A Bad, Bad Week On Monteith Street!

Super lucky Phil got to go on vacation to Lethbridge, leaving us behind with the Countess's new BFF.  A couple days before Phil left, it came to light the downstairs bathroom toilet was leaking.  Wrong!  It was a pipe in the wall that was cracked.  The Grand Old 100 Year Old Lady is starting to show her age!

We had a plumber come and address the problem.  For those of you who have frequented the bathroom and thought is was pretty ugly (it was!), check it out now!  This makes the old bathroom look like 5 star hotel quality.

Then, guess what!  About an hour before Phil leaves for his vacation, he decides to take a shower.  Phil lives to multi task so he sets the shower running and then moved onto doing something else.  Does anyone remember when he rinsed out a cooler in the shower and then forgot about it for about an hour?  Think flood!  Same thing happened, but on a much smaller scale.  The shower won't drain and there is soil in it.  Now he moves upstairs to have a bath which he also leaves running for so long that it moves into overflow.  Drain the tub and another flood!

This looks cheap, right?  Janet feels very fortunate that Brighton Drains could come so quickly and address the situation.

Turns out the sewage pipe has been slowly clogging for years and having the pipe replaced hastened the situation.  Also, soil was slowly building up in the pipe which explains why the sidewalk was slowly caving.

I have been as busy as a puppy girl can be - especially one that was screwed out of her morning walk  because Phil is living the good life on vacation and Deaf Janet went to work to be Deaf Receptionist.

First, I ripped apart a baseball that Janet then disposed of.

My Teddy Bear Pal also took a beating, but Janet wasn't home and neither myself or Noodles are willing to discuss it.

Janet needs to lay out her quilt to get it ready for Phil to drop off at the long arm quilt lady, Arlene.  Arlene lives by the airport.  Janet was going to drive out herself earlier in the week, but decided she couldn't hear well enough to drive.

No, Janet....I am not moving!

I said no!

Crash Landing!

You knew it had to happen....one minute reaping huge awards from Royalty, no less, and then back to the real world!  It's been tough, but Deaf Janet is still deaf and doing her best to troop it out.  Too long to discuss here, but Janet is crumbling over the lack of hearing.  Another appointment next Thursday with the specialist.

She made, what she thought was a really delicious beef stir fry from Hugh Carpenter.  Mr. Just Had His Lobotomy decides he (this is so unusual that we are convinced he actually did have head surgery!) will make the sauce.  Janet really, really wants him to cut the veggies, but NO, he insists on the sauce.

After we review all the ingredients in the measuring cup, turns out there are some boo boos!

After some corrections, it was delicious, but never the less, blurry!

They went to Hernandez, a kind of Mexican restaurant close to home with dodgy hours and a cash only policy.  They thought it was pretty good!

By dodgy, we mean they are open from 12ish to 2ish!

I just love my Teddy Bear and my Prairie Pals!   Every couple of days, Janet collects all my toys and drops them in the toy basket.  The toy basket is hidden behind the small sofa in the living room, but I know where it is!

Even Noodles gave playing a whirl...a very short whirl!

In an effort to keep it real after hangin' with The Countess, Janet turned this:

Into this:

Good night, everyone!

Just call me Burrhead.

Janet's Super Duper Weekend!

Everyone at Our Place knew Sophie, Countess of Wessex was coming for a tour of the building and to help serve lunch.  Janet immediately volunteered to volunteer as it was on Saturday,  not one of her regular days.  Janet loves the Royal Family!

Two Fridays ago while Janet was working reception, the executive director, Don Evans very casually mentioned they had a couple of extra seats at the luncheon they were having for the Countess.  Would Janet like to come?  YES!  Would her husband like to come?  YES!  So much for volunteering!

It was mentioned in such a casual manner that Janet was certain someone else had cancelled and she was a fill in.  Never mind they were fill in and were going to be two people in a sea of a hundred faces. 

The next Friday, Janet finds out only thirty people are invited to the lunch and now she is very, very nervous.  She is afraid she will use the wrong fork, say the wrong thing.  One doesn't normally get the chance to be in the same room with Royalty, so there was a lot to worry about.

The Countess is not only beautiful, but very kind and gracious with a good sense of humour.

Janet and Phil's table.

After lunch, Don got up to make a speech - after he said the word "volunteer" Janet knew this had something to do with her as she was the only volunteer in the room.  She doesn't remember hearing anything he said after that.

Look!  The Countess of Wessex presenting Janet with Volunteer of the Year Award.

Janet was caught completely off guard as she had not an inkling this was going to happen.  Her face is all crumply as she is trying real hard not to cry.

Cool, right?  Janet is super proud and very grateful.  She says in hindsight there were clues, but as she had no idea, they escaped her.

On Sunday, they actually went for a little bike ride to Fernwood Inn for lunch and then walked around Government House.  These are the only original buildings left, and they have chickens!

Next up the for super weekend - Wendy threw herself a spectacular 60th birthday bash!  Janet so wishes she had thought to throw one for herself.  Is 62 some kind of a milestone?

Birthday girl in the black top and white skirt.

The lovely Mr. David Burr.

I don't know about Janet and Phil, but it's sheet changing day again and I'm going to take a well deserved Pashyminders break.

A Really Boring Post!

Mostly, Janet has been consumed with her ears which have been infected for the better part of two months.  Now she is on some super powerful antibiotics that appear to be clearing up the situation.  The medication comes with a long list of side effects, and guess what?  Janet has nearly all of them!  Bonus!  However, she has decided to overlook the rash that is all over her body and hear instead!

Janet took this really lame photo at SFO Airport when they returned home.  You can't tell from the distance, but this custodian was an absolute magician soaping and wiping the windows at the same time.  He was so entertaining, some kids had their photo taken with him.  Rock Star Window Cleaner!

Traveling bonus!  Don't want to pay for checked luggage?  Take your bag to the gate and when they want to free up overhead bin space, they tag your bag to your destination and you don't need to pay!

We went for a little stroll down to the park a couple of days ago.  Poor Noodles is getting really slow.  She gave Janet a major fright this afternoon when she was unable to get her back legs up to move.  Janet helped her onto all fours, but even then Noodles was shaky.  She seemed better later in the afternoon, so perhaps it was the slippery floor.  Hardwood floors - an old doggie enemy!

Bronwyn brought one of my stuffed duckies from Camp U.S.A. and Noodles and I have been busy destructing it.

Janet had finally had enough as she thinks every little piece of brown fluff is a spider.  She actually went to pick up a piece the other day and it was an actual live spider.  After she collapsed, she threw out the duckie.  Bye, bye little pal!

Look - it's sheet changing day and another spot to rest on.

Karen and Ken's newest Mr. Baby, Liam arrived for a week.  Janet says he is really cute!  This would be second cousin to Doug, the chef at Fish where they ate in Sausalito.  Liam is Ian and Andrea's first child.

Janet went on a big car adventure on Monday.  She carefully mapped out her route - first, Satin Moon to purchase some fabric to fix up a f#*k up, next is Sawyers to pick up her long armed quilt, Fabricland and then Thrifty's on Hillside.

After being at Satin Moon and having passed two gas stations, she was afraid there wasn't enough gas in the car for the rest of the journey.  Janet doesn't know how to do self serve, so has to drive half way home for fuel.  This annoys the hell out of her as she barely drives and doesn't think the guy that gets into the car once every blue moon should have to fill it.

The young man at the gas station first advises her the gas tank is on the other side, but says he can make it work.  Then he has to come and tell her to open the lid on the tank, which took some doing.  THEN, he wants to know if she wants regular.  Janet right away says yes...and then says," no, hold on!  Is there a difference?"  "Pertaining to what, maam?".  Janet said, "sorry, I don't drive much."  He was kind enough not to throw her a "no shit" look.

Fabricland was dumped as Janet already had a huge headache from the drive to Sawyers.

We love each other!  I've got your back, Noodles.

I Left My Heart...In Really Long Line Ups!

It was so busy in SFO, there was a notice at the front desk advising people it would not be possible to get a taxi after 1PM.  Ouch!

On Monday, Janet, Meg and Bronwyn hatched a plan to take the ferry to Sausalito, bike to Tiburon and take the ferry back from Tiburon.  They went to a different bike company and the bikes were much better.  All sources consulted said that most bike renters will bike across the Golden Gate Bridge and then take the ferry back from Sausalito.  This can result in a two or three ferry wait as they can take only so many bikes.

That was one reason for biking to Tiburon.  The other reason was because Janet is afraid, no make that terrified,  of heights and is willing to bet you can see down to the water from the bridge.

Look - a bicycle stop light!

Here is the line up ahead of us on the ferry:

And here is the line up behind us:

Karen and Ken's nephew, Doug is the chef at a restaurant in Sausalito.  Here is the line up ahead of us for lunch:

Lunch was excellent and when Janet introduced herself to Doug after lunch, not a single person could have been more gracious.

Not to be outdone with Yo Yo having her own lane in Toronto, Brownyn discovered her own street in Sausalito.

Nice work on the shadow jobbie, Janet.  When will she finally take a photo course?

After lunch at Fish, they biked for awhile on a nice quiet bike path.  All of a sudden they arrive here:

WTF Janet thinks to herself.  She did not sign up to ride on the edge of a freeway.  Turns out, they were turning right.

How about this cute little doggie bag holder?

Sausalito is cute and Tiburon is even cuter.  Bronwyn and Meg got ahead of Janet on their bikes and Janet missed the sign for the ferry dock..twice!  By the time she finally found it, she was nearing a state of panic.  This is the view from Tiburon.

Bike line up on the ferry!  This is about half of the bikes that were on board.  The ferry from Sausalito has special bike holders which is why they can't take as many.  This ferry just tosses them in a big pile.  The chains were off both Janet and Bronwyn's bikes.

This little guy clearly likes the water.

More cocktails!

Guess Where Janet Is!

Meghan gave Janet a ticket to San Francisco for Christmas.  All of our kids were invited, but the only one able to go was Bronwyn.  They went last weekend.  The weather was more than incredible and they did some fun things.

They stayed at the Marriott Union Square and here is the view from Janet's room.

See the flag at the top, in the centre?  That's the hotel they stayed in last time.

Meg and Janet were on their own the first night and then Bronwyn came the next day.  They went to the E & O Kitchen for lunch.  Yummy!

After that, they broke up and went their separate ways.  Janet purchased two pair of runners, which were her only purchase on the trip.  She hunted high and low for a quilt shop, but no such luck.

They went to The Slanted Door for dinner and while the food was great, the service was dismal.
They had the Chicken Clay Pot, some Jasmine rice,  Vermicelli with Crab, a veggie dish and some Spring Rolls for appys that the server forgot about.

The next day, they trooped it out to Hayes Valley, a part of San Francisco that Janet had never been to before.  They walked past City Hall and a Farmers Market.  In addition to the Market, there were a bunch of old Chinese ladies with a type of market of their own.  There were several of them and the goods they had were all food, but weird food.  Cheerios, canned veggies, peanut butter.  The best they could figure out were these women had received the food from a Food Bank and were selling it to each other.

 They went to Absinthe, in Hayes Valley for lunch.

Gee, Meg...do you think that serving is large enough?  Janet had a piece of dry toast.  Not really!

Spur of the moment, they rented bikes and rode to Golden Gate State Park.  Wow!  All the roads in the park were closed to traffic and Janet says it was pretty spectacular.

Our three bikes, ready to roll.

Check this out!  They had free swing dance lessons in the park, but clearly no one on the stage needed any assistance.  This man and woman were unbelievable!

They biked past the famous Painted Ladies to get to the park.

The ride is over!  The man who set up the stone boats bikes for us kept calling Janet "Mom".  Finally Janet asked why he thought she was the "Mom" and he threw her a "are you kidding me look?"

Janet thinks this top makes her look matronly.  Or perhaps, it's just the angle.

In Hayes Valley, there are many things built out of storage containers, including part of their bike rental.  Here is a Beer Garden, right next door.

We want to go to San Francisco and ride in the park like this doggie did.

Cocktail time!