Settling In

Today is our third day in the new digs. We managed to make a "real" dinner tonight, and Phyllis baked cookies this afternoon. Not easy finding the ingredients, bowls, etc., but eventually we'll get used to where things are.

We tranquilized the cat the evening we brought her over, and she has reluctantly come to accept her new home. As long as she has her food bowl and her grooming brush she stays pretty content. Yesterday we brought over her TV--the aquarium with three gold fish.

We were all happy to see our new recliner chair and love seat arrive today. The first two evenings we had to sit on our computer chairs to watch the late news--not a great way to enjoy watching TV.

There are still a few things to sew up over at the house, along with a lot of vacuuming, dusting, cleaning and polishing. The carpets will get cleaned next Friday, and that will be the final act before turning things over to Amy.

Now to settle in, get the income tax forms done, and prepare for our summer adventure.

"And that's the kind of a day it's been...."

Phyllis and Lew

Good Lord, a Whole Year has Passed!

After reading Gary's recent blog, I thought I'd have a look at ours. It's almost a year since we last posted. Lots has happened since then!

Our summer was spent, as usual, doing a lot of gardening. We did manage to hit the golf course a few times, and we were out in the fishing boat once or twice. The main event, though, was the reunion of Phyllis' maternal side of the family. This was basically held in our back yard on the long weekend at the end of July. There were 30 of us, and everyone had a wonderful time. We tried to keep the three days very laid back so that there could be lots of visiting. There were a few assigned 'trips' around our gorgeous city, and we think our cousins now have a much greater appreciation for Saskatoon and the province in which their roots are grounded.

Phyllis' daughter, Lindsay was home from Finland early in July, and it was wonderful to have her and her husband Jukka for a week before they headed to Toronto, Montreal, and back home. Daughter Leslie and her husband Trevor were here for the family reunion. So we had our annual visit with all the kids.

In October we began earnestly shopping for a condo. As much as we love the big yard and all the gardening, Phyl's hands and shoulders have developed enough arthritis to indicate we need to start a more laid back life. As well, we have begun an addiction for travel, and it is so much easier to lock the door on a condo than to organize people to look after a house and all that goes with it.

On November 15 we took possession of our new home. This was a month before we left for our 10-day Caribbean/Panama Canal cruise. We simply took the keys, but left the water turned off and nothing done--with the idea that we would do all that after Christmas and plan a move around February or March.

Our Christmas cruise was lovely. Although our Saskatchewan weather was very nice, it was still great to get some real sun and heat. We spent most of our time on the ship, but stopped in Aruba, Cartegena (Columbia) , Limon (Costa Rica), and Ocho Rios (Jamaica). We didn't get off the ship in the Panama Canal, as we really wanted to experience the traverse of the locks, and the best place to see it was from the bow of the ship. The shore experiences certainly showed us how fortunate we are to live in a country of wealth. Many of our tours took us through the ghetto-like conditions of many of the residential areas in the Caribbean countries.

On our way home, we stopped in Toronto where Phyl's brother Eric picked us up and drove us out to his family cottage on Bass Lake, just out of Orillia. His wife Jane and he were great hosts, and we had a wonderful New Year with them. Leslie and Trevor drove down from Montreal, so it was quite the family gathering. We brought in 2012 by having a wiener roast on the shoreline. some champagne and fireworks!

Arriving home, we found everything was intact. Once again Phyl's Mom had done a fine job of babysitting the cat and fish and keeping the house from being vandalized. We felt a little guilty having left her alone over Christmas, but she spent the day over at Aunt Flo's and had a lovely turkey dinner at the Chateau. She also had lunch with auntie on December 29 to celebrate Flo's 95th birthday!

Since being home, we listed our house and managed to sell it privately within 30 days! Everyone is happy with the possession date being April 1. This has given us time to do some renovations in the condo. Phyllis is never satisfied with how things are, so the laundry room has seen a complete makeover, the kitchen cabinets have gained a whole lot of roll-out shelves, and the den has had some conversions so that it can handle having two computers and all the peripherals.

Meanwhile at the house, we have pulled and scrapped and packed and recycled trying to get things down to a reasonable amount of movables. Each time we go to the condo we take a few more boxes of stuff. The purchase of a couple of lockable metal cabinets has made a home for all the canned veggies and fruit in one, and all the car antifreeze, oil, wax, etc. in the other. Lew has built a large set of shelves for our storage "cage", and already there is a fair amount of stuff packed in there.

The moving truck is coming on the 22nd to take over the bedroom furniture, the living room furniture and some other big stuff. Otherwise we are doing the moving ourselves. With three months to do it, we've found it quite easy to manage it all.

We'll have five weeks in our new home before we leave for our 12 week driving vacation to all of the Eastern provinces. We have two main goals: 1.) The Canadian Choral Convention and the Tulip Festival in Ottawa on the May long weekend 2.) The reunion of our Australia/New Zealand tour group in Little Bay Island, Nfld on the second weekend in June. Otherwise we are simply "wandering" and taking time to see the sights. This is our first holiday that doesn't have a schedule attached, and we are looking forward to that. We'll end up back in Montreal around the first of July, where we'll bunk at Leslie and Trevor's and await the arrival of Lindsay from Finland. Once she has had a good visit with her sister, she'll be our back seat passenger back to Saskatchewan.

A former Saskatoon couple, who now live in Costa Rica will be staying in our condo for May and June, so we have a built in cat and fish-sitting situation.

A few weeks at "home" to unpack and repack, and then we'll be heading West. Lindsay is to be a bridesmaid at a Vancouver wedding, so we will drive out, attend the wedding, and have a few days in Victoria with the Ousey's et al. By August, we'll just be happy to come back to Saskatoon and vegetate.

So, that's our ANNUAL blog--the last one was a QUARTERLY blog. I hope we don't get to the point of letting this slide for a whole decade!

Cheers,

Lew and Phyllis