Still no kitchen

More than 5 weeks and still no sink in the kitchen!  Custom cabinets to match the rest of our kitchen were ordered, they were rushed, but still delayed, and delayed again with July 4th, and then they arrived.  But they were the wrong cabinets!  Nooooooo!!!!!

The doors/front were not corect and incomparable with our old set.  Many days went by with all kids or cabinet "experts" offering suggestions on how to piece our old and new cabinets to make them work.  The issue is the cabinet will need to be strong enough to hold a 300 pounds undermount cast-iron sink.

The word is, we will have the "fixed" cabinets in tomorrow.  And if that happens the counter top, sink and backsplash will come in the following days.  I am hopeful, but not holding my breath, as something else will probably go wrong.

I miss cooking and having a sink.  I can't wait to cook my first meal with the new kitchen.  The kids has been asking for my spaghetti and meatballs.

Canada Day and 4th of July

Planned some time ago, we set out to visit my friend Vivian and her husband Jon in Toronto last week.  I know Viv since 5th grade (30 years if you are counting).  It was Bill and the kids' first visit to Toronto, while I had been there before with my parents in the 80s and a couple of times for work.

As flights to Buffalo NY are so much cheaper than flying into Toronto, we went to Buffalo, stopped by Niagara Falls for a night, then headed to Toronto for 3 nights.  We spurged on a room with the view of the Falls, which turned out to be great as we could see the Canada day fireworks from our room.  The falls themselves are OK, compared to Iguazu Falls in Brazil, Niagara is too commercialized and the falls are small.  I went on a run by the falls early on Thursday and there was very few people out, it was great.  Bill took the kids to the water park attached to the hotel, while I got a massage and packed us up. 

Driving to Canada and back was an interesting experience.  Both crossings were pretty fast, there were more questions entering Canada: Are you bringing firearms? Where are you staying? For how long? Who are you staying with? How do you know them? Prompting Mason to ask from the back of seat, "why is she asking so many questions?".  As we crossed Peace Bridge our cell service switched and signs were in the metric system.  We stayed with Viv&Jon at their charming house by High park and rode the subway to tour Toronto.  Bill and the kids went to the Hockey Hall of Fame, which we picked up peameal ham sandwiches and other food from St. Lawrence Market.  We took the ferry to Toronto Island, and back for dinner at Momofuku (delicious chicken!). The kids were beat that days, as we walked 3-4 miles and stayed out all day.  

We headed out next day (July 4th) bright and early to the CN tower.  The lines were at the CN tower were more than an hour long the day before. Instead, on Saturday morning we drove a short 15 minutes, parked right by the towers and went straight in.  We had the place to ourselves for the hour there.  Standing on the glass floor was a little disorienting at first.  Audrey didn't mind it at all and would even jump up and down, Mason was a little more cautious and didn't get out there until he saw enough people do it first.

After CN tower, we went home where Jon had been preparing ribs and beer chicken in his Big Green Egg for dinner. We went on short expeditions to a neighborhood park and High Park, and ended the night with a fantastic dinner!

We must come back again!