182 Digital Puzzles

Jason got me a new tablet for Christmas which means that the one I have been using for years is now going to go to someone else and will be brought back to factory settings. This means that the record of all the digital jigsaw puzzles I have done over the past couple of years will be lost:

There were 182 that I have finished! Most of the images were travel landscapes, with a few art and animal ones thrown in too. I used the app Puzzle Crown, which if you started a puzzle saved it in the tablet and you could work on it offline, so I did that a lot. You could pick from three different 'cut' styles and a range of difficulties, I usually worked on the highest difficulty so that meant it could take long time to finish. In fact, when I was in the hospital being induced, waiting to give birth, I was also working on puzzles - these four in fact:

I wanted screen shots of my 'puzzle history' before I lost it all. Made sense to post on Always Standing, in hopes that would mean I would start posting more. (This tablet has a keyboard that can attach to it which makes it easier to post from.)

Snow Like My Childhood

Sunday night brought a blizzard to Toronto and with it 36cm of snow by Monday afternoon. Jason spent the day shovelling, heading out multiple times to work through it all. The photo on the right is taken through our back door, the snow piling up in the backyard and back porch.

Heading out for a walk today, the neighbourhood felt like what winters were when I was growing up in Paris. I don't know what it is about nostalgia, but the memories I have from childhood include mammoth snowbanks and huge piles after shovelling. Also I remember there being so much snow that it was shovelled with this strange big metal scoop thing that my dad would push and then tip (I saw someone down the street using a similar thing today, so they are still around.)

2019/2020 BACK DATED POSTS

I am in the process of predating posts. Hoping to finish doing posts about...

- Running the cafe and then closing it in 2019
- Hungary/Romania trip in August 2019
- NYC, Palm Springs, Las Vegas/Grand Canyon Fall of 2019

- Drive out west in Fall of 2020

- Vancouver and Edmonton trips in Fall of 2021
- Pregnancy and miscarriage in early 2020

- Pregnancy with Cigi and giving birth

- Cigi in general!

- Cigi's first year
- Life in the Covid-19 pandemic
- Restarting WoW again
I will remove this post once I have finished updating the last couple of years.

Xmas List 2021

* Used items are always welcome!!

Sweeton-Woods Family

- IKEA Gift Cards (For Pax closet in porch)

- Forks

- Plastic or silicone spatula, bowl scraping kind

- Window cling winter decorations

- Large wood cutting board

- Combination lock (Locker at pool)

- Vector cereal

Me

- Sims 4 expansion packs (PC)

- Travel bags for toiletries

- Pajamas (Women's XL)

- Boardgame: Cartographers

- Soap and Glory Flake Away Body Scrub

- Masks, wire at nose

- Cheap Sunglasses

- Waterproof waist pouch for phone, swimming

- Arm pouch for phone, jogging

- Small garden snips, pruner 

- Work gloves (Tight, bit stronger than garden gloves)

- Honey roasted peanuts

- Dried Mango

Jason

- Gift Cards: MEC, Amazon for Kindle books

- UV Swim Shirts (Men's Medium)

- Long stick-style umbrella

- Coffee Beans

- Sour Candy

- Coke, in glass bottles

- Craft Beer (Anything but wheat)

Cigi

- Beach towel

- UV Swim Shirts/Suits (18m)

- Bath toys

- Baby hair brush

- Baby toothbrushes

- Nut butters (No sugar added)

- Burt's Bees Baby Shampoo

- Thinkbaby Sunscreen

- Gerber Baby Cereal

- All/Any Books (Duplicates sent to Edmonton cousins)

--- Indistructibles

--- Classic Bernstein Bears (new ones are religious)

--- Bath books

--- Audrey and Don Woods

--- Munch

--- Dr. Suess

Two

- Small pet bed

- Stick with string toy

A Space Of One's Own

It has been hard to blog recently because it hasn't been easy to get onto my computer. (And blogging from the tablet is super annoying.) When we started to redo 'the office' to make a nursery it meant getting rid of the spot that I would use my laptop. Jason's work station was moved into the spare room/laundry room and there wasn't space for my chair and little table. For a while I used my laptop on the coffee table downstairs (as I am doing at the moment) or sometimes in bed. However, it was a strange phenomenon where it was either in the way or too out of the way. If it was in the way then it would get moved and tucked away somewhere and that made it harder to pull it out again later to use.

This has meant no blogging, but also my emails are piling up and I haven't done my banking. I have stopped playing WoW, which I have pretty consistently been involved with since Fall 2019. There is also jobs to apply for and more cafe stuff to finish up. Basically I need it to be easy, and comfortable, to work on my laptop. Didn't know this was an issue since I haven't really had or used a desk in a while, but I guess I did always have some type of set up that made it convenient. 

We do have plans to rearrange the living room soon, for baby proofing now that Cigi is becoming more mobile, and that will have some ripple effects for the dining room. I think I will try to set up in there. So fingers crossed you will start to see more posts soon!

Made For You

Drink of my body

Maintain our link

Just as before

Everything I do

Is transferred to you

Tripped Up By Time Change

My alarm didn't go off this morning, I have it set for 2:30am to get up an pump ahead of Cigi waking up around 3am (lately, and only if I am lucky.) Well, she woke me up by crying at 3:15am and I was very confused! But with 'spring ahead' my phone went from 2am to 3am in literally less than a second so there was no 2:30am today! Looking forward to the end of this weird time change thing - the vote to do so provincially went through but I think it is currently on hold until other provinces agree to stop doing it as well or something.

R Is For Bunny

My mom spent a little time when I was younger doing cross-stich (this is before she discovered traditional rug hooking) and one of the things she made me was this alphabet (see image on right.) She used to say the marks on it was blood from pricking her finger with the needle, but then recently mentioned it was just from the age if it, so I don't know what is true.

I was showing it to Maya today, while Jason was holding it up, and she said, "A is for apple, B is for stuffy" and I was so confused until I saw that it was a teddy 'B'ear image. She is very young and not strong with letters or reading yet. She also pointed and said, "R is for bunny." 

No Resolution

Last year's New Year's resolution was so good that I am just going to keep with that. I can't imagine what I would come up with after the past year we have had. 2020 was just such a crazy time - a global pandemic, unemployment, pregnancy, lockdowns. I just want to see it all fall behind us and have 2021 bring health and hope to everyone again. (I also want to go out and get a job as soon as this baby is born.)

My mom suggested that we open our front and back door to 'blow 2020 out of the house' which I thought was a cool idea and possible New Years Day tradition that we could start at Casa Verde.

Xmas List 2020

Fetus

Not yet born, not celebrating Christmas, no presents please.

(If you have a gift that really really must be given, please do so through Jason.)
 

Me
- Gift Cards
--- Dollerama, Ricki's, Chapters

- Pixel 4a case

- Pixel 4a screen protector
- Epsom salts
- Soap and Glory: Flake Away body scrub
- Bath bombs, no glitter

- Plastic or silicon spatulas (flipper of pancakes kind)

- Stick with string toy for Two

- Running socks

- Easy crockpot cooking cook book

- Tank tops, any style, LRG

- Brown sugar bear (for freshness)

- Ivy, succulent, or cactus plants

- Cloth face masks with wire at nose

Jason
- Gift cards
--- Amazon (for Kindle Books), MEC

- Sweat pants, Med

- Socks
- Coffee beans (not flavoured)
- Sour candy
- Coke in glass bottles
- Craft Beer (not wheaty)
- Cheap Sunglasses
- Spray sunscreen

- iPhone charging cord

- Drill bit set (for holes, not for screws)

- AAA batteries

Joint
- Gift cards
--- Home Depo (for new lawn mower)

--- IKEA (for a dresser and bookcases)

--- Michael's (for frames)
- Boardgames
--- Ticket to Ride: Expansion Maps
--- Trivial Pursuit: Bet You Know It
- Large plastic cutting boards
- Soup pot with lid, roughly 8qt

- Baby Yoda tree ornament

- Large winter/Christmas window cling decorations

Painting Refresh

I had always meant to paint the garage door a darkish grey, it has been white and slowly fading since we moved in. I had envisioned faking a row of windows near the top, with paint (taping out squares, maybe even some light shading to give them depth.) Then I saw that you can get decorative garage door hardware, which would look fancier than windows and be easy. (They also have them in magnetic form to stick them on metal garage doors too, but I got the screw on ones since ours is wood.)

When I mentioned it to Jason though, he wanted it painted black. (Which reminds me of the song when I was younger, that I gather is actually a cover of The Rolling Stones. But isn't a cover when it is done exactly the same? There is a difference, it is a bit like a remix or something. I like the Gob version better and, upon looking it up, found out they are Canadian. It is a little more metal than The Stones rock version.) 

Paining it black then meant that I had to spray paint the decorative hardware a different colour to get it to show up - I went with 'stainless steel.' It didn't really made it look like stainless steel so wouldn't recommend it for that purpose, but it worked to make it a greyish colour that would show up against the black. Jason helped me attach the hardware.

Happy with how it turned out! Even more so now that I see what it looked like before!

Birds In A Row

First time feeding chickadees, and he gets a line up!

Jason at Lynde Shores Conservation Area, Whitby

Photo by me, with Jason's phone - Saturday Nov 21, 2020

Couch Reno

It might have been Two, however I think it was more likely Binx, but at some point one of the corners of the couch got torn up. This couch has been around forever, I think it was at Rrunuv Bayit for most of the time and has been at Casa Verde since we moved in. My parents got it for our family room in Paris when I was a teenager, maybe even a pre-teen. The issue with the torn up corner is that it is right as you enter the room! It is the main corner, very visible. 

I figured you could get patches but I wanted stick on ones, not iron on ones, and they needed to be large enough, strong enough to work with a couch. I eventually came across some faux leather ones that you heat up with a hair dryer before sticking on. There were tons of colours so I was able to get a beige that coordinated with the blue and cream couch stripes. I cut a custom shape that so it would tuck under the first fold of the arm and then wrap around the corner with the the other three corners rounded (recommended in the instructions, also looks nicer.)

So that it didn't look as much like a patch and more like a purposeful part of the furniture I made sure to get and make enough to do both corners on the couch and over on the chair-and-a-half so that everything matched. After I finished I asked Jason if he noticed anything new in the living room, and he had about 6 wrong guesses before I just gave up and pointed at the patches. He thinks this shows how well they blend in and is not continued proof of how unobservant he is.

Looks like our living room furniture has little leather elbow pads, like on tweed academic blazers/sweaters. I am very happy with the refresh and hope that it will continue to extend the life of this couch because I don't want to replace it anytime soon.

Baby Face?

Went for an ultrasound today to check on the status of my low lying placenta. Tomorrow I will be 28 weeks and officially in the final trimester of this pregnancy, so I guess right now is the last day of the second trimester. 

According to the various charts and sites on the internet, the baby is the size of a plate of pancakes, eggplant, head of lettuce, butternut squash, Kraft Dinner Mac and Cheese box, and the list goes on, all being slightly different shapes and sizes, making it really hard to understand how big she is. However, the tech asked if I wanted to know the baby's approximate weight - which is exciting data! So apparently she is currently 2.4 lbs (or 1.08 kg).

While showing Jason over the phone at the end of the scan the tech was able to get the front of her face - Jason let out a little squeal! I asked if we could get print outs and the tech was very excited about how 'cute' the face was, with its 'chubby cheeks.' I have included the images but made them small since I think they are super creepy and look ghost-like, click the picture to see larger. Jason claims that when it showed up over the phone it looked a lot better (it depends what 'slice' the images are as to what they really look like.) It was the first time he had seen something that "maps directly to a real face, a real human thing."

A Door By Any Other Name

There was a very heavy windstorm right before we left for our road trip. It broke the glass on one side of our porch door. Once we got back, Jason and I discussed what to do about it and decided that we would replace all three screen doors using the people we got to do (most of) our windows in 2018. Since Jason had been the main person to deal with that, he reached out to get a quote for the doors. 

We have an enclosed porched at Casa Verde, so there is a screen door into that space (which has the broken window from the wind) then once you are in the porch there is a screen door in front of the main wood front door. Then in the back there is a screen door before the wood back door. Basically all of these are broken in some way, usually the spring and cylinder closer part. Also we are slowly switching from white doors and windows to black ones as we update things so this is a chance to do that for the doors.

Anyway, Jason got the quote and wanted me to look over the fine details with him, "starting with the fact that they said they were for storm doors," which had him very confused and concerned. I explained that 'storm door' is actually the more accurate and contractor-used term for a 'screen door.' He wanted to know what the wooden front door types where called, my guess was 'exterior door' but I wasn't as positive on that term. It is going to take some time for them to be ready and installed but I will post the before and after shots when they get put in.

A Distanced Game Day

Last year Teri and her family launched an annual event in honour of her late father. Gord's Game Day is held in September and brings people together to be outside, active, and connected. Her dad was involved in many team sports both playing and organizing them, as well as, a driving force for their extended family to gather and have a good time. The event last year, in 2019, was at a public park in Hamilton, with obstacle courses, giant jenga, soccer and more. Entry fees and fundraising go towards the Brain Aneurism Foundation of Canada.

With the pandemic this year, the event had to go 'virtual' with a request that family groups and small gatherings of friends try to keep the budding tradition going by running their own Game Day in honour of Gord. A bunch of the participants sent in photos and clips from their activities, which have been made into a video. We did our own Game Day at the waterfront in August, organized by K. The video starts off with a clip from that day and me pushing a ball of Jason's spoon during a race (I am the worst!) You can catch glimpses of Teri, her mother and brother, Greg, R.O.M, K, Jason, Mike, LeMonde, Kristen, Noah, Leo, Monica, Andras, Sebi, and the list goes on. It is a fun montage!

Halloween In Quarantine

Disclaimer: Ok, so we aren't really in Quarantine at the moment or even doing extreme self-isolation, but it rhymes better with Halloween than "pandemic" or "covid" does.

Happy Halloween!

Jason and I on Oct 31, 2020

Selfie taken with Jason's Phone

I think this is the first year at Casa Verde that we haven't given out candy! We normally get between 50 and 100 trick-or-treaters, it is hard to keep track because Jason messes with my system of counting (he gives more than one piece of candy, and eats it while handing out, so who knows what our real numbers are.) This year we here highly discouraged from doing the traditional Halloween celebration in Toronto because we are a 'hot zone' with substantial increase in Covid cases recently. So our blinds were pulled, and lights turned off, super sad!

So, why are we dressed up this year? Well, we did a on-video, in-costume, mini-raid (20 instead of 40 players) on WoW. Our costumes were put together about 15 minutes before it started, since I do still have a dress up box with various bits and pieces; which is now also home to Jason's cowboy hat I made him buy for the Calgary Stampede.

There was still fun for kids, I am part of a local neighbourhood parents group on Facebook and a women in the area arranged for a physically distanced parade, scavenger hunt (we were an 'eye ball house' check out photo), and ghost message game in a nearby park. All the kids in the parade got a treat bag (I sent her a bit of money towards making them). 

The activity sheets were posted on Facebook and we printed off the one for the park to try it out. It was quite the challenge! Jason and I spent over an hour wandering around the park to do it, we had to find 100 little ghosts and then colour in squares on a grid to learn the message. We found 95 of them and discovered that the answer to "What does a ghost say?" is "Boo!" I took a picture of Jason working on it, he took over the colouring part right away, and my job was to hold the pencil crayons. It might have been designed for kids, but I had a great time!

JBR - Beer Was Beer, Fish Was Fish

Beer: Lakeside Kolsh, Lake of the Woods Brewing Co, Kenora 

Name: Lakeside is one of Kenora’s first neighbourhoods with many of its homes situated on the shores of Lake of the Woods, spattered with small beaches, boathouses & docks. 

Details: Brewed using an old-world technique which produces a crisp, clean ale with lager characteristics. It is a delicate & subtle beer with a hint of malt & fruit in the nose. 

Fancy Numbers: 5% ABV, 6 IBU, 3 SRM

Date Tried: Thursday October 22, 2020 

Location: The Cornerstone Restaurant, Kenora, Ontario 

Meal: Good dinner but too much food! I had the local fish, Lake of the Woods Walleye - it tasted like fish.
General thoughts from Jason, when asked for his review: "Not great, just like any other beer. Tastes a bit like Molson, which is not a compliment" 

Editor's note: Huge glass though, he was pretty tipsy by the end of it (I drove us back to the hotel after.)

Avery And Maya

We did not get to see my brother and his family for long enough - the trouble with driving is that it takes so long to get out to Alberta (and so long to get back) that is doesn't leave much time for actually visiting. The kids were awesome and hilarious, I can't believe we haven't seen them since Palm Springs this past November. Here is my favourite quote from this visit...

Avery: Maya hates me.
Me: No, that can't be true. You're her brother, she loves you.

Avery: Uh-uh, she doesn't like me.

Maya: I like you!

Avery: No, Maya wouldn't like me if I ate her.

Me: Umm, I guess that is true?

Maya: Yeah, if Avery eats me, I will kill him.

Jason: confused I don't think you can kill him if he has eaten you.

Me: confused that Jason is trying to add logic into any of this

JBR - Fahr Beer Pilsner

Beer: Pils, Fahr Beer, Turner Valley, Alberta

Details: This Black Forrest style Pilsner is unique to North America. Fuller bodied with less hop and bitterness, this beer stands out amongst other Northern German Pilsners more commonly found in Canada. This beer is filtered for clarity, has 5.0% alc./vol. and has a crisp finish. The Pils maintains flavours of crackers, floral notes, and a slight lingering bitterness to cut through the initial sweetness of the malt used. 

Awards: 2020 World Beer Awards Canada Gold Winner for Best Classic Pilsener Style Lager Beer

Recommended By: Sutik a few days earlier, he told us it was a really good microbrewery

Date Tried: Sunday October 18, 2020 

Location: Sky Bistro, on the summit of Sulphur Mountain, at the top of the Banff Gondola

Meal: A light dinner that was really delicious - Jason had the gnocchi and I had a mushroom and asparagus dish.
General thoughts from Jason, when asked for his review: "Very clean, crisp, high quality. You can taste the German in it." 

Why it tasted German: The founder of Fahr Beer is Jochen Fahr, who was born and raised in Ebringen, Germany. The brewery also follows Reinheitsgebot, the “German Purity Law.” 

Editor's note: Was hoping a drink would help Jason on the gondola decent, he really isn't a fan of heights - it didn't, I think he was even worse going down than up.