♪♫♪ Happy Birthday to us ♫♪♫

Busy weekend! 

 Lesley's birthday was on Saturday, mine was on Sunday and Cari-Ann's was on Tuesday. 

My sweetheart spoiled me with an iPhone - I love it!! 

So many fun apps to play with;  like this one to do selective colouring.  So much easier to use than Adobe Photoshop.

And this one to make old-timey photos

Cari-Ann graciously invited me to share her birthday party; so we loaded up Taz and headed to Canmore on Sunday.

The obligatory shot of the Three Sisters

I left my Canon camera at home 'cos I wanted to play with the camera on my new phone.  Um, I guess I should've paid more attention to the instructions, 'cos I got nothin'!  I thought I was hitting the shutter button, but apparently I was hitting the "exit this function" button instead.  Oops...

So, there are no pictures of the long dog walk along the river, the gorgeous mountain setting, the dogs swimming, the unbelievably delicious barbecued salmon dinner, the outstanding 10-layer birthday cake with sparklers that set off the smoke alarm, or the good friends.  Sigh.   

It was a wonderful day, though!

☺☺☺☺☺☺

I have no idea what these flowers are, but they have a million buds on them that are now opening up.  They smell fabulous, whatever they are.

A hand-made card from Susan.  Beautiful!

 

A most excellent birthday! 

Many thanks to Dan, Cari-Ann, Joel, Bill & Vi and Bill & Susan!

(and of course, Taz & Muñeca)

Later:  Just got another card from Lorne, Leonora & Justin.  I love this!



Basement window enlarged - check.

It's one of those things that's been on the "to-do" list for years.  It's been talked about, brochures have been gathered, phone calls have been made, then something else always came along and bumped it down the list again.  It finally made it to the top this week. 

The window in Trudy's bedroom was your basic 1960's bungalow basement window.  Skinny, ugly and too small to be a useful escape route in case of an emergency.

From the outside

From the inside

Step 1.  Dig a trench

Step 2.  Cut the concrete. 

This was the noisy portion of the program.   Taz went over to Gracie's house to hang out in her backyard for a few hours, and I went shopping to get away from the roar.

Step 3  Install new window and grate

Not that Trudy can see anything out of the new window, but it lets in a LOT more light. 

It hasn't been fully explained to us why the grate is so much higher than every other one in the neighbourhood, and we haven't decided yet whether or not to make a stink about it. 

Trudy is happy with her new window, so maybe that's good enough.



Progress report on the fence project

There's a very simple reason for the lack of progress reports on our fence.  

There's been no progress!!

We've been plagued with problems on this project.   Between Dan's injury, bad weather and contractors (yes, plural!)  that say they'll do the job then don't show up, there was no progress for weeks.   Dan finally dug the post holes himself, even though he's officially on "light duties" at work due to cracked ribs.

 

Not sure if he's smiling or grimacing in this picture.  Probably the latter - there wasn't a lot of smiling going on.

 

 

Okay, good enough.  Just find another piece of plywood for the other side and call it done!

 

Measure twice.  Cut. Swear.  Measure again.  Cut again.  Repeat as necessary.

(Photograph at your own risk.)

 

And finally - it starts to look like a fence!

 

Woohoo! 

This is it from the alley side.  Please note the retaining wall.  The source of much frustation.  Everybody else's back yard is level with back alley, but for some reason, ours is about a foot higher...

 

 

I like the way it jogs around the compost bins.  I didn't want to get rid of the compost bins, but I didn't want them in the back yard either.

Are you wondering why there's a window in it?   Eventually, it's going to have a little door on it so that we can access the composter without having to go out into the alley.  Clever eh?

 

 

...but meanwhile, we can use it for puppet shows!

 

Benny & Buckshot had a set up just like this didn't they?

There's still lots of work to do, but it's coming.

 

p.s.  I've tried about a hundred times to get the spacing right on this post, and blogger just isn't cooperating.  If it's not right this time, too bad - it's staying messed up!

Tres Amigas

Cheryl, Debbie y yo.

Cheryl & I have been friends since 7th grade and we met Debbie in high school.  I am delighted to be a part of such an enduring friendship!

It's been a long time since we were all together, because Cheryl lives in Colorado, and Debbie has spent the last 2 years in the boonies of Peru.   Last night though, the stars & planets were aligned properly, and we managed to get together for dinner.  One of Cheryl's daughters (Brianne) joined the old ladies, but  has been sworn to secrecy and threatened with dire consequences if she repeats any of the stories of her mother's mis-spent youth that she heard.

Mr. Mikes restaurant in Okotoks is decorated in a kind of a woodsy, outdoorsy theme.  The picture that hung over our table set the tone for the evening... 

Seriously?  Three men dressed in only underwear and twigs in a canoe?!

We hadn't quite recovered from the initial hysteria when our busboy showed up and advised us that they didn't have any cutlery at the moment.  Whaaaat?  That set off another round of giggles.  Unfortunately, the surliest waitress in the world came by right then and was obviously not in the mood for dealing with a bunch of middle-aged whack jobs.  When we had a minor accident with a glass of water, her disdain became even more pronounced.  Sheesh girl, go out and buy yourself a sense of humour would ya?

In spite of Miss Pissy Pants, we had a great time!

At some point in the evening, we were attempting to take photos under the crazy canoe picture when another restaurant patron stopped by to comment that we seemed to be having just the best time evah.  Um, I think that means we were being too rowdy.   P'raps, but in a good way!  Anyway, she volunteered to take the pictures for us.  Then she proceeded to commandeer someone else from another table to help out with the lighting (a low hanging pendulum needed to be held out of the way) 

Caution:  Before you look at the following photos you should know that the very helpful lady was also very inebriated.  There's nothing wrong with your eyes.  Debbie says to warn people that drinking and photography don't mix!

Obviously, the young pretty one is Brianne.

And yes, we were sitting on the table.

Debbie brought us friendship bracelets from Peru, which we wear proudly to celebrate what Cheryl calls our thousand years of friendship.

Thanks, ladies. I had a blast!

We're working on an international version for next time.

Bye bye, Jitterbug

I've had a lot of cars over the years, but this was the hardest one to let go.  I loved this little bug!

The new owner was trying to look cool for the picture, but he was grinning all over his face before and after.  He's thrilled with his new car!  And I'm thrilled that he's thrilled.

Things I won't miss about it:

1.    Trying to back out of a parking spot. 

There is a HUGE blindspot on both sides which makes it impossible to see anything out of the rear in either direction

2.     Trying to fit a weeks worth of groceries into the tiny trunk.  It can be done, but it's a bit of a jig-saw puzzle.

3.     People telling me that I should put the top down.  I've had complete strangers pull up to me at an intersection, or go out of their way in a parking lot to come over and tell me that it's such a nice day I really should put the top down.  It's all I can do to smile and bite back the bad words and the suggestion that they buy their own convertible so they can decide when to put the top up or down.  Grrr!!

Anyway, she's gone.  Tomorrow we'll get the yellow Golf registered, insured and on the road.

More on the fence project

It's been a pretty discouraging few weeks.  Dan's had a couple of different bobcat guys lined up, but they didn't show up.  Then it rained.  And rained.  So our fence project pretty much ground to a halt.   Dan finally decided that if we were going to make any progress at all he was going to have to dig the old privet hedge out by hand.   Well that proved to be a massive and torturous job that probably would've taken the rest of the summer had our neighbours not stepped in to help.  Doug across the alley and Bill, next door to him, stopped to chat while Dan was out working.  Doug decided that the hedge was still in pretty good shape and he could use it to fill in some holes in his hedge.  Bill's wife thought she would like some too.  The next thing I know, they had Doug's truck backed up and chains wrapped around the bushes and they were hauling them out just lickety-split. 

This is Bill (Often rudely referred to as Hillbilly) pitching in to help.

Okay, so not exactly lickety split.  The chain idea was good, but it wasn't hugely successful.  It caused a fair amount of damage to the plants, so Bill came up with a better plan.  A canvas doohickey that cinched tightly around the base of the plants so they pulled out cleaner and easier.  Of course it has a real name, but whatever...

Bill wrapping the doohickey around the bush.

Okay, Doug, pull forward,

And just like that, it's out, root and all!

Dan unties it

and tosses it on to the growing heap.

It took Dan & Doug about an hour to do what would've taken Dan about a week to do alone. 

Meanwhile, as an added BONUS

Bill's buddy dropped by and decided that our old metal fence would make a fine dog run, so Bill loaded it on to his picker truck and away it went!

So, the old fence is gone, and the bushes are gone too! 

So much progress in one afternoon!  What great neighbours eh?!

Golf-Beetle-Back

I had wanted a bug for as long as I can remember and when I finally got it 3½ years ago, I was thrilled to bits.  It was funky, it was fun, it appealed to my sense of (aging) hippie-flowerchild-ness, and it was a convertible to boot!  I gave up a perfectly good Golf (my first, and probably only, brand-new car) to get the car of my dreams.

  

 Turns out that one woman's dream can be her dog's nightmare.  Taz doesn't like the Beetle.  It's a royal pain to get her into and out of it.  She has to be coaxed ever so patiently to crawl into the back where she sits on the floor so that the folded forward seat can't be put back into place.  From the floor she has to be patiently coaxed once again to get up on to the seat, and of course, we have to do the whole thing in reverse when we get to our destination.  I think we can all agree that patience is a virtue that I'm kinda low on, so outings to the dog park are way more stressful than they were when I drove a hatchback.  It goes without saying that they're less frequent too.  Our local park isn't as much fun, but it's a lot easier for both of us.

So, it's not that I don't love my Beetle anymore, I do, but I need a more practical vehicle for the neurotic dog.  That's why the Beetle is for sale and I'm once again the proud owner of a VW Golf.

Not just any old Golf though.   I wasn't the least bit interested in the black, blue or silver ones - I only wanted a yellow one!  And not that wimpy pastel-y yellow that they came out with for a few model years either.  It had to be BRIGHT yellow!  

So here she is in all her sunshiny glory:

It's not perfect, it doesn't have a sunroof  :(  but I don't really care.  I could've had a nice silver one (yawn) with a sunroof...nope, no thank you. 

¡Me gusta amarillo!

I don't actually have it yet.  I can't pick it up until Tuesday evening, but I'm excited, so I had to share.