Home » Family » Sunday Stuff and Gratitude- March 18, 2018

Sunday Stuff and Gratitude- March 18, 2018

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“Good morning.
Lead with gratitude.
The air in your lungs, the sky above you.
Proceed from there.”
― Lin-Manuel Miranda

And so goes another week.

Tuesday I worked at the golf club for a small event.  A little four-hour shift.  I’m jiggy wid dat.   Got home and the boys were there as well.  Bad mother that I am, I was a willing participant in my sons’ impromptu vodka shots and chebureki (again!) night.  Aidan is on Spring break and so had his evenings free to hang out at home and things just happened.  Marie-Soleil, Iain’s non-girlfriend, girl friend came over and before we knew it, it was a party.  The “kids” were getting rowdy and Miss Marie Sun-Shine got ahold of my phone.  Needless to say there quite a few to go through!  So made this little “animation” to give an idea of the evening.   I’m not a “gif” fan but apparently that’s how this puppy downloads.  Sorry ’bout that!

Wednesday woke up to a winter-fricken wonderland.  Ugh.  I am SO done with this white stuff.  Only good thing was on our walk, Zeke and I came across this bizarre little igloo-maker thingamajig…   I tell ya, it was heart-attack snow to shovel as well.  Yeah, that’s right.  I have two adult sons who left for work and left me to shovel the shit.

Thursday morning, got a call from François L., my former boss but long-time friend, who suggested dinner at his place.  Well not “his” place as he is between domiciles at this time.  He is house-sitting for a friend and wanted to take advantage of his pied-à-terre.  He was going to call a few others to join but with it being beyond last-minute, we ended up just three of us.  I’m good with that!

But first I went for lunch with my friend Jean-Louis, who wanted to try out the Pavillon 67, “gourmet” buffet in the Montreal Casino.  Ironically, my sister has been a croupier (dealer) there for the past 22 years and I’ve never been.  No, not true, I went with her to change money before one of our cruises together as they had the best exchange rate – service they no longer provide.  I texted her, letting her know we were there and wouldn’t you know it?  She just happened to have a union meeting and was on her way there.  She stopped by for a hello and introduction and was off.  As for the food.  Meh.  I’ve seen better.  Hell, J-L and I saw better in Dominican Republic last year.  Gourmet is not the proper descriptive.  No matter, I was there to catch up with an old friend.  Next time I go through there, I’ll pick up a sammy at the sandwhich stand – they looked pretty good!

Got home, made a quick “Dad’s Wacky Cake” to bring to François’ and made it there for 5-ish.

“Dad’s Wacky Cake” remade for home

We were joined by William who was one of the line-cooks at the Club.  It’s fun to be able to get together with twenty-somethings as well as sixty-somethings.  We’re planning another next Monday.  But this time, we should be a good 8-10 peeps.  Ironically, François decided on a Chinese fondue as dinner!  Ya know, like I made on the previous Saturday!  Talk about all or nothing… Or never or often.  Waves, baby, things happen in waves!

Yummy
Will, me, François

Saturday was reserved for my niece’s vollyball team’s “bowl-a-thon”.  A yearly event.  What is up with this stupid “sport” that I always end up feeling for two days after?  Not only that, I pulled a muscle in my hip.  How in the name of all that is holy does one do that?  Anyway.  It’s a great occasion for the family to get-together and laugh together and at each other for our lack of prowess, for the most part, though some managed to score some big numbers, Chris in particular whupped all our butts big time!  I actually did decently on one game so, I was not in total despair.  Last year I did so well, I had them print out my sheet!  This place is always fun because of the neon lights and music.  It can’t help but put you way off your game.  Yes, our story and we’re sticking to it!

Aidan was the hero of the week.  He helped to clear out the basement – the carpeted side.  Last week you saw the new vinyl-floored side, this week it was the clean the disgusting carpet side.  This side had become the dumping ground after we had to clear out the dining room and office and, frankly, a lot of it remained piled up helter skelter.  Now it was time to clear it up, move and hopefully see a difference once Aidan’s friend’s father cleaned it.  Of course, this now means the vinyl side is stacked with boxes and stuff but we will now take the time to figure out what stays and what goes and what remains boxed until we move.

The mess to be cleared
Before
After

I must admit, I am quite pleased with the end result.  It was beyond gross, which Christopher, the cleaner, took pleasure in telling me.  More than once.   That will be for another post…

For now.  I am feeling like things are really moving forward.  I’ll be calling the real estate agent this week and see what more should be done before that “À Vendre” sign goes up!

A few of the 10,000 things that make me happy and grateful

36. Having fun with my boys – I cherish these moments most
37. Lunches with friends – catching up and just enjoying ourselves
38. Aidan – my hero for helping me clean the basement and his room
39. Clean carpet – a sign we are moving forward
40. Disco bowling – why the hell not?

 

 

66 thoughts on “Sunday Stuff and Gratitude- March 18, 2018”

  2. Nice little word romp through the week that was!
    I LOVE the after pic of the carpet, noice!!!
    And yes, there are few greater pleasures than just hanging with your peeps, and I love to vary up the age groups . .seeing as how I will never feel my age and that’s a good thing. I recognize I am not a kid any longer, my body lets me know it, like . . all the time. But of spirit and heart, I can still plunge into my heavy metal rebel yell. I mean, if you’re busy worrying about meds and doctor’s appointments, you might as well just invest in a kick ass rocking chair and get to it.

    There is always something to be grateful for.

    Here’s to the rumors of spring. They ARE making the rounds, out there . . somewhere. Eventually . .

    Peace and vodka shots

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Love those family photos, a total capture of the moment.
    I’ve clicked the ‘like’ button but for some time now the ability to record has been erratic and while WP Happiness Engineers (where’d they get that name) had tried to sort it, I follow their directions, it works for 2 days, then back again no ‘likes’. I think it’s a devious device to get me to leave more comments. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    • WP has goblins working behind the scenes undoing any good said “Happiness Engineers” manage to do! I can “like” certain posts of.some bloggers whilst others demand I log in or just leave me with a blank screen (this from my phone, never from my computer)
      Now all that said, thank you for your lovely comment, “forced” or not 😉☺

      Liked by 1 person

    • I get the same all the time. I wd say that once for 2 I need to sign in again. Sometimes I get what Dale said to you, except that I only ‘work’ it on the iPad…. Let’s not despair though, the WP HEs must feel terrible enough to have to carry this name as their job title…. makes me cringe every time. Maybe it’s just that WP is getting too big?

      Liked by 2 people

      • Yep. My trouble only began when I lived Google+ to WP. I’ve tried to unconnect them but to no effect. And you’re right of WP growing so big. Also, there are blogs lurking in the dungeons that are long since forgotten, and yet taking up room. Mustn’t say thaat too loudly. I have two blogs I haven’t yet deleted.

        Liked by 2 people

        • Dang… Not fun.
          There are indeed…. I, myself, have one that I have not visited for ages – but am contemplating bringing back to life!

          Liked by 1 person

          • Well, one of mine is a history site,, the posts original historical research. Very time consuming, Which is why I changed the format of the history posts and posted them to crimsoprose. And still they’re time- consuming, So until the e-book project is done, no more history for me.

            Liked by 1 person

  7. Dale, I’m totally exhausted just reading your post 🙂 🙂 🙂
    I like a lot of it, the bits about ‘meeting up’, eating together, others a bit less but hey, it’s your life. I just don’t get one bit (and that’s surely because I’m the total newby kid on the block), I thought you only moved to this place and already you’re talking about selling it? Or did I get THAT wrong too?

    Liked by 1 person

    • Nah… like I said to someone, it looks worse (or more busy) than it really is!
      Meeting up with friends is the best part, for sure.
      Nope. I’ve been here for 10 years and we bought it so Mick could have his home office. I do not need four bedrooms, three full baths (plus a powder room) now that he is gone. And I LOATHE housecleaning…

      Liked by 1 person

  8. Well, then I might ENFIN have found somebody to explain to me the mystery of what is a full or half-bathroom and what is a powder room…. In France it’s a law unto itself too but I’ve figured it out. But I’m forever baffled by all your ‘names’ for what to me is a bathroom. To me it contains either a shower and/or a bathtub, and it can but mustn’t contain a toilet…. Now it’s up to you….. And thanks in advance!

    Liked by 1 person

    • A bathroom contains a toilet and bath/shower (boys bathroom has tub with shower together) or bath and shower separate plus a sink or two😉 (like my ensuite).
      A powder room has a toilet and sink. They might also call this a half bath but I’m not sure! In my basement I have a toilet and shower and sink – is this a half bath because there is no tub? Or is it a bathroom because you can wash?
      Lordy! Now I need clarification!!!

      Liked by 1 person

          • OK, let’s have an ‘American’ look at our situation: I have three bathrooms (I know, crazy or what?):
            Basement: Huge double sink (taken from probably the first kitchen contained in the house – which dates back to 1920), toilet and a shower/bath, actually it’s a ‘sitting bath’ and only the second I’ve encountered, the first one being in our rental appt in Toronto in the 70th…. So we can safely count that as a bathroom, me thinks?!
            Ground floor: A separate toilette, linked to the ‘entry’ hall but also to the bathroom with a huge French porcelain sink and an equally huge lion claw foot bath with a overhead ‘spider’ thingie to which you could actually fit a curtain shower in the fashion of a brolly. From that room you also have a direct access to one of the bedrooms/study/guest rooms…. It’s mainly a contraption to drive guests crazy, e.g. Which door did I come through to the toilet? Where am I going? Am I entering a private room now? Will I ever find the rest of the gang? Is this now a Bathroom or not?
            First floor: A separate toilette and across a large and exquisite bathroom with the bathtub extracted but instead equipped with a fabulous Italian shower (that’s in France a walk-in shower) and a double wash-sink and plenty of storage…..
            How would I have to spell things out to inform American people of what to expect?
            Those separate toilets are a very French thing. I was told that here it’s ‘not on’ to have the toilet together with any other bathroom related stuff, God knows why…. So I gather from this that the French don’t really wash their hands after using the toilet as they would have to enter another room for it! EEEEEK…. seen so often though!
            In Switzerland this is not a question anybody has to ask, we have usually (at least) one ‘full’ bathroom, containing a bathtub, a (or 2) sink and if not a separate shower it might have a shower curtain in the bath-tub. MOre and more ppl prefer to have a shower cabin though, less water is used (we take environmental questions very seriously), they take up less valuable space, are easy to clean…. I think I shuld link this to Mel for an in-depth study!

            Liked by 1 person

          • First off – who’s Mel?
            And looks like you’re in the same boat as moi except I have an extra toilet to clean 😉 UGH
            And do the French not use bidets? That would explain the no sink (though quite honestly, I don’t think I could ever get used to that whole situation…

            Liked by 1 person

          • I think having three toilets to clean AND three bathrooms (we do have lots of guests, non paying all of them as they are friends) firmly puts me in the category of crazy people…. I hat cleaning!

            Liked by 1 person

          • So do I… Therefore… I shall move to a smaller house with a mere two full bathrooms (one for the boys and one for me because I am NOT sharing with those heathens) 😀

            Liked by 1 person

  10. Dear Dale,

    Sounds like a quite the week. Of course the disco bowling looks like fun. Put me in mind (there she goes making it about herself) of the bowling team a group of us from work put together. We called ourselves the CWC..Catty Women’s Club. Everyone loved to play against us…an easy win. We were bottom of the league and couldn’t have cared less. We had the most fun.
    Raining like crazy this morning here in Missouri. But I prefer that to snow any day.
    I’ll have to chat with you more on the subject of Chinese Fondue. Looks fun and yummy.
    Raising my coffee cup to you. L’Chaim!

    Rochelle

    Liked by 1 person

    • Dear Rochelle,

      You go right ahead and add your story to mine! Love that… CWC…So funny.

      Sun is shining here but bloody cold…freezing our tukuses off!

      Lotsa love,

      Dale

      Like

  13. Your life makes a great story. Your energy is amazing. I agree with having fun with your sons being at the top of you grateful list. One day last week I had a call from my Minneapolis son, a text from one of my Cleveland sons and a good visit from the other. Plus an exchange of texts with my Minneapolis grandson about his birthday gift from me. After we settled the matter I still have no idea what the gift it is.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Thanks, Ina. Sometimes, it feels like a big fat mess but at others, I’m pretty pleased. Definitely time spent with the boys and family are top of my list.
      What a wonderful week you had as well. And that’s too funny..,. I love that you have no idea what you gave your grandson!

      Like

  14. Shhhhstuffs, shstuffs and more shstufffs,

    Ha to DR buffet. Now, with a Cuban buffet that’s gambling…..life and colon with every bite.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Don’t I know it! Brought the boys for spring break 2016. So hard to find anything edible. One of the reasons I avoided Cuba for so long… food is an important part of my vacations!

      Like

  15. Hi there Dale, Mel here! 🙂 Thanks to Kiki for the comment thread that led me to your blog. I will take inspiration from her questions to address a future post on the whole ‘toilet thing’ in France vs. North America. Very much up my alley, lol. Anyway, enjoyed the post and happy to follow along on your (obviously very busy) doings!

    Liked by 1 person

    • Hello Mel! 😊
      Pleased to meet you! That Kiki exchange was a hoot and a half, dontcha think?
      I read a few of your posts and much enjoyed. I shall definitely return to visit you as well.
      Thanks for stopping by and leaving a trail… France is most probably my next destination…

      Liked by 1 person

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