TOAST TO THE NEW YEAR!

May your home never be too small

To hold all of your friends.

May you live as long as you want

And never want as long as you live.

May the good Lord take a liking to you,

But not too soon. 

May you have warm words on a cold evening,

A full moon on a dark night,

And the road downhill all the way to your door. 

May your neighbors respect you,

Trouble neglect you,

The angels protect you, 

and heaven accept you. 

Dance as if no one were watching, 

Sing as if no one were listening

And live every day as if it were your last.

Happy New Year!! 

Some Thoughts

 1. Throw out nonessential numbers - age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay 'them'.

 2. Keep only cheerful friends. 

 3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.'

 4. Enjoy the simple things. 

 5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

 6. Tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with you your entire life is yourself. Be ALIVE while you are alive. 

 7. Surround yourself with what you love - family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies. Your home is your refuge. 

 8. Cherish your health. If it is good, preserve it. If it is not, improve it. If you can't improve it, get help. 

 9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall or a foreign country, but not to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them.  Tell them again. 

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Live life to its fullest each day!

  

Worry about nothing, 

Pray about everything!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Wishing my American readers a Happy Thanksgiving! 

May your stuffing be tasty 

May your turkey be plump,

May your potatoes and gravy 

Have never a lump.   

May your yams be delicious 

And your pies take the prize, 

And may your Thanksgiving dinner 

Stay off your thighs! 

Happy Thanksgiving

I love those Chicken Soup books.  

Sometimes there's a quote that I have to copy and pin to my bulletin board.  

In honor of Thanksgiving, I'm sharing the following:

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  

It turns what we have into enough, and more.  

It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion to clarity.  

It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.  

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, 

and creates vision for tomorrow.

   Melody Beattie

Easter Wishes

The Promise of Easter 


May joy fill your day

Hope light your path

And the many

blessings of Easter

warm your heart....


Have a Happy Easter. How can you miss - you're in Winnipeg!

Sal DiNoto Presents

Here's a forward from my uncle, Sal DiNoto, who lives in New York City. Uncle Sal - who'll always be Uncle Angelo to me - is the nicest uncle a family could ever have.

Thanks, Aunt Helen, for bringing Uncle Sal into the family.


Just rearrange the letters to get the surprise answers.

Enjoy!!

  
  PRESBYTERIAN: 
  BEST IN PRAYER 
 
    
  ASTRONOMER: 
  MOON STARER 
 
    
  DESPERATION: 
  A ROPE ENDS IT 
 
    
  THE EYES:  
  THEY SEE 
 
    
  GEORGE BUSH:
  HE BUGS GORE 
 
    
  THE MORSE CODE: 
  HERE COME DOTS 


  DORMITORY: 
  DIRTY ROOM 

 
  SLOT MACHINES:
  CASH LOST IN ME 
 
   
  ANIMOSITY:
  IS NO AMITY 
  
 
  ELECTION RESULTS: 
  LIES - LET'S RECOUNT  
  
  
  SNOOZE ALARMS:  
  ALAS! NO MORE Z'S  
  
  
  A DECIMAL POINT: 
  I'M A DOT IN PLACE  
  
  
  THE EARTHQUAKES: 
  THAT QUEER SHAKE   
  
  
  ELEVEN PLUS TWO: 
  TWELVE PLUS ONE 
  
  
  AND FOR THE GRAND FINALE: 
 
  
  MOTHER-IN-LAW: 
  WOMAN HITLER 
 


Have a great day. How can you miss - you're in Winnipeg!

A Guide to Canada

Got a few e mails from Americans interested in coming to Steam on the Prairies. They've never come up here and would like a little info about our wonderful country.


Okee dokee.


Here are a few of what some think are top features of each of our fair provinces.


BRITISH COLUMBIA
1. Vancouver : 1.5 million people and two bridges. You do the math.
2. Your $400,000 Vancouver home is just 5 hours from downtown.
3. You can throw a rock and hit three Starbucks locations.
4. There's always some sort of deforestation protest going on.
5. Weed.

ALBERTA
1. Big rocks between you and B.C.
2. Ottawa who?
3. Tax is 5% insteadof the approximately 200% it is for the rest of the country.
4. You can exploit almost any natural resource you can think of.
5. You live in the only province that could actually afford to be its own country.
6. The Americans below you are all in anti-government militia groups.

SASKATCHEWAN
1. You never run out of wheat.
2. Your province is really easy to draw.
3. You can watch the dog run away from home for hours.
4. People will assume you live on a farm.
5. Daylight savings time? Who the hell needs that!

MANITOBA
1. You wake up one morning to find that you suddenly have a beachfront property.
2. Hundreds of huge, horribly frigid lakes.
3. Nothing compares to a wicked Winnipeg winter.
4. You can be an Easterner or a Westerner depending on your mood.
5. You can pass the time watching trucks and barns floating by.

ONTARIO
1. You live in the centre of the universe.
2. Your $400,000 Toronto home is actually a dump.
3. You and you alone decide who will win the federal election.
4. The only province with hard-core American-style crime.

QUEBEC
1. Racism is socially acceptable.
2. You can take bets with your friends on which English neighbour will move out next.
3. Other provinces basically bribe you to stay in Canada .
4. You can blame all your problems on the "Anglo A## H*@%#!"

NEW BRUNSWICK
1. One way or another, the government gets 98% of your income.
2. You're poor, but not as poor as the Newfies.
3. No one ever blames anything on New Brunswick.
4. Everybody has a grandfather who runs a lighthouse.

NOVA SCOTIA
1. Everyone can play the fiddle. The ones who can't, think they can.
2. You can pretend to have Scottish heritage as an excuse to get drunk and wear a kilt.
3. You are the only reason Anne Murray makes money.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
1. Even though more people live on Vancouver Island, you still got the big, new bridge.
2. You can walk across the province in half an hour.
3. You can drive across the province in two minutes.
4. Everyone has been an extra on Road to Avonlea.
5. This is where all those tiny, red potatoes come from.
6. You can confuse ships by turning your porch lights on and off at night.

NEWFOUNDLAND
1. If Quebec separates, you will float off to sea.
2. If you do something stupid, you have a built-in excuse.
3. The workday is about two hours long.
4. It is socially acceptable to wear your hip waders to your wedding.


Come on up here, eh.


The Official Canadian Temperature Conversion Chart


50 Fahrenheit (10 Celsius)
Californians shiver uncontrollably.
Canadians plant gardens.

35 Fahrenheit (1.6 Celsius)
Italian cars won't start.
Canadians drive with the windows down.

32 Fahrenheit (0 Celsius)
American water freezes.
Canadian water gets thicker.

0 Fahrenheit (-17.9 Celsius)
New York City landlords finally turn on the heat.
Canadians have the last cookout of the season.

-60 Fahrenheit (-51 Celsius)
Santa Claus abandons the North Pole.
Canadian Girl Guides sell cookies door-to-door.

-109.9 Fahrenheit (-78.5 Celsius)
Carbon dioxide freezes and makes dry ice.
Canadians pull down their earflaps.

-173 Fahrenheit (-114 Celsius)
Ethyl alcohol freezes.
Canadians get frustrated when they can't thaw the keg.

-459.67 Fahrenheit (-273.15 Celsius)
Absolute zero. All atomic motion stops.
Canadians start saying "Cold, eh?"

-500 Fahrenheit (-295 Celsius)
Hell freezes over.
The Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup.


Let's face it: Canadians are a rare breed.


Have a great weekend. How can you miss - you're in Winnipeg!

A Guide To Winnipeg

Okay... so we have a few quirks.

First you must learn to pronounce the city name. It is WIN-A-PEG, not VIN-A-PEG, and it does not matter how people pronounce it in other places.

Winnipeg has its own version of traffic rules. Never forget that downtown Winnipeg is composed in large part of one-way streets. The only way to get out of the center of town is to turn around and start over when you reach the river.

All directions start with, 'Go down Portage.'

Portage Avenue has no beginning and no end.

The 8:00 a.m. rush hour is from 6:30 to 9:30 a.m.
The 5:00 PM rush hour is from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Friday's rush hour starts on Thursday morning.

If you actually stop at a yellow light, there's no chance you're from Winnipeg. Yellow lights are for sissies.

Lagimodiere Blvd. can only be pronounced by a native Winnipegger, so do not attempt the phonetic pronunciation. People will simply tilt their heads to the right and stare at you. (And let's not forget Noter Dayme. And of course, Portidge.)

Bingo, Bugs and Perogies are a way of life. Deal with it.

Construction on the Winnipeg streets in summer is a permanent form of entertainment. (Especially those dopey-looking city workers holding up signs in traffic that says in big orange letters 'SLOW'. (I always want to yell, 'You don't really need to advertise, buddy!')

Many bizarre sights can be explained simply by realizing, 'Oh, we're in Transcona!'

Construction crews aren't doing their job properly unless they close down all lanes except one during rush hour.

If someone actually has his turn signal on, it was probably left on at the factory where the car was made.

Buying a Winnipeg street map is a waste of money since the termination or continuation of any street is entirely at the discretion of the Works Department of the City: e.g., Salter, Isabel, Balmoral, Colony, Memorial, Osborne, Dunkirk and Dakota. You've gone two miles down the same road and the name changes eight times.

Exit and entry ramps on the Perimeter Highway are just the recommended way of entering and exiting. Feel free to exit at any grassy point you wish.

All drivers frightened of heights, stay clear of Charleswood and its ten-foot ditches. Believe me when I say you won't get out without a hundred-dollar towing bill.


You are from Winnipeg when...

· Your idea of creative landscaping is a statue of a deer next to your Blue Spruce.

· Down South to you means Grand Forks.

· Your 1 July picnic was moved indoors due to frost.

· You have more miles on your snow blower than your car.

· You find 0 degrees 'a little chilly.' But it is still t-shirt weather.



Have a great weekend. How can you miss - you're in Winnipeg!

Chickens Can't Fly

Some thoughts (I've had it with resolutions) for 2010...

* Don't spend major time with minor people.

* If there are people in your life that continually disappoint you, break promises,
stomp on your dreams, are too judgmental and have different values…
that is not a friend.

* To have a friend, be a friend.

* Sometimes in life your friends will either grow or go.

* Surround yourself with people who reflect your values, goals, interests
and lifestyle.

* When I think of my successes, I am thankful to God from whom all blessings flow,
and to my family and friends that enrich my life.

* Over the years my address book has changed because I changed for the better.

* At first you think that you are going to be alone, but, after a while, new people
come into your life and make it so much better.

* Remember what your elders used to say, "Birds of a feather flock together."

* If you're an eagle, don't hang around chickens.

* CHICKENS CAN'T FLY!

~Author Unknown~



My Wish for You in 2010

May peace break into your house
and may thieves steal your debts.
May the pockets of your jeans become
a magnet for $100 bills.
May love stick to your face like Vaseline
and may laughter assault your lips!
May happiness slap you across the face
and may your tears be that of joy.
May the problems you had
forget your home address!


Have a great day. How can you miss - you're in Winnipeg!

Recipe for a Happy New Year

Take twelve whole months,
Clean them thoroughly of all bitterness, hate and jealousy,
Make them just as fresh and clean as possible.

Now cut into twenty-eight, thirty, or thirty-one different parts,
But don’t make up the whole batch at once.
Prepare it one day at a time out of these ingredients.

Mix well into each day one part of faith,
One part of patience, one part of courage,
And one part of work.

Add to each day one part of hope,
Faithfulness, generosity, and kindness.
Blend together with one part prayer,
One part meditation and one good deed.

Season the whole with a dash of good spirits,
A sprinkle of fun, a pinch of play,
and a cupful of good humor.

Pour all of this into a vessel of love.
Cook thoroughly over radiant joy,
Garnish with a smile,
And serve with quietness, unselfishness,
And cheerfulness.

You are bound to have a Happy New Year!


Have a great weekend. How can you miss - you're in Winnipeg!

Cookie Recipe

1 cup of water
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup of brown sugar
lemon juice
4 large eggs
1 cup nuts
2 cups of dried fruit
1 bottle Crown Royal/Whiskey/Rum


- Take a large bowl, sample the liquor to make sure it is of the highest quality.

- Turn on the electric mixer... beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.

- Check the liquor again, pour one level cup and drink.

- Add one teaspoon of sugar... beat again.

- Turn off the mixer thingy.

- At this point it's best to make sure the liquor is still okay, try another cup... just in case.

- Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.

- Pick the frigging fruit off the floor...

- Mix on the turner.

- If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers just pry it loose with a dewscriver.

- Sample the liquor to check for consisticis isity.

- Next, sift two cups of salt, or something.... who giveshz a sheet.

- Check the liquor.

- Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.

- Add one table.

- Add a spoon of ar, or somefin.... ah whatever you can find.

- Greash the oven.

- Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.

- Don't forget to beat off the turner.

- Finally, throw the bowl through the window.

- Finish the bottle of liquor.

- Make sure to put the stove in the dishwasher.


Happy Baking!


Have a great day. How can you miss - you're in Winnipeg!