Trouble On A Tuesday - This and That

First trouble was last week in the snowstorm when our power was stolen for 53 hours. Last April it was 102 hours, so I guess we should be grateful it was taken for less time this year. We were happy it was also warmer because the house stayed between 16-18C/low 60F.

Being stressed in Lady's office when we were running on generator

Lady says the second mischief belongs to humanity and the craziness around the eclipse yesterday. She says shame on the media for making people terrified of it. One should NEVER look directly at the sun, with or without the moon in front of it. That is not safe, ever. Many of places she works were closed (one because it was on the peak path and the number of people expected to be out had them declaring a state of emergency). It is just ridiculous. Lady remembers some time in the 80s, walking home from school alone, during an eclipse (this puts her aged 5-9). People said, don't look at the sun, she didn't, she lived.

At any rate, the hype made Lady want to check it out. The Man had no interest and went to work in the office, but because most of her client work was cancelled, Lady was home. She took her approved glasses out and went over and shared them with Callie's people. We were at 97.8% coverage. It didn't get too dark, but did get very chilly. She was happy to share this with them and try out their eclipse boxes. 

Taken by one of Callie's kids, through the glasses

We do think the best eclipse was the one the Big Guy made (and ate).

This and That - by Lee

 Hi pals,

Things continue to be something here.

Watching the world go by

The smog returned. It wasn't as bad and as the fires continue we expect it will return. Between it and the bugs and the rain, we haven't been outside as much.

Don't mind if I do

Lady has picked up extra work so she is crazy busy.  If you keep reading, you will see she needs to work to make the $.  It and dealing with 'life' is keeping her from doing all the things she wants to (like visiting all of you).

Trying to catch a deer fly

Her car, which had a whole new transmission put in less than 2 months ago, got sick again. It now has a new battery.

The pump in our basement toilet went (needed as we are on a well and it is the basement) and the house smelled like poop for 2 weeks until it was replaced and when it was replaced it smelt really bad. Poop also got on the walls and Man had to clean that. 

I have a new habit where I won't sleep through the whole night. Sometime between 3-5 I want to get a drink and go for a pee.  Due to my free range peeing, the bedroom door is closed at night and this way I at least ask if I can't hold it. If the door is open, I don't ask or don't ask in a way the people here. 

So basically we keep on keeping on here. We hope life settles a bit. 

Taking a quiet moment to enjoy the outdoors

Nature Friday - New Trail Cam

Thanks to Rosy for hosting this event!

Lady's trail cam died and when she found out she was not going to Africa, she used her birthday money to buy a new one.

Here are some of the things she captured:

Man and Machine - Man didn't turn off the camera when he mowed, we had like 60 pictures of him

Crow flies by

Go your own way - Lady and Phod

Deery Night

Phod

Hailey in the mist

Early morning visitor

Thanksgiving dinner

Something stole Lady's bird feeder (likely a raccoon, but maybe a bear) and knocked the second down. Lady is going to put the camera there to see if it is back. 

Mischief Monday - This and That

 First mischief award goes to Blogger for not letting us comment again. Lady doesn't understand.

Second mischief award goes to coat blowing and a new vacuum, apparently designed for pet hair that is not working. The following is from a quick Brian. You can see who the hairy one is!

Third goes to Lady being at the office for 12 hours on Friday. Someone made sure she didn't go anywhere for an hour and a half that evening. Which would have been nice if he hadn't been so gassy! 

Mischief Monday - This and That

Last week we mentioned Lady was going to have to be dealing with checkpoints. Well they lasted one day. Turns out it is more dangerous to leave people trapped in their cars on a bridge for hours, especially when many are medical staff (like ICU nurses) and there is a pandemic, and they show up for work hours late and only 31 of 100 000 cars were asked to turn around. There will be spot checks. So that was only a disaster one day. It would not have been sustainable for Lady.

Phod had a sore shoulder for a few days. Rest and pain meds helped, and the pain meds upset his stomach.

It was super icy on Thursday and Lady had her most dangerous drive in all winter. They didn't have the salt trucks out. 

Man was able to get an AstraZeneca jab and had enough side effects the next day to spend it in bed.

The day he got his vaccine, our peeps went out for dinner. By out we mean they drove the 30 minutes to the take out pizza place, then found a nice place near the water to sit and eat in the car. For some reason they didn't trust you and the garbage was left like this:

Oh and because one can't get into a vet here, using text, Lee has been diagnosed with a skin tag.

So really just a normal week here in Paradise! 

Mischief Monday - This And That

First mischief goes to blogger who is causing all sorts of issues when Lady tries to comment. She has been doing all the tricks but then Blogger will freeze her out of her own blog. There have been a lot of HBO words. Lady has often read but not commented.

Second mischief goes to the member of the squirrel United Nations who clearly broke in, moved and licked the oven a mitts. What a terrible crime!

Third mischief goes to the past year. We can't believe it has been a year since the pandemic has impacted our daily lives. This time last year we were in full lockdown. Lady didn't work for 3 months. Then she worked part time. Those were the best days. Now a year later she works more than full time, out of the house 2 days a week. Man has always worked full time, but at home. Things are still restricted here. We still have a curfew. We still have to wear masks and distance. Vaccines are slowly being rolled out. Don't get Lady started in this mess. About 5% of the population has received at least 1 shot. In our region they are currently vaccinating people 70 and older. While the past 12 months have sucked for many reasons, our peeps know they have been incredibly fortunate to really be ok. We send our love to those who have had a much harder year. 

The best thing about this year has been the extra snuggles.

This and That Tuesday - Your Questions Answered

 Last week we shared this picture on the trail cam:

People asked what that 'sword of light' was. That is snow falling in front of a flash!

We were also asked about the most interesting animal we have caught on the camera. So far we have pictures of us, birds, cats and deer. We have not captured any other wildlife around here. We could see fox, porcupines, raccoons, skunks, ground hogs, coyotes and wolves (although we rarely see their tracks so close to the house). There have also been bear and moose spotted around us, but we haven't seen signs of either. Talking ti the neighbour on New Year's Day, he confirmed seeing a wolf not far from our house. We will have to be caredul on our walks. 

The camera is currently sitting in the house. Lady is going to take it out with her when she goes snowshoeing soon, so she can see the deer tracks and set it up accordingly.  Who knows what we may capture next!

Now here is a new picture of Phod - taken after the second big snowfall of the year and the first in winter (all the snow melted with all the rain and warm temperatures on Christmas). 

This And That - by Lee

 

Afirst, yesterday's past was Lady's grandfather in WWII, and her great grandfathers in WWI. These men are all from her dad's side.  Her mom's family was just a bit younger so did not have the same experience.

We had a heat wave recently. The normal average is about 5C/41F but we had daytime highs around 18C/64F for like 5 days. Last week Lady drove home in the first snow of the year (we got a couple inches) on Monday and Friday she could have been wearing shorts. It was a wacky week and went with what was happening in the world.

 

Like the rest of the world, we were pretty glued to our devices last week. As some of you may recall, I am a Canadian immigrant, having been born in Ohio and moving to Canada with a rescue when I was a pup. I don't want to turn this into a whole political post because we are all divided enough. However, I will say I am hopefully this change may bring some peace and improvements of rights for all. I am also excited to see the first rescue dog calling the White House home!

Most importantly, I have been enjoying not being the pup who is causing the most trouble in the house for once. I have had more than my fair share of that over the years, Phod can have a turn.

That is about all that is new. I better rest up so I am ready to play with the neighbours pup.

Your pal Lee

This and That Thursday - New Settee

Let's check this new piece of furniture out. Lady says it has had more cats than you can imagine use it. Most recently 5 lived in the house.

We were a little sceptical, would the settee be good enough for dogs or was it really just for cats?

It has our seal of approval. What is even better is we can sit beside the Lady on it!

Fall Is Coming!!!!

The German Shedder returns! He has started blowing his coat! Sigh! 

This and That Thursday

At the beginning of the week we thought we were going to have to tell you the terrible story about how we had to go to camp on Monday because Lady and Man had to work and then were having dinner with our vet and his family. (The horror of that last sentence is almost too much for us to bear). However, our vet and his family had to postpone dinner, which was good because Man has been quite ill with a bad cold. We have been saved from that for a bit. We are hoping they reschedule for a weekend so at least when they are socializing with the vet we can be at home and not at camp. 

The mice are also back after a quiet 4 weeks. The fall saw at least 20. So far this week 4 have gone in the Man's mouse Uber. 

In other news, the lovely chicken that Nelly and Phenny sent (see Tuesday's post) has met its fate. Lee killed the sound and then took all the stuffing out. She continues to attack the carcass to make sure it has not come back to life. While it is good and dead now, there hasn't been a toy Lee has loved as much for a long time, so thanks guys! 

Chicken parts everywhere. We did remove the plastic for safety reasons right away. 

Where she has removed the insides

Besides he daily chase of the wild turkeys, Phod has been joining Lady during her 30 days of yoga challenge (Yoga with Adriene, which is appropriate because Adriene's dog Benji appears in many videos).   The lighting in this picture is very bright because the Lady does her morning yoga in front of her seasonal affect disorder light.  The blanket you see on the left of the picture was made by Lady's Great-grandmother in the early 1980s (with some help from our Grammie).

This is some of the things we have been up to as we prepare for Lee's 9th birthday on Sunday!

Hope you are all having a good week!

This and That

Hello

Our attendance on our blog has been very poor the past few weeks. Let us fill you all in on some of the goings on in our lives.

First, Lady worked out of town last week and it was an insanely busy week for her. We missed her so much we acted like crazy dogs when she got home.

On the weekend, Phod went for his regular check up. He saw a new vet who lives closer as we couldn't get in to see our regular vet. She said he was sweet and handsome. He weighs 78 lbs. He is in good health other than needing a teeth cleaning and having a chipped tooth. He will need to have this all fixed in August or early September.

Last, and the worst news for us, Lady and Man are starting to prepare us for camp. In one week from today, we have to go to the stupid camp, where they do nothing but mistreat us. We have to go in and out as we like and eat 3 times the treats we get at home. It is terrible. Lady and Man are off to travel the world. One of the things they are doing on their adventures is to visit  Yamini.  They are spending like a week with her!  There are also rumours they are meeting THE Bertie while visiting the Bonny Land of Scotland.

Because of all of this, we will be off the grid for a bit, like a month. We hope you all enjoy the rest of your summer and we will be back in time to celebrate 8 years of Lee and therefore 8 years of Blogging! (Who would have thought this hobby would have us make friends to visit in Scotland!)

This and That Thursday

Emma - on the arm of the chair

Here is a little update on our lives and answers to some of the questions that have come up lately:

-Cutting the hair between his toes didn't decrease Phod's foot licking. Perhaps he likes to lick his feet the way Ms. Bug likes to lick her bum!

-We had company last Saturday. The pups would like to report they got extra treats when the guests arrived included songs. They also got a little bit of steak. They were very well behaved.

-Hailey is off to day camp and then for her annual check up tonight. Wish her luck.

-We are doing our best to visit, but we need more time for everything! 

I Couldn't Believe It

I was window shopping in Winners (think Marshalls or TJ Max American friends, as they are owned by the same parent company) last weekend before seeing a movie. As always, I spent some time in the pet section.

There I spotted this cute little couch for a furry friend. I thought my spoiled dogs may love that.

Then I looked at the price tag. I should have taken a picture of it. This cute little couch was $225 Canadian dollars before tax. Marked down from $350. The ticket price was about $180 US, $230 Australian Dollars, or $152 Euros! I could not believe it.

Needless to say that I didn't purchase this couch. For that kind of money I could almost buy them a human sized one!

Would you spend that much on a pet bed?

This and That Thursday - by Lee

Many of you asked why I was banished from the kitchen. The Man, who does 100% of the dinner prep in our house, says I get in the way. He is always telling me to get out. I rarely listen. I am a girl who loves her food. He keeps trying and I will keep not listening to him.

Speaking of food - Lady and Man had a min-super bowl party. Lady doesn't mind football (sorry American friends, Canadian football is far more exciting but yours is watchable), but can never stay up for the whole game. (This year she says she clearly missed the best half of the game because that first half was pretty boring). Anyway, it is one of the days of the year, Lady doesn't  eat clean and they eat in front of the TV.

This is the feast made for two: Potato skins, onion rings, deep fried zucchini, wings. (In case Lady's trainer sees this, she also had a salad, so it was totally healthy).

Phod doesn't get excited about food, he was just happy to get snuggles. 

I showed Lady how much I wanted to taste some of that delicious food. I looked super cute. 

I looked longingly at it (in case you are wondering what is on the plate, after Lady was done eating, she brushed Phod and put his hair on her plate to take to the garbage).

Being cute and looking longingly didn't score me anything. In the end I got bored and went to sleep on my Lady. At least she gave me lots of pets and love and we got to snuggle, although I am sure wings would have been better!

Did You Know? By Phod

Dear Blogville Pals,

I have some news to share with you.

First, as you know, I am a bit of a shy guy and a momma's boy, so when I heard about the upcoming K-oss dance, I wasn't sure I was going to get a date. Hailey and Casey are going as friends as they are both recovering from broken hearts. I was talking to my good pals Murphy and Stanley and they said they would act as my wingmen. They helped me set up a date with the beautiful  Mazie from https://martythemanx2.wordpress.com. I know we are going to have a great time.

Also, in case you missed it Louis organized an amazing Endangered Species Challenge. You can click HERE to learn about a lot of really cool endangered species, include Lee's entry about the Blue Iguana.

This, That and The Other Thing - By Lee and Phod

Life has been a bit sucky in our part of the world. See our Big Guy (aka the Lady's Dad) survived an aneurysm on Halloween. He remains in ICU and is doing "ok" - the medical team is happy with the progress. He will likely be there for weeks. Lady is still at home with us, but will go down to see him in a week or two. No one wants her there too early as a nurse or caring and sympathetic person she is not.

The Big Guy and Grammie's dog Tendra is staying with wonderful family friends. She is probably being completely spoiled! Grammie and the Big Guy don't have to worry about her.

Needless to say, this news has shaken our house up a bit. Lady hasn't been as good at visiting blogs because at times she has been a space cadet she  has been thinking about other things and doing other things. We know you will understand and forgive her.

If you have a little POTP to send the Big Guy, we would really appreciate it.

What we shouldn't forgive her for is the fact she didn't take one picture of us this week. Not one. That is a Lady fail.

---------------
In other news:

Today is the last day to get on the Christmas Card List. If you have not done so email us at leeandphodATbellDOTnet. Lady will be putting the finishing touches on it soon so it is ready to go out next Saturday!

All residents of Blogville - if you have blogged in the last 3 months, you are eligible to vote in the upcoming election. The voting will take place here on Tuesday. Polls will be open from 12:01 am EST time to midnight. Be sure to come back on Tuesday to vote. More details will be on that post.

We are taking tomorrow off (we hope to do some catch up visiting as Lady is helping her office move and working today), but will be back Monday.

Have a good weekend and be healthy!

This and That Thursday

Project Hailey: Minus the incident I reported on Monday, Lee's prozac does seem to be helping. She is still nervous with the wind, fireworks, thunder but she is able to just go and hide. She is not pacing and barking and keeping the whole house awake.

We will continue her on 10 mg until about October and we will look at putting her back on it in May of next year.

Several people asked if we had tried a thunder shirt, and yes we have. Hailey has a lovely pink one we call her hug. When her anxiety was not as intense (it has been made worse by some terrible storms that took out trees at our place and the almost nightly fireworks) it did seem to help. Now it is not as helpful and she finds it very hot (and we don't have a/c).

Phod and glucosamine: We had tried that last summer (he tends to look the most stiff in the summer as he gets more exercise). It appeared to upset his stomach, so it will likely not be something he can take. We never tried it in the form of treats. I will look for some the next time I am at the pet store.

I love that you can see his muscles in this picture! 

The walking situation: Thank you all for all your kind words on my post Monday. Your kind words have helped mend my heart. I am slowly recovering for this. I changed my plan as I felt too bad about leaving Phod without a walk.  Our mornings now go like this. Up at 5, dressed, out for both dogs in the yard for a quick pee. Phod goes inside. He barks once when we leave him. Hailey and I walk for approximately 30 minutes. Then I put her in the house, and I take Phod for the same 30 minute walk. He likes to follow her scent and pee where she peed. Hailey whines while we are out, but will settle. I am walking 60 minutes by about 6 am. I admit I am tired, but know I will get use to this.  We haven't been doing our evening walk at all. It is my hope to get the Man to help us with this several times a week so they are use to being together.

Man and Weather Update

Thank you for all your wonderful comments yesterday Blogville, you rock! They were much appreciated as my day went like this:

Up at 5:30, walk the dogs, get ready, and the dogs and I are in the car by 6:40. Somewhere on the drive, Hailey gets out of her new harness and tries to get in the front seat with me. Finally arrive at day camp. To make my life a little less crazy, I made the decision to board the dogs for about 36 hours. It has kind of broken my heart to do it, but I know it is for the best. I arrive at work at 8:35. This is when Man calls to say his CT Scan is at 1, I need to come home. So I cancel with all my clients and drive the 62 km home. I had a little time to relax and pack our bag for the day (although I didn't pack enough food).

For this appointment : I had to drive him to hospital A (30 minutes away) to have the IV put in, to then drive another 25 minutes to hospital B to have the scan, then had to stop by Man's work and return the work pager as he shouldn't be the one on call this week, before driving back to hospital A to get the results. We waited 2.5 hours (after we were told the results were in) to be told he had colitis, unsure if viral or inflammatory bowel disease. At this point they order more blood work. 2.5 hours later, we are told the blood work is the same as Friday and Saturday, a colonoscopy has been ordered and should take place later this week, the IV is removed and we go home. We are now up to 20.5 hours of hospital time since Friday at 9:30 pm.  Because we get a days notice for this next test, I hopefully will actually get to work tomorrow and pick the pups up so my dog guilt stops.


People have asked how much snow we have left. Well as of Sunday, this was our back deck:

We haven't used the BBQ for awhile.  While it has been pretty darn cold in the mornings (close to -20C/4 F) the weather looks like it is going to start to warm up and the rain will help wash the snow away. (Temperatures are in Celsius)

This and That Friday

First, a great big, huge thank you (and hug) to everyone who participated in our first blog hop, Hugs From Around the World. It was great to feel all the love. Blogville rocks! If you missed it, The Three Little Pugs Dad found out yesterday he was coming home today! AMAZING!

I am not so sure Hailey and Zaphod enjoyed the process of getting our picture. Here is an outtake:

We are now at week 6 of the great mouse caper. To date 15 mice have been caught. Most have been caught in the garage, so this is helpful.  It also appears a skunk is digging up our yard. We haven't smelt it, but are seeing the dig up marks. We are making sure Phod is always on leash in the dark as we don't want to deal with the spray!

Yesterday marked 21 years since I met the Man. It is hard to believe. (And amazing how we aren't aging).

The weather has been weird here. Over the weekend there was snow. Monday morning during our walk it was -7 C/19 F but Tuesday it was 17 C/ 64 F. Wednesday was cooler again and Thursday warmer. The joys of a Canadian autumn. The weather is up and down and all around. The peak of the leaves is now behind us, and it is starting to look bare. Sigh, the count down to winter is on.

I was blessed with 2 work at home days this week, extra pup time.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.