On the road again

Well another weekend is drawing to a close and although I should be getting some Christmas cards organized and in the mail I’m choosing to update you instead. My logic is that a number of you in the past would’ve gotten a card from me so this is an ongoing greeting. I am drinking eggnog as I type in a nod to the season. I’m going to be especially behind considering I’m not getting back from my work required road trip until late Wednesday evening. I’ve spent the weekend trying to catch up from last week and get ahead for the next as this is a particularly busy time of year – lobstering + holidays = hectic.

The road trip to Ledgehill (again) went pretty smoothly. I managed to stop off at Frenchy’s on the way up and did a power shop so that put me in a better frame of mind for strategic planning. The predicted snow turned out to be just a dusting, although there were a couple of feet in the valley so it looked like a Christmas card. The return trip made for a late evening but all the extra hours are being tallied for time in lieu to be used when I will be off December 21 – January 2nd. Into the countdown with only 11 days now until I’m off – yeehaw! A massage appointment on Friday ended the week on a nice note. I asked the price of sauna treatments at the spa and when I was told $20 each I calculated that 200 sessions would pay for our own – actually I think we’re well on our way there well at least with counting the sessions.

On Saturday I headed out to meet daughter # 1 at Tim Hortons and had a nice visit then stopped along the way for craft supplies, decorations, groceries, getting home just in time to take the dog for a stroll before dark. Met all kinds of folks I haven’t seen for ages, as I don’t travel out that way much now and generally made sure I wasn’t doing housework. Today I got busy and made casserole to leave for meals, two loaves of bread, pineapple cake and a batch of chocolate chip cookies as the prodigal son arrived for supper with tales of lobstering offshore. The short version is that mostly everyone is doing poorly and the weather’s the pits. So lunches for both father and son + suppers here are taken care of for the week. And the best part of the visit was that I convinced the Grinch to put up the Christmas lights – just rope lights around the columns by the doors – so now I will pick up a wreath for the front door and that’s the extent of the exterior decorating. Can’t see the place from the road anyway so best to go simple. Today was the likely the warmest one we'll get until the holidays as it was 10c.

I have just finished decorating a black leather fedora as a gag gift for a former colleague who is retiring from one of the school boards. I commissioned a poem from a local writer (very well done I might say) and have printed that out and framed it. Tomorrow evening I will connect with ‘the old gang’ as they are having a retirement dinner and with almost unbelievable serendipity we will all be in the city together. I’ve gotten a shower gift together for my friend’s son and will send that along for the event. Makes me almost look forward to my travel schedule of the coming week.

Some emails from our Cuban friends make me look forward to January in a way I usually don’t. This will be a slightly earlier than usual trip down for us so hopefully it won’t leave too much winter on the return end.

And to leave you with some new information I’m pasting the link to ehow – which is how to do just about anything:

http://www.ehow.com/

For example…how to tie a Christmas tree to a car – now this is a practical site!

And as well the link to the CBC site where Spark is a technology program – if you want to sound like you know all about new techie stuff this is the place:

http://cbc.ca/spark

There’s a good interview with Barbara Coloroso who is a parenting expert about technology, kids and trust. Enjoy