May as Well Be Mars

I spent part of the day prepping for more painting. I am just about ready to paint on the chocolate, I am hoping to get it done tomorrow. Masking off the area's to be painted was a bit of a challenge for me today, I had to get out the very tall ladder and climb up to mask off the peak. I am not a fan of heights and suffered from sweaty palms during this adventure.



This 4 foot long untaped area above the stairs may as well be Mars in my book. I waited until all the kids were out of the house and I climbed up on the banister over the stairs, I reached over the stairwell and reached as far as I could within my comfort zone. I can't get to that last 4 feet without hanging over the lowest stairs and the entrance way below me. Forget it. I am going to see if I can Paul to tape it for me while I hide in the kitchen with the kids.



Paul has been busy with a job of his own. He started painting the outside of the house a year ago (He told me he could do it in month, I laughed) so far the back and bottom half of one side have been done. He seems to be on a mission now. I may have nudged him a bit. Every time he comes up with something fun he wants to do, I ask him how the house is coming along.



I am not much for nagging, but the house looks terrible like it is and will look so good when it is all done.



I can never get Paul to smile for me when I take a picture. I caught him off guard while he was chatting with the neighbour.



Today he skipped Stage 2 of his reunion, it was a family deal down at the park. Tonight he and I go to Stage 3 together so we are out to dinner at 7. I think it is odd that it is a 3 day event. It seems to be pretty typical for this area I guess. Seems odd to me, I wonder if I have enough common ground with those I graduated with 20 years ago to talk for an evening, let alone 3 days. Sunday he golfs with his grad class. I guess 160 out of a class of 400 have signed up for the reunion. Pretty good turn out for 20 years I think.

He must have enjoyed last night he got home at 3:00 in the morning and left the truck downtown. I expected he would be late and I was glad to hear he had such a good time. He said it was kind of weird, but good. I can see that. He really thinks I should check into a plane ticket for mine.

Enough rambling. I am going to go clean up.

Master Plan

We have some serious painting going on at our house right now. I am on the inside and Paul is on the out.

I have never had so much trouble picking out paint colours in my life. I knew that I wanted one wall to be chocolate brown and I am trying to work the rest around that. You have no idea how hard it is to find brown. Everything on the brown paint chips seems to have pink tones to it and I don't want pink at all!!

I have finally picked out three shade that I am going to use. I don't how your computer screen shows the colour of the hallways there, but they are the colour of a rich glass of chocolate milk. It is my medium tone of the three colours I am using. I have been fretting that it is to dark and has sucked the light out the hallways.

I actually went back to home depot to check out slightly lighter shades again, after the first coat went on. All the lighter shades...have pink tones to them, or orange. I am staying the path.



In this picture the blue wall with the plant hanging on it (that plant was Grandma's by the way) will be the lightest shade of brown, the blue wall on the other side will be the chocolate wall. Doesn't that just sound yummy? A wall of chocolate...whoops I got lost there. The other chocolate wall will be the blue part with the big window on it, you know the one that faces the street. If you don't remember I will post more pictures as I go.

Paul is at Stage 1 of his 20 year high school reunion. I have opted out of Stage 1 and stayed home with the kids tonight. I painted all day and dipped into the hot tub once the kids got settled. I have been craving a strawberry daquari and have mixed myself up one (one pitcher that is) and I am now getting ready to watch a chick flick and knit for while. Paradise.

No Pictures

I am juggling computers right now and all my pictures are on the other one. Paul bought a new laptop for work at it turns out to be nothing but a headache for him. It has the dreaded Vista on it and it seems to be a terrible program that does not work with his blackberry, his wireless printer at the office and various other programs he uses all the time.

It turns out that the Welcome Back clinic we are involved with has network that Paul will be on and it is a Mac network. Of course he found this out three months after he bought this computer. This computer has been back to the shop eight times since Paul bought it. I tried to get them to take it back but they won't. They tell me they will fix it as many times I need them too, but they will not replace it.

I now have the Vista computer, I run fewer programs than Paul does and I have only had it to the shop twice. I have not had any trouble with it since Monday, but that was the last time I turned it on!

I have some pictures I have wanted to share for a while. I am hoping to get them onto this computer sometime Friday. I have been doing some painting in the house and it has been keeping busier than it should.

Two more kind of random things:

computer trouble was the reason my meez was snorkeling for so long.

It looks like the Welcome Back group will be getting a great deal on Mac's as they are buying a whole bunch of them so Paul should be able to network just fine.

Camping Pictures

This first picture is the evening view from our camp site. It was bordering on to hot during the day but the evenings were so nice. It was to warm for a fire, but we had one for the heck of it, we all sat far away from the heat of it and chatted.



Of course you get a picture of each kid down by the water. Our site was very close to the beach a three minute walk. I love this picture of Seabass, he is at the age of missing teeth. His front teeth look huge and the neighboring teeth are missing, making them look even bigger. I still think he is a good looking kid.



The ham: he spent most of his time by the water looking just like this. I am not sure why he felt the need for goggles as I am pretty sure his face never made it into the water. The water is pretty cold being melt off and all. All the kids played in it about to their waists and then got to cold. Doug and his kids were along, they have a water trampoline that Doug set up and the kids spent a lot of time on that.

His kids are great swimmers, a bit older older than ours, 9 and 12? The nine year old swam all the way out to the safety markers with me with no problem and not one complaint of the cold water. That kid is a fish!


And of course PJ, she had a great time playing in the water and digging in the sand. I have a funny picture of her crying her eyes out that almost posted, maybe next time.



It is a beautiful day out today, 32C and a nice breeze. I can't spend it on the computer so I am going to step outside and play with kids. Or I might give in and have a nap. We are thinking of taking the kids to see a movie tonight, if Q will lay down with me that might keep him awake at the movie.

I Did Not Mean to Scare You

Hi all. I am going to post a quick one today.

I am feeling tons better. So much so that I did not have nap today. I found I did not sleep well last night due to my nap yesterday and today I pushed right through, so I am beat now.

Things are pretty well back to normal around here. I went to Sebastian's science camp with PJ and Q for an hour to see what he had been up to all week. I did the laundry, cleaned out the computer cupboard and did some other odds and ends. I even got a tasty dinner on the table and the dishes done up.

Doug was even kind enough to stop by this morning and bring me a cup of coffee and the kids some hot chocolate. We sat out on the deck in the sunshine and I even knit a few rows.

I was really hopeful that I would I bring you a better post than this little shorty but I think it is just about bedtime for me.

Perspective

Click on the picture to make it big, its totally worth it. I took this picture while we camping this past weekend. I post it today because I need some perspective. In Peruvian shamanism the (and I am sure in many others) one of the things the eagle represents is perspective. Flying above it all to see the patterns, the flow of things and not getting caught up in the crap.

I think of the wind lifting my wings, soaring effortlessly above the mountain tops and the rivers, letting the wind and perspective take away all the things that I am letting bog me down these days. In short I am asking the great eagle to help me with an attitude adjustment.

This past weekend was the Canada Day weekend. I took the kids camping on Thursday night and Paul joined us late Friday night. (More on that soon) We stayed until Monday afternoon and then came home to enjoy the Tuesday off and relax in the air-conditioning. It was over 100F out there and we were sleeping in a tin box and no showers there. We were in need of cold shower.

Paul worked on the Friday and rode his dirt bike out after he got off work and a game of hockey. He did not arrive until about 11:00. I know that Paul has spent quite a lot of time on a moterbike and I trust his driving skills. When 10:30 rolled by I did begin to worry about him. His dirt bike is cheap street legal bike that we bought to save on insurance dollars (in this weird Canadian insurance system we save almost $2,000 a year by insuring the bike as a primary vehicle and Paul's truck as secondary) I trust Paul on the bike but did not trust the bike. It has crapped out on him in the bush more than once.

I had cause to worry. As Paul got closer to the campground the lights on the bike began to flicker on and off. When he pulled up to the campground, going only about 10 or 15kilometers per hour the electrical on the bike gave out and the bike came to a screaming halt. Paul did not. He was wearing heavy pants and thick leather jacket and riding gloves. He skinned up his elbow and hurt his ankle a little bit. The worst of it is the hyper-extended thumb of his right hand. He did not fracture it, that would heal faster. He damaged the joint capsule and some of the surrounding ligaments. His hand is all splinted up and he is unable to oppose his thumb and fingers. He has hopes of being back to work on Tuesday, I think this is unrealistic.

I think on the bright side and thank the powers that be the bike did not seize up on the highway when he was going 90KPH. I realize how lucky we are that he is not more badly hurt. I also feel a little overwhelmed and crabby. There is a lot going on right now (hiring staff, PMS, I enjoyed my first migraine last night, a head cold and general lack of exercise ect. ect.)

Today my goal is to suck it and change my attitude. Thank you for hearing me out; it helps my gain perspective. Click on that picture and soar with me please!