Hi Rosita! Don't worry about Dusty's belt but you can still send a large suitcase filled with $US! Our hearts simply go out to Marlo. What a tough, tough hand she has been dealt. We need rain here as well, although it has been considerably cooler over last few days so some slight optimism regarding fight against terrible wildfires.
I like two-seater as well but am not a fan of the chairs. I think they are too high as well as not overly comfortable, for me, at least, with my short stubby Ukrainian legs. I'd rather another two-seater, (Give chairs to Chloë who likes them.) Furthermore, light colour is a very poor choice, as far as I'm concerned, given that both cats will want to sleep on them, not to mention showing every speck of dirt or red wine spills! However, Lady Dar goes on and on and on about being able to swivel, to turn from gazing at cosy fireplace to look directly into her eyes as she works her magic on the new gas cook-top. Swivel smivel! Great for Avery and Ashlyn to have a merry-go-round ride smack dab in the middle of the living room whenever they come over to terrorize! [They already use bar stools like playground roundabouts, whirring around until I'm worried they'll vomit into dip bowl after filling their tummies with fistfuls of humus!] I think she's nuts but she's your daughter and as stubborn as Quinn!
Rest of renovations are coming along nicely but probably,as of this writing, another week's worth of finishing up., given past glitches, etc.This past Saturday morning we pulled out a number of the large rugs we hadn't been able to use in former kitchen configuration and Lady Dar tried them out to see what might work where. While they were spread on floor I vacuumed them as still dusty from earlier renovations. For those we won't use we'll ask Chloë if she might like any for her place as we'd rather have them used than stored. As well, more furniture to be moved but this will take more effort as will require moving other pieces, now in the Rumpus Room, as well as unloading the large book shelf, now inour bedroom. More dusting and vacuuming. When will it ever end? When will it ever end? Enough! Oy Vey, Already!
Afterwards, I strolled down to the Farmers' Market. Lady Dar didn't join me as she was busy preparing for a wedding that afternoon.Needed cukes and tomatoes and also stumbled upon River Stone, winery out of Oliver, so picked up a bottle of their 2015 Merlot, 15% and their 2015 Stones Throw, 14.7%, a Bordeaux blend, Merlot, Cabbage, Malbec and Petit Verdot. For dinner, enjoyed the Merlot with Lady Dar's aubergine/minced turkey casserole and both were stunningly delicious. Light rain, late that afternoon, [Coming after forty years of living on the Wet Coast seems rather funny to wish for rain! Becoming more Californian all the time!], was absolutely wonderful, for all sorts of reasons. However, affected Lady Dar's wedding ceremony a tad, but not catastrophically!
Now that all of Chloë's and kitchen boxes are no longer in my office, I spent a goodly part of Sunday morning and afternoon vacuuming and dusting most everything in it. I had piles and piles of Penguins stacked on a tea trolley so that I could move the bookshelves beside the Murphy bed into the hallway, outside the guest bathroom, part of the Musical Furniture Dance orchestrated by Lady Dar. Was able to transfer them into the right side of the wall shelving moved from the living room to my office. Pleased to have more storage space as well as being able to put various ornaments on the top of the shelves. After I'd moved the books I cleaned off my computer desk, dusting and then using Windex on all the surfaces as well as the printer. Even though we had the door closed during the various construction stages dust found its way over and into everything, everywhere.
With the tea trolley now free, I cleaned and dusted all the Telus boxes that had been on the book shelves. While I was doing this I bundled up the mare's nest of cables and wires that were all jumbled together. Now they are neatly secured with small Velcro fasteners. While all the TV's and computers are working, our landline isn't. Don't know what the problem could be as I've checked each phone and all are fully charged. Display says to check the telephone line but I don't have a clue what that means. If it is a loose connection, I cannot find it so we'll have to phone Telus to see if they can help or send out someone to take a look if they cannot walk us through procedure.
Fortunately, Lady Dar's cell phone will keep us connected. Important with all the renovation work that is still to be finished. After I'd done what I'd planned for first stage of re-organizing office, I went into the garage to vacuum the steps of the back patio. Now that we have moved, and emptied, most of the tubs we were using for the Summer Kitchen I wanted to tidy up that space. Did so and was going to have a ride on my stationary bike but it started to rain! While I was pleased at the precipitation, [Day was the clearest, without smoke, that it has been for weeks, and one could actually see blue sky, between the clouds, as well as the surrounding hills. Sights we have not seen for so long that we almost expect the blanket of grey that has been our cross this summer.], I didn't really want to ride in it so I moved the trainer and my Brodie under the louvres, deciding to take off the back wheel and replace it with one from my Trek. I've had it kicking around since I put two new tires on it after a catastrophic spoke failure, a couple of years ago now. Anyway, I was stymied as I couldn't figure out how to remove the wheel, held in place by the brake pads. No quick release that I could see and didn't want to start fiddling in case I did something I couldn't undo. Decided I'd take it in to Freedom and let them tell me what a dope I am!
Monday was as quiet as it has been for weeks as no tradespeople. Etta and Duke were happy. I spent much of the day doing various household chores while Lady Dar was feverishly working on wedding ceremonies. She has four weddings this coming weekend, starting on Friday! Yesterday was a completely different matter as tiler arrived at 8:30 am and Mike, shortly thereafter. Ceramic backsplash looks terrific but won't be grouted until today. [As these things go, tiler was short one tile to complete job so he had to return to store to see if he could find a display tile to use! Fortunately he was successful. Had he not been I was planning to ask him to cement an empty bottle ofCoffaro EstateCuvéein space!] Mike worked on replacing various pieces of drywall and is now painting the living room ceiling. Not quite sure where we were going to play bridge that evening as we were hosting two tables! Group will certainly have more sympathy for us, having had first hand experience living in the midst of chaos, them but an evening, we these last two months.
With the tea trolley now free, I cleaned and dusted all the Telus boxes that had been on the book shelves. While I was doing this I bundled up the mare's nest of cables and wires that were all jumbled together. Now they are neatly secured with small Velcro fasteners. While all the TV's and computers are working, our landline isn't. Don't know what the problem could be as I've checked each phone and all are fully charged. Display says to check the telephone line but I don't have a clue what that means. If it is a loose connection, I cannot find it so we'll have to phone Telus to see if they can help or send out someone to take a look if they cannot walk us through procedure.
Fortunately, Lady Dar's cell phone will keep us connected. Important with all the renovation work that is still to be finished. After I'd done what I'd planned for first stage of re-organizing office, I went into the garage to vacuum the steps of the back patio. Now that we have moved, and emptied, most of the tubs we were using for the Summer Kitchen I wanted to tidy up that space. Did so and was going to have a ride on my stationary bike but it started to rain! While I was pleased at the precipitation, [Day was the clearest, without smoke, that it has been for weeks, and one could actually see blue sky, between the clouds, as well as the surrounding hills. Sights we have not seen for so long that we almost expect the blanket of grey that has been our cross this summer.], I didn't really want to ride in it so I moved the trainer and my Brodie under the louvres, deciding to take off the back wheel and replace it with one from my Trek. I've had it kicking around since I put two new tires on it after a catastrophic spoke failure, a couple of years ago now. Anyway, I was stymied as I couldn't figure out how to remove the wheel, held in place by the brake pads. No quick release that I could see and didn't want to start fiddling in case I did something I couldn't undo. Decided I'd take it in to Freedom and let them tell me what a dope I am!
Monday was as quiet as it has been for weeks as no tradespeople. Etta and Duke were happy. I spent much of the day doing various household chores while Lady Dar was feverishly working on wedding ceremonies. She has four weddings this coming weekend, starting on Friday! Yesterday was a completely different matter as tiler arrived at 8:30 am and Mike, shortly thereafter. Ceramic backsplash looks terrific but won't be grouted until today. [As these things go, tiler was short one tile to complete job so he had to return to store to see if he could find a display tile to use! Fortunately he was successful. Had he not been I was planning to ask him to cement an empty bottle ofCoffaro EstateCuvéein space!] Mike worked on replacing various pieces of drywall and is now painting the living room ceiling. Not quite sure where we were going to play bridge that evening as we were hosting two tables! Group will certainly have more sympathy for us, having had first hand experience living in the midst of chaos, them but an evening, we these last two months.
When Lady Dar was back from a number of appointments, we loaded the MarriageMobile to take the old dishwasher toHabitat for Humanity, a national, non-profit organization "working towards a world where everyone has a safe and decent place to live. Habitat for Humanity’s model empowers families to invest in home ownership. Through donated labour, efficient management and tax-deductible donations of money and materials, Habitat for Humanity builds and rehabilitates simple, decent houses." As well, included three light fixtures that we had replace, [You might well remember putting to of them up!], so pleased to have all these things go to a good cause as well as to have them out of garage! By the time I was back home both Allan and Mike were finished for the day so we set up the two tables in the living room.
Quick bit of vacuuming before a showering and changing. Lady Dar had done crab cakes and lamb burgers for dinner. I sliced and diced some cucumbers and tomatoes and we enjoyed our dinner before bridge hordes arrived. Only had seven players but Dummy moved between tables so everything worked out well. Naramata Goil, aka Pam, brought along a wonderful bottle of Noble Ridge's Meritage so it went down very smoothly after I polished off a glass of Cannery Brewery's Muse IPA!
On duty at Sendero Canyon Wednesday. Had to be there at 11:00 am to have someone at home. Chloë was expecting a fairly large Ikea delivery, [mirrors, bed frames, dresser], and could not be there as she has a number of strata meetings, Lady Dar wedding stuff. I was happy to be on call as she now has Internet connectivity but I planned to start on Matt Haig's The Humans, our next Book Club choice, late September if time allowed. Delivery came around 1:00 pm and once items had been unloaded I headed home. Allan, had finished grouting by the time I was back and Mike was still painting, giving skylight opening a second coat. Ceiling and skylight both look great.Once Mike had removed many of his drop cloths I started tidying up and vacuumed, once he'd left, as there were all sorts of bits and pieces on floor even though both he and Allan were very careful as they worked and cleaned up well afterwards.
Once Lady Dar was back from Kelowna we headed back to Sendero to help Chloë put together all her Ikea jig-saw puzzles. Did you hear us swearing all the way across the Rockies! We managed to put the bed frame together and then put the mattress atop it. Looks quite attractive and is very comfortable so everyone was more than pleased with collective effort. Ayn was supposed to arrive just before midnight but flight was delayed so she didn't actually land until closer to 1:00 am! By the time we were back home it was 10:30 pm so I had a shower. When we learned that flight was delayed I had a nap and when I woke up, at 12:40 am, Lady Dar had already left for airport. Anyway, they were back shortly after 1:00 am and we had a quick visit, giving Ayn the Grand Tour, before we all headed to bed.
Yesterday was another full, busy day. Lady Dar had a number of errands to run in the morning while Ayn and I stayed at home. Mike was back to attend to a myriad of small finishing tasks. Main one was to slice off a 1/4" from a piece of the cabinet molding above the microwave. Lady Dar had phoned cabinet people but since we had no idea how long it would take for a replacement piece to be fabricated, Mike said he could do it himself since cut would be hidden anyway. For such initiative, (Dusty-like, indeed!), and much more, we are very, very impressed with Mike.
With the needed clearance the microwave surround fit in place. However, given screw hole placement, stove needs to pulled out before surround can be secured. Mike didn't want to do this as it was appliance work and chap who did original fitting will be back anyway to balance wine fridge. [We'll have to drink eleven cases of wine over long-weekend to make fridge easier to move on Tuesday!]. After this, Mike put the trim around the door to the Rumpus Room, on kitchen side only as stairs still need a new lip. And so it goes, one step forward and twenty-seven back!
Lady Dar was back close to 11:00 am and she collected Ayn and they buzzed away for Lady Dar's hair appointment. After that they spent a bit of time downtown and then repaired to The Naramata to have a wonderful lunch at Legend, craft distillery there. They were back around 4:00 pm and both needed naps after their exhausting outing! Mike was cleaning up his tools and such by then so living room was almost ready to have furniture put back into place. Since he wanted to come back following day to finish final sanding on last bits of drywall he had patched, we left large sheet of plastic covering on the furniture we had pushed aside, to keep it from dust that would inevitably fill the air.
While The Sisterhood were recuperating I watched a few episodes of Better Call Saul and then went for an hour's ride on stationary bike. They were up and away to Sendero while I still had half-an-hour to go so I told them I'd see them at Chloë's as soon as I'd showered and changed. By the time I arrived at Sendero they had already had the pizza and salad, from Bad Tattoo, and were about to tackle more Ikea jigsaw puzzles. I wasn't all that hungry so I joined them in the garage and the challenge began.
Chloë and I worked on assembling the dresser while Ayn and Lady Dar put up a shower rod and curtains in the downstairs bathroom. Shruti, her boarder, brought over most of her stuff earlier in the day but will only move-in on Friday, after she finishes work. Consequently, priority was to have her space furnished. While we were still working on the dresser frame, (all the drawers were finished), they started on slats for second bed frame. Unfortunately, the "tool" they needed to screw the slat-frame together could not be found! After much fruitless searching Chloë opened another box of slats and it contained the damn key! By this time it was close to 10:00 pm and Lady Dar left for home. She still had plenty of wedding work and and such a busy day on Friday that she needed to be well rested.
I stayed with The Sisterhood and we very quickly had the two slat frames together. Next was bed frame but since we'd already assembled one night before we knew all the steps so that part went pretty smoothly. All that was left was to peel plastic cover off mattress and Ayn's guest bed was ready!. Again, white bed frame looks very attractive in room, given colour of walls and window trim. I left just after midnight. The Goils helped me loads mountains of recycling into car as I wanted to drop it off at recycling depot before I returned to Sendero on Friday to continue working on dresser and help with other bits and pieces. There will be another load of recycling, (cardboard and plastic), from packaging I've not yet cut up into smaller pieces!
When I was back home, found Duke sleeping at Lady Dar's feet but Miss Etta was still outside. After a few calls, she came racing inside and made straight for the food dish! I brushed and flossed and then "had" to play with Duke as he always knows when I am about to floss, coming into bathroom and gazing at me with his expectant eyes. He turns into a Whirling Dervish on small rug we have in bathroom, chasing the floss I whip around him. Have to be careful as he is so lightning quick and his claws need cutting! After our playtime was over I fell into bed, tired but happy that things had gone so well and that it had been so much fun to have everyone together and laughing, in spite of, or because of, the inevitable frustrations that come with Ikea furniture!
Mike was back at close to 8:30 am this morning to finish up last bit of sanding and Lady Dar was off, shortly thereafter, more wedding meetings. I had to be here as a Telus technician was finally coming to look at our land-line, still not working! However, I am now the proud new owner of an "old" iPhone 6, Lady Dar's cast-off. She became so fussed after couple she was to meet couldn't reach her after giving me her phone when I went to Sendero, to be there when Ikea furniture was delivered on Wednesday, that she took Ayn to some store and had it re-activated with a Rogers Lte plan! Don't really know how to use it but I'm sure I'll muddle along somehow.
Lady Dar was back near 11:00 am and she helped me unload wine fridge and then she readied herself for her wedding, here in town, at 12:30 pm, or so. She was going right to West Kelowna for her 3:30 pm wedding there, right after. Telus chap arrived, shortly after she left, just before noon and it turned out that I guess I had plugged a couple of phone cables into wrong spots so phones were back working in under a minute! Played dumb, of course, Dear Reader!
However, he also checked TV modems and he changed a number of settings so he was here for about 45 minutes while all the terminals had to re-boot. At any rate, pleased that everything is working now. However, still waiting for appliance technician to arrive so I will start to dust and vacuum living room, attempting to finally get rid of the fine layer of drywall dust that is now back on most of the new wall shelves and fireplace mantle after Mike's sanding. At least we will be able to put all the furniture back in place for dinner tomorrow evening. Having Lynne and Peter, along with Beckster, Kid Chelene and The Double AA's as everyone wants to obtain an autograph from visiting Tinsel Town celebrity!
Must away as after I do clean-up have to be ready to meet a Library School classmate, Dana Chen, and her husband, Wayne, for drinks at Time Winery & Kitchen, a new spot just recently opened, downtown, on Martin. I've never been before so looking forward to seeing the place. Ayn and Chloë will meet me there, as well as Lady Dar if she is back from West Kelowna and we are still there. Will have dinner back on Burns. Not sure if Ayn will sleep here tonight or stay with us. Anyway, Fondestos to you, Clarisse, from Lady Dar, somewhere between here and Kelowna! Give our love to one and all. Cheers, Patrizzio, Still Your Very, Very Favourite Son-in-Law! Pics: Tiling shortly after grouting; landscaping Chloë's back yard; Ikea Girls!
Hi, again. I spent the afternoon with Julia in her “Hot Room”. It was a tropical 34C for the first few hours and I was relieved, but also alarmed, when it dropped to a seemingly moderate 30C. I rushed off to inform the nurse but was advised that everything was fine as long as it was over 27. I do have a cartoon that says “Being cremated is my last hope for a smoking hot body.” Well, whoever wrote that didn’t know about the Hot Room!
Julia is in good spirits, all things considered, and is doing well. Today’s good news is that she passed the reportedly crucial 24 hour mark – crucial because that is a milestone in terms of confirming blood flow in and out of the muscle transplant in her foot (i.e. that the blood vessels, carefully sewn together under a microscope, are working as hoped.) She is tired, because they check her leg, epidural, etc. every hour and will continue to do so for a couple of days at least; thus, not much sleep.
Attached is a picture of the nurses attending to her thickly bandaged foot – this was a nursing transition with the outgoing nurse was showing incoming how best to access the area with a monitor used confirm blood flow through the affected area. Julia thanks you all for your care and concern. She is not ready for visitors yet, although she did ask me to bring a mirror ... so she may be thinking ahead. All the best, Ross
Hi, again. I spent the afternoon with Julia in her “Hot Room”. It was a tropical 34C for the first few hours and I was relieved, but also alarmed, when it dropped to a seemingly moderate 30C. I rushed off to inform the nurse but was advised that everything was fine as long as it was over 27. I do have a cartoon that says “Being cremated is my last hope for a smoking hot body.” Well, whoever wrote that didn’t know about the Hot Room! Julia is in good spirits, all things considered, and is doing well. Today’s good news is that she passed the reportedly crucial 24 hour mark – crucial because that is a milestone in terms of confirming blood flow in and out of the muscle transplant in her foot (i.e. that the blood vessels, carefully sewn together under a microscope, are working as hoped.) She is tired, because they check her leg, epidural, etc. every hour and will continue to do so for a couple of days at least; thus, not much sleep.
Attached is a picture of the nurses attending to her thickly bandaged foot – this was a nursing transition with the outgoing nurse was showing incoming how best to access the area with a monitor used confirm blood flow through the affected area. Julia thanks you all for your care and concern. She is not ready for visitors yet, although she did ask me to bring a mirror ... so she may be thinking ahead. All the best, Ross
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