08/10/08
May 28 (Wed): Never a dull moment as a homeowner! The dishwasher needs repair again! It's only two months old so I am starting to wonder. Last time it was making a horrible noise that was caused by a piece of plastic in the garberator. This time it's not washing at all. Just filling, then immediately emptying but the drain pumps runs far too long, and it does this over and over. Because I'm at a course all week in Mississauga, we have to wait till next week for repair (when I can leave work to meet the repairman).
Yesterday I dragged myself out of bed early to get this shot:
Andy's already enjoying the new trainer immensely.
Today Andy was up at 5:30 and off to South Chicago for the day to present a project plan. She had her usual extended visit with U.S. Customs thanks to being flagged in their system from not returning a visitor visa 10 years ago!!!!!! Then she got on the plane and threw up during take-off. She doesn't know what caused it. She is fine tonight. She felt ill sitting on the runway, then broke out in a full body sweat and had to take advantage of the sick bag, then had the chills for a while, then was perfectly fine. I thought it might be something she ate, but all she'd had was her regular cereal. She got home about 8:30 tonight.
I had a bit of excitement the last couple days on the drive home. Firstly, as I was heading down the ramp from the 403 to the 407 on Monday, I had to slam on my brakes. I thought we might have a pile up but everyone managed to stop. Two police motorcycles had pulled into the two lanes of the ramp and stopped traffic about 3 cars ahead of me. We sat there waiting and wondering long enough for me to turn the car off. Then a motorcade flew by. It was taking all 3 lanes, so after we (the traffic) were released we all ended up following it - no passing. The next day I tried to find out who the heck it was. All I could find was one very weak report that it was the Duke of Edinburgh, but in looking at the Royal website diary, it doesn't say anything about Philip being over here at all.
Then last night, I had just got out of the car at work to stop in to change a back-up tape, when I heard "screeeeech, crash, smash, crash, crash." There was a 3 car pile-up on the QEW just in front of work that I ended up calling in to 911.
May 26 (Mon): It was a beautiful weekend and thankfully not as hot and humid as today (we had a humidex of over 30 today, but it's supposed to cool off tomorrow). The sun was out, the temperatures were in the mid-20s, and we enjoyed as much as we could, while still being productive.
Andy has made great progress removing the red mulch that we don't like from the garden areas and she is adding fresh, black soil. This was my view.
She had her pet robin supervising.
Honestly! Andy swears that this particular robin and its partner are our special guardians. I find it completely ironic how Andy has taken to working in the garden after all the complaining she has done over the years about being dragged around nurseries as a child. I think some of it rubbed off on her whether she wants to admit it or not.
This was Andy's view of me.
This house has a gazillion windows, or so it feels, but they sure do look better now that they are clean. I knew they needed doing badly since we moved in, but this was the first realistic opportunity, especially weather-wise. No way was I doing them when it was cold! I also took out all the screens and hosed them down in the back yard, which thankfully solved the wet dog odour issue that happened every time I opened the window over the kitchen sink. Don't ask me how a screen gets to smell like a wet dog. I have no clue!
Sunday, we went for another group project day at Mom and Dad's. Again, everyone had their assignment while Mom tried to keep the kids busy.
We wrapped up by 12:30 as Scot and Monica had to get Ben to a birthday party, so left. The rest of us had some BBQ'd sausages and we had invited Grace to hang out with us for the afternoon, so she accompanied us home and helped with our next task in many ways. She gathered pieces for us, handed us things, held things, screwed on nuts, screwed bolts, was chief photographer, and was "super eyes" every time we dropped a nut or bolt in the grass. She is a regular little handywoman.
So much for those safety glasses, eh?
This was most unexpected when we found it on the camera and made us howl with laughter.
Et viola, the finished product.....
It also has screened sides, but we haven't put them on yet. Tonight I went and got some much longer and sturdier pegs than than supplied. We did a little extra anchoring so that Andy won't fret that we will someday have a big kite without a string. You might also notice the fence is up, though the lattice needs to be finished.
We had three other moments this week, one fun and two not so fun. The first not so fun one was finding ourselves with our hot water tank turned off. You see, I called repair because we seemed to be having less and less hot water for showers in the morning over the last few weeks. The repairman came and replaced the long tube that cold water is pushed through to the bottom of the tank. It had broken, so cold water was going into the tank up higher near tube where the hot water exits, causing us to be drawing luke-warm water. That fix was a breeze. But this repairman noticed that our venting duct was not sealed to the chimney. In fact, it was basically venting into the house. He shut us down and wrote up an infraction. We had to have this fixed before a deadline or the gas company would shut the gas off completely, which would also affect the furnace. In any case, we preferred to be safe (even though we have two carbon monoxide/gas detectors that were not going off) AND we sure as heck didn't want to go with cold showers for very long, so we got someone in the next day. He fixed the ducting, removed the infraction and relit the pilot light.
Next not so fun thing was my ears. They have been driving me crazy for weeks. I finally bit the bullet and went to the doctor. She said there is no sign of infection, but after the virus I had for months, my eustation tubes are clogged or grown over and my ears are not draining. That would explain the tinny "glug" I sometimes hear when I move my head! She is sending me to an ear, nose and throat specialist and I may have to have tubes put in like a little kid.
A lot more fun is Andy's newest toy that she got Friday night.
She retired my 15 year old bike trainer and picked up this new, fancy, "fluid" bike trainer. She then had a good, hard ride this morning, but I did not get up at 6 am to take a picture! Hopefully she'll pose for me soon at some decent hour!
May 20 (Tues): Ok, don't go into shock.....it was a weekend without pictures! However, earlier in the week we had lots of new visitors at work.
Friday night we were both off work a bit early, so flew out to Scot and Monica's, borrowed the van, then went to Doreen and Wilf's to pick up their old patio set. They have completely remodeled their back yard so don't need the table, chairs and umbrella any more. We happily accepted their offer to take them off their hands. Then we rushed back to Burlington for a Naturopath appointment, then could finally slow down. Took the van back to Caledonia to find the four Coopers hanging out by the fire, roasting marshmallows. This is the first year the kids are allowed to do their own, so there were a few cinders in the sweetness. Played and talked and came home smelling of sweet campfire smoke.
After that the weather went downhill for the rest of the weekend including holiday Monday (Victoria Day). Saturday, we went to look at some work that needs doing at my aunt's house, then to get supplies, then went back Monday morning and got started on rebuilding her back step that has rotted apart, but it was too cold and windy to last long. Sunday, we drove in to Toronto to Steven's, then went for brunch with him and Victor to the Church Street Diner. The food was delicious and we also enjoyed the conversation. Unfortunately, we had to postpone our plans to go for a walk on Toronto Island as it was pouring.
The rest of the weekend was spent continuing to unpack and reorganize. Sculptures and hanging art were happily revealed and some placed. Knick-knacks have also appeared, though some were then dismissed. Andy has done a fantastic job of sorting out the garage - note the huge difference from when we moved in. The car might even fit in again soon.
I took the office to task the other day and it's going to give the garage a challenge soon! ;-)
And finally, the new fence the neighbours are building is really going to look good. Here's a first taste:
May 11 (Sun): Happy Mothers Day!!!
Friday night, we went to an old CHAMster reunion at the Lazy Flamingo in Hess Village in Hamilton. Andy knows several of my old workmates quite well (like Sean and Vickie), so I dragged her along. She had an ok time, but I had a great time. There almost wasn't even enough time to talk to everyone because there were so many people I hadn't seen for so long, many since before we moved out west.
From left to right: Sean (evenings or swing jock), Kelly (promotions & admin), & my other half of the production team, Roger. In front of me is Rick Walters (swing-jock), Catherine (jock who worked in every time slot at some point), behind her is Dave Shuttleworth (co-op student/jock) who is the only one of us still working at the radio station, Diane (jock/operator), Joel (afternoon jock/music director), behind him is the top of Brian Ambicki's head (sales), then my buddy Lana (copy chief/sales manager) who lives out near my brother. Down in front, with the stripes down his arm is Brian Fisher (news director) with Greg (sales) behind him. In the back, with the sunglasses on his head, is Dave Hiltz (copy writer/goofy voice talent), Matt (producer after I left), then in front is Carol (traffic reporting), our buddy Vickie (morning then midday jock), with Ken (sales) behind her and finally, Bryan (operator). It's too bad that Lisa then arrived later so isn't in the picture. She did the news and morning show co-hosting. Several other people were missing but we had a way better turn out than I expected.
Saturday we were up fairly early, loaded the car, and headed to Mom and Dad's for a day of renovations as a Mother's Day gift. Everybody had an assigned task, but when we got there Mom and Dad surprised us having made a head start. That pretty much deleted my task, which was just as well as I was quite busy anyway. I repaired Mom's computer with a new part, helped keep the kids busy, went out for supplies, and looked after making lunch.
Scot's task (with Dad as his assistant) was to patch a hole behind the kitchen taps. It's one of those things that nobody got around to fixing until we all realized...."hey, that's really bad!" In fact, there was a lot of damage done below before Mom and Dad even realized they had a leak. Then Mom thought Scot was just going to fill it with spackle. Hah! Not!
Et voila! New backsplash applied.
Andy and Monica worked on my old bedroom, laying carpet and patching up and painting. Don't you love my old paint job from about 1980?
This is only the primer but it sure looks a lot better already, which made Mom very happy.
Mom and I mostly spent time with the kids. We watched a bit of TV before we headed outside.
We played some Bocce, and I pushed them on the tire swing till I worked up a sweat and had to rest.
They had also brought a brand new, inflatable easel that took me ages to blow up with the small pump included.
First Grace painted on it, the we cleaned it off and she and I spent ages with me printing words for her, then helping her to sound them out. They have such an appetite for learning and figuring stuff out.
Lasagna, garlic-cheese bread, and Caesar salad were pretty much inhaled, and Mother's Day presents were given.
There's still lots to do so we all will be back for another day soon. There's lots of carpet to be laid thanks to Scot and Monica. They put in laminate floors so there was a ton of still perfectly good carpet which has now found a new home.
Today, Andy & I had a nice morning chat with Mumsy and Dad in England, then went and visited Grama for Mother's Day. Mom and Aunt Debbie were already there. We all had a nice visit and Grama seemed happy to see lots of pictures as we made sure to take the laptop.
May 6 (Tues): Tax Season is over! Last Wednesday wrapped up my first experience of "busy season" in an accounting firm. From my perspective it went pretty well. Many of the accountants and co-op students worked a great deal of overtime, but I managed to only have to stay late once and be summoned one Saturday morning. To celebrate we had a party at Emma's Back Porch.
The cocktails flowed and the food was fine.....the garlic cheese bread was delicious, the ribs melted in your mouth, and the wings were meaty, not fatty. We also had lots of veggies, both cooked and raw with dip. I made sure to load up, to hopefully feel less guilty about the indulgent food.
Thursday afternoon, Andy headed off to South Chicago to her company's acoustic division only to arrive to find a voicemail on her cellphone saying not to go. It turns out her boss got his dates confused when he asked her to meet him there for a tour and information gathering. A couple of the fellows from the plant then did a bit of schedule shuffling so Andy got her tour, taken out for dinner, and some work done in the morning before flying home in time for dinner.
Saturday, we borrowed dad's van to pick up a new toy, bought with my bonus. We dropped it home, returned the van, then spent the bulk of the afternoon assembling.
While Andy put together our Bowflex Blaze, I assembled the other new toy bought with the last little part of the bonus, a BBQ. We had checked reviews before we bought it. They all said it's a great little BBQ but assembly was a pain in the butt. I completely concur with that. Some of the instructions left a great deal to be desired, and it didn't help that they gave you screws for some parts that already had the screws in! A couple times I had to call in my consultant to discuss the logic or interpretation of the next step.
Sunday, Huguette came over in the morning with a housewarming present....a frog from our frog!
We then went to Emma's Back Porch for their weekend, All You Can Eat Breakfast buffet. We sat with a lovely view of the lake and enjoyed. The buffet was small and simple with only eggs, potato nuggets, sausages, bacon, fruit, toast, and croissants, but there was nothing else we needed and hey, it was only 8 bucks each. We then went for a walk along the waterfront including Spencer Smith Park.
This guy was so flirting with me!
We also stopped into Discovery Landing and Andy had a good look across the lake.
In the afternoon we did some yard work, inspired by the neighbour ripping out our hedge to put in a new fence. They gave us some Forsythia clippings that we are trying to root. I love the brilliant yellow they make.
That also got us in the mood to go spend our Garden Gallery gift certificate from my work.
For the front, to go between the cedars, we got something called "Astilbe Vision in Red". For the back, we got a couple Rhododendrons on sale for the corners and 3 perennials for inside the bricked bed. This is "Guem", "Sunray Coreopsis", and "Thrift". We are trying to do more of a tall, wildflower look than the typical bedding plants. They have now stood up much better than this picture after a couple days planted.
In the evening, we hooked up with Vickie for her gig at the Lowville Bistro.
We had a nice dinner, enjoyed the entertainment, and in chatting with Vic we asked if her guitarist, Jorge Lasso, has an instrumental CD as it would be nice to play at the wedding. He plays beautifully. Well, in typical big-hearted Vickie style, she has now given us Jorge for our wedding present. He will play live. Thanks Vic!
And finally, we beat our previous record:
