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Window shopping

October 11, 2007 by Tricia

My husband took yesterday off because he had to have a doctors appointment. Normally he wouldn’t do that, but he really needed to see the doctor about something so he got someone to cover his shift at work.

After his doctors appointment we voted in the Ontario Provincial election. Yes it’s that time of year again when those of us from Ontario must vote for a new provincial leader. As it turns out it looks like the same politician will be running things for another four years. Ah … but that’s another story for another time.

After we did our civic duty by voting we decided to go grocery shopping. Believe it or not, since I’ve been so sick lately Chris has been doing all the shopping. He does ok, but he always forgets something and he needs a few lessons in how to pick ripe fruit. Put it this way – I was tired of him bringing home plums that were too hard to eat and had no hope of ripening!

So we went grocery shopping and also visited a home store while we were out.

I didn’t buy anything at the home store, but I did have a good look around. I’m always trying to get new ideas for our home since we are in the midst of major renovations. I can’t wait until all of our projects are finished so that I can decorate!

I like looking at everything from wall hangings and picture frames to Murray Feiss light fixtures, throw blankets and side tables and so on and so on … You see, I think I know how I want to decorate the living room and dining room when we are finished renovating, but I like to re-enforce my ideas when I’m in a store that sells furnishings and accessories for the home.

Do you do that? Do you like window shopping for home decor?

Mailbox tipping teens

October 11, 2007 by Tricia

Over the weekend when the weather was unusually warm and muggy here for October I was up late and I happened to hear some noise outside on the street.

There was a group of teenagers going by and they looked like they were looking to cause trouble. Twice this past summer someone has knocked over the large postal drop off mailboxes across the street. Worst of all, each time it’s been in the middle of the night and man are those things loud when they crash to the ground.

I have no proof of course, but I suspect that the mailbox tippings were caused by teenagers looking for some fun.

Oh I know, knocking over a large mailbox doesn’t cause any permanent harm, but I do hope that one day when those kids have their own homes someone does that in their neighborhood so that they realize how loud and jarring the sound really is! It’s like a car crash, maybe even louder!

Strangely warm weather keeps us supplied with berries

October 7, 2007 by Tricia

JoinCan you believe this? It’s October already and look what’s still producing delicious fruit in my backyard …

Yummy raspberries ripening on the vine.

There are so many berries that I can still go out and pick enough for my husband and I to enjoy at least every three days or so.

The raspberry bushes have been producing raspberries since as early as mid-July, which is early for raspberries in these parts. They usually don’t start producing ripe fruit until mid-August or so.

Yesterday the humidity here in Toronto was so high that we had our air conditioning on. It was only in the mid-20’s Celsius wise (72 – 75 F) but the humidity made if feel much warmer and made us feel sticky and wiped out. So on went the air conditioning.

Normally at this time of year it’s not uncommon for our furnace to have come on at least once or twice on a few cold evenings or nights. So far our furnace has been silent. We’ve either had windows open to let nice fresh air in the house, fans on or as I said above we’ve even had the air conditioning on. It’s getting ridiculous as I don’t believe I’ve ever had air conditioning on in October.

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Are all men like my husband?

October 5, 2007 by Tricia

I don’t understand my husband sometimes.

There’s just the two of us living in this house. We have three bedrooms upstairs. We only use one of them. Well for the most part we only use the master bedroom. We do keep some things in the closets and dressers in the spare rooms since this is a small house – we need all the room we can get for our stuff.

Lately my husband has taken to leaving things in the two spare bedrooms.

He’s always kept his guitars in what I call the middle bedroom. They were tucked away under the bed so that was fine. The room still looked like a bedroom.

He’s been working on his music lately though so not just one but FIVE guitars are spread throughout the house. One in the living room, two in the middle bedroom and two in the smallest spare bedroom.

Not only that. Sometimes when we’ve done the laundry, but haven’t had time to put it all away we’ll put the laundry basket on the bed in the middle bedroom. Well if my husband gets into the clothes before they are put away he ends up spreading clothes throughout all three bedrooms. He’ll just change in whatever room he’s in.

You see he wears jeans or shorts to work depending on the time of year, and when he gets to work he changes into surgical scrubs since he works in the OR recovery room. He often changes again when he gets home. If he was in pants he prefers to change into shorts for the evening, and being a guy the shorts he wore the evening before are fine to wear again that night and the next and so on.

So that’s how clothes end up lying around in various rooms.

It’s not just clothes and guitars either. It’s his watch, his cufflinks and anything else he carries upstairs that he can’t bother to carry a little further down the hall to our room.

Are all men like this?

Facebook connections on and offline

October 5, 2007 by Tricia

My sister has discovered Facebook. I figured her daughter was on it, but I never really thought of my sister as the Facebook type.

Earlier this week we became “friends” on Facebook and nearly every day we’ve been sending messages back and forth. I think we’ve talked more online this week than we have on the phone or even in person in months!

Of course the way we discovered that we were both on Facebook started with a phone conversation. My sister had called to say hello and to ask me if I knew anything about the care of hedgehogs. She’d just bought her daughter a hedgehog and since I specialize in the care of exotic pets she thought I’d know something about them and their diet. Unfortunately that’s one of the few exotic animals that I don’t know much about. I was able to help her with the diet though.

The conversation moved on to a discussion about vacuum cleaners of all things. She really needs to get herself a new one. I know she bought a Shark about four or five years ago, but it doesn’t seem to work anymore. I suggested that she take a look a Miele vacuum as they seem to be a popular brand and I think they’re probably fairly reliable. It was sometime after that, that we got on to Facebook.

Oddly, later that evening we were talking with one of our old friends on the phone. Chris and I were busy filling out our Passport applications (we need them for our Las Vegas trip in November!) and our friend Todd asked why I haven’t added him as a friend on Facebook yet.

I’m used to having my online friends ask me to add them to my Facebook account, but not my offline friends or relatives! So it was really strange to have two people ask me on the same day. Well, three really because my niece also added me as a friend too.