Long Weekend Projects

Back to work after a lovely long weekend. It came early this year, which I don't like because of the higher probability of cold weather. Saturday ended up raining a bit so it was a good thing we tackled our first project that day and stayed indoors cleaning the house. D's mom and some of her girlfriends were passing through town and had not seen the house, so they were going to be stopping by. Our house has not been this sparkling since we moved in! And it stayed clean for about a whole 24 hrs.

Sunday we started our biggest project of the weekend, new lighting for the kitchen and bathrooms! We have been waiting for a tax refund to be able to buy the lights and that, after a year, finally came in last week so we went shopping! The first store we tried to go to was closed, and the second one was too expensive but we found all 5 light fixtures we needed at Canadian Tire of all places. A couple were even on sale! We managed to get the first one installed before my parents came over for dinner that night (we thought we'd take advantage of the clean house and have everyone in). We almost installed 2 more on Monday but realized that we need a ceiling hook to complete the light over the kitchen table, so that will have to wait. for now, it is hanging so low that it is almost hiting the back of the chair. I'm not sure when we will be able to get to the bathroom vanity lights. Hopefully soon.

The last project this weekend was kind of impromtu. I went to the garden center with my neighbour T, just to have a look, and found some wonderful purple and white flowers. I planted them in some urns in the front of our house.

Eat my words

My earliest recollection of the phrase "Eat Your Words" is from the movie Puff the Magic Dragon, when the scary pirate tells the little boy that he will make him eat is words. At the time, I had no idea what that meant, but it sounded like a monumental task, and pictured a giant block letter A with a bite out of it. I always wondered what, exactly, words tasted like... chicken perhaps? Everything tastes like chicken...

But now, I am forced to eat my words. They actually taste like paper. A while ago I posted that April showers do not bring May flowers. Then this happened:

What are these flowers doing out??? Don't they realize that it is still going to get cold and snow and it will kill them? I privately mourned the little flowers and their untimely suicide. At least the trees were smart, they were with me, they hadn't started blooming yet. The trees are like adults, cynical, not believing the warm weather, waiting patiently for the inevitable late April snow storm. While the flowers are like children; wearing shorts and riding bikes, out there soaking up all the early sunshine. It is not even May yet, and there will still be more showers to come, but on Tuesday morning I came out of my house to find my tree had betrayed me, and was playing in the sun with all the kids.

So I will take my cue from the trees and the children, and start my summertime fun by planting a garden in our yard. Stay tuned for more on that.

April showers bring may flowers?

Does that include snow showers? This is what my world looked like on my way to work this morning.

Rain rain go away...

It's a rainy morning here in Ontario, but you know what they say - April showers bring May flowers! 

Well, not exactly...  Actually, I don't believe that for a second.  

Spring is my least favourite season. I know, I know, people are supposed to like spring. Yes, it does bring to mind Easter and baby chicks and tulips and the re-birth of everything that went dormant in the fall... and I like all of that and those thoughts do make me happy. However, along with all of that comes the seemingly never ending rain. It's always dark out, it's still cold, my hair goes frizzy and the freshly thawed ground turns to mush.

April showers bring May flowers?

I think spring and I could get along if it really only lasted a month, but around here it seems go on for more than 2 starting in April and not really ending until the middle to end of June sometime. Spring seems to have come early this year, it started warming up a couple of weeks ago. All of the snow is now gone from the ground and in its place is 5 months worth of road sand and dog poop. There are many streets that look like they don't even have grass along the road because it is completely covered in dirt and our yard is one giant toilet.  

We moved into our house at the end of last May, so we have not really experienced spring there, but I am not looking forward to the amount of mud that the dog will track into the house now that the ground had thawed and the rain started. Is there some variety of grass that will grow without sun and with all the abuse that the dog puts it through that can keep the mud outside where it belongs?

People are quick to remind me when I express my disdain for all things spring, that it's better than the snow storms. I disagree. After the rain all that's left behind is mud. Dirty dirty mud. Mud that gets all over the car, in the car, in the house, all over the dog and it's ugly, it's brown, everything is brown, the trees are still brown, the ground is brown, my white carpet turns brown. Brown, brown, brown and dirty. But after a snow storm, the world sparkles. Everything is blanketed in a clean white sheet and the trees are decorated with white ribbons and when the dog rolls around in the snow I don't have to take him home for a bath.

My dog hates having a bath.  In fact, he thinks I must be torturing him.  My scaredy-Jak is afraid of all things water.  A bath, the rain, the lake, it doesn't matter, it is scary.  This morning when I let him out to do his business, I opened the door, he stuck his nose out and took a step back.  Do you really think that I am going to go out there and get wet?  What are you, crazy?!? I'm not going out there!* Eventually he will go outside, but if he could cross his legs for the next 2 months, I know he would to avoid the rain.

As I finish this post the sun is peeking through the rain clouds and I finally see it.  I see the silver lining. The hope that comes along with all this muckyness. Summer is coming, it's right around the corner.  I just wish it would hurry up already!

*now that I have started this blog, I am going to have to start to take more pictures of him and his "you have got to be kidding me lady" expressions.

It's Official

We have officially changed the date of our wedding.  I'm not as panicky as I was last week.  Everything except the dress has worked out, and I'm sure that if the bridal store won't do the alterations, I will be able to find a custom dress maker to do it.  And I bet I could find one closer to home, the bridal store is over an hour away.  I have found a photographer that we are going to meet with this weekend, and they are the same price as the last one I found, but I think their photographs are better.  Also, for the same price, I get two photographers!  So they will be able to capture many more candid moments than any other photographer that we could afford.  I am really looking forward to meeting with them on Saturday.  I guess the next big thing we need to worry about is setting up our registry.  I'm thinking Sears and maybe the Bay.