warm day

Another lovely day in Vancouver.  Our weather continues to be gorgeous these days. And that's the weather report LOL.
We have not had much rain lately, we sure need some.

Matthew took Ray all the way downtown to St. Paul's hospital for his check up on the hernia surgery. And all is well. Thank you Lord for that. I stayed home and had a nice nap. I like to do that when I am left alone. It is so peaceful here , the sun was shining in the windows, it was a bit warm but not too hot and very quiet. A good time for a nap.

So now Ray is having a nap and I am writing the blog. Ray is cooking sausages for dinner tonight. I wonder what else he will cook up. He is a great cook. But even I can cook sausages .

I wonder what to write about today. I must put on my thinking cap as my dear old dad used to say. Dad was an Englishman and had some old English things he used to say-different from what we say.

My mom was a Scot and had her own sayings. It has been a long time since they passed on but I still miss them . Parents are such a huge influence on a child, the only influence for the formative years. I was fortunate to have had great parents.

And that is all folks. Have a lovely evening.

a waste

It was a wasted afternoon. My Blood sugar rose to 19 . Ray told the doctor and he said take her to the hospital and let them get it down. 
So we went to the hospital. And sat there for over three hours, nobody even spoke to us. Oh that is not true, they took my Sugar after 2 1/2 hours, it was 12.4, on its way down without help. After sitting there for several hours we left and came home. I was really hungry and starting to shake. 

So we had soup for dinner tonight, chicken noodle. I really like chicken noodle. Ray had a sandwich. That was it. Now that TOPS is gone we have to find another place to visit.  There is IHOP and Swiss Chalet, that pretty well sums it up in our neighbourhood, other than the KEG which is not a fast food place. Oh yes, McDonald's , Wendy's Dairy Queen. There you have it ,places to go.

That is all folks, have a good evening.

it's over

The end of an era. TOPS is shutting its doors tonight. I am sad to see this happen, I have been going there since the mid 1970s and have enjoyed many great meals there. Tonight Steve's daughter was there to say good bye. I have not seen her for several years but was happy to see her tonight. Steve left when we wanted to say good bye, he did not want us to see him cry. I felt like crying too. But one of the sons says after he takes a year off he plans to open another TOPS restaurant. He has been working there since he was a very young man so he knows the business.
I am sad to see them go but hope that they open another facility in the future.
I see TOPS was on TV tonight stating that it was  closing.  A sad day for East Vancouver. 
This is the event for the week.

Have a great evening folks.

Today is Friday

Yes today is Friday the end of the working week. The start of the weekend. Very important day when you are working , a day of rest tomorrow and the end of the week. A great day!

Ray and I were out today and visited Tim's for a coffee and a doughnut. We shared the doughnut ans also the coffee. We are light eaters and so share almost everything we order. In the restaurant they  split the order and serve it on two plates. That is service. TOPS is closing on Sunday. Too bad for me as I like it there and we go often. 

We stopped in at Safeway for a few items and had a coffee there.

Slow day folks not much to report, It has been hot again but not quite as hot as yesterday.  And it is supposed to rain later in the week.

The government has announced an increase in ICBC rates. ICBC is our government insurance for automobiles and other things. It is mandatory as it is the only insurance agent. The government has its hooks in and there is no way out. Blah!! Ray says there are other insurance agents but they can only insure what the government allows. I am not sure on this statement so could be wrong here but I think it is right.

I have made a start on my pile of cloths with five completed and a sixth begun.  I would like to knit a sweater for one of the great granddaughters. I need to find a pattern. We went to Michaels today to look for one but did not have any luck. I'll check out the patterns I have and see if there I one I can use. I think I can make one up , my mom used to make up her patterns. She was clever that way. I miss her some days. 

And that is the end!! Have a great evening.

missed

I think I missed a day but what the heck. I'm back.  It is a hot day here in town. But we have an air conditioner unit so that helps a lot.
It is quite comfortable in here. 

We went to the ostomy clinic for supplies and a check up. All is well.  We go there to check up on my ostomy to make sure it is all right and it is. 

Then we went down to Cockney Kings for fish and chips. I could not eat all my chips so I brought them home. Not a good idea since I did not eat them and now have to throw them out. I should give up on bringing them home. 

Once home I read a bit of my book, had a short nap and ate one corn on the cob each for dinner.  And that was my busy day.

Tonight I plan to knit more cloths and maybe start a new pair of socks. I am thinking of knitting a sweater for one of my greats if I can find a pattern. I'll need to check out the patterns I have here first and then go to Surrey for a pattern if there is nothing here in my stash.

I talked to Richard today, just a short conversation. He seems to be okay today. I need to talk to him every day to make sure he is fine.I have not talked to Jim for a while ,I can't seem to catch him at home. Whoops Ray said I just talked to him. My memory is getting really bad. 

I want to call Sam to confirm our date for next Monday. I am looking forward to seeing him.

And that is it folks , it is a beautiful day here I hope you enjoyed your day wherever you are.

what now

Late night and I seem to forget my blog often these days. I get doing something else and there goes the memory. Sorry about that.

As for today what did we do?We went to the ostomy clinic and bought some new bags and I got inspected for damage. There was none so that is good.

Then we went to Tim's for a coffee . We did very little else. When we came home I did some knitting and computer. That was it. 

We had cabbage rolls for dinner that we had picked up at TOPS yesterday. We are sure going to miss TOPS, Sunday is the last day of business. We had better go there this week for a final visit.
I wonder where we'll go now.

I had a good chat with Rick tonight. His daughter Katherine dropped by. She is good to him. I am thankful for her.

I wish I lived closer to them but Calgary is another province away and takes at least a day's drive to get there. Probably two now that we are so old. Still I would like to go but Ray has to do the driving and it takes a lot out of him these days.

I have some good books to read. I read mostly at night when I go to bed so it takes me a while to finish a book. I fall asleep too soon.

That is all for tonight folks. Have  a great evening.

dinner

We had dinner at TOPS tonight. They are closing on Sunday and we will miss the family and the restaurant. I want to go one more time before it is over. I have been going there since the mid 1970s so it is a long association. I think the family is going back to Greece. So many times in life you cannot go back only forward so I hope it works for them. 
As for the rest of the day we stayed in and I continued to knit my cloths. 
Tonight is just for resting and computing. I like to do my computer in the evening when it is quiet.

It is a lovely evening again tonight. We have been so fortunate with the beautiful weather we have been experiencing.

Nothing unusual happening here tonight. I did give Rick a call but he was busy making his dinner. He is a good cook. All my sons are good cooks, they did not take after me. I do not like cooking. Their dad was creative in the kitchen and Ray was a fabulous cook in his day. My dad was a good cook too.  Now we don't really care for the work of cooking.
However we do like the work of eating LOL.

So another quiet evening for us,Ray is watching TV and I am computing.

Marg was over this afternoon for a visit and she brought me a couple of books to read.  I did buy two books when we stopped at the bookstore today. So now I have several books to read. I like having a feast of books in my room. I am uncomfortable when I am down to a couple of books. 

That's my day friends. Have a lovely evening. It is beautiful here.

knitting

 I played around with my yarns and knitting, finished two cloths to add to my pile.  I will start a third one tonight. My pile will grow then and it will be respectable for a change. No need to worry about not enough cloths.

And knitting is mostly what I did today. Although we did go out to the Crossings for bread. We had coffee at TIM'S and went in to London Drugs. We just bought a package of garbage bags at London Drugs. That is what we did today. Just about nothing.

At home I knit as I said in my first paragraph.  So it was a lazy kind of day.

I did not even hear from Richard and we usually talk every day. It is 8 :50 so 9:50 in Calgary and I won't call him as I might disturb him at this hour. I'll call him tomorrow. I have nothing on my calendar tomorrow.

We are watching Murdoch tonight. It is a Canadian production ,we both enjoy watching it. Murdoch is a detective and solves many cases on this show. But in this show he and his wife plan to adopt a child they found.  Nice but we know it is not quite that easy in real life. There are hoops to jump through to adopt a child.
Not that I know personally as I never had to adopt. I had five natural sons. Lucky me!

So here I go , it is late and I am tired. Have a great evening folks.

past

Almost past bedtime and here I am late again.

Full day today. Talked to Jim in Edmonton for a while about one of his rentals which he is completing renovating. I get the impression it is a mess and requires a lot of work. It is a good thing he is able to do all the renovations that needed to be done. He is very talented that way. 

My memory is failing a bit. I can't recall if I talked to Adam today but Rick called and we had a good chat. I am 85 years old and my memory is generally pretty good but some things escape me occasionally. Still I am able to write this blog every night and that requires a decent memory.   

We stayed home all day and did very little other than laundry I read my book for a while but did not have a nap so I will be ready for bed tonight.

I asked Ray if we went out today and he said "I went out in the hall" He always makes me laugh. I read somewhere that a marriage will last if you have a partner who is funny and makes you laugh. Sounds good to me!  Ours has lasted 40 years so that proves out for us. It has been a good ride. Ray is a great husband.

Ray is suffering from a bad back today. He is in some pain. Poor guy. I hate to see him suffer. But he is a Trojan and carries on valiantly. I admire his perseverance. I hope tomorrow is a better day for him.

I did some more knitting tonight. All I do these days is cloths but my mind is thinking of knitting a little sweater for one of the greats. That would not be any problem. And it might be a lot of fun. All I need now is the yarn and a pattern. My mom knew how to knit a sweater without a pattern. She was a clever person. My dad was very clever and smart too. I had great parents.

That is it for tonight folks. Good evening.

                            '

shop

Saturday is grocery shopping for us. When we worked it was Saturday . We thought it might change when we retired but no, it remained the same, Saturday. Old habits die hard.

Dinner tonight was at TOPS, it is closing next week and will I ever miss going there. It has been a constant in my life for a long time. 45 years I think. I hope to go one more time. The owner is very sad, his wife says he cries every night. The family will be going back to Greece. It will be a huge change for them.  He was not there tonight, too painful to say good bye to all his customer / friends. 

I don't know where we will go now. There are lots of restaurants of course but none quite like TOPS. It is a family affair and so welcoming. 
Maybe he will keep a pied a terre here. I was told he would keep one of his houses here . I hope he opens another restaurant but the is highly unlikely.

I did very little today other than knit a bit. Hey that sounds like a good title for a blog LOL. Tomorrow we'll tackle the laundry and whatever housework we need to get done before the cleaning laady comes this week LOL. A classic, clean up first before the cleaner comes.

Tomorrow I have to get busy with my sewing. I have been so lazy lately about my sewing. There is not a lot to do so I'd better get busy.

I bought a HELLO magazine  today, not something i usually do. Actually it is a rare occasion when I indulge in this magazine. But it tempted me with an article of Hugh Grant, one of my favourite stars, so I purchased it. I did enjoy reading it. 

I talked to Rick today. He is all alone right now. I hope things pick up for him soon. I wish he lived here or we lived there so we could be of some help to him. Katherine his daughter is there in Calgary though and helps him a lot. Praise God for her being there. She is a treasure.

And that is all for tonight folks. Have a gorgeous evening wherever you are. It is beautiful here. Good evening.