Great News......

Got my computer back.  Felt as though I had lost one of my arms.

As per the form they sent back with it they have replaced the following:

1. Cables - know what they are
2. System Board - no idea what that is?
3. DT Board: no idea what that is?

If anyone is knowledgeable about computers and would like to tell me what is what I am all ears.  I am just grateful they didn't replace the hard drive and lost everything I had on this laptop.

I will tell you what I have been up too in the next couple of posts, while my baby (computer) was away on it's holidays!!

Really Pi**ed off!!

Had a guy at the house on Monday to repair my Dell Laptop, as this time the on/off power button wasn't working right.....thank goodness for in house warranty repair.  Nice enough guy got the job done and off he went.

Dh comes home and says what happened to the driveway?  I hadn't been outside all day (not well remember 😷), so I pop outside to have a look and this is what I see:

That guy's car wasn't just dripping oil, it was leaking oil.  By the amount of oil it leaked on our driveway (he was here 90 minutes) that is a major leak and one which I suspect he knew about.

To my mind that is an inconsiderate, selfish and bloody annoying thing to do; parking your car in someone's driveway knowing your car is leaking oil.  Not only that, but parking on a driveway with interlocking stones.  To say I am peed off is an under statement.  Dh is going to try and burn it off, but you have to be careful and not crack the bricks.

I did talk with the company who sent out the technician and we agreed that although he shouldn't have parked in the driveway, he didn't intend on making a mess of the driveway.  I said they should send an email out to all employees about this as a reminder about parking in customers driveways.

Meanwhile, we just have to get on with it and repair the driveway. {{{SIGH}}}

One week to go and things are going sort of to plan........

Like with everything in life, there are little things that happen to throw you the odd curve ball.

We did our walk through on Friday night.  Took over three hours and we left the new place just after 10pm.  Must say it wasn't all business as we talked about a couple of things off topic, however it was the longest and thoroughest PDI we have ever been through.  Have to say nothing too major, mainly minor issues and one "major (to me)" issue.

It seems that I have ordered dark beige ceramic tiles in the ensuite bathroom...........couldn't remember!!!  Anyhoo, round by the bath they have sealed off the edges and corners of the tiles and it looks as though someone have used a magic marker/felt tip pen in dark brown to do it.  I was not happy.  However picture me sitting on the "royal throne (toilet)" displaying my displeasure with it all!!!  So not sure what they are going to do, but something will be done.  We are also finding that room dark?  So need to look into seeing how we can lighten the room up.

The other sort of major/minor thing is that they forgot to do the rough in for the water softener.  That it seems is no big deal???  We should have a back deck before we move in.  The rest of the landscaping may be in by the end of the month.

Pleased as punch with how the house looks overall and wait until you see the kitchen it's more or less perfect.  If I had one complaint it would be lack of electrical sockets.  "Only" have 4 double sockets in the kitchen, would have liked more, but never mind.  Caved in and paid $300 for the appliance guy to install the water on the fridge, install the above stove microwave oven and the dishwasher.  There are just too many other things for poor dh to do and all that would have taken dh (who is an electrician so knows what he is doing) close to all day to install.

On a positive note my laptop has arrived back home, so all is good in my little world again!!  However on the negative side my allergies are just horrible at the moment.  I so want to pull off my nose.  Is anyone else suffering with them?  I am on Reactine and that normally works just fine, but it doesn't feel as though it's working at the moment.

Finally here is our little Munchkin:

Two weeks to go....

and we still have not heard a thing from the lawyer.  I have emailed them a couple of times and they say everything is under control.  It had better be, we normally have a couple of meeting with him, but not with this lawyer???

The house must be finished inside as the final door handle and permanent lock is now on the door.  They are working on the outside and will hopefully get the interlock driveway and steps in this week.  Not sure if they will be finished the rest of the landscaping before we move in, but it will be close.

Went to Home Sense on the weekend and picked up some bathroom accessories, toilet roll holder, towel rail, hooks etc; for our bathroom.  All Umbra Eclipse ones and a fraction of the price of other ones we were looking at. The hooks were $6.99 a piece, the toilet roll holder $9.99 and the towel rail $19.99.

Finally got a truck organized for us to hire for moving the stuff in the garage.  We have booked movers to take everything from the house, but that truck was full with just the house things.  So we are moving the garage stuff ourselves; which will turn out to be a lot cheaper.

No sign of my laptop coming back any time soon, suffice to say I am NOT happy!!!  Had a chit-chat with Staples about it all....

Here are a couple of photos of our little munchkin and our little princess taken at the end of last week.

Our little munchkin looks so much older with her hair pinned back don't you think?  She will be 7 months old on June 16th.

 

Our Little Princess hates having her photo taken, so never looks at the camera, she will be 17 months old on June 12th.

Not an ear infection............

only (!!) a virus/sinus thing going on {SIGH}  He gave me a prescription and told me to fill it if it didn't clear up in a few days.  Otherwise pull up my big girls pants and get on with it, another {{SIGH}}

Spent a delightful couple of hours trying to get quotes on our house and car insurance.  They range in price from less than $1,500 for both to nearly $2,500 for both {{{SIGH}}}  For those of you who live in Ontario, Presidents Choice Financial Insurance is the cheapest so far and seems to have great coverage.  Thinking we may go with them.  Mind you as my mam always says, an Insurance Company is only as good as how it performs when you do your first claim.

Major crisis, well it is to my mind.  My laptop is away for repair.  The fan stopped working on it.  Took out the extended warranty thank goodness, through Staples.  I have very little faith in those guys after I sent in my Dell laptop for a new power cord and they changed the bloody hard drive..........there was NOTHING wrong with it {{{{SIGH}}}}

Told them this time under no circumstances do they touch my hard drive and to only change the fan.  Called yesterday for an update and was ready to pull my hair out within seconds.  He was rattling on about how they couldn't test the computer because of the security settings I had on it.  Took me a minute to click he was talking about someone else's computer!!  Finally got him talking about my computer and they have sent away to Toshiba for a new fan.  Fingers crossed I get it back before the end of the year............I'm telling you I have no faith in them.

As you know we sold our lawn tractor back in April.  Has anyone ever tried cutting five acres with a regular push lawn mower?  Neither have I, BUT I am getting in plenty of practice in cutting around the house with a push lawn mower.  Suffice to say I am NOT IMPRESSED!!

Got some more things sorted out.  Cost $92.60 to get Canada Post to redirect our mail for a year.  It's actually money well spent in my opinion as you always forget to tell someone you have moved.

Got some more packing done also today; still have a ways to go though.  Who knew there was so much "stuff" in this house!!!

If you're reading this I thank you.

Gill

Random photos.......

The sunrise on Friday morning.......

My new laptop, which dh is setting up for me:

 

Christmas Balls, not sure what I am going to do with them? Have two boxes of each colour, eaight of each size of ball in each box.......any crafty ideas?

Horses with their sunglasses on to remind me, that eventually this bloody snow will go!!

Haven't been on the computer much as my hands are sore.  Will update you on them on Tuesday after I have been to the doctors on Monday........

$100 doesn't go far in the quilting world....

I had $100 to spend in Christmas money so I decided to stock up on some Sulky thread that was on sale.  Unfortunately only certain colours were on sale, they are normally $8.99 a reel, when did thread become so expensive?  I use grey though to piece things together and I need the beige for a couple of projects I am going to be doing.

With the other $50+ I bought five metres of fabric.  I got everything on sale for $10 a metre as it's normally up to $17 a metre.  The store is closing down.  This fabric is for a certain project but I can't tell you what at the moment, but they are fun prints aren't they?

Even after buying everything on sale I still went over the budget by spending $101.68 :o(

On Wednesday afternoon I ventured into the attic to mend a pair of dh's pants and then decided to get my quilt block sewn for the mnth of December , as the club meets on the 10th.  I really like this block it's called Clay's Choice and I love the oranges.  The key to this block is how you press your seams, follow the instructions carefully.  I have never sewn with orange before have you?

Spent part of Wednesday afternoon preparing a couple of meals.  I bought another bag of reduced mix veggie, same as these mentioned here  made broccoli and cauliflower with cheese sauce, that we'll have with Pillsbury Country Biscuits and the carrots we're having with homemade pasties, mashed potatoes and gravy.  The liquid in the jug is the water from the dish I steamed the veggies in.  I like to water my plants with it when its cold.  Heard it was good for them?

Oh, and my laptop has died.............I hope this isn't what's going to happen all through 2013, things dying?

Belated Happy Birthday, a recipe and other stuff....

It's come to my attention, namely through my other brother Nick, that I didn't wish him a happy birthday on his birthday.  So to stop him accusing me of favouritism, could you all pop over to his blog and wish him a belated Happy Birthday, it was on January 4th and he was 42.......oops wasn't sure if I was supposed to mention his age ;0)

I had planned on doing aanother post today but have other things to talk about.  It's also come to my attention that my laptop battery is not lasting any length of time any more.  When I am using my webcam I only get about an hours usage on it.  Not sure if that's a normal thing or not?

I made a couple of Sour Cream Lemon Cakes on Tuesday, below is a photo of them.

The recipe is from here

Ingredients:


2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, room temperature

2 cups granulated sugar

3 eggs

grated zest of 1 large lemon

1 cup sour cream

.

Lemon Glaze:

1/4 cup melted butter

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325°. Generously butter and flour a 10-inch bundt pan.

Into a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.



In a mixing bowl with hand-held electric mixer, cream 1 cup butter and granulated sugar; beat at high speed until mixture is very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down side of bowl frequently. Blend in lemon zest. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with sour cream, adding each in 3 additions. Scrape sides of bowl frequently. Pour batter into prepared cake pan; bake in the preheated oven for 55 to 65 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden pick inserted near the center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Meanwhile, combine lemon glaze ingredients in a bowl, blending until smooth. Carefully turn cake out onto a platter; drizzle evenly with glaze.

Serves 12 or more, depending on size of servings.

****Now this makes a heavy cake, almost like a pound cake.  Personally I would only make a half quantity of the icing, using all the lemon juice though.  It makes an awful lot of icing if you use the suggested recipe.  It also took the full 65 minutes to cook, and you need a large bundt pan****

This recipe though is a keeper!!

Did you remember to put your money in your daily savings pot today?

Today's Money Saving Tip:

Keep your hands clean. This one’s simple – just wash your hands thoroughly each time you use the bathroom or handle raw foods. You’ll keep yourself from acquiring all kinds of viruses and bacteria, saving you on medical bills and medicine costs and lost productivity. That’s not to say you shouldn’t explore the world and get your hands dirty sometimes – that’s good for you, too – but basic sanitation does help keep the medical bills away.

Don't you think that's a good tip, makes sense when you think about it.....

Late in posting......

only because I picked up my laptop, finally yesterday and dh had to do "stuff" with it to get it up and running and that involved using the stick for the Internet. So now I have my laptop back, lets hope that is the end of that chapter!!

Anyhow, on Tuesday we went for a day out to Collingwood, Thornbury and Meaford. We are only around 45 km south of Collingwood, then Thornbury is a ten minute drive from Collingwood and Meaford about another 10 minutes from Thornbury.

We had never been to Collingwood before, although I had been to Blue Mountain when we came on vacation here as a child. I don't remember visiting Collingwood itself though.

The main street is very pleasant and full of touristy style of shops. They have music coming out of speakers on the lamp posts which is really neat, and everything is very clean. However there was a guy begging on the street, which I thought was rather strange. See plenty of them in downtown Toronto, but didn't think I would see one there.

Here is a display of outside the council offices, I thought it was very attractive:

(click on the photos for more detail)

This display was one the main street beside Loblaws, there is a large one there.



Finally here is one of the lake as we were driving to Thornbury.



I have a lot more photos of Thornbury, as I liked that town a whole lot better. Collingwood is over developed for my liking. I will post photos of Thornbury tomorrow.

Had a day out on Friday........

shopping!! We had some errands to run in Barrie, so off we go. We had a few things to pick up in Rona, including exchanging our brush cutter for a new one, at no charge........got to like that.

Popped into Home Depot, as I managed to crack the one downstairs......I know big butt!! Have you ever sat on a toilet seat that is cracked, boy it pinches...LOL

We went to Chapters and I got a game called "The Worst-Case Scenario, Game of Surviving Life." with 75% off, so I picked it up and I told dh we should practice it, as when we play with the kids it will help us maybe to win!!!!!!

I even went into the dreaded Wal-Mart to pick a couple of things up, brave or what!!

I called into the even more dreaded Staples to see about my laptop. So my laptop is in the store, the universal chargers of course aren't compatible with my laptop, so basically it is useless until I get the new adaptor. I am not happy, but what do I do? No idea when my adaptor/charger will be here, so I guess I just have to live with it.......

I changed my header and someone told me how to change the font and colour of the text. Didn't know how to do that. Sort of looks Fall like now, don't you think? However the weather up here is anything but like Fall, I mean its pretty summery if you ask me, so nice. Both me and dh were saying that we hope the weather holds, as it would be nice if we could hold off putting the heating on until next month. We'll see.

****CHECK OUT THE POST BELOW, AS I DID TWO POSTS FOR SATURDAY****

Mushrooms or Fungi?

We have these growing on one of the trees, they are quite beautiful. Are they mushrooms or fungi? Also are they posionous, not that I was planning on eating them, just interested. Does anyone go out and pick wild mushrooms? I am terrified I will get posioned, so I don't do it.




I took more photos but Blogger is taking forever to load photos at the moment.

I decided to try and upload a couple more photos on Friday morning to see if its faster, as I find our internet is faster in a morning? It obviously gets tired as the day goes on!!


Update on the Laptop.............no update the store manager didn't even call me.....so guess I will be calling him again on Friday!!

Sorry its such a short post.

I am really, really ticked off.......

with Staples.

I got a Dell laptop for my birthday, March 2008. I took out an extended warranty with Staples.

Fast forward to the beginning of August, 2009 and I discover that when I plug my laptop into the socket, it won't charge. We try dh's adaptor from his Dell computer and it works. So as we were going into town on August 14th, I drop off my laptop and adaptor (as they requested both items) and tell them the story of what is wrong with it. As its Friday night they won't send it off until Monday August 17th to the Sarnia repair depot, I say that's fine.

I keep in touch and finally they tell me on August 26th, that they need to replace the motherboard and the adaptor is fine??? Of course I question this, because the computer itself was working fine. They say the repair depot says its got permission for the repair and as its a Dell computer they have to order in the part and it will arrive on September 1st. I'm not happy, but what do I do???

I call September 2nd and the part hasn't arrived, but should be there on the 3rd and they will have it too me on either the 4th, or the 8th, as the 7th is Labour Day.

I call the store on Tuesday to see if it will be delivered to the store and they say no. The kid I spoke to said he would get the manager to look into it. Basically he said the part was in, but I had to wait my turn to have it repaired and he would get back to me. I told him that as far as I was concerned there was nothing wrong with my computer and I couldn't see why they had changed the mother board and I was for e warning him, that if I got it back and my adaptor wasn't working there would be hell to play!! That's why I mentioned it yesterday in my post as he made me feel as though I was being unreasonable.

Anyhow, we are now on Wednesday morning and the manager still hasn't got back to me, so I call him after lunch. Are you ready for this..........he did call me back but we weren't in and he didn't want to leave a message on my answering machine!!!!!!

He then continues, "the funny thing is you know you mentioned the adaptor yesterday?"
I say,"yes."
He says, "well they have discovered the adaptor isn't working."

At this point add what ever language you want.......

He then says, "they are sending your laptop back and ordering an adaptor."

He then continues with, "now we don't have an adaptor, but we do have a couple universal adaptors and hopefully one of them will fit."

Now I won't go into what I said next, but basically told them they had better find another adaptor at another store, this is when he announces, "well we don't sell Dell computers anymore at Staples, so not sure where we can find one."

Dh has left his computer at work, as it has some programmes on it, that they need for the welders, so I can't even use his. Without an adaptor my laptop is useless, as I will need to charge the battery. So needless to say I AM NOT HAPPY!!! And still the manager thinks their service turn around time is good??? What flipping planet is he living on??? Incompetent or what?

I went to the knitting club on Wednesday afternoon to take my mind off this, and honestly didn't enjoy myself . I feel as though I am not as intellectual as the rest of them, as they all seem to be retired professionals, so not too sure if I'll continue to go. However, the lady I was sitting next too, was showing us some dolls she had made for her Etsy store They are really nice, as was she.

Good news, daily savings club, photos..........

Didn't have time to post anything for today, so just pulled some photos from last week, of the snow and the sun.......they were all taken from the truck as we were driving by.

As always click on the photos for more detail.

Also a reminder, for the Daily Savings Club, it's now 50 cents per day, so you should have $1 in your pot today!!

Oh and the good news...............my baby is home......and by that I mean my lovely red Dell Laptop. Dd went and bought an Apple MacBook Laptop, I think it is this one, but I could be wrong. So dd is all happy, I am all happy, so the world in general should be happy!!!

It's a sad, sad day......

in that British Woman's house......my beloved red Dell Laptop has gone away for a vacation. Where you ask, to dd house. For how long, no idea.

Dd laptop went KAPUT again the other day. This isn't the first time this has happened, infact it's the fourth time it has happened. Now to cut a long and miserable story short, she faxed over her receipt to HP on Thursday and she should be getting 80% of the money back on the receipt. How she got to this point is long and painful, but basically they knew she meant business and within an hour and a half of being on the phone she was through to a case manager and had a case number etc. Which may not seem like an achievement, but believe me it was a great achievement. It can take days before a case manager speaks to you.

So as dd is still in school (final semester of her graduate studies), she needs access to the Internet. Dd boyfriend only has a desktop and it doesn't have a wireless connection which is what they need where they live. So I was gracious enough to offer up my laptop until she gets another one.

Dd was talking to HP yesterday and they seemed to think she would have her money within a month???? Dd of course doesn't want to buy another computer, until she knows for certain how much money she is getting back, and when. Which to my mind is very prudent.

So I am now having to use our desktop in the spare bedroom. I normally work on my blog and on the Internet in the family room when I am watching tv. So last night it was strange, no laptop. I sat and did some more of my cross stitch which was fine, but I am missing my little red Dell.

Dh is always saying I am addicted to the computer, and I have to finely admit I am. I just pray and hope my poor little baby is not away too long. Meanwhile I will be sitting by myself in the spare bedroom......