Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Yep, REALLY up to my ...

Well ... I haven't blogged for a few days because LIFE was in the way !!! My, it's been a week . I can really only give it a 5 out of 10. That's low for me.
On the PLUS side, we did get the garden planted and added a book shelf to the kitchen. I did enjoy a piece of my niece's FAB cake . I saw people I love and enjoyed that. I watched my Queen. I snuggled cats. I spent time with Charlie. All PLUSES.
BUT we did get our car ( our beloved Hester car) smashed up to the point that it is pretty bad , had the skull that we loved explode into a million pieces, get mixed up for a birthday party only to arrive at the end instead of the beginning, spent the last few days in insurance matters and giving police statements , watched the horrific riots in the city I love, and my chest is green and yellow from bruising ... and the bruises are only starting. SO the week LACKED a bit ...
BUT ... again ... that's all over and we are facing a DAY OFF and it is CANADA DAY ... one of the best days ... so , I think I am feeling a definite improvement in the future !!
HAPPY CANADA DAY !!!

Friday, June 25, 2010

Are they KIDDING ????!!!

Oh my ... a new low in advertising. Last night I saw a diaper commercial ... unbelievable. I find most of the diaper commercials quite weird ... the kids look to be ready for school and the diapers change colours, have magic pictures, whatever ...
But last night was way beyond that. Way beyond ... anything . A little boy struts confidently into a cafe and all the women stop to stare ... like they were staring at a movie star ... a movie star their OWN AGE. Then I heard the background chatter ... or did I ? Did they really say that ??!!! "I pooped in my pants. It's a number 2 but it only looks like a number 1. I poo in the blue." WHAT????!!! By this point I am sure that I am hearing things. That can't be.
Then these words pop up along the bottom of the screen.
"The coolest you'll ever look pooping your pants. "

Get outta town !!! EWWWWWWWWW !!



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On a totally different note - sure is !! - we celebrated our 25th anniversary on Tuesday. Hee hee ... I say celebrated but that is a bit of an exaggeration - I'm not sure you could call what we did a "celebration" !!! We got up at 4;30am and drove to Port Williams to pick up boxes of day old turkeys. We did stop at MacDonalds for a quick breakfast on the way to work !! Then we spent the day at work. By the day's end we were both SUPER tired and HOT. So hot and so tired that we decided to just go home ... and eat Kraft Dinner. So that is how we celebrated 25 years of wedded bliss. Pretty freakin' fancy huh ?!!
( I was going to buy the Extra Creamy KD but decided that we would save that kind of decadence for our 50th !!)
But actually, it was fine ! We had a day like many of our days together have been - sort of crazy, mixed up, unscheduled ... doing what has to get done ... but doing it together. And we found great joy in the day ... we were proud and happy to have been married for 25 years, 25 years of pretty smooth sailing. It is hard to plan a 'special day' because most days are already quite special - we laugh, we share, and we enjoy the day. We are not lacking anything really in our lives so we have no great wishes. So the day seemed appropriate and just the first on another string of many more. A day of great joy & love no matter what we did !!

Monday, June 21, 2010

THIS. IS. BLISS.

IS this real life or fiction ? You decide ...
SATURDAY :
* great day at work. Fun wonderful customers.
* a beautiful present - a ring made for me by a sweet customer.
* Charlie gets a present too from a customer - lobster.
* a visit from both nieces at work.
* lunch at Pearl's on a sunny beautiful day. Ice cream too !
* a lovely afternoon at home on the shore.
* BBQ t-bones & corn for dinner out on the back porch.
* after dark ... sitting up in the secret garden , listening to Hal Bruce play at the hall, beside a crackling bonfire, roasting wieners, drinking tea, checking out all the moon craters with our new telescope, watching the stars.

real life or fiction ??? REAL FREAKIN' LIFE !!! And I am so happy to say that it is mine !!! How lucky can I be ? sigh ... one happy gal !!!

( oh and I bet the cats were pretty happy too - they also scored lobster & a bit of T-bone steak ...)

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Sometimes things just suck ...

Sometimes things really just do suck.
We got the news that the little tortoise shell kitten from under the floor ( I think 2 eyes) had died. I was heartbroken. Everyone did everything that they could for her but she was a "failure to thrive" kitten. But it is so heartbreaking. I know that's nature and life and whatever but I live in a head space of sugarplums and happy endings. I always think things will work out. Naive I guess.
It was a bad ending to a LOOOONNNG day. We had started at work 2 hours earlier than normal and ended an hour later than usual. In between we had sold 2500 chicks and all the things that go with them. It was a loooong day. Then the sad news. I just sat and sobbed. But then we went to Anna's (C.A.P.S.) and snuggled kittens and it helped put a much better perspective on the day.
I don't think you can be sad at CAPS ... all those lovely cats, sweet kittens, and big hearted people. It is really the best of humanity. I love it.

So ... in other news... not much. Work, chickens, cats, work ... all part of the circle of days. Gearing up for our 25th anniversary ... that's pretty exciting ! And a 5th birthday next week ... probably just as exciting for the little girl as our anniversary is to us. Father's Day falls in the midst of all this as well. I have new shoes, our garden is almost all plowed, I have a box of blueberries and a bag of cherries, and I have read a few good books lately. What more can I ask for ?
Have a great week !

Thursday, June 10, 2010

IT'S BAAAAAAAAAAACK !!!

DUNDUNDUNDUNDUN ... It's back !!! The dehydrated Brussels sprout !!! Last December I harvested my Brussels sprouts and put them in a colander in the sink. Little Dillee kitten snuck up and snitched a few ! She ran around with them in her mouth, throwing them, and playing fetch. We thought we found them all. A few weeks later a perfectly hard dehydrated Brussels sprout showed up. It was a wonderful toy ... it rolled perfectly and bounced down the stairs. Now ....7 months later ... it has resurfaced !!! Dillee dug it out of a basket of toys where she must have stored it for the winter ! She was running around tossing it in the air on Tuesday. Under the kitty bed it went and then she would have to fish it out. Under the bed again. Quite a great game !!
I brought the camera home to take a picture but it has again disappeared ... when will it return ?

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

A PRELUDE to the KiTTy CaT RoLLeR CoAsTeR ...

I have had so many fun comments, emails, and in person conversations as a result of the last 2 blog posts I thought I would share the stories of some of our other cats. So today is "The Story Of WALTER".
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Several years ago in the fall we started to notice that something was getting into our recycling in the wood shed. This continued for several months - we assumed it was a raccoon. Then Charlie caught a glimpse of it one day . It looked like a cat. So he made it his mission to find him. Every time he went to the wood shed he would hear the scurrying of the cat as he ran & hid. So one day he sat there for ... well, forever ... until the cat came out. A few hours later & Charlie had touched him. The next step was picking him up. Well that was it ! The cat put his little cat arms, one on each side of Charlie's neck, in a little kitty cat hug. Hooked !!
So we took pictures of this cat we had started calling Walter & took them around to the neighbours. No one knew who he belonged to. By now it was winter but it was really mild. But still we worried about Walter. So we put a bed in the furnace room and started feeding him there. Our furnace room is attached to our kitchen and each morning we would hear him meowing at the kitchen door for breakfast.We really wanted to find out who he belonged to ... he was too friendly to be a wild cat.
As time went on we realized that no one was looking for Walter ... he must have been abandoned. So we started looking for a new owner for him. A few people were interested ... they would think about it. Not what we had hoped ... or was it ??
I was home from work one day and heard my cats kicking up a big stink in their little outside run. There was Walter trying to visit with them. I brought the cats in and went back to what I was doing. I heard a noise at the kitchen window ... Walter was looking in and meowing. Oh my. I felt terrible because he seemed so sad. Unable to look at him, I did the mature thing and put a towel over the window. That didn't stop Walter - he climbed up on the roof of the cats' run and looked in the kitchen door window. MEOW ... (that's "Please let me in" in case you don't speak cat ...) I put another towel up and went into the living room. Walter did too ... he came around the house to that window. I then got a sheet of styrofoam insulation and covered that window ( too big for a towel). By the time Charlie came home from work I had covered all the ground floor windows with styrofoam & towels. I was crazy with guilt about this poor cat outside ... I'm sure Charlie thought I had lost it !!
So we were then even more determined to find Walt a good home ... but he did it for us.
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That night we had a snow storm. We went upstairs to bed but I was awakened a few hours later by a CRASH . I got up to find the upstairs window smashed ... Walt had CLIMBED THE ROOF in the snow ( about 6" on the roof !!) and had made his way to the upstairs dormer ... guess he knew that's where we were. Our big girl cat Emma had seen him peeking in the window and lunged ... and smashed the window. This was great for Walt - he strolled on in ! So we grabbed him & put him in the bathroom . We checked out Emma for glass and she was fine. We wanted to keep the cats separated because we didn't know if Walt had any illnesses. SO he slept in the bathroom with a litter box and food and the rest slept just outside the door ! Charlie patched the window with some heavy cardboard and we all tried to get some sleep.
The next morning we put Walt back in the furnace room . Again that night I heard a sound. I checked the window - it looked fine. I went down stairs to see what the trouble was ... it was Walt laying on the rug in front of the wood stove !! He had pushed the cardboard aside just enough to wiggle in. Again he had climbed the roof !!! He was staying and that was it ! So back to the bathroom he went for the night then off to the vets on the morning for a check up and then the other 4 cats all went for needles. From that day on Walter has been a big part of our family !!

The HOLE !!!

Here's a picture of the hole !! I guess that vapour barrier may be no good ... haha!! Anyway, it's all fixed and once again covered with a shelf and totes & boxes ...all is normal (?) again !!
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... a few of my favourite things ...