What's Italian for toilet? Let me go check my Nemo.

Whoa. Just where does the time go? One day I’m writing a post about heading back home and promising to update everyone on the what’s and when’s and how’s. Next thing I know it’s over a month later and that promise turned into something very Mitt Romney like. For that I do apologize.

It’s been a whirl-i-gig time of unpacking, cleaning and getting our heads around exactly what level of house renovation we want to tackle. (For those of you who have not been following along…we recently sold our boat and are now living on land. Not on the land. We’re not farmers. Yes, we’ve been mistaken for farmers but alas, I don’t know how to milk a cow or sow oats. I’ll add them to my life learning list immediately.)

Plans have been scaled back and we are NOT building an addition. After looking at the numbers, we decided that if we did build an addition…that’s all we’d have. No money left to actually put stuff in the addition. So, we are going to work within the “foot print” of the original structure and just move around some walls, doorways and windows. I use the word just like it’s going to be a breeze. The Mister promises it will not be difficult and I’ve made a conscious decision to believe him. For now.

Between the decision to scale back and the start of actual back-breaking labour, we spent the last two weeks housesitting for friends in Nova Scotia and, as usual, did not spend as much time with friends as we had hoped. Next time we’ll try to plan our time better. Send money now and I’ll make sure you move up the list.

The weather was great and my daughter flew in to spend a few days with us. She’s been busy with her yoga instruction and is on her way to B.C. for a yoga conference. Yep, there’s a conference for everything nowadays.

So what have we been up to? We are now members of Costco. They promised that if we didn’t buy at least $1200-worth of stuff, they would send us the difference up to that amount in the form of a cheque 12 months from now. That was a deal we couldn’t pass up thinking we could use that money for our planned trip to Italy next spring. Well, that idea is now toast as yesterday we kind of went a little wild with the credit card and purchased:

A 42-inch LED flat-screen television (The Mister is the happiest I’ve seen him since we sold the boat.)

A Blue-Ray DVD player (with Smart Technology…which means if we ever get high-speed through our satellite Internet service provider, we can stream movies on NetFlix. I’ll let you know how THAT goes.)

A new toilet and vanity for the little camp (our new guest quarters…which I may have to sleep in because it looks THAT good so far.)

Enough food to feed a family of eight for a month.

Ah,  Costco. I can see already that our membership is going to cost us big time. Luckily, we have friends who we can share our bounty with. (The Mister will be dropping off some Romaine to everyone he’s ever met shortly and heads up…we’re giving food as Christmas presents this year. Send money and you can move up on that list, too.)

And in case you need proof that the little camp — soon to be guest abode — is really undergoing a transformation (because I’ve been talking about doing this for the past two years) take a gander at this:

Oh, and here’s how we’ll be spending our nights for the next while. We went from this:

To this.

I may need new glasses.

But perhaps best of all, while we were away, our neighbour installed a brand new 200-amp electrical panel and hooked up…

We haven’t had a dishwasher in over three years. I may need to take a refresher course.

For those of you more interested in the panel, I have a picture of that, too. I’m taking ideas on how to hide it so if you have suggestions, send them along. With a photo and detailed instructions.

In the midst of all this, I’m trying to teach myself Italian via my iPod. I downloaded a program called “Nemo” and while it will not teach me how to fish, I think it will help me learn how to order wine, coffee and pizza for the Mister and me while we are in bella Italia. Expect my next post to be sprinkled with the odd word in Italian. Maybe I should figure out a way to include Google Translater…just so there’s no miscommunication. *snort*

Ciao…and buon pomeriggio!

Oh…and before you all send me comments on how “personal” I made this post because I hardly ever get personal…unless we’re talking about sex or Karl Urban…I have to install a new toilet and time’s a wasting so I copied and pasted my post from our friends and family blog. I’m either lazy beyond belief or smarter than your average farmer.

Double oh…I changed my WordPress theme. It needs some work but I need feedback on if it’s a keeper or not. No need to send money this time…just a comment.

Triple oh…toilet in Italian? Toilette. This learning Italian is going to be a breeeeeze!