My greatest iPhone app & a happy thanksgiving to my American friends

I would like to say a great big thank you to Apple. A new app that my Hubby installed last night allows me to see where his iPhone is located. While there was a huge blizzard outside this morning, I could track my husband driving in to work, and know he was not trapped somewhere at the side of the road. It really gave me a little peace!

Testing my iPhone

Just a test.... Have a super day.

My October

October has been busy... working lots, trying to finish the little details in the laundry room, and making time for family.

Here are a few pictures from the latter half of my month:



Mushrooms, the big one was over a foot across



Top view of the mushrooms

Fall photo

Fall photo, trying to get the dog in the picture

Roxy walking in the park, looking for squirrels

Notice how much Roxy wants to be included... Pat having to hold her there!

Roxy leaving us once again... it was a trend!

 Last night I convinced Pat to do some pumpkin carving.  He was very reluctant, but I think his turned out the cutest... I had to draw it for him, but he did the carving.

Pat's pumpkin

My tiny pumpkin

The "McCoy" pumpkin

The pumpkin pictures are a bit grainy... I'll use the tripod tonight and try to get better pictures.
Happy Hallowe'en everyone!

-elisa

Disaster!

I finally realized that we can no longer get by with our current washing machine.  It was leaking, and causing mildew on the floor.  Also, it was like 20 years old.  We ordered a brand new front load from Home Depot last night.... I'm so excited.  
Anyways, we are now renovating the laundry room, to accomodate a wider washing machine than what was there previously.  Unfortunately, the person who used to own the house was "handy", or so he thought.  My dad is actually a contractor, so when we see the work others have done, it is so frustrating, and usually needs to be redone.

Yesterday entailed a major breakdown by *yours truly*! 
Then we (mostly dad though):
-peeled back part of the floor
-emptied the room (into our den, which is now a disaster zone!)
-took the cupboard off the wall
-bought the supplies we needed at the store.

Today we:
-stripped the linoleum off the floor
-cut out the bad drywall
-reframed part of the wall
-re-insulated and added a vapour barrier
-re-drywalled
-began filling holes in the walls.
We have a week until the new washer is here. Thank goodness for my dad!

Hopefully the rest of the minor reno will go smoothly.  We opened a can of worms with this reno... I think all the suprises have been revealled.

I'm leaving you will three parting shots from my walk the other day.

Roxy, the happy dog, enjoying the fall sunshine.



Chester (yes, I named the squirrel) checking me out.



Chester finding an escape route.

Canadian Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving here in Canada.  It's nice to be able to take a day to remember what you love about life, and what you are most thankful for. 

This weekend I spent my free time baking pies.  I made 2 pumpkin pies, 2 apple pies and a lemon meringue pie.  Yummy! (and oops... I didn't take any pictures of them!).

I did take pics of the caramel apples I made.  Here's how it looked.

You take a bunch of apples and wash them:

You mix the sugar, milk and package and boil.

You keep boiling until it reaches 120 degrees (softball stage).  This took a lot longer than I expected.

You burn your fingers a few times while dipping into the HOT caramel.  Quickly you twirl them in your selected  candies.  Place them in the fridge to cool and watch the toppings slide to the bottom. Then, you wonder what went wrong while you hold your burnt finger under cold water! 

They were yummy, even if they didn't look like the ones from the store.  If I was to do this again, I'd cook the caramel a little more, almost to the hard ball stage.  It was just too gooey.

Happy Thanksgiving, Canadian style!

-e

Where you go?

Somewhere in our house we have lost a cordless phone. The battery must have died and we have no way of locating it. It's probably tucked in a box or high on a shelf.


Oh little phone, where are you?
One day I'll find it and go "oh, yeah".

One day.

-Elisa

End Polio Now

Dear People on the highway behind my house,

I too would like to bring an end to polio.  I think it's a brilliant idea.
I do however, fail to see how getting people to honk is going to end polio.  Also, getting people to honk at 7:00 am is not only is crazy but puts your life in jeopardy.  I am a calm person, but my neighbors, they are not so much.  "Lunatic" as we affectionately call him lives on the left side of my house, and "crazy" lives on the right. They may not appreciate your call to action, your fight to end polio now so early in the morning.

My puppy is curled up on the bed, resigning herself to the fact that there will be no napping in the backyard this morning.  I alas gave up the fight to sleep in, and have planted myself infront of the computer... counting the honks per minute.  My favourite honk of all was the semi who layed on the horn for approximately 10 seconds. Usually noise like that is followed by a big "CRASH", but no, just you cheering.

Please polio fighting people... have a good day, but don't come back.

Sincerely,
me

Everyone else,
Have a happy day.  I'll leave you with a pic of my little Roxy trying to figure out how to get a squirrel!