Drilling III

Can you believe that we are still living in the middle of a construction site? Remember The Drilling?

One night last week we came home and found the window blinds re-installed*. It was like that scene in The Money Pit where Tom Hanks realizes the stairs are back in and and he gleefully runs up and down them a few times just for the pure joy of it.

I ran to the window and ran my hands along the blinds, twisted them open and closed a couple times - seriously, no blinds since May. May.

One night a couple weeks ago I came home from work to this:

The place was deserted other than Brad and Ziggy in the middle of the living room floor - staring at an opening in the wall. We found the contractors - they weren't sure how long it would be until they got the window in - so we put Ziggy in the bedroom and went for a coffee. Got home - still the gaping hole.

They finally installed the window later that night. The next morning the place was full of flies. 

I work with contractors and I love it. I've been super patient and don't really mind the work but I'm over it. We have piles of crap everywhere, no railing on the balcony, we can't open the sliding doors and there are bedsheets on the bookcases. Bedsheets on the bookcases!

They're scheduled to work until the end of November.

*....on three out of five windows, we are still partially blind-less.

Coolest Rock Ever

I love rocks. There is no shortage of them on the island - that's a fact. We've been collecting rocks for a few years now. We have a giant one on the coffee table that is "the perfect rock" - smooth, a perfect ellipse. It was awesome when we found it.

When we got married Rawbean drew a cartoon of us for our wine bottles. We saved one of the bottles and now we use it for the small rocks we like. There are lots of super cool rocks in there. Orange ones, wish rocks, pieces of beach glass....you get it.

 A few weeks ago we went to a beach east of Sooke. I love these rocky beaches!

 It was one of our typical weekend road trips - books, sunscreen, and ice cream on the way as usual.

We hung out on the beach and read for a while, then started looking around. That's when I found the coolest rock ever!

What a great find. It's an alien rock!

Sewing Day

My friend D is pregnant - she's the one I made the crazy fabric quilt for.

A few weeks ago her and I had a sewing day at my place - it was full of estrogen, snacks and fantastic sewing - all for her baby. I found the cutest pattern ever for baby booties - check 'em out.

These are the ones I ended up making for D. - gender neutral and DAMN cute.

Meanwhile, D. made the best, easiest baby blanket EVER. Basically, all you do is buy some of that really soft flannel stuff and sew it onto the back of a nice piece of your favourite fabric. Done and done.

She whipped this off that afternoon. These are now in my radar for quick gifts.

And.....I made these for my new nephew who was born yesterday!!!

Baby crafting is the best, everything is quick and small, satisfying and off the charts cute. I'm hooked.

Wrong Fabric

I bought some fabric that I've had my eye on for a long time - we're expecting a new nephew this week. Rocket ships, cars and squirrels - perfect for his first quilt from Auntie.

This is the fabric:

Imagine my surprise when I opened my package from the online fabric store and found this:

Although it wasn't at all what I ordered, I was instantly taken with this fabric. Seriously - the ant farms? The insects in jars? Snakes? It's a great quilt for a little guy. 

The fabric store was amazing too - they sent me my original order and let me keep the wrong fabric.

Two quilts!

Text Messge Fail

One of the first text messages I sent with my new phone didn't go over so well....

Good thing Doug has a sense of humour.

The buttons are SO small, and I can't do two things at once: ie: walk and look at the screen. It is instant stumbling, dizziness and walking into things.

I saw a guy skateboarding and texting at the same time the other day, I wonder if I'll ever reach that level.

New Era

Behold.

My new little buddy! What should I name it?

My old phone was awesome, a little red flip-phone that is still going pretty strong. So it's been a good run but it's so time I upgraded. I also finally let go of my 604 number and officially moved to Victoria and have a 250 number. Like I said - it's overdue.

I honestly don't even know what happened to me in the last week. I turned into some kind of crazy lunatic:

I called Telus two hours after the Apple announcement to negotiate a sweet plan. Then I pre-ordered the phone online.

After that there wasn't much to do but wait and prowl around the internet reading what others were speculating about the whole thing. Everything from how to find your tracking number to where to buy a SIM card.

I had no idea when the phone was going to ship.

This morning I got the email - it had shipped and was on a truck on it's way to me!

So. Exciting!

So I have the entire family now. I'm not sure whether to be embarrassed about this or thrilled. I'm leaning towards the latter.

Drilling II

Remember my post about "the drilling"? It's still going on!

And there are stories.

A couple months ago I had some dental work done and went under IV sedation. Afterwards, Brad drove me home where I was was super sleepy for the rest of the morning. I curled up on the couch and fell asleep - head back, mouth hanging open, heavy breathing - the epitome of beauty and poise.

I woke up to this scene:

Brad is poking me and whispering, "Jen, you might want to wake up, the construction workers are here."

As he helped me to the bedroom he was laughing and telling me they were giving me sideways glances as they slammed the window out of the opening and I slept through it all.

Thanks honey.

This morning I was on the phone with Telus, trying to do something online (and getting nowhere) and getting ready for work - all at the same time. A knock at the door...

Suddenly there are 8 construction workers in here throwing drop cloths everywhere, knocking on walls, unloading tools, ripping the temporary tape off the windows and making tons of noise. They were here to rip out the big windows.

I had no idea they were coming.

Ziggy was super stoked - and totally in the way. So I herded him into the spare bedroom, got his food and litter in there, organized everything online and hung up with Telus. When I finally came out of the bedroom one entire window was gone and the place was deserted.

I was only an hour late for work. The rest of my day was equally as chaotic and mental.

Sandcut Beach

Today was supposed to be a super warm day. We figure it's our last day to get out and enjoy summer. Seriously - I doubt I'll leave the house with bare legs again until July 2013.

We love a road trip so we took one today. We grabbed our books and some chairs and headed to Sandcut Beach which is east of Sooke. 

This isn't a sandy beach, we don't have many of those on the island. It's super rocky, but these are the neatest beaches! 

 

The waves are loud too with all the rocks are knocking against each other - the coolest sound. A great spot for reading.

 

On the way back - you know it: we stopped for ice cream, a different place from last time but still super yummy. What's a road trip without ice cream??

I have lots more to tell you guys about my summer, maybe now that it's over I'll get back into it. I hope you're having a great weekend!

Bad Room Mate VI

We left The Bad Room Mate at Brad's dad's house when we went to Penticton. No biggie, he's been there before. My sister-in-law's cats were there at the same time. Again, no problem - he's met them before.

The night we got back we stayed over before heading back to the island. Zig was stoked to have us back, he stuck pretty close to us that night which isn't unusual actually.

It was hot, my feet were sticking out of the blankets. I was sound asleep.

4:00am - I woke up to a loud, horrible screeching nutcase at the same time as the bottom of my foot was ripped off.

(This photo was taken about two weeks after my foot was mauled. It was worse than it looks.)

Of course these two things happened at the same time as I sat up yelling "Mother F*%ker!!!"

Brad slept through it all.

At first we assumed that one of the other cats did it, but neither of them was around. I think Ziggy was so paranoid of them, that as he laid there fast asleep something touched him - maybe another cat, maybe the blanket, maybe my foot -  and he assumed it was another cat and freaked out.

I ask you for the millionth time - Why do we keep these creatures around?

Wine Tours and Old Friends

We went on a road trip to Penticton on the August long weekend. If I'm in the car, road trips always involve stops for ice cream. Cream soda ice cream - as if.

We met up with a bunch of old friends and went to visit wineries.

We decided to buy one bottle from each winery - we toured five in one day. If you ever do one of these tours - don't do five. All of us were totally over it by the last two, I know I was trying stuff and spitting it out. It wasn't that I was drunk, but I was just over WINE. Three would have been fine, or two before lunch and two after. Maybe.

We went out that night and not one person ordered wine with dinner. Although one guy had sangria and we all thought he was crazy.

The next day we drove to Kelowna to visit some other old buddies. We sat in the park by the lake with a bunch of ducklings and dawdled because we figured this was the best way to avoid traffic back into Vancouver.

Yeah, no. That never works.

This is why we don't usually go anywhere on long weekends. 

Oh well! Next weekend (the long weekend) we are going to Mayne Island!