There’s a pizza place in town called Jim’s Pizza & Pasta. Whenever we walked by, we’d say ‘we should try it.’ So I put it on the list.

The coolest thing about Jim’s is the pizza stands. They use old-fashioned, stainless steel pizza stands at the table. It reminds me of Barrel Pizza in Richmond Hill. Barrel Pizza was my family’s go-to restaurant for a few years when I was growing up. At one point we would go every Friday night. The food was good and the place was packed. They showed Laurel and Hardy on a screen, and served the pizza on those old-fashioned stands.

Barrel Pizza stayed open for many years after it stopped being a packed restaurant. We always wondered how they could stay open when we’d go once a year and be the only table. Then, they closed.

If Barrel Pizza was still around, it would have been on my Top 40 list. Instead, we went to Jim’s Pizza & Pasta, ate garlic bread with cheese and a 14” pizza with pepperoni, mushrooms and meatballs, and relived a childhood memory.

The pizza was surprisingly Barrel-esque. Now I have to try the spaghetti and meatballs.

I had wine. He had beer. We both ate all the free bread.

There’s DC, serving our pepperoni, mushroom and meatball pizza

I’d never seen a modern 3D movie. I’m fond of telling people that the last time I tried 3D, I’m quite sure it was on television and the glasses were made of cardboard, with a green lens and a red lens.

Since I’d been meaning to experience 3D for a while, it was another natural fit for the Top 40.

We chose Despicable Me 2, because I really liked the first one. Also because it was playing at a convenient time and location. Logistics is playing a surprisingly large role in completing these 40 things in 40 days!

The 3D glasses are now much cooler. They are black plastic frames that are likely the same quality as most of my sunglasses.

When the movie started, it was a trip. It was really 3D. And then I adjusted to it and noticed fewer and fewer three-dimensional examples. Instead, I just enjoyed the movie. Minions are funny regardless of depth perception.

When the credits rolled, three of the Minions were on screen for the ‘Minion Movie.’ One of them began to blow bubbles and the bubbles FLOATED OUT ALL THE WAY TO ME! It was by far the coolest 3D moment. It took all my willpower to not start waving my hands in the air, trying to touch the bubbles.

My verdict is that 3D is cool, but mostly a gimmick. I want to see a live action film in 3D to confirm, but I think I’ll be sticking to regular old movies for now.

Popcorn and 3D glasses at my first 3D movie.

These glasses are almost stylish now. No more red/green lenses. And look how happy I am!

Yup, I have permanently scarred my body with a tattoo. It’s a cattoo actually… a tattoo of a cat.

I’ve wanted a tattoo for a very long time. Back when I graduated university, I decided to mark the occasion with a tattoo, but I never followed through. I couldn’t decide what to get permanently applied to my body. I’m not exactly trendy so I didn’t want Chinese characters or Celtic symbols. Plus I’m neither Chinese nor Celtic. People made suggestions but then I realized I didn’t want my tattoo to be a permanent reminder of whoever suggested the right symbol or design. So I didn’t do it.

Approaching my 40^th birthday countdown, I knew I wanted to resurrect the tattoo idea. It finally occurred to me that I still love cats. I had a cat back in University (but he stayed home with Mom and Dad). I had cat posters and cat trinkets. Twenty-eight years later, I have two spunky cats that I dote on. I have a few new, more subtle cat trinkets and I’ve moved on from posters to framed art prints of original cat paintings. It made sense that my tattoo would be a cat.

I chose my upper thigh because I wanted a fleshy tattoo-location that wouldn’t hurt too much. Also, it’s a location that nobody sees unless 1) I’m swimming, or 2) I choose to show them.

Best of all, it didn’t hurt at all! I don’t think my tattoo artist, James, put any numbing solution on my leg, but so many people have asked me that question I’m starting to wonder. But it really didn’t hurt. It just felt like scratching. It was over really quickly too, because my tattoo is only an inch tall. Now I’m waiting for it to heal, rubbing in cream three times each day and trying not to scratch it when it itches.

When I told my Facebook community that I was getting a tattoo for my birthday, a wise friend commented: “You can have mine. I don’t want it anymore.” For now, I love my tattoo. I hope it remains that way.

That’s me… getting a tattoo. And that’s James, the tattoo artist.

This is my ‘before’ photo. The last photo of me sans adornment. (Unless you count the four earrings.)

Here I am immediately after getting my tattoo. It’s a tiny silhouette of a cat.

A good friend of mine just had her third daughter. I knew she’d be having her baby during the 40-day countdown, so I secretly put ‘hold a newborn’ on my list. Mission accomplished… but instead of just visiting and holding the baby in her first week, my friend asked if I’d like to be there for support when she delivered her baby. I said yes!

After ten days of waiting, AD texted me one night at 11:30pm that she was on her way to the hospital. I got to the hospital around 12:30 a.m. and was as supportive as I could be. Basically I was on pillows and ice chips while the miracle of birth happened right before my politely averted eyes. I don’t know that there are words to describe how totally awesome and a little bit gross the whole thing was.

I’m not sure I could be a midwife. I don’t think I could even work on a farm. But it was pretty cool that I was there and I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. And I got to ‘hold a newborn’ within minutes of her birth.

Each year when we celebrate our birthday, what we are actually celebrating is the anniversary of the day we were born – our birth day. For my 40^th birthday, I marked the occasion with a real live day of birth. How cool is that?

Here she is at four-days-old. But I really was there when she arrived!

I’d never made a soufflé and I only remember eating a chocolate soufflé once. It was in New York City, when I flew in with a friend for a weekend to visit her brother. Our flight was delayed on the Friday night so we barely made it to the restaurant before closing. The restaurant offered chocolate soufflé for dessert but it had to be ordered at the same time as your meal, because it takes so long to cook. I distinctly remember ordering chocolate soufflé for dessert – but I have zero memory of eating it. I bet it was heavenly.

Someday I’ll make a chocolate soufflé but for my Top 40, I went with cheese.

Soufflé has a mythology around it of staying quiet and not banging things or stomping in the house, or else the soufflé will fall. (Yes, everything I know about soufflé I learned from  TV!). Although I’d never read a recipe for soufflé, it seemed like it should be a difficult but rewarding process.

But it turns out soufflé, like most recipes, is quite easy once you review the recipe and get going.

I also decided that cheese soufflé is a super-fancy scrambled egg with cheese.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup whole milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons unbleached all purpose flour
½ teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon salt
Pinch of ground nutmeg
4 large egg yolks
5 large egg whites
1 cup (packed) coarsely grated Gruyere cheese (but I used Asiago)

Simplified recipe:
Melt the butter, add the flour, add the milk pre-heated to steaming.
Take off heat and add egg yolks one at a time. Add seasonings. Cool to lukewarm.
Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry.
Fold egg whites into egg yolk concoction, along with cheese.
Bake for 25 minutes. Do not open oven door for the first 20 minutes.

Separating eggs is messy but easy, and for the rest I just did as I was told. I wasn’t sure if I’d beaten the egg whites long enough, because what does ‘stiff but not dry’ mean? But the soufflés – two individual and the rest in a springform pan since I didn’t have a soufflé dish – rose to perfection.

They also fell shortly after they started to cool on the stovetop.

They tasted cheesy and fluffy, like the lightest, fluffiest eggs you’ve ever had. They were a bit like quiche, but without the lovely crust.

I enjoyed making the soufflés but I think chocolate might be more my style. Next time.

Scrape the egg-yolk concoction, with butter, flour, milk and seasonings, into a bowl and cool to lukewarm.

One of my mini cheese souffles, before it had time to ‘fall’. It was delicious.

I love floating. One of my favourite things in the world is floating in the ocean in Florida. I sit in a blow-up ring (worth $2 from CVS) and enjoy the rolling waves. Salt water smells and feels great, and I can float for hours. I never watch “Shark Week” so I don’t worry about anything as the water gets deeper. The further out I go, the happier I am.

For my 40, floating in the ocean wasn’t possible so the next best thing is floating in a lake. The lake my friend’s cottage is on is big without being too big, with rolling mini-waves and fantastic scenery. I have always loved sitting on the dock at her cottage, enjoying the view. It’s a great place to contemplate life.

For my ‘Float in a lake’ I planned to sit in a large ring and float far out from shore to contemplate turning 40. The lake is not particularly deep and I could get a really long way from shore without approaching the traffic of boats. I could almost feel the cool water on my feet and the hot sun on the rest of me as I floated for hours.

Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate. It was a cool, windy day and when the sun was behind clouds I didn’t want to think about getting in the lake. Luckily I found a window of sunshine and managed to float for about ten minutes. The large black inner tube was ‘out’ as I needed my entire body to be under water in order to stay reasonably warm!

It was a completion of #26 without the desired contemplation of life and the Top 40 countdown. They are still ten minutes to be proud of though, because my twenty-something self would never have gotten in the water.

Here’s to embracing adventure in my 40s!

I had to keep my body underwater to stay warm, but I managed to float in the lake.

It wasn’t the hot, sunny day I’d envisioned but floating was fun, just the same.

Every day I pass a buffalo farm on my route to work. For years I’ve been meaning to try a steak, to see how it’s different from beef. So when the Top 40 list was being created, buffalo steak went on the list.

The farm is a very laid-back establishment. I called ahead and got a list of the cuts of buffalo, which are basically the same as beef steaks. I decided on sirloin.

I knocked on the door on the way home from work the following Monday, as I’d said I would, and there was no answer. Eventually I just left. The next night, I knocked again and was not disappointed. A man answered, gave me two sirloin steaks and took my cash. I was reminded not to overcook it as it becomes tough.

That was it.

We barbecued the steaks at a friend’s cottage. When I was asked how long to cook it, or what internal temperature it should reach, I could offer only “don’t overcook it” as an answer.

Along with the classic potato salad and macaroni salad, we had the not-overcooked buffalo and it was… fine. I didn’t think it was amazing, or terrible, or particularly different from regular steak. The edges that were thinner were a little tough from the dreaded overcooking. The thick middle of the steak was juicy. I thought I tasted a hint of ‘gamey’ but not all the time. Reviews from around the table were the same. It was ‘good’ or ‘not as bad as I’d thought!’

Would I eat buffalo again? Sure. Would I go out of my way to obtain it? Probably not. But I’m happy I finally tried it.

For years I’ve been going to a friend’s cottage in Bobcaygeon. We often sit in town and watch the boats go through the lift lock – Lock 32 on the Trent-Severn waterway – but I’d never been through the lock myself. Renting a jetski seemed like a perfect way to go through a lock.

After toodling around Pigeon Lake for the morning, we approached the lock just as the doors were closing. I docked on the ‘blue line’ which is where you wait for the lockmaster to call you into the lock. My first attempt at docking didn’t quite work so to avoid crashing into the wall, I drove in a circle and then successfully pulled up along the wall on my second attempt. At that point, the lockmaster came on the loudspeaker and said, “Jetski on the blue line, you can come into the lock.” Sure enough, the heavy metal doors were swinging open again so that I could enter.

I guided the jetski up the long run-up to the lock with dozens of people watching. All the other boats were already in the lock, so it just me. I slowed to a crawl as we approached the wall and we managed to grab the line in the lock and stop. What a nightmare with all those people watching!

Filling (or emptying) the lock takes about four minutes. In that time, the lockmaster asked where we were going and charged me the $10.80 to go through the lock and back. All the Parks Canada staff at the lock are friendly and helpful.

Once the boats in front of us pulled out, we followed. Easy as pie. Another of my Top 40 checked off the list.

When thinking of adventurous things to do for my Top 40, a friend suggested I go out on a jetski. I had never driven one before, and  actually had never ridden one, so it sounded like a perfect idea.

I reserved it, picked it up Saturday morning at 9 a.m. and we hit the open water. It was easy! And it was really, really fun. We never fell off and we never tipped over. There were no stunts, just cruising at 20-30 miles per hour and crashing through the waves.

Flying across a lake, wind in my hair, sun on my face. It was a superb way to celebrate 40.

Getting ready to golf

Golfing with my Dad was something I knew I wanted to add to my Top 40 list, but my Dad really only golfs in Florida in the winter. In fact, he leaves his golf clubs down south so I worried it wasn’t even an option. Luckily, my mother mentioned in passing that my father had bought his neighbour’s old golf clubs and I knew it was going on the list.

We arrived at the golf club around 5 p.m. for the cheaper rates and they managed to squeeze us in, since I had neglected to book a tee time. I guess I should have known that golf courses in Canada are popular places.

We lined up at the first hole and started checking out our new clubs. Dad commented that his new club heads seemed smaller than his own clubs in Florida. I checked out my clubs for the first time – a hand-me-down set my Dad had gotten for me when an acquaintance had hung up her spikes. We had our excuses for bad golfing all lined up!

The two golfers at the first tee said that we were to combine for a foursome, but Dad said no. He told them this was a special father-daughter golf game and so we remained two twosomes. They didn’t mind and I was kinda proud. Plus the two young gentlemen looked like pretty good golfers and I hadn’t hit a ball for three years. I didn’t want to hold anyone back or worse, embarrass myself.

But when they teed off, one went left of the fairway, beyond the rough into the trees, and the other went into the trees on the right. Suddenly Dad and I didn’t need to be worried about our game!

We had a great game. My score was atrocious but I hit some balls long and straight. Dad was better, but he is retired and golfs all winter so he should be better.

The best part was how evenly we golfed. Our balls were regularly within 25 feet of each other. (Thank goodness for the red ‘ladies’ tees.) Dad made par on the 7th hole, launching a beautiful tee shot over the water and two-putting. I shot a bogie on that hole – my second of the game.

By the 8th hole my elbow was sore with every swing, and Dad reported a sore wrist. Standard injuries for occasional golfers like us, but they were worth it. We had a great time… a special golf game indeed.

The golf course is nestled among cornfields.