Coldonion

Well, there are lotsa blog updates this week!!
Hi all, and good morning. I have a few extra minutes on hand, since I am waiting for the coffee to brew. I turned around at the end of the complex, it is raining outside right now, so I figure I would take the car instead. Now is the time that I realise that I don't really have any rain jackets to speak of. I was in my second mind to keep going, but 1/2 hour in a med to heavy drizzle woulda soaked me. So I have about 20 minutes to go before I have to get in the car and go.
Well the paper got delivered about 5 minutes ago, it seems like the Flames won, I got to see two of the goals, we missed the 3rd one, we were flicking the TV during the intermission!!
Today we do a bit of shopping for food for the week, then it is off to the Women's Show, Roanna get's free tickets each show, and her Mom is busy. Besides she needs a strong back to haul all the free stuff they throw at you!!! Honestly you can fill a bag full of trial products and giveaways. Last year Roanna got 2 womens razors (the ones where they use the "sexy" firefighters to pose for them. The razors alone would be over 20 bucks each (the ftirefighters are extra). Once we are back the big project will be continued, assembly of the chair. Though it has been raining this last night and morning, so I may postpone it if the stain is not cured properly, no use leaving tacky fingerprints all over the chair. Hopefully though it will be ready to assemble.

Other than that, it pretty much is hoping to be a quiet day.

Take care everyone,

Ian

Well, it's been a longish day. We went to an art show, nice stuff, professionals and amature artists, some of the stuff was QUITE expensive. I took the camera, but no pics (not allowed), then we drove to Rona and picked up some garden supplies, we got a hangy flower box holder for our balcony, and about 24 snapdragons, hopefully they will bloom. These were hung over balcony side in, by Roanna, I'll snap some photo's and post them when there is some flowering action happening. I grabbed a nap, then refreshed and recharged, applyed some suntan lotion and went back out on the balcony to rub down yesterdays treated wood with steel wool and restained it again. It was a pretty messy job, so we are not gonna let out the cats until we can clean up the balcony well.
Now I am showered up and clean, the Flames game is on in about 45 minutes, so we are gonna watch that, I am also gonna study the assembly instructions for the chair. After that is done, we have a little fountain that Roanna's Granddad gave us so we want to put that out on the balcony for some of that running water sound that is so relaxing. We also have to hunt down a few cheapish hanging shades to put outside, to block the sun when we want to sit out on the balcony. Obviously we want to reduce the amount of sunlight coming in so it doesn't melt our pitcher of fresh margaritas!!!!

So a few more things to do, then we should have a nice little cozy place to relax on in the evenings. Since we are gonna be here for a bit longer, we might as well make it as cozy as possible. Anyhoo, enjoy the pics below, tomorrow I'll post some of the step by step pics.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Ian

Maxine, not to happy that she is not allowed on to the balcony due to all the wood and sticky stain stuff (bad for cats!!!) 

All done, after this is it time to assemble it. 

Roanna applying a second coat of stain. 

Here is the results of yesterday's sanding and staining. 

Hi all,
Much happening, yesterday turned out to be pretty busy!! I spent about 4 hours on the balcony sanding and painting the wood for our chair. I like the color so far, and it will get a bit darker with the second coat. Unfortunately it is supposed to rain today in the afternoon, so I think I will just rub the wood with steel wool (recommended) then place the wood in a plastic bag or cover it for the night. Tomorrow it is supposed to be warmer and no rain, so hopfully I will be able to be finished with the messy part of the job.
Of course sitting on the balcony in the same position for 3 hours I have one shoulder back burn from the sun. I did not even notice that I was sunburned until Roanna pointed it out. Cause it was nice I sunny I just wore my under shirt on the balcony to get sun, just a little to much. Ah well Canadian sunburns are worth about 60% of a Bermudian sunburn.
Anyhoo off to a late breakfast/early lunch. See ya all, I take a picture of the current project and post tommorow.

Ian

Hi all,
Thursday night is here, we have been to my job to pick up a massage table we have been keeping our eye on. Went to work today, and as I was leaving they had a table for 80 bucks less, it either was the last one or damaged, we unpacked it and haven't seen any damage, so they mush have wanted to move it. We were gonna wait for a bit, but to save 80 bucks was a deal we couldn't let pass by. Tomorrow I plan to unpack the wood for the chair and sand and stain the pieces, it is supposed to be sunny this weekend, so we can stain it again on Saturday then assemble it on Sunday, hopefully. Since the weather is good, we also plan to spring clean the house as well.
Tonight we are gonna watch the Flames game, hopefully they do well tonight.
Anyhoo, lotsa work for the next few days, take care everyone & have a great weekend.

Ian

Hi all,
I can't believe it's been a week. Time flies by when your having fun they say....
Flames fever has hit the city, Calgary has made it to the playoffs, so far we are tied 1 - 1 with The Mighty Ducks (annahiem I think). Anyhoo, tonight there is a game, at eight, so since I am off, I'll be a-watchin'.
The weekend was quite nice, relaxing, resting and not doing much else.... Still waiting for a few more sunny days in a row, so I can get my chair pieces stained and protected, then get the thing assembled. Right now it is a bit warm in the sun and chilly in the shade. Everytime I pack away the coat I have to bring it back out again.
Let's see what other big news.... I went and got a cable box for the house, unlike Bermuda you have to buy them, then have the company turn them on. On the plus side of spending money that I didn't need to, we have about 1o channels that are broadcast in High Definition. And let me tell you, it blows me away, I don't watch sports much, but I may now. Now I also have the ability to pump the cable sound through the surround sound stereo, which is pretty cool also. Right now I got the box on digital music (dance), this was the best feature way back when in Bermuda, 30 channels of "free" CD quality music, which repeats less than radio.

Hmmmm, since I was in the buying mood, Roanna kept her head in the practical side yesterday when I got the cable box, and picked up pillows for our bed. These things are nice, we both got double packed pillows, but in the end we used only one. I put one of my old pillows in our closed on a shelf I don't use for one of the cats. It didn't take long, cause Jenny seems to have claimed it for herself. Today, I walked to the bank (we are right in the middle of two of our banks branches...go figure) and on the way back I picked up some cat food, and some cat grass. a couple of weeks ago we brought 1 box of it and tried to grow it and a previous one we brought. Well both went the way of the Dodo, knocked down by some "mysterious" outside force. So today I got one ungrown one, and one grown one, taped it down and placed it on the porch, Maxine was on it in about 10 minutes.

Anyhoo, guess I'll go start some dinner, pasta tonight, a baked dish I hope.

Take care everyone

Ian

Hi all,
been a pretty busy weekend, Saturday we went to dinner at the inlaw's house, Grandma & Grandpa drove in to visit for the long weekend. Dinner was followed by the WORST game of Rummoli in my life...... (it's a card game).
Sunday I had a day off from work, (Roanna's was Friday, spent at the mall for a few hours). Where it was up at seven to make the Codfish cakes, which turned out pretty well, the first batch was a bit flakey, I should have let the cakes sit a bit longer and not crowd the pan. The next two batches were great. These were taken to Debbie and Curtis's for Easter brunch, along with a dozen hot cross buns I made on Saturday. Mixed them in the bread making machine, and they turned out well, shaped them and baked them in the oven.
I even have a piece of codfish in the freezer left over, so one Sunday I think I'll do a small codfish and potato breakfast for myself.

I went to work a couple of hours early yesterday, then came home to relax, for the next two days. right now just have the dishwasher going and the dryer going, catching up on cleaning a bit. Last night we watched The Royal Tennibaums, a movie done by the same director who did Life Aquatic (which I loved), well it had a few of the stars from TRT who were in Life Aquatic, and I guess I could say, it was different. I would say it was good, and had a few moments which were funny. A good value since I brought it for 2 for 30 bucks ( I also got Batman Begins, which of course it the best one of the series) so it wasn't to bad of a deal.

Anyhoo, think I'm gonna throw some more laundry in the wash, everyone take care. The weather up here is great, blue skies, and not to cold now. When I walk to work now, I just wear a double jacket, instead of a heavy coat on top of that... Though living in a city that through out its recorded history has had snow EVERY day of a calender year (NOT IN A ROW THANK GOODNESS!!) We take warm weather when we get it

Ian

Hi all,
A nice couple of days off, back to the grindstone tomorrow, but at least I get Sunday off. Friday is the Holiday, I have to work, but it covers the day off on Sunday I get.
Yesterday was very relaxing, I jumped the train down to 17th AVE, then walked down to the spa, about a 20 min walk. This wasn't done intentionally, for some reason they stop the bus service at train stop around 9ish, then continue it later in the day, by the time I walked to a bus stop on 17th AVE that had another bus service running down 17 AVE I was almost halfway there, so might as well keep on walking.

Went to a nice place called Steeps, a loose tea house, you walk in and there are tons of cans of loose teas stacked around the place. You can walk around and pick the tea you want and you take it to the counter were they put it in a steeper for you. I had a nice green vanilla tea, very tasty, and as a treat a nice blueberry tart to go with it.
The spa was in the same building so I went down and had a steam a shower, put on a robe, and relaxed and read for about an hour. Then I had my massage, back out to relax, back into the steam room, shower, dress then out to lunch. I went to Kyoto 17, a very nice japanese restaurant I have been to before. A really good cheap lunch, back on a bus, then a train, a quick pop into a job fair they had at the convention center (nothing in my field of work) then home.

Roanna came home later and we ordered a pizza each from across the street, then sat down to watch the Calgary Flames win (apparently they have won the Western Conference). They are playing tomorow, so we will probalby reheat the pizza and watch the game again.

Today, was just clean up day, wash some clothes, tidy up some dishes and throw some food on the grill for dinner (store brought pork slovaki). Made a spicy brocolli coleslaw mix to go with it and dug out some of last weeks wild rice and asparagus. Off to bed soonish, so everyone have a great holiday.

Ian

Hi all,

A few maintenance stuff today, at work, home, to the Canadian Tire to buy some supplies for the deck chair we brought. We wanted to make it a bit darker, so in the end and after two stores we found an all in one stain / sealent for it. It is "supposed" to darken the wood and seal it from the elements at the same time. Keep applying more until it is as dark as you like. Should be fun, unfortunately we have to wait for the weather to warm up a bit, and also wait for no rain. It was supposed to be sunny this weekend, but it is a bit grey and possible rain. So I guess I will wait until mid week.
We also picked up some planters to hang off the balcony railing, unfortunately the hooky part is a bit smaller than the railing. I am a bit indicisive between returning and looking again, or taking a torch to the hooky bits and bending them in a vise to fit the railing. We are to go back to Canadian Tire to pick up some cushings for the chairs, so I will probably see if I can return the planters. We also picked up some grass for the cats, since we are going to have plants on the balcony (although out of their way) it should discourage them from trying to get at any flowers in the planters.

Let's see we went to the store to get some dinner fixen's and I cashed in a lottery ticket for $100 bucks, quite a supprise there. Just about covered the 100 bucks we spent at the hardware stores and lunch at Big T's BBQ. None the less, it was finally nice to win something more than $10 bucks, or even better a free ticket!!

So now I have a few dollars left for lunch on Tuesday, I am gonna cash a birthday gift certificate for a massage at Oasis Spa, noon time, then probably wander across the street to an Italian place on 17th Ave. This place reminds me of one of my favorite restaurants in Bermuda, Portofinos, great Italian food!! And if you had enough people (or knew the right Maitre'de you could get the "Maffia Table" The big one hidden in the back of the restaurant.
After a frantic search I found (okay Roanna found) my gift certificate, so I figured I'll have a nice couple of relaxing hours at the spa, as a treat for finally being able to work. (Plus it expires in six months!!)

Now I just gotta figure how to get down there via the public transportation, the website is being a bit vage.....

If anyone else reads this, pop over to my Uncles blog, he has been going for a few walks around St. Georges, taking photo's as he goes, brings back memories. I used to rollerblade around that area for exercise in the summer. Roanna used to do an exercise class at one of the buildings in the photos. Pop over to Chattymoon's she is discribing some of her favorite candies from the old days in BDA. Nothing beat a bag full of Fireballs from Jack & Jill's!!! Though they did get a bit week in the later years, they wouldn't burn your mouth as much as I remembered.

Tomorrow we are having an lunch burger BBQ, after everyone meets at Costco when it opens. Pick up a few items then home for some exercise (Roanna & her Mom). I'll be making burgers.


Anyhoo, have a great weekend

Ian

Hi all,

Well another weekend is here, luckily for us, they have predicted DOUBLE DIGITS temperature wise. hard to belive last week it was in the low single digits. So if it remains dry, tomorrow we will open up our box and stain or paint our chairs. Hopefully if I remember I can take pictures of this project. A couple of lights a few flower planters to hang on the railing, and we should have a cosy little corner on the balcony to eat dinner in the evenings or read a book during the day. If things go well, we should be able to assemble it on Sunday, or Monday, depends how much coats of stain/paint we put on. We gotta go to a liquidation place to pick up the stain / paint (10 bucks a gallon) and a few cheap disposible brushes.

Work is going well, walking up and down to and from work is much easier now, good exercise. Other than that, I hope everyone has a great weekend. I gotta work the Good Friday, but I get Sunday off, (plus 2 1/2 for working Friday) so even with an extra day off, I still get above my 25 hour minimum.

Sunday we are off to Debbie & Curtis's house for a "Sunday Brunch" Roanna & I are making hot cross buns and cod fish cakes, this will be my first attempt at cod fish cakes (thank goodness I ain't serving this to any Bermudians.) I got a big piece of cod fish in the freezer, so I might save a bit for a later cod fish breakfast the following Sunday as a treat!!! Might try to find a cheap kite to fly on the easter Sunday as well.



Take care everyone,

Ian

Well, two days off spent in bed or on the couch. Drinking lotsa OJ and taking night time cough syrup.
Tomorrow I'm back to work, which like I said earlier, is very different now that the big bosses have left town. Not so much to change, just stocking up stuff. We went down Monday night to do some shopping, and picked up a joined chair for the balcony. Hopefully it is sunny this weekend, so we can paint and assemble it. A smallish project for the weekend or week.

Take care everyone

Ian

Well up a bit early today, since I am taking the car to work. Feeling a bit better now, but still have a cold, I used to catch these things during seasonal changes in Bermuda. Guess that was what happened here. Another day, then I get two days off, so I will probably stay in bed.

Well .... off to work

Ian

Here are the teams facing up at Pengrowth Stadium. 

Well Saturday is here already!! Last night went to the Calgary Flames game to watch them will. It was very exciting. Roanna and her Mom were at home watching it on TV. Got home and into bed by 11 o'clock, and up at quarter to 4. Saturday's I take the car to work, so it wasn't to bad, plus I brewed up some Java an took it with me.
Spent some money, went to the bank, and had lunch with Roanna @ Moxies down the road from us. Now home for some R & R with a movie. I caught a bit of a cold mid week, so I went back to Costco this morning and picked up two big orange juice's, plan to drink that all weekend. Hopefully I will feel better by my days off Tuesday and Wednesday!!! One thing I have learned, sick days are for work days!!!
Other than that it has been quiet so far. Hope everyone has a good weekend...

Ian