Category Archives: technology

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28 Thursday Jan 2016

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woke up at 1:30 am to see the moon shining through the window… just above it and off to the side was a bright planet… a few seconds later it was covered by clouds… again, amazing to wake up at just the right moment to see the beautiful view…

then, on our way to the office, I got this view…

  
a Facebook memory this morning from four years back showed this lovely amaryllis… I had taken the picture looking out the window at the snow…

  
here is a picture of the amaryllis that I bought this year around Christmas… showed a beautiful pale pink flower on the box…

  
sadly, not a single blossom…

but the amazing thing is that the orchid continues to bloom… I so love flowers in the depths of winter…

  
more beautiful moments in my life…

snowfall…

27 Wednesday Jan 2016

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it snowed quite a bit overnight… as I was pulling out of the driveway the house looked so pretty that I had to stop and get a picture…

  

fresh snow makes everything beautiful…

started snowing on the drive to work… it was hard to see and very slippery… the snowfall lasted for a good portion of the day but by the time I left the office the car was clean… the temperature was over zero and it had melted… crazy weather, lol… main streets were practically dry…

sadly when we got on the side streets there was still tons of snow… 

my grandson met me at work so he could ride home and shovel for me…

  
we had supper and he got all the sidewalks and driveway cleared…

   

it’s been two years since my wall was painted purple so I spent a few minutes enjoying the beauty of the living room before heading on up to bed…

CancerCare…

25 Monday Jan 2016

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was at CancerCare for a bit this afternoon… time for my six month check-up… been nine time for these appointments… will continue twice a year until I hit the fifth anniversary of my surgery… then it will be an annual visit to my own physician…

usually my daughter comes with me but I am getting braver and now can go on my own… usually I take a cab from and to the office so I don’t have to worry about finding a parking spot and getting there on time… seems like those big girl pants are fitting better every day…

only there for an hour today… sometimes it has been two or three hours… I often think about the others in the waiting room… 

are they going to hear a cancer diagnosis and be at the beginning of their care… are they getting news that their treatment isn’t working and they have a finite amount of time left… are they, like me, part way through their 5 year term…

hard to feel bad if I have to wait for a while… I am one of the very lucky ones… the surgery basically removed all of the cancer… but they will continue to check on it until I reach the magic five years out mark…

  
enjoyed this piece of art as I was waiting… produced by nurses who work with cancer patients right here… they are a special group of individuals…

excellent appointment and I will be back in six months…

life is pretty darn good…

productive…

24 Sunday Jan 2016

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really didn’t want to leave the house today…

eventually I dragged myself out to the car and headed out…

went to a local appliance shop and checked out some dishwashers and microwaves… found a beautiful drawer microwave… of course it was over a thousand dollars, lol… most microwaves are around a couple of hundred… because I use the microwave very little, seemed like a bit much to spend but I sure liked the drawer…

think I’ve found the dishwasher for the new kitchen… it is a Bosch and does a great job cleaning, heats the water to the appropriate temperature, and is so quiet there is a light that shines onto the floor to let you know it is actually running… they will keep it until I am ready to install it…

  
next went to the grocery store and picked up fresh veggies for the week…

  
half an hour and a hundred dollars later I brought home two bags of goodies…

put a frozen roast into the crockpot with onions and red wine; baked potatoes and roasted peppers, onions and mushrooms… finished with our usual Caesar salad… the little kids were very helpful… the smallest is usually the table setter and he’s getting very good at it…  next one loves to chop so he cut up two bags of radishes for me… now I will just pop them into my lunch bag instead of having to prep them… oldest one shovelled the driveway… dad topped up the hot tub and mom searched for a cottage for us to stay at this summer and set up an appointment for me to meet with a kitchen designer…

after dinner, the boys and I tidied up and filled my current dishwasher… we’ve had it for many years… for at least the last five years the soap dispenser hasn’t closed properly and I’ve just put the soap in when it was time to turn it on… every six months or so we have to clean out the holes in the blades… will certainly enjoy a new one, lol…

very productive day after all…

starting…

23 Saturday Jan 2016

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spent the morning at MBlog 2016 with a room full of bloggers wanting to grow… many great tips on organizing and content creation… a blog is a conversation advised Kyla Roma… we spent time looking at our own blog and working through our brand and who we wanted to be having the conversation with…

  
as the speaker, Kyla kept us moving forward so that by the end we had lots of content to work with for the coming year… 

I spent time remembering that the reason I started to blog was to share some of my experiences following my husband’s death and my desire to share as I move forward in my life’s journey…

it was energizing to hear the sound of wisdom being shared and see the animated faces of the bloggers as everyone soaked up knowledge…

  
left the event filled with ideas floating around in my head…

once home I watched figure skating on tv and had a nap… hadn’t slept well last night… snow started just after I arrived home… 

  dreamt of my beloved coming in after shovelling and when I woke up thought he was in the basement watching tv… took a few moments to realize that he wasn’t… 

maybe a combination of thinking of his loss, snow falling, and the skating, brought on the dream… my neighbour and I would call one another whenever skating was on to be sure the other didn’t miss any programs… I would watch upstairs while George would watch his programs in the basement… shook me up a little…

vanish…

22 Friday Jan 2016

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on my way out to the car this morning — with my hands full of various bits and bags for work — I had to stop and take a picture of the pink sky…

 
my driving buddy thought I’d fallen as it took me a few extra seconds to get to the car, lol…

 took lots of pictures as we drove downtown… you never know, when the sky is so beautiful, when it will vanish…

  
at lunch I went for a walk with my daughter as our yoga class was cancelled… did well, particularly as I hadn’t planned on walking… had a spare jacket to put under my coat and pulled up my hood… only my legs got cold…

then my grandson met me at the office and came to shovel… afterwards we had leftover lentils with brown basmati rice along with roasted brussel sprouts and mushrooms… 

  

he chose the menu and prepped the veggies… we had a lovely visit and he headed home on the bus…

what a treat…

brighten…

21 Thursday Jan 2016

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this morning I took some pictures of the orchid… it is lasting amazingly well… 

  
sure does brighten up the living room…

have been doing a bit of reading on orchids and discovered that the roots hanging out of the pot were not as healthy as I thought… apparently they might need to be repotted…

  
snow fell off and on during the day in those big huge flakes again… so peaceful…

when I got home I took a few pictures of snowflakes on the mailbox…

  
but I didn’t take any with the camera… too lazy to dig it out so just used the iPhone…

opened up the sliding door for the first time in months so I could get a shot of the snow on the chair and table on the deck…

  
really enjoying the longer light each day… 

final picture of the day was of the skyline as the sun was going down…

 
the extra light certainly brightens my day… 

eyes…

19 Tuesday Jan 2016

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this morning I was able to get in to see my optometrist…

  
I’ve been using ointment for weeks trying to get rid of a persistent hordeolum on my upper eyelid… besides looking bad, sometimes it is also painful…

for a couple of years I have been using eyelid cleaning pads every day to be sure my eyelids stay clean and healthy… really have to be on top of blepharitis so it doesn’t recur… 

now we are adding something else to the regime… at least once a week I am supposed to use a heated mask over a damp facecloth for ten minutes…

here’s the mask I will be using which I had to buy today…

 
great that there are all these products to help deal with this ongoing problem…

always something, lol…

serendipitous…

18 Monday Jan 2016

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took this picture of the beautiful sunrise this morning…

  
am always amazed at how I walk by the window at just the right moment to catch something so lovely… what made me look out this time and not just focus on getting down the stairs… interesting…

had an appointment after lunch so needed to get a few things done in a short amount of time…

stopped in at the credit union and after making the deposit asked about when we could meet with the locksmith to drill out the key to our safety deposit box… it was serendipitous that the locksmith was on the way there for another reason…

I waited a few minutes and when he got there and opened it, we discovered that the box was empty, as I had imagined… we had that box since 1979…

 
was hard to see George’s signature on the document… brought a few tears… never know when things will hit hard…

after a quick grocery shop, I headed to Toyota to have them check the silly remote starter… met up with my sales guy and he took me to the place down the street that did the install… they checked it out and said it was fine… they gave me a lesson in how to use it and I drove away within half an hour… need to wait in one place, double click in another, and turn the key a certain way… will see how it goes, lol…

  
was so pleased with how quickly the visit to the dealership went that I decided to take her for a car wash as she was very dirty…

was a bit nervous about what I had to do when I got there but it was easy… left her at the door…

  
went in and paid, and discovered that the cars don’t stay in the same line they started in, yikes… a nice person helped me figure the system out, I found her and drove away in a lovely clean car…

grandparents…

17 Sunday Jan 2016

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fun day…

went to the Renovation Show with my daughter… we are OK, or so said the stamp on our hands, lol… didn’t get to see Brian Baeumler, but wandered around and picked up some very helpful information…

  
had quite a good time… picked up a couple of things…

  

a gelcool pillow which makes me very happy as it will make my head feel cooler so I don’t have to do my regular flip of the pillow in the middle of the night… 

also this beautifully designed toilet cleaner brush, which looks like a piece of art, or an arrow, as my grandson suggested…

and a new Tupperware measuring cup to replace the one I’ve been using to make popcorn, which is kind of ruined, lol… exciting because they have just reintroduced it…
found a new natural system for the hot tub… will use enzymes instead of the current chemicals I put in, and way less will need to be added… 

finally picked up a paring knife which fits my hand perfectly… been looking for one that is comfortable in my palm forever…

picked up the last few items for our taco supper, came home and finished it up… 

had quite the start this morning as I was chopping tomatoes… looked over and saw this…

 
nearly jumped out of my skin because I thought it was a spider… just the stem from one of the tomatoes, lol…

supper was gobbled up… I am so happy when everyone enjoys our meal and time together… two and three helpings were had, and the littlest one even ate the meat happily… in fact he had two plates of taco salad before he ate his usual taco… 

such fun to see them begin to try, and enjoy, new things…

as I enjoy my Sunday afternoons and evenings with my grandkids I realize how lucky I am to be in close proximity to them… many grandparents I know only get to see their kids now and again, and I am able to see them grow every week…

grandparenting is one of the best jobs I’ve ever had… life is good…