Rafting down the Bow

Hi Everyone!

I've had a great weekend. On Friday, it was rainy/overcast in the afternoon and I was thinking, "What a crappy day." I wasn't expecting to see Jerry all weekend as he had a bunch of plans.

Then I got a phone call from him to go see the new Batman movie. It's been years since I've been to opening day for a movie that big and the whole experience was a lot of fun. We ended up sitting in the front seats (but it actually wasn't too bad for viewing) and it was great to have the audience get involved in the movies (with the "Wows" and gasps and collective laughs). Later that night he gave me a present (we went on our first date a year ago Saturday). It was a Chinese butcher's knife. I had mentioned several times that I wanted one and we hadn't gotten around to visiting Chinatown for me to buy one. And, neither of us believe the gift of a knife will cut a relationship. My view is he was thoughtful enough to buy me a great present that he knew I would like.

I was planning on using the weekend to work on his present but he then invited me to go rafting on the Bow on Sunday. So, Saturday I was busy making his present. I'm always short money in the last third part of the month so I decided to make it. Since our first date started with Ben & Jerry's ice-cream, I bought a tub at the grocery store, emptied out the ice-cream (will share it with him the next time he's up at my place) and used it as my present container. I then took blank business card paper, wrote mushy-cute notes on them and folded them into what looks like envelopes. So, his container of ice-cream contained (hee-hee) reasons why he's such a wonderful guy. I then finished up by covering the "Ben" part of the labels and putting "Karen" over top. Corny, yes, but he's quite a romantic and sweet guy (although he tries to hide it and does a terrible job). I'm also going to make him a fancy picnic on Thursday after work. Here's my tentative menu:

fresh veggies with hummus
potato omelet (well, frittata - it's yummy and is eaten at room temperature)
fresh salad with ingredients from my home garden and oil/vinegar dressing
oatmeal/dried fruit/chocolate chip cookies
caramel chocolate bars
fresh fruit cups
pink lemonade

We both like picnics and this one will have food that's a bit fancier than I normally would make. I was going to get a picnic basket from the fancy restaurant on Prince's Island (our picnic spot) but they were too expensive. Yes, it's super high end stuff but Jerry seems to really appreciate my cooking attempts.

Anyways, back to the reason for the title of this entry...

I went up to Jerry's this morning and we headed down to Kensington Sun & Salsa festival. Basically, you buy a bag of chips for $2, money goes to charity, and you go around sampling free salsa. You then vote for your favourite salsa. There's also music, dancing, shopping, performers etc. After that, we headed to Bowness Park, met up with friends, and spent the next three hours floating down the river on rafts. The sun was hot, the water was cold and it was very relaxing. I'm a bit sunburnt where I missed with sun screen. As much as I love the convenience and feel of spray-on sun screen, I find it's harder to make sure you're completely covered. Maybe I need the kid's stuff that's purple when comes out but dries clear. I'll put some aloe on tonight to help minimize the skin damage.

I've got a busy week ahead of me - there's a gardening seminar on Monday, I'm having coffee with a friend on Tuesday, dinner after work on Wednesday with another friend, the picnic on Thursday a wedding to attend on Saturday and a meal and/or coffee with yet another friend on Sunday. So, the furry family may not be impressed with me (they get upset when there's not enough Karen time) but I'm looking forward to everything.

Have a great day!