Travel days are the BEST

 What is more exciting than a travel day? NOTHING -- that's what! 

I was up early, and YES -- I finished the urgent paperwork, including using my scanner (part of the printer), which will scan but will not print. At least not from that computer. Can you tell me why that is? Obviously, there is some feature that isn't turned on or something. I shall have to investigate when I get home because it's a royal pain, to say the least. 

And then I got the binding on the wallhanging. Yep --- thankfully it's small, so that was easy. 

The binding is on the quilt

Isn't this fun?   It has a few reasons why it was made, and all the flowers you see were done with chenille yarn on my PFAFF creative icon 2 and the new embellishment attachment. I love it, and it was super fun to play with. I modified the flower from a design in the software --- I'll provide more details later. The bottom line is that the binding got put on the piece and packed. 

Speaking of packing, I got out my SMALL suitcase and was determined to get everything packed in there. The small piece above and the quilt I'm taking for my Mom wouldn't fit. The small piece went into the backpack, and I carried that quilt for my Mom. It's a bit of a pain since I'll have to carry it for a couple of days as visiting with parents is the last destination. No worries -- it's all doable!

I got a notification that my flight was delayed by 30 minutes. I can live with that - I did NOT want to get a message that it was canceled. A delay is OK. We still left for the airport at 7 AM to catch the 8:55 (original time). One never knows about the lines. 

I did not get a boarding pass on my phone, so that took all of 1 minute to print that at the kiosk. And then off to security, where I use my priority pass. This was the first time I saw a line, but it went pretty quickly, and other than taking out my laptop (which is normal), it was a breeze to get through. It's the putting yourself back together at the other end of security that takes time. The non-priority line was busy, but not overly so, and Monday mornings are supposed to be the worst time to fly. It was busy but not crazy. 

Off with the scarf, jacket, and small purse. Computer and small toiletries bag out. I even took my hairband off as I did NOT want a repeat of that last time, and everything went fine. Now I have a LONG wait before boarding.

I wandered down to the Tim's line, which was HUGE. And there is NO Tim's here on SSI  -- there are NO chains of any kind. 

The line for Tim's was HUGE

I got in the line and thought, why am I waiting in this line? So I left and found a spot to sit and read. But only after I bought snacks from another place for the plane. 

The flight was full, and the seats were small, and for the most part, I was OK. There was the advantage of sitting beside the window so I could move my backpack to the side, giving me ample room for my feet. I was tired and dozed on and off the entire flight. Nope -- I didn't even dig my laptop out! I suspect I won't look at pictures the whole time I'm out here, and that's OK. 

Gosh, the skyline of my city is ever-changing. All those highrises are apartment buildings, and a very few are office towers. 

The skyline of Mississauga

And then we were off. I wasn't a fan of how many vibrations there were in the wing as we taxied to the runway, but I'm not a mechanic. 

Toronto skyline

The sky was clear when we took off, and I think I was asleep within seconds. When I finally woke up, we were over the Great Lakes. Then it was a solid cloud all the way, so I did NOT get to see the mountains. I've flown over them many times, but it's still fun to look at. Then the clouds parted, and we got to see Vancouver. 

Downtown Vancouver

I haven't flown to Victoria in a long time, so I don't usually get to see this view of Vancouver. 

I'm not a talker on the plane, but as we were waiting to get off, I had a chat with my two seatmates and SHOOT --- it would have been fun to talk to them. One of them was a hiker on her way to the West Coast Trail and hikes a lot in Ontario. Oh well! The other was from Salt Spring Island and had been in Quebec City. She had spent the night in the airport as her flight to Victoria was canceled.

I guess I should be more of a talker on the plane! I'm sure I could have picked up some tidbits from both. Next time! 

Oh, did I mention that we got another notification that the plane was going to be further delayed -- another 20 minutes. There was some issue with the plane arriving late in Toronto. OK -- so instead of landing at 11 AM, it was now 12:30. I have to catch a ferry! The lady from SSI said she had caught that ferry with a lot less time, so I was reassured, and what is a travel day if there isn't a bit of excitement in it?

I got out of the airport -- NO time for a bathroom break as there was a line-up, and headed to the taxi stand (No UBER here). Fortunately, the ferry is only a 10-minute drive (more or less), and I got to the terminal on time. Well, at 12:51 to catch the 1 PM ferry. I bought my ticket and then had to walk to the ferry. I've never been a foot passenger on this ferry before -- it was weird -- I've either been on my bike or in a car. 

However, the agent told me to go to Berth 3, and when I arrived, there was NO ferry. AHA  -- but at the next berth (Berth 4), that looks like the ferry to SSI. I walked over, and yes -- they were boarding and almost ready to leave. 

Before I even got myself settled on the top deck, we were off. That's cutting it close, but I still had about 3 minutes to spare! 

On the ferry to SSI

Every time I'm on that ferry or on the water here, it makes me want to move. It's so stunning and so beautiful. We've thought about it numerous times, and it seems that this is the place to hike. Maybe I need to move? I doubt it -- we've always talked ourselves out of it. 

I got a couple (who have been hiking here) to take my picture. Let's just say that it's pretty windy on that ferry. I have several stories about that ferry -- like getting explosive residue on me on one of our voyages and almost didn't make my plane. And let's not forget the time when the Captain (or are they a pilot) spotted whales on the aft of the vessel, and everyone ran to the opposite end because none of us knew one end of the watercraft from another! 

On the ferry

My aunt picked me up from the dock, and we had a great chat all afternoon. I won't mention our ages, although that topic came up. Let's just say that for her age, she is fantastic! But we have longevity in our family so let's see what happens. 

On the homefront, I did get some pictures of the work. It looks like the new steps are formed. Hmm -- I thought there was supposed to be a landing there? I'll have to send an e-mail. 

Forms for the new step

And the plan for the rest of the front yard is mapped out as I guess they have to set out the forms for the concrete. That's probably their job this week, and they are slow and methodical, which I'm OK with. So you can see, there will be some grass, but there will be other things. 

The plan for the rest of the yard

Well, it's ridiculous o'clock here in BC, but notice that I got up early just so you could read the blog on time. Actually, I had to go to bed early as I was tired. So after my 7 hours, I'm awake! 

Today is a rest day, and then I'm on the move tomorrow. Not sure what the agenda calls for, but I NEED to go for a walk. I haven't walked much in the last two days, which is OK, but now I have no obligations for anything and so I can walk. I have to find a geocache to drop off something, so that is my only urgent thing today. 

Om that note, I'm off to catch another half-hour sleep. 

Oh, and I still have travel arrangements to change. I hope they don't cancel my rental car when I get there. I hear that cars are being canceled due to a lack of cars, and what a hassle. Fortunately for the Vancouver part of the trip, I'm not relying on a car rental, but some of my group was, and that will be a hassle, to say the least. Fingers crossed!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

Murphy goes for a bike ride!

 OK  -- so yesterday didn't go quite as planned, but that's OK. I didn't empty the orange box, but I cleaned out another box of stuff on my computer desk, which was the equivalent of the orange box. I did NOT get the customer quilt quilted, but at least it's loaded on the long arm and ready to go today. 

What happened instead? I had a meeting to chat about classes for the fall as I wanted to get all classes organized by the middle of July. Mission accomplished -- we had a good discussion, and I've got a plan. Cathy came and picked up the boxes of scraps -- and she got two phone books for foundation paper. 

I made huge inroads in the paperwork that needed to be done. There are just a few more invoices to do, and then I'm up to date, and most of the paperwork that needed to be done before I go, will be done. Oh -- who am I kidding. I will need a couple more hours to get it all done.  

I also got more photos transferred to that little hard disk. I have a couple more folders to move, and then I'll have the bulk of the pictures in one spot, which has been my goal for a long, long time. I wish I knew how to MOVE files instead of COPY. I'll have to do a bit more research on that. Could it be as simple as holding down the SHIFT key while dragging? I'll try that later. 

Lexi is very skittish and WILL not come into the office. However, I threw a crochet rug on the floor that was on the back of a chair, and yep - she liked that! 

Lexi on the crochet rug

She even got so confident as to lie right out and go to sleep. 

Chilling out in the office with Mom

But mostly -- did you see how clear the floor was in the office? Oh yes --- there is loads of free floor space in here. It's all good progress, and I've gone from a table where you couldn't get past the mess to an extra work surface where I could do some work! 

Working at the almost clear table

It's a complicated story, but I cannot print anything from my big computer. So if I want something printed, I must send it to my phone. That hasn't been working the last couple of days, so I had to use my laptop. That still wouldn't work, but I suspect the issue was there was no paper in the printer! But my big computer just won't make the connection to print, yet it will scan. An issue to be resolved later. 

I also had files on the laptop that I needed to send to some students, and I had room to work up here! Yippeee!!

And then something bizarre happened in the kitchen. I stepped on one of the mats at the backdoor and felt something hard under my foot. Hmm - what's that? 

An earring? 

An earring, you say? Where the heck did it come from? Some boxes of M's stuff have been sitting in the kitchen for me to sort through (more crap to deal with), and perhaps Murphy stole it from there. That's the only thing I can think of. She is a thief, and it wouldn't surprise me. 

So what happened with the landscaping? I had some large rocks in the front garden, and I wanted to save them. Hey -- if I need them to repair the pond in the future (some stones are splitting), I would hate to have to buy new rocks -- they are NOT cheap. So the stones got moved to the backyard, into a corner that is not being used. One of them was reasonably large, and it was NOT an easy job to move it and ended up in a broken handle on a wheelbarrow!

Moving a big rock

Then the rest of the plants had to go. There was nothing special there -- cedars and some grasses. 

The remainder of the plants

It's easy to dig up that stuff when you've got heavy equipment! Murphy has loved watching the guys work from her window seat. 

Easy to remove! 

It all got loaded onto a truck. 

Loading the plant material onto the truck

And before we knew it - the front yard was gone! 

Bye-bye landscaping!

Next to go was the bin. The bin alone must weight quite a bit, but with all that stone in there -- it must have weighed several tons. The truck latched onto it with a big hook and had zero issues pulling it up onto the truck. 

Loading the bin onto the truck

A few stones were left under the bin that went into the other truck with the plants. 

Loading the bin onto the truck

And just like that -- bye-bye interlock driveway. And I will NEVER get excited about interlock again. You can see the four tubs by the porta-potty that my neighbor has snagged, and she is slowly moving them into her backyard. 

Bye-bye driveway

While many houses around here are widening their driveways, we are making our narrower. Yeah -- less snow to shovel in the winter! So this trench used to be part of the driveway, now it will become a garden with some trees. 

A trench for trees

Here's the temporary gate, which Lexi could scale without any effort. She doesn't seem too interested in jumping it (too much work for a princess), but if the gate is open, she takes every opportunity to escape. I caught her in the neighbor's yard yesterday. The girls see rabbits in that yard all the time, and I guess she thought she could wander over and check it out a bit more. Let's just say that yard is a mess. 

The temporary gate

And if you want a big step --- how is this? That bottom step is HUGE, and they've removed the dirt in front of the step, which had somewhat shortened the drop. Now there are two BIG holes for the Sonos tubes, so you can't jump down right in front. Hopefully, those new cement tubes and rebar will prevent the step from sagging like the old one did. 

A BIG step

However, getting in and out of the house has become challenging. We have a side door, but that gate is nailed shut, so that's not possible. We can go out the back door and through the gate on the other side, but it's not as convenient to open and close the gate. We could go out of the garage, but we don't have a keypad, so that's not an option either. Nope -- I jump down and hop up that huge step! Good grief!!!

And my neighbor moved yesterday, so it was a colossal mess of coming and going on our street, and I have to say that I don't function well with all that coming and going. Hence the lack of work that got done. I was still productive, just not as much as I would have liked. You know what? I think my brain needed that break. 

Lots of activity on the street

Coming home, I spotted this on the plywood surrounding a construction site. How pretty is that? It almost looks real. 

A painted construction fence

And the Panookie Cookie is back at Boston Pizza. They had told us last week that it was coming back, and while it's NOT quite the same, it was nice to enjoy an "almost" old friend. 

The Panookie Cookie is back

I'll be putting my car in the garage while I'm gone, and I mentioned this to the crew. Imagine my surprise when I got home, and they had moved all the stuff in the garage (mostly my bikes) to one side and SWEPT the floor. OK -- that was a bit embarrassing since the floor was a mess. But that got me thinking about my bikes. I have one set up to walk a dog, and there's an actual sport called bike-joring.

I decided to take Murphy for a test run. I hooked her up to the harness and attached her to the lead. We WALKED down the sidewalk so she could get the hang of it. And then I SLOWLY rode the bike while she trotted in front. We will NEVER go as fast as they show in those videos!!!

Murphy out for a bike ride

She was happy as a clam, and although she did want to stop from time to time, she was pretty good with the voice commands, and we had a great little bike ride  -- just on my quiet street. I think we'll try it again. Look how dusty that bike is -- I haven't ridden this bike in years. I had bought the setup for Lexi, but she is such a princess that it never worked, and she is always BEHIND, not in front, so that wouldn't work. 

OH MY  -- I just let the dogs out, and Lexi immediately went to the side of the house to see if the gate was open! That little Houdini!

Well, that's it for me -- I've got loads to do, and there's no time to waste! 

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!