A Few of Our Busy Things

Poppa is still keeping busy.....

.... back in September this lady came to look at our furnace.  She was a representative of the company from whom we rent our hot water tank - and they also install furnaces.  Our hot water tank and furnace were installed in 1993, so they were both due for an upgrade.  So at the end of last week (the 22nd of Oct.)........

a truck pulled up in front of our house, a furnace was unloaded ......

... and we were invaded by a team of furnace professionals....this was the Team Leader.  These people were excellent!  Due to a change in procedures, the hot water tank didn't arrive in the morning as expected - and the owner of the company drove it up from the warehouse personally!  They were knowledgeable and efficient.  The original plan was that the water would be turned off overnight for one night, so....

.......... we booked this room at an Inn just up the road from our condo unit.  As it turned out, we could have stayed at home!  The workers were all finished by 7:30 on that same day.  But... since we had already booked the room and it was too late to cancel, we had a mini-stay-cation and spent the night there.  It was lovely and should you be visiting our city and are looking for a place to stay, contact me for details!  When we arrived home in the morning, the house was spotless - there was no evidence

....... of all the preparations they had made to avoid any mess or damage, and everything was spotless.

........ and here is the new furnace and water heater.  The water heater is behind Poppa's ladder.  He has needed it to......

............. repair the ceiling where they added the pipes for ventilation.  As you can tell, I missed some pictures of the open ceiling before he started working - he already has it looking better!  While the ceiling was open he re-installed the outside tap - for some unknown reason, it had been disconnected.  And. just because I have it..........

......... here is another picture of Baby Oliver away over there in the United Kingdom - what a cutie!  After the furnace team left, I found Squeegie...........

....... perched away up at the top of the stairs!  When I asked him what he was doing.....

......... he said "Come and watch".  I looked down and saw Poppa at the bottom.  Oh no!

Sure enough, he jumped and Poppa caught him!  Thank goodness.  It turns out, this was a game they have been playing for a while now and they have both gotten quite good at it!  Did I mention....

.......... that we also had a new air conditioner installed while the furnace team was here?  Yes, we did - of course it has been chilly so we haven't used it yet, but it is all shiny and new and we're looking forward to a winter in Florida, followed by a return to Canada and trying out the new unit then!  Plus, in between all these things we had some interesting visitors, but I'll leave that for another blog!

Happy Birthday..........

..... to our little Munchie, who is 7 years old today.  He was the inspiration for starting this blog!  It is hard to believe that he has been a part of our lives for 7 years already.  To celebrate, he has gone with Mommy, Daddy and Curtie to spend a night in a hotel.  His family did that...........

.......... last year and Mommy sent me this picture.  Munchie enjoyed it so much that he wanted to do it again this year.  After their stay at the hotel, they will be going to Auntie Melissa's for Thanksgiving dinner and then back home again - so they will all have a busy weekend.  I'm hoping Mommy will send me some pictures.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUNCHIE!

What Else.....

....... has been going on?  A couple of weeks ago ... yes, I'm still catching up.....

........ Granny and Gramps were vacationing at a resort near us.  They invited us out for dinner on Sunday evening.  Since that is the day we usually have Aunt Peggy at our house for dinner, we accepted the invitation ans asked if we could bring her with us.  Of course, Granny said certainly and out we went.  Supper was yummy (roast beef and all the fixings!) and Aunt Peggy enjoyed the outing.  Granny & Gramps were in the area for the week.  We all got together again a few times and while the boys were golfing, Granny and I visited the Chelsea Chocolate Store, where we bought a lot of wonderful chocolate treats.  We also visited another store nearby where we bought some slabs of homemade fudge!  The silly thing is, I didn't get any pictures - I was having too much fun!  Poppa has been keeping busy (did you think he would be taking some leisure time? LOL!).  He worked on our front doors....

..... to free up the little latches on the second door.........

......... so we could open them both up and let in some extra light.  Of course, this also lets in extra air and it has turned quite cool lately, so I haven't had them open much.  He also....

...... finished off his garage wall of tools, and made a space for his golf clubs - though they usually just live in the back of the car!  He also....

... straightened up the front walkway.  The slabs had all separated and the weeds kept trying to grow between them and they were uneven and difficult for Aunt Peggy to navigate since she has very limited eye-sight.  In addition the step up to the front entrance was too high and Poppa had to almost lift her up it.  So he fixed all that and it is wonderful now!  Then - while he was working out there, he put som paving stones along the edge of the garage and ...

...... moved some plants to the other side.  Then - he removed some broken pieces of cement that had been piled at the end and carefully sprinkled some grass seed in the bare spot where they had been.  While he was working on all that, the bears had a bath and....

.... then hung around out on the patio to finish getting thoroughly dry.  When they were considered dry enough to come inside....

.......... Taffy sat and watched TV with Martha, while....

....... Squeegie sat at the computer and struggled with his homework!

A Little Excursion

I don't have many pictures of this day - I didn't bring my camera, and my phone wouldn't cooperate at all!  But........

....... just after Auntie Cecile and Uncle Mark returned from their two-week vacation in France, her and I got together for an enjoyable day in the big city.  Here she is sitting in the dining room at the Famous People Players theatre.  We had lunch before we went into the theatre.  Following lunch we enjoyed a performance of "Under the Big Top" - it was very good - Auntie Cecile might tell you about the mice - and just to top it all off, it ended with an Elvis cameo (we both love Elvis!).  After the performance we returned to the dining room for.....

..... a delicious dessert.  These were the other two ladies at our table.  Along the way to the theatre (we weren't allowed to take pictures during the performance).....

.... we met this wonderful fellow who had starred in the Famous People Players version of The Lion King.  I just loved his body configuration and his shapely legs!  Thank you to Auntie Cecile for forwarding me some pics and for a most enjoyable day!

I'm So Far Behind

Poppa has been very busy!  He....

........ wasn't very happy with the way the sliding glass doors opened - they were very hard to push and made horrible noises when we tried to open them!  So he took them apart - completely - at one point I had a large open hole in the wall!  He cleaned all the channels, and then cleaned all the different pieces of glass and screen, and then re-installed them all!  It took him the best part of a day, but now they slide with one finger and are so clean I can barely tell there is glass in them.  If that wasn't enough....

.... he repeated the same process with the sliding windows in the three bedroom.  This is my room and you can probably tell at the moment, there is no glass in that window.  With Happy watching carefully, Poppa cleaned all the channels where the glass slides, then put some silicone stuff to make them slide easily (it worked!), and then put them all back in.  Once that process had been repeated in all three rooms...........

.......... my room.........

........ in the boys' room, and finally.....

... he and Squeegie took a moment to admire the new curtains in Poppa's room.  Everything was declared satisfactory so.....

.... they had a short rest!   Finally..........

..... here is a photo of little Oliver (fondly referred to as Ollie by his proud grandparents) in the UK.  We are looking forward to meeting him when we get to Florida at the end of December!  Oh my gosh - how cute!