FULL HOUSE

Okay, when I say full house, I mean FULL HOUSE!!!   Right now Kevin and the kids are here.  I am so enjoying them.  The kids are at an awesome age (6 & 9) and honestly the best behaved kids in the world.  Well brought up.  Monte and Anton are also here.  Monte has stayed longer than he planned, I have a feeling he is enjoying being home with the usual mob of people and activity.

Mid morning Peter texted, he was on his way and is going to stay a few days.  He arrived mid afternoon.  Somewhere in there Jo phoned and needed a babysitter for Stirling.  I was quite happy to oblige as there were enough people here to pass him around should he become unhappy, and an unhappy Stirling is something to behold!  I also had Emma...which is such an awesome addition to the mix.

Later when there were people in every corner and a dog running around and a truly screaming baby being passed about, Peter came into the kitchen and put it something like this, " This is nice, its like home.  Gramma, dads, friends, family, baby and dog."  I couldn't agree more!  That is what this place is for.

Today we are going to the Little Big Science Centre.  Kiwanis has supported this centre in the past and it is a fun fun place.  I think the kids are going to love it!  Kathy is possibly going to meet us there with Ainsley.  Should be a hoot.  I think that I am going to take them to Denny's for lunch first.  Nacho time!!!

My old Auntie Edna died :(.  She had a good long life.  The funeral is on Thursday.  I have managed to either be totally ensconced in unmovable plans, or off on the other side of the world when all my other old rellies passed on and missed their funerals.....which, lets face it, are really mini family reunions, which I love.  So this time I had to wriggle things around a bit so I could go to the funeral with Stan and Kathy.

I don't have my jeep at the moment.  Tandy drove the family over but she had to go back so she left the truck for us and took the jeep.  The plan was I would drive them home on Thursday and collect my jeep.  But Kevin is going to drive home himself, and Peter and Anton offered to go with him and bring the jeep back for me.  So I can go to the funeral with my sibs.  There are people going to be there that I really want to see.

One of them is a worker (a minister from the religion I grew up in).  She used to stay at our house when the workers came to town, Smithers.  She probably won't remember me but I would dearly love to see her again.  I will put a pic down below.

My biggest problem is  I don't have any decent clothes to wear.  Tights, jeans, shorts and skorts are the only things I own.  I shall have to try stuff on...if I can find them.  I haven't even remotely unpacked any clothes yet.  I can't even find the boxes.

I had forgotten how totally noisy kids are.  In my little solitary world, when things are calm, there is very little noise in my life....other than music.  But kids, holy crap, they can make noises you don't even know about.  All the floors in this place are laminate.  And laminate is NOISY.  Right now they are upstairs in their bedroom, playing with dice on the floor.  Its rattling through the whole house!

Yesterday I took them out with me to run errands and go to the brick.  They were so excited.  We were buying bunk beds for their bedroom, and bunkbeds we bought!  It took a while to get all the ordering and paper work done.  While I was doing that they tried out every chair in the store, deciding which was the softest.  Then they moved on to beds.  I saw nervous sales peeps hovering about so I suggested they go check out the tv's.  That kept them busy.

Then I took them to my fave sushi place.  Boy they sure knew their sushi!  They knew exactly what they wanted!  And...they ate it all with chopsticks!  Just like little pros.  Then we made a fun trip to Walmart to buy new flip flops for Elise and a toy for each.  And I gave them only five minutes and no changies once they picked.  I shop on occasion with a bestie and sister who tend to be either indecisive or a put it back before we leave the store people.  You know who you are!!!!!  So I counted them down and told them, if you haven't picked, you don't get.  Pressure was on!!!!  They actually did very well! 

Well I have to bounce.  Lunch and Science Centre coming up!!!  TTYL

BACK ROW:  (LEFT TO RIGHT)     UNCLE LOWEL, MR. DURING, ELSIE DIXON (WORKER) DAD, AUNTIE IRIS, TRISHY (COUSIN) MRS. DURING (FROM RUPERT, FRIENDS) MOM  FRONT ROW:  (LEFT TO RIGHT)  BARBARA LOW (BEST FRIEND), KATHY (SISTER) HEATHER (COUSIN) NORENE CLEVEN (WORKER I WANT TO SEE MOST) , I FORGET THIS WORKER'S NAME, AND ME. 

RAINBOW ON A PLATTER

I cooked the healthiest dinner I have ever made in my entire life last night.  It was hard.  It went against everything I know about cooking delicious food.  My motto is sugar, salt and butter...if your dish isn't quite right, use one of those and make it better!

We had a dinner guest last night, who, for his own privacy sake, shall remain nameless.  Monte and Anton were also there, and Anton is vegetarian.  Our honoured guest though is one of the most interesting guests I have ever cooked for.  The only ones more 'interesting' were Kevin and Tandy when they were in their 'raw' stage.  But I love this kind of challenge!

He eats fish...but only if it is baked completely bare naked...no lemon, no seasoning, no butter....just plain bare naked salmon.  While I was planning dinner I would text him and confer to make sure I was doing things right.

I had bought fingerling sweet potatoes.  I texted him to see if he eats straight steamed sweet potatoes.  He told me that he doesn't mix starch with protein. Okay...scratch that.  CHECK.

Then I asked him would he eat boiled beets?  Because they have way more starch and sugars in them than potatoes.  He said yes he did.  I didn't inform him about the starch or sugar.... CHECK

I also asked him about carrots.  Any below ground veggies have starch.  But he also ate those, if no salt or seasoning is added.  CHECK

Then I was going to steam in a shallow pan a bunch of asparagus.  I always add lemon and sesame oil.  I asked.  The oil was fine, but no lemon.  He doesn't really mix fruit with veg.  CHECK

Then I asked about olive oil to do the chopped garlic for the spinach.  No.  Not olive oil.  Apparently its not good for you if its heated.  Canola would be fine though.  I don't have canola.  But I had another oil.  When we read the label it was based on soya bean.  He does not eat soy, in any form.  So he suggested using a little water.  Water.  He must have seen my face because he agreed that he would indulge tonight and I could use a teaspoon or so of olive oil to just start the garlic.  CHECK

I wrapped two salmon and baked them. They ate one and I sent the other one home with him.  I served a rainbow on a platter and he ate everything!  The other two ate the sweet potato.  And the hollandaise sauce I made.

I didn't even attempt a dessert...he doesn't ever eat or even like sugar.    TTYL 

MISERLY COW

I went down to Safeway yesterday or the day before.  Can't remember.  Needed a few things.  As always, I carry a couple of fives on me.  There is quite often an unfortunate person sitting outside of the main doors, needing a little help.

Now, you tell me...is there any person alive that doesn't already know that these people are more than likely self medicating, mentally ill, unemployable (would you employ them?), shelter is provided, a meal or two a day is available, on assistance of some sort and very very miserable.

I know this.  I choose to give them a little money anyway.  Even I can use a ten now and then. Can't we all?  And whether they get fed elsewhere or will use it on drugs, smokes or booze, my ten isn't going to change their habits.  Its just going to help their day a little.

So the other day, I saw a lady sitting on the cement, in the heat, a hat down over her face and another hat sitting upright, waiting for a little change.  I dug out my two fives and then I did something I am never ever doing again. 

 I looked around, saw a couple heading to the main door and I slowed down to let them get ahead so they wouldn't see me give her money.  What the hell?  I have actually become defensive about it!!!  I have been accosted so many times after giving money that I automatically tried to avoid it!  Well I am NOT doing that again.  I have every right to give whoever I want money...my kids, my friends, my rellies or a sad sick person on the sidewalk.

So I marched up and dropped two fives into her hat.  She was sound asleep!  Normally I like to stop and chat a bit but I didn't want to wake her up.  And as I entered the store, sure enough, here comes Mrs. White lady, all do gooder and ready to let me have it.

"You know they come up here from downtown and you know they are housed and fed down there.  She is probably going to spend that money on drugs or alcohol."

Well I looked her in the eye and answered back.  "I don't care.  Everybody needs some money now and then.  If she is addicted, this may help her not be so sick today.  If she needs smokes this might keep her from picking up butts off the street.  Who knows?  You don't.  You can never love or help people enough in this world.  You should give it a try.  I have a mentally ill son and if he didn't have a family to help him, he would be right where she is.  A little compassion goes a long way.  Now leave me alone and maybe go help her out."

And from now on I am not going to hesitate and I am NOT engaging in conversation with do gooders any more.  I will simply put my hand up and tell them I have heard it all before and if they choose to be unloving and miserly, go ahead, but leave me out of it.  Or maybe I will skip all that and just tell them f.ck off.

I'M FREAKING BLIND I TELL YA

I have no depth perception.  And I have a stomach I can't see past.  This is NOT a good combination. I feel a little like blind Molly.  Its hard on her to take her to new places.  She really can't see much and in new places there are all kinds of pitfalls and ambushes she gets smacked by.

Well I feel a little like that.  At the last place I got to know all the uneven steps, sticking out corners etc...I rarely fell or bashed something.

So needless to say, I am once again tripping, bashing and, today, falling.  The step into the house at the front door, over the threshold is abnormally high then low on the other side.  Well today I had an armload of stuff coming in from the jeep and misjudged.  And yes, I took a good header, right into the shit in front of the coat closet, flattening a laundry basket (not my lovely one Arnie gave me, a cheap one) and two boxes (that needed flattening anyway) and ended up draped over a foot stool.  (shovel list).

It isn't the actual fall or pain that gets to me.  Its the shock.  So as I lay there on top of all that crap, cursing and swearing, I just hope and pray I haven't busted something.  That would be really really inconvenient and annoying.  I absolutely do not ever want to be dependant on some one, anyone.  That is beyond a nightmare to me.  (huge quadruple shovel list)

Anyway I lay there for a while, at least until I figured out I actually was just fine thank you very much.  It just shocked the dickens out of me.

I was coming back from a ticked off run to David's Tea.  Expensive pretentious overpriced place targeting millennials.   Tea seems to have become designer name brand stuff, just like 'pumped up kicks' and ripped up jeans.

But they do make great tea...even if it is more expensive than gold.  Someone gave me some peachy peach iced tea the other day and told me its David's and all you do is put it in a pitcher and leave it overnight.  It doesn't even have to be boiling water.

So yesterday I zipped over there and bought expensive teas (three of them dammit) and a forty dollar giant pitcher.  The pitcher acts like an oversized french press...and I mean oversized...its huge.  I thought, 'well thats nice, I will get a great big amount of tea at once'  Wrong.  In the end it only made about two large glasses of tea and was so tall I had to take a shelf out of the fridge.  I yarded, with huge difficulty the centre plunger thingy out of the container and made the tea.  This morning I plunged it and drank the two glasses of really good over priced expensive tea.  

Then I tried to make another batch.  And no matter what I did, how I twisted, yanked and pulled til I got charlie horses, I could NOT get that plunger out of the freaking thing.  Before I could throw it out the back deck into oblivion, I threw it back into the stupid bag it came in where the receipt was still there, stomped out to the jeep and drove straight back to that store.

I went in a told the burly muscly dude exactly why I was bringing it back.  "No problem," he says.  He hauls it out and says "there's a little trick to it, I shall show you how easy it is and then you can do it!"...big cheesy smile.  Okay, I'm thinking, you have huge muscles, of course its easy for you.  So he grabs the handely top and yanks.  And twists.  And pulls.  And turns his back to me and bends over and yards on it til veins popped out of his red forehead.  Finally he said, "Have you got your credit card with you?  I shall refund that card for you."  Then I bought another little ridiculous expensive bag of tea.  Jeeeeeeez!  Then came home and fell into the entrance.

Anyway.  I have now finally got the living room done, other than hanging the pictures.  I also have the dining room completed...other than the pictures.  And before I go to bed I have to pack all that stuff downstairs.  I am going to do that very very carefully!  No more falls.  haha!  TTYL

SLOW SLOW SLOW

I am so so slow to unpack and organize.  I remember a long long long time ago, Spod told me that Kim, his last wife (I would say previous but he had three previouses), would leave the vacuum cleaner out in the main walkway for everyone to trip over.  He hated that.  In fact he thought she did it on purpose, which I highly doubt, such a victim attitude!

But I never forgot that.  As a result I am very conscious of leaving stuff out in hallways or thruways.  Well, for the last three days now the hall to the living room is totally blocked with a growing pile of stuff to go downstairs.  There it sits, totally reminding me of Bill!  He would have had a fit by now!

I am so full right now and it isn't even lunch time yet.  I was up at six this morning, made my coffee and then noticed the rib bones I paid a ridiculous amount of money for, sitting in the fridge.

I think that in the meat department in any grocery store the beef rib bones taken off of rib eye steaks or rib roasts are the biggest shameful ripoff in the whole department.  You get these bones with a little meat on them, good meat but so little and they charge an arm and a leg for them. I bought four bones, small bones for SIX DOLLARS!!!  My bad. 

 I decided this morning to make beef barley soup with them thar bones.  I also added  two chopped up salisbury steaks.  I also added cauliflower, onions, carrots, peppers, mushrooms and zucchini. I have been forced to use better than bouillon cuz my oxo isn't anymore, and its the best soup I have ever made!  I have eaten two bowls now and I am stuffed!

Now its later afternoon.  I am going onto a bit of a ramble here.  I just want to say I LOVE my kitchen.  Over the many many places I have lived in since becoming an adult...this one is nearly, if not, perfect.  In home ec we learned about the ergo dynamics of a perfect kitchen.  And basically the perfect kitchen is a one step bake a cake kitchen.

I have had kitchens the size of Vancouver Island.  You get such a work out making the simplest thing, you actually lose weight.  Oh, they seem lovely...you know the whole family can be in the kitchen with you (like who the hell actually wants that for real?), guests can come in and chit chat (you know, while you are trying to think out that perfect recipe).

Then you get those teensy tiny kitchens where you end up stacking shit all over the floor because there is no counter space.  Doing dishes in those kitchens (you know they simply don't have room for a dishwasher) is a nightmare.  Actually you end up washing a dish, then immediately drying it, then running out to the garage to put it away because there isn't room in the one cupboard you DO have.

Then you get the not too bad a size kitchen...a doable one.  But some idiot puts a giant island in the middle of it.  So when its time to cook dinner you have to sprint around to the sink, then back to the fridge and around the other side to the stove.  Whose brilliant idea was it that an island is a good one?  And holy hell....the stuff that gets thrown on an island is crazy...homework, backpacks, coats, briefcases, folded laundry etc....

So now we come to the perfect kitchen.  Mine.  I proved that today.  I made three different messy things and I cleaned the kitchen after each, easily and quickly.  If my kitchen was giant...I wouldn't have.  There would have been room to keep going and I would have a massive huge clean up at the end.  If the kitchen had been teensy, well I wouldn't even have tried to cook even one thing, too many trips to the garage.  And if I had an island kitchen, geez, my island would have been covered in layers of crap.

But my kitchen is perfect.  Two sided, everything within reach, the stove, fridge, sink triangle is perfect. Just enough counter space to make it easy.  And the messes are so fast and easy to clean.  I love it.

Enough.  I go now.  TTYL

BONE TO PICK

I have a bone to pick with the 'bear people'.  I have always been on the 'wrong' side of this argument, going back to North Vancouver.

It doesn't seem to matter where we live, there are stupid bears.  I remember in North Van a bear lady came to my door.  She was handing out pamphlets and basically told me that:  I had to cut down my fruit tree in the back yard, toss out my bird feeder, no composting, freeze my scraps and only put them out at an ungodly hour with the garbage on garbage day, keep my containers in the garage, not out by the house.  I told her no, I was not doing any of that and if they wanted to fine me to go right ahead.

I remember too telling her that we left our garbage cans out because I didn't want a bear ripping my garage door off.  And to keep the little bastards out of my garbage can I poured bleach on the garbage.

She was horrified and actually told me that that was cruel for the bear!!!  I couldn't believe it!  It could keep its freaking nose out of my container thank you very much!

Now I live in a place that doesn't have a garage, its a carport.  So now what?  I read in the paper that I now get every other day in my mailbox (shovel list) that there is a team of do gooders going around ticketing people that put their garbage out the night before or have them sitting out beside their house.  Well what the hell are we supposed to do?  Put them in our kitchen?  So stupid.

We went down to rib fest last night.  There was awesome music, people we knew (like cousins that live in town), delicious choices of all types of ribs, beans, corn, coleslaw, pulled pork, chicken, spuds..... Mmmmmmm!  Kathy picked me up on the way down and we even got a stellar parking spot.  And it wasn't stiflingly hot.

We got our drinks, and our dinners, found a great place to sit, and....the sun disappeared and the wind started to seriously blow and it got cold.  Really cold.  We were goosebumped and freezing!  So we ate up and left!  I'm still glad we went down though...it was fun and the food amazing!

Unpacking is slowly, and I mean slowly, coming along.  I love unpacking.  I have a huge box outside filling up with more stuff I am eliminating out of my life.  Moving to this place is kind of like moving from the big city to Kamloops.  Everything is smaller and more manageable.  I can just step out my door and toss stuff into my garbage or recycling containers.  This place is so much easier and I love love love it!!!

The other big plus are the two sets of stairs.  When I first moved in I was creaking painfully slowly up or down the stairs, hanging on to the banister for dear life (I don't have depth perception and fall a lot).  Now I zip up and down, still hanging on cuz I am blind, but nothing hurts, I don't get puffed out and its so much easier.  That happened in one week!

Peter and Graeme and Zoey, Peter's sister, were here for a few days.  I missed them after they left. The evening of the day they left, I went up to my tan purple room and got the most awesome surprise!  Sitting in my room was the most beautiful massive bunch of purple roses.  It was truly exquisite along with the most wonderful note.  Peter is truly a gem.  I will post a pic of them...not the best pic but you will get the idea.  They really are beautiful.

Well I best get at it.  Its only six am but I am wide awake and raring to go.  More boxes to sort and unload.  Its like Christmas!  TTYL

THE VIEW FROM MY GUEST ROOM BALCONY.  I THINK IT LOOKS LIKE TUSCANY

AREN'T THEY BEAUTIFUL?

MOVED AND NEARLY DEAD

Well done and done.  What a huge day yesterday was.

I am currently sitting in my new tan purple room.  There are no words to express how much I love it.  The room is tiny, and I mean tiny!  I think its 8X9 feet at most.  I can barely squeeze my purple dresser, Bill’s cabinet the tv sits on and my chair, into it.  But I did and I totally love it.  It just felt right climbing into my chair with my special pillows and big old duvet, my fan and my laptop to read my book (no wifi til later today).  And I slept like a baby...safe and happy.

There is no way yesterday could have happened without all the people that stepped up and helped.  It was actually very humbling.  I am not really the type to ask or accept help easily.  Not sure why, just am. So when everybody came forward yesterday in a swarm I almost cried.  And they stepped up and did those shitty jobs no one likes.

For example:  The new place was dirty, really dirty.  When I arrived, Kathy and April were basically on their hands and knees scrubbing out every cupboard and drawer in the place.  I would never had done that.  Then while Kathy continued on, April started to unload boxes into the right spots, not an easy task.  The kitchen is very small with little counter space.  So of course it is continually covered with several layers of stuff with no where to go.  I had to leave and when I came back, Kathy was washing the floors.  I think she was on her third bucket of water and what she was dumping out was black!

At one point, up at the house, I came across April, sitting beside the huge fish cooler we planned to use to transport the frozen food.  That thing was beyond black and dirty.  And she was just quietly scrubbing it clean.  Such a filthy job.  She also hauled all the drums up from the basement to the garage, and then when they arrived here she and Myles hauled them all down the crooked narrow stairs to the basement and out to the shed and stored them there.  I could never ever have done that.

The day before the move Jocelyn and Kerry arrived with both a van and Jo’s truck.  Every kitchen box was loaded into the van, and all the delicate stuff into Jo’s truck.  April loaded all the tiffany lamps into Myle’s truck (this is after making runs to the dump with all the garbage).  Then both Kerry and Kathy started opening the kitchen boxes and we started to fill the cupboards in earnest.  We ended up having to put a lot of boxes out on the deck for future unloading.  I have waaaaay too much stuff.

In the night before move day, actually that was just yesterday early morning, I couldn’t sleep.  Partly because I was so worried about Monte, who was going through a terrible spell, and partly thinking about all the things that had to be done before 8 am when the movers would arrive.

So I finally sat up and decided to make a list.  I like making those lists, they help you organize and it gets it out of your head.

And that list was frighteningly long...I had no idea so much had to be dealt with!  April was up already when I got up at six and hard at it.  By the time the truck came I was already exhausted!  I sure don’t have the stamina I used to have.    And when they were done, it became evident that the house was filthy!  Alice was arriving at noon but it was an overwhelming huge job.  And while I was directing the final unloading, Kathy slid up to the house, rolled up her sleeves and dug in.  She is so amazing!  And later Alice told me that she couldn’t have done it without her help.  Meanwhile everyone else is running around, helping put things where they belonged, running to bring food back (Wendy’s chicken and blue cheese salad...to die for) etc....  I could cry.

The last job I had last night was unloading the frozen food into the freezer downstairs and the fridge freezer upstairs.  I was worried that the stuff would have started to melt.  But it was all frozen solid still!

Anyway, its now seven in the morning here in my comfy cozy tan purple room, Graeme arrived by bus last nite really late, Peter picked him up, I haven’t seen him yet.  He is sleeping downstairs on the big king mattresses I had the guys put down there.  Peter, bless him, made the bed up.  Graeme has offered to move boxes etc for me today.  I see there are quite a few things that have to be placed in different spots to where they are now.  Most of all that is too heavy for me to lift and Graeme is probably the most organized, clever worker I know.  I have seen him in action before!  I can’t wait to get the living room organized.  I think its going to look really good.  Small.  Its a good thing I bought loveseats and not couches!  I am putting some pics here of the amazing gift basket Amy put together for me.  TTYL   PS:  I will post this later when I have wifi.  I typed it up in Bean, my word processor so it might look different

SOOOO HAPPY

I am so contentedly happy tonight.  The only fly in the ointment, and I mean the ONLY one are my eyes.  They have become a tad worse over the last few days.  More and more up close stuff is becoming harder to focus on and keep it from becoming double.  Further than a room distance is fine, its just up close.  But other than that my life is so good right now.

My children are on their way here to help this weekend.  Well, April, Myles, Monte and Peter are on their way.  Aryn would love to be here too but she just can't leave down there.  And I haven't heard from Kevin in ages.

A wonderful thing happened today!  I got a call from Amy my awesome real estate lady, and she had the keys to the townhouse early!!!  She came up and handed them over around two o'clock this afternoon.  So I hopped into Tank and barrelled down to check the place out.

It is truly perfect.  I have never wanted a big place.  This place is small enough to please me, but there is still plenty of room for family and guests and an Anton downstairs til he finds a place.

  My little nook is going to be spectacular.  I am putting the red dry sink I kept from Bamfield days in the nook with my tv on it.  My current kitchen recliner must go to the dump...and it will be going in pieces.  So after checking out my new home I trotted down to the Brick and bought a bright red pleather recliner.  My nook is going to be ....RED...and the chair arrives on Tuesday!!!!

I also bought an iron, a really pretty one, bed for the guest room!  I am also going to put my awesome baker's rack that matches it in that room.  Seeing as how this is my forever home (or at least until I hit the senior scene) I must make a proper guest room.  I never did that in this house.  What I didn't buy today were bunk beds.  I need  to look at them a little more before committing.  I am definitely going to be getting bunk beds for the other room, its just how much do I want to actually spend on them.  I have to think it over a little.

The only downside to this place is that due to its age (old timer) there is no water line to the fridge, and no way of getting one there.  So it will be old school pitchers of water and ice cube trays.  Or maybe, just maybe, I will 'run' to the 7 eleven next door and buy bags of ice!  And whilst there I shall maybe get some chicken, or a taquito, or a hot dog, or a slurpee, or a bag of chips or a cup of coffee and a donut...just what a fat broad with type 11 needs, a Sevy right next door!

On the counter when I went in were two very awesome things.  On one counter was a beautiful leather wine bag with a bottle of wine in it with a welcoming note from the previous owner.  Now that's class!  And....an enormous exquisite huge gift basket from Amy!  And she included a beautiful card.  I know that she and I are going to be friends.  We really hit it off.  I can't wait to open that gift basket.  I almost did right there on the spot.  But I decided to wait for Myles and April.  Its so much fun to share the experience!  I mean how often does one get a beautiful ginormous gift basket?  I will take pics tomorrow and share them here.

And...best of all, the place was cold!!!!  It has a working air conditioner!!!  The whole house was a lovely chill.  I am so spoiled!!!

So now I am ready for the kids to get here, they just texted and they are in Merritt.  I am one happy camper tonight!  TTYL

OUT MY WINDOW EARLY THIS MORNING

MY NEW HEART OF THE HOUSE

MY NEW GUEST BED