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Tough choices… the most rewarding

by Trish

Often times in life we’re faced with difficult choices.

The hardest choices often the least obvious ones.

Ending a relationship. One that feels good . It offers good things, but it’s hard. Something gets in the way.

A great job offer that isn’t quite what you were looking for.

You cannot be certain it was the right choice.

Then something else comes along … And you know

Maybe it’s that dream job

Maybe you meet your match.

The commute gets shorter. The job makes you happy.

You feel connected in ways you never have before.

You feel challenged. You feel successful.

Your heart races.

Your thoughts are preoccupied… with the butterflies you thought you’d never feel again. That send a current through you as you remember.

You no longer doubt it was the right decision.

You have a conviction to make the most unlikely choices.

You met in the least likely of places.

You are energized.

You are fearful, yet you’re excited.

Happy. Aroused. Connected. Playful. Enlightened.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: career, Choices, love, relationships

Are you a coffee snob like I’ve become?

by Trish

I am a confessed coffee snob. Granted I still have much to learn, and since working at the café and learning to be a barista, I have found out just how much. Much as for a wine connoisseur, coffee is a very particular thing.

When someone looks for a quality café hoping to find coffee excellence, the barista doesn’t mind a little particularity, in fact it’s expected. Baristas will pull 2-3 shots before being satisfied with the perfect one sometimes. And a customer waiting for their Americano or latte, doesn’t mind the wait generally. Brewed coffee is for the hurried. 😉 The grind, tamping and water temperature all affect the quality of the espresso shot.

Corporate coffee shops with specialty coffees are known for their idiosyncratic customers, with their non-fat, sugar-free, flavored espresso drinks – but is the focus really on the espresso itself? I’m not sure. I just know that if I want a personal touch I look for the homegrown café with the locally fresh-roasted fair-trade organic beans.

Which is why I was dismayed to discover at a small town shop with a quality supplier of beans, that when I ordered my Americano it was made with a pre-portioned/packed puck of espresso. Why on earth would you bother with an espresso machine, if not to pull a fresh ground espresso shot? I figured we may as well have been using the single-brew specialty coffee-makers that are used for convenience in many homes and offices.

At a good café the barista doesn’t mind pulling a new shot if the customer is not satisfied with the crème. They don’t mind waiting for the water to heat to it’s optimum temperature before pulling the shot. And will work to froth the milk just right for the perfect pour into a lovely bit of latte art.

I may never become the skilled barista, but I now have a greater appreciation for what my barista does for me, and am on the hunt for an inexpensive quality home espresso machine 😉

I hope to keep my newly gained skills practiced, but am on to new horizons, having finally secured employment in my field of study, social work.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: barista, coffee snob, espresso

Trish Blogs… on Java!

by Trish

Until I had children, I was one cuppa day java drinker. I was no connoisseur, though I knew I preferred espresso drinks to perked. I didn’t have to cut back on my coffee while pregnant because I already drank less than the maximum allotment.

I’m not sure when I started paying attention to coffee more, but I was buying a coffee maker and started researching a little to see what would make a difference in the enjoyment of my coffee at home. I started off with a drip brewer that had a control on it for the warmer, so as not to burn the coffee after it was ready.

I bought fair trade, organic coffee, and started grinding it fresh when I brewed it. Then I decided to try some new coffeemakers. I got an inexpensive stovetop espresso maker, and a glass french press. I started ordering Americanos or lattes without flavoring added when at coffee shops that had the option.

I learned to dislike certain Canadian icon brands, whose coffee was fresh-brewed, but not fresh.

I have dreamed of one day opening a little cafe/used bookstore, and would love to learn to be a barista and pull a great espresso shot, and maybe make fancy latte art – for when the time comes.

I choose local shops that use fresh-roasted beans first, and began frequenting my favourite spot, Cafe Brea this past summer. The owner and I became friends over time, and recently we were able to help one another out – I needed some extra work, and she needed someone to fill some extra hours.

So began the adventures of a newbie barista…

So far I’ve learned the basics about coffee blends and how to operate the grinder, the antiquated cash register, and help in the kitchen. I had no idea the profile of coffee could change so much by blending two different beans/roasts together!

Pulling espresso is an art form that will require practice, I made my first attempt at it one day last week – then it got busy – same thing happened the next day I tried – can’t wait to try again!

I wonder how long it will take me to learn to do this!

Filed Under: General Tagged With: barista, Cafe Brea, coffee, espresso, java

Museum of Natural History and Little Rays Reptile Zoo | City Mom Now Halifax

by Trish

The Museum of Natural History has a long history itself in Halifax, dating back to 1848. Just a little longer history than Gus, the resident 90-year-old gopher tortoise, has at the Museum – which goes back to approximately 1940. Gus has been in good company recently with the Living Under Fire – Life in the Desert exhibit. Little Ray’s Reptile Zoo has been keeping Gus company since January 19th.

To read more about The Museum of Natural History and Little Ray’s Reptile Zoo visit City Mom Now Halifax here

Filed Under: General Tagged With: City Mom Now, City Mom Now Halifax, Halifax, Little Ray's Reptile Zoo, Museum of Natural History

Conrads Beach Nova Scotia a photo essay

by Trish

Conrads Beach Nova Scotia – photo essay

Taking a walk with my new lens SIGMA 17-70/2.8

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Filed Under: General, Halifax, Photos, West Nova Family Tagged With: Conrads Beach, Halifax, Nova Scotia, photo essay, Photos

Impatient for change

by Trish

All this talk of change and living for it, blogging for it, making it happen in all facets of life, from parenting – to work – to housing – to my blog – to relationships… and I am terribly impatient for it.

Photo by Paul Wesson Photography

I am ready for these changes to happen, I don’t do the limbo very well. I start losing my balance < like I ever real had it > and something starts to give. Fortunately the aspect of my life that isn’t in limbo is my children/parenting.

So, I am looking for additional work, paid employment to supplement my efforts at entrepreneurship. We also need to make a change of residence and it all depends upon what work I find and where… Do you see how this is all unraveling as I >impatiently< wait?

I truly feel like at this time in my life, everything is happening, and yet nothing is. I have no patience for this limbo.

Much of my life happens online in some sense. I write here, I connect with friends, family and business partners here. I shop here. I find prospective dates here. 😉 It’s not that I’m in a hurry per-say. I just don’t have any patience for this whole search and date process.

I’m not asking for much… I just want someone to live my life with. Maybe I’ll find him on a dating site, maybe Twitter, or Facebook… maybe I’ll run into him at the grocery store, or while picking up my car from the dealer.

Sure someone to take vacations and date nights with would be nice. Very nice. But mostly, it’s someone to do the everyday stuff with that I desire… enjoy a cup of coffee together and talk about the news headlines, shovel the driveway, choose paint colours with… someone else to decide what’s for supper. A co-pilot when driving across town to drop off the kids… and of course, a good old-fashioned fitness partner 😉

If it’s via an online dating site: you text back and forth a bit, decide there’s enough common interests or decent conversation, or… I don’t know what the criteria is really… to meet; you go out for coffee; conversation is good, there’s a hint of something there… is it a spark? Is it nerves? Is it the coffee? 😉 You get the much anticipated text. “Thanks for coffee, maybe we should go for dinner sometime?” A real date this time… if nothing else, there is the intent to get to know each other better. Dinner goes well, still lots to talk about, still a little uncertainty about where it might go… it’s that dating game. I have not patience for it, can’t we just skip to the end? I don’t mean the end, end, just to the post-dating phase…

Then there’s the acquaintance on facebook who finally gets around to more than just liking those memes you posted about single parents who see wine as a food group… something happens, sparks fly across the interweb, a little flirtation happens and you decide to get together for drinks. Maybe you’re just two friends needing to commiserate about this stage of life single parents in our thirties find ourselves in… over beers. Maybe the flirtation will carryover into real life. I mean you may have never really hung out together and may not be the same person you once were 15 years ago, but surely you’d know if there’s a spark or not? And you do, and there is. And then you try not to turn into this crazy… obsessing… what does it all mean?

And so I wait, again, impatiently…

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Drop me a note in the comments below, or connect with me on Twitter @ceilidhontherun or email me at trish at trishblogs dot com!

I invite you to subscribe to my blog using one of the options available on my page (email, rss, Google Connect, like my page on Facebook, etc.)

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Filed Under: General Tagged With: change, impatient, patience

To Twitter stalk / Facebook creep or not to?

by Trish

I understand people’s desire to “stalk” others online for info/insights. Yet, nothing irks me more than someone who is NOT online, taking to the online world to research others…

I initiate almost everything in life online. My communication with even my closest friends and family generally happens via email, facebook message, or perhaps text message. I hate talking on the phone, and don’t enjoy facetime/video conferences. I’ve always been one to put my thoughts into writing. So it would only seem to fit than when I became single again and was ready for the next change, I went online for dating too.

That isn’t to say I prefer online contact – I like face to face personal interaction most of all, but we live busy lives, and are often far removed from the people we are closest to (my dad lives in Florida six months of the year; my brother lives in Asia, for more than eight of the last nine years; my highschool best friend is a 3.5hr drive from me; some of my closest friends with whom I have most frequent/daily contact are hundreds of kilometers away).

Meeting people online, whether they be friends, potential business partners, potential dates or even life partners just makes sense. We make the initial contact, determine if we have commonalities to go on and then build on those in person. Some of my greatest friends and supports in life I met online, via running forums, Twitter, and yes Facebook. Some are old acquaintances with whom I reconnected online and became closer to than ever before.

I see nothing wrong with getting to know new friends, business partners, even potential lovers better through various mediums online. I’ve added friends on Facebook simply to see what kinds of interests they participate or take the most pride in. I’ve met fantastic people through twitter conversations and eventually met them offline “in real life”/IRL – for in person contact. Some fantastic photographers have become good friends and all because of online contact that lead to IRL activites.

That being said, we can also form preconceived ideas about people without giving them a chance to really show their true colours in real life. Counselors often make a practice of not reading case notes prior to first meeting with clients, in order to ensure an unbiased open approach to a relationship.

< AND There is something to be said for good ol’ small talk and old-fashioned interrogation on a first date. 😉 >

Yes, I want to know that I’m not going to be sitting through an hour of breathing in someone’s cigarette smoke during that first meeting. Yes, I want some idea that we’ll have some common ground to meet on and talk about; that I can be fairly certain that he’s a decent guy who won’t make me endure endless racial slurs; but what we see online is only what someone chooses to make visible < remember to never post online anything you wouldn’t want your boss to find out. 😉 > And honestly, I like the old fashioned getting to know a new person, friend, business contact, love interest over coffee.

So, rather than Twitter stalk and creep Facebook BEFORE meeting, why not setup a meeting in a safe location, determine if there is any connection/chemistry/spark, then do the stalking later 😉

< I still like to find out more about people I already know by creeping their photos and status updates once in a while… >

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Drop me a note in the comments below, or connect with me on Twitter @ceilidhontherun or email me at trish at trishblogs dot com!

I invite you to subscribe to my blog using one of the options available on my page (email, rss, Google Connect, like my page on Facebook, etc.)

If you enjoyed this post, please do like/share it. You can do so using the easy share button below!

Filed Under: General, Uncategorized Tagged With: dating, facebook, online dating, Twitter

… a Spatula, for change

by Trish

A spatula, with melted handle and burner rings on it… tells a story all on it’s own.

Does it bring to mind a single mom with too much on her mind… too many pokers in the fire…? Multi-tasking beyond abilities? I wish I could blame it on that – though that’s entirely true. But would that change anything?

I turned on the wrong burner, and for some reason the spatula was sitting ON the burner, not beside it or on the counter where I normally would leave it… Sadly, this is not the first time I’ve turned on the wrong burner. I’ve lived in many different homes, used many different kitchens and ranges. They must have all had the same set-up because I can’t for the life of me get this one right!!

It was suggested I might need to head down to Spatula City and get myself a lifetime supply of spatulas, but this one is still perfectly functional. 😉

Have you ever noticed that no matter how much some things change in your life, there are certain habits that you just can’t break? You’d think that the day I turned on the wrong burner, while a glass cutting board was sitting on it and it exploded into a zillion pieces of glass, with hot pieces embedded in the vinyl floor that I would have that permanently etched in my brain. Thank heavens no one, not even the kitten, were in or anywhere near the room when it happened.

I guess one positive thing I learned was that I had kept the burners relatively clean, otherwise I likely would have smelled something burning before said explosion… right?

Is there something you’ve been trying to break the habit of, but can’t? Or if you’ve been successful, what did you do to make the difference?

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Drop me a note in the comments below, or connect with me on Twitter @ceilidhontherun or email me at trish at trishblogs dot com!

I invite you to subscribe to my blog using one of the options available on my page (email, rss, Google Connect, like my page on Facebook, etc.)

If you enjoyed this post, please do like/share it. You can do so using the easy share button below!

Filed Under: General, Uncategorized Tagged With: change, spatula, spatula city, uhf

Coffee, PJs and a blog…

by Trish

This is the life. I mean there are plenty of other places I would happily be working from <say my beachfront cabana in Lanai, Hawaii 😉 > but my living room in my jammies with a hot cuppa joe – and I’m not complaining.

It has been said that the best way to be productive is to get up, get dressed and eat breakfast FIRST. Don’t check your email. Stay off of social networks. Get down to work, doing the important stuff.

What if that IS the important stuff? Then forget everything you’ve been told! Go for it. Grab your coffee, stay in your PJs and blog… Twitter, Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Facebook, whatever your platform(s) of choice… it’s the way to go! I find not only my tweeps, fellow bloggers, and articles filled with tips online at this early hour, but this is where/when my inspiration comes from.

This is where I change my mind, and fuse with (via temporary glue) new ideas. Today I started a serious post about communication and co-parenting, then I got a little pickup on my status update of coffee and pj’s and I changed my direction (I’ll get back there later).

So yes, I do sit down at my online networks, coffee in hand, in my jammies, before I do anything else most days. Where else would I get the crazy idea of blogging in my pj’s? < Hint: Don’t expect this to be the last you see of it! 😉 >

Hmmm… maybe Snugabye would sponsor a post made in my red hearts Snugabye PJ’s before Valentine’s Day… 😉 I could write about something else I do from home in my PJ’s → look for my Valentine. 😉

What does your morning routine look like?

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Drop me a note in the comments below, or connect with me on Twitter @ceilidhontherun or email me at trish at trishblogs dot com!

I invite you to subscribe to my blog using one of the options available on my page (email, rss, Google Connect, like my page on Facebook, etc.)

If you enjoyed this post, please do like/share it. You can do so using the easy share button below!

Filed Under: General Tagged With: change, coffee, jammies, PJs, Snugabye

Trish Blogs… Wine, for a Change

by Trish

One change that is very welcome for many at this time of year is the change of seasons. Soon it will be spring and everything will start budding again. Without seasonal changes we can’t have gloriously tasty wines like those served at the recent ice wine festival. Or at the fall winery tour that some participants of Blissdom Canada had the treat of going on.

Here’s a little taste of what’s in store if you take a tour in Wine Country Ontario:

Fielding Estate Winery:

This newer family winery has won many world class awards for their winemaking. It is a breathtaking cottage-country style building with an incredible view of Toronto across Lake Ontario.

Vineland Estates Winery:

One of the larger wineries in Wine Country Ontario, is celebrating thirty years on a property that has much longer historical connection (1840’s) to the farmland of the vineyards. It has a world class winery restaurant where we were treated to a three course meal paired with a selection of wine.

Our tour was fascinating and educational, while at the same time magnificent. We learned about the process of making wine as well as the proper technique to make the most of a wine tasting. I have a newly developed desire to tour vineyards & wineries all over the world now!