On your mark, get set, GO!!!!!!!.........

I was witness to a crazy sale yesterday! Huge line ups. There was a line at the door waiting for this store to open up at 8am. We were there just in time! You could feel the tension and anticipation as the doors were being opened. Was this the opening of a brand new designer purse store? Perhaps my fav, Fluevog shoes were opening up a new store..no, we were at a hardware store that was closing! Yes, the tension and giddiness was from all the men that were there. When the doors opened, I was instructed to head off to the right to look for the deck railings we had come for. "Mad dash" wouldn't even come close to describing it. Men and their wives/partners  were running all over the place. I have to admit, I did briefly stop to look at patio furniture. BUT, I soon refocused to the task on hand. Bingo! Found the railings!  Now, where was my husband? As I scaned through the railings I noticed they aren't in the colour we wanted. We wanted white. These were beige. Hmmmm. Oops excuse me, Taupe! Finally, my husband made it and saw the colour as well. We stood for a second and decided since they were 50% off, we were going to love the Taupe.  "You stay here and I will go grab a cart." I stood there and realized I was being circled by other men thinking maybe Taupe will be the colour choice. Now, do I throw myself on top of all these railings and do-dads that go with it? What is normal when men go to a sale? One man actually had his hands on one of the railings. Awkkk. How long does it take to get a cart? I see him and he is with a cart, but has taken a turn down another aisle to look at screws. I eyeballed him and said, with my eyes, get over here, we have competition for these railings. Hey, it worked! He came over and the two men started to casually grab things before the other one. The other man was asking my husband questions about what he might need. He came with a list, my husband came with a list. He was supposed to get white, but changed to Taupe, same with us! I thought this was going very well, until the man went to put his goodies in a pile nearby. My husband leaned over and said "I wish that man would just F*@# off". Oh, this is turning nasty! The other man returned with his list to grab more things. They were both looking for some attachment. They couldn't find it at all. We stood there looking for it and the man took his stuff away. I picked up something from the shelf and my husband grabbed it and said "Yes, Yes, this is what we are looking for. Quick, hide it on our cart so he won't see it." Then he made some sort of evil laugh noise. Good god! We got our things and went to stand in line..and stand in line...and stand in line. 1 hour and 1/2 later  we left the store. We piled all our railings and he went to get the truck to load it. While standing there guarding the pile, a women looked it over and said "oh new curtains for the house?" "No, railings for a new deck." Then she said "Nothing for you?". I told her "this is for everyone in the family".  Along came our truck. I noticed he was kind of blocking someone from getting out. I informed him of this and he said "I don't care, he can get out." Man this sale brings out the animal in men. Of course, I am sure I wouldn't be any better should I be at a shoe sale or purse sale. Mind you, I would have left the husband at home.  Anyway, we brought our goodies home, proud knowing we saved 50%! We unpacked the truck. Looked at all we had and made a list of the things we still had to get. Since this was a store closing, they didn't have everything. List was made. The next words out of his mouth, stunned me! "Let's go back to see if we missed getting anything." Seriously? Waited for the "ha ha I'm kidding" to come out..nope. We got back into the truck and went back to that sale. Thankfully, it was only a 25 minute drive there. We actually did find more things and the line up wasn't so big. Then we went to another hardware store to buy screws and order the remaining parts that are missing. In 2 weeks we should have all the railings up. We are putting off ordering the glass for now. Have to let our credit card calm down a bit!

What?!

Went to get my nails done today. It was a great day of spending it with my daughter. She is off to University at the end of the month..sniff sniff, and we decided to spend the day just the two of us. She is very much a tomboy and wasn't having any of that nail stuff. But, she was happy to sit beside me while I got mine done. We were standing at the counter to ask about getting them done,  when I noticed a lady seated, getting her nails done. She stared at me like she knew me from somewhere. I had never seen her before. We were told to come back in 45 minutes. So, we went shopping. Upon our return, the lady continued to stare at me. My inside voice was saying "what are you staring at?". Being the lady that I am...I hear that snicker from those that know me...I didn't say anything. I was getting my nails done and chatting when I asked my daughter if she noticed this women staring at me. It wasn't a hard core stare, just a glance from time to time. In order to glance at me, she had to swing her body around to do so. Strange. After mentioning it, my daughter did notice it. She leaned over and said "maybe she is jealous of your nails!". Hmm that's not it. She is getting the same thing done. (Here would be a good place to mention I get the ole fake nails put on)  " I know, she is admiring your shirt and is probably wondering where you got it?"  I pondered that thought, then came up with another one. "Oh god, I bet she donated this top to the second hand store that I got it from and keeps thinking it looks familiar!" THAT, my friends, would probably be the reason I was being stared at!! Wouldn't that be funny?  I never did find out, but that lady's staring soon got replaced with 3 workers standing around my little table talking with the women that was doing my nails. They were not speaking English and I got a bit paranoid that this was her first time doing it. In the end, it all turned out lovely. I now have nice "natural" looking nails.

that 4 letter word!

Got your attention didn't I? Well my, now not liked, 4 letter word is RENO(S). and I am not talking Reno Nevada!  Mine has to do with the many renovation projects we have going. We have been doing renovations on this house since 2006 for that is when the bathroom window leaked! Of course, my husband wasn't home at the time. The water was pouring down the bathroom wall and collecting in the ceiling of the kitchen. I phoned him a panic and he said I had to put a hole in the ceiling and put a bucket under it to collect the water. Oh, I put a hole in it alright. Got a screwdriver and went to town! Who knew I had that much frustration built up?!  When my husband got home, he sort of mentioned that maybe I went a bit too crazy with opening up the ceiling to let water out. That, my friends, was the start of our renovations. We replaced all the windows in the house, and while you are without windows, you may as well take down all the siding and put on more insulation. New basement windows required us to build up the frame a bit better and larger. THAT caused us to notice that the insulation under the window was soaking wet! Rip down the drywall in the basement to find that cause. While the walls were naked, we may as well build a bedroom down there!  Can you see this pattern that has emerged with us? It is never ending. We also decided to make our kitchen larger and rip out the already cracked tiles. The only way to make our kitchen larger, would be to take down the wall between the family room and kitchen. Our goes that window, out goes that large stone fireplace.  I am happy to say, the kitchen is done! Well almost. The small bits and pieces need to be done, like the floor trim. Our renovations have moved to our front deck! In order to do the windows in the living room, we needed to tear down the front deck. It was full of rotted wood anyway. Now, we are building a new one. I am at then end of my renovation, tattered rope about now. The sun is beating down on our little heads in the afternoon and  the snipping at each other is in full swing by 3pm!  When all is done, I am going to stomp my feet until I turn blue, demanding a nice beach vacation! Not too much to ask for the past 6 years of blood, sweat, tears and swearing!  Now off to the local hardware store for more bits and pieces for the deck. Yup..still smiling!!!

What?!

I told you things happen to me that people often think couldn't possibly be true. Well, yesterday I had such an event! A friend of mine and I were standing waiting to enter a show. It was hot and we were glad to be standing on some cement steps out of the heat and there was even a bit of a breeze. We didn't mind the wait at all! As we were standing there my friend suddenly hopped up one step towards me. She looked at the lady that was sitting down on the next step, and asked if she wanted her to move. I guess this women had been crowding her. The lady just said "no". So we chatted some more and then she decided to move to the stop above me, leaving the step below empty. Well, that was great for this other lady, cause she moved closer to my step and kind of sprawled out. Here comes the weird bit! I was standing there talking some more and I felt someone grab and hang onto my ankle. It passed and it took me a second to realize that wasn't normal. But, not to worry, cause the moment came again. Yup, that is indeed someone hanging on to my ankle. I looked down and saw it was the lady behind me. She said "sorry" and turned her back to me and talked with her family. My friend was killing herself laughing at this, cause it only happens to me! I put my right foot up onto the step ahead of my and then realized that I better put it back down or else that lady would take more of my space. OMG, she had. There, where my foot was, was her hand. Really? Are you kidding me? So, I put my foot down near her hand and slid it more to the right as to move her hand along out of the way! That was the weirdest wait I have ever encountered. Dare I blame the heat we have been having? OH sure, why not?!

Photo...gone..

Sorry, but couldn't stand the large photo..it was kind of in your face. I will some day figure this all out and post photos that aren't larger then life! :)

Stinkin hot!

We are currently having a bit of a heatwave. Not only does this cause some major thunderstorms at night (which i hate..seriously..I hate those things), but it also causes this chick of the menopause era to swelter to death. I swear, the ceiling fan can't go fast enough sometimes. The windows are open, until the dogs in the neighbourhood start their barking fest, and the coyotes join in! My poor dog, is panting more then I am and has a fear of the ceiling fan. So, she doesn't know where to go at night. We are a good team, she and I. I tried to help her by putting a nice cool cloth on her head. She tried to get away from me and ended up smelling, well, like a wet dog. We do live near a canal that we could walk to and dunk her in (bad grammar..I know), but the walk back to the house would be just cruel. We would both be sweating and frankly, gross by the time we got back to the house. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the warm weather, but I don't do well in the stinkin hot weather. Bring me more Spring like temps or even Fall like temps. Those are nice to cope with. My internal temperature guage has never worked properly. I seem to take on whatever the temperature is. If it is cold, well, by golly, I get cold! Funny talking about how I can't cool down properly in this heat, and yet, my photo is of Palm Springs. Must be because everything there is air conditioned, not the outdoors obviously, but everyone has a pool! There's my solution! We have been doing a lot of renovations, why not add a pool to the mix. Hmmm, I see my husband is sitting on his tractor digging an area which is to become our front porch, why not head out there and suggest he do some more digging in the back yard. Couldn't hurt. By the time we have the hole dug and the pool put in, I will be writing about how it is -30 and bloody cold!! Can't win! Keep cool everyone!

Photo

Like the photo?  I told you I would play with this blog and see if I can download photos. Didn't realize just how huge the photo would end up being. Have to adjust that somehow. Anyway, the photo was taken when we were in Palm Springs. I love that place. I suggested to my husband that we retire there. (bloggers note...not that we are nearly old enough to retire!), and he said there were too many golf courses, not enough archery ranges!  I have been very lucky in life because I have traveled and seen so many places. Each one of them, I seem to want to live in. (bad grammar..I know..sorry mom).  My favourite place is also Scotland. I can picture myself living in a small village and everyone knowing everyone. Much like the TV series Doc Martin. Full of quirky characters. I know that series isn't filmed in Scotland, but some place like that must exist there. I have been to the tropics, as well. Got completely roasted sitting on the beach. I have a photo, which I will NOT be posting, of me in a bright pink bathing suit and my arms and legs matching the colour perfectly. That was a very long plane ride home I can tell ya.  So, enjoy the photo, cause it may change again soon. I am restless like that.