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A pretty Little Rose

March 1, 2009 by Tricia

William Baffin is one of my favorite rose … at least one of the favorite ones that I personally grow. The plant is a monster though! I’m in a Zone 5b planting area and the William Baffin Canadian Explorer rose is hardy from Zone 2 and up … so it’s thriving in my Toronto climate!

Each summer this plant grows as tall as 10 to 12 feet tall. Not only is it tall, but it’s also wide, it’s like a small to medium sized tree in my garden bed!

It’s flower display is lovely. The first one that it puts out, usually at the end of May or early June is gorgeous. The rose bush/tree is simply covered in flowers like the one above. Oh and when the flowers begin to die down the garden bed and lawn are covered in rose pink petals.

I love it.

Does anyone else grow Canadian Explorer roses?

Strange Overload message on our Home Theater system

February 26, 2009 by Tricia

I’m starting to think that it’s time that we got a new home theater system. Our stopped working about a year and a half ago. Every time we turn it on it flashes a message that says something about it being overloaded.

We haven’t changed anything with how it’s set up since we installed it three or four years ago, by this I mean we didn’t add any additional equiptment that would be plugged into the home theater system. So it’s strange that it worked for about two years and then suddenly came up with an overloaded message.

It’s an older model, a Panasonic. We’ve tried calling the store where we bought it and they were no help. At first we thought that it might have had a fuse inside it that was blown but after reading the manual and looking the model up online we know that there’s no fuse and I haven’t found any information that will help with our problem.

So I guess it might be time to watch for a good home theater system to go on sale. Over the last few months we’ve looked at some brands when we’ve been in stores that sell them but they’ve been so expensive!

Does anyone know of a good Home theater system that might go for a good price? Or perhaps a cure for our “overload” problem on the Panasonic?

Time to go over the bills

February 12, 2009 by Tricia

I’m dreading going over the bills that are due. With Chris having been sick and off work for a week we’re going to have less money this month. You see Chris is only Part time at the hospital – oh he works full time hours and gets a percentage added on top in lieu of benefits, but because he’s part time he didn’t get any sick pay for his time off.

So … in a little while I’ll be pulling out the gas, telephone, cable, electricity, house and car insurance bills and be going over them. Some are due now and others are due near the end of the month.

I do like to stay on top of our bills. Back when we lived in an apartment I was horrible about paying bills. We were always behind. It wasn’t like we didn’t have the money – I just hated paying the bills. Dumb eh? Now that we have our house I always pay the bills on time … unless we’re in a financial crunch. We’ve only been a little behind of bills once or twice. Hopefully this isn’t going to be one of those times.

Do you pay all of your bills on time? Do you dread bills when you’ve had a set back like a spouse being sick and having less income for a short while?

NO to house guests!

February 10, 2009 by Tricia

OMG … Chris’ parents are driving me nuts! Chris went back to work today for the first time since he was admitted to the hospital for his heart problems a week and a half ago.

Just like the last time he had heart problems I’ve been a little nervous about him going back to work, but he called me in the afternoon and said that he’d felt a little off when he first started, but had felt great the rest of the time.

Of course, his parents have also called several times today as well! As I said they are driving me nuts. I think they are expecting Chris to have problems and then be admitted to the hospital again … like that does anything for my worries!

Believe me, this time if anything does happen with Chris his parents can stay in one of those extended stay hotels with a kitchenette. I can’t have them invade my home again! Last Friday when Chris was admitted to the hospital they came down right away without even letting me know, so when I should have been trying to relax and get some food into me after spending hours at the hospital with Chris I was instead running around trying to clean up the house.

I get along with the in-laws ok … but they’ve done a few really bad things to Chris and I in the past so I really don’t like spending much time with them at all. I just don’t trust them.

Anyway .. I’ve got my fingers crossed that the rest of Chris’ shift went well and that he’ll be home here with me within the next half an hour. I’ve already got dinner cooking so we can eat shortly after he gets home.

How do you feel about your in-laws and no-notice extended visits? Do you get along with them well or do they drive you nuts like mine do to me?

Not a great day

February 9, 2009 by Tricia

I’m nervous about Chris going back to work tomorrow. He’s seemed pretty good since he’s been home from the hospital – only occasionally complaining that he has a funny feeling in his chest or that his lungs feel weird … but the true test will be once he goes back to work. We’ve had so many bad times with his as yet undiagnosed heart problem that I guess it’s natural to worry.

I think the added stress of his illness hasn’t done me any good. My Crohn’s is acting up or else I’ve got a bug. I was up half the night with terrible stomach cramps and pain and it hasn’t been much better throughout the day. Plus my back is bad and I seemed to have hurt my left wrist somehow. Geez, I guess this isn’t the time for either Chris nor I to look into a term life quote! Better to wait until we’re both feeling better I think.

Plus, we’ve been taping shows that are on this evening on our PVR. We had been watching a long movie, but once it was done we started to watch the episode of House that we’d taped only to find that it’s a rerun due to the Presidential address … what Presidential address? It wasn’t listed on our TV’s guide at all. Grrr … so several of the shows we taped tonight are messed up and I had to find them playing later in the evening and retape them. Grrrr.

I guess I’m just grumpy today. I don’t feel well and I can’t even watch the TV show that I wanted to watch.