Thursday, July 27, 2006

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

July 25, 2006 -- 11,703 steps

Yesterday, I decided to up the number of steps. Instead of taking the subway from Finch to work, I walked. In addition to my up and down the office building staircase, I walked down an additional 18 flights.
Alissa invited me for dinner so after work, I walked to Sheppard to the bus station and instead of standing and waiting for the bus, I kept moving by walking around the station until the bus came. Then there was a four block walk from the bus to their house. All in all, my steps increased by about 2000. I figure a half hour walk on the way to work and a half hour walk on the way back, and maybe another round of stairs, I should be able to keep the numbers above the 10000 and closer to 12000. The true test will be what I do on the weekends...
I had a lovely dinner at Alissa and Mel's. Just very relaxing. Their new kitchen isn't finished yet but the laminate floors and cabinets are in so it looks lovely. Alissa drove me home afterwards and I gave her Sari's chuppah and the family fabric quilt (auf simchas). It feels weird, kind of like when a child leaves home...

Monday, July 24, 2006

Inbal -- easy come, not so easy go

Inbal went home Saturday. It was lovely having her for a while but mostly because I can see how great she looks and the confidence she exudes.
I hope she had a good time. I tried not to be too clingy, not always successfully but hey, I'm a mother.
Yunkie took her to the airport and I tagged along. Then after a short visit at my mother's, he dropped me off at the subway and I went down to Union Station to catch the train to Perth. It was a later train than I'm used to but I slept a little, read a little and time passed. I may have passed up on what was left of the weekend and stayed home but it was Isais' bar-mitzva party on Sunday and I didn't want to miss it.
Sunday morning I put in a few hours in the camp kitchen doing mindless pot-washing. But someone has to do it and I don't mind mindless. I can think about other things, silently hum songs in my head and the time flies. I did have a bit of a problem with some of the background music -- they don't listen to classical... And I left when they started making bug juice. I cannot stand inefficiency and laziness and the current camp way of making bug juice irks me.
The bar-mitzva was great. David and Dee have a farm with a large yard. They arranged for food which kids like -- pizza and a chip wagon, a snowcone machine, and cake. They arranged for entertainment that kids like -- inflatable sumo wresting outfits, inflating jousting stages, and an inflatable obstacle course. That's in addition to their regular pool, swings, and trampoline. And did I mention the water cannons? Anyways, the campers from Isais' group and older were all invited and had a ball.
I know that Isais likes music so asked Dee if she thought he might like a darbouka (drum). I was able to get a great darbouka through my mother's (and late father's) musical connections.
And Dee was at camp today and told Menachem that he really likes it so I'm happy when someone gets something they can use and enjoy.

10000 steps a day

So I see my cq mentors/friends joining the 10000 steps a day program and think here's an excuse to do a little more exercise. (Right now my daily weekday exercise consists of climbing 22 flights of stairs and then descending them again, something I started in January this year and have fairly compulsively doing.)
So I buy a pedometer. Of course it requires programming and I have a mental block against reading instructions. (We had a power outage of several hours about two weeks ago and all of the lights on the electrical appliances -- video, microwave, oven, clocks, radios, etc. -- are still flashing. My "in-house" technician is away at camp so they'll continue to flash until the end of August...). I took the pedometer to camp this weekend and he set it for me.
This morning, I clip it on. Without altering my daily routine, I did 9500 steps! Just the stair climbing and descending was 1200. I figure any shortfall, I can just walk down the office building stairs several times.
It turns out I do a lot more walking at work than I realized. And it's an office job!
But seriously, I will consider upping the daily number of steps in order to have health benefits from the endeavour and justify the cost of the pedometer ($25 CDN).

Monday, July 10, 2006

Weekend in Lanark

Further to my previous post, we arrived at camp in the early afternoon. After spending a little time down at the waterfront, we decided to go into Perth itself, for a walkabout and then dinner.
Perth really is a lovely town. Stewart Park, the main street (Gore) with its boutique stores, the Tay River running through town, the fountains, old stone buildings -- quite charming. And the weather was gorgeous. We finished off with a nice meal at Goodwood Oven. They headed for their hotel in Smiths Falls and we (Ami, Menachem and I) headed back to camp.
The evening/night was not restfull. Friday nights are "no curfew" nights. There's a noise curfew and the kids were quiet -- no yelling or noisy running around BUT the cabins' wooden screen doors have springs on them and unless you hold these doors as they close, they bang noisily. And 150 campers and staff going in and out of the cabins, it's a constant concert of banging doors. We tried putting felt tabs and weatherstripping to soften the noise but it doesn't help. I have to figure out something or I'll go crazy.
Saturday morning, we met the Smiths Fallers and headed off to Merrickville. It's a town about half an hour from Smiths Falls, again on the water and with nice shops. It's uniqueness lies in the hand-operated locks in the centre of town. There are 3 or 4 of them. It was another leisurely day, watching the boats using the locks, visiting the shops, etc. We drove down to Gananoque, gateway to the St. Lawrence seaway, but by the time we reached it, my mother was tired (and cranky). Ami, Menachem and I headed back to camp. Bat, Sandy and my mother took another drive along the Ivy Lea Parkway and returned to Smiths Falls.
Yesterday (Sunday) morning, they picked me up at camp at around 9 a.m. and we drove the 3 hours back to Toronto, in time for the final game of the World Cup.
And it's a good thing it's over. Enough already.
Now we're back to a "regular" work week. Inbal's coming back on Tuesday, Bat and Sandy are off to Rock on Wednesday for three weeks. I'll be busy at work and then weekends going to and from camp. I'm tired just thinking about it.
I'm finding it difficult to get into stitching mode. And I did want to tr the 100 stitches in 100 days "challenge". At this rate, I doubt if I can get caught up, but I will try.
Off to work for now.

It's been a while

I can't believe three weeks have gone by. Life's been hectic and I've been busy. Since I can't remember most of the lost time, I'll start from Inbal's arrival.
Inbal arrived a week ago Thursday and with no time to recover from jetlag was catapulted into our family's life cycle events.
Friday night, Alissa hosted a dinner for Sari's out of town wedding guests. (Inbal was the guest, I just tagged along.)
Saturday morning was the Aufruf (synagogue service where the groom is called up during the Torah portion reading), followed by a kiddush luncheon at the synagogue. We got home in time for Inbal to take a decent nap.
Sunday was the Sari's wedding. Inbal and I got up early and went to the synagoue to hang the chuppah. It looked lovely and I am quite proud of it. From there we went to Sobie's (local kosher grocery store) to meet Bat and Sandy and buy the food for Monday's 80-85-90. More about that later.
The wedding was at 6 p.m. at Pride of Israel synagogue. The sanctuary was beautifully decorated and because the chuppah was on a raised platform, it was visible from down below. My only problem was that it was over lit from above and the stray fuschia and purple threads were visible from up close. Of course everyone was looking at the bride and groom so the only one concerned with the stray threads was me...
The dinner and dancing was great. The band was really good and had almost everyone on their feet. I had had a long day so left at around 11 p.m. so I wasn't there when a wedding guest tripped and fell through a plate glass window. She's OK, but it's the kind of excitement you don't need at a wedding or any other time for that matter. Luckily, the bride and some of her guests were doctors and the patient was well cared for while waiting for the ambulance.
Monday afternoon between 2 and 4 p.m. there was a birthday party for my uncle (80), my mother (85) and my aunt (90) at the party room at my aunt's condo. It was thrown by my cousins, my siblings and me (there's 9 of us).
Bat came over to my place at about 10 a.m. and we started cutting up fruit for the fruit platters. We had been shopping the day before and the food was in my fridge -- I have two fridges standing side-by-side in my kitchen from the days when we had a house full of children and entertained more frequently. Now the second fridge is only used on the major holidays. At noon, we rushed over the party room to set up.
Did I mention that instead of renting tablecloths or using paper, I sewed and iron fifteen of them from an old bolt of fabric I found? Did I mention that the fabric was apparently cotton, the kind that you look at and it wrinkles?
Anyways, we set up the room, decorated and kudos to Inbal. She used crepe paper to decorate the table where we had the three birthday cake slabs. And we sprinkled the tables generously with shiny confetti. The kids made the wall decorations including signing boards for each of the honorees guests. And Judy, a cousin from New York, brought photo boards.
Anyways, it was very nice. The speeches were short and each of the three honorees received a certificate from the organization to which a donation had been made in their honour.
In all, it was a pleasant although hectic weekend.
On Tuesday, I was back at work, but on Wednesday, Inbal and I went on a craft excursion. We started out by going to the needlepoint store up in Richmond Hill. They have all kinds of velvet theads and shiny threads and silk ribbon and embroidery flosses. I loaded up for my current project. From there, we took the subway downtown and went to Bead Junction, a bead store on Roncessvalle way out in the west end of town. It's a really nice store and the stuff is displayed really well, all set out according to colour and type. Needless to say, we bought stuff. Then we hopped on the streetcar to Queen Street and hit the fabric, button and bead stores there. Not to mention the art supply stores. Inbal is into the paper crafts but hasn't purchased any supplies yet. By the time we finished with a late lunch, Inbal's feet had gotten the best of her and since she was leaving the next day for Vancouver, we called it a day and went home.
Thursday Sandy and Bat took Inbal to the airport and then we went into work.
Friday, Sandy and Bat took my mother and me up to camp. They stayed at a hotel in Smiths Falls.
Oops. It's getting lat and I have to get ready for work.
I'll tell you about the weekend later.

About Me

I am in my mid 50's, have been married (happily) for 38 years, have 3 adult children who live an ocean away... By day I am a legal secretary. The rest of the time I play with fabric but I still won't run with scissors...