12/06/09
Nov 29 (Sun): First of all, as promised, here is the Christmas decoration that Andy made at my work. It doesn't show up as well in a picture, but she painted all the pinecone bracts (hard leaves) with various colours of sparkle paint. It's very pretty.
Busy week again, but we're catching up. Had to go shopping several nights this week plus catch up on housework. Yesterday, we spent the morning doing outside housework....Andy did lots of raking, then was in charge of the ladder while I cleaned out the eaves troughs and put up the Christmas lights. It's hard to get a non-blurry shot at night, so I've borrowed a picture from last year - it looks the same, except no snow so far.
In the evening, we headed over to Carol's for a Potluck Dinner and group birthday party for me, Kalpana, Fred, & Huguette. Fred just turned 50 and Huguette joins him in that club in two weeks.
The food was so delicious. Carol made a pork roast with Red Pepper Jelly, Craig made the most fantastic mixture of roasted autumn vegetables I've ever seen (carrots, parsnips, potatoes, onions, squash, brussels sprouts), Fred & Brian made a delicious rice, and Kal & Sarodha made a salad that looked wonderful, but I don't like raw broccoli which was the main component. We took three kinds of appetizers, and then there was the cake courtesy of Kathy & Denise! So good!!!
After dinner, we opened presents. I got a bird feeder, ceramic spread bowl & knife, movie passes, book about "Simon's Cat" & bookmark, an Amaryllis, and a big box of different flavours of hot chocolate. One of our gifts to Huguette was a slideshow that Andy put together. We took the laptop and a large screen along and showed it to the group. We hope Huguette liked it as much as she seemed to.
This morning, Andy had fun pruning the peach tree. It's sick with something called "leaf curl", so we super-fertilized in the summer, were told to prune it well, and then I have some anti-fungal spray to cover it with.
This afternoon we went to the family birthday party for Ben and Grace. They turned on 7 on Friday. This year Scot and Monica had a combined party for both sides of the family, so Monica's parents, brother and his girlfriend were there. Scot had fun blowing up balloons with one of those kits with a little helium tank.
After we ate, the kids opened their presents. We got them season passes for Canada's Wonderland next summer. We also made them cards out of folders, so that we had something to put the season pass certificates in.
They seemed very happy with our gift, but got tons more too. Then we had cake. Grace had asked for an ice cream cake, which Mom ordered, and Ben asked for a double chocolate cake with money in it, that Mom made herself with Ben-10 cartoon stuff on it.
Tonight Andy has put our little, artificial Christmas tree up, and otherwise we are resting up. We'll put the lights on and decorate it tomorrow.
Nov 22 (Sun): Again decent weather this weekend - sunny and around 10o C.
Wednesday, Andy joined me at the office after work for a session of ornament making with some of my co-workers and their kids.
I forgot to take a picture of Andy's finished one but I will get it for next week. Here's my creation.
Most everyone used the clear or plain bulbs supplied, but I went pinecone hunting and worked from there.
Friday morning, Peter, my network consultant, met me at the office early so we could swap in two new switches before staff arrived. We've been having some connectivity issues for a long time so I got new switches that actually log network traffic, which will now give us the opportunity to track down the bad cables or network cards. There were just a few cables to swap.
In the picture above, the old switch is the 3Com, the new one is above it. Below, all the cables from the old switch are hanging while Peter screws the second new switch into place.
Yesterday, Andy spent the morning at a Project Management Institute (PMI) seminar in Toronto while I had a bit of a sleep-in then made a crock pot full of Boeuf Bourguignon and did non-stop chores. In the afternoon, we went back out to Mom and Dad's to do more gathering. This time we brought home even more so we are pretty happy.
And it was so nice to come home to the hot Bourguignon ready for us after unloading in the dark and cold. Mmmm mmmm mmmm. While I was out taking the pictures of the wood this morning, I also got this one....
It's a brave gerbera trying to prove it's not time for winter yet.
Today, we headed to Toronto. Andy'd got a call a couple weeks ago from someone at Mirvish who pitched a series subscription to her. We looked at how cost effective it was and went for it. After all, one of the reasons we wanted to be back in Southern Ontario was the accessibility to more, better, live entertainment.
4 out of 5 of these we would choose to see, so we took a chance on the 5th one.
"Stuff Happens" is a political satire. It had some interesting information and many laughs, but just wasn't interesting enough for us. Andy woke up at intermission. By then I was also having comfort issues thanks to the old seats. Mind you, the Royal Alex is a fabulous old theatre, opened in 1907. But we had more fun having lunch at Jack Astor's, playing Hangman with crayons on the brown paper "tablecloth". Even our server wanted to get in on the game. He was funny.
And before I sign off, Andy updated her Lymphoma Log this week.
Nov 15 (Sun): It was an excellent gathering day today. We went out to Mom and Dad's and set to work on fallen trees behind the empty property beside them.
We think we got close to a face cord (third of a full cord).
Yesterday, we were up and out fairly early as we'd been told there was a basketball sensation to see. He's sensational because he holds his own and then some against much bigger boys. Check out the size difference. Ben is # 10. The boys have a 3-year age span, which is why some are so big.
Afterward, we were given a cycling demonstration. Their Opa finally got them going without training wheels and we are all thrilled. They were just never interested enough before, but now they are bombing around.
In fact, Ben, who seems to live by the motto, "Go big or go home", is already fooling around.
The rest of the weekend was spent with Andy working from home to try to finish up a big project, but of course there were last minute changes so she's had to redo a lot of paperwork. I did some shopping for things like chain oil and a fuel can, found the kid's main Christmas present, and installed a new door knob for Gabe, my Aunt Debbie's husband.
Nov 9 (Mon): Wow, what amazing weather the last few days. Sunny and 15o C, then 18o, and today 19o!
Yesterday, we went and saw a funny musical in Toronto.
Denise, Kathy & Huguette joined us. Actually, it was Denise's idea. And we all had lunch before-hand at a little café on Queen St.
Saturday was mostly taken up with the burial of my Aunt Debbie's ashes.
I tucked a couple pieces of Kentucky Fried Chicken in the hole before we took turns with the shovel. It was her one of her favourites. Also, the roses in our garden hung on just long enough for one last one to go in with her ashes. Afterward, there was a memorial gathering. The family ate, looked at pictures, and then watched a sweet, sometimes funny, sometimes heart-wrenching, tribute slideshow that my Mom's other sister made. It was an exhausting day.
Late in the afternoon, we recovered enough to go pick up a new toy while it was on sale, mostly for Andy - but I want to use it too!!!
Just a 14-incher, but now we can start bringing in our own wood. There's a couple trees down at the side of Mom & Dad's that we hope to go get soon - if the weather holds up. We also got the case that goes with it.
Thursday night, Andy had a little celebration. It was Bonfire Day in England, so she made and happily burned a Guy Fawkes.
As I'm still struggling to shake the last of my cold of two weeks, I'm happy to report that Andy is feeling better.....better as in....for the last couple weeks she's hardly needed any naps and is now able to stay at work till 4 o'clock each day. Her energy is starting to really come back. It seemed to happen after she fought off her cold. Maybe that gave her body some kind of kick start.
Nov 1 (Sun): An excellent day today with a birthday party for me - my favourite kind! The family came over around lunch time and we had dinner for lunch. Mom made ribs and Ben perked right up when his little ears heard this. Scot & Monica did the salad and Andy & I did some garlic smashed potatoes. After lunch, I demanded my pressies.
The first one was for both Andy and I so we opened it together. Mom and Dad got us Guitar Hero 5 - and the look on Mom's face was precious when I commented on how such a big box must mean it came with an extra guitar. A look of immense revelation appeared! And then Mom and Monica shot each other a look with mouths hanging open. I wish I had a picture! No wonder it had been so expensive! And that's why it's a combo gift, but we don't mind at all as we'd considered getting a second guitar anyway. Now we can play two guitars at once or one guitar and one bass. And Mom learned that she's better off consulting Ben than Monica on these types of purchases. :-)
The kids then gave me their fantastic artwork cards.
And my presents in the bag from Scot, Monica, Ben, & Grace were a bag of M&Ms and a funny movie I wanted. Can't wait to watch it again.
After presents, Andy had some games for us to play....drop the clothespin in the bottle, Twister, roll the balloon around 3 people with no hands then duck through their legs, and a race to make someone a Mummy.
I volunteered for round 2, only to get taken advantage of. Next thing I knew, I had 4 or 5 people unraveling as much toilet paper as possible around me as fast as possible - till I finally caught on. I let them continue for a few extra seconds of their fun before I burst free.
Then it was time for ice cream cake.
And then we broke out the new Guitar Hero. Scot & I had some simultaneous challenges.
Other than me, who was taking the above picture, there is only one person missing - and that's because she is in her natural spot - right beside any fire. She's a heat-seeker!
The party had been postponed from last Sunday when everyone was sick, and today Andy and I just barely made it to being well enough in time. Andy wasn't "sick" again, but had a reaction from her H1N1 shot Friday that knocked her off her feet most of yesterday. I had a cold all week that made me pretty miserable by Friday and I spent yesterday mostly horizontal.
Andy went for her H1N1 shot as she is in the high risk group thanks to the cancer and chemo. I need to go to due to my asthma, but needed to shake my cold first or might have been turned away. Andy got lucky - she only waited 2 hours. She was amazed at how well organized it all was. This is not the same story we have been hearing of all areas. Andy said there was lots of seating for people in line if needed, stickers and colouring books for the kids, First Aid people walking around answering questions, and there was even bottled water available free.
Saturday, we did get out of the house for a couple reasons, mostly to avoid "cabin fever". Late in the day we went for a drive along the lakeshore, stopping to check out every park we encountered until we hit mid-Oakville. Found some really nice spots that will be great next summer. Earlier in the day, Andy wanted to show me something she had seen over at the Garden Gallery. It was on sale for 40% off and she thought I might want to spend my gift certificates that she and Mumsy & Dad gave me for my birthday. Sure enough, I thought it was perfect for our yard too - it's a fountain & bird bath. We've named her Athena.
Thanks Mumsy & Dad!
Halloween last night was pretty lame. We only had 9 kids. Next year we will leave candy on the doorstep and go out to Lynden or Caledonia, where there is some real action. Only Andy had carved a pumpkin, because when I got home from work every night I went straight to the couch and barely moved. I think this is the first year I ever didn't carve - and I felt so lousy I really didn't care.
Monday night, I had an interesting experience. I went to the dentist to pick up my new night-guard - a custom made piece of hard silicone that is molded to my top teeth to protect them from grinding against the bottom ones. The dental tech gave it to me to try on, but when I bit down, only a few of my bottom teeth connected with it. The tech called in the dentist to adjust it for me. A woman came in, who was not my dentist, but I guess her partner. She did not introduce herself. She did not want to believe the night-guard was not right. She actually grabbed my chin with both hands and was pushing back on my jaw to try to force my bite on the night-guard. I am very proud of myself that I pushed her hands away and told her to quit pushing on my jaw...that I needed to test this with my natural bite. She then shaved some off the night-guard a couple of times, then when I said there was still a gap (the bite didn't close all around), she just stared at me for an uncomfortable amount of time....and finally she asked if I was putting her on. I was appalled. I said this is my 5th or 6th night-guard, so I know night-guards and this one wasn't allowing my proper bite - there was still a gap on the right. After a couple more shavings, she got it so I can close my natural bite. I still can't believe how rude she was, especially pushing on my jaw like that. I've got a few choice names to call her but this website is not rated R.
Oct 30 (Fri): A couple good docs re H1N1 that Andy found:
H1N1 Self Assessment - high risk
H1N1 Self Assessment - not at high risk