Kitchen Reno: Day 57 - 10 Tips to Survive a Reno

57 days in... and Glosette Girl and I aren't at each other's throats...yet! Based on what I've learned so far, here are my ten tips to survive a big kitchen reno:

1. Make sure you have the following triumvirate of alternative cooking appliances: microwave, BBQ and hot plate. You'll need all of them.
2. Donate money to Greenpeace. Why? To get over your guilt of buying disposable plates and cutlery to help cut down on the dishes you need to clean in your bathtub.
3. Take pleasure in little victories. Like your new ceiling not falling down on your head.

Light = new wood; Dark = old as father time wood

4. Get used to sweeping the floors constantly due to the dust. Bonus: if you find out you like sweeping you've just found yourself a new career skill.
5. Eat out at least once a week to reward yourself for eating in the other six days.
6. When your spouse looks like they need it, give them a big hug to release some tension. p.s get used to hugging!
7. You can't survive without a fridge. But if your "normal" fridge is temporarily in your garage (like mine) you'll go insane going outside to access it all the time. Buy a mini beer fridge from a University student for essential foods.

8. Keep your sense of humour. For example, tell the neighbourhood kids that the old kitchen door you've just removed is a secret passage to Narnia, which they can get to if they run at the door really fast.

Do I hear Mr. Tumnus?

9.   Do your renos in warm weather as otherwise the reno mess will be 100 times worse from the snow and sludge.
10. Don't forget that you love your little house and it'll be over eventually!

Job Opening: World Cup Viewing Buddy

MISSING: Passionate fans of soccer (a.k.a football) in Hintonburg, Ottawa, Canada. While World Cup-crazy fans fill the bars in downtown Ottawa, the Hintonburg pubs tend to be more chill.

WANTED: One or two good viewing buddies to watch the latest game with.

Iceland v Argentina - I swear my "Argentina" shirt was just a coincidence!

REQUIREMENTS:

• Must detest one team to the point of unreasonableness (preferably a good team, Germany)  
• Must support another team, equally to the point of unreasonableness (preferably a plucky underdog like Mexico or the hapless "Maple Leafs of World Cup", England). 

PREFERRED:

•  Easy access to Cable TV or live stream over the Internet (no questions will be asked) in case the pubs aren't open yet and a critical match is on (some games are on at 8 am EST).
• Modest biases that we can have meaningless sports trivia debates over (e.g. who is better, Ronaldo or Messi?)

SALARY AND BENEFITS:

•   A pint at the pub per match* 

Croatia v Nigeria

HOW TO APPLY:

• Please respond to this blog post with your favourite and least favourite teams and one reference who can vouch for your soccer enthusiasm.

* You're buying if my team loses in the quarter finals or later.

Spectacle de talents

So a lot of hard work went into two minutes of glory today at Margot's school: the Spectacle de talents!

This isn't your regular run of the mill event where every little kid gets to showcase their screechy violin abilities. No sir. You have to audition to get into the Spectacle de talents and they only let the best of the best get in. Only a few dozen kids get in.

Margot was the Captain of this Ship

Margot and four of her friends came up with a dance routine back in early May and got in. Eat your hearts out NAC! We don't need you!

What goes on in little girls minds? Is this fun? It fascinates me!

It's no Swan Lake but they came up with their own choreography here. Plus they made time to practise all by themselves - Glosette Girl and I barely helped at all (ok ok, on one weekend we made our house available for a rehearsal).

Rehearsal snap!

Haha in any case I think it takes a pretty cynical and grumpy sod not to smile at the results.

Ahh elementary school events. They keep the heart young.

Election Signs

Election day is almost here in Ontario!

Interestingly, despite having lived in Ontario, on and off, for 24 or so years, I think this may be the first time I'll have ever voted in a provincial election. It's not that I don't believe in voting (I've voted in the UK*, New Brunswick, and Quebec) it's just that for most of my adult life I've lived somewhere other than my home province.

But now I'm back, baby! And it's time to exercise my franchise...I guess.

From everything I've seen and read, this is turning out to be one of the saddest elections in recent memory.  None of the main parties seem to want to face reality. People want cheaper hydro and better health care. But money doesn't grow on trees. And unfortunately Ontario is flat broke and has a massive deficit. Everyone promises more stuff but with no civil servant job cuts or higher taxes. Something has to give so just tell us what you'll really do, not what we want to hear.

At least the colours of the signs are bright

The main options are two left wing parties, the Liberals and the NDP, and one right wing party, the Progressive Conservatives (there is also the Green party but my sense is that they are an after thought). At one time the Liberals were more central on the political spectrum and the NDP were more radical left, but now they seem to kindof blur together.

The Progessive Conservatives...geez...what can I say about the Progessive Conservatives? I don't normally vote conservative but this time, with one or two credible leadership options, I was leaning that way. And what did they do? They voted for this guy as their leader. C'mon!

A lot of people I know are really dispirited about voting this time around. It probably explains why so many of these signs are popping up:

On June 7th I'm going to exercise my vote but I have a feeling that no matter who wins the next day I'm going to be disappointed.

* As a UK citizen, I voted in an EU election while living there. Funnily enough, so did Glosette Girl even though she's not a citizen of any EU country. She wasn't sure if she was doing anything wrong (even though we were sent voting cards) so she faked a British accent at the voting station. "Hello Guv'ner!"