Moniliform Monday

moniliform ~ shaped like a string of beads

Everyone have a good weekend?

My weekend was pretty action packed. It was the two-day year end bowling tournament for the hubby, which is held in Hamilton. Or, as one of the other bowling wives and I call it, the Shopping Tournament. While our husbands are bowling, we go to Lime Ridge Mall and shop till we drop.

This year, however, I spent the first day with family (I have a sister living in Hamilton). Our aunt and uncle came down from Stoney Creek to have lunch with us and afterwards we went shopping at Costco. Guess I just can’t get away from the shopping. LOL

Here’s a picture of the Sunday sunrise as seen from our hotel window:



That was taken at about 5:30 a.m. What was I doing up at that ungodly hour? Despite the insanely comfortable, king-sized bed, I kept waking up throughout the night. There’s not much to do at 5:30 a.m. There’s a huge mall under the hotel but of course it opens late on Sundays. And although they’ve put in a Starbucks downstairs, it didn’t open until 7 a.m.

While the bowling started early on Sunday, the shopping did not, so my friend and I enjoyed a leisurely coffee while waiting for the stores to open. The mall wasn’t too busy, the big rush was have been the day before for people buying last minute mother’s day presents.

This was the first time since I’ve been a grandmother that I’ve been near a Disney store, but the prices helped me show a lot of restraint. I bought the grandbaby a large, stuffed, Stitch (because he was blue and she likes blue aliens), and that was pretty much it. I just couldn’t bring myself to spend $22 on a Star Wars tee-shirt for her. And they had NO GRUMPY TEE-SHIRTS for me. They used to come out with a different one every year.

We got home in time to have mother’s day dinner with our family. And my daughter (and granddaughter) gave me an amazing mother’s day present. My daughter always manages to find the best presents ever!

So you know what I’ll be doing later today. I’m gonna make me a fairy garden!

Mythopoeic Monday

mythopoeic ~ giving rise to myths

The best laid schemes ...
... o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!
~ from To a Mouse, by Robert Burns

You know, I really have to stop making plans for my weekends. It seems like every time I look forward to a weekend and have big plans for it, something happens that throws a monkey wrench into the works.

This weekend the hubby was away at a bowling tournament and I had plans to get all kinds of things done. I had a list, damn it!

About mid-morning on Saturday I started getting a headache. It wasn’t too bad, so I just ignored it. I don’t know if things would have played out differently had I not tried to ignore it, but by lunch time it was getting serious. I tried coffee, I tried Advil, I tried a nap. I even went out to run a couple of errands thinking the fresh air might help. It didn’t.

So then I tried coffee, Advil, and napping all at once and by supper time (a late supper) I was starting to feel human again. But by then it was too late. My whole day was gone and I had precious little to show for it. *sigh*

And unfortunately, there was no catching up on things on Sunday either. There was a brunch with the in-laws and an unexpected trip to the city. And of course it was family dinner night too.

But ... the weekend wasn’t a total loss. I did get to cross a few things off my list, one of them being changes to my Other Blog. I cleaned up the side bar and removed the A to Z post I had pinned to the top of the page. You can read about the rest of the changes HERE.

There’ll be a bit of a change here as well. I’ve been wanting to do a bit more with this blog for a while now, and I’ve been tossing a few ideas around. Despite the fact I’ve been reading more, I did not want to do a book review thing. Been there, done that, still getting my email spammed with offers for free books in exchange for review. Trouble with that is they’re seldom books I’d care to read.

But one of the things the hubby and I enjoy is movies. Specifically, bad movies. A couple of people have suggested I should review some of these movies and I kind of like the idea. So starting this week, I’m going to designate Wednesdays as my bad movie day. So be sure and come back to see what movie is first to get the honour.

And now, just because I can, I’m posting a picture of my mother’s day present:

For anyone who’s interested, the tea in the cup is Bear Trap, an herbal tea from David’s Teas. I’m not normally one for herbal teas, but this one’s pretty good. It’s even better as an iced tea.

Sometimes being a mom is a great gig. ;-)

Miosis Monday

miosis ~ abnormal contraction of the pupil of the eye

Welcome Monday, I can use the break! I only did two things on the weekend, but they were both exhausting things.

First, I cleaned a closet. Now maybe that might not sound like a big thing, but this was the closet in the upstairs landing with the sliding mirror doors. And the reason I wanted to go through the stuff in that closet was I've lost a bit of weight and I wanted to check for clothes that fit. Sometimes it pays to refuse to part with clothing - I have a multitude of sizes.

Anyway, inside the closet is one of those metal organizing units and a chest of drawers, both filled with clothes. So hubby took the sliding doors off the closet for me (the doors are too wide for it and overlap enough that you can't open the dresser). Then I started pulling stuff off the shelves of the organizing unit, including a huge duffle bag from the top shelf. Upon investigation, it held my you-don't-have-a-prayer-of-fitting-into-these-clothes-but-miracles-do-happen stash of clothing, which made me wonder what was in the big bin on the dresser in the closet in the guest room.

Next thing you know, I'm pulling stuff out of the that dresser and checking out the bin. I think the idea at this point was to organize by size groupings. The bin held my yeah-there's-a-chance-but-you've-still-got-some-work-to-do stash. And somewhere in there I had the bright idea of cleaning out my closet and dresser as well.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I have five pairs of pants that will fit if I take them in, four pairs that are way too big and are getting donated, three pairs of pants (and an assortment of tops) that are almost there, and a single pair of jeans that actually fit. I also had two big recycling bags full of clothes to donate to charity, as well as a bag full of garbage.

All in all, quite the day's work.

The second thing I did over the weekend was go to the CNE.

Quite a while back I had the bright idea that we should take the daughter and her family to the CNE as our birthday present to the son-in-law. So we left bright and early and just to add some excitement to the day, after we left the safety of the 401 highway to make our way through the City of Toronto, the car stalled. And it did it again the next time we had to stop for a traffic light. So then the hubby had to pretty much drive the rest of the way to the fairgrounds with one foot on the gas and one on the brakes.

But we made it, and in one piece too, that's the main thing. It was a great day with lots to see and do, but I was reminded why when the daughter and I used to do this together we always went on a week day -- weekends at the CNE are insanely busy. I mean, it was busy when we arrived, but by mid-afternoon the crowds were horrendous.

When the daughter and I used to go we would stick to shopping in the various buildings - we never went on the rides and the only game we'd play would be the Birthday Game where the best we could hope for was a stuffed snake. This time we played a few games and while the daughter ended up paying an extra $5 to buy a stuffed unicorn for the granddaughter, together we won a respectably sized dragon for her playing a darts game.

We were all pretty much done in by the time we left, and the car behaved itself all the way home until we got to the first stoplight in our town.

All in all it was a good day and a weekend well spent.