You are in My World Now

I’m freezing!

Tricia — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:35:45 +0000

It’s cold here in Toronto today. Winter’s a comin’! Brrrr!

Geez, if I’m already hating the cold this much in early November I wonder how I’m going to get through January and February? Maybe I should buy myself a few lottery tickets and use my winnings (ha ha) to take one of those lovely warm orlando vacations ?

Hey, I can dream, can’t I?

I’ve been freezing for the last hour or so, just waiting for our furnace to come on. It finally did as I started writing this post. I guess I could have turned up the thermostat – but I didn’t want to do that. Instead I just piled on warmer clothes. Although I suspect once the furnace is done heating up the house I’ll be able to take my sweater off.

At least in the winter when it’s really cold out the heat comes on regularly. That’s one thing I hate about Autumn and late spring. The house cools more gradually so it’s a long wait at time for the furnace to come on. Oh well .. at least those months are better for our budget.

Is it cool in your area today too? What are you doing to stay warm?

I hate seeing my garden die down in the Fall

Tricia — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:20:40 +0000

Join

I used to love Autumn, but now that I garden there’s some sadness whenever fall arrives. I hate to see my garden die down for the winter. I know it’s part of a cycle, but I sometimes wish that I lived in a climate where my plants could bloom year round.

Hmm maybe this year I’ll be as successful as last with my indoor plants. Last year, between my garden plants blooming from late March until early December and my indoor plants (Orchids, indoor tropical hibiscus, Amaryllis etc) blooming from late December to April I had blooms all the time. It was lovely.

This is a picture of the Cosmo’s blooming outside my house in my planted boulevard. They’re starting to die down, but a few of the flowers are still stubbornly blooming.

I like how the petals of this rose, Yves Piaget, go wild as the flower begins to die down. Isn’t this a pretty rose? I love it’s color.

What’s blooming in your garden right now as we head for winter?

Getting ready for a whirlwind weekend

Tricia — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:38:13 +0000

Oh oh, my brother in law is coming to Toronto for a visit. He’s a great guy, but his visits really tire me out and uh, well, they don’t bring out the best in my husband as he and my husband turn into teenagers again. In other words they drink and party and live to regret it the next day. LOL

Luckily his visit will only be for about three days, so that’s not too bad.

I do have to remind him to smoke his cigars outside though. I actually don’t mind the smell of cigars, but not in the house as the smell lingers for days! I think he smokes Rocky Patel cigars but I’m not sure. He also brings American cigarettes when he comes to visit and I don’t like the smell of those in the house either. They have a much stronger smell than Canadian cigarettes.

Anyway … I guess we’ll have to get the house ready for his visit next weekend. His youngest son has a hockey tournament here, so i guess they’ll be out watching hockey most of the time.

Do you ever have house guests that turn your whole house upside down when they visit?

My neighborhood smells like cookie dough

Tricia — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:28:35 +0000

Every night when I take our dog outside for her final outing of the evening, usually around 11:30 pm, the air has a sweet scent. Almost sickeningly sweet.

I think I figured out what the smell is. We have a Peek Freans factory not too far away … maybe a few miles, and they must be cooking up batches of cookies or other PK products at that time of night.

I guess it could be worse … I could be smelling industrial products or something! Luckily it’s just a nice, if somewhat overpowering, sweet cookie dough smell. LOL

Do you live near a factory? If so, do you ever smell whatever they are making?

One good thing about living near a cookie factory is that they have an outlet store. We haven’t gone there for a few years, but when we last went there we bought BAGS of stuff … like enough cookies and chips and other items to last for months! It has amazing prices … 50% or more off cookies and other items. Hmmm maybe we should make another trip to the factory?

When we have gone on a shopping spree at the Peek Freans outlet store we don’t just get stuff for us … we give some of what we’ve bought to friends or family or I used to take some of the cookies to work for the other nurses and doctors to enjoy.

So much for going out on long walks!

Tricia — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:24:28 +0000

Now that the weather is getting cooler I was thinking of taking the dog out for long walks more often.

I have Crohn’s and my health isn’t all that good and walking in warm weather only seems to make me feel worse. However, we just found out some scary news about our new renter neighbors so I don’t feel good about leaving the house empty on a regular basis.

I’ve gained a little bit of weight while I’ve been off work due to my illness. Mainly because I feel so crappy most of the time that I’m just not active enough … but it’s only a little extra weight … I’m certain that if I could just get more active I’d be back in shape in no time. Certainly I don’t need a weight loss product just more exercise.

The trouble is that we learned the new neighbor has a history of breaking into houses! So uhm … it’s a good thing that I’m home almost all the time!

I guess if I do start going out for walks more often I’ll alter the times I go out so there’s no regularity to what I’m doing – just in case their keeping track. Doesn’t that suck that we have neighbors we can’t trust?

Online University – the new way to learn

Tricia — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:15:49 +0000

It’s no wonder that with the economy the way it is, more and more people have been taking courses and returning to school. I see stories in the news at least once a week about people who’ve been laid off work have returned to University.

If you have children, still have a job or have to work part time to pay the bills going back to University full time might be impossible for some people. Luckily there is a way for you to get an online degree. I’m talking about Western Governors University.

WGU is a respected University serving over 14,000 students. The University offers accelerated courses and their programs are accredited.

Western Governors University offers a wide range of programs. You could look into getting an online business degree in Business Management, Information Technology Management, Humane Resources Management, Marketing Management or Accounting just to name a few. Other programs that are offered online include their Online Teachers College, Information Technology and health Professions.

If you’ve been thinking of changing careers visit WGU and see if they have a course or program that interests you.

I might go to Cancun in February!

Tricia — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:49:21 +0000

My husband and I were talking to some friends of ours earlier today and they invited us to go with them on Vacation in February.

I haven’t been on a holiday for ages and I could sure use a change of scenery … especially in the dead of winter when it’s frightfully cold here in Toronto!

The only problem is that Chris and I are kind of cash strapped these days … although things have started to look a little better in the last week or so. Maybe by the time February rolls around we’ll be doing better financially?

The good thing about their invite is that they have a time share in Cancun and the house has extra bedrooms so it wouldn’t cost us anything for accommodations … we’d only have to pay for our airfare and for me at least some cheap travel insurance as I can’t travel without since I’ve been so sick lately!

We’ve tentatively said yes to their invite. They know our situation and understand if we can’t make it … but I’m hoping that things will work out. I’m sure we’ll have a great time.

Darn – we might have to share our tiny driveway after all

Tricia — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:39:42 +0000

I was starting to think that we probably wouldn’t have to split our driveway time with our new neighbors (the renters next store that replaced the previous redneck renters!), as I haven’t seen them driving a car since they moved in three weeks ago.

This is odd in itself, because when they were looking at the house next door prior to moving in they were driving a BMW and they told the owners of the house that they used the car in the summer and a truck or van in the winter …. but so far there’s been no sign that they are using a vehicle. Strange huh?

Anyway .. now I’m wondering if they were just storing a truck somewhere else as I saw the new neighbor carrying a box with all kinds of truck accessories or at least that’s what I think they were, into the house earlier today.

Well … if they have a truck lets hope it’s too big for our tiny driveway! I mean, it’s supposed to be a shared driveway but it’s so narrow that you can really only park a medium to small sized car in it … and at that, if the car is long it’s butt end sticks out over the sidewalk. Hey .. that’s what you get when you live in a house that was built in 1927 I guess. I suppose we’re lucky we even have a driveway.

Do you have a shared driveway at your house? How do you and your neighbor work out driveway time? With our last neighbors we switched every month and that worked out pretty good until they bought a mamoth of a car (a Lincoln) that really didn’t fit in the driveway … I mean I couldn’t even pass my garden hose around the car when I needed to water!

Yard sale browsing

Tricia — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:17:09 +0000

The weather was so nice this past weekend that my husband and I decided to spend some time walking around our neighborhood on Saturday morning peeking at yard sales.

We don’t have ANY extra money so we weren’t out to buy anything … even though I did see a few things that we could have used! One of the things that I saw, that I only wished I could have bought, were wrought iron candle sconces. They would have looked so nice in my dining room!

Do you ever go out and take a look at yard or garage sales in your neighborhood or perhaps local flee markets? It’s kind of fun. It always amazes me though at the things people try to sell .. like broken appliances. Why? Just throw them out if they really aren’t all that fixable.

Stuffed after a great Thanks Giving Dinner

Tricia — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:02:29 +0000

OMG I’m stuffed! I can barely move after eating a very filling and delicious Thanks Giving dinner.

Yes it’s Thanks Giving weekend here in Canada and it’s one of my favorite holidays. Hey .. any holiday where you get to eat turkey is a great one isn’t it? Yum!

Since it was just Chris and I for Thanks Giving dinner this evening I decided to cook a turkey breast rather than a whole turkey. While the turkey breast was roasting in the oven I made:

Mashed potatoes – I always add a tablespoon of Herb and Garlic Philadelphia cream cheese to the mashed potatoes as it makes them delicious.
Peas
Stuffing – I cheat and use Stove Top Stuffing. Hey it’s good!
Cranberry Jelly – another cheat, I used canned.

The only thing we didn’t have was dessert. I haven’t been feeling all that well lately so I certainly wasn’t up to making a pie from scratch and I forgot to add a Pumpkin pie (and light whipped cream) to the grocery list. So no pie – no dessert. Oh well, at least that saves me from having to look up thebest weight loss pill after this meal … or does it! I sure am stuffed and I feel like I gained five pounds!

Nah! There’s no way I ate five pounds of food! It sure feels like it though!

I hope that all of my fellow Canadian visitors had a great Thanks Giving weekend and a great meal to top it off too! My U.S. friends will have to wait a few more weeks for their turkey!

You are in My World Now

I’m freezing!

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