Boxelder bugs

 Apparently, the bugs from the previous photo are boxelder bugs and glomping together is something that they do. 

Today I woke up late and so had to launch right into my day and didn't get breakfast until lunchtime due to the busy activities of the morning.

Dinner was bunless turkey bruchetta burgers which I thought were quite good, though I didn't put onion or oil in my bruchetta.

Cousin Tammy rescued a dog from Romania. Not the dog she received. But they still seem to love him even if he was not what was expected. They named the wrong dog "Big Dave" and he clearly has been through so much and they are pouring lots of love into him. It is interesting to see how he changes even after only a few days.

the day that flying ants loose their wings

 Friday was the day that I say the flying ants loose their wings. One this one day in the year my laundry gets covered by these ants. Luckily the laundry was whites so they were pretty easy to pick off. I put the laundry in the dryer for a few minutes after to bake off any that I missed.

Saturday and Sunday switched to these beetles. They often were singly on the door but the new thing was these "balls" of them on dead leaves. Some were black and red, some were red and black, some were just red. Admirable variety if they weren't so creepy.

Close up of a "ball"

Seeing geese flying south. Fall has arrived.

Hand me down

 

I now can wear James' hand me downs and got a nice jacket out of it.

Today I took a vacation day today after the long days of the last 3 weeks. Went to Lake Ontario park. Lots of chipmunks and ducks!

starting a fire

 This week was excessively busy, just working and sleeping. I thought yesterday that I was about to come up for air but then everything went sideways today.

Walking in the morning I saw what looked like a plume of smoke. Not a large plume, but smoke nonetheless. Then I saw the smoke start to creep across the parking lot. Then I heard the sirens. I think it had pretty much burned itself out (whatever it was) pretty quick, but the firetruck arrived quickly. It was classified a "vegetation fire" and it the call took 13 minutes so not a big deal but certainly man instigated.

one good sleep

 I slept very well last night. Makes such a difference to the day. I felt much better.

Tomorrow is the maxsold pickup. Looking forward to space in the basement!

lack of sleep

 

I don't have dogs but everyone in the house is still alive. lol.

Clara came in yesterday and we went to a Japanese restaurant where I had an udon noodle bowl. As I couldn't use chopsticks I had a spoon but it was a flat spoon so the eating was a challenge but I overcame! It was good.

Today I went with Clara and Peter to move in. It was much smoother than any previous move in, well organized. 

Earlier in the week the smoke detector battery expired and woke me up in the middle of the night. Do these batteries only expire in the middle of the night.

The maxsold closed so I have to make up the lots tomorrow. I also have to finish the contracts for Tuesday.

As it goes

 

The stress of putting the maxsold together + the stress of work created an interesting phenomenon.

I have a double authentication device that I need for work. Yesterday I left the bag with it in it at home and had to leave all my SOLUS work until today. In 3 years of having the device I have never forgotten it before. THEN I got home today and found that I had brought the bag home but the device was not in it, it must still be at work. Wednesdays I work from home so I'll need to bike in early tomorrow to go and pick it up. 

In other news the maxsold is up here: Bid Gallery | Kingston (Ontario, Canada) SELLER MANAGED Charity/Fundraising Online Auction - College St. (maxsold.com)

Electrician

 The electrician is coming tomorrow morning to try to find the source of the missing ground. Hopefully, this is a successful venture.

Mike is also planning to stop by tomorrow morning.

I am off on the morning as we have a webinar in the evening.

Today Sarah and I went to see Darlene in the hospital after Church. She has a great view of the lake despite the circumstances.

Then I did some work in the basement organizing books. Also got in the laundry from the line and mowed the lawn. Cleaned the upstairs bathroom. Will aim to clean the downstairs bathroom tomorrow.

slow progress

 I have been working through the house in preparation for the maxsold. I completed the kitchen and linen closet this week and today finished the upstairs bedroom. I still have to go through books, the garage and dining room. Al is coming to help me take pictures this week.

The neighbours had a pretty large party tonight but has wrapped up now. 

A few storms blew through. The grass needs a mow as it is looking raggedy but it will be too wet for a while!

Surprise visitor

 Mike drove from N.B yesterday unplanned. Arrived at our place around dinnertime. Luckily I had put a whole turkey breast in the slow cooker and so there was more than enough dinner for everyone. I made rice and wedges to go along with it.

I had so much cardboard from cleaning out the basement that I had my 2 bins full + 4 cardboard boxes full. Apparently they don't take cardboard boxes with things in it, they only take the bins. As they did my side of the street first my neighbour suggested refilling the bins and putting them with their recycling so that I could get 4 bins worth out!

basement progress

 Today was a long day of interviews with another day tomorrow to go. James is happily set up in his new room. Today I cleaned where his bed used to be and started putting maxsold items in that cove.

The plumber came today to fix the basement sink. He made quick work of fixing it.

room progress

 Rustle went well today. I was hosting. Then came home and watched Elevation. Then spent a lot of time cleaning the downstairs bedroom. When James got home from golf and his camp meeting and had his dinner he started his work on putting the room together. It is coming along!

planning to sleep well tonight

 Woke up at 5am. Cleaned the bathroom. Hung laundry but it didn't last too long as it started to rain around 10am. Did lots of loads of laundry. The main task today James and I worked on cleaning out the downstairs bedroom. It is almost clean now. One more day of cleaning and he should be able to move in. Tomorrow am hosting at Rustle so it will be a busy day!

boots

 There has been a little rabbit hanging out in the backyard and it has white feet and white paw hands so I called him "Boots". Today Boots expired on our driveway. A sad day for me as I miss Boots.

A good laundry drying day.

Lots of emails and working on a report on the groups from last year for the second year people.

Tomorrow I have to set up the interviews for Monday and get contracts into Finance. No time for email tomorrow. Haha.

James and I are working on clearing out the bedroom in the basement as he has decided he wants to move there.

Made a Japanese stir fry. I was a bit worried when I started as I clearly hadn't read the ingredients before I ordered it as it had both sticky rice and snap peas which I try to avoid both. But it turned out well. I did a better job of getting the stringy bits out of the snap peas which made them turn out much better and they fried up quite nicely.

James went to the counsellor today and said it went well.

Million dollar smiles

 Building a playground for 2 little girls with our egroup.

We also packed meals for people in countries in need with kids against hunger: https://www.kahcanada.org/ 

Nice to see them all in person again!