Canada Day and an unexpected week in Manitoba

Wendy and Eric took Tanya (Anton went to bed early) to her first Canada Day celebrations in the town of Lynden. They have a great small town event with music and food, topped off with fireworks. Cotton candy, kettle corn, and lemonade were purchased as we sat waiting for the fireworks. After a bit of a delay for technical issues, the show was great! Even better, there seemed to be no mosquitoes! 

Eric, Wendy, and Tanya

Eric's father had a medical emergency and needed surgery to insert a pacemaker. Eric and Parker took a week and flew out to Manitoba to help out. Flying through Hamilton (on Swoop) was a great choice, with no lineups for security. 

Eric's younger brother Dave picked us up in Winnipeg and drove us to Portage la Prairie. We stopped for a quick dinner and introduced Parker to Slurpees from 7-11! He had a few during the week.

Eric's mom's flower gardens were doing very well (although not so well for vegetables). Lots of interesting things to see growing in the yard.

Dying poppy

Eric did some cleaning and cooking so that everyone had lots to eat, and went shopping for groceries a few times. Even had some time to walk around town to recall some fond memories.

Eric's father is still recovering from his surgery, but is keeping as active as he can. Sometimes he was too active... and needed a few reminders to try to take it easy. 

The BBQ got a work out several times during the week.

Burger day

Chicken legs, grilled turnip, peas

When it was time to head back home, Eric's older brother Karl came from Winnipeg to take us to the airport, giving us a short visit in the car. 

Even with blue sky and sunshine all around, we saw a rainbow on the way to Winnipeg. Within 10 seconds of taking this picture, the rain started. 

A minute later, still under blue sky and sunshine all around, the rain stopped as suddenly as it began. Must have be one cloud directly overhead.

After a late flight back to Hamilton (landing at midnight), Adam picked us up to bring us home. Overall, it was a good trip and the little things we could do to help settle things back into a routine were well worth it. 

Spring is giving way to summer!

 

Spring started well around our place with lots of colour in the garden! 

Maddy is getting older (she is 11) but she still has her queen attitude sometimes. She is liking that there are now 6 humans available to provide for her every need.

Yes, Tanya and Anton from Ukraine arrived Easter Sunday and have integrated very well with our family. Maddy certainly enjoys the extra attention, and her Ukrainian humans are enjoying the relative peace of a Canadian spring.  We were able to take in a hike in the Dundas area to show them some of the local hiking trails.

We mostly wanted to find trilliums, and we even found some red ones!

Eric is back at teaching spring courses, with 2 classes online and 2 in person. 

Wendy's cousin Sarah from Ottawa dropped by for a quick visit and we had a great time catching up.

Other than the usual walking of Maddy, we also were invited to a Blue Jays game by our friends Terry and Theresa.

Wendy likes the opportunity to play games when I am not able to say no. This is a Mexican Train domino game that is a current hit. 

Wendy's brother and family had us take care of their dog for a while. She is quite young and energetic, and this is somewhat intimidating for an old girl like Maddy. Here she is climbing on me to get away from some random playfulness.

Maple is a very sweet (and incredibly soft) girl, but she and Maddy just didn't make it work out during her week at our place.

With summer flowers, also come the summer seeds. This actually makes them look pretty.

Parker and his girlfriend Jaclyn took Wendy and I (father's day gift) to see Top Gun: Maverick recently. Great movie, especially in the moving DBox seats!

As for my health, I have had some significant back pain. We found a lesion on my spine (the scooped out area in my vertebrae), and have had a CT, x-ray, MRI, and bone scan. Hard to know if it is cancer. However, I had a PET CT yesterday and it seems to suggest that it is not cancer.  We will see after a while.

Right in the middle is a large gap in my vertebral body.

PET CT (a few spots, but nothing exciting)

Summer is upon us now, just hope the weather gets warmer again to really enjoy it. Coming up in June is a quick trip to Toronto to see the Pride parade, and in July, Wendy and I go with Terry and Theresa to Newfoundland for a week of vacation. 

Spring changes around the Seidlitz house

Hi everyone,

I see that I haven't posted since December - oops! Lots of things have happened since we finished our bathroom renovation. 

The first big event was the birth of a little great niece in the end of December. Wendy went out to Pembroke to help and was absolutely thrilled to be around a baby again! 

At New Years, Parker's girlfriend Jaclyn dropped by to ring in 2022. 

Maddy was happy to start playing with her new soccer balls (two different sizes, but she adores the large one). Maddy turned 11 in February and enjoyed her once yearly eating at the table.

Valentines day saw Parker and Jaclyn get together for an official photoshoot (with me as the photographer).

Wendy and I went to Toronto for a short vacation during the February break week. We hit the Art Gallery of Ontario, went out to dinner with several friends two nights in a row, and stayed in an apartment that overlooked the Island Airport (so I could watch airplanes). Wendy was also able to go to the new Chick-fil-A, and we went to Krispy Kreme on our way home.

Seidlitz Powder sign in Kiehl's (Yorkdale Mall)

Art Gallery of Ontario

In March, Wendy and Adam went skiing with our niece and family in the Kitchener area. We also went for dinner with the family while my sister was visiting (on her way home from Pembroke, before heading back to BC). The restaurant we went to was directly across the lake from Justin Bieber's house. 

Parker finished his real estate course and is now licensed as a real estate agent. He continues to work with Fair Square (previously called Purple Bricks) and hopes to learn as many aspects of the business as possible. 

One of the students in my program recently wrote a series of articles after interviews with people all relating to the topic of "I am not my illness". She published it online the night before my birthday. The link to the story is pasted below.

https://healthydebate.ca/2022/04/topic/thyroid-cancer-remission-professor/

Wendy and I are planning a few trips this year (pending the pandemic). We are going with friends (Terry and Theresa) to Newfoundland in July, and are going to Disney World in mid-December (likely with Parker and his girlfriend, plus our friends Mel and Murray). A couple of days before Disney, Wendy and I plan to go to a concert - Andrea Bocelli at Madison Square Gardens in New York City! We will likely go out to dinner and wander around the city before we head to Florida from there.

For me, the winter term has just ended and marking is now the focus for the next several weeks. After that, I am teaching two courses in the spring term (May to mid June), so there won't be much rest for a while. The spring flowers are just out and the weather is warming up. We went to Dairy Queen the other day to get Blizzards for dessert - since it was so warm and since my family were experiencing an April blizzard in Manitoba. 

I will try to post again soon, as we are having some new people move into our house this weekend (a young couple from Ukraine). Will tell you all about how it is going once they arrive.

Bathroom renovation is complete!

You may not have known, but we had one of our bathrooms renovated this fall. The kid's bathroom was one of the only rooms of the house that has had little done to it (since 1964, apparently!), so it sorely needed a complete re-do.

We started with the design and came up with a concept of what we wanted. We found a cabinet maker for some custom cabinets (The Willow Woodshop in Waterdown). We bought most of the finish materials in the summer/early fall but had to find a new contractor after our original contractor got ill. We found another local company (Huisman Construction) and it was off to the races November 16th!

Before:

Over the past 26 years, we have painted it several times, put in new flooring, replaced the sink and toilet, and added a vinyl tub surround - that was about it. 

During:

Essentially done by a single guy (Kris), it took barely a day to demolish the entire room. We decided we didn't want a useless bulkhead over the tub (that tub and the toilet were the only things that we kept), so out that went as well. All new electrical and plumbing was installed, then new insulation in all the walls went in.

After:

An here is the finished product, 1 day short of one month of work! We got new pot lights and a wall light fixture, a new ceiling exhaust fan, more electrical plugs, a new sink and faucet, a tiled floor and shower with two custom alcoves, and new custom cabinetry with a lot more storage.

We decided on glass tile for the backsplash. The countertop is similar to our master bathroom in that it it has glass chips embedded in a white background. 

The shower tiles are shiny versions of the tile used on the floor. We also added hexagon tiles to each of the alcoves to add some pattern. Both are neutral grey in colour. 

We went with a soft blue as the wall colour and picked up a shower curtain that coordinates. 

We are very pleased with the results. Maybe this bathroom will also last for 57 years!