where's the water?

where's the water?
Originally uploaded by Julep67

Last night, Mark took me for the last official ice cream cone of the summer. Summer's officially over later today but it feels like it's going to stick around for a while and I'm not complaining. The ice cream cone was pretty yummy, we just went to the DQ near our house while we were out doing some errands last night.

The big indicator to me that summer is almost over is Sam's nose. When the days start to get shorter, the pigment in his nose fades and it turns from very black to pink. The very tip of his nose is showing signs of pink right now.

I actually love this time of the year and can't wait to get my Halloween decorations up. I hope to get my windows washed this weekend so I can get my window display up. I got the neatest table cloth at the dollar store this year. It's a flanel backed, black table cloth with lots of pumpkins and skeletons and stuff on it. Yay dollar store! I also know exactly where my box of decorations is so it should go pretty smoothly. Last year, both Mark and I had pneumonia in the fall and I didn't really bother thinking about Halloween until almost the week before, which isn't really like me. It's one of my favourite holidays and I'm really looking forward to it at the moment!

summer stuff

I love summer, I'm particularly loving this summer.

It's not too hot, not too cold.

Not too dry, not too wet.

Berries are great, doggies are awesome.

Barbecues are plentiful and we're having one this afternoon with work folks.

A good time should be had by all and I have it on good authority that seedless watermelon is being served.

nice!

bathing beauties

sun bathing
Originally uploaded by Julep67

the dogs and I spent a fair chunk of time hanging out on the deck, in the sunshine, over the weekend. I took their bed outside Sunday and Monday so they could get comfortable.

Mark and Andy spent a big chunk of their time working on the deck. Sam and Gracie and I did our best to stay out of their way and not interrupt the terrific railing installation which was happening.

The deck looks amazing now. There is only one more section to finish (it's the end piece of the deck, installing a privacy panel) and it'll be done. Mark even got some of the landscaping done so things are coming together.

Our next step will be getting some sod and planting grass in the corner where the gazebo was last year. The dogs are really enjoying how the yard has opened up to them. Mark could hardly get Sam to come in last night. I think Sam would have been completely happy to have slept outside last night (although given that there are skunks in our neighbourhood at night I don't think it would have been a good idea).

Although it's not even the end of May, I seriously think we've spent almost as much time on the deck this year as we did the whole of last summer. It's going to be a great summer / deck season this year I think!

sew sorry

got sewing machine?
Originally uploaded by Julep67

We've had a very busy few days. We've been working outside a lot so I've not been in the house and hanging around the computer much.

I do miss it a little but we're having a great time getting our back yard ready for the summer so I don't feel too badly about it.

Sam is good. sleeping in the door way to my office right now. I think we wore him out pretty good in the back yard earlier tonight. He'll sleep well I think, I hope so anyway. He has his surgery on Thursday and I want to keep him healthy!

Expect to see more photos from the dump this week. We went to the dump on Saturday and this time I remembered to bring my camera.

jammed up

heading out of town
Originally uploaded by Julep67

there is so much construction going on right now in our little tiny town, that it feels like you're waiting for traffic no matter where you go. It's a real pain in the ass too because this is such a small town, you shouldn't have to deal with this crap.

One of the benefits (and there are many) of living in a smaller community is that you don't have to deal with traffic jams. I know that you have to endure the inconvenience of construction to enjoy the benefits it brings but boy, it's feeling like the construction will never end.

Sometimes though, it feels like it'll never start. We got a memo from the city in April and one from the construction company in June, about work which was scheduled to being on water mains on our street. It's almost August and it hasn't started yet. I know that they are 3 months behind in a similar project on my friend Robin's street so I don't have a lot of confidence that they will actually start the job this summer but who knows. Maybe they will rip our street up just in time for the snow to fly and leave us with a frozen, rutty mess to deal with all winter.

Oh well, I know it could be worse, because it can always be worse!!

garden fresh zucchini

garden fresh zucchini
Originally uploaded by Julep67

Don't these look lovely?

Mark planted two zucchini plants in his little garden this year. This is his first attempt at a veggie patch. We had these two beauties in our salad for lunch yesterday. There were two more today which we grilled for dinner. Delicious. Out of the garden and onto our plates. Too neat. Reminds me a little of the Chicken Lady saying, "right out of my body and onto your plate" but not really.

Wasn't the weekend just lovely?? We had a great weekend. There was lots of time for sunshine and splashing in the pool. We both got some things done around the house that needed doing. All in all, it was lovely. I may have gotten a little too much sun but I'm not sore so it may not be too bad. I seem to have a tonne of freckles on my arms though. I don't remember so many freckles on my arms before but maybe I did and just didn't notice.

It's amazing how much my mood improved once the rain stopped. It's really been getting me down lately only I hadn't realized exactly how much until it stopped.

I think it's supposed to be a mostly sunny week this week so that's good. And it's a short week for us too. We've had Friday booked off for almost a year now because we want to see the Simpsons Movie early in the day. Can't wait for that!! Anyway, I hope you all had as good a weekend as we did. This is really what summer is supposed to feel like!

on the mend

on the mend
Originally uploaded by Julep67

I am so enjoying today so far.

Because we did a bunch of errands last night, there is not much we need to do today. Mark has just run out for a couple of odds and ends of things which we forgot but which he needs for a couple of projects he's got on his list this weekend.

One of the stops he's making is at the Habitat for Humanity store. For the past month or so, we've been saving our pop cans. Instead of putting them into the blue box and giving them to the city, we are "donating" them to our local Habitat for Humanity pop can drive. Alcan sponsors this drive and the Habitat for Humanity location which collects the most cans wins. The prize is basically enough cash to build another home. It's a great program and it's an easy way for us to support them. Cool huh?

Obviously, I've stayed home this afternoon. I'm baking a loaf of my nana's nana bread. I had three brown bananas just staring at me all morning so I threw a loaf together and put it the oven while it's still cool. Hopefully I won't heat the kitchen up too much. The smell is filling the hous right now!

I expect that when Mark gets back, we'll be heading for the pool. I can't wait. The weather around here has been so shitty that we haven't actually be in the pool in almost 2 weeks. That's crazy considering it's July.

Oh well, I'm not complaining, not today. It's way too night to complain!!

not exactly william holden

aah...water
Originally uploaded by Julep67

It is a gorgeous day here in the Limestone City.

I awoke early this morning, determined to get up and out early. My goal was to be home from running errands by 9 a.m. While the coffee dripped and Mark still snoozed, I put the chair cushions out on the deck. I stood on the deck, looking over the yard, seeing how big the plants in Mark's vegetable patch are getting, noticing all of the leaves and plant debris that is on the deck from the storm...and oh yeah, the dead squirrel in the pool.

Part of me felt smug about it. We've been battling the little lawn rats all spring. They've torn up our shed and just been a pain in our butts. The other part of me wondered how much extra chlorine we'd need to use in the pool once we fished the squirrel corpse out of the water. A little while later, I was sitting at the kitchen table with Mark, having a cup of coffee and noticed another squirrel up on the edge of the pool, trying to wade in. I hit the door and he scurried off. Honestly, they are not smart creatures. "Hey Chuck, what are you doing in the water?? What!?? C'mon, don't be a jerk, tell me. Don't sulk, it looks like fun, I'm coming in too..." We mused that he must have thought that it if the dead guy was in there, it must be a good spot to hang out in.

While I was out doing errands, Mark was on squirrel removal duty. One of the things I got when I was out was a new pump for the pool. Mark's got it hooked up and we've shocked the pool and I've done some cleaning on it. It'll be good as new in a couple of hours. The pump I got this morning is actually for a larger pool than ours (just one size up) so the water is moving around with a more powerful force.

The clean up took way longer than we expected. Mark's been cleaning fish tanks too and I'm in the middle of doing laundry so I'm not sure if we're going to venture too much further than the back yard today. We'll see.

Hope you're all having a happy, dead-squirrel-free Saturday!

campus construction

campus construction
Originally uploaded by Julep67

I've been having a busy week and have been not spending as much time in front of the computer as I normally would.

This is a good thing and a bad thing I suppose. It's good because I've been out and doing other things. It's bad cuz there are lots of things I should probably be working on that I'm not.

Oh well, if the weather stays rainy (it's raining here right now) over the weekend, I suspect that I'll have lots of time to get stuff done inside.

I had good news (thanks mum!!) about strawberries. The place we usually go for strawberries is open again and mum reports that they are really lovely this year. Mark has learned of another strawberry farm in the east end (our traditional place is near Adolphustown - to the west) which we want to check out as well. Add to that, the Skeleton Park Music Festival and some chores and you can see that we'll be spoiled for choice on Saturday.

It's a nice problem have to have I think!

feels like summer

feels like summer
Originally uploaded by Julep67

are you having fun today? or rather, did you have fun today?

I've had fun today.

the weather was absolutely amazing here, I got my chores done early, got into the pool on two separate occasions and spent some time visiting with friends.

life is good.

too much of a good thing

apres sheep
Originally uploaded by Julep67

I definitely got too much sun yesterday.

Last night, it had cooled off a bit so we had left the A/C off (it had been off all day) when we went to bed. I think I had a bit of a sunburn and was generally zapped by the sun because I could not fall asleep for more than 15 minutes at a time. I couldn't get comfortable and there was no breeze so the house was quite still and I was really overly warm.

Eventually, at around 2 a.m., I got up and closed the windows (in the dark!) and turned the A/C back on. Eventually, I was able to fall asleep but I had really bizarre dreams. I was up again at 4 a.m. and then again at 6 a.m. and finally, I got up around 7 a.m. Not the most restful night on record, that's for sure. We cancelled our plans for today and stayed home. I'm really glad we did too because my stomach was upset, on top of all of that. Again, I blame the sun.

Right now, I'm anxiously waiting for the last episode of the Sopranos to start. We had fallen behind a few episodes but got all caught up over the weekend (thank you DVR). It's been such an excellent show over the year, absolutely one of our favourites. It'll be tough to say good-bye but I'm sure that Mr Chace and company will not disappoint us.

recycling or yard waste?

recycling or yard waste?
Originally uploaded by Julep67

today was literally a perfect summer day, and it's not even summer yet. not offically anyway.

I woke up this morning with a head full of allergies and actually had quite a bad headache. eventually I got myself together though and we went out and did some errands. the errands were of the drop stuff off at the municipal compost heap and go to the garden centre variety. I planted flowers last weekend and this weekend Mark is planting veggies. We needed some dirt and peat moss and some extra patio stones (for the pool area, not for the veggie garden). We actually got a great deal on everything we needed for the yard at a large, Canadian hardware chain store, much to the surprise of both of us.

After the work was done, we did some floating in the pool. I love floating in the pool. We have discovered that our little water bottles (the ones that are similar to nalgene but are not) can hold a whole bunch of ice and a "cooler" beverage. They make the perfect little cocktail for pool floating. nice!

Of course, now, headache + medicine + errands + sunshine + water + vodka = really sleepy me...and it's only early. I'll get my second wind yet, I'm sure.

yay for sunny weekend, so far, this one is excellent!

not quite friday

orange rose
Originally uploaded by Julep67.

Yesterday, for some odd reason, I kept thinking it was Tuesday. Today, I can hardly believe that tomorrow is Friday already. I know not ever a bad thing for the weekend to be on your doorstep but seriously, the time is just zooming by for me these days.

It's work I guess. We're really really busy and, when you work on events, you're always looking ahead on the calendar and before you know it, another year has passed and it doesn't feel much like you've even had a chance to lift your head.

I must say though, we have less pressing stuff to work on during the summer months and I'm really looking forward to feeling less frantic in general. I'm also really jonesing to get back into our pool again. I know it's just a dorky little inflatable Canadian-Tire special but it's ours and it's in our yard and I can float around in it and listen to Van Morrison or whatever else I feel like and pretend that I'm not actually in the middle of the city, but rather, that I'm in the middle of the lake. Aaahh...summer days, can't wait to see you again!

snow grains

fun world ferris wheel
Originally uploaded by Julep67.

the forecast currently calls for snow grains.

I don't even think I know what that means.

spring is supposed to officially begin this week but it feels like it's a long way off.

I know that baseball stuff is happening already.

I saw some green grass beside a snowbank yesterday.

those are good signs for sure but still, it's cold. snow grains.

I'm sick of winter.

truly sick.

I long for warmth, for sunshine, for naked toes in the grass and needing to wear sunscreen and wet towels on the deck rail.

soon, right?