09/07/09
Aug 30 (Sun): I can't believe August is almost over, and at this point Andy and I have decided that, although we were still hopeful at the end of July, this summer has sucked weather-wise. It has been cold and rainy all week again. Bleck. Lucky for us, the days we had for vacation, when we went to Wonderland and had the family picnic, were the nicest of the month.
Yesterday, we loaded up with rain gear and went to Ben and Grace's yearly soccer tournament. Luckily, the rain held off, though we had to bundle up a bit.
In the first game, some of the kids were so cold they had their arms inside their jerseys. Grace hopped on that bandwagon quickly. As for Ben, I'm not sure if, at this point, he was playing soccer or doing Tai Chi!
They got creamed in their first game, and then tied the second, but it doesn't matter as everyone gets a trophy.
Today, we had hoped to go to Wonderland with our friend from Vancouver, Abby, who is visiting her family in Toronto. But again, the sky was filled with big, very dark clouds, and the predicted high was only 18oC. Instead we met up for lunch and really enjoyed catching up!
She also brought along her friend, Leslie, who we enjoyed meeting. Abby is married to our friend, Ed, who we used to work with at QuestAir.
The wood corral is in the final stretch. Andy finished laying the last couple patio stones during the week, then we used these "Wood Stacker" frame bits today.
We had a great system going. Andy sorted through the first stack of wood, giving me the bigger ones to split, then she'd take the wagon I was filling, dump it, and stack in the new corral - and so that she had some fulfillment, there was the occasional log she had to finish with the axe. As you can see, there are still two big piles of wood to be split and stacked down the end. We figure we will have to do two more rows, then we will cover it with a tarp to keep the snow off.
With all of her outside work in the evenings (laying the patio stones), Andy's been treated to a couple mosquito bites. Unfortunately, she and Ontario mosquitoes don't seem to get along. We almost took her to the doctor after this one swelled up.
She outlined it with pen so we could track how fast it was swelling or shrinking - and it gets SO hard! Luckily, antihistamines helped. She also had a bite on her forehead that looked like a bit of a goose egg, but it went down pretty quickly as she was already taking Claritin (double dosage) for this one. She called the doctor's office and the doctor said to just keep taking them unless certain other symptoms appear.
And finally, after all our complaining last year about all the stupid "hostas" in our garden that never do anything, this year they have impressed us. Look at all the blooms! They're a lovely mauve.
Aug 23 (Sun): We've just sat down to watch the European Grand Prix, which is my perfect chance to write in between interesting or exciting moments.
A quiet week here really, except for more incredible storms and the tornadoes around the province.
The scope of this shot above shows how a swath was cut - houses just across the back yard were not even touched!
The tornado that killed the boy wasn't close to us, but the one in Vaughn was 2 km north of Canada's Wonderland. I realize that's still not overly close, but feels like it as we spent time there just last week. We were in Fortino's, finishing up grocery shopping when the big storm hit Thursday evening. As we walked up to the checkout, the hydro cut out and in a few times and most of the machines rebooted. The cashiers then switched into high gear and they opened up more checkouts quickly to process every one in case the hydro went out and stayed out.
Yesterday, we had a slow start to the day. We both had a lousy sleep, so slept in, then got going, but when we stopped at a store I realized I'd lost my debit card. Last I remembered using it was at the ATM when I had run into my cousin-in-law, Karen, so figured I was distracted enough to leave it behind. Anyway, we had to back-track to the bank. They checked and nothing extra was missing from my account - PHEW! And then they issued me a new card. We had planned to go out to Mom and Dad's so I could clean all my old stuff out of the basement, but after all this we didn't get there till after 12, then we had to eat, and then I had to fix Mom's internet. With all the power outages lately, no matter how short, her router was cooked.
When we finally got down to the basement, I was very pleased to find that there was far less for me to deal with than I had been dreading, however lucky Scot had tons of stuff there! Of most interest were my old albums, which I thought were long gone, and my spoon collection from 30 years ago. Andy was very impressed when we looked through the spoons last night, and I was happily surprised to realize that I have now been many of the places that people brought me spoons from.
We then stopped in to visit Ken & Sherry, and had great timing, as Ken had driven down to Niagara in the morning and bought bushels of peaches. We came home with a bagful. Andy also got to experience the pickling process, which I have been trying to educate her about for a couple weeks, ever since she revealed her confusion between a pickle and a pickle-sized cucumber. They had icicle pickles in the crock and were making pickled eggs. I was remembering with amazement all the pickling, canning, and freezing Mom used to do when I was a kid. It was SO much work, and her hands would end up raw from peeling hot peaches or beets, but everything was always so delicious.
And I don't think I ever realized back then that it was also very cost effective. I do vividly remember the hell of making relish, having to crank the handle of the meat grinder while cucumbers were forced through it. These days people zip through with food processors.
Andy had asked for pancakes this morning, then when I handed her one she got creative.
Yes, that's ice cream in the middle!
Today, we'd hoped to go to Wonderland again, but it was very overcast and the forecast called for thundershowers. We did get rain, but thankfully no thunder'n lightning. Instead we continued with chores. Andy is progressing with laying patio stones under what will be the final "wood corral". However, she ran into an issue. When one post of the fence was installed, the cement got a little high and it was blocking her path. She tried cutting it away with the angle grinder, but soon gave up. I suggested we go buy a chisel, but typical Andy, she made one. She had a piece of iron bar and she used the grinder to sharpen a tip - and then pounded away at the concrete.
You can see in that last shot how much she chipped away. While Andy worked on that, I started splitting.
The flower bed has really evolved over the summer with different plants blooming at different times. Now that we've seen the growth, we're going to move a couple things to get the higher plants at the back.
While I was taking that picture, I noticed some other happy visitors.
Aug 18 (Tues): Found this awesome rendering of Behemoth today on the Wonderland site. See how the seats have only lap restraints?
Brutally hot today again, and it's starting to catch up to me - I'm wiped out! Apparently we had a small storm last night and I didn't even hear it.
We went and got a log splitter tonight. I talked Andy into it. She had planned to chop, but that's a heckuva lot of wood, and I don't want her overtaxed physically, at least not yet. It got great reviews on the website - Ryobi Log Splitter.
Aug 17 (Mon): We had 3 more days of vacation last week and had a fantastic time Wednesday and Friday at Canada's Wonderland. We finally got to use the Season Passes we'd bought last year. They get us in earlier than regular day-passes, and certain rides are open early depending on the day.
Scooby-Doo is still the gatekeeper.
Andy had been thinking about doing "Drop Tower" since last year. She finally went for it....3 times in a row.
The third time she went she talked me into going too. Oh my gawd. There are no words. I have never had a sensation like that before in my life. You're only falling for a couple seconds, but don't bother even trying to breathe. The G-force is rated 4. We also went on several more roller coasters, all of which we've shown before. Being a Wednesday, it wasn't as busy as it can get so we had done everything we wanted to by 2, so brought Andy home for her nap.
Thursday, we hadn't planned much as we thought Andy might need to recover from Wonderland, but it turned out she was fine and we ended up working our butts off all day. While Andy laid patio stones for a base for the shed, I hauled firewood from the driveway to the far side of the house and stacked it.
After some pool and rest time, we went out to Caledonia extra early before soccer so we could have a visit, then watched the final regular game of the season. The tournament is in a couple weeks.
Friday, we were off to Wonderland again and had done 5 rides before the regular park opening time of 10. This time we conquered BEHEMOTH - Canada's longest, highest, and fastest roller coaster. I had been thinking of doing this since last year. I decided to go for it and told Andy I was going to go do it before there was a line, and then at the last minute she found some courage and came with me. It was awesome. We love it. In fact, we did it twice in a row.
Then out to the car for our bathing suits and towels and in to Splash Works by 10:40. Again, we had early access and got several rides done quickly before non-Season Pass holders were allowed in at 11. I LOVE this water park and yesterday I figured out why. You are always on something for a ride - either a tube, a mat, or a life raft type boat. This buffers you from banging your head or scraping a knee, which often happened to me in BC and was why I really wasn't keen on going to Splash Works. But Andy was psyched, so I went along. I'm so glad I did. It's so fun!
Note that that's Behemoth in the background behind the rides and wave pool.
It was a darn hot day too, so perfect for the water park. While Andy went off and did the Black Hole (below) a couple of times, I just stayed in the wave pool, with water up to my neck, cooling my core temperature. The water was what Andy would consider cold, but the air was about 30oC. In fact, the last several days have been stinkin' hot. Today it was 34oC in our back yard when I came home at lunch, and that's not including the humidity, which had it up to 40-something. Yesterday there was a thick haze over the city and the lake. It was probably there again today as we had an air quality warning in effect - and predictions we'd break some temperature records. Even our pool has been too hot. It was 32oC. Anyway, Friday was a perfect day to be exactly where we were.
And of course, we couldn't leave Wonderland without having a Funnel Cake. MMMmmmmmm.
Saturday morning, we were on a mission.....for a new toilet. The region and really, the entire province and country, have been promoting energy and water efficiency. Home Depot in conjunction with Halton Region had a special on Saturday, with an instant rebate plus a mail-in rebate for the "Residential Ultra Low Flow Toilet Rebate Program". The toilets were going like hot cakes! While Andy was fighting her way through the crowd to talk to the guy about the options of the 4 different toilets on offer, I picked up the Eco-Options magazine and had a flip through. But I put it back, because we are doing pretty much everything it advised.
So, we got a dual-flush 6 L toilet (and will some day get around to installing it upstairs):
Latest in American Standard’s new products is their Green Choices new High Efficiency water conservation FloWise Dual Flush Toilet. With a standard-size 6 litre tank, it qualifies for the designation High Efficiency Toilet by offering the choice of full or partial flushing. The full flush delivers 6 litres (1.3 gallons) of water; the more frequently used partial flush only 3 litres (0.7 gallons).
Consider that an old standard toilet has a 13 L tank.
After that, we buzzed around doing other errands and then continued the work at home. I had moved basically 2 of the 3 cords of wood, so with Andy's help (she hauled and I stacked), we finished the 3rd cord. But it was so hot that, after every 3rd garden cart load, we'd have to pause for a dip in the pool! Then we finally got to work on the shed. It went together pretty much like Lego pieces.
So now that we have the shed in place, and the wood in the right vicinity, the next project is the proper wood corral - stay tuned.
Sunday, which was also our first anniversary, we were happily surprised to get a call from Andy's parents. After all, it was only a year ago that they were here for the wedding, though it seems like much more time has passed. When are you coming over again? Mumsy, you would LOVE the heat this year! ;-)
We then spent most of the day at Christie Lake Conservation Area for the annual Cooper Family Picnic. We had a great time and ended up there for 7 and a half hours. Andy even went off to the side and had her nap on a blanket. And even with all that time there, we never even had a swim - we just hung out with family and chatted. Dad even brought his picture of "the one that didn't get away" from the cottage to show all his siblings. It was a bit of a trek from the parking lot - luckily Uncle Lanny had brought his dolly, but it was still hard work over uneven ground.
Aunt Sandy, cousin-in-law Liz, cousin Linda and cousin-in-law Rose.
Cousin Melissa, her kids Cal and Iris, her sister Amy, Amy's husband Jim and Theo the dog.
Andy making faces at Bronte and Oakley.
Me, Oakley, and Bronte (our little buddies this day!).
Cousin Robert, Dad, Robert's daughter Shannon, Uncle Lanny, Aunt Sharon, cousin Brandon, cousin Amy, and cousin-in-law Hollie feeding Bronte.
Mom with Dad's three sisters: Sandy, Gail, and Cathie.
As you can see there was some good mixing and mingling as most everybody moved around.
When we got home, we did our only real anniversary celebration - we ate a piece of our wedding cake. It's been in the freezer for a year as we were advised this was a tradition.
Some left over pictures from the week: our newest rose bush has finally bloomed - it's called a Niagara rose - and we've picked our first tomato.
And finally, our friend Victor also got some fabulous lightning shots in that big storm - click here to see: http://photos.gallerymagdic.com/lightning/
Aug 10 (Mon): Blatant plagiarism here, but these pictures from blogto.com perfectly illustrate the lightning I was trying to describe from last night.
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Andy wants me to show the contrast with these shots she took - look how much a bolt lit up the sky!
Dark
Light
Lightest
Aug 9 (Sun): Headed over to the movie theatre Wednesday night to see "Julie & Julia". Unfortunately, I'd read the listing wrong. The movie was starting Friday. Since we were already out and not in our grubbies, we decided to head over to Lowe's to check out garden sheds. We'd given up on the one on sale at Canadian Tire after visiting 4 locations. Lowe's didn't have any on sale, but I realized that the larger shed was the same price as the smaller one. Hmmmm.....a mistake? We didn't ask. We just bought and ran. The smaller one is 38 cubic feet and the larger one is 60.
http://www.suncast.com/productdisplay.aspx?id=53&pid=21 is the link for the big one. And I do mean big - 4' 7" W x 3' 1" D x 6' H. Thank goodness Lowe's rents a van or truck. We paid the 19 bucks for the van (+ 15 for gas) and brought the shed home. It's not all that heavy, but as I said, big!
Saturday morning, we went up highway 6 to the Fergus Scottish Festival and Highland Games. We'd been looking forward to a taste of Devonshire Cream so kicked off our festival day in the Tea Garden.
Even a Scottish Thistle can be beautified enough to make a centrepiece.
"Delicious Scones with English Devon Cream and Preserves, Shortbread and two Fancy Cakes, Tea or Iced Tea - $10".
Then we had a wander through the merchants' tents, where you can find everything from replacement parts for your bagpipes and drum kits to comedy DVDs, with the emphasis on Billy Connolly.
Andy & I each ended up with a Scotland t-shirt - really nice ones. Then we watched some of the opening ceremonies. The place was pretty packed - they say they get about 30,000 people per year making this "one of North America’s largest and longest-running celebrations of Scottish culture".
We watched the band competition for a while...
Some of the Tug of War competition...
Some of the Heavy Events, like the Caber Toss...
A bit of the dancing competition...
Then we perused the Clan Tents...
Picked up some fresh Peaches'n Cream Corn on the Cob along the highway on the way home, which was delicious for dinner.
Today, we went to see the new Harry Potter movie, "and The Half Blood Prince".
It was definitely up to snuff. This the 6th installment, so it's hard to say if it's excellent or not anymore. I certainly liked it better than a couple of the others. There were no lags, no boring scenes, but I think the thing that I noticed the most is this is the first time it didn't seem "Hermione" was over-acting.
Tonight, I crunched our first cucumber from the garden. The skin was a little tough.
Still with the garden, I don't believe I'd posted our first water lily flower yet...
It was wickedly hot and humid today - temp of 29oC with the humidex at 41o. I was in the pool a few times to cool off. Unfortunately, the water was too cold for Andy to cope. At one point she sat outside with me and actually said to me that she didn't understand how I could stand it out there! I asked for that in writing, but she balked. We are now supposed to have a hot week, so she will be in the pool again soon.
The humidity has brought another incredible storm tonight. The lightning is non-stop again over the lake, and we had so much torrential rain that we're sure the neighbour will be complaining about his yard being a swamp again. Andy managed to get a couple pictures of the lightning.
It's too bad we can't seem to capture the ones that go from one end of the horizon, as far as we can see, to the other. I'm hunkered down in the basement tonight keeping Comet company. She gets terrified of the thunder. Thank god when the storms change to sheet lightning over the lake we don't seem to get any more thunder. If you watch the video at this link: http://www.theweathernetwork.com/your_weather/details/786/1408314, you can get an idea of the lightning I'm talking about. This one also shows our storm from just down the lake in Hamilton. http://www.theweathernetwork.com/your_weather/details/786/1408276/8/upload. The lightning has now been continuing for almost 3 hours.
Aug 3 (Mon): Addendum (things I forgot in the Aug 1 entry):
Mosquitoes and horseflies! These were in abundance at times, way more than other years, and we had to hide out a bit inside. Thankfully Claritin helps a lot with the itching and swelling on our pincushion legs.
The hummingbird! For the first time in my life I saw a hummingbird up close and live! I was looking out the sun porch windows when I heard a loud buzz. A hummingbird flew up and spent several seconds looking at me and me at it. All I could really see was the head as the rest was a blur. I knew he would be gone quickly so didn't even try for the camera - just stood still and enjoyed.
The rescue! We had seen a fellow in a blue kayak several times on the lake, based from the cove beside ours. One day he even perched on the big rock in our cove. He'd latched a lawn chair to the back of his kayak and had a towel and drinks. Thursday early evening, I was out on the deck BBQing dinner and in my peripheral vision I saw him and then, as I turned my head, SPLASH! I couldn't leave the BBQ, so told Andy to see if he needed help. She ran out to the end of our little island, which was close to where he tipped. He said he didn't need help and thanked Andy, but he wasn't back in his kayak. He couldn't get in and was swimming, trying to push it and his paddle back to his dock. But by the time Andy ran back to tell us this, Scot had already carried the canoe down to the water and was waiting for Andy. They ended up towing the guy, which was exhausting. He held on to the back of the canoe with one hand and to his kayak with his other. It was very jerky and grueling paddling. When they got back, Scot and Andy said the guy was very grateful, that he probably hadn't realized how far he had to go when he first declined help, and was looking very tired already when they got to him.
Chippy went up my shorts!!! I was sitting on the deck Thursday reading for most of the afternoon, sometimes with my feet up. Chippy was flirting with me, coming up on the deck, having a good look around then scurrying away when I spotted him and moved. After about a half hour of this, I felt a tickle on my right, inner thigh. I jumped and Chippy took off at top speed.
The Blackfoot Gang. That's what we knick-named ourselves during the week - because after our first day together we discovered that all our feet were black on the bottoms. It was from the carpet in the cottage. The next day we vacuumed and Mom mentioned to the owners that some shampooing should happen. Also, during Scot's birthday party, we all got Pirate names. Scot = Silverbeard, Monica = Lily Kicker, Ben = Blacktooth, Grace = Crazy Blue Eyes, Mom = Spike, Dad = One-Eyed Jack, Andy = Cast'n Curl, and I'm Skewer.
Aug 1 (Sat): Just back from the cottage. Doom and gloom was predicted for the weather, and we hear it was pretty bad back home (in fact, when I checked in with Karen, she texted back that 'the house hadn't floated away yet') but we did pretty darn well, and we have the tans to prove it. We also can boast that it took us the entire week to get through one movie - we were too busy with other pursuits.
A lot of the week revolved around wildlife.
Sometimes they were captured at awkward moments, but the dragonflies seem to spend a lot of time in this position!
This is where all the frogs live, big and small. Grace was the master frog hunter, sometimes joined by Ben, but most often by another little fellow named Grant.
Andy's most exciting wildlife moment went something like this.....
She started with open-handed and then moved on to having them plucked from her fingers.
It all ended abruptly when Andy pushed beyond Chippy's limit and got nipped!
My most exciting wildlife moment went something like this.....
We were kayaking for the second or third or fourth time and across the lake there was a loon. If you're not familiar with loons, they are very timid, so we couldn't believe it when we paddled up within 30 feet of this guy. We sat quietly in our kayaks watching him for about 15 minutes. He dove a couple times, but then let us approach again when he surfaced. He put on quite a show, preening himself, flipping on his side, flashing his white belly a few times - and he also did a full wing stretch for us. But, wouldn't you know it! It was the one time we didn't have the camera with us!!! Argh! So, I've stolen these pictures from the internet to show a bit of what we saw.
And then, to my delight, I actually drifted within about 6 feet of him. He was magical - and he didn't nip me.
The last bit of wildlife was Grama.
Anyone who knew Mom's Mom knows that she always said she was going to come back as a seagull and poop on all the people who ticked her off. Well, didn't this seagull hang around all week! She didn't poop on any of us, thankfully, but she did circle us several times and then hung out on the rock about 30 feet from shore. She also hung close on the beach one night when we were having a campfire. Maybe it was Grama and maybe it wasn't. It was just weird that this single seagull stuck with us all week in one of Grama's favourite places.
Another good chunk of the week revolved around water (if you can believe it). We kayaked every day at least once, except one - because we used up all our energy that day swimming.
Grace even talked me into (think doe eyes from Puss in Boots in Shrek) taking her out in the canoe early in the week - just the two of us - and you know what, she is a darn good little canoeist!
Swimming started early for Ben when he made the first of several accidental forays into the lake during the week.
Grace told me that I looked like a beach ball with bug eyes. She thought that was hilarious. Hey...works for me.....as long as I'm not getting splashed in the eyes.
I didn't really need my lift jacket to swim out to the raft, but I'd been trying several times over the week to rinse sweaty boy smell off of it. Hello sweaty boy who recently borrowed it - you know who you rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! :-) BTW - What is that? - Tiger Balm? Or maybe I don't want to know!
Monica finally got her butt in the water during the last few hours of the week, but made up for lost time.
Then there were some miscellaneous things, like Scot's 39th birthday party.....with presents, an emergency substitute cake comprised of a big, round "Rice Krispie Square" with chocolate icing (after Monica realized the gluten-free cake she brought from her freezer was actually a flat, gluten-loaded banana bread), and a fire & fireworks on the beach. Andy & I gave him a Pizza Pizza gift card, as they do gluten-free pizzas, but they're so expensive.
A hot dog roast...
Sand castle building...
Origami lessons....
The Telephone Game......
And a little bit of fishing....
ANDY BROKE HER DRY SPELL!!! On Wednesday she finally caught something, after nothing last year, nor Monday, nor Tuesday. She was so proud!!!! (and relieved!)
And then.....
She casts, she scores!!! That's right....that same night, Andy put a lunker in the net! It was so big that Scot cleaned it (under protest), Monica breaded it, I fried it, we all enjoyed having a piece with fresh lemon, and Andy polished off the last bits.
(Note that there were also several games of Carcassonne and a bit of Pictionary during the week.) Andy even had a couple more hits from big ones in the same spot. We all saw one flipping and splashing on her line but it got away, and Scot saw another big one that ended up breaking her line. After that everyone wanted to fish that spot, but Dad moved in! And he hit the jackpot.
It got tangled in the weeds, but Scot wasn't letting it get away! He went in and finished the battle.
We think it was slightly bigger than Andy's but we didn't eat this one. Most of our fishing is "catch and release". We like to have one fish fry during the week and since Andy's satisfied that, all others were released. By the way, both of these lunkers were Large Mouth Bass. I don't remember the last time I ever saw Dad so happy. After he saw these pictures later that evening, he walked away singing, "Heaven, I'm in heaven".
As is tradition, we took a family picture during the week. This is the less than serious version.
And finally, some views.....
This is the "cottage" we stay in, which is more of a small house. It's called Lamdin Lodge.
Andy & I sleep in the sun porch, and we never mind, because this is our view 24/7, plus add in the stars at night.
There was one special sunset.
Many thanks to Karen for looking after the house and the cats all week, and for having the house so clean when we got home!
And a special thank you to all the family for keeping quiet and using the back door for a few hours every day all week while Andy had her daytime naps.