Thursday, September 30, 2021

3 months old already.........

Little Evan was 3 months old yesterday.  He's a cutie; growing like crazy.  Eats like a horse, total opposite of his brother!!

Finished painting the two closets.  Finished painting the door frames of the garage doors.  So having a day off today and going shopping with dd; I am tired as is dh.  He will have a day pottering around the house while I am out.


Wednesday, September 29, 2021

Touchy subject....

So the subject of vaccination can be a touchy subject.  I am on the side of vaccination is the only way to go.  All our family are double vaccinated.  As soon as they bring in the vaccinations for the 5 - 11 year old's my grandchildren of that age will also be vaccinated. 

Some people think it's all a bunch of lies this covid.  Hubby works with a couple of people; actually 3 people who refuse to have the vaccination.  One of them I don't know why, but the other two just refuse to get them.  "O" reckons he won't get it.  "K" reckons if everyone else gets the vaccination he'll be safe.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and dh gets a text from work to say that "K" wife has just tested positive for covid.  Thankfully, dh hadn't seen "K" and was now on vacation.  Fast forward to this week and "K" now has covid and is in hospital on oxygen.  His wife's brother was also so sick he was hospitalized for the same reason.  "K's" elderly parents thankfully were vaccinated but they too caught covid from "K."

So dh's boss now has decided that until everyone is double vaccinated in the company, they have to get a covid test on a Friday and you are not allowed to go into work until you get a negative covid test.  When told this, this is what "O" said:

Well that sounds like a lot of work, I may as well go and get vaccinated.

😲😮😖😡😠

I am beyond frustrated with "K," "O," and the rest of the folk who don't want to get vaccinated when they don't have a valid reason not too.  They are filling up the ICU's, so there is no room for other people.

Covid is never going to go away; it's like the flu.  Folk do your bit!

Tuesday, September 28, 2021

Eating Out

We finally "ate out" last week in a restaurant.  Well we had a breakfast sandwich, hash brown and coffee at McDonalds, so really a fast food joint.  Now I have to say it worked out well, as here in Ontario, you have to show proof of vaccination and identification to the restaurant before you are allowed to dine in.  You need to keep your mask on other than when you are eating or drinking as well.

Normally this McDonalds is pretty busy; the drive thru was, but inside the restaurant there was probably less than 10 people dining in.  We felt safe and quickly ate our meal, and then left.

We are hoping to eat out this week at Red Lobster, as they have really good fish and chips.  We will see how it goes.

I posted two book reviews over the weekend, here. Neither were the best of books.  One slightly better than the other.  I do not like posting negative reviews, but sometimes it can't be helped.

I remember reading a book detailing local history.  Now I think it was a self published book, as there were so many grammatical errors, it drove me crazy.  I am not perfect with my grammar myself, but when reading a book, I do expect the spelling to be correct and things to make sense!

Have you eaten out recently and did you have to show proof of vaccination?

Monday, September 27, 2021

Just a little thing.

Hubby is on vacation for three weeks; so we have been getting lots of little jobs done around the house, as he's not one to just sit around.  The outside light out the back was as old as the hills, so we purchased another one and he installed it over the weekend.

It's just from Home Depot, you can see it here.  It was very simple to install, though you had to have a relatively small hand to install the light bulb.  I also wanted the seeded glass as it doesn't show the dirt as much.

We went with an antique looking lightbulb that is LED.  I also wanted to make sure that no rain could get inside of the fixture, so the opening is on the bottom.

We are pulling the front hall closet to bits at the moment, as I never got that and the linen closet painted.  The way they did the front hall closet did not make the most of the space.  We aim to rectify that!  More to follow!

Saturday, September 25, 2021

Another before and after........

This was done in early Spring, so we have been living with this for a while.  We replaced the bathroom vanity countertop with a granite countertop.  When we went to pick it out from the store, I listened to what the sales guy and dh said.  That was my first mistake.  I knew in my gut I should not of listened to them but I did.  

Needless to say when they installed this countertop, it did not "go" with the vanity.  The vanity is a warm colour, the countertop is a cooler colour.  After spending all that money I wasn't happy so hummed and haa-ed over it.

I finally came up with a solution and we had the vanity refaced.  What that means is they installed new doors and put some "peel and stick" covering over the rest of the surfaces.  Now it's not your usual "peel and stick" covering you buy from a store it's a lot more durable.

I love the results and it has held up well over the Spring and Summer.  The cost included new handles and overall it has updated the bathroom for not too much money.

I have a message into the company to come and quote the kitchen, as I would like to refresh that without pulling out the whole kitchen.

Friday, September 24, 2021

Halloween

Are you finding that there seems to be more and more novelties available for Halloween?  We went to Lowes the other day and I was astonished at what was available.

I love the colours of Fall.


I fell in love with the owl, but at $99, it stayed on the shelf!
I can see this archway being popular.
There was also merchandising staff working on all the Christmas items, can you believe that?
So Christmas is just around the corner I guess!


Thursday, September 23, 2021

Pond

Wandered over to the pond to see what was happening, as I had seen vehicles and it had been drained.  Talked to a worker and the big overflow drain was full of rocks so it wasn't draining well.  They had to pump out the water, clean out the overflow drain and let it refill naturally.  Luckily we are having some wet weather which will help out with the refilling.

The water lilies seem to have taken over.


Someone had lost a pink bucket in the pond.

This end of the pond still had some water in it, which is lucky as there is fish in this pond.
This is where we normally see fish, now there is only a trickle of water coming in from the underground stream.  It was stinky.

Wednesday, September 22, 2021

Not at all happy

with the election results, nothing has changed basically for any of the parties.  It was a total waste of $600 + million dollars, and who has to pay for it....us!!  It wouldn't be so bad, but we are going to be doing it again in another 18 - 24 months.  Does Mr. Trudeau think that money grows on trees?  If it were a private business where you are held accountable for what you spend none of this would have happened.  Okay, stepping off my high horse now😏

Was waiting for hubby in the truck while he was getting gas and noticed this little guy.  There is a wooded area behind the gas station, so he must have come from there.  He must be quite tame, as it is a busy gas station.  Once he got on top of the garbage bin he just sat there watching me.






Gas prices were running at $1.34 per litre where we live in Southern Ontario.  I was thinking back to last year when it was under $1 pre litre.  Like everything else it's gone up in price.

Tuesday, September 21, 2021

If this ladder could talk

 I think it would have a lot to say. This ladder belonged to my parents.  I "think" we may have borrowed it from them when we bought our first house in 1982.  So it has to be more than 40 years old.  Why we never gave it back to my parents, I have no idea.

If "Health and Safety" were to inspect it, it would be thrown in the bin.  It's a bit wobbly, and the legs leave a lot to desire.  As for the first step; you try not to stand on it!!

However, it's like a member of the family, it's my go too when I am decorating.  We have other ladders, but I have to use this one.

Do you have that something you can't bare to part with?

Monday, September 20, 2021

Monday September 20th

Well today is Election Day here in Canada.  As usual wouldn't trust any of the leaders with my life.  Full of promises which will no doubt never amount to anything.  Have to say at least they're all the same in that respect.

I will vote, because it is a privilege to be able to vote and that privilege should not be wasted.  I am one of those undecided voters and it will a last minute decision I am thinking.  We forgot to vote early; missed the deadline, so fingers crossed it's not too busy when we go.

Today is also hubby's birthday.  He is a few years past 29😏 We had a get together with the kids over the weekend, so that was good.  I have asked him over and over what he wants for his birthday and what he would like to do for his birthday.  His answer is nothing on both counts.  So it's a nothing day for him!!

I have finally got the last of the trim painted in the living/dining/kitchen, so now have to put everything back together.  I still have to paint the front hall closet and the linen closet.  That is a three or four day job.  One day to take everything out of the closets and remove all the shelving.  One day for me to paint two coats of paint on the walls and for it to dry.  One day to paint two coats of paint on all the trim and put up all the shelving and one day to sort everything out and put back in the closets.

Sunday, September 19, 2021

This made me sad.....

 I was reading an article somewhere and it was talking about how some children never get told how much they are loved.  Or praised for doing things, or even read too.  That makes me sad.  I always make a point of praising the grandchildren for even the little things; seeing their faces light up makes me so happy.

Playing pretend with the children is always a hit, and I always read with them.  I just can't imagine not telling a child you are related to that you love them.  Those three words "I love you," is such a simple thing to say.

Saturday, September 18, 2021

It's a Good Mail day!

It's always a Good Mail day when I see this envelope in my mail box, as I know another selection of books have arrived for me to review.

It's now a case of finding time to read them.  Which one to read first though?  "A Warrior's Heart," is drawing me in I think.
I will put my review's on my Book Review blog.
 

Friday, September 17, 2021

Christmas shopping........

Well I have started Christmas shopping as there was a segment on the radio the other day, that was saying there could be shortages this year due to problems in the supply chain.  Now this is not the first time I heard this.  "R" was telling me there was talk at her work that the staff who buy in all the Christmas stuff were concerned about delivery; despite them ordering everything in February for Christmas.

It doesn't help that there is such a tight window for retailers to sell things for Christmas.  Saying that I am seeing email flooding in with adverts for all sorts of Christmas items.  I also heard and was told, that getting deals and bargains will be also difficult.

The grandkids are all getting Lego in some shape or form (other than the baby) this year, and trying to find a deal on Lego is difficult.  I ordered another lot from Chapters/Indigo, where I get Plum points.  I ordered online, so I get Swagbucks and put it on my credit card, so get PC points.  So all in all, I did pretty well with the order.

For the adults, I generally send out a group text telling them I will get them a gift card and where do they want it from.  The reason I send out a group text, is so I know I will get a response from them all!!  However, it then turns out to be a long winded affair, as my son thinks he's a comedian😏

Again this year, there will be very few Christmas cards sent out; postage is too expensive.  A lot of people have emails, so would rather hear from them via that.

Have you heard about the shortages and have you started your Christmas shopping?

Thursday, September 16, 2021

100 km/62 miles

 That is how far it is to our doctor's office, one way.  The journey takes us around 80 + minutes one way.  We went to see our doctor in person on Tuesday; which was the first time in a year.  We normally have telephone appointments.  Our appointment was for 9:30 am.  We were shown into his office at 10 am, probably waited another 15 minutes for him to come and see us.  Meanwhile there was a child who we thought was being murdered with the amount of screaming he was doing in a room down the hallway.  Turned out it was an 8 year old getting stitches removed; and our doctor had to help out.  Goodness knows how they put the stitches in, in the first place?

We got out of the doctors office just after 10:30 am.  As it is a distance to his office, I try to complete a couple of jobs in the same day.  So we went to visit family while down there.  It was just after 3 pm before we got back home.  The journey back home was as hectic as on the way down.  All in all we did 220 km that day.  

Doctor's are in short supply where we live, so we are still continuing to travel, and as we have a couple of health issues, it would not be prudent to deregister from our present doctor, which is what we would have to do and then apply via the Government's website to try and find a doctor where we live. 

Our doctor did say something interesting though.  He said that this covid pandemic is just like when there was an influenza pandemic a 100 years ago.  It killed a lot of people to start with, then it level's out.  A vaccination is invented and you are given that on a yearly basis and it becomes a normal thing you live with.  This is what is happening with the covid pandemic.  Covid will become a "normal" everyday thing just like flu is.

Do you have to travel far to see your family doctor?

Monday was a busy day catching up with bits and bobs.  Tuesday we were out all day.  Wednesday we were out all day and didn't get back home until after 7pm.  So today (Thursday) I finally got some more painting done.  It's all go at the moment.




Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Another Before and After

 These are not the best photos, but the first two photos are of our lighting fixture that hangs over the stairs going down to the basement at the front of the house.  It was too big for the area.  So we decided to change it up

Plus the fabric shade was looking dirty,


The light fixture I chose looks a lot more airier and not heavy.  I purchased it from Wayfair Canada, you can see a clearer picture here.

It doesn't look so bulky and blends in more.
This light fixture is on the side of the living room.

There would normally be a hallway where this light is located, but the prior owners did away with the wall.  This light fixture is also from Wayfair Canada and you can see a better picture here.
I haven't bought much from Wayfair Canada, but so far so good.  How about you, do you like shopping at Wayfair?

Monday, September 13, 2021

"Astonished" was how I felt.....

 As you know I have been busy painting the main floor of the house.  By Saturday evening I was really tired, so decided to go to the drive thru at Dairy Queen.  I was too tired to walk into the store to order even though the line in the drive thru was long.  Anyhow after 20 minutes we were driving away with our order.

We live a good five minute drive from the store.  Got home and dumped out cheeseburger and fries onto our plates.  I felt the food and it was barely lukewarm; in fact I was "astonished" to find some fries freezing cold.  Not only were some freezing cold, they were FROZEN and raw😦

Below is a photo of the actual meal, minus the raw fries.  As you can see, quite a mixed unappetizing selection of fries. Some overcooked, some under cooked.
Granted the meal only cost around $8 each (that included a soft drink), but one thing I do expect is that the meal should be cooked.

I emailed Dairy Queen's customer service and got this reply:

Thank you for contacting Dairy Queen Canada Inc. (DQC) and bringing your experience to our attention. I am very sorry to learn that you have been disappointed.

At DQC, we truly appreciate the feedback we receive from our customers. It is only because of fans like you, who care enough to contact us that DQC and its independently owned and operated franchises can improve.

Your comments have been documented and forwarded to the independent franchise owner of this restaurant for their information and investigation. Additionally, I have forwarded your concerns to all appropriate DQC personnel for their review.

Thank you again for taking the time to share your experience with us.

Best Regards,

I then replied back with the photos (also an additional one) and will see if anything gets done.  We never eat out in a restaurant now, but do occasionally order take out.  I don't know why we do as we are rarely happy.

Do you order take out and are you happy with take out meals nowadays?


Sunday, September 12, 2021

Before and After

 Still painting, and probably will be for the next week or so......

However, I am finished the walls in the front hall.  Here is the before, as you can see it was quite a bright turquoise colour.

Dh hasn't put the light fixture up yet, and I still have all the trim and doors to paint.  I am loving the colour, it's more subtle; more us.
Marigold, still has pride of place on the wall!  By the time you read this, I will have hopefully finished painting all the walls.  

Saturday, September 11, 2021

20 Years already...


I watched this video the other day and found it pretty interesting.  It's hard to believe it has been 20 years already?

I remember exactly where I was when this happened.  I was at work and my boss' wife called to tell him to turn on the tv.  We couldn't believe what we were seeing.

This article on the Daily Mail UK was also interesting.

Do you remember where you were and what you were doing when the Twin Towers were attacked on September 11th, 2001?

Friday, September 10, 2021

Crazy Lamp Lady


I have discovered this lovely lady on Facebook and Youtube.  She buys things at thrift stores and antique stores and then resells them for a profit.

I would love to do what she does, however it's not something I will be doing, so I watch her video's daily, and cheer her on from the sidelines!!

Do you have someone who you love to watch on Youtube or Facebook?

Still busy painting, so a shorter post today.

Thursday, September 9, 2021

Chaos

 chaos

NOUN
  1. "complete disorder and confusion."
That's how everything is at the moment in our home on the main floor.  I am busy decorating/painting the main floor.  We have discovered that we cannot do as much in one day as we used too.  So we painted the ceiling on Monday.  That about did us in.  Luckily, we neither smoke or cook a lot of greasy food, and neither did the people before us, so it only took the one coat.

Due to my hands being bad, I am splitting up the rest of the painting so I do a bit at a time.  I don't like the house being so messy, but what else can you do?  I am using Sico Muse paint, which is on sale until September 22nd.  It is still $52 per gallon which is still expensive if you ask me.  We have one feature wall, which will be the Grey Fin; that actually looks more green with a grey undertone.  The rest will be the Avocado Cream Colour.  If you click here and here, you can see the actual colours on the website.
Our main floor is all open concept.
Dh has made a moveable platform, so we can paint above the stairs that go down to the basement.
This is the kitchen end of the main floor.

It's a big job, but when done it will be well worth it.

Wednesday, September 8, 2021

Centennial Park

We had the girls overnight over the weekend.  We took them to a local park as we had never been there before.  It turned out to have the nicest playground I had seen in a long while.

Not only was there a large play set, there was one for the younger children.
They also had a Nature Hunt.
You had to find all these themed plaques around the play structure.
Here the girls are pointing to the bear one.  They were pretty hard to see and find.
They had a great rock climbing wall.  The ground was covered in wood chips.
The domed structure had picnic tables in it.  The building to the right was bathrooms; perfect when you have young children with you and grandparents with pea sized bladders!!  To the left of the photo was a large pond and some trails.  We weren't dressed to go walking the trails; plus the sun was hot.

They also have an enclosed off leash dog park.  All in all a pretty good place to visit.

Tuesday, September 7, 2021

Rocketman


Rocketman is now on Netflix Canada, so we finally got around to watching it the other night.  I was a little surprised when we watched it as it wasn't what I was expecting.  It reminded me of going to live theatre and watching a musical, more so than watching an actual movie.  

You had to feel sorry for Elton, as at the end of the day all he wanted was to be loved.  I had no love for his mother, but you could see how close he was to his Nan.  It features his life story up until just before he met his husband, David Furnish, which I guess makes sense.  As things have settled down a lot in Elton's life since he met him.

If I had to compare the movie with Bohemian Rhapsody, I preferred Bohemian Rhapsody.

Have you seen either of the movies, and if so which one did you prefer?

Monday, September 6, 2021

Another project we did this year

We had a sprinkler system installed in the Spring.  This project was "booked" last September as the company we used was that busy.  Also by the time we got them in to give us a quote it was already September and it didn't seem worthwhile for them to try to "squeeze" us in before the bad weather hit.

We used a well known company to our area.  I will not be naming them as despite them doing a great installation job, their customer service is painful.  It's a family company and paper work, answering their phones and texts are low on their list of priorities.  Again though the product they sell, the way they work cannot be faulted; they are hard workers.

We wanted sprinklers installed as we live on a corner lot and have a lot of grass.  It is too much to water by hand and the summer's are getting hotter and hotter.  They installed a Toro Evolution system and they put in six zones.  Each zone runs from between 5 minutes up to 20 minutes per zone.  Between us and our neighbours house is one zone that only runs for 5 minutes as it never gets a lot of sun.  Whereas where the sun hits the most it runs 20 minutes per zone.

You can run it from your smart phone, but that is way too advanced for me😉

It's normally set to come on every other day, but we over ride it and water only when needed.  They also installed a rain sensor, and it does actually work...LOL  I am one of those people that doesn't trust those sort of things!
They put 250 feet of drip irrigation in my flower beds.  They said for the 20 minutes it is on, it uses only 1 1/2 gallons of water.  I have to top up my mulch on my flower beds to cover it all.

I just got my water bill again, and it's working out to around $100 a month to run this.  We will probably be running the sprinklers between mid-May until mid-September I think, so probably four to five months and will work out to about $500 extra per year.

Is it worth it?  We like nice grass.  We do not have nice grass, but with the weed and feed lawn service we pay for and the extra watering we are doing, our grass is starting to look a bit better.  It doesn't help we have a park across the road and the city does not use chemicals on their parks.  So all the dandelion seeds blow over to us.

This is not the first house where we have had a sprinkler system.  This was the first time we had one installed though.  Dh and dd installed the other two systems we had.  It was nice for dh to come home from work and the sprinkler system was all ready to go.

So that was another project crossed off our list.

Sunday, September 5, 2021

Solar Lights

I was in a DIY store the other day and I stumbled upon these solar lights that were on sale:

As I love all things mushroom, I had to get them.  They are glass and around 8 to 10 inches high each.  We have also been gifted a hand painted butterfly (for nana) and a hand painted fox (for grandad) from Liam.
They should have been around $50 but I paid less than $30 for them.

As with all solar lights, I am not expecting a huge amount of light.  It's more decorative than anything else.


I was actually very surprised at how bright they are.  Well worth the money.

Hotel Stay - Dinner

As part of our hotel stay the kids had booked us dinner, breakfast and afternoon tea. Here is what we ate at dinner.  Everything was spot on...