plans

Today with Al's loaned wet vac I tackled the basement. It is one amazing machine. I got lots of water out of the carpet- still have more to do though.

Kingston news station coverage of Friday's rain

James was quite pleased to be going to Moncton. It was only first thing in the morning that he didn't want to go because he thought he would miss me. He got over that real quick. He was making his Christmas plans today- he plans to spend Christmas 2012 in Moncton, 2013 in St. Catharines and 2014 and 2015 in Kingston. He's a funny little planner!

WARmart

James was trying to spell Walmart and asked for help - so I said "W-A-L" and James was all like "Oh, I though it was spelled "W-A-R". So, he's not much of a speller.

So we did go to Walmart. James got a Star Wars III game for his DS for the trip to Moncton and lots of snacks. And another dehumidifier for the basement. Kim has been lending us hers but will need it back in a couple of weeks and yesterday with all the rain made for a bit of a wet basement. Trying to air it out now.

As we were driving to Walmart, at Portsmouth and Princess there was a guy wheeling luggage. I guessed that he was going to the VIA station which was close by. I would have stopped as it isn't the easiest walk as there are no sidewalks there- I've walked it- I know! But I had James with me so I erred on the side of personal security. What do you think- should I have stopped and taken him to the train station?

Gridlock

To avoid becoming a blog solely about moving, I will not speak of it in this post. Other than this past sentence.

I have been changing my biking routes for many reasons this month
-I have a new job in a different building on campus so a new starting point
-sometimes I am biking to the old house and sometimes the new one so a varying end point
-Brock st. has a portion that is closed meaning that heaps of angry anxious cars have flooded the previously quiet side streets that I used to take because they were quiet.

Now I bike up Division to Princess and then take Princess to Victoria.
For a busy street Princess is good to bike on as it is wide, but you do have to watch for cars doing crazy things!

James went to Trenton for a soccer game last night. His team won 3-1 but he was goalie when the goal was scored and he felt personal responsibilty for the goal.

Major

Kim and Zully helped me move the futon and a bed frame and a dresser. I also packed a bookshelf worth of books into my car. Not I just need to get the bookshelf moved :)
Things are looking good.
Still have the beds, tables, bookshelves and a big dresser to go, but it's well on the way to getting the move over.
I may be a bit sore tomorrow though!

Trent

I was feeling much better yesterday. I got most of the stuff cleared out of the front room where they were being stored and moved downstairs as Al is bringing a sofa so I wanted to have the room free.

James is in hockey camp all day (as he has been all week). Most of his soccer team is at this same hockey camp and they have a game in Trenton this evening so they will be leaving straight from the invista center and heading on the road.

Frances

I reached a break point of exhaustion yesterday and had to power through it. The basement is painted, just the stairwell left, but will leave that until after the move. Kim and Zully steamcleaned the carpet while I painted. James played Lego.

I became acquainted with Frances through blogging about 5 years ago. She had a daughter about James' age but she was going through a lot more difficulty as her daughter was fighting cancer. The daughter is now cancer free. At one point during the past years, their house burned down. They rebuilt. Then Frances was diagnosed with ALS. It did not take long for degeneration of motor skills and in January of this year (I think) she went on life support. Today they removed the life support and Frances passed on. She was a fighter and passionate about her family and her God. I wish I had known her in person. Please pray for her Scott and 2 little girls as they grieve.

Marlene- I got your comment about VBS- Brianna could have gone to the one that James did as they had a preschool class.

I only watched a bit of the B'ette yesterday as I was working on finishing up the basement. I have it on tape though- whenever I find the time to watch it!

1 room done, painting to go!

James' room is finished except all his books are not unpacked yet. He seems quite happy with it.
The basement is all washed and ready to start painting tomorrow.
Kim and Zully helped me move some more furniture over in their truck. Zully weating dress pants and a long sleeved dress shirt. Not sure how he wears this in the heat!

James is in a soccer tournament this weekend. His team won their first 2 games. Tomorrow morning they play the other team that has beaten the same 2 teams that they did. James is calling it the showdown!

When he's not playing soccer he happily plays Lego or reads books at the new house as I was doing my thing. It really is nice to have a break from computers/TV probably for him as well as me!
He has shown an increased interest in reading since Vacation Bible School. They gave him a (Gideon) Bible and he has been working on reading it as best he can. He excitedly showed me the passage that he found that related to a song they sang at VBS about "I will make you fishers of men". He found it cool to see in context I think.

Basement

I rode my backup bike to work today.
James had a recital from his vacation bible school so I took my lunch early to see him.
This made for a long afternoon. I hope I got a lot accomplished!
Dinner was simple- leftover soup for me and canned Zoodles for James.
Then we went to the new house. James played Lego while I washed walls in preparation for painting. It was cool in the basement where we were so that was good!
Tomorrow I need to pay the stucco man, go grocery shopping, finish washing the walls and start painting (hopefully!). May take another load over with Kim too if she's free. Just taking things day by day!

the long walk home

Can heat pop bicycle tires? My rear tire was flat when I got out of work. So I walked home.
I had made lovely soup so had that for dinner.
Got the garbage and recycling put out and then made a trip to the new house.
The stucco men had come and they stuccoed like crazy. Even my vents are stuccoed :)
It only took them the morning. I think they picked my house for today because the basement is nice and cool. The rest of the world not so much.
Bob N. mowed the new house lawn so things look a lot better.
I have a bunch of cleaning to do, then painting, then hopefully we are on track to move next week.

Disappointed in Rachel winning HOH on BB, but that's the way it goes.

I'm tired now, so heading to bed.

Stormy Weathers

Yesterday morning there was a big storm that started around 6:30am. Woke James right up- he hates storms. Lots of wind and rain. As I biked in (it was only lightly raining- I was wearing full rain gear) I saw a tree half down on the the corner of First and Victoria. Apparently a much bigger tree had hit a hydro pole on the other side of the M-Center and there was quite the power outage. Glad my route didn't go that way!

self-stick notes

I apparently guessed wrong over what to wear yesterday as I got a comment that I was dressed 'casual'. It's a bit complicated to figure out what to wear when it is rainy and hot outside and cold inside. I think I did better today.

Yesterday was Bach'tte night. It wasn't a particularly interesting episode, I thought. She visited hometowns. Everyone's family was nice.
The preview for upcoming weeks looked a bit more dramatic though.

I'm not finding Big B. as interesting this year, but I do keep missing episodes so it may be my fault. I am not keen on Rachel and the newbies don't seem to have it together enough to take on the veterans, so it's a matter of if the veterans will turn on each other.

skittles

He can eat a popsicle and drink at the same time!

The days are all pretty blurry right now. I am basically packing and unpacking and cleaning most of the time and can't remember where one starts and ends.

James' room at the old house is pretty much cleared out and his room at the new house is slowly taking shape.

James went to AJ's pool party today and powerskating in Amherstview.

I am having difficulty figuring out what to wear tomorrow as it is supposed to be hot AND rainy. It is hard to dress for multiple seasons :)

AJ's birthday

Today is AJ's party. They are going to the new M-Center water park- since it is supposed to be so hot this may be a good thing.
The funny thing on FB is that someone misunderstood and thought it was Gerald's birthday (AJ's dad) and once one person wished him Happy Birthday, there were at least a dozen. Gerald's birthday is actually in December!
James also has powerskating at 5pm. I'm planning a pizza dinner for after.
Big Bro at 8pm.
I'm planning on spending the day packing and maybe some at the new house unpacking.
Lot to do!

waterlily

Waterlily for my mom- from Algonquin!

There is so much to write that I am not able to keep up. Not able to keep up with my life!
Today James was so excited he woke up at 6am. Kim was coming at 8am to move stuff and James was very eager to help.
Kim brought 3 loads. James' bunk bed was delivered and I tried putting it together but they had not predrilled the holes for the slats that hold the mattress up so I got stuck there.
After we finished up at the new house I had to race off to catch a ferry to a friends for a BBQ.
So I was racing a lot today.
Tomorrow the forecast says 33, only 32 for St. C and normally they are hotter than we. What's up with that?

dam

Today I got my new computer up and running at work so I have a new email and all. But my old email dumps into my new email so I'll get anything sent to me but my email address if you get an email from me may look different.
There were a few hiccups as some of the emails I thought I sent didn't send! But I did work out sending them in the end.
I spent the day working out registration issues with the course I'm working on. Some of the labs were set up incorrectly which meant that most of the students were in the wrong labs. I have been manually fixing them.
Didn't get much done on the new house today as not much can be done until the stucco is done and I wanted to give myself a bit of a break.

higher

Tall pine with lightning strike scar down the middle.

Yesterday I was so tired and felt pretty ill. I think I do not agree well with sitting beside a photocopier. I learned a lot on my first day on the new job. (other than photocopier fumes make me woozy!)
Today was better except for the meeting I nearly missed because I hadn't been told about it.
I've got a couple of quotes for windows and doors for the new house but haven't decided what to do.
I have a guy coming by to give me a quote on stuccoing the basement ceiling on Thurs am. And he may be able to complete the job on Friday.
I'm still working on cleaning the oven. I have left oven cleaner in it every night since I first wrote about it- I've lost count as to how many times I've sprayed it- it will be clean eventually!
I also put some butcher block protection on the wood block island in the kitchen. Of course I didn't read that the clean up was mineral spirits and they were at the old house. I should read the clean up before I start the job!
Let's go higher

Expiry

I took on quite a lot in the last week and I felt it today- like I reached an expiry point. Hopefully, will get some rest tonight and update more tomorrow.

head inside an oven

After cleaning the new fridge yesterday and realizing that my fridge is pretty clean in comparison, I tackled the stove today landing with the same thought.
Yesterday, Kim and Bobbi looked at the stove. Then they looked at each other. They thought it was bad. We got oven cleaner. They gave me instructions. They looked scared.

I didn't look at the stove yesterday until the end of the day when I was about to spray it with the oven cleaner. It was bad. I didn't have a lot of hope for the oven cleaner. I don't have a lot of familiarity with oven cleaners. I don't use my oven that much as I cook a lot in the slow cooker. I just make cookies, muffins and pizza in the oven. And so though I got my oven in 2002, I've never had to use oven cleaner and it looks a LOT better than the oven in the new house even after I was done the oven cleaner today. Today I saw what miracle stuff oven cleaner is as I effortlessly wiped up the cleaner foam that I had sprayed the day before. But I didn't get all of it- the black stuff on the bottom was pretty thick. So today before I left I sprayed again in hopes that I will be able to finish it tomorrow.

The cleanliness of the house is coming along. The front room, dining room and upstairs bedrooms are all cleaned and ready for stuff to move in. The kitchen and bathrooms just need their floors cleaned. Getting the basement ready to paint is taking some time. I think I need another evening of cleaning first.

Kim came over and we hauled another load. Stuff for the garage + some stuff from James' room. We got his dresser moved and all his stuffed animals. He needs one of those stuffed animal hammocks that hang from the ceiling in order to contain all the stuffed goodness :) Right now they are all in his new closet.

Day

This photo is from when we first arrived in Barry's Bay. You may be able to see from the sign that the Inn offered "free Wifi". James was thought it was "free WiiFit" and was not impressed when I explained it to him.

Today I woke up at 3:30am. 4.5 hours of sleep seems to be all I need! lol. When light broke, I hung laundry and hauled out a load to move to the new house. Kim came by at 8am and we loaded up her truck and went to the new house. We cleaned all day with Bobbi and Murray.
The upstairs is all super clean except I need to do the floors. For the rest it looks great! I also need to clean the walls downstairs so that I can paint. It will still be another day of cleaning tomorrow before I can get to a point that I am ready to paint.
I also need to clean the oven.
I appreciate all the people who came over to offer moral support as well. It was great to share the house with you all :)

That's a lot of floor

We had heaps of fun with the parents in Algonquin park! It was a good break before the overwhelming nature of second home ownership hit. Will write more about the trip in another post.
As soon as we reached Napanee today, my cell phone started ringing. The deal on the house was closing. And the bunk bed guy called in the midst of this to say James' bunk bed would not be arriving tomorrow but next weekend. It didn't really matter as I'm mainly painting this week anyway. James won't be sleeping there until we move.
The new place requires a LOT of cleaning before I can even get to the painting stage.
Kim and some others are going to be helping me tomorrow and I made a FB invite for on 'Open house preview' -if you didn't get one and want the deets just let me know. Anyone who is interested is welcome- 10-5. I love giving tours :) And there is DQ cake!
I vacuumed today and was overwhelmed by how MUCH floor there was. Vacuuming at the old house takes only a few minutes but at the new floor so much floor space- the vacuuming takes much longer! I should have expected this but until you do it, you don't really FEEL it.
I also cleaned the freezer.
And met the neighbour lady- Georgina. She thinks the outside of the house needs some work. Like the weeds in the driveway need to be sprayed, she said.
The wind is blowing now- maybe a storm rolling in? Will try to sleep now for the busy day tomorrow!

to the cloud

I spent a lot of today in a bit of a cloud.
I am battling with some allergies or something and so I've got some extra fog going on there.
Today at Rustle Al talked about burdens and I have a few of those hanging around. Like say starting a new job and moving to a new house.
Tomorrow, I'm going to Lowen windows before work to see if I can organize something with them about the front window and door for the new house.(biking 8km before work!)
Then I have my last day at the old job.
I'll be home for dinner (pasta). James has soccer practice in the evening and I will be packing for Algonquin and for the new house.
But around 5:30 there was a break in the cloud and I started to feel ok again :)

searches

every now and then I do a keyword analysis for who finds my blog and it always amuses me

1.18.99% aphra rogers
ok this one makes sense
2.16.46% metal chicken
From the metal chicken story link it's pretty popular as you will see related searches below
3.7.59% metal chicken blog
4.6.33% blog metal chicken
5.3.80% flying ants losing wings
Ah yes, the post that I wrote last year Not terribly scientific in detail but does let you know how to get recently dewinged ants out of your laundry.
6.2.53% do bears have tails
This question always comes up and finds my blog- it's a question James asked in 2005 and evidently carries down through the generations
7.2.53% flying ants that lose their wings
8.2.53% millet casserole BED
For my link to a millet casserole recipe!
9.1.27% Tiger Lily wrestler
From Lesley introducing me at a party as a 'Rustler' but people heard 'wrestler' instead. Yeah, that's so me!
10.1.27% "debit down"
From when the debit machines went down at the metro
11.1.27% eternity floor finish
They use this at work
12.1.27% lee valley fruit fly traps
BOB
13.1.27% PHONerey.com
?
14.1.27% why do flying ants lose their wings
15.1.27% why is tuesday the longest day of the week
A good question but the answer at the time had to do with me running a night class on Tuesdays. Sorry!
16.1.27% neighbourhood deals
Always here for deals!
17.1.27% kijiji helper
Yes, I am
18.1.27% tomorrow is canada's birthday
Well, now it was yesterday!
19.1.27% the bloggers metal chicken
20.1.27% welcome to our neighbourhood cards
21.1.27% aphrarogers.blogspot.com
22.1.27% upper canada village weather
I'm a good source of information for most things.
23.1.27% flying ant losing wings
24.1.27% what happens to the wings of fling ants
There are a lot of people who want to know this!
25.1.27% picture me caring
Indeed please!
26.1.27% wearing birkenstocks to work
I don't. I don't even own Birkenstocks.
27.1.27% do flying ants lose their wings
28.1.27% hour long email
sometimes it can feel that way, can't it?
29.1.27% flying ants that drop their wings
30.1.27% tigerlily wrestler
again?
31.1.27% when a flying ant loses its wings
32.1.27% neighbourhood soccer
good idea!
33.1.27% dream of cleaning toilets
popular- I get a lot of this on my dream blog too.
34.1.27% lowballers
35.1.27% what is the fuzzy head due to in fevers
36.1.27% "demolition ready"
37.1.27% lee valley fruit fly trap
BOB!
38.1.27% chicken blog metal
39.1.27% blog about metal chicken

Not sure I am any help to these searchers! But funny that they find me.

finger splint

James did not let the finger splint get him down and still had fun at the splash pad!

Squirrel pretending to be a pole. I can still see you!

I bought this dress for my first day of my new job. Hope it isn't too over the top?

Spend a lot of today fixing the timetable- it's looking pretty good for student registration on Monday :)

Finger injury

James injured his finger at his soccer game on Thurs night. It is very sore- so much so that he can't hold his hockey stick for a hockey tournament he is supposed to be playing in. He missed 2 games today. We'll see how he's doing tomorrow.