Month: April 2024

We left a full 2 hours prior to the game as I dislike driving in the US, and I didn’t know the location, nor the parking situation. Took us less than 23 minutes to get from the hotel to a nearby parking garage just up the road from Amalie Arena. $20.00 event parking, in a covered garage was a steal! We walked the two lights down to the arena in a swarm of blue & white. Half Leafs fans and half Bolts. As we approached the front steps they opened the doors so we need not stand around in the 90°F heat. We scanned ourselves in on the promenade level, and proceeded to hit both the bathrooms and the beverage counter. Found Section 109, Row D and Seats 5 & 6. Marveled at how close to the goalies we would be, and had a blast for nearly three and a half hours. Saw the pre-game warm up skate. Heard the slap shots ricochet off the glass like gun shots, and saw most players at arms length distance. Just a great time for my eldest daughter and I to have together. Our first NHL game, and what seats! Oh such seats!

Though it was Kucherov whom made history with his 100th assist or points of whathaveyou, and not Austin getting to 70 goals we had a great time cheering on the Leafs in Tampa Bay for the last game of the regular season of 2024. Nice!

The sixteen day hiatus where our whole family traveled across Florida has finally ended and along with it my once glorious streak too. Truth be told sixteen days without writing a word was pretty nice. I was too busy taking photos, and doing things outdoors in the blazing hot florida sun. I will be putting out a few of those photos here over the coming days, but I don’t see myself slavishly sticking to an every day blog anymore. I think I had just about the same number of visitors and views when I did nothing, as when I did anything. I’ll relax a little around here.

I have a number of things to do today, including a post office run, prescription pick-up, CRA check in for my taxes, and actual paid work to dig in to. I would imagine that by Monday we will all be settled in as per usual.

Yesterday’s travel day was really long. Packing is stressful with the kids leaving important items everywhere imaginable inside the hotel room. Wandering a theme park for six or more hours in the 93°F sun, highway driving in traffic, finding a gas station not clogged with people, car drop off, check-ins, baggage drops, security, finding food where there is little choice, a flight with no food service, but a very short run time. I don’t know, maybe they got out and pushed, we made it home from Tampa in under 3 hours. Nice!

Loads to do at home now too. Patio furniture set up, swings, slack line, grass and hedges. Check the downspouts, wash the back deck. All sorts of fun to keep my busy for the foreseeable future.

All the best. Ciao Bella.

I chose to take two weeks off, ending an 831 day run here so that I could enjoy some time with my family as we traveled across Florida. Starting in the Keys, hitting Orlando, Clearwater and Tampa Bay. Going to Sea World, Aquatica, Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Disney Springs, Busch Gardens and Adventure Island, PLUS the last Leafs game of the regular season versus the Lightning. A great time, if a tad hectic.

I’ll be back to work in the morning, and fully integrated back into the real world come Monday. It was hot here, between 88°F and 92°F every day except one, when it stormed hard. Took lots of photos and walked more than I have in an extraordinarily long time. I have a plethora of blisters to show for it!

The lake was WIDE open this weekend. I even had a brief, yet chilly, boat ride in the late afternoon sun, as we grabbed our dock from out of the bay next to us, and refit it to the steel moorings, and anchors on the lake bottom. One more thing checked off the list besides chopping wood, boiling sap for syrup, washing sap buckets and spiels, taking down the rink, stacking the rink boards and stakes, cleaning, drying and putting away the liner tarp too. I also did some late day burning of old mouldy flooring which I started back in November! Cleaned up some dangerously hung up trees from the back lot near the burn pile, and that was our weekend in a nutshell. Well besides easter egg hunts, dinners, and a stint in the hot tub to ease my sore back. I had just a little bit of paid client work on Friday, and again on Monday which was good. Glad my clients could use that time I had set aside for their projects.

Today I’m trying to clear off any remaining items and then I’ll call it a day around 10:00pm tonight. Hopefully with an all clear!

I still need to transfer six retail projects and create some french language companion sell sheets, but otherwise I think I’m in a good spot. I am waiting on changes to one set of retail items, so hopefully I get those today! Fingers crossed.

What a lovely weekend it was though, sunny and bright, blue skies above. A few times we had a cool blast of wind, but mostly it was a face burning good time spent outdoors in the sunshine. It was a lot less mucky than we had expected. I wore my Wellington boots and didn’t really need them, like at all. Even the lane in from the main road was dry and settled. Weird winter we had this year. I don’t think we will have the usual April standing pools of stagnant water all around this year. Ground thawed out ages ago.

Pretty sure today is Tuesday. Almost missed recycling thinking last night was Sunday night. Was out watching the Leafs game at my friends and noticed the blue boxes out and twigged to it then. Could have been a catastrophe of smelly proportions! Ha.

Which reminds me, once it gets warmer I need to repair the front garbage box lid. Add it to the list I say! Have a good one. Ciao Bella.

Oh yeah we got my daughters bed to the cottage, and it’s all set up and looks like the real thing. Nice!

Including 2 gold passes, parking, 2X per visit meals, and a drink(s) bottle for the season it clocked in just a hair under $560.00. Ouch! But given how often we went last year I think we’ll make that back without too much trouble. Not to mention that now I don’t need to buy drinks or food as I have it on my pass, that should streamline our visits. I for one look forward to it! That allows us to also do the Halloween Haunt and Winterfest too. All of which we did this past season.

It’s Monday again, which means laundry, grocery shopping, and preparing for school tomorrow.  If the weather is nice I’ll get the girls outside to play in the sunshine, instead of using all of my wireless data on their devices! My phone Bill’s have been sky rocketing these last few months. Gotta get these kids into offline books and board games! Going over on gigs is killing me! Ugh!

I made the mistake of missing a step outside and fumbling my ankle, and then the very next day I kicked a speaker left on the floor by the front door, which I didn’t notice, and nearly breaking a toe on the same foot as the ankle. My toenail is now a deeper purple, and I’m sure over time it’ll go black. Fun times. Was aching quite a bit yesterday while we wrangled the hockey rink boards, stakes, and tarp. And especially while I was kneeling to do the docks.

Have a great Monday.