"There aren't enough days in the weekend." Rod Schmidt

Hello followers, how was your weekend? Mine was busy, but a lot of fun! Let me share the highlights with you!

On Saturday morning, my sweetie Kev and I got dressed up and jumped in the car to head into Toronto. We met up with my parents, my brother Adam and his wife Michelle and about 100 other people to go for a harbour cruise. We all had our sea legs on to raise funds for research of 'Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia (WM),' a blood cancer my Dad has. For a description of WM, let me take a quote from the National Cancer Institute:

"Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia is a rare type of slow-growing, non-Hodgkin lymphoma (cancer that begins in the cells of the immune system). It causes overproduction of a protein called monoclonal immunoglobulin M (IgM or "macroglobulin") antibody."
The cruise was great! I hadn't been to Toronto Island since I was a kid, and it is lovely! We had a few drinkies and a lunch buffet, followed by dessert and coffee. We were entertained by a local story teller, who taught us all a bit about the history of the area. Finally, there was a silent auction. Not bad! We are waiting to hear how much money was raised while 'Cruising for a Cure' and when we do, I will let you know! Overall, a great event for a great cause!

After we the cruise, we all headed back to my parent's house and met up with my youngest brother Jordan and his girlfriend Jen for Michelle's birthday dinner. Michelle loves Indian food, so that's what we had! We ordered so much, it was an absolute feast! Yum! Kev and I bought  a bottle of Gewurztraminer that went perfectly with dinner. After eating way too much, the party started and we all ended up sleeping over! How fun! So yesterday morning, after a much needed breakfast, we picked up my cousin Hollie and all headed up to my parents 10 acres in Norfolk county for a day of cutting the grass, weeding and planting flowers and winter squash. Of course, we couldn't get started until we ate lunch! Huge, yummy sandwiches with chips and pickles were on the menu. So good! After eating, we grabbed a beer and headed down to garden. Our snow peas and red currants are ready (except that a deer has eaten most of them!), and the green arrow peas are almost there. Everything is growing like crazy! It's fantastic to be so closely involved in my family's large vegetable garden! This is the first summer that I have been able to do so and I am grateful! I picked some thyme, sage, chives and garlic scapes just before we all packed up and left in the early evening. Kev and I decided to stop at a small farmer's market along the way. We bought a few goods from Ontario: Norfolk county asparagus and strawberries, old Cheddar from Simcoe and cherry tomatoes from Grimbsy. Yum yum! Once we made the long hall back to Georgetown, we were exhausted! So, instead of making dinner, we put away our lovely local food and grabbed some take out. Kev got chicken from Swiss Chalet and I got a burger from Harvey's. We brought it home and ate it on the couch. Why not? A perfect way to end a perfectly lovely and busy weekend!