Musings on a Small Life

Ha, what in life does?  :-P   I was off last Thursday and Friday (July 29, 30) and had a fabulous day catching up with a friend at the mall. She loves to shop, I love to shop; it was great. LOL. I actually picked up six items (clothing) at Northern Reflections and had so many points dollars (didn't know it!) that the entire cost was 54 cents. Yep, 54 cents! Whoohoo! (I must have done more online shopping in the last year than I realized. Ha.) Friday, however, things took a turn. Derry started having acute diarrhea, which he's never had in his 14+ years, and though I picked up some plain Metamucil and some slippery elm bark powder (the latter from a natural foods store downtown), it wasn't helping much at all through Saturday and Sunday. Then he had a massive , tightly bound hairball on Saturday morning while I was out running errands, and I thought oh, that could be it. Sadly, not. By Monday, a holiday for much of Canada, I thought he might have a partial blockage, so off w...

Yesterday, Monday February 17, was a provincial holiday, as it was in most provinces, if not all. (Alas for the federal employees, not for them!) I had taken Friday the 14th as a vacation day, had debated all week, but finally decided on Thursday that I really wanted the extra day. That was the best decision; having four days was fantastic! Every week should have a four-day weekend, with full pay and benefits, of course.  :-) I had time to do my errands, to do the house chores, to do some shopping, to get out for a couple of walks and picture-taking (see below), and even to do a bit of painting in the lower hallway. I meant only to do a bit of patch patching, but ended up doing half the long wall; I didn't have enough leftover paint from last year to do the entire thing. I'll be painting the entry and hallway in the spring anyway, but I'm thinking of putting up a picture ledge or two on that wall, and didn't want to have to bother to take it/them down ag...

The Labour Day holiday is supposed to be a rest from one's labours, but not in my case this year. Nicki in the garden at the end of August. No, this year I decided I'd better use the leftover gallon and a half of paint from May and redo the guest room, be done with it. So Saturday I ran around doing the usual post-payday errands (we get paid only once a month), and Sunday I put two coats of paint on the walls of the guest room, though only one coat in the tiny closet. Part of the mess after coat #1. Monday I headed out early for some groceries, then got back late in morning to clean the room as well as the entire upstairs, and put things back in order. I also rounded up a few boxes and bags of stuff for donation, got that hauled to the garage and pick-up scheduled for later this month. Tuesday I was home from work, having significantly aggravated a nerve in my back, which left me unable to sit or lie down comfortably. I'm better today (Wedne...

It's our long Victoria Day weekend in Canada, the start of the summer tourist season. So what else would I be doing but this? Dear gods, I loathe painting. With every fibre of my being, and beyond any words in any human language. This is the spare room adjacent to the master bedroom, and it had been the bright greeny-yellow you can see in the snapshot above for a long time. I'm in the process of slowly repainting the house in a completely neutral shade ("bleached linen" by Behr), and so help me god, once I'm done, I'm never painting in this house again.  Last year I had done one of the back spare rooms plus part of the upper hallway. This year it was the room above, and as I'd bought 3 gallons, I have plenty leftover to do something else--either the guest room (but probably I won't) or the main level hall closet and hallway (I'm leaning to this). There was a time when I would paint and then have a beer, hard cider or glass of wi...

As I start this, it's late afternoon on Monday April 22nd, and I'm heading into the home stretch of my four days away from the office. (Good Friday was the holiday, and I took today as a vacation day.) I enjoyed the time off, even though I was in a frenzy of spring cleaning on Friday, mostly in my bedroom. I got the windows cleaned as much as possible (crank windows, pain in the a&&), curtains and all bedding washed, plus regular stuff (7 loads of laundry in one go), bedroom furniture moved, baseboards dusted, a thorough vacuuming. (I was smart enough to take Ibuprofen before moving the bed and bureau!) I did other cleaning as well, including more windows. The one thing I didn't and don't do is wash walls, unless there's been a reno. Derry on Friday afternoon, obviously exhausted from all my cleaning. Saturday I zipped up to Walmart early in the AM; what a zoo! The young woman behind the cash told me that people were lined up at 7 AM, waiting to...