Testing to see if my blog is linking to my Facebook page.
May 22nd
May 23, 2013 at 7:14 am (All The Good Things)
Tags: business, busy day, hockey, memory jar, mosquitos, Ottawa Senators, Pittsburgh Penguins, summer, Union, wind
Day 143 — A busy, busy day. And the wind! My God, it’s been incredible for the past two days. The mornings start out nice and calm, sunny. I get lulled into thinking it will be like that all day. Not. around noon the winds whip up and then they just get fiercer as the afternoon unwinds. Only good thing about the wind is that it’s keeping the mosquitos at bay!
Spent yesterday evening working on Union business. Can’t wait for the summer to be here and my time to be entirely my own.
Was a heartbreaker of a game between Ottawa and Pittsburgh. I really want Ottawa to win — just so we can say we’ve got a Canadian team in the running — and they started out so good, but man, oh, man did they blow it in the third. Here’s hoping they can pull a rabbit out of the hat for the next game.
May 21st
May 21, 2013 at 10:01 pm (All The Good Things)
Tags: gardening, grandkids., gratefulness, May 21st, memory jar, summer, toad
Day 142 — Ah, exactly one month away from the official start of summer!
Today, working out in the garden I came across a toad. I picked him up to move him out of harm’s way when I suddenly remembered my grandkids and our frogging foray. So, I went and got a little container and put the toad in it. I then drove over to the kids’ house and surprised them. All three of them were amazed by the little critter. I had them put on my gardening gloves to handle it (so that they didn’t hurt it more than necessary). They each took turns holding it and, of course, asked to keep it. No, both me and their mother said, it wouldn’t live, we have to let it go. The hunt for a suitable place to let it go began. Finally, we let it go in the flower garden. I’m sure the three of them will go out there tomorrow expecting to find the toad living in their garden.
I’m so glad they live close enough for me to do stuff like this.
May 15th – 20th
May 20, 2013 at 8:02 pm (All The Good Things)
Tags: complaint, deep breath, family, farewell, funeral, Legion, Lethbridge, life, living, memory jar, relatives, reunion, school year, siren's song, summer, work
Day 136 to 141 — We were away in Lethbridge for the funeral of Tim’s uncle Lief. Sad, but a wonderful time with family. Lief was 86 and lived a very full and interesting life. I think you could safely say he was one of those people who actually chose to LIVE his life. The memorial service on Saturday was very nice. His youngest daughter gave a moving eulogy and then the members of the Legion where Lief was a regular each bade him a military farewell. It was a beautiful thing to see.
Tim and his brothers had a good time catching up with relatives that they hadn’t seen in many years. (Since the last funeral, really.) We all remarked on how sad that was. And, of course, made vows we won’t be capable of keeping to not let it happen again. There is a family reunion this summer, so, maybe, some of us will be keeping that vow. We’ll see.
Whenever I have one of these extended weekends away from work I find it so hard to get my head wrapped around the reality of returning to work. It’s not that I don’t like my job — I love what I do — it’s just that I so enjoy having time to just do what I want. It’s a familiar complaint of mine — I know I’ve aired it on here many, many times — and it usually starts around this time each year. We’re about 6 weeks away from the end of the school year. And it just seems like it will never arrive.
Summer beckons like a siren’s song and I am impatient. I just need to take a deep breath and remind myself — all in good time.
And for you Rick and Connie: So, it has come to this.
May 14th
May 14, 2013 at 8:11 pm (All The Good Things)
Tags: deck, easy day, growing, memory jar, unsettled weather, yard work
Day 135 – A quiet, easy day. Too windy and unsettled to do any more work on the deck. It’s going to be that way for a few days. I’ve got stuff I need to take care of indoors, though, so I suppose it’s all right. I’ve gotten back on track with my diet — definitely needed after the weekend I had! Am looking forward to getting some more yard work done and seeing things really get growing.
May 13th
May 14, 2013 at 7:26 am (All The Good Things)
Tags: deck, frustration, homeowner, humour, memory jar, preparation, stain
Day 134 — A gorgeous day. Tim and I got started on staining the deck. Not that we actually put a drop of stain on the deck yet. . . oh, no there are far too many steps to prep the deck before you can apply stain. It just kills me — what you think is going to be a simple two hour job ALWAYS turns out to be something that takes the better part of a week. Especially when you have to do it after your work day. Sigh. I love being a homeowner.
May 10th, 11th & 12th
May 13, 2013 at 7:43 am (All The Good Things)
Tags: Avenue Clothes, beer, birthday, brunch, dresses, haircut, memory jar, Mother's Day, Red Piano, weekend, Whyte Avenue
Days 131, 132 and 133 — Friday was the start of 3 beautiful days. The weather warmed up and the sun came out. Friday evening we went and watched our granddaughter play baseball. It’s actually t-ball, but, really, it’s baseball. It was fun. Afterward, Grandpa and Iwent and had a burger and a beer at a little bar in Morinville. Very good burger.
Saturday was my birthday. I celebrated by getting my hair cut and dyed and then went dress shopping. Picked up a couple of cute dresses at Avenue Clothes on Whyte. Very pleased with my purchases. Then, I made the long and arduous trip out to WEM. Needed to pick up some of my face-care stuff and, unfortunately, that’s the only store in the city. Got home about 5:30 and the kids were there. We had bbq ribs and potatoes, greek salad and — beer! We had a blast. The grandkids gave me some lovely nature-inspired art. Need to get some frames and hang it.
Sunday was Mother’s Day. I got the royal treatment. Tim took me out for brunch to the Red Piano. Lovely meal. With our brunch I recieved two complimentary tickets to attend an evening performance at the RP. We are definitely going to check it out. I’m guessing that it would be a much more raucous and rowdy performance when it’s an adult only audience.
All in all, I had a perfect weekend. Thanks to everyone who sent me birthday wishes. It’s nice to be remembered.
May 9th
May 10, 2013 at 7:35 am (All The Good Things)
Tags: anticipation, deck, memory jar, stain, summer, warm days, work
Day 130 — A nice day. Relatively warm, but windy. Always windy. We decided on a colour for the deck stain. Now, we just need to go get the stain and do the work. It’s funny to think that we’re nearly in the middle of May. Not much work time left in this school year. Am looking forward to summer. And all that it brings.
May 6th, 7th & 8th
May 9, 2013 at 7:43 am (All The Good Things)
Tags: joy, husband, memory jar, freedom, leg, Cleveland, Ohio, sexual predator, captives, living, horror, therapy, retirement, tornado, temperature
Days 127, 128 and 129 — Must be the nice weather that’s keeping me from keeping this up daily. Which isn’t such a bad thing. Better to be outside enjoying the sunshine than cooped up inside in my dark little office tapping away at these keys.
Pretty eventful 3 days — 3 women in Cleveland who had been held hostage by a sexual predator were found alive on Monday. Thank God. Actually, one of the women risked her life to escape. It’s an absolutely horrific and fascinating story. I hope the bastard that had them suffers mightily. And I hope those 3 women — and the little girl that one of them had by her captor — can heal and get back to the joy of living.
I’ve come to a decision in my life — a good one — more to come on that later.
My leg is healing — slowly. I get out for a walk every day — a little bit further each day — and I don’t think it will be too much longer before I’m back on my treadmill. I do need some kind of therapy, though.
Tim resigned from his Inspector’s position Tuesday. He’s feeling relieved, but also a little down. Time will take care of that, I think. He’s getting to that point where he realizes it’s time to retire. He needs to explore his options, though, and he’s having a bit of a struggle. It will all work out, I’m sure.
We went from a temperature of 32 degrees on Monday to a temp of 14 degrees on Tuesday. Had a hell of a wind storm Monday night. Made me think of tornado’s. But, in the morning all was calm and, of course, cool. Yesterday was a bit better and today we’re heading for 24 degrees. Yay!
May 4th & 5th
May 6, 2013 at 6:22 pm (All The Good Things, Photographs)
Tags: beer butt chicken, Bon Accord, brother, chocolate infused balsamic vinegar, frogging, grandkids., humour, memory jar, photographs, slough, weather, weekends
Days 125 & 126 – The weekend. It was lovely. Warm. Hot, really. My leg was feeling much better and I managed to do a bit of yard work. My grandkids came for a sleepover. We took them frogging. Didn’t catch a one, didn’t see nary a one, either. Because, like all little children, they’re much too noisy to catch frogs. Good thing for the frogs. But, we went out armed with buckets and twigs and cans and rubber boots and sloshed through the sodden fields and then over to the slough. They had a grand time. And so did Grandpa and me.
Sunday, I went to my brother and sister-in-law’s for supper. He made beer-butt chicken. Delicious! However, the dessert was to die for: vanilla bean ice-cream with fresh strawberries and blackberries with — get this — chocolate infused balsamic vinegar — drizzled on top. Seriously, it was amazing.
A fantastic weekend weatherwise — far overdue.
Grandpa and the froggers
testing the waters. . .
Is that a frog?
It’s cold!
We found a beaver house!
“Lake Bon Accord” aka ‘the slough’
