Winter made its first serious attempt last Saturday. The roads and sidewalks looked like this ...
... slippery and sloppy to get around in as the temperature hovered right at the freezing mark. It was very pretty later in the day as the sun disappeared and what had been water drips earlier solidified into ice.
Like rows of little diamonds. My cheap little digital camera didn't do it justice!
Last Saturday happened to be one of those days when you officially get a year older. I like to keep pretty quiet about the event, so took myself out for a glass of wine ...
... and some dinner at a local establishment. It was Szhechuan-style chicken. Very good. I had a second glass of wine and read my book and felt quite happily relaxed after a stressful work week. Just what I needed!
This morning, Miss Boots opted to climb into her "cozy cave" ...
... a fake-fur cube with a hole in one side ... after breakfast instead of bugging me to get out on the balcony where she usually spends some time telling off any passing dogs or wildlife. Smart cat! It looked like this when I left for the bus ...
... about 8:30 am with blowing snow and about 10 degrees below zero. Minus 10 is not particularly uncomfortable ... okay, at least not for me ... I'd rather have cold than heat any day, and that's probably why I'm happy living up here in The North! However, my feet (who totally prefer to spend their days nekkid) were not at all happy being confined in these ...
... knowing that they will probably be so confined until April or so next year! My coworkers were all waiting to look at my feet this morning to see if I actually had boots on as I always push it with footwear wearing sandals well after frost and shoes well into winter.
Note to self: those are really crappy looking boots ... quit being such a cheapskate and go buy yourself a dressier pair already!
With today's not-so-balmy temperatures I discovered something disturbing ...
Have a great day y'all ... stay warm!
... a photo from my very first summer vacation. Yes, the stamp on this photo says 1959. I'm ancient, remember! From left to right: Auntie Mae, Auntie Della, Uncle Ramie, and Grams Hattie. The little darlin' Uncle Ramie is holding is me. I'm also going to leave you with ...
... a photo from my organization's Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon earlier this year. Where there is food, that's where you'll find Yours Truly! Don't you just LOVE my name tag? They were part of an ice-breaker game. Laters ...
... going in various directions, like so. And I used up a whole bunch of little bits of different colours of thread (the practical part of the project). I even experimented with widening and narrowing stitch length ...
... and created this pretty heart with a tail that tapers off to nothing. Never thought of trying that before. Finally, I added some yellow bias binding left over from another project, and some lace just because I never have anything lacy around, and voila ...
... little Brother sewing machine sports a new dust jacket. It addresses his feminine side. I think Stanley the Button Jar is a bit jealous:
Perhaps I'll make him a lacy little dust cap. His name is Stanley because he is some kind of wild critter holding a miniature Stanley Cup ... the peanut butter company must have been big on promoting hockey one year. In addition to the dust jacket, I have nearly finished the centre part of my latest cross stitch project ...
... fell out of a book ("The Book of Canadian Verse") as I moved it from bookcase to box. Any guesses? This is my Dad, myself, and my butterball baby daughter Necy at about age 6 weeks. The year was 1972 and I was the ripe old age of 16 and very thin. Necy is all growed up now, and the mum of a teenager. My goodness how time flies!
There are many more plants than that one, believe me! I'm currently sitting in an empty room, except for one chair and my computer desk, which I am going to take apart as soon as I post this. It's "echoe-ey" in here. I don't like it! Tomorrow is cleaning day, and the Big Move takes place Monday morning. However, I will be without Internet for a few days after that due to July 1 being a holiday (us Canucks celebrate Canada Day on July 1).
My desk was composed of three parts ... one for each of three walls. The fourth wall was occupied by a one-part similar desk plus a door and window. As a result, I had a hell of a lot of desk SURFACE, but no practical space. Please bear in mind that I have a very SMALL office. (This was the tidy corner. The opposite corner of my office was where stuff got PILED 'cuz I had no storage places.) Since the desks had to come out in order for the new carpeting to go in, I figured it was a perfect occasion to make these nightmare desks DISAPPEAR. So ... abracadabra ...
Desks be gone! (If only it was that simple ... that sucker was damned HEAVY to haul out of there!) And old carpet be gone. If you're thinking "hmm, those two walls are different colours" you're absolutely correct. Actually, all FOUR walls were different colours ... all variations of pink / mauve / blue. This picture doesn't show the areas where the previous resident painted AROUND furniture and bulletin boards. Once everything was out and the walls bared for all to see, it was pretty grim. As it turned out, somebody swiped a piece of new carpet from the sidewalk in front of our building ... the piece was already measured and cut for my office ... and I had to wait over a weekend for the carpeting store to order in another roll. 
So I took advantage of the carpetless floor and painted my office ... all four walls the same pale shade of orchid, kind of pinkish pastel mauvish something. Okay, so I didn't go out paint shopping. There was a whole gallon and a half of the stuff in a storage cupboard in the back room.
Even if I might have PERSONALLY chosen a different colour, it certainly lightens and brightens my office! Not to mention covers up a lot of ink splots, scratches, stains, bad patch jobs, and previously unpainted areas. So are you ready for the official unveiling? Step right this way ... through this door ...
I have a newer (although somewhat ... er ... EXPERIENCED) and smaller desk in this corner ...
... which means I now have room for a bookcase and filing cabinet in this corner ...
... not to mention an easy chair (which needs a good vacuuming after all that carpet-removing dust) in the third corner!
It's almost TOO exciting! First chance I get, I'm going shopping for a nice friendly cushion for this chair. And a new end table. And a wall clock. And ... well, I don't know, but I'm sure something FABULOUS will jump out at me! Don't worry though, I didn't throw out EVERYTHING from the old look. I'm WAY too sentimental for that! My dancing chicken (who doesn't dance anymore because his batteries ran out) is still with me. He's on regular guard chicken duty from the top of my new bookcase.
And my pastel picture ... which I've decided isn't so bad after all because it's a portrait of the downtown Vancouver waterfront. Recognize the sails? The seabus terminal? Well, maybe you don't ... but I do, and I have a few very pleasant memories about that part of Vancouver. When I'm lonely for the Big City and Big City friends, and hungry for some great sushi, I can look at that picture and remember ... imagine ... dream ...
What? Where was I? Oh, the carpet? It looks GREAT! And NO DUCT TAPE to be found, or tripped over!
Only one last problem. Rocco the (MY) fish is still living in the bathroom while my office staff and I haggle out a custody agreement!
NOTE: before anyone thinks about reporting me to the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Fish, Rocco's water is NOT yellow. Our bathroom has weird beige walls and flourescent lights and consequently Rocco's water LOOKS yellow. But it's not. Honest. It's a bad room for lighting. Don't ever look at yourself in the mirror if you drop by to use our facilities! Oooh, what a good idea ... a mirror for my office wall ...
We have snow aplenty here right now. I am NOT a fan of shovelling snow, nor a fan of blowing snow, nor a fan of snow filtering down into my socks because the piles of snow I have to wade through are higher than my boots. However, I AM a big fan of the beauty of snow. The other night, I happened to have my camera with me, and snapped a few photos of snow on trees and bushes as I walked home. 
It was a such a nice evening. No wind. The smell of wood smoke in the air. Only minus ten. And fluffy white snow carpeting everything. How can anyone possibly seriously dislike snow when it's this beautiful?
... and especially the worn areas repaired with duct tape ... and the worn duct tape repairs repaired with ... yes ... MORE duct tape. No amount of carpet cleaning is going to help this sad floor!
Here is one of the kind young fellas from a local flooring company removing the old carpet.
Oh my gosh! Our hallway looks better already!
Here's a shot of the new carpet next to the old carpet ...
... wow! What a difference! We were convinced we needed to have the entire place painted too, but this new carpet actually makes the walls (which are a pale shade of orchid-purplish-pinky something or other) look brighter. We might not have to paint! Well, at least not the entire place.
