Pedestrians Crossing!

One thing Canadians are really good at is stopping for pedestrians.  It really threw me for a loop at first, as many of you know, is not necessarily the norm in the U.S. (or Europe).  Canadians will come to a screeching halt to let you cross the road.  Pretty great if you are the crosser.....

This whole excessive stopping for pedestrians thing was quite funny this summer when Eric & I were biking and trying to "be like cars," trying to follow the rules.  We would be at a stop light & a car would always stop for us to cross.  It was nice, except having that car stop did not help, as we then needed the other 3 lanes to also stop....before we could proceed to run the red light.

This is not so great if you are the driver.  It is actually starting to really annoy me as a driver.  On multiple occasions, I have had locals march right out onto the street full-boar expecting me to stop.  The other day, a girl came plowing through on the cross walk, behind a large truck in my opposing lane, so I didn't see her until she was in my lane.  I came to a quick stop on the icy road with the girl unfazed as she had her fur lined hood up & she was marching straight ahead.  The other day I had an older couple step right out in a parking lot, when I was driving slowly on the "road" part of the lot....nobody even looks!!

Winter Outing

We got out of the house for awhile today.  With the cold weather, we've been spending a lot of time at home watching tv and movies, along with making meals at home.  Although staying home has been a good way to spend less money, it was making  me a little stir-crazy.

It was good to go today for a delicious brunch, buy some honey, oil, and bread at the indoor farmer's market, and check out the ice sculptors at a little winter fair.  We even got in on a free horse drawn wagon ride, led by Percherons, like the horses Eric's dad used to have.

Big step today:  we wandered around Babies R Us together.  But, no mom, we did not make a purchase. :)

My new headband I received as a Christmas gift from my brother!

Chinese New Year

I've always been a bit interested in Chinese New Year; I have a vague memory doing a celebration in elementary school with the paper dragons. This year is the Year of the Dragon, specifically the water dragon, who only comes every 60 years.  The dragon year carries great optimism and promise for positive change. In order to do a little Chinese New Year celebration, we made Orange Ginger Beef Stir-Fry for supper tonight, taken from a I Love Canadian Beef cookbook Eric won in a twitter contest.  Eric really liked it, I thought it was okay...I just like a richer sauce vs. this more citrus sauce.

I really just wanted to make Baked Vegetable Egg Rolls, so I found a main dish to go with them. Found this on Pinterest. Turns out Pinterest is not just an idea machine, you can actually use the ideas to make something!! ha ha. This was my first completed Pinterest project.  And they were really good....nice & crispy on the outside.

Overall, the Chinese calendar has been good for us:

The day we were engaged, we read a fortune from our cookie at a restaurant that said 

"A seed you planted long ago will finally come to bloom."

According to the Chinese calendar the year we were married, 2006, was a good year to marry. I remember some of our friends from China telling us that we were so lucky to be marrying that year, as it will lead to a prosperous life.  I even knew of one guy who was trying to find a mate that year & get married because it was such a lucky year; unfortunately that did not happen for him. 

Eric heard today that Time magazine has an article stating that birth rates in China are expected to  increase 5% this year, as it is "good" year to have children (they call it the 'Dragon Baby' boom) .  I guess we have been really good at life planning with the Chinese calendar!

In case you are interested, I'm a rooster & Eric is a horse.

What are you? Look up the year you were born.  I love to further see what each animals means....