Today was the first day back at school. Both kids were excited and nervous at the same time. Amy started grade 3 and Elliot grade 5, making him one of the big kids in the school.
Tonight was a spectacular night for a ride. I started from home and headed downtown to follow the waterfront. It was pretty breezy along Dallas Rd, but the day was still warm enough that I never got a chill. Once I turned away from the wind though it warmed up considerably. Originally I was going to do an out and back totalling two hours. I always enjoy a loop more, so while I was going through Oak Bay and Uplands I started thinking about how to make it a loop. I ended up on Blenkinsop, hit an entrance onto the Lochside Trail, then headed towards home.
I quickly realized that I was still going to be short on time, so I turned out of town towards Thetis, then came back home along the new section of E&N trail.
The longer I live here, the more I love this place. The cycling infrastructure is great, and it seems more often I am running into people I know. Tonight was no exception.
Today’s project was to rip out a tree stump. This maple tree snapped off in a wind storm a while ago and now we are getting ready to plant something else there. Much digging, cutting, prying, and sawing was needed, but in the end I won.
Last night we took part in a wonderful progressive dinner party in out neighbourhood. Each stop had a different set of appies and drinks, and every hour or so we moved on to the next location.
It was a great neighbourhood building event. We got to know some of the neighbours a little better, and got to meet some (new to us) people in the area. The final stop of the night was at our place for dessert, sangria, and jello shooters. 🙂
The kids did amazingly well given that we didn’t arrive to our place until 9:30. Dessert done it was time to tuck the kids into bed.
Last weekend the 4 foxes we went camping at Goldstream with two other couples. Camping is a lot of work to get there and get home, but once at the campsite it is generally a good time. This trip was no exception. The only downside to this trip was my lack of sleep due to Heart. She doesn’t like camping, and the only way to keep her somewhat quiet in the morning is to let her sleep in the tent with us. Sadly she is not the kind of dog that likes to sleep in, and since Sue is training for a ride in June, I offered to get up with Heart. 6:15 the first morning, but 5 am the next. Yikes. Thankfully there is a Tim Hortons close by to grab a coffee while the rest of the camping crew slept a little longer.
Getting the fire prepped
Back on May 1, Sue and I rode in the MEC 100KM ride.
It was a gorgeous day, and the ride itself went smooth. We started a Sea Cider, went North through Sidney, around the peninsula all the way to downtown, along the water, then back out to Sea Cider for some food and cider samples.
The ride itself was just the appetizer on the day. The day before was our anniversary, so I booked us into Point No Point. After getting home, having a shower, loading the car, we headed out on a drive. We managed to get there in time to settle into the room, then head out for dinner.
The view from our deck
After dinner a nice soak in the hot tub, and a relaxing nights sleep listening to the waves from the ocean.
Sunset
The next day we took a stroll on the trails after having some breakfast, and took time to recreate a photo we took over ten years previous.
The getaway was very relaxing and just what I needed.
For a long time now I’ve had issues with sleep. Some nights it takes me a long time to get to sleep, other nights I will wake up super early and cannot get back to sleep, and yet other nights I will wake up throughout the night.
This past Thursday was the worst though. I climbed into bed around 11, but never fell asleep. Sue came home around midnight, climbed into bed, and fell asleep while I tossed and turned. Around 1:30 I was so frustrated that I got up.
I didn’t know what else to do, so I sat on the couch and watched a movie. Around 3:30, when the movie finished, I climbed back into bed hoping that I would fall asleep. Thankfully I did, but but I ended up waking at 7:15. For the whole morning I felt awful from the lack of sleep. I physically felt sick, had a large headache, and couldn’t concentrate on anything.
Mid day I drove Sue and the kids to the airport. I contemplated ending my work day early, but I didn’t know what else to do. Instead I worked on some easy tasks. That night I stayed up as late as I could before going to bed, and wonderfully I fell asleep quickly and slept soundly until the morning.
That was my first real bout of what I think was insomnia. I am not looking forward to the next one.
I’ve been interested in doing some small home renovations. Lack of knowledge, tools, and desire to use all my weekends all the time stop me from doing anything larger than a small project.
The downstairs was renovated recently, and the downstairs bathroom painted. Sue and I decided after the fact to replace the tap on the sink to something newer. The old one didn’t work all that well, leaked, and was going to get expensive when buying replacement parts.
We bought a new faucet at Home Depot and I set about replacing the old one. Here is what we started with.
The first step is to take the old faucet off. Sure, no problem right?
One question, how do I fit a wranch in there? Easy answer is you don’t. Instead you take the sink off the wall (this sink is wall attached). Hitch number one can be seen above in the first picture. See all those little tiles that go right down to the edge of the sink? Well, they have to come off.
One row off and the sink came off the wall easily.
Of course, when puting the final assembly back together, I really didn’t want to glue those tiles back on, so instead I took all the tiles off. The glue used made a mess of the wall, so out I went to buy some spackle, and some other tools. I also bought some new hardware for the sink’s p-trap and water lines.
Turns out the water lines I bought were way too long. Returned those, got the proper ones, patched up the wall. Since we just had the bathroom and basement painted I went to grab the leftover paint to match up this area, but wouldn’t you know it, I couldn’t find the can. I guess the painter didn’t have any leftover.
Out to the hardware store where I bought the paint. They had to hand tint my 1 quart can since the color recipe was only for gallon cans. After a few issues with the p-trap, I got the whole thing assembled, cut to sit, resituated and voilá a new faucet.
Only took 5 trips to the hardware store, and about 10 days/evenings of time. This is why I don’t tackle larger projects. 🙂
