November 2012

A month has slipped by and not too much to report. Painting the bedrooms is going well, two finished and one to touch up. Time to put closet doors back on (new ones to be purchased- the old are all now shelves in the garage) and decorate for "spare rooms". A trip to Ikea should top us up for curtains and a couple of mattresses. Who knew there was a paint more expensive than Benjamine Moore? Ya I know!! Farrow and Ball. Ok, it is absolutely lovely paint to look at, smell, and work with. It is more eco and health friendly, and I suppose the best paint I've ever worked with. But, it is pricy. Red Bird Designs, 309 Thames if you are interested. They're calling for a little snow tonight and tomorrow- fair since it is the end of Novemeber and we've had a warm Fall. Rode the mountain bike to work yesterday- will it be the last time until Spring??? I don't think so.

Less than a month until Christmas- have to admit I am starting to look forward to it. It will be awesome to have the family back together for a couple of weeks. Phone just rang, time to run away again.

Projects Well the first project was completed this week- fortunately just before getting called in for a couple of days.

I think it turned out pretty well. It's a little wider than the old one which was destroyed by Larry crashing into chasing squirrels, and the winds and weather finishing off. I liked the idea of "mixed medium" so to speak, having both metal and wood together. Like to add stone or a stone bird bath in the summer.

What do you think? The room painting and garage cleaning, although they are jobs next on the list, I'm not referring to as "projects"...more resembling "chores". Well, not chores in the cleaning the bathroom sense, but you know. So this is the next project. It's an old rail cart/industrial cart which will be refinished as a coffee table or corner accent table (depending on how it turns out).

Last on the list (before the Honda) is the Whitney pistol. This 1860(plus/minus) cap and ball was collected covered in rust. Still have a long way to go- I have no intention of making it workable, just attractive enough to mount on a plaque or something.

I like the idea that this could have been around during the Civil War, a little piece of history saved from the garbage heap. Time to throw another log on the fire and "chop some pork for me Darlin'". Hmmm, thought we were having lamb.

Happy Thanksgiving.. It has gotten so cold so fast! There's been frost on the roofs out back in the mornings this last week, and the furnace is now on at 11 in the morning. Ok, I did leave the family room door open for an hour- doesn't everyone like it 16 in the house?

Getting caught up on photos, here's Dawson getting ready to move out of the nest on his way with friends to Halifax. They drove straight through and moved in with no hitches, everything going well. Looking forward to seeing Daws at Christmas, and maybe even visiting east next summer.

I attended a conference in Calgary last month, it was a very good conference,a nice city to visit. Visited with Melanie and Steve which was nice, and Kim and I went to Banff and Lake Louise on the last day to site see. I didn't include many pictures- same ones everyone else takes really. This restaurant was a little different, it's fondue and hot plate meals with a huge variety of exotic meats like snake and alligator - pretty cool.

Here's the kids group picture for the season, I love it! Think this one will appear on my work desk as well.

And last but not least, this will also be the first picture in my next blog, which will be my motorcycle project. This is my '79 Honda CX500 purchased this week in Brampton. I probably won't get started on it until the new year or even Spring depending on how all of my other tasks get caught up, but quietly looking forward to turning this into a cafe racer style. Have a happy Holiday.

Lets Try This Again!

September 2012 It's been far to long. So much time and effort being spent by everyone on Facebook- all our photographs instantly shared- by all of those using Facebook anyways. But I don't, and if you're keeping up with this, you probably don't either.

Just three pictures to add today- it's all that I have access to tonight. This summer Ian participated in the MS Ride, Grand Bend to London with Melissa and their team. Shelah and I and my Mom dropped Ian off and watched the start before heading to breakfast. Looks like a lot of fun, a challange and worthwhile cause- sounds like something more of us may do next year.

With Mom visiting for her 75th birthday, we all went to dinner (sorry Dawson- you were away at camp), to the Prune in Stratford. The walk along the water is always pretty. Here is Ted having a philosophic discussion with one of the local swans- thanks Tori for the photograph. Last pic, but not least

is darling Hailey taking the stage during open mike kareokee- wish I could have been there to hear it- bet it rocked!! So this is the busy weekend before school- the kids all coming and going. Very exciting, but by Tuesday I am sure Shel and I will be sharing a box of tissue with Liv as Ian and Dawson leave the roost. But hey, more photo ops to post!

June 15, 2011

Well it's been a few years. I can't think of a better time to get back to this- the Canucks are losing badley, work is slow (for the moment), Zeppelin's Black Dog in the background...
Too much time has past to try to catch up so I'll just pretend that anyone reading this is up to date.


Photos included today are from Teds convocation at McGill in Montreal a couple of weekends ago. It was an awesome ceremony, we were so proud. Everything from the pipers leading in the grads, William Shatner speaking, to seeing Ted cross the stage, it was inspiring and very cool. John and Carolines family were with us and it was a fun weekend. I guess there will be a few more of these in the future- looking forward to them too.

It must have been emotional for Ted- of course he wouldn't really show it- seeing off his closest friends of four years, and the city of Montreal where he did so much "growing up". I know that he'll be in touch with them forever.
I hope this was a sufficient new beginning. Intentions are great things- but no really I will keep this up again! Talk soon.

Hello Winter!!

 
Well, I did manage to get the front cleaned up and about half the jobs done for Fall, but I wasn't counting on Winter hitting so hard so fast! The motorcycle is still sitting covered in the driveway- haven't ordered the firewood, and there's kid toys in the back yard that may not be seen again until Spring.
I managed last pay to buy pedals and shoes for the bike and did get a ride in to work (because the mountain bike is acting up), what a great ride- looking forward to doing a little tweaking with the fit and getting out next year with it. Actually next buy is an indoor trainer too set the bike on to stay in "riding form" for the winter.
Report cards came home yesterday for the boys- the averages are looking pretty good, and it's nice to see they've left themselves a little room to apply themselves a little more- give them something to do over the season.
Not as much time as I thought to update, I'll try again in a few days. Ta.

Where does the time go??

Last weekend Olivia had a game in Kitchener against Waterloo. I seldom read my emails at home- or at least I get to them every week or two when I sit down at the computer with a coffee and catch up on those that haven't been deleted yet. So, I missed the one with directions to the arena- Moses. I Google mapped the directions from Toronto to the arena since Shelah and I would be coming from that direction- an r&r night at the Royal York- but I tried to call Hailey for her address...since she lives in Kitchener and wanted to come to the game. I'm not much on "addresses" and street names if I've been somewhere before, I just travel by feel. So Haileys new apartment- not so new now, I just get to by feel so couldn't plug into the Google maps. But Hailey wasn't home...and apparently I missed her return message, but, on the way back from Toronto we stopped at Hailey's and I asked her to Google to the arena on her computer. She looked at the address of the arena and said " I think that's close". I said "that's nice, could you just look up the directions so that we don't have to go back the highway and come back into the city?" She humored me and came back shortly with her laptop- map with pinpoints showing. I could see the pinpoints were overlapping. "See where these points are and the big park behind them?" Hailey asked? I nodded in my confused state, and she said, "look out the window".
Yes, Hailey's apartment was right next door to the arena. What a funny day.