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The neighbor saga continues!

June 24, 2009 by Tricia

A while ago I wrote about how our new neighbors have been driving me crazy. I think I mentioned that they had purchased a huge boat of a car (a Buick Regal – 30 year old gas guzzler!) and since it was there month to park in our shared driveway, promptly parked their new car in the driveway and left it there.

I think he almost decided to return the car a few days after he bought it because he found out that he’d have to do a lot of paperwork to get a license for the car since it’s not exactly environmentally friendly. Well … about mid-month I guess he got it all figured out and license plates appeared on the car … but still it sat and sat in the driveway.

Blocking the driveway is more like it since it’s wedged between our two houses in our narrow driveway. I can’t even get our garden hose past the car without my husbands help. We have to carefully pass the hose over about five feet of car – being careful not to touch the car since the neighbor is out there washing and polishing it pretty much daily! God forbid if we made a mark on it!

Anyway, I guess he called around and got some insurance quotes because they’ve started driving the gas guzzling car about once a week.

I’m just so frustrated with the huge car blocking off the top of our driveway. They also put their BBQ at the end of the driveway so they end up blocking the end of the driveway too. Argh!

Luckily … we get the use of the driveway in July. He’d better move that darn car! Oh and their young daughter told us that they might be moving in August … If the home owners continue to rent the house I hope we get better neighbors when they move.

Between what they’ve done to the driveway, how they treat their puppy and all the screaming and yelling I keep hearing next store I won’t be sorry to see them go.

My back is killing me after a day working in the garden

June 17, 2009 by Tricia

I hurt my back on Monday and I can still barely move around two days later! Argh!

On Monday my husband and I spent several hours working in our garden. We weeded and I tidied up plants that were flopping over or crowding out other plants and then … we put about 17 bags of cedar mulch on the garden. Just the back garden … we still have to do the flower beds in the front. Groan!

My back, which has a herniated disk and some bone degeneration, was already hurting during the weeding process, but I pushed on and added mulch to the garden. By the time we finished my back was hurting so bad I could barely walk.

I went inside and laid down and after two hours of letting my back have a rest it felt a lot better, but yesterday it was stiff and soar and if anything it’s even worse today. Time to pull out the heating pad.

Right now I’m just lying on the couch, reading and answering emails and blog comments while watching TV. I know you shouldn’t lie down too much when your back is sore, but right now it’s the only thing that helps. I am getting up and stretching every now and then – so hopefully that helps too.

One of the emails I received this morning was from a friend asking me to check out a page about Decaslim reviews. She wants to lose weight and i guess since I’m a nurse she wants my opinion on this product. I guess I’ll be reading it sometime this afternoon since I can’t do much else other than work on my computer while lying down, read or watch TV.

Do any of you have a herniated or “slipped” disk? How do you relieve your pain?

Tired after a day at North America’s biggest dog Festival – Woofstock

June 13, 2009 by Tricia

Our dog Midnight had an exciting day today. We took her to Woofstock. It’s billed as North America’s largest festival for dogs and oh boy … were there ever a lot of dogs and dog related items there!

My husband is a little tired, but Midnight (our Lab) and I are positively tuckered!

We walked outside in the warm sun for hours. Looking at every vendors booth, hoping to get a free sample here and there of things that our dog could use. We did get two packages of free dog food, and some promotional tote bags but that’s about it as far as freebies go. We got more freebies last year, but of course we went on the last day of the event last year so I think the vendors were trying to clear out their booths! Hmm maybe we should go again tomorrow at about 5 pm – an hour before closing?

Our dog made out well though. She met lots of other dogs and came home with two mammoth bone, a stuffed bone, a beef knee joint, pigs ears and a few small bags of dog treats as well as two new leashes and a new collar. She’s set for a long while!

Tomorrow we’re going to go to the end of the Luminato festival on the waterfront here in Toronto and next weekend we’re going to an outdoor concert. Toronto has so many great things to do … I’m sure we’ll find something interesting to do pretty much each weekend of the summer. I just hope that I don’t keep coming home from these “events” as tired as I feel tonight!

Time for a home town visit?

June 10, 2009 by Tricia

Do you ever get homesick? I think I’m starting to become home sick. I haven’t visited my home town since 2005 when I went to one of my remaining aunts birthday parties (she was turning 80).

My brother still lives in my home town of Ottawa, but other than him, my aunt and her children I don’t have any other relatives there anymore. My mom died in 2004 and that ended all regular visits. When she was alive my husband and I tried to visit every two weeks (five hour drive each way from Toronto).

My husband is trying to book off for his vacation time. We’re hoping he’ll be able to book off for the last week of July and the first week of August. Perhaps some time during his vacation we’ll drive to Ottawa to see my brother and other relatives.

I’d kind of like to see our old house where we all grew up, but I’m sure that will bring back some painful memories. Not that my time there was bad or anything, in fact I had a great childhood and got along well with my parents … but it’s kind of sad since they are gone and the house is no longer ours.

If we do visit Ottawa I’d want to go to the Experimental Farm and Dow’s Lake. It was was walking distance from our house and I spent a lot of time there as a child going to see the farm animals and skating and boating on the lake and of course the Ottawa Canal. I suppose I’d probably find a reason to visit the Westgate Mall which was near my house as well. Just for old times sake.

If you no longer live in your home town do you try to go back for a visit every now and then or are you like me … haven’t visited for 5 or more years?

My Husband is NOT a Guinness World Record holder – unfortunately

June 6, 2009 by Tricia

I was hoping that I’d be able to announce that I’m married to a Guinness World Record holder this evening, but I’m afraid that I can only say that my husband attempted to break a Guinness World Record and unfortunately failed because enough people didn’t show up. Shame.

Sp what am I talking about? Well, earlier today a large group of guitarists gathered at Toronto’s Dundas Square in attempt to break the record for the largest guitar ensemble. They needed 1803 guitarists to break the 2007 German record of 1802 guitarists playing Smoke on the Water, but they were apparently short by about 123 people.

My husband was disappointed when he came home, but he still said he had fun playing Neil Young’s Heartless and meeting several other guitarists. Oh well, maybe they’ll try to break the record again next year. He was so excited too … he even wrote a post about the attempt to break the world record on his guitar blog.

I was going to go to watch the event, but I wasn’t feeling all that well. Remember I have Crohn’s and it’s acting up lately. To tell you the truth I kind of feel like I’ve taken a colon cleanser today. That’s what life with Crohn’s is like.

If Chris had only been going downtown for an hour or so it wouldn’t have been that bad, but registration was supposed to start at 2 p.m. and he heard on the radio at noon that people were already starting to gather so he left at about 12:30 pm. All the guitarists didn’t start playing the song Heartless until 6 p.m. so that would have been a lot of standing around for me. Still … I would have liked to have gone as I’m sure I would have taken some cool pictures of all those guitarists.