long weekend

Long weekends are good for many things. They provide that little extra time to accomplish projects or activities that don't normally fit into a weekend. And I must say, one of the best things about renting a house is the time that has been freed up by not having to do gardening and house maintenance tasks. When I now hear a local Home Depot advertisement suggesting some nasty sounding clean-up or maintenance project to do over my holiday weekend - I can completely ignore it - guilt free! Of course, I am not getting off quite that easily. There are still plenty of other "chores" to fill my time. And what we don't have to maintain at the house - we are fixing, cleaning and repairing at the building that houses Import Supply and our tenants.

This weekend, however has been a nice balance of play and work. Julian and I started the weekend on Friday as his teachers had a professional day and there were no classes. We got most of the errands out of the way - buying Julian some soccer cleats, going to doctor appointment for immunizations, and the almost daily visit to the grocery stores. Our local Marina Market is a small place with fairly good selection - a one-stop-shop where you can get everything from a loaf a bread to a bottle of wine. Depending on the day however, there may only be wine as the bread, dairy and produce shipments have not arrived.

Another humourous aspect of living on such a small island is how people get to know you and your family. Should I actually go shopping in Marina Market without children - the first question any of the check-out cashiers will ask me is "Where are the boys today?" or "Where's Max?". Clearly, the boys' have established a reputation for being enthusiastic connoisseurs of their produce...or something.






Mark raced a laser in a dinghy regatta this weekend. There was a variety of weather conditions - some gusty winds and pretty impressive rain squalls. We went down to the club and watched everyone rig up their boats and set off from the beach. Max pulled all the boat trailers in and out of the water wading in the water until he was neck deep. Julian fed fish from the dock with his friends.

The concept of Thanksgiving seems foreign to us right now - first of all as Canadians in a US territory but mainly as we don't have any major seasonal triggers. No sudden changes of colours or leaves to rake. We did, however see some perfectly shaped pumpkins in the store - all set to be carved. I can only imagine how much they cost - but that is something I am getting used to. In fact, I barely batted an eyelash today when I bought a loaf of bread for...$7.00. Let's hope it isn't stale.

I found a scorpion (mainly dead) in the living room this weekend. Julian was very excited. I was a little less enthused when I watched Mark take it away with our BBQ tongs.

Very stormy weather now - rain that reminds me of driving through a car wash. We'll have to watch this storm.