Day 131/365

As you know, I sell Avon.   This is one of the newest rings they've come out with - a little gemmed turtle.  I think it's gorgeous and adorable!  I can see that I'm going to be wearing it a lot.

Day 130/365

This is homemade butter chicken, Caesar salad, and a type of bread I have no idea what the name of it is.  The gals that I work with and I decided to do a little pot luck lunch.  Since one of the ladies only lives about 5 minutes away from the office, we went to her house for our little feast.  It was very tasty and quite fun.  It's always good to get away from work for a while and socialize.

Day 129/365

I saw these shoes/boots at Winners, and they struck me as being SO ugly and ridiculous, I just had to take a picture of them.  Who in their right mind would wear something so ugly?!  Yuck!!  Okay, I'm sure they look great on someone who weighs 100 lbs soaking wet, with long legs, and an accompanying ridiculous wardrobe, but I don't know anyone like that.  So, to me, these are just dumb.  Call me old fashioned, call me prejudiced, but I think they're dumb.  And, since this is my blog, I can say anything I want.  And I'm saying that these are dumb.  :-)

Day 128/365

This is looking through the top of a teepee, which was put up outside my office.  We got to check it out, watch them put it up.  It was pretty interesting.  It went up surprisingly fast.  I think it's pretty cool.

Day 127/365

This storm blew through our community like a hurricane.  It was accompanied by extremely strong winds, so much rain I couldn't see across the street, hail, thunder and lightening.  Truly an awesome spectacle to behold.  Unfortunately, it also destroyed my garden, as well as all my potted flowers around my yard.  And worst of all, the tremendous winds blew the top of a 35 year old pine tree off, and onto my elderly neighbor's roof.  The tree on the left, the one with the lamp post in front of it, used to be about 15 feet taller before this picture was snapped.  Fortunately, the couple were not injuried, there is minimal damage to the house, and all the neighbors took care of the couple, as well as removing the more dangerous branches that were falling off the roof.  It was indeed a storm to be remembered!

Day 126/365

Spent the day in K-Country yesterday.  Took a bunch of gravel back roads.  That's the only way to really see the mountains.  This is Spray Lake, just by Canmore.  Such a beautiful view.  We had intended to go to Elbow Falls for a picnic, but when we got there, it was so packed that people were parking along the road.  So we spent the next 5 hours driving in Kananaski.  One of the best days I've spent in a long while.

Day 125/365

Went out for dinner/drinks/fun with some of girlfriends.  We try to get together every couple of months for this.  Sometimes it takes us a lot longer, but we try.  We always have a lot of fun, we laugh a lot, and re-connect.  It's good. 

Day 124/365

This is one of the yellow poppies that came up in my garden.  I was surprised for a couple of reasons.  For one reason, I didn't know I had planted any yellow poppy seeds, and for another reason, I didn't know poppies came in yellow!!  Now I find they come in yellow, orange and red.  And double reds, which I also have in the garden.  I quite like these yellow ones, and think I may even look for some orange seeds.  I've also seen some Oriental poppies, and they're so tall and huge!  I may look for some of those next year, too.

Day 123/365

Hard graft, as they say in England.  Lifting the patio blocks and making them level.  Over the past 2 years, some of them have gotten pretty wobbly, or have sunk down, making a bit of a drop in the levels.  So my b/f has the awful job of lifting each block, leveling the ground underneath it, then laying the block again.  There are an awful lot of blocks, but he's determined to do them all.  He's a tough one!

Day 122/365

Little League Baseball.  I remember when my kids were little, and they played ball.  Seems like so long ago.  I really loved taking them to their games, then sitting and watching them put their little hearts into every swing.  They were both pretty good at it, but more importantly, they enjoyed it, and made some lasting friendships from it.  I miss those days.  Life goes by way too fast........

Day 121/365

This is my first attempt at making a card.  It needs work, but I'm quite happy with the results.  Practice makes perfect. 

Day 120/365

Went to Queen's Park Cemetary last night, from 10:00 pm to 1:00 am with a bunch of my psychic buddies, hunting for orbs.  Got over 150 pics, and most of 'em had orbs in them.  This is one of the best.  I think it's pretty cool.

Day 119/365

This is what the Stampede grounds looked like when my b/f and I went to them a few days ago.  You could throw a stick and not hit anyone.  Usually it's so packed with people (teens, mostly) that you have to shoulder butt your way through the crowd.  This was a Stampede I haven't seen for many years.  We were going to go to the chuckwagon races, as my b/f's company had a wagon in it, but they got cancelled.  We debated all day whether or not to go, then decided not to wimp out, and went.  And were told at the gate that the chucks were cancelled.  Bummer!!!!  So we wandered the grounds for 3 hours.  It was Dead City.  It's been a very strange Stampede this year, with tons of rain, and the deaths of six horses, and a ride gone bad, falling apart and injuring 10 people.  Hopefully that's the last of the bad luck.

Day 118/365

This was taken last Tuesday (3 days ago).  I'm a bit late posting, I admit.  Life is busy when you're on vacation!!  It looks like it's snowing in this picture, and in some parts of the province, I heard it did snow.  But this is rain.  A very heavy rainfall.  It rained all day long!  Hard.  I'm sure some of my flowers are drowning because of all the rain we've had this spring/summer.  Looking out my window right now, it looks like we may get more rain today.  I don't mind.  I really like rain, especially when it's a hard rainfall, like the one pictured here, and especially when it's accompanied by lots of thunder and lightening.  (Easy on the close thunder, though, because it scares me!)

Day 117/365

This is a flower from my Christmas Cactus.  It blooms whenever it wants to, it doesn't have a set schedule.  I've usually only seen the red flowers, but I do like this white one.  Usually my Christmas Cactuses die, so I'm quite pleased that this one is in its second bloom. 

Day 116/365

This is a log I got for my new garden.  It was in my neighbor's yard, holding up his fence.  Or the fence was holding it up.  When the fence came down, so did this tree trunk.  The base is like sponge, it's so rotten.  It feels really neat!  It crumbles like styrofoam.  I can press into the log and leave an imprint.  I've never seen a tree trunk this rotten.  I really like it.  So it goes into the garden.  My b/f and my neighbor and the guy who was building the new fence all thought I was off my rocker, but I can see beauty in it.  You'll see, too.

Day 115/365

There's nothing....and I mean nothing....like a day at the beach!  Kids, sand and water.  What better combination is there?  Had 2 of my 3 grandbabies at the lake yesterday and today for some fun.  It poured buckets yesterday, and the kids couldn't have had a better time.  Today it was cloudy with moments of sun, and the kids had just as much fun.  They like to build rivers in the sand, then fill them up and watch the water run down them into the lake.  They spent hours doing that over and over and over.  It was a great couple of days.  We need more days like that.

Day 114/365

Funny story about this elevator.  I got in the same time as some man.  I looked at him, with my hand hovering over the buttons for the floors, and said - Which floor?  He said - Second.  Then looked at me like I was a lunatic, realizing that he had just stated the obvious.  I smiled (sweetly) at him, and he started to laugh.  If you'll notice....there are only two floors in this building, and we both knew it.  Hope I made his day.

Day 113/365

Give a cat a box, and he'll be happy for hours.  Why is that?  You buy all the latest toys and feathers and furry things and cat things, and spend hundreds of dollars.   Does the cat play with them?  Maybe for a few minutes before losing interest.  Then you get a couple of boxes that are going into the recycling bin, and BANG!  The cat's right in there, and spends hours and  hours in the damn things.  Why is that?  What's the allure of a box to a cat?  There's no catnip involved.  No fuzzy things to bat at.  It's just a box.  And yet, it's a cat's best friend.  How strange....

Day 112/365

This is my b/f, building a planter for my garden.  He'd do anything for me.  This planter involved a ton of work, and he did it all in one day.  It should really finish off the yard, and I can't wait to put some perennials in!  How exciting!

Day 111/365

I got this little angel for my garden.  I thought he was very cute.  I really like angels, and have them all over my house, too.  Maybe this little guy will help my garden grow.  One never knows!!

Day 110/365

This is my reward from Avon, for joining the President's Club.  To join the PC, I had to sell a certain amount of Avon within a year.   And I did it, and now I'm a member of the President's Club.  There are advantages to being in this club.  This is a statue of Mrs. Albie - the very first Avon representative.  There is also a pin, and a Certificate of Achievement.  So - pats on the back for me.

Day 109/365

Mmmmmm..... homemade peach pie.  So good.  Pies are so easy to make, and I like them, so I wonder why I don't make them more often.  Maybe I should.  Everyone likes pie.

Day 108/365

This is a clock that runs on water and a little bit of salt.  It's so cool!  I got it from my mechanic.  I've spent so much money getting my truck fixed, I guess he felt he should give something back, so he gave me this.  Pretty cool.

Day 107/365

I love the bubbles.  I love the chocolate bubbles, and I love the green mint bubbles.  In a bar.  Strangely enough, I don't like the green mint bubbles in the balls.  I don't know what it is about them, but they're just not as good as the bars.  The chocolate balls are as good as the bars, and I love them.  But these ones - not so much.  Maybe it has something to do with the bubbles being brown and not green, like they're supposed to be.  I don't know.  But I won't be buying these again.  I was hugely disappointed. 

Day 106/365

Not only do I sell Avon, but I also make baskets.  This basket was made for a silent auction for ARF (Animal Rescue Foundation), whom I also volunteer with.  My friend and I are trying to start up our own basket/unique gift business, so that we'll have something to do in our golden years.  So far, it's slow going, but we're determined.