Trouble is Relative

A few weeks ago, I emailed my friend Kat in Calgary and told her I was coming to town. I asked her to pick the best day, and to think of ways that the two of us could get into trouble.

Yesterday was the day. Neither of us had any great ideas for what to do, so we winged it. I wanted to go to Ikea to buy a dresser I've been eyeballing for a while, so we met there. I got my dresser (which I'm going to paint and change up a bit), and I helped Kat pick out some pillows and textiles to jazz up her family room and generally spend too much money. After Ikea, we hightailed it over to her house to drop off the kidletts and say hello to the husband.

Here's the thing: We always have these grandiose intentions to do something exciting and different. Sometimes we really bust out of our comfort zones and do something crazy (like we did on my last visit, when the two of us went to a corn maze together) but we always end up finishing off the visit the same way. Dinner and a movie is our thing. We love movies, and we love food.

When we end up settling on dinner and a movie again, we usually have visions of a good, sit down dinner out. Except, because one of us is usually looking at a two hour drive after the movie, we tend to go to the early show. We almost always wait until the last minute to figure out the short time frame for this, and end up hitting a drive through on the way to the show.

This time, however, we stood strong and opted to go to a late movie so that we could have a couple of hours at a nice restaurant. Yum. I had mushroom filled tortellini. Kat had chicken parmesan with tiramisu for desert. (I skipped desert so that I could have chocolate during the movie.)

If you haven't seen Avatar yet, I recommend that you do. Even better, go see it in 3D. Even if you're not a movie person, I think this one's worth going to see at the theater. The story line's good; but to me it was more about the amazing artistry and the graphics. I Loved it.

The little adventure after the movie? I didn't love it quite as much. Because I've got a brain injury, I typically come out of any movie a little disoriented. Coming out of a three hour long 3D movie? It was pretty bad. Hopping into my car and undertaking a 2 hour drive before I managed to shake out the cobwebs was not my smartest move. To make things worse, I'm not familiar with the roads and it was dark.

We talked about the route I should take to get to the highway, but I missed one of the landmark's I was looking for. I took the wrong exit onto the freeway and ended going the wrong direction. Then I turned off to find a place to turn around and got horribly disoriented. Thankfully, Kat is very familiar with my complete lack of any sense of direction, and she followed me on my little field trip. Right about the time when I was working myself into a complete panic, she pulled up beside me, motioned for me to follow, and led me to the highway to start the long drive home.

By the time I got back to town and picked up the dogs at my parents' place, I didn't get home until 2:00.

I think that was about the time that I started to realize that trouble is a relative thing. There's no question that I had a great time; but 10, 15 years ago, getting into trouble was a good thing. Now, it's more likely to be about getting lost in a strange city, and getting home way past my bedtime.

I guess I should be careful what I wish for.

Cousin It

Ears can be handy when you want to shut out the world and have a nap.

Big Day for the Dude

I'm off work for a while, and had big plans for today. I was going to start stripping the banister over the stairs so that I can paint it, but somehow haven't found the steam. Instead, I took the dogs to the groomer and came home to hang out with the cat, who seemed to really love being the only four legged one around.

At noon, I went to pick up the littlest dude, who doesn't like extended stays away from home. The groomer and I have a routine where I always pick up Cotton at noon, and Tallulah at 4:00. Normally, I drop Cotton off at home and run back to work, but today I stuck around.

I forgot how full of beans Cotton is when he comes home.




It doesn't take long, though, before he's used up all that built up energy and he's out like a light.

He'll be like this for the rest of the day.

The Book Experiment

I have always liked books about romance. I'm not such a fan of Harlequin romances, but throw in a good murder mystery and I'm happy to see the girl get the guy. They can be classics, contemporary or something in between... everything from Jane Austin to Stephanie Meyer, women's lit was my mainstay for a long time.

I don't really remember what set it off, but I started to get sick of the old routine: Innocent woman, bad boy... they hate each other, and then the love each other and live happily ever after. So, last summer I tried something new, a mystery. I liked it, and so I read more by the same author. I liked it too. Then I read a different genre and I loved it too. A few more books after that, and a light bulb went off: there are whole lotta great books out there that don't involve finding your one true love.

That's when I started an experiment. I didn't ask anybody to suggest a book to me, but every time somebody told me about a book they liked, I added it to a list and made a point of reading it. When I read all my friends' recommendations, I started taking strangers' advice. If I read a recommendation from an article or blog, I added it to the list. When Amazon made suggestions to me, based on my wishlist or purchasing history, I looked at them long and hard.

There was a while there when Amazon was sending me a package every week, and over time, I've read them all. Surprisingly, I only found two books that I actively disliked. Most were pretty good. There were a few books that I had to take a few attempts at, but ultimately ended up to be good reads. And there were a few books, which I normally never would have read, that I absolutely loved.

The only problem is, I'm out of books and out of suggestions. I stopped buying books in January when I decided to get my finances under control, and I no longer have a stockpile of books waiting to be read. It's making me a little crazy, so it's time to put in an order.

I'm looking for some good reads. I've tapped out my local friends and family, and even Amazon's suggestion software seems to be stuck in a rut (I think I confused it by reading such a wide variation).

All that's to say that if you've got any recommendations, I'd be happy if you'd throw them my way.

A sign from above

I've got this problem, which isn't really a problem, if you think about it.

There's too much sunlight in my house.

See? Not a real problem.

Sun is good! Except that the there's an hour a day, a few months of the year, that I can't watch tv because the sun gets in my eyes. As it turns out, we're on the month when I can't sit in my favorite chair and watch tv when I get home from work without holding my hand up in the air to block the sun.

It's the piano windows that are the problem. They're short, wide windows about 8' up the walls, and there's no good way to cover them up. I've thought of getting a curtain or stained glass window to block the sun; but I don't really want to do that. For the most part, I like the sun.

This year, my ever so classy solution has been to prop large-ish books on the piano window's sill; and while it may not be entirely attractive, it works like a hot damn.

Pardon the quality of this picture. It's not just hard to watch tv through a sun beam, it's also hard to photograph into it.

Except, that's not what this blog entry is about.
This is about something that struck me as really very funny as I was looking at the books.
... The titles:

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Mansfield Park - Jane Austin
The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova
The Fiery Cross - Diana Gabaldoon
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Mother of Pearl - Melinda Hayes
(It almost makes me seem well read, doesn't it? Keep going.)
The Darkest Evening of the Year - Dean Koontz
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
Bad Dogs Have More Fun - John Grogan

And if you look, that book is a little smaller than the others, and sunlight is pouring in around it.

Almost like a sign from a higher power.

Note to the evil neighbour

Dear Evil Neighbour,

Do you remember when, shortly after we both moved in and before I had a fence built, how you used to count the dog turds in my yard? Do you remember that you called the police any time that there were more than three piles of dog turds in my yard? As you're probably aware, the police came by my house quite a few times. They came by so often, in fact, that I started to bake them cookies. (And no, they never - EVER - determined that my yard was unkempt.)

Do you remember? That may have been five years ago, but you can be assured that I haven't forgotten.

With that in mind, if you decide to do construction in your house until past midnight again like you did last night, I'll be making a phone call to the the police myself.

Just so you know, they tend to prefer peanut butter chocolate chip.

Adventures of an 8 pound dog, part 3

About a week ago, Cotton decided to spend the vast majority of his time under my bed. This is generally where he goes when all isn't right in his world, and is a big red flag. So, I started looking into it right away.

I also spent more than a few hours lying on the floor, trying to cajole him out from under the bed. Except, I don't know what's wrong. He's not showing any signs of distress or fear. He's happy, he's ripping around the house and playing games a few times a day... he's just sleeping under the bed instead of on the couch or one of the dog beds.

Finally, I decided that he could come out when he ready and left him alone.

He's still going under the bed a lot when I'm not paying attention to him, but I think I'm going to leave him be. Maybe he just decided that under the bed's a good place to hang. It is poodle proof, after all.

And, in the meantime, it doesn't hurt that he's managed to flush out all the dust bunnies from down there. That bed has so many weird legs and supports underneath, it's a dust bunny haven. Getting a vacuum under there to do a good cleaning is next to impossible. Normally, I have to take the bed apart a few times a year and move it out of the way to clean underneath; but I think Cotton's done the job for me this time.

Although, I seriously doubt that was his intention.

Anyway, the Dude has spent the better part of the last week under my bed. I still don't know why, or if anything's wrong. I'm trying to leave him alone, but it has me worried.

THEN, earlier this week Tallulah decided to play a rousing game of keep away with Cotton and their shared food dish; and she did a darned fine job of it. Now the Dude's afraid to go near his bowls for food and water... so much so that he fasted for two days.

The few times that he did come out from under the bed, he stared at me until he had my attention, crept up to about 2 feet from the bowls, streeeeeetttched towards them and then skittered away like a bat out of hell before making contact. (Oh, and he usually tucked that lame leg under him for the departure as well.)

I finally gave in and put down a couple of bowls of his own in another area of the kitchen. Tallulah's banned from going anywhere near them and so far he's liking the new set up much better.

So, after all that, what this means is that: I'm either carrying my sometimes gimpy dog up and down the stairs every time that he goes outside, or going out and talking him into taking the stairs himself. He's hanging out under the bed most of the time which, although I don't know why, has been a sign of a problem for 9 years. I now have to put out (step around and clean) a second set of bowls.

I can't decide if my dog is horribly spoiled, or if he needs to go see a vet. Either way, I'm starting to think that daily happy pills might be in order... I just can't decide if he should get them or if I should keep them for myself.