Hi Folks:
The other night we were both pleased and privileged to attend Victoria’s public Menorah lighting at Centennial Square – the same place where we’d been a couple of weeks before to celebrate the annual Christmas tree lighting and Santa Claus parade.
Victoria’s Public Menorah lighting (click the image to see the video)
Hi Folks: Well, it’s been six years since our son Nick first helped us get M&M’s Musings onto the world stage… something for which we are (almost always) grateful! In these past 6 years we’ve posted 469 blog posts and 138 pages (mostly our short stories) on a variety of topics. According to Google Analytics we’ve had 122,253 views over 87,358 sessions, with people from 180 countries coming to visit our little corner of the ‘net. To us that’s simply amazing. But enough about us!
In those six years we’ve traveled some, grown lots and changed quite a bit, and so has our blog. We’ll continue to share with you thoughts and ideas that are important to us, and trust that you continue to find some interest here too. The real reason for this post is for us to say thanks to you, our readers. Thanks for showing up, thanks for reading our (often very long) posts, and thanks for sharing your thoughts and comments with us!! Here’s to our continuing journey!!
As Marcia says, Love and Laughter!! Party on!!
Hugs,
M&M
Hi Folks.
This is Addie:
To read about Addie and to learn more about her life, click on the image to read the article from Tracy Saelinger on Today Health
Hi Folks:
While we may not always be very vocal about it (typically Canadian), us up here in the Great White North are proud to be Canadian, and that’s never more evident than it is today – Canada Day.
When we were downtown yesterday there was someone from the local news channel who was asking people whether (as with this year) Canada Day should be celebrated on July 1, or whether it should be celebrated on say the Monday of that week (like Easter Monday, for example) to allow for a long weekend. While there are some celebrations that are based on a certain day of the week (for example, Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox), July 1, 1867 marked the signing of the British North America Act that made Canada into a country. We’ll keep our date, thanks – quietly, but proudly! Continue Reading →
Hi Folks:
Today Marcia and I have been married for 10 years (120 Monthaversaries in our terms). Next month we’ll have been a couple for 18 years. Yes, that does qualify me as being the luckiest man in the world. It also means that we were together for some eight years before we got married, and no, that wasn’t just because we had a very long ‘engagement’. You see, for most of my life I didn’t believe in marriage…
Hi Folks:
It’s now well into the evening and the last of the Canada Day fireworks will be drifting away down at Victoria’s Inner Harbour. The weather here was absolutely perfect for a celebration – sunny and warm but not too hot. As is our wont, Marcia and I brought our ‘Free Hugs‘ posters downtown with us and invested some four hours this afternoon giving out Free Hugs to anyone who was willing to share one! It’s always a delightful experience for us. We hugged someone who was two weeks old, and someone who was celebrating his birthday today – possibly into his nineties. We shared hugs with a couple from Brazil on their first day in Canada, and we hugged a gentleman who knew about two words of English – ‘Thank-you’ and ‘Iran’. There were people from Australia and Ireland and the US, from Alberta and New Brunswick, and yes, people from Victoria! We even had two young women ask us for the loan of a marker and two sheets of paper torn from a notebook – they made their own ‘Free Hugs’ signs before heading on their way. Continue Reading →
Hi Folks:
Well, last Saturday was Marcia’s birthday and since she was off on both Friday and Saturday we (I) expanded her birthday celebration into a two-day event. Fortunately Marcia was willing to go along with my schemes! Before I continue, I should add a little backstory…
Back in 1995 we shared our first two-bedroom apartment together. For Marcia’s birthday I invited a ‘few’ friends for a pot-luck surprise party and we managed to pack 37 people into our little apartment! Everyone had a great time, including Marcia, but she also casually mentioned that she’d kill me if I ever did it again. Well, since we no longer live there, and keeping to the ‘letter of the law’ so to speak, here’s a quick summary of some of the things we undertook over our weekend. It also highlights some of the reasons we love living here in Victoria! Continue Reading →
Hi Folks:
Been a little quiet in our corner of the ‘net lately for several reasons, but partly because of the holidays. There are so many different traditions and celebrations this time of year it’s hard to count them all, from the Islamic New Year (a different calendar, but corresponding to Dec. 7 this year) to Kwanzaa to Hanukkah, Solstice, Saturnalia and Christmas. I’m sure there are others. Here in the northern hemisphere we’re coming up on the shortest day of the year, while our neighbours south of the equator will be celebrating their longest. All in all, however, while it’s certainly possible to get caught up in the mad scramble for presents, holiday deadlines, office parties, too much traffic and too many people crowding into too many stores, I also see more people being kind, open, polite, generous and giving. It’s something that was written very well in a story called ‘Patience Pants‘. This time of year we are reminded that no matter where we live or how we live, we are all part of a larger brother/sisterhood of humans and beyond that to being a part of the intricate web of life on this little blue marble we all share. Continue Reading →
Hi Folks:
Well, the topic for this week’s ‘Being Green’ post is ‘Celebrations’, and there’s a lot to celebrate this weekend. If you live in Canada or are an expat Canadian living elsewhere in the world, Happy Canada Day, +1!
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Hello, dear reader!
Both of us have traveled extensively throughout our lives, and to that end eating in restaurants has at times become ‘routine’ for us. There was even a time when we co-managed a resort with a 90-guest seating capacity. Still, we both appreciate a really good restaurant. Food in all of its aspects – the preparation, the sharing, the sights, scents and tastes… (even the cleanup) is an important part of both our lives. All of that is a long way of saying that we’ve decided to add a ‘Food’ category to our blog, where we’ll feature some of our favourite restaurants and we might even sneak in a favourite shared recipe or two along the way. Neither of us is a professional food reviewer, but we know enough to know what we like and what we don’t like, so rather than having a ‘scale’ of 1-10 or whatever, we’ll just share our impressions. If we go somewhere we don’t like for whatever reason, we just won’t write about it. We want to share what we DO like instead. We have broad palates and sometimes eclectic tastes, so we’ll offer our thoughts on a wide range of places with three things in common: adequate food, adequate service and adequate value (and each must be excellent to be adequate). Look for future ‘Eating Our Way…’ posts on the last Saturday of each month.
We’re going to begin our ‘Food’ category with a local restaurant that we both appreciate: Floyd’s Diner.
Follow these links to read what He Says/She Says: Marcia’s View / Mike’s View.
P.S. You can read more of our Food posts and restaurant reviews here.
