Firetruck - whoops

I heard a firetruck, siren blaring, flying down Park St. It stopped abruptly mid-block. Did it reach its destination? Apparently not. A number of firefighters hopped off, but it was not to fight a fire. They had to help the engine reverse. So it backed up an around the corner and headed off in another direction. Either it missed the turn or it was called off.

Listen for this funny radio commercial.

BB is on tonight but after reading this article I'm not so keen on the guests. They probably won't show much of this on tv, but still.

sluggish

One shot of James with his medal from last week and one shot of my hair that was chopped yesterday.

Had a pretty low key day today- laundry, dishes, shopping, read a bit of a book. I had planned to accomplish more on a 3 day weekend but I probably needed a break after my exciting week.

James is pretty brutal on socks. I think I keep the same socks for years but within a year he has gone through about 12 pairs. Had to buy some more today!

My dad should get this remote.

pencil

Well, today turned out to be a much more exciting day than I had planned.

James started a hockey tournament today. He had to get up earlier than on a school day. So starts summer vacation.

I went by St Lawrence Optical to order some sunglasses to replace the ones that had been distorted by the soccer ball to the head that happened a week or so ago. They immediately picked out the best ones for me and they fixed by old ones so I can get through a couple of weeks until the new ones arrive. If there is any sun that is.

Then I got a haircut. Had a great hairdresser who gave me lovely layers and the hair is a lot less heavy. If there were sun and heat this would be great!

This was not even the exciting part.

I had planned to take the day off but didn't manage to post the schedules I had planned to yesterday so I went in to work, only planning so stay long enough to post the schedules and get through my email. Just an hour. I thought. Or two. It's Friday before a long weekend. Noone will be around right? I even thought I wouldn't get any email. hahaha. My planned day did not look anything remotely like my actual day. My actual day I can't even put into words. But let's just say it wasn't QUIET. No, not one bit.

I leave you with "How to solve a physics problem"

School is out!

At the final school bell James and his friends threw their hats in the air. The guy across the road from the school started blasting "School's out for the summer". A very jovial ending.

On my walk through Victoria Park to pick James up I think I saw a "Northern Flicker" The trees in that park are quite popular with woodpeckers.

You might have seen Isaac and Amy's engagement lip dub (millions did)- they came out with a cute new video in February that is worth a watch.

nick

We watched BB- James' favorite character was Nick, not sure why.
I thought it amusing that Rachel's sister thought no one would notice that she looks exactly like Rachel.
This MVP thing is an interesting twist on the game.

James' class went to the Memorial Center waterpark. He left his activepass in the locker there. It is only open from 11am-4pm so it makes it hard to go by to check the lost and found (assuming they have one)

Wrong reasons

I wrote this last night but apparently did not post it.Sorry!

It seems there are an overabundance of guys on the Bach there for the "wrong reasons". That's what they get for making them do a song called "right reasons"! The issues the guys have are overpowering any romance there may be.

I had extra exercise in the morning as when we got to the school James reminded me he needed his swimsuit so I had to RUN but I got it to him before he boarded the bus. They were going down to Queen's. I walked, he bused and we arrived at the ARC at the same time.

Lots of meetings and emails while I'm also working on schedules. I hope to get all the schedules out tomorrow, if it all goes well.

I saw this in the Whig about an Art Exhibition- gives me an excuse to go down to the water.

in the schedules

I was buried in scheduling work today. Tomorrow I have a number of meetings so I'm not sure how to finish it all up but I am still hopeful to take Friday off.
My email has backed up already.

Today there was the principals BBQ for all staff. While I expected hamburgers, they served chicken and pasta salad with white cake an strawberries for dessert. Not too bad.

Last night on the Bach was an odd one. I guess Germany does that to them. I am not sure what was so urgent for Bryden to have to leave partway through someone else's date. Did he have a plane to catch? Not sure why he couldn't have waited.
And then Des thinking she could "fix" Ben and Michaels relationship. Not sure what was up with that but fixing other people isn't easy to do even with a hot tug. Not sure why she didn't let them both go.

ballet shoes

My pick for last night was to iron and I picked the movie "Ballet shoes" to watch. It was based on the book that I read as a kid. I watched the movie about 10 years ago- I didn't remember much from watching it before. But watching it this time, I found it was really rushed. I guess to try to get as much of the book in as possible but it made for a pretty jumpy movie!

In the morning, I walked to Loblaws because Flatjacks were on sale! They are chicken with a covering like chicken nuggets have but they are flat and you can toast them in the toaster.

At Church Sam talked about 2 passages that had some unexpected similarities. Sam started out talking about freedom and how choices have consequences. Then we had the 2 passages- one was Elijah running from Jezebel after killing the prophets of Baal and one was about Jesus and the man Legion from the Gadarenes.
They both were living in worlds with "untruth". Elijah believed that Jezebel would kill him and that he was the only prophet left. In truth God would protect him and there were many other prophets left. After running, God spoke to him and told him to go back where he came from.
The man Legion lived bound with all the demon voices speaking untruth but made a choice to go to Jesus and became free and also had to go back where he came from.
Making a choice for Jesus, you can't generally predict the consequences- it will be a wild ride, but worth it.

After Church, I took a nap so I could be well rested for tomorrow but now I am behind on my plans for cleaning the house.

Big Brother starts on Wednesday- I wonder if the cast will be likeable?

Dining room

Room #2 completed- walls and floors washed.

To reward myself I ordered dinner from the Darbar and got a Raspberry iced Lemonade from Timmies. First time I tried the drink. It was not bad- kind of like a slushie but not so sweet. Good mix.

There was a bit of a downpour between 3:30-5:00 when I was very grateful that Jake had cleaned the eaves.

The rain finished just as I was to head out to pick up dinner, which was good. Right by the Darbar there were 3 police cars. The policemen were on the sidewalk interviewing people- it sounded like it was a dispute about something (maybe domestic).

Now, I have some options:
-start a new room- the horror zone that is James' room or the kitchen cupboards and fridge
-iron and watch a video

Front room

The jackhammering seems to have stopped. The sun is peeking out and drying my laundry.

I spent the last number of hours cleaning the front room. I had stuff that I hadn't unpacked from 2 years ago. I washed the walls and the floors and finished decorating. 2 years late but better late than never! Check one room off my list!

I also hung this in the bedroom(can't remember what my mother called it) but it was my grandfathers:

jackhammer

I woke up at 6am, ate breakfast, washed dishes (finally done the backlog!), started laundry, answered some email.
At 8am I decided I was still tired and went back to bed. At that time, someone 2 doors down started JACKHAMMERING. I don't know why. They hadn't been doing this previously. Just thought that Saturday morning was a good time to start.
The weather doesn't seem to be able to make up its mind so I hung my laundry out and will see how it goes. It seems like there is a good breeze.
My plan for today is to tackle the front room.
Playing "Beg your pardon" from the 80s.

Hello summer!

Finally some warmth! I think I'll sleep with the windows open tonight. Rather pleased with the weather now- we'll see how long it lasts.

James got up at 5am- wouldn't tell me why, just needed a snuggle I guess. Ready to go to bed early tonight!

I feel bad for all the flooding in Calgary. Wish I could help. The emergency showed the limits of using twitter for getting out information as the Calgary Police had their account suspended for too many tweets..

I am hoping to do a room by room summer cleaning. We'll see how it goes. I'm currently behind on the dishes so in no state to make progress.

I love seeing the baby birds out with their parent- so cute. Sometimes the parents leave them on our fence as it is a "safe" place.

My beans plants have been having their leaves eaten by ants. My mother suggested putting egg shells down. I made egg salad sandwiches today so I put the egg shells out. See if that helps any.

At work, will be making schedules next week.

James has a trip to Queen's sport center Monday and a trip to the Memorial Center splash pad on Wednesday. He's off school on Friday. I plan to take Friday off as well.

Attitude

While helping James tie his cleats at soccer today I got hit (hard) in the head with a soccer ball kicked accidentally by another boy. I wonder if I'll have a nasty bruise tomorrow. It hit my sunglasses off- I was thinking of getting another pair anyway. They still fit but are pretty loose.

I read this story called "Wedding gift spat" There were quite a number of things in the story that surprised me. It is about a bride whose (unwritten) expectation was they would receive $300 cash. Instead they got a gift basket and this perturbed them no end.
If they had only wanted cash there are ways of politely stating that on the invite.
But the overall thing that struck me (other than the lack of gratitude) was - were these people even friends?
There is no mention of how the people know each other in the article.
If they were good friends you would think someone from the wedding party might have mentioned what the gift expectation was.
If they weren't good friends why were they invited and why would they go?
How close of a friend should you be to go to a wedding?
Finally, should the day be about the wedding and not the money?

I found it amusing that Marlene's perception of the Bach was the same as mine!

Marlene also noted that my book "God behaving badly" is not the same as the book "Gods behaving badly". I have completed most of the first chapter after the introduction and this chapter was looking at if God was too quick to smite people in the old testament. The example they looked at was of Uzzah steadying the ark when it got a bit topply and Uzzah got a smiting because people aren't supposed to touch the ark. Even if you are being helpful and trying to keep it from tipping over. In the chapter he points out (which I hadn't noticed before) that the Israelites were really doing things wrong- they weren't supposed to put the ark on a CART- they had specific instructions about how to haul it around and they weren't following instructions. If they had been following instructions the ark wouldn't have been all tippy and Uzzah wouldn't have died. In a way Uzzah died for the nation. It was a wake up call that they couldn't go around and do things in the way they thought best, as God's people they needed to do things as God thought best. So Uzzah in his helpfulness was a type of Christ.

cleansed

Jake came an cleaned the eaves and found some interesting things blocking it. (The troughs are only a year old) There was a tennis ball. James claimed responsibility for that. There were many pine cones. James also claimed responsibility for that. I have asked him to stop throwing things at the house.
So please to have them clean again!

At work I worked on schedules most of the day. Still have more to do tomorrow.

Interestingly, Brock opened their student system to registration today and it seems to have been a fail. Hope ours goes better. We do staggered appointments, so that helps a bit.

Watched the Bach- or the Manny and Jan show- and knew that the guy who was going home was the guy I couldn't recognize. Who was that guy anyway? I couldn't remember.

torrential and clearing

I was going to post this on Bob's FB wall but saw people had posted NICE things there, so I'm posting this here instead.

The morning was rainy but the most torrential part occurred during Church, which was good.(for me at least)

James went to Cafe Church in the morning and then he and AJ came over after. I cleaned while they played. Got the upstairs bathroom cleaned and the kitchen floor.

I started the book "God behaving badly" by David T. Lamb. I'm through the first chapter which was an introduction, I think, to what the book will deal with. He is looking at how often the God of the Old Testament is given a bad rap- that He is angry and goes around smiting people but then the God of the new testament is all nice and loving and- is this the same Person? I'll let you know how it goes.

I don't think I wrote about the follow up to the duct cleaning scam I had last year (remember the company that said their head office was down at Queen's to convince me to do their duct cleaning services?) Well, I declined their services. They called me again this past week. Remember that I declined their services? They didn't. They insisted that they came last year and that I paid them. They did NOT come and I did NOT pay them. So I told them that. They disagreed. Then they went on with their schpiel. Funny, I wasn't really interested.

The weather cleared up in the afternoon.

visit

My parents came up on Friday and we got to see James do "noodle fighting" at his karate class. That was pretty interesting! Not my type of thing as I prefer when he does the routines but lots of fun for him!

Then we had chicken tikka for dinner- turned out quite yummy.

Saturday we went to Lemoine Point. We used the south parking lot, luckily missing the bouncy castle in the north lot. The trails there were in pretty good condition (considering all the rain we've had) and we saw lots of wildlife.

James walked like a champ, I thought!

Then we went to the Cat Mall. Lots of places had good sales 40-50% off but I didn't see anything outstanding. My mom found a couple of cute shirts that were well reduced in price for her though.

We went to Walmart which was really useful for me as there was some stuff I needed to pick up, though James went to stare at the xbox.

Also had a nice walk downtown through the big dig. We hoped for more sales at the indigo that is closing in 2 weeks but there wasn't too much.

We had a lovely dinner at the Grizzly- I had a calzone that was AMAZING! I definitely recommend it.

My poor parents ended up playing a very complicated game of Lord of the Rings while I mowed the lawn. I don't know if they won, lost or ran away but I know James appreciates people who play with him.

And now it is raining again. Will need to put on boots for Church. Looks like my parents will be driving through rain until Toronto. Thank you for visiting and making it a special weekend!

rocks and rolls

A pretty relaxed day today. I had an x-ray of my hip as it's been bothering me for some time and the doctor thought there might be a minor tear or something. Not a big worry.

I like to read too much. Got caught up in some reading when I meant to be cleaning. Then did some cleaning.

My parents arrived and we collected James after he returned from "First Capital Day" down at City Park.

We went home, chilled a bit, then went to James' noodle fighting at karate. That was pretty funny to watch. Then we had chicken tikka and then Grandad spent about an hour reading the instructions to the Lord of the Rings game he got for his birthday. It is one complicated game.

Looking forward to Lemoine Point tomorrow!

trek

I have been following Dan who is retracing Laura Secord's famous walk.

Yesterday when I left work I came upon the accident scene mentioned in this CKWS story "Accident Slows Traffic Near Sydenham and Earl Streets"- it was after the firetruck left but the police were still taking the report. The car had pretty much mashed up the front end and took the brunt of the collision. This probably was the driver that had the right of way. I couldn't see a mark on the SUV at all. So I'm not sure what that says. I was very amused at the title for the story as they implied that this was a busy route? When I walk down Earl between Queen's and Bagot, I maybe see 10 cars traveling the route. It's not like it is a heavily traveled route or that it really slowed them down a lot- from what I could tell they slowed from 50 to 40 maybe as they weaved around the accident scene.

Parents are coming for a visit tonight! I need to get the chicken in the slow cooker.

The land of clogged eaves

The house has had a clogged gutter for a couple of weeks and it has washed away part of my flowerbed in the front. I have been looking for a resolution for this and hopefully it is close now.

However, this morning when I went out to check on my beans and carrots I saw that the gutter on the garage was also clogged. As the garage is much smaller, I could climb the fence beside and hang on the side of the trough and unclog the drain. A very satisfying feeling really!

It has been so rainy!

There were shots fired at CFB Kingston today. I got my news updates from the Kingston traffic twitter. A more reliable source of news than news sites, I find.

Bob posted this video on proportional representation in the government. I really try to avoid political thoughts but the process of this brings up some questions for me. If a party wins 40% of the vote and that gives them 59.5 seats (for example) how do you decide who gets the seat? Do you each get 1/2 a party member? And if your party has 150 people running in different locations and you win 59 seats how do you decide which of the 150 get the seats. Those were the questions I thought of as I watched this. But the best bits were Peter's outfit changes and the "Chocolate Party"- I would vote for them any day. Especially if they give out free chocolate!

Silent rain

The laundry didn't really dry on the line as the silent rain arrived. It wasn't like the ground was showing that it was raining but it was! I ended up throwing it all in the dryer.

Marlene dropped off the book from Al yesterday "The unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" by Rachel Joyce. I couldn't put it down. I forced myself to clean the bathroom and then I could read as a reward. So I finished it today. It is about Harold who walks across England to save a lady who is dying of cancer. My favorite bit was:

(after the silver haired gentleman shared his secret)
“It must be the same all over England. People were buying milk, or filling their cars with petrol, or even posting letters. And what no one else knew was the appalling weight of the thing they were carrying inside. The inhuman effort it took sometimes to be normal, and a part of things that appeared both easy and everyday. The loneliness of that.”

It was a very good book- I recommend it as well!

On a completely different note, I thought this article was amusing.

I've been listening to this Martin Smith song this weekend.

Pre-inspection

Last week I watched a couple of home inspectors go over the house across the street. Odd, I thought, as it wasn't for sale. Not surprisingly, it just went up for sale. With a sign beside the "For Sale" sign saying "Pre-inspected by (company)". Is this pre-inspection a new trend?

Today I went to Loblaws. As I drove by the CIBC it felt odd knowing that a couple of days ago people had been so worried about a styrofoam package left there that the bomb squad had to detonate. Turns out they were discarded solar lights.

James got a cramp in his foot while playing Wii and has spent the last 1.5 hours on the couch "recovering". And you thought drama only came from teenage girls.

I hung my laundry in the hope that it would dry under overcast skies but so far the effectiveness is rated rather poorly.

Apparently the asteroid missed us.

skating with a pro

James skated with an NHL star today- he was over the moon with happiness!

Today I spent wrapping up the mess of changes that needed to be done at work. Hopefully, most of that is behind me now.

I am hoping to take lunch breaks in the upcoming week. It's a continual struggle for me when swamped with things to do!

There is a new store downtown apparently called "liquid nutrition". I looked at the menu and many of the drinks I wouldn't like because the have banana in them. I don't like coffee or blueberries either. So if I was going to try one I've narrowed it down to:

Zest
or Blush

The ingredients in these two are the same except one had peach and one has strawberry.

Another one that looked interesting was Inspire So green it must be healthy!

I may make it my summer challenge to try each of these.

Though since I would be downtown I might wash it down with a cupcake from the Cupcakey or an ice cream at Marble slab

Have to balance all that healthy stuff out! I'll let you know how the challenge goes.

I would really like to do laundry tomorrow (I had to send James to school today in meggings as he was out of pants) but there is a 60% chance of rain tomorrow. 40% in TO, Marlene reminds me.

There is an asteroid flying by the Earth in a few hours but I am too tired to wait up.

James writes a letter to Stephen H@rper

James had an assignment in school today to write a "convincing" letter. To a boy whose favorite news show is "Power and Politics" and who really loves news shows he chose to write to Stephen H@rper!

I have transcribed it here (exactly as written):

Dear Shepon Harper,

Hi, my name is james. I think you should tell all you know about the senate expense scandall and Nigal Wright should be asked what he know about the 90,000 dollars cheque to Mike Duffy.

You should confese that You knew about Nigal Wright and will probably get more vote in the next election or at least be the opposition.

Also, Thomas Mulcair askes you simple questions but you're awensers are not about the question. Same with Liberal, simple questions but no awnsers.

Now you're going to eroupe for 8 days. You're dodging the bullet.

We all want awnsers!!!

James

drowned japanese tree peony

The rains on the weekend washed out the japanese tree peony. It is a very sad looking plant now! My parents are coming to visit soon and I'm hoping my mother can help ID stuff in the garden. I should maybe write it down as she tells me every year and I forget every year!

I am very behind in my email but I am close to finishing the timetabling model that we needed to work on.

It is overcast and cold here. Seems summer is passing us by as well!

James got his ipod fixed but I wasn't very pleased last night as it woke me up at 11:40 when the hockey game ended - he gets "alerts" when things happen in the hockey game and apparently didn't switch the ipod off when he went to sleep.

challenges

We are dealing with some timetabling challenges due to the popularity of the program. Yesterday was a difficult day as I tried to wrap my head around the enormity of the situation. Today I had more of a handle on it and things were better.

At least it wasn't as bad as this timetabling problem- at A.U- no timetablers at all at the start of the school year.

Some other exciting news- the bomb squad got to detonate a package a few blocks from my house. It wasn't a bomb though.

Other moms have funny conversations with their kids as well.

James' ipod is fixed now!

I woke up at 4am this morning- hoping to do better tonight!

One sad boy

James ipod mysteriously cracked, making him a very sad boy. Annette suggested taking it to iservice on Alfred St. so I'll do that on Monday.

My beans are still growing rapidly


A storm rolled in about 6:15pm. I took these pictures before the rain started.

My rain gutter is clogged. I need to buy a ladder to get up and unclog it!

Other than the storm at the end, it was a very nice day. Got 2 loads of laundry done. James and I played baseball at the park. They had painted the tennis courts pink and green where they had previously been black. I'll take a pic when they are done (they were still finishing it when we were there this morning) and maybe someone can explain this benefit of colours to me!

I did a lot of dishes and vacuuming as well and cleared up the side door entryway. Productive day except haven't tackled the dreaded cleaning bathroom task!