Take me OUT OF the ballgame....please

'Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks....' lalala lalalalalala.............

I think that was a ballgame we went to today. The Toronto BlueJays put on a lacklustre performance, but at least they won. We missed the one and only run of the game...through a series of unfortunate events we didn't make it to the Roger's Centre until the top of the 4th inning! In less than 2 hours, we were leaving again. But nothing tops the ballgame we went to when our kids were much younger....

It started with a police officer pulling us over for speeding when we'd detoured to a suburb to get some gas. The nice officer let us off with a warning. We only missed the top of the first inning...but believe it or not the Jays were already losing by 13-0! They hadn't even been up to bat yet!!! Other late comers around us were incredulous at the score. It was a premonition for the rest of the day I think.

Our kids had each brought a friend. My son's friend ate an entire large bag of popcorn slathered in butter. Suddenly.... he ejected his stomach's contents all over a spectator who sat directly in front of him! I will spare you a descriptive picture of that scene. You've never seen people clear a section of seating so quickly! Staff at the (then named) Skydome were kind enough to present the poor recipient of the 'chunky' (sorry) shower with a free T-shirt as he went to the washroom to change. He was thankfully very patient with the whole thing. It was good for my son to see the cleanup crew in action at the Dome so he won't pursue that as a full-time career. No one sat anywhere near us after that. We left soon after. There was obviously no hope for the Jays...I have forgotten the final score. The ride home was not much better. Our poor sick little friend threw up into a bag all the loooong way home....while my daughter and her friend (and us!) thought that trip would never end!

So hey, today was not so bad at all! It was a beautiful day and we took advantage after the game by visiting a park we've come to love in Toronto. Here's some snaps. Enjoy. And a little advice? Never eat popcorn at a ballgame. It don't look too good if you see it again.

Dishwasher of Death

I've never met a dishwasher I didn't like....until I met my aunt's dishwasher. It all began with a visit to the Capital city of Canada during Christmas holidays one year. If you love having your eyelashes freeze shut as your breath turns to icicles, and the cold air is so bitter it hurts to breathe...then you'd love Ottawa in the winter. (But bring a block heater for your vehicle!) We had a wonderful visit with relatives and stayed at my generous aunt's vacant house....she's the smart one in the family who lives in Florida for the duration of the winter.

On the last evening of our visit, I decided to wash the towels we had used so no one else would have to. I put the towels in the washing machine in the basement and went back to the kitchen to load the dishwasher. When I came down again to check on the towels, water was pouring out of the laundry tub all over the floor! I called to my husband who quickly figured out that you have to flip a switch by the tub to start the sump pump. It thankfully sucked the water away and as we mopped up the floor we were relieved the basement is unfinished and the valuable stuff was at the other side of the room. No harm done. Floor would be dry by morning. (Choke!)

NOTE!!

For best cleaning results, place dishes
on floor before operating.

It was very late by this time. I turned on the dishwasher and we all went to bed. I tossed and turned for quite a while, and finally asked my husband if he would go down to the family room and turn down or turn off the TV that my son and nephew had left on. I couldn't sleep with the noise. He was gone for several minutes. Then he popped his head in the bedroom and exclaimed...'the dishwasher's overflowing!'...and he disappeared. I really thought he was kidding because we'd already had the laundry tub overflow. Cute joke. He's probably getting something to eat.

But he didn't come back.

I went to the kitchen to find the floor quickly filling with water and edging towards the rugs in the adjoining rooms! The obvious thing to do would be to turn off the dishwasher. I thought my husband was losing it. I mean, you just open the door and it will automatically shut off. Anyone knows that. I quickly found that with this dishwasher it didn't matter what you did! You turn it off.....you open the door....it mattered not. The water flowed continuously, spewing out all over the floor.

Dishwasher may be run with or without door open.

Next course of action....shut off the water under the kitchen sink. Nope. Turning the valve under there did nothing! By now I was rolling up my pyjamas, wading through water and getting very panicky. My husband ran down to the basement to find the main water shutoff. He couldn't find it anywhere! I phoned my cousin but got an answering machine. She had left me the phone number of the neighbour in case of emergency (could she have known????) ...so at 1:30 a.m. I am waking a poor neighbour to ask her where the water shutoff valve might be in this house. "Oh, yes, she was having problems with that dishwasher.....". But no, she didn't know where the shutoff was.

More panic. It was now looking like Niagara Falls in the basement as the water from that devilish appliance was showering through the floor boards above... and we still couldn't find the shutoff! We eyed the computer sitting on a desk not too far from Niagara and wondered how long before it would be on a Maid of the Mist voyage - hopefully near and not under the Falls. My cousin finally returned our frantic phone call and she was hysterically laughing on the other end. I tried to explain that we would need a wet-vac to suck up all this water that had now reached the rugs and showed no sign of stopping. She said we could just throw down some towels. Well, this would not only take every towel in the house, but every blanket, bedsheet, and maybe the drapes too! My husband triumphantly proclaimed he had found the shutoff valve and to our profound relief the water flow stopped.

This appliance washes both dishes
and floors simultaneously.

We spent the next hour or two mopping and mopping to prevent damage to the rugs. Later when we got up after a few hours sleep, we held our breath as we turned on the main water supply again. Thankfully the dishwasher had finished its rant and did not start up again on its own. More hours were spent mopping in the basement with my cousin helping....and still laughing. Apparently the basement of this house she'd grown up in had seen its share of floods and this was just another.

I have tried not to imagine the horrible damage that would have incurred had I not been bothered by the TV and we had slept through the flooding of the house. It has taken a long time for me before I could really laugh about it. This story has become a recurring joke in the family and even my aunt thought the whole thing was very funny. We recommend people wear lifejackets if they sleep at her house.

This past weekend we went back to the scene of the crime to that very house for a surprise birthday party for my aunt. I didn't go near the kitchen. We presented my aunt with a gift of water wings, dishwasher soap, sponges, and towels. In her card we enclosed magnets with the various illustrations you see in this blog. I'm glad she thought the whole incident was hilarious...I can laugh now....but I won't get anywhere near that dishwasher! It's possessed!

CAUTION!! Use only while lifeguard on duty! Keep lifesaver nearby!

Saturate me

Being a gardener, I was giddy like a kid when it started pouring rain yesterday. The ground has been so dry and dusty. Plants were wilting from the humidity. Our rain barrels were almost empty. I'd been watching the dark clouds pass us by for days now.

But now I stood on the front porch watching the glorious rain saturate the earth. What a wonderful sound and smell! The child in me wanted to just run out into the warm downpour and dance....but the adult in me had great respect for the lightning bolts!

...Living Water
Spirit of God in me....

Saturate my soul
Closest friend...

Here in Your presence
Is fullness of joy overflowing

Welcome in This Place - Hillsong United

Lacking direction in your life?

Then git yerself a GPS........Global Positioning System for those of you not up on somewhat recent technology. My husband took a trip to Montreal with a co-worker who had a GPS in his van, and he came home from the trip 'needing' a GPS of his own because it was so cool and useful. Not only will it guide you to your destination, it knows where you are and will tell you where the nearest coffee shops, restaurants, malls, businesses, etc. are!

My mouth dropped open when he told me what he paid for this top of the line device which he reasoned since he never spends money on himself (true)...and father's day was imminent...and he was getting a bonus from work....he could afford this one luxury that would assist us on trips, of which we seem to be taking a lot since getting the new car. Well, we got a lot of laughs out of this device when we first used it - mainly because we jumped right into using it without learning about all of its features first. Having Ginny GPS in your car telling you where to go is a little weird. We wondered if she would start giving us orders and making decisions for us.

Our first real excursion with portable Ginny was in a caravan of our daughter's friends going to her 'out of town' birthday party to join other friends for the celebration. Since her friend's car had broken down, we were driving some of her friends in a rented van with Ginny GPS, while our daughter drove our car behind us with more of her buddies. My husband very proudly entered into the GPS the address of the girl we needed to pick up on the way. We knew the way to her city... just not how to get to her house.

Well, Ginny tried to direct us off every single ramp there is off of the main highway, when we were nowhere near the city of destination. We finally had to turn the GPS off altogether until we got to the city our way, then Ginny helped us get to the friend's house. When we left there, we should have listened to our senses rather than Ginny's directions. We went the opposite way to what logic told us, and got farther and farther from our final destination. After many kilometers out of the way, we realized Ginny was trying to get us to the toll highway which we were trying to avoid! I didn't know how much longer I could endure Ginny's electronic voice... "re-cal-cu-la-ting"! Then Ginny told us to turn left, but my husband ended up being in the left turning lane to a Wal-Mart! As I suspected would happen, the cell phone rang. My poor daughter following behind us as we drove into oblivion, was phoning wondering why we were driving through a Wal-Mart parking lot, when we were going to be anywhere near our city of destination, and informed us she had to go to the bathroom!!! My husband was close to losing it by that point, while I stifled giggles. Normally we have no problem at all driving to this city.

The folks in our van were laughing and joking that we were carrying all the food for the party... so perhaps we should just give up, let Ginny guide us to the nearest restaurant, and maybe the chefs would cook our food for us and we'd party there! Well the evening was still young when we did finally get to the amazing 'party' house with wonderful bathrooms for my daughter, a huge deck for entertaining, beautiful weather and fabulous friends. Ginny has settled down for us now that we've gotten to know her better, although she has led us to a couple of phantom restaurants!

Here's my advice if you buy a GPS. Be sure you program it to find the shortest route, to ignore toll roads and dirt roads, etc. Don't follow the GPS blindly - know where you're going first (does that make any sense to you?) And don't ignore the warning you find everytime you turn it on to use it. It's a very distracting device. Keep your eyes on the road....even if it's the wrong one!

This road

A million miles away from anything familiar

a thousand places I would rather be

so I choke back the tears and try to find the bright side

though I find it hard to see beyond my suffering

in my heart I know your plan is so much bigger

but this small part is all that I can see

and I believe you haven't left me here to wander

still I can't help but ponder where you're leading me

(chorus)

and I ask why this road

why this way and this load

tell me how far must I go till I see

till I know why this road

A million miles away from anything familiar

what was it like to be so far from home

though you came in love

the world misunderstood you

there must have been some days when you felt so alone

but you endured, cause there was joy before you

joy that came because you sacrificed

Since you gave yourself just to spend forever with me

surely I can trust you'll lead me through my darkest times

when I ask why....

(chorus)

From here I can not see

why you'd choose this path for me

but I don't have to understand to believe

that you know why

You know why this road

why this way and this load

you know how far I must go till I see

till I know why this road

'This Road' by Ginny Owens

Happy Canada Day!

I live in the greatest country on the face of the earth.

Long live peace and freedom!

Happy 140th Canada! We love you!