Plow Follow Up

I guess I should clarify...

This wasn't just slightly annoying, this was downright the world is coming to an end and the entire neighborhood is awake loud. Beyond ridiculous. I'm not just complaining because I'm not used to Winter...this was a new low, even for around here. We've been here two full Winters now and haven't experienced this level of stupidity prior to this.

I will say that our sidewalk guy almost always comes in the middle of the night, but I generally overlook him because A) it's great that we don't have to shovel our own sidewalks B) he's a private contractor and it's impressive that he gets to us at all C) he is only in front of each house for about 2-4 minutes...not 20-30 (and even though I have thought he was loud, I will never think that again!).

As for the roadside issue....it's like I said...we are a totally residential neighborhood...there is absolutely nothing else here...only houses. It's not like people have to pass by here to get anywhere....it doesn't lead anywhere but into the subdivision. The road was more than wide enough....both lanes fully operational. Ya, it's a bit tight if folks are parked on the road, but it's not like it's a crazy high traffic area. Trust me, we'd all rather have a minor slowdown on the road in exchange for our night's sleep.

It just didn't make sense that this job was any kind of a priority that would require the 5 hour middle of the night ruckus.

For those of you that know HRM....what really got us was that there is a TON of snow and ice along the edges of Chebucto Road...so much so that it's actually blocking half a lane...on one of the highest traffic roads in town....but THAT has not been cleared yet!

If you can't vent about the city or the weather, what can you vent about?! :)

Dear HRM

Dear whichever one of you asshats is in charge of scheduling dumptracks and ice plows,

Just a quick note to let you know that midnight is NOT the ideal time to send heavy duty equipment to forcefully scrape months-old ice stores from the edges of our street. Are city employees and planners all nocturnal vampires? If so, that's really neat, but I'd just like to remind you that most of the general public is not. Many of us prefer to sleep during the night hours.

I am sure there is a completely logical reason for needing to remove the ice. In fact, I do applaud the actual idea, just not the execution. I mean, sure...a wider street and clear drainage is certainly appealing...however, I'm pretty sure this could have been done during normal working hours when most people are generally awake anyway. There was no time-sensitive safety issue that I'm aware of so keeping our entire neighborhood awake for hours and hours seems just plain ridiculous to me. If your team is running behind schedule, don't try to make it up by keeping an entire subdivision awake.

If I were to go outside at midnight and start jackhammering my driveway, you can bet your buttons that my neighbors would complain and I'd receive some sort of fine from the city for breaking a noise by-law or some such thing. So why is it OK for a city team to come and make 10 times that amount of noise? It isn't. But you did it anyway.

It's not like Beechville is a community of all-night business or industrial traffic or any other type of situation that might work with this late night work....we are a community of 400 private residences and that is all.

Open your eyes and have a look around the next time you plan one of these midnight events. May your brain prevail and remind you that people need sleep. Show some respect.

Regards,


Sleepless in Beechville

"Magical Elf" Neighbors

That's right. One of my neighbors is a lovely, fantastic "magical helper elf"!

Halifax had yet another nutty snowstorm yesterday. I shoveled twice and knew that it wouldn't be enough. The big plow hadn't shown up yet...and that thing always causes a grievous pile of HEAVY snow at the mouth of my driveway.

Sure enough, when I woke up this morning the pile was there. Generally not a big deal, but this storm turned to icy pellets last night and everything is extra heavy due to the freezing.

So I got some work done, had a coffee, then went downstairs to put on my shoveling clothes...but what do I see when I peak out the window? Some lovely person has scooped all the heavy stuff from the mouth of the driveway! Yaaaaieeeee!

Thank you magical helper elf neighbor!!

Happy Hali-versary!

One year ago today, FH and I arrived in Halifax for our new adventure. My how time flies!

We arrived at the tail end of a snowstorm. Lucky us. This is the view from the hotel room we stayed in for the first 10 days.



Here's Stoopy happy to be released from the tiny carrying case he spent about 12 hours travelling in. (I flew with him....FH drove.)

Here's our Mojo happy to curl up on the floor instead of in FH's car.

FH's car was very very salty after driving it across the country during Winter.

Let it Snow!

...but only as long as my sweet DBF is home to do the shoveling!

Yup, all remnants of the big snow dump from a couple of weeks ago were gone. You would never have knowed it had snowed at all. Then last night while we slept, another few inches (6?) fell. We awoke to a Winter wonderland.

Which normally would have me cursing about shoveling...but not today! DBF made short work of it, and even dug out the car to go buy coffee. Yaaaiiieeeee! I would have been here suffering with tea and a sore shoulder and turning the air blue with my angry muttering.

(FYI: It's not that I don't like the snow...I actually do...but I hate the shoveling...mostly because I suck at it!)

I took this lovely photo from the bedroom window and cozy in my hoodie and slippers while DBF toiled away in the driveway:

Oh Christmas Tree

DBF got home on Friday...finally! Yaaaaieeeee!

I had waited for him to return so we could decorate our Christmas tree as this is one of his favorite Christmas traditions. We decided to buy a bunch of new decorations this year so we'd have something to call "ours", as opposed to "his stuff" and "her stuff" mashed together trying to make a semblence of something cohesive. So Saturday morning we set out to do just that...get our new decorations.

Thankfully it wasn't near as painful as we thought it might be. You know, shopping on one of the busiest shopping days of the year...with a hundred bazillion other people...after the shelves had already been seriously picked through. Not so bad, really. Whew.

We brought home our loot and decided to wait until it started to get dark before embarking on the actual decorating. DBF put together a CD of holiday tunes while I sifted through our existing ornaments to see what we could still use. Turns out a lot more of his stuff matched our new theme and a lot of mine was mismatched from too many years of collecting a lot of crap. In the end, I even ended up deciding that even though it was my turn to put my angel topper on the tree his Santa looked better. She's too silvery for the gold and red theme, so instead she earned herself a spot as a tabletop decoration.

DBF took on the task of putting the tree together (I helped fluff!) and stringing the lights (the most monotonous part) before it got dark in the room. Oh, I put on the beaded garland though (with some help as I got tangled around the base...lol). Then we put on our festive tunes, poured some wine and got to decorating. We were worried that we might not have enough new stuff, but with our new red bows the tree filled out nicely. (Now, if only my camera took decent night time shots...booo to the blurry!)

I'm Ready

Thankfully it didn't snow anymore yesterday so once I got the driveway shoveled and the car cleared off, it didn't just get covered up again. And today the sky is clear and blue and the sun is shining...actually makes the snow really pretty!

I got my Winter tires put on today (and no I'm not that late! my neighbors just did their yesterday and they are lifelong East Coasters!) and now I feel like a true Haligonian. I guess it's only right, since we've been here almost a year now. My, how time flies.

Another bigger storm is predicted for tonight into tomorrow morning. 20-30cm of snow accompanied by some strong winds. Oh joy. So I properly cleared our porch stairs and salted them and scraped out the last bits of snow from the driveway. I dug out the edges of the mouth of the driveway the best I could because last year the previous owners didn't do that...they just kept driving over the snow and it turned into an ice block that we couldn't get rid of until March. I dumped some salt on it too to try to head it off before the new snow. There is a slight chance of power outage (as there is anytime it gets windy here) so my flashlights have batteries, I know where the blankets are, and I always have plenty of candles. I guess that's about as prepared as I can get.

Hopefully the power doesnt go out because I have a cozy weekend of reading, movies, baking, and cooking planned. I don't care if it snows to high heaven because I don't really plan on going out...but losing power would stink. I like power outages at night for about an hour, but after that they aren't so much fun.

Wish me luck. Happy weekend everyone!

Waiting Paid Off

Last night I started noticing my neighbors shoveling their driveways and thought I probably should get out there...but I wasn't going anywhere, so I decided to wait.

When I got up this morning, it had frozen overnight so I was desperately worried that the snow would be all hard and heavy. So again, I decided to wait on the shoveling.

So I finally went out there about an hour ago and low and behold it was easy-peasy! A lot of the now that was on the asphalt had either melted or at least started to melt and soften up. The main part was getting the broom unstuck from the icy back deck (haha, it had fallen over, then got snowed on, then froze to the deck...I had to dig it out with my boot and kick it until it came loose). I brushed off my car and then spent maybe 2 minutes shoveling the snow away from the side and rear of my car. Of course, it took closer to 10 minutes to clear the mouth of the driveway from where the plow had gone by....I wish there was a way to avoid that!

The First %^&$ing Snow of the Season

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Snow. Disgusting, gloppy, wet, sideways snow. If it has to snow, why can't it be the crisp, fluffy, fun kind? I hope this isn't what Halifax snow is usually like. :(

Yesterday it snowed lightly for about 4 hours, but it took 2 hours for it to even start sticking so when I first started taking pictures you couldn't even see it.

By the time I went out to get the mail at the end of the day, there was a pretty dusting of it laying on the lawn.

Then it rained all night and this morning we were back to the madass sideways crazy Halifax rain. At 1:30 today I was making lunch and grimacing at the shitty rain....then I got on a conference call and I guess I didn't look out the window, because at the end of that call 2 hours later there was an inch of snow on the ground and no sign of stopping just yet.

But it's not pretty or fluffy or fun. It's still windy as shit, and the snow is more like thick slush being thrown from the sky at full force. Boooo to the crappiest driving conditions ever. Blech. (I get snow tires on Friday....I'm sure Mother Nature must be smiting me since she dropped this crap two days before I got prepared...bugger!)

Merry...um...Birthday?

They say it's your birthday....da da da da da da da...Well it's my birthday too, ya!!

So, being that DBF is away and my party plans aren't until tonight, I decided to just treat this like any other Saturday. I already did most of my chores last night, and already bought the majority of the groceries I need...so it is my day to just chill. Of course, I decided that I needed to start my day with a trip to Starbucks...one birthday latte pour moi coming up!

But to what do my wondering eyes appear?...Yup, it's that time. Christmas has arrived at Starbucks. Tra la la la la, la la la la. Red and green everywhere. Peppermint Mochas, Gingerbread Lattes, Cranberry Bliss Bars, Christmas Blend coffee....and the best thing of all...the Eggnog Latte!

Now normally I don't do Christmas before December...and especially not before my birthday. But what was I to do? I was surrounded. And I have to tell you that these East Coasters sure catch the Christmas Spirit early....folks started putting up their lights the day after they composted their jack-o-lanterns. I thought they were a bit nutty, but I guess that's what you do when you live in the land of snow and ice...gotta get it done before the flakes fly. So this year, in the spirit of now being an East Coaster, I decided that it was OK to have a birthday Eggnog Latte. :)

Afterwards I wandered through Chapters eager to buy myself a birthday present, but nothing really caught my eye. I have a stack of books here at home to get through and I didn't really see the need for the $90 Twilight box set just yet. So instead I carried on with my errands.

Well, happy Christmas to me. er, I mean Merry Birthday! um. hmmm. Well, whatever. My birthday gift to myself ended up being new LED warm white lights and pine garlands for our front porch (remember this is our first Christmas season in this house). I also picked up Christmas cards because I might as well start now as it will take me a couple of weeks to get them all done! After that I went to Costco, where I got us this crazy huge lighted wreath for our garage door. Love it.

Oh, and I did get myself a real birthday giftie after all....Rachel Ray's Big Orange Book and this month's Rachel Ray Everyday magazine. Yes, I'm a corporate whore (she's just cheaper than Starbucks and LuluLemon).

Feist in Halifax

Back in April I bought Feist tickets on a whim. Sounded like a fun thing for a few girls to do. Admittedly I only knew a couple of her popular songs, but based on those I knew she was my kind of music. I decided on standing room floor tickets since the seated floor tickets would probably have a bad view....wasn't sure if this was going to be a good decision as I was worried the standing area might be very small and full of teenagers...but it turned out to be the right choice.

Funny enough, even though I bought the tickets MONTHS in advance, when the day arrived I ended up with an extra ticket. The date just didn't work for the people invited and with such short notice we couldn't find anyone else. Oh well. So, it was just Cosette, Marie-Claude, and me.

The opening act started at 8:00, but we chose just to listen from the bar area of the arena where we chatted and had a couple of drinks instead. Just as Feist was actually about to begin, we made our way down to the floor. The show was far from sold out, and there was tons of space so we were able to stay at the back of the crowd but were still only about 8 rows of people from the stage. Pretty much the perfect viewing situation.

Her show was about an hour and fifteen minutes long, which is a bit short but good for those of us that were standing the whole time. Her music is lovely but it's not like you spend time dancing around and staying limber so the timing was just right for me. (haha, I guess I'm getting old for this stuff!). She is very enjoyable live...more so than on CD I thought...but she would be much better suited to a more intimate venue. The Halifax Center was far too large for her...and although our view was great I heard a lot of people that were sitting in the stands complain that they couldn't see her.

One of the best parts of the show was the artistic display on the screen behind her. Instead of just a video of her up there (which of course would have been nicer for those folks that were too far away) she had all sorts of different art/displays/media projected up that went along with each song. You could see the artists working feverishly at the back of the stage to keep up....very interesting.

All in all, a fun experience, but if I ever see her again I hope it's in a bar or lounge with a more intimate feel.

Oh, and due to the fact that we couldn't take cameras in (which they never even checked for!) I don't have any photos of the evening....but I did find this video of My Moon My Man that someone put up on YouTube (it won't let me embed it here for some reason).

Halloween in Suburbia

I've been trying to think back to when the last time I truly had kids at my door for Halloween and I really can't remember. The past two years, we were in our military housing in the country back in Victoria (only 14 houses)...so there were about a dozen kids from the neighborhood but that was it. For three years prior to that I was in an apartment....before that a condo apartment...before that a shitty apartment...before that a condo in Nanaimo...before that a basement suite on a street that didn't get trick-or-treaters...wow, so it was before that when I lived in a house with my ex. Yikes. What's that, like 10 years?!

So anyway, we now live in uber-residential suburbia, so I planned for about 100 or so kids. I didn't count, but I'm guessing I probably had 60-70. They didn't start coming until around 6pm, but once they started they came full force until about 7:30. Short and sweet. Surprisingly, it was mostly little kids....like 8 and under...with the majority being under 5 and carried by their parents. We have a lot of stairs so I met a lot of them at the bottom because those stairs were slowing the little ones down all up and down the block.

By 8:00 they were all gone. I think there may have been some older kids a little later, but I went out at 8:30 and the street was pretty quiet.

Autumn Decor

Last weekend being Thanksgiving I decided to do the final clean up on our yard for the season. I mowed and weeded on Friday evening, then did more weeding and weed whacking on Sunday. I cleaned out my planters and stored them away, and put away the hoses for the Winter. I had already cleaned out our front garden and the hanging baskets a week or so before. Fresh, tidy and clean for the season. Love it.

Since I got us a fab new lawn mower this year, I put our old hokey one out at the curb for $25 and someone bought it before the sun went down. Nice.

The weather has been crisp and clear and even sunny, so I've been taking walks around the neighborhood and noticed that a lot of folks already have pumpkins and Autumn decor on their porches so I decided to join in too. I picked out a festive wreath from Michaels and spruced it up with some extra leafy garland, repotted a chrysanthemum into the flower pot on our porch (with some cute scarecrows), and picked out three good sized pumpkins that I can carve closer to Halloween.

I still wish I'd been able to paint the porch this Summer, but funny how the weather disagreed when the timing was right and now that the timing is wrong the weather is dryer. Oh well. Next Spring I'm on it.

While I was on a roll with the Autumn decor outside I decided to make myself a quick centerpiece inside too. A few glazed gourds, a yummy pie smelling candle, and some leftover leafy garland...et voila, cozy festivity for the coffee table.

When I get back from my work trip to Vegas next weekend, I'll start adding some spookier Halloween decorations. I see some ghosts, spiders and black cats...maybe some lights...and definitely some creative jack-o-lanterns. I'm so excited to finally live in a house in a neighborhood with lots of kids to trick-or-treat. Boo!

Time to Catch Up

Oh lord, how is it already the middle of October? And how is it that I haven't written in this blog for like two weeks?

Where to start?

DBF is away again. Yup, what's new right? He left on the 6th and is gone until sometime around Christmas, or possibly whenever hell freezes over...whichever comes first. Actually, he'll be back for one weekend in November and then back for December 10th apparently. Of course, shortly after that he'll be making his holiday trip to Winnipeg to visit his son (and I'll be heading back to BC) so really between now and Christmas we'll have maybe 4 days together. Oh the joy.

Before he left we did manage to have a couple of weeks together after my Mom went home so that was nice. We got in one weekend roadtrip to Wolfville in the Annapolis Valley, where we found a great pub for lunch on the Port Williams side of the bridge. Too bad it's an hour away because it was super yum. Maybe I'll take myself there as a treat while he's gone!

We also drove up to the Lookout to check out the view of the valley. Soooo beautiful. Windy, but clear and it just felt like Autumn. I picked up some produce from a farm market while we were there...yummy Honeycrisp apples! I wish I had thought to take pictures at the market...they had their huge hay bales all painted up with scary jack-o-lantern faces. Very cool.

Oh, and I dyed my hair darker for Fall. :)

Since DBF left I've mostly been tending to my screwed up shoulder. No idea what I did, but my new chiropractor (yes, new...I'm on my second one here in Halifax) seems to think the vertebrae have been out for a while and they finally wreaked havoc on the muscle, which in turn is irrating the hell out of the nerve. Not only has my shoulder/neck/upper arm been stiff and majorly sore and hard to move, but it's causing a radiating ache down my arm that makes it difficult to type or drive. Lovely, since those are the two main things I do all day!

Thankfully, keeping active actually feels good so going to the gym, or doing chores, or working in the garden are basically no problem. Odd I know, but it's an odd muscle.

It's been about six weeks in total since it first started bugging me, but it's been about 2 1/2 weeks since it got excrutiating. Hence, the new chiro...seeings as I'd been seeing the first one about the arm pain and it actually got worse, I opted to try someone different. The first woman was great for other stuff...she worked on my jaw and got rid of my headache, but her methods were not working for the rest of my body. The new guy is much more my style...crack, crack, crack!

I'm actually going to meet with a massage therapist tomorrow because my chiro work has really done well, but the muscle is still holding tight and the chiro admits that he thinks it's not going to get any better without proper muscle attention. I just wish I knew what I did, so I can be sure NEVER to do it again!!

On the gym front, since DBF is away I'm there at least 5-6 times a week. Gained me a few pounds while Mom was visiting and DBF and I were hanging out before he left (funny enough, he LOST weight!). So I'm back on track trying to drop those few extras, as well as actively working on my toning and cardio. Three times a week I do HIIT cardio (the fancy elliptical is my new fave) followed by a full body strength training routine I put together based on the two routines I got from the trainer I hired a while back. The other days I go for 60 minutes of cardio....20 minutes each on 3 different machines. I break that up with some squats, crunches, ab twists, etc in between machines. For the most part I enjoy it...definitely better than being home bored!

I think that's probably enough for now. I've discovered that my arm doesn't hurt if I actually sit with my laptop on my lap on the couch so now I can work and blog a lot more easily. (Prior to this I couldn't make it more than an hour at a time at my desk...and evening computer use was out the window.) So I will definitely try to be a better blogger.

Mom's Halifax Adventure - part 1

Monday:
Took a nice drive downtown in the afternoon. Learned that you can actually drive all the way around the Citadel, which was cool because I had planned on taking her there later in the week, but mainly just for the view....so we saved ourselves the inside trip there and just enjoyed the wicked view from the car. :) (I did the Citadel by myself last year, and was only going to do it again for Mom...and she didn't really care, so problem solved.)

After that, we drove down to the waterfront and strolled a bit. Wandered along the boardwalk a little ways, and browsed through the little touristy mall. Stood inside Cows Ice Cream and drooled over the smell of waffle cones....hehe.


Tuesday:
Peggy's Cove!

Made sure to head out at a reasonable time before lunch so as to make sure we had lots of time for the drive and some meandering once we got there. From our place it's actually only about an hour, but I had forgotten how long the road there is. Just when you think it will be around the next corner, you realize it's another 10 minutes away.

But it's worth it.

Once you do get around that last corner and start seeing all of those cool rocks all over the place, it's worth it. Glacial deposits. Natural phenomenon. Whatever you call them, they are cool.

We stopped first at the Swiss Air monument. Breathtaking view. Sad that it's not a happy place...but lovely that so many people stop to pay their respects there.

Then up the road and into Peggy's Cove itself. Touristy, sure...but not too terribly busy on a Tuesday. We looked around a bit, then opted to have lunch before heading out onto the rocks. The Sou'wester Restaurant has been there forever but I won't recommend it. We knew it was a tourist trap but I didn't expect the food to be as bad as it was. I won't make that mistake again ($10 for "chowder"...bullshit...it was potato soup with some fishy bits). We did enjoy gawking out the window at all of the folks gathered around posing with the live lobsters though...pretty funny. I guess if you are from a landlocked place, then shellfish are pretty exotic!

After that we wandered up to the lighthouse itself. It's pretty neat and I love lighthouses, but the true reason for going there is to see the ocean view and hop around on all of the smooth, huge rocks. Mom had the same reaction I did when I went for the first time last year....that even though she has spent her whole life on the ocean, this is just so different. The Atlantic seems a lot wilder than the Pacific (especially if you haven't spent any time on the wilder parts of Vancouver Island). We took a few photos and scoured the rock faces looking for the "petrified bear" but couldn't find it. I'll have to ask about it next time I go.

We decided to wander around the town a tiny bit. Photo ops, yummy (and cheap!) soft serve ice cream, some goats, a stop at a monument....built over many years by a local fellow who died before he could finish it...carved right into a huge granite deposit in the center of town. Lovely.

When it was time to head home, we opted to take the back way. Turns out that the highway is actually a huge cresent that just loops past Peggy's Cove. It was nice to see some different scenery on the way back.

Wednesday:
Lazy day around the house, followed by an evening trip to Fisherman's Cove over in Eastern Passage. Left too late and wound up stuck in rush hour and got lost. Not exactly fun on the way there, but good once we found it. Would have been a great spot if it was a weekend and probably even better if it was still Summer season. Fun to go somewhere I'd never been though, and the scenery was totally different than anywhere else I've seen around here.

We mainly went there because I'd had the restaurant there, Boondocks, recommended to me...but again I think it might have been better when it's actually tourist season and sunny and fun. We enjoyed our seafood platter and had a good laugh with Larry our lobster when he arrived in front of us, but the service was mediocre at best and the food was only so-so. We still had fun though, so that's what counts!

Thursday:
Off to Mahone Bay! It's about an hour and a half from our place...taking the scenic Highway 3 instead of the freeway. Which also led us to Lunenburg when I realized that it was only another 10km. I thought it was a lot further. Glad we did that because Mom quite enjoyed their waterfront, and we found a fantastic restaurant where Mom got to try a Lobster Roll and I had the best freaking fish burger EVER. The Bluenose II wasn't alongside while we were there, which was too bad, but there were a couple of other tall ships there to give the idea.

Back in Mahone Bay we were too late to stop at the sweets shop, which was probably for the best. We wandered through the few stores that were still open and made a stop at the Market there. I bought a local canteloupe that ended up being THE BEST freaking canteloupe I've ever had. Sooooo juicy and yummy. We also got a few homemade baked good that we devoured in the car while we were driving around looking at all of the cute waterfront homes and trying to find a good spot to take a picture of the three churches of Mahone Bay.


Friday and Saturday:
Not much. We had planned to do a cruise on the Harbour Queen and to tour the Bluenose II while she was in Halifax, but the weather disagreed with us. Too bad, as I've been dying to get out on the water since we moved here and now with Summer behind us I'll be hard pressed to get it done. (I think I'll just take the ferry to the Farmer's Market over in Dartmouth one weekend!)

Saturday morning we took a trip over to Dartmouth to the Farmer's Market at Alderney Landing. We picked up some fresh corn, a couple of squash (for half the price I would have paid at the store) and some fresh homemade egg rolls from the cute little egg roll lady. Her deep fried wontons were fantastic!

We did do a little shopping... showed Mom the Halifax Shopping Center, MicMac Mall, and Dartmouth Crossing. Those places are all mostly dedicated to clothes shopping though, so we could only handle so much.

Also had a yummy dinner at my favorite little restaurant, the Armview. Mom asked for a good burger place and since I don't know very many I chose there and it was perfect. Best service I've ever had there too...so that was great.


Sunday:
I was hoping for sunnier weather, but at least it didn't rain! Headed downtown again, but this time over to the Public Gardens. I knew Mom would appreciate these. I remember wandering in there last year, thinking it was just some nice park...only to be super impressed by the massive gardens. Beautiful! This time of year is a little late, but still quite spectacular. And the swans were still there for photo opportunities. Mom enjoyed it for sure.

Then, of course, I made her wander up Spring Garden Road for Starbucks and a stop at LuluLemon. She didn't enjoy that near as much as I did. Ha!

Sunday night, DBF came home from his visit to Winnipeg...on the redeye. So I stayed up and drove out to the airport at 1:30am in the pitch dark, bloody hammering rain....with one headlight. Yippee. But I forgot all about that when he walked down the stairs. :)


Stay tuned for the report on week 2. I was back to work so not so much in the way of touristy stuff. :)

Holy Hannah!

So with a whole four hours of sleep under my belt, I managed to get myself to the airport pretty much on time to get Mom. I planned for 10 minutes after her flight was supposed to arrive (to give the extra time for deplaning and such) but then started worrying on the way there that her flight might land early. Thankfully for me, it didn't...so I was there to greet her when she came down the escalator. Whew. :) She was the second person off her plane, so no long waits withs throngs of people.

Of course, we still had a 15 minute wait for her suitcase.

The drive out to the airport was interesting...fog city. Nice that there were only about a dozen other cars on the highway at that time of the morning, but not so nice that I couldn't see more than about a block in front of me most of the time. That's tough when I've only ever driven that stretch of road maybe 4 or 5 times. Ah well, life goes on. :)

In my continuing battle with Mother Nature, she decided to throw a tropical storm at us just in time for Mom's arrival. Yup, "tropical event Hannah" blew through town yesterday. We awoke to some serious humidity, which then turned to some rain on the drive back from the airport, which then turned into an all-out crazy ass wind and rain storm by the time we got to the house. Warm, sticky, and huge, gloppy, sideways rain. Gee Mom, welcome to Halifax.

We went for breakfast at Cora's on the way home, and thankfully the hurricane rain held off until we finished there. Then it was time for a nap (it was 3am for Mom when she landed, and I needed to make up for the couple of nights of little sleep). By the time we woke up, the storm had pretty much passed....and believe it or not the sun actually peeked out.

Our afternoon was spent mostly just chatting and watching some TV, and our evening was our traditional Chinese take-out and a DVD (27 Dresses...too cute). The Chinese food was even pretty close to what we get a home, which was nice because as I've ranted about before, a lot of the dishes seem different here than they are in BC.

Went to bed at a reasonable time, and had a nice sleep in. Had some coffee and morning chit-chat and am now making brunch and getting ready to do a small bit of exploring. Easing Mom into things by maybe just taking a drive downtown and maybe a short walk along the waterfront so she can see a few things. Then maybe a little shopping and another quiet night in. (Tomorrow the more touristy stuff shall begin!)

The sun is with us so cross your fingers that it sticks around!

Yo Momma!

It occurs to me that I haven't told you all that my Mom is coming to visit. Yup. Tomorrow morning she will be here in soggy old Halifax!

It's quite exciting. Mom hasn't flown since I was about 5 years old....and we never really travelled anywhere when I was a kid, so she hasn't really been too far since before I was born. Our Summer vacations were always with my Grandma down to Victoria. That was about the extent of it. A few trips over to Vancouver over the years too I suppose.

So, with me starting my military spouse lifestyle...she's gonna have to travel more!

And so she is!

I helped her pick her flight so I could make sure she was getting good flight times and a good stopover airport (and only one stopover!!). She just called from Calgary...so far so good!

She will arrive here at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning. Likely groggy and in pain from her overnight flight, the time difference, and the oh-so-uncomfortable airplane seat. I have made no plans for us for day one. We will enjoy tasty coffee, a homemade breakfast, a nap, maybe a movie and some take-out Chinese. Typical mother-daughter day for us.

Over the next week, we've got plans to be tourists. She's here for two weeks, and I booked the first week off work. DBF is still in Winnipeg so he doesn't have to subjected to yet another trip to Peggy's Cove. :) He will be back for the second week though. Right now the weather is not cooperating (go away Gustav!)...but it's supposed to be nice by Tuesday...so here's hoping. Most of the good stuff is outdoors, so a lot of rain would not be appreciated.

I can't wait to see my Mom! We were so used to being able to see each other whenever we wanted....only living an hour and a half apart made life pretty easy. This whole living at opposite ends of the country is a little lame I must say. Thank God for good calling plans and the internet!

I pick her up in 7 hours, so I'd better get me some beauty sleep. I already warned her to expect bed-head and morning breath. If she's lucky I'll change out of my pyjamas. :)

Beechville Book Club

One of my neighbors has started up a neighborhood book club (Hi Marie-Claude!). Her timing couldn't have been better. I needed something that would distract me and give me a goal, as well as something that would help me meet some more people and give me the opportunity for at least one night out of the house each month.

I am a fairly regular reader...it blows hot and cold. Sometimes I will read every night before bed and plow through a book each week. Sometimes I will go for a month without even touching a book. I guess it depends on if I have a book I'm enjoying, or if there is lots of good stuff on TV, or if DBF is home and we're keeping busy. For a long time I really only read "fluffy" books...ie: Shopaholic or Stephanie Plum. I still like those books for sure, but lately I had started in on things like The Other Boleyn Girl and The Kite Runner, so the book club is a welcome way for me to keep up with a bit more intellectual reading.

So the idea is that each month we will take turns chosing a book. Someone will suggest three titles and we will vote as a group. I think there are about 6-8 members so far, with mainly women. We decided that if there are enough men, we will alternate between men & women each month...to give fair opportunity on the types of books we chose to read and discuss.

Since it was her idea, Marie-Claude gave the options for our first book....The Kite Runner, My Sisters Keeper, or Atonement. I voted for My Sisters Keeper as it had been on my "must read" list forever. Lucky for me, it was the group choice.

Funny enough, once I started I could barely put it down. So here we are still 27 days away from our first meeting and I've already finished reading the book. It was THAT good. Incredibly interesting subject matter, fabulous writing style, good storylines, everything that I love in a book.

So I've already been out to Chapters and picked up another book by the same author, Jodi Picoult (I actually had to reel myself in from buying every other book she has ever written!). Plus, I've picked up another book that I'm sort of hoping makes its way into our book club... The Time Traveller's Wife... as well as The Boleyn Inheritance, and a more fluffy novel by Marion Keyes (I recently discovered her and read two of her books last month).

This crappy weather we've been having does suck, but at least it's good for curling up with a good book.

Dear Mother Nature,

I am sure I have written to you about this same topic not all that long ago, but it's important so I thought I'd hit you up again.

When exactly are you planning on bringing Summer to Halifax? Just curious, as usually it falls sometimes between June 21st and September 20th, and here we are almost into September and I think we've only witnessed about two weeks total of what I might refer to as Summer weather.

I have a porch that needs painting, I have flowers that are soggy and in need of some heat, my Summer freckles are already faded out, and all of my cute Summer shoes are collecting dust in the closet. What gives?

I even went out a bought a power washer this past weekend, and took the time to really clean my porch good while the sun was with us on Sunday. Unfortunately by the time I went to bed that night, you opened up the sky and dumped a torential downpour on us, and now my stairs will need a couple super hot days to really dry out enough to be painted. And since you haven't brought the sun back since then, I'm starting to worry that might have been the last sight of it for a while.

I think I speak for everyone around here when I say 'PLEASE BRING ON SUMMER...WE ARE MORE THAN READY'.

Thank you!

Sincerely, Bi0nicW0man

A Saturday Rant

So, my first experiences with selling a few things on Kijiji were quite good. A 27" TV, a 14" TV, my Ikea TV cabinet. All sold for basically my wanted price, all to nice people that showed up when they said they would, all within 3-5 days. Nice.

Then DBF put up a few things. His flat panel monitor sold easily for asking price within a day or two. No surprises there. His car stereo equipment has been a tougher sell but that's more because he needs a knowledgable buyer, not just anyone is going to buy it up. No worries though, we knew that might be tougher.

Now, I'm trying to sell a good WHITE fridge and stove. You would think that these would be highly sought after. They are white, they are modern, they are reasonably priced. Especially here in cottage country where so many people seem to be looking for stuff for their family cabins. But good God, it's been the biggest pain.

People email, ask a bunch of questions, say they are "very interested", then either offer some ridiculous lowball price without even seeing the items....or....never get back to me....or....tell me they are coming and don't show up. (Ya, this lady emailed me like 4 times saying how badly she wanted these and how they would rent a truck and be here this morning and blah, blah, blah....only to not freaking show up!!!) What is it with people?

Everyone wants something for nothing. It's annoying.

And that's my rant for today.