Musings on a Small Life

I think I'm supposed to say, at the beginning of every month, "Rabbit, rabbit" for good luck. I'd never heard of this, but it's something a blogger I follow has mentioned before (" Older but better...? ")   I love this pic of Derry, below, from last Friday. He was bird-watching (juncos in the tree behind the fence), and turned his head to look at me.    That afghan still is in progress, but I tend to leave it out for him now, making sure I tuck the needles into the ball of wool and the ball down behind one of the accent pillows on the couch, so he can't get at any of it. He's a good boy, though, he doesn't bother with my knitting. There's nothing further on the roof. It's been bitterly cold the past several days (windchills down around minus 26C/minus 15F), so nothing further can be done at this time. Once the weather has warmed up I'll get in touch with the property manager again and find out the timeline for doing whatever it is...

What's a kitty do but sleep when you have over 40 mm of rain in one winter day, followed by freezing rain then snow?    That's how Derry spent our messy Saturday. And he spent our equally messy, then freezing Sunday like this:   We got off "easy," with the weather. I know parts of southern Ontario west of Toronto saw rain in the 70+ mm amounts, and parts further north and east saw far more freezing rain. I wasn't so lucky with the bedroom leak issue, as it continued to drip. So it's not a siding issue, as the repair people fixed that last week.  I long for my own bed...and for a properly repaired roof. (I had moved myself into the guest room on December 31st, because who can sleep with the sound of dripping in-between the walls? Plus water and live electrical boxes don't mix, so I had shut the power off to the room until the leak is resolved.) I will keep after the president of the property management company until things ar...

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...

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...

It's another week closer to spring; woohoo! The second Sunday (this past Sunday) was even better at the greenhouse than the first, because the tulips were starting to bloom. My four days off were wonderful! Saturday was productive, Sunday was good company with friends Robin and Chuck (and the greenhouse visit), Monday I did almost nothing whatsoever except veg on the couch, and Tuesday was another busy, productive day. I could get used to a three-day work week (for full pay, of course -- lol). I think the boys appreciated having me home for an extra long weekend, though they slept most of it away. What else is there to do when it's minus gazillion out and the back space is covered in snow and ice? Derry did venture out as you can see, above, but not for long. Too cold! Nicki went out from time to time as well, but for even shorter periods. We're bracing for yet another round of ice pellets and freezing rain tonight and tomorrow morning, before it tu...

After taking a year or two off, the Ikea Assembly Queen has returned! My excitement for Friday evening: Putting together the little Ikea Tyssedal storage stool I'd ordered. It had been delivered on Tuesday, but had to wait till week's end for assembly. I ordered it partly because I'm always on the hunt for affordable double-duty furniture, and partly to see if I'd like the series. I've had my eye on a 4-drawer Tyssedal bureau for a while now. While I do like the storage bench very much, I now don't think I'd buy the bureau, as the series has a more traditional appearance than I care for. Still, if the price--and shipping costs--are ever right.... I had hesitated to order it because one reviewer had said it was difficult to assemble. I actually found it straightforward, didn't even make a mistake. Maybe having a couple of glasses of wine while I was putting it together helped? Nicki approved! It's currently up in my be...