Birthday Surprise

As my birthday was approaching, I talked to Laura and asked her if she was visiting me.  She said she sure was.

Then it was my birthday and no sign of Laura.  Barb was out playing pickleball.  I was looking at Facebook and saw some photos on Laura’s page about packing and heading for the airport.  I started looking at flights that she might have taken to Ottawa.  There were some early morning flights but then Laura would have been in Ottawa by now and she wasn’t.

Barb came home and wished me a happy birthday.  I said that I saw some funny posts on Laura’s Facebook.  Barb went out to the backyard and let Laura in the house by the back door to surprise me.

Half Price Half Cooked Hamburgers

Julia and Sarah and Barb went out The Works for dinner.  It is usually so good there.  However, this time there hamburgers were only half cooked.  They sent them back to be re-cooked but they were still raw when they got them back.  Then the manager gave them half price on the half cooked hamburgers and coupon for free hamburgers when they visited again.

Best Laid Plans

Laura had made complicated plans to travel to Montreal and Ottawa on her way to Vancouver to work at the end of the summer.  She was going to go to Montreal for a Metal concert.  Then take the train to Burlington where I would pick her up and take her to my ball tournament in Kitchener.  Then she would come back to Ottawa and go to another Metal concert.  Then hang out in Ottawa for a few days before heading back to Vancouver.

I was supposed to have a meeting up north with Max the week before the tournament in Kitchener.  Unfortunately, they postponed that meeting for a week so that now it feel right in the middle of my ball tournament.  When I told Laura that I wouldn’t be able to attend all of the ball tournament, she cancelled her plans.

Then Max's meeting was postponed again until September.  Now I was able to go the ball tournament.  Unfortunately, Laura told her work that she was available now and they scheduled her to work.  So she couldn’t change her plans back.

Bad Times in the Bathroom

When we got back from Florida, Barb was disgusted with the state of the shower in the bathroom.  She called a company to come and replace the shower stall but they were very busy and couldn’t come until August.  In the meantime, we had to live with the moldy baseboards under the shower stall.  We knew that we had problems when we found a mushroom growing out of the baseboard one morning.

When the guys finally came to replace the shower stall, they didn’t do a very good job.  The first thing we noticed was that they punched a big hole in the dining room ceiling when they put in the drain pipe.  They had to get their specialist to come and cut the pipe.

Then we had to wait for the caulking to dry.  I became the shower tester. The caulking wasn’t done right and they had to come back and fix it.  Then we waited for the caulking to dry again.

Then we noticed that they door wasn’t installed properly and water was pouring out under the door.  They came back and fixed that.

Then it was time to fix the rest of the bathroom.  We got our next door neighbor to put in new tile floor and baseboards.  Then Barb painted the walls and baseboards.  Now she is happy with the bathroom and it should last until we sell the place in a couple of years.

Barb’s Large Frame

Barb and her female partner went all the way to Windsor to play in a pickleball tournament.  It was a big event with lots of sports for seniors.  Barb and her partner won the women’s doubles.  They played in the finals against two sisters from Windsor who had never lost a game.  It was a big win.

At the banquet during the games, Barb was sitting with a group of friends from Cornwall.  Barb was saying that she and her partner had no competition.  The man sitting across the table from her said that Barb could hit the ball hard because she has a "large frame".

Daphne’s Whirlwind Tour

Daphne made some complicated plans to visit Sarah in Deep River for the weekend and then swing by Ottawa to visit Julia on Monday and Tuesday.  Then she was going to leave on Wednesday to visit a friend in Peterborough to play golf on the way home.

Sarah and Daphne hiked and canoed and stayed in a chalet in Algonquin Park.  They did some fishing and caught and cooked fish for dinner.

When Daphne was leaving Deep River, she checked the bikes on the bike rack of her car.  She put her wallet on the bumper.  Then she drove off and the wallet fell off the bumper in the parking lot of Tim Horton's.  Someone saw it and picked it up. When Daphne realized that she didn't have her wallet she went back to the Tim Horton's and looked for it.  She went inside to ask if anyone had turned it in but her wallet was gone. 

So when Daphne came to Ottawa, she had no money, no credit cards, no drivers license or identification.

I lent her some cash and Daphne started the process of cancelling her credit and bank cards.   

 

Daphne and Julia went on an bike ride adventure downtown.  They did yoga on Parliament Hill.  Then took a tour of the Parliament Buildings in French but skipped into the English tour part way through.  Then they went to GoodLife where Julia had a free pass for a “person and a guest”.  Apparently, neither of them needed to be a GoodLife member.

While Daphne was in Ottawa, the lady who found her wallet phoned Truman in Pike Lake and Truman emailed Daphne to tell her that her wallet had been found.  Unfortunately, Daphne didn’t see the email in time and had already started the process of replacing all of her cards.  Once the process was started it couldn't be stopped.

Sarah went and picked up the wallet from the lady in Deep River.  Then Sarah brought it back to Guelph later in the month to give to Daphne.

Daphne and the girls had a good time even though it was a whirlwind tour and there was the mishap with Daphne's wallet.

Impromptu Trip to Deep River

I was listening to my radio station and the DJ said after a song that the band that had just played was going to at Riverfest in Deep River this weekend.  I told Sarah about it and she asked me if I wanted to go.  I said “yes”.  So I started making plans.  Sarah was volunteering at Riverfest and playing in a beach volleyball tournament.  Barb had never been to Deep River.  So she thought it might be fun to go too.  Sarah said that Barb could join them in the beach volleyball tournament.  Barb contacted our friends from Florida who had a bed and breakfast in Deep River.  They were excited to have us visit but they had a family reunion that weekend.  They said that we could still come and use there guest house.

So we drove to Deep River on Friday night.  When we arrived Sarah was out volunteering at the Riverfest fireworks.  Barb was spooked out by the Convent residence that Sarah where was living.  We settled into the guest room at our friend's house.

The next morning Sarah picked up Barb and brought her to the beach for the volleyball tournament.  I came by in the afternoon.  Then in the evening, Barb and I went to the concert.  Barb really liked the guys who were the masters of ceremony.  They were called "The Arrogant Worms' and sang funny songs.

We sat in our lawn chairs beside another couple.  The lady said that Barb looked familiar.  It turned out that the lady was the daughter of the lady that Barb played pickleball with in Dartmouth, the same lady that Barb met at city hall during the pickleball demonstration last month.

We went up to the front for when "The Mounties" came on.  Sarah who was working the cash box in the beer tent came up too when she finished her shift.  She brought all of her friends from the residence.  Sarah said that Kevin was just like me.  Always reading self-help books and listening to books on CD.  He had seen Barb on Facebook and said that Barb’s hair looked better in real life.

The next day we had breakfast with our friends from Florida.  Then Sarah took us on a long drive through Algonquin Park to walk on the trails and see a cliff and then a lake.  It was hot so Barb and Sarah went swimming in their underwear.

Then on the way home, Barb and I saw a black bear on the side of the road.  After we drove by the bear nonchalantly crossed the highway.

It was memorable weekend.