watering

As it is an odd numbered day I could do some lawn sprinkling. As soon as I turned on the sprinkler, a chickadee came and sat on the laundry line that it could drink the water that ends up there as the line is in the sprinklers path. Also a number of robins arrived as soon as I turned it on. So clearly the sprinkling is making my backyard a popular one with the birds.

My baby bird is spending the week at HMI hockey camp at St. Laurence. He was quite happy with it all as he is in his element.

Good worms

This evening my lawn was a hotbed of robin activity. There were about 6 that seemed to be a family hanging out for most of the evening. Guess there were some good eating worms. I like to think that has to do with me sprinkling the lawn on odd numbered days but who really knows with robins. It looks like they have been successful nesting somewhere in this neighbourhood.

We had another day of summer orientation that was very successful. I am pretty tired as I didn't sleep well last night.

The voice of addiction

I was hoping this morning that the neighbour's dog wouldn't wake me this morning with his barking at 5:30am. He didn't! Instead there was a firetruck that went by at 4:45am. Sigh.

As I walked to Loblaws this morning a beautiful well-put together young lady caught up to me  and asked me to purchase her some beers. She was on her way to work as a server and said that the beers would make her more "friendly". While I told her I wouldn't buy her the beers I talked to her for a bit about some other options and tried to give her some confidence, it didn't make a difference as the voice of addiction is louder than any other voices for her right now. My heart went out to her though. I hope she will see the way out before it is too late.

Homeless

With the advent of the nice weather there are more people overnighting in Victoria Park. One was sleeping on this children's ride when I walked into work. When  I walked home only his pillow was left.

When I walked down Princess St. there were 12 people looking for handouts in 2 blocks (I counted). That is a bit overwhelming with the need. How could you give to one and not to all?

Sprinkler

Yesterday I picked up a cheap sprinkler at Van der Voort. The ones at Canadian Tire were very solid but were about $40. This was more of a commitment to getting the lawn wet than I was willing to make, so I picked up a flimsy one instead. It worked though and the lawn got a bit of a sprinkling. We can only sprinkle on odd numbered days.

The robins seemed to be happy with the sprinkling and happy to hang out in the backyard.

At work the days are full of registration issues!

coat 2

Painted the final coat

Before

After

Impact

The rain has held off so far. Went to Food basics and picked up some basics (haha). On the walk home there was a bad accident at Queen and Barrie. Another one of those accidents that it is hard to figure out how it physically happened. It looks like a black car turning left hit a green extra tall van and in hitting it, pushed it back from the intersection and flipped it on its side. Gillian always warns people to stay away from SUVs or tall vehicles because of their high center of mass. That likely made the accident worse than it needed to be. Not a good scene.

Going to start the next coat of paint now!

coat 1

Had some yogurt for breakfast and then started painting around 8am. Finished the walls that I planned to paint- the North and West walls in the basement and the stairway downstairs. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. Will put another coat on late afternoon.

Heading to Rustle now- depending on the weather will go to Food Basics after. Looking like rain right now.

Chicken and smashed potatoes

This is from Wednesday

 Peach mojito salsa- with peaches, jalapeno, lime juice and corn (added later)

 Smashed potatoes with spinach and sour cream

 Final dish! Thumbs up.

Clouds

Clouds just now:

Primer 1

I had planned to paint the walls with a paint that included primer but because Kim's patch job had not been primed yet, I needed to do a full prime of it. I found a $10 can of primer at Canadian Tire so instead of painting today I am priming- both the part that Kim patched and some other areas that needed extra help.

When I woke up it was rainy but it cleared off quickly and there is a good breeze so the laundry is drying quickly!

trials

I am now watching the US gym trials.

This evening I washed down the walls in the basement in preparation for painting tomorrow. Kim patched a hole for me that needs to be painted over and the walls have lots of scuff marks from balls and pucks, so it will be nice to have a few fresh walls, ready for new puck marks!

Atlanta

With the US Olympic gymnastic trials starting tonight I have been thinking back to Atlanta 1996. A fantastic experience. The Atlanta community was great- it was an Olympic community. People on the public transport were very friendly and people talked about what sports they were seeing/had seen. Security was very high. You went through at least one checkpoint into every venue (more if the US president was going to be there), and time a car pulled over to park inside the Olympic area, it was immediately searched before being allowed to park. The garbage cans were all disposable and the crews went around frequently replacing them. In spite of this, a bomber managed to get through. But that didn't touch us as we were about an hour out of Atlanta at the time and left at 4am heading back to Canada without even hearing the news. The Olympic park that he hit was a beautiful place - I hope they restored it after.

The events themselves were very well run with excellent gymnastics, it is hard to describe.

I loved walking in Atlanta, it was steaming hot but fascinating. As there was a lot of time in between events we did lots of sightseeing, all over the downtown Olympic area, Stone Mountain, Marietta and a plantation.

chilli rubbed steak

My parents came through on Sunday- it was nice to see them again!

Monday was a busy day at work as the 3 day weekend had some buildup of issues. Today I had a vacation day. I went to Loblaws in the morning to pick up fresh bread but they didn't have the kind that I was hoping for. Disappointing Loblaws!

 I made Chilli rubbed steak thanks to chef's plate. Not disappointing!:

The rice was Spanish rice with tomatoes and onions. Steak and green beans was added on top and the green pepper sofrito was the final touch. They said it would be a green pepper sauce but it wasn't saucy at all, but it all worked together quite well!

night drama

Wednesday night/early Thursday morning, James woke up with a sharp pain in his chest. As it wasn't getting any better, he got a trip to the ER. He was quite upset so they escalated him pretty quickly. They checked his heart and lungs and did an ultrasound of all of his internal organs and everything checked out, so they surmised that it was just an inflammation of a muscle. He had some advil and tylenol. Once he realized he was ok, he was fine and woke up with no lingering pain. He was advised to not do sports for a couple of days so he missed soccer practice. They didn't have school on Thursday so he slept until noon. I still went to work and got the block load of classes done. Today is Canada day so a day off. I finally completed the dreaded task of cleaning the bathrooms. My plan to clean the whole house room by room is not progressing well as I mainly work on maintaining but am hoping I can get ahead this weekend!