Insurance, Tournament Day,

For those of you who don't live in Canada, (not sure if they are in the US, probably) we have an insurance outfit here called Greypower. If you are above a certain age (and unfortunately we are) they offer better rates for good drivers. Our current insurance agent was increasing our premiums so I finally decided to try Greypower and was pleased to find out they will be able to save us money on our current rate, let alone on the new increased rate. Plus they can save us money on our contents insurance and we have, in fact, slightly better coverage anyway. This was achieved in the break between bowling and the banquet.

Now for the bowling, we had a really fun morning, we didn't actually win you understand, but had a good try at it. I was particularly pleased with my own scores, I bowled 96 pins over average, so I certainly didn't shame myself. Actually the three winning teams all came from the same house in New Hamburg so the proprietor, who was on one of the teams, was feeling really chuffed. This is our team, we all had team shirts with one exception. You get these by entering tournaments to represent your house. I actually have two shirts because we decided to buy them and then later I got one free for taking part in a tournament. We decided to go to lunch so ended up at Howl at the Moon, my suggestion, didn't realise it got so busy on a Thursday, Mexican Thursday, the noise was pretty bad in there, but the food was pretty good as usual. Afterwards we dispersed to our homes agreeing to meet later for the banquet.

We weren't expecting very much from the banquet, but it turned out we were wrong. We encounted a traffic jam (in Canada???) so arrived a bit late. It was being held in a Moose Lodge. When we got there we were given a ticket for a free drink. We then joined our friends; the tables were beautifully laid out with pots of miniature roses as decorations, attractive napkins, and little gifts of notepads as well as a card with a tea packet inside. An ad, but a nice touch. The food wasn't bad at all although they had cooked the beef to death as so often happens in these places. The chicken was good however. What was also nice, it was served to our tables unlike our last banquet in Oshawa where we had to line up and it was very badly organised. Then there were a load of speeches followed by a group called the Graceliners. I wasn't sure what to expect, but they were great. A group of 6 seniors ranging in ages, came down the aisle between the tables, all dressed in black Elvis costumes with black wigs on and dark glasses dancing and miming to Elvis music. They then went up on the stage and danced to several numbers. I tried to take pix but they were moving so the pix aren't very good. You can get a bit of an idea of what they were like. Their costumes were black but with lots of coloured additions. Some of their figures left quite a bit to be desired, but it didn't matter a bit, they were fun and great to watch. Their leader spoke to us and said she had thought by doing this she would lose weight!! Apparently they have gone to a number of different places in the States to perform, mostly for charity groups, and they have performed in other countries too. Later they came down off the stage and were introducing themselves and talking about their ages. One of them is 75 and asked if there were 75 yr. olds in the audience, Matt put his hand up, amongst others, so the 75 yr. old came over to give him a hug. I said I charged for that. Later she asked me how much she owed me, I said I would send my bill!! All good fun. As a group I was most impressed with them. Eventually it was all over and we had to go home. One of the best bowling banquets I have been to. Next year the Senior Summer Games will be held in Fergus. I am not sure if Fergus have a bowling alley so I don't know where that will take place. In the midst of all this, I was doing my Avon. To my horror, when I got round to sorting out my delivery I discovered I was missing two big orders. On research I found that I had sent the order in from my laptop and it had completely missed these two orders. Lesson, don't use laptop for Avon next time or at least until I find out what or why.

Well, it seems BP have had some success with their latest effort in capping the gusher. I don't think anyone is quite sure how successful this has been though. They are definitely predicting the oil will travel up the Atlantic coast and maybe find its way to Europe. Means the beaches won't be very nice for our vacation I guess. Probably will affect the shrimping too which means we won't be able to get any - always assuming the price hasn't jumped sky high anyway. Talking of shellfish, Emeril Lagasse was on Good Morning America today doing a lobster roll. I watched and thought, what a waste of good (and expensive) lobster. I wouldn't mind doing the recipe with shrimp though which he also suggested.

However, asparagus is still around, so here is another recipe for you. I imagine this won't be a favourite as so many people in North America don't like lamb, I'm not sure everyone who says that has actually tasted it. However, Matt and I both love lamb so here is the recipe.

Lamb and Asparagus

AsparagusRecipes.net

1 chopped red onion.

3 x garlic cloves crushed. ½ cup of dry white wine. 3 cups of steamed sliced asparagus. 1 ½ lb boneless lamb chopped into small cubes. Salt to taste. Freshly-ground black pepper to taste.

Heat a large frying pan and add ½ of the wine. Bring to the boil and add the onion and garlic, cook until softened. Add the lamb and cook for about 6 minutes. Add the rest of the wine and the asparagus. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes, until lamb is tender. Add pepper and salt to taste.

Have a great day