It's been a rough week on my Moosedog e-group...

U-CD Buddy O-NAC-V, NJC-V, NGC-V, O-TN-N, CGC

December 1992 - April 27, 2007

Member Val Thompson writes:

"Yesterday, my husband had to take Buddy for his final trip to the vet. An ultrasound earlier in the week revealed that he had cancer. It had already metastisized.

We adopted Buddy in Sept 1993, Labor Day weekend. He was about 10 months old. Buddy loved to chase his toys in the backyard and run like the wind. We tried agility, but the obstacles just got in his way and slowed him down. I will miss my golden boy. He is at The Bridge, running fast in a straight line."

RIP Brottsjo

1-20-95 to 4-26-2007

UACHX, UOTCH, CAN OTCH, AKC/UKC CH LONGSHIPS ICEBREAKER UDX2, ASCA & SKC UD, TD, RAE, MX, AXP, MXJ, OJP, NCG, TDI, HIC, O-VCCX, O-VNEX, VX- AOM, VCD2

Brottsjo belonged to Kari Olsen of Longships Elkhounds. She lost him today at 12 years old after a brief but courageous battle with mast cell cancer.

What a GORGEOUS WEEKEND!!

I actually took the dogs out in the yard for the first time since winter (we block off part of the yard to keep it clean and to prevent them from tearing it up when the ground is soft).

As always, Quinn proved to be exceptionally photogenic...



As long as she was standing still! Talk about "Spring Fever"!!

Here she was tauning Monty trying to get him to play.

She succeeded, and got a love nip for her efforts!

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My very own "rug dog"

http://www.mccartneysdogs.com/detail-product_id=2801.asp#ProductImage

This is Quinn's "Oooooooh!! Daddy's coming!!" look. How sweet can you get?

Monty says: "There's nothing quite like a vigorous rub in warm spring grass!"

All this fun in the sun made Monty & Quinn very sleepy. When we finally came in yesterday, they crashed hard for the evening.

Another photography job...


Again with the help of my lovely assistant, Lori, I took two more professional portraits this afternoon.



These ladies are both real estate agents and were looking for new photos for their business cards.

Lori does double duty as not only my assistant, but my model while I set up the lighting and the camera (all the more exceptional when you consider how much difficulty she has with the lights and the flashes - what a one in a million gal!)

Isn't she a gorgeous creature?

Of course, I have the most fun in post-production playing...

Gawd it's been a long day...

Yesterday, as usual, was a busy day here at Casa Kennedy.

I got up early and went in to work at 6am and worked until 11. Came home and had a client here for 2 1/2 hrs for a business card photo shoot. When that finished up, Darryl and I snuck Monty out of the house without Quinn noticing and took him for a leisurely afternoon drive to all of his favourite haunts...we went to Sue's Pet Value where Sue and her daughter fussed over him and gave him treats and rubs and lots of love.
From there we went to Petsmart where we ran into another elkhound!! UNHEARD of around here...

At Petsmart, we let Monty pick out a toy...he picked a large green loofa dog. Good news for Quinn since he'd stollen her smaller purple loofa dog she got for her b'day in February!

Birthdays here mean an out of this world supper and yesterday was no exception...

We stopped at the butchers and got some bison (!!) for supper.

We came home and I made bison stew with rosemary, garlic, parsley, whole wheat pasta, peas, carrots & green beans. It smelled DIVINE. Darryl wanted a bowl, too!!

While dinner cooled on the counter, I took advantage of the studio equipment still being set up from the afternoon photo shoot to take some photos of the b'day boy.

Poor Monty was so tuckered out from his day that not too long after that great supper, he crashed out for the night.


What an amazing dog he's become. We've have good times and bad over the years. He was very headstrong and willful in his youth - a challenge to train - but worth every single moment of it for the mellow, loving, sweet boy he's become.

So happy 9th, Horseface...here's to many, MANY more.

My Second Offical Photo Assignment!!

I got call last week from a friend of mine needing a professional portrait for her new business cards as she launches the next phase in her career as a real estate agent.

Tara has been a wonderful friend over the years since I met her at work almost 10 years ago and I was thrilled that she would think of me for this important job.

I hope she's a pleased with the results as I am.

With the help of Lori, over about an hour, I snapped about 250 photos, of which we were able to weed them down to about 12 really outstanding ones. Here are a few of those (unretouced at this point - isn't she a gorgeous thing?!)

Amazing yet Simple Home Remedies...

1. A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.

2. If you have a bad cough, take a large dose of laxatives, then you will be afraid to cough.

3. Clumsy? Avoid cutting yourself while slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold them while you chop away.

4. Avoid arguments with the Mrs. about lifting the toilet seat by simply using the sink.

5. For high blood pressure sufferers: simply cut yourself and bleed for a three minutes, thus reducing the pressure in your veins. Remember to use a timer.

6. Have a bad headache? Smash your thumb with a hammer and you will forget about the headache.

Sometimes, we just need to remember what the rules of life really are:
You only need two tools: WD-40 and Duct Tape. If it doesn't move and should, use the WD-40. If it shouldn't move and does, use the duct tape.

When all else fails, toss down a good shot of whiskey and take a nap.

Remember...Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.

Never pass up an opportunity to go to the bathroom. If you woke up breathing, congratulations! You get another chance.

And finally, be really nice to your family and friends; you never know when you might need them to empty your bedpan.

I should be happy this is finally behind me, but for some reason, all I am is horribly depressed.

Guilty.

Upon arriving at the courthouse today, I met with my representative, and had almost 45 minutes to chat with him before my appointed time of 2pm. That chat went a long way towards making me feel a lot more comfortable with the process...not better...but more comfortable.

I learned that the other driver/witness was there and that the police officer was on his way but could be up to an hour late. In the end, rather than try my chances, I decided to plead guilty to a lesser charge of failing to turn left to avoid a collision. Paid my fine and left. I was in and out in about 2 hours.

Want to hear the most ironic part?? Turns out the guy that not only ran off with my money also lied to me about the deal I was offered in January 2006. They offered me the same lesser charge then (he told me they offered following too close, which is more points and a heftier fine; so I turned it down). Had I known that, and accepted it then, I would have had the exact same record then as I do now, but I would have not paid the additional $750 to the new company AND all of this would have been well behind me over a year ago.

What a piss off.

In any event, it is now officially behind me, for better or for worse.

Now I just have to deal with the boss returning from 2 weeks vacation tomorrow.

*sigh*

Judgement Day.

251??

I recently switched over to the new version of Blogger and hadn't checked to make sure all of my info transferred correctly...until now.

I pull up my profile and under age it says "251"

251???

Holy crap!

Checked my DOB and sure enough, it seems I was born in 1756.

Well whaddaya know?! Guess I'm actually looking good...you know...for my age.

;oÞ

Melissa and I were uneasy friends as young children growing up in Pontypool. We initially met in Brownies and later played on many sports teams together. "Guss", as we call called her, was one gal you didn't f**k with. She grew up in a tough family with three tough brothers. In life and in sports, if you had a choice, you wanted Guss to be on your team, cause if she was on the other team, guaranteed you were going to get your ass whiped.

Once we moved on to high school and our world expanded beyond our own little town, Guss went one way and I went another and other than running into her one rare occassion when we both happened to be back home at the same time, I hadn't thought too much about her. I only heard recently that she was ill. She died of cancer this past Sunday. I hope she's in a better place.

R.I.P. Guss.

Melissa Lynn “Guss“ Blight

BLIGHT, Melissa Lynn “Guss“ - Peacefully at Lakeridge Health Oshawa on Sunday, March 11th, 2007, at the age of 32 years. Melissa, beloved wife and best friend of Mike Knelangen. Loving mother of Racheal Knelangen. Precious daughter of Linda Blight and the late Merv Blight. Survived by her brothers Aaron, Jason and predeceased by Mervy. Special friend of Dora, Dwain, Lori and Laurie. Dear aunt of Justin, Jes, Riley and Sammy. Friends may pay their respects at the MORRIS FUNERAL CHAPEL, 4 Division Street, Bowmanville on Wednesday, March 14th, 2007 from 7 to 9 p.m. Funeral service complete in the Morris Chapel on Thursday, March 15th at 1:00 p.m. Visitation from 11:30 a.m. until time of service. Spring interment Pontypool Cemetery. Donations to the Ontario Brain Injury Association in Melissa's memory would be gratefully appreciated.

UH OH...

It's the big

HAPPY 40th BIRTHDAY TO MY BIG BROTHER!

Love you!

Another Flashback to my Youth - Watership Down

I remember watching this movie in the gymnasium at my public school when I was no more than 5 or 6 and being so upset by it. In fact, I think it was after watching this movie that I first began to comprehend what "death" was.

It's become a favourite in the years since that I enjoy pulling out and watching once a year or so. Occassionally, you will hear S&G's "Bright Eyes" on the radio - that always makes me stop dead in my tracks (no pun intended) and listen to the entire song before resuming whatever I was doing.





Here's another clip from the movie. This is the opening sequence. They sure don't make movies like this anymore. *sigh*

Another day, another logo.

I wish they only took me a day!

My big brother, of all things, has become a raspberry farmer in the Niagara Region of Ontario and he's now venturing into fruit wines.

I've been hearing for quite some time now how great the batch is that's being made as a collaboration between his "Raspberry Retreat" farm and a local Jordan Vineyard.

He has asked me last fall if I would design a label for the bottles and I, in my usual fashion, said "sure!". Dispite having months to work on them, true to form, only weeks away from the actual date that he will need them, I finished the label design this past weekend.

I can be forgiven for the length of time it took though since part of the design required me to do a pen and ink drawing of the farm house which in itself took several months (not straight - I just have a hard time finding a solid block of time to sit down and get into working on anything!)

Hope the wine lives up the the label, K!

(Kidding...can't wait to try it...send a case or two my way, wouldja??)

Your very proud little sister,

P.

I seem to be spending a lot of time lately wondering what the hell just hit me. Stuff keeps coming at me from out of no where and knocking the wind completely out of me.

Right now, I'm cursing my own work ethic that doesn't allow me to run screaming for the hills when the big hand is on the 12 and the little hand is on the 5 lately. Here it is 7pm and I'm still at it...let alone the fact that I was here at 7am this morning.

Damn this dogged work ethic! I want to know where it came from and who I can blame for it! Considering there are people with a similar genetic makeup that are content to coast through life I can say without a doubt it's not genetic.

Off to put out another fire...

WTF?

I'm baffled. Completely befuddled.

How do people do it?

No matter what my DH and I do, no matter how hard we work (and man, do we work hard), we just never seem to be able to get ahead.

We're no better off now than we were 10 years ago.

Ok, well, that's not totally true, but it sure feels like it!

When we bought our first home in '96, it was with the intent to fix it up, live there for a few years, then sell it and move to the country; keeping the original house and turning it in to an office for his business.

Well, we're on the right track being in the midst of renovations that, when completed, will modernize a 60+ year old house to today's standards in terms of "smart wiring" for electricity, cable, internet & telephone.

However, even with that in mind, without selling the current house, there is no way we can afford to move, so we're stuck still.

Don't get me wrong. I love my house...I just abhor the location. If I could pick that house up and move it just about anywhere, I would (with a few minor changes!).

We have friends who are in their second or third home since we've been married. Each one progressively bigger and better than the last. Are they in debt up to their eyeballs and just really good at hiding it? I don't know...

I just don't get it. If someone knows the secret, please, enlighten me!

Am I a bad wife?

As my 10th wedding anniversary draws near, I wonder, "Am I a bad wife?"

My DH, bless him, takes care of 99% of the house work. I couldn't tell you the last time I did a load of laundry. I emptied the dishwasher last week and loaded it up again...first time I've done that in recent memory. We have a lady come in every second Wednesday to vacuum and dust (I have allergies & asthma and can't be in the house when that's being done, so she comes in the morning on a week day).

Our Christmas tree is still up!! It's nearly the first of March and our damn tree is still up and decorated! How pathetic is that? Pretty soon, I can stop being embarrassed that it's STILL up and brag about how early I got it up for Christmas this year!

One of our dogs just had major surgery and in the three days that she's been home, I've only hot packed her sutures 3 times (out of a possible 9-15), given her her meds 4 times (out of a possible 12).

Sounds pretty bad, doesn't it?

Now consider...

Since early December, I have been working 60+ hours a week (the last four weeks have been 70+). I am so freaking tired. All I feel like I do is get up in the morning, go to work in the dark, come home at night in the dark, eat something out of necessity that I have no recollection of 5 minutes later, try to unwind for half an hour doing something mindless, fall into bed, lather, rinse and repeat...day after day.

Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't dream of working the hours I have been - even I think it's beyond ridiculous. I'm a contract worker, so I only get paid if I work. I don't take vacations for the same reason (last "vacation" was in 2003!). I'm having surgery later this spring and will require minimum 4 weeks off of work to recover. That's 4 weeks without pay. That's a substantial chunk of change for me. I have put off this surgery for years because of excuses like I can't afford the time off work. Things are finally falling in to place where I can now feel like I CAN take the time to do something that needed to be done years ago. I'm putting money away now to help carry through that time, there are people in the office that can take over some of the work I do while I'm away, so I don't have to feel completely guilty about leaving for that long.

Marriage is supposed to be "give and take", but lately it seems I'm doing all the taking and not very much of the giving in terms of the daily running of the household, but I don't know how to change it. It's so bad that he called me an "ungrateful bitch" last night. *sigh*

There is nothing I would love more than to stay home and take care of the house and him, but based on our current situation, that will never happen, and so it's "I owe, I owe, so off to work I go".

If anyone out there ever runs into my doppelganger, please give her my number. I could sure use a couple of extra hands...

On another note, in retrospect, perhaps I should have taken home ec in High School instead of shop!

Combining two of my favourite things...

...photography and pets.

There is nothing better than a sliver of late afternoon winter sunshine as far as I'm concerned for candid pet photos.

This is Simon the Simian lounging in the kitchen.

Simon is a special fellow - a stray we adopted in 2000 when we found him cowering on our back patio in a horrific summer thunderstorm.

He has the most incredible green eyes and a genuinely sweet personality and on top of that, he's very photogenic!

Today I had the most wonderful surprise.

I had to come in to work long before the sun came up and I was feeling pretty miserable about that since the one thing I love to do on my birthday is sleep in. Tough to do on a weekday, to be sure, but I would have been thrilled to roll out of bed at 8am. Alas, that was not to be today.

However, at 9:45 this morning, a delivery came to the door for me.

I long white box of a certain style that can only mean one thing...ROSES!! My DH sent me a dozen long-stem red roses for my birthday.

I've also had calls and visits from family and friends scattered over the course of the day and shortly, I will be going out with said DH for dinner at a surprise restaurant.

Yes, there. I said it. Today is my birthday. I'm officially 29 and holding strong. Just like I have been for the past 4 years.

I was talking with a co-worker late last week, while we were still in the grips of unseasonably mild temps, and I told her that we would have an ice storm next Wednesday (today). Of course, she thought I was off my rocker, but it's like death and taxes. Either on, or very close to my birthday, there is an ice storm every year.

Guess what we got on Monday. Yup. An ice storm. Although today was nice and sunny and milder than recent days, there was still a lot of ice everywhere to contend with. Frozen vehicles, icy sideroads, power crews still out fixing damaged lines. I hate to say I told you so. But, "I told you so!".

The other thing I've been doing recently is reflecting on past birthdays. There were a lot of great ones and a few not so great. One of the more memorable now is one that I was less than thrilled with at the time. I think I was about 13 or 14 and my birthday was on a weekday so I would have had to go to school. Well, I would have, had I been able to get out of the house.

We'd had an ice storm (naturally) the night before and not only were the buses cancelled, but we couldn't even get out of the house as the front door was frozen solid. This also meant that my mom wasn't able to get out to pick up the cake she'd ordered from the Orono Bakery for dinner that night.

That night for supper, I had caesar salad with a candle poked precariously in the middle of it for my birthday feast. Admittedly, I was less than impressed at the time, but I gotta give kudos to my mom who made do as best she could with what was on hand.

Thanks for the amazing memory, mom!