I think your Aluminum could use an extra vowel!

What a funny day weather-wise. A mix of sun, rain and heavy fog (oh no, sorry that was Otto with his stupidly big fire next door during a heavy rainfall - bloody idiot standing in the garden in his anorak tending a heavily smoking fire in the torrential rain).

The boys went off to school, no coats because it wasn't raining then. Huffle bunkered and learned he had a new boss (a lady) and I went off to work leaving Grandma attending to Pies for dinner and Grandad mending one of our raised beds, moving his pallets to a dryer place (his newly appointed Grandad Cave with his new 'Useful Things' cupboard which isn't actually new but it is new to him as we have given it to him to store his precious things). Today Jan and I were in the garden cutting back the grasses and taking all dead things from pots. We worked hard and then the hail and snow came down! I couldn't believe it was snowing. It partly covered the ground and we all went in for coffee and Jan's delicious Lemon, Pistachio and White chocolate cookies. The hail/snow stopped but the rain continued so we all went into the greenhouse and tried to decipher Jeff's notes on what needed repotting. I went home today with three different pots of lettuce seedlings, some flowers I can't remember and a big blue thing that Grandad is hoping to make into a Water Butt for us.

After lunch, Grandad and I went to Home Depot (which is basically B&Q for Canadians - same colours, same things inside, same layout) where we attempted to find a tap (faucet) for a water butt (rain collector). When Grandad asked the man about a water butt tap I told him he had just asked for the man to tap his Water Bottom he he he. We couldn't find one. Next we looked for something to secure the mesh insect screens to the windows as they were falling out. Once again we hit a translation problem as well as a lack of window hardware problem. We did get something but it later proved to be the wrong thing. Another thing to take back after I took back the wrong door fitting today and had a nice discussion about putting all the pieces back in the box instead of leaving them all loose in the bag!!!! Next we picked up more paint and then went to check out the guttering. This was a confusing task. Luckily last week we had picked up a sheet which explained which pieces were needed and some graph paper to map out what was required for the project. Grandad had carefully marked what we needed and how many of each. As it is for the barn and the barn is dark brown wood, we wanted to go for brown guttering. The only brown guttering they have is Aluminium (which is what we had previously and had rusted and broken). All the other pieces we needed to go with the guttering though were white vinyl. I asked someone about the guttering and told him he needed another vowel in his word Aluminum and he phoned another store to check if they had any brown vinyl. No one did so we opted for the white. This took us ages because some parts were left and some were right and then there were down bits and elbows and clips and screws. Then there were connectors and who knows what.

Grandad and I snook out wearing our work clothes (how very un-British of us).

The guttering only JUST fit in the car (I thought the windscreen was going through though!) and we finally came home. The boys were back and doing their homework with their music blaring (funny, they listen to the same music, sometimes the same track too). Grandma was still making pies and Grandad pressed the wrong button on the Vacuum and the whole thing fell apart. Silly Grandad.

We all ate dinner (it was yummy and well worth a whole day of cooking, using every pan, utensil and cooking temperature available). Smallest had his swimming lesson and Huffle, Grandma and Grandad went with him. He had a mid-term report and is doing very well. He still needs work on his breast stroke and side stroke but everything else seems good. Mr Bean (his teacher) spoke to Huffle and Huffle said he spoke like Mr Bean too!

Small and I played Mario Kart and I listened to him play his recital piece - it was very good - just a few minor creases to iron out.

 

 

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