A couple weeks ago Celine and Banjo came to Toronto to bring some boxes of Tri-Art stuff to Woolfitt’s. While they were here, we went out to lunch (falafels, yum!) and went to High Park for a bit of outdoorsy stuff. Just by chance, we stumbled across an off leash area, which Banjo liked. He made a dog named Licorice jealous about his frisbee!
Taking Banjo for a later morning walk, I stopped by the house to see what changes there were. I had not been for the whole week, since I knew Ma and Pa were there every day. Along with arranging things with the contractors and buying things for the interior, they had finished clearing up the northern side of the yard for the new fence. The stone south and east walls were getting close to being done. What I did not realize at that point is there was still a way for a young bored individual to climb down the chimney like Santa Claus… Being that the fireplaces are enclosed like free standing stoves, kicking through the drywall would be the only way out for them. So that is what was done. Quite upsetting news for me to pass on to Ma and Pa, who were upstairs watching Mica while Steve and Rheni were at the factory. Not nice to be the messenger of bad news. I believe it was the second time this fall. Previously I had to inform Rheni that someone had shattered her driver’s side window. Needless-to-say, I was watching Mica for the next hour.
Back to positive developments…Since Banjo does not like coming into the house at this point, I left him tied on the front porch. It’s a bit busy, but looking pretty good. Inside they drywalled the stairway
and the basement. Freshly painted doors lined up along the northern basement wall.
More pictures: front porch, kitchen counter top, box of vents.
Friday I took an hour and half lunch break to enjoy the beautiful autumn day by walking Banjo at Kingston Mills. The trees were rich in colour and tranquility did my mind some good. At a favorite lookout point I tried to take a photograph of Banjo and I, but had a bit of a hard time fitting in Banjo’s long nose. He laughed at my many attempts. On our way back to civilization we stopped on the dock. Something caught Banjo’s attention on the water’s edge. It was a not so shy mink who rose on its hind quarters to see what we were up to. Its a nice hidden nook near work where one can grasp some solitude. Should go there more often!
It is just about 4:00am and I am working on my databases assignment. We have to submit our solutions in either postscript or PDF format because Bill Gates is Satan and LaTeX generates very pretty relational algebra symbols (like \bowtie: 
). I’ve always wanted to learn LaTeX, actually. I have three tests and five assignments due in the next two weeks.
Still very busy. I haven’t been taking many pictures, but here are a few (mostly old). Celine has taken many photos of the house and wants to blog those herself.
September 18th: We played some GeoPoker [Michael, Celine & Banjo]. The city of Kingston had some sort of event at Skeleton park. The news was there, and there were free hot dogs. They want to re-design the park and are asking people to vote on the features they like. On the other side of the park, the archeologists are still excavating [close-up]. Apparently they found some “bits of wood and bones” and are focusing their search on Alma Street. They are even digging in people’s front yards.
September 21st: Somebody forgot a funny book in the TV room at the residence.
September 22nd: The Toronto General Hospital was having a party or something under my window. It was very loud. I tried to go down and get some free food from the barbecue, but they were checking people’s ID’s! They are much more organized than at the staff appreciation days at Queen’s. I went geocaching and saw some cool gargoyles on the old city hall. The new city hall was the building they used for Starfleet headquarters in one of the Star Trek movies.
September 25th: More digging in Skeleton park. We went geocaching along the Thousand Islands parkway. It was nice for me to get outside after being in downtown Toronto. Celine found a friendly cricket. We stopped at the woodworking museum on the way home to look at the old building.
September 27th: The security officer at the Thousand Islands bridge mailed us the stamp from the letterbox we tried to find there. What a nice guy.
Saturday morning I took Banjo for a walk through Skeleton Park and ran into Ze, Peter and Roscoe on their way home from the market. Peter and Roscoe continued home while Ze joined me in seeing developments at the house. The south wall and the chimney are coming up quickly. Banjo does not like going inside so he watched things go by on the front porch while Ze and I wandered indoors. Ma and Pa are going to have sufficient storage space in the kitchen by the looks of it! There is a climate and ventilation control at the beginning of the hallway to the bedrooms.
North wall is completed! It makes it easier to photograph now that they removed the scaffolds. They are progressing well with the front too.
Most of the trim is painted and is stacked in the kitchen/family room. Pink insolation and plastic line the basement walls and the staircase.
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