Civil Servants on Strike in Toronto

12 days with ....
no garbage pickup...
no civic centers...
no recreation - pools, community centers, etc...
some libraries closed...
no permits - building, parking, nothing...
no city hall - weddings, etc...

Happy Summer Vacation, kids. Not only can't you go swimming, you can't play in the parks either because they are ALL full of garbage.

Nice.... and why? The major holdout is because they want their 18 sick days a year converted to cash if not used..... above and beyond their vacation days, 18 sick days!!!!

F*CK them.

Home Improvements

Unemployeed and hanging around the house, so I've been doing a few improvements (again).

Our stairs (we have 2 staircases coming up to our main level, and one going up to the 3rd floor) are in atrocious shape... they are scuffed and scruffy and after getting our floors done last year, they look even worse, so I went and primed and painted the lower ones coming up to our main living area! And I must say that they look pretty darn good now! (Next set due for painting tomorrow)

Next, I'm going to tackle the kitchen floor. I started it last year - primed the old crappy linolium tiles and then started painting the floor with black floor paint... but the paint was too shiny, and holds dirt and footprints like mad, so I only did along one wall (under the appliances) and never finished. So, next week I'm going to re-prime it, and then paint it with the same paint that I just did the stairs with.

I also have to paint the front inner door, and one piece of drywall that we put up in our 'mudroom' area of the entranceway.

I must say, my place looks fantastic compared with 2 years ago!
The BEFORE image:


and the AFTERimage:

12

My son turned 12 this past weekend... First thing saturday morning, we popped his birth video in (no actual birth shots! just the minute after) and were amazed (even though we watch every year) at the changes in everyone in the video.

First of all, hubby looks all of 18 years old!!!! Even though he was 26, and my oldest was 6.5 when S was borne, and is absolutely hilarious! I wish I had this same tape for each of my girls.... it's such a great thing... :)

At one point, I was sitting back on a big comfy one seater chair, nursing S when my oldest came over and asked if she could sit too. So, I made room and she ended up falling asleep on me too .... so I'm sitting holding my newborne and stroking the hair off my oldest's forehead... the funny part is that I was sitting with my leg up over the arm of the chair, and somehow it ended up against the back of the chair when M climbed up... so all you see is my foot sticking up out of nowhere... me smoothing my daughters hair back while she's sleeping, and a wrapped bundle in my other arm.....

:)

Anyway, S had a great day. He went out and saw Wolverine at the theatre with his best buddy, and my mom and oldest daughter came over for dinner and cake. :)

I'm Sick....

blah.... how can anyone admit that they have a cold when there is a pandemic going on? uggg.... but, I have a sore throat, and I feel blah... nothing else, just feel run down and my throat hurts.... hubby refuses to kiss me because he doesn't want to be sick... :) but he's the one who got me sick, imho... as just before the A1N1 came out (formerly known as Swine flu - and how the hell does that work, renaming a virus in the middle of a pandemic??) he had a very bad sinus infection... snotty, stuffy, sore throat and overall didn't feel well. Well, I'm not that bad, but I'm staying at home, knitting, sleeping, watching tv and movies, and sleeping... oh, did I already say that?

For the next week or so, I want to concentrate on two of the sweaters I've been working on... my Grapevine Cardigan, and my Cable Luxe tunic. Oh, and I just have to put 3 babies together.... :)

Dusty Dogwood meets Poppy Eyebright

School - accepted.

My son has been accepted at the alternative school near me. What a huge weight that was, worrying about where he was going to go... worrying about this when I have enough on my plate to worry about. Anyway.... he's got a school to go to, and I'm quite happy about it. He went on a 'student shadowing', and said it looked interesting, and that everyone seemed nice, and that it was much more 'hands on' and the students were treated with alot more one-on-one. They have a swimming program also, so he's quite happy about that as well. :)

School problems

My son is in a Junior school. This means that it only goes up to grade six. We've applied him to the nearest neighbourhood school, but recently found out that he is number 18 on the waiting list. We are literally 3 houses away from the cut off making that school his home school. Our 'home' school is 18 blocks away! This one is 5.

So, this weekend I had my son working on 2 projects so that we could apply to an 'alternate' school in my area. Why an 'alternate' school? Because the only schools in my 'neighbourhood' are horrendous! One is 1 block away from a mental institution, and the other closest one is in an area that is in the news on a monthly basis due to gang violence, shootings and drugs. Don't get me wrong, I do realize that our world is a dangerous place to be, but that doesn't mean I want my children to be put in harm's way. He's only 11 years old. I don't even go to these neighbourhoods! And I'm supposed to send my son to them on a daily basis? Also, since neither are his neighbourhoods, he hasn't grown up around the problems that are part of those neighbourhoods.

Anyway, please cross your fingers that he gets into this alternative school. Because if he doesn't, I dont' know what we're going to do.