Happy Hallowe'en!

Hope you all got lots of candy :)

Rituals

The annual pumpkin carving ritual. Scary fetus is James' design, Buzz Lightyear is Jonah's and vampire pumpkin is Katie's.

I always feel like somebody's watching me....

You MUST click on this picture to see the full size! This is part of City Hall in Ottawa (the heritage section, there's actually a nice, modern part too but it's around the corner), I noticed driving by today that each window on this facade has a little jack-o-lantern keeping watch on the street below...

The fun part

Or it will be, once we get to it.

This can only end badly...

Well we found the source of the leak in our powder room - who knew sinks were sometimes made of enameled metal? However, and this is always the way isn't it, each step of the repair job has led to more steps: replace the sink, replace the vanity because the leaking water has rotted it, replace the ugly tile flooring, oops, discover floor rot under the ugly tile flooring, replace the sub floor, might as well strip the ugly wallpaper and paint in there too... It's going to look fabulous when it's done I'm sure, but since right now instead of a toilet I have a 2' x 2' hole that looks down into my laundry room I'm a little worried...

Sign of the times

I always thought that the Singer sewing machine store in the mall across the way was cute, in a quaint way. You could have your machine serviced, buy parts and even pick up some ribbon or fabric from the world's worst selection. However in this day and age people who sew their own clothing (or sew their own anything for that matter) are few and far between, certainly there weren't enough of them in our neighbourhood to support an entire store dedicated to sewing machines.

I'm not sure when it closed - probably October 1st though honestly I didn't notice... maybe only October 15th. No fanfare, just there one day, gone the next. Sad really.

Feather

I was too sick today to do much of anything, but I did amuse myself by aiming my macro at Katie's feather pencil topper.

Mooney's Bay

Fall trees along the shore of Mooney's Bay, bathed in the fading light. One of my favourite places to go.

Fun in the office

Some of my cube mates displaying their 'holiday' spirit.

More fall leaves

I have no idea what this bush is, except that it's gorgeous! This picture doesn't do justice to how intensely vibrant the colour is. It's right beside the order box at the Tim Horton's drive-thru, a location I visit on a rather regular basis ;)

New additions

Two new additions to the family - Jewel on the right, and Henny on the left (I'll leave you to guess which one Wookie named). They've already been tormented and manhandled, we'll see if they even make it two weeks.

Little Sarah

My friend's 12 month old, don't you just love the little teeth!

Not-quite-poutine

All of the Frenchies in my family love poutine, but I frankly think it's nasty (gravy is gross enough, but gravy over cheese curds???) Proof positive that my honey loves me - he orders poutine with the gravy on the side, so that I can munch warm squeaky cheese curds and fries without having them contaminated by Mr Gravy...

Autumn leaves

Pretty golden fall leaves (ironically bordering the cemetery but, meh, I'll take my pretty fall colours where ever I can get them...

Little man and the big bus

Wookie and Katie take the bus to school in the morning, but not home in the afternoon. School ends at 2:30, I work until 4 (and it's a 20 minute drive from my office to their school), so they attend a daycare attached to the school for 2 hours every afternoon. And generally it works very well, they're happy there, I know they're well cared for. But both of them, and Jonah especially, wish they could take the school bus home.

Today when I picked them up this big bus was parked in front of the daycare. Jonah stood by the door, looking wistfully, for a very long time. Poor fella.

Pub

A pub I pass on my way to work each day, The Royal Oak. Apparently very popular, though I'm not a pub person myself. Still, it does have a friendly sort of look to it, doesn't it?

Katie's chrysanthemum

Katie adores flowers and plants, so I bought her this lovely potted mini chrysanthemum. So far she's enjoying watering it near constantly. Good thing they're pretty hardy.

Toothy grin

The kids had a blast with faux vampire fangs, but for future reference: 4 year olds drool a whole lot when wearing faux vampire fangs. Eyew....

Self portrait after many glasses of Shiraz

'nuff said

Wookie's first picture day

Wookie's first school picture day, and ironically, just like Katie's first school picture day, it was raining.

Boy do I ever need to paint the door jamb.

Last rose?

Might well be my last rose this year, the nights are getting cold and there's a frost warning... I had an amazing year for white roses, there must have been upwards of 20 blooms, generally 3-4 at a time. Lovely.

Cathédrale Marie-Reine-du-monde

One thing the province of Quebec does incredibly well is churches, and this gorgeous Catholic cathedral in Montreal is no exception. I could probably devote several years worth of picture-a-day blogging to the churches of Quebec and barely scratch the surface, but since I was only in Montreal for the day one picture will have to suffice (though I actually took pictures of 3 churches today :) )

Sickie

Princess sickie waiting at the clinic to see the doctor. $30 worth of antibiotics later she was on the road to recovery.

Dust to dust

I've been watching for a decade as this abandoned house is taken over by nature and returned to the Earth. There's not much left now...

Fall glory

The first flames of fall colour - Sumac leaves on Wolfe Island.

Tree planting

The bits helping papa plant a new baby tree at the cottage (a weeping willow).

Butter tart heaven

A fund raiser for the United Way at work - home made butter tarts. Absolutely divine! I bought 2 dozen... (taken on my camera phone)

Cheese Cappelletti

My absolute fave dish from East Side Mario's. Katie and I slipped out for a little mama/daughter lunch together.

Anniversary flowers

Flowers from my honey for our anniversary - 9 years today! Time flies...

Title

A title for a scrapbook layout I'm working on - pretty glitter!