12 Mile Lake Thanksgiving Getaway

Some shots from the weekend:

 The new fireplace.  It kept us warm as long as it was going.

The driveway was a mosaic of autumn colours.  I took another photo and made a puzzle out of it.  - http://www.jigzone.com/puzzles/D715D4D106E?z=0

My dad's old hang out, in his hay-day.

I call it Church beach but clearly I'm wrong.  It's also not on Church Rd which I also call it.  This is the beach I will forever remember being stranded on with my canoe when I ended up walking home waist deep around the shoreline.

Just So You (K)now

I had a fairly enjoyable day at work yesterday. There are a group of people that can make my office a fun place to be. A crisis was averted, yet several others seem to be emerging. But my manager admitted that the most recent of tragic turns for the worse was not my fault, and was unforeseeable from my position. I do still feel responsible for the rework effort required.

In good news I have secured my time off and will be embarking on a two week journey to the East Coast in September. The trip shall start and end with time at our cottage. I'm not supposed to know this, but I have it on good authority that we will be getting a hammock up there. That is perhaps some of the sweetest news I have heard in a long time. I can picture the good times already. So from the cottage I'll drive across and down through Ottawa and begin to look for some places to happen and make some stops along the way. I already have a draft route in mind, including: Fredricton, Hopewell, Summerside, Charlottetown, New Glasgow, Halifax, Lunenburg, Saint John, and perhaps a few QC cities on the way home. Not all of those are going to be overnights or I might find myself in an even tighter money situation. I have been putting money aside to prepare for my first down payment, but I feel this trip is more important.

I had a great weekend up north this weekend past. There was a family wedding, and my Aunt and Uncle from LA are up visiting. They are just the coolest people, and I wish I got to see them more. Apparently a family trip to LA is in the works for next summer. I stayed up both nights talking to my uncle, and during the day we sat on the patio and he played guitar for us. Very good stuff.

And last night was a night like many others. I met up with Adam and went for a coffee at Tim's on Davenport, where he shamelessly admitted to the clerk I didn't want a donut only because I had just gorged on pizza. Thank you Adam. Then we skipped down to Woodbine Park to see what the good word was. With the darkness and the fog we couldn't see much, but we took a nice walk down the boardwalk. I think I'd like to mark that down as my first of ten required new Toronto activities this summer.

Peee-aaaccch

I got a nice surprise today on the way to work as my Check Engine light suddenly flicked on. Yaaaay. I spent the rest of the trip in cursing my car and my soon to be non-existent bank account. Through out the day my mind wandered away from the engine problems until 6pm when I was once again confronted with the glowing light of doom. It wasn't until about half way home that I remembered there was a higher than likely chance it was only because my gas lid wasn't screwed on properly. I was fairly certain that would be the reason for the unwanted orange thing on my dash, but I have become so accustomed to chagrin I was preparing for the worst. Luck be a lady, it was my gas cap. Now tomorrow I get to see if the light goes back to normal and I can move on with my life. Ironically, I'm about 50km short of my scheduled oil change and I might not have noticed had the lid not been loose. Who knows.

I just got rejected for another job. At this point I'd just like to get an offer to feel better about myself. I'm not too upset, it's just the principle.

I almost got an opportunity to work in a performance for the Fringe Festival. Turns out the director got someone else and my services were not required. I'm ok either way, but it would have been fun to challenge myself with something new like that.

I'm going back to Newmarket this weekend to see my awesome Great Aunt. Then I think there's something father related happening on Sunday. Stuff stuff stuff.

I've moved onto The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Anne Barrows. I've heard good things, so we shall see.

Onyx and Cake

I just got back from a nice Mother's Day dinner with my family. I didn't have flowers for my mom, but I do want to surprise her at some point with some. Either at her office or at home. Sadly I probably wouldn't be able to find her office on campus. But she always surprises me at my office with flowers on my birthday so it's time to return the favour.

I stayed over with momsy and dadsy on Friday, so I could be ready bright and early for a garage sale. The weather was supposed to be horrid but my mother asked me to stay in hopes that it turned around. We were up at 7 and preparing, and people were already hovering at the end of our driveway. My dad hates garage sales so he left in a huff. I told him I don't love them either but supporting each other is something we just do. Not sure I got through to him. We sold pretty much nothing, which was a disappointment. We had some good stuff. A barely used bar fridge for $30. A set of Love Seats for $50/each (though I'm sure my mom would have accepted less). We did sell a small antique item we inherited. The woman who bought it had had the exact same piece until her son-in-law sat on it. So the story goes. She was pretty happy to have a replica to keep the memory alive.

I've skipped books and I'm now on Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. It took me a bit to get into it, but now I just don't want to put it down. I've also been spending my free time trying to learn Blackbird on the guitar, the Sarah McLachlan version. Even though it's just two frets up from The Beatles it's a bit easier for me. I'm not there yet but I'm working on it. Adam played me the intro when we tripped to Ottawa and I've been wanting to pick up the rest ever since.

I'm going to try to work out more. My parents recently got me an exercise bike, and I need to start using it more. I had been for a while, but I got interrupted. But it's back on. Giddy up.

The Reports of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

I almost died today, and yes that is an exaggeration, but not a complete one. Coming south on the 400 some expletive decided that from a stand still in the lanes going 401 West it would be a good idea to come into my 401 East lane. I was probably going about 70 at the time and had to slam down on the brakes. He also cut someone else off that was changing into my lane so instead of doing a bad merge and accelerating he did a bad merge and was stopped in my lane. I'm lucky that I could stop on time, and that no one was close behind me. Guys, I don't have collision on my car. If you hit me I am financially ruined, so please do not hit me. Pretty please. Unless I want to start eating Top Ramen every night to support payments for a new car, I'd like to not be hit.

My day with my aunt was really nice. She's just so adorable. She paid for some books for me at Chapters (which she did not have to do). And then she also paid for me to have dinner at her place. So I owe her something really nice.

She participates in this book club at her retirement home. I'm wondering if I'm ready for something like that in my life. Maybe not yet. I think I'll just keep up with reading on my own. I'm almost done Whale Music by Paul Quarrington (which I just found out through googling is also a movie). It has been an interesting read, but I've been stuck on it for a while so I'll be happy to move on. Up next is Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.

Also, I think a retirement home is the funniest place to have a meal. I heard a funny story about dentures, and overheard a disgusting comment about diarrhea. No shame. "Usually there's some substance but this time it just came right out." It took everything in me to not burst out laughing. Such a dinner table appropriate conversation.