Two more sleeps ...

... until we leave for Halifax.

Busy times in this household.

Thank the good Lord we resolved our mattress issue and we're both getting a good night's sleep now because we'll need to be properly rested for the week-end we're facing.

John is being a very good boy about what he needs to do to get ready too.

Perhaps for this trip, we'll actually have all our ducks in a row and we're not even going hunting!

John actually wanted to pack today.

A full day before we need to!  A full day before we realistically can, actually, for a lot of reasons.

You see, the cleaning lady comes tomorrow and I would rather not have her climbing over any more paraphernalia than is already in the way (remember the extra mattress I need to remove from my front hallway?).

Besides, I think that packing the late afternoon before a morning flight is plenty soon enough, but not too soon.  Usually, John leaves that chore until the very last possible moment!  In fact, I know some people who are still packing their suitcase an hour before their flight is due to take off (yes, really I do, don't I my little chickadee?).

Yesterday was spent putting our financial house in order.  We recently replaced our Visa cards and you have to know that the new ones arrived in the mail the day John left for Saskatchewan.  So, I couldn't activate them or he would have been left without a credit card while he was away.  The last day to activate the cards was the day John returned so I did that the minute he boarded the plane in Regina.  That meant I had to switch all my auto billings to the new card yesterday (wouldn't want anyone NOT to get paid).

(Rant starts)   I could not believe how painful it was to try to give Bell Canada the new Visa information.  First, I could not hear the other person -- he insisted that he was wearing his headset properly; but only when he "adjusted" his headset could I hear the occasional phrase.  Besides not being able to hear him, I could not comprehend anything he was asking me.  When I initially placed the call, the automaton put me through certain "security" hoops, one of which was voice recognition, which I apparently passed.  That did not prevent this jerk from having to ask me every question under the sun, except I couldn't understand what he was asking!  He insisted on asking questions I couldn't figure out -- something about did I want to access my account on-line?  (I had told him that the system would not let me update the credit card info on line.)  When I tried to explain that all I wanted to do was give him a new Visa card number so that my bill would be paid, he didn't seem to understand that concept!  I finally hung up in frustration after telling him that I would wait for the bill NOT to be paid -- then maybe someone from (Bell) Canada might have to call me. I should mention that it was a joy to deal with certain other companies who do not use off-shore call centres where I actually reached someone whom I could understand and hear clearly and who was quickly able to take the information and end the call.  (Rant ends)

Yesterday was also spent doing laundry of course.

And resting up from my two days of fun with my grandson.

He is such a joy!  But I hardly knew he was there. My beautiful boy is growing up way too fast to suit me.

His swimming lesson went off without incident, although he took waaaaay too long in that change room.  He did eventually emerge unscathed.  And he tells me that men do NOT prance around the boys' change room undressed the way women do in the girls' change room.  I discussed the phenomenon with John and he was quite surprised too when I described what our change rooms are like (although he admitted his experience is limited to the YMCA of years ago when it was ONLY men and they actually SWAM in the nude!).  He found it quite disturbing to think that adults would not demonstrate a little more dignity and respect for all parties in a public setting.  He has always known that I am uncomfortable for me in those rooms and that is a large part of why I don't go to public swimming pools.  But he had not previously given a lot of thought to the message(s) being sent on many levels to our children.  And it's a very tough call as to how to handle it.

I was the parent of a daughter so I never had to deal with that problem but this is a serious issue for me (what was the first clue?).  I didn't appreciate my child being exposed to the sight of every other woman's body; I was trying to teach her about modesty.  When our children were small, and my girlfriend's boys hit the magic age, she would not allow them to go into the room without her.  So they changed right there at poolside with very large towels wrapped around them.  Now that my grandson is caught in this mess, Grandma has to learn not to worry, cuz he's ... oh, hell, we know Grandma's gonna worry ...

Anyway, time to get back to preparatory activities ...

Only two more sleeps you know ...

In Other News:

My boys won the game handily last night, even with having the game cut short by rain.

Beat the Boston Red Sox 11 - 3 in seven innings.  Now that's impressive!

Too bad it's too little too late.

They are now only 11 games under .500 -- with just five games left on the season.

At least I'll get to see Doc pitch once more -- he's scheduled to take the mound tomorrow night, perhaps for the last time with Toronto (and imagine, Rogers Sportsnet is actually gonna broadcast it!).