Half way there... and other random stuff

Last week, I was in Calgary to work though the third of six courses (exams) I have to take to earn my expert certification in ITIL.    The classes are dry as dirt, but I always come away with ideas for how to improve things at work.  I'm guessing that's the point.   That, and passing the exams to get the certificates.

I won't be going back for any more classes until spring arrives.  The drive to Calgary was awful - again -  with a heat wave rolling in after a big dump of snow.  I had to use my windshield wipers non-stop because of the dirty water spraying off the roads the entire drive, and ran out of wiper fluid about 3/4 of the way there.

Last summer, I had some skin cancer removed.  It's the less-scary variety of skin cancer that should be gone once it is cut out; except that mine keeps growing back.  What was a small mole is now a big scar across my collar bone.  I went to my doctor in December about new spots in the area, and he prescribed a cream to put on them.  Except, the cream costs $300/month.  Yesterday I went back to the doctor to ask for a less expensive option and he scheduled another appointment to do some more cutting Monday morning.   Dang, I have a lot of scars... I guess a few more won't matter.

My dad and I have been scrubbing the heck out of the tile floor in the basement.  We've been pouring vinegar on it, scrubbing the grout with a brush, then using a floor polisher before sucking it up with a wet vac and then rinsing off with water.  We've done this to the area twice... it took three hours both times.  Improvements have been good, but it's not there yet.

If at first you don't succeed...

Assuming that the basement will eventually be finished one day, I'm going to want a TV down there.    At first, I was going to get one through Telus, when I switched over to them from Shaw for Internet/TV/Phone.  I quickly determined a free TV wasn't worth having to deal with Telus, though, so I bought one on Black Friday.

That TV came from BestBuy.com.  It was sold as a smart TV, but when it arrived I realized that it wasn't web enabled... was in fact only called smart because it had two USB ports. (!)  It took no less than - honest to God - four and a half hours on the phone to convince them to take the TV back and give me a full refund.

After that, I waited until Boxing Day to take advantage of the sales.  Since my experience with the last TV convinced me that Best Buy is not a store I want to support anymore, and options are limited if I don't want to drive to the big city, a friend told me about her nephew that works in an electronic store that could probably get me a deal.  So, I woke up early on Boxing Day and went out to meet the nephew.  He didn't get me any huge savings, but the price was slightly lower than anything else I'd seen until then.   I bought the TV, hauled it home and set it up.

Yesterday, I was at Costco and saw that they had the same TVs, only bigger and $60 cheaper.  I went home and called a friend who helped me load the Boxing Day TV back into the car and return it, then drive out to Costco, pick up the new one and take it home.  The Costco TV is in my spare room and still in its box.  I probably should set it up today so that I can test it out and make sure it works before the return period is up.  After having set up and disassembled so many TVs, it shouldn't take me too long but I am having trouble finding the energy.  One thing's for sure - this is the last TV that I'll be buying anytime soon.

Thankful

On Christmas Eve, I had to run home briefly to let the dogs outside.  My nieces asked to come along, and Lewis was incredibly excited to see them.  We all went out to the back yard to give him a chance to run, but since he was so excited to see the girls and they weren't dressed for the snow, we ended up coming back in right away.  A few minutes later, we gave the dogs treats to tie them over and went back to the party.

When I came home a little while later, the dogs greeted me at the front door and I think I saw Winter.  I took off my coat and boots, and walked towards the back of the house to let the dogs out.  That's when I realized the back door was wide open.  And, by open, I don't mean unlocked.  It was blowing in the breeze and letting anybody that chose to either come or go.

It took a little while for this to register, so I was already out back with the dogs before I clued in to how bad that open door could be.  I left the dogs in their pen and came back in.  I'd thought I'd seen Winter when I came in -he almost always greets me when I come home- but I needed to confirm that he was still around.   Winter has been an indoor cat his entire life, and while he can be trusted not to dash out the doors when they are open briefly, this was pushing my luck.  He was still inside...  or possibly inside again.

Every year I hear stories of people's homes being broken into over the holidays while they are out celebrating.  Honestly, I was so relieved that all three of the pets were safely inside that I didn't even bother checking the house or looking for items that may have been stolen.

Second Job?

I was complaining to a coworker via instant message this morning, and my fingers may have been travelling a little slower than my head.  I had a bit of a typo, and I told him I'd "wored until after 9:00 last night, was up early and back at it again before 7:00, and that my eyes were starting to glaze over"

He was too polite to ask if I'd missed the h or the k until after I made the appropriate corrections.

House Bound

I got up early this morning.  Fridays are garbage day around here, and I had to shovel a path to the back fence so that I could use the garbage chute.  I was out there without my toque, mitts or scarf.  No doubt it was chilly, but it didn't seem too bad... I wondered if maybe it was starting to warm up.    Then I came in and checked, only to learn that it was -43C outside.  (That's -45F to the Americans.)

Yep, it's so cold outside that it doesn't feel cold anymore.  Kinda dangerous.

The tiler came today to work on the basement floor.  He had to use the wet saw outside because of the dust, so I moved my car to the driveway and let him use the garage. Mostly, he worked inside but ran out every once in a while when he had tiles to cut.  Even so, it wasn't long before he came in to say he'd have to finish later because the wet saw was frozen.

I'm housebound.  After the incredible dump of snow we had earlier in the week, the roads are still bad.  Most have been ploughed to some extent, but they are still slippery and full of ruts.  City crews have been too busy ploughing to sand the roads.   I'm not going to take chances while it's this cold outside.

I thought I'd do something useful, but can't figure out what that is.  I can't paint the baseboards, because they are in the back half of the basement beyond the newly laid tiles.  I can't do Christmas baking because I'm out of flour.  I can't even hang my new art (below), because my hammer is also in the basement.

Come to think of it, maybe tonight is a perfect night to curl up with a book in front of the fireplace.

I Win!

Sorry - this is a bit of a novel, but I thought I should keep a record of this in case I'm ever tempted to change my media provider again.

I am very much not a fan of the big media companies.  You know the ones... phone/internet/tv providers.  In Alberta, we have the choice between Telus and Shaw.  It used to be that Telus had the monopoly on TV and internet, and Shaw had TV but now they both do it all.

I hate Telus for too many reasons to list here, but suffice to say their customer service sucks, and they have hidden (not so hidden, actually) charges up the wazoo.  I have avoided being their customer ever since I've had any other options - Shaw.

This all started a few years ago, when I started working from home.  I talked to Shaw a bunch of times,  about slow connections and cutting in and out; but the responses were hit or miss.  Mostly, I felt like I was being told to upgrade at my own expense before they would bother trouble shooting.

That, combined with the basement renos (which means that I would soon have two TVs) convinced me to give Telus another chance.  It's been years since I've been their customer, and they do claim to be making customer service a priority.  Plus, I like the idea of using one PVR for all TVs, so I can wander from one room to the other.  Also, Telus was giving away TVs when you sign with them.

I signed with Telus in September.  I was all set to switch over to them when a guy from the Shaw retention dept called me and made all sorts of promises.  I wouldn't have to pay to upgrade, because he agreed to give me the fastest internet available (broadband 100) a new PVR, and decrease my monthly bill (for TV/Internet/phone) to $70/month.  He also gave me his direct phone number so that I wouldn't have to deal with the spotty service on their phones.  I agreed. The Telus contract was cancelled, and  a tech came out to set up my screaming fast internet.

Two things about that, though.  The internet was NOT screaming fast, and I didn't get the PVR I was promised.  I called the guy I'd talked to earlier, but the number he gave me was for somebody else, and nobody ever called me back.  That made me mad.  I went down to the Shaw office and talked to a lady there who sent me home with a PVR and booked another tech to address the internet issues.   The second tech came out, spent three hours fiddling with the internet, *almost* had it fixed, but then got a phone call over something urgent, packed up his tools and left without registering my router.  I didn't have any internet at all.  That made me madder.

Long story short(er), that got fixed, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.  Then, issues with the new PVR and new connectivity issues at work that were known to be related to Shaw convinced me to try Telus again.  I agreed to sign up for a three year contract for similar services to what I have at Shaw, only I'd get a whole-home PVR and a new TV.    And I'd pay $145/month instead of $70.

Then I started finding hidden fees everywhere.  If my TV breaks and I replace it, I'd have to pay Telus $100 to come out and reconfigure the digital box that goes with the PVR.  I have to pay to keep my phone number unlisted.  Having it "Private" isn't an option.  I emailed Telus about one thing, which led to a whole bunch of other things and suddenly I realized this was not what I wanted.  A Telus employee and I went a few rounds before I finally pulled the plug and cancelled my contract with them (which I could only do because they hadn't yet set up my services).

Today, since Telus had previously said they'd make the arrangements for my Shaw account to be closed, I called Shaw.  I didn't trust Telus to un-cancel the cancellation, so I wanted to make sure that Shaw had no plans to terminate my services.  I lucked out by being connected to a rare breed of service desk staff who really knew her stuff and wanted to help me out.  All I wanted to do was confirm that my account wasn't being cancelled, but she asked for my reasons for almost leaving so that she could address them.  It turns out that Shaw also has a whole home PVR system that nobody had told me about earlier.   She arranged to send a tech out to set one up for me, and agreed not to charge me anything, as long as I'd return the new-ish PVR that I'd received in September and wouldn't be using anymore.

So, I get the pvr system I want, I keep the discounted rates of $70/month and I don't have to deal with Telus.  Oh, and that free tv that I didn't get?  It's a 42" LG.  Telus claims that it's worth $800.  I got up early this morning and took advantage of the Black Friday deals online.  I ordered a 46" Samsung smart tv that was on sale for $500.  The way I see it, it'll only take 6 months of the discounted rate I'll be paying, and I will have saved enough to cover that expense.

Still here...

The last week was spent in Calgary, attending a course and getting ready for yet another ITIL exam.  I wrote it this afternoon, and now get to wait a couple of weeks to see if I passed.  These exams are written to trip you up - a lot of people fail, and I might do just that.  Although the content of this course was probably the most straight forward of any I've taken, the exam was the most difficult.  This was the only time I've seen the majority of the class stick it out and stay in the exam room until time ran out and they were forced to stop writing.

Halloween was successful, I think.  I managed to rush home after the exam and make it here before the kids started coming around.  Fewer kids this year (~80), which could be because I wasn't around last year, or maybe the neighbourhood kids are starting to age out.  While I do love Halloween, I can't say I'll miss having to buy for 150 kids

After the kids stopped coming around, I headed over to get the dogs from my parents.  Lewis has mastered the stairs while I was away, and ran up and down their basement stairs over and over and over and over to show off his new skills.    Although my mom was against me getting another dog, there's no doubt that he's won her over.

Finally, a PSA for germophobes like me:   Do NOT read an article about where the germs, bacteria and bugs are hiding in hotel rooms while staying in a hotel.  I may never feel clean again.

Big Ocean, Small Pond

It's kind of funny how well I've adjusted to things, after the breakup.  I haven't been in a tonne of relationships, but usually there's a period of time after one ends before I want to even consider looking for another one... this period has lasted from a few months up to a few years in the past.  This time, there was no mourning period.  It's too bad that it didn't work out, but looking back, I think I knew we would have a limited amount of time together before it came to an end.

The truth is, I waited a month before dipping my toes back in the pool out of respect for him.  I was pretty much ready to start looking right away.  I liked being part of a pair, and having a partner.  If what we had, which was pretty good, was what relationships are like with the wrong guy, then I can only imagine it'd be even better with the right one.  I want that.

Long story short, I signed up on a new website a while back.  This one sends you a list of your matches every day.  The very first list that I received, I scrolled down to find that -once again- I'd been matched with him.

Oye.

Class Act

There's a rental about five houses down from mine that got new tenants a while back and it's been party central ever since.  They have their music blaring non-stop, and their place has beer bottles and cigarette butts strewn all over the place.  It's lovely, it really is.

What's even better is that when their next door neighbour tried to complain (I'm not sure if they went to the landlord or the police) their house was peppered with raw eggs the very next night - at least 2 dozen.  Needless to say, people are a little hesitant to speak up to them now.

Last night, they had a party at the rental, and it was loud enough to keep me awake five houses away.  I think I may have fallen asleep shortly before 2, only to wake up to the sounds of a sick puppy (who had just gotten a rabies shot) at 3:30.  I had to get up, clean up his crate and take him outside.  The rental house was quiet by then, but the cool air outside woke me up.  I was awake for probably another 45 minutes.

My alarm went off at 5.  I managed to haul myself out of bed at 5:30.  I got dressed, stretched out and then threw in the towel by walking across the street to tell Jen (my jogging partner) I was going back to bed.  I got another hour of sleep before I had to get up to work.

I'm a diet coke drinker.  I know it's bad for me but... yeah.  I usually only drink a can a day, and since it's my sole source of caffeine, I drink it early.  As in, I usually crack one open before 9.  Today, when I was functioning on almost no sleep, I felt desperate for my diet coke.  Imagine how thrilled I was to realize I was all out.

I tried to cope without it, I really did; but I finally gave up after I lost the ability to speak English about 11:00.   The brain just wasn't firing, so I got into my car with the intension of hitting a nearby drive through.  Of course, the drive through was backed up down the road, so I parked and went inside.  Baggy sweatpants, bright orange M&Ms t-shirt, paint splattered crocks over socks and bed head.  I was all sorts of class.  Probably even more so after I had my first sip, fell to my knees and practically broke down in tears of relief.

Random stuff

• I need to post something to fill space, because anytime I come to this blog I see the post I made a while back about Cotton dying and have to leave.  So, I'm filling space here, and probably for another couple posts after that.  I need to get the news about Cotton "below the fold".

• Things are starting to be OK again, but I still find myself crying all the time.  I've pretty much given up on wearing mascara because it doesn't matter how much I hope to go a whole day without crying; things keep cropping up.... having to pick up his ashes... having to tell the groomer that he was gone... getting sympathy cards in the mail... returning the canned food he never got around to eating... putting away his leash, crate, pillow, etc.  Another day, another crying jag.

• I've always assumed that I'd get another standard poodle when it came time to add to the brood.  Now, I'm quite certain that I need a lap dog.  I'm not ready yet, but I know with complete certainty that when the time comes, my next dog will be small.  (And I suspect it'll be within a year or so.)

• On a more positive note, life is carrying on.  Work is busier than ever, which is mostly good.  I'm still adjusting to and learning the ropes with the new job but I don't think I'm making too much of a mess of it.  

• This week, I am interviewing contractors to have half of my basement finished.  I'm scared because of the track record in this house, but also very excited.  It'll be a basic "great" room, but for now I'm only going to furnish one corner that'll be my office.  Until then, it'll be a big empty room with lots of bookshelves -  and hopefully a hidden door.

• Things with the boy (previously known as guy #2) are still going strong.  He's good for me.

Nieces Rock

Yesterday, I went to Calgary with my sister-in-law and the nieces.  Our original intension was to check out a new organic farmer's market, but when the nieces decided to come along, it became a girls' day out.

We started off at the market... well, we started by driving past two Tim Horton's before we found one that had a reasonable lineup so we could get breakfast... then we went to the organic market.  It was good (I came away with a grass-fed beef roast that will be chopped up for THIS Mediterranean Beef Stew,  fresh honey and handmade gnocchi) and it was nice to go to a farmers' market that was mostly limited to things that farmers actually produce, rather than people selling crafts.   ... don't judge me for the gnocchi.

After the market, we swung over to the first of two malls that we ended up visiting.  The focus there was mostly clothes for the girls, and we had both successes and challenges.  It's pretty disturbing how overtly sexual some of the clothes are now for young girls, but luckily they both seem to understand that there's a big difference between attractive and sexy... both are still drawn more to classy styles.  The older niece, who is an avid golfer,  cleaned up on a few golfing outfits.  The younger niece, who is like me and loves all things sparkly, ended up cleaning up at a sale by bringing home about 7 new sparkly outfits...  oh, to be ten and wear sparkles every day.

In one store, I zeroed in on some bags right away.  The younger niece loved them too, and thought I'd picked it out for her.  I said HECK NO, that's for me; but agreed that there was no reason why we couldn't have matching bags.  So, I got one for carrying my stuff to zumba classes, and she got one for her overnight trips to visit her grandparents.

Cool bag, eh?  It doesn't show very well in the picture, but it's covered in clear sequins.

Regularly priced @ $37.  Cost $10.98 thankyouverymuch.

After that, the girls introduced me to my first bubble tea, and then it was time to head home.  All in all, it was a fantastic day.

Back in the Day

My dad and I used to have a lot of fun together.  I remember my mom shaking her head and tsking a lot around us when we came up with our crazy ideas.

This series took quite a bit of planning - we had to wait for a loose tooth, we had to wait for it to fall out, and then we had to wait until my favourite shirt was clean so we could finish the series in a convincing way.  

I'm thinking of getting this printed and framed.  I'm not one for self portraits, but these ones make me smile.

Coincidence?

Ginny and I, who haven't seen each other for a few years, met in Toronto and flew together to Venice.  There, at the end of the first day, we changed into pjs and got ready to go to sleep.

That's when we discovered this:

We both have excellent taste in nail polish.

Somehow, Italy seems like more fun.

I've been home for about a week and a half now and things are getting back to normal.  I still have no sense of time, which is evidenced in my having missed putting out the garbage on garbage day twice now.  I've also been going to bed insanely early, and waking up about 4:00am, so for the last couple of days I've been relying on the caffeine in diet coke to keep me up past 9:00.

Alberta has been hit with a doozy of a snow storm. I've spent the week absolutely freezing, which I thought was psychosomatic because of the cold outside.  Last night, I remembered that I'd changed the batteries in the programable thermostat at 5:00am on Monday (when it's usually pretty cool in here).  I remembered being surprised that the temperature immediately showed as being 21C but I wasn't alert enough to think more of it.  So, after being freezing for a week, I finally caught on and reset the thermostat.  Right away, it showed that it was 17.5C  in here, not 21C as it'd said earlier and started warming up. It's good to know that I'm not losing my mind.

Back to the snow storm, I was supposed to go to Edmonton today but can't because of the snow.  Edmonton got 31cm in a day, and they're still digging out.  Around here, I think we got that much, but it was spread out over three days so that I had to shovel eight times... which is maybe a good thing because I can't jog in this weather and need to get my exercise somehow.   I'm also going to Zumba this afternoon - this time with shoes - and am not yet convinced that it won't kill me.  I'm pretty sure that my jeans feel tighter now than they did while I was on vacation.  Whodda thunk that I'd manage to spend three weeks in the land of pizza and pasta - lose weight while there - and then come home and pack on the pounds?

In other news, which isn't very good, I just came back from a vet appointment with Cotton.  He's been coughing a lot and losing weight.  He's had a heart murmur for a while now, but it looks like it's progressed to the beginnings of heart failure.  The vet hopes that, having caught it early, we can turn things around with the right medication.  I really hope she's right.

I promised Ginny that I'd keep a daily diary of our trip to Italy.  She did one too, and wants to combine them together.  I did well for a while, and then stopped writing sometime around Sorrento.  I really need to finish that up, and finish going through and cleaning up all the pictures I took.  Don't be surprised if I post after the fact entires about some of the places we visited.

Random Stuff to know

• I have four work day left before I am on vacation.  It can't come soon enough.
• Tomorrow, a friend and I are trying out a new kind of dance classes.  A few years ago, we took chair tease dance classes, and although we never developed any real skills, we had all sorts of laughs.  We liked the teacher, so when we heard she's running dance classes for fitness, we thought we'd give it a chance.  I think it'll be a cross between zumba, burlesque and chair dancing but am not absolutely sure.
• I haven't been in the mood to cook for a couple of weeks.  I've been eating sandwiches and omelettes almost non-stop, so I really need some vegetables.  I've got cauliflower and beets roasting in the oven beside a ham right now, but all I really want is a pb&j.
• I've been jogging now for about 6 weeks.  I try (and usually succeed) to go 5km three times a week.  After six weeks of steadily gaining weight, the scale finally turned around and went in the right direction on Saturday.  
• Before you tell me that I was gaining weight because muscle weighs more than fat, I know.  I'm currently wearing shorts that sat in my closet with their tags on for five years because I couldn't get them over my hips.  They're baggy now.  Even so, that dang number on the scale is too high.
• Those shorts I'm wearing?  I've been wearing them for three days straight.  It's cold outside, and I've been running around the house in a tshirt and tap shorts (emphasis on the and bare legs)... because I can.  I've had to dig out the fuzzy blankets a little early this year, but I'm just not ready to put on the fleece.

OCD in Common

I went to a friend's house after work tonight.  We dragged a plastic floor mat and a stool into the room, set them up in front of the mirror and I sat there wrapped in a cape with my hair dripping wet.

She combed through my hair a few strokes before we had to stop.  I got up, and we shifted the mat and the stool over a few inches because it had bothered her that I hadn't been centred in mirror,

A few minutes later, she had to stop cutting my hair mid-layer because I needed to bend over.  I had noticed in the mirror that one side of my pant leg had unrolled.


I've got my "travel" haircut now.  It's long enough to go in a ponytail, but short enough that it can be wet without soaking my shoulders.  My hair takes 30 minute to dry by blow dryer, so I plan to let it air dry;  but don't want to walk around with a wet top everywhere I go.  I'll bring a little bit of goop to encourage the curls to behave, but suspect it'll be in a ponytail most of the trip.

I've decided that I'm going to grow it long (mid-back) again when I get home.

Kelowna Wildlife

I've been hearing all about the funny quail that live in the area around my sister's house.  They have silly plumes that hangs over their head, and they're dumb as stumps.  Apparently, run everywhere and rarely fly - even when the dogs chase them.  After I'd been there a few days without seeing them, I started to tease my nephews that they'd made them up.  So, we went outside to look for them.  We went out the front to the end of the road, down the hill, around the nearby lake, back up the hill through the bushes to their back yard.  No quail.  We had just given up the search and gone back inside the house when my brother in law came home from work.  He called out as he walked in the door: "Janice - there are a bunch of quail in the front yard."  Doh.

The other thing that I kept hearing about are the turtles that live in the lake down the hill, and that sometimes crawl up the hill to lay eggs in their yard.  My brother in law and I headed down the hill one night to see if we could find any.  As we were walking along the path, I suddenly noticed that the twig I was about to step on was not, in fact, a twig.  It was a 3' long snake with diamonds along the centre of its back.  We had a few moments of panic, but eventually determined that it was a gopher snake, and not a rattle snake.    Thankfully, it didn't seem to have been hurt when I stepped on it.  It lay there for a while longer, basking in the sun until eventually it got sick of the dog tiptoeing around it, and it slithered off into the grasses.  My nephews thought the snake was a lot more exciting than the turtles we eventually came upon, but I preferred the turtles.

This is the time of year that the salmon start to spawn.  They swim upstream from the ocean to lay their eggs and eventually die.  Personally, as much as it's an amazing feat on their behalf (they even go up small-ish waterfalls), I didn't have any desire to see dying and dead fish.  I was kind of relieved when we went out to see them, only to see that there weren't any around.  However, my dad and my brother in law went to some other falls to see Kokanee Salmon (fresh water salmon that do a similar trek) and there were some there.    My nephews wanted to see them, so the whole family went back after my dad and I had left, only to encounter a black bear on the way.  As exciting as the boys found that, I'm told that the trips out to see salmon are over for the foreseeable future.

Kelowna Bits 'n Bobs

Other than visiting my sister and her family, my goal while in Kelowna was to get a big box of apples, so that I can make (and can) apple sauce.  I've made about half of it now - I ran out of jars, so will have to make the rest tomorrow.

(For what it's worth, that apple peeler/corer was a waste of money.  I ended up using a carrot peeler and a knife that worked much better.)

This is my sister's dog Derby.  Besides my own dogs, she's my all-time favourite - and she has the best ears ever.  She's 14 1/2 years old now and retired from agility and flyball; but has taken up obedience classes to keep her border collie brain active.

Even so, she gets more neurotic every year.  In the last few years, she's been afraid to walk around inside the house, so she lives on the area rug in their living room.  They don't know why.  She can be coaxed off the rug, but always goes back as soon as they let her.  They take her for lots of walks every day, though, and she's happy as a clam when she's outside.

See that pinecone at her feet?  Derby is a fetching machine.  We didn't have a ball handy, so she brought me a pinecone to throw instead.

Brazen is their other dog.  My sister "co-owns" her, and she was always intended to be part of a breeding program.    Now that she's got her confirmation, has finished obedience training and is an accomplished agility dog (she went to the nationals this year), people started asking about getting one of her puppies and the other co-owner began pushing to get a litter out of her. 

Last year, she was bred but ended up miscarrying.   After she miscarried, Brazen carried around a rubber squeaky ball around with her everywhere, and even tried to nurse it.  The ball became known as Brazen's baby.  After months of this, my sister had to take the Baby away from her.  Then, a few weeks ago, my sister was cleaning out a cupboard and came upon the Baby at the top shelf.  She accidentally squeaked it, and Brazen came running.  Shortly after that, Brazen (who hasn't been anywhere near a male) started to lactate again and has developed mastitis.  

(I know breeding isn't the popular choice when so many dogs are in the shelters.   She's not my dog, though, and I don't have any say in the matter.  Please don't post any nasty comments about it.)

OMGshe'sgonnatalkaboutshoesagain!  Sorry - this should be it for a while, though.

I've been worried about my inability to wear shoes.  If I wear them for more than an hour or two, my feet either hurt something fierce or my toes go numb.  It's not that big of an issue most days because I work from home, but with my upcoming trip to Italy, I was worried that it would be a serious problem.

I was talking to my sister about it, and she told me about a store where she's been buying shoes lately.  She seized up her back last year and could barely move for months.  Her doctor sent her to see this guy at the shoe store, who sold her the miracle of all shoes, and now she swears by him.

I tried to avoid them at first... I probably tried on 10 pairs before I agreed to try these on - just to see how they fit - but ultimately, they are the only shoes that seemed completely comfortable when I put them on.    I ended up bowing to sisterly pressure and buying them, and am now the owner of some seriously ugly shoes.    And, unless something drastic happens, I think I'm going to wear them to Italy too.  I've been wearing them almost non-stop since I got them, and they are the only shoes I own that don't hurt or cause my feet to go numb after a few hours.

And then, to add insult to injury, my sister sent me home with these.  They are one of two pairs that she wore after she hurt her back, and she swears that they work, despite their looks.

I figure that I might wear them around the house and yard.  If people can be seen in public wearing crocs, these can't be that much worse.... can they?

Hand Gestures

Lucky for me, body language and hand gestures are universal.

Our students, Mayu and Nanako, arrived on Friday.  Mayu, who is staying with me,  speaks very, very little English, but we are making it work.  There's a lot of me waving her towards me, and holding the index finger up wait, and thumbs up for good.   I wonder if she noticed if these are the same gestures we use with Jen's deaf bulldog?  If she has, I hope she doesn't take offence.

So far, we've mastered "I like"  and "I don't like", "I want" and "I don't want", "I am full", and the big one: "OK" and "Not OK".    For the first day, everything was OK, so I wasn't sure that she understood that things could be not OK. Mayu is such a respectful and accommodating girl that at first, I was afraid that she'd go along with me and do or eat things she doesn't like rather than risk being rude.    Thankfully, I think we've got it worked out and she's managed to tell me when something isn't to her liking.


This, of course, means that I'm now going to broaden her horizons and try new things with her, expecting her to tell me when she doesn't like it.

Yesterday, the four of us went to the local market.  The girls, who have never met each other before,  didn't even really talk amongst themselves as they followed Jen and I around.  They did laugh at the silver guy acting like an Elvis statue.  Then we took them to the spa and we each got pedicures.  They seemed a little stunned at first, but I think they liked it.

After that was the breakthrough.  We took the girls to the grocery store to buy the food for their stay.  They laughed and laughed.  I don't think they've ever seen so much food being purchased at once.  If they pointed at something, we bought it.  If they said "I like" to something, we bought it.  (Within reason).  Eventually, we had a cartful for the four of us, which I don't think is unreasonable for four people for two weeks, but the girls seemed surprised about the volume.

I was expecting her to not like most of our foods, but so far she has seemed OK with it.  There have been a few things that got an apologetic "I don't like" but for the most part, I get a smile and an "OK" as she tastes new things.  This morning, I even got a request for more pancakes with maple syrup.  I've heard horror stories about how our food tends to make the Japanese sick, because it's so different from theirs.  I suspect, though, that that's the processed food that we North American's eat.  I've been giving her simple, whole food with an emphasis on fresh fruits and veggies and trying to cut back on the dairy.  So far, as far as I can tell, it seems to be working.

Today we are off to do a farm tour.   A local co-op of 5 farms that work together do an annual appreciation day where the public is welcomed out to their farms and given a tour.  Some friends and I went last year and had a blast, so we're hoping that the girls like it just as much today.

Tomorrow, they'll start "school" for week.  We aren't sure what will happen after that - if they'll want to hang out with the other Japanese students in the evening or if they will want to spend time with us.  We have some rough plans for things we could take them to, but for now we're thinking we'll play next week by ear.

Red Finch!

I am so excited... I've wanted wild birds in the yard for so long.  I've planted trees for them, I've left food out for them, and finally this year they've arrived.

The sparrows come and go pretty regularly.  I suspected that there might be a few finch, but they've all been brown until today.  Today, this little guy stood on top of the bannister over the back porch as he sang and flapped his wings at a nearby female.  I was afraid to move and scare them away, but ran and got my camera once they settled in at the feeder.

He didn't want to come out of the shadows for the photo op, so this is all I got.  Doesn't matter, though -   I saw a red finch in the yard!