Maybe it's finally here...

Conditions at 7:00 am: Sunny, breezy, 12 degrees
Expected high: 22 degrees

What a glorious morning. Today I actually got my act together and took the dog out for a nice long walk (okay, it was only 1/2 an hour but it WAS 5:00) before I had my shower and got ready for work. It's such a beautiful morning, hopefully I can get myself into this routine. It's great for the dog and also good for me as well.

I haven't talked to Brenda so I don't know if the guys got away yesterday. They were headed to Laconia to a bike rally but the winds were so high yesterday that they had restrictions on the bridge and the ferries were also canceled. They would have been disappointed to not get away as planned but I suppose you're accustomed to that if you've lived here a long time.

Brandi and I were chatting yesterday and she asked when I was going to Paris and when I told her the 25th, she said "That's next Friday". I realized she was right, I only have a week and a half or so before I go. When I get back Lloyd will be here and then a couple of days after he leaves, Meghan arrives. Then a few days after that everyone else is arriving, so anything I need to get done for company has to be done very soon! So last night I tackled my stairway. When we first looked at the house, that was the one thing that I looked at and said immediately, that has got to go. One wall is a combination of really ugly pink wallpaper stripes alternating with stripes of stucco. The stripe are about 7 inches wide. It's pretty awful. So a couple of weeks ago, on a rainy Sunday afternoon when we couldn't go out to play, I tried to take the wallpaper off one strip. What a challenge that was. There are at least 6 layers (that I can identify) of paper and the glue is very well stuck on. Wetting it didn't really help a lot and it came off in tiny little pieces. This is going to be one heck of a job. Then yesterday I looked up homemade wallpaper removers and all I needed was one part vinegar and one part warm water. It said to thoroughly wet the paper first with a sponge then spray the solution on and let it sit for 15 minutes. It was still a bit of work but it worked very well. By the end of the night, I had all the paper off and it already looks much better. The stucco parts are quite dirty so I'm just going to put a fresh coat of white paint on the whole wall, as I have some left from the upstairs bedroom project. It will still be stucco stripes but all being one colour makes it look just like a monotone wall treatment. I'll just claim that's the look I was after. It should be a huge improvement. And that pretty much finishes the bits of the house I really didn't like. The upstairs carpeting is now all gone, and the back bedroom has new paper, and now the stairs are done.
The hallway upstairs needs new paper as well but what's there is in good shape and I really don't mind it, so it can stay for a while. The craft room has funky striped paper but it's also okay for now. Neither of those are high priorities. They can wait till I retire. That can be a winter project once I don't have to go out to work every day.

Big happenings in Charlottetown today! I heard on the news this morning that two members of PETA are staging an environmental 'statement' today downtown. They will be encouraging people to help the environment by going vegetarian by standing naked behind a banner on the corner of Queen and Richmond Streets at noon. Not sure what being naked has to do with anything but I suppose it will attract attention. No doubt that will be front page news in the Guardian tomorrow morning.