A restful week

I'm trying to recall what happened this week and the short answer is, not much. I spent a LOT of time watching various Olympic events. I caught the 2nd half of the women's Rugby 7's. (I'm not even certain I've written that correctly.) Our Canadian women were in the final playing New Zealand. I've not watched rugby, ever, but the game was entertaining and while N.Z. prevailed, our women played well. 

Gymnastics is a big draw in our household as both my children participated as children. D continued into her teenage years, competing in T&T (trampoline and tumbling), as well as coaching younger athletes, and at some point did some judging at various meets. Watching with her is interesting as she points out every miniscule error where I see nothing. Two our women's team made it to the all-round final, though did not medal. 

I missed the diving events which was a shame. One of the athletes in the men's synchronized diving is from my home province. I did manage to watch some of the swimming including the final of the men's 200m butterfly where Ilya Kharun of Montreal won bronze. Summer MacIntosh of Toronto won a silver and two golds, setting an Olympic record in one of the events.

Canada typically doesn't perform as well at the Summer Olympics as they do in the winter. I guess having cold and snowy weather for nearly 6 months of the year would give us a slight edge. But by the end of the week, Canada had a total of 11 medals. Preliminary estimates were 12 so the team will likely exceed that number.

Other happenings of the week: Eli had day camp on Monday - I went with he and his mom. There was a little shopping done, then we sat in a church parking lot and read until it was time to pick him up.

The heat continued with temperatures near 30C(86F) most afternoons. I would take Stanley, the cat, out with me in the morning. He'd enjoy his catio (he's in there but a black cat doesn't show up well), while I drank my tea, watered and dead-headed the containers. One morning, I picked up the piles of weeds into garbage bags, while D whipper-snipped behind the shed and near the garage. We only have garbage pick-up every two weeks, so I've been stacking the bags and putting one or two in the bin for pick-up. The daylilies started opening this week, as you saw in Wednesday's photo, and are beginning to put on a real show. The regular lilies are close to opening too. From what I can tell, they too will be orange in colour.

She took Eli to the pool too, while I stayed at home catching up on paperwork and watching more Olympic programming. I should have been knitting but instead turned my focus to Ancestry. I'd renewed earlier in the month with a reduced cost, and decided to catch up on the hints and other information. 

While searching for information on one of my paternal grandmother's nieces, I came across an interesting article that outlines some ideas for re-using and recycling household items:

Cut old rubber gloves from the wrist up to create sturdy "rubber bands". It was recommended to keep these in a jar and shake a bit of talcum powder in the jar to keep the bands from getting sticky.

Wash and rinse milk cartons and use these to freeze summer berries (I suppose these could be used for other items). Staple shut the tops and stack in the freezer. Saves using freezer bags, but if bags are used, cut up old panty hose for bag ties - no wires to puncture other bags.

Store your patio umbrella in winter in the one leg of a pair of panty house, using the second leg to tie around the bottom of the umbrella. 

I wasn't able to find anything about my relative, as the person referred to in this article was definitely not her. But it was a fun read, nevertheless.

I did go for a short walk on Friday afternoon. We live about a block and a half to the Post Office, and one the way home I dropped in at Home Hardware on my way back. Whoo boy, was it ever hot out there (30C/86F)! I was glad to be back in the a/c at home. I did run out to put the faucet wheel back on one of the outdoor spigots with a screw I picked up at the store. 

Today, I've no plans to do much different from the rest of the week. More Olympics, baseball and football, back to my knitting, a bit of Ancestry, and time with my grandson are all on the agenda. That reminds me - one evening he and I were telling a story together. We were on a train ride to Ohio where, according to him, there are many haunted houses. Who knew?

Have a great week ahead everyone!