Things Which Do Not Belong To Me But Are In My House

It is probably the case with most people who have family and friends that random items end up living for a time in the wrong household. For those readers who may sorely miss their borrowed belongings, wonder where their belongings are, or even who may have been completely unaware that they were missing some dear item, I will take you on a photo-tour of our house, which I have entitled "Things Which Do Not Belong To Me But Are In My House".
Here we go:

In The Beginning by Chaim Potok. It looks quite nice on our bookshelf, eh?

The Chess Garden by Brooks Hansen. Looks nice here as well.

School Ties, borrowed from the lunch room at work

Cake containers. I thought we only had one but it must have reproduced.

A saw, borrowed when we first entered cub car competitions together (I won't mention how long ago that was)

Another saw, for which the purpose of its borrowing has not yet been fulfilled

Esta's chair, which she left behind for us. It's an ugly chair, a dirty chair, and a dangerously tippy chair, so I do not want to acknowledge it as my chair

A hockey glove - owner please speak up if you recognize it!!

Uncle Gord's steam engine, lit on fire several times in class demonstrations

Wheelbarrow that I didn't even know we had until last week or so

Another remnant of the previous homeowner, which I also refuse to acknowledge as mine. This can serves very well as a doorstop until said previous homeowner feels inclined to claim it.

RING!

Well, I hope I haven't lost anything too important. I took the plunge and changed the template of my blog, without really having any idea what would happen to it. It seems that most things are still in place.
Since we are having visitors this evening sometime, Mike is currently in the process of installing a doorbell. Last week we bought a wireless one, but when we were testing it out at home it sounded terrible - imagine a very sickly, loud, electronic bell and then make it ten times worse. Thankfully the volume control wasn't functioning properly, so we didn't have to feel too bad about bringing it back and getting one with a real bell instead. It's got an old-time charm to it, but the only problem is that we need to have visitors over to try it out for us. If you would like to try our doorbell (trust me, it's exciting!) give us a call and we'd love to have you down to test our doorbell for us. And maybe you can even come in for a cup of coffee.

Queen of the House

Once upon a time, there lived a cat. This cat was very cute, and very pretty, and very self-centered. She lived in a small little house which was kept neat and tidy. However, the cat did not care much for neat and tidy. The cat liked to make a mess. She thought it was great fun to tip over the big plant pots and scatter dirt all over the couch and the floor. She thought it was exceptionally tasty to eat freshly cut flowers and then puke them onto the kitchen floor. She loved to jump up on the stove while dinner was cooking so she could steal people-food and knock stuff over. She found it very exciting to bury erasers in her litter box and spread litter all over the office. And nothing could beat chasing plants, freshly ripped out of their pots, around and around the house while crumpling up every mat she could find. And while no one else living in the small little house liked the huge mess she liked to make, she discovered that most human wrath could be appeased if she sporadically jumped up on a lap and purred for a while.

Mike's first blog

I thought I would blog today, so that my sweet sister wouldn't be a liar for having her link named "Rachel and Mike" refer to a blog where only Rachel blogs.

As you were.

Still Alive

After dinner tonight, we listened to the soundtrack from The Power of One - and I remembered how difficult it is to listen to such music while stuck in one place. It is such powerful and moving music, and it makes me feel so alive that I can hardly bear to just stand and do dishes but instead I feel inspired to crank the music, dance around the kitchen and sing (well, mumble) along to words I can't really understand. At this point, I ask that you stop laughing and please stop picturing me!! Pick up the soundtrack yourself and see what crazy things it makes you want to do.
I apologize to all my faithful blog-readers (all two or three of you that is) for not updating in a while. Yes, we're still alive! Alive, and busy, but when isn't life busy, really. We didn't get any of the snow that seems to have bombarded places withing 1/2 hr drive of us, thanks to the sheltering effect of the Niagara escarpment. I did see a few snow flakes, but none that dared to stay on the ground. Our furnace is on, our slippers are on, and it is beginning to feel like electric blanket season.
Work is going well - it was an interesting week, as Staples is celebrating its 15th anniversary in Canada. We got new uniform shirts, buttons, a 6 foot (yes FOOT) sub for lunch on Thursday, gift certificates, and other goodies. It was also announced that I was the Superperson of the month for September (yay!), and a friend from Staples in Ancaster is training in St Catharines for five weeks (yay!).
Mike's teaching is going really good, too. He had his first round of parent-teacher interviews, which were interesting and informative. The kids seem to really like him and he is enjoying them right back, and having a lot of fun. It's very busy, with a lot of planning and marking, but that all comes with the territory of being a rookie.
A special congratulations goes out to my Dad, who had his last official day of work at Stelco today. He'll be keeping himself quite busy working in the car rental business for the next few weeks, and he'll still be working at Stelco on a part-time contract basis, but the 8-4 days as Engineer Mussche in the steel mills are over now (I had to laugh, Dad, when you answered the phone as "Engineer Mussche" - I'd never heard you call yourself that before!!). Strange feeling, I'm sure, to walk out of your office for the last time, to drive out of the parking lot no longer an employee but a retiree. Congratulations on reaching this new stage in your life, and I hope and pray that you will enjoy the change and new pace of life!
Since I'm not feeling particularly inspired, I guess that's it for now. I know that about a week ago, something happened that I said to Mike "well, that's blogworthy for sure!!". Unfortunately I didn't get around to it, and now whatever happened that was outrageously funny at the time is lost in history unless I have a memory attack. Sorry!