No, really… I have been rattling off my to do/done lists for a while now. Just over 2 weeks home from the happiest place on earth and it seems forever ago already. I am still mad at myself for letting work get in the way.
I have a game for you…
Write a list of all the things you would rather do than the job you are doing. Go for it, all the things….
It is to be like a bucket list of things. Things that you can do, that you put aside regularly.
Is it going for a walk… reading a book or magazine… painting, puzzling or doodling?
I woke up still thinking about Past Lives. I really enjoyed it and had strong feels for the idea of it. I really like the lead actress as well, having enjoyed her in Russian Doll and The Morning Show. Each of these three characters were very different. Impressive.
Today, I made some good salad and then I went to the office and filed the last of my mandatory T-4s and them met with Steve to work out some website and financial issues for the society. Once home, I made soup and am glad to have a couple meals to get through tomorrow as I will be busy with a few other peoples file assists.
Tonight I am watching Anatomy of a Fall. It is fascinating, I can see why it was nominated for the Oscars. Complicated relationships are always interesting.
Today I woke early and then fell asleep again until nearly 1130. It felt so good to be rested. I continued setting up my new laptop and watched Maestro, the movie about Leonard Bernstein and his wife. It was very well done and Bradley Cooper should get an Oscar for his roll. After that I headed to pick up some shower steamers that I purchased from a grandma looking to earn some money as she is raising her grandkids. They are lavender mint and I look forward to using them. Next stop was Moms to pick up Sawyers birthday card and while I was there, try to update her phone and get her email working again. No luck there, I think her phone is just too old and we need to look at getting her a new one. I finally made it to the birthday party which was well attended and Sawyer seemed to have a lovely time. Roger and Rae-Anne made delicious lasagna and garlic bread. Jeff and Dee-Anne made a very tall layered Black Forest Cake. All of it was perfectly delicious. It was a nice visit. Warning, s’mores made with Peeps are extremely hot.
I came home and watched Killers of the Flower Moon. What a story! Well worth watching. It is a good telling of further horrors enacted on the First Nations of North America.
And now I have started Past Lives. I like to watch the Oscar nominated shows in advance.
I crocheted and watched Love Is Blind until I felt it was time to go and get some work done. I went to the office for 4 hours of time spent filing some really complicated T4s. It was good to get them off my plate and I listened to Audible biographies while I was at it. It was a perfect type of day in my mind. I look forward to spending time with family and friends tomorrow for Sawyer’s 9th birthday.
Hit the ground running, got 9 billable hours out of my day and a bunch of volunteer work done as well. Left the office around 8 and was home making dinner when I realized it was a music night at Encore. I would have liked to check it out but only if I had gone there from the office. Once I was home I made some delicious Cheeseburger Soup. It was very much a comfort food. I settled in to watch some shows and am just realizing that the rest of the month doesn’t look as scary, work wise as it did even a few days ago. I plan to go in still tomorrow so that I can get my big union T4s calculated and done. They are the only ones that I have to calculate the pension adjustment for and it will be good to be uninterrupted and at my own pace.
A nice moment occurred when a board member stopped by to drop some things off and gave me a great compliment about my role in the organization. He shares the same concerns as I about another. I just have to find opportunity to address those concerns appropriately. Timing and tact will be necessary. I would hate to see the organization fail if we all end up walking away. I hope some new blood comes along to join the Board and help us to be our best.
I filed so many T4s today that it was satisfying. It was a good chunk out of the day to go to the Rotary lunch. We learned about using the 50/50 machines. I took a break from the workday to go to an Ed Fest meeting which went an hour longer than expected but we got things done. After I was back at the office I got a couple more hours in and came home. It is late but I feel better about the rest of the month. I did get a nice email from an accountant for one of my clients saying I am too good, that they over-quoted on the file. That is a compliment but it speaks to the fact that I don’t charge enough. I find myself being easily frustrated right now so I have to keep my cards close to my chest. I can be nice, I can be nice, I can be nice… this too shall pass.
Today started with picking up Moms pills, buying a new single serve blender at Superstore and grabbing Mom some carnations for valentines while I was there. I couldn’t believe the vast changes at Superstore and when I mentioned it was told it occurred last summer! Seems I don’t go there very often anymore. Had a quick visit with Mom and headed to the office. There was opportunity to get a few big things off the list but only had 3 billable hours when all was said and done. I headed to Key City for 4 pm to welcome Gemstone Alley, a duo from Kimberley and Northern Ireland, and Slocan Ramblers, a bluegrass band from Toronto.
I hosted and emceed for the evening and it was a lot of fun, especially as it was Valentine’s Day. Dave and Deb were there and I was happy to introduce them to Jordan and Heidi, owners of the Heidout. It was sitting there that Dave knew this was the place they wanted to live and today they signed all the papers to make it so.
Both performances were amazing! I was completely enamored of Slocan Ramblers. They are award winning, Grand Ole Opry playing, great and talented humans.
After work Dave & Deb picked me up and brought me to their new home. It’s a beautiful spot and I am so happy for them. We drove around the Shadow Mtn ‘Residences’ which are quite lovely and then headed for Encore. Dinner, skeeball, hoops and an hour of bowling was so much fun! I look forward to being able to see them more often.
They dropped me back at the office where my new MacBook Air was waiting for me. I came home,and swept the few inches of snow before settling in to set up and try to learn the working of a Mac
Today was fluffy outside and busy inside. I barely got my payroll done before it was time to go to the Board meeting down the hall. It was a contentious one as we verbally battled out the real purpose and expectations of what we do. We all left as adults on the same page, or at least in the same book. It just made for an 11.5 hour day for me. And now I am homemaking a quick dinner of air fryer potatoes. At least I had something to grab so I didn’t go through a drivethru.
I tried to sleep late as I didn’t get to sleep until wee hours, but was up at a fairly early time. I stripped the bed, got laundry done and crocheted all day to get up to current on my temperature blanket. Each row is the high and low corresponding colour together. This year to date ranges from minus 36 to plus 27 as I am counting where I am at any given time and using a particular website to get the high and lows. I chose to use actual temp but the feels like was even more extreme.
It has been softly snowing most of the day. I will shovel in the morning.
At the moment I am fast forwarding through the Super Bowl just to watch the commercials and half time show as I already know it was a nail biter in OT that the Chiefs won
I met Monica at Suds and Grapes for 11:30 and we had a marvellous time bottling her two batches of wine and our three shared port flavours. She bought me a golden ticket by donating $25 to the Dry Feb fundraiser so that I could sample with her. I’m pretty sure it was her Malbec that left me with a brutal headache after. I came home and took Advil and drank water, had some dinner, got changed and headed to volunteer at the Burlesque show. I was grateful when they said they had enough people and that I could go home. That would have been a very loud and chaotic environment. Once home I made the tea I got for Christmas and had more Advil. I have been crocheting and watching The Morning Show on Apple TV. My head feels better now. I look forward to enjoying some port in March.
Started the day with waxing session, worked, had a client in office, ran out for a much needed pedicure, back to work a bunch more, ran home to feed Missy and then popped up to Landon’s for poker night at 8. I didn’t do very well but it was nice to see people and I signed up to the next two for now. Came home before midnight and have been crocheting and watching my Chicago shows. Starting to get sleepy finally and it’s 1:44 am.
Work, Rotary lunch, recycling, shop for almond milk, shop for Sawyer and Emmy’s birthdays, nails done, work, off work.
I met Dave and Deb at Fenwick and Baker. We enjoyed a good catch up and I learned that they are planning to buy and build a custom home here, likely at Shadow Mtn Golf course. It will be great to have one of my first friends in the area.
We went next door and watched Here on the Flight Path. It was well done and entertaining. Honestly, the only thing that bugged me was the last scene were they were supposed to be 39 and late 40s but were dressed like 80 year olds. Stereotypes, blick.
We headed over to Encore for a nightcap and had more good visit. I did good all evening drinking non-alcoholic bevies and water.
Today was extremely productive. I got a lot of paid work done, I got caught up on the Fisher Peak website work, I got my music fest, voluntee rs, up-to-date, and I got all the pictures from the trip off my iCloud and off the Disney photo pass and loaded them all into one file which I then copied onto USBs for Ashlée, Bill and Deanne, and Rae-Anne and Roger
The last thing I did before coming home was order a MacBook Air so that I can get used to it and be ready for my next travels and not have to bring the big anchor that is my laptop. I just have to decide if I’m going to keep my laptop as a back up or sell it as it is a good workhorse.
I stopped at the Guedes house to drop off the USBs as they are coming home on that same late night flight that I was on and had a short visit with Maddi who has been house and pet sitting. I laughed when she said the house freaks her out a little bit and I understand because it does make noise and it’s a busy corner and people are walking by and loud and driving by and loud.
Once I got home, I’ve been watching a little TV and crocheting my blanket. I feel a little bit more tired near my regular time which is good because that one hour time change made a big difference for me.
I tried really hard to compartmentalize today, focussed on work and got up and walked around often, but I was a little shaky as I followed the route of my family from San Diego to their hotel near LAX where they fly home from tomorrow.
Even local news was reporting on the stormTurn around, don’t drown
When I saw they stopped at Target, I knew they were ok.
I awoke to light snow and grey sky but it was lighter by far than when I left. I was the only one at the office at my end of the building. That was good as I needed to focus and get a lot done, especially working through a weeks worth of email. There were hundreds. I was waiting for confirmation that payroll was ready to run but the client had not confirmed hours were received before he was off for the afternoon. I finally saw that the hours had come through at 6:42 pm. This person has been on payroll for 3 periods now and not one has come through without holding me up. I needed to get it off my plate today as tomorrow is already full. In the world of culling stress, I must say stress around payroll is the worst and I will walk away if I need to. The employee is being irresponsible, but so is their boss by not ensuring the information is in nor giving repercussions.
I came home, had some dinner and started my temperature blanket. It is weir as the first two days in January were unusually warm. I think it will be a good keepsake of an already interesting weather year. I am using the temperatures of where I am si it will include California.
I am a bit concerned about the kids as Severe Weather, an Atmospheric River has hit Southern California, especially San Diego, LA and Anaheim. So far they still have power and are semi-packed in case they have to leave in a hurry as they are on alert. The boys are unnerved and Lukas is very disappointed that Sea World is closed due to the conditions. I just hope they have safe travels to LAX tomorrow and that flights are leaving the next day as it is right on the ocean.
I slept until nearly noon and then climbed into an Epsom salt bath for a couple hours while I watched the rest of Echo. I really enjoyed it and my body feels so much better. I rearranged my liquor cupboard to put the non-alcoholic ones up front, unpacked my suitcase, did laundry, began downloading pictures from my Disney account and fretted that I couldn’t find my toiletries bag. I ‘lost’ it for a few hours and even called Westjet to report only to see it sitting on Missy’s climbing post. I must have had it in my hand at some point and been distracted. That just shows how tired I am. I popped out to Walmart to pick up some salad and yarn to do my weather blanket. And, that was my day. I am girding for the week to come.
Well, it was an interesting last part of the evening to say the least. We finally got on board and then apparently the leading edges were freezing up so we had to taxi over to the deicing section that was actually pretty interesting but too late at night. I was grateful when we did land that my suitcase was off immediatelyas I was pretty much too impaired by sleep deprivation, so I just took my time watch for animals and got home safe. It was 1:20 AM when I walked in the door glad to be safe and glad to be in my own bed.
I was even up before Emmy as I do have a bit of anxiety realizing international travel, fueling up, car return, and anything else that pops up. Turns out I was right to be ready early. At breakfast we learned that it would be most helpful if we dropped Roger and Bill at the local rental car location to pick up their vehicle for the rest of the trip. We got all our stuff packed into the car and loaded up after goodbyes. After dropping off the guys, we gassed up and headed for the airport. The vehicle drop off was smooth. We made our way to security and and I was taken to task because I didn’t use my trusted traveler (Nexus). I told them it was because I had Emmy and they told me she could have as she is under 12. That is not what I was told on the way down. Sigh. And then there was my luggage that was over by at least 4kg and cost me 78$ US! Oh well. We met up with Jake on the other side and had Carl’s Jr for lunch. It was a sad goodbye for Emmy when his name was called to go verify his passport at gate 2. We were at 15.
I let her share her feels and then suggested we go to the Ducks Breakaway Bar and Grill and take pictures to make her cousins jealous. She liked that idea. I was just happy to be there!!
Emmy was stuff watchdog while I went to the loo and then it was time to load. We were a row ahead of last time so she actually had a window seat. Once we got settled, I fixed her croc charm that I bought her so that it wouldn’t fall off. (The Minnie one. We saw an interesting plane and I noticed that all the planes had turned up wings. I have not noticed that is a thing before.
The last thing we saw out the window was the coast and the freighters. I read and napped while Emmy played games and watched shows on her iPad. Next thing we knew it was time to land and I must say, the weather change was big. The airport was boiling and we both took off layers as we worked through the relatively quick customs process. I was told that the best thing was to exit with her and then come back through security. Her Grandma Nancy was waiting for us and I went outside with them but the wind and cold was just too much! It was a long wander to the terminal where I am to leave from. We passed the welcome to Canada sign at 5:44 and my flight out isn’t until 11:35. When I went back through security I found out that bedazzled shirts cause havoc. I had to go through the full body scan twice and then a pat down! Most action I’ve gotten all trip, lol. I did ask permission before entering the Flames Grill.
There was an odd moment when a guy came and sat down across from me when there is no one else here. We did end up chatting as he admired my glasses but I though his phrasing was weird to tell me he was an eye doctor…. Even I know that is Optometrist….
I have now been here for hours, enjoying the lovely chats with Damen, my server and the reminiscent playlist. I have been the only one at this end of the terminal that doesn’t work here for a long time. A guy just walked in wearing a leafs hat which amuses me that the two of us are in the place surrounded by Flames stuff. I had really good tacos and am going to wander down to my gate now as I should be able to board in just over half an hour. I still have to let them know Emmy is not on the flight. I shall say goodnight now and if there are any further adventures getting home, you will all hear about it tomorrow.
triumphgal 