vision

James' new bed came today and he mostly put it together himself and is working on rearranging his room. I keep asking him what his vision is.

School of English graduation was good. I think my mother would have liked to have taught there as it was a very positive atmosphere.

clogged

I was too tired yesterday to write much but the pickup was fun because James was really into it. He liked scratching off the pickups and we played ball in between the pickups so that made it fun. He helped an adult with the loading of the bed as his minivan was a bit small for it, but they made it work.

Tomorrow I am filling in for Lynann in the afternoon at a graduation for the school of english. I maybe need to give a speech.

In the morning I need to get the hiring for Mod1  sorted out, a ranking list posted for my mod 3 TAs, the rescheduling sorted out and I have to give Sally a pile of work to do. I am running at a clip now!

Pickup

 Bed deconstruction

 Before pickup

 After pickup

Feels so good to be done. Then made pan roasted lemon chicken and smashed parmesan potatoes. Very goos!

whirlwind

Today there were firetrucks that woke me around 5am. At work I had to work double time as there was so much to do, but I did manage to get the projects posted for the PMs to look at. Then getting ready for the auction pick up!

What a difference a day makes

In Texas- before

After

Some of my texas friends have posted similar floody pictures, but in true texas fashion, did not evacuate.

The auction successfully finished with some unprecedented bids on things and some not so much, but overall it made $1080. Not bad at all. Now I have to get everything in line for the pickup!

The wedding

Mady's wedding was today- a beautiful celebration!

I did a lot of shopping, didn't accomplish much in the house, but it was a good day because of the wedding.

shopping

Today I went to a large shopping blowout that occupied one of the rinks (devoid of ice) at the Cat community center. It was huge for a pop up (only 5 days). They seemed to be doing brisk business but there was no line up. I got 2 pairs of shoes from a brand that I was interested in. They didn't have the style I wanted in the size I wanted so I ended up with some sparkly black ones and some brown canvas ones -$25/pair. Their sizing was different than normal for me so it was good that I went in person.

Also went to Walmart and stocked up on some things- got some binders for James but he didn't like the purple one as he said it was a girl colour. It looked a darker purple in the store.

aliens in the backyard

I was woken at 3:30am in the morning by an odd bubbly noise. The best way to describe it is the sound of aliens. lol. It was a family of skunks.

I worked late today to try to get students schedules together. Hope to actually get to work on setting up the courses soon!

Where's the beef

Bought a huge pork roast(?) at Food Basics for $7 and have gotten many meals with it, it was very nice - I was pleasantly surprised!

This weekend is called "combine weekend" for James' hockey team. I haven't figured out why but they began their practice again. They skated so hard Friday night one boy threw up. Badge of honour.

James cut up his broken hockey sticks with a saw. He had fun!

Toilet

The upstairs toilet had been having a lot of issues for some time and this morning it was replaced so that is good as it had been bothering me.

I managed to mow the rest of the lawn- there was 3/4 of the back that I needed to mow and I needed to dump the clipping bag 6 times so it had grown quite healthily.

The mosquitoes had been quite bad in the back but today there was quite a bit of wind and it was hot so there weren't any to be seen while I was mowing.
:#0
Tonight the women's US gymnastics nationals is on at the weird time of 10:30pm. It is going to be live streamed so I hope I can stay awake to watch.

Today was a long day due to interviews

Super long day so I bring you pictures from the last few weeks

 Kim made me a cake because she likes green

 Many machines working by campus

 Thai mango chicken was a repeat. Chef is on vacation. The other meal last week was also a repeat. Didn't take pictures.

 Picked up this Farmer's breakfast from the Grocery basket on day for lunch. I didn't know what I was in for when I ordered it but it was very good and very filling. Farmers would be proud.

 Clouds

New traffic lights coming Division and Union

 Grilled chicken tandoori skewers

 Salad

 chicken on a pita

 with lemon yogurt

 and cilantro

 Two cheese beef lasagna

 James liked the pasta

But wouldn't eat the sauce.

Auction

The maxsold fundraising auction went live today: http://maxsold.maxsold.com/auction/kingston-ontario-canada-seller-managed-fundraising-online-auction-college-street-6223

My plan to mow the lawn today did not work out as it bucketed with rain. Maybe tomorrow.

Went shopping with James for pants. He got some pants for school and one fancy pair for hockey. They were from Sears and weren't too expensive so if he doesn't wear them like the $100 under armor ones!

Ready to launch

The maxsold auction is ready to launch tonight.A mixture of excitement and trepidation.

I have been working on mowing the lawn in parts as it has been so wet and the lawn has grown so high. On Saturday I got half of the front done and then ran out of light. On Sunday I finished the front and got 1/4 of the back done and I ran out of battery. I could have switched in a new battery but I had already done a lot of work so I thought I would leave it until another day. Which looks like today. It is a beautiful sunny day.

I have the day off work- a lot of housecleaning to do. James said that I "trashed" the house getting the auction ready. Which I likely did.
Got to catch up on my personal email, paperwork and bills!

BBQ

Yesterday was the Rustle BBQ, lots of work and lots of fun was had.

I finished the descriptions on the auction and hopefully it will be up in a few days.

This morning I woke early as there was a bird with an interesting call very load outside my window. It was a bird I hadn't heard before. I listened but it was gone. I thought I was awake for the day but I must have slipped back to sleep and didn't wake until 10am so I had to get ready speedily for Rustle!

354 photos later

After some intense work over the last few days, the 354 photos are sent in. They will send it back and I can enter the descriptions. Then hopefully it can open next week.

There are 6 bags of  garbage in the garage, so I managed to clear through a lot of things, which feels good.

Saturday we are having our neighbourhood BBQ. Lots still going on!

Photo day

Today I was taking the photos for the auction. I hoped to get all the photos done today but I spent 6 hours and am about 1/2 way through.

I took a break to make dinner and clean up and then I will try to get a few more hours in.

Last night around 2am some person was squealing their tires very loudly. It went on and on so they must have been doing it on purpose. Probably not doing the tires much good.

The chef's plate meals this week are ones that I have had before so the chef must be on holiday :)

The search for grape juice

On Saturday I remembered that we had finished the last of the grape juice for communion last Sunday so I thought I would pop out to Giant Tiger to pick some up. Interestingly GT had no grape juice. But it had broken people.

Sunday morning, I headed to Loblaws early and surprisingly it was difficult to find grade juice there as well! I did find a container though so was successful, but I didn't think it would be the challenge that it was.

Today I went to Loblaws before work as even though I went there on both Sat and Sun I still had forgotten things. Went to work to get some things done so I won't be overwhelmed tomorrow.

After I got home, I went through the whole of the garage. Made 5 garbage bags of stuff and got a bunch of things for the maxsold.

Then made dinner, then cleaned some of the things I had taken from the garage. Then watched the Bachelorette as a reward.

There was a very nasty crash by Sharbot lake. Very sad. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/collision-sharbot-lake-august-7-2017-1.4238212

Up again at 6am.

Joanna

It was nice to see Joanna again.

James wanted to play monopoly tonight. Luckily, I didn't pack it away to sell. lol.

Rustle went well in most respects.

Hope to work tomorrow and try to tackle the garage.

Evinrude

Picked up James. So tired after not much sleep this week. Taking a break from the auction for a night. Tomorrow aft going to Sarah's to see Joanna.

 Despite the speed of hockey players, cars were required to slow for them.

 James in the blue #3

 Rustlers everywhere

basement

Day at work then made spiced steak and chimmicurry sauce. Then made it through the rest of the basement. Still need to make lots and tackle the garage next.

 Chopped capers

 Chopped cilantro

 The chimmicurry paste/sauce. My father suggested it would be spicy and it was!

 The steak was spiced with santa fe spice. Cooked with the potatoes so they were a bit spicy as well. The potatoes took longer to cook than noted on the card. I thought I cut them up small enough but maybe they needed to be smaller.

 With green beans. This recipe was listed as a "medium" difficulty one but I didn't find it too much different than the "easy" ones this week. I seem to be getting quicker at making them as I am coming closer to their time estimates.

 While this may not look great, this is a big improvement on how the basement was before!