08/10/08
Apr 28 (Mon): It's been a very busy week and weekend, so I'll jump right in. We did make it out for a semblance of an anniversary dinner to Mexicali Rosa's on Wednesday night, which was very nice. Afterward we came home and put the recumbent bike together.
I love how they made all the small parts and tools easy to find - labeled with numbers too!
Thursday night, after grocery shopping, I was cutting the grass in the back yard when I found this:
At first I thought it was a dead animal, but then Andy poked at it with a stick and found....
You got it! Bugs turned out to be a Bugsina after all. Then I spent Friday worried that we had run her off, these babies would die, and it would be our fault. I emailed the SPCA and never heard back, and I emailed my cousin who is a vet, but finally found several articles online regarding wild baby bunnies, and they all concurred, saying to leave them alone. Luckily we had not touched them or the fluff covering them with anything but the stick. The articles said the mom only feeds them once per day and that is at night so you probably wouldn't see her. They also said that baby bunnies have a very slim chance of surviving even when looked after by experienced humans. As I then saw Bugsina in the yard in the evening, we felt relieved and left them alone.
In the middle of putting the recumbent bike together on Wednesday night, our original digital camera from 2001, that I still preferred over the newer one that Andy uses, finally broke for good. Friday night we then went and got me a new one. It's a Canon Powershot A590-IS.
Saturday, Andy was up early and off to plant trees for Earth Week at a reclaimed quarry. It was part of Halton Region's "Trees for Watershed Health Program". They planted cedars and poplars.
She got home around noon time and then joined me with the housework marathon. At 4 we picked up Ben and Grace and brought them home for a sleepover. We made quesadillas with them for dinner then took them for a walk. They were told there would be a surprise during the walk. They were guessing all kinds of things.....that we were going to the park, that we were going for ice cream or to the bakery or to McDonald's but we didn't crack. When we got up to the corner, we pointed out where we were going. The Lions Club was having their annual Carnival in the parking lot of Burlington Mall. The kids saw the fair rides and must've jumped up and down 20 times each squealing and screaming. It was a fantastic moment for us. They were so excited, and then they had such a great time!!!
We got an ice cream to eat as we walked back home, then they watched Madagascar for half an hour, went to bed in "their" rooms, and were out cold within minutes.
Sunday morning, I made banana waffles, Andy filled all of our Camelbaks, and we headed off for a hike to Mount Nemo.
Part of the trail runs along the escarpment and is part of the Bruce Trail. From the look-out, you can see all the way to Toronto, though it was too hazy to see the CN Tower.
There were many crevice caves.
Grace and I watched the "Hawks" for ages. They were circling about 15 feet in front of us. We later found out they are Turkey Vultures.
We were also able to teach the kids about Ontario's provincial flower, the Trillium.
Grace took two spills during the hike. The first one left her with a bruised knee. She cried, but shook it off like a big girl, then we walked hand in hand a long time. We also discussed the merits of watching for tripping hazards. She had just got her confidence back when she tripped and did a head-first dive down a hill of rocks that was about as steep as a staircase. How she did not do more than scrape and bruise her knee further and bruise between her lip and her chin, we do not know. For Andy and I watching, it happened in slow motion, but not slow enough. Andy just missed grabbing her, but said if she had succeeded, she probably would've ended up landing on her, making it worse. It looked alot like a dive into a pool, and we were so relieved she is ok. More tears were shed, but for a while she got a piggy-back from Auntie Andy out of the deal so was happy. The hike was longer than we expected. It was supposedly 2.3 kms but felt more like 4. Still, it was a gorgeous day and we had a nice, relaxed time...for the most part.
We got home, had lunch and started prepping for the rest of the Coopers to come for dinner. Grammy and Grampy arrived an hour early after some errands that didn't take as long as expected. Too bad, because if they'd been later, maybe Grampy wouldn't have got nailed with a ticket for not wearing his seatbelt!!! They'd picked up a new/used van on Saturday and this was how it was christened! No-one said much about it as it was a sore spot (at $110), but then Scot picked his moment during dinner and the cracks and digs came in a flurry. It was very funny.
While dinner was cooking, everyone played some Bocce.
Ben, as usual, kicked everyone's butt. He is a miniature, natural athlete. Poor Grammy was playing against him and her ball would come so close, only to hit a rut, bounce in the air and go off-target.
For dinner we had salad, baby potatoes, a roast made convection-oven style, and grilled honey-mustard salmon. It all seemed to go over quite well, as did the Apple Crisp for dessert....and Scot squirting Cool Whip on his gluten-free chocolate chip cookies made us all laugh.
We had also revealed our new living room furniture. In the end, it all came together quite well and we are very pleased. We even managed to match the existing blinds.
Andy loves her games tables on the left. The smaller one, tucked in, also has a drawer for all the chess and backgammon/checkers pieces.
Getting back to the baby bunnies, unfortunately, this story does not have a happy ending. Tonight Andy had to bury the poor things. When she checked them yesterday, she didn't think they were moving anymore and tonight she confirmed it. It's a bit upsetting, but at least, from the articles I read, we know there's not much we could have done.
Apr 21 (Mon): If you ever want to know how busy the inhabitants of a house have been, just check out how much garbage they put out. This was ours, and yes, there are two blue boxes there.
Mid-week, we found we had a visitor in our yard. Cute as Bugs may be, we didn't want him. He will eat our garden, poop all over the yard, and if he happens to be a she, we may end up with way too many cute, fluffy things around that Casper would like to rip to pieces.
We looked and looked, and so did Bugs, but none of use could see where he got in under the fence. It's all been reinforced at the bottom, presumably to keep all the bunnies out! So...we tried to corral Bugs toward the open gate.
After accomplishing nothing but scaring the hell out of him, we gave up and left the gate open for the night. The next morning he was still here, but luckily by the end of the work day he was in the neighbour's yard. We have now concluded he lives in the hedge belonging to our back fence neighbour.
Inside the house progresses like a roller coaster ride. We get stuff put away, Andy brings more boxes in, then we have a big mess again. The desk is together but the stack of papers to be filed or otherwise dealt with seems to have grown as we still haven't had time to deal with it.
The bed from Mom and Dad that belonged to my grandmother Cooper is together in "Ben's room", though we still haven't found all of our bedding.
"Grace's room" is coming along. Andy is painting the closet which is why it's a bit of a mess. Yesterday we picked up a bed frame from Mom and Dad that luckily never made it to the dump, so we will be able to get this mattress and box spring off the floor and looking more like a real bed soon.
And the basement is a bit more comfy. Andy fixed the rocker so that you can now recline in it, Comet was very happy to have the carpet down there, and I am happy to have the surround sound going again after a year listening to "squawk box" sound.
Saturday we worked from 8 am till 8 pm and were really pleased with the progress we made. John was here in the morning sorting out all the electrical. The most time consuming thing was no power in the back of the garage. He wasn't happy that "it ain't pretty", but we can now walk in the back door and turn a light on or plug something in, plus there is now an outlet mounted and waiting for a garage door opener.
In the afternoon, we met Pete, our neighbour to the left. He looks like a bit of a roughneck, but was very nice and kept offering help with different things. He told us the lawnmower that was left here by the previous owners has been troublesome for a couple years and is not worth trying to fix. He even offered to loan us his. That was sweet, but we're not borrowers. Things always seem to break either when you loan or borrow.
Sunday, we went over to Canadian Tire and now we are the the proud owners of our own lawn equipment.
We did a bit less around the house Sunday, but the day sure seemed to fly and we sure were tired. I had a helluva time getting the surround sound going. I got so frustrated I could've screamed, so finally gave up. Then I resorted to the manual as it just didn't make sense it wasn't working, and sure enough I found an explanation. 1 - we'd always used a fibre-optic cable for the DVD player, but can't find it right now. 2 - we'd never had the satellite box before. It turns out the default setting for both of these on the receiver is digital. Right now we are using analogue, so there was a place I had to change this setting. This was covered in the manual in one small, hidden paragraph. Thank gawd I found it before I popped a corpuscle!
Sunday was also our 12th anniversary (plus our one month anniversary of having possession of the house). I gave Andy a Bocce set (and we had a quick round in the backyard, long enough to realize it's got some rather uneven bits) and she gave me an acre on the moon. Yes, that begs for several jokes, but seriously I have the latitude and longitude of the acre that is bought and registered in my name. I asked when we get to visit, so Andy is working on that.
Apr 14 (Mon): The post move chaos continues......but first, Andy would like some sympathy for her hard working knees.
Unpacking continues...
As does painting and laundry...
As does assembly...
As does maintenance....
As does sunbathing...
As does professional work...
So, the ducts are cleaned and disinfected & the furnace is cleaned and serviced (by very diligent people - the furnace guy found that the humidifier wasn't even connected so fixed it for us), the desk is together, the eaves are cleaned out (I was the safety monitor), the closet shelves are painted + reinstalled + reinforced. We are beginning to realize the previous owner fancied himself a "Do It Yourself" type, so some things need some 'bettering'. We've also conferred more with the one neighbour regarding a fence. He has posts being installed, but is asking our input on style of fence. Tonight we had an electrician come give us an estimate. He's the husband of a workmate of mine and will come back to do the work Saturday "off the books". Even though his wife had told me he's a perfectionist, which we considered great, we liked him straight off. He was very knowledgeable and straight forward...and he quoted us less than expected. Hopefully that will be the last of the trades we need in for a while.
While Andy was doing all the picturesque jobs, I took the car and got the radials put back on for the summer, did lots of vacuuming, got the computer and all peripherals put together, battled with VCRs and programming of remote controls, and did other normal housework, sometimes seeing fit to feed her.
We love our new ladder (as seen above) - and that we got it for half price. It's a combo step and extension.
Friday night we had free tickets from work to a Hamilton Bulldogs hockey game and brought Sean and Barb with us. There were two "Thundersticks" for each of us and we had a blast playing with them. They are simply long, soft plastic tubes with a valve. You blow them up and then whack them together to make noise and cheer. We then passed them on to the twins when we were borrowing the van on the weekend and the three of us had a blast bashing each other around while Andy caught up with Monica and Scot. At the game I ran into another former co-worker from my CHAM days. He was a co-op student, first during high-school then during college and now he is the only one of us left at the station, and he is the team announcer for the Bulldogs. They are the primary minor league team of the Montreal Canadians. It was such a nice break from the house work.
Dad had another appointment with the specialist. His cancer is a 6, not a 4. He opted for radiation rather than surgery at this point, so will be starting that soon. Mom has her own issue - one side of her collar bone is raised slightly near the neck. Her specialist said it is not the tumour on her thyroid having grown more, but she, smartly, is not buying his explanation of arthritis without more investigation. She went to our GP today and is now going to get x-rays.
And finally, we had a lovely housewarming gift from my work this week - a generous gift certificate to Holland Park Garden Gallery, which is about a block away. We know that we want to make the back yard a Roman/Greek style, so are anxious to see what they might offer in that theme.
Apr 6 (Sun): We are finally all moved in. We aren't very unpacked, but we have 99.5% of our stuff here. There is still a bed frame at Mom and Dad's from the bedroom set that they very generously gave us that used to belong to Dad's Mother. Yesterday we rented a cargo van and my co-worker, Sheri, and her husband, Brad, who live about 5 minutes from us, helped us jam everything into two van and car loads. We had a time limit with the truck so we were all in high speed. They were very impressed at how organized our boxes were - all with numbers and content labels, plus catalogued so we could easily find something when we needed it. They plan to implement this idea themselves. But organization went out the window due to our time constraint and everything just got dumped in the garage.
I made sure we left enough space at the back so that we could open the door to get the to garbage can and Green Cart. Speaking of the Green Cart, it was dropped off a week ago Saturday as we were moving in.
We are now separating all of our compostable kitchen waste and it is collected every week. Blue Box recycling is also collected every week, but they have now changed garbage pick-up from every week to every other, and we have a schedule for the year outlining when we can also put out yard waste and bulk items (like furniture). I went mid-week to the Halton Region Headquarters and got our two free Blue Boxes.
Andy has now finished painting the office, plus she painted the filing cabinet, making it look brand-new. Unfortunately, the fumes from the filing cabinet paint just about killed my asthmatic bronchial tubes. She is also very excited to now have a good start on the assembly of the desk.
Yesterday we solved an issue.....we couldn't understand why the washer was using hot water for the final rinse when we had it set to cold. I'd noticed this but with everything else going on, just ignored it for the time being. But when we actually sat down to rest a while yesterday and Andy mentioned it again, it occurred to me.....I bet the installers have the hoses switched! Sure enough they did. And we don't know why. The taps are on the correct sides and the hoses are marked with red and blue stripes. Any way, our cold, energy saving wash, is now actually cold.
Last night we were just about asleep when another cat fight started. This time however there were stairs involved and it went up and down twice. There were tufts of fluff everywhere and I was worried about broken bones as so many stairs were missed in the chase, especially on the down-swing. We finally got pillows between them and got them into separate areas. They'd been doing so well here. They both got very comfortable in the house very quickly. They love the smooth, hardwood floors, and especially the upstairs landing where they can stretch out and watch everything going on below. The only thing I can surmise was the trigger was an untimely passing-by for use of the litter box. In any case, Comet and I ended up shut in the basement for the night. Andy threw some kitty litter in the spare box and brought down some food and water, then Comet cuddled with me on the couch once she calmed down. Of course, it ruined a great deal of sleep for Andy and I.
Dad finally came over to see the house this morning. He had a tour, then reviewed some details, then sat to eat some breakfast and to our astonishment, without beating around the bush, declared we had ourselves a good place here. He's not usually so direct. While we were showing him around, I met one of our neighbours. He was raking his back yard which shares our side fence. We introduced ourselves and he told me there was a plan since last year to take out the chain link fence and put up a wood, privacy fence, and the post diggers are booked for May. I was so pleased to hear this as it means we now don't have to negotiate with them. We were planning to approach both neighbours about replacing the fence and seeing if they would share the cost. One down, one to go.
We also taught Mom and Dad how to use the PVR while they were here. They've had one for a while but didn't get a manual with it so have not yet tried to use it. We have quickly become quite fond of ours except for the fact that you can't record one thing while watching another. However, we can record one thing while watching a previous recording play back. We also showed them how to pause and/or rewind live TV much to their amazement, and Dad did a double-take when we told him you can record up to 80 hours.
After they left we went and bought rakes, gloves and yard waste bags, then got to work on the front yard. I wanted to get this done as tomorrow is a scheduled yard waste pick-up day. We filled 4 bags, so we have quite the pile out the front for pick-up tomorrow - those 4 bags, two blue boxes, one garbage can, two garbage bags filled only with styrofoam packing, two bundles of flattened cardboard boxes and a Green Cart. We like our new rakes. You don't have to bend over to pick-up the leaves.
Afterward I BBQ'd some lunch for us. A bigger BBQ is on the list, but for now this will suffice.
This afternoon Andy did some sorting in the garage so that we can now walk through end to end and choose boxes to bring in to unpack. One of the first things she found was one of our favourite sculptures. She's now in her resting place. The other thing we brought in was the blue rug, which Comet was very happy to see again after about 4 years. She was on it in seconds.
We like our fireplace a lot. It creates quite a decent looking fake fire, though Dad had to be convinced today that it is electric, not gas.
Tonight we tried out the convection oven for the first time. I re-read the manual and found that I should use the "Roast" setting for our chicken. The manual said to do it on a broiler pan and that the outside would crisp first and seal in the juices. I watched the oven like a hawk as I was afraid I would incinerate our dinner, but it came out perfect. It said it would come out like a rotisserie chicken cooked evenly, still tender and juicy inside, but we were shocked when it actually did.
Andy's dad has sent some pictures over the last couple days and we were surprised to see they'd had a snowfall encompassing their almost fully blooming daffodils, but it has melted already.
Thursday night, in the IKEA restaurant, we ran into two former workmates of mine. Again, we can't believe what a small world it is. I worked with Roger and Kelly at CHAM for 8 or 9 years and had lost touch with them many years ago. When I saw them, I wandered up behind them and asked what were they doing so far from home (they live in Brantford but there is no closer IKEA), then Kelly hugged me almost to a crushing degree. Then we sat together eating and talked for a while catching up, but mostly it felt like I had just seen them yesterday. So great to see them.