Bugs and bikes

For those brave few of you that follow this intermittent blog, I have been rather neglecting it of late. It is not that I'm tiring of the concept, but merely that Stantec Towers has kept me rather busy of late and therefore my window of opportunity to blog whilst still awake has somewhat narrowed. It is not as if there has been little to write about. I could wax lyrical about the invading army of carpenter ants that have taken over our house, terrorised the children and turned my wife into a foot stomping dervish. It seems these little blighters like to hunker down in some damp or rotten wood and then spread out, like Germans at a swimming pool. In actuality, we have had a few foraging ants in the house and it is likely that we have a colony either in the wall or outside in the near vicinity. The appropriate exterminators have been contacted and we await their advice. Let us hope that we can get rid of the little buggers before my sanity disappears completely.

Or, I could talk about the 'Night of the Exploding Hot Tub'. OK, it wasn't that dramatic, but when a pump seal fails as you are enjoying a leisurely soak, it takes a while for you to realise what the hell is going on. By the time we had got to the basement, 1000 litres of water was making its way across the floor and soaking nicely into the newly placed dry wall that is transforming our bare space into a third floor. Not so much dry wall then, more like sodding damp wall. Luckily, little damage had actually been done and order was soon restored. The reaction from the hot tub experts was fairly typical of consulting specialist contractors the world over. A shake of the head, a hissing intake of breath and a "well of course I did advise the previous occupants not to put the pump equipment in the basement", sort of reaction. Anyway, the damage was fixed, spare parts were obtained and normal service has been resumed.

The latest occupation to enliven the Palmer household is the ever popular cycling. Claire brought her bike over from the UK and has started riding again. Charlotte has niftily mastered her new machine and is currently engaged in a bit of bike rodeo at school. I'm seriously contemplating getting a bike from the Evil Empire so that we can all go cycling along the many trails that St. Albert is generously endowed with. As for Eleanor, well she resolutely refuses to try her bike at the moment, so some friends have kindly lent us a child trailer that attaches to one of the parent bikes. Now this is a great little thing. It looks like a rickshaw, with room inside for two small ones and once attached is fairly easy to tow along - as long as you don't go uphill very much. Eleanor sits inside and watches the world go by, occasionally waving to her subjects and yelling at her mother to go faster. Claire is getting quite a lot of exercise as a result of this, with the unfortunate side effect of falling asleep at around 9.30pm, half-way through an episode of 'Fringe'.

Soon the first of our many visitors from the UK descends upon us, starting with my Mum and her friends Ken and Pauline arriving on the 23rd June. There is much to be done. The basement has been painted, plumbed, wired and walled and with the carpet arriving next week. The house has to be cleaned and cleared of buiding dust and the girls toys tidied away, which in itself is a weekends work. At least the weather seems to have sorted itself out, so if the basement is not finished, my mum can always camp out on the lawn.....