It's Friday already...

Conditions at 7:30 am - 15* and sunny
Later- 23* and mainly sunny

It's amazing how fast the week goes by when it's only four days long. Yesterday was cool and rainy all day but today is promising to be nicer. I spent all last night cutting out squares for a 'quilt' of sorts that I'm making for Tristen's birthday. It's not a quilt in the traditional sense - it's called a rag rug quilt. It's the kind with the frayed edges on one side and the other side is neat and smooth, like the sample shown here. I had fun choosing the materials. One side has three different squares - one has dinosaurs, and the other two are solid colours to coordinate with the dinosaur print. But the dinosaurs aren't cartoony, they are more like a picture from a book, like a real dinosaur. The back side has two squares - one is a red plaid with a brown cartoon reindeer wearing a bright green tie and the other square is the same bright green. I think it's meant to be a Christmas print but it doesn't look Christmasy, but it's very cute. SO one side is for the little boy and the other is for the big boy, depending on his mood.

I cut out 96 squares last night and now they are all ready to sew. It's supposed to rain on Sunday so I think that's what I will work on, and if I keep at it, I should be able to finish the whole thing in one day. Once that one is done, I can start on James'. I did a little research and found some print materials that will work but I'm going to look around a little more before I make my choice. I know what James is like, and he's such a little packrat, that he'll still have this quilt when he's 80 years old, so it has to be something he can live with all his life!

Cooper still hasn't quite got the concept of the fence. I was out with him this morning and all of a sudden he was gone. I turned my back for a minute to get the garbage ready to take to the end of the driveway. I took a walk next door and there was no sign of him. I have no idea where he went but he eventually did come back. He had to cross the fence twice so hopefully he remembers. He was good last night - I left him outside for a while after I got home and he didn't venture anywhere near the boundary, but I think he just needs a few more reminders.

When I was in Souris at the Village Feast one of the fellows I was serving food with was a comedian (really!). He's part of a local group known as Sketch 22 and they perform every Thursday and Friday night at the Guild for the summer. We talked about the show and I think it may be a little like the old Second City group but I've been told it can be offensive to some. He even told me it was a little over the top at times but I told him I would check it out sometime. I had thought of taking Linda there this week but I think I'll go by myself first and see just what it's all about before I take anyone else. I was asking Tim Cullen at work yesterday if he'd ever been and he said no, but his parents had. His mom wasn't impressed with the language and the sexual content of some of it but his dad thought it was hilarious. I told Tim I would be okay as it takes a lot to offend me, having spent 3 years working in a jail. He was surprised at that and even more shocked when he asked what I did and I told him. Then he said, "man, you are the coolest grandma in the world". He said his grandparents were dead and wondered if I would consider adopting him as a grandson, just so he could say he was my grandson. Earlier in the week, I was in Kim's office and some guitar music was playing that she commented was really great. I said it was good but the player was 'no Eric Clapton". Then when Tim came in later and was in Kim's office he said the very same thing! Kim was surprised and said "That's exactly what Sandy said!"

Today we're having a picnic at work. We're bringing in lunch today and eating it outside. Last pay day it was Thai food and today it's going to be Lebanese. We're expanding the horizons of some of the people in our department who don't step out of their comfort zone very often when they choose food.

Raymond was going to come by on Tuesday night to install the pressure tank, but I haven't seen him yet. It was very hot and I suspect the bike took preference over working and I don't blame him. I haven't heard from him yet but I suspect he'll be around one of these days.

Some much needed rain this morning

Current conditions - 18* and light rain
Later- 22* and more rain


I had to include this note that Meghan left me. It's the funniest thing. I showed her Taylor Swift scrapbook to some of the girls at work and one of them commented how expressive she was for her age She is quite the character.

Today it's raining and a little cooler and I must say it's a welcome relief from the heat. I spent all last evening cutting grass, and trimming around the trees. Then I spent some time with Cooper and his electric collar. He is quickly catching on. He got zapped a couple of times, once when he took off and went through the trees to the neighbours. It was quite a surprise for him and after I got him back into the yard, he wouldn't go near the trees, even on the leash. I wondered this morning how much he would remember and he took off running again but down the side yard towards the road. Again he got zapped and when I got him back, he wouldn't go near the front of the yard. It may take a few days but I think he's catching on. Tonight I'm going to see if I can find one of those brackets that fit onto the bicycle so he can be safely taken along on a bike ride. I had one once before for one of our dogs, but I can't remember which one. If we can get going with it, we could go on rides on the trail. I'm sure there will be a learning curve for BOTH of us.

I was reminded yesterday about the power of the internet to offend some people. I was looking through previous comments and came upon a comment posted by a total stranger who took exception to my observations of our experience at Fisherman's Wharf on July 15th. While I found the service to be an issue I did acknowledge that the food was good. I didn't think it was unreasonable to be unhappy with a 35 minute wait for our chowder and then another half hour wait for our main meal. We were not expecting fast food, as this gentleman suggested, but I thought 2 hours was a little much. Having worked in the food industry, I am usually very slow to complain, I tend to be very tolerant of most things in a restaurant, and I am also very appreciative of how much effort goes into running a food service establishment. But for the over $300 that it cost for the 9 of us to eat, we expected just a little better. I didn't think that expecting someone to clear out table once in a while was asking too much, especially when it is a buffet, and you need to take a new plate each time. It doesn't take long for the plates to pile up. But apparently I was too critical. I'm sure that many, many people will flock to my pathetic little blog to read restaurant reviews, and not sites like trip advisor which features numerous comments from many people, many who were much harsher than I was!
Guess you can't please everyone. But then why would I try? We ARE all entitled to our own opinion ( or so I thought).

Welcome Korea!!!

What a treat this morning to view yesterday mornings post and see a comment from Korea! I'm so glad that Brenda had a good trip and that it didn't seem as long as she feared. It can be a very long time if you run out of things to do (or just get tired of doing the things you have). I know she will have a great time because she's very open minded and curious and won't be one of those tourists who expects a holiday to be like being at home.

I'm really enjoying looking at the list of places people have come in from. I know that most of the probably stumbled upon me by accident but it's neat to see where they're from.

Things are back to normal at my house (whatever THAT is!) . Yesterday they were predicting rain for today so I decided I'd get out and split some wood last night so I worked out there from 5:30 till 8:30. I'm so grateful to Greg and John or getting me started. The two of you are more than welcome to come back anytime! I continued filling up the pile that was there, and as it's against the wall, I decided to build it a little higher. I finished that one and started another. Now I'm on a roll. It turns out today is beautiful again so I will work some more on it tonight. As you can see, I still have a LONG way to go. I have laundry and stuff to get done but I'll save those kinds of things for Thursday and Friday when it's supposed to rain. I'm hoping it will be a nice weekend so I can clear out the shed and organize it and the shelter. It didn't get done when Lloyd was here as he just ran out of time and I haven't taken the time to do it. THIS will be that weekend (unless, of course, something better comes along). But with Brenda away I have no one to play with so it's a good opportunity to get some work done.

I typically take the leaf out of the table when I'm home alone and just have the small round table with four chairs in the kitchen. Well, last night when I was clearing it off, I found a note with some cash tucked inside from Jean. That was totally unnecessary and I will call her today and tell her so! I do hope she will come out again sometime soon, and we can have a different holiday. It's not the same when the kids are all here, as they tend to take up all of your time and attention. And they expect a different kind of holiday - beaches, and fun. I'd like to have Jean come out again and we can do "old lady" stuff - you know, lunch at the PEI Preserve Company, stroll along the boardwalk, tour gardens, etc. - all the stuff that the kids would find terribly boring.

I talked to everyone last night when they were at the airport in Halifax. They all had assigned seats so there was no issues with them getting home. I talked to Meghan and she's quite excited because she has another horse show today. I'm sure I'll hear all about it, now that she knows how to post a comment on the blog.

Time to catch up

It feels like forever since I last posted something here but it's really only been 3 days. ( Sorry Meghan(1) and Lloyd - I know I let you down yesterday morning! ) I dropped Greg off at the airport this morning at 6:00 to catch a flight home. Patti and the rest of the gang are heading out this morning to catch the ferry to Nova Scotia. They were going to take the bridge but neither James or Meghan was with them when they arrived last week so they'll get the chance to experience the boat today. Then later this afternoon they are all flying back to Toronto.

They really were truly lucky with the weather. Although it was very warm, for here, probably not as bad as Ontario, and they had sun and heat every day. Last night as we were sitting around the bonfire, it started to sprinkle a bit of rain but it was around 10:00 and time to go in anyway. That was the first rain they saw, although Greg says they got a bit for a few minutes on Sunday when they were at the beach when I was taking John and Sarah and Patti to the airport.

She took them back at 4:30 and she was due to return to the island on the 11:30 pm flight. We checked the computer around 7:00 and it indicated it was delayed until 12:45, so I didn't leave to go in to pick her up until midnight. When I got there it was further delayed so I didn't actually arrive until about 1:45, so by the time they got off, and we got on the road, it was 2:30 when we got home.

I think everyone had a good time. There was a lot of beach visits and they visited a lot of them. The last one they went to was Lakeside yesterday, nice and close to home and they actually really liked that one. It goes out quite a ways with a nice shallow, sandy bottom and they loved it. There was just enough wind to whip up some waves and they spent the entire afternoon jumping into the waves.

A bonfire was possible almost every night in spite of winds in the daytime. Usually by around 8:00 at night the wind would die down and the conditions would be perfect.

Saturday everybody went out for the day and I stayed at home and baked some pies and made a nice supper for everybody and cut some grass. Then on Sunday we went out to St. Peters to have fish and chips at Ricks (after I went over to Brenda's to have coffee with her before she left). Everybody went off to Greenwich beach while I drove the others to the airport. But before we headed out to lunch, we set up the wood splitter and John and Greg and James had a great time playing with that. Boys and their toys! But I really do appreciate it. Greg even did some more on Monday morning while everybody else was slowly getting up. It's a nice little jump start for me. And what a great job of stacking - it looks amazing. Now the challenge is to do the rest as neatly!

It was really nice to spend some time with Jean. We were very close when I was married to Doug and that was the one thing I was sorry to lose when we split up. It was great to re-kindle that friendship and I think we'll keep in touch now. She wrote a comment in the guest book basically saying the same thing and she now understands why we wanted to move here. Maybe she'll be able to convince Cathy to come out, and maybe even bring her mom with her. I would love to see that, and I also told her to come out anytime she wants - she can just get Patti to fly her down.

This morning I have a job interview at 9:00. I assume there will be some testing of some sort involved as I was told it would be around 1 1/2 to 2 hours long. Hopefully it will go well. But we'll just have to wait and see.

Meghan (1) is back in Toronto and by now Brenda should be in Korea, I think. It's going to be a quiet week or so with her away. But Linda is here and I will try to get together with her later this week.

When I get home today, I will spend the time getting the house back in order and then Cooper and I will just settle back into our routine, although mine will now involve a bit of time splitting wood each evening for the next little while.

It was an 'Anne' kind of day

Conditions at 7:00 am - a little overcast and 17*

Later - mix of sun and cloud and a high of 26* but with a bit of wind to cool things off

Yesterday everybody got out there and really enjoyed the lovely day. They spent a lot of time at Avonlea Village and various other spots around the area and then ended up at Brackley Beach. I've never been to Avonlea Village but it sure looks like they had a lot of fun dressing up. It was a little after 7:00 when they got home and I had the supper all ready for them. We wolfed down shepherds pie, Caesar Salad and strawberry short cake for dessert.

I picked up a nice loin of pork that I'll cook tomorrow. I have to cut the lawn tomorrow so I'll send everyone off to play and I'll stay home and do laundry and grass, and cook them a really nice supper. I think I'll do the pork on the BBQ and they want new potatoes. James and Greg are arriving this afternoon so I think I'll bake some lemon pies for dessert tomorrow as well, James' favorite.

John and Sarah are coming back today so we'll all be together tomorrow for their last night here. After supper tomorrow night might be a great time to venture into town and watch the sound and light show. Patti is flying John and Sarah back on Sunday, then returning. It looks like they're going to have great weather for the remainder of their visit. I hope it holds for my friend Suzanne who is coming the first week of August. Last year when she was here, we had a threat of a hurricane, but they still managed to get in some beach days.

Brenda is off to Korea on Monday and it feels like forever since we last saw each other. By the time she gets back, we will both be ready to just chill out. Hopefully we can get some kayaking done in August and we (I mean me) also have to pick up our training walks for the Terry Fox Run in September.

This morning Raymond is coming over to install our new pressure tank. I'm really hoping it makes a difference in our bathroom shower upstairs. It's pretty pathetic right now.

Now I'm off to work. We had some distressing news yesterday. Apparently Rosie was taken to hospital on Wednesday with what they suspect was a mini-stroke. We had chatted just a few days ago about the amount of stress her job was causing her and she truly felt like she was getting burned out. Her son even said that to her. She's home now but they are doing all kinds of tests next week and she's going to be off for a couple of weeks at least. Hopefully she'll be okay and this is just Mother Nature's way of telling her to slow down. Maybe she'll listen this time, cause she sure doesn't listen to us!

It didn't live up to the hype

Conditions at 7:00 am - foggy, overcast and 18*
Later - 24* AND SUNNY FOR THE NEXT THREE DAYS!!!!!!!

Yesterday Patti called me at work to tell me they were going to New Glasgow Lobster Suppers last night. I went on line and looked at both that one and Lobster on the Wharf. Both had great reviews, a couple of not so great ones, but the big difference with Lobster on the Wharf is the fact that it's a buffet. There were complaints about New Glasgow taking too long to get additional servings of food, even though it is also all you can eat, but it's served. We thought the buffet idea would work better for the kids.

It was bucketing down rain when we got there and it was busy but not extremely. The girl who waited on us didn't seem very experienced and had trouble taking our orders for drinks, and sides. The salad bar was the serve yourself part. The chowder was also served but it took a long time to arrive, but we had our salad to work on. Eventually the chowder arrived. Once that had been consumed we had a very long wait for the main courses. At one point I asked one of the servers if she knew how long it might take, and she said it was slow because it was very busy, but there were all kinds of empty tables. By that time the food did arrive, the kids had been eating all kinds of rolls and bread and were really not that hungry anymore. I ordered the crab legs and they were very good. But then no one came to clear plates, shells, etc off our tables. Eventually Patti got up and took the plates and emptied them at the back of the room. Still no one came by. We had to just push stuff out of the way so we could find room for our dessert plates. It was two hours from the time we got there till I packed up the kids and took them home. I left the adults to stay and have coffee and the three kids and I hit the road. I figured the others had spent the entire day with them, so they might like a bit of a break, but I told them they HAD to come back!

When you consider the amount of money it cost for 6 adults and 3 kids we could have gone to a lobster pound and picked up a lot more lobsters and had a feast! We'll know next time.

When had an uneventful, albeit noisy ride home. When we got there two of them had fallen asleep so I woke them up, Meghan and Dianne went upstairs to the craft room to create something and I put Tristen in the tub with some of his toys. By the time the others did get back, (they apparently went for a tour around Cavendish and a walk on the boardwalk) all was quiet in the house - I'm sure it was a nice thing for them to come home to.

John and Sarah decided to spend a day or two in Cavendish and found somewhere to say over night. They took the truck with them so that worked well. That allowed for some changes in sleeping arrangements. Jennifer slept in the small room with Dianne and so Meghan slept in the bunky with me and Cooper. She quite enjoyed it out there. It may be an issue when her older brother gets here cause I know he likes to sleep there as well. But I'm sure we'll work it out.

They did Anne stuff yesterday and are doing more today. Hopefully the next couple of days can be beach days.

I had a chat with Tracey yesterday and she has extended my contract again. I told her I may have a full time job but it's not definite yet. So she has extended me to the end of October and if I get the other job I will resign at the end of August. If I don't, I'll stay till the end of October.

It's going to be a rainy first day of vacation

Conditions at 8:00 - overcast and 20*
Later - 22* and rain


It was a beautiful day yesterday, but today, now that everyone is here, it's going to bucket down rain - something like 20 mm expected. I'm sure they'll find something to do.

Sometime today they're doing a massive search and rescue exercise in the Charlottetown Harbour. If the weather was good it might be an interesting thing to witness, especially since there are three nurses in the crowd! But I'm sure they'll find something to keep themselves busy and out of the rain.

I was supposed to have an interview for a part time job this morning but I got an email from the fellow yesterday afternoon asking if I was available yesterday after 5:00. So I emailed him back and we arranged to meet at 5:30. So after work Meghan and I went over to Victoria Row and sat out on the Patio of Carpe Diem and we split an order of nachos. They were not the best nachos I've ever had, not much toppings and very little cheese. But they filled the gap. I told Meghan if she sat quietly and didn't interrupt while I had my interview we would go to Cows when I was done. She was very well behaved and after the interview was done we got ice cream and a "Haylor Swift" T shirt from the cows store. Patti saw them on the boat and almost bought one - good thing she didn't. The interview went well. In fact he said, I can tell you for sure, you will be hearing back from me. It's a silly little job, handing out samples of wine at the liquor store, but your success is measured by how many bottles of the selected wine are sold. He asked me if I drank wine and I said, yes (of course!). He asked what my favorite was and I said it would have to be Australian Shiraz. He said that was a good answer. He then told me he had already interviewed about 15 people and only about 5 of them could give him the name of a varietal wine. I knew my wine consumption would be good for something one day!

Everybody came over on the 8:00 boat and they arrived at 9:15 so Meghan and I drove out and met them, so they could follow us home. I'm sure they could have found their way but when it's dark, and everyone is tired and had a long day of travelling, it was much easier to just follow someone else.

Meghan had done a "seating plan" for where everyone was going to sleep but we ended up altering it a little. The night before Cooper woke us both up with very loud barking at 2:00 am. My first thought was, OMG, what if he does that when everyone is here. The dogs next door bark a lot at night but he doesn't usually respond to that so he must have heard something else. So we decided that I would sleep in the bunky and take the dog with me. That worked well for everyone.

Last night we were getting everyone organized up stairs when there was a chorus of bloodcurdling screams from downstairs. Apparently Meghan and Dianne witnessed the alleged resident mouse scamper from the kitchen, through the front hall, and into the bathroom. Now when Lloyd was here he saw it several time, but I have yet to see it. I think you people are making this up.

I haven't had a chance yet to talk to Brenda to find out about the Regis and Kelly show yesterday but the weather was warm and they all got in so I'm sure they enjoyed themselves.

There's a funny photo in the paper today of the two of then dressed in Anne hats.


I'm also interested to hear how they liked the Buddy Holly Story. If they highly recommend it, I may have to go and see it, but soon as it's almost finished it's run.