Wow, I didn't post all weekend. It wasn't because I was super busy or anything (although I did get a lot of stuff done around the house). I guess it was because we weren't in front of the machine much, you know, trying to conserver energy and all.

I must admit that I'm a rather cheap so & so and, being that I'm old enough to remember the original broadcasts of Woodsey the Owl, I've also been big on not wasting hydro. I just can not give those bastards at the PUC any more money than is absolutely necessary. We like burning candles and very rarely have many lights on our house in the evening. We have 3 small, energy efficient window air conditioners which we run, sparingly, because I suffer with allergies all summer. We never use our oven in the spring / summer and barbecue as often as we cook on top of the stove.

We did try to do our part on the weekend though. When I finally gave up and had to vacuum, I made sure that everything else in the house was turned off. Same for laundry. It got to a point where I absolutely had to do wash. I did it in the middle of night or the wee hours of the morning, when I knew that consumption would be down and when I wasn't using any other hydro draining appliances.

I'm back at work today after a four day weekend. It wasn't as glamorous as it sounds, I did a lot of work in the garden at the back of the house. The weeds had practically taken over the patio, it was pretty gross. I filled an entire paper yard waste bag with what I pulled out of the patio and the four flower beds that surround it. Mark did the lawn while I was doing that and it looks really nice now. In fact, because the humidity finally broke over the weekend, we spent a lot of time out there on Sunday and Monday. When it's hot and muggy, it's easy for me to ignore the weeds because I keep the living room curtains closed. Once the weather got nice though, I had no choice but to deal with it. Also, while we sat out there during the blackout on Thursday night, the weeds were driving me batty!

Work is pretty busy today but not totally crazy. Fortunately, we have an awesome student who comes in part time to help us out. Her mum works with us so, on the days that she can't come in, I send stuff home with her mum and she works from home. She's completely saving our bacon this summer and she's making my job so much easier.

Speaking of work, I should get back to it. The day is just flying by!