Musings on a Small Life

I was out early this morning (as always!), for what turned about to be 6 hours of errands, including my (not so) "favourite" thing to do, boot/shoe shopping. My winter hiking boots died! I'd already been to the bank, Canadian Tire, Costco, Starbucks (thank god for Starbucks' non-fat dirty chai latté), Sports Chek, Dollarama, Jysk, the Shoe Company (I did find two pairs of end-of-season boots, great sale), Home Sense, Pier One, and Bed, Bath and Beyond (got a tension rod there, for my hall closet, see below, plus ANOTHER freakin' bed pillow, because I am the Goldilocks of bed pillows and my guest room is a wasteland of pillows I can't sleep on). Closet organization with the new tension rod, to hang up my tote bags. Anyway. Back to the story. By this time it was noon, I'd already been on the go for 4.5 hours, I was tired and hungry, my feet hurt from clumping around in my snow boots (because my winter hikers died, see above, in case y...

First, the coffee table I ordered from Bed, Bath and Beyond: I do have to return it to the store, the "ivory" has too much of a yellow undertone to go with the rest of my (Ikea) stuff, unfortunately. Really too bad, as it's a well-made table, has a solid wood top (very heavy!) and was a good price (less than $200 CAD). So I will keep my eye out for something that will be more suitable.  Nicki had fun eating the outer shipping box!   Anyway, to the subject line of the post: I was running my usual Saturday AM errands and had gone to PetSmart to pick up cat food. When I came out of the store I saw "hoards" of people streaming in and out of Jysk, just further down the sidewalk (it's part of a huge big box store complex in the west end of our city). By "hoards" I mean about a dozen people or so, just after 9 AM. Very strange, as the store doesn't even open until 9:30. So I popped over and it turned out that they were celebrating their 20...

No greenhouse this weekend, we're in the middle of a significant snowstorm, with amounts expected to be in the 25 cm (10 inch) range.  So it's all white, white, white! I'll see if I can make it to the greenhouse next Sunday. My aunt, who said she'd be here between 8 AM and 8:30 AM yesterday, actually was pulling into my driveway at 7:30 AM. Yikes! I was in the middle of my second breakfast. She hasn't aged a day, even though it's been 8+ years since I've seen her. Yesterday, having lunch out at Kelsey's.   She's just as full of beans (and bull cookies -- lol) as ever.  :-P Anyway, it was lovely to reconnect with her, and she was very kind to chauffeur me all over the west end of the city, to stock up on needed items. We hit Starbuck's first, went to Canadian Tire for something she needed (and I found a ceiling fan on sale that I hope can replace the old, existing one), then went to Home Depot to check for a couple o...

I was in HomeSense this morning, just to browse around, and saw this: It's a door stop -- they had a larger one that weighed a ton (I could barely lift it off the shelf), not something to take home on the bus with other packages and groceries in hand. The larger one also was more than I was willing to pay. But this little guy or gal, at $10, was perfect. Derry, however, appears to be less than enthused. Well, at least the owl wasn't something feathered or furry and breathing! That really would have gotten the boys' furry knickers in a twist. :-D I hope you're having a good weekend so far. Peace .

I had popped into Michaels (crafts) this morning, looking for something specific, but saw that they still had a few of these left, now at 80% off: Cute, fuzzy reindeer! I couldn't help myself, for $10 I gave in to silly temptation. Actually, I had seen them on Boxing Day, for 70% off, but didn't want to pay $15 then. I saw them again a few days later, same price. Apparently $10 was my threshold. So not worth the original price of $50 CDN (or $40 USD). Probably cost 50 cents to make in some terrible sweatshop overseas. But for $10 he was mine.  :-) BTW, Michaels has all their lovely spring floral stems and bunches in stock now. Pricey, but they're probably the best artificial flowers around. It was cheery to see them all, especially since we've barely had a glimmer of sunshine since Christmas Eve -- it feels like it's been grey and dreary for 99 consecutive days, not 9. This was our glimpse of sun, early this morning: That was it. ...

Have I mentioned that I love the FlexBrew coffee maker Mom gave me for Christmas?  :-)  Coffee in moments, not endless minutes. That's especially important at 4 AM! An afternoon chai latté. (Possibly with a small piece of carrot cake to accompany it.) Heaven. How does it get better than this?   :-) Anyway, we're freezing our butts, furry or otherwise today. Windchill is minus 14C. Okay, it was plus 16 or so on Christmas Eve. That's a huge drop in only a couple of days. We're also bracing for our first taste of winter, with snow here slated to be in the 15 - 20 cms range overnight and into tomorrow. I ran errands this morning, including watering my plants at the office, in case I end up hunkered down at home for the next couple of days.  I had thought to go somewhere this morning to take a few pics with the little Nikon, but it was just too cold. All I wanted to do was go from bus to store to coffee shop (okay, it was McDonald's for a latté) ...

8AM and I'm still in my jammies. Can't believe it. I have to head out around 10AM to mail Mom's birthday and Christmas box, as well as my holiday cards-- finally got that all done yesterday evening. I was out the door yesterday at 7AM, up to WalMart for stocking up (litter, other heavy stuff), cabbed it home around 8:30, then was out again at 9AM for various errands: Costco (quick in and out for prescription pick up), Henry's Camera (way too much money spent on things needed for the new Nikon, thus eliminating the 48% savings on the camera), Michaels (crafts), Jysk (nicely renovated, still crap merchandise), Dollarama, PetSmart and finally, Farm Boy for a few groceries.  I gave up after that. Six hours of running around, then house stuff that had to be done that took the rest of the afternoon and evening, including the wrapping and boxing of Mom's stuff, the cards, etc. Thankfully, I do not have that kind of "to do" list today! Not the nices...

Yesterday I asked my boss if I could tack on an extra day (today) to my vacation, and she okayed that. Yay! Mind you, she doesn't have a clue how long I'm off (it came up later in the day when I had to ask her about something). I wonder if she'd notice if I just didn't show up for work till the end of October. (I'm back on the 13th.) She'd probably be thrilled if I were gone, she's probably checking with HR on how to get rid of us after my old boss retires (those of us from the "other" group, I mean).  She looks at me (at all of us) like I'm slug guts. Whatever. Sunset sky last night Anyway, I'm happy to have the extra day, though being home when the fleas next door are home (in the mornings and after school) will be...challenging. Lately they've taken to doing something in the basement that sounds like they're throwing marbles at the ceiling or wall. It sounds like they're in MY basement. Yesterday I went down to clean...

I nearly missed the Salvation Army pick up guys yesterday -- I was upstairs gathering a few more items of clothing, heard a truck, looked out the window and saw it driving away, down the street. Gees! I ran downstairs and out the door, waving my arms madly and shouting, "Wait! Wait!" They heard/saw me and backed up, thank goodness. I don't know what they were expecting, everything piled up by the garage door? My front door was open, just the screen locked, indicating someone was home. Certainly no one got out to knock or ring the doorbell. Anyway, it all worked out, thank goodness. Before   After. A few things for the dump and a lot of empty boxes. I headed out to Costco afterward, for Nicki's meds, then went to Tim Horton's for lunch. Now, those few of  you in Canada probably have seen an Air Farce episode, and that's exactly what I felt I was in, eating my sandwich and listening to snippets of conservation among three older men at the table ...

Derry's not mine. Looks pretty good to me -- I just snapped this pic yesterday or maybe it was Thursday. As for other things, I have a slew of "stuff" for Saturday: I'm so terribly sad for Rene from It's All About The Cats , whose beloved Tucker had to cross to the "Bridge" yesterday. Tucker was one of those extra-special Cats that those who follow her blog loved, and her own deep and abiding love for him shone through all her posts. ::Sigh:: Ann @ Zoolatry made the badge, of course. I have it up on the cats' blog, on our "Friends at the Bridge" page. I'll do a "comments off" post over on the boys' site soon. Other things: I had a hair cut today, always love having her dry my hair because she styles it so well, something I just don't have the talent or patience for. Plus it's not easy to do the back of one's own head! I've decided not to put any more colour in it at this time (i.e. ...