02 Thursday Oct 2025
Posted in business, family, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
batteries, beep, big girl pants, blessed, family, grandson, moments, reach, smoke detector, Technology, widow
I’ve been listening to the smoke detector beep every few minutes to tell me it needs the batteries replaced… seems like it’s been going on for hours, lol…
I am waiting for my housemate to arrive home to change them as, not only can’t I reach it, I can’t figure out how to open it…
01 Wednesday Oct 2025
Posted in family, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
basement, big girl pants, changes, family, fireplace, friends, grandson, memories, moments, pet, redecorated, remembering, widow
last year, around this time, my housemate decided to redecorate his space…
from removing the fireplace, to drywalling, to putting in new ceiling tiles, to painting the space with two colours, and reorganizing his stuff, he worked hard with help from friends and family…
it came out very nicely…
and he has enjoyed the space…
this fall he has been preparing for an interesting pet…
27 Saturday Sep 2025
Posted in business, garden, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, brilliant, door, family, fastener, garden, gate, moments, weather, widow
today we got a new fastener for the side gate…
the strong winds we’ve had over the last week keep blowing these doors open so we went shopping for a better solution… the one we’ve had has been good for at least twenty-five years, lol, so a new one seemed in order…
we found one and got it onto the two doors and it looks like it is going to be perfect… and will make it easier for those trying to come through from the driveway…
then I had the brilliant idea of using the old fastener to hook the one door to the pergola instead of using a bungee cord to keep the gate open when expecting company or moving large things through the space… the second door has always just happily leaned against the garage when opened, lol…
looking good;-).
22 Monday Sep 2025
Posted in family, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, carpet, family, grandsons, moments, nature, project, replaced, weather, widow
since the spring, we’ve been working on a few projects outdoors and one of them involved removing a rusted out planter from the front steps…
next was to be removing and replacing the carpet which has been on those same steps for thirteen years…
I remember a friend of mine coming and replacing it while I was in hospital, not long after my beloved’s passing… it was such a treat to walk up the tidy steps when I returned home…
over the last few winters the carpet has been breaking down, particularly from my shovelling I think, lol…
we emptied the rusted out planter and dumped it right into the garbage can, kind of in pieces… we had a new one all ready to go but planned to wait for the carpet to be removed and replaced before putting it on the top step…
we picked up carpet and glue… next we planned a day when we had help to remove the old carpet and lay down the new one… unfortunately, it rained for most of that day, but during a break my housemate was able to remove the old layer…
that was on July 21st… it looked dreadful but we anticipated that it would happen soon…
every single time we planned to get the job done, it rained… I was starting to believe my grandson is a rain magnet…
well, yesterday, September 21st, it finally happened…
scraping, glueing, and laying down the carpet took a good portion of the day and there are a few bits that need to be trimmed…
can’t walk on it for a few days, but it already looks a thousand percent better;-)…
21 Sunday Sep 2025
Posted in business, family, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
Assiniboine Park, big girl pants, blessed, family, memories, memory stones, moments, nature, Technology, wearing, weather, widow
when I went to the Park Cafe for brunch on Thursday, I stopped to check out the memory stones that the Ottawa kids had purchased for me;-)…
I’ve visited them enough that it is easy to find them…
sadly, much of the wording on the stones is wearing away…
19 Friday Sep 2025
Posted in business, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, electrician, family, fuses, memories, moments, power, widow
the power has gone off a few times over the last few days… only for a few seconds, and only in some parts of the house…
the only way to know for sure was the stove and microwave both flashing or showing 0…
many years ago we had an electrician tell us that there are two fuses that cover half the house each, but I couldn’t remember where they were, lol… my beloved had always dealt with those issues…
we called an electrician and he turned up early in the evening…
he knew right where those fuses were located (in a big gray box!) and then had to search online for where to find them as the electrical supply stores were already closed… so happy he found them and was able to pick them up and change them…
apparently this is an old way of putting electricity into houses, lol…
of course our house would have it, 🤪…
15 Monday Sep 2025
Posted in business, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, books, compare, family, JD Robb, list, moments, need, Ottawa, Technology, widow
been working on my list of needed JD Robb books…
my daughter found a bunch in a used bookstore on a walk in Ottawa…
that meant I had to find, and compare, my list with the titles she sent me… found the list, phew, and sent her four that I could use…
this morning my housemate helped me double check the books on the shelf with the list, and I forwarded that list to my daughter… she found another four…
so, now that the comparison has taken place, it appears that I only need ten to complete my collection;-)…
woohoo…
12 Friday Sep 2025
Posted in business, family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, carrots, dinner, family, food, Gather Craft Kitchen and Bar, gnocchi, moments, Technology, treat, waitstaff, widow
at last I ordered the carrots (roasted carrot, buttermilk dressing, grilled kale, salsa macha, fresh dill) at Gather…
they were very tasty, the sauce was delicious, and it took two of us to get them all eaten, lol… I’ve heard that this is one of the most popular items on the menu…
then I tried the saffron gnocchi, with white wine beurre blanc, asparagus, mint, hazelnut, lemon vinaigrette, rosemary oil, and added shrimp… also very tasty…
my grandson had the burger with some tasty regular fries…
it was busy and the waitstaff were all efficient and seemed happy going about their work;-)…
I also like that you can reserve a spot online, lol…
07 Sunday Sep 2025
Posted in business, family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cool, family, garden, goldfish, mistake, moments, pet store, pond, released, widow
went to a pet store today… big mistake, lol…
came home with three goldfish… a white one with a bright patch of red close to its tail and two gold with black dots all over them…
set them in the pond in their travel bag for nearby an hour… it is fairly cool in the pond with all this cold weather we’ve been having…
once they were released, I spotted this little one and got a quick photo… then they vanished under the bridge… since then, I’ve spotted the white one, but so far not the other two;-)…
05 Friday Sep 2025
Posted in business, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
bendy bus, big girl pants, blessed, dentist, drive, family, memories, moments, morning, Ottawa, small, widow
such small things give me joy;-)…
this morning, on a drive downtown to the dentist’s office, I spotted two different bendy buses;-)…
since I first saw one in Ottawa, while visiting my kids, just seeing one brings me happiness, lol…
great start to the day…
herbiggirlpants 