Month: February 2024

This afternoon we are heading down to Toronto to see Max in his first school concert which is being held at Mowat Collegiate in Scarborough.

We’ll get there in time to have an early dinner and then take in the concert.

It has been snowing most of the night here in Barrie, but it looks like the Toronto area has very little.

Yesterday I bought material at Rona+ to make two picture frames for our paint by number paintings.

My plan is to fasten the completed paintings to hardboard with special PVA glue and then insert them into the wooden frames which I have routed out a channel.

The outer edges will be rounded over and then painted white.

I use Turbo Tax for doing our tax returns. I like it because it carries personal data from the previous year that has been stored on the Turbo Tax database. So you don’t have to fill it in repeatedly from year to year.

It is easy to use because it takes you through the process step by step and has a pension splitting optimization feature which, in my case, resulted in several hundred dollars more in deductions.

So today I completed the return and filed it via netfile.

Cost was $21 per person.

The display of family photos on the family tree in our downstairs area has been constantly shifting i.e. the pictures become uneven. We figure this happens because if vibrations from walking on the main floor.

We had tried using Velcro to keep them secure, but that idea didn’t work because the Velcro strips would not stay put causing photos to fall.

So today we took them all down which resulted in some paint pulling away. That meant doing some spackling and touch up painting, almost like paint by numbers.

We got the bottom row put up, this time using picture wire on each photo with the hope that they will stay in place. We shall see.

Jane and I are continuing to spend a little time each day working on our paint by number project and it’s shaping up quite nicely.

This one is easier than the first one we did because the background has a lot less colours in it.

I tend to do the easier and bigger areas while she does the tiny more intricate spots.

This morning we changed the frame for the drawing that Scott did of Jane’s great great grandmother, Elizabeth Whalen. Jane found the perfect spot for it in our dining room

Scott also put together a video montage of his step by step process that he used to complete this drawing.

He had taken the time to get the photo that Jane supplied revitalized before doing his drawing which resulted in a lot more detail, especially in Grandma Whalen’s eyes.

He did a great job..

This morning Jane and I went to Parry Sound to meet up with former correctional colleagues of mine, Scott and Mari-Ann.

Jane had commissioned Scott, an accomplished artist, to do a drawing of her great great grandmother, Elizabeth Ellen Whalen. Elizabeth had bought an island officially known as Maxwell Island from a lumber company in the 1800’s.

It later became known to the locals as Whalens Island. That’s where Jane’s cottage used to be until it was sold.

Scott did a great job on the picture as seen below.

Scott included a drawing of the resort that Elizabeth Whalen subsequently built and which attracted visitors from all over including several states in the US.

Some of the Group of 7, famous Canadian painters, stayed there.

Yesterday, Rob, a technician from Affordable Comfort, came to look at our troublesome fireplace. He managed to get the pilot light lit and the main flame going after adding special embers from Heat n Glo.

Unfortunately, after only a couple of hours, the flame went out and I couldn’t get the pilot light going.

This morning I called Affordable again and Julia said she would talk with Rob about a plan which may involve removing the outside vent to check for debris.

Rob seems to think it’s being starved of oxygen because the vent is not functioning properly.

We have been having ongoing issues with our Family Room fireplace. Even though we had the main burner, thermocouple and thermopile replaced last year, it still is not working properly.

Today, Affordable Comfort is coming once again. Their most senior technician, Rob, is bringing some ember material which hopefully address this once and for all.

This year I decided to surprise Jane with a murder mystery dinner.

Last night I got an email outlining our roles for this party which will be held at the North Restaurant here in Barrie.

My character is called Doc and is the piano player.

Jane’s character is called Roxie Rosen and and she is Al Capone’s personal assistant.

This is what I plan to wear.

This morning Jane went down to Steve’s to help him with Roxana and Royce. He’s off work today, but Sara is working so he asked for help.

Jane took his birthday presents with her and he was quite happy with the stuff he got.

Roxana and Royce were full of energy and kept both of them busy.

This morning we headed to Chris and Tonya’s to look after Max while they do some painting.

Max and I made a snow globe with a picture of him and I inside.

We took him for lunch at State and Main in Pickering.

Then back home where he watched Minecraft, his favourite program these days.

I put together a snow globe craft kit for Roxana this morning. It will have a photo of her and me already mounted on a plastic bottle cap, so all that has to be done is adding glitter, water and a couple of drops of glycerine.

I included several colours of glitter including purple and pink, two of her favourite colours.

This morning we began painting the image of Jane as part of our idea to create a display of acrylic paint by numbers paintings of the grandchildren.

After we get Jane’s completed, we’ll do mine.

As predicted by the weather network, we have been getting a large amount of snow over the past few hours.

It’s supposed to continue for the rest of the evening, so it’s likely that our snow removal service (Artistic) will be coming around once it stops snowing.

A few days ago I was trying to get a reservation for Valentines dinner with Jane. Everything was booked, but I left my name on a cancellation list with Michael’s and Marion’s, a restaurant here in Barrie.

We have been there before and it’s quite nice. I was pleasantly surprised to get a call this morning asking if I was interested in a table at 6:30 tonight which I, of course agreed to.

Today we received two more paint by number kits, one of me and one of Jane.

The idea is to place them just above and to the side of the one we did of the three grandkids.

Now, all we have to do is paint them.

I received three copies of The Adventures of Mape today and they look pretty good except for one typo on the cover that I missed while proofreading.

However, I was able to correct it before anyone actually buys the book.

The only other issue was that the image doesn’t go completely to the edge of the page leaving a small white space. I will fix that too.

The Adventures of Mape, my pretend friend, is now available on Amazon.ca.

It took a little bit of effort to get the formatting correct, but once I got it, I decided to do another Mape Adventure book, so I did that, complete with illustrations, this afternoon. It’s been sent in for publishing as well.

This on is focussed on the notion of sharing.

Yesterday, the temperature went up to 15 C and today, it started out at 3 C. There is no snow in both the front yard and back yard. It seems more like Spring than Winter.

We’re not complaining, though.

But we are also aware that Mother Nature is unpredictable. We’ll likely get another hit of snow before long.

Today we decided to take advantage of the nice weather with a temperature of 13C, so we headed out towards Washago.

We ended up,taking a back road along Black Creek enjoying the scenery and sunshine.

We stopped for lunch in Gravenhurst at a restaurant called the Oar.

My latest book, The Adventures of Mape has been completed and has been sent in for printing.

I have been experimenting with an artificial intelligence app that lets you input a text description of anything and, within seconds, it will generate an image fitting that description.

This one that I created for the children’s book project that I’m working on.

Today I did some more proofreading of Jane’s journal for Max which has over 94,000 words. Out of curiosity, I queried ChatGBT (the artificial intelligence site) to find out how many 8 1/2” x 11“ pages would be needed.

The range would be 313 to 376 pages. After she adds in pictures, it will be a lot more.

Once everything is done, she will decide on how to collate the manuscript into book form.

I have completed the first draft of The Adventures of Mape and sent it off to Scott Gray who will be doing illustrations.

This will be a 24 page paperback which will be made available on Amazon.

Jane returned from Toronto this afternoon after babysitting Max yesterday and visiting with Steve Sara and the grandkids today.

We decided to try Pizzaiolo tonight. A new location just opened near us.

The sun is shining brightly today and there is very little snow in the back yard. Is this a sign that there’s going to be an early Spring?

I’m hoping so.

In the meantime Jane is having a fun time with Max while Chris and Tonya are having a day out together.

I have been doing some work on my latest project, putting together a children’s book.

I am undertaking a new project i.e. a children’s book. It’s about a pretend friend called Mape. Actually the idea comes from Jane who told me she had such a friend named Mape when she was a little girl of four or five.

I will be collaborating with a former correctional colleague, Scott Gray, who has agreed to do the illustrations.

It will be dedicated to our Grandchildren.

This year has been unusual with respect to how little snow we have compared to previous years.

It’s hard to believe it’s February.

Not complaining, just an observation.