Mischief Monday - The Disc That Was

First, Happy Leap Day! Hope everyone enjoys the extra day this year!


When winter comes, Phod's Precious ball gets put away as we know it will get lost in the snow. Instead, we pull out his discs. This year I threw out 2 that no long flew, leaving him with 2. One which had been chewed a little and a great foam one which is perfect.

Phod is in love with his winter Precious, a now very chewed up disc that doesn't really fly.

Because sometimes it is so cold we don't want to play fetch, Phod leaves disc outside and it freezes into different shapes. It is stressful when he can't find it in the snow but 99% of the time he knows exactly where he left it. 

After Phod pulled it apart a little

"Throw it or else"

Bringing what is left of it back

Disc will stay for the rest of the winter and then will find its way to the garbage can.  I will make sure he has another similar one for next winter.

Black and White Sunday - On Guard

This picture was taken last summer. It is helping me imagine a time without so much snow and freezing rain. I am so over winter!

Hailey

Sepia Saturday - Please Throw It

Another natural sepia picture of Zaphod!

Once Upon A Time and Show and Tell

We are thrilled to be joining  Shasta and Shiloh for the Once Upon a Time Blog Hop.  Here is our 'tail'!

Pink=Haley

Blue =Zaphod

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Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess named Hailey. She was beautiful, and smart, and loving, and wonderful . . . .

I think they get the point Hailey. I think it would be better to start, in a far away land . . . .

I thought we agreed I would write this story. Now where was I?

Telling the biggest 'tails' about yourself, teehee!

Be careful or I will feed you to the dragon.  Anyway, there was a beautiful princess named Hailey. She was wonderful, but she was lonely. She didn't have a prince to call her own. She only had an annoying brother named Phodrick. 

Princess Hailey may have thought Phodrick was annoying, but everyone knew he was the most handsome and bravest prince in the land. He actually had already killed a dragon (you can read about that HERE). However, he was highly motivated to find someone, really anyone, to take his occasionally truly annoying sister away.

You can't say that about me, I am not annoying. I am wonderful.

Hailey, stop breaking the third wall and let's just work together and write this story. You can write a few sentences and then I will, ok?

Ok, but only because we need to get this thing done. Where was I?  Oh, I remember. The perfect princess Hailey decided it was time to find a prince. She needed someone who was handsome, smart, brave, destructive, and fun. She decided instead of waiting around for him to come and find her (it is the 2000s after all), she would go out in search of him herself.

Because Phodrick worried about his independent sister, even if she didn't notice, he decided he would come with her. He may be able to keep her safe and he could definitely keep her on track. The two set off on a journey. They didn't get very far when Hailey got distracted by a squirrel.

Out of no where a terrible and evil red squirrel, known as Red John, appeared on the path down from the castle. Hailey went on full alert and did her best to put Red John to rest. She tried to climb the tree after him. She spent the rest of the day waiting for him to come down. When he didn't she got tired and decided to go home.

The next day the two set out again in search of love for Hailey. They made it a little further when Hailey caught wind of a groundhog. 

It was an evil groundhog in my kingdom, it needed to die. I waited all day for it, but couldn't catch it, so decided to go home and try to find love again tomorrow.

You can all see the pattern that started to happen. Finally after like a week of this trying to go, Prince Phodrick had a wonderful idea. "My dear sister Hailey, it seems that we are having some troubles getting out into the world to find you a prince. It is 2016, why don't you try online dating?"

"Phodrick, that may be the best idea you have had in a long time. Let me set up a Dog Harmony account and see what I find."  Hailey worked hard on her profile. She was surprised by how many eligible bachelors were outside her kingdom. After careful consideration, she picked a French boyfriend, Count Easy Le Destructeur. He was smart, handsome and knew how to destroy things. 

Hailey was happy so Phodrick was happy and everyone lived happily every after!

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Bacon is hosting Show and Tell today. Lady is suppose to show an embarrassing picture of her from high school. Lady dug up  is her prom picture, circa 1994. She went with her best friend from high school, Jackie. 

Lady left, Jackie right

PSA - Phod's Birthday Bash

April 1st will be Zaphod's 5th birthday, or rather the day we celebrate it. For those of you who are newer to the blog, Zaphod was picked up as a stray when he was about 1.5 years old. He was severally underweight (he was about 40lbs when he should have been closer to 70) and had behaviour that suggested he had been mistreated/abused. He was taken from the animal shelter into a loving foster home  by Catahoula Rescue Ontario. After a few weeks made his way to our family. (FYI: His cool name is from his foster mom Jenn who thought of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy when she found out he was walking down the highway when he was picked up).

The first night Phod was with his. He was nervous. This is still one of his favourite spots to sleep! 

We wanted to keep his adoption/gotcha day separate from his birthday so we could celebrate him twice a year. We picked April 1st as his birthday. We picked this day because it is fun and it is his Aunt K's birthday.

This year, it is estimated that Zaphod will be turning 5. To celebrate his birthday we have decided to do a fundraising event to help other abused and mistreated animals. We have selected the Ontario SPCA as the charity we will support for this fundraiser.

Here is what you need to know to participate:

- Send a picture of your pet(s) "fooling around" and having fun (the sillier the better), by March 27th, 2016 to leeandphodATbellDOTnet
- Grab our badge or find other ways to spread the word that this event is happening

What the Lady will do:

-For every submission she will donate $1.
-For every comment made within 48 hours of the post going up (Friday April 1st, 6 am EST to Sunday April 3rd, 6 am EST), she will donate .50 cents


If you have any questions feel free to contact us at leeandphodATbellDOTnet.

Thank you in advance for joining us in celebrating Phod's birthday and helping mistreated animals.

Shopping Around The World - Soup

Today is Bacon's shopping around the world. The item we are sharing is soup.

The Canadian Dollar is worth .73 US cents, .65 Euros,  and 1.02 Australian Dollars.

I recently came across this recipe on All Recipes, for a black bean soup. I am not much of a chef (I don't enjoy cooking), but this is one of the easiest and yummiest things I make. 

Here is what you need:

• 2 cans of black beans - $1.49 a can
• 1 1/2 cups of veggie broth - on sale for $2 a box
• 1 cup of salsa - $4.49
• 1 teaspoon of cumin - the jar is about $7

The total price to make a pot (as you use half the box of broth and about half the salsa and a tiny bit of cumin) is under $7. This will make up my lunch for at least 4 days this week.

Now for the recipe:

Wash the beans, add them and the stock to the blender. (The recipe says to blend the salsa too, but I don't, I like the little bit of texture it adds).

It turns a beautiful purply colour

Pour into a sauce pan, add the salsa.

Add the cumin. 

Stir and heat up. It is that easy!

The recipe suggests topping with a little sour cream and green onion. Since I am living a low dairy life (and am not wasting my dairy on that), I serve with a handful of my new favourite corn chips, which are about $5 a bag.

If you decide to try this, let me know what you think! 

Love From Across The Pond

Hailey was very excited to receive a Valentine's Day package from her boyfriend Easy. It arrived the day after the snow of the century.

Hailey did a pawsome job at opening it the package. 

Inside was yummy treats, a heart toy and a new bear

From Lee:

Thank you very much Easy, you are pawsome. I promise to show pictures of the dead-ed toys when I decide they need their fluff removed!

Mischief Monday - Winter Weather

The mischief award definitely goes to the weather the past week. To recap:

• Valentine's Day weekend - Record cold snap brought us -45C/-49F for 3 days.
• February 16 we had the storm of the century and got 50 or so cm/20 inches. The plus was it was not that cold out (-4C/25F) [FYI we are still 20 cm/8 inches below how much snow we have most years at this time of year]
• The 17th - I don't remember. 
• The 18th and 19th - cold again - morning temperatures around -25C/-13F
• We got another few inches of snow overnight on Friday, to be followed by warming on Saturday (4C/39F) and pouring rain! It made everything slushy and gross.
• Sunday, temperatures around 0C/32F, light snow in the morning but sun in the afternoon. 
• The temperature is going to drop to -18C/0F overnight.

Needless to say we didn't get out the way we normally due many days last week. The pups have handled it well. On Saturday, when we went for our walk, they were thrilled!  Sunday we went for a snowshoe. Even with the rain it was still very deep in the bush.

In the driveway - showing how high the snowbank still is

Phody leading the Man to follow the girls' tracks

"Hurry up boys!"

Here is a short video of Hailey making her way through the deep snow. She sort of slinks/swims. 

This week is looking warmer, but currently there is a fair bit of snow - possible totals of 35 cm/13 inches forecasted for Wednesday-Friday. Sigh! 

Sleepy Sunday - Hail

Stop taking pictures, I am trying to sleep

Yeah, rub my belly! 

Masks

Last week we showed the new mask we got on our travels. Madi asked us if we had ever shown our other masks, and the answer was no. We decided to show them off today. It has been a cold and boring week for the dogs, lol! 

Roatan, Honduras - A trip Lady took with Aunt C and Grammie

Guatemala - Same trip with Aunt C and Grammie. Scariest place Lady has been. We needed an armed escort for our tour.

Cuba - The Man and Uncle Chris went there

Tokyo, Japan - This is one of the Lady's favourite things in the whole house

Mexico - Lady bought this on a trip Man spent 5 days being sick. She was proud to barter all by herself.

Italy

Spain

Grand Cayman

Vancouver. Lady was there for a presentation and was nervous. It was her first professional presentation. The Man bought her this mask of strength and courage to help

Bali

We hope you enjoyed our masks and one fan!

Pet Unfriendly Frustration

I am going to have a little rant here on the blog today, maybe this rant will help lead to a solution!

It is our intention to attend the Blogville Awesome Retreat (BAR) in June. One of my dream items (which is not shared by the Man, he is totally humouring me here) is to travel across North America in an RV. This dream comes from my childhood when we traveled in a van. I thought, given it is about 16 hour drive and with all of Hailey's issues and Phod's car issues, that an RV would be the perfect way to go to BAR. Man agreed. .

Now the frustrating part. None of the RV rentals in our area are pet friendly. In fact one clearly says you will be out $2000 if you put a dog in their RV. This just frustrates me. Perhaps because I already live in a world where I am discriminated against because I don't have children. Now I am being discriminated against because I love my dogs and want to travel with them.  There, I am done my rant!

The Man (and I helped too) found a not bad deal in Syracuse New York. That is like 4 or 5 hour drive from our place. We think that is what we will go with.  They were actually recommended by a place in Toronto we found that was pet friendly. We are just happy to have found something, although it does mean we have to be all squishy crossing the boarder! Let's hope this works out!

Thankful Thursday - The Snowstorm Of The Century

After 3 days of record breaking cold (-45C/-49F), yesterday we received the most snow in one day on record on Tuesday. They say that Ottawa got 51 cm/20 inches fell that day, Gatineau (just on the other side of the river) got 34 cm/13 inches. Not sure exactly what we got, but a lot! Buses got stuck, commuters got stuck, it was truly a mess.

Today, on thankful Thursday, I am thankful for: working at home (I didn't have to get out of my pjs all day and I didn't have to try and drive in the nightmare), a warm fire, my friends/family safe in the storm, the power stayed on, and that I had to put snowshoes on to take the dogs out! I am also thankful for the snowblower (and man using it) and the people who worked really hard to plough the roads. They are completely under appreciated and will be pulling 12 hour shifts to make it safe for everyone. (A friend's husband is a city plough driver in the winter on the night shift).

Hailey hated it, but Phod had a great time! Here are a few pictures of us out playing. (I am loving my Olympus Tough-4 - I am not worried about having it in one hand and Hailey in another while I try and snowshoe through above knee snow, while occasionally throwing the disc for Phod!)

Hailey leading way first trip out. She won't follow behind me even though it would be easier walking!

It really looks pretty!

This was at lunch, snow not up to Lee's belly yet. It was falling about 3 cm/1 inch an hour. 

Phod went tearing by Lee after disc and made her snowy, she was not happy! 

You can just make out where we walked a few hours before. 

It is hard work getting disc! 

To show how deep it was on Phod around 4:30

He kept losing the disc and then would fling it up! 

Someone loves the snow!
You can tell by the picture what rough shape disc is in. He has a beautiful new one, but he always picks this one that doesn't really fly. It is his winter precious!

Wordless Wednesday - Outtake "Forced Love"

Babysitting - By Hailey

Blogville pals,

First thanks for all the well wishes. I just threw up once and was fine. I think it was because of all the excitement I am about to tell you about.

We were given a very hard job on the weekend. We had to go and babysit our human cousin Maggie. She is 20 months old now. Aunt C and Uncle D were going to be very late, so we had to pack our overnight bags. See their new house is about an hour from ours, so we were just going to stay over.

We had never babysat at their house. Maggie came here after Christmas for a few days. Lady has babysat Maggie at her house, but we have not gotten to help.

It was the one of the coldest days in history at -45C/-49F, so we couldn't exercise. When we were out for about a minute so I could poop, I actually cried because it was so cold. Phod threw up in the car because the people tried to take him without giving him his meds. We were very, very excited to get to Maggie's house and smell the cats (more about them later).

I had to check out the tunnel that was far to small for me.

Phod had to show Maggie how you really play ball

Phod had to make sure that Man was playing right (really when the people sit on the floor he things he needs all the love).

I supervised colouring. She doesn't stay in the lines.

One of the most important jobs was supervising dinner. Gotta make sure she isn't getting anything better than we did. She had orange peppers and green mac and cheese, nothing we wanted.

Then I had to go down these scary slippery stairs to check out the basement. 

Phod had to correct Man for reading the story wrong.

We were exposed to a new show, Bubble Guppies or "buppies".

After we put Maggie to bed, I saw one of the cats, Lupul. He came out to use the litter box and then went back into his hiding room with the other cat Panda. After this, I was on super high alert. I was on such high alert, that I kept my people and Zaphod up most of the night. I would scratch on the door, but they wouldn't let me out to get the cats or check on Maggie. Man did take me out once after Aunt C and Uncle D came home so I could poop and see there were no invaders but I wouldn't sleep.

We left before breakfast in the morning because we can't eat as Phod gets sick (and he still got sick). After we had breakfast at home, we were all very tired. My people and Phod didn't appreciate my guarding all night. We had a 3.5 hour nap. Then, as I mentioned, I threw up in the evening for no known reason. I think it is because I was tired from babysitting.

Lady says I did much better with Maggie. I only barked at her twice. She gives me a B+ for that but an F- for sleeping. 

I think I did a good enough job I will be asked to babysit again! (Clearly as you can see our peeps need our help to do it right!)