In the Hot Seat...

In the hot seat, the hot couch, the hot bed...you name it, it's HOT! It's too flippin' hot to have the stove on even with the central air blasting away. So today saw me go to the grocery store in the a.m. before it got too hot so I could get the veggies I needed to make salsa (was out of green peppers), tortilla chips (to eat the salsa with!) and more onions. I think I have enough food on hand now to get through to the end of the month :) That's fantastic as I've gone over the food budget for July.
(Food budget is $280 and I've spent about $294).

Food just keeps getting more expensive around here. I had two plastic containers of veggie chilli in the freezer so I've thawed that too. I like using the chilli with a bunch of shredded romaine and/or broken tortilla chips (a great way to use up the crumbs from the bottom of the bag!), a dollop of sour cream or grated cheddar.

I just wrapped up an hour and a half in my kitchen creating said salsa and also did some devilled eggs and it's time for a cold drink. I notice a lot of people spell it as deviled eggs but that just doesn't look right to me. No alcohol in this drink - just some sparkling water with a dash of lime and lots of ice. I'll get to the alcohol later ;)

My patio is in shade 90% of the day (especially at night!) so I feel very fortunate that I can sit outside no matter how hot it gets.

Had a bit of a scare this past week. My right knee has been bothering me a little but not enough to interfere with my activities. Then I road my bike to a restaurant where I was meeting a friend for lunch and rode home again. As I put my bike away I noticed how much my knee hurt and decided to diagnose myself on google. Then I saw that it was very swollen and it was so painful I could hardly get up or down stairs. What the h-ll did I do??

Luckily I was able to get a doctor's app't the next day which was yesterday and I have to get an x-ray and ultrasound then I'll be referred (if need be) to a sports doctor. Cause I'm an athlete you know:) And I was told to take one Aleve with Naproxen twice a day. Well, I've had 3 of the Aleve so far and the swelling is practically all gone!! It could just be arthritis - will wait and see. But I feel so much better - I can go up and down the stairs, no problem. I was a little panicky to say the least as I head to Ireland in 4 1/2 weeks and I need my knee to be in good shape. I have no pain when I stand or walk but I couldn't bend my knee without pain. Just knowing that the Aleve can take care of the pain and swelling is such a relief. If anyone needs help with pain and swelling get the Aleve GEL CAPS with Naproxen, I think it's 210mg of Naproxen. Honestly I was flabbergasted at the quick results!

The kitties like the patio too though I put them inside most of the day today.

 Snoozing Luna zzzzzzz!

Snoozing Lily. The blue tarp is thrown over a chair and give them a little tent

to play in. They love to sneak up on each other and pounce! 

Here We Go Again...

Or as it goes in the Whitesnake song - here I go again!  The heat...the heat is back with a vengeance!! What fun things can I do inside today?... tomorrow ?... Saturday?...  I've cleaned all three floors of my house! I've made tuna pasta salad, scones, salsa etc. I've laundered everything that could possibly be laundered, dusted everything that needed to be dusted blah blah blah...

Well, I do have a lot of computer-related tasks to work on such as my itinerary for the upcoming trip to Ireland. I like to have my entire plan on one piece (or 2) of paper so there is no guess work. For example, once I land at Dublin Airport, go through customs and nab my suitcase I have to find my way to the first B&B so I research buses and trains to find the most direct and closest route to the B&B. Then when I'm panicking I can check my little list and see where the bus/train terminal/station is and which # to take.

Doesn't she look just like me?

And I haven't blogged for a week! I think about it but have no consistent plan about when or how often. So I get lazy. There's no big news so it's hard to get inspired....

• Spool knitting - still working on that while I watch TV at night
• Carving - nope, not in the summer - who wants to sit in a windowless room and create dust when I could go outside and bike/read/walk/hike in Kilally Meadows etc? Not me. That's a winder pastime. 
• Reading - Ken Follet's "The Pillars of the Earth", and "The Nest" by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, and "The Swans of Fifth Avenue" by Melanie Benjamin. And numerous non-fiction books. I put books on hold at the library (online) an often get 2 or 3 all within a few days and then it's a reading marathon!
• Crocheting - going to start something today
• TV - currently watching "Broadchurch" a great British detective series
• Travel - in the past couple of weeks I've gone to the beach once, to a summer festival or two, hiking in Kilally, out for lunch

So that's my life. What have you been up to? What do you do when it's 40c+? (104F) 

Maybe I should go to the movies!

Let the Good Times Roll!

Good things just keep on happening! Yesterday I noticed a deposit in my account of $205.00!! The info just said "EFT from Canada". I had no idea what it was. So I went onto my Service Canada Account which provides info on our tax returns & rebates/credits, Employment Insurance, Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security etc. It turns out I'm now eligible for a provincial rebate of Ontario Sales Tax, property taxes and an energy tax credit. I googled and saw this post heading: Ontario's Trillium Benefit - a New Way to Help the Poor!!!!!!!

I'm still laughing! All the way to the bank, poor me!! The bad news is I only get it once a year - boo hoo hooo!

Including my GST rebate I received an extra $310.00 this month. I'll take it thank you very much! I have a lot of extra expenses this month with my upcoming trip to Ireland. And I have the same amount of money in my misc budget line as I did at the beginning of July! Not to mention the $160 in my gas budget line that I likely won't use. (blows kisses in the general direction of her bicycle :)!!

And I've spent $$$ on new clothes (cheap), socks, undies, bandaids etc etc etc. I've purchased Peterson's Field Guide for Birds and his Guide for Wildflowers.

I've paid off my Mastercard in full, spent $63 at Talize on thrift store clothing, spent $60 at Sunfest (a T-shirt, food and beer), bought a bicycle tire pump, a curtain rod etc etc. I think July is going to become my favourite month!!

The bad news (such as it is) remains the weather - I'm sure I could cook up some fried eggs on the hood of my truck! It's dry dry dry as a bone here and so hot!!! We always have major humidity here in London which makes it feel a lot hotter than it actually is. I think we're at 39c (102.2F) at the moment so I'm staying in today and I made salsa and Greek Quinoa salad. So we're set. The kitties have their little faces squashed up to the patio doors - they don't understand. Well, they would if I booted them out. But then I'd have to go out too and I just can't. I'm wishing and hoping for a thunderstorm.

So that's today's news - all good pretty much. I can't do anything about the weather except complain.
Are you sweating or shivering??