Happy Birthday, Miss B!

I haven't seen my niece in person in over a year, but it is her birthday today! (I do get SnapChat pictures from her,usually looking mildly annoyed, even though I send her awesome pictures like this one:

I've known her since before she realized she could straighten out her legs. 

And somehow, she grew up. (I did not agree to this.) Happy birthday, B! 

Ukulele

For Christmas, I got a kit to build a ukulele. I was super excited about it.

The bare ukulele kit

First, I painted it. I drew criss-crossing lines on the ukulele, then painted each section a different colour. After that dried, I pained black lines of various widths between the colours. I added one coat of varnish - I didn't want to varnish too much since it might affect the sound.

Then I assembled it. It wasn't difficult, but some instructions would have been nice!

Goodbye, 2020

 This has been quite an unusual year, so I wanted to look back on what happened.

In January, my Girl Guide trip to Yellowknife was (finally!) approved, and we started fundraising. We had a craft night in February, and started running escape rooms. 

And then in March, the pandemic hit. I started working from home; Girl Guides were not allowed to meet. I created new escape rooms online, and we continued running those until the end of June.

I changed jobs in April, and now work with a bunch of people I've never seen in person.

In May, Wanda and I painted the living room/dining room/hallway, which is always a huge job. Shortly afterwards, I painted the upstairs bathroom, which is much easier.

I got other stuff done around the house, too - I recaulked the kitchen and upstairs bathroom; I glued down the tile that's been loose for a long time; and I built a hammock stand.

And then, in July, I gave in and got a proper desk to work from. It was well worth it. It's a floating desk, and I set it at standing height. I also bought a drafting (i.e. tall) chair. It's working well.

I recertified my first aid, did a psychological first aid course online, and finally did the boater's course. 

Pathfinders started up in the fall, and we started meeting outside in my backyard. That's working well - we may stay outside even once the pandemic is over. 

I bought new living room furniture (which will arrive on Saturday), bought a Nintendo Switch so I can spend time with my friend Luigi, bought more takeout meals than ever before, and bought a pair of slippers that I love.

I've eaten all but 2 meals at  home since March. (I ate in my car during the first aid course, and I ate lunch at a Pathfinder day camp in November.)

This is the first time in my life I haven't traveled for Christmas. 

I've started playing board games online with friends.

I made a quilt for the friend I do Pathfinders with.

I had several trips planned for this year; none of them happened. But I had vacation time to help a friend with cancer, and I had time off to recharge.

I miss socializing in person, and restaurants, and movies. But I'm doing OK.

Bring on 2021.

Totally certifiable

 Back in March, I said "I'm finally going to do my boater course since there's nothing else to do." I finally did it last weekend. I choose freecourse.ca, which is a lot of reading - and you have to spend a certain amount of time on each page, so I kept getting distracted and wandering off. But I finished the course, and ordered my card.

A couple of weeks before that, I did a one-day first aid recertification course. I debated on whether to do it or not - you have to go to an in person class, which I wasn't thrilled about - but I ultimately decided it would be worth it, since we have no idea when life will go back to what used to be normal. 

After I did that, I did an online psychological first aid course from the Red Cross - it a short course, but was interesting. 

That's probably enough certifications for a while. 

I'm running out of projects to do around the house - except for the ones that involve cleaning, which somehow never make it to the top of the list. My Christmas gifts have been bought and shipped to my mom, who is wrapping them for me. 

But luckily (?) the house is keeping me busy. First there were the mice - one in March, two in September, and then 2 in November. I called an exterminator after we caught 2 in one day in November, and he set traps everywhere. Since he didn't catch any, he thinks they were just an isolated incident, but he did seal up all of the holes on the house to stop more from getting in.

And then the pipe from the laundry room started backing up, so I called a plumber. He cleared the issue, but that pipe is going to need to be replaced.

And before all of that started, I bought new living room furniture. It's been an expensive month, is what I'm saying. 

(I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy a Nintendo Switch, as well. I need something to get me through what will be a pretty boring winter. I miss restaurants.)

Thanksgiving

 It was a quiet weekend, for the most part. I did some cleaning, made Thanksgiving dinner, had some zoom calls with friends and family.

My cousin and I have been doing weekly hikes, so we did that on Sunday morning. I'm really enjoying them - it's a way to get outside and enjoy the weather.

My Pathfinders are still meeting outside, which also gives me a chance to get outside more. The girls are great - we have a big group (15 girls, which is a good size for this age group) and they're all lovely kids. And they strongly prefer outdoor meetings to online meetings, so we will stay outside until public health or Girl Guides tell us to stop.

We're also selling mint cookies; if you're in the market and you live in Canada, you can support us by buying here: https://secure.girlguides.ca/site/TR/E-Cookies/Region-ON?team_id=2964&pg=team&fr_id=4491

Pandemic life continues

Wanda and I took a week off at the beginning of August and did some day trips. We went camping, did a maze through a marsh in a paddle boat, visited the lost villages museum, and the ruins of St. Raphael’s church.

And then my fridge broke and I had to get a new one. Fun fact: large appliances are hard to get due to the pandemic, but I was able to get one in about 10 days. 

I made a bunch of masks.

At the start quarantine, I saw some videos about flow painting. Basically, you thin paint and then pour it once canvas. This weekend I tried it.

In the black, white, and red painting, I laid a piece of wool on the canvas and put red, gold, and white paint on the wool. Then I filled in the rest of the canvas with black and then pulled the wool off. 

The next painting was a dirty cup - you put the paint into the cup in layers, then tip the cup upside down onto the canvas and tip the canvas to help the paint spread.

The next one has the same colours as the dirty cup pour, but instead of dumping the cup upside down, I poured it out while making small circles with my hand. Again, I tilted the canvas to spread the paint. I like the lines that result from this pour. 

Online shopping

I’ve done a fair amount of online shopping for years, but the pandemic has stepped up the variety of places I've shopped. Some are great; some are good; and some are terrible.

The terrible:

Best Buy - not my purchase, but my mom ordered (and paid for) an iPad early in the pandemic. It did not arrive, as clearly showed by the tracking number, but Best Buy has not refunded her. It's now at a credit card dispute.

IKEA - I ordered a coffee press on April 4. A couple of weeks later I contacted them to ask when they expected it to ship. The rep I was talking to said it had shipped. A month after I placed the order, it still hadn't shipped according to their site and customer service was no longer reachable. I asked them for a refund on Twitter, which also didn't arrive. Another credit card dispute. (Curbside pickup was all but non-existent here last time I looked, and the line to get in is huge. Moral of the story: no IKEA for the foreseeable future, don't even look.)

The good:

Rona - in-store pickups take a couple of weeks last time I tried, but online orders ship quickly. I ordered a desk from them (time to stop working at the kitchen table) and it shipped within a couple of days. Unfortunately, Purolator took a couple of weeks to get it here, but that's on them, not Rona.

Cabelas - Ordered coffee press #2 from here. They were good about telling me when it would ship, and meeting the date. Unfortunately, UPS took longer than expected to get it here; not Cabela's fault, though.

Amazon - back during the coffee press saga, they were forecasting a month for 2-day delivery. That seems to have fixed itself, though. (Although I have now cancelled Prime so I don't buy from them as often.)

Costco - They forecast a couple of weeks for an order, and meet or beat their estimates.

The great:

Staples - I ordered a monitor, keyboard/mouse, power bar, headset, and paper on Monday night; by Wednesday night I had everything except the headset, which is projected to be here on Monday.

Walmart - again, ordered some shirts and a set of shelves on a Monday and had everything by Thursday.

Indigo - ordered some books on Tuesday, had them by Thursday.

More COVID projects

A couple of weeks after we painted the living room, I painted the upstairs bathroom. I love the new look, particularly because I took down the blinds and put that film on the windows that keeps people from being able to see in. It’s so bright!

I bought a new TV, and Wanda and I mounted it from the ceiling.

 I made donuts.

 I built a hammock stand.

 And I made a quilt for a friend who is pregnant. It turned out well and definitely ended up differently than it would have if fabric stores were easily accessible. (They’re open; I’m not going.)

And I made a fundraising escape room that is open to the public: https://girlguidestravel.wixsite.com/website/laurasecord

Next is probably building a proper work area - I’d like to buy the desk, but it is in short supply so I might have to build it.

Painting

Last weekend was the long weekend, and Wanda and I painted the living room/dining room/hallway - 11 walls, 9 doors, and 4 windows.

It was exhausting!

Now it’s done, which is amazing.

While we were painting, we ate outside in the pergola I bought last year, and we’ve kept doing that. It’s so nice to be able to sit comfortably outside to eat. I’ve used the fire table as a fire-free table all week, and it works great!

In other news, the coffee press from Cabela’s finally arrived. The IKEA refund did not, so now I have to follow up on that.

When we started painting, it was spring; for the last week, the weather has been summer. It’s lovely.

My other project this week was finishing up an online escape room fundraiser for my travel group, and that’s finally done. As part of that, I pulled out a bedspread my grandmother made for a picture. I always loved it, but have never actually used it, but now it’s on my bed.

I miss being able to get stuff

On April 4, Wanda dropped and broke the coffee press. I went on to Amazon, discovered that they weren’t shipping for a month, then ordered on from IKEA. They charged me immediately.

A couple weeks later I contacted them and asked how delayed they expected it to be. The person I chatted with told me it was being shipped that day.

A week after that, I ordered coffee press #2 from Cabela’s. It was supposed to arrive May 6.

In the meantime, I tried to contact IKEA again, but neither chat nor phone support was available for days. I finally tweeted at them and got them to cancel my order (and supposedly refund it, but that hasn’t happened yet.)

I also put a coffee press in my next grocery order. (It was out of stock, so no luck there.)

May 6 came and went, with no coffee press. It appears that it’s lost in the mail, since it hasn’t moved since Tuesday.

Friday I ordered a coffee press for pickup. I got it today. (Canadian Tire came through!)

(The Amazon one would have been faster.)

Hanging in there

Easter was weird. No Easter Vigil, no colouring eggs (we could have but didn’t bother), no guests for the big meal.

We did have a family zoom call, which was fun. And the weather was nice.

This past week I hit a point where I’d had enough. I was tired of having to plan ahead, and of not seeing people, and I just wanted to go back to normal. Luckily, a day or so later, that passed.

I’ve been playing online board games with family and friends on the weekends. We start a zoom call and then go onto boardgamearena.com. We can talk and play at the same time. It’s not the same as being in the same room, but it’s pretty close. I bought the premium membership (which came to $37 CDN) which allows me and Wanda to play at the same time, and also allows us to play all of the games. Well worth it.

Still here

I’m still here, and all is well with us.

I haven’t run out of projects, but I’ve run out of quick wins. My free time this past week has been spent trying to figure out how to move our escape room fundraisers online. (Not there yet, but I’m making progress!)

I went for a walk with a friend yesterday, which was nice even though we had to walk 6 feet apart. Today it rained, so I stayed inside.

The snow is melting, which is nice. Soon I’ll be able to sit outside by the fire table. (For 30 seconds, until I get cold. Still, summer is coming.)

The last couple of days

Yesterday I decided to clean my bedroom. I moved all the furniture, vacuumed behind everything, dealt with the books that I dropped when I had a broken leg ... well, let’s just say a deep cleaning was well overdue.

As part of the cleaning, I found some stickers I bought in November and mounted them in some wooden tiles I had lying around.

Today I started work on some ditty bags that my travel group is going to auction off. (A ditty bag is a bag containing a dishes for a single person.) I made 4 sets.

I’ve been working on the auction site itself, but it’s not ready to go yet. 

An unexpected twist

Last night, we were told that the network couldn’t handle everyone working from home, so only people on critical projects should log in,

That’s right, I’m no longer working from home. I am still getting paid, which is good. But I need to entertain myself.

I made the traditional green pie this morning, and then I spent some time today working on a website for a silent auction for my pathfinder trip. And I went for a walk at lunch.

I miss the amount of walking I normally do on a work day - not the walking to and from the bus, which I can replace, but the casual walking to get some water or go to the bathroom.

Work from home, day 1

Last night at 9:30 we were finally told to work from home today. Wanda had made arrangements last week to work from home, and I did not want to go out and bring the virus back, so I was glad to stay home.

One of the last things I did last week was buy an extra monitor, which I gave to Wanda. (It’s much bigger than our existing monitor, and her work needs it more than mine.)

I had 4 meetings scheduled today, but none of them ended up happening - our web conferencing software was too overwhelmed yo be useful. Still, I was able to get some work done.

Since my Pathfinders can’t currently get together, fundraising is hard, but I spent some time yesterday and after work tonight working on some stuff we can auction off or use as samples at our next craft night.

Letters from my couch

Ottawa got its first confirmed case of the Covid-19 virus last week - and as of earlier today the number is 10. The Ottawa Catholic Churches are closed, Girl Guides events are cancelled, and Ottawa Public Health has advised people to stay home.

I’m pro staying home - we have plenty of food, and are ready to spend significant time here - but my employer hasn’t yet told us to stay home, which means I have to go in for my French test tomorrow.

It’s weird having nothing urgent to do. I’m taking a group of Girl Guides to Yellowknife next year, so  usually I’m preparing for a fundraiser or filling out paperwork - but right now there’s nothing that needs to be done. It’s strange.

I have done some prep for our next craft night in May, but that’s a long way away!

Happy birthday, Kiddo!

Hard to believe she’s now old enough to drive! Happy birthday, Miss B!

Merry Christmas!

Well, it’s almost the end of the year, and I’ve managed to update twice so far.

It’s been a busy year. My Saskatchewan trip with Girl Guides took up the beginning of the year, and then I had to wrap it up. By the time that was done, we were starting the plans for our next trip, Yellowknife in March, 2021. We have 3 leaders and 11 girls going, and we need 4 more girls. And trip approval, which is taking forever.

I also went to a bunch of provincial parks, spent something like 17 nights camping, had the sewer pipe to the house replaced, made a sofa table,  and made a quilt for Wanda’s birthday.

And I’ve started taking a sword and shield class, which I enjoy when I’m there but feels like it takes too much time when I’m not.

Hopefully next year brings a little more downtime, and a little more balance.

My summer

It’s been a busy summer!

Back in June, I bought a Cricut machine. It cuts vinyl and fabric. (Other stuff, too, but I’ve only tried vinyl and fabric.) I’ve made a bunch of t-shirts since I got it, including my new favourite camp shirt (“unapologetically bossy”).

I also used it to cut hexagons for some quilts for a friend who is having twins.

At the beginning of June, my Girl Guid travel group went to Saskatchewan. We’d done a lot of fundraising - 288 cartons of cookies, 23 Girl Guide escape rooms, and 3 public escape rooms - and it was definitely worth it, even though we had a few mishaps. We start planning the next trip in September.

Mom came down for a week, so I got to spend time with her.

And last weekend, I started making a sofa table.

Happy Birthday, Miss B!

Back around New Year’s, I planned to write a summary of 2018. That obviously didn’t happen; between work and escape room fundraisers and fighting with my snow removal company (don’t go with Metro Snow and Ice), the last two months have flown by.

And that means it’s time to wish my niece a happy birthday. (I sent her a text this morning that said “happy unbirthday” - she replied “unthanks”.

She was so excited about the train ride that we needed to take a picture with the conductor.

Christmas 2018

Christmas 2018

With Grandpa

Cool kid

The first picture

Happy birthday, Miss B! Here’s to many more.