Sky delight

sky June 29

Myron is working today and Monday, so I'm not getting much of a holiday weekend!
This morning I mowed the lawn, did laundry and washed dishes, along with alternately playing with James. Now he is watching Brazil vs. Poland so I'm taking a bit of a break!
Tomorrow we'll be at Rustle. Monday we'll be preparing for Tuesday's party.
I'm making the meatloaf stuffed with cheese, mashed potatoes, steamed carrots and broccoli. or maybe not both steamed carrots and broccoli as I only have one steamer. I ordered DQ Blizzard cake for dessert. (Bob? Still coming?)I've never had one of those before. Should be interesting. I'm looking forward to that aspect!
My mom likes the orange door. I have to say, the colour is quite cheery, but Kim was adamant that it be painted because the paint job is chipped. I don't think Myron would be up for the orange either.
James had a bad night last night. He woke up at 4am scared about something. And so, we all had a bad night.
James has been singing "Oh Canada" a lot. They learned it for Canada Day at his daycare.

Bonus

My old boss at RMC is retiring. I thought I saw his house up for sale in the newspaper ads. His last day is today. And I really suck because I didn't go to his retirement party a few nights ago. And he waltzed in here to give me a bonus. I don't know how much it is for as it has to go through the official processing channels before it gets to me, but I am currently trying to pick my jaw up off the floor, because I was floored!

ETA: He also just sent me an email to take the rest of the afternoon off! I'm trying not to cry :) (though I do need to finish up some things before I leave. I might leave 1/2 hour early so I can buy him a card!)

Old and new

Lots of computer crashes during this post! Please excuse various versions if you saw the old, as I posted because it was going to crash.
This is the door that fell off the garage:

This is the new door from the habitat store. Bright Orange. Very bright when seen in person. There were only 4 doors my size and the others had various serious issues with them, but this only had a crazy colour, so I figured that would be easy enough to fix. Well, easier than some other things anyway.

(I don't know if it is 'solid' Al, but it was heavy!)
How the door arrived at our home
The guy from the habitat store came out and put the door on Kimmee's comforter on the roof of the car. We started tying it down, but it wasn't going very well. A guy with a truck pulled up and asked where we were going. Turns out he was going to Victoria St. (the st over from ours) so he tossed the door in his truck and delivered it to my "door". What a nice guy.
Kimmee would like to add that there were dead bugs on the door and this really grossed her out, but she did really well!

James also got a new hockey stick, net and pucks (and water bottle!) from Al and Shari. He loves all of them.

He didn't want to stop playing to go to daycare. Thankfully, this net seems to have made him brave enough to go outside on his own. (he normally won't leave the house without an adult to go with him) Since we have a fenced yard, if he goes outside that frees me up to accomplish some things. We'll see if it lasts.

I took James down to meet Myron to see the Snowbirds. James didn't really have the attention span for them, but I enjoyed them very much!




James was sleeptalking at 5am as the sun was coming up. He woke me up as he loudly said (in the other room) "Turn out the light Aphra!"
I was amused at his sleeptalking abilities, except it was 5am!

And Bob, you can surely come to the next Tuesday dinner. Maybe it can be your small group- the come to Aphra's house for dinner Tues night group.Kim has requested the meatloaf I make stuffed with cheese (in the slow cooker)

Super party!

for marlene- a pic of the DQ cake!
I'm generally not too keen on parties, even ones I hold myself, but this one I really enjoyed.
Thanks to Al, my hazardous back step is no longer dangerous and James has a hockey net and a new stick and even *I* have a stick that fits well. Lucky me, I can play all the hockey I want comfortably!
But it was a good party as everyone was relatively easy to take care of:) Well, exept for Bob, but what can you do?
most interesting pizza of the night: chicken, mango, green pepper
favorite quote of the night: Carolyn: "You know this only happens once in a lifetime- unless you move and stay there for 5 years"
Next week's party will definately be *interesting* with Bob N. and Zully in the same room.

Today I'm going with Kim to the Habitat Restore to try to get a new garage door. Then in the aft I'm trying to design a new lab for my course. Then in the ev. I'm taking James to see the Snowbirds flying team! I saw them yesterday when they flew over- amazing that they can fly like that. James loved them last year when they flew over the house- we didn't go to the show last year.

Myron en crise

Myron has been preparing for his residency exam in June 08. Every week he has a quiz with his instructors on one of the many topics that he has to cover (I think there are about 40?) Anyway he found out yesterday that he is not eligible for the exam in June - he must write it in November 07! and he gets his jaw broken Aug 31. Let's hope the recovery goes well! Nothing like a little extra stress in your life.

James' beloved hockey stick

that I bought at SDM for 3.99 (plastic) that James used everyday, snapped in 2 yesterday. He was desolate. He cried for a long time and then when he was done we realized he had cut himself in the process of the break and was bleeding. Emotional before physical with this guy. We got 2 bandaids on him and he claims only to have 8 fingers left now. (though I think he will regain use quickly, they weren't deep cuts- they had stopped bleeding by the time I discovered them) Al said he will come to the rescue tomorrow though. James will look forward to that!

I found out today that one of the gals that I have been working with on my course did not have her contract renewed. It will be hard for me to do my job without her. Another factor in the 'why I should quit my job' scenario.

Also, I have solved the next computer problem that I was tackling referred to in 'don't look in their eyes' post. I am so pleased!

Oh and Rachel- I didn't even THINK about the poor people caught outside in the hail. I was working too hard on getting the pic. That was crazy hail. I bet you were glad when you got home!

Tuesday night Parties

my backyard flowers

I realized yesterday that on Tuesday we would have been in our house 5 years and decided that would be a good idea for a party. I also realized today that Tuesday is Kim's b-day, but Kim was busy doing family b-day things this Tues, so I decided to have a house party this Tues with pizza and ice cream cake. So far I have the Butlers as coming. If you want to come, let me know! It's a 5 year anniversary + mortgage free celebration!

Then on the following Tuesday, I'm having a dinner for Kim and Zully (she selected my slowcooker meatloaf). I've invited Karen + Bob + Peter as well as Karen's b-day is the 28th and Kim and Karen know each other from way back. Having Bob there should eradicate Zully's common complaint that noone talks to him. I am quite sure that Bob will talk to him. I am not so sure that Zully will enjoy it, but he should certainly not have that complaint anymore!

Hail!

Yes, we had hail on Thurs. (hopefully you can see it in the picture) G&A were camping so it will be interesting to hear if they had hail too, and what they did with it. James drew our family at daycare. James in big letters. Mom, Dad and AJ completed the pic. AJ! I didn't know he lived here.

Thurs I had my work meeting where they talked non stop. So I didn't have to say much which was good. Because they wouldn't have wanted to hear what I had to say.

Fri was pretty crazy at work as we were trying to send emails right until the server went down. In the evening, we had our work dinner at Atomica. It was a very futuristic setting, good for a physics meeting. The dinner was ok, but the tartuffo dessert was amazing- chocolate ice cream around raspberry ice cream - very nice.

This morning I woke up and our garage door seems to be *gone*. Of course I thought it was more important to blog than to check out what happened, because I can check out what happened with a 5 year old, but I can't blog with one! Likely a racoon battered down the door. (Edited to add: the door actually fell down when Myron opened it, he just forgot to tell me last night)

Don't look in their eyes

A while ago I wrote about a computer problem I was stuck on at RMC. Well, I solved that problem by reading some online forum with someone who had the same problem. And I would NEVER have come up with the solution on my own. I have now moved on to the next problem. Technology is such that there will probably always be something stumping me!

Tomorrow I have some meetings on the course I am doing at Queen's. I can't remember what they are about, but I am more than ready to tender my resignation if I need to/ We'll see what direction the meetings take (I don't think they'll let me resign, but we could do a job modification). Then I have to clear out my office as they are renovating it over the summer. When I'm done I'll head over to Rustle and hunt down some vegetables.

Tonight Myron was working so James and I hung out. When we get home from daycare James likes to play hockey for 2-3 hours. I generally bear the brunt of this as I pick him up from the daycare. As Al can attest, I'm not great with the stick, so today I convinced James that I could kick the ball/puck instead. He agreed to this so we play this odd mixture of hockey/soccer with a nerf golf ball. He really has become quite sporty. And he's pretty good too.

After our PE time we came in for supper. He had chicken dogs and I had a salad. Tomorrow we're having chicken curry (leftovers from Tues) Fri. Myron and James will have to fend for themselves as I am heading to Atomica for a party for the organizing committee that I worked for the conference for. Should be interesting- I've never been to Atomica and most of the people on the LOC are about 10 years younger than me. But everyone's really nice and hard working which is why the conference went as well as it did. I think I was the only paid staff person.

I tried to organize my week so that I didn't have to go to RMC on Fri. for 2 reasons -one the network services are going down at noon (that means a lot of the work I have to do, I probably can't do depending on how much of the network is affected) due to a planned power outage - and second having to walk to Atomica in the evening follows almost the same route that I would be walking to and from RMC, but hey -extra km for me- maybe I'll get bonus 'walker miles' because I do have to go in Fri. (waaay run on sentence-sorry grammar police aka bro) My boss called today to tell me this. But if I can't do the work I need to in the aft due to the network outage, I can go home with pay. Nice.

Beauty

Warning: this is not a beautiful post! I talk about bodies, feet and blisters (with pictures!) So don't read it if you can't handle it- you have been warned, so don't complain (Bob)!

I have been having some trouble maintaining my appearance the last few days. Luckily, I don't care. Yesterday, while I was walking home from RMC a pen burst in my backpack so while I was a walking a big blue stain was growing on my beige pants, Today, walking home across the causeway was VERY windy. When I looked down partway through shopping at FB, I saw I had debris and bugs all over me!
Also, the nasty allergies are doing better. My throat is still scratchy but it doesn't hurt to swallow anymore. But I have a rash on my face that is likely related. It just doesn't stop, does it?

I don't mind sweat smell. I think it's pretty natural. I have more problems with strong perfume. I don't like deodorants much because of the Aluminum content. I found a sweet potato flavored deodorant with no Al, but sweet potato scent?

I spoke of the new sandals that I bought for the summer + wanted to wear for the wedding:


and the damage they did to my feet: (pic is 2 days after my break in walk)


I am pleased to say that by adding a number of band-aids, the sandals worked fine for the wedding.

London!

I had never been to the city of London (ON) before, but I really liked it! I could see myself living in that city. We had a good time. After driving for 5 hours, we stayed at the Surrey House B&B, which had a really cool bathroom:



It also had a beautiful garden:


Great for playing hockey in:


We ate at a sports bar/restaurant "Tiger Jacks". James loved the sports portion and played pool and some soccer(the game with the people on sticks). The restaurant itself was pretty interesting and the food reasonably priced (certainly better than the highway rest stop!)
The next morning we got up and played more hockey in the back garden (after a VERY filling breakfast of eggs and bacon at the b&b). We were getting packed up with our stuff for the wedding (as we were going to get ready at our friends') when James came up to say there was someone at the door downstairs. As the lady who owned the b&b had gone out I went down to answer the door and tell them she was out. When I opened the door, I stood there in shock. My new supervisor for my course was there. We stood there looking at each other, neither of us really believing it was true. But apparently we had both booked ourselves into the same b&b. She ended up being the only person I knew at the wedding.
(having to hurry as James is up)
We went to a lovely mall for a bit and then headed to our friends' the pricketts. It was so good to talk with Gary (Linda was at a conference). James played table hockey there and did not want to leave.
Then we went to the wedding, which was on a farm.
James spent a lot of time at the frog pond:


We took a walk

by the creek

And there was some wedding stuff too

Packed

We are packed and ready to go. James got up extra special early this morning as he is so excited about the trip. Now it's 7:30am and we're just waiting to pick up our rental car at 9. James is going crazy with anticipation.

My throat is mostly better now as I can swallow! Yeah, swallowing! I think it is allergies again as went I got into the AC of RMC it got better. I still have a really funny taste in my mouth. Bleh.

I joined a group of Aphra's on facebook. It's pretty funny. I think we were all named after Aphra Behn. The other Aphra's live in Australia and England.

I had a meeting with my boss for the conference today and they decided because I did such a good job, they are going to pay me 25% more! I was really quite surprised!

Lousy

I still feel pretty lousy with a nasty sore throat and ears that are plugged. The medecine makes me feel better but does nasty things to my stomach, so it's a trade off. It's hard to eat because swallowing is a problem!
It has been nice being able to post so often but I probably won't be able to post for a while. Tomorrow evening we'll be packing for our trip on Friday to London, and then we'll be away until Sunday.
Hope I'm feeling better for the trip.
Oh, and for those who care (ie. my brother) the 'suffer, victim' quote comes from 'I never promised you a rose garden'. It's what the Antebee say to the mentally ill woman.(the heroine)

"Suffer, victim"

Yesterday and today I've had a nasty sore throat that makes it very painful to swallow. Today I bought some sore throat medecine. Since just buying it didn't actually make the pain go away, I took some. It tasted terrible but it did give immediate relief! It's been a few hours since I took it and the pain is starting to come back. The medicine seems to have upset my stomach. So, I'm not a happy camper, but I got my exams done and back.

Set

I set some traps.

Every year I try to break in new sandals by walking to RMC. I think this is the hard way. My feet were pretty bloody by the time I got home.

I think you are right Al, James is ready for a real hockey game.

After we got home, we sat quietly, him playing penguin plunge (not correctly - James rules) me watching. Resting my feet. We ate dinner to the last game of the stanley cup (umpteenth time) I like that he is old enough to be companionable.

The devotion book we read was talking about things we look forward to. It asked if he had looked forward to something? I thought maybe he would say his birthday, but he said he was looking forward to going to oma and gadda's. Didn't quite get the right tense, but he sure likes his vacations!

I have an exam to mark tomorrow. It will arrive by courier in the morning.

I am loving vega 4 - Life is beautiful

Things I learned today:
-there are rats in fancy areas of rmc
-how to set a mouse trap
-there was a beautiful hawk at rmc today- maybe looking to eat the well fed rats
-x-wives club has a formula (it's the second time I watched the same show with different people)
-cycles need to be broken (supernanny)
-sharing razors can spread hepatitis (news)

Infiltration

I found evidence this morning of the mouse in our front room! How it got in, I don't know and I know it won't be long till he find the kitchen, but at least now I have a plan for the traps.

James was pretty excited to be heading out to Kimmys today. We had a good time in the great outdoors. We tried to make James s'mores, but he prefered the marshmallows and graham crackers seperately! A caterpiller landed on him. I saw it first and pointed it out to him, being very positive about it and we had fun with it. When Kim came over she made a face about the caterpiller and immediately James wanted it off him. He's pretty sensitive to people's reactions to things.

Star muffin

I read what I wrote this morning and had to read it twice- I wrote that *this* morning? It seems so long ago! I guess being up at 5am will do that. I did manage to mow the lawn, clean the kitchen and wash 1/2 of the kitchen floor before we left for Geralds' (only 1/2 the floor so we could walk on the other half:)
Then we went to Geralds:

At first James was pretty shy around the bigger kids and I thought if he just manages to get 1 goal out of this, he'll be over the moon. But I'll tell ya what. That kid is determined. He was really determined to get the ball and moved in and out of the bigger kids with ease. He scored over 10 goals and then he played when everyone else quit playing (he played both teams, scoring on each net equally)
It was really neat to meet Gerald's neighbours. I had so much fun this aft. I never expected that.
After we got back from James playing hockey for 3 hours, he wanted to play with his neighbour friends (not too long), then he went in the bath, then needed a snack (no wonder after all that energy exertion!). While he had his snack, he watched the end of the final hockey game for the umpteenth time. He loves it when all the ducks hug at the end. He integrates that into his games too. When he plays soccer/hockey with his cars, wooden people or freezies, the players always hug after each goal.
He finally crashed in bed while I was making a new type of apple muffin. I have to say- they look like bran muffins- not too appetizing, but they taste AMAZING and are very healthy too- 3 apples and a carrot in them.
Yesterday James was playing his hockey games outside using blue boxes as goals. When he got a goal he would say "look who's dancing now" and proceed to dance:






The exercise after a goal seems as much as the goal itself!

Allergy medecine

Apparently the easiest was to fix your allergies is to buy allergy medecine:) Though I didn't actually *take* the medecine, I just bought it and poof my allegies were better! Actually, I think it was the rain that came through last night and must have cleared the air.

I woke up at 5am with James giggling in his sleep and my heart monitor declaring it was out of batteries.

It is so quiet and peaceful outside. Beautiful. Last night there was a giant car crash around the corner. Quite a contrast- the chaos of last night with the peace of the morning.

Today I need to mow the lawn, wash the kitchen floor and make a dessert for Kim (we are going to her place out in Gan. after Church tomorrow. There's lots of other stuff I would like to get done, but those are the things on my *need* to get done list.

We'll be heading over to Gerald's around 4 for his hockey-in-his-driveway event.
After daycare yesterday we spent from 4:30-7:30 outside playing forms of hockey. I scraped a bit of the front step as well(when he was playing a form of hockey that did not require my assistance).

Young Rachel died yesterday. Prayer for her family would be good.

Unfair

Yesterday, I painted our front porch railing. Before:


After:


I next need to paint the step. I painted it 3 years ago, but the paint was not very good, it turned more red than brown and it peeled off the concrete step, even though it was supposed to be concrete paint. I also hope to paint the kitchen this summer.

I had a meeting yesterday, and during the meeting they told me the human resources had called them to say I was working to many hours and they wanted me to 'figure' something out so that they didn't have to post my job. "We don't want that" they said. But maybe I do want that. Apparently they didn't think of that!
I called HR today and found out that there is no way that I can do the planned work for September without it being posted. They said it was unfair to me. Indeed.
So I left a phone message with my boss and I'll discuss it with him when he calls me back. But what we are looking at would be either they post the job (and I think Brian might be more amenable to that than the person who told me that 'we don't want that' in the meeting yesterday. And I've work with her for years) or we figure out what I could do on reduced hours or I leave the course altogether. We shall see!
edited to addBrian just called and he absolutely want to post it.

I'm feeling better overall, but normally nights are my relief from coughing and last night I was up all night coughing! I have broken down and bought allergy medecine. (in a liquid form, I'm not so good with pills)

Myron called yesterday and said his sister in law had just had surgery for thyroid cancer.

Pooh

Pooh is being held at an undisclosed location. Needs rescue.

Whizz

Today was a whizz. I got James in early to the daycare because my conference started at 8:45. I arrived at 8:47. The team then threw me all the problems, which I scurried off to deal with. My boss, who is looking more wan by the day- not quite sure he'll make it to Friday- needed a list from me, but he wasn't too clear about what he wanted on the list, so I had to make it up. Then I had to get it printed, but I had no printer. Then I had to be somewhere at 12:15 and I arrived there, thinking I was late, and noone else from the team had showed up yet. I wandered around looking for them, got fed some pizza and recorded the cheques we had rec'd and cc forms, so my boss would have a list of who had not paid yet. I have no idea what I did the rest of the aft. Still sorting out money I presume.
Picked up James from daycare, dropped him off at AJs with his dinner. Went to Rustle. When Bob arrived, the oreo surprise was gone. He asked if that was the surprise? And I was surprised that he knew about the surprise. And how did he know, oh, yeah, my blog. I write stuff here and then I forget I write the stuff and then I'm surprised when people know!
James was just up complaining that his bum was hurting. He wants me to call Myron to tell him he's hurting.

Hairdresser

Yesterday I took James to the hairdresser (First Choice). There were 2 ladies working. The crazy one who does a terrible job (which we get every time, sigh) and the good one. For James it doesn't matter too much how his hair gets cut, so I don't mind if he gets the wacky one.
The good one was cutting the hair of a teenaged boy. The boys friend was by the hair chair being supportive. The boy being cut told of how he was being ripped off at his work placement of hours. The (good) hairdresser got quite impassioned and gave the teenager advice - to tell his parents, to talk respectfully to the people who are doing him wrong. It might have been a bit smothering, but you could tell she cared.
I'll post a pic of James' haircut soon. I didn't take one tonight because he had been hit by a soccer ball at daycare and one of his eyes was red. Though that never stopped me from taking a pic before, I must have run out of time!

where to begin?

Yesterday counted as a 'sick day' for me. Today I'm feeling better. RMC today. I spent my whole morning sorting out my email! I just had to take a breather to refocus on what to do next.
The conference I was working on is up and running.
My other boss is leaving for Yellowknife tomorrow.
Tonight I'm making 'oreo surprise' for a rustle meeting. I hope to make some apple muffins as well, but we'll see how it goes.
I think James is taller than last week.

Slow day

Our conference participants start arriving 4pm, so that is gearing up, but I am having a gear-down day. I think everything is ready for the conference as far as I am concerned.
I thought my allergies would improve with the rain, but they seem worse. Maybe I'm allergic to rain!
Anyway I'm trying to lay low so that my body heals up.
Oh, and I joined facebook, though I'm not 'quite' sure what to do with it.

24 to destructo

Well, today did not go so swimmingly. I think James is bored of me already.
We went to Rustle and James had a great time getting hot and sweaty with the kids in the back grassy area. I got to hear Al's message uninterrupted. It was on taking things slowly, which I do think is important, but do not practice very often :)
I thought it was interesting how Al took one day where he would just react to external things and one day just to react to internal things.
I thought about that at 4pm when my allergies were in full swing and my internal body was telling me that I was tired and needed to rest and my external 5 year old was telling me we needed to play!

We spent the hottest part of the day in the basketball pool. James won't stay outside at all on his own due to the wasp factor. So, if I go inside for anything, he follows me. So much for independance. When he was getting ready to go in the pool he put some shorts on- he said because his friends wear shorts in their pool. But as soon as the shorts got wet, he took them off because he didn't like the feel. Peer pressure can only get you so far.

Speaking of clothing, he noticed that I was wearing the same shorts today as yesterday. He objected to this. I told him I hadn't spilled anything on them, so it was ok. I don't think I have as many clothes as he does!

Also, he noted that Don Cherry's clothing was 'girlie'

Edited to add: after I posted this I read a post at hold this space that seemed to be along the same lines as what Al was talking about today.

Flight

Myron flew off today. Because it was more convenient for him to fly out of kingston (can check bags immediately) instead of his route being train to montreal, flight montreal to moncton, he flew kingston-TO, TO-Montreal but he called me from Montreal to say he missed the flight to Moncton so now is flying to St. John and then Air C. is taxiing him to Moncton. On the way back he flies Moncton - Halifax, Halifax- TO, TO- kingston. I would be concerned about the environmental impacts of so much plane travel, but he's a traveller.

Thanks to Carolyn's pump the basketball pool is up and running. James spent 3 hours in it today. He couldn't stand having wet shorts (he was relatively easy to toilet train in that he hated the wet shorts then, so understandable that he still dislikes it) so he was naked in the pool.

Before we had the pool up James took me to see the remains of a wasp that had been 'suffering' yesterday and apparently Myron had put out of his misery. James had me pray for said wasp, not for resuccitation (James hates wasps) but that he would go to heaven. Is there a wasp heaven?
After all that (keeping in mind that James hates wasps) if a wasp came near him in the pool I would bludgeon the wasp to death with a flyswatter. After that James would sprinkle water on it "to give it to God" he said. Then I would put a rock on it- 1. so we wouldn't step on it 2. so it would not revive to fly again. Kinda disturbing, but hey, wasps should know better than to come near James.

Also on Friday the baby birds flew their nest.

Allergy

Normally Myron is the one who suffers from allergies this time of year. This year he seems fine but *I* have had a nasty case of allergies for 2 weeks. My eyes, throat, ears (and electrodes) are very itchy. And my nose runs like crazy! I don't suppose the electrodes actually have to do with the allergies, but still, itchy. Anyway, it's crazy and I'm just waiting for whatever it is in the air to go away! Please!

James was upset last night that he wasn't going to Moncton. He just put that together.

Though I complain about what Myron will eat while he's away, James and I will be eating more simply while he's gone. Nutriciouslly(sp?) we definately won't be as high as when Myron is here because it's hard to put the effort in when there are only 2 of us.
This is what James likes to eat:
hot dogs
nachos and cheese
mac and cheese (the no trans fat version from PC)
pizza (cheese or with bacon)
spaghetti with cheese (no red sauce)
cucumber
carrots
broccoli
chicken
chicken soup with pasta (he only eats the pasta)

so our dinners look like some combination of these for the next week and a half!

Frankenstein

Apparently my brother feels as if I am more like Frankenstein's monster than Frankenstein :) Hey, I am a scientist! But I suppose it was the monster that had the electrodes, so it was my mistake. I have had no events for said electrodes to record however. May I add that electrodes are itchy?

I went to clean out my email and saw that I had 614 messages and thought I would take a blog break for a minute before I tackled them all. And that's just the rmc ones. I have 250 in my queen's account!