Spring..just maybe?

I think maybe, finally, Spring is here! I heard the unmistable sounds of California Quail just now, and glanced out the window here in the Den hoping to see them. Usually they are so well camouflaged that it is difficult to see them. I found a group of four wandering through the grass heading for the field next door. I saw a streak of orange, and looking down spotted out mostly-orange cat, George, who obviously thought he was fast enough and smart enough to catch himself a Quail for lunch. No such luck: Quail 4 : Cat 0!

Other signs of spring, besides the truly weird, mixed-up weather we've been having for the past few weeks, are:

• way too many big black flies..they seem to be everywhere outside. At least they are on things and not on people
• grass getting greener
• perennials showing life
• Bunnies!
• lots and lots of birds. Robins all over
• Frogs. FROGS. and MORE FROGS! Another reason why I wish our bedroom was at the back of the house instead of the house. The frogs are very loud, but if we were at the back we could hear them even with the window closed, and they would definitely drown out the sound of cars going past at night. Though, admittedly, there aren't that many cars going past our place in the middle of the night.

today

TODAY I should get a lot of the following done:

• Put together some 'spa' and maybe coffee items for our District baskets (to be auctioned off at our AGM in April)
• Remember to RECORD CSI/Grey's Anatomy/ER both for me (as I will be out at the Dist Mtg) and for A. who will be away til Sat pm
• Update/edit the ads for boat/chair etc
• Plan SUPPER
• Clean the KITCHEN (its always a mess...seems I'm always tidying/cleaning it)
• Read the Elec. Meter around 5:30 pm, then calculate the daily consumption..It had better be considerably under 160kWh!

This is Kasia in the water off Blue Heron park...can't wait for the weather to warm up enough to get her down to the beach again!...before PUPPY TIME

'Date Night!!'

I've often thought it a bit silly when couples say they are having a 'date night'. But I'm actually looking forward to one tomorrow night. Last time G & I went out for dinner alone Mom was still 'waiting at home' for us, so there was still the pressure to get home. At least when a couple has a babysitter, other than knowing you have to pay the sitter, you should feel comfortable leaving kids with the sitter. When Mom was alone (if 'kids' were away) we really didn't feel comfortable being away for much more than an hour or so.

So, tomorrow night after we drop the boys off for their Camp, we are going out for dinner, to our favourite Seafood place. So far the food has always been good, price fine, service ok, atmmosphere definitely befitting a Seafood Rest.: all-in-all a good choice. I checked the paper this morning to see if there are any movies we might enjoy, but nothing. Might check and see if there is something we might like to rent. DOUBT, maybe? Whatever we pick it needs to be something both of us would enjoy, but that A. probably wouldn't!

STUFF for SALE

We have a fair bit of stuff to sell (or rent, in the case of the Tent Trailer). We have a few things posted on Craig's List etc., and get enquiries every so often. Last week we put an ad in for Mom's Lift Chair, wheelchair, toilet support, and bedrail. Only got one phone call from the ad, even tho it cost $24 for 4 days combined between the Nan. Daily News and the Harbour Star.

SO, in the next few days I need to:

• EDIT the postings for the BOAT and the CHAIR/Wheelchair/toiletsupport/bedrail to make sure postings are up-to-date and to also change the prices.
• Plan a date to have a YARD SALE..will do it on a Sunday so we can take advantage of the traffic going past to the Flea Market at the Cedar Hall
• Begin to more vigorously purge the house to find stuff people will buy at a Yard Sale

DayPlanner and Journal combined

I want to put an ORGANIZING piece here, so I have something representative of my main areas of interest.And so this beginning blog will actually look like something.Anyhow…short comment on something I am very pleased with how it is turning out.
I’ve been attempting for several years now to have a useful Day Planner AND a Journal of some sort.Until sometime last year nothing I was doing was really satisfactory until I hit upon what is really working for me.
I have a ‘Portable’ sized DayPlanner, and use either Coastline or Flavia planner pages. I have it highly personalized, which helps me keep on track. The thing I’ve started doing in the last few months is having blank pages at the end of each month which I use for Journalling. I also have developed little ‘tricks’ which work for me. One thing I do is if at the end of the day I’ve got a lot of space left over on my two planner pages I put a sticker or some sort of special mark and use that space for either a Journal entry or notes re tasks which were done or other events which happened. Very little ‘dead space’ now and I can look back and find lots of information which is useful

GUIDES

Tonight is District Meetng...hopefully not too long. And then Saturday morning the cookies arrive, so I will need to have the back of the s/w cleared out in time to pick up our 30 cases of cookies...unless we leaders decide to take a few more. Not sure if G. will be at the mtg. tonight: if not maybe I should phone/email her to decide for sure how many cases we should take. We how have 10 registered Guides, tho' I doubt J. will be there. We might be able to sell more than 30 cases???

We had a good Guide meeting on Tuesday, with a Cookie theme. Games, activities, learning...I forgot to bring a box of cookies, but Gillian brought two boxes of US cookies she had brought back from her trip. The US ones are quite different from ours, especially as we only sell one of our two kinds at a time.

We have CAMP coming up on the April 17/19 weekend, so I must get 'in gear' and:

• Prepare and submit my Camp forms to a Yellow Assessor
• Rough out the Camp Plan so the 4 of us can then go on to make changes and finalize the camp

Other GUIDING things I need to do, soon, are:

• Send out an email to all our parents re our next meeting, which is the Bird nature walk. Email needs to mention Camp, Parent Camp Meeting, etc.
• Sort and find a better storage-location for all the Guiding stuff, both the Unit's and my own personal stuff

Organizing!

Seems as if ORGANIZING is almost a hobby with me. As Grant says, it would be nice if I could make money from ORGANIZING...or my computer use, for that matter. In the process of organizing this Blog, I think I need to do several posts in various groups (or using different LABELS). I know the labels are used to organize within my own blog, but I think they are also used to organize within all the labels, if others search..??

Blogging!!

This time yesterday I didn't have a Blog: now I have two! May end up with more before I settle with one. I'm trying to decide which Blog-host/software suits me best, and the only way I can think of to do that is to actually use one or two or three or??

One thing I like so far about BLOGGER is that I can move pieces/modules around quite easily. Another thing is that I can stay logged on and quickly access the Blog. And there are more fonts I can easily use...I am a sucker for the visual extras. I learned a lot by setting up both Blogs yesterday...I'm sure both will have basic features. Today..in between getting some necessary work done around the house, I will continue with this one to get it to the same level as the WordPress one...trying to compare 'apples to apples'

EARTH HOUR +++

This Saturday evening is EARTH HOUR...when we are asked to shut of our lights for one hour. Why not go one better than this and shut off all non-emergency power for that one hour?

More ideas:

• As a family we have recently started shutting off our entire household power for one hour each Saturday night.
• We are also going to start shutting off all the power from 11pm to 7am Friday and Saturday nights. We will make exceptions if the weather is too cold to go without the furnace on (we don't want frozen pipes!) or if it is too rainy to have our sump pump not running (we don't want a flooded basement!)

Besides reducing our ridiculously high electric bill, we will also be reducing our enviromental impact