I went into work today and got the third of four big projects finished before taking off at two to head for Elkford. My bonus granddaughter’s second birthday party was to be at 4 o’clock. It was very well attended all the kids were great and it was so nice to spend time just hanging out. Emmy Gwen and Thea can all be standoffish, but Gwen has come around to me and as I went to leave today, Thea came to me with arms wide open for a hug for the first time. It was really nice to meet Malcolm’s mom, Aimee, who was here from Winnipeg just for the party. She is Filipino and made the most delicious food and sent me home with leftovers. I also came with extra birthday cake that Danika came that was delicious as well. I stopped for gas on the way back and managed to get it for $1.159 per Litre by using only 4000 PC points for the extra .10 off which was an incredible savings. It’s a shame they are two hours each direction away. I am sleepy from the drive, but glad that I went.
I got up and got on the treadmill and did all the right things and then headed to work. From there, I went to pick up mom‘s pills before going to my Rotary lunch, which was ” interesting.”
The surprise speaker at lunch was John Rustad, the leader of the conservative party of BC. It was interesting to watch him try to give a non-partisan speech. he did have some interesting stats and figures about times for building permits and housing, crisis, etc., but I still found it uncomfortable. I did get a little clamped when I did a happy bucks announcement to celebrate Gene’s graduation and cadet award
After the meeting, I went to mom’s to give her her pills and have a short visit before heading back to the office. I did get two major things sorted and done off my list which deserves a happy dance.
Have to work I headed over to Encore as it was friends with benefits night and Jesse was there giving a talk about he and Fred and Paul’s turning on the El Camino Trail. After that, it was trivia and I joined up with John and his wife whose name I have forgotten already to become the team 3,2,1…Liftoff. Left off as one of the Encore beer. We did pretty good but not good enough. It was fun though and it was fun to watch Lukas at work there.
I got home to the wonderful surprise that the weed warrior had been here and taken care of a nasty pile of dirt and compost that I inherited from the original owners nearly 6 years ago.
Now I am hunkered down, watching a handmaid‘s tale.
I got up this morning and finished my book finally. It was a powerful read for me as there were so many moments of recalled memories. It helped me to understand why I have struggled so much with faith since I left the church in 1995. I’m OK with my decision not to take part in organized religion. I’m OK with my decision to just be me and know that I am loved for who I am and that I have a caring heart.
I have done well also this week with getting on the treadmill every morning. The first few days 18 minutes was the max I could do and today was a full half hour. I shall keep working my way up to a minimum of an hour. I need to shed the pounds. I need to get healthy again. I also started tracking my bad habits so that I can slowly wean off them as well. I want to get back to where I was a couple years ago. I have gained 30 of the 40 pounds that I lost and I need the gain to stop now. Moving more drinking less and eating less will get me there.
I was up earlier than my alarm this morning, so I did as I promised myself I got on the treadmill. Promise my whole body hurts right now from the yardwork this weekend, but I managed to get at least 20 minutes in and that felt good. I have some goals and I’m working on them. Today, Leanne and I decided to go to Calgary on the Saturday instead of Sunday for conference so we can get there in time for our opening ceremony seats that we were made aware of today and that is at 9:30 on Sunday morning 22 June. She kindly arranged the Saturday night for us to stay at her cousins, which is near to the venue and then we will check into our hotel on Sunday between events. I really am grateful for our friendship. Yes, I think I would not be so involved in all the Rotary things if it weren’t for her.
After work, I went to Canadian Tire to find out how to work my solar lights as in two days they haven’t come on, and I knew the people there would have knowledge. Sure enough there is a little switch inside the head when you take it apart. Sadly, there were no directions on the box but the lady they suspected they might work the same as her little butterfly ones and she was right.
Once home, I was grateful to have my HelloFresh again and I made a delicious meal and lunch for tomorrow before settling to watch up to the current episode of the last of us
Oh my and as I completed this, I started scrolling and saw the good news about my oldest grandson who is named after my father. Gene would’ve been so proud of our Gene.
Finished a busy day with an invite out from Laura. We had delicious food and great conversation at Fenwick & Baker. I am sleepy and achy from all the work this weekend. I tried to get on the treadmill this morning but only made it 18 minutes before my hip didn’t like it any more. Hopefully tomorrow will be longer.
I had a good sleep in a quick coffee and then go out in the yard before it got too hot. I got a great deal done. Last year I had bought an edging and finally got it in place along the edge of my new sidewalk and raked the gravel up to it and put in my new solar pathway lights. I also mulched with bark and area, but need to get some more smaller ones to complete it. There were other small chores that I got done including hooking up all the timer and watering system for the different areas of the yard and then I showered and headed to the kids for family dinner as Rae-Anne and Roger arrived back from Mazatlan today just in time for Elias to fall from his bike at the skate park and do some pretty serious damage to his elbow. dinner was awesome. The visit was great and they brought me a special bottle of Patron for looking after the kids.
It seems that Missy likes her scratch post outside more than she did inside which is good
I don’t know what was special about that patch of lawn, but the birds were having fun there when I got home
Oh my goodness, I worked my Tushka off in the yard today. Got it mowed, did a bunch of other work, including hanging my hammock that I bought in Ecuador. It is so pretty and I love the view from it.
I also built my new cat tree, which I had to modify a little bit because my ceilings are dropped and I had to leave a section out. It took Missy a little bit to get used to it, but I put treats on each level and in the basket and she did claim them all. It is such a better fit for the space as the other one came quite far out into the room. Plus, I think it’s cute as a button.
I also unboxed my new Paderno cooking set and washed it ready for use. I love it very much and got it half price at the Canadian Tire grand reopening.
I took all my recycle and dropped off my old set of pots at the Salvation Army thrift store, stopped to pick up my cooler from Monica’s and drop off a wine holder and was invited to join them for food at the Heid-out and an evening around the fire. Raced home and had a shower and join them there along with Jessica, Jody and Jen. It was truly a lovely evening and exactly what I needed to just hang out with lovely people, cracking jokes and telling stories.
The only disappointing part of my day really was seeing that sometime yesterday someone turned around in my driveway, clearly in a truck and left marks in the new pavement. Sigh I can’t have anything nice.
I was woken out of a dead sleep at 7:30 this morning. The guys were here from the paving crew to move my carport back into place. I showed them how there was a dip right where I have to walk to get into my car that would hold water and freeze in the winter. It is also right under the Cross bar of the carport and it’s supposed to be on level ground, but there is a big gap. Steve assured me that they would come back to fix it. They will have to patch it and then next year come back and seal the whole surface so the patch doesn’t show. For $6500 plus tax you better believe they had Best come back and fix it.
It did get me into the office earlier and I got a lot done today including booking appointments for mom setting up our Canada, dental renewal, etc. etc. I took time to go have lunch with the Watson’s and the Campbell’s at Ella’s and that was lovely sitting out on the deck. It’s been a nice visit and they head home tomorrow. On the way there I noticed on my navigation system in the car that the service BC office looks like a little jail or castle with survive BC lol
During lunch, I apologized to everyone, but had my phone going watching Lukas’s rugby game as Mount Baker is in the playoffs in Chilliwack. It was hard to see on YouTube on my phone as I couldn’t zoom in well I was excited to see that they won 19 to 15 only to find out that the scorekeeper had the scores backwards and they’d actually lost. That’s kind of a big mistake. The scores were correct just for the wrong teams.
After work, I came home and made some tempura prawns to take to Poker night, had a bite to eat and stopped for a short visit with Monica before heading to the game.
I think I was ninth out of 18. I lost my final hand with an ace and king of diamonds. Sad beat but it was fun.
Today I hosted the guest speakers at the Rotary lunch John and Debbie gave a great presentation about Active Cranbrook. They are doing great things to keep people active into their later years
Leanne Rick and I made more plans signing up for the western showcase and dinner event at Rotary convention in June. It’s expensive because unfortunately everything is in US dollars but we decided this would be a fun one to go to.
I went and visited Mom and helped her take care of a few things and picked up paperwork that needs to be dealt with before heading to Encore for Disney Pixar trivia night.
Sean, Diane and Zoe are in town from the island and the whole Watson family joined and we were not even close to winning, but we had a lot. It was good to hang out with old friends.
I was disappointed to get home and see that my carport is still not been moved onto my driveway, which is promised me by the pavers. It was supposed to happen Monday or Tuesday and then today for sure and I hope they do it tomorrow because I don’t wanna go through a whole other weekend with it out in the roadway.
I had to spend some time when I got home clearing all the branches that blew down during the crazy herring weather we had today . A storm blew in and blew out and blew in again over the few hours while we were playing the game. 
I have a widget on my phone and I noticed that I made a bit of a milestone so I thought I would recognize it. Thank you to all of you that read the tedium of my life. I hope that it brings you a little bit of joy.
Today was just kind of regular, except for the fact that I had a tattoo appointment at noon. Jeff once again took what was going on in my head and turned it into the most beautiful piece of art. I want to cry when I look at it because of how gorgeous it is and the memories that it brings back of my trip to the UK. One of the first things we did was go to the hundred acre Wood and then of course we went to Paris for the day, as one does. I now have the perfect permanent memory of my trip spent with the beautiful family Hearnden.
When I got home, it was really hot 41° on my weather station outside and way too hot inside
It is 1010 at night and still 20° outside remarkable for this time of year
I got myself to the office in time for a 930 zoom introduction to the upcoming Rotary international conference. I learned a lot about what to expect and was grateful to learn about downloading the app that would show my schedule and all the events of the week.
After getting a ton of work done, I headed to Key City Theatre to volunteer for the Mount Baker scholarship awards night.
I was so impressed with how the parents and grandparents and family friends were dressed to the nines for the night. There were very few who weren’t. The whole evening was lovely and I’m so impressed with Cranbrook and all the organizations and companies that support our students. There were 81 awards in all and I was super thrilled to see that Jake Wishart, one of Gene’s best friends received two awards.
The morning was lovely as I got all the boys off to school. I had treated them with my Revive smoothies which made them happy. I drove Will and Sawyer to school before heading home to shower and ready for the day.
I got a lot done at work and then headed to Cranbrook Golf Club for the Rotary installation dinner where the torch was passed from President Joe to new President Rick. A good time was had and a good laugh when I was fined $2 by Sargeant at Arms, Darcy Kennedy for telling him I was Hot. This of course, was in reference to my sunburn. He is passed fire chief. I knew not to argue with a sergeant at arms. So I waited until 50 bucks and then gave five dollars to say.” when you’re hot, do you not ask for a fireman?” The crowd laughed, and it was a hit of the night. I do so love being a Rotarian.
Norm MacGee getting his special presentationEdNew present Rick JensenPast president Joe Gowan
I’m not sure why I woke up so early but I had a nice morning and Gene decided that we should all go to Mineral Lake and bring hotdogs and he’d bring the paddleboard for me but I asked if we could stop at my place and put the proper roof rack on for my kayak and bring it instead, which we did. I had a little bit of PTSD driving out to the lake as the last time I had it on the roof was when the whole rack came off on my old car and destroyed the roof. The new holder seems to work really well though, and the kids were super helpful and we had a lovely time out there only Paul wasn’t with us as he had stayed overnight at a friends. Before we left Lukas and Gene prep the ham and put it in the oven on a timer so that we could have family dinner tonight.
Sawyer came with me on the way back and just the two of us managed to take the kayak off the car and put it back at my house and then get him home in time to take a shower and I dropped him off at a birthday party at Idlewild Park disc golf . I then stopped at Savon and picked up Caesar salad and a couple of kinds of ice cream and strawberries and cookies and waffle, cones, and all the good stuff. In the meantime Gene made roasted veggies to go with the ham and everyone was excited to eat out at the picnic table and enjoy the glorious day a bit further.
The guys all played to spike the net game and really enjoyed the competition. It looked like eventually it was time to calm down the two younger ones so will Sawyer and I headed in to ready for bed. I took a shower only to discover that I had put sunscreen on everyone else but myself. Will nicely got the aloe vera Aftersun to put across my back and shoulders and then I put it across my front and arms and hope for the best that I don’t blister and peel like crazy. I should’ve known better first time out this year. Actually, I did know better. I made sure the kids are all covered.
We played a couple Mario party mini games before sending them off to bed and once again I am playing a little bit of Tetris before I have an early night from all of the sun and fun.
I set an alarm and got up at a decent time because it was ABC Zoom morning. I spent an hour and a half or so chatting with them and then Will Sawyer and I took all my thrift store stuff and Ashlée’s reusable bags to the Salvation Army after dropping off my cans and bottles to Lukas, who was sorting them with Pere. From there, we went to the 1 o’clock movie of Minecraft. It was actually a lot of fun for his little as I know about the game. I knew enough to be entertained and of course Jack Black and Jason Momoa were brilliant.
EliasPaul and Max
Afterwards we went to Canadian Tire as it was there grand reopening and 30 times the Canadian Tire money so I bought stuff that I needed for the yard and a new set of Paderno pots. They were on basically 52% off. Then we went to Top Crop so I could research flowering and or pretty bushes for my yard. Came away with quite a few, and the plan managed to fit it all, including the dirt and mulch and everything needed for planting into my car. We went to my house and spent several hours getting it all done. Will worked very hard and Sawyer was a good helper. I think it looks very, very beautiful. We gave it all a good water and then came home.
Once here we all had something to eat and then Elias made it home and we all played Mario party and of course the team of Will and Elias beat Sawyer and I, but it was very close and we had fun. I am now playing Tetris 999 which is a game. I have always loved very much. I shall try not to stay up all night, but there are 999 lines to beat
I realized as I lay in bed that the pavers were coming today and that I was staying over with the grandkids the next three nights as R&R went to Mazatlan, so I got my butt out of bed to pack and load my car.
It was mid afternoon when I got a text from Tracey that the pavers were at my place. I raced over there in time to show them where I needed the fence post holders hammered in. I really enjoyed watching the whole process of the bathing and had some great chats with the guys. Even Rick the owner of power paving stop by laughed and called me Foreman. It’s perfect timing since I’m staying at the kids as I can’t drive on it for three days. They promised to come back next week early and put my carport back in place. I flipped the loony into the middle of the driveway and it landed heads up and they paved over it for good luck.
Back at the office I got a lot done before meeting Rosie and Mom at Ella’s for dinner where Rosie uncle Bryan & Auntie Lynne bought mom (& me) dinner for her birthday. it was a lovely visit and a delicious dinner.
I then came to the house and laughed because I had so many texts from the boys or the last couple hours checking in and asking for friends to stay over and places to go, etc. It actually was pretty great. Once I got there, Sawyer and his friend Jacob and Will and I all played Mario party on the switch. It used to be Jake and my favourite game. We had a lot of fun and then came downstairs to settle the three of them in the living room where they desperately want to sleep. I sat at the dining room table, reading my book and waiting for Paul one of the Homestay student and his friend Max to come home. Everyone has been very respectful and I am heading off to bed because I am exhausted.
Got a lot done at work, enjoyed Rotary lunch. It was special that Rick acknowledged the crib board I made and how much it earned at convention he also told the story of spilling his beer on me to much amusement. I told about my visit to the Vancouver meeting and we all sang happy birthday to Ashley.
After work I stopped to put things in Gene’s freezer and had a good hug from Will. I met Sawyer in the street and we had a good snuggle. We are all looking forward to me staying there for the next three nights as R&R leave for Mazatlan tomorrow.
I had a short visit with Rae-Anne at Encore before Brett and then Ashley showed up for trivia. We had fun and came in second winning tickets to a show that we agreed the birthday girl should have.
Up and off to Home Depot for fence post holders that can be put in and paved in.
Worked all day with a client’s auditors. Had a nice lunch at Firehall with Rae-Anne to catch up.
After work I headed for dinner at Dave and Deb’s to plan the details of our Rome portion of the trip. A search of many spots led us to a condo with two bedrooms and two bathrooms in the Trevere area where we wanted to be at a reasonable price. It was a lovely evening and another part taken care of made us more comfortable.
At o e point in the afternoon a couple arrived at my office door to drop off the painting that Dan Riordan did for me. I had bought the painting and was going to pay for it to be shipped but his sister and her husband were coming through on the way to Alberta and brought it. Very kind.
I had a decent sleep last night and woke up at a decent time, thank goodness. I was enjoying my first coffee when I got a call and power paving was in my neighbourhood and ready to come prep. I asked for half an hour so I could jump in the shower and be ready and suddenly there was a whole crew at my door. They were absolutely amazing because I was not at all ready for them. They even dug up my bulbs and put them into pots moved to all of my things very nicely, unscrewed all the fence and things that needed to be and started removing the pavement in my three car parking area and the walkway to my steps. Thank goodness the landscapers came yesterday lol
At the office, I managed to get a great deal done on an audit for one of my main clients as well as some other things before the day was suddenly over. I swung by Encore for a bevvy and a catch up with Rae-Anne. She didn’t have much time so we are going to try to get together for lunch tomorrow. I was so thrilled when I got home to see the prep work. I hope they can pay it soon because my carport is against my neighbor’s fence on the road.
I do need to go get a couple of fence post holders put in place so that they can be paved in and solid. I should probably do that tomorrow.
triumphgal 