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Sunday, July 31, 2011

Where's my invitation?

There was another royal wedding yesterday, for Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall, but with none of the fanfare we saw for William and Catherine.

Gimli was a little put out that he was not invited to the wedding.  He even had his tartan fascinator, it was a Scottish wedding after all.


Does this make my ear look too big?


Yes, this is my better side.


Just thinking of all the yummy food...

Monday, July 25, 2011

Of Mice and... Spiders?

  

This is a view of the field beyond the fence of our backyard.  Creatures live there.  Creatures like rabbits and mice and spiders and only when my imagination is running rampant, a beast with red eyes that only I can see or perhaps a tall skinny guy in a suit - see this link.

Last year being our first summer in this house, we were hit with these big, creepy looking spiders. They took up residence in the window wells of our basement and built elaborate webs.  I'd have left them alone except they started coming inside and scaring Mike, so I had to do something about them.  I set out with the bug spray and took care of all the outside nests.  We were spider free for about a year after that.

Until yesterday...

I woke and looked out the window in the hopes it was raining because I heard tiny ticking noises, which reminded me of the rain hitting the metal of the window.  It wasn't raining.  I dressed and took Gimli out for his walk, while Mike slept.  We returned, I fed Gimli and started breakfast when I heard Mike walking around upstairs.

Then, I heard this:

"Candy, can you come up here for a minute?"

My water was just starting to boil, "What for?"

"Um, something I need to show you."

I joined Mike upstairs and found him standing in front of the same window I had looked out before with the vacuum plugged in right next to it.  With the blinds drawn up and Mike standing about an arm's length away, he said, "Look at the window sill."

Here I was thinking the sill was somehow damaged, I look at it only to see this on the other side of the open window.


Yes, you're asking yourself, "WTF is that?"  I asked the same thing until I saw these fair sized little dead spiders lying next to it.  You can't see them in this picture because I had already sucked them up with the vacuum, but I assure you, they were all around it.

Mike suspects the ticking noise I heard was the spiders coming out of that cocoon thing and falling down on the window sill.

Inside that cocoon thing, there was one creepy dead spider, which continues to scare Mike even though its dead.  He won't even look at the picture!

I dislodged the cocoon and it went sliding down the roof.  I sucked up the remaining gross things and went back to breakfast.  I thought it was the end of the creepy things.

Until this evening...

After work, I was dragging the hose from the side of the house to water the plants in the front.  My flowering shrub is throwing out flowers and they look so lovely that I just had to water it in the hopes of more flowers!  I yanked the hose through the bottom of the gate when something moved in the corner of my eye.  I looked over to see a little black mouse scurry up the side of the house and toward the front garden.

Eeeek!  I can handle spiders, but mice, Eeeeek!

I lost track of it by the time I got to the front of the house, but I'm so very paranoid now.  I'm sure its coming from the field in the back and I'm wondering if perhaps we need a cat?  All the more reason to keep the garage door closed, see, who's paranoid now?

(I'm obsessive about keeping the garage door closed to prevent someone from stealing the snow blower and our food from the freezer or from just sneaking in and taking refuge in our house like that Japanese homeless woman who lived in a man's closet for months before he discovered her.  Its true, look it up!)

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Wordless Wednesday - Something smells good



Crafty

I think something is wrong with me.

As I've mentioned before, our walls are that sickly white color that comes with a new house.  We are slowly starting to put up pictures/art.

I was under the impression that's all we'd be doing and I was ok with it.

But the other day I found myself at the Martha Stewart website looking at different crafts for Halloween and Christmas.

Today, I came across these Butterflies at the CurvyGirl Guide and I thought to myself that I could so do this.  I even have the idea to make black butterflies on a red background.

Where is this crafty side coming from???

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Take off 5 years

 Today, one of my colleagues who I haven't seen in about 7 months said I looked like I was 25 years old.

insert image of Candy running around flailing arms like Kermit the Frog, YAAAAAAAAAAAY

That. just. happened.

Ok, so maybe 6 hours ago it did, except the flailing arms bit, that happened in my head.

Ma bellie is ok

Hewo gimli heir,

i wanted to say my bellie is all better.  dat day i ate some stinke poo dat i found in the grass when candy und i wuz on our mornin walk.  i am a greedy corgi und i ate it as fast as i culd so by da time candy saw me chewin da  poo, it wuz all gone into my bellie.

den my bellie hurt and i had stinke poos.

by dinner time the next day i wuz better agin cuz i was gibing candy the corgi look cuz i wanted some of her apple and plum and nectareens.

eber since we went to dat new class candy has becum mor attentif of me und my behabior so i dont tink i will be abl to eat anymor poos.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Tummy troubles

My little corgi bear is a little under the weather this evening.  He was fine all day, but then had some icky poops this evening.

He's playing and frapping like usual, just with some tummy troubles.  I gave him some pumpkin and hopefully that will help out his tummy troubles over the course of the night.

Til the morning, we'll just take it easy and snuggle, snuggle and more snuggles.

Wordless Wednesday - I love the grass!



Friday, July 8, 2011

Things I realized...

As I was doing a plank for 30 seconds on the floor of our room as my body shook on account I'm a weakling with no strength whatsoever...

The fibers in our Berber carpet are coming up.  Not just those little fibers here and there, I can actually see the white plasticky thing on which the carpet is embedded.

Yes my friends, paid extra money to the builder for Berber carpet that's not yet 2 years old and its coming up.

sigh

ps, does that mean I don't have to vacuum for fear of ripping up the threads?

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Things to do for 2011 - July update

Right so I completely missed out on June's update.

1. Read More, nothing special, just reading.

2. Pay attention to my blog and post more - already started

3. Join BlogHer

4. Attend BlogHer 2011, wherever it is

5. Do what I need to do to get off one of my medications

6. Go to the Zoo - Spoke to a friend, we are going to go once the weather warms up.

7. Make a better attempt at brushing Gimli more than once a week

8. To achieve this, setup a grooming table in the laundry room - Started looking at grooming tables and reached out to a carpenter friend of mine.  Will be able to make a better decision in a few weeks.

9. Start expanding the list of meals that I can cook from memory

10. Start branching out and cooking different things, planning is key and laziness is no excuse - Started planning out our dinners a week in advance, we'll see how this goes!  This has worked out amazingly well.  We aren't wondering what to eat every day and our grocery bill has shrunk as we only buy what we need for that week's meals.

11. Eat more fruits and veggies

12. Cut my hair, and not just a trim either, goodbye long locks.- I did this!  See the post here: Hair today, gone tomorrow.

13. Get a 2nd corgi - This is on hold.  We met with the Cardigan breeder and while the older puppy she had was lovely, she was reluctant to adopt her out.  Oddly enough, I didn't feel the warm and fuzzy feeling with regard to the Cardigans, I think I'm a Pembroke lover after all.  Mike and I decided to leave it at that.  I was in touch with Gimli's breeder and she plans to breed this year, so there's that to look forward to.

14. Learn to walk two of them properly

15. Improve Gimli’s recall

16. Make a Pooh Bear gingerbread house

17. See The Lion King stage show -we went in June.  This was an amazing show!  It was true to the movie and some of the scenes, like the wildebeest stampede was well done.  If there's ever a chance to see this play, go see it.

18. Continue with the No Complaint experiment - ongoing

19. Take more visits to The Arboretum and see our coyote friend again - Gimli and I went again on 4/30 now that the weather is better.  It was only for about 1/2 hour, but this is totally something I can see myself doing every week or every two weeks.

20. Get off my butt and be more active -I've totally lapsed on this one.  I plan to pick it up again in a few weeks.

21. Play with Gimli in the snow - went out with him in February when we had snow, had a great time romping and wrestling in the snow.

22. Try to make a snow ‘animal’

23. Get more sleep - I'm not quite there yet though, but this is slowly starting to get better.  I find once I get into my spot in bed and on the pillow, I'll sleep straight through to morning, which is great for me!

24. Read Brene Brown’s book, The Gifts of Imperfection and apply it to myself

25. Woofstock? - we went in June, see the post here - Woofstock 2011!

26. Parasailing @Castaway Cay - not happening as its cost prohibitive.

27. Discover local restaurants in my city

28. See the Tim Burton exhibit- Saw this 2/26.  I found myself wondering what other things Burton would have done if time and space warped and he met Walt Disney himself.

29. Go to the Animal mass with Jeannie

30. Make it to Trinidad to introduce Mike to the rest of my crazy family, hopefully I'll still be married by the time we return.

31. Go to the Winter Walk with your dog - Unfortunately, this was canceled due to a lack of attendees.  I am still on record and they've said they will try to hold it again in Feb/March etc, so we'll see.  If they choose to hold it again, I will definitely attend.

32. Start a new job - started Feb. 1st

33. Eat at a Summerlicious restaurant

34. Write a letter to Queen Elizabeth II for her birthday and include pictures of Gimli. -Sent it out before we went on vacation.  And I got a response!

35. Lose anywhere from 5-10 lbs, I'm 122 lbs now.  Its deliberately vague as I'm really only striving to look better in my clothes.  I'm unsure if 5 or 10 lbs will do it, so starting off small. - am back to the drawing board on this.  I've gained back what I lost so I have to start from scratch to exercise more.

36. See Rammstein again - Went on 5/8 and we had an awesome time, post coming!

37. Go to the Dog Jog - Went 3/27, had a great time!  See post here: First Annual Dog Jog

38. Stop playing that soul sucking MMO that Mike and I started together, but I've been left in the dust - Officially canceled my account.  Have uninstalled and surprisingly I don't feel any need to return to it.  See my post about it here - Siren Song.

39. Do the Toronto Zombie Walk and bring Gimli along with us.  I had aspirations of going in 2010, but it didn't happen.  I feel this year will be different and I'd like to do it!

40. Take a Photography class this year.

41. Speaking of photography, I was looking through my pictures tonight and I was saddened there aren't more pictures of Mike and I.  This needs to be rectified.

 42. Start going to the Spa to get regular massages, budget permitting of course.

43. Sign up for the 5k walk at the Scotia Bank marathon later in the year. - Mike and I signed up along with my mom and brother and we are going to start training for it soon!

44. Return to the Church. This has been gnawing at me over the past few months and I keep telling myself to do it, but I haven't yet.  It seems whenever I put things down on this list, they start getting done, so here it is. - Working on this one.  Tried to go to Confession a few weeks ago, but couldn't find the priest at the Church.  Determined to go back though and try again.

45. Start learning German - I have wanted to do this for a long time and I feel this is the year to do it.  I ran through the trial version of Rosetta Stone and I actually picked up a few words/sentences.  Once our money situation levels out, I'll definitely order the first 2 Rosetta Stone levels and get started.  Soon I'll be able to actually sing the songs as opposed to wondering what they mean!


46. Train Gimli to listen - Based on my post regarding Gimli's atrocious behavior, we've started him on a training class.  We've only been to one class thus far, so I cannot really say much, but it is my hope it will help him to focus on us more and to ignore distractions.  I've seen some improvement since we've been doing our homework each night, but we have a way to go.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Pokey

For some reason, Gimli likes sleeping on the door stops.

I haven't the slightest idea why.  Here he is at a few months old.  That cannot be comfy.  In fact, when he did this, his head became so heavy, it slid off the stopper, which then woke him up with a loud, "Sprong!"

He came running out of the bathroom to hide.


Clearly, he has overcome his fear of stoppers as I found him in this position the other day.


Maybe he's using it for acupuncture?

Monday, July 4, 2011

Watermelon Head

Gimli's first watermelon slice.

Is there nothing this dog won't eat?