Last entry in the blog for a while

Okay, so I am going to take a break from this blog for a little while.  Life is so so busy right now, with work, with the travel coming up, with the press releases and sales stuff, and with all our summer plans, that I am not keeping the blog up the way I would like to do.  I feel like I am short changing myself on the blog and not giving it my all and I don't want to do something if I cannot give it all my passion.  So I have decided I am going to take a mini vacation from writing the blog for a month or so until things calm down a little and I can devote to it the attention it deserves.  I hope you understand.  I will miss writing every day, since it has been almost a year since I started this blog, but right now there is just too much going on!! A great indicator of a full life for me, but not nearly enough time to do a good job on this blog.  So I am signing off until August.  Keep cooking, keep loving food and soon I will be back with more wild food adventures.  I hope you will still enjoy hearing of my tales when I return!  Enjoy the summer sun, have a bbq and think of me and I will see you all in August!! Happy cooking!

Press release time again

Today I have been working on my next press release for the cookbook.  After having spent some time with my colleagues from work in the marketing department, I know I need to keep regular communications about the cookbook out to all media.  It is amazing what you can learn just by taking some work colleagues out to lunch.  I think I know have the formula for writing press releases done but the trick I still have to learn is how to make them so enticing that reporters pick them up and turn them into articles.  Seriously how interesting can you make a press release about a cookbook?  But when I think about all the press releases out there, about new bolts and nuts, mixers, chemical compounds, or scholarly research to name a few, I figure a cookbook isn't really that bad.  Interesting to some, not to others.  I just have to find the hook these days that will generate some interest.  At least I have my profiles set up with a variety of press release distribution services so that saves some time.  Let's hope that this time the one I am currently writing is so interesting, exciting, life changing that newspapers around the world will pick it up and make it front page news!

Enjoying wonderful birthday parties

It was a wonderful day yesterday.  Well to begin, we have to clean the house from top to bottom.  Moving from a condo to a house, wow, there is so much more to clean, extra floors to wash, carpets to clean, two bathroom, rec rooms, laundry rooms.  I think we clean the house for four hours and if I haven’t said it before, I hate cleaning.  I hate everything about it but I do love a clean house afterwards. Unfortunately with me no amount of promised reward at the end makes me any more interested in getting started!  But in the end it was clean and looking beautiful.  My guy had even worked late at night and painted the ceilings and new crown moulding in the rec room so we are now ahead of schedule with the renovations.  We hadn’t planned on working on the lower level until the fall.  I kept telling him not to worry about it but honestly he can just keep going and going and never seems to tire, well I think he is tiring now, but mostly I think he wants the house done.  And he got extra incentive.  A house just six doors down went up for sale and had an open house.  Of course my guy poked through and they haven’t done near the renovations we have done already and they are asking 80K more than we paid for our place.  I really hope they get it!  Instantly raises the value of our place and we have only owned it for four  months now!  Anyway, in the afternoon my parents came down for a visit and we got to show off the new house to them.  Funny how even now you look for your parents’ approval!  Mom and I left and did some shopping in the afternoon at the mall, she buying some new blouses and Capri pants and me buying fresh bread and wine for dinner.  You can see where our interests lie!  It was great to be able to walk up to the mall, shop, talk and spend time together just us.  Then back to the house for Dad’s birthday dinner.  I made his summer favourites, dilled potato salad, pasta salad, tossed garden salad, Dijon devilled eggs, grilled asparagus with balsamic vinaigrette and grilled chicken breasts, oatmeal honey crumbled apple pie and vanilla ice cream for dessert.  It was a great meal and lively conversation.  They left by ten; I think we were in bed by ten fifteen!!  Today, we are going to paint the rec room walls and then head to my brother’s for my nephew’s birthday party.  Lots of birthdays this time of year in my family!  And we decided yesterday that my guy and I would host the family Christmas eve party this year at our new house!  I am pretty excited about it.  It is the first time we will actually have space to do it.  How pathetic is this, I am already dreaming about all the things I can prepare for the evening to eat!!  I seriously need help!

A busy weekend ahead

A busy evening and weekend ahead for me!  Later this afternoon it will be a frenzy of shopping for birthday gifts, wrapping, groceries and of course the weekly trip to the hardware store.  We are going to have my parents down tomorrow for most of the day and it will be the first time they have seen the house mostly finished so I am pretty excited about their visit.  We are going to celebrate my father’s birthday with a meal and a cake.  I am not sure what I will make but I will have to certainly make one of his favourite.  Somehow dates are going to be involved!  It will be nice to have the day with them and then Sunday it is all about painting and working on the rec room.  And I still have to get my head around the fact that we are leaving for Amsterdam next week. So much happening so quickly.  And a special congratulations to our friend Christian on his new job!  An exciting new phase of life beginning for him and his family!

Rachel Ray - want a guest?

Today feeling back in control.  Well mostly in control. It is amazing to me how much work you can get done either at work or at home by squeezing things into those little cracks between everything else you are doing.  I got my baseboards painted, cleaned the house some, did some cooking and still had some time to watch a bit of television.  Today I am flying through my work which I love and pretty soon I will be on my way to dinner with my best friend.  I spent some time this morning on the subway thinking about what to do during the summer to promote the cookbook and I think I may try reaching out and see if I can get the cookbook featured on either a cooking show or talk/variety show. I was thinking it would be great to have it discussed and maybe even a recipe prepared on the show.  You know like one of those classic Julia Child episodes, only cooking my recipes.  I could be the laughing jolly chef on television bantering with the host and whipping up a delicious meal for the viewers.  I am not sure if it will help at all with sales but it would be great fun to do. Now if I can just get myself on Rachel Ray!!

Life is moving too fast

I have lost my routine of writing every day.  Work has been so crazy busy the last few days I have hardly had a moment to myself at work and then I get home and I have been busy painting baseboards, unpacking, cooking, general tidying up that I have fallen into bed each night exhausted.  On top of that I have been sick I know and am only now just starting to feel better.  But I can tell I am still tired, I am short tempered and impatient at work, unable to focus effectively and don’t feel like I am in control this week.  Double that with all the ideas swirling in my head to promote the cookbook and the stress of having no time to do them and I am swamped.  I can hardly imagine that we are leaving next week on vacation to Amsterdam and then a small holiday in Madrid while I am at work there and then back, a quick trip to New York for work and suddenly it is the second half of July and where has the summer gone.  I find now to make plans with friends you have to book everyone including us months in advance.  How did life get like this?  Tomorrow night I am taking a night off and having dinner with my best friend.  Outside of phone calls we haven’t seen each other in almost five months, between competing busy schedules.  To me that just tells me I have my priorities wrong.  Anyway enough excuses and enough complaining!  I truly hope if you are reading this your life is full and you have time to enjoy.  I feel like mine is full but where is the downtime to enjoy it!

Martha Stewart eat your heart out

A Monday blog.  Yesterday turned out to be quite a good day.  First thing we were up early and drove up to my parents, stopping for bagels and coffee on the way.  We celebrated Father’s Day with Dad and it was really nice just to drop into my parents’ home, relax, catch up, with no big formal dinner to have.  Just family and relaxing.  We headed home after lunch and spent the afternoon doing touch ups on paint, and unpacking.  We set up the living room in anticipation of our new couch arriving, put together my new tripod Pottery Barn photographer’s lamp and unpacked countless boxes.  Hanging pictures on the wall and arranging our memories has suddenly almost instantly made our house our home.  Easy quick pizza with tomatoes, spinach and mushrooms for dinner and then an early bed.  A perfect day.  And great for me as well, since I am almost certain I am fighting a cold!  Again!  Or still!  Tonight, just heading out to get some pictures framed and then painting baseboards.  Oh I wish I was back at the days of transcribing recipes!!!

Dreaming of jumbo tomatoes

Just a quick note today.  I am going to head downstairs and watch a movie with my guy on the new television!  We spent the day painting, my guy the hallway, me the living and dining room and then together the laundry room.  It is looking pretty good but I have to admit I am now ready for it all to come to an end.  I realized today what tires me.  It is not the renovations or the work that tires me out it is the mess and the disorder.  Mess, disorder and piles cause me stress if you can imagine!  I will be happy when the house is just for living.  And to add to that, we bought a new living room sofa and end tables for our bedroom.  See we are getting closer.  The best surprise coming home from Chicago is the size of my tomato plants, they are enormous.  I hope it foreshadows jumbo tomatoes and a bumper crop.  I love sun warmed tomatoes fresh from the plant!  Okay off to flop on the couch with my guy!

Televisions are sprouting like weeds at our house

Can I tell you how hard I laughed when I got home?  So I walked in the door and my guy was waiting for me after my week in Chicago.  He had been working on the house and did an amazing number of things, sealing the grout on the tile floor, installing new mirrors in the washrooms, even putting up all the crown moulding in the rec room which was an unexpected treat.  Many thanks to Christian for lending a hand!  I ended up downstairs in the rec room admiring their hard work only to see the new television my guy bought while I was away.  For a while now, my guy has been complaining in the new house that sitting in the rec room he can’t read the printed text on the television ro the tv guide well.  So rather then wearing his glasses he bought a 55 inch new television!  The thing is enormous. And to add to it, we are going to put the old television, perfectly godo flat screen in our bedroom.  For a long time I argued against having a tv in the bedroom for any number of reasons.  To be honest, I almost never watch tv so I can’t see the point.  But then recently I realized I was arguing out of principle.  I was arguing against it just to get my way.  When I am honest, it really doesn’t matter to me.  It is something my guy loves and really is it worth the arguing and stubbornness and setting in my heels.  So one day I simply said to him install a tv in the bedroom if you want to.  I will likely never watch it, but really, do I want to be one of those people who denies things, for no real good reason.  If it makes him happy, then I want to see him happy.  Our life together is too short to be worried about things like tvs on the wall. If it is what he wants, I will be rewarded by seeing him happy.

Otherwise the last few days in Chicago have been so draining.  I know why I would rather be working on my cookbook than sitting in those meetings if for no other reason that I can feel a sense of accomplishment and the feeling of moving forward.  I know corporate culture is the genius of groups but honestly sometimes I find it exhausting.  After two weeks away, this weekend I just want to focus on my guy and I, our home and spending time just enjoying each other.  Maybe in front of the television!

Dreaming of Indonesian food in Amsterdam

A rainy day here in Chicago and I am currently on lunch from my meeting.  No walk today, too soggy. We just had a much improved lunch, fresh salad built to order, chips and mayonnaise, cheeses, burgers, dogs.  A good lunch washed down with fresh, home made iced tea, no sweet tea, real ice tea.  I spent some time researching restaurants to visit while on holidays in Amsterdam.  I found an amazing Indonesian restaurant that I want to try while we are there.  The Dutch of course had strong ties with Indonesia and there is a significant influence on their cuisine from Indonesia.  The menu actually got me excited and my mouth salivating.  I love trying new foods.  And for sure we are going to enjoy fries with mayonnaise, pickled herring on the street beside a lazy canal, and delicious pancakes they prepare covered in almost anything you can imagine from Morrocan lamb curry to Nutella to pears and cheese.  I love eating!  Tonight we are all, all 20 of us, are heading to a local steak house, called Pete Miller’s, for dinner.  Honestly, I am more excited about trying all the sides available with dinner more so than the steaks!  Macaroni and cheese, spinach in cream sauce, purred sweet potatoes oh the list goes on.  I hope though it isn’t a late night; it is the late nights and foreign beds that make traveling for work so difficult.  Best of all I am going to shoe shopping with Vicki and Tara before dinner, yippee.  Okay better get back to work, ugh.

Lamenting today's poor food offerings

Okay some random thoughts today on food while traveling.  This morning I sat through a terribly boring meeting at the Marriott and, at break, fled from the room to see what was available on the “light breakfast buffet” table.  Somehow soda doesn’t feel like breakfast food, there were small plates of unripe fruit, green cantaloupe and fibrous pineapple.  Off to the right a plate of drab, oily bran muffins.  Seriously, even bran muffins can be made to be delicious with butter milk, raisins or even some orange rind mixed into the batter.  But these poor little orphans were crying out for some attention.  You could almost see the bored chef somewhere in the hotel, trotting out a bag of premix from a dusty storage cupboard, blowing off the dust and mouse droppings and pouring it into a bowl to add water, mixing while talking on their cell.  Popped in the oven and served on a plain white plate, never loved, never cared for.  And they tasted of neglect.  This morning, when I woke up, the Holiday Inn served their version of neglected breakfast breads, rubbery eggs and watery juice from soda fountains.  Now I know businesses have to make money but seriously could you pop for a sliced strawberry to spice up a serving platter.  I am always amazed at the indifference people display towards food. 

To add insult today’s food presentations, we just were served the poorest example of Chinese food I have ever experienced.  Limp chicken strips and shriveled beef strips languishing in brown grey sauces, over cooked broccoli, minute rice doused in soy sauce and doughy deep fried egg rolls, all to be accompanied by brown yellow hot and sour soup, neither hot nor sour, but covered in beef fat.  It is almost a sacrilege what has been perpetuated against the food today.  I feel slightly naseaous.  I went for a walk though seemingly endless parking lots surrounding this hotel until I found a verge of grass against a still pond.  Signing warning me not to fish, swim or ice skate aside, I found a quiet place to feel the shade of the trees, the sun on my skin and some quiet amid this day.  The food has not been a highlight; fortunately I am here with people I enjoy.  Tonight I may just retreat to my room, order some pizza and hid from all these food abominations!! Hopefully tomorrow will show better food offerings.  Suddenly the airport food is looking good from yesterday!!!

Off to Chicago

Yesterday was a pretty nice day.  We got up and started putting up all the new curtains and dressing the beds with the new comforters and pillows we bought.  Honestly our bedroom looks gorgeous. Now I just have to find some end tables and the room will be complete.  Suddenly the house is looking near done!  In the afternoon we went and enjoyed a family birthday party at my guy’s brother’s place, it was his birthday and his son’s.  It was so funny to watch a 17 year old obviously enjoying his birthday but trying to look nonchalant and carefree in front of his buddies when the cake came out.  All in all a good way to finish the weekend.  Today I am off to Chicago on a six o’clock flight.  I am in Chicago for four days this week.  I don’t like this feeling of being away from guy two weeks in a row.  It is the longest we have been apart since we met.  Totally not loving it.  And I am a little sick which is not helping things; I have a feeling it is going to be a really long week. Deep breath just to survive it. 

Amsterdam, Madrid and beautiful new bedrooms

It has been a couple of days and I am behind in sharing the news!  I came home Thursday night to find my guy sitting in the back yard have a tea.  He went to work and was sent home, still sick, so Thursday night we just got caught up for the week and had a late dinner together.  He had spent a few hours each day dragging himself around the house unpacking and tidying up, poor thing, which I imagine prolonged the sickness.  He would do a bit he said feeling a little better but after a box, he would end up back in bed sleeping.

Yesterday was a regular work day and then we had two good friends over for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres.  Tara and Lesley arrived around six and the fun began.  I got to show of the house in progress and then we ended up outside with mango pineapple mojitos that I prepared, cheese platters, Mediterranean snacks, veggies and of course blue corn tortillas and salsa.  We caught up on the news, Lesley was the photographer at our wedding and is now taking a course to further her talent.  But the most exciting thing is we all have the opportunity to take a last minute holiday to Europe this July.  We are going to fly into Amsterdam, have six days or so there and then from there on to Madrid and the surrounding cities on the plain!  It is too fun and today Lesley booked an apartment for all of us in Amsterdam during our stay.  Flights are booked, now apartment is ready, Lesley is working on itineraries, Tara is going to work on EasyJet flights from Amsterdam to Madrid for us, and I am going to work on hotels for our time in Madrid.  It came out of the blue but something we have to take advantage of now that it is offered.  Dominican Republic, Mexico and now Holland and Spain, this is turning out to be a pretty amazing first year of marriage.

Today we got up relatively early and my guy made me some breakfast and then out the door we went and we spent literally all day from ten in the morning till after six tonight shopping for decorating pieces for the house. We bought complete new bed coverings, including shams, skirts, pillows, comforters, gorgeous stuff, new curtains and rods, bathroom finishings and we found the most amazing photographer’s tripod light for the living room, all chestnut legs and brushed nickel lights.  We spent way too much money today but it is all the finishing stuff for the house and tonight we dressed the spare bedroom bed and put up the curtains.  We bought new bedside lamps for the room and suddenly it is looking finished.  We put up the rod in our bedroom, tomorrow we dress the bed and put the television up on the wall.  Our house is coming along and I am loving it.  But to be honest pretty tired now.  I am going to put off during the ironing until tomorrow and just flop on the couch with my guy and relax.  Tomorrow more decorating and a birthday party, ah, I am loving life right now!

Wouldn't trade a moment of life right now

Well, it has been a couple of exciting action packed days.  Work here has been so busy, the day just flew by yesterday and before I knew it, it was over.  I almost feel like I have had more meetings while I have been away than I ever have at home.  But it makes the time fly by and makes heading home that much sooner.  My guy is still sick but getting better, slowly, and it is hard to be away while he is home sick and I can't be there to take care of him.  It is just not the same consoling him over the phone when you can't just reach out and take active care of him.

Last night, I went for dinner at a friend's from work who lives here.  It was such a great friend.  It is truly amazing how you can build deep and great friendships with friends from work and it has been amazing to journey along with them as they have built their first amazing house on a beautiful country road and have their first son.  We had a marvellous time sitting on their veranda, sipping sangria and then they made me a special treat for dinner.  If you can imagine I have never had fondue before in my life, so we had an amazing cheese fondue to start, then we made fresh spring rolls filled with veggies and fresh cilantro and mint, accompanied by tasty dipping sauces.  For dessert, a chocolate fondue with fresh fruit made the perfect end to the evening.  It is so great to me to actually be able to enjoy normal life, outside of work, with friends from work, since it is so rare to be able to do that particuarly when you work with someone who lives in a different city.  I got in, bragged breathlessly to my guy about my evening and collapsed in bed.

Today already it is flying by.  There is a tonne of pollen and stuff in the air here so my allergies are acting up a little bit, making me slightly irritable, but hey, I have little to complain about, bright sunny day, the beginning of summer weather, a delicious dinner in a local French restaurant on the horizon tonight and work which I am enjoying these days.  I talked to my guy this morning who seems to be on the mend, tomorrow they are installing our new backsplash and the painters come on Friday to repair the paint on the hallways and staircase.  Pretty soon our house will be done hurray!!!  Life is busy, like yours I am sure, but I wouldn't trade any of these moments.

Here I am amid French food and sunshine

Well here I am in Sherbrooke Quebec for work again.  The flight out and travel was completely uneventful.  One great thing, I got upgraded to first class on the plane and it was one of the new planes so I was in my very own first class pod.  The drive out to the office was easy, the sun shining on the greening and growing fields and soon I was at the office.  The day has passed quickly and after work I wandered the aisles of a local grocery store, admiring the breads, the baked goods, buying myself some local specialties that I can only find here to take home to share with my guy.  I love this little town!  I went into a little depaneur, a local convenience store, with uneven wooden flooring and bought myself a lottery ticket, the whole time speaking French.  I hope my courage to speak French and the charm of the store and the madame selling me the ticket all conspire to add luck to my purchase.  I am back in my wonderful hotel room, all exposed concrete walls and uber modern furniture and artwork on the walls and I am snuggling up on my bed, all for me, with a good book to read before bed.  Tomorrow night, a walk around the lake beside my hotel and more exploring.  I feel somewhat guilty since my guy at home is sick with a chest infection, and here I am away for work and not home to take care of him.  At least he has taken a couple of days off work to recover.  Poor guy.  I love my work and this trip is an unexpected perk to have some time to wander and dream about foods I have never tried.  I only wish my guy was here to enjoy it with me!

An awesome ride for a great cause

This morning we were up as the sun rose and found ourselves eating oatmeal in the kitchen, so early we were still waiting for the birds to begin to sing.  But soon enough we were loaded into the car and on our way down town to the begin the 50 km charity ride for the Heart and Stroke Association.  There is nothing like joining 13 thousand other riders all dedicated to raising money for a good cause and today the weather agreed with our good intentions and created a picture perfect day of sun.  Our team set off, the six of us, riding in the sunlight, enjoying the pleasure of feeling the world go by at your speed, your body in rhythm with your bike, your lungs filling, the sun  on your face, your teammates faces laughing, telling stories, caring for each other, and waiting for each other, encouraging and forgiving the outbursts caused by fatigue or frustration.  We rode up the loop, battling hills and valleys, and stopping for cut up bananas and water, then the long gentle ride back down to the lake, feeling amazed at the distances slipping by.  And suddenly we were passing the finish line and then off for beer, burgers and more conversation before heading home. It was a great day and a perfect early summer day and now tonight we are just enjoying lying low.  We had a cold dinner outside on the patio and now I think it is just time to snuggle up and watch a movie before an early bed.   I have an early start for my flight tomorrow morning so I am going to make the most of being home with my baby at the end of this perfect day.

It's coming together

Just a quick note since I am off to bed!  We spent the day painting the house. The kitchen is now a wonderful colour they call heavy cream which really sets off the hardwood and dark cabinetry.  The original colour we picked turned out to be too green looking, so different from the paint chit, so we changed course and now it looks amazing.  I painted the upstairs bathroom a medium grey colour and honestly it looks amazing too against the gleaming white trim and blue tiles.  Very pretty and very liveable since we won't be remodelling the upstairs bathroom any time soon.  My guy is feeling a little under the weather today, I think he is fighting something.  So hopefully we will both be well and rested for our big charity ride tomorrow. Sunshine and bicycling tomorrow, yipppeee.  Off to bed, night night!

Anticipating Father's Day

Well, today like a well oiled machine, my pre-saved press releases loaded to a number of press release distribution sites all fired off successfully over the lunch hour and right now as I type my press releases are winging their ways electronically or on web feeds to news outlets all over the United States, United Kingdom and Canada.  It is first amazing to me how simple some of this technology and tools really are to use; even I can register, load, add links and photos, set a pre-set release time and boom I am done, without ever thinking wow I am not sure how to do it.  It was the same when I created the Kindle version earlier in the week and I have noticed that you can now purchase the Kindle version in the US and the UK, with Canada and Germany to come.  Second, I am amazed to discover that I have a bit of a knack for writing press releases. I did quite a bit of research on the web on the dos and don'ts of writing a good press release.  After that it is all about getting creative and letting it flow out of you.  The real test will be to see if any of them get picked up and included in must have gift lists for Dad on Father's Day!  But I figure every little bit will help and when you can write the draft one night, edit it the next, load it and set it to release and then forget about it, there is absolutely no down side that I can see in releasing them.  Now just keep your fingers crossed that it works!

This weekend is a big weeked of painting the kitchen and getting it finished and painting the upstairs bathroom and then on Sunday we have our 50 km charity cycling ride for the Heart and Stroke association.  It is forecast to be good weather, sunny and warm, so despite the early 7 am start, it should be a fun day all around and a nice break from the usual.  And I like doing something for charity like that, that combines doing some good with something you love.  Next week I am away in Quebec for work and the following week away in Chicago for work, so I have a feeling the next few weeks are going to fly by!! 

Heading to a patio in the sun

Not a lot today.  It is a bright sunny perfect early June day and today after work I am meeting with my friends Tara and Lesley and we three are going to intrepidly seek out a sunny patio and enjoy cool drinks and munchies and do nothing but talk, laugh, eat, drink and catch up.  A perfect end to a glorious day.

Crazy day at work

What a crazy day at work today and tonight equally so.  After leaving the office late, I came home to meet a contractor who is going to paint the staircase and hallway again after the delivery guys scuffed and marked the walls and ruined the new paint.  Thankfully Sears is going to pay for the repainting which is fantastic and by next Friday it will all be finished.  In fact by next Friday our mirrored back splash will be in, we will have painted the kitchen and it will be finished!  Which is nice since while waiting for the contractor I got a chance to meet the two young women with families in our row of townhouses.  They were both bright, funny and full of laughs; it was nice to meet such nice neighbours and after talking about our renovations we all promised to open a bottle of wine and visit each other's homes to show off I am sure but also to see what others have done with their space!  Sound be a lot of fun.  And I have been thinking we should have a housewarming and book launch party soon but honestly I am not sure when it will happen.  Next week I am away for work for four days, then a birthday party on the weekend, away the next week for three days for work, party on the weekend and between all my nieces and nephews we have a birthday party every weekend until July!  Then hopefully we will be taking a little vacation, I know I can hear you groaning, didn't we just go on one but hey I think we are due!  And amazingly pretty soon it will be our first wedding anniversary!  Can you believe it, I know I can't. Where has the time gone!  I am still revelling in all these days of fun!

A day of luck

What a crazy lucky day I have had.  The other day I bought a ticket for the 50/50 draw in our office which raises money for the United Way.  And today I won!  I am now the lucky recipient of over two hundred dollars from the pool.  Woohoo.  Later in the afternoon I received notice that our gifts from the Achievement Club for work that my guy and me went on to Los Cabos in April.  So by the end of the day, we had our new luggage, Victornix luggage, a suitcase and a leather duffel bag.  They are so beautiful and now we can get rid of our old luggage.  So since I was on a roll, off I went on the way home and bought myself a lottery ticket!

I finished the Kindle version of the cookbook and loaded it to Amazon for sale.  It should be available tomorrow morning, yippee.  Another thing off my to do list.  Now I am thinking I have to convince Rachel Ray to try my cookbook on her show and maybe even have me on to help prepare some recipes from it.  What do you think?  Do you think she will buy the idea?  One can dream.  I have my press release for Father's Day loaded to the distribution system and ready to release on Friday.  I am giving the newspapers three weeks to prepare their recommendations for Father's Day and I hope I make it to their lists!  Keep your fingers crossed.

Kindle version coming soon

Two big accomplishments tonight.  First, I went to the hardware store and picked two different colours to paint the kitchen, one is a soft green colour with maybe grey undertones, kind of a dull green and the other is brick red.  I just painted a couple of swipes of each colour on the walls so we can live with them for a few days to decide which we like best and then I imagine this Saturday is all about painting the kitchen.  And I choose a grey for the upstairs bathroom.  It has a blue counter top and blue floor tiles both of which will be replaced but for now I thought we should add some colour to the bathroom while we live with until those renovations start!

And I learned tonight how to convert my book to the Kindle ebook format so I can add it to the Amazon stores as well.  It is amazing what you can find with Google and I downloaded some software which does the transformation for me.  Now I just have to double check it, finish all the Kindle registration stuff on Amazon and then load it for sale this week.  Amazingly easy.  Apparently Amazon now sells more Kindle versions of books than printed copies.  Can you imagine how much the world has changed!  So I better swim with the tide and load my Kindle version as well!! Each day a new adventure!

Slowing down a little

Today we have taken most of the day off.  We were up late last night unpacking and working on the house and I slept until almost ten am this morning which I almost never do.  My guy was up earlier, woke me up and then had to go.  I spent the day unpacking a few more boxes.  But the best part of the day was walking into my new kitchen and preparing dinner for tonight. I was all alone, able to move slowly and enjoy each part of preparing the meal, in my new kitchen, on my new counters, with my new appliances.  Afterward cleaning up, I was acutely aware of all the future meals I will prepare in that kitchen and how much I am going to enjoy doing so!  Tonight slowing down again, my guy and a friend are fixing the powder room sink, an almost endless carousel of changes, frustrations and setbacks but still they preserve.  I am always amazed at how well they work together and they absolute determination to finish!

Getting it done

Yesterday was a full day and today has been the same.  Yesterday I spent a large amount of time researching free press release distribution site.  I read reviews on Google, searched for blogs that discussed them, and looked at how these sites are rated with Google and Alexa ratings.  I finally reduced my choices down to four which may still be too many but I am going to use them all for the next one and see which ones perform the best and which are most accessed by the news media.  I have preloaded a press release on one of them already timed to release on June 3 and the rest of the sites I will load the same day.  Simply because I am obsessive, I also took my much hard work fraught list of email contacts across North America and the UK that I developed my self and already have draft emails ready to send out, all in time for Father’s day.  I feel pretty good about having the next promotion job done so far in advance and now time to think about the next one.  And I received very heartwarming news from a friend at work who had received their cookbook in the mail and that night was going to try the Guiness Irish stew for dinner.  I just hope in the end they loved it!  The first test of the cookbook.

Last night we did a tremendous amount of shopping for the house, ceiling fans, stainless steel drainboards, door stoppers, silver garbage cans for the laundry room, hooks to hang the ironing board.  It was quite fun just shopping for the house, buying all the new things that we need.  We almost never shop like that, completely unrestrained and buying so many things at once, it was great fun.  Normally I am much more measured and budget oriented but last night for the new house it was see and buy!  Great fun.  We later went out for dinner with friends and today had a morning of saying thank you to friends by helping them with some work around their house.  They have certainly done way more for us and this morning was only a drop in the bucket of our gratitude.  And honestly kind of fun, seeing how many projects we can tackle and succeed at.  Tonight I have to face the daunting task of putting away all of clothes which I haven’t yet unpacked into dressers and closets.  You know all those suitcases and boxes of winter clothes, sweaters and stuff that you don’t need right away but are still sitting on the floor in the spare room.  Tonight I have to face it and complete it just to feel more settled!  So no more procrastinating for me, off I go to open, sort and organize!

Many thanks to everyone

Today has been a very rewarding day.  All today and yesterday too for that matter I have been getting feedback on my new cookbook as it arrives to friends' and family's homes.  So many great compliments and expressions of amazement and also some great feedback on things to add or improve for next time.  Honestly the most rewarding thing is to hear consistently people say that they can't wait to try one of my recipes in the book.  At the end of the day, that is what it is all about and knowing that people will be making my favourites in their kitchens and enjoying them is amazing to me.  Hopefully they will be become their favourites as well.  Gives me the energy to keep going!

A little bit every day

I have spent the last couple of hours researching free press release distribution services.  I have decided that monthly I should be sending out press releases of new things going on with the cookbook, either about sales or promotions or reviews or mentions in newspapers to keep interest up in the cookbook.  I think there will be a certain point in the evolution of the cookbook where enough people will have heard about it from a number of different angles that sales will start to climb.  I know it will be a long and gradual process but every bit helps.  I have also asked friends who have my cookbook to write reviews on Amazon and others in order to help improve the search results of the cookbook and maybe get noticed by the editors at Amazon so they will feature the cookbook as one of their books of the month.  That would be an amazing success.  But I have to remind myself that it is increment increases that will lead the way to success not overnight sudden luck.  So just like tonight it is a little bit every day!

Thinking like a marketer

 Today I spent some time writing a press release to promote the cookbook for Father’s Day.  It suddenly struck  me, what better gift for Dad that a cookbook created with men in mind, full of his favourite recipes which can only make him happy once he tries them.  I figured I need to get the press release complete probably three weeks before the actual day so newspapers can pick it up and include it in those lists you see year after year of gift ideas for the hopelessly rushed or unimaginative.  In either case, I thought hey my cookbook is the perfect idea!  So I was pleased with my efforts and had someone from the marketing department at work proofread it and make a few suggestions to improve it.  Now I just have to get it loaded to the press release distribution service again; I am thinking of sending it out June 3. 

And then I headed home after a relatively easy day of work.  I love our new home being so close to work.  I had time to stop and stroll the aisles of the grocery store, run a few errands, come home, prepare lunches for tomorrow, do the ironing for the week and still it was only six pm.  I have so much more life now that I am not stuck commuting forever, waiting on buses and subways and unexpected delays.  I just got in from a quick 12 km ride on my bike to “stretch my legs”.  Oh how times have changed!  I swear there was a time when I would never have uttered such a thing and now here I am thinking anything under 15 km is just a stretch!  Showered and relaxing before heading off to bed.  Another pretty great day!

The blessing of good friends

Yesterday was another spectacular day.  I am not sure if it was simply because it was the perfect combination of my favourite things these days, good friends, good food, feathering our nest and slowing down enough to enjoy it or if, or maybe in addition, I myself slowed down enough to recognize my blessings as they were happening.  Regardless it was a perfect day. 

We started the day meeting our friends Nick and Henry for breakfast at our favourite breakfast place, Mihalis.  Actually the name is Greek, I imagine the original owner was Greek, but ever since I have been going, it has been owned by a Polish guy, friendly guy, who makes an awesome breakfast, eggs, toast, potatoes, meat, coffee, juice all for four bucks.  It is always delicious and it is really nice to have gone to a favourite place long enough that when you walk in, they are happy to see you, ask you how you are and start making your breakfast without even waiting for your order.  Or maybe I am just too predictable that he can start without asking!  But it was as it always is and it was great to start to the day with our friends.

After breakfast we parted ways, they piling in their car with my guy to head off to the hardware store and me heading home to meet my father.  He came down yesterday around lunchtime to drop off the patio furniture and portable fireplace for the backyard.  We store it over the winter in my parents barn so yesterday he brought it down for us.  It is nice to my father returning to his old self, always wanting to be busy and vibrant after his illness.  We set it up on the patio, amid my new flowers and overlooking all the wonderful flowering trees in the backyard and I could feel the summer starting.  

Everyone arrived suddenly and the house was full of activity.  My guy and Henry installing lighting in the glass doored cupboards in the kitchen and under all the cupboards to shine on the counters, Nick upstairs putting together my new Ikea dresser for the spare room and me in the basement unpacking boxes and arranging the cupboards of the laundry room.  The house was full of friends.  A tremendous feeling and the life that will make our house a home.  We stopped for pizza outside on the patio, a bottle of wine for some of us, Diet Cokes for others.  Still we talked, still we worked.  The sun set, the patio darkened, outdoor citronella lights were lit and the feeling of comfort descended on our house. 

And suddenly it was time for the big reveal.  We went back upstairs to the kitchen with all the lights on in the cupboards.  It was incredibly beautiful.  Honestly they had done a fantastic job and the kitchen looked transformed.  The house is starting to look finished.  Without Henry so many things in the house would not be done or would be done less with sophistication.  He has worked too hard on our house!  Finally everyone was allowed to go home; the work for the day was done!  And after enjoying a few more minutes out on the patio in the darkness, savouring the quiet and a perfect day, reflecting on our blessings and on furtive under the cover of darkness trip to a local garbage dumpster to rid ourselves of excess trash it was off to bed.  Here it is morning and I am going to now pad downstairs and continue working in the laundry room, unpacking the myriad of boxes remaining.  Today I am so aware of the blessings we have been given.  

A perfect day

What a marvelous day today!  We got up early and had a great breakfast of piles of fresh fruit and oatmeal and then suddenly everyone was arriving for our training ride.  By 1030 we were on our way.  Today was spectacular, fantastic sunny weather, no clouds in the sky, little breeze and all along the route trees bursting into green, the river flowing quickly, and the sound of your tires on the asphalt.  We rode and rode, stopping to laugh and brag about speeds or climbing a particular hill, the six of us enjoying the first perfect day of the summer.  We ended up in the St Lawrence market and ate at an Irish pub outside on the patio.  Green salad, burger and a pint of Kilkenny washed away the soreness of the first half of the ride and then we were back at it, riding home, mostly uphill but encouraging each other, overcoming fatigue and loving the riding.  Today we rode almost 40 km and in only 3 and a half hours.  A perfect day.  Everyone headed home to soak sore muscles and brag to loved ones, and my guy and I snacked on more fruit, cheeses and a hot cup of tea.  Well following a much earned shower and a power protein shake to relieve the pain in the muscles.  And then best of all our new headboard and dresser arrived, got brought in and set up without incident and right now my guy is napping peacefully.  Thai food for dinner and then a movie.  I am little overheated as my sun burn comes out but what a great great day!!!

Planning my next steps

First an apology.  I haven’t written in a couple of days and I feel bad.  I am not sure what is going on with me necessarily but somehow getting home at night these past few nights all I have wanted to do is lie on the couch and watch mindless television.  I haven’t even been eating dinner most nights this week.  Now the down side to that behaviour is not that I have been losing weight; instead I have been sitting on my duff eating bags of potato chips and watching television.  Not exactly the best approach to my diet or training for the charity ride but I have just been glum.  I am sure the last six days of rain we have had has not helped improve my mood.  Today is mostly sunny which is fantastic and tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and warm.  But by Sunday it will be back to rain; I swear it is time to build an ark.

Tomorrow, the team for the charity ride is all going to meet at our place by 10 am.  We are going to get ourselves organized and then ride from our place down to the lake, through the park system. You remember the park system, the same one where I got hopelessly lost!  Anyway, we get ourselves on our way and enjoy the sunshine and the exercise.  Our goal is to ride at least 30 km but our reward will be to stop at a pub and enjoy lunch and a beer mid ride and sit out on a patio!  I love summer patios, cold beer, easy food, no rush, just relaxing with friends.  The same old stories sound interesting again, seeing the same faces is heartwarming.  We have to be back home by 3 pm or so since they are delivering the replacement dresser and headboard for our new set.  I bought a dresser from Ikea last night to put in the spare room and it is being delivered this afternoon and after that I think furnishing the upstairs is finished.  At least for a while.  Then I can do the touch ups on the paint upstairs and start work on the living room.  This renovating and decorating is becoming an ongoing, never-ending project.

We are going to work on installing the back splash in my new kitchen this weekend.  We have looked at a lot of tiles, none of which have really appealed to us.  Someone suggested using mirrors and last night my guy set up some along the counter and honestly it looks pretty good.  It makes our small kitchen seem both bigger and brighter, without overpowering the rest of the kitchen.  I am not sure what we will decide on for sure this weekend but it is definitely one of the goals for the weekend!  For the cookbook, I have come up with a list as long as my arm of things to do and people to contact to see if I can drum up interest, get the cookbook featured on television, different ideas for advertising.  A whole new set of skills need to be developed – sales and marketing!  But Father’s Day is coming so I have a few ideas on how to promote the book for Father’s day, but I have to find some time this weekend to work on it!! Too busy, too much on my mind, no wonder sometimes I just have to collapse on the couch!   

An unexpected disappointment

Woo hoo how exciting is this?  As I type our new bedroom suite is arriving. The guys in the delivery truck are out front right now bringing in our set.   Just a sec!

Okay I am back and how quickly joy turns to frustration.  So the guys delivered the bed and scratched the headboard bringing into the house and cracked the surface of the dresser.  Seriously this is what they do for a living and they damaged the furniture bringing it into the house!  We are calling now to get it all replaced.  When you pay that kind of money for a new suite, it should arrive undamaged so you can enjoy it.  It is one thing if we scratched it by accident but quite another when Sears who is delivering it, damages it upon delivery.  My guy is on the phone right now getting it replaced and determining when a new set can be delivered.  I am upset but only mildly so, I think, mostly because I completely expect Sears to fix this problem.  And after the incredibly boring day I had at work today, this is a picture perfect ending to an otherwise pitiful day.  Signing off to go sulk and be annoyed!

A dinner at home

What a great surprise I received today.  My guy was able to leave work early and come home for dinner mid-week.  Normally he works in the evenings in his role as a team leader in a residential living program for deaf adults but he had a workshop today and was able to come home for dinner.  We opened a bottle of wine, which is waiting to be finished, and made some Indian food.  It was wonderful to have him home at the table with me during the week and he is now waiting for me downstairs with the rest of the bottle picking a movie to watch on this rainy evening, snuggled on the couch. So you know where I am headed!

A happy rainy Sunday

What a lovely rainy Sunday it has been.  I started the day by making my guy and I a light breakfast of French eggs with finely chopped mint and chives, scrambled with cream, served with lemon juice over them, eaten with warm Lebanese bread and fresh fruit and tea.  It was delicious and my guy waited until half way through his meal before covering his eggs in ketchup!  We had friends stop by and deliver a couple of chairs we had stored at their house, which of course later generated a conversation about how to recover them for our new living room.  We headed off to Ikea to return left over kitchen installation pieces and then, after rambling around six different stores, we found, fell in love and bought a new bedroom suite for our room.  Until now, we have made due with bedroom suites that either of us had accumulated over the years.  But with our new house, I wanted us to get a brand new, jointly chosen bedroom suite that is just ours.  And we found it.  Actually my guy found it and seeing him so happy with his discovery I couldn’t very well say no.  It arrives on Wednesday night.  I have spent the last four hours unpacking still more boxes.  I seriously have no idea where they are all coming from but there is also suddenly more carpet showing through, enough that I could actually pull out the vacuum and give it a good cleaning.  I am so surprised at myself now that we moved into the new house.  All I am doing is cleaning and I hate cleaning, like really hate, resent it even.  But in the new house, if a dish is dirty I was it, dry it, put it away and then put the drain board away!  I barely recognize myself.  I am sure this will all wear off soon enough but for now I am have an incredibly clean house and kitchen, especially considering all the boxes and tools still sitting around.  A regular week coming up for me; it is good to be back to a regular routine.  

Feeling very fortunate

Well here I am, sitting at my desk, still damp from coming in from outside.  Seriously, I am thinking about heading onto the internet to search for design plans to build ourselves an ark it is raining so much.  It started last night and is supposed to keep raining off and on, with fluctuating levels of rainfall for the next six days!  Fortunately I went out in the yard last night amid the drizzle and planted all my impatients, dalias, begonias, pansies, and marigolds.  The beds look amazing and come mid summer will be simply a riot of colour.  I have my tomatoes and herbs in already, I remember telling you and so I think I am all set.  It feels great to have spruced up the beds and made them our own and besides now throughout the summer we can enjoy eating al fresco and be surrounded with wonderful flowers.  So I guess the rain for the next while will be great for giving them all a head start.  We got up early this morning and went up to meet my brother in law and nephews and we cycled 20 kms in the rain to train for the charity ride.  Fortunately it never really got much worse than hard drizzle but that didn’t stop me from getting covered in mud and grime.  We showered back at my sister in laws and then stayed for a great lunch.  We found out while we were there that my sister in law’s sister is newly pregnant, a moment of great joy and celebration.  Congratulations to them, expecting their first.  Then we popped up to my parents for a quick visit.  Dad is much recovered from his illness, thank goodness, and found after a trip to the chiropractor that he was much improved.  I hope it continues, he is getting back to his old self.  We are home now, my guy taking a quick nap, and me here at the computer, thinking of you, and wondering what is next for me.  Tonight, more electrical work and unpacking more boxes and generally making this house a home.  To be honest, I am really happy right now, deeply happy, deeply content.  Amid the noise and haste and chaos, I am happy.   A wonderful place to be, loved by a great guy, blessed with great family and friends, and life full of change and opportunities.  This I think is definitely the “for better” part of our vows.  How lucky I am.  

A weekend of domestic bliss ahead

Here I am getting ready for a weekend of unpacking.  We have lots to do this weekend and this afternoon we are going shopping for tiles for our backsplash.  I want to get all my flowers for the beds tonight since they are calling for four days of rain.  Better to have the flowers in now so they can get a good soaking after transplanting.  Tomorrow we have a 20 km training ride on our bikes, rain or shine, and most likely rain, so we will be ready for the charity ride.  It doesn’t really sound appealing but the ride will occur in rain or shine so we have to start to train in both weather conditions. And other than a whole weekend of unpacking boxes and working on our new home.  Our only delicious break is a lunch at my sister in laws on Saturday.  It is domestic bliss at our place these days and frankly I am enjoying it immensely!

Today sharing Blueberry French Toast Bake with new friends

I just jumped off the deep end again!  I have heard tonnes about Twitter for the last year but honestly knew very little about it.  Yesterday I was talking with one of the marketing managers at work and he recommended that I set up a Twitter account to go with my website and Facebook account.  After some review on the Twitter site and then more research on Google on actually how to use it, I have now signed up for a Twitter account.  The location is @feedingyourguy if you want to follow along on Twitter.  I have to admit I now feel a new pressure to come up with witty and useful things to put on the Twitter account as well; all this interconnectedness is amazing but also puts a little bit more pressure on me.  I just desperately don’t want to become one of those people you always hear about who post completely inane things on their Twitter account. Trust me, you will not be seeing any tweets from me telling you I am washing dishes or heading off to bed!

There was also some exciting news today.  There are two more articles written about my cookbook, one from the Tulsa World, located here Tulsa World - May 11, 2011 and another article from the Times of India located here Times of India - May 11, 2011  I had a great email conversation with Natalie at the Tulsa World and expressed my sincere thanks to her for writing an article about my cookbook.  I sent her a recipe for Blueberry French Toast bake which even she said she was going to try soon.  It is exciting to have articles talking about the cookbook, even doubly exciting to be able to share my recipes!  I have been starting to think I should do something special for Father’s Day in conjunction with the cookbook, not sure what yet but what better guy to prepare a nice meal for than Dad!  If you have any ideas, I would love to hear them.

Selling is going to be hard work

I am having a funny sort of day.  First the minutes seemed to crawl by today, slowly like they were watching me as they marched by, saluting me that they were going but never in a hurry to leave.  Work was fine, a fairly regular sort of day, but uninspiring.  I realized today I think for the first time how much work is ahead of me to try to sell the cookbook, how many hours of work, planning, trying, testing ideas and rejecting them and trying something new.  How I am going to have to seek help, ask for advice, beg, cajole and plead for those first people to get it and then to recommend it to others so some word of mouth can start happening.  I think I realized today that, despite the countless hours of work that are behind me in creating the cookbook, that was the easy part, that the real work is just now starting and I have so very much to do.  I am not sure where to begin and I think I have realized that there is going to be no magic bullet, that selling the book will be a long, regular pattern of ideas, execution and then moving on to the next idea.  Selling is going to be much harder work than writing and no amount of exciting news articles are going to make a heap of difference, I have to plug away each day and see what works, see what catches people’s imaginations and then drives them to buy the cookbook.  Feeling a little despair, a little let down, a little anti-climax after the excitement of the launch.  I guess I am just getting back down to the brass tacks of selling this cookbook!  It is what I said I wanted so no point whining, just gotta get at it.  

Wow, am I exhausted

I just came in an hour or so ago after riding my bike for two and a half hours.  I wanted to get out and do some training prior to our participation in the Heart and Stroke charity ride on June 5 and I ended up getting lost in the park system here in the city.  Although it was definitely beautiful, I rode way more than I had anticipated.  At one point, I even had to carry my bike up about two hundred concrete steps, passing a group of women doing an outdoor booty camp workout.  I am not sure who looked more dejected, them or me!  Anyway I finally made it home and now my legs are exhausted and all I can think about is my bed.  I am off for a well deserved sleep!

Just planted next August's tomatoes for an outdoor salad

I have just come indoors from the backyard where I have just spent the last two hours gloriously planting tomato plants, rosemary and basil in anticipation of that hot August day when I can go outside and pluck a sun warmed tomato and some fresh basil and toss a summer salad and pinch some rosemary and roast the first new potatoes of the season.  It is all in planting the seeds for the future and here today I took the first small steps.  I am still unpacking the kitchen and trying to make some semblance of order in this messy house right now but it is deeply satisfying having this new home, this nest just for us, to create how we see fit, to plan and dream and create the next phase of our life.  I am behind my self imposed schedule of what I wanted to get unpacked tonight so I better run but more news tomorrow!  I promise.  

Life is returning to normal

What a wonderful Sunday.  For the first time in a long time, we had a most ordinary day. We woke up in our new bedroom and padded down our new hallways and got ready for the day.  Off we went and stopped at my parents to deliver to my mother a new potentilla bush with mango coloured flowers for Mother’s day.  After a nice chat we left to meet the rest of the family at Greystones for Mother’s day brunch.  Just my favourite thing, off to a new restaurant to try new food and a brunch to beat.  Nothing is better I say than combining breakfast and lunch, the best of both worlds.  Beyond my usual favourites from breakfast, I had a delicious German potato salad flavoured with dill, a Waldorf salad with crunchy ripe apples which I haven’t had in forever, a big heaping plate of cheeses and oven rolled roast potatoes.  I left having eaten three plates of food and feeling rather stuffed after great conversation with family.  It was funny, it was like a swap meet among us kids, each of us giving each other photos or dishes we no longer need or promises to come paint!!  Nothing like family.  Then we headed off to my brother-and sister-in-laws for more Mother’s Day eating.  We got to spend some time with mother-in-law who I enjoy quite a bit and then my sister-in-law Sarah’s mother, Jill came by for tea with her husband and friend Pat in for a holiday from England.  We all ended up outside in the yard in the early spring sunshine around a big pot of tea while eating more cake!  Pat from England was a delight and a joy to see her with Jill.  They have been friends for fifty years, can you imagine?  They met living next door to each other in England on a little cul de sac and have remained friends all these years despite or maybe because of job changes, husband changes, raising kids, retiring and growing old.  They are both almost eighty now and still going strong.  It was so heartwarming and reassuring to see them together.  Reminded me of the importance of dear friends.  Home now and just came in from sitting outside in our new backyard, chatting with my guy and soon heading downstairs for a late and light dinner of toasted tomato sandwiches.  Life is indeed good.  

Word about the cookbook is spreading

I am getting so excited this morning.  I was searching the web to see if there was interest in my cookbook and discovered that it is now available on www.amazon.de in Germany and at www.eddingtonhook.co.uk in the United Kingdom.  More booksellers are picking up the book and there are even used and rare versions of the cookbook available on the web.  I am not entirely sure how you can have a used or rare copy of the cookbook when it only went on sale last Friday but hey, I am happy they are out there.

And it is getting some attention and reviews at a number of online recipe sites.  I did a search and www.cookbookrecipesonline.com, www.anarchy-cookbook-site.com, www.irecipes.com, www.trendsbuzz.com and even www.suncityseniors.com have all talked about my cookbook or talked about the article the other day about the Duchess of Cambridge and Feeding your guy cookbook on their websites.  I am so excited!!!  It is amazing to me how news can just slip and multiply through the internet and how many people I have never met can read about my cookbook.  And hopefully be enticed to purchase one!

I can't stop reading the article the other day.  If you missed it, here is the link to the article  Their Irish World - May 4, 2011   I am still so excited and I am having trouble sleeping, and sleep stays even more elusive when I think about all the work I have ahead of me to sell the book and to unpack these boxes surrounding me in our new house!!

What a wild couple of days

Well this has certainly been a wild couple of days.  First I had all the excitement of the news article that Kate Middleton, now the Duchess of Cambridge, has a copy of Feeding your guy cookbook!  How cool is that, I sincerely hope she makes use of it and enjoys some of the recipes.  And then in the midst of it all, we move into our new house yesterday.  We started the day fairly early and got the last minute packing and organizing finished prior to the moving company arriving.  Let me just say, hiring a moving company is the way to go.  I have always moved myself whenever I have moved from university or from apartment to apartment but this time we were moving into our first house.  And honestly we had so much stuff to move; I am not sure where it all comes from but absolutely there was a big pile of boxes in the condo waiting to move.  But then the moving guys arrived and they moved it all so fast, alot of practice I suppose.  With their dollies and speed, we were out of the condo in a couple of hours and had us into the house in a few more hours.  No more than four hours and the whole move was finished.  We had a friend stop in to surprise us for a chat and our real estate agent, the best in the world, Gina Roman, stopped by with sushi for our dinner. So sweet and thoughtful.  Later last night, other friends stopped by while we enjoyed the traditional moving day pizza!  Finally, exhausted but happy we fell into bed amid boxes on all sides like a walled fortress of a bed.  Of course we hadn't put up any curtains so we were up with the sun, listening to the birds and feeling extremely blessed to be in our first home together.  We have spent the day running around buying silly things, towel bars for the bathroom, handles for our cupboards.  In fact my guy is downstairs right now with the drill attaching them so we can finish easily unpacking and getting the kitchen organized.  I have a feeling that we will be living with boxes for a while yet but candidly I feel so blessed and grateful that we have our first home together.  I am indeed very very lucky and keenly aware of it.

How excited am I?

Okay how excited am I?  Seriously, can you believe it?  I was flabbergasted  about the news in the newspaper, Their Irish World, where they actually talk about my cookbook. I cannot believe how great this is, The Duchess of Cambridge has received a copy of Feeding your guy cookbook and suddenly people are talking about it in the papers.  How amazing is this?  Okay sure, now I have butterflies in my stomach, and nerves and barely slept last night, but now I have to figure out what it means for the cookbook!! This is such a sudden change I can hardly fathom what to do next!!! Imagine Kate cooking my recipes, wooo hoooo.

I sent my first press release today

Today has been so exciting.  Now that the initial euphoria over the cookbook launching (okay I am not completely calm, I can still giggle uncontrollably), I have now started to look at the exceptionally difficult job of selling the cookbook!  I spent some time today sending out my first press release about the cookbook.  A colleague here at work was very generous to help me write and edit and then load it to a system to distribute the press release to a number of major news organizations.  It was really interesting to see how the whole process works and it is truly amazing how you can track how your press release is distributed to the various news and wire service, who picks it up, how it is subsequently distributed and whether or not various news organizations distribute it to their reporters.  You can have graphs and tracking charts, all very impressive.  Now let’s just cross our fingers that someone actually finds it interesting enough to follow up and write an article about it!  Every day there seems to be some new piece of knowledge I have to learn or a new skill to acquire.  But the fun thing for me right now is watching other people get excited about the book and talk about ideas to sell it or what they would do if it was theirs or what chances to take to see if you can drum up some interest.  It is all starting to happen now.  And good thing because tomorrow we move into our new house!! New cookbook, new house and more new adventures.  I am happy I was able to get the book out before the move, one less stress to worry about while I am packing endless boxes of kitchen dishes, equipment and where did all those clothes come from?  So I may be off the blog for a day or two while I unpack but I promise not to be gone for too long!!! Now cross your fingers with me and hope that someone picks up my press release and even more hopefully takes the time to read this blog from start to end to understand what this journey has been like, and what it is like to feed your guy.

What a tremendously satisfying day

It has been a tremendously satisfying day today.  I have heard from so many friends, family and work colleagues after I announced the launch of my cookbook.  Their best wishes, heartfelt congratulations and encouragement have been so uplifting.  Today I feel proud of myself, proud of what I accomplished, proud of all the hard work I have put in, proud of all the effort to overcome the obstacles, to get to this moment.  Today I feel very proud of my accomplishment!

HURRAY, the cookbook is now available for sale!

I have incredibly exciting news today!!  We have spent the entire weekend at the house getting ready for the move next week.  Tonight I found myself at the airport waiting for my flight to Chicago and I received a text message from a good friend of mine telling me that he had just bought a copy of my cookbook!!! I had to read the text message twice I was so surprised.  I didn’t expect the cookbook to available for sale until the end of May or maybe the third week of May at the earliest.  So sure enough my friend Tara and I went online in the airport departure lounge and there it was, for sale!!!!!! I almost squealed right there in the airport, and there listed in book right up is my company Millstone Press!! It was almost surreal.  I immediately phoned my guy and squealed on the phone with him.  What is it with this cookbook and me being in Chicago for work when major events happen?  I was in Chicago when the final proof arrived and now here I am in Chicago when I discover it is available for sale!!!!  We laughed and he gave me all his congratulations on the phone; I wish I was home with him to share this exciting moment.  It figures that I would be flying to Chicago and away for two days for work just when this happens.  Everyone traveling with me for work bought a copy from their laptops in the airport; too crazy is this new world of ours.   I don’t even have my distribution list finalized for the press release thinking I had another three weeks to work on it.  Suddenly everything has sped up again and on the plane on the way here to my hotel room I made a quick list of all the things I need to do just so I can get the press release out and start generating some interest in the cookbook!  I will be hounding the people in the office in marketing once I get back for ideas on how to get people talking about the cookbook.  And I just launched my website to accompany the cookbook.  Too crazy, wow, all of a sudden it is all coming together!!! Woo hoooooo.  Okay so here is the website for the cookbook:

http://www.feedingyourguy.com/  And if you are interested in getting a copy of the cookbook it is now available at the following booksellers:

In the United States at http://www.amazon.com/ and http://www.barnesandnoble.com/

In the United Kingdom at http://www.amazon.co.uk/

In Canada at http://www.amazon.ca/ and http://www.chapters.ca/ 

I hope you will check it out and even more I hope you will purchase a copy so you can enjoy my many delicious, scrumptious and easy to prepare recipes!!!  Woooo hoooo I am so excited, it is really happening!!!

A busy weekend ahead

Well, like many of you, I was up and awake before the sun rose to watch the royal wedding.  We all saw it so I won’t gush here but what a pleasant way to start a day, watching two people in love marry, and everyone feeling happy.  A reminder of all that is good in the world and what is truly important.  But for me, now, enough stuff of daydreams and on to the hard work of the weekend.  Last night I spent packing the kitchen and tonight it is touch up painting at the house, painting trim, cleaning, moving food, and pictures from the condo to the house.  We move on Thursday and suddenly it is here.  I am away in Chicago from Sunday to Tuesday nights so I want to have as much done before I leave as possible so my guy doesn’t have to be worried about it while I am away.  Wednesday night can be for last minute rush and then the movers arrive at ten in the morning on Thursday to move us.  I took Thursday and Friday off to move into the new house.  Sunday I think we need to squeeze in a bike ride, since we have not been training yet for our charity cycle ride for the Heart and Stroke society and the 50 kms may seem long and tiring if we don’t get out training.  I can hardly believe how busy this year has been so far and I am not sure when it will slow down!!! But I love busy, means we are building a life, and enjoying it is the most important part!