Month: March 2019

Yesterday, MY Jane and I headed down to Toronto to go out for dinner, me with Tonya and Sara and she with Steven and Chris.

I had invited the ladies to dinner because I wanted to tell them how special they are and how happy I am to have both of them as daughters-in-law. When I first broached the idea with Jane, she was all for it and decided she would do the same with Steven and Chris.

After looking at a list of top restaurants in Toronto, I picked Chiados and Jane picked George. I liked the idea of Chiados because they had valet parking, which was good for Tonya who is expecting in May.

We had a very enjoyable dinner despite the fact that the waiter tried a bit too hard to be funny without too much success.

Jane and the guys had a fantastic time at George as well.

We all met back at Sara and Steve’s condo where all of us shared our dining experience with each other and just chatted about things in general. The baby was kicking up a storm but every time Jane put her hand on Tonya’s tummy to feel it, the kicking stopped.

We didn’t leave their place until around midnight and on the way home, it began to snow quite a bit. But we made it. It was a great evening for all of us.

Wouldn’t you know it? The very day we have scheduled to go to Toronto, Mother Nature decides to give us more snow.

Today is the day that we scheduled to take Tonya and Sara out to dinner and MY Jane is taking Steven and Chris to dinner as well. Reservations have been made already.

This wasn’t a special occasion of any kind, but I thought it would be nice to give two special ladies a nice dinner out. And it would be a good opportunity for Jane to spend some time with the guys.

The restaurant I chose was Chiados on College street while Jane picked George on Queen St E.

As I write this, the snow is coming down pretty good here in Barrie. I hope it stops and the roads clear up this morning.

This morning, for the first time in a long while, I wakened to birds chirping outside our bedroom window. I thought to myself how impactful such an innocuous sound could be. Right away, I felt upbeat. A great way to start the day. I hope it continues.

Jane arrived back home yesterday morning and brought back some pizza that she made at the cooking class she and Chris attended the night before. It was delicious. And she has more dough to make more!

We have nothing planned for the rest of the day. It’s a dull and overcast day. Maybe a good day to just chill.

Yesterday, we received our new Dyson vacuum cleaner. The old Kenmore wasn’t working very well and was heavy and cumbersome.

After Jane left for her cooking class with Chris in Toronto, I tried it out by doing the whole house.

I had just vacuumed two days ago with the old Kenmore, but I was blown away by how much dust the new Dyson picked up today.

Even the postman who delivered it today told me he has distributed a lot of them and everyone has nothing but good things to say about them.

Later today, MY Jane will heading down to Toronto to meet up with Chris so they can both attend a Romano, or Al Taglio, pizza making class.

Ever since Chris and Tonya had their honeymoon in Italy two years ago, he has fallen in love with all things Italy.

Jane and I gave this cooking class to him this past Christmas and she will attend with him.

Jane will stay at his place tonight and come back home tomorrow.

I’ll stay home with Minnie.

Yesterday, MY Jane and I took a trip to the little town of Elmvale to meet up with a few of Jane’s cottage relatives who used to see one another regularly on Whalen’s Island in Georgian Bay.

Val & Bob Wilson and Helen Zochske still have cottages on the island, while the cottage that Jane’s Mom & Dad had inherited was sold after her Dad died.

We had lunch in a little restaurant on the main street called Steelers and spent a few hours reminiscing and chatting.

It was great to re-connect and it was my first time meeting Bob and Val; I sat across from Bob and really enjoyed his company.

And it was only a half hour drive from Barrie.

Yesterday morning, MY Jane and I had few little chores to do around the house. There were a few pieces of white trim here and there that Jane wanted to touch up. So, while she was doing that, I installed a doorway transition piece in our bedroom closet. Then I decided to try, once again, to remove some stubborn residue from the windshield of our car. I tried everything I could think of: special Simoniz stuff from Canadian Tire, Vim, vinegar and water, WD40, hydrogen peroxide. Nothing worked. I have one thing left to try – Comet. We’ll see what happens.

In the afternoon, we decided to head down to a little waterfront restaurant called Grrrilicious because they have live jazz every Sunday. It’s a great place with great food. Jason, the owner remembered us from our last visit and we had a nice chat.

It was a great afternoon and we finished off the day with a Netflix movie called Hanna. Very interesting.

Last week, we had Enercare come to our place to do regular annual maintainence. The first guy, Paul, commented on how there seemed to be excessive soot on the inside of the glass. He spent a lot of time cleaning everything. Shortly after he left, the pilot light went out. I re-lit it a few times, but then decided to call Enercare.

Another technician, Jason, came from Orillia and he got it going again.

Then the main burner would not kick in. Called Enercare again and, on Friday, they sent another guy named Paul. He was scheduled to do a regular furnace check as well as the fireplace.

Turns out that the thermostat was faulty. Everything is working now.

Over the last little while we have been doing a lot of shopping on Amazon to get things for the main floor spare room. We have purchased lights, curtains etc. and things for the upcoming baby shower.

Their delivery time is very quick in most cases with items arriving within two days.

There have been a few occasions where the item in question had to be returned and we did this simply by going on the Amazon site and clicking on the return button to get a return label after which all we did was take it to the nearest postal outlet. They make it very easy.

And we subscribe to Amazon Prime annually which gives us free shipping as well as Prime Videos and Prime Music. And with Alexa, all we have to do is ask Alexa when our order will be delivered. It’s really quite impressive and its small wonder that Amazon is taking over.

I have been spending some time familiarizing myself with this new WordPress blogging platform. I have managed to import all my daily blog posts going back to February 2014. That’s over 1700 posts!

Many of you know that I have been getting my blogs printed and bound into yearly books which I enjoy reviewing from time to time. So this blog has become almost like a journal of sorts for me.

I looked at the statistics feature and there have been over 155,000 page views since it’s inception. You can check out the very first post that I made back in February 2014.

Once I am comfortable using this platform, I will probably stop using Facebook to post the link. If you want to continue reading my blog, you can have it sent to your mailbox by filling in your e mail address and clicking on the Follow icon in the sidebar.

I have switched my blogging platform from Blogger to WordPress which I find is more user friendly. You will notice a slightly different format, but I will continue posting daily.

Readers will be able to access all my posts from the beginning by clicking on the appropriate link in the archives list.

There is a search box if you are looking for something specific.

There is also a “FOLLOW” option which allows you to subscribe to my blog. My posts will then automatically go to your mailbox when you subscribe. If you are an avid follower, I recommend you take advantage of that feature because in the next while I will no longer post the link to Facebook.

Hope you like the new uncluttered format.

Today is officially the first day of Spring.

MY Jane and I were talking about the wonderful leadership recently demonstrated by the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Adern. Immediately after the horrific attack on worshipers at two Mosques, she  moved to change the gun laws there. Not only that, she pledged her government to pay the Funeral expenses of all the victims. She wore a hijab to demonstrate unity while joining the survivors of the Christchurch terror attack.

Installed some book shelving today after taking a spin to Home Depot. Have a couple of more shelves to construct tomorrow. The ceiling fan will be switched out with a new fixture and the spare room will be just about done.

Today I installed a dimmer switch in the main floor spare room. I also hung a mirror that MY Jane had recently painted. We have a few other things to do in there including the construction of some shelves and adding a few more lights.

Today MY Jane and I took a trip to IKEA in Vaughan to look for a small size dresser for the main floor spare room. We found a nice one, all white, and I put it together when we got home.

Today we had scheduled fireplace cleaning and maintenance done by Enercare. The technician, Paul, said that the amount of soot on the glass was excessive and shouldn’t be like that.

Today I took all the ripped up flooring etc. to the Barrie landfill. It only cost $10 and I was able to clean up the garage and get it back to normal.

The job is finished. Today I installed last pieces of baseboard and shoe moulding. After caulking the baseboard all that’s left to do is staining the door transition piece and fastening that. An easy job.

After a great Sunday down in Toronto, MY Jane and I are back home. Shortly after getting back, I removed the baseboard and laminate floor that I had put down last week. I was unhappy with the way that job turned out because of the ill fitting product called Traffic Master, a cheap HomeDepot item.

We just finished a wonderful day with Steve and Sara and Chris and Tonya to celebrate Jane’s birthday today.

My last couple of posts have detailed my efforts to put down laminate floor in the spare room on the main floor. We bought some Trafficmaster brand laminate at Home Depot. It was a really good price. That should have been my first clue. This stuff is only 8mm thick and I was soon reminded of that adage that you get what you pay for. I had all kinds of trouble getting the boards to lock in place. I finished the job yesterday but when I looked  at it today with fresh eyes, I am not at all happy. You can see where some of the boards are not tight together in some places and when you walk on it with bare feet, there are some uneven spots.

Apparently there were very small bits of debris getting into some of the grooves in the laminate flooring causing them to fit improperly. I did notice a couple were like this but I thought the next row would straighten everything out. Not so. In fact, things started getting worse as I progressed. So, this morning, re-energized after a good nights sleep, I have lifted everything I did yesterday and began anew.

This morning I began laying the laminate flooring in the bedroom. 

This morning, MY Jane got right at it after a “simple” breakfast:

Today, MY Jane and I went to Home Depot to pick up paint and flooring for the main floor guest room. The plan is to remove the carpet and replace it with laminate flooring.

Yesterday, MY Jane and I unintentionally began some re-arranging of the main floor guest room. It sort of just happened when we were talking about the young folk coming to visit and, of course, where would the baby sleep. 

Yesterday, MY Jane and I took a day trip toToronto drop off a table Jane had re-finished for Chris and Tonya. It was a reason to get out of the house on a bright, sunny, albeit, cold winter day.