Almost ready to go

The countdown is on with only three sleeps to go before we fly from Regina to New York.  I am almost completely packed, just a hairbrush, makeup and few last minutes items need to be tossed into my bag.  The camera batteries are charged and there is an extra SD card in the camera bag...just in case.

This is a screen grab of the Princess Regal as she sailed last week.  We'll be onboard ship by noon on Thursday.  We always fly out the day prior just to ensure we don't miss the sailing if there is a flight delay or cancellation.  Since there are four sea days before we reach our first port (St. Martin) I'd really like to ensure we get there in plenty of time.  Otherwise it will be a long wait somewhere trying to reach the ship.

My friend's K & J had a near miss several years ago.  They were sailing out of Los Angeles and with the time change took a flight from Regina that was to arrive in L.A. around noon local time.  I don't recall the reason for the delay but they ran up the gang plank just before the ship sailed at 5:00 p.m.  

A few years ago this lesson was brought K and I as well.  We were sailing out Houston; the route was Regina to Denver to Houston the day prior.  Unfortunately, the flight that we were to take was delayed due to high winds in Denver.  We sat at our local airport for 6 hours before flying to Toronto, spent the night in the TO airport, and flew to Houston the following morning.  We made it in plenty of time, but were so exhausted we were in our beds by 7 p.m. that evening.  

Fingers crossed that Wednesday's flight goes without a hitch. We're flying first to Toronto and then onto New York (LaGuardia).  We have a hotel nearby booked for the night and a scheduled car service pickup for the following morning to get us to the terminal by about 11 a.m.  The ship will begin boarding about 11:30 so we'll have lots of time to explore before sailing.  

I'm excited about getting away for a short while.  We've been having some cooler weather so the heat and humidity will be appreciated.  Thus far, the long range looks good...not hurricanes to contend with.

I'm hopeful I'll have internet access on the ship and will be able to check in every once in a while.  If not, see you all in a couple of weeks!

Giving thanks

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my fellow Canadian readers.  I hope you have an opportunity to spend time with family or friends, or if you prefer, time to relax and unwind.  

I spent much of the yesterday preparing our Thanksgiving dinner.  No turkey as I always find we eat so little of it, ending up with leftovers that seem to take until Christmas to use up.  I bought a pork loin roast, rubbed it with sage, thyme, salt and pepper and cooked it in the slow cooker for 4 1/2 hours before popping it in the oven to brown for the last 20 minutes or so.  It was very moist and tasty...there's only a couple of slices and crumbs left so I know it was a success!  

With homemade applesauce, mashed potatoes, turnip, carrots (my son's must have), Stove top stuffing (for my daughter) and Caesar salad (her b/f' J's choice) it was a non-traditional dinner but one that everyone enjoyed.  For dessert we did have the traditional pumpkin pie, although only my son and I had a slice.  

J surprised me with these lovely flowers and balloon.  I especially love the carnations; they were my mother's favorite.  And they're purple, one of my most favorite colors.

After dinner, I left the dishes to the others and went to watch the Blue Jays play the Texas Rangers. What an exciting game especially as it ended in a win for the Jays! Though I must admit I felt a twinge of sadness for the Rangers as the game ended on an error.  

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All in all, it was a very good day.  In fact, though my life has been a little trying in the past few weeks, I truly do have much to be thankful for this year.  I have two wonderful children whom I love dearly (despite they both live with me and drive me batty at times).  

And this week, we got the news that the grandbaby is a BOY!  He is growing well, weighs nearly 12 ounces now, and is just over 6 inches in length. We were able to see his little heart beat, his wee hands and feet.  My heart melted at the sight of the latter.

D continues to struggle a bit with morning sickness, and last night had leg cramps that had her in tears.  Baby X has been moving more and she's finding it all a bit strange and occasionally uncomfortable.  She's half way through...though I suspect the latter half will seem to take much longer than the first half.

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Fall is well underway; in fact we had our first snow fall earlier this week.  On Sunday the temperature finally got high enough to melt what was left.  I had pulled most of the annuals out of the containers the previous weekend with the exception of a pot of mums and some marigolds.  I haven't checked to see how these made out, but it appears the pansies have survived the brief cold snap.  

I'm grateful that there are still warm days ahead.  I'm certainly not ready for winter just yet!   

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My next trip is getting closer, just 17 more sleeps until we leave for New York and our cruise to the Caribbean.  We'll be on-board ship on Halloween, and will be dressing up as the three blind mice. :)  My friend K is creating mouse ears from fur and head bands while I'm crocheting us the tails we'll pin to our pants.  We'll wear these with black pants and shirts, and sunglasses.  These costumes are light weight and easy to pack!

I'm thankful for the opportunity to travel once more this year.  Fingers are crossed there will be no more storms.  (For those of you who were impacted, either personally or your friends and family, I hope that the damage was limited and that all will be repaired in short order).  

I would remiss if I failed to mention how thankful I am for the audience who reads, and comments on my blog.  I've been less active the last while, both writing and reading/commenting, so I'm thankful you've stuck with me.  It's so nice to know I've got support from those I know only through the pages of our blogs.  You've all become such a integral part of my life and I love hearing what's happening with you.

Have a wonderful week everyone!

 

Life is complicated

Again, another busy week is nearly over.  It started last Sunday when I flew out to Ottawa for a conference.  My co-worker from Saskatoon traveled with me.  Funny that, as it was billed as a direct flight from Regina, but we "stopped" in Saskatoon to pick up passengers. We arrived in Ottawa about 6:30 p.m. that evening although our meetings didn't start until 1 p.m. on Monday.  However, unless I had taken a red-eye flight arriving at 6:30 that morning I would not have made the meeting on time. The next flight for my co-worker would have had her arriving at 2 the first day.  We often say, you can't get there from here....and there is a certain amount of truth to it.

After unpacking at our hotel, we wandered down the street and around the corner to the Baton Rouge for dinner.  We sat and visited (in other words, we complained about work!) for quite some time before we took it back to the hotel.

Parliament of Canada

On Monday morning, after breakfast at the hotel we went for a walk to Parliament Hill.  I brought my camera with me, though I may as well have not.  I took a total of 4 photos (two of which I'll share here)

Everywhere we went there was construction.  The Supreme Court building, the Parliament building, the War Memorial, the Arts Centre, and many of the streets were surrounded by barriers, and full of equipment and workers.


All of this is in preparation of Canada's 150th birthday July 2017,  It's good that it's happening, and since D and I have been there before it wasn't a big disappointment.  I'm not sure what some of the other tourists were thinking though.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped outside for D to have her smoke break.  I spotted this little guy running around.

Then it was time for a quick lunch and to get the meeting room in our hotel.  Before it started, we ran into the manager who organized the event, and she was steamed.  The hotel had assured her the room would hold 50 people.  They were right, as long we basically sat on top of one another.  We took to calling the room the sardine can.

Despite this less than auspicious start, the event went very well.  I made a presentation on Tuesday afternoon and it seemed to go well.  I'd done a run through with my staff in our office the week before to prepare for the questions I might be asked.  They did a good job of pointing out specific questions, and at the conference I was only asked one.

I flew home on Wednesday afternoon, my daughter picked me up at the airport and I was back in the office on Thursday.  That was a busy day as I had lots to catch up on even though I'd only been away for three days.

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Speaking of my daughter, oh boy here we go again.  Shortly before I left Parksville, she called to ask if she move back home.  I said "no", but then she went on to tell me that her landlord was hounding her for October's rent (in mid-September) saying that unless she gave him the money the water and power would be cut off that weekend.  I buckled...and she moved in the weekend I arrived home.

Life with her in the house is complicated.  My son and I are both considerate of one another's space; she is not.  For the first few days I felt smothered as she followed me around the house AND never shut up!  I like my peace and quiet ...when she is here there is very little of that.  Either she's talking or she's listening to her television or music in her room at a volume I find unnecessary.  Plus she has mounds of stuff.  It is a good thing I have been eliminating things as my basement and apare room are now full to capacity.

It has taken several conversations to get her to relax and tone it down a bit.  In addition, she works two jobs, Monday to Friday at her full-time job, and then three to four shifts evening or weekend shifts at Sport Chek.  She also spends time with her boyfriend at his place so isn't as bad as it could be.

She's already talking of staying here until after the baby is born.  While I dread the thought, it does make sense both financially and practically speaking.  I expected that I would spend a couple of weeks with her after baby is born to help her settle in.  This way, we'll do it at my place where we are both comfortable.  The way I see it, with any luck, she'll be back living in her own place by the end of spring.

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Friday I spent my day catching up on housework, laundry, vacuuming, and grocery shopping.  I also went to the hairdresser to get my mop shortened....I feel human again!  Today, was yard work.  All of the containers have been cleared out of the annuals as we are expected frost later this week, and I swept up leaves.  The lawn still needs to be mowed, but it's warmed up considerably this afternoon so I decided to catch up on blog posts and hang out inside.

I'm looking forward to Sunday as I have nothing planned, perhaps I'll sleep in or lay in bed and read a book.

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Have a great weekend everyone and Happy October!