It turned out to be a beautiful day!

Conditions at 6:35: -12' with a wind chill of -23' and clear skies
Expected later: -9' and mostly sun


Yesterday morning, once the sun came up, it was glorious. The weather itself was very cold but the sun was lovely. I dropped the kids off at school and then headed to Orangeville to Camilla Valley Farm. There I found every imaginable piece of weaving equipment needed   to get me started. I bought all the cords I needed, plus the hooks, bobbins, and a new reed. The reed is quite long (45 inches in fact) and there's no way I can take it back on the plane, so they are going to ship it for me. It should arrive sometime next week, once I'm home.

I got home in time to have a shower, and get the kids picked up and off to their destinations before heading out to my IAAP meeting.

It was a great night. Only three people knew I was coming and most were felling a little down because one of the members had passed away from cancer on Monday so it was a sombre group. The hugs and smiles I was met with at every turn helped to lift up the mood a little. I was glad to provide that little distraction. It looks like there are only going to be a maximum of four girls coming in May. That works out great because I can accomodate all of them. They had planned to stay in a hotel but with so few it's not  a problem. I reminded them it's not the Holiday Inn but they were all pleased they can stay at my house. Now we can enjoy ourselves and not have to worry about anyone drinking and driving (or having to miss out on a couple of glasses of wine because they are the designated driver).

When I got home, the sitter had MOST of them tucked in bed and sound asleep. All in all it was a great day.

Today I'm meeting Nancy for lunch. She made the trek out to the island in the summer so it will be nice to see her again. I received an email from Patti yesterday telling me that they will be in their hotel room after 8:00 pm our time last night and tonight so we'll try try calling them tonight.

Day three

Conditions in Guelph this morning : -13' and overcast (we were supposed to go to -17' so this is a bonus)
Expected later: - 10' and the same
 
On to day three.
We had a great day yesterday. I got the kids up and made their lunches and breakfast and off we went to school. There was a fair bit of new snow so they were really looking forward to going out later and playing in it. I came back home and decided to take a bath, just because I could (and I hadn't showered yet). I started the water filling and went downstairs to make a cup of tea and when I came back upstairs, the dog was sitting in the middle of the tub in the water! Guess I didn't think about how much these dogs love water. SO I closed the bathroom door before getting her out so she wouldn't shake all over the bedroom. By the time I was done my bath and my tea, she was dry enough to let out again.

I went up to Fergus and had a lovely lunch with Helen and Peter.  We went to the old pub which is now called O'Briens and it's really very nice. They've done a nice job with it. Of course, it's not the Copper Kettle, but nothing could ever replace that.

By the time we were done, I got back to Guelph in time to pick up the kids swimming stuff, and go and get them at school.  Tristen was sitting on a chair off to one side, enjoying a time out, and his teacher asked me to come back in a few minutes. Apparently he was being a bit silly, however when I questioned him about why he required a time out, he says he forgot.  I went upstairs and Meghan's class was being held for something but it had to do with plans for their boxed lunch on Monday. So James was able to enjoy a few minutes of outdoor play before we headed over to the pool.

Swimming lessons went well. James did 15 laps of the pool and Meghan's group was learning CPR.  Tristen is not quite there yet but he also did well. He kept looking over at me and I think there may have been a little showing off, for my benefit of course.

When we got home, Papa had supper ready for us. We enjoyed homemade broccoli and cheddar soup, as well as a BBQ chicken (with Swiss Chalet dipping sauce) and oven baked french fries.  Tristen didn't want to try the soup but Lloyd had bought some nice soft dinner rolls and he had three of those with cheese and mayonnaise inside. (He did have some chicken and baked fries as well. )

Our chart for behaviour seemed to be working well yesterday.  We had a lovely dinner, with ever so many please and thanks yous. There was even no argument about doing homework after supper. There was one brief protest that we have all week to do it, but when I pointed out that it would earn 5 extra points, it was a done deal. Our chart is on the fridge and they can earn up to 5 points per day in each of six categories: Manners, Respecting others, Being helpful, Listening and doing what you're told, Eating a healthy meal, and doing Homework. So far it's working like a charm. Fortunately for me, they are all a little competitive so they are eager to be the winner at the end of the week with the most accumulated points. I'll have to come up with some kind of reward, but a first, second and third place will need to be considered.

Talk about a whirlwind weekend

Conditions at 4:30 am: -3' and overcast
Expected later: -1' and a few clouds

Talk about a busy couple of days! Friday I left work at 3:30 and went over the the Rural to pick up Brenda. I had just arrived when she drove in with her bus. So off to the airport, where my flight to Halifax was slightly delayed. The fellow at the gate told me there was very little time when I got to Halifax so not to be surprised if my luggage didn't make it. Sure enough, when I got to Halfax I went straight to the gate and arrived just in time for the final boarding call. No problem.  An easy trip to Toronto, albeit a bit late landing but the amazing thing was when I got to the luggage carousel, the bags hadn't started coming down the chute yet and there were three lonely bags circling around and can you believe it - one of them was mine. I'm thinking they may have sent them on a later direct flight so they would be there when we got there. No idea but it was great! I called Lloyd who met me out front and we were soon on our way. It was by far the most seamless flight to Toronto I've ever taken.
We zipped back to Guelph in time to meet Jana and Scott for sushi. We made absolute pigs of ourselves but it was SO good!  We had a lovely time and it was great to get caught up with them. We eventually had to leave as the place was closing. They had walked and we drove so we got home slightly before them. It's the first time I've stayed there and it felt really strange, as I know the place so well. Lloyd has a lovely spot to live.

Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny. We headed out at 8:00 for breakfast with the guys from the airport.  That's always an entertaining time. Then we poked around and made a couple of stops until it was time to meet Heather and Kim for lunch!  After lunch we stopped round to a consignment shop where she had placed a small antique spinning wheel, that Heather very graciously thought I should have. It's now taking up a small space in Lloyd's apartment (it's not the big style, it's actually quite compact).

Then back to Guelph for a wee nap until time to go out for supper with Jan and Kathy. I napped while Lloyd played on the computer. James has him totally hooked on this cyper airline game that the two of them play with. We were getting ready to go out and I got an email from Patti a little after 5:00 wondering what time we would be arriving. They were getting a little nervous about the snow. Snow? What snow? Well I went and looked out the window and we must have had at least 3 inches of new snow that had fallen in the past hour and it was still coming down quite hard!   We had no idea as the blinds in Lloyd's apartment had been closed. Boy did that come fast and furious. So we headed out to meet our friends for dinner and eventually ended up at Symposium. We had tried to make reservations at a couple of places but none were available. Regardless, we had a lovely evening.

We arrived at the Dennison's around 8:00 and after a quick briefing on what was going on when, they were off on their grand adventure!  The kids were needless to say, excited to see us but they quickly settled down and we all went downstairs to watch a movie. When it was over, it was bed time for everyone.

Sunday morning James woke up early and he was really not feeling well at all. He was coughing, and had a sore throat, and he claimed his stomach wasn't feeling well either. He spent most of the morning lying on the couch covered in a blanket. He was also running a bit of a fever so I just let him stay there. I spent the morning puttering in the kitchen, taking stock of what we had in the freezer and the fridge to see what we were going to have to eat this week.  Once everyone was up, we made breakfast and all sat at the table and ate together (except for James, who still was lying on the couch). By lunch he wasn't feeling much better so I gave him a children's advil, in hopes it might help with the fever. I asked him about baseball and he really didn't feel up to going, so he stayed home. He really didn't start feeling better till about mid afternoon. Needless to say he stayed home all day.

Meg and I went out briefly to the dollar store to pick up a few decorations for her shoe box that will hold her box lunch on Valentine's Day. It turned out quite nicely. She did a really good job on it.
We all sat downstairs and watched a bit of TV later in the afternoon and then the kids helped me with supper. I found a large steak in the fridge so we made Beef Stroganoff with buttered noodles. We had salad and steamed brocolli along with it and lemon meringue pie for dessert. We'd picked up some frozen pie shells at the store and there was a package of pie filling in the cupboard. I can tell James stilll wasn't  feeling well, as he ate a tiny bit of supper, and only had about three bites of his pie and gave the rest to Papa. That speaks volumes as lemon pie is his favorite!

After cleaning up the dishes, it was time enough to finish home work, watch part of a movie and then get bathed and off to bed. Lloyd stayed up watching the super bowl.

Meadow was a really good girl all day. She didn't have one single accident in the house all day.

Now it is early morning, and Lloyd has left for work. I have a bit of quiet time before it's time to get everyone up and off to school!

We've come up with a chart that is on the fridge. Yesterday was a day off but today we will start earning stars. They will get stars in each of 4 categories - Manners, being helpful, listening and doing what you're told and homework completed.There is a graduated system as well. Really great behaviour will get you a gold star, but then we have three degrees after that - not quite up to gold, really needs improvement and then really bad. Everyone is working really hard to get gold stars. Sunday was a trial run, with no stars awarded but we will start tonight. It worked yesterday. If I made a request and it was met with less than enthusiastic response, I just had to mention that wasn't worthy of a gold star and I got immediate compliance!  No one wants any bad stars on the chart when mom and dad get home!

Short and sweet this morning

Conditions at 5:00 am - clear and cold and minus 12
Expected later - minus 2' and maybe some flurries

What a difference a day can make. After our snowy drive on Wednesday, yesterday turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous day. The sun was bright and the sky was blue. By mid afternoon the roads were clear and mostly dry, at least in town. The drive home was an easy one on mainly clear roads as well.  It took the boys at work until after lunch to clear the lot. I never thought about what's involved with maintaining a car sales lot. Each time it snows, the plow has to come in and clear the lanes between the rows of cars. Then the guys all go out with big rubber scrapers and clear the snow off all the cars. Then they have to start up every car and move them out to the cleared areas so the plow can then clear the spots where the cars used to be. Then when that's done, they have to move all the cars back. We're talking a LOT of cars!  I can't imagine how much the shop guys hate snowy days. (I may have already told you all of this, but I don't have time to go back and check, so if I have, please just ignore me this morning!)

Well, my bag is packed, and all I have to do now is get in the shower, get dressed and pack up Coopers stuff. I'm picking Brenda up at 6:30 so I'd best get to it.

See you Monday morning from Guelph!

It was a dark and stormy night...

Conditions at 4:30 am: a little windy and just flurries at the moment and -6'
Expected later: no more snow and a high of -5' - in other words, what we see is what we'll get

...and seems to be continuing this morning. I woke up at 4:00 and all I could hear was the wind howling outside. I have no idea what it looks like beyond the back yard. I know we got quite a bit of snow, but not sure if it was as much as predicted. When I left work last night there was several inches of fluffy new snow on the ground that would blow around quite nicely once the wind picked up.

It doesn't look like it's snowing very much now but it's too dark to tell yet what the roads look like (or the driveway for that matter). The ride home wasn't really too bad. It was very snowy and visibility wasn't great but there was no wind so white outs were not an issue. Once I got past the store, there were no tire tracks, and it didn't appear that the plows had made it yet, so it was a little tricky to tell where the road actually was, but I just took my time and had no troubles.Apparently Brenda was very close behind me, coming back from town, and needless to say we both decided it best to just stay in for the night. It gave me the opportunity to get my suitcase packed (or at least started).

Every day I am reminded what a small place this is.Yesterday I drove a young man over to a car dealership. He was working at a body shop in Donagh and had dropped off a vehicle for us and needed a lift to somewhere else to pick up another vehicle to take back out there. We got to talking about the roads and wondering what they would be like later in the day, and I mentioned that I lived in the Dromore area. He asked if I knew Sheila Christie. It took me a couple of seconds to make the connection and I said, not really well, but she was at my house last night. Turns out he was good friends with her kids growing up.

I talked to Lloyd yesterday and they were given the option of coming in to work or not. I watched the Toronto news last night and it looks like it wasn't as bad as predicted there although they did get 17 cm of snow in the city. But Great Gulf is building in Guelph now and he had some things he could do there, so made the choice not to go in to the office. I suspect no one did. I saw on the Guelph radio station web site that just about everything was shut down in that city as well. Even Patti's kids school closed - which doesn't happen too often as they have no buses to worry about.

I was thinking about it last night on my way home, as I listened to the soothing music of Jesse Cook, rather than the radio telling me how bad the driving was, and I realized something. Years ago, we had lots worse weather, and more often than we do now. I think the technology of knowing what's coming so far in advance is not necessarily a good thing. We didn't have the fancy gadgets or big cars. We just got into whatever we drove, and dealt with it. If road conditions were bad, we slowed down. Now it seems we panic when we see a storm coming and often times the build up is much worse than the event. Everyone gets so worked up about it. In past years, if you woke up in the morning to a big pile of snow, you just went out and shoveled it. Then you made your way to work. We didn't stress about it for hours in advance. We have indeed become a bunch of wimps when it comes to the weather.

Having said that, I'm going to go and get dressed and head outside to see what lies ahead. I HAVE to make it to work this morning. I'm hoping that they will let me take the shuttle home when the ladies are here so I can give them my car. I can't be taking any more snow days if I want that to happen!

One note though, my next big expenditure for the house will have to be a new storm door for the back porch to replace the one that got ripped off last year. When I opened the door this morning to let the dog out, there was a foot of snow piled up against the door so as soon as he jumped out, a large part of the snow came in. A new storm door is definitely the next priority!

Waiting on the storm

Conditions at 5:00 am: overcast with a few flakes coming down and -12'
Expected later: maybe 15 to 20 cm of snow starting this evening and warming up to -6' by tonight

Last week our storm didn't live up to expectations - lets hope this one doesn't either.  It seems lately that the build up has been much more impressive than the actual event. But even if it does come, it should be all cleared up by Friday so no worries for traveling.

Last night Sheila and Brenda both came over and Sheila had a look at my loom. She thinks as I do, that I have everything that I need except for some new cords. She also suggested a new reed, as the one I have is quite fine and a more widely spaced one will be more useful.  I have a list to take with me when I go of basics I need to get, as well as what to ask for in wool. It's not like knitting yarn that you purchase by the ounce. You have to know the length of your pieces, and how many you will need to determine how many yards of  yarn  you need and the cones are sold with the length labeled on them. I'm sure it will all make sense once I read the book she loaned me. It's quite old, dating back to 1957, but as she says, weaving hasn't changed. We also determined that my loom is quite old by the style of braking system on it.  We just may be able to make this thing work yet!

Sheila will be away in Halifax for a bit as she's volunteering at the Canada Winter Games in Halifax. It seems that her children all speed skated when they were younger and at least one of them still does. Even though she has no children left at home, she is still interested and helps out.  One of the highlights for them was a trip to the Yukon to compete. So look out Dennison family, it appears the travel has only just begun! I told her about James and Meghan skating and she asked what club they skated with. When I told her Cambridge, she said that was a very good club.

Last night I was reminded once again why I love it here. The people are kind. That's it, just a kindness that is missing in the bigger cities.  I stopped at the Irving on my way home to pick up a half pint of milk. I didn't want to buy a whole litre as I'm trying to empty the fridge before I go away. They had small containers of cream, half and half and chocolate milk, but no white milk. I asked the lady at the counter if they had any and she said no and I told her I needed some just for tea. SO she went over to the coffee area and filled a paper cup with milk and put a lid on it. She asked if that was enough. I assured her it was more than enough, it was probably a little more than a half pint. But she wouldn't charge me for it. I fully expected to pay for a container of milk but she wouldn't hear of it. It was a really nice thing for her to do. It was just one more reminder of why I love it here. And I think it makes you a better person. If people are so kind to you, you can't help but pass that on. Something our society seems to have forgotten in a lot of places.

Brenda is starting to really look forward to their trip to Florida. She has a cousin there who lives in Palm Beach and they plan to visit. It's the same cousin who has an Inn in Nantucket.  I hope to meet her one day!  She also has an aunt there so that will make it much more interesting than doing the Disney thing. I hope they have great weather while they are there. It should be a lot of fun. If they're not careful, this could turn into one MAJOR party!!

Well, I'd best go and get ready. Tonight is scrapbooking night at the Van Gaals and I still need to pack. I was hoping to fit a haircut in there somewhere but we'll see. I'll call Charmaine and see if tomorrow night is at all possible. It's going to work out for my car as well. Brenda is driving a bus on Friday so I'll pick her up early in the morning, we'll drop the dog off on the way into town, and get here there in lots of time to warm up the bus. If we're lucky there might even be time for a coffee but we'll play that one by ear. Then she will pick up my car after she's done, and in a perfect world she'll be back before 4:00 and I can pick her up and she can take me to the airport on her way home. But we're flexible with that part.

PS - Big news last night - Meghan(1) has a shiny new refrigerator!!!

Another chilly morning

Conditions at 5:15 am: -17' with a wind chill of -27'
Expected later: warming up to a balmy -10'

I'm really hoping we'll get the really cold weather out of the way before the ladies from Ontario get here. Not that they aren't familiar with cold weather, it will just make it much nicer if it's not quite so frigid. Walking around and getting from one place to another won't be quite so nasty.
It appears that Ontario is going to get a big storm today and then they're very generously sending it our way tomorrow. Hopefully the build up will be much bigger than the actual event.

Our friend Richard called last night to see if I needed any tickets for curling as he has passes. It seems his company is one of the major sponsors. I called Fran to see what they have and apparently they have tickets for everyday as well as one for me on the first day and the last day. So we really don't need the tickets from Richard, which is really unfortunate. His are in a special sponsors lounge with free food, etc. Sounds like it might be THE place to be. But I guess he'll just have to wave at us from their better vantage point.

Tonight Sheila, the weaving neighbour, is coming over after supper to have a look at my loom and tell me what pieces I might be missing. I think I have a good idea of what I need but since I'll be able to pick up parts in Ontario while I'm there, I want to make sure I get everything I need. I'm quite excited to be able to finally get something on it that I can actually work with but that will have to wait till I get back, and likely until after the Curling ladies have left. I think my free time will be pretty much used up while they are here. I'll have to sit down with Fran while I'm there and figure out what evenings they are actually here so I can give meal planning some thought. Several days have curling three times a day - that's way too much for me to even consider watching. It's probably a good thing I have to work! 

I got Patti's schedule for the kids yesterday. She laughingly told me she was reluctant to send it to be before hand in case I decided not to come!  I can see why. My goodness, what a busy crew!  Each evening is packed with activities and the list I got still doesn't include hockey practice.  I have no idea how they do all of this every week. But we'll be fine. My lunch dates are filling up quite nicely. I have a date in Fergus with Helen on Monday, Tuesday I'm going to the weaving place in Orangeville, Wednesday at Borealis with Nancy, Thursday is so far still open (that might work for the office folks) and then Friday with Cathy. We're meeting with Jana and Scott on Friday night when I arrive, to go out for sushi.  We have (tentative) dinner with Jan and Kathy on the first Saturday evening (as long as we're home by 9:00). The following Friday night we have dinner with Jim and Patty. We should really plan to see the Wilsons on Saturday night as her birthday is the next day but I'll be  flying out early on Sunday morning. Somewhere in there I hope to connect with Linda for a coffee at some point, and then we also want to find time to get together with Heather and Kim. I'm going to need a vacation when I get back from my vacation!  But I am looking forward to it.

I just realized last night, that by the time the ladies leave, it will be the first of March already and the worst (hopefully) will be behind us and spring will be just around the corner!  I can't wait. Lloyd will be coming down in April, followed by the IAAP girls in May,and then after that I have no idea. I haven't heard yet if Patti and the kids are planning on coming for a few days in March Break or not. I was hoping they might be able to come down for the Jack Frost Festival but that is right in the middle of curling and all my beds will be full. They've moved the location this year so we'll give them a year to work out the bugs and maybe they can come down next year.