Oh Right, it's Hallowe'en

"I told you not to touch my wand!" was a statement I heard in the locker room at the gym this morning
It took me a second to realize today was Hallowe'en and that the girl issuing the statement was dressed as a superhero of some sort.

Not A Typical Autumn

Yesterday was a wonderfully warm day. The computer screen is rather dark but (if you click on the picture) hopefully you can see that it says 16 degrees. It went to a high of 17.

The Geek in Her Birthday Suit

Now, really! What were you expecting! This is a family-friendly blog.

Temperature Contrasts?

The top thermometer is outside on the garage. This thermometer is inside the house. (it has a curved glass cover so it doesn't photograph too well)

There is nearly not enough difference between inside and out.

Ever Been Inside a Pumpkin?

I imagine it looks something like this.

Tiling the 'Garage'

We have always referred to the area of the bathroom that houses the toilet as the 'garage'. We don't know why-maybe it is because you have to back in.That area is tiled now. The four missing tiles are where the screws that hold the tank cover are located. The tank cover was tiled after the wall sections and can be removed as a single piece.

In order to access the tank when needed, The Geek is going to attach those tiles with magnets.

Just Hangin' Around for the Winter

A few years ago I read that if you dug up your geraniums, knocked the dirt off the roots, and hung them upsidedown in a cool, dark room, you could plant them again the following spring. I tried it a couple of times with Mom's geraniums and it worked.I'm sure the pantry is dark enough, but it may not be cool enough, so it may not be a success this year.
Its nice to experiment when you have nothing to lose-they would have frozen in the garden anyway.

Waiting for the Police to Show Up

We have had a 1500 watt electric heater running in the bathroom for the last couple of weeks. We had to start using it as the drywall mud, and then the tile mortar, were not drying in the 14 degree bathroom.Today we started using the second heater as it was just too chilly in here. I guess you can't get past the fact that it is late October in Winnipeg. We are wondering how big the spike in your electrical usage has to be, and how long it has to last, before Manitoba Hydro alerts the police about a possible grow-op.
Of note: I'm impressed at the shutter speed of this camera-the blades of the fan look to be still.
I am equally appalled by how much dust is evident in this picture.

And This Is Legal?

Rock Star Diet sounds like some highly questionable weight loss plan. Finding out it is just the diet version of some energy drink does not make it sound any better. I find it hard to believe people drink this stuff.

The tabloid magazines are equally questionable tho' I don't think they should be illegal; I think they should be used as pre-employment screening tools. However, on one of them, it says that Laura Bush has divorced W. and with the $15million settlement, he bought her Dallas. The American economy is even worse than I first thought.

Levelling the Bathtub, Again

The house shifted, or else something equally annoying which required The Geek to level the bathtub -again.

She fretted over it all weekend, but in the end, everything was settled and set by Sunday evening.

On Monday she started putting up the kerdi mat. I picked up the grout today and hopefully the plumber will come soon so we can start to use the grout and get the heat on.

A Glorious Weekend

It was an absolutely lovely weekend. Saturday was 16 and I think it was at least 12 yesterday.
We managed to play outside almost all weekend and enjoy it. Everything around us was taking it all in as well.


The Morden Sunrise is still blooming.

The acorns are still growing.

The strawberries are very confused and are blooming again.
And it was even better to take the bicycle cart out for some exercise.

We of course had to use the cart to bring home some stuff others no longer want, like this motorized reel mower. The Geek says her grandfather used to have one very much like this.

Accidental Decorators

The Geek remarked today how well the denim quilt she received from my sister goes with the stained glass windows in the living room. While the window colours don't come through as well on this photograph, the quilt definitely goes with the leather chair.

Humble Beginnings

A few years ago the city of Winnipeg decided to allow people to plant flowers on their boulevards. There were some plants in the yard which really needed more light, like some lilies and a peony. They have been moved to the front and we'll see how it goes. (I now think it might be easier to see things if I had raked first, but the last couple of years I raked the leaves on Remembrance Day, so it seemed odd to be doing it so early.)

The Technicolour Bathroom

This picture has been 'photoshopped' to show the number of coats of mud The Geek has applied.

Joe, the fellow who did the taping in the living room and kitchen, showed her that little trick.And this is how it looks without enhancements.

If April Showers Bring May Flowers then

October rains bring fungi.

These toadstools are beside the cottonwood near the back lane
and these oyster mushrooms are in the innoculated logs at the farm.
We found evidence of two shitake mushrooms, but someone else had eaten them. Perhaps Goldilocks has had her share of oatmeal?

We had enough in this pail to fry up for a side dish for dinner.

Decorating for Hallowe'en

We have some wonderful Hallowe'en decorations this year, thanks to an industrious spider and the dust from the renovations.

What isn't so wonderful is what the dust has done to the rest of the decor.

Bathroom Reno Phase 8: Seating the Bathtub

The bathtub is seated and the drywall surrounding it is hung.We even placed some lavender and rosemary under the tub to replace the whorl of dried grass we found when we removed the old tub. Hopefully that will calm those capricious fates.

And the question of the day-why don't bathtub drains have traps?

Permanent Connection

The part of my brain that knew you shouldn't plug heater into an extension cord had taken last night off.
This morning, The Geek found the two plugs bonded together. They had to be cut off their respective cords and The Geek replaced the plug on the heater and plugged it straight into the wall socket.All this aggrevation is giving The Geek gray hair.

The Fates Love Complacency

The Geek has finished tiling the radiator wall and was deciding how to install the radiator so it is just a matter of putting it up once the grout has arrived. She was having a hard time figuring out why we didn't have enough fittings, and why there were some left over.
Turns out the pipes were installed so the valves went on like this...

when they should have gone on like this, using a portion of the leftover bits, .

Which Has More Value?

While I paid hundreds of dollars to read the books of dead sociologists, The Geek stays home and learns how to tile-for free.

I'm not sure what I'll get out of my deal, but with The Geek's new skills, once the grout is here and applied, we can hook up the radiator and turn on the boiler so we have heat when we need it.

I'm feeling a little ripped off.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

My sister and her husband were here with the boys in mid-September, so they all had a chance to see what we were doing at that time.
This Saturday, I heard my nephew, N1, after viewing the chaos we call home exclaim, "It's even worse!"

Catching up to Last Week

Tina has glued some of the sub-floor to the mosaic mortar and weighed it down with the pails of mosaic tile.

Tomorrow morning she will glue down the rest of the sub-floor using the incredibly awful smelling adhesive.By this time tomorrow we will have reached the point we were at on September 27 before Tina ripped out the mosaic floor we were going to use as a sub-floor.

I have no idea what Tina was photographing here, but from this angle, she seems to be about 8 feet tall.
(she tells me she was taking a picture of the cracks for future reference).

We Don't Have to Worry About Purple Feet

Since this is the extent of the grape harvest. It's a good thing we weren't hoping for our own vintage this year.

And this harvest came with a friend in the shape of a ladybug.

Starting at the Knee-Bone

The hole in the mosaic floor mortar is patched.

Pile O' Tile

Friday, after finding out the Olympia tiles were not going to work, we checked out Home Depot and Rona, finding the tile saw at the latter.
Saturday we checked out other tile places to explore our options, including Home Depot.
Sunday we debated going to Olympia and picking up the plain white tile. Then we read the P/O and discovered there may have been too little ordered in the first place. We rechecked the Home Depot tile while we were there picking up some other stuff.
Monday at 0700 we were at Home Depot on Bishop Grandin and cleaned them out of the 3"x6" white tile and a 2"x6"trim. At lunch time, I went to Polo Park HD and bought two more boxes each of tile and trim.
Yesterday, I was feeling a few HD withdrawal pangs since I hadn't been there once all day.