living like a local: from b-ville

Sunday, June 9, 2013

from b-ville

So how is it that I didn't know anything about National Donut Day? I mean, sure, okay, it's not "celebrated" in Canada (officially), but south of the border there's a fair bit of hoopla for donut aficianados - see this article that I have yet to read. (I could SO write an entire blog on this.) Anyways, it was on Friday (the first Friday in June) and by some weird outside my-stars-are-in-line-with-the-donut-stars, I ate my first donut of the year - wait, of the year? - at least, the first one since we've been back in Canada, post-Beijing... on Friday. (Did I eat any donuts whilst in China? I don't think so.) And I've been drooling over the Top Pot Donut Cookbook ever since I received it in the mail; I need a candy thermometer and a regular exercise routine going before I can tackle any of those recettes. Man, they look good.

Okay, more importantly - volleyball. The guys split with the Netherlands last weekend (did I write about that at all? Read about it here) and then again with Portugal this past Friday and Saturday in Mississauga (story here and here). The whole family caught the game on Friday and the kids were SO well behaved... I was so very pleasantly surprised that Alana didn't lose her cool and that they both had pretty decent sleeps despite no car-nap on the way home. The Friday game was good - Canada won in three and set the tempo, pace etc - there wasn't much light for Team Iberia. Saturday night, however, was a different story altogether: I only caught the last 10 points of set four in the 1-3 loss, and the recap was that the home team just couldn't get into a rhythm and there were way too many unforced errors. Next weekend they'll face Korea at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga once again; here's to a 2-0 record for the next series. (And here's to hoping that Steve gets to don a jersey - he traveled, but remained one of two guys that had to sit out.)

We've been in Bowmanville chez les grandparents B since Wednesday, and it's so great to be here. (I only wish we were so close to everyone we want to see on a regular basis - my family and friends, the rest of Steve's fam.) What wasn't so great at all was the trip out here, oh and that's because Alana cried for three hours of a near six-hour trip, and... I got a speeding ticket. The cop didn't seem to mind that Alana was crying or that I was crying (mostly because she was crying - and she cried even harder while the cop took 15+ minutes to write up my traffic offense) or that I was driving by myself with two little kids. He took such a long time that I had to get out of the car and tend to her - by some timing-miracle he showed up beside the car just as I was taking her out of her seat (red eyes, crazy puffy face) and I couldn't help asking him if he had kids ("that has nothing to do with anything," he said) and then saying, "well I hope you feel bad about this". I nursed the girl there beside the highway (I took Highway 7) with trucks careening by - and, get this: the officer stayed in his car for at least 15 minutes while I calmed her down and fed her. I was halfway wondering if he did feel bad about it and if he was going to come up to the window and say something (he didn't). Anyways, I'm going to contest the ticket.

Photos from our last few days here follow. I'm going to make myself a drink and read a magazine - hup!