Ok, I'll be the first to admit it...

...I'm a freak of nature.

Not only do I dress my poor dogs up in costumes (albeit for a great cause - fundraising for Elkhound Rescue), but here it is not even the first of September, and I'm already listening to Christmas carols.

I'm one of those people who's generally done their Christmas shopping by the end of August (not this year though). I hate malls. I get mall rage in crowded malls.

I'm listening to Christmas carols for a few reasons. I need to get inspired to shoot some photos for the annual Howl'o'ween contest to raise money for elkhound rescue, and, since I've already got all my crap out for costume photos, I also do my Christmas card photo at the same time, featuring those long-suffering, ever patient pups, Monty & Quinn. Additionally, I really need to start making my Christmas cards and get at some shopping.

Above is my 2005 entry into the Howl'o'ween contest 'Captain Grey Beard and his Faithful First Mate on the High Seas" and below that, the 2004 Christmas card photo - 'Santa Paws and his Moosedog".

I'm hoping over the course of the upcoming long weekend to get lots of photos done for both events and also to be able to put a good dent in something related to the renovation.

Here's hoping!

A woman of many hats...

In my life, I've worn many "hats". I've been a waitress, worked in a variety store, a liquor store, an artisan, managed a video store, helped run a gift/craft shoppe, dog obedience trainer and, currently, I'm a real estate assistant. That's not even mentioning the endeavors I've undertaken on my own - I was a muralist, a sign painter, and I'm still an artist in many mediums - notably acrylic pet portraiture and recently soft sculpture and now I'm also dabbling in webdesign.

Sometimes I wear myself out just thinking about everything I do.

Some people have called me a "renaissance woman", but I'm more inclined to go with "Jill of all trades, master of none".

Each job has awarded it's own unique set of challenges and rewards.

The job I have now pays the bills. My bliss in life would be to just be able to paint and make a living at it.

Perhaps one day when the house is paid off, and the cars are paid off, and the credit cards are paid off...

Ah...to dream...

"Happy Monday"

The mother of all oxymorons.

I vividly remember, as a teen, telling people that "Stress didn't bother me". Nothing bothered me. Like water off a ducks back, as it were.

Oh, how I long for those days.

I am so stressed right now I am physically ill.

This all goes back to a little fender bender before last Christmas (!!).

As of right now, I'm scheduled for court Sept 8, but I have a new agent going to a hearing on Sept 5 to file a motion for a new date to allow them time to go through my file and prepare my defense.

So, here I was getting all geared up to have this behind me, for better or worse, on Sept 9. That was until last week when I discovered that my previous agent has vanished with my file and my retainer!

So this is going to go on a little longer yet and is costing me more and more.

*sigh*

I am humbled...

Last night I took my dear friend Tonya out for dinner for her birthday (Happy Birthday!!). After dinner at J.P. Fitzpatricks pub, we headed over to the AMC 24 more or less intending to see "World Trade Centre", however we did waiver at one point between that and "John Tucker Must Die". WTC won out because we felt that it was one that needed to be seen on the big screen to do it any kind of justice...

Earlier this week I was kvetching about how much life sucks for me right now, and yeah, it isn't perfect, far from it...but in the grander scheme of things, I really don't have a lot to complain about.

With the 5th (!!!) anniversary of 9/11 approaching in just a couple of weeks, this movie was a powerful, sobering reminder of the cost paid by thousands of innocent people and heroic emergency services people. I was at work that fateful morning, and Dianna and I watched the towers fall live on Citypulse online.

I have never, in my life, experienced what I did last night at the end of that movie.

There were likely 80-100 people in the theater, and when the movie ended, no one moved. No one spoke. You could have heard the proverbial pin drop and it would have echoed. Eventually people began to make their way out of the theater and still the only sound was the soft shuffle of feet on the carpet and the occassional quiet sniffle.

2,749 people perished in the collapse of the Twin Towers.
343 of the victims were firefighters.
Only 20 people were pulled out alive.

Wow.

I took this photo in August of 1987 while on an exchange trip to the States with a Kodak Diskman camera.

As a 13 year old girl from small-town Ontario, I was awed by the sheer overwhelming size of the twin towers, never comprehending the mind-boggling number of people they contained on any given day.

TONIGHT I SAW THE STRANGEST THING...

As usual, I got home from work around 7 and was in a rush to get changed and get back out the door to take Quinn to agility class.

While standing in the kitchen catching up on the day's events with Darryl, I happened to look out and notice that the black walnut tree in our back yard was ALIVE with hundreds of Monarch butterflies!!

Not that I had time, but I grabbed my camera and ran out to see if I could get some photos. It was raining so I took the old digital out and although the photos aren't great, you can see that there were sure a lot of them.

In the 10 years we've lived in this house, I've never seen anything like this. What a fantastic sight to see first hand. I hope that there will be more tomorrow night and that it's not raining so I can get some better photos with the Rebel!

It was, by far, the highlight in an otherwise crappy, crappy day.


P.S. other lowlights this week - the new girl who's been on vacation for 10 days came back and quit. There go my weekends off.

P.S.S. the camera course I've been waiting to take for over a year that was finally coming up this weekend was cancelled.

P.S.S.S. The paralegal I hired to help me fight a rediculous traffic charge from an accident last December has vanished with my file and my $500 retainer less than 3 weeks before my trial and the new lawyer is going to cost me another $750. Can you say "sucks to be you?" Um...yeah.

P.S.S.S.S. (yes, there's more) Quinn got attacked by another dog at class tonite. She wasn't hurt, but she spent most of the class being jumpy, irritable and not enjoying herself one bit. I put her in agility to help her confidence (which, up until now, it had been) not destroy it! The dog in question should never have been permitted to advance to level 3, in my opinion.

P.S.S.S.S.S. Ok, I'm done venting now. Time to call it a day.

Unless you have to go to the dentist first thing in the morning to have a lost filling replaced...

SIGNS OF PROGRESS!!

I'm speechless...

Once again, I worked late tonite and pulled in the driveway at 7:15pm and what to my wondering eyes should I see, but Darryl unloading 2x4's off the truck!

I rubbed my eyes and looked again and yes, there he was in all his manliness schlepping lumber from the truck to the basement.

Still not completely convinced, I actually had to stop and ASK him what he was doing.

"Um...working on the house." (said in the tone of "Duh, isn't it obvious?")

I tentatively ventured downstairs (which, until now has been relatively intact) to find that our storage room at the bottom of the stairs is no more!

Forgive me for not getting more excited, but in our UNFINISHED basement, which we RARELY use, he decides to get motivated???

*even bigger sigh than posted earlier*

Have patience, grasshopper...

Oh well... at least the outside looks good!













PS the photos taken inside the house were taken when there was progress being made inside the house back in the spring. One is my studio/office and the other is the remnants of our old cast bath tub - good riddance!!

Anniversaries & Milestones

It's been an interesting week here so far. I'm back on the diet bandwagon and so far, so good. 2 days and counting and 3lbs lost (I know, I know...it's just water weight...but it sure looks good on the scale in the mornings!).

The "NEW GIRL" has been away from the office on holidays this week and strangely, it's been a very good week overall. I could get used to this...it feels oddly familiar and comfortable.

Oh, yeah...this is how it was for NINE years before she came along. Right.

Monday was my dear friend Tonya's birthday. I won't say which birthday, but hope it was a good one! We're going out next Thursday to celebrate (assuming her company doesn't wisk her off to some far off port of call on business).

Tuesday marked 10 years to the day since we took possession of our first home. The one we said we'd only live in for 5 years before selling it and moving on to something in the country with land for me to work with the dogs.

Did anyone do the math there?

Yup...10 years and we're still there and not only that, we're in the midst of a renovation that's going no where fast. There has not been a lick of work done on the house since...oh...May, I think?!

*sigh*

I'm thinking it'll be another 5 years bef0re the reno's done enough that we wouldn't be embarassed to have prospective buyers come through the house.

*bigger sigh*

Tuesday also unofficially marked 16 years that Darryl and I have been together. Wow. SIXTEEN years. That's exactly half my my life. The day passed quietly without comment and I'm sure he didn't remember, but it's not important. Other, more "official" anniversaries have taken up more important positions in our lives. Next May will be our 10th wedding anniversary (and I'm just sayin' now, he better not forget that one...)

Labour day weekend marks 2 other anniversaries - we officially moved into the house 10 years ago, and we brought home our eldest feline, Devlin, that same weekend. We don't know exactly when his birthday is because he was rescued. He was just a tiny bit of black fluff with huge emerald green eyes that weekend 10 years ago, so we celebrate his birthday Labour day weekend, too.

Devlin

If Wishes Were Dress-sizes...

Once again, I'm starting a diet...er...lifestyle change.

I've known for MONTHS already that I needed to drop at least 30lbs before the middle of October (50 would be better, but who am I kidding?). Well, here we are smack dab in the middle of August and I've lost...oh...8 lbs I think?

64 days and counting...

Seems like everybody's on vacation...except for me.

We brought home another one!

We spent a wonderful day yesterday at Mosport Race Track north of Bowmanville, Ontario at the Super Car Show with 400+ other car fanatics and Darryl came away with a top 20 plaque in our class. I stood out like a sore thumb as one of only 2 newer Chryslers at the show which was sponsored by UAW/CAW (although PTs are technically domestic, they are assembled in Mexico and not by UAW/CAW workers). I wasn't expecting anything today for myself but it was a great treat for Darryl to come away with a plaque at his very first show with the mustang! Additionally, winners from the show got to do a victory lap (actually it was more like 12 laps!) around the Mosport Oval at half-time during last evenings races.

Addendum to a rebel yell...

I'm alleviating myself of some of the guilt I feel over my uncharacteristic behaviour yesterday. I'm now convinced it must have been something in the air - it wasn't only just me.

I didn't get home from work last night until almost 7:30 pm and by the time I'd fed all the animals, it was past 8 pm and I was in no mood to cook dinner for Darryl and I. I ended up at the local KFC for chicken and salads at 8:30 pm as did apparently everyone else in the neighbourhood judging by the line up.

Whilst in line, an obviously irate man came into the restaurant and shoved his way to the counter to confront an employee. He demanded his money back, claiming he'd been ripped off - that they had charged him for 2 dinners and he'd only ordered 1. I can't vouch for the validity of his claim, not having been there when he ordered, but when it became apparent that he was not going to get his money back, he unleashed a barrage of colourful language best not repeated here.

He may have been justified in his ire, but that was not the way to handle it. There were dozens and dozens of people in the restaurant at the time - including many families with children seated eating their dinner.

So I wasn't the only person exercising poor judgment yesterday.

With a rebel yell...

I knew it was rude and I just didn't care. It ticks me off when other people do it, so why did I do it myself today?

I was in a hurry. Heck, I'm never NOT in a hurry to be somewhere else.

I was out running an errand and just happened to be driving by my bank and thought I'd save myself another trip later today so I pulled in and parked at the curb (a definite no-no). On rare occassions, when the problem has been excessive and/or people are complaining, the mall brings in a rent-a-cop to try to scare people into not stopping at the curb and today was one such day. As I stopped and threw the car into park an elderly fellow in a smart uniform approached me and told me I was not permitted to park at the curb.

This is where my evil alter-ego took over and I just kept on walking. As I got closer to him, he gestured angrilly at the car and asked "You want a ticket?" and I, knowing I would be in and out of the bank in less than a minute (I have the ABM deposit thing down to a calculated science) replied, "How fast can you write?" and continued on into the bank.

Of course, when I came back out there was no ticket on my windshield and the rent-a-cop had moved on to another offender.

I knew it was rude...and a felt bad for talking back to the rent-a-cop...just a little but at the same time I got a little rush from my defiancy. Not that I'm going to make a habit out of such behaviour, but

SO THERE!

(K, I'll behave again....for now...)

Oh what a night!

As anyone in southern & central Ontario and the north eastern US is aware, yesterday was a wicked day for weather.

We have had a blistering few days here with unheard of high temps and extreme heat & humidity alerts - it was only just a matter of time before the storms would come that would break the heat and last night, they came with a vengeance.

I was at agility class with Quinn when they hit. It was about quarter to 9 and everyone seemed to be getting very restless - dogs and people alike. Several commented that it seemed to be getting dark awfully early. Where our classes are held, we are in a clearing of tall pines so the view of the sky is somewhat limited, but by 8:45 there was no mistaking there was trouble on the horizon. A black cloud with a razor-sharp defined edge swept over the trees and brought with it gusting winds that blew over our jumps and whipped the words away from our mouths as we spoke them.

Lightening flashed to the north as a line of storms skirted by us. Although obviously nervous, Quinn stayed steady with me. I think she was picking up on the nervousness of the people, as were the other dogs.

By 5 to 9, I apologized to the instructor but said we were beating a retreat for home before the storm hit us full on and I got Quinn and I into the car not a moment too soon as huge rain drops started pelting all around us. By the time I got settled into the car and got moving, the rain was coming down in sheets and the wind was rocking the car from side to side as it seemed to come from every direction at once. I KNOW I was the first one to get in my car, so I also KNOW that the other students and dogs got at least a little wet as they dashed for the safety of their vehicles.

Not much makes me nervous when it comes to weather, and I actually enjoy watching a good electrical storm, but that one last night put me on edge.

I called home and asked that the front door be unlocked so Quinn and I could make a run for it but we were still drenched by the time we ran from the driveway to the house (note to self: next house MUST have more than a single garage & must have access to the house!!!).

Poor storm-phobic Monty was just about out of his skin when we got home. Darryl and I stood in the dark kitchen for a while watching the most amazing light show over Lake Ontario while another cell passed us by to the south.

All in all, we were skirted on 3 sides by the storm but didn't sustain a direct hit. We were a lot luckier than other places in the province where tornadoes touched down or high winds and hail caused widespread damage.