Wildlife attraction

There still seem to be dead wasps arriving on my sill. Not impressed.

This morning when I was in the bathroom, I heard a thump. I was brushing my teeth so I went out of the bathroom and looked around the house. A squirrel had eaten through the screen and was looking at me from the bat window. He paniced a bit when I was close to him. But I went to spit (as I was still brushing my teeth) and then came back slowly and he then gained enough composure to run back out the hole he made. Also not impressed!

gymnastics qualifying

Today James had a soccer tournament - they ended up coming 2nd.

The number of wasps has been reduced but not cleared yet. I have a lot of work to do in the kitchen now. I wait until it gets dark before I do anything.

I watched the women's gymnastics qualifying. The US is miles ahead of everyone. The Canadians missing qualification was heart breaking- too many mistakes.

Creepy kitchen

As there are still many wasps dying in my kitchen I try to avoid it as it is pretty creepy. I only wash the dishes after it gets dark.

My thermostat keeps telling me that I need to change its battery but I haven't found it yet. (like it is weird, it is a voice that talks)

So the numerous creepy things in my house.

James cleared out his bookcase of books that are too young for him so when Nat and Karrie and Abigail come by they can have first crack at if they want any of them.

Yesterday I did some lawn sprinkling and the lawn has perked up today. James just realized that we have a sprinkler and wanted to have a run through it today but today is an even day so I told him he could have a run tomorrow.

The war on wasps

When you have wasps making a nest in your house, my advice is not to try to tackle it yourself, call a professional.

After a few days of having wasps invade the kitchen, today I called St. Laurence pest removal. They arrived within half an hour and spent 10 minutes first spraying insecticide and then adding a "dust" that I don't really understand but they assured me that it would kill the whole nest because they would track it in and out or something. Only $100 for this speedy service.

So now the wasps are still coming in sometimes but they are convulsing and dying. They say it will take 4 days to kill the whole nest. I can't wait. They are very creepy. Literally.

Vacation

Went to St. Catharines and hung out with my parents for a bit. Came back and my work had built up. Then on Sat I hung out with Clara and on Sun I went with Kim to her Church in the evening and an internet friend who I have known for about 15 years was there. I had never met her in person, so that was really neat! It was like we knew each other right away. It was a beautiful time. Have spent lots of time fighting wasps as they made a nest in a hole at the top of the kitchen window. They are not nice. At all.

Lily before vacation and Lily after vacation.

 

Shopping drama

This morning I was up at 6am, did a wee bit of lawn sprinkling to dry to keep the deadness out, got some laundry running, had a shower and was off to Loblaws at 7am. I was doing my shopping and as I got near to one aisle I could hear some swearing. Now, normally when you go shopping early in the morning it is pretty quiet. But not this morning. I walked by the aisle that the noise was coming from and it was an employee stocking the shelves. He had his cart blocking the aisle and was clearly unhappy with how the stocking was going. Luckily I didn't need any of what he was stocking as I think they may now be broken as he was throwing them around a bit. After I passed the aisle I heard a huge explosion of swearing (maybe the shelf fell) that could not have been missed by most people in the store. I could see the manager in consultation with someone else so he seemed to be aware as well. As I was checking out I heard the manager tell someone else that it was not a good day (maybe for the swearer)

After I got home, I unloaded the groceries, hung the laundry then went out again to the dollar store as I needed some food for Kassie (she prefers the dollar store brand to the expensive food- I am not complaining!) and some treats for the trip to St. C.. On the way there all sorts of emergency vehicles had converged outside Canadian Tire on Princess St.. There was a motorcycle lying on its side so there must have been some sort of accident. The rider seemed shaken up but ok. He had been wearing a helmet.

BLT salad

James had a great time at camp this week. He had a number of interesting stories to tell, the most dramatic being a the kid who overdosed on Tylenol.

 Tomatoes and mini cucumber

 Lettuce

 With arugula

 Cooking the peameal bacon

Salad with the cucumber

 Mixed

With mayonnaise and  lime dressing

 with the bacon

 and tomatoes

 and bowtie ciabatta that I toasted in the bacon pan

 It turned out very well- much yum!
The recipe card said it would take 15 minutes and I think it took me 30. It was classified as easy and I would agree on that! Easy and yummy!

korean bbq is spicy!

 The beef marinate smelled yummy!

 Carrots

 Purple cabbage

 Missed taking a picture of the grated pear!
It did not take long at all to make the stir fry. The meat only took a few minutes, then the veggies 5 minutes. Stir fry on rice:

 With Korean BBQ sauce and crispy fried shallots

The recipe card listed this meal as medium difficulty but I found it was one of the easier ones. It listed the prep time as 30 minutes- it probably took me 45minutes.

cool beans

Despite being in the peak of registration season, I had a vacation day to take today. Got my hair cut and did some shopping. Tried to catch up on all my personal email.
Tonight am making beef bulgoli stir-fry so look for a post about that soon.

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