Saturday & Sunday June 26 & 27, 2010

Thanks to Judilyn for the assistance with our Mac problem. Gordon says the file juicer program worked pretty well. Much better than me going through and deleting all the gibberish.

Saturday

It was raining when I woke up so didn't get to go for my walk.

We hung around the house on Saturday. I had a nap and rolled up a lot of coin that's been hanging around forever in various spots.

Saturday night it cleared up and we went for a walk downtown. We even had a pretty nice sunset.

This is the Giant Tiger store sign downtown

Falls beside the Rideau Canal Museum

Lilies heading for the sky

Victoria RV park across the canal
Water drops on leaves

I really like this old house - it's been made into apartments but look at that verandah!

Saturday night sunset



Sunday

Sunday wasn't a good day although there was no rain and I did get to go for my walk.

Murphy's Law was around for much of the day and it really got me down but I'm sure things will be better tomorrow.

I had a short nap so that helped a bit.

I talked to my sister. She was at the cottage and things are going well there.

Thursday and Friday June 24 & 25, 2010

Thursday

I woke up to rain so stayed in bed for a while longer listening to the rain and the radio. By the time I got up I had a headache so whether it's from staying in bed or atmospheric pressure, who knows?

Thursday's rain taken from the front door

Thanks to Alfreda for identifying the Virginia Creeper as my plant growing on the shed. I'll quit looking for clematis flowers now! LOL

It appears that everyone must have a life but me. No one is doing Jigzone puzzles anymore. I still do one every morning and sometimes more during the day. They're kind of fun and it keeps me off Bejeweled for a while. I should stop altogether and get at the basement!

It seems that not only did we have a major earthquake in this area yesterday but the pretty little town of Midland on Georgian Bay that we visited last summer when we stayed in Orillia was hit by a tornado. It took Environment Canada a while to determine that it was a tornado but one look at this photo would have told me!

Photo taken from the Weather Network news page

After a shower, I started on the basement, three more boxes emptied but there's still lots of stuff I can't find!

Friday

Gordon used to do a newsletter every so often after he moved up here in 1990 to send to friends and family in the U.S. He still has the soft copies but unfortunately the programs that he used to compose them don't work on the Intel Mac so he's been trying to find a way to open them so we can determine when we crossed the border since 1992. We need this for the Immigration lawyer, I have no idea why as they should have records of when we crossed the border. We always show our passports. Anyway, Gordon wasn't having any luck but he did have text files. So my job has been to go through the text files and take out all the gibberish that would have been photos and formatting etc in the original files.

That kept me busy today until we left to go to Ottawa. We were going to my sister's for dinner as it is my nephew/godson's 25th birthday today. Quite a milestone!

We had some errands to run first so arrived at their house around 4:30 p.m. Nick and Becky were already there but Danica was leaving to referee the top women's soccer league in Canada so we only got to see her for a few minutes.

Nick doesn't like cake so he always gets a birthday pie, blueberry, his favourite! Here's he's blowing out the candles on his pie.

Modeling his new golf shirt

Becky, Nick and Margie

We took our own dinner as Nick always requests baked spaghetti for his birthday, we can't eat the noodles and I also can't have the tomato sauce or cheese so it's just easier this way.

We had a nice time until Gordon checked his ipod and saw that the money had come through for a photo order that he's been waiting for for DAYS! So we had to leave and get home so he could send the photos to the purchaser. It was a BIG order! The largest he's ever had.

On our way out of Ottawa I saw this strange looking bicycle


After we got home and the photo order taken care of we were just in time to head over to Kilmarnock for sunset. And a pretty one it was!

A loon in sunset light

Tuesday & Wednesday June 22 & 23, 2010

Tuesday

Unlike yesterday, today's humidity was 73% and the temperature was only 21C (70F)! I was out for my walk earlier than normal today as we had plans to go into Ottawa.

Gordon had browned some pork tenderloin last night so I put it in the crockpot with some leftover canned veggies and a package of onion soup mix.

We headed out for Ottawa around 10 a.m. and stopped at Gordon's friend, Leroy's house. Leroy is our 'Mac' person. Gordon was looking for a commercial grade 2 TB hard drive which Leroy had. While he was there I hit a couple of grocery stores looking for a specific product but didn't find it.

After we left Leroy's we stopped at Best Buy and Future Shop as Gordon had his eye on a camera and he wanted to price it before going to his favourite camera store, Henry's. That done, we stopped at Home Depot to price vanity counters then on to Henry's. Gordon dropped me at FabricLand as I wanted to look for a blue and yellow fabric for chair cushions and a tablecloth for the dining room. I didn't find anything I liked but Gordon came back with a camera!

Gordon's new pocket camera




The only two blue/yellow/gold fabrics I could find

I didn't think this one would stand up to chair cushions

And this one was too loud!


Since it was nearly 1 p.m. and I had a gift card for Swiss Chalet we went there for lunch! Yay, I don't have to cook dinner tonight. The crockpot can go back in the fridge for another day.

Then we stopped at Natural Food Pantry to pick up some gluten free bread and also bread mix. Since Gordon hasn't been eating corn tortillas, he's been eating more bread. All symptoms point to a possibility that he's developed a sensitivity to corn.

On from there to stop and see Max. He was glad to see us and vice versa. He's such a funny dog, he almost purrs when you rub his belly or scratch his ears!

Max was happy to see us!


A short stop at Walmart to look at camera bags and we were on our way back to the beautiful little town of Smiths Falls!

We just got home when it started to rain and the temperature dropped quite a bit.

Wednesday

The day started out with 93% humidity but it was still around 19C (66F) so it wasn't too bad for my walk. There was quite a breeze blowing which I was thankful for.

This morning I got some cleaning done, my least favourite thing to do. When I was working when I started making enough money, I always had someone come in every two weeks but now I can't justify it. Lifting that central vac hose around isn't a lot of fun! The one in the RV is shorter and lighter but this is an old system. I expect the new systems have lighter hoses and cleaning wands.

Gordon got some of the half assed work that the previous owner did on the front porch fixed this morning. It looks much better. They have the front porch and steps covered with black indoor/outdoor carpet which has badly worn and the steps are crumbling, something else to do! I'd like to take the carpet off but I'm scared of what's underneath. He also took down the Christmas lights. Half of them weren't working anyway. They were put up with bits of string and shoelaces. Not very attractive!

We went out this afternoon and Gordon found a camera bag for his new camera. While out I got some more photocopying done to send to the Immigration lawyer and some other errands run.

We had just gotten home when we felt something that was like a big truck going by. A few minutes later I found that another lady that I used to work with that lives here in Smiths Falls felt it too. So we decided it had to be an earthquake. Then news started popping up on news sites that it was indeed an earthquake and a pretty strong one to boot. Here's the link.

This climbing plant is growing on our garage. Can anyone identify it? We thought it was clematis at first.

Sunday & Monday June 20 & 21, 2010

Saturday evening

After I posted, Gordon decided he wanted to go for a drive so away we went to the wilds south west of here about an hour or so away. We found some nice spots for photos and a really beautiful spot for sunset.

Osprey on nest


Along County Road 10 southwest of Smiths Falls


The sunset over Devil Lake


In response to Penny's comment on my last blog about our vanity, the vanity is 49 inches long and 19 inches wide and the sink is offset to the right hand side.

Sunday

We went out to pick up a few things Sunday morning. It was very hot and humid today although not what folks in the U.S. are experiencing.

This afternoon we went to the RV to get some more stuff. The interior is cleaned out and just the lower storage area left for another day. We took some photos around the park but the mosquitoes were out in force today!

A flower in the Tranquil Acres garden


There was a beautiful sunset tonight but I elected not to go out. Bummer! Gordon saw three loons at Kilmarnock Lock where it also has a beautiful view of the sunset. Oh well, I'll learn! I did take a photo of it from our front yard.

Taken from our front yard


Monday

The humidity was gone as I went out for my walk. It was really beautiful and sunny. I'm enjoying my ipod with all the new music I've put on it.

Gordon got some little jobs looked after today. He worked on plugging the hole in the cinder block foundation and also worked on straightening and securing the rain gutter that is part of the porch canopy. The guy who owned the house before us was a Red Green type of person - fix it with baler twine and duct tape and he was supposedly a contractor. Sure hope he did better on the houses he was building than he did on his own house!

I went out and picked up some groceries and a couple of trips were made to the hardware store. Glad it's not far to go!

This afternoon I had a nap as my eyes were getting really tired.

It was a really nice day, sunny and warm 32C (89F) but with 39% humidity. Dee, you need to be up here!

Friday & Saturday June 18 & 19, 2010

Thanks to everyone who left a comment saying they still liked to read my blog.

Thursday night

Got my first phone call on the RV. Unfortunately the Titanium was too heavy for their truck. So far I've gotten three scam emails and this call. Not much happening there since I first put it up for sale online in May.

Friday

Friday was a beautiful, bright, sunny day. I started the day off with my walk.

In yesterday's paper it said that tax bills had been mailed out and were due June 30th. I hadn't received a tax bill so I called the Town Tax Office and was told we weren't showing as the owner of our house. So I called the lawyer's office AGAIN and this time spoke to the secretary and told her of the problem. I said that the lady at the Tax Office needed a fax from them TODAY!

I then went out to run some errands, one of which was going to Home Hardware to discuss options for our vanity.

#1 option is to go with the moulded vanity top and sink like we have now. Since our sink is offset to the right the cost is $630.00 plus tax.

#2 option is to go with a bar counter which has no backsplash and the only sink they have that would fit is a vessel sink which would be sunk into the counter with just an inch or so above the counter. That would fit the tap we had installed yesterday. The cost for the counter would be about $175 and the sink is $60. We would then have to put tile where the backsplash is presently.

#2 is a less expensive option but more work. Decisions, decisions. I think we'll let it be for a while. We've had a few really expensive months.

After that I went to Walmart as I needed to pick up some stuff.

On my way home I stopped at the Tax Office. They had received the fax from the lawyer's office and Beth (lady in Tax Office) said she was going to email our lawyer as he is causing problems. Apparently this isn't the first time he's led new owners astray. I got the tax bill and paid it.

When I got home, I decided to sit outside on the swing. It was cool out there even though it's 28C (82F) under the tree and I had to get a blankie.

Saturday

It was nice and sunny when I got up and went for my walk. While I was out I attended a couple of garage sales and found some glass desert plates at one - 6/$1. I didn't have any money so came home and got my $1 and went and got them. Luckily it was just in the next block.

After breakfast I started the laundry. Gordon said he wanted to go out to get a saw as he needed to cut the downspout extensions so we set off finally ending up at Canadian Tire where we got what we needed. It clouded over when we were out and shortly after our return to the house it started to rain. This is what I saw on the radar. Luckily it's only a thin line of storms coming our way. Most of it was going north of us.



While we were away this morning doing errands, I had a CD that was downloading to my ipod nano. It's really easy to do. I've nearly exhausted all our CD collection, which wasn't very big to begin with however they are all now on my ipod. I really like Shania Twain but that's all I've had on it for a few weeks so I thought I should update it and have more to listen to on my morning walks.

I sat outside after the rain and read for a bit. It didn't amount to much.

View from my lawnchair

Our front door


Gardens

I don't know what this tree is called but my sister calls it an upside down tree


When I came in I had this craving for peanut butter cookies but wasn't sure I had any shortening. I did and here they are! I rarely make cookies and when I do they are not usually made from scratch but thanks to Nancy for the recipe!

Peanut Butter cookies



Hope all the fathers out there have a Happy Father's Day tomorrow!

Wednesday & Thursday June 16 & 17, 2010

Wednesday

I went for my walk this morning. It was cloudy but hadn't started raining.

Other than that not a lot was accomplished today. We went out to Home Hardware and found that they don't cut counters there. They have to be ordered and since ours is a special size it will probably take two weeks. I phoned Rona and they said the same thing. I called Home Depot in Carleton Place - ditto for them.

So, Gordon called the plumber with the idea of cutting out the counter we have to fit the new sink. We'll see what happens there.

We went back out this afternoon to Home Hardware and picked up some caulking that expands for the hole in our cement block foundation. The inspection had said it wasn't serious but it did need to be done. We also got some downspout extensions. Home Hardware is becoming almost a daily event!

This afternoon I had a nap and I slept very deeply. I had a dream that my stepdaughter, Michelle came to visit with the two girls and some other lady and Faith found another bathroom in the spare room. You wonder where these things come from. I also remember thinking that I didn't have enough meat loaf to feed everyone and wondered what I was going to feed them when the door bell rang and woke me up. Gordon went and it was some guy selling home alarm systems. That's not something you buy from a door to door salesman!

It rained hard this afternoon for a while. I think we've had enough now and this summer is now feeling suspiciously like last summer. At least everything is green and the rain doesn't bother me as much in a house as it would in the RV. More pouring rain after dinner!

We went out for sunset as it looked like it might be a good one but it fizzled. We did get some photos before it fizzled, then went to a different spot and took a photo of this old boat. The Fire Department were playing with their hoses and I had to cross the locks to get over to see it. Scary!

Sunset from Lower Reach Park near us


Firemen playing with their hoses


Crossing the locks


Boat houses near locks




Old boat at locks

Osprey in nest


Thursday

It rained a lot overnight. I woke up around 3 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep. When Gordon got up around 5 a.m. I turned on the radio. That usually works to put me back to sleep and it did it's work.

Since the plumber was scheduled to arrive at 9 a.m., I reluctantly got up at 7 a.m. and headed out for my walk. There were lots of big puddles around but it wasn't raining. It was chilly though at 14C (57F) with quite a breeze. It seemed strange walking that early. Instead of lots of kids around when I usually walk, there were lots of people going to work.

By noon the plumbers were gone. I had a new kitchen sink and taps, the downstairs bathroom was fixed, the inside part of the outside tap was fixed but they couldn't find a sink small enough to fit in the vanity we have in the upstairs bathroom. Gordon decided we should just replace the taps today and we'd do some research on a bathroom vanity. I had found a small sink at Home Depot in Carleton Place and it would fit but the taps would have to be offset, which is a possibility. The other possibility is to go back to the moulded sink that we have now as they do make those vanities in the right size. It still has to be ordered as our sink is offset so that's possibility number two.

I was too tired to think about it so even though we still had lots to do I decided to lay down and have a nap. It turned into about 3 1/2 hours but I felt like I would live.

The day also turned into a bright sunshiny one so another day I spent having a nap when it was beautiful.

For those of you that I'm boring to tears with my blogs lately, remember it's a diary for me too!

Monday & Tuesday June 14 & 15, 2010

Monday

This morning was kind of rainy so I just piddled around the house, didn't do anything useful.

We had an appointment in Ottawa with our financial people to get set up with some life insurance and a follow up appointment with my family doctor to discuss the results of the tests taken after my annual medical. All my tests were within normal range but she is concerned that I might have sleep apnea so she's scheduling me for the overnight test.

In between appointments we stopped at Ikea and I found a stool to hold my fan. I always have a fan on at night in the bedroom and I'd been using my outdoor table but I need my outdoor table for beside my swing so I've been looking for something for a while, something else off the list!

My new stool holding the fan


That accomplished we stopped at Natural Food Pantry to get some gluten free stuff, then we had an early dinner at Wendy's before going to see another desk that I had found yesterday. We needed something to put our new printer and the scanner (that's still in the RV) on. It was in good shape and was a fair price so we loaded it on the truck and it's now in the office.

The office is furnished now


I've discovered that lifting something heavy immediately after eating is not a good idea. It causes a lot of gastric discomfort! Remind me not to do that again.

Only a couple of more things are needed - a small freezer and some sort of storage for extra bedding - a dresser or chest of some kind.

We had rain and cool temperatures on our way in to Ottawa and sunshine and warmer temperatures on our way home.

Tuesday

I've felt lethargic for some time now on waking up in the morning. This is one of the reasons why my doctor wants to send me for sleep apnea testing. As I've said before I've been very negligent in going for my morning walk so since it was bright, sunny and beautiful this morning I decided to get off my butt and go. I really enjoyed the walk and even did a bit of running but I still feel lethargic!

I called the Smiths Falls hospital to see if they can do the sleep apnea test here but they don't have the equipment so I guess I'll have to go to Ottawa. Bummer!

I got some energy later in the morning and got the front door washed, then I washed some of the siding around the door. After that, I went to the basement and tackled some of the boxes. I made a lot of headway.

The plumber stopped by to show me some brochures on sinks and taps. We picked out what we wanted. They said we should go to Home Hardware and pick out our counter top. Later in the afternoon they got back to us with a good price and they will start the job on Thursday. It will be good to get it done before the dreaded HST tax starts on July 1st. Instead of 5% on some items, we will now be charged 13%. It's too complicated to explain and very depressing! The provincial government tells us it will create jobs. Let's hope so, some good has to come of it.

This afternoon I put a bread mix in the breadmaker, then took off to pick up some groceries. My new stamp came in so now I have a pre-inked stamp with our address on it. No more hand writing!

Sunday June 13, 2010

This morning we headed out to more flea markets. On the way to one we saw a garage sale so stopped on the way back. I got an inside garbage can that is separated with one small black box and one small blue box for recyclables. I've been using plastic bags in my broom closet so thought this would be more efficient. However, the garbage can is too big for the closet. I can get the black and blue box in it though.

My $3 purchase


We didn't find anything at any of the flea markets.

Before we went out this morning, Gordon got our wireless doorbell in place. The front and back doors have different chimes. Cool!

This afternoon we went to the town of Perth which is about 20 km (12 miles) or so from Smiths Falls. Perth is a very pretty town and in fact claims to be the prettiest town in Ontario. We stopped by the Perth Conservation Area on our way as we took the Rideau Ferry Road to get there. That is also a pretty drive. We stopped at a flea market in Perth but this was more of an antique market and had prices to reflect that so on we went, parked the truck and took a walk around town. We took a different route home. It was a nice little Sunday drive.

Perth Conservation Area & Tay Marsh Butterfly Trail - leads out to the marsh

Fountains in the Tay River in downtown Perth

This tower is part of the Perth Public Library. It is called the Hose Tower as it is where the firefighters hung the hoses to dry out.

I thought this slogan was kind of catchy for the Perth Courier newspaper

This reminded me of a Japanese Bridge

More of Stewart Park

Sitting on the end of one of the bridges in the park



I decided to get some swing time as it's a very pretty day here and then came in and made some meatloaf for dinner. It was excellent!

Saturday June 12, 2010-Busy Day

We had called a plumber a couple of weeks ago and he was supposed to get back to us at the end of that week but we never heard from him. I found a plumber online that lives right down the street from us and we had made arrangements for him to come this morning.

He arrived and we went through our list. He had brought another guy with him, both of them are old timers. We went through our list of stuff and a couple of things he talked me out of even though it would have made him money. I like that. Anyway, he's to get back to us on Tuesday with a price.

Then I put a gluten free bread mix in the breadmaker and we headed out to pick up some more 'stuff' as if we didn't have enough stuff in the basement however the stuff in the basement isn't the right stuff if you know what I mean.

When we moved in it took us a while to notice that the house doesn't have a door bell on either door. Very odd. Anyway today we finally bought a wireless doorbell that will work for both doors. We also needed an outdoor trash can as we've been using bags however they tend to attract critters and we don't want critters in the garage.

Gordon is also fixing up his office so needed a desk lamp and a trash can so we got those items. Setting up house is costly!

Here are a couple of photos of the living room.




After lunch I was doing laundry and I lay down to read then I thought that since it finally stopped raining I should go for a walk. I haven't been nearly as diligent since we moved here and even before because of my shoulder so I took off and walked the circle around the river. I walked 4,862 steps and burned 203 calories. I have no idea what that is in miles but it took about 45 minutes. It seems like a long way but it's really pretty walking on the path by the river. I should have taken my camera but I didn't want the extra encumbrance and since it was cloudy, I didn't bother. When we have a nice day I'll take it with me.

I had gotten my second wind or else the walk gave me energy but I vacuumed and dusted the house with the exception of the room where the oil tank is. As far as I'm concerned that room doesn't exist and keeping the door closed works for me! Oh, for a gas furnace!

The sun started to shine so we went out for sunset. We went to the RV Park in town which is called Victoria Park. Here are some photos:

Sunset over Rideau Canal at Victoria Park

After that we went for a drive to Otter Lake - more photos. This is a great sunset spot about 15 minutes from the house.

Otter Lake Sunset

Thursday and Friday June 10 & 11, 2010

Thursday

I can't believe how tired I was this morning and how nice it was just to lie in bed.

Gordon had already been to the hardware store this morning and gotten what he needed to mount his DVD cabinet on the wall. Now he has a place for his photos (it's barely half full).

DVD cabinet attached to the wall - all that stuff on the floor has now been put away



Then he needed to go to Staples to get some sleeves for the DVDs. I went along as I wanted to order a stamp with our address on it. While there I also needed to get ink for our inkjet printer. Gordon looked at the price of ink for the inkjet and then started looking at laser printers. Needless to say, we came home with no ink for the inkjet but we do have a new laser printer!

Dee and I finally got to do chat and video on Yahoo Messenger! We were so excited!

Since not much was on TV tonight and our VCR isn't hooked up yet (yes, we still have a VCR), I thought I'd watch the Desperate Housewives finale on the internet since we now have high speed. Well, imagine my surprise when I find out that you can't watch a full length streaming video outside of the U.S. What's with that? Do they think only Americans are interested in this stuff? ABC needs to get with the times!

Friday

This morning Gordon took the truck in for an oil change. It's not nearly so far to go anymore! While he was gone I decided to line the drawers in the kitchen and bathroom with the wallpaper that I bought at the thrift store the other day. I did eight drawers in the kitchen and four in the bathroom as well as the bottom of the bathroom cabinet and I still have some left but not enough to do all the kitchen cupboards. I think I'll use it to line the cupboard in the laundry room.

Lining the kitchen drawers


We had to go out this afternoon to pick up some things and Gordon thought it would be a good day to go to the RV. We haven't been there in about a week and a half so he took the weed eater along. He looked after the long grass, I packed up almost all of the inside. There's one cupboard left for another day but my basement is bulging! I think I'm going to have to have a garage sale!