A Wonderful Memory Turned Sour This Week

Posted on June 23, 2018 by Mama Cormier

….disturbing news leaves a bad taste in our mouths

Last week my husband and I took a wonderful trip to Prince Edward County. One of the things that my husband wanted to do was experience the pizza at one of the more famous wineries in the area. On the first day we discovered that the pizza oven was not prepped for baking and we would have to come back the next day. No problem. We would return the next day. In the meantime we sampled some of their excellent wines.

The next day we were so busy that we didn’t make it back and instead had pizza at another winery. It was okay but we’d had better elsewhere. At the end of that day we were talking to one of the locals and they highly recommended the pizza from the winery that we originally wanted to try.

On the day we were leaving my husband decided that we should go back to the first winery before we headed back to Toronto and have lunch there. We weren’t disappointed and enjoyed some of the best pizza we’ve ever eaten. The staff was very friendly and the atmosphere was very welcoming and comforting. We had no idea that there was anything wrong.

A couple of days ago we heard on the news that the owner of the winery has been accused of sexual harassment and sexual misconduct. He admitted that many of the accusations were true but says some weren’t. I feel sad about the situation, not for the owner, but for the victims and the all the wonderful staff and employees at the winery and restaurant. You know that their jobs will be affected by the news. People will stay away and Quebec and the LCBO are withdrawing his wines from their shelves and will not reorder.

Thank you to the staff for giving us a wonderful dining experience. If you are directly affected by the unwanted behaviour of your boss we thank you for your bravery for speaking up and hope that the healing has begun.

Carol and Kevin Cormier

A Challenge – Doing Their Best

Posted on June 11, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….but it wasn’t quite enough

Today we drove to the east end of the city to participate in the Girls’ Soccer City Championships. The sky was overcast but for the most part the predicted heavy rain held off. It was humid and during the second game we experienced a brief light shower. Earlier in the day the two teams that we would face off later played against each other. The team that lost challenged us to play if we didn’t win our first game.

Unfortunately our first game was difficult. The team we played against was our toughest competition to date and we lost 3 to 0. It was our first lost of the season. An hour later we played the second team to determine who would come in second. We were pretty evenly matched. In the first half no one from either side scored. In the second half they scored first and then we scored. The game ended in a tie and went into overtime. Have I ever told you how much I hate overtime, especially ‘golden goal’. The first team to score would win. The girls fought hard but it wasn’t to be this year.

You’d never know from the photographs that the girls were disappointed. Their sadness was brief and they walked away knowing that they had come a long way just to get to the city championships. We, their coaches and parents, were very proud of them. Bravo girls!

Great Day for Running

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Mama Cormier

…. but I’m still holding steady at 25 pounds down

I was hoping to report that I’m down more pounds but I did lose the water weight and that’s it so far.

What I’m happy about is my run today. Yesterday my legs felt like lead and I could barely finish 4 laps at the rugby pitch. K also called it a day after 5 laps. He told me not to be discouraged and that I would probably have a better day, today. He was right.

As we were walking over to the park I was having doubts about running. My tendinitis in my left ankle was bothering me and I was still feeling tired. When I started running I decided to run as far as I could without stopping before walking. Once I got going I couldn’t believe how much energy I had.

I ran a full 500 m (1 lap) before I walked and when I did walk I went 1/4 lap and then started running again for the rest of the lap. In total I ran 5 1/4 laps and only walked 3/4 of a lap for a total distance of 3 km not counting the trip there and home again. I’m feeling very good about my accomplishment and running 5 km without stopping doesn’t seem that far off any more.

Here’s something we haven’t seen for awhile in Toronto…. mud! After yesterday’s big thunderstorm there were actual muddy patches on the field.

I’m heading to the cottage today for about a week so I won’t be able to write anything on the blog for that length of time. As some of you know I don’t have electricity up there so I’ll be channelling my creative juices into other pursuits. I’ll definitely take more photographs, read, swim, run and get out my paints and start or finish a painting.

Stay in touch. Cheers!