At what age are you a senior?

We have booked to go away on vacation to Ohio at a place called Walnut Creek.  Doesn't that name sound ever so like "Little House on the Priaire-ish!!"  Due to "security" issues that is all I can tell you about it at the moment...LOL

Anyhow, went to book the hotel and they had a seniors discount and you only have to be 55 to be classed as a senior.  I was under the impression that the minimum age would be at least 60 and more typically 65?  Pleased to say despite dh not being thrilled about being classed as a senior; it did at least save us nearly $100 on our bill!!!!

I did have a "senior," moment on Saturday when I went and lost my glasses.  We had called into McDonald's and I had them out to read something on the receipt.  Put them back in the case and I thought I put them back in my handbag.  They must have fallen out onto the floor and I didn't see them.  

An hour later went back, as we retraced our steps of where we had been and there they were in the exact same place.  So what does that tell you?  They don't clean up all that often!!!

Blind as a bat though when I don't have my glasses despite the fact I only need them for reading and close up.  I am due for new glasses but going on vacation is a priority over glasses I think!!!

Sharing a couple of photos.

Despite the fact that it is so humid at the moment, I picked up a Fall Wreath for the front door at Pier One today.  They had 20% off and I also had a $10 off coupon when you spend over a certain amount.

 Dh also got the blinds up on the windows beside the door.  I am not as happy with these ones.  However due to the width of the windows, just over 9 inches, I was limited in what I could put there.  I am still waiting for the ones for the kitchen as they are the sheer ones that match the living room.

Here is an up to date photo of our Little Munchkin:

Her parents just had the basement carpeted on Thursday, as they have been renovating it all.  She was enjoying crawling around the open space without being told not to touch things!!

Look who is 9 months old and a baby "puja"

Our little Munchkin was nine months old on Saturday.  

She never stops; is always on the go.  Can stand for a few seconds on her own but still not confident enough to take that first step.  She has also learned how to grind her teeth which is nasty; it sounds as bad as nails on a chalkboard!!!  She is up to 19 1/2 lbs and is going to be tall, so she takes after her dad's side in that aspect.  Her having those six teeth make her look so much older I think?

On Saturday we also attended a "puja" which is a religious blessing for Our Little Princess' soon to be new brother or sister.  It was only a short puja, so it took just under 2 hours!!  It was very interesting, despite the fact I didn't really know what was happening.

This was done in a house, the priest is sitting by himself.  A married couple had to help with the ceremony.  They were "praying" to the Indian Deity Ganesh  I honestly don't know the ins and outs of it all.  It involved various things, including flowers, holy water, fruit, rice, different spices and oil.  At one point we also got a blessing and a piece of fruit.  I was praying and hoping it wasn't going to be a coconut.......pleased to say dh and I got a pomegranate each, as at least I know what to do with that.

I was surprised at how relaxed it was, as people were moving around and talking while all this was going on.  I didn't put my sari on as this happened at 7 am!!!  It was apparently an auspicious time to do the blessing?  I have enough trouble putting my sari on at a regular time never mind trying to do it at that time of the morning.  Also as this was a last minute thing I didn't have time to go out and buy another "Indian" outfit to wear.  Everyone's sari's though were gorgeous as always; and yes dh and I were the only non-Indian people in attendance.  However we know everyone and are treat as part of the family which is really nice.

They had a traditional breakfast after this ended and as usual I did not like it, because even breakfast can be spicy it seems!!!  Dh ate his though, but he isn't as picky as me.

Of course our Little Princess was there:

She is growing that fast and is so bright.  She was 19 months old last week.  Her new brother or sister (I am thinking brother) is due the middle to end of September and is already a footballer!!  Total different pregnancy to when she was expecting our little Princess.

More blinds from Blindsgalore.....

We got our latest blinds from Blindsgalore on Tuesday and must say we are very pleased with them.  This is the blurb about them:

Sheer blinds, also called sheer shades, are refined, elegant and versatile window treatments. Comparable to the Silhouette, sheer horizontal blinds feature two sheer fabric facings over soft fabric vanes.  Sheer vertical blinds feature a light filtering material between hanging fabric or vinyl vanes.  Blindsgalore offers discount sheer shades from Bali, Levolor & Comfortex as well as our own signature line.

In Canada I only see the one type of sheer blind to order, I think they have more selection in the States.

It is raining today so I couldn't get good photos.  I didn't order blinds for the doors, but am going to now as I like them so much.

The two windows below took dh all of 30 minutes to install them, as he had the tools and step ladder out. 

There are three brackets on this window with two screws in each bracket.  You need a tape measure, a pencil, a drill to drill a pilot hole and a screw driver to screw the screws in.  That is it. 

 As the side windows are less than 24 inches wide, we only used two brackets.

They let plenty of light in, but give us privacy at the same time.  Very pleased with the quality.  Now I didn't get a price on the Hunter Douglas Silhouette blinds, but I am guessing these were half the price and as good a quality.  

Results of the condo board meeting...........

Last Thursday evening was the condo board meeting.  There was a good turn out of people and we met a lot of people we hadn't met before.  There were enough in attendance that we were able to take care of all business including voting for the five members of the board.

There were seven people who put their name forward, including mine.  There were four women and three men.  We all gave a little speech about who we are etc and that was both interesting and plain bloody boring.  Lets just say I went sixth and the five people before me were all very qualified as was the person after me.  I was in two minds about even standing up and saying anything after the first five spoke but dh said I was as good as everyone else.

If truth be told other than solving world hunger and flying to the moon and back, they have all done and had very illustrious careers.  They are all over qualified for these positions but all were so willing and enthusiastic you couldn't help but want all of them to win!!!  Oh and then there was me..........

Here is part of my speech:

I decided to put my name forward for the board as I feel I have a couple of skills that could be useful. (LITTLE DID I REALIZE COMPARED TO EVERYONE ELSE'S SKILLS MINE WERE USELESS, I did not say this bit!!)

I worked in an office for a number of years so know my way around a computer and can read a set of financial statements.

I have been told and I think I am a very organized person.

I am also very lucky, that when God was handing out common sense, I was in the line and got some.  However when God was handing out how to use power tools, I was shopping.  THAT GOT ME A FEW LAUGHS.

Suffice to say I did not get voted onto the board and will say I am so glad I didn't.  One thing I said at the end of my speech was to tell everyone to play nice!!  One guy decided to bring up an incident that I have mentioned before at the meeting.  Luckily for us the lawyer running the meeting shot him down, not before totally blindsiding the woman he was complaining about and shocking the hell out of a lot of people for having the nerve to bring it up at the meeting.  The guy is a bully and needs to be brought down a peg or two.  Dh has warned me to keep out of it; but boy I wish I could sock him one (the guy not dh)

We then had to vote on a minor issue.  That went on and on due to one man's questions and concerns.  This issue was a straight forward thing and the lawyer told us it was straight forward as was the wording.  It was at that point I realized I wouldn't have the patience to deal with these types of things.

However after the meeting I chatted with a lot of folk and everyone loved my speech and said I would have been a breath of fresh air on our board, as compared to the other folk I was totally opposite.  A couple of folk wanted me to run for a social committee, I said no that was fine.

Will say we live in a great neighbourhood with a lot of super people from all walks of life.  The people voted onto the board will do a good job and I congratulated them all.  I think though after the meeting I will stick to my thing and let them run the board.  In the scheme of things we shouldn't have to deal with them much anyway, as what minor things we want to do with the outside of the house are things that are always approved anyway.

Oh and by the way we have a bit more grass.........

Do you remember these songs?

I love this song, and remember all the uproar she caused with the church, do you?


Red, Red Wine is I think the most famous song by UB40, but I love this one as much.

I remember one of my early boyfriends just loving this song, and wanting to "look" like the guys in the song.  I love the song, but thought the outfits too scruffy for me.

This is such a catchy song.  I remember dropping dd and her friend(s) off to see these guys at Canada's Wonderland.

I could never figure out what this video was about, but just loved the song regardless.

Some old songs.......

This is such a sad song........
   
 One of my all time favourite songs.....

Haven't heard this in a while.......
 

Scotland and Ebola................

not two things you would put together, but two things I am concerned about at the moment.

There has always been rumblings that Scotland wanted to be a separate country from Great Britain.  Saw a couple of things on Facebook mentioning it.  Including this letter:

Dear Friend, 

The decision on whether to leave our shared country is, of course, absolutely yours alone. Nevertheless, that decision will have a huge effect on all of us in the rest of the United Kingdom. 

We want to let you know how very much we value our bonds of citizenship with you, and to express our hope that you will vote to renew them.

What unites us is much greater than what divides us. Let's stay together.

Yours,

The Rest of the United Kingdom 

Can't see the point of this personally.  It's been fine for all these years as is.  Why change something that is working? I am not the only one who feels this way, you can read more about it here. Please fill me in on your thoughts?

Ebola has been in the news recently and has me very concerned.  I know the chances of me personally getting it at this point is very slim, but I honestly see it becoming a world wide problem. I know you shouldn't believe everything that is written in the press but there has to be a grain of truth in there don't you think?  Here is the latest from Daily Mail UK.

I was part of a discussion on Facebook yesterday when someone posted this:

This is what I had to say:

• the food thing is sort of a lie.........you "catch" Ebola by eating "bush meat." So as long as you are not in the middle of the jungle starving and decide to kill and eat some wild animal yes you won't "catch" Ebola. People who decide to smuggle bush meat into our countries as it is a delicacy for people from certain countries, that does indeed pose a risk. That is where border security/customs comes in, they have be extra vigilant when checking what is coming in from what countries; especially those from the infected countries. Now the chances of us eating that type of meat are slim to nil, but there is always a risk we come in contact with people who enjoy that type of meat and could become infected.

Are you concerned about the Ebola situation?

Tonight is the Condo board meeting.  I will report back tomorrow how it all goes!!

Another job crossed off the list.........

I am sorry I didn't take a before photo, you'll just have to believe me when I say it is night and day how much storage we have in there now.  We had it custom designed for us by Solutions.  We have used their systems in the last three houses, as are experts when it comes to installing these.

The back is around 65 inches wide.

 This side section is around 36 inches across.  As we have 9 foot ceilings we were able to put in two shelves above the hanging space.

As you can see there is a lot of room still available.  We previously only had the one hanging rail on the two walls and a shelf above.  This system is not cheap.  This cost us around $750 (taxes incl) but it has given us well over twice the space we had before.  It is also a selling feature if/when you come to sell the house.

This took us around 4 hours to install which is way longer than it should have done, as we ran into a couple of issues.  I want to follow up with the company as the issues could have something to do with a change in the type of product they use.

We will install the same type of product in other closets in the house when we get to them.

Do you have closet organizers in your closets/wardrobes?

What is this green stuff you say?????

We finally got grass on the front and side of the house along with some more trees and plants.  The white pipe will be cut down and disguised as it is a water run off pipe.

 The tree that is closest is a Silk Lilac, and the other one is a Canadian Maple

 The tree to the right of the photo is an Oak tree that goes red in the Fall.

 They put in some more garden which is still to fill with plants

 This is a lilac tree that they planted.  Wasn't expecting that and pleased to see it.

They had started sorting out the back today and then we got some bad weather.  We now have a swimming pool in the back. 

This was the hail that came down. 

 More hail and it's still thundering out there.

All the neighbours pleased to see our grass as it tidies up the place.