An Exciting Saturday Night

It is Saturday night and I'm sitting at my computer. Yes, my life is that exciting. :-) Well, it could have been an exciting Saturday night but I decided helping to keep track of J's hockey team at a professional hockey game was a bit more than I was up to tonight. C got that job while I got to hang out with S. I just put her to bed, so the house is quiet for the moment. I shall enjoy it.

Normally I am up for watching a hockey game, but tonight I am glad to be home. It was a usual busy day. S was supposed to go to swimming but she seems to have lost interest in it and as I was having some bad vertigo spells this morning, I decided not to press the issue. Instead we all went to J's hockey practice. His practice was originally scheduled for 6 AM Sunday but it was rescheduled to today, not at 6 AM. Some of the local professional hockey players came out on the ice with J's team during practice, which I thought was really cool. The kids seemed excited to have the pros with them. I should clarify that these pros are in the major junior level - they are between 16 and 20 years of age (I think). But to 9 and 10 year olds who dream of being in the NHL one day, it is exciting to be on the ice with these guys.

After hockey we went out to lunch. I think it was the first time I went out to eat all week with the weather the way it has been and my lack of car most days. We went to one of our usual spots and had a good meal. S made a great picture of a tiger on the back of her kid's menu and wrote 'Thank you' on it for the server, which I thought was cute. The kids love to bring home their menus and then we end up with a big pile of them which then just gets tossed out. We decided writing a thank you note on them is a better way to use them. Hopefully our server enjoyed the picture.

Once we were home, we got to work on clearing snow. There is a chance of rain tomorrow and with all the snow we have, it's going to be a big wet sloppy mess. We have some drainage issues on the north side of the house, so we did our best to clear away a bunch of snow and then C put out sandbags to try to keep water out of the garage. We did the best we could so now we just need to wait and hope the sandbags work.

I probably shouldn't have been out shoveling with the way I've been feeling but I'm tired of feeling helpless because of being sick. I did what I could to help shovel - not as much as I could if I was healthy, but hey, every bit helps, right? After that I hung out with the neighbours while the kids played. I was outside for a long time and apparently my snow boots are not as insulated as I thought. By the time I came back in my toes felt frozen, even with toe warmers in them. I guess I'll be heading out for some new boots on Monday while the kids are in school. (I keep saying that because positive thinking!). 

Although it took forever, I have finally warmed up. My toes feel like toes again and I don't shiver every time I crawl out from under my blanket. S is tucked into bed and finally asleep and the boys aren't home yet. I think I will see what's on TV and work on my knitting and possibly jot down some notes for Monday's story writing session. Yes, I am planning on working on my story because the kids WILL be in school. Please, send positive thoughts this way that my kids WILL be in school Monday. Because if they aren't, the men in the nice white coats may be coming to take me away...

That's my exciting Saturday night. Hope yours is fun too. :-)

This was my Thursday

Ah, it's Thursday again. I had a very hard time getting up this morning. The snow plow woke me up at like 5:15. It had been flurrying when we went to bed last night and I guess there was enough snow to require a snow plow. Thanks! I was able to get back to sleep but that made getting up at 6:15 even harder. But I did manage to drag myself out of bed and get the kids ready for school. Once they were out the door I settled down on the sofa with my tea and the TV remote. Yup, I had already decided that it was going to be a lazy morning.

I located Les Mis on one of the movie channels and pulled out my knitting. I got the gauge information for my mystery shawl and had begun working on the swatch yesterday. I had planned to finish it last night but I was tired and tired me + lace = disaster. So, I set it aside until this morning. I finished it and it's now blocking. I can't wait until the first clue comes out on Feb 20 so I can get started. The yarn is a blend of merino wool and silk and it's lovely to work with.

After I was finished being lazy I did some errands around town and then met the hubby downtown for lunch. I somehow managed to score a parking meter down on the main strip. Someone must have just left when I got there. And there were 55 minutes left on the meter, so that was nice! With all the snow we've had lately parking was a disaster for quite a while, so getting a meter space that was fairly free of snow was like hitting the parking space lottery.

We went to a restaurant that specializes in cooking with local ingredients and supporting local farmers. We like going here for lunch because it's a place we don't get to go very often. S is a picky eater and they really don't have anything on the menu she would eat. Example - they had wild rabbit stew on the menu. I will admit, I was tempted to order it because I have never tried rabbit before. But it was a dinner entree and I was afraid it would be too much for lunch. Maybe I'll have to try to arrange for a babysitter so we can go for a dinner date.

I ended up having a grilled cheese sandwich. And this wasn't just any old grilled cheese made with plain white bread and American cheese slices. This was made with fresh baked multi-grain bread, cheddar and mozzarella cheese, cherry tomatoes, and a smoked pork product that they didn't call bacon but it tasted like bacon. It was delicious! The restaurant serves salads with their sandwiches instead of fries, which made lunch the perfect size. The hubby got potato and leek soup and then a PLT - panchetta, lettuce, and cheese. He said his was really good too.

I just have to add that as I was driving home from lunch I saw about 10 seals just chillaxing on the ice by the bridge that goes over the river/harbour. There's a section of the river that hasn't frozen this year and the seals had obviously popped up in that area and decided to take a break on the ice. I will admit I squealed like a little kid when I saw them because seals are cool and we don't see them there very often. It's sunny and warmer today than it has been (-7C instead of like -15C) so I guess they wanted to enjoy the nice weather too.

Now I'm back home, enjoying the quiet of the house before the kids get home from school. Thursdays are actually nice in the afternoons because we usually don't have anything on the schedule. We can just finish up any unfinished homework and then the kids can go play with friends until suppertime. I'm sure J will be asking to play video games and S will be asking to go play at her friend's house. So I may actually get some afternoon writing time. I should be able to get some writing done tomorrow because the potential snow storm has been downgraded to 2 cms of snow, so the kids will be going to school. Sunday is another story - they are saying blizzard. Joy! We'll see how that turns out. Welcome to February in Canada!