Month: May 2024

It was a beautiful night to head out to Red Bird (or is it Red Bird Live?) for the first of three sold out nights for Great Lake Swimmers.

I missed out on seeing them last year as they showed up in Ottawa on Vero’s birthday and we also had tickets to CityFolk Festival.  Luckily they are still touring around so I snatched up tickets really fast for this one and then they added a few extra dates to make a full weekend of fun at Red Bird.

I had fond memories of recording Great Lake Swimmers the last time I saw them.

The great thing about catching a show at Red Bird is the intimacy of the room.  I think they sell around 80-100 tickets.  Look at the spot I had to catch the band all night!

The concert was great.  It was like a greatest hits show with some choice selections from each album.  The band are in top form and there was some good banter in between songs.

I have to say that I feel bad for artists who hit the road on their own and don’t have much help other than themselves.  Case in point: in between sets Tony Dekker managed the merchandise booth and was fraught with technical difficulties with the tap payment system that he was using.  It wasn’t connecting and therefore, no one could pay.  We have moved into a cashless world so it’s not often that anyone has any money on hand.  I felt really bad for him as I’m standing in line thinking “He should have the opportunity to relax a bit for the second set but no, here he is stressing out because of some stupid technological problem!”.  It gave me an insight into the world of the common musicians roaming across the country trying to make a few bucks and entertaining us along the way.

If you have the opportunity to catch Great Lake Swimmers, do so!  You will not be disappointed.

 

We are probably going to buy a radon fan for the house but we wanted to check out various spots in the house before taking the plunge.  Here are some photos:

In the bedroom downstairs after a week

Near the bar area after a week

Check out that one day count sitting next to the open septic pit!

This year Sierra asked to have her birthday at Ahoy Adventures so we did!  I think the original reason was that there was a hiding spot on one of the play structures.  I laughed at the thought of spending money on an afternoon kids could hide from us!

The mermaid throne

Ahoy Adventures was actually quite great.  They have two private rooms available.  We had the mermaid themed room.  The kids get to play around on a giant play structure and about an hour later a mermaid comes in, plays limbo with the kids and then serves cake.

There were some happy kids after a two hour stay at Ahoy Adventures.  They got juice, popcorn and a cupcake…what more can you ask for?

From a parent point of view, I remember Sierra’s party the year before involving a lot of preparation.  I even had to drop two car loads of decorations, coolers, drinks, tables at the park and then pack all that stuff back up!  I swear I didn’t empty the car for another week!  This Ahoy Adventures was the cats meow for parents.  Yeah it costs $300 but I think my time is worth money as well.

A few days after the party was Sierra’s actual birthday.  Grandmaman made an excellent cake and some lasagna and we opened a few gifts.  I always laughed when she would open a gift and she would say “THIS was on my wishlist as well!”  I guess she was a happy girl for her eighth birthday.

Grandma giving Sierra a call to wish her a happy birthday before school started

Ezra giving Sierra his gift of bubble gum.  When I asked him if he wanted to give her some bubble gum he replied “Only if I can buy a pack for myself as well!”

Checking out the new rollerblades

Ezra is still four years old and managed to ride on his own (mostly, he still needs help starting and stopping).

He was so excited to hear that he achieved this accomplishment at a younger age than his sister.

At school every day someone has to present ‘what they want to do’ when they grow up.  Supposedly one of the kids were sick yesterday and the teachers asked if anyone wanted to present.

Ezra lifted his hand and volunteered and he told the class that he managed to bike all by himself the day before!  One of his classmates (Adriana?) said she saw him.   Perhaps she was driving by in the back of the car.  He must be quite proud to volunteer to get up in front of the class to talk about something.

While my body is screaming at me for doing so much work over this past long weekend, I did pick up some tips for future years.

Mulch

This year I bought 18 bags of mulch (52L or 2 cubic feet).  I had four spare bags now.  But I will need to look into whether it’s cheaper to get a load of mulch delivered instead of going for two trips of picking up bags.

Water sealing

I decided to seal the deck again.  I first used some Behr All Purpose Deck Cleaner.  I have to say that I wasn’t really impressed with it.  It first said to dilute it with water at a 1:1 ratio.  I did that and I didn’t really see a difference, especially with the green mildew.

I then used it without diluting (as per the instructions) on the entire deck again hoping it would clean up something.  Once again, the mildew wasn’t removed.  It did seem cleaner but I have a feeling maybe a pressure washer would have been better?  I already tried the pressure washer on the first four deck boards and they looked great.  At this point in their life cycle (4 years in?  Even longer?) the brown is starting to fade anyhow so if I strip some off with the pressure washer, who cares?

I only did the main deck so I still need to tackle the rest at another time.  Maybe I’ll just pressure wash that area and see the difference.

For reference, the main deck took a jug to cover.

Take a close look at this photo.  This is after cleaning it twice.  The boards closest to the house were cleaned with the pressure washer.  So…is that black stuff all mold that just didn’t come out?  Do I need to use an even harsher chemical?  I didn’t want to get into ‘staining’ the deck…maybe I’ll have to?