Detritus

Conversation we had on vacation last week: what word were you pronouncing wrong in your head for years before finally hearing someone else say it?

Sad return

Finally home from vacation.

Opened my door to the disaster area I left from whirlwind packing, plus the furniture all still pulled out from the walls from when the roof leaked and the ceiling fell in mid-August, plus all the buckets and towels I'd left in case it all happened again in my absence (where it's all been for over two more months while the building management apparently fixes the roof), plus the stained ceiling tiles that have not yet been replaced, plus all the kitchen cupboard contents still stacked on the floor in the dining room from the inspection access from the week before vacation, plus another notice that my unit would need to be accessed YET AGAIN - tomorrow - for phone line upgrades throughout the building... and just started to cry.

How is it possible to have spent such a glorious 11 days and come back to this?

Cottage report: Friday

Don't you hate having to get up to an alarm when you're on vacation? It's especially hard when the tradition is to stay up to stupid o'clock in the morning and just sleep until you feel like getting up. I mean, I'm still up before noon, usually around 9:30 or 10, but on Wednesday we needed to be up and about and decent by 8am because workers were coming to do a few fixes on the cottage - ceiling repairs in the bathroom, wood fixes on the front face, that sort of thing. And T had to go into town to get them. So no bikini basking that day! They did good work though, nice guys.

Cottage report: Tuesday

Our Killarney trip this year certainly has been a great one so far!

Our trip in was a bit different than usual though, we blew right past Parry Sound, where we usually stop for lunch. Didn't think about the fact that we usually visited a restroom while there as well - by the time we turned off the highway we were both in a bit of a desperate situation. Good news is we now know where there are public restrooms along that 45-minute drive!

Winter?

So this winter was weird, right? I mean it’s not officially over yet, but it doesn’t seem to have even begun. Christmas Eve I went for a walk with my Dad along the canal and there was NO SNOW. We didn’t need our coats. I don’t know how people who live where it doesn’t snow at Christmas get into the spirit, we had a really hard time with it.

Cottage day 8: not long now

Another lovely day - not quite as lovely as yesterday though, when we finally got enough sun for me to break out my bathing suit and sunbathe for a bit. I'm not absolutely fish-belly-white anymore! I wouldn't go so far as to call it a tan though.

Cottage day five: The Cottagening

Today The Boy left to go back South (TFC was calling) so T and I went into Sudbury to get groceries. And didn't come back for 6-1/2 hours. That's what it is to go for proper groceries and lunch up here - either you get meagre overpriced pickings in town (perfectly understandable of course) or you drive out to get proper groceries, too many DVDs, cottage supplies, boating supplies, lunch and cheezies. We chose the latter.

Gloomy cottage afternoons

T and The Boy and I came up to the cottage on Friday night, driving through absolutely terrible traffic until past Barrie and rain just ahead of us most of the way, making our usual stop in Parry Sound (this time we needed lemon for our LawnGuyLand Iced Tea), finally docking at the cottage about an hour later than we'd originally planned - but the water! The water was so high we could almost walk from the floating dock to the upper dock! So nice to see, I've been coming up here since 2001 and I've never seen it this high - T says it's been about 30 years. Big difference from a couple of years ago when we broke not one but TWO propellers on the boat within three days.

Cottage trip half over :(

Well, after three or four nights of gorgeous stars, we're now overcast. Not bad though, I mean it's still beautiful, but rain in the night is becoming a thing. Not surprised, just sad we probably won't get a good night watching shooting stars before we go back.

Cottage report: Friday night

So it cottage season, and I'm just going to bed - we've been up here since Thursday around 7ish - and there were SO many mosquitos that I got basically sucked dry by the time we got from the dock up to the house. We got settled in and basically decompressed for a few hours before pulling out the media player and watching a few shows and movies, and had a relatively early night (went to bed at 1:30am).

Seven years ago

Some things that happened up to today, seven years ago:

Jake

Jake in Killarney 2009 (mine)

So less than an hour after hearing the Peter Capaldi news, my excitement was completely dampened by awful news.

Another day, another Doctor

Know what I like? Police officers who do their job without being a dick. Also veterinarians who are really nice to your pets (T and I are at one right now with Jake, it's not fair to get sick when you're on vacation, aaaw).

Aaah...

T and I are all settled in at the cottage, the cats are meandering and all is well. The forecast for tomorrow is already 2 degrees warmer than it The Weather Network predicted this morning, so I have high hopes!

Apparently there was a big Dr Who-related announcement, I haven't gone online to find out what it is yet. And 12th DOCTOR ANNOUNCEMENT on Sunday, excited! Peter Capaldi has recently been getting bookie attention…

20° Sunny

---

later

So the announcement was that there was going to be an announcement on Sunday. Feh.

Visiting the vampires

Owie.

I'm at the blood clinic near my office, waiting for my turn to donate. I've been putting it off for a couple of weeks for no good reason, just too lazy to drag myself in here I suppose - I've already been poked in the finger and I'm good to go.

Capsule post, Autumn 2012

Hrm. So.

Any of you who are familiar with my blog know that I tend to go quiet for a while and then catch up, during which time I just don't write anything at all or I write a bunch of stuff but leave it in draft purgatory. Well, the past few months has been no different - many things have been afoot, so this has had to take a back burner to the rest of life.

Let me just give you a quick rundown...

Cottage trip 2012, huzzah!

I’m back from the cottage! I think this was my longest visit, 10 days. Totally could have stayed up later. This was a very interesting trip...

Friday the 13th at Canada’s Wonderland!

So yesterday I took the day off work to visit Canada’s Wonderland with the Boy and two of his coworkers. The forecast looked amazing (for the first time I didn’t bring a just-in-case jacket, so liberating) — so we looked forward to long long lines…

Bon bini!

What a fabulous week! For those who didn’t know, I’ve spent the last week on the fabulous island of Curaçao, and I actually have a tan! I joined my cohorts J*&P & Mr Pants and also Jenskoot (our first vacation together!), we spent the week lounging, swimming, snorkelling, imbibing, shopping and even learning to scuba dive. Life? Sweet.

Looking back on 2011

Happy new year everyone! I hope you all had a great night last night. I know I did — they say the way you spend your New Year’s Eve is the way you’ll spend your year, and if that’s true I think I’m going to have an awesome one, surrounded by good food, yummy drinks, great friends (new and old) and glittery nail polish *grin*

So let’s see, what kind of a year was 2011...