05 Friday Jan 2024
Posted in business, family, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
accurate, big girl pants, bird, birds, blessed, calendar, Christmas, family, gift, moments, nature, widow
one of my Christmas presents was a bird calendar from my grandson… it arrived a few days ago and is titled Extremely Accurate Birds…
I hung it up on Monday morning…
it has made me laugh every time I walk by…
02 Tuesday Jan 2024
Posted in garden, health, life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, garden, health, hot tub, moments, nature, New Year's Day, plunge, selfie stick, Technology, tub, water, weather, widow
many people start their New Year’s Day with a cold plunge;-)…
I like to start with a hot tub… it was beautiful out, the sun was shining, there wasn’t much wind, and the chickadees were busy at the feeders…
a lovely way to begin the year…
I took out the fancy selfie stick and set it up to get a photo of me in the tub, even though Google told me it felt like -20° Celsius… which it didn’t, lol…
I did look at the plunge tub for a hot second as I walked past it, lol… if my housemate had been home I might have gone in…
that’s my story and I’m sticking with it;-)…
01 Monday Jan 2024
Posted in family, health, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, brown, charcoal, doorbell camera, fireworks, first-foot, girl power, goodies, memories, moments, nature, New Year's Eve, research, Technology, tradition, widow, winter
New Year’s Eve hasn’t been a big deal for the last few years… in fact, I’ve slept through it a few times, lol…
usually I’ve had a dark haired person to first-foot the house on New Year’s Day, but this year no one with dark hair was available… currently my hair is gray but in my earlier days it was a dark brown;-)…
I did some research and discovered I could first-foot myself as long as I was out of the house before midnight…
I also learned about the tradition of opening the backdoor to let out any bad vibes and then opening the front door to let in the good…
so I packed up my little bag of goodies, opened the back door to leave the house just before midnight and left it open for a few minutes…
then I went into the garage and out the big door, walked up the driveway and watched some fireworks across the creek for a few minutes before entering the house through the front door… the doorbell camera caught me as I entered;-)…
the tradition is supposed to be a tall, dark haired man, but really, I have had a few women do this cause why not…
my bag held a candy cane, heel of bread, an orange, 3 pieces of charcoal, a little bottle of Baileys, and a cookie…
it was fun to have the actual charcoal, because that is what my dad procured just before New Year’s each year to add to the little bags that he distributed to family and friends just after midnight;-)…
I did laugh when I discovered that I did the same thing last year, although on New Year’s Day morning, lol…
25 Monday Dec 2023
Posted in business, food, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, buddies, car trouble, friends, gifts, happy, moments, Olympia Diner, process, restaurant, time, treat, widow
on Wednesday I had a lovely lunch with my BS buddies… we went to the Olympia Diner and had delicious food, lots of laughs and shared great stories…
it was quite the process for us all to get there as car trouble caused a bit of excitement, but eventually we all made it…
the food is always tasty and the portions are large… I had spanakopita, with lemon potatoes and Caesar salad, and had leftovers for the next day…
parcels were exchanged (which will be opened on Christmas), and one gift was our lunch… a lovely treat…
we always try to get a holiday photo and our waitperson took a number of photos to be sure we had a good one…
these women are so important to me and such a gift;-)…
23 Saturday Dec 2023
Posted in business, family, food, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
Assiniboine Park, big girl pants, biomes, blessed, dinner, evening, family, Gather Kraft Kitchen and Bar, grandson, koi, lush, moments, nature, night, plants, plastic, pond, The Leaf, walkways, widow
nearly a year to the day, we went back to The Leaf in the evening…
we ate dinner at Gather Craft Kitchen and Bar and then wandered through the biomes…
the restaurant was very busy, but we were seated by the window at a two-person table, so were quite a distance from the other diners…
we shared chorizo spiced seitan tacos, I had pork and veal meatballs, and my grandson had a fancy hamburger and everything was tasty… we decided to skip dessert and go for blizzards after our visit to the biomes…
as we wandered through the Tropical biome it was quite amazing to see how the plants have grown… the place is absolutely lush;-)… leaves fell over the walkways in a number of spots, lol…
looking down from the bridge on the third floor it was striking to see how much everything has grown…
it was the first time since that inaugural visit that I’ve been at night… unfortunately it was too dark for my Nikon so all my photos were with my iPhone… got to see some bananas, a pineapple, coffee beans and cacao pods…
it looks like the inside of the biomes have been wrapped with plastic, and the fans in the Tropical biome were blowing rather vigorously…
it was exciting to see that there were a great number of various-sized smaller koi in the pond… babies, maybe;-)…
the next post will be about the Mediterranean biome;-)…
23 Saturday Dec 2023
Posted in business, family, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, boots, family, fixed, grandson, happy, moments, Rona, snow, weather, widow, worry, zipper
last winter I was having trouble zipping up my boots… they still fit fine, but it was getting more and more difficult to zip them up… I tried running a candle up and down them and then being sure to zip them closed as soon as I took them off, but it was still a worry when I went to put them on…
I purchased these boots Dec 2, 2015, so they didn’t owe me anything, but I didn’t want to replace them…
not long ago, when we were at Rona, we found a spray (similar to WD40), and used it on the zippers…
they work perfectly now and I am very happy about that;-)…
21 Thursday Dec 2023
Posted in family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, dinner, family, grandson, grandsons, happy, moments, time, treat, visit, widow, wishlist
one of the items on my Christmas wishlist was a visit from my grandsons, so I was excited on Sunday to prep for their visit…
had fun setting the table all fancy for our dinner…
I haven’t seen them since the summer so this was a great treat…
it was fun to watch them open their Christmas presents after dinner…
thanks to the oldest for making this happen;-)…
20 Wednesday Dec 2023
Posted in business, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, busy, Christmas, done, gifts, happy, last, moments, presents, shopping, tree, widow, wrapping
out shopping on Saturday morning for the last of the Christmas presents…
went to two stores, neither was overly busy and everything on the list was obtained…
happy to be finished …
then spent a bit of time wrapping;-)…
all of the parcels are now under the tree;-)…
19 Tuesday Dec 2023
Posted in business, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, bubble, bubble wrap, covering, happy, hearts, light, moments, weather, widow, window
been doing a bit more window covering with bubble wrap…
it has worked great on the front and back doors…
yesterday, I put some up on the bedroom window, after I took off the screen… I covered one completely and did half of the second one so I could still see out…
I was thrilled to discover that the bubbles for these two panels were heart-shaped;-)…
how cool is that…
16 Saturday Dec 2023
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, bow, decorations, door, glitter, moments, snowflake wreath, tulle, weather, widow, wrap
been wanting to wrap the door with fabric, like ribbon on a present…
consulted with a friend and went online to find just the right fabric…
was looking for silver, but in the end ordered some glittery tulle…
it arrived last week and I decided on a plan…
first I removed the curtain that had been hanging over the window and replaced it with bubble wrap to act as insulation;-)… that was fun and it is just held there with water…
next I unwrapped the glittery tulle and figured out how much I needed… I tied it but with the knot on the inside of the door and I realized it needed to be on the outside, so I undid it and then redid it the other way…
then it looked a bit empty so I dug out a wreath made from three others… removed one and hung the other two on the tulle…
and to finish it off, hung a glittery bow on the inside…
looks pretty good;-)…
herbiggirlpants 