It seems I am the shortest person in my family. Ronnie has surpassed me. I refused to believe it at first, but perhaps I should resign myself to it. We noticed during the weekend when we had a small get together in honour of friends Andrew and Jenny, who were visiting from California. I made Reid take repeated pictures to prove it to me. Ronnie is happy as a lark. A friend Tom helpfully suggested we have another child so I don’t have to be the shortest. I’ll take it up with Reid.

I worked for the IVR group - that would be the automated answering system that takes your call and directs you to the right agent, or, lets you serve yourself. Being in IT for so long, I found it wild working on a phone system. Whenever I had to test the system, I had to use the phone rather than a computer. It was a hoot. And I have to admit, it’s a lot simpler to test a phone system than an application in most cases (not all!!)

I really enjoyed learning how their voice recognition works. I found we would anthropomorphise - referring to the system as “she”. Very easy to do when you’ve given the system a female name and when you’re talking to “her” all the time during analysis and testing.

Now I have a better appreciation of how deal with voice recognition IVRs as a customer (and boy, do I get pissed when they don’t work well!) I’ve heard a few people complain about Bell’s system, but I can attest to the fact that they work very, very hard to get it to work as smoothly as possible.

Not in too big a hurry to find another job. Hey, it’s August!

Hmmm. Maybe the second one isn’t really a word. It’s just a sound and can vary a bit depending on time of day. Cool, a 1 word vocabulary! Wait…. is “meh” a word?

I’ve seen the grunt used to convey:
Good morning.
Hi, how was your trip?
I don’t like pork chops.
I’m feeling fine, thanks for asking.

Reid thinks it’s a binary language
meh=1
grunt=0
Just to keep things interesting, grunt (or 0) does not always mean No. Depends on the context.

What’s your theory?

He says he never expected to live this long. His parents didn’t make it to their 70’s. I always thought my side of the family wasn’t long lived, but since hooking up with family in Australia and Brazil, I found that wasn’t true. Life’s getting a little difficult for him. He has to deal with various health problems, the worst being his loss of memory. It upsets him greatly that he’s forgotten the names of most of his family and friends. A comment he made is circulating around my extended family that perfectly describes his frustration. Sounds better in Italian, but it’s basically: “It sucks going from being a lion to being a lamb.”

We’re all happy the weather has gotten warm, and he can spend his time outside. He’s such an outdoors man!

On to a completely different subject…

Michael has received offers to attend all 3 universities he applied to. He heard from Queens first, months ago. He even got a $1,500 scholarship! He was quite happy as Queens was his 2nd choice.

A few weeks ago, he received an email that he was accepted from Waterloo. A few days later, a phone call where they said they hoped he would consider attending their university. Finally, we got the offer of admission in a way cool package. It screams “You’re In!” How exciting to see that in the mail! Too bad, though, it wasn’t Michael’s top choice. He got a $1,000 scholarship from them.

Next day, he got a lovely hand-written note from Queens – “Oh, please come”!!

And of course, last, like I expected it would be, was the admission for University of Toronto, where he was hoping to go. No scholarship. No phone call. No hand written note. Of course not, arrogant buggers.

I hate arrogance, yet… I love UofT. I loved the scale of it (huge!), I loved huge amount of choices for classes, I loved the feel, I loved the buildings. Well, most of them. His grandfather went there, his father, mother and step-father went there. Lots of the people his parents hang out with went there (and some are still there). You might think I convinced him to go, but I didn’t. I mentioned a few pros and cons, and he made up his mind that it was the place for him. I think he’ll really enjoy downtown life. He wants to get into residence at UC.

His offers remind me of mine a little…

I got accepted at my home town university, Brock. I got a $500 scholarship from them, which I never told my father about! I got accepted at McMaster, and got a nice phone call, too. But of course, nothing but an offer from UofT.

I’m very excited for him. He’s entering computer science, but he’s been thinking of English, and History. He’s going to see how things go. Woo hoo!

What a great weekend we had. Fantastic weather. Summer must be here, even unofficially, if I’ve put the sky chair up! Here’s the view looking up, while sitting in the chair.

Smiles all the way down. But these are my favourite, particularly the last one:

I first came across it eating at a Thai restaurant. Although I had eaten Thai food before, I couldn’t believe the horrible taste that particular day. I couldn’t eat it, and soon discovered it was due to some chopped up green stuff. Even the tiniest, most minute piece produced such a vile response. It doesn’t really have a taste to me. I kind of feel it in my sinuses — there’s an immediate reaction my body says: “get it out, get it out, get it out!!” I couldn’t believe it when my husband could eat it. I was very confused.

A few years later, I discovered my brother hates it as much as I do. Although he’s been telling me lately that as he gets older, he can actually tolerate it a little better. It’s still horrible, but I don’t think he has to spit it out any more. A few months ago, I was in a grocery store with my parents. I found some of the evil stuff and took a single leaf. I gave each of my parents a bit of the leaf and asked them to chew it. My mother’s face screwed up in horror, and my father had no reaction. OK, so we get it from my mother’s side of the family.

I keep running across things on the internet that say.. some people don’t like cilantro, but they should learn to like it. It’s so pleasant, they really should stick with it. Well, excuse me. I don’t think so. Not now, not ever. It’s the most vile, most disgusting stuff on the planet. Eradicate it!!

Want to help in my endeavour? Join the “I hate cilantro” community: http://www.ihatecilantro.com/

Putting all the IKEA furniture together was fun (usually). The desk was a lot simpler to put together than I thought. But the couple of wall shelves that Reid wanted were the worst (trying to get therm to be even was next to impossible). We’ve been waiting a month now for one particular type of shelving to come back into stock. It’ll be what all our paperbacks go into, so they’ll be in boxes for a while yet.

Did I ever mention how much I love my cordless drill? I got it for Christmas. My brother has a similar one, and he mentioned how much he liked his, so I wanted the same one. It’s a little newer model, and heavier than his I think (unfortunately), but it’s a way cool red colour! It’s the Sears brand (Master Craft).

(** I plan to keep editing this post as I progress, want to keep it in one post. Apologies if your comments don’t quite match up)

Monday
Last day of filling holes and sanding. The previous owners painted latex over oil. Don’t do that. Ever. (Or I will come and slap you.) I scraped/sanded it, and will try putting a good quality oil primer over it, but I’m pretty sure it’ll start flaking off again in the future.

Basement Railing, you can see the lime green oil paint where the white latex paint flaked away

The stairway needed a LOT of work. Won’t turn out to be perfect but that’s okay.

Tuesday
Started the process of protecting the floor, by placing masking tape snug up against the quarter rounds (baseboards) around the perimeter of the room. It’s my “foundation” onto which I will tape plastic, cardboard and whatever else I can find to cover the floor. But it took most of Monday just to tape the perimeter and other odds and ends.

Taped post

Wednesday
Finished protecting the floor by using old shower curtains, plastic wrapping from furniture delivered, and cardboard. Blast it, it took all day!!

Floor in Reid’s office almost done

‘The boardroom’, working on placing some clear plastic down

I should be able to paint tomorrow. Oh my god! Finally!!

Thursday
Actually put brush to wall. I’ve been dreaming of this for weeks! I was determined to get the whole thing primed in one day. It only took 11.5 hours. My hands are aching from clutching the brush and roller all day. And painting so much ceiling is very painful on my neck. When I could, I’d hold my head with one hand and paint with the other. But usually, I needed two hands to use the roller on the ceiling. Maybe I should invest in a neck brace?

Priming the stairwell

Banister, compare to picture above

Reid’s office - primed

Boardroom - primed

My contractor, Mark, promises to come over on Friday to help tidy up the little dings that become evident once you’ve put primer on fresh drywall. I would do it myself, but he offered! (I never get them all because I’m too anxious to be finished painting)

I would love to get the ceiling finished tomorrow. I’ll get one coat on, but may not be able to get two.

Friday

9pm. I thought I’d be out of the basement earlier today.

Well, I did get the ceiling done. But only because I’ve decided one coat of paint (other than the primer) will do it. I spent much of the day filling/sanding/priming rough spots yet again! Mark did come over and helped fix up a couple of rough spots. On the whole, the walls were great. But there were a few spots to fix. And I constantly notice things wrong with the stairs (banister, particularly). I shouldn’t bother because it’ll get banged up in no time, as we often bring some sort of machinery up or down. But I can’t resist. Want to really piss me off? Come over and complain about the banister.

I’ll probably touch up the ceiling a bit tomorrow. But hopefully, I can start on the walls. And in my wildest dreams, I hope to get two coats done. “Cutting in” will be a horror with all the duct work. Wish me luck.

Saturday
There’s a disturbing trend happening - this time I finished at 10pm. But, I guess it’s ok since I started an hour later than usual, but that’s still 12 hours.

The walls are done. Yay!! I was a little shocked with how dark the colour was and waited anxiously for Reid to wake up. He had chosen the colour, saying he wanted something very light. This wasn’t very light. I was worried he’d think it was too dark. I would sorely hate to start over. No matter, he came down and said “The colour’s great!!”. To each his own. I don’t think I really like it.

Walls painted - hard to get the colour right in the picture

I’m pretty good at getting a straight edge between the walls and ceiling (”cutting in”) since I’ve had so much practice, but it was hard this time. It’s a little bumpy along the top of the wall, so edging it in brings out the bumps. Of course, I see lots of little problems that I’m sure I will never notice again unless I’m inches from the walls. Occasionally, I’d remind myself that most of the wall space will be covered with shelves. But I’d also remember moving into my house and finding that the cream coloured master bedroom used to be green, and I know because they had painted AROUND the bed headboard. Guess they didn’t bother removing the bed when they painted!! So I tried to do as good a job as I could.

Tomorrow - I hope to get the trim done, but may spend some time on the stairwell. I’m hoping two more days will do it. I’ve got to finish by Wednesday when I go visit my parents.

Sunday

Another late night, but, the trim is all done, as well as the windows and the stairway walls. I had to spend a few hours getting the tape up from around the baseboards. I was worried that if I waited for it to dry completely, then the paint would come off the quarter rounds as I removed the tape. I seem to remember this happening to me before, but it must have been long ago.

When I went to the basement this morning, I found I liked the colour. The colour changes slightly in the evening, and that’s when I like it a little less.

Tomorrow is the last bit of painting - the evil banister, the sides of the stairs and the door to the laundry room.

Now it’s time for that back massage that was promised me. I’m so incredibly sore all over. I can’t imagine doing this kind of thing as I get older.

Love some of the pictures Reid’s been taking…

What would you paint as ceiling, and what as wall? I had to turn ‘ceiling’ into ‘wall’ on two bits (i.e., change the colour)

The gas pipe. They wanted to box it in for us to make it neat, but I didn’t want to lose the space as I need to put something tall under it.

Monday
Woo Hoo!! Finished painting!

Yet another late night, but it was an easier day on the whole. The banister gave me lots of trouble. When I put my first coat of latex enamel (Benjamin Moore) on, I kept noticing little bits of things I thought were on the brush, or on the wall or something. Turned out it was tiny bubbles. I had a slight heart attack and went back to the store with the paint. I thought something was wrong with it (bought it only 2 days ago, yet found it separated, with a thick film of orange stuff on the top). The fellow at the store insisted it was a problem under the primer, but I had my doubts. When I went back home, Reid and I took a good look at it and decided it would be ok to continue. I found I could brush away the bubbles, and on the whole, it still looked fine. After some time, though, the paint would become quite frothy on top. Almost like a milkshake. Also, if the problem was indeed under the primer, then the bubbles would actually be raised primer, and I should be able to see the original paint underneath. I’ve had this problem before, and this wasn’t the same.

In my first house, I took down some wall paper from my bedroom wall and scrubbed the wall clean. Then I painted, and tons of bubbles formed. When I burst a bubble, I found that not only had my original paint come up, but so had the layer under that! So, two paint jobs before, something had gone wrong. Perhaps the wall wasn’t cleaned properly, or they put latex on oil. Ever since that horror, I make sure I clean the walls properly before I paint, so that if I paint again, I won’t have a problem.

The other bad thing was that I needed to wait 8 (!!) hours before recoating. Should have read the side of the can after I bought it instead of when I started to use it. Which is why I had to work later into the evening. But now I’m done, done, done!!

Tomorrow I’ll take up all the drop sheets (drop plastic-and-cardboard actually), and start the finishing touches. Perhaps I’ll wire up the ethernet ends and add them to the plates.

Tuesday

An easier day today, as I start the process of putting things back together. It’ll be a while yet before Reid can move in, but at least the painting is all done!

The boardroom all done

Speaking of Michael’s tonsillectomy, it’s been quite a trial. The operation was on Tuesday, and he still can’t talk much or swallow. It’s very, very painful. I can hear some of David Barker’s jokes already (about Michael not being able to talk). We found an online diary of a fellow who went through one, and it helped us a lot - just knowing that some of the symptoms are normal is good. But now we know to expect a longer recovery time than we originally thought.

And now, back to our originally scheduled blog… here are some pictures of the basement, starting with the before pictures. I think I’ll just keep updating this blog entry and add more as they become available. We’re going to take advantage of the empty basement to have a LAN party between Christmas and New Years. Want to come? Let us know (quickly!)

Before…

Reid’s cave

Ugh!!

Emptying the basement…

Laundry room

Deconstruction

Just a little dusty!

Recreating a livable space

Laundry room “cut” in half by adding a wall, so we could add to the office space

Drywall up!

Reid now fits under the duct work!

The ducts and stairway create interesting angles

Floor’s in!

Panorama view

More to come…

Work
I was working at Bell for the last year, but my contract has come to an end. They have a policy of not keeping contractors for more than 1 year. It’s been a great place to work, and I really hope I get a chance to go back some time. My last day was Nov. 23rd, so now I plan to take December off, perhaps longer, because of the stuff below!

Health
Did I ever mention that having ulcerative colitis sucks big time?? I’m hoping to spend some time to try and tackle it. It’s a very weird disease - I think it’s linked to the phases of the moon, combined with months that have an “R” in it, along with a roll of a die. There’s no way for me to peg what makes it gets worse, or what makes it gets better. Often, I hear it’s tied to stress and keeping track of it over the last 9 years, I think it is for me, but not the way you expect. It’s at its worst when I’m relaxed and at my happiest. It’s twice now that it’s gotten worse soon after taking some time off work to relax, and again, a few months before a delightful trip to Italy with my mother. So I’ve decided I need to be very stressed to be healthy. Go figure.

Case in point… last Sunday I took a nasty fall outside my front door, slipping on some ice. My feet flew out from under me and I landed full on my tail bone. It was extremely painful, and a week later, it still hurts quite a bit. But of course, the colitis is better than it has been for months. Another good thing: that fall should have broken a bone and it didn’t. Being on steroids as often as I have, I should be suffering from some bone density loss. But, I seem to be pretty good in that area. I started with a higher than average bone density, and it so happens I eat foods very high in calcium because of the colitis diet I’m on. So I’ll cling to that good news while I hobble around the house.

Hospitals
My dad is off to the hospital for a (non-serious) operation in early December. As my parents age, they have a harder and harder time understanding what’s going on. Particularly in areas of health. I’m hoping to take some extra time to be around for them. And then later in December, Michael is having an operation as well (having his tonsils removed).

Renovations
Well, here we go again. Poor Reid, who is happy if you stick him in a big cardboard box (as long as it’s more than 6′2″ tall), is being uprooted from his home office in the basement while we renovate it. It’s been a thorn in my side for years, and thought this would be perfect timing (except, well, I fell and hurt my back!!). I can’t believe how much stuff we had in the basement. We spent most of November putting everything into the garage, and it’s quite packed. Thank heavens for my burly 17 year old who helped out.

It’s a fairly simple renovation - just drywalling over the horrid stucco, and moving a wall. We’ll also be lifting some ducts so Reid can fit throughout. And they’ll be tearing out the carpet. We’re responsible for getting the floor done. (I’m thinking of doing it myself). And we’re also responsible for painting. (My back HAS to get better now or I’m toast.) I’m anxious to get Reid back into his office, and out of my office where he’ll be temporarily. (I’ve moved myself to a tiny corner of my bedroom for the time being).

Other stuff
I now have TWO teenagers, as Ronnie turned 13 in November. We’re also looking at different schools Ronnie can attend, rather than his home school. We’d love to send him to Delphi (formerly ASE, an alternative school), but it’s so far from home. And Michael will be starting university next year. Michael wants to follow in our footsteps - computer science at University of Toronto. Reid and I accompanied him to the UofT open house in November. We had lots of fun running around the campus. The highlight for me: on a tour of Trinity, they showed us the quad and we told Michael how nicely we set up Tom’s room there. Also, when it came time to show us a residence room, they went to a familiar hall and Reid’s eyes lit up in delight. They opened the door to David Brake’s old room, and Reid ran down the hall showing Michael which were Tom’s, Harald’s and Peter’s rooms. (Am I forgetting someone?) I think Michael would love to go to Trinity, but it’s so hard to get into. I think he really liked University College.

Once I get some time (*snort*), I’ll update with some pictures.

I can still see him in my mind as my little baby. I can see him now. I can’t seem to link the two of them together as the same person. How did he get to be so big, so fast?

Reid and Michael

Things I liked about the cruise

The staff was very friendly. I only had a brief encounter with the reception desk, and they seemed a little less friendly, but that’s probably because they’re harassed all the time. The staff managing the excursion desk were enthusiastic, and tried to be as accommodating as possible. There’s almost a 3 to 1 staff to guest ratio, which is impressive.

The cabins were very comfortable. Even for a bigger guy like Reid, we only felt cramped when all four of us were hanging out in one cabin. The shower was small, but somehow, Reid found that comfortable, too. And the water pressure on the shower was strong, which was nice.

I had heard some bad reviews of the food, but we found it to be quite adequate. Because of my food restrictions, we spent a lot of time at the buffet, which did get a little boring by the end of the week. We were pretty happy with it. Our expectations weren’t too, too high. Reid, Michael and Ronnie had Teppanyaki one night, and they really liked it.

The singing/dancing troupe was fantastic. I hadn’t expected them to be all that good, so perhaps they simply exceeded my expectations. They put on shows every other night, and I didn’t miss a single one. I’m not sure Reid was as impressed, so there you go.

There was lots of entertainment planned… for the most part, it wasn’t the kind of entertainment for us, but they did try really hard by offering lots different things. (After all, there’s no pleasing most in my family unless they put on some ultra-techie entertainment, and where would we get that other than on geek-cruises?) Ronnie really enjoyed the show on hypnosis, and the sushi-making session. I enjoyed the game-shows, and evening shows by the dance troupe. None of us were into the sports stuff, self-improvement lectures, or wild parties (celebrations for St. Patrick’s day, and a ‘New Years Eve’ party). I missed a historical lecture on pirates, unfortunately.

Things I didn’t like about the cruise

I didn’t like the feeling of getting nickeled and dimed to death.

We had to pay for pop (~$2.00 USD per glass!! Isn’t that bar prices??) Only tea, iced tea, coffee and water were free. They claim you can’t bring your own food or drinks on board (I ignored that as far as food went. I never go without some food to such places due to my restrictive diet). They DO x-ray your luggage every time you come back on board at each port (for security reasons), so I’m not sure if you can sneak bottles of drinks back with you. We would have if Reid could find diet coke at the ports, but he could only find coke-light, which he claimed didn’t taste right.

The excursions were very expensive and added up incredibly for a family of four (For example, the cheapest was the 20 minute tender (boat ride) from the ship to/from the Belize island was $39 per person).

There were lots of restaurants on the ship, but many of them required you pay extra per person. For example, the Japanese and Steak restaurant were $20 extra per person. The Italian restaurant was less, $10 or $15 per person. We didn’t think much of it at first, but we did by end of week.

They really pushed buying Evian water on your way off the ship. I refused to pay for it, and tried to fill my own bottles of water, which didn’t fit in any of the water dispensers (sized for glasses). But Reid found a fountain on the jogging deck, so we managed.

There was far too much emphasis on buying jewelry, both on the ship and at the ports. Jeez. Lectures on jewelry, deals on jewelry, tables of jewelry at various locations on the ship, and so on. If I wanted to get deals on jewelry, a cruise would be the last place I would think of going.

A few final words
Whew! Can’t believe how long it took me to get this review together. How on earth do you bloggers out there do it?? I think I left out half of what I had wanted to remember about it. My hat’s off to writers out there. So glad I’m not one!!

At Belize, the ship does not dock, but rather drops anchor in the ocean. We could take boats to Belize city, but we opted for excursions. Reid was going scuba diving, and the boys and I planned to go to an island so we could do some swimming.

The whole process of getting off the ship, onto boats (tenders), is not very much fun. Those scheduled for excursions were to meet in one of the large restaurants while they organized you getting off the ship. Things were very loud with all the announcements, people were squeezing in and out of the restaurant, we had to wait about an hour before it was our turn.

Sounds like Reid had a wonderful time at the scuba lesson. He’s been wanting to try scuba diving for a while now, so it was great to have the opportunity.

The boat ride to the island with Michael, Ronnie and I took about 15 to 20 minutes. I liked the fellows operating the boat… a couple of young fellows from Belize. They were lively, and lots of fun. The island wasn’t very large, had lots of chairs available for our use. We arranged ourselves a nice spot under some trees and Ronnie and I ran off for a swim. Michael lay out in the shade and promptly fell asleep.

Ronnie and I had some difficulty with the sand. We found it to be quite sharp, and had to wear our sandals while swimming. It was great to be in the ocean, though. After about an hour or so, Ronnie started to get anxious that the boat had gone back to the ship without us. Indeed, it was nowhere to be found, but I figured they were running folks back and forth from the ship to Belize city. They were there as promised, though, when it was time to leave. Michael woke up… the sun had moved, and his whole right side was very burned (right ear, right arm, right leg).

We were back on the ship by early afternoon. I would have liked to go to Belize City on a tender, but everyone was quite tired (I can’t blame Reid, after scuba diving), so we spent the rest of the day relaxing on the ship.

I only met a few locals from Belize. Those I did meet were great. I hadn’t realized Belize was an English speaking country… huh, an English speaking country in the middle of Central America. I think it might be fun to go back there one day. I’ll have to keep that in the back of my mind for a future vacation (sans children). Lots of scuba diving for Reid in Belize!

Friday – Last port of call: Cozumel, Mexico

We were docked at Cozumel (thank goodness, no tenders!!) Reid had another scuba lesson scheduled for the morning. Michael was supposed to go to, but found his burn hurt quite a lot so it was best he didn’t go. I decided to wander around the city. (The boys wanted to stay in their cabin.) I really enjoyed Cozumel. Unlike Costa Maya and Santo Tomas, there was a whole city to explore. I wandered around for a few hours and even bought dad more brandy.

Back on the ship, while waiting for Reid, I took Ronnie swimming. I really liked the hot tubs… but found the pools too cool for my taste (they were about 78 degrees F). But I couldn’t wimp out – Reid wasn’t around to play with Ronnie, so I had to tough it out. It’s funny… Ronnie spent 20 minutes trying to get used to the hot tub… first his toes, then his feet, then his ankles, and so on. I was the same way, but in the pool rather than the hot tub. Michael joined us as well, to soak his poor burned leg in the nice, cool pool.

Reid was back on the ship by early afternoon, after another successful scuba lesson. I think he enjoyed Belize a little more. But that may be due to the fact that they were all amateurs and couldn’t go out in very deep water.

I was anxious to go swimming in the ocean again, so Reid and I went out, hopped in a cab and went to a beach. It took about 20 minutes to get to the closest, large sized beach. And guess where the boys were? Yup, you guessed it. They didn’t want to come, so they stayed in the cabin. (Did I mention Reid bought the Power Book? Guess what the kids were doing?)

Ronnie really regretted not coming with us when he saw the pictures of the trampolines and “rock climbing” inflatable slide thing in the water. Reid and I didn’t try the slide (it looked impossible to climb!) but we bounced on the trampoline. He found that the water really dampened the bouncibality (is that a word?), but I found it more than adequate. I screamed every time I bounced. We only spent about an hour on the beach… it was late afternoon, we had both gotten tired, and we could see a storm rolling in. In fact, it was pouring by the time we got back to the dock. (The whole week was a little cold and rainy)

Saturday – Day at sea, back to New Orleans

We woke up Saturday to find the ship rocking quite a bit. We were back in open ocean. The waves were much higher going back to New Orleans. I think we actually enjoyed the ship rolling. A very unique experience. None of us were sick at all – although we brought gravol just in case.

We spent the day pretty quietly on the ship. Didn’t go swimming, but did enjoy just relaxing.

Sunday – New Orleans and home

The ship pulled in bright and early Sunday morning. We opted for the “leave early, carry your own bags out” departure. We had to really, our flight was at noon, and if we had NCL take our luggage for us, we would have missed our flight.

Despite being Canadian, we had to go through US customs. I hadn’t expected that (if we were in an airport just stopping in the US, I don’t think we would have had to go through customs). It was completely uneventful, despite honestly telling them that I was bringing food with me.

The flight back to Buffalo wasn’t uneventful. It involved the flight in New Orleans being late, Michael getting sick on the plane, running all out in Charlotte to make our connecting flight, and spending over an hour waiting for our luggage in Buffalo. (We KNEW the luggage made it on the plane in Charlotte this time. Michael and I saw all 4 of our bags being loaded on the plane out the window) But Buffalo had had more flight problems, and there was luggage piled up, from days before, everywhere. Tons of it.

Once we got our luggage in Buffalo, we drove to the border for an extremely easy border crossing (I don’t think he even asked us if we were carrying alcohol!). We stopped by my parents’ place on the way back to Toronto (they fed us!) and didn’t get home until 11pm. School and work the next day, ugh!

Monday – Toronto
OK – I know Monday is not part of our vacation, but I have to mention a very interesting thing that happened to Reid and I. While at work on Monday, the building swayed back and forth, back and forth, all day. It felt as though I were still on the ship. Reid had the same effect in the basement. I was fine by Tuesday, but the effect lasted until Wednesday for Reid. The boys didn’t notice a thing!!

First thing in the morning, the four of us headed off on our first NCL excursion: to view some Mayan Ruins. Ronnie is very much into the Mayan culture. The trip there took about an hour on a bus – which is a bit long, but our guide filled the time with background about Costa Maya and the province in general.

The ruins were way cool. It helped to have someone explain everything to us. We even purchased a book with details about the amazing Mayan calendar. We had it personalized for Ronnie, recording his birth date the Mayan way.

Back at the port, we decided to do some shopping. My dad had asked us to buy a particular (cheap) Mexican brandy for him, and since we only had two ports of call in Mexico, I wanted to make an effort to find it in Costa Maya. (My parents have spent the winter in Mexico for the last 20 years. As of this year, they decided not to go any more — they’ve become increasingly worried about their health. My dad rarely asks anything of us, so I was determined to bring back the maximum amount of brandy customs would allow us. He uses it to can cherries. Brandied cherries – Woot!)

I have to admit I seriously disliked the set up at Costa Maya. There was a good sized shopping area, and having been in Mexico before, I could see it was tailored to tourists… costs were higher than I expected. I couldn’t find the brandy my dad wanted (it’s local stuff). They told us we could find the brandy outside the enclave. We tried to grab a cab as they dropped people off, but they wouldn’t let us in. It seemed we would have to walk about a mile, away from guard-like folks patrolling the area, before we could get a cab. They were trying to keep tourists in. Granted, there wasn’t much happening outside the enclave, but I didn’t like the whole idea.

I had sprained my ankle slightly while visiting the Mayan ruins, so was unable to walk to get a cab. Reid did so, on his own, while I took the kids to the shopping area. We did spend a bundle on some cool t-shirts that are white indoors, but become coloured in the sun. We met up with Reid again (who had found the brandy!). We got our bathing suits on (Michael had had enough and went back to the ship on his own). We figured we could go swimming in the ocean.

That’s when I discovered another thing I didn’t like about the port at Costa Maya. There was no beach – just sharp rocks. We could swim in a pool – but what’s the point of going to Mexico if you have to swim in a pool? I could see some beaches further along, but we couldn’t get past a wall that enclosed the whole area. Guess we would have to walk out, get a cab and somehow hope to find a non-private beach. No way we were going to do that. Also, it started raining just as Ronnie and Reid decided to swim in the pool, so we headed back to the ship, somewhat disappointed.

Wednesday – Second port of call: Santo Tomas, Guatemala

We had no excursions planned for Santo Tomas, figuring we could enjoy the ship while most people were off board. But we did go out to explore Santo Tomas a little. Having gone to a talk held on board that described many of the ports, I was prepared for Santo Tomas. They told us there wasn’t much to do there – it was basically a cargo port. Boy, were they right! Why on earth would they even bother going there?

I think my plan to just sit back and enjoy the ship backfired a little (from my perspective). By Wednesday, the ship had become a little boring, and I was itching for something to do. We went on shore to find a smallish, warehouse type place with little booths selling tourist stuff. No place to go swimming. No place else to go. We wandered around for a bit. Locals did some dancing and singing to entertain the tourists, but we just headed back to the ship and watched movies in our cabin.

This was where we should have done an excursion. I heard later that the Banana Plantation tour was very interesting, and I regret not doing that. Reid had scuba diving lessons booked for Thursday. There was no way I was going to spend another day on board, and luckily one of the excursions to go to a beach that day was still open. I booked it for myself, Ronnie and Michael. Finally, a beach! If I had to pay for it fine, but I’d be damned if I didn’t get a chance to swim in the ocean the whole trip!

Norwegian Sun

As mentioned in part 1, some of these posts may be too detailed for most to be interested in. I’m writing it for personal reasons, and also attempting to make it a review with details others might find helpful if they’re taking the same cruise.

Sunday - Boarding the ship
After our horrible flight ordeal, it was huge relief to be at the port and know that we would make it onto the ship. I think, were I ever to do a cruise again, I would insist on flying out the day before. Just to give us that extra bit of time in case problems arise with the flight.

I don’t know why I find the Norwegian Sun to be so pretty. I remember looking at the ships when booking, and thought the loud paint job a little gaudy. Perhaps, after a week on board, it started to feel like home and I came to really like the ’sun’ painted on her. Supposedly, the paint job was only a few weeks old.
Looking at the ship, I could guess where our rooms were, and I was pretty darn close. We had booked 2 rooms next to each other. Norwegian states that children under 18 couldn’t be on their own, so we booked our rooms so that Reid and Michael were in one cabin, and Ronnie and I were in the other. We had no intention of actually keeping those cabin assignments. Reid and I stayed in one cabin, and Ronnie and Michael in the other. It did make things a little difficult though, because we had to constantly swap Ronnie and Reid’s cabin access cards to get into the right rooms. These access cards are very important: you use them as charge cards (no cash is used), and you need them to get on/off the ship.

We had to leave our luggage with Norwegian staff. They were to deliver it to our rooms. (Which, by the way took HOURS.) I should have packed spare clothes into a carry on for all of us.

We spent time exploring the ship, had dinner at the buffet restaurant after our luggage was delivered, and spent yet more time exploring. Ronnie’s excitement rubbed off on Reid and I. Michael spent most of his time in the cabin. Can’t expect more than that from a teenager, I found.

The ship had started to cruise down the Mississippi on time at 5:30. Very smooth sailing. I had not realized how far up the Mississippi we were. By the time we bedded down, we were still on the river.

Monday - Day at Sea

I awoke about 5am, feeling the ship swaying quite a bit. I looked out our window: ocean as far as I could see. Neat. The swaying was a little disconcerting, and I felt a little drunk as I tried walking around in a straight line. Funnily enough, Reid woke up early, too. (And he did so every morning!! Very strange for him.)

We spent Monday exploring the ship. (Michael spent Monday exploring his cabin.) I found it far too windy for my tastes on the deck, but Reid and Ronnie had no problem and used the two pools and hot tubs in the afternoon. They had lots of fun. The water slashed back and forth with the ship, turning the pools into wave pools.

On the whole, I’d say I probably won’t do a cruise again (at least, not to the Caribbean), although I can see how most people would really enjoy a cruise. We figured that on a cruise, it would be “all about the ship” and that we’d have to treat the ports as a side show. And that’s what happened. Even so, I did expect more beach time. And although the ship was great, most of the activities weren’t our kind of thing.

That said, if I had to cruise again, I think I’d stick with Norwegian. I liked the ship, the food was fine, staff was ultra-friendly (well, maybe not our cabin steward, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we pissed him off in some way).

Our last trip, to the Dominican Republic, didn’t go very smoothly. I’m starting to think we’re jinxed. This one started off horribly. But once we made it to the ship, all was fine (phew). I believe I’ll write a series of posts… which may mean readers are bored. Sorry. It’s mostly for myself - to remember the good (and bad) times. And perhaps for others out there hoping to find a review, like I was before our trip.

Friday Evening
I consider the trip actually staring Friday evening, when we headed off to Thorold soon after school/work. We decided to fly to New Orleans out of Buffalo instead of Toronto, saving ourselves a substantial amount of money. We stayed the night with my parents. The plan was to arrive in New Orleans on Saturday, with the cruise starting on Sunday. We were hoping to do a little exploring in New Orleans, and I was quite excited about it.

Saturday
Arrived at the airport in record time, with absolutely no issues with the US border crossing. Sat in the airport for a few hours, paying absolutely no attention to the fog outdoors. A very short time before boarding, our US Air flight was cancelled. Along with almost all other US Air flights for the rest of the day. We only had an inkling that something was wrong a short time before, but thankfully, we were ready to make a dash to the ticket line when it was finally cancelled. We ran all out, and got close to the front of the line. (I hadn’t even realized it at the time. Michael had to point out how lucky we were after the hell that ensued.) It took hours to get rebooked. The entire time, we could hear folks saying they couldn’t get out the next day. Oh, oh… we might miss the cruise. Reid and I discussed trying to cancel the cruise, or maybe trying to drive back to Toronto to get on a flight, or maybe just driving all night and the next day to get to New Orleans. Poor Ronnie became extremely upset.

They had only a couple people working our ‘cancelled’ line. When we finally got to someone, I was happy to get to a man named Louis who seemed to be very knowledgeable. I had noticed he kept saying he couldn’t get people on flights the next day, but then he had winked and put his finger to his lips in a “shhh” sign while servicing the people ahead of us, so I figured he had some tricks up his sleeve. Not so for us, at least not at first. After we got to the counter, he walked walk off for 15-20 minutes into the airport yelling out announcements to folks (can’t they get someone else to do that??). He come back and asked about our details, shook his head, walked off again, to help some other US Air employees. Then came back (and when I looked at him incredulously) he said he had someone working on it. The he walked into the airport, yelling out announcements yet again for 15-20 minutes, waylaid by people with questions constantly. Finally, he came back, asked us for details yet again, and booked us on a flight the following day. I should mention that there were only he and one other person servicing our cancelled flights line. (The other person was upset, and kept telling Louis she couldn’t find flights… “just tell these people to go home”.) Good lord. I was in an incredibly horrid state by the time we were rebooked. Michael was beside himself. The only reason I didn’t kill Louis was because I was afraid of pissing him off and never getting on a flight.

Our flight left at 8:30am Sunday, and we didn’t want to take any chances with border crossings, so we spent the night in Buffalo rather than go back to Thorold. A far cry from spending the night in New Orleans. No complaining though, looked like we would make the cruise. The New Orleans hotel kindly didn’t charge us for the hotel room when they heard our flight was cancelled. The Buffalo hotel gave us a deal on the room when they heard about the cancelled flight. We went to the hotel restaurant and then went to a movie Reid and Michael were anxious to see: 300.

Ever see the movie The World According to Garp? I remember a scene when Robin Williams sees a plane flying into his house, and happily exclaims… “We’ve been pre-disastered!!” Nothing else could possible go wrong. I said the same thing. (Perhaps I should have touched wood.)

Sunday
Sunday morning, no fog. No snow, sleet, thunderstorms, or hurricanes either. Whew. Got to the airport, and anxiously waited to see if the plane actually showed up. We started getting really worried when we could see that there was no plane by boarding time. Flight departure time arrived… still no plane. We only had an hour to make a connecting flight in Charlotte. The plane finally did arrive and they seated us quickly. They seemed to delay the flight to try to get every seat filled. Perhaps folks who had missed their flight the day before were trying to squeeze on. That must have been it, I saw Louis come onto the plane, and it was lucky for him I wasn’t on an aisle seat. The flight was delayed about 20 minutes, maybe half an hour.

There were plenty of people on the plane from Canada. It seems that taking a flight from Buffalo is very popular among Canadians - much cheaper. The folks next to us did it all the time and weren’t worried about making the connecting flight, so I calmed down.

Once we got to Charlotte, we realized we were very far away from the gate for our connecting flight, so we had to sprint. At the gate, they couldn’t seem to print up our boarding passes, and had to hold us to the very end saying they’d see if there was room. Again, we started to freak. We kept hearing about the US Air reservation system being really screwy. In the end, they found our seats had been reserved after all, just had lots of difficulty printing them. So we made it onto the plane. We should be in New Orleans by about noon. Half hour trip to the dock. Had to be on the ship by 4:30, sailing at 5:30. No problem.

At New Orleans, we headed to the basement to pick up our luggage. And guess what? No luggage. That’s when we met all the other folks from Canada on the same cruise who flew out of Buffalo that day. None of them had been on the cancelled Saturday flight, so I had no sympathy for them. We had already been through a disaster.

What the hell does one do without their luggage on a cruise? How many things can you buy on a ship? You look down at yourself, in your tired jeans and long sleeves heading for the Caribbean, and wonder if a pair of scissors might do the trick. The US Air baggage fellow was less thna helpful. “See the sign? Only one person in this room at once!! Don’t know when you can get your luggage. Fill out this form and we’ll get it to it. Going on a cruise? We’ll deliver it to the first port that has an airport. In your case, that’s Belize.” Oh nice. That’s Thursday. What will I do without luggage until Thursday. Lovely.

One of our fellow Canadians, a knowledgeable fellow it seems, figured our luggage might come in on the next flight from Charlotte. Next flight was scheduled to arrive around 2:30pm. It was delayed (of course!!). We would have to leave the airport by 4pm to make it to the ship in time. Norwegian Cruise Line staff were at the airport, picking up folks who booked flights through them. None of us Canadians had done so. They told us that if we purchased transportation to the ship through them, they’d wait for us. So we did. They also kept telling us to go on ahead, they’d pick up the luggage. The same knowledgeable fellow said there was no way he would trust them to pick up his luggage. He was waiting. We followed suit thank goodness. They only looked for baggage with Norwegian Cruise line tags, which none of us had on our bags.

Our luggage did indeed arrive on that flight. The Norwegian staff pressed us to start leaving (it was 4pm) while we were still waiting for the last couple of bags. So glad we didn’t let them try to find them. But all of us got our luggage. Happy, happy, joy, joy.

As for our visit to New Orleans, we saw it out the bus windows But we were going to make our cruise. Yay!!!

I’ll write about the actual cruise in the next post. It may take a while… still waiting for Reid to put up pictures!!

So: we decided to ask someone to build it for us. We spent a lot of time on the dimensions, which presented another problem. The unit ended up being a little too tall, no matter how much we changed things around. We gave all the dimensions and requirements to a local cabinet builder last spring, told him we weren’t in a big hurry, but then never heard from him again! (I knew it wouldn’t be his favourite project. He wanted to build us something beautiful, but every idea he had would add too many inches to the height - so we could only manage a fairly simple box with shelves.)

By end of summer, I decided I would build it myself. How hard can it be? It’s just a stupid box with adjustable shelves. So I joined a wood working course offered at a high school, and dove into it. I made a test box first, getting as much help from the instructor as I could. That didn’t work out so well – none of the joints lined up correctly! The instructor, unfortunately, was less then ideal.

After getting lots and lots of advice from my brother, and telling him about the instructor, he decided to start attending the course with me. Whew!! Lucky me!! My brother has created the most incredible, beautiful cabinets. I had an expert helping me! He even helped me build the feet: by getting me to glue together leftover rectangular pieces of wood, and then putting it on the lathe to make it round. (He worked on the lathe himself – it was too much for me!)When it came out of the lathe, it came out as a long cylinder. Which we then cut up into feet.

Timing was perfect. I had interviews for my new job just as I was putting urethane on the stand! Personally, I think it’s a little ugly – but so what! I made it myself! (With Tony’s help, of course.)

The shelves are adjustable, but everything only just fits! Reid showed me a DVD player he’d love to get – I had to remind him it wouldn’t fit. It was more than 3 inches high. When I say it was built for our current equipment, it really was!

At present, Reid and I are both sole proprietors. A while back, we investigated incorporating, but decided the negatives outweighed the positives. However, I am required to incorporate to have this job, so we’ll look at that whole thing again. We’ve been getting better tax advice this time, and I think it really does make sense for us to incorporate together. We’ve been trying to decide on a name. It just seems too obvious: we’ll probably call it “T’nir Consulting”, likely dropping the apostrophe. I know it’s an odd name to most, but we’ve had tnir.org for so long, email address at tnir, etc. And Reid mentioned that tnir is officially on the old uucp network maps - so why not?!

If anyone out there has advice for incorporating, feel free to share it with us!

I think someone/something was waiting for my last project to be finished before I got this job. I was just finishing building a cabinet to hold our HD TV when I got the job. Building a TV stand sounds impressive, doesn’t it? Ya, well. It’s really just a box since I really don’t have woodworking experience to speak of. More on that another day.

]]> http://luisa.org/archives/2006/11/working-again/feed http://luisa.org/archives/2006/11/try-again-retard http://luisa.org/archives/2006/11/try-again-retard#comments Sat, 04 Nov 2006 00:55:09 +0000 lp http://luisa.org/archives/2006/11/try-again-retard Michael has had to write a program for his computer class. Basically, it had to throw up a menu and ask the user how many items they would like to order. It would then calculate the amount owing, allow the user to enter the amount of money, and calculate the change (or amount still owing). Nice, simple program to introduce the students to *ahem* Turing. (Well, better than nothing, I suppose.)

He asked me to try out his program. The first input asked how many brownies I wanted. I entered 1.

For the next menu item, I entered 0.

Of course you can guess what I started doing for the rest of them. I gave him a look out of the corner of my eye. For the next I entered -1. He grumbled a bit. It took it.
For the next I entered 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999. It took that, too.
For the last, I entered “xiefjeis”. It crashed. That’s when his grumbling turned into very audible complaints…

Me: “You have to check for stuff like that”

Michael: “Why would anyone ever declare an integer, then???”

Me: “Input it as a string and make sure it’s a number. Then you can convert it to an integer.”

Michael: “You’d have to be a RETARD to enter something like that!!!!!”

Oh my god. How precious. I wish I had a recording. He doesn’t know anything about real users.

Reid came over to try Michael’s program. Michael had already changed it. When Reid tried to enter “-1″, the program output “Try again, retard.”

When it asked for the amount of money you were going to pay, Reid entered $4. Hah. Program crashed. I think Michael’s pissed at us now.

My sweet brother sent this url, in an attempt to make me feel better… ‘in case I didn’t get a real one’

View of the lake from the roof

Living room

The roof was in pretty bad shape, but with the help of some family members, he was able to get a lot of it done. Reid, the boys and I were invited up for the Thanksgiving weekend. Unfortunately, both Reid and Michael became sick, and couldn’t go. I really wanted to see the cottage, so on Sunday morning, I headed up on my own. The plan was to come back home early Tuesday morning.

Tony, my nephew Eric, Eric’s friend and Val’s brother were hard at work when I got there. The shingles were all off, some underlay material was up on one side and the shingling had started. Everyone broke for a mid-day Turkey meal. Eric and his friend needed to be back in the city on Sunday, so they headed home. That left lots of room for me up on the roof, so I headed up to help with the shingling. I had helped Tony shingle his roof when he first bought his house back in the 80’s. I remember that shingling wasn’t all that hard.

As the day progressed, it didn’t seem we were getting very far. Much like painting, there’s tons of finicky prep work that was taking most of our time. By end of day Sunday, only a few rows of shingles were up. By Monday, Val’s brother and his wife had to head back home and I’d say we had less than 1/4 of the roof shingled. I was pretty worried about leaving the next morning – I didn’t think Tony could get most of the shingling done before Wednesday, when rain was forecast. So I stayed an extra day.

Whew! Did we work hard (although Tony always works hard!) By sun down on Tuesday, we had shingled all we could except for the very top edge, where Tony needed to do some extra ventilation work.

Roof on Tuesday morning

Roof by Wednesday morning, it’s raining!

When I went woke up to go home Wednesday morning, it was raining quite hard. Boy, it felt good to have the majority of the roof done!

What an amazing Thanksgiving weekend it was. We couldn’t have asked for better weather. We saw kids swimming in the lake (in October!!) and someone water skiing. It’s a pretty quiet lake. There’s no marina, and therefore we expect there aren’t going to be very many boats. It’s a perfect cottage setting, with stunning views of the lake! I’m so happy for them!

Site of the future dock

View along the road, on the way home

Rafael is an electrical engineer, and came to Canada for about 4 months to learn English. He spent his first few months in Vancouver, and came to Toronto for the last month or so. I’m so very glad he contacted my parents, although I wish he had done it sooner! He was scheduled to go back to Brazil in a couple of weeks.

Spending time with him was a pleasure. His English is amazingly good, considering he’s only been speaking for a few months. He understands a little Italian, but had to converse with my parents in English. It was a little odd, because it’s obvious he’s he’s latin, so using english, especially with my parents, felt strange.

Rafael with my parents

Rafael with Aunt Mary

All of us really enjoyed his sense of humour and for some reason, despite living so far away from us, he felt like family. He told us all about his family, and then explained that visiting my parents felt like home to him. They reminded him very much of his grandmother, who died more than 10 years ago. My parents actually went to Brazil in the 80’s, and he was very surprised to see their pictures of his family - some of which included him! He was young when they visited, and didn’t remember them at all.

I loved hearing all about Brazil. He finds Canadian drivers far too “polite” and I think it drives him a little crazy. I get the sense that drivers in Sao Paolo are much like the drivers in Rome. It would be too crazy for me, but I think Reid would feel right at home.

I just love the fact that I can connect with Perrellas in Australian, and now Brazil. Yay!

Rafael, Eric, Michael, Tony, Ma and Papa - under the grape vines in Thorold

Tony, Nick, Eric, Aunt Mary, Rafael

Painting the siding was hell, but well worth it. To clarify: I only did the back side of the house. The other 3 sides are in better shape. All 4 sides of the house would have been too much for me. I rented a power washer to get most of the flaking paint off, hoping I wouldn’t have to sand afterwards. But I had to sand afterwards anyway. I did all that when Reid was away.

Siding before

Siding after

Thank goodness I waited for Reid to come home before I painted. I had to rent scaffolding, and I needed his and Michael’s strength to put it up and take it down for me. I only used the scaffolding to paint near the pool area. I used the deck roof and a ladder to paint the rest. We got into a routine: I’d start with the scaffolding 10 feet high in the morning so I could paint the upper section. Then I’d get them to take it apart so it was 5 feet high at lunch time, and I would paint the lower section. Then I’d ask them to make it 10 feet high again so it was ready for the next morning. It took 3 days: one coat of primer, and 2 of paint.

Thank goodness that’s done. I’ve been agonizing over it for a few years now.

Gee, with my projects done and the kids back in school, I guess I have to get a job now. (No, wait!! Surely I can find other projects… let’s see. I know! I’ll refinish the basement…)

Did I mention I HATE going into the attic? Really should have taken Peter up on his offer of a respirator mask – I used one of my thick paper ones left over from some project or other. Grabbed some big flat boards to lie on (so the blown insulation could take my weight). Also, got lots of help from Michael.

I made my way over to the toilet exhaust pipe where very dark water marks were — to find it completely dry with absolutely no evidence whatsoever of wet insulation. The dark marks must have been from an old leak. I asked Michael to turn on the hose and we left it running for a bit. Everything stayed completely dry. I was very pleased for a few moments. Until I realized where I was (did I mention I HATE going up to the attic?) and that the water leak was now a mystery and therefore the stuff of nightmares.

As I exited, I could see the huge depressed area in the insulation where I had worked my way over to the corner. (Imagine a few feet of fresh snow which has had a sled go through it – I tried fluffing it back up but it looked about as good as it would if I tried it with snow.) I had a hard time rigging the access panel closed – they had done such a nice job, dang it all. Once I got back out, Michael spent a lot of time vacuuming the insulation off me. Looking around, it seemed like a ton of the stuff had fallen into my office. Now you know why I HATE going into the attic.

I headed outside to poke my head into the overhang to look for any sign of dampness. Michael had said that when he went outside, he saw some water dripping from it. It was damp but not dripping. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I told Michael to turn the hose on for me - maybe the water was getting down there in some other way - perhaps behind the siding. He did so, and then went back into the house. I had my head right up there looking for drops, when I heard Michael flush the upstairs toilet — and a waterfall of water splashed onto my face!! He came right out, saw my face and started laughing. He said he figured that perhaps it was the toilet.

Mystery solved. Thank goodness for Michael! Should have figured it out, really, but I convinced myself that it was worse right after a rain. Time to call a plumber.

(For anyone interested in attics: I was completely amazed when I first poked my head into the attic. On a sunny day, about 1:30 in the afternoon – about 25-28 celcius out - and it was very cool in the attic!! Perhaps 3 to 5 degrees cooler up there. We had no air conditioning on, so it’s not as though it was somehow getting up there. Goes to show how well the attic was insulated. By the time I got up there, completely covered in clothing from head to foot for protection, it was boiling! It was never that way before we had the extra insulation. The guys also sealed absolutely all the holes, like the light fixtures. We used GreenSaver to assess our home, and then hired them to improve the insulation. Got money back from the government, too!)

Project 1. I replaced two sets of steps leading from the deck. I based the design on the steps Tony helped us to build some years ago. Michael helped me to pick up the wood, and helped with some measuring, sawing and advice. Some of it was truly difficult - like attaching the darn things to the deck. Figured it out finally. So what if they’re not level!

Now that they’re all done, I like to stroll up and down them. “See how nice and wide they are? See how comfortable they are to stride up and down. Reid, are you sure you wouldn’t want to try going up and down them a few more times?”

Project 2. Re-stain the deck (and the new steps!). They have to be re-stained every few years. It’s all done!

Project 3. Paint the mirror over our dining room hutch. It’s actually one of the windows from the 2nd storey that I asked be saved when we had the windows replaced. The old windows were those older 4-pane windows that I simply loved, but no one installs any more (even if they did, I’m sure I couldn’t afford it). I had the glass replaced with mirror and it’s been sitting on my hutch for more than a year. I tried to paint it to look a little like the hutch (so that it looks like wood). Well, I screwed something up and it came out much darker than the hutch (which is maple). I think I like it. I’m not exactly sure. I’ll give it a few days before I decide whether I should urethane it, or scrap it and start over!

Project 4. This is the kicker. Our siding sucks big time. The back of the house, especially nearest the pool, is peeling big time. It’s not aluminum siding - some kind of crappy coating on something that approximates wood. Since the other 3 sides of the house are somewhat ok, I decided to paint this side and see if I can put off getting new siding. I’m aiming to start this while Reid is in California. It’s not going to be easy as it’s the 2nd storey of the house.

Project 5. I don’t want this project, but it won’t go away. I noticed some water leaking out of the overhang (from the 2nd floor) onto the deck. I’ve been ignoring it for a while, in the useless hope that it would go away. Finally ripped out some aluminum siding from the overhang and found, to my dismay, tons of water soaking into the insulation. Hard to tell where the water comes from, but I think it’s coming down the toilet stack, which is not in the overhang portion of the house but in the house proper. Anway, it means I’m going to have to go into the attic to find where the leak is. I hate going up there. It’s going to be really bad because we had extra insulationblown up there. Dang it all. (Along with the common skipped-all-my-university-math-classes-and-now-there’s-an-exam nightmares I have from time to time, I also get water-leaking-into-the-house-causing-irreparable-damage nightmares. I know I’m weird, but that goes to show how much I hate this particular project.)

The Friday evening before the party, it just POURED. Have to admit, I got a little grumpy. Earlier weather reports promised a sunny day. So, that morning, I put a large plastic tarp over the part of our deck that wasn’t covered, and figured we would move the party indoors. (John called to check if the party was still on, and I mentioned we would move it indoors. “Now THAT will be interesting,” he said. Can you imagine an indoor watergun party?? I can, but not in my house!)

Craig

Still, it all turned out very well. The rain stopped by mid afternoon. We had a few less people than most years, but it was lots of fun. And when Craig showed up with two little waterguns, I decided it was time to go for the whole thing. I cleared the bay window in my master bath, took out the balloons, and waited patiently for Craig to move into position. (I missed.)

This year, my niece and nephew (Lisa and Eric) came for a while as well. Lots of fun - Eric helped Michael man the water balloon bay window. Reid and Peter were determined to get them (backfired when I asked Reid a question about the camera, and Eric chose that moment to lob one at him. It exploded right on his shoulder and he got properly soaked.) Eric and Michael took the water balloon throwing to new heights: they climbed the antenna tower to the shed roof and lobbed water balloons in the pool area.

Look out below!

Revenge

Other highlights:

- Despite my own two boys being the cutest babies ever, I have to say Simon comes awfully close to being cuter What an extremely well-behaved baby. Peter and Leslie know how lucky they are.

- The Shao boys are such good sports. I could hear Derek laughing away as he was being soaked by various people. Michael looked impressive with his water gun arsenal.

- Lisa was being too demure, so Reid dumped her in the pool. Then Reid went after Michael. Despite getting help from Micki, Michael was able to get away! Lastly, Reid went after Eric, who was just simply too fast for him.

- Great seeing all the kids again! Lots of boys this time, in fact I believe there weren’t any little girls there at all this year.

I’m sure I’m forgetting some fun stuff… if you can help me with more fun stuff, leave a comment! More pictures can be found here (perhaps Reid’s put them up on flickr)

Now since I’m usually feeling very cold, I revel in summer. It’s true it’s been too hot these last few summers, but I much prefer that to a cold winter day. Sometimes, it feels as though I can’t really get warm enough - which is why I like to lie out in the sun. It’s not because I want a tan (in fact I usually wear the highest sun block I can find), but a short time lying on the beach is absolutely heavenly for me. It feels as though the warmth can finally reach down to my bones, which are always cold. (Anyone who makes comparisons between me and lizards baking on a hot rock - in my hearing - will be promptly shot.)

When I got back into the house (I was working on the steps between 11 and noon) Reid tried to tell me that’s how he usually feels on regular warm days. “See, that’s what it’s like for most people when it’s humid. Now you know what others feel like.” Ya, I admit, that’s rough.

He’s had a history of angina, although he hadn’t had symptoms for years. Then about two years ago, he started complaining about chest pains. His doctor kept telling him it was just muscle pain, but after his last trip down south last winter where he could barely walk without pain, we switched him to a new family physician who immediately sent him to a heart specialist. It must have been serious - he was given higher priority so they could perform various tests and procedures as quickly as possible. Still, it took months. Finally, an angiogram last week gave us details about a number of blockages, and they immediately scheduled him for angioplasty.

An angioplasty is where they thread a small wire through a vein in your thigh to the veins near your heart. The wire contains a balloon and wire stent, which when inflated pushes blocking material out along with the stent. The stent keeps the vein open in an attempt to prevent it from clogging up again.

We left Thorold by 5:30 this morning and arrived at St. Michael’s hospital in Toronto by 7:30 a.m. Once we arrived, we were told the procedure was scheduled for 10 am (!), which didn’t actually occur until 1pm (!!).

We had plenty of time to talk, and I started making analogies to stories he used to tell about his job. He worked for the City of Thorold Water Works Department for years. “Hey dad, remember how you told me about pipes that supply water that get clogged after years of use. I guess that’s what happened to your veins.” That supplied some interesting conversation for a short while – my mother joking that they would use the same procedures to clear the pipes to clear his veins.

The research we did into angioplasty procedures led us to believe there would only be mild discomfort during the procedure. And I suppose that’s true, judging by a couple of room mates we saw afterwards. The doctor told me he was going to clear 2 of the blockages (the ones that were 95% and 70% blocked). I remember saying, gee, he has a lot more blockages (another at 60%, another at 50% and more). The doctor said he’d see once he got in there. The procedure took an hour longer than we were told. As we started to worry, a nurse kindly checked and let us know that the doctors had decided to clear more of the blockages.

After it was over, dad felt horrible - very nauseous and suffering from a lot of chest pain. But the doctor came out all smiles, saying “We put 4 stents in, and prevented a by-pass”. My brother and mother are with him this evening, and I hear he’s much better already. The amazing thing for me is, the doctor says he can exercise and do whatever he wants, physically, after a couple of days of rest. The rest is only needed for his thigh, where the catheter went in. His heart is absolutely fine now. Wow. Science is amazing. Let’s hear it for angioplasty!! Heck of a lot better than by-pass surgery!

One final word: The doctor was great: very approachable and patient with explanations. I love doctors like that. the many nurses that helped us at St. Michael’s were absolutely fabulous, very friendly and comforting. Some went out of their way to help us. One of them stroked my dad’s face, and called him sweet. (I teased him about how handsome he is – some older women have commented about it – and he said he couldn’t help it, he just inherited good looks

We found out some time ago that the company is moving into the old Nortel office space in Brampton. And I live much too far away to consider commuting or driving each day. I wasn’t an employee (I worked on contract), so it’s likely I wouldn’t have been there an extremely long time anyway.

I have to admit I’ve really enjoyed working there. I was doing exactly what I like doing in IT, and there were some wonderful people there that I’m really going to miss.

Enough about that… I have the summer off! Yay! Now all I need is for the weather to co-operate. This June’s been far too cold for my taste. Bring on the hot summer days!