World Series

I had been listening to the Major League Baseball playoffs on the ESPN radio over the internet because I couldn't get the games in live streaming.  I was enjoying the games but it wasn't as good as watching them.  There were some exciting games.  Finally it came down to the seventh game of the World Series between the Cubs and the Indians.  The Cubs hadn't won the World Series since 1908 and the Indians hadn't won the World Series since 1948.  For some reason, I decided to look once more for the game on Kodi.  This time I found it.  So Barb and I watched the game.  Barb got very frustrated with the managers of both teams for pulling their pitchers for no reason and bringing in pitchers that weren't effective and blowing the lead.  She couldn't stand it when in the eighth inning the Cubs blew a 3 run lead and she went to bed when the game went into extra innings.  Watching sports is not good for Barb's blood pressure.  I stayed up to watch the Cubs win in the 11th inning.  When I went to bed after the game, Barb woke up and asked me who won.  She said the Cubs didn't deserve to win because their manager was so stupid.

Locked Out

Late tonight we heard a knock on the door and it was our next door neighbour.  She was locked out of her house.  She had left her house keys in her car and her car was locked in the garage.  So she used our phone to phone her friends in the park and they came over to help her.  The husband used some of Barb's tools and Barb got a wire coat hanger and the man was able to break into the garage through the side door without doing any damage.  We were amazed.  Later I said to Barb that Sharon probably thought I might be a handyman and Barb had a good laugh.

Beeps

Barb wanted to know if we would be able to meet Ali when he was finished work.  So Sarah called him and gave the iPhone to Barb.  Barb kept hearing a beeping noise while they were talking.  Barb asked Ali if the noise was coming from his end.  Then she realized that she was hitting the keypad of the iPhone with her cheek and causing the beeping noise.

Matilda

Sarah was very happy we were able to take her to see Matilda, the stage play, in Toronto.  It was a good show but not really good for the small children who were in the audience.  After a big explosion, we heard one little girl in front of us say she wanted to go home.

On the way home, Sarah was showing us Siri on her work iPhone.  Barb tried being rude to her and Siri took offense and she didn't deserve to be treated like that.

We were trying to find a Chinese food restaurant near Sarah's house to go for dinner.  Barb was looking up the menus at some of the restaurants Siri found.  One of the menus mentioned Cheese Blossom.  So Barb tried to find out what Cheese Blossom was and I reminded her that cheese doesn't blossom.

Passport

I was walking this afternoon and started thinking about our upcoming trip to Florida.  I thought when does Barb's passport expired.  I came home and asked Barb if she knew.  She looked at her passport and found out it had expired last week.  So she started to scramble to get her passport renewed.  I downloaded the application for her and she found out it was not too hard if she was within one year of the passport expiring.  We thought she would have to get signatures of her references.  She realized that none of her Kitchener friends had known her for 3 years.  Then she read the instructions again and found out that she didn't need signatures.  All she needed was their contact information.  So she got two old friends from Ottawa to be her references.  Then she found that there was a passport office in Kitchener.  So she got a picture taken and she went there with all her forms expecting a long wait.  Before she could get comfortable in the waiting room with her Siduko book, her named was called.  She gave them her paperwork and paid her money and they said she would get her passport mailed to her in 10 days well in time for our trip to Florida.

Help

Barb got a cryptic email from a lady that she didn't even know in the United States Pickleball Association saying something about being able to help her and her pickleball partner Debbie.  Barb was hesitant to call back because she thought it was some kind of scam but I said she might be calling to offer them a sponsorship.  So Barb phoned her back and she was offering them a sponsorship.  Barb thought they had made the big time but she told the lady that she would have to try out the paddle before she could commit.  Barb is very particular about her paddle.

Little Woman

I was walking around the house all evening and heard a little voice of a woman talking to me.  I couldn't make out what she was saying but it was definitely talking to me.  Finally I found that I had left my mp3 player on after my walk and the audio book I was listening to was playing in my pocket all evening.

Good Player

Barb was told by her dentist to not do anything strenuous for two weeks after she got the screw put in her jaw.  So she didn't play pickleball.  All of Barb's friends were texting her asking her when she would be back to play because they said she was a good player.  Barb thought it was nice that they missed her.

Forgot

Daphne made our turkey dinner and made pies.  I brought my glazed carrots.  Max brought scalloped potatoes.  After dinner Daphne was putting the leftovers in the refrigerator and found the cranberries.  She had gone to the trouble of making home made cranberries and made two big bowls but then forgot to bring them out.  Barb loves cranberries with her turkey and was very surprised that she never noticed they were missing.

Fun With The Kids

We went to Daphne's for Thanksgiving and Karen and Max came as well with the kids.  Barb and Sarah had a lot of fun playing The Game of Life and Ginga with Patrick and Shannon after dinner.  They were all very loud, laughing and laughing.  Barb thought Patrick had a great sense of humour.

Backwards

I usually fill my pill box on Wednesday nights. I guess I put that pill box on the counter backwards after I filled it.  Then I took Tuesdays pills the next day.  Then Mondays and then Sundays.  I realized I was taking my pills backwards on Saturday.

Plastic Cups

While putting away the last glass after washing the dishes tonight at 2:30 am, the glass stuck to my wet hand and almost fell out of the cupboard.  I wouldn't have wanted to have to clean up broken glass all over the kitchen at that time in the morning.  I think I should stick to plastic glasses.

Package

We can see our neighbour Barry's house from our sun room and we spend most of our time in that room.  Today Barry got a package from UPS while he was out and the UPS guy left it at his front door.  Barry usually comes home and drives directly into his garage.  He gets out the car there and goes into the house through the garage.  So when he came home he never saw his package.  We waited a day or two and Barry never saw his package.  So Barb phoned him and told him there was a package at his front door.  Barry said thanks and then we watched him come out the front door and get the package and he waved at us.

Roots Pulled

We have to dip into our savings to pay for Barb's dental work.  Today Barb got her roots pulled where she had a root canal.  In a couple of weeks, she has to go back and get a peg screwed into her jaw where she will eventually have a crown.

While she was at the dentist today, she also had a cavity filled.  However, the filling was too high.  So she has to go back tomorrow to get it shaved down.  Barb is really getting to know her dentist.

J C McKenzie

Barb often sees an old high school colleague acting in her television shows.  He usually has parts for one episode in a series but Barb always recognizes him.  She wonders how he can be on so many shows when he isn't even a very good actor.  Barb looked him up on the internet and found his website.  His profile said he was born in 1970.  Barb said he was almost in high school by 1970 and she thought it was funny that he would lie about his age.  She thought only women did that.

Small Mouth

Barb was asking her dentist if she was taking new clients because Sarah was looking for a new dentist.  She said Sarah could come in.  Then Barb made a 'O' with her finger saying that Sarah had a very small mouth.  Then the dentist said if that was the case she wasn't taking new patients.  Barb loves her dentist's sense of humour.

Malek Finger

Laura was very upset about her broken finger but we had a little laugh about it today because Barb was telling Laura about a special splint that I once wore for a finger I broke playing basketball.  Barb was talking on the phone to Laura about it.  It was called Mallet finger.  Laura found a splint that would work for her but she thought it was called Malek finger like our friend's son who plays competitive tennis.

Both Teeth

Barb went to the dentist and when she sat down in the chair the hygienist said the dentist would be there soon to take out both teeth.  Barb corrected her and said she was only getting one tooth out.  Later the dentist came in and said she would be taking out both teeth at the same time.  Barb corrected her too saying she was only supposed to take out one tooth.  They seemed very eager to take out both teeth.

Keeping Score

At a lot of the fastball games that I go to there is no scoreboard.  So I keep score on one of my little pieces of paper.  The other fans see my keeping score and often ask me what inning it is.  They usually know the score but can't keep track of the inning.  That is why I keep score, not for the score but for the inning.

Close Call

I was driving home from a ballgame in Innerkip late at night and was stopped at a quiet little intersection in a quiet little neighbourhood.  I saw a car coming but I thought it was a 4-way stop and pulled out.  Then I thought to myself that car is coming too fast and isn't going to stop.  Fortunately, I didn't get out into the intersection too much because it wasn't a 4-way stop and I would have been side swiped by that car.

USB Ports

I was trying to record some more LPs tonight and when I turned on my computer the software didn't recognize the USB turntable.  So I thought that the USB ports were not working. I found the card with a different set of the USB ports and reseated it and the software was able to recognize the turntable.  The next day I was going to record some more LPs and the software didn't recognize the turntable again.  So I plugged the turntable into the old USB ports and the software recognized the turntable.  The next day the turntable wasn't recognized again and a screwed around with the USB ports again until it worked.  Then somehow I realized that I needed to turn on the turntable before I turned on the computer.  From then on the software always recognized the turntable.

Wrong Exit

Barb was on her way to Costco and somehow got into the wrong lane on the highway.  She was going onto wrong exit and was stuck in traffic.  So she cut across the grass to get back onto the highway and get to the right exit.

Accounting System

Barb was trying to find some information about the hydro and water bills and spent about an hour looking for it.  After she had struggled and struggled I realized that I had all of that information in my accounting system.  Again she was mad at me for not helping her earlier.

Late for Dinner

I went for my afternoon walk and told Barb I would be home at 6 pm and she could make dinner for that time.  Barb was 15 minutes late with dinner and I thought I had walked in at exactly 6 pm (exactly the right time for dinner).  Then I found out that my watch was 15 minutes slow.

A New Friend and a New Enemy

Barb got a call from a lady in the park about a quilt show coming up and the lady offered to pick her up and bring her to it.  This lady Barb did not even know.  So she was happy she had made a new friend in the park.  Then later in the day, she went to pickleball and a lady was insulted when she wasn't asked to play with Barb and the other good players.  Barb thought she had made a new enemy as well.

Rain Delay

So there was a long rain delay at the tournament in London and Jimmy Parkins and I were waiting for the games to start again.  Jimmy suggested that I stay at his place tonight.  I didn't have any of my stuff with me to stay over.  So we went to Tim Horton's and I messaged Barb about our plans.  She got my stuff together and we drove back to New Hamburg an hour away to pick up my stuff and then come back to the tournament after the rain delay.  So Barb got to meet Jimmy Parkins after all these years of hearing stories about my childhood friend.

Cellphone Locked Up

When I went to a tournament in London, I visited Jimmy Parkins in St Thomas and he invited me to stay at his place rather than have to make the hour drive back and forth each day.  On Saturday night, I took Jimmy home and went out to McDonalds to use their wifi because Jimmy didn't know the password for the wifi at his house. I had the cellphone and my iPod but when I tried to use the cellphone I found it was locked.  So I spent the evening messaging Barb about how to unlock the cellphone.  She looked it up on the internet at home and sent me a picture of how to unlock the cellphone in a message.  I still couldn't unlock it because I had to push two buttons in a row quickly.  So she phoned me and I could unlock it.  But after all that messaging, we didn't have time to talk about anything else.

Another Birthday Dinner

I went to Daphne's house today to celebrate my birthday by going out for dinner.  I wanted to have bacon and eggs and sausages.  So she took me to a local executive golf course restaurant and I had the hungry man's breakfast for dinner.  We sat out on the patio because Daphne had brought Scruffy with her.  There were three policemen also having dinner on the patio and we didn't think there was anyone else in the restaurant.  Later when we went in to pay, we went through one of the side rooms of the restaurant and there was a whole room of policemen having a party all in uniform.  I guess there were so many policemen at the party they didn't fit in one room.

One of the reasons I wanted to visit Daphne was to bring her some music that I had recorded from my LPs to put on her iPod shuffle.  I had put the music on a memory stick.  Then later I made a list on my little pieces of paper about what to bring to Daphne's and forgot to write memory stick on the paper.  So I forgot the memory stick.

Then as I was leaving I remembered I had most of the music on my iPod shuffle that was in my pocket but I thought it was too late to go back and copy it on her computer.  So I will have to wait until next time.

Hot Water

Barb always makes fun of me when I do something stupid while making coffee.  Most of time I forgot to put the pot on the burner when I start the coffee maker and the coffee pours out all over the counter.  So I thought it funny when Barb made a pot of hot water because she put in the water but forgot to put coffee in the coffee maker before she started it up.

Perfect Cards

Julia sent me a perfect birthday card that even arrived on my birthday.  On the front was a picture of a big comfy recliner chair with a laptop computer and it even had speakers attached to it.  It was just like my big comfy chair in the sun room.

Sarah gave me a homemade card on which she drew two hot dogs and had the poem about fat and skinny.  I was reminded of the days when I used to put Sarah to bed in Barrhaven.  We couldn't have done fat and skinny if she didn't have a waterbed.

Barb got me a card with a picture of the F distribution on the cover and a funny mathematical formula inside.

Birthday Dinner

I decided for my birthday we should go out for fish and chips at a local chip wagon.  I knew there was a great chip wagon about 20 minutes North of us so we drove there.  We found out that they had just changed to fall hours and weren't open on Wednesdays anymore.  So we drove back home and decided to drive to a different chip wagon that was 20 minutes West of us.  When we got there we found that the chip wagon was gone for the winter.  So we drove home again.  Barb knew of great chip wagon about 20 minutes East of us.  So we drove there.  We got there just a little after they had closed for the evening.  So we drove home and ended up at McDonalds around the corner from our house and Barb has a Big Mac meal.  I still had my heart set on fish and chips so I had a filet of fish sandwich meal.  I found out it was just a little square of fried fish with a little piece of cheese on it inside a bun.  There was no sauce or anything else on it.  It was a sad way to celebrate my birthday.

We Get Rain

We had a major drought this summer in New Hamburg but when it rains here it really pours.  I was heading out the door to drive to St Thomas to see my old friend Jimmy Parkins and it started to rain.  I decided to wait until it stopped raining and I had to wait an hour.  Then when it stopped raining I left and the first thing I had to do was fill up with gas.  So I went to neighbourhood gas station and there were a lot of cars lined up at the McDonald's drive through next door to the gas station as usual but tonight they were driving through about two feet of water in a giant puddle.  Fortunately, the gas station was on higher ground and I didn't have to get gas in a puddle.

Walking Through Doorways

I sent Barb a Facebook post about how as you get older you find that when you walk through a doorway into another room you forget why you were coming into that room and that it was caused by the doorway not you.  Barb said she didn't realize that it was because of doorway that that happened.  Today Barb came into the kitchen saying "The greatest thing I ever did ... " then she says "I forgot what I was going to say".  How could she forget "the greatest thing".

Recording

The reason I had kept the old XP desktop computer for so long was that it had the turntable that Barb had given me hooked up to it with special software to record my old LPs onto the computer as mp3 files.  I was very disappointed when I couldn't use my XP computer anymore.  Then I found this great Linux software for recording my LPs.  It even has the ability to remove clicks from scratches on the LPs.  However, I found that my computer doesn't have enough power for me to listen to the LP while I am recording it.  So I have to record the LPs in silence and then later edit the files and save them on the computer.  It takes about an hour to record on side of one LP.  So you can see how upset I was when I kept hitting the 45 rpm speed by accident and recording whole sides of LPs as if the Chipmunks were singing.  I would have to delete my recording and start over again. I was wasting a great deal of time.

Surprise

At Ruth and Ron's surprise going away party, I had to eat first because I had to leave early to go to a doctor's appointment.  When I was eating, I had trouble separating the paper plates.  I guess to save money the lady who organized the party had bought exactly enough paper plates and knives and forks for the number of people who were attending.  Barb came home and told me that they were one plate short when they were serving the food.  I checked and found that I taken two plates by accident.

Her Journey

Barb was talking about pickleball and her journey or someone else's journey and I said she had been watching too much Olympics.  That is how all of the personal interest stories start on television.

Brazil

Barb was upset with the Brazilian fans at the Olympics because they were treating every sport like a soccer game.  They would "boo" when the volleyball players they didn't like were serving to try to throw them off their game.  They did that not only in volleyball but every sport, even gymnastics.

Barb was also furious that the volleyball players continued to serve the ball into the net or out of bounds.  She said they almost never get aces anyway.  So why do they try to serve hard like that when even if they put the ball in play, they still don't get an ace and most of the time they just lose a point because of a serve in the net or out of bounds.

Internet Challenged

Barb is a little internet challenged.  In Firefox, she saves all of her favourite places under Weather because she says otherwise she can never find them.  So now she had the CBC Olympics website under the Weather tab.

Limit

I was watching the World Fastball Tournament on the internet while Barb was watching the Olympics.  After a while I thought, do we have a download limit per month.  Barb said she had never had any problems before and thought we might have unlimited download.  Soon after that Barb got an email from our internet service provider telling her that she had used up 78% of her limit.  We were heading to use 150% of our limit.  So Barb called them and got an upgrade to unlimited for a month so that we could continue to watch our sports uninterrupted.  Barb also was given a website to look up our usage each day and our accumulated usage.

Lost Files

I was having problems with the old XP desktop computer I had in my study.  So I decided to wipe the drive and reinstall the XP operating system.  It took quite a while to go through the set up routine and then when i went to activate XP I found out that Microsoft had taken down the servers they used for activation.  So I couldn't use XP any more.  I decided to install Linux on the old computer.  I found that the computer was so old you couldn't boot from a memory stick.  I had to make a boot CD.  I went out and bought two CDs.  Then when I looked for a Linux distribution and I found that it was slightly too big to fit on the 750 Mb CD.  I then found a minimal Linux distribution that was only 48 Mb.  So it definitely fit on a 750 Mb CD.  I installed Linux on the computer.

Later I was thinking about my old family diary files and remembered that I had saved them on 3 1/2 inch floppy disks and the only computer I had that read those disks was my old desktop computer.  I had copied all the disks on to the computer and then I had given a whole box of 3 1/2 inch floppies to Best Buy for recycling.  I panicked thinking that I had lost all of the files.

I searched all my files on my laptop hard drive and my external hard drives and couldn't find the diary files.  Then I looked at all my memory sticks and found the diary files on one of them.  I guess I had backed up the old XP hard drive on one of my memory sticks before I wiped the drive.  I was so happy.  Then I backed up the diary files all over the place after that.

Early Birthday Present

I guess I have been assigned the new car permanently and Barb has taken the old car for her use.  I was disappointed that there was no auxiliary plug in the new car for me to listen to my mp3 player on long drives.  I like to listen to audio books when I drive.  I was telling Sarah and Ali about it and Ali said you could buy a little gadget that you plug into your cigarette lighter and you can plug in your mp3 player and it will broadcast on a channel of your choosing so that you can pick it up on your car radio.  I said that I would look for it next time I was in Walmart but before I could do that Ali had bought me one and Sarah delivered to me as an early birthday present.

Sweat

Barb is playing pickleball in the KW Badminton Club.  The building is an old curling rink that has been converted for badminton and pickleball but it doesn't have any air-conditioning.  So Barb finds it very hot and she sweats a lot.  Today she decided to sit on a Costco bag on the drive home so that she wouldn't get the car seat wet from her sweaty skirt.

Yellow Shirt

I have had a great time going to fastball tournaments all summer.  This week the Canadian Junior Men's Championship was being played in Tavistock about 20 minutes away.  I paid for a weeklong pass and went every day to the games.  Some of the games were broadcast over the internet.  Barb took a picture of the computer screen of me in the stands behind home plate.  You could see me clearly because I was the only person in the stands wearing a bright yellow shirt.

Making Way

Today we had to move our cars out of the driveway because Google Maps was coming around to take pictures of Morningside.  We thought we had made the big times when Google to paying attention to us but later when we checked Google Maps we found we couldn't enter our house number any more only our street name.

Old Coffee Maker

Our coffee maker had worked for about 30 years but recently the hot water started overflowing the basket and the coffee and the grinds were poring all over the counter.  So Barb starting looking on the internet to find another coffee maker.  She read all the reviews and they said that there was this one coffee maker that she could buy online that made the best coffee.  Unfortunately it had a small pot of only 8 cups.  She ordered it but she didn't even open the box she just returned it.  She bought another coffee maker with a pot that was our usual size.  It may not make a great a cup of coffee but we are not connoisseurs anyway.  Unfortunately Barb had to buy new cone filters and we had lots of basket filters left over. Then Barb realized we could bring them to Florida because we have a basket style coffee maker there.

Lost Keys Again

Barb lost the key to her car after she got home from Ottawa.  She searched the house and couldn't find them.  She even searched the garage.  Eventually she found the keys in the CD holder of the car where she stores Betsy.  I guess they fell off her finger when she was putting Betsy away and she didn't notice.

Back Door

I drove back to New Hamburg from Ottawa in our new car while Barb stayed behind in Ottawa to play pickleball.  I wanted to get back for my ball game that night.  As I was driving home I realized that Barb had the keys to the house in her car.  Fortunately I remembered that we were too lazy to lock the back door and I got in that way and changed into my fastball uniform and made it to my game.

Airport Adventure

Julia and Dillon were coming back from visiting Daphne and Truman and were arriving at the airport.  They asked us to pick them up when they arrived.  We got there early and drove around the airport a few times.  Then we waited in a parking lot outside the airport until Julia texted us telling us they had arrived.  Then when we went to pick them up Julia said that they were at the departures area not the arrivals area.  So we drove up to the departures area and picked them up.  One of the guards there saw us picked them up and took down our license plate number he said that it was against the rules to pick people up at the departures area and it would normally be a $75 fine but he would let us off this time but if they saw us do it again we would definitely be fined.

Costly Strawberries

Barb was eating strawberries between games at the pickleball tournament in Ottawa.  She forgot she took out her mouth guard and dropped her mouth guard which cost her $500 on the ground when she got up.  Later in the day just before she was heading home, she found it under her chair.