Tag: Life

Part Ego

Last week we had a guest coming, and the downstairs toilet was having issues with running. I took the offending flapper piece to Home Depot, but they didn’t carry the part. In fact it was a design that the guy working there had never seen before.

 

In an effor to get the toilet up and running again I bought one of those internal replacement kits. With about an hour of work and a few choice words due to all the corroded and rotten parts being hard to take apart, I’m proud to say that I fixed the toilet! I’ve noted here before that I am not a handy sort of guy, and that I do want to learn some of this stuff, so small victories like this are good for my ego.

Dinner Stop

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.

Goldstream Close

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 firs prepped
Getting the fire prepped

IMG_6660

IMG_0942

IMG_6621

IMG_2191

IMG_6622

IMG_6623

IMG_6642

Point Needed

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.

IMG_6480

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
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
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.

IMG_6496

IMG_6497

IMG_6498

IMG_6543

IMG_6511

The getaway was very relaxing and just what I needed.

Sleep Instead

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.

Renovations Recipe

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.

IMG_5723 2.JPG

The first step is to take the old faucet off. Sure, no problem right?IMG_5724.JPG

 

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.

 

IMG_5727

One row off and the sink came off the wall easily.

IMG_5725

 

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.

IMG_6087

 

Only took 5 trips to the hardware store, and about 10 days/evenings of time. This is why I don’t tackle larger projects. 🙂

Worlds Recording

Last weekend we did a whirlwind trip to Vancouver to take the kids to Science World to see the Body Worlds exhibit. To do the trip on the cheap we took transit while there. Overall it’s cheaper and convenient, but still cost quite a bit. $50 each way for the ferry, parking costs for Victoria, then $27 for transit.

Science world was a blast and we had a pretty good time poking around, playing with things, and learning. The Body Worlds was fascinating, but Amy had a hard time with it and felt a bit queasy at times.

   
   
  

    
   
  
  
We caught a show outside titled Reduce, Reuse, Rescience. It was mainly showing new and interesting ways to reuse 2 litre pop bottles. There were rockets, mentos in Diet Coke, a cloud in a bottle, then the dry ice bomb. Funny thing was the dry ice bomb was taking forever to go off. The person running the show eventually decided it was a dud and as everyone was standing up to leave, it went BOOM! Pretty spectacular, but sadly I had stopped recording the movie I was working on.

Sunday we took the sky train to meet some friends for brunch. It was great to catch up with them while we were there. Thankfully they drove us to the ferry, which saved a bit of time.

Less than 30 hours on the mainland, but lots of fun.