Turkey dinner in April

Friday, April 27th

Today was "Turkey Dinner Day".  I still had a 15 lb turkey in the freezer from Christmas that needed to be used. Dad's caregiver, Larny, managed to accumulate 3 turkeys for Christmas. I managed to use up two of them for Christmas and New Years but still had one left to use. What better way to use it up than to invite friends, Steve and Dianne, who also enjoyed taking home 1/2 the leftovers. lol :) We have a great symbiotic relationship ... I like to cook and they like to eat what I cook. This bird needed to go so I don't have to move it to the island in a couple of weeks. :)

This was the last day of sunshine for a few days so we managed to sit outside for a little while, but the wind came up in advance of the storm predicted overnight, so inside we went.

Enjoying the sunshine on the patio.

Master carver Ray

You can see Ray in the mirror. lol

We had a wonderful dessert that Dianne made. A coconut chocolate cake. Yumm. Another wonderful few hours spent with our besties. :)

Saturday we had a quiet day as it poured rain so just stayed home and did laundry etc.

My Uncle Ken, at age 86, went into the hospital on Wednesday, to have a valve in his heart replaced on Thursday by laparoscopic techniques and was already home on Friday morning. He was feeling much better other than the two "holes" in his groin on each thigh that they used for the surgery. Wow, advances in the medical fields regarding non-invasive surgeries have come a long way.  The procedure, developed in BC, is quickly spreading through North America as more surgeons come to Vancouver for training.

Sunday, we were out of the house by 10 am to visit Uncle Ken and Aunt Norma and bring them some left over turkey, their favourite. Another house showing at 12:30 so we needed to be gone. Later in the afternoon Garrett and Kat came for a visit, mostly to pick up some planter pots for their own gardening endeavours. We took them out for an early dinner at Don Asian Restaurant, a short distance from the house. It was delicious. The kids headed back home shortly after, as they have to go to work tomorrow.

Monday, we were out of the house around 8am, taking the motorhome in to have her fibreglass nose fixed. This damage was caused almost 2 years ago by the tow truck driver when we had the housing of the air conditioner fall down into the fan blades and we were dead on the highway by Creston, BC. I thought we were on fire, grabbed my purse with our passports, grabbed the dog and Ray ran out of the rig with the fire extinguisher ... fortunately it was just steam. It took 2 months to get ICBC clearance to pay for this damage as the tow truck driver lied to them and it was only because I had pictures showing that his truck did indeed have "red paint" (the company had repainted the hook) on his forks that go under the motorhome. This was the tow truck that was sent by BCAA.  Note ... always take cell picture of any damage/towing etc. We spent a week in the Freightliner yard in Cranbrook in the hottest part of June for repairs.

As all of you that live full-time in your rigs ... it is hard to schedule work to be done that will take longer than a day or so. Last spring, the service centre qualified to do this work, was too busy to take us in until last fall and of course we were on the road again away from Langley, so this year it is going to be done while we have the use of Dad's house to stay in and before we move to the island.

Notice his lift is all "red". Without this picture ICBC would have refused the claim.!

Pinched generator exhaust

If it hadn't been for the technician at Freightliner we probably would not have noticed this damage until the fibreglass nose fell off!

Anyways, our realtor texted me last night and we have 2 more showings this afternoon. Fingers crossed.

A walk and dinner with our besties, Steve and Dianne

Yesterday, April 24th was such a beautiful day, we decided to invite Steve and Dianne over for a walk and some dinner. They do not get a chance to see a lot of the local parks as their truck is so big. Also, their current campsite at Peace Arrch does not get any sunshine and we have a lovely patio in the sun with a great view of the backyard.

We had been to Redwood Park last year and walked to the "Fairy Village" and thought they might like to get out to see it. As I was cooking .... their answer almost always is yes, unless otherwise committed. lol

They arrived at 3pm and off we went to Redwood Park, about a 5 minute drive away with Freya loaded up in the back of the car.

A lot of people have put in lots of effort with their ferry houses. As Ray followed Steve and Dianne, I followed behind straighening any houses that had fallen over, hence no pics of me. lol

After a lovely walk, although short, it was time to come back and enjoy the sunshine on the patio with a few beverages. We openned a bottle of champagne to celebrate getting our house on Cowichan Lake.

Cheers!

After a couple of hours it was time to eat dinner, honey garlic chicken wings in the Instant Pot and Chinese Fried Rice and Maple Walnut Ice cream for dessert. Yummm.

Dinner

Dessert

Wednesday we just kind of hung around enjoying the back yard and the beautiful sunshine. Thursday we had another showing scheduled at 5 pm ... oh dear I guess I cannot cook dinner as it will make a mess. lol Dianne and Steve were supposed to come over for dinner but I had to reschedule them for tomorrow instead. So after cleaning the house at 4 pm and washing floors, Ray and I packed up Freya in the car and moved up the street and parked in the shade for about 45 minutes while the people viewed the house. Once back, we fed Freya and then drove to one of the new restaurants in Grandview Corners, a short distance from Dad's house. The Woo Korean BBQ was excellent. You can cook your own meat.

Pork Belly

Another great day.

Spring is finally here!

A leftover picture from our visit in Squamish, Freya giving her Aunty Kat some loving. (Kira never lets her do this. lol)

Wednesday, we were invited to lunch with Steve and Dianne to meet some people who follow our blog from Northern Alberta. Leslie and Dave Roche. They managed to snag a campsite next to Steve and Dianne at Peace Arch RV Park for a couple of days before heading back to Alberta. The choice was made to go back to Big Ridge Brewing where we all enjoyed an Asian Dish of some sort as that was the special of the day. A great visit and even though Dave and Leslie invited us for dinner with Steve and Dianne, we had to decline as Ray had already sat too long as was not feeling very well with his cold. Thanks for the invite though and we hope to catch up with you again next year in Arizona.

The sun finally came out to stay today so after lunch, Ray and I sat outside on the back patio enjoying the rays. Only the third time we have sat outside since the beginning of January as the weather has been so bleak. Freya sure appreciates it when we're outside, she is missing our usual lifestyle in the motorhome where we are outside every day.

Thursday it was off for pedicures for Dianne and I. We always have a blast when we get together. We are expecting a furniture delivery today of some antique pieces we purchased for the new house so Ray will stay home and wait, not that he wanted a pedicure, lol. Another sunny day ... yeah!

After our toes were done and I did a little grocery shopping we decided to pick up the lads and head to White Rock for Moby Dick's famous fish and chips. It was too nice a day not to go out somewhere! At least that was the excuse I used. :) lol but did not receive any objections. Our furniture already arrived and my new waffle iron from Amazon so Ray was good to go.  I managed to find a parking spot right out front of the restaurant which is usually unheard of and a bunch of people just left as we walked in so we got a table for 4 without the usual wait. Bonus. The food was fabulous.

With full bellies we took a short ten minute stroll down the promenade, watched a train go by and then took our guests back to Peace Arch RV Park. Not a long interlude but Ray was feeling pretty tough still with his cold so to bed he goes.

Here comes da train!

We got home to a message from our realtor that we have 2 more showings scheduled, one on Saturday morning  at 10:15 am and one probably on Sunday. Fingers crossed. Tomorrow it is off to get my hair done and then I have an appointment with the accountant to sign off on Dad's 2017 income tax. After that I need to pay mega $$$ at the bank for said income tax.  The tax department sure gets a lot of your hard earned investments when you die. Once less thing on my list as executor though.

Another week goes by in rainy Surrey.

The week of April 9th to April 17th

Monday we picked up Steve and Dianne for our bi-annual trip together to the Big Ridge Brewery in Surrey for their burger and beer special. As always a great visit catching up with their busy week and ours.

Friday we went to Squamish to visit Garrett and Kat, deliver their Costco purchases that I made on their behalf and go out for dinner. The rain was torrential driving down the Squamish Highway. Our new car, Ford Edge Sport, certainly handles wet roads well. I am very happy with the "feel" of no slipping. My cold has subsided pretty much so I think I am no longer contagious.

While waiting for Garrett and Kat to come home from work we visited our friends Delle and Chris, who live only a short distance from Garrett's townhouse. A great couple of hours with tea and cookies. :)

For dinner we took the kids out for dinner to a new place in downtown Squamish called the Copper Coil. Delicious barbecued meat and great beer. This place has a great neighbourhood pub feel.  We've done a few BBQ's in the US but none as good as this place.

Back home Saturday morning. Ray has started coming down with my horrible cold. Poor guy. We needed to be home so that we could let Kerri and Steve get their tent trailer out of the garage Sunday morning. We have some furniture pieces arriving for our new house this week and needed the space.

Freya all tuckered out from her visit with her sister, Kira. She wanted me to play with her with all of her toys and then just collapsed! lol

Monday morning we were off again early on the ferry to Nanaimo for our doctor's appointments. Another very wet rainy day. Hope that our daughter Kristi and her husband Jason are managing to stay dry in their new trailer this week. Kristi took a week's holiday to go fishing and camping with Jason at Kissinger Lake, near Lake Cowichan.

Tuesday we woke up to clearing skies ... yeah. Today we have to drive to Lake Cowichan and sign up for our new post office box that has a 2 month wait list. There is a scheduled showing today at Dad's house at 4 pm. We ended up taking the 12:45 ferry back and parked down the road for 1/2 hour until they were finished. We are sure hoping the house sells soon. Keeping it clean with a dog that is in a major spring shed is a challenge and we find we are eating out a whole bunch more with showings so we don't make a mess. Counting down the days until we move into our new house, May 15th. lol

Motorhome basement broken into.

Here is a spring picture from April 2015 of the Agassi Tulip Festival. Things are way behind this year.

Well, another week has gone by. We've had 2 more showings of the house so there is still in interest out there. With all of the new changes with the mortgage affordability test, foreign buyers tax etc. properties over $1M  are not selling as fast. Also there is a scare that the housing bubble is about to burst. Fingers crossed that we don't get caught up in off of this.

Wednesday, April 4th, Ray noticed that a compartment door was open in the motorhome. When he went out to check he found the lock had been forced and our brand new camp stove and cover had been taken. Upon further investigation on the drivers side, hidden from view of the house, another 2 compartments had been broken into and 4 of our new Lifeline 6-Volt batteries were stolen. Fortunately they did not open all the compartments or they would have found our other 6 Lifeline batteries. Can't wait to get out of the Lower Mainland onto Vancouver Island. According to the police thieves take batteries for methamphetamine production. They will get a surprise when they find out these are AGM gel batteries. This is the 46,408 theft in Surrey since January 1st 2018 so the chances of the police finding who did it is pretty slim.

Ray and I managed to catch up with some friends of ours for lunch on Thursday as we had to get out of the house for a showing anyways. Bill and Pam Freckleton are friends we met on Hornby Island the second summer of full-timing when we explored Vancouver Island. They took the plunge last July, sold everything and bought a new to them motorhome and are now full-timers themselves. We were supposed to meet up with them in Quartszite in January but with Dad's death we came back home from the States early. As usual I forgot to take pictures so here is an old one of them. :)

The rest of the week Ray and I 've been checking out furniture places to see what we might want for our new house. Most of our old stuff went to the kids 6 years ago or was sold with our Nanaimo house. Great fun looking.

Easter weekend and Garrett's Birthday

Easter Bunny visited Kristi and Jason last week and now it was ready for Garrett and Kat. Been years since I participated.

Lots of fun. :)

Friday morning Ray and I were relaxing and not worrying about the "mess from dinner" with Steve and Dianne last night, as I had the whole day to clean it up before the showing on Saturday morning. The pork belly is quite messy with the final frying before serving so a lot of grease ended up all over the stove. Unfortunately or fortunately my realtor emailed me at 8:30 that people wanted to come by at 11:30 am. Well that was like getting an ice bucket thrown on my head, so up and attem! 

Garrett and Kat were supposed to come over Friday but with the scheduled showing for Saturday morning at 10 am they made alternative arrangements with friends in Pitt Meadows and were scheduled to arrive after Saturday's showing. They are currently dog sitting a friends dog and I could not face the thought of cleaning up after 3 large dogs before showing the house Saturday morning. As it turned out, a good thing, as we had a showing on Friday as well. :)

This makes 4 showings in just over a week so fingers crossed that this is a good sign.

Once Garrett and Kat got here they left the dogs with us and took off to a gocart race track for Garrett's birthday present. Here are a couple of pictures Kat took.

Garrett had a blast but Kat did not want to try it.

Once back we all relaxed with the dogs outside. It was sunny enough and warm enough we all sat outside for the first time this year.

Paris, the small yellow lab that Garrett and Kat are looking after for 2 weeks.

Kira and Freya watching the newcomer Paris eat their stick

Next it was time to get ready for our reservation at Kami Sushi for dinner.

Our gorgeous daughter-in-law (She never puts make-up on but tonight she did for her picture with Garrett! lol)

Happy Easter

We had a fabulous meal at Kami Sushi and all were really full by the time we got back. Kat had baked a pecan pie for Garrett's birthday and also had a hazelnut torte. Yumm.

We all woke up by 7am due to 3 dogs!!! We had a lovely visit and a light breakfast of toast before the "Grand Finale" ... Dim Sum at the Kirin Restaurant at the Starlight Casino on Anasis Island. We had tried to go there two weeks ago but realised without a reservation no go! Today we had a reservation for noon.

What a great place, very busy but very reasonable prices. Thanks Garrett and Kat for taking us there for brunch.

Back home for Garrett and Kat to pack up and take the dogs back to Squamish. A very lovely visit. Now tomorrow will be spent dog dehairing the house again. :) lol

If it was not for the yucky weather and no satelitte TV in the coach I would move us back out there so keeping the house clean at a moment's notice was not such a big deal. Hopefully this is just a very short time until it is sold.