Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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Archives for July 2009

My skin is so dry!

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My skin is so dry. It’s been dry all year, but I thought that at least once summer arrived it would get better. I mean, it’s usually quite humid here in Toronto during the summer, but this year it’s way cooler than normal. Some nights have fallen down to 10 c (50 F). Weird eh?

Maybe it’s my Thyroid that’s causing the dry skin? 20 years ago I had a tumor on my thyroid that was pre-cancerous and had half my thyroid removed. Then, this past spring I discovered that I have another tumor on my remaining thyroid. I do take Synthroid and my thyroid levels are normal … but still … maybe I’m slightly hypothyroid. That can cause dry skin and other problems.

I think I might do a little research and find our which are the best wrinkle creams to use for dry skin. Also which ones are fairly inexpensive! I do use skin creams – facial and body, but they don’t seem to be helping all that much lately so maybe I need to change brands.

Can anyone recommend any good skin creams for dry skin? Again, inexpensive ones … we’re on a tight budget lately! At least if summer ever does kick in around here I know the humidity will help too!





This month is so busy for me!

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Holy smokes it’s been a busy week!

A week or so ago I mentioned that Chris’ parents were going to be coming down on the weekend to take us out for dinner … well that didn’t happen. It was postponed and they are coming into town to take Chris and I for an early lunch this Saturday.

As it turned out it was just as well that my in-laws didn’t show up as my sister had an operation on her leg and knee last Friday so we went to visit her in the hospital on both Saturday and Sunday for several hours. She’s doing well- thankfully!

Then … just as the week started and I thought things were settling down, I got an email from my brother in Vancouver stating that he’s coming to Toronto this weekend and uhm … could he stay with one of us (ie us, one of my other brothers or my sister).

I volunteered our home, and since none of us have seen my brother for oh about a year and a half we decided that sometime on the weekend we’ll all get together for dinner. We might end up having a BBQ here on Sunday if the weather holds up. Right now the weather forecast says it’s going to rain on Sunday so we might all meet up in a restaurant after all.

If we do have a barbecue I think we’ll have at least ten guests! So it will be a busy day getting food prepared for the BBQ and preparing for guests. At least if it does turn out to be a nice day we can all sit outside in our garden.

I think I’ll be spending the next two days making sure our house is immaculate! I wish our dog wasn’t a shedder!

LOL I’ve been so busy lately with all the things Chris and I have been doing and now weekend guests every second weekend or so … I certainly wouldn’t want to be getting a life insurance quote right now as I think I’m getting a bit stressed out. In a good way of course, but still … I always get a little stressed when expecting house guests … especially if they’re my in-laws!

Have you been having a busy summer too? Expecting any house guests? Do you get a little stressed out as you prepare for guests in your home?

Jazz in the Park – every Wednesday

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In keeping with our plan to attend at least one of Toronto’s many interesting events or festivals once a week throughout the summer, Chris and I went to an outdoor Jazz festival last night.

It was Chris’ birthday yesterday and he loves Jazz music so he suggested we go to the “Mosaic Does Jazz” Jazz in the park festival that’s being held every Wednesday evening from 5 pm until 8 pm at the Coxwell Parkette from July 1st to Sept. 2nd. It’s close to our home and man, was the music ever fantastic!

We saw the Terra Hazelton Quartet and as I said the music was great. The singer had a beautiful bluesy voice just made for singing Jazz songs. She was accompanied by a Jazz guitarist, a bassist and a drummer.

We had thought that the music was to start at 8 pm so we didn’t actually get there until about 7! Oops! We brought a friend from work, our dog and three folding chairs and parked ourselves about 15 feet from the center of the stage.

I didn’t realize that there would be other things going on in the small park, but when we got there we noticed that there were a couple of vendors selling food like hotdogs and hamburgers, a coffee shop, a person doing massage, someone doing therapeutic touch and a jewelry booth with lovely pearl jewelry. I’m sure there were a few other tent booths that I missed.

There was a good crowd. Probably people that lived in or who were shopping in the neighborhood. Lots of kids too. One little girl, maybe a year old, kept trying to climb onto the stage! Oh and our dog barked whenever anyone applauded and that warranted a “woof” from the singer. LOL

Oh and in response to the person that commented on my post “time to stop letting life pass me by” where I first talked about attending a Toronto event once a week …

He said “An event every weekend? Isn’t that kind of overdoing it? Doing nothing can feel like a waste of time, but doing too much can be too.”

My response … well I’ve been sick and on medical leave from work for the last few years. Believe me, I haven’t done too much and I’m sick of it. Toronto is a great city with tons of things to do in the summer (despite the garbage strike stinking up the place!). Believe me, I won’t overdo it as my body won’t let me. Going to a park to watch musicians play won’t overextend me nor will going out for a couple of hours to one of Toronto’s many food festivals. I just want to get out and do things when I’m feeling up to it and as I said summer in Toronto is the perfect time to attend events, try foods that you’ve never tried before and just get out and feel alive.

We finally fixed that dripping shower

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Ever since we moved into our house in 2001 and we’ve had problems with the shower in the basement. You see it drips – a lot!

My husband has changed the shower head and that didn’t stop the dripping. He also tried a few other things to fix the shower and still it dripped. So, since he’s the main one in the house that uses the shower he started turning off the water supply for the shower after he has a shower. For a long time that seemed to stop the constant dripping as the water supply to the shower was only on when the shower was being used. However, recently the shower started dripping again even when the water supply was shut off on the pipes outside the bathroom.

I rarely use the bathroom in the basement, but I was down there last Friday and I realized that the constant dripping of the shower head was making a very moist environment. In fact, the shower appeared to have some mold in it. So when my husband came home from work that evening I told him we had to try to do something about the shower’s constant drip.

So on Saturday my husband got busy trying to fix the shower. First he took care of the possible mold problem by washing down the shower walls with a bleach and water solution (several times). Then he tried to take the hot and cold water faucets off the shower. Maybe we just needed to put a washer inside?

Now I have to tell you that while I wanted him to fix the shower I wanted him to do so without having to spend any money on it. Our funds are very low these days and we just can’t afford to get new Moen faucets for the shower right now. Not if we can help it!

Of course things went wrong. He got one of the shower faucets if no problem, added a washer (as suggested by one of the guys at Home Depot) and that stopped the dripping for the cold water. However he had a lot of trouble getting the hot water faucet off and when he did he couldn’t get the two pieces apart to add a washer.

He decided to take the part to Home Depot to see if he could find an inexpensive replacement. I think they laughed at him! The part is apparently about 25 years old and not easy to replace. Even a specialty plumbing store didn’t help!

I started to think this was going to turn out like our kitchen tap story! Remember a few months ago I posted about how Chris was trying to take the Brita filter off our kitchen tap and ended up breaking the end … causing us to have to buy a whole new set of kitchen faucets? Yeah that was fun!

In the end we didn’t have to spend any money on new faucets or smaller replacement parts. Instead we took one of the plumbing specialists suggestions and soaked the faucet part in vinegar for several hours to remove some of the corrosion on the fixture. Then, yesterday evening, my husband used two wrenches to carefully pry to pieces apart. He added a washer, put the parts together again and installed the faucet in the shower where it had been before and ta da! It seems to have worked. No drip, drip, drip!

I really have to be careful when I ask my husband to do home repairs! It seems to always cost us more money and or frustration than we think it will!

At least the water bill should be a little bit lower now. I’m sure all that dripping was wasting a lot of water. Plus, now that the shower area won’t have a constant supply of moisture the room and shower stall should hopefully be mold and mildew free. I hope!

Have you ever tried to do what seems like it should be a small home repair only to end up spending way more time and money than you ever thought you would to fix the problem?

Do you work hard to promote your blog?

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I’ve been blogging now for 3.5 years, but I’ve had websites since 1995. Over all the years that I’ve been a webmaster I’ve learned how important it is to promote your site.

Now back in 1995 when I started my first website it was a heck of a lot easier to promote your site. There was less competition and since my website was in a very specific niche I was able to join (and fully participate) in forums specific to the topic, which of course, was a great way to inform people about my site.

Every time I start a new site I also make sure that I get it listed in Google, Yahoo, MSN and basically all of the best web directories that I can submit my site to for free. I’ve never paid for site submissions. I just don’t feel it’s worth it. However getting your site listed in a general directory or even better one that’s specific to your sites niche is still important and worth spending some time doing.

Over the last couple of years I’ve read that Google doesn’t give as much credit for directory listings as it once did – but hey, a link is a link, right? Plus if people are actually visiting a website directory to find sites that discuss specific topics it’s another way to get a few new visitors.

When it comes to blogs one of the best ways to promote your site is to visit other blogs and leave comments on their posts. If you leave a decent comment that adds to the conversation not only will the blog owner be more likely to visit your site, but so will some of their readers.

I used to be really good about commenting on other blogs. Over the last year or so I’ve fallen behind on commenting on my favorite sites and posts. I still visit my favorite bloggers and the blogs of those who leave comments but I just don’t seem to have the time anymore to concentrate on visiting sites and leaving comments. I guess I have too many sites to maintain and of course my health problems get in the way too.

It’s a shame because commenting on other blogs is a great way to build a community, get new visitors and of course get back links to your site. I really have to figure out a way to make more time to visit and comment on the posts I enjoy.

What do you do to promote your website or blog? Do you do the basics that I’ve suggested above? Have you ever paid to be listed in a directory or elsewhere?

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