I shall call her Shelob

"Already, years before, Gollum had beheld her, Sméagol who pried into all dark holes, and in past days he had bowed and worshiped her, and the darkness of her evil will walked through all the ways of his weariness beside him, cutting him off from light and from regret."

I found this while walking in the yard. I apologize for the blurriness, but it was as close as I dared, lest it jump on me.

Goodbye Christmas tree

Remember when I posted about the Christmas tree that was hanging around the neighborhood?  Well, apparently the magical Christmas tree elves came by and took it away!

One day it was lying in the middle of the street, (yes, that totally happened), and the next day it was gone!

I wonder what else those magical Christmas elves can take away?

hmmmmm

Christmas in April

I really try my best not to bring this sort of thing onto the blog, but I really cannot hold this one back any longer.  I see this every day when Gimli and I walk past the mailbox.

As we know, this past December was Christmas.  At Christmas time, some people decide to decorate a Christmas tree.  Of these people, some use an artificial tree and some use a real tree.  The issue with the real trees is that once Christmas is over, one has to get rid of the tree.

In years past, our city would schedule a special pick up of the real trees to be taken to the dump for en masse disposal.  This year though, the city decided they were not going to spend the money to pick up the trees.  Instead, those who had a real tree were told to take it to the dump themselves.  This information was posted in the local newspaper - in each printing a few weeks leading up to Christmas.  I know, because I remember reading it.

I would like to note that we are about 7 minutes away from the entrance to the dump.  I've been there, it's not that far.

The garbage day after Christmas, the carcass of a real Christmas tree appeared on the curb of a particular house in my neighborhood.  Naturally, because the city stopped picking up the trees, the tree remained on the curb for a week.  Then, the magical tree elves came and moved the tree a few feet up the curb so it was sitting next to the light pole as seen in the picture below.  Garbage day came again and the tree remained.

During this time, a local service decided they would do everyone a favor and go around to pick up the trees. All you had to do call them to add your house to the list.  I imagine the service stopped when they stopped receiving phone calls... makes sense.

But, back to the curb.

A few weeks passed and the magical tree elves came again and moved the tree so it's now lying next to the communal mailbox.

It's now the end of March.  Christmas has been over for 3 months and the tree is still there, sitting next to the mailbox.

I wouldn't be surprised if the tree is still there come June.

Note, this picture was taken in February, but I assure you, it's still there.  It's less green and a bit brown, but it's still there.

Gimli's been Frankenweenie-fied!

I ran across this site today, Frankenweenie-fy your pet, for the Frankenweenie movie that's due in theaters October 5th.

On the site, there was a section to upload your pet's picture so it could be turned into a Frankenweenie.

Naturally, I had to upload Gimli's:

Am pretty sure if you saw this thing in the middle of the night, all you'd have to do is give it some food and it would be content to follow you around so you could give it some more.

How to be clueless

Yesterday, Gimli and participated in the 2nd annual Dog Jog held by the local University.  There's a separate post coming on it, so I won't go into detail here.

After the actual jogging/walking, Gimli and I were milling around just taking a rest and meeting new friends.

At one point, this lady with a Beagle came over and we got to know each other, well, the Beagle was off sniffing at something and Gimli was more interested in the lady, but you get my drift.  Both Gimli and the Beagle are leashed.  At the same time, this other lady with a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever came over to us.

Let me set the scene, the Beagle is about 3 feet away from it's handler sniffing at a tree.  Gimli is about 3 feet away from me, getting to know the Beagle's handler.  The Duck Tolling Retriever's handler proceeds to strike up a conversation with the beagle's handler about Pembroke Welsh Corgis.

*record scratch*

Clearly she did not see the bright red leash attached to Gimli that led back to my hand.  She only clued in when the Beagle's handler gave her a, "W.T.F. would I know about Corgis, I have a Beagle!" look.

Then when Gimli wiggled over to me, did she turn to me and ask if Gimli was a Corgi.

Some people, I swear, how do they make it through the day.

Weekend in which Gimli pulls an all nighter and we encounter a freaky rest stop

This past weekend, the three of us went on a roadtrip to visit our friends in Chicago.  Mike and I have driven there and back many times, but this time we took Gimli with us.  And it was the first time Gimli crossed the border into the US.

From the time he saw the bags and his travel crate sitting downstairs, he knew something was up.

We left home around 5 am and headed to the Sarnia/Port Huron border crossing.  The US Customs agent didn't even look at Gimli's vaccination records.  Instead he asked us if he was up to date, we said he was and he let us through.  Isn't that always the way though?  You have documentation and they don't want to see it.  The time you don't have it, is when you really need it!

The rest of the trip was uneventful. Gimli stayed awake for the entire trip and then proceeded to stay awake all afternoon and evening.  Our friends have two dogs - a British Bulldog, Nugget, and a Terrier mix, Penny, and Gimli would have nothing to do with them.  He sniffed a little and walked around their house a little, but spent most of the time next to either Mike or myself.  We even put him out on a tie down so he could get some air and run around a little outside, but did he?  Nope, he sat in front of the door and stared back at us.

We kept him in our room overnight and I doubt he slept very much.  I didn't sleep well and it seemed every time I woke up to adjust my pillow, I heard him licking his lips and moving around.

We left around 8 am the next day, Sunday, to drive home.  It was a very short trip, but we mainly went down there to see our friends and to pick up our Haunted Mansion merchandise that we had shipped to their US address.

I could tell Gimli was tired during the car ride back home, but did he sleep?  Not a wink.  I caught him nodding, but he'd wake up and then look around with those beady, brown eyes as if to say, "Why are we still in the car?"

After what seemed like ages, we stopped at a rest stop before we crossed the border at Port Huron.  This particular rest stop was a bit removed from the highway and you had to go up a little hill to get to it.  (Red flag #1.)  If I was a woman driving by myself, there is no way I'd stop there.  Of course, Mike's in a wheelchair and has poor balance so I really was a woman driving virtually by myself...

We stopped and took turns in the washroom, which had been recently renovated.  It must be part of the trap to lure you into a false sense of security. Gimli left his mark in a couple places and while I was waiting for Mike to return, I took Gimli to the other side of the rest stop to sniff around at the "Dog Run".  That's the green area in this picture.  As Gimli and I were exploring the grassy area, I heard a few pops, that really sounded like they were in the wooded area behind us.  I'm naive when it comes to things like this and it really didn't dawn on me that they were gunshots, (Red flag #2), til I was back at the car and Mike commented on them.

(Yes, I'm really going to survive the Zombie apocalypse!)

Looking around, I commented to Mike that this place looked like one of the dumping grounds or the place where the killer grabs his victims straight out of the television show, Criminal Minds.  I can just picture it now, the BAU profiling this dude who likes to hunt and who preys on naive, weakling women, who have cute doggies and who stop at this particular rest stop.

Check out the rest of the pictures and you'll see what I'm talking about:

Who's going to hear you scream amidst the trees?

Thanks for the reminder Facebook!

So Facebook is trying to be like Google +.

Too little too late if you ask me.  I've already decided to make the switch to Google +, except the vast majority of my friends and family still use Facebook.  Thus, I'm still over there.

The most recent Facebook changes have me very confused and I don't like it when I feel like I need a training course to figure out how to do the most simplest of actions.

One of these changes is you now have the ability to "approve" all relations.  (No, not those, though you should approve of them.)  I'm talking about the relations within the Facebook profile with regard to family - ie brother/sister/mother/father/husband/wife etc.

Because Mike and I have entered our relationship status as "Married" and specified "to whom", our picture appears on the others profile, much like this image.

However, at the bottom of the profile it shows the following:

Why is it listed twice?

Thank you Facebook for reminding me and any other profile stalkers out there that I am off the market... unless of course you happen to be a drummer from a certain German Industrial band... ahem...

Hawk's landing

We live on the edge of our city and our house backs onto a large expanse of land owned by a farmer.  As such, there's a great deal of wild animals that run around, although I've only seen our one rabbit friend.

On Friday, I came downstairs for lunch and noticed a rather large animal sitting in the grass on the other side of our gazebo.  I peered out the sliding glass door and found a hawk sitting with its talons firmly into its prey.  He stood there for a few seconds, lifting and dropping his talons further killing the prey.  Then, it started picking away the feathers.

I showed him to Gimli, who stared at him and then back to me with those big, brown corgi eyes begging to be let outside to go meet his new friend.

The hawk, then flew to the back of the yard where he proceeded to do this...

This was leftover when litterbug Mr. Hawk flew away.