Off to the Races!

Saturday night marked our first visit of the season to South Buxton Raceway, to witness the (self-proclaimed) "Greatest Show on Dirt". We definitely got our money's worth, since they had to finish up some of the previous week's feature races which got rained out, before even starting THIS week's schedule.

We managed to end up sitting next to an older gentleman we shall hereafter refer to as "Jane Bane". Besides being a chain smoker, in rare breaks between cigarettes he broke our little baggies of peanuts and proceed to scatter the shells on us while getting most of the nuts in his mouth. Ahem.

This was counter-balanced by the entertaining visit to the canteen for popsicles. Making idle conversation when I made it to the front of the line, I asked the young lady (late teens) working the booth how she was doing....and was totally unprepared for the resigned reply of "You know....living the dream".

Exciting night of racing, complete with a car in the Bomber class ending up on it's side - we don't see that too often. Thankfully the wind stayed down until near the end, when things got a little dark and dusty. We topped off the night with a moonlit drive home under the stars along the Lake Erie shoreline.

To paraphrase The Tragically Hip:

It was in South Buxton
I saw the cars rushin'
Reveal themselves one tire at a time

Wetting the clay track

Sport Stocks

Late Models pass the grandstand....

....and slide through turns 1 and 2

Modifieds

Bomber class on the short track

#91 Bomber on it's side!

Racing under the lights

Fun with the Criminal Code

The first in a series of posts relating to interesting sections of our national code of morals and ethics, also known as the Criminal Code of Canada:

Pretending to practise witchcraft, etc.

365. Every one who fraudulently

• (a) pretends to exercise or to use any kind of witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment or conjuration,
• (b) undertakes, for a consideration, to tell fortunes, or
• (c) pretends from his skill in or knowledge of an occult or crafty science to discover where or in what manner anything that is supposed to have been stolen or lost may be found,

is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.

Gandalf beware! What works in Mordor shall not be tolerated in Canada.....none shall pass!

May 2-4 Drive-In

After a very wet and windy spring, we checked several items off our List this weekend.....including a bonfire and the first screening at the Green Shed Drive-In!  Managed a visit to the casino, planted a bunch of garden, and painted an outdoor movie screen on our garden shed.

Gorgeous May 2-4 all around, got tons of stuff done on the yard and garden, and even squeezed in a late Victoria Day outdoor movie (Underworld 3) on the side of the shed.....

First Bonfire o' the Season

Are you Ready?

Painted the shed in preparation for outdoor movie night...

Got the chairs all ready....

Even the cats were intrigued....

Wine and Vampires

Sonia....

...and Selene!

May Two-Four

After a few weeks of rainy and generally miserable (though at least not snowy) weather, we finally got into Spring with gusto. Good time to get the roof repaired on the Man-Garage(TM)before any more rain came in. Called some local and reliable folks to look after the damage and set things right.

Planted some new apple trees, and performed some maintenance on the other small treelings around the property. Otherwise, the usual spring dandelion battle ensued......plus some planting of garden. Got some beans and peas in the ground so far, and a few peppers, tomatoes and a dozen brussel sprout plants, plus the usual strawberry perennials.....

Better Late Than Never

Spring, or perhaps Summer?, arrived this weekend. Sunny skies and warm temperatures, blooming flowers and seed planting, accompanied by the cutting of grass (read: dandelions), gardening and the trimming of weeds. Cats acting strangely.

We even deposited some of the indoor-only cats in the outdoor pen for the afternoon, so they might enjoy the favourable conditions. We topped off the weekend with a Mother's Day lunch with the Coxes at Mama Maria's in Chatham - and WOW they have the best food, and remind us fondly of our visits to Italy.

Pita

Gronk

Jebus

Pennywise and Poots in The Pen

Sunrise over Wheatley

Spring Showers bring.....Daffodils?

The Dandelion Scourge  - the battle resumes

Tulips are Better than One

Kiss Your Grass Goodbye

Are those chicken breasts from Maple Lodge?

A lot at Steak

A recent trip to Niagara Falls resulted in a visit to the local Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Normally well out of our price range, our mid-week hotel stay included a 2-for-1 coupon, so we took advantage. We didn't get a booth with curtains like some people did, but still got a very nice table. They were kind enough to leave the coupon on the table the entire time (see pink ticket in pics) as if to draw attention to the cheap class-less bastards that don't belong there.....

Fabulous decor and ambience, obviously. Food was incredible too, though not sure it's that much MORE incredible than say The Keg or other comparable places that cost significantly less money. They do bring your steak on a very hot plate sizzzling, i.e. your steak is still "cooking" at your table.

Rest assured I asked for ketchup for my $70 steak, just to be...well....myself. Our server, to her credit, covered well and was going to bring it to me until I suggesting I was kidding.

Oh yeah, then we walked off our meat sweats with a jaunt to The Falls.

First Screening at the Wheatley Drive-In

Took our first crack last night at setting up our outdoor theatre, using a projector. More of a walk-in than a true drive-in, and we set up on the front porch for just the two of us. The plan for larger crowds is to cast our image upon the shed or barn. Had planned to screen "The Hobbit" from DVD, but technical difficulties (primarily of the audio variety) led to Plan B - so we watched "Tomb Raider" off Netflix instead.

Main lesson learned - figure this technical crap out while it's stay daylight. You may have to wait until dark to air the movie.....but you don't HAVE to wait until dark to figure out how it all works.   :)

All in all, worked pretty well. We even had some outdoor cats curl up and join us. Hopefully we can enjoy some real drive-in experiences from our lawn chairs all summer, including at Rawk the Coop on the August long weekend.

Also....a few blasts from past. See aged photographs (technically photographs of photographs) of unspecified Ginger below.

Setting up on the front porch

Lara Croft had an easier time solving the Illuminati than we did setting up the movie!

In the company of trees and distant windmills

Even back then, I was working on a Case.....

A wee Ginger on the front lawn of The Farm in Prince Edward County