My toe hurts.

It's been a while since I've updated, and that is not the most interesting thing that's happened, but I can't really concentrate on much, because my toe hurts.

No reason, it was fine and then it hurt. Hopefully it will suddenly be better soon.

It's Wednesday night, and I am not at boxing because I didn't sign up until after the Wednesday night class was full. That's right, I am boxing on Saturdays again.

It's kind of nice to have Wednesday night free (even though I'm home by 7 pretty much every other weeknight). I will regret it on Saturday, though.

This past weekend, I finally got around to researching the candidates for mayor and city councilor - just in time, because the election was Monday.

I worked from home Monday (and Tuesday, as it turns out) due to a car saga, and walked over to vote after work.

After I voted, I kept walking to Shoppers (to buy gummy worms and spiders for swamp punch for the Spark Halloween party) - I couldn't drive due to the aforementioned car saga. It took me about an hour and a half to get there and back (including voting time). On the way home, I took the bike path and met a lot of very friendly dogs.

I'm kind of embarrassed to admit it, but my legs were a little sore today, so I went to the gym. My legs are now fine.

But my toe hurts.

Problem solving

When Camille was here for Thanksgiving, I started noticing water problems in the bathroom.

First, I noticed the wall looked like it had been damp. I touched it, and my finger went through the gyprock.

Great.

By the time she left, there was a puddle of water on the floor by the bathtub every morning after I took a shower.

I knew that there was an access panel in the front hall closet, so I removed it.

I couldn't see any water.

I removed the bottom panel on the bathtub.

Again, totally dry.

One of my neighbours has a camera that can detect moisture behind walls, etc. as part of his business. He came over on Friday. He didn't have that camera, but he had a different camera that's on a flexible cord, so that you can run it up a wall through an access panel (for example).

We used that camera and ran the shower.

Nothing.

No water leaking, no puddle on the floor, no sign of trouble at all - except for the hole you see in the above picture. We removed the drywall, and that's the area that was damp. The 2x4 was damp as well - but only on that side, the other side was fine.

By Saturday morning, the 2x4 was damp.

I haven't seen a sign of water since then.

The good news is that it's not as big a problem as I thought it might be. The bad news is that if you can't find it, you can't fix it.

Thanksgiving Weekend

My sister Camille is in town for Thanksgiving. She arrived on Thursday.

It has been a fun weekend - some shopping on Saturday (I bought nothing), Wanda's belly dance show on Saturday night, and Thanksgiving dinner with friends on Sunday.

(When I was a kid, we never had turkey. The first time we had turkey on Thanksgiving was when I was in high school. My grandmother was away - she had gone to Niagara Falls to visit her sister - and my grandfather said, "Well, we can have turkey even if she's not here", and he went and bought a turkey. I remember looking at my mom, both of us thinking, "Um, we never had turkey when she was here", but neither of us said anything. After that, we always had turkey on Thanksgiving.)

I got the critical yard work done - the garden is dug, the patio furniture fit in the shed (to my amazement), and the air conditioner is covered up and off.

I even turned on the heat this weekend (although it hasn't gone on much - it's still too warm).

I took today off - I usually work stat holidays, but I have company - and Camille and I went for a walk in Hog's Back park. It was a beautiful day - sunny, but with a hint of cool weather to come - and the leaves are changing. It was busier than usual, but it wasn't bad.

As you can see, the water was pretty rough. I'm guessing that is due to the record (or near record - I never did hear how that turned out) amount of rain we got in September.

It was a nice day, and a nice weekend. It's going to be hard to go back to work tomorrow.

Taking a walk

This year, Ottawa had one of the rainiest Septembers ever recorded.

(It turns out that wearing shoes that have holes in the soles in the rain? Not such a good idea - unless you like wet socks.)

October has been nicer, though. In fact, as soon as the calendar changed, it got sunnier.

This turned out well, because tonight we took the Sparks on a hike in the greenbelt.

We had done this last year, and the girls who had been in our group last year were excited to do it again.

Taking 5 & 6 year-olds on a hike is pretty entertaining. Everything is new to them - fungus, pine cones, tall trees, fallen leaves.

We have a smaller group this year, and that totally changed the feel of the hike. It was a much better experience for the group.

We ended our hike at dusk, so just before we got out of the woods, it was starting to get dark - and yet some of them would have happy to do the hike again.

Money, money, money

I hear a lot of people complaining about money (specifically, the lack of it), and yet they do things I would never do - like buy lunch every day or trade in a car that is less than 3 years old (and still has a car loan) for a new vehicle. (Admittedly, I used to buy lunch every day, but that was before the layoffs started at the big telecom company in 1998. I didn't get laid off, but I did start bringing my lunch.)

That made me wonder - what financial decisions do I make that seem like poor decisions?

The first big one is that I bought a house, on my own, when I was 28. (Well, actually, I started the process when I was 27.) Don't get me wrong, I love my house, but it would have been a lot cheaper to keep renting. My mortgage is more than my rent was, and that doesn't include property taxes, repairs and upkeep. Buying is a lot more expensive if you're only looking at it from a financial perspective.

Related to the house purchase is snow removal. I pay for a company to plow my driveway every time it snows. Yes, I could do it myself - in theory - but you have to remove snow when it snows (you can't wait until you have time) and doing it myself would have a negative effect on everything from getting to work on time to leisure activities.

Boxing is another one. I love boxing - it's good for me physically and mentally - but boxing for the year costs around the same as my gym membership for the year. The difference is that for that money, I can go to the gym as often as I want, but I can only box once. (For that matter, I don't need to go to the gym - but I do value it, so I'm willing to pay for it.)

There are little things too - I've mentioned my newspaper issues, but I could also save money on my phone bill. I could get rid of cable TV. Theoretically, I could get rid of my internet access (although that is unlikely to make it to the top of the list anytime soon).

Should I change any of those things? Well, I probably could check into making changes to my phone bill (and I should definitely cancel the newspaper), but hopefully I won't be in a financial position where I need to make changes to the others.

A new car every 3 - 5 years isn't my priority - but that doesn't mean that it's the wrong decision for other people. If you drive a lot or really dislike having to get your car repaired, maybe it's the right choice for you. The key is to spend your money on what you value. For me, a new car is lower priority than my other choices.

Road trip

A couple of months ago, Wanda and I started talking about going to Toronto for the weekend. Originally, we were talking about going the weekend after Labour Day, but that turned out to be the community corn roast weekend, so we decided to wait until this weekend.

Last week I started to think that Toronto was too far to go for no particular reason. We talked about Montreal instead (since it's a two-hour drive instead of five), but decided on Kingston (also two hours).

Everything was set until I hurt my ankle on Wednesday.

The annoying part is that I didn't even do anything - I just got up from my desk at work and walked towards the kitchen and thought "gee, my ankle hurts". Since I didn't do anything in particular, I went to boxing that night anyway.

By Thursday morning, it was clear that boxing was a mistake. (I figured that out when I had to hit the brakes and almost screamed from the pain.)

My ankle rapidly recovered, though, and although it's still a bit tender, we decided to go to Kingston yesterday.

It was a beautiful day for it - the sun was shining, but it wasn't super hot. We walked through the farmer's market and around the downtown area. We went down by the water. We wandered in and out of the different shops and stopped at the Mug and Truffle Chocolate Cafe.

And we went to Indigo, where I bought Wanda a Kobo electronic reader as a thank you for trimming the hedges this year.

She was ridiculously excited. When we got home, she plugged it in and immediately downloaded some books. When she came upstairs this morning, she had already finished her first book.

The only problem is that now I want one too.

To the woman behind me

To the woman behind me at Preston and Carling at 4:40,

Look, you're busy.

I understand. We all are. I left the house at 7:30 this morning and won't be home until 9:30 tonight.

And when you passed me immediately after the light turned green and spent the next few blocks weaving in and out of traffic, I'm sure it was just because you were in such a big hurry to get to ... well, where ever you were going.

(It wasn't the Civic Hospital - you drove right past that.)

Don't worry, I wasn't at all laughing at you when you ended up behind me again at the lights in front of Westgate.

But ... I do have to say, if the car in front of you stopping at a red light causes you to wave your arms and beat the steering wheel like a two year old having a tantrum, you need a time out.

A Beautiful Fall Day

Yesterday was the annual community corn roast. It was a beautiful day for it - sunny with no rain. Since it has rained pretty much daily for the past week or two, that was a nice change.

I worked in the kitchen as usual. It was incredibly busy - we had a line from 5:30 - 7:30. The big problem was that we only had one barbecue (instead of the two we normally have). Still, everyone was understanding and eventually we caught up.

Before the corn roast, Wanda and I finished trimming the hedges. (Well, ok, she trimmed the hedges and I moved the ladder / cleaned up / laughed when she fell off the ladder.)

Unfortunately, in order to get the ladder in the right place to get one part of the hedges, I had to stand in an evergreen bush that I'm allergic to. And, of course, instead of coming inside to wash my legs immediately, I waited until we were done.

That's right, I have a rash up to my knees. I really should pull out those bushes. They're pretty, but it's really not worth it.

My Newspaper Problems

I've had the Ottawa Citizen delivered for years.

I've had the odd problem (paper delivered when it shouldn't have been, paper not delivered when it should have been, newspaper carrier walking across the lawn and knocking snow onto the walk) but for the most part, those problems have been easily resolved.

Lately, though, I'm having a different kind of problem.

You see, the paper is being delivered, I'm just not reading it - at least not until I have a formidable stack of 3 or 4 papers to read.

Part of the problem is that I read news online. That is mostly national/international news, though - there's not much specific to Ottawa. If I want to know what's going on in Ottawa, one of my major sources is the Ottawa paper.

Well, it would be, if I read the Ottawa paper.

I'm not sure what the solution is. Do I make more of an effort to seek out Ottawa news online and cancel the newspaper? Do I make more of an effort to read the paper every day?

I'm not sure, but I'd better figure it out, because this is a little ridiculous.

Sparkling clean

When my mom was here, my dishwasher broke.

(There should not be a gap there.)

It still cleaned fine, but the piece that connected the rack to the roller assembly broke.

For a few days, we just manually put the two pieces together to move the rack, but obviously this needed to stop, so we stopped using the dishwasher.

I googled it (is there any other approach?) and found Indestructible Parts. Those were exactly the parts I needed, and I liked the idea of replacing the broken hub with something a little more robust. I placed an order and was notified quickly that the order had shipped.

I waited.

And waited.

After a few days, I e-mailed them and asked about the package - I hadn't expected it to have arrived, but I had expected it to be at the post office, and USPS was still saying that they were expecting the package.

Amy replied to my e-mail. She contacted the postal service and confirmed that the type of shipping they used wasn't trackable, but that my parcel was in the mail. It should arrive in 8 - 10 business days. She asked me to let her know if it hadn't arrived by August 31, which, if I remember correctly, was 12 business days from the order.

Yesterday, I still hadn't received the package. I e-mailed her again, and she made plans to send me a new shipment.

Can anyone guess what was waiting for me when I got home today? Anyone?

That's right, the package with my new hubs.

I checked my e-mail and had a message from Amy saying she was looking into it and she would mail me a new set if she didn't have an answer by Friday. This was a reasonable response - and not just because my package arrived today.


I took the rack out of the dishwasher (after first figuring out how to take the rack out of the dishwasher) and removed the old hubs.

This is a poor picture, but the top hub is the replacement, the bottom hub is the original (unbroken) one - while I was at it, I replaced all four.

The dishwasher is now reassembled and ready for a load of dishes. Total time spent - half an hour, but that included looking for the right bit to remove the old hubs, figuring out how to remove the rack from the dishwasher, and the actual work.

Meet Ralph

I went to the Ex today.

It was a nice day for it - sunny, but not too hot. We got there around 4 and walked around. (OK, mini-donuts came before the walking started.) There were a couple buildings of exhibits (not many, actually). After we had our bearings, we decided to go on a few rides.

The first one was the Tilt-a-Whirl. It lived up to its name. I felt like my face was trying to fly off. I don't recall ever feeling like that before.

Next was the Starship 2000 (which was probably a more impressive name in, say, 1982). I'd never been on that before (I've been very sheltered). I'm glad I did it, but again, it felt like my face was trying to fly off.

The third and final ride was the Polar Express. It has nothing to do with the movie, just with flying around in circles backwards.

(Can you tell I don't like heights?)

The last thing we did was play one game.

Meet Ralph.

He was lonely. Luckily, I won the water gun game, so he got to come home with me. (I assume those extra flaps are to make it look like he has saggy skin, but it's possible he just has two sets of ears.)

I have no idea what I'm going to do with a foot-tall orange dog.

Now for a complete change of subject.

This year has been a good year for cucumbers. The problem is finding them before they're, well, this big:

It is thicker than my arm, and it's almost as long.

I'm lucky Wanda likes cucumbers.

I had a dream

Not the kind of dream where the world lives in peace or everybody has clean water to drink.

No, I had the kind of dream where you wake up and wonder what your subconscious was thinking.

You see, I was at the grocery store. (I like to do that on occasion.) I had just started my shopping when Nathan Fillion came up to me. Now, I wasn't terribly shocked, because we knew each other (um, in the dream world, just to be clear). He was upset with me because I wasn't watching the season premiere of Castle, which was on at that very moment.

(Just for the record, I don't usually do my grocery shopping at 10 p.m. on Monday nights. I also don't watch TV then. I am usually asleep.)

I tried to explain that I had every intention of watching it, but that I was actually busy grocery shopping and thus would watch it later, so he pointed out the large TV in the back of the store that was playing the episode at that very moment.

I didn't want to watch it because I had missed the first ten minutes (also, I was still grocery shopping).

That's all I remember.

So, does this mean:
1) I watch too much TV
2) I spend too much time grocery shopping
3) Wipeout (which is the only show I've watched this summer, and only because Wanda watches it 3 feet from where I'm usually sitting) has broken my brain
4) My grocery store should invest in a big TV in case I realize I'm missing a show while I'm shopping
5) I should spend less time on twitter
6) I should re-watch Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog

Let me know in the comments.

(Oh, and to The Independent on Merivale - if you could tear out the giant TV and put the bakery section back, that would be great. I might need to buy bread one day.)

My problem with e-mail

Lately, I have a problem with e-mail.

Specifically, I'm good at reading e-mail. I'm just really, really bad at replying to e-mail. I'll read an e-mail, hit reply, and let it sit there for five or six days before I actually hit send.

Sometimes, I'll even mark the message unread so that I don't forget to reply to it, which means that I have unread e-mail in my inbox for days on end.

Browser windows are the same way - I'll open up a tab that requires action on my part (for example, a job I want to apply for) and ... it'll sit there for a week.

Maybe I need to start the anti-procrastination project up again.

And THAT's why my garden is full of weeds

I hurt my elbow for the first time a few years ago and it pretty much got better on its own. Back in July (or June, I don't really remember), it started hurting again. For those of you keeping track at home, I have twisted my left ankle, hurt the arch of my right foot, injured both knees in separate incidents, and now it's my right ankle. Also, I broke my left wrist when I was a kid. (Only one of those injuries was because of boxing.)

During the two weeks I boxed this summer, it hurt to throw right hooks.

As anyone who has been around here for a while knows, I'll put up with a lot - until it interferes with boxing.

I started physio yesterday.

Everyone (my doctor, my BodyPump instructor, random passers-by) thought I had tennis elbow.

I don't.

Apparently, I hurt the fatty pad that cushions the arm bones and keeps them from rubbing together. This type of injury takes a long time to heal, and there's nothing I can do to help the process along except avoid things that hurt. Weeding the garden hurts - which breaks my heart, because I so love to pull weeds.

Physio did help - it was an almost immediate improvement - so I have two appointments booked for next week.

I also went to the eye doctor yesterday.

Expect to hear screams of pain from my supplemental health insurance company in about two weeks.

Where did the sun go?

This past week has been busy.

First of all, my guests left early on Wednesday and I went back to work. It was a big adjustment - I'd only been off for 3 days, but it was still hard to get back into the swing of things. Of course, I was tired, which didn't help.

I skipped the gym all week (which I will pay for when I go back to BodyPump tomorrow), but I did start getting back into my normal life.

The big news at work is that our shifts are gone. The late shift has been removed entirely, which leaves the day shift (8-4:30) and the mid-shift (10 - 6:30). Since 3 people prefer the day shift and 2 people prefer the mid-shift, the only time we'll need to change shifts is when someone is on vacation.

I'm one of the day shift people. I like the mid-shift, mostly because I can go to the gym before work instead of after, but when Sparks starts, I won't be able to work the mid-shift on Tuesdays, so I'm taking the day shift. That starts tomorrow.

Yesterday I went to Carlingwood Mall (because I needed cash and that was the closest bank machine). I walked through the entire mall and made an unplanned purchase from a kiosk in the centre of the mall - an $11.95 jar of honey. I have enough honey to last for years ... and years. The woman in the kiosk let me taste the different types, which was great, because I didn't really know what type of honey I preferred. The one I choose was the purple loose strife honey. Those plants may be devastating to wetlands, but they do make good honey.

It has been hot and humid, but not really sunny. Today was the exception - I woke up to thunderstorms. I had to use the dryer when I did my laundry today. I think this is the first time this summer.

The garden has gone crazy - it's really only tomatoes and cucumbers, but they are out of control. I gave some of the excess to friends last night and yet every day I discover more huge cucumbers and ripe tomatoes.

I hope all of you are enjoying your summer.

Hog's Back

Yesterday was the last day my mom & niece were here. It was a hot, humid day.

My niece did not want to go anywhere. It was too hot.

However, I'm not her meanest auntie for nothing. I dragged her off on a picnic at Hog's Back park.

Did you know there are waterfalls there?

Also, if you follow the path and then take another dirt path, you can find a quiet off-shoot of the river.

There are rocks you can walk on. You might fall in, but if you're wearing crocs, it's OK if they get wet.

It's really too bad I made her go on that picnic.

(And it was much cooler by the water.)

Wave Pool

Monday's excursion was one my niece had been looking forward to since before she got here. We went to the playground down the street in the morning, had lunch, and then went to the Kanata Wave Pool.

She loved it.

I had never been there before, but I had to admit that it was fun.

The waves would be on for 7 or 8 minutes, then off for 7 or 8 minutes. When the waves were about to start again, a buzzer would go off and all of the kids would yell and run deeper into the pool.

There is also a waterslide. That's when I discovered that my niece is scared of waterslides.

I was pretty sure that she'd love it once she had been down once, but she wouldn't give it a try. Around 2:30, I had had about enough. I told her that we were going to leave at 3 - but that if she went down the waterslide once, I'd let her stay an extra 15 minutes. (I'm mean like that.)

She was not interested. She played in the wave pool. She moved over to the kiddie pool. At three o'clock, I said, "OK, time to go".

She looked at me and said, "Don't you remember that you said if I went down the slide one time we could stay longer?" Up the stairs to the waterslide she went, Wanda in tow.

She didn't make it down the slide. She got to the front of the line, looked at the slide, and was too scared.

We stayed an extra 15 minutes anyway. (Trying is important, and bravery should be rewarded.)

Now she wants to move to Kanata. (Regina doesn't have a wave pool.)

Parliament Hill & River Cruise

We've been alternating days of activity with days that are a bit more quiet. Saturday was a quieter day.

Sunday, on the other hand, was busy.

We got up and went downtown. We got there around 9:40, which was perfect timing to get a good spot for the changing of the guard at 10. I left the group by the rope barricades and went and got tickets for the 10:30 tour of Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings.



We watched most of the changing of the guard, then left for our tour.




The tour took about an hour. We left and found a boat tour. It didn't start until 12:30, so we had about half an hour to wait down by the river.


The boat cruise took an hour and a half. After that, we walked to a restaurant for lunch. Just as we got there, it started to rain.

We ate our lunch, but it was still raining when we finished.

Wanda and Bella took the bus home (because Bella likes bus rides) and mom & I walked back to the car.

Everyone ended up getting a little wet, but that's how it goes sometimes.

Parc Omega

My mom and my niece are in town.

I had a list of possible activities. Today we picked going to Parc Omega.

No one was in a big hurry this morning, so we didn't get going until around 10. We stopped at the grocery store on the way to pick up carrots to feed the animals, then were on our way.

We got there after 11. It has been a long time since I'd been there - I think the last time was 2001 - so I was surprised to see the lines of cars waiting to get in.

By the time we got in to the park, we were ready for lunch. We stopped at the store to have our picnic.


After lunch, I made sure all of the windows were only open a couple of inches and we started our drive through the park. (You only need to end up with a bison head in your car once before you learn how to avoid it.) We had two bags of carrots - one for the front seat and one for the back seat - and I had to warn my sister (who was in the back) not to feed her entire bag of carrots to the first five animals.

We saw various deer-like creatures and some boars (and baby boars).

Eventually, we got to the picnic area. At this area, there were wagon rides to take you to the farm. We got there at 1:01, and the wagon was waiting. There were tons of cars there - and no parking - so I told everyone to get out and get on the wagon. By the time I parked, the wagon had was on its way, so I had time to kill. I entertained myself by taking pictures.


I also got to pet a relatively tame deer. (The velvet antlers are softer than his coat.)
Before 2, the wagon was back.

We bought another bag of carrots (we were running low) and continued on our way. We saw more deer and some bison. They also have some predators (in large, fenced areas), and you mostly see them in the second half of the drive. We saw coyotes, bear, and arctic wolves.


Of course, it wasn't all predators.After a quick stop at the store to use the bathrooms, we went to our last stop - a walking trail near the exit. This walking trail allowed you to go on a wooden walkway over an area containing timber wolves.

As we continued along the walkway, we passed over another area with bears.


As we finished that trail, a bird show was starting. We got to see hawks, falcons, and a bald eagle.

After that, we got into the car to head home - 5 hours after we got there.

As I mentioned, I had been there before, but it has expanded a lot since I was there. Not only is there more to do, but there are a lot more people (which makes it slower when everyone is stopping to look at something interesting).

It was a fun day, but I vastly underestimated how long we'd be there. If I were going to go again, I would pack more food & beverages.

Because my mom wants to see a picture

I spent the afternoon with a couple of friends yesterday. Over the course of our travels, we ended up at Superstore.

Now, yesterday was the last day of July, which means that in the retail world, it's time to buy Halloween candy. I mean, I understand having school supplies out, but Halloween candy was going a bit too far.

In other words, the retail world considers summer over, which means that summer stuff is on sale. Specifically, they had a patio set on sale for $100.

I've been wanting a patio set, and had planned to buy one before the disaster that was May (when I broke my laptop, the desktop computer died, and the washing machine had to be replaced).

I wasn't driving, though, so I couldn't buy one at the time. We continued going about our day, and after I picked up my car, I went back to Superstore.

Now, this patio set consisted of 4 chairs (in 1 box), 1 table (in another box), and an umbrella (in a third box).

None of them fit nicely into a shopping cart, but I persevered. I got to the checkout, and discovered that I couldn't fit the cart through the opening.

Luckily for me, the cashier came out and copied down the code. Having succeeded in task 1 (load the boxes onto the cart) and task 2 (pay for the merchandise), I proceeded to the door.

Now, let me remind you that this was a grocery store on Saturday afternoon. It was late enough that it wasn't super crowded, but people lose their minds in grocery stores. They are utterly incapable of stopping beside whatever they're looking at - they have to stop two feet away and block the aisle while looking.

I made it to the car. I looked at the car. I looked at the boxes. I opened the trunk.

At that point, a Superstore employee came over and started helping. Maybe that should be "helping".

He had some good ideas, but there were some things he had problems with - like the concept that a round table cannot possibly be taking up every inch of a square box, so if we took it out of the box, it would take up less room.

Eventually, we got everything in the car (even if the chairs were tied in with an extension cord), and I started the slooow drive home.

When I got home, I scammed Wanda into helping me assemble the table and we set everything up on the patio.
(Yes, I know the patio needs weeding.)

So far, I love having it. I spent a couple of hours out there yesterday and another couple today. I'd probably be out there now if I didn't feel like I should be doing things inside.

I'm hoping that this summer's beautiful weather continues a bit longer so that I can get more use of of it this year.

Yup, another boxing post

This week is week three of the five-week summer boxing session.

I'm not taking the summer session, because two of those five weeks I'm on the late shift, which doesn't finish until 8 p.m.

This week I'm on mid-shift (finishing at 6:30), so I took advantage of the school's drop-in program. I made arrangements with the coach in advance, then showed up before class and paid the drop-in fee.

The summer session is different from the regular sessions in one important way - all classes are open to all levels. That means that a given class can have students from level 1 all the way up to level 6.

The last time I did a summer session I had just finished level one, and I remember two things about it:
- it was like a regular session, but with the easy classes taken out, and
- it was nice to see what happens in the other levels.

Now I'm in level 4, and it's a lot easier (because the regular classes get harder as you move up). Also, I've now done most of the levels, so it's not as interesting.

It was still fun, of course, and a good workout. I'm planning to drop in again next week, then it's a break until September.

Remembrance

When my dad died, I volunteered to make something for my niece to remember him by.

My mom gave me six of his shirts. They sat on my table for a couple of months. I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with them, and I wasn't in a rush.

However, my mom and my niece are coming to visit in a couple of weeks, so it was time to make a decision.

I decided to go with a pillow idea. My mom & sister agreed that it was as good a direction as any.

The next decision was what pattern to use. The defining moment there was when I realized I had 3 plain shirts and 3 plaid shirts. Triangles it was.

I paired up each plaid shirt with a plain shirt and cut 4 triangles from each. Four triangles made one square, so I had 2 squares of each colour combination.

I joined the squares together and sewed them to a pillow case. Here's the finished product:

Where I've been

It's been kind of quiet around here lately.

Part of that is that I've been much more social than usual lately. Last week I thought "Well, at least next week I won't be too social, I'm working 11:30 - 8. So far this week: went to the gym twice (including BodyCombat for the first time in 6 months - ouch!), went to the doctor, went out for breakfast with a friend, went for coffee with another friend, and had a 9:30 conference call. I've also: pulled some weeds, took the car in to get a headlight fixed, cleaned the kitchen and bathroom, read a week's worth of accumulated newspapers, picked (and ate) the first tomato and the first 3 cucumbers from the garden, and iced my elbow at least once a day.

The other part is the fault of my friend Jennifer.

You see, last week she let me the first four Vampire Academy books, with the comment that they were better than Twilight.

That's kind of like being more nutritious than a Big Mac, so I didn't get too excited about them, but I brought the first one to work last week. The books are about living Vampires (Moroi), their half-human/half-vampire guardians, and dead vampires (strigoi) who are basically the bad guys. The first chapters were a little confusing.

On Monday, I got far enough into the book that I was hooked. I finished book one on Monday.

And book two on Tuesday.

And book three on Wednesday. (Can you see where this is going?)

I'm currently half way through book four. (What can I say? It's bigger than the others.)

On the way home, I stopped in at Chapters to buy book 5. I wasn't entirely sure where to look for it - they're young adult books, so that was going to be my first stop, but I wasn't sure that's where they'd be.

I still don't know - book 5 was on a table 3 feet inside the door.

(BTW Jennifer, if you don't have book 5, you can probably borrow it by Monday ... unless I suck Wanda into reading them too.)

Everything's growing

The recent heat wave has done two things:
1) killed off the smaller plants in my garden
2)made the cucumbers and tomatoes grow like crazy. My tomato plants are up to my elbow. The cucumber leaves are big enough to hide a rabbit or two. (This is not hypothetical.)

Today I picked the first cucumber of the year. (It was really, really good.)

The tomatoes are growing as well, but something has been eating some of the green tomatoes. I'm not really sure what - mostly the wildlife leaves the tomatoes and cucumbers alone, although a local raccoon has been known to eat the only ear of corn and leave the cob on the back step (as an insult, I assume).

Sadly, this amazing growth has not been limited to the great outdoors. That's right, the fruit flies are back. This year they like the teakettle, the outside of the fruit fly trap, and the kitchen tap. (Note to fruit flies: none of those things are food.)

As a result, a "no dirty dishes of any type on the counter" rule has been instituted. (Yes, this includes a cutting board that has been used once.)

(Sadly, the fruit flies don't care - they seem to like plastic more than anything else.)

(How do I not have a fruit fly tag? I whine about them every year.)

Trying new classes at the gym (so you don't have to)

Yesterday I had plans to meet friends in Kanata at 6:15.

Rather than come home first, I went to the gym. As I walked in, I was reminded that there was a demo class happening at 5:30.

This was a drum class. (Warning - that link opens up a web page with sound).

I decided to give it a try - I wouldn't be able to stay for the whole thing, but it looked better than the elliptical.

I wandered over to the exercise room, and ... only two people were there. (Well, three if you could the instructor).

We set up our exercise balls - the other student and I each had one in front of us and one behind us. She had one to her left and I had one to my right. That way we could each move left or right and still have a ball in front of us.

We started with technique - how to hold the drumsticks, how to shuffle, how to move left and right, etc.

About 15 minutes in, the instructor turned on the music and we tried it all together.

It was fun, although my drumsticks went flying once and I knocked over a couple of exercise balls. (I always forget how terribly uncoordinated I am until I try something new.)

I don't think I would want to do this very often - there was a reasonable amount of pivoting, and I've hurt my knees and ankles too often to make that entirely safe - but it was a nice change.

(And yes, I was late getting to Kanata.)

Toy Story 3

Today was busier than I like my Saturdays to be.

In fact, this whole week has been remarkably busy - between BOLO and socializing and the gym and appointments (dentist, insurance, hair), it seems like it has been ages since I've had a chance to just sit. (This is inaccurate, of course. Most of last weekend involved not doing much.)

When Toy Story 3 came out, Wanda and I wanted to go see it. Tonight is the first time we were both free.

Before I saw it, I heard that it was good but everyone I know who saw it also said that they'd cried.

Now, I've been known to cry at cell phone commercials, so I was kind of expecting that I might have a similar issue.

The other thing I'd heard (from my niece) is that she liked the part with the potato head. That ... kind of puzzled me. Potato head has been in all of the movies - what could he do in this one that was so special?

Anyway, tonight we went to the theatre, bought our tickets, received our 3-D glasses, and took our seats.

The movie started, and I was ... kind of confused, at first. Eventually I figured out what was going on and started to get into the movie. (I should mention that it's a darker movie than the others - at one point, I compared it to a toy horror movie. Definitely scary for younger kids.)

Once the horror movie part was over, things started to resolve themselves. That's when we got to the crying.

Now, there have been a lot of movies were I might have been a little teary, but this one - I was crying for minutes. Tears running down my face, the whole works.

With, might I remind you, 3-D glasses over top of regular glasses. At that point, one or both of the glasses started fogging up.

It would have been funny to watch, let me tell you.

Luckily, they did some funny stuff over the credits, so I had time to compose myself.

(And the part with Mr. Potato Head was hilarious.)

BOLO

So last night was BOLO. This is the second (?) annual Blog Out Loud - dozens of Ottawa bloggers getting together to listen to volunteers read one (or more) of their entries.

I was pretty amazed at how many people showed up. Twenty-four people read, and I'd guess there were 60 or so people crowded into the room.

It was kind of like picking a link from someone's blogroll at random. Some entries I loved, some weren't my thing. I have a lot more blogs to check out soon, though.

I didn't stay through the whole thing - I needed to get the car home so Wanda could go to work, and I also needed to get some sleep so I could go to work today - but I enjoyed it (although it has been a long time since I've walked into a room where I didn't know anyone - man, that's hard to do).

I will say that everyone I talked to was very nice, and I wish I could remember more than two names. Alas, that's not how my brain works.

Summertime

This weekend was perfect for camping.

We drove out to the campground on Friday night. We didn't go far - Rideau River provincial park is about 30 minutes from here. There were three of us + our gear in the car, and it was packed. I was driving, and I couldn't see the backseat passenger.

We got there around 6:45 and were unpacked and set up by about 7:15. We wandered around and explored a bit, but mostly just sat around the fire.

Saturday morning, we - you guessed it - sat around some more. When I'm at home, that's not something I do at all, but when I'm camping I'm content to just sit. After a while, it got pretty warm, but the dining tent provided enough shade that we were comfortable.

After lunch, we went to the beach for a while. The water seemed incredibly cold, but I think that was because of how hot the air was - once I was in the water, it was pleasant. I managed to drag myself out of the water before I got burnt to a crisp.

Later, another friend came out to join us for the rest of the day and we all had a good time chatting and playing games. We also made bush pies (like grilled cheese sandwiches, except with apple pie filling instead of cheese) in my new bush pie makers.

The weather was beautiful, and the bugs were kept to a minimum, although as usual I did get a mosquito bite right where the strap of my sandal sits.

It has been a few years since I've been camping, and I'd forgotten how much I need this type of weekend.

Red & White

Happy Canada Day, everyone!

I worked today - in my job, we work stat holidays. The good side of that is that we can take the days off at other times.

There are some nice parts to working on a holiday - there is no traffic and the floor is quiet because our department is the only one working.

Also, my manager told us all to leave early today. I did not object in the slightest. I left 45 minutes early and drove to a local pick-your-own strawberry place. This is the first time I've been this year, and the season is almost over. I picked two baskets. Man, there's nothing like the taste of strawberries still warm from the sun. I swear they're 20% less tasty by the time you get them home.

Besides Canada Day, today marks the 1/2 way point of the year. It seems like a good time to go back and revisit my resolutions. Let's see how I'm doing (and which ones I've forgotten about).

1. There are currently 4 different types of body lotion in my bathroom. By the end of the year, I want there to be no more than two.

>> Done. As of this morning, there was one type of lotion (but two containers of it).

2. Get a job. (This is actually more important that the lotion resolution.)

>> Done. I started my current job Feb. 23. OK, it's a contract, but it counts ... right?

3. Make it to level 4 of boxing.

>> Done by the end of April.

4. Go on a road trip.

>> Um, no. Forgot about this one.

5. Clean out my closet and get rid of clothes I don't wear anymore. Drop them off to a charity that will use them.

>> Half done. I've done the cleaning part, just not the dropping off part.

6. Take a first aid course.

>> Forgot about this one, too. I want to have taken a first aid course, I just don't want to give up a weekend to do it.

7. Go camping (not counting Spark camp).

>> Half done. The trip is planned, it's just not completed yet.

8. Go cross-country skiing twice.

>> I only made it out once. Maybe it'll snow before Christmas?

How are you doing on your New Year's resolutions?

Shaking

I have a middle-of-the-day doctor's appointment coming up. I work towards downtown, my doctor works in Kanata, and I live in the middle, so I decided I should get set up to work from home so that I don't spend an hour driving each way.

Tuesday, I applied for access to work from home. (Since I am a contractor, I didn't think I got access automatically.)

Yesterday morning I found out that I did have access already, and I started installing the VPN software. It needed a restart, though, so I decided that I would let it install at the end of the day and take my laptop home on the weekend to try it out.

By now I'm sure that everyone has heard that Ottawa got hit with a minor earthquake yesterday afternoon.

It's not the first one - I remember feeling at least two others in the last 10 years, and I know there were more that I just didn't notice.

Yesterday's, though, was the first one that happened while I was at work. It's also the first one that happened while I was around other people, actually.

I was at my desk on the 9th floor of the building with two coworkers when it started shaking.

It turns out that an earthquake is almost as good as a power outage in making everyone stop what they're doing.

After it ended, everyone milled around and then we got the word to evacuate. By this time, it looked like it was pretty much over.

I work in a group of three towers, but they're pretty much the only tall buildings in that immediate area, so being outside wasn't the worst idea - and pretty much everyone in my department decided to work from home the rest of the day, so we all grabbed our laptops and headed outside.. I hadn't driven to work, so I got a ride with my neighbour.

When I got home, I saved everything I was doing and rebooted my computer. It finished installing the software, and I connected.

It's not the way I planned to test working from home, but it worked.

Accomplishments

Things I accomplished this weekend:

1. Buying a new washing machine
2. Buying mulch & distributing it around the yard
3. Cleaning off the table and the end table. (OK, they're not 100% clean, but they're better than they were.)
4. Dropping off some Sparks-related stuff
5. Fixing the napkin holder I broke at Thanksgiving
6. Cooking two meals today (lunch for the week & chicken salad for the evenings).
7. Cleaning off the lid to my hamper. (The lid sits behind the hamper 'cause I'm lazy, and it gets dusty).
   
8. Getting the oil changed in the car.
   
9. Cleaning out the shower drain. (Gross, yet satisfying.)
10. Made ice tea. OK, I do this often - I pretty much live on it in the summer - but my previous box of lemon tea was empty, so I opened my new box of Lemon Thriller tea. Man, I love that tea. I don't know why it is so much better than other lemon tea, but it is.
11. Pulled the cushions off the chair in the living room and vacuumed the chair.

Things I did not accomplish:

1. Pulling weeds out of the flower gardens.
2. Writing a post using sentences and paragraphs.
   

Belly dancing

I'm on the late shift this week, but yesterday I switched with a co-worker so that I could attend Wanda's belly dance performance. (I even skipped my last boxing class to attend.)

It was at the University of Ottawa. I drive through the campus every week on the way to boxing, but I've only been there once before, so I was a little concerned that I'd get lost (especially since I only got off work 1/2 an hour before the performance started).

It wasn't too bad, actually. I found parking and walked in the door just on time. Luckily, it was a belly dance show, so they started late.

Wanda's costume (which she started making on Sunday, which was far too late) looked good and I enjoyed her dance.

This show had performances by a lot of the local teachers and their students, so there were varying degrees of skill. Most of them were fun to watch (although there were a couple of soloists who were ... interesting at best).

After about an hour, there was an intermission. Afterward, Wanda and one of her classmates came to sit with me.

My major complaint about the evening was that the part after the intermission was longer than the part before the intermission. That's just wrong - but that's how the last belly dance show I was at was organized as well. By the end, I had had more than enough.

Four things

Ways I have injured myself in the last month:
1) Walking into a fire hydrant.
Result: bruise on my thigh the size of an apple.
2) Skipping at boxing.
Result: Not able to skip (or wear shoes without arch supports) for 3 weeks.
3) Unknown. (Probably running into the weight rack at the gym.)
Result: Bruise on my arm the size of a grape.
4) Burning my arm on the oven door.
Result: 3-inch long burn

Things I have need to have fixed/replaced in the last month:
1) Laptop computer ('cause I dropped a glass on the screen)
2) Desktop computer (destroyed by Windows update & a marginal hard drive)
3) Washing machine
4) The border around the flower garden

Good things from the last month:
1) Summer (!)
2) Job interview
3) The fact that I can have things fixed/replaced without having to worry too much about paying the bills
4) The tiny baby bunny that hangs out in my yard

Wringing out

I'm back from camp.

It was a lot of fun. We arrived at the Papanack Zoo a little before 11 and set up camp. There was a little rain while we were setting up, but it wasn't bad. After that, we had lunch, then we started our tour of the zoo.

Because we were doing a group camp, we had a guided tour of the zoo. We saw the tigers, donkeys, bison, goats, peacocks, a panther, baboons, swans, boars, foxes, and a bunch more animals I don't remember. Most of the afternoon was hot and sunny, but there was a sudden downpour that resulted in some of us getting wet, so we went back to camp to change and rest.

After supper, everyone got a cone of food to feed the more domesticated animals. We also had a campfire, then we got to watch them feed the lions.

It was an interesting day, and the girls had a wonderful time.

This morning we had to get up at 7. I woke up at 5 and thought "Yay, it's not raining."

The rain started at about 6:30.

We struck camp in the rain.

(Yes, I do have 2 tents drying in my basement.)

We were supposed to leave at noon, but it was cold enough and wet enough that everyone was gone a little after 11. (Since this was a mother-daughter camp, we had the luxury of ending early.)

It was a good experience. Maybe we'll go back in a couple of years.

Too busy for words

Well, I made it to the interview - which turned out to be next door to the place I used to work. You'd think I would have noticed the sign in the 2 years I worked there.

I'm not sure how it went - I think I might have been a little too comfortable. I know I was talking really fast - and yet I still managed to be there for 70 minutes.

After that, it was off to boxing. It was an easy week, but I started skipping again (I had passed on the skipping the last couple of weeks because I hurt my foot again), so it was still a good workout.

After class, I had a long discussion with of my classmates about her roller derby team. (Verdict: if I wasn't so afraid of hurting myself, I'd love to try it.) By the time I got home, I was hungry and exhausted.

The rest of this week has been busy getting ready for Spark camp. We leave tomorrow morning. It's going to be fun.

Let's hope it doesn't rain all weekend.

Hmm...

I got home today to find an e-mail asking if I was interested in a job interview - for a job I applied for last August.

I was not expecting that.

They wanted to interview me this week, but my schedule is pretty crazy this week - I work 8-4:30, and it's Spark camp this weekend. Next week I'm on the mid-shift, so I asked if they could interview me then.

I guess I'll see what they say.

This company is located on the same street as my previous job in Kanata. I like the location, but it's quite the hike from my current job.

I do like my current job - although I'd like more of a challenge - but my contract is over half over, so I need to be open to other possibilities.

[Edited to add: The interview is tomorrow at 5:30. ]

Scorching

It has been hot in Ottawa this week.

Really hot.

I believe we've had more hot days than the last two summers combined.

I'm enjoying it - when we don't get the warm weather in the summer, I feel like I've missed out. Since I'm on the late shift this week, I can spend the mornings outside - which is also when my backyard actually has shade.

Yesterday, the heat was more of a problem. You see, Tuesday night was hot (and I haven't resorted to air conditioning at home yet), so I was pretty warm when I woke up. I got up and went to the gym, then came home and got ready for work. (I had switched shifts, so I had to be there at 10.) I worked all day, then went to boxing.

I think I've mentioned that my boxing class is above a pool. It's always warm and humid. Yesterday was worse than usual - and it was boxathon week, which means 24 stations instead of 12.

I was on station 18 when I realized I'd better slow down. I didn't work nearly as hard at the last 6 stations, but I was still pretty warm when the class ended. I wasn't the only one - that kind of exertion is tough when it's that hot.

I came home and downed a lot of liquid, but I was still thirsty when I woke up this morning. I'm going to be recovering from that for a while.

In other news, I managed to break my laptop. Well, the laptop is fine, but the display is destroyed, so now I'm trying to figure out how to get it to display on an external monitor (and then I need to figure out whether it's worth trying to fix it or whether I should just get a new one). I guess I know what I'm doing this weekend...

Basking in the sun

Today is a stat. holiday in Canada (Victoria Day, in fact). It's the unofficial start of summer. Gardens get planted, the campgrounds open, and BBQs get fired up.

I don't get the day off. However, I'm on the late shift, so I don't start until 11:30. That means I've spent the morning enjoying the beautiful weather. I love lying outside reading a book in the summer - although it often results in just lying outside doing nothing. It's hard to believe that last weekend I was sitting outside feeling cold.

The flower garden is done - As expected, I finished it yesterday.

Here's a picture of the rotted boards that I replaced:

Here's the less-than-perfect finished project:
Oh well, it's done, the dirt is reasonably contained, and mini-sunflower is really cute.

All I wanted to do was plant some flowers

When I bought this house, there was a flower garden to the left of the walkway as you're walking to the front door. (You can see a picture of it in the glow-in-the-dark area of this post.)

It's not in line with the edge of the lawn on the other side of the walkway. In fact, it sticks out 4-6 inches. The border is made out of wood.

Well, actually, that should read "the border was made out of wood".

You see, wood rots and if, for example, you back your car into the protruding flower garden, the rotten wood breaks off.

Hypothetically, that is.

Anyway, that was two weeks ago. It was raining (of course), so I ignored it until it was sunny - and then last week I was busy with the rally, so today was the day.

My plan was to move the edge of the flower bed in while I was putting a new border on. I pulled out the rotten wood - the piece that fell off was built on top of another piece, so I had to pull them both out. When I got the second one out, I discovered that the driveway was paved to the edge of the flower bed. Moving the flower bed wasn't an option.

I toyed with a couple of options (buying replacement boards, building a proper retaining wall, etc.) but ended up just going with lawn edging for a couple of reasons:
1) The boards were attached using rebar, and I can't remove it
2) It's cheap
3) At some point, I'm going to build a garage (well, not by myself - I'll pay someone to do it). At that point, the driveway will have to be re-done, so I'll have the flower garden moved at that point

It's not done - I need another piece of edging and Home Depot is closed - but I'll be able to get it finished tomorrow if the weather is nice. If that happens, I'll finally be able to plant the flowers that are sitting in the middle of my driveway.

Fire hydrants are taller than I thought

Yesterday was Rally Day. As I mentioned on Friday, Girl Guides turns 100 years old today, so all across Canada, there were gatherings of Sparks, Brownies, Guides, Pathfinders, Rangers, Link, Trefoil Guild, and Guiders.

Our gathering was on Parliament Hill. We only had 2 girls attend, and both of their moms came as well.

We met at 9:15 and took the bus downtown. We already had our registration packet, so we got in line for the parade. There were between 2500 and 3000 people there, so the parade from the Supreme Court to the Parliament buildings took a while. We ended up near the front of the crowd, so we had a good view of the opening ceremony.

After that, we had a break for lunch before our first session. We rotated through different stations, doing origami, listening to stories, making crafts, attending a presentation by Ray's Reptiles, working on a graffiti mural, skipping, doing an egg and spoon race, and playing with giant beach balls.

The weather wasn't too bad - it was cloudy, and we needed a jacket when the sun was behind the clouds, but didn't need one when it was sunny.

The girls had a good time. The biggest drawback to the day was the supper, which took far too long. (They distributed the food by the colour of your wristband. It took us 2 hours to get called to go for food.)

As we were finishing our food, it started to drizzle, so we packed up and went to catch the bus home.

My day wasn't over, though. Last night was the last night of the NAC Pops series, so when I got home, I took a quick shower, changed, and went back downtown.

This show was Irving Berlin's music. It was an enjoyable show, even as tired as I was. I was a little afraid that it would drag simply because I was so tired, but it went quite quickly (although I almost fell asleep during the last number).

And yes, I walked into a fire hydrant in the morning. I have a huge bruise on my leg.

OC Transpo

For those of you who don't live in Ottawa, OC Transpo is the city bus company in Ottawa. Their (unofficial) motto seems to be "Buy a car".

Anyone who has ever taken the bus here has stories. Things like:
- the bus breaking down, so the passengers being left at the side of the road to wait for the next bus
- buses being early (and the next bus being late)
- the bus driver seeing someone running for the bus, stopping, then pulling away when the passenger stops to walk the last few feet to the bus door
- bus drivers being annoyed when someone asks them which direction they're going. (It's not always obvious - at the major bus stations, buses for both directions can stop in the same area.)
- bus drivers not calling out the stops - despite several court cases, the drivers rarely announce what stop they are at.
- drivers going through red lights

Don't get me wrong, there are good bus drivers out there - people who are cheerful and helpful, people who recognize the regulars and stop to wait for them. They might even be the majority, but enough of them have an unpleasant attitude to ruin the reputation of them all.

Girl Guides of Canada is 100 year old this year, and tomorrow there is a big rally at Parliament Hill. My group is taking the city bus downtown to attend, so I needed to buy bus tickets.

I usually try to have 4 bus tickets on hand (which is enough to get me two rides on the bus), but the tickets seem to expire constantly. This week I found 6 expired bus tickets.

OC Transpo will exchange those tickets - if you go to one of their 3 offices. These are also the places you go if you need to have your picture taken for your bus pass. The one in the West End is at Lincoln Fields, so after work I headed over there.

Naturally, these offices are accessible by bus. The one at Lincoln Fields isn't really accessible by car, though. There is no parking anywhere near it. I ended up parking in the parking lot for the Lincoln Fields mall (which isn't technically allowed, but my options were limited).

Why do they not have the office at a bus station that has a park & ride? Well, you see, if we make it easier for people to take the bus, people might actual start to take the bus.

I don't really understand it.

Back when I worked at a former job, there was a store on site. This was back in the tech boom, when people were changing jobs often. When someone would leave, we'd get a goodbye card and go out for lunch.

You would think that the store would be a good place to get goodbye cards, but it didn't carry them.

Why?

Because they sold out too fast.

Like OC Transpo, they kind of missed the point.

Yup, boxing again

Did I mention that I moved up to level 4 in boxing?

It seems like the kind of thing I'd talk about - probably for about an hour longer than anyone was interested in listening to me talk about it.

Anyway, I started level 4 last week.

It is definitely a step up from level 3. For starters, in level 3, you do 5 of each combination on your right (dominant) side, then 5 of each combination on the left (non-dominant) side. In level 4, you do one on each side, so you're constantly switching.

Also, in level 3 most skipping is backwards. In level 4, it's half and half.

I'm glad I started level 4 now. The absolute worst time to move up a level is at the end of June, because no one moves up in the summer and thus you have to wait until September (even if you box in the summer session). I did that after level 1, and I was really, really bored in the summer session. That won't happen this year.

Dad

My dad died last Thursday.

He has been in and out of the hospital for 13 years, so it wasn't a total shock - but on the other hand, no one expected it to be last week.

By 10:15 on Friday morning, Wanda and I were in Regina.

By Friday night, the details were sorted out - prayers on Sunday night, funeral on Monday, burial on Tuesday (because he wanted to be buried out of town).

I couldn't begin to tell you how many people dropped off food - which was wonderful, because cooking required more energy than anyone had. Left to our own devices, there is no way we'd have cleaned/acquired vegetables, so veggie trays were especially wonderful.

My niece and her puppy are taking this especially hard. Apparently, the puppy spent the first day wandering the house and sitting in dad's favourite chair. (After I got there, the puppy spent her time following me around looking cute and sitting whenever I had food in my hand in hopes of getting a treat.)

My niece alternates between sad ("Do you have the phone number of heaven? I want to talk to Poppa.") and pragmatic ("Grandpa's dead as a doornail." "Now Grandpa's dead, so we might as well chuck that out."). She's doing well, but it's a hard thing to deal with - especially when you're six.

Things went as well as possible. If I counted correctly, 25 (of 47) of my first cousins were at the funeral. That is especially surprising considering that my dad's brother died 3 weeks earlier and many of them traveled from outside the city (and province) to be there.

I got back to Ottawa last night, completely exhausted. I slept in this morning and then took a nap this afternoon, so hopefully I'll be ready to go back to work on Monday.

Have you seen my sweater?

After the week of rain, this weekend has been mostly sunny. It's wonderful. I don't realize how much I miss sunshine until it appears after days of rain. It's not as summery as last weekend, but still a very nice weekend for April.

I also managed to accomplish a lot this weekend. Yesterday I counted all of the cookie money and took it into the bank. After that, I went to boxing. It was coach's corner week, and I found out that I get to move to level 4! (Part of me still thinks I hallucinated that.)

Yesterday evening, I cleaned out my dressers and closets. I was looking for the sweater I couldn't find at Christmas. Yes, it's still missing. I didn't find it, but I did create a big garbage bag of clothes to be given away. Sadly, I do need new clothes - most of mine are wearing out - but yet I won't wear the ones I'm giving away. I now have a lot of empty hangers.

After that, I buckled down and finished my taxes. I usually do one pass and then wait a week or so that I can go back and look at it with a fresh eye to find all of the stuff that I missed the first time. Yesterday I did my second pass and filed them. What with being unemployed for 5 months of the year, I wasn't sure what to expect, so I was relieved to find that I am getting a refund. I'd prefer to break even - they don't owe me and I don't owe them - but a refund is definitely better than having to pay.

When I moved into this house, there was one of those things on the screen door that makes it close if you leave it open. (I have no idea what they are called and I'm too lazy to look it up.) Anyway, it kept falling off the door, so eventually I took it off until I had time to fix it properly.

*cough*

About a month ago - when I replaced the chain, in fact - I was at Rona and I saw newfangled replacement door-closing thingys. (I really should look up what they're called.) I bought one and started to attach it after I had replaced the chain, but it was cold and I broke a drill bit off in the hole I was drilling and then ... I just let the drill sit by the front door for a month and ignored the half-completed project.

This weekend was my weekend to finish it - in part because my Sparks are meeting here on Tuesday and having a drill sitting by the front door seems like a really, really bad idea. This morning I attached it, only to find out that I couldn't open the door enough.

I went out for an enjoyable lunch with some friends, then I came home and moved it. It is finally finished. (Yay!)

Both last weekend and this weekend have seemed longer than usual. Last weekend, I assumed it was because of Easter, but apparently that's not it. Maybe it's because I'm all adjusted to my new work hours and I'm waking up earlier?

Regardless of the reason, it's a nice situation to be in.

What do you call a sunny day after 2 days of rain?

Well, after the weekend's beautiful weather, the universe has retaliated by making the week cold and rainy - which, let's face it, is the opposite of the way these things usually work.

This week is my first week on the mid-shift. That means I start work at 10 and finish at 6:30.

When I work the day shift (as I have been since I started), I get up around 6:30, get to work by 8, work until 4:30, then go to the gym. Mondays and Thursdays I go to a class at the gym that starts at 5:30, so I finish that at 6:30. Basically, I get home at the same time now.

I went to the gym Monday morning for a 7 a.m. class, only to find out that it was canceled since some people (government employees, mostly) had the day off. Instead, I spent half an hour on the elliptical trainer and managed to mess up my foot. It's my own fault - the machine I picked squeaked if I stepped in the middle of the foot-thingy, so I kept moving my foot to the left. It turns out that that was a bad idea.

Since I hurt my foot, I haven't gone to the gym. As a result, I have tons of time in the morning. This morning I cleaned the house (including mopping the kitchen and bathroom) before I left fr work. Sadly, my leisurely mornings end tomorrow, since my foot is now recovered.

Next week, I'm back on the day shift, but the week after that comes the late shift (11:30 - 8). I'm kind of curious about how I'll like that.

I am completely exhausted. I suspect part of it is because of the time change.

What's that? The time change was weeks ago?

I wish someone had told my alarm clock that. You see, I bought my alarm clock years ago. It changes time automatically - but unfortunately, the dates on which the time changes were shifted a couple of years ago. This means my alarm clock is wrong four times a year - including this morning. Yup, it woke me up an hour early.

Other contributing factors include me being too foolish to go to bed at a reasonable hour, excessive food preparation (for no good reason - it's not like I had people over today), and the fact that I worked Friday, which made Thursday evening exhausting.

This coming week I work from 10 - 6:30. My plan is to get up and go to the gym in the morning. That should (in theory) give me a reasonable amount of time in the evening.

Also, remember the online book club I'm participating in? Our first book was Twilight. Our second book is Moby-Dick.

I need to read 10 chapters by Thursday. So far, I have read one. I'm finding it interesting, but it's harder to read than, say, a book that doesn't mention a spleen in the first paragraph. I think I'll take it to work to read during lunch. The weather has been beautiful lately, so hopefully I'll be able to sit outside in the sun and read. Wish me luck.