISH it was for me; the chat was part of next month’s Mental Health episode of the Canadian Real Estate Association podcast I host called Real Time and this one, pardon the pun, really hits home.

Now with Easter and Passover almost upon us, no matter your religious or spiritual beliefs, this should be a time of reflection, of stopping to recognize sacrifice, and of hope.

In a religious sense it may well be, but for me, and maybe for you, too, that hope is elusive. That so desperately sought-after feeling of a fairy godmother waving her wand and saying, “All right everyone – awaken from your two-year sleep and throw off your masks, it’s all going to be okay. The dragon is gone, the plague has passed and we’ll all live happily ever after…” is just wishful thinking.

On Tuesday, Canada’s Dr. Tam said to put the masks back on. Yeah, good luck with that; there might be a truck tantrum, replete with defiled flags flying for “freedom.”

In reality – mine at least – the masks should never have come off in public and, yes, it’s exhausting. Being well-informed can feed the feeling of anxiety that many of us have had for weeks: for example, it’s a fact that the Omicron variant BA.2 is here in Canada (with 3, 4 and 5 showing up in South Africa now). Then there’s XE, which combines the “greatest hits” of the original Omicron (BA.1) and its variant BA.2. All we can do is watch with interest and foreboding the effects of the variants on other countries and pay attention to the science of when they’re expected here.

Of course, rather than hear from actual government health experts (with the exception this week of Dr. Tam) we now rely on foreign statistics, hospital numbers here, anecdotal evidence and waste water analysis: actual buckets of poo that are giving us more information than our governments.

But it’s not all Chicken Little and the sky falling. Any of the people we know of who have contracted the virus recently – those who are, of course, triple-vaxxed or even double-boosted – have said that they felt cold-like symptoms, if any at all. Which, when you set aside the concerns of long Covid, sounds like the best case scenario. Except that with those milder symptoms we could inadvertently be spreading it to people who are vulnerable: the very young, the very old, the immune- and health-compromised. I’m terrified of that responsibility.

As so many of us gather this Easter and Passover with gratitude and hope in our hearts in this season of renewal, forgiveness and new life, I’ll share the advice of the Chief Psychiatrist I mentioned off the top: be charitable in your heart and compassionate to those who won’t get a vaccine, won’t wear a mask. Love your neighbour, and love yourself.

And eat chocolate. (He didn’t say that, but I’m pretty sure it’s usually good advice.) Just not the Kinder stuff that’s been recalled. A ton of it – even Advent calendars. Here’s a link. 

Yeah, we got caught on it. Even I ignore expiry dates, but not recalls. Death by Chocolate should be an ice cream flavour, not a coroner’s finding. Have a good weekend and I’ll be back with you next week.

Just a thought… It only takes a moment for the destiny to flip over. [Jyoti Arora]

As usual, you can watch a video version of this journal on my Facebook page, or here on YouTube.

And it’s Monday. I hope your weekend was restful; ours had plenty of excitement with our Toronto sports teams. Phew – what a home opener for the Jays! Didn’t see many masks,  though, but what are you going to do? Take care of yourself, that’s all. Seems that’s what we do now.

Of course, our hearts are with the people of Ukraine, as we wonder when the rest of the world is going to step in and stop Putin; none of us has forgotten what is happening there, and we’re helping in whatever way we can. May we all stay safe and sane – here, abroad, everywhere. And grateful for what we have, including our health.

So being Monday, I thought today I’d share with you a story of such incredible luck – call it that, or fate, or just something you wish would happen to you – as we bring you: The Kind of Story That’ll Make Your Day.

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are engaged again! I’m kidding. They have yet to invent an instrument to measure the tiny amount of interest I have in that story. No, THIS is The Kind of Story That’ll Make Your Day. Ready?

Now, you may have heard this story. It came out last week and I jumped on it as soon as it did, but then, so did everyone else, so I’m a few days late. But this is my take on it – see what you think.

We take you to Tarzana, California, a suburb of Los Angeles that is on land that was formerly a ranch owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Who’s that? The creator of Tarzan – thus the name. But you may have known that.

It is in Tarzana, California this month that something pretty incredible happened.

A woman named LaQuedra Edwards went into a grocery store to purchase lottery tickets. LaQuedra had a system: she would put $40 into the machine to get her scratch & win (or more likely lose in most cases, as we all know) and she entered the Vons grocery store, all really to do just that. But as she stood at the machine, a stranger bumped into her.

We’re not sure what words, if any, were exchanged – this person was described as “rude” – but somehow LaQuedra ended up pushing the wrong number at the vending machine. Instead of her usual $40 selection, she got one $30 200x scratcher ticket. And I’m guessing she was disappointed, possibly even angry, but she bought ten dollars’ worth of smaller tickets, finished up her business at Vons and was on her way.

Back in her car, LaQuedra got busy scratching. And it was there, according to the folks at California Lottery, that LaQuedra’s scratcher revealed she had won.

LaQuedra didn’t really believe it at first. She says she went on her way, getting onto the 405 Freeway. That was not her best move, nor was continuing to look down at her ticket, which she admits almost got her into a crash. Boy, that would be about my luck. But, hopefully, not my carelessness. Anyway, judgment over….

Finally, she pulled over and, in her words, looked at it again and again. Then she scanned the ticket with her California Lottery app to be sure. LaQuedra still didn’t believe it, but it was right there: she had won 10 MILLION dollars.

This is where you ask yourself: How does something like this happen? Was that rude stranger who bumped LaQuedra and then went on his or her way on out of the store an angel in disguise? Did a higher power have bigger plans for LaQuedra, or was it just simple luck? Fate? What was it? Some rando bumps you and you hit a button and change your life.

Fortunately for Ms Edwards, she stayed safe on that highway and collected her winnings, with which she plans to purchase a house and start a non-profit. The grocery store will get $50,000.

But if I was Ms LaQuedra Edwards, I’d ask them to check their cameras and maybe keep an eye out for that bumpy stranger and give her or him a nice tidy sum as well. I don’t know, 50-100 thousand?

Easy to spend when it’s not mine, but wouldn’t that truly be the best and happiest ending to The Kind of Story That’ll Make Your Day?

Yeah, I thought so too. Talk to you this Thursday. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go find someone to bump into. Or better yet, have ’em bump into me.

Just a thought… It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. [Henry David Thoreau]

As always, you can watch a video version of this journal on my Facebook page, or here on YouTube.

Well, we could call this “the best-laid plans” – hoping to shoot something outside during our brief stay in Sooke, BC for you to watch today. I mean, I could have, but all you would have heard was the thunder of winds on my microphone and seen rain all over the lens. And so the video you see behind me in today’s video journal was shot through a window. There are some stills and I’ll use them for quotes and memes in the future. I can always use a good backdrop.

But, oh, did we have rain! Torrential storms and even thunder and lightning one night. It pelted so hard that the drops falling on the skylights sounded like popcorn kernels hitting the plastic dome in a popper. And the winds screeched through doors and windows, and whooshed outside, and all the while, drove sheets of water into the windows as though we were driving through a car wash.

I had taken ear plugs with me (for no really good reason except they’re on my packing list) and, boy, was I glad I had them on Monday night! It was airport-level loud with screeching winds that moved outdoor furniture, toppled a shore-view bench and sent the lid of a hot tub into a garden, stopped, thankfully, by some small shrubs or we might be asking surfers to stop riding on it.

All that said, it was heavenly. Fresh baking and a meal brought by our overnight visitors (our best friends here) then word games and a fantastic viewing of Questlove’s Oscar-winning documentary Summer of Soul about a music festival in Harlem which took place at the same time as Woodstock. Just terrific viewing and I defy you not to dance!

Alone for the next two days, Rob and I did a bit of work, a lot of corresponding and reading and just relaxing. Just the two of us, as the old Grover Washington Jr. song went. Birthday calls, cards and texts, and lots of lovely connection.

We didn’t see whales (my tracking app showed them much closer to our home in North Saanich than down in Sooke) but there were a few eagles, sea lions in the surf and, yes, as I mentioned, surfers. All in all, it added up to a gentle few days and I’ll tell you that if you’re planning a visit to Vancouver Island, as some folks on Facebook told me they are, you have got to get booking now, as places all over our glorious island home are completely reserved. Seems so many people discovered this area during the first few waves of Covid and staycations that they’re coming back again and again.

As I will continue to do. My happy place, not so far away, where we are reminded of being so very small, at the whims of the weather – and bigger picture, the climate – and yet blessedly, perhaps obscenely content in these tumultuous times. I think I’m going into birthday cake withdrawal – we had it Friday for our son-in-law, again on the weekend, and last night with Phil, Brooke and the grandkids. How lucky we are!

May your weekend be replenishing and I’ll be back here with you on Monday.

Just a thought.. Never confuse thoughtlessness with malice. [Rob Whitehead]

You can watch a video version of this journal on my Facebook page, or here on YouTube.

So, my Rob (yes, that one in the quote, whose wisdom steers me through all kinds of weather) and I are away from home for a few days right now at a place that I always seem to go to when my mind wanders. It’s called Sooke, on the south coast of Vancouver Island west of Victoria.

This is the place of striking scenery, wildlife and wilderness, an area not so far from the provincial capital, and where people can hike, whale watch and take in nature at her best without the drama and power of her fury like people up in Tofino and Ucluelet see on the regular.

From waterfalls and forests to what they call the “pot holes” (which are, as a pleasant change from life in Toronto, actually in the water instead of on the roads), it’s a place that feels like heaven to me. In fact, we very nearly bought a house in East Sooke when we were leaving Ontario and, while I’m glad we didn’t, given how far it is from Victoria (about a 40 minute drive in good traffic), it’s a wonderful place to visit; it gives me peace and space, two things we all need these days.

This Thursday I hope to treat you to a journal shot outdoors in Sooke; the weather forecast as I write this is iffy and we’ll be quite content to sit inside and read, to be together, to reconnect and to spend time with a couple of friends who are going to stay the night with us.

But today there will be cake as Rob marks another birthday. My boy is still playing hockey two or three times a week, cycling and staying fit, and I could never ask for a better partner, husband, dad for our daughter or Grandude for Colin and Jane. He’s stepped up for every single role he’s been called upon to fill, so today’s my day just to celebrate Rob. (Of course, I’ll still let him make my coffees these mornings; I mean, I wouldn’t want him to get out of practice….)

But as I say my thanks every night, my last words spoken aloud are always, “I love you.” I’m a lucky girl and am so glad he chose to spend this lifetime with me.

Talk to you here again on Thursday.