Flying Phyllo!

Well yesterday was a fairly productive day. I worked for the first half of the day, then tackled some chores in the afternoon, since it had cooled down a bit. I purged the linen closet, hauling out two more garbage bags for big brothers, called Telus to find out HOW I get our of my cell phone contract, and emailed around to find someone willing to take over organizing the baking of prosphora at church. I also did about another hour of apartment hunting online, with some positive results, and started some financial paperwork that needs doing.

We determined how much storage space we have at my parents place...left a msg for Daryl's parents to determine the same, and nailed down dates to move all the stuff we're not taking to Boston to the mainland to store. Daryl worked out the BCAA inspection for the car we're thinking of getting, got the insurance for our rental car for our camping trip, and went to the US ferry terminal downtown. OK - so, it turns out that ALL THIS TIME, when we had all these questions about moving/visa/etc details and have gone so far as to send Daryl's parents to the border on the mainland to ask questions (you cannot access US state department via phone unless you have a phone that is not cordless and will not die after a mere 3.5 hours on hold), there has been a US port of entry RIGHT HERE. They were nice and helpful, and gave Daryl the times the customs agents were in and said they'd be able to answer all our questions. We'll still be speaking to a lawyer no doubt, but at least we have a contact point.

I also made the most FABULOUS dinner!! I started to make it the night before, but it involved Phyllo pastry, and I (brilliant) hadn't thawed it out. So the filling for the phyllo and the marinating vegetables for the grilled vegetable salad went into the fridge for last night. I made a spinach and potato and herb filing for the phyllo - kind of spanakopita like. It was SO good!! Phyllo is so fussy - I kept ripping it! It turned out ok in the end though. The grilled vegetables turned out to be even better having marinated for 24hours instead of 1-2 hours. I did portabella mushrooms, red peppers, eggplant, and zuchinni marinated in basil chilie garlic vinegar (my mom makes it - it's amazing!), olive oil, salt and pepper, garlic, basil and oregano. I grilled them in my pampered chef grill pan (LOVE IT) at a really high heat, then sliced them up and mixed into a salad. Super good! We ate on the deck, but it was really windy, and every time we cut into the spakopita thingys phyllo pastery went flying all over the patio, into our faces, down my shirt, EVERYWHERE!! It was SO funny. And a friend stopped by and exchanged 2 bottles of wine for 3 cases of wine bottles (she was bottling tomorrow and short on bottles, and I just happened to have 3 cases from ages ago when I was planning to try to make wine)!! So, out went three more boxes of clutter!! And we had wine for dinner. Excellent.

To bed early last night to catch up on the sleep missed due to heat wave. On the agenda today: work for most of the day, then go to Canadian tire to scope out tents, haul stuff out of our closet and determine what I can sort through and what Daryl has to sort through, and sort through a bookshelf in our room and decide what to store/get rid of/take with us. And of course, andother check in with apartment listings.

Off I go!