12 Monday Feb 2024
Posted in business, family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, checkout, containers, cute, grandson, groceries, heart shaped, moments, shopping, treat, widow
yesterday we went to Superstore for some groceries…
while we were in the checkout line I spotted these cute little heart-shaped containers…
they had no price tag, but I decided I needed them, lol… they ended up being about $4.00…
today I filled some of them with a few treats for a gathering of friends…
they are so cute and useful with their little covers…
and fun…
29 Monday Jan 2024
Posted in business, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, chemicals, chlorine, empty, experimenting, grandson, health, hot tub, Krevco, moments, nature, plunge tub, water, widow
the decision was made to empty the plunge tub and refill it with fresh water…
after a visit to Krevco to get some chemicals for the hot tub, we got information on what to use for the plunge tub…
we picked up liquid chlorine and will do some experimenting as to how much to add, and how often, lol…
we used the pump that usually empties the hot tub and then dumped the last bit… wiped it out and then spent a while refilling it…
cover and bungee cord went back on and it is ready for plunging…
at Krevco we saw a plunge pool… it was $10,000, 😳…
28 Sunday Jan 2024
Posted in business, family, life, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, caddy, grandson, happy, light, moments, plants, shelves, shower, shower caddy, space, Technology, widow
not too long ago I saw a cool use of a shower caddy…
it had been tucked in a corner of a room and had puck lights under the shelves to provide light for each of the plants…
I’d been looking online but hadn’t yet ordered one… here’s the spot where it will go…
today I got a shelf from Home Depot and we made a few adjustments as we put it together;-)…
ended up leaving the top portion of the pipe off and using some cord holders and zip ties to attach the pipe to the wall…
I decided not to use any additional lights as the spot this is set in gets a lot of light…
I am pleased with how it came out… and may have to get a few more plants, lol…
31 Sunday Dec 2023
Posted in business, family, loss, retirement, technology, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
BestBuy, big girl pants, blue screen, camera, computer, failed, geeks, grandson, harbinger, HP, learning, moments, research, shopping, son-in-law, Technology, widow
on Thursday the blue screen of death showed up on the laptop…
apparently on Monday, when the camera kept failing during our video call, it was a harbinger of the computer’s end of life…
I spent quite a bit of time on Friday morning searching for the sales slip from January 2nd, 2020, when I purchased it in Ottawa, without success… I did find the record in my credit card statements, but after contacting Best Buy, discovered there was no extended warranty…
did some research and went to Best Buy… had a plan to purchase the same computer, but an updated version…
in the end I found a slightly higher quality machine and was happy they actually had it in the store… after consulting with my two computer geeks, brought it home and we spent time in the afternoon getting it filled with all “the stuff” I need…
the old machine fit beautifully into the box the new one came in, and will take a trip to my son-in-law to see if he is able to save anything on it…
I had some fun in the evening doing some personalization and making it my own, lol…
it will be interesting to see what I forgot I needed, lol…
30 Saturday Dec 2023
Posted in business, family, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
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Advent, big girl pants, blessed, books, Boxing Day, Chapters, Christmas, gift card, grandson, happy, moments, reading, reads, shopping, widow
I love to read, so was very happy that one of my presents was a gift card to Chapters…
we went shopping and I found five books, and a series which will be a gift…
not exactly sure why we went on Tuesday (Boxing Day), but it was worthwhile… the books were all 30% off with another 10% because of my membership, and then the gift card…
was pleased with the great savings, and looking forward to some good reads…
26 Tuesday Dec 2023
Posted in family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, chicken, Christmas, Christmas lunch, dinner, family, grandson, gravy, memories, moments, potatoes, preparing, stuffing, thawing, tradition, turnip, widow
I found out in the morning on Christmas Eve that we were going to have lunch on Christmas Day between trips my grandson was making between his various family clans;-)…
it was a quick trip to the freezer to pull out a beautiful chicken and get it thawing… I had been planning on a Cornish hen, with all the fixings, so it wasn’t a lot more to do to cook the chicken;-)…
a turnip was peeled, cut, boiled (so that the water would be available for the chicken gravy), and mashed…
mashed potatoes were also prepared and put into the fridge which helps with making a resistant starch…
stuffing was made and packaged, ready to go into the chicken…
took most of the day to thaw the chicken, lol, but it was ready for the oven in time…
everything turned out beautifully and we had a delicious Christmas lunch…
possibly a new tradition;-)…
24 Sunday Dec 2023
Posted in business, family, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
Assiniboine Park, big girl pants, blessed, Conservatory, flowers, grandson, growth, holiday trees, lush, Mediterranean biome, memories, moments, nature, ornaments, plants, rosemary, The Leaf, treat, weather, widow
the Mediterranean biome smelled of rosemary and there were many of the plants growing all over the area… the Celebration installation was bright and shiny, with tons of lights on the trees and I was struck by some of the snowflake and icicle ornaments, so cute…
the many holiday trees, poinsettias, and amaryllis were beautiful;-)… the succulent tree is eye catching and I took quite a few photos of it…
I always like to visit the wollemi pine, a very rare tree known as the dinosaur tree…
sadly, we didn’t spot any butterflies in the Shirley Richardson biome…
a lovely visit…
what a treat to have this amazing place here in the city… a great replacement for the old Conservatory;-)…
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;-)…
herbiggirlpants 