Paulette

I wake up early this morning.  I was hoping I would sleep in.   So where are we at?

My car has been fixed.  Dave brought it in while I was away.  It’s a relief to not see the reminder of that.   They got a rental for the 2 days it was in being repaired.  They put 25 KM on the rental.  HA HA HA HA

The solar heating is almost completely done.  They still have some things to tidy up.  The electrical wiring has been done so we now have a light in the shed and an outdoor plug.  The solar heating is working.  Even today it is heating it up.  It seems to get warm enough when the sun peeks out every now and then.  I love getting free heat!  I just wish the weather was more conducive to swimming.

The kitchen hasn’t changed.  We are still waiting for 3 upper doors.  One should be in next week.  The other 2 are on order.

The granite is in and will be installed on Thursday next week.

Our patio door blinds have arrived.  Dave will need to install those.

Dave has taken down most of the old metal shelves in the garage and given them away.  He has installed our old kitchen cabinets.  They are much better and will provide better storage for everything.  He is sorting through all of his tools, nails, nuts and bolts.  Now everything is arranged.  He still has a bit to do but it is already looking much tidier.

So there is still lots to do.  The closet has to be done.  The baseboards and quarter round need to be installed.   The taps will need to be installed after the granite.  We need to buy light fixtures for the kitchen and dining room (not to mention new furniture at some point).

Oh well, eventually we’ll get there.

Carla and I walked into the town of Stalida today.  What we thought would be a 1/2 hour walk ended up being about 1 1/2 hours.  We walked along the road.  We shopped along the way.  We didn’t buy much though.  It seemed to be the same touristy stuff at all the shops.

Soon it was lunchtime and we were hungry and tired of walking.  Carla spotted a place that looked like a restaurant but it had a pool.  We weren’t sure if we could use it or not so we asked.  Sure they said.  Have lunch, jump in the pool stay as long as you want.  We each had a salad and a drink.  The bread was delicious.  We soon learned that when they ask you if you want bread they are charging you extra for it.  I’ll remember that next time.

The pool was warm and we swam then lounged for a bit and then swam again.   After a couple of hours we figured we should start walking back.  Eva & Manoli will be wondering where we are!

We walked back along the beach.  We saw a lot of resorts and play areas.  We each bought an air mattress for our stay in Santorini.  We walked straight back to Eva’s because we were so late getting back.

Although Manoli had an evening planned for us we begged to stay home.  We had been on the move every minute since we got here.  After dinner, Carla and I walked down to the beach for a plunge into the waves.  We shopped a little more - how can you say no to a cute little purse for 3 euros!

Back at Eva’s we looked at her family albums.  We saw her wedding album, her son Anthony’s christening and heard many wonderful stories.  It’s been quite an experience staying with them.  I hope they get to visit us in Ottawa.

We had the floors redone.  They sanded down the old ones and added a very light stain.  Then they coated them with a water based sealer.

The floors look brand new!  We’ve had them done before but never with such results.

50+ year old floors, imagine that!

Dave spent more hours than he wanted to installing our fan. He had to crawl around the attic to vent it to the outdoors. Since we didn’t have a fan before he needed to make the vent opening and connect the pipes.

Our house has a low slopping roof. The attic is barely wide/high enough for someone to get into. Here’s where Dave spent the better part of an afternoon. Needless to say he wasn’t very happy. “I’m not going up there again” he said.

Unfortunately this isn’t the first time he has mucked around in there. Although we both hope it’s his last, never say never.

The fan looks good. We haven’t peeled off the protective plastic yet but it works great and the 2 lights are a bonus.

It’s slowly coming together. Still quite a way to go though.

The tulip festival is on in Ottawa. I haven’t been but I hope to get out sometime before the tulips are all gone.

I have my own little tulip festival going on in my front garden. Funny thing is we have lived here since 1991 and I don’t remember ever planting tulips. I don’t know where they come from but I suspect squirrels have something to do with it.

They are a very vibrant red.

We went to Mom & Dad’s tonight for supper. As always the conversation turns to the kids and how they are doing. Since both are buying their first homes and moving out they do need a lot of things.

Dad was going through their cupboards and asked if Brian and Kathryn would like any of their old stuff. Not knowing what the stuff was I said sure.

I mean how old can the stuff be?  Remember avocado green? Isn’t that from the 70’s?

Here is an old blender. We haven’t tried it yet.

Well it’s 24C out on April 18th and there is still snow left on my patio. I’ve never shoveled snow in my shorts & sandals before.

This is the year the snow just kept coming & coming (almost a record year). It didn’t seem to be leaving anytime soon. I needed to help it along so that we could enjoy our patio this weekend.

I shoveled snow from the pile to wherever there was no snow. When it melted I did it again. It worked.

I hope I never have to again.

We had a team building ski day at Mont Ste Marie. The conditions were hard. Not what we expected for early April. It was sunny and when sheltered from the wind it was actually quite nice. The patio at the base was warm enough to enjoy all day.

The main chair was running but Cheval Blanc was closed. Other than a handful of people we had the place pretty much to ourselves. This made it feel like our own little private ski resort.

Whether you were on the lift, skiing down the hill or sitting at the base you could see & be part of the action.

We had a special lunch of caesar salad, garlic bread, pizza, lasagna and cake. The food was very good and served quite promptly. No complaints and there was nothing left. Developers are good at finishing off food!

We had a fun race in the afternoon. Here I am at the starting gate. I’ve never skied a course before so I have no idea what I’m doing.

They gave out medals at the end of the day. I won a gold medal! OK I have to qualify that. I got a gold medal for the fastest time by a female skier. Considering that my only competition was another lady who was on skis for the first time (she won the silver) it really wasn’t much of an accomplishment but I’ll take it.

Here’s my first ever skiing medal:

Although the skiing conditions were not the best it was a fun day spending time on the slopes with co-workers.

It is April after all and it could have rained all day. We were lucky to have sunshine and not too cold weather.

Kathryn bought a yogurt maker. She uses goat’s milk when making her batch. It’s very good but a little expensive for all of us to eat, especially if we don’t need to.

I never realized this until now but she has never had whole milk. We always had 2% and lately we buy skimmed milk. She is off to shop and I ask her to pick up a liter of whole milk.

She comes home and reports that there is no whole milk to be had. The store had none. That sounds strange to me but then sometimes stores do run out. The next time I am out I pick up some whole milk.

“That’s whole milk? It says 3.25%?”

“Yes that’s whole milk. There’s 2%, then whole milk 3.25%, then table cream at 10% or 15%, whipping cream at 35% etc.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that was whole milk. They had tons of that at the store.”

We had a good laugh. I’m not sure what she expected the carton to show.

So the recipe for yogurt making is simple: milk and starter.

Pour the milk into a pan and warm it up to 180F. Let it cool to 100F then put the starter in a bowl and blend a little warm milk into it. Add the starter to the milk.

Pour all of this through a sieve into the yogurt maker. Turn it on and leave it for 24 hours.

Presto, you have a container full of fresh plain yogurt.

I’ve been having mine with fresh or frozen fruit and a dab of honey.

I get up this morning and I’m aching. My hand is sore from holding the big hammer that comes with the compressed-air nailer. The rest of my body is complaining mildly. It’s a good thing I get to go to work today and rest!

Tuesday night we are back at it. Oh my gosh we are finally finished! Now we have to put the kitchen back together.

It’s late, just after 11:00PM and Kathryn is hovering nearby.

“We are finished the floor. We’ll stop now and let you get to bed.”

“That’s OK. Keep going. I’ll sleep through the noise.”

She really wanted that kitchen put back together. So for the next hour we put the appliances back, washed and cleaned & hooked up the sink.

The dishwasher is full of dirty dishes but it has no power yet. Everything else seems to be working. The kitchen sink has hot & cold water.

Best of all - NOTHING LEAKS!