Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Finishing what I've started

The fact that I have no projects to post about means that I need to finish something. I've got numerous projects started, but haven't finished a darn thing. Maybe today will be the day! Or maybe today I'll start another! HA!

Instead I'll tell you about the most awesome weekend we had! It's a bit of a play-by-play! Sorry if it's incredibly boring!

Friday, when Ian got home from work, we relaxed on our porch with margaritas! Margaritas always make a good start to the weekend, and our porch is turning into a nightly routine! After dinner we went for a drive and then came home and went for a nearly 5KM walk around our neighbourhood. I love how late it stays light now! It doesn't get dark until 9PM! This is my favourite time of year I think!

Saturday morning I had dreams of going for a bike ride, but Ian cut the lawn and bundled up the huge pile of branches we had collected from all the recent wind storms. I went out and washed our bikes off, and then the car. Ian pumped up the bike tires, we loaded them up onto the car, and headed off to buy Ian a new bike helmet. We headed off down the parkway to find a good place to park, but on route Ian realized that he hadn't actually reattached his breaks to his tire, so we needed to make a detour home again and pick up an allen key. It was just one of those days that you want to do something but it seems to take forever to get to it! Finally we made it to the parkway, unloaded our bikes, and enjoyed an 11KM ride along the river, amidst dozens and dozens of other bikers! It was an excellent ride, considering we haven't been on a bike ride together for nearly two and a half years, Ian says! Our last bike ride together was at Xel-Ha in the Mayan Riviera, December of 2008! Then we pulled our picnic blanket out of the car and ate our apples in the shade, over looking the river. It was bliss!

That evening we went with Ian's friend Ben to a live drawing session at a local art gallery. Ian doesn't draw at all so he wasn't too sure about going, but I was really interested to go! Not that I draw much, but I do like to play with it from time to time. I have had absolutely no formal training and probably have no idea what I'm doing at all, but it's relaxing (when I actually feel like doing it) and I thought a live session would be really neat!! Yes, there was a model, and yes she was naked, and yes we sat there and drew her for three hours as she changed poses. No, it wasn't weird at all. Ian says that at first he was like, "Whoa! There's a naked girl!" but after a few minutes it just became about the drawing. You really get into it, and at first she changes poses quite quickly (after just a minute!) so you have to draw what you can as quickly as you can. I found it really helpful because you're not concentrating on your mistakes, you're just getting it down and getting onto the next one. The guy who was hosting the event was really great too, and offered to give Ian and I both some pointers if we were interested. Of course we took him up on his offer and both found it really helpful! I was really amazed with how well Ian did, in particular! All of the people there were very friendly too. I was afraid that everyone would be really snobby or cliquey, but they weren't at all and they were all very welcoming! Anyways, we both really enjoyed ourselves and I think I'd like to go again this weekend!

On Sunday and Monday we were forecast to have thunderstorms, but they didn't really materialize! We had a bit of rain early Sunday afternoon, but by the late afternoon it was gorgeous and clear! Ian and I watched the Canucks game on Sunday afternoon, and then went out for a 5.5KM hike before we came home to have a very late dinner (I think it was about 8:30 by the time we ate!) At about 9 o'clock, the cul de sac behind our house set off fireworks, lasting about half an hour, so it was pretty cool for us to enjoy our own free fireworks show right out our back door! And following that, I got a phone call from my Grandma's brother, with some more information for my family tree! It was lovely talking to him and his wife, I'm not sure I've ever met them, so it was really special to get to know them a little. He also got for me the email address of a relative in Sweden who will apparently be able to give me some more information for my tree, like where my Great Great Grandparents were married, and their proper names (apparently my Great Great Grandfather changed his name when he came to Canada so I've had a very difficult time tracking them back to Norway!)

On Monday morning we spent a lot of time working on the tiling project in the bathroom. Yes, it's turned from a grouting project into a tiling project. 32 of the tiles have fallen off the wall, or been loose enough that Ian has knocked them off the wall. So we had to scrape adhesive off the plasterboard, and off the tiles, as well as all the remaining grout off of the tiles that have fallen off. And since they've come off the wall, I decided to get serious about cleaning the mold off of them. The caulking around the tub was three layers thick, and the bottom layer was completely moldy. The second layer wasn't much better. So all of the tiles at the bottom of the wall had a layer of mold along their bottom edge, which was rough and jagged from being cut. So I got out the bleach and Ian's old toothbrush and scrubbed it all off. We also chipped a bit of the bottom of the plasterboard off, to get off the bit of mold that was still on it. I then used the toothbrush and bleach to clean the lip of the tub, under the plasterboard. It took us a couple of hours, but I'm pretty confident that we are now ready to re-tile and re-grout it!! So hopefully I can share this project within the next couple of days!

Then we went to Ian's parents for lunch, and lunch dessert. Ian's mom made some fantastic burgers will blue cheese, and then a peanut butter and chocolate cheese cake, using ricotta rather than cream cheese. It was delicious! When we came home, Ian cut the lawn again and got the few spots he had skipped because they were too wet, and then we finished up our work in the bathroom. I worked a bit on my family tree stuff, and Ian watched some videos on home brewing. We had another late dinner and we sat out on the porch together and enjoyed the evening!

It may sound pretty boring to you, and I apologize if you made it this far through the post and are now disappointed! But it was honestly the nicest weekend we've had in.. well I don't even know how long! It was like a staycation, except that we got some stuff done around the house too, without spending the whole weekend working on the house (which I really didn't want to do!)

Aaah. So now, I feel rested and positive, and am ready to get on with the week and back to job-hunting!

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