06 Friday Mar 2026
Posted in business, family, food, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, burgers, family, floats, food, fourteen, grandson, memories, moments, Technology, time, widow
last night we celebrated my beloved who departed fourteen years ago…
as always, some days it seems like yesterday, and others so long ago…
hamburgers and floats were eaten here and via the internet…
so thankful to have family around for these celebrations;-)…
19 Thursday Feb 2026
Posted in business, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
alarm, aquasize, bagels, big girl pants, evacuate, fire truck, grandson, inukshuk, lights, moments, nature, Olympics, pool, weather, widow
as I was waiting for my ride to the pool for aquasize, I took a few photos…
this one is the Inukshuk in a circle in the snow… I need to find another piece of limestone to finish it off better, lol…
then a shot of the snow on the cedar branches at the front door…
we were happy to be going because last week we missed due to the Olympics, lol…
we were in the water for about ten minutes when an alarm went off… we were told to evacuate the pool and then to head to the lounge at the entrance and not to stop for our clothes or other items…
besides our class, there were at least two classes of school kids, as well as those who had been in the gym… quite a few people…
during all that time the alarms were ringing and lights were flashing… after about ten minutes a firetruck arrived and the firefighters headed to the back of the building…
another ten minutes or so went by and finally the lights and ringing stopped…
we headed back to the change rooms, dressed and left the building… as a treat we picked up bagels…
mine was quite delicious;-)…
also meant I made it home in time to watch the women’s free skate…
16 Monday Feb 2026
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, garden, grandson, ice, moments, nature, remiss, shovel, shovelling, snow, weather, widow
we’ve been a bit remiss in clearing the back decks on the way to the gate and garage, sigh… and it has become rather dicey when I’m getting into and out of the hot tub🤪…
it had gotten very rough and slippery so we tried a few weeks ago to chip away at it… unfortunately it was still too cold and the snow and ice were rather deep…
Sunday, I went out in the afternoon when it was quite warm (-2° C with windchill)… I took out one of the small, metal shovels from the beautifully organized wall in the garage and spent a half hour or so removing the slush and chunks of wet, snowy, ice, clearing a path to the garage side door (almost), hot tub, and driveway gate… due to winter ground heaving in the garage, we aren’t using the side door just now…
it was lovely out and I took my time with constant breaks…
it is down to the wood now, and will likely dry up nicely…
fingers crossed;-)…
09 Monday Feb 2026
Posted in business, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, flowers, grandson, groceries, heart, heart pillows, moments, shopping, spending, widow
went out for groceries and found three little heart pillows…
which I had to bring home;-)…
and I was also happy to find daffodils and hyacinth;-)… they came home too, lol…
since then I’ve moved them a few times…
everything is now in the den, as I am spending the majority of my time in there, watching the Olympics;-)…
31 Saturday Jan 2026
Posted in business, family, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
adventure buddy, big girl pants, blessed, driven, family, grandson, moments, Technology, tesla, Uber, weather, widow
I don’t think I’ve driven at all this winter…
since the snow started, I have been relying on my housemate and Uber to get me where I need to go… and my adventure buddy who always does the driving (yay to her!)…
my newest process is to volunteer at The Leaf from three until six… that way I can Uber there and my housemate can pick me up… seems to be working quite well…
recently I had a ride in a Tesla, which had the entire roof made of glass… I knew how to get in, from a previous encounter, although the driver automatically opened the door, but it took a while to figure out how to open the door from the inside to exit at my destination, lol……
I was thinking how cool it would be to drive out of the city and watch the stars or the aurora in comfort from the back seat without having to leave the vehicle, lol…
10 Saturday Jan 2026
Posted in family, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, Christmas, dishes, family, grandson, moments, putting away, step-stools, widow
spent a little bit of time in the kitchen…
went upstairs and brought down the regular mugs and changed them out for the holiday ones…
next, with help from my housemate, I changed out the dinner plates and saucers… it is always a bit of a process as one set comes down from the top of the cabinet and the other goes up…
step-stools are involved and I am always surprised at how much the Christmas plates weigh, lol…
02 Friday Jan 2026
Posted in family, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, boxes, Christmas, grandson, moments, ornaments, undecorating, widow
spent New Year’s Eve and New Year’s morning undecorating the Christmas tree and putting away the ornaments (with a little assistance from my housemate)… even found a few for the pass-along box… the snow people also found their way into the appropriate container…
it always seems to be a much quicker process than decorating, lol… and I put some plants back into the window…
finished by putting away the trees which, besides being on the stairs, were in the living room, kitchen, and bathroom;-)…
likely I will still find one or two ornaments that were missed, lol…
29 Monday Dec 2025
Posted in life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, door, door handle, family, fixed, grandson, housemate, loosening, moments, oven, widow
went to finish the chicken soup, and noticed the oven was on, so I tried to open the door and the handle came right off…
it had been loosening before and I would just tighten it…
my housemate and I couldn’t put the handle back on because the oven was hot… we left it to cool and then tried again…
when we went to open it, the inside sort of separated… I was hoping this allowed us to get to the window that we could clean…
unfortunately, it was not the one, although we did clean this portion…
next he went out and bought some loctite to make sure the handle stayed on… we weren’t able to get to the really messed up window, but the important thing was to get the handle back on the door, which was being held closed by the stepstool…
now it is fixed… we will see if it comes loose again…
28 Sunday Dec 2025
Posted in family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
appetizers, big girl pants, blessed, busy, Christmas, family, food, grandson, mid-day, moments, shrimp, weather, widow
my grandson usually arrives here on Christmas day around noon…
our current tradition is to have appetizers for our mid-day meal as he may have already had breakfast and will be heading out for dinner a bit later in the day…
we had wandered the aisles at the grocery store picking up things that looked fun…
we had shrimp dumplings, fancy cheese fries, tempura shrimp, wontons, veggies and dip, sausage rolls, and a shrimp ring… lots of shrimp on that list, lol…
this year we did stockings for each other, which was great… it has been many years since I had a stocking…
it was filled with a great many treats…
then the second round of presents were opened, and I was royally spoiled;-)…
although he only had a few gifts he was very pleased with them…
we sat around and visited before he had to leave for his next engagement, lol…
I truly am blessed to have this thoughtful young man in my life;-)…
22 Monday Dec 2025
Posted in family, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, Blizzards, grandson, moments, nature, neighbour, snow, snowblower, weather, widow, wind, winter
we’ve had our first blizzards of the season… they sort of happened over two days…
Thursday, a good amount of snow fell and then the winds came… later the snow stopped and returned the next day with more wind…
I had to cancel two outings, so was able to stay home and watch through the living room window…
on day three my housemate spent over an hour shovelling the sidewalks and driveway… there was a lot of snow🤪…
thankfully, a neighbour a few houses to the north came with his snowblower and dealt with the area closest to the garage which saved another hour of shovelling…
the back door had about a foot of snow covering it and the deck… now it is all clear…
we will see how long that lasts;-)…
herbiggirlpants 