Flower Friday

We join Rosy for Flower Friday. We have no idea what these are, but they are pretty wild flowers growing in our grass. 

The End Is Near - Emma Is Going Home Soon!

168 days ago, Cousin Emma arrived at our house for an extended stay. It is hard to believe that in 4 short days, she will be going home. Uncle Chris returns to Canada on June 30th and will be coming to get Emma on July 1st. It will be a very happy Canada Day for us all!

Emma has not been terrible, but she has not been really good either. There have been more nights then we would like where she has decided 2 am is the time she needs to pee. She has had few accidents in the house, but we have had to figure out her food allergies. We have dealt with a lot of upset stomachs. She has been a huge bed hog and needed to be held many nights. She has destroyed a lot of toys. She was not a good walker. She has been nasty to both Hailey and Phod. There was Easter weekend, that we are all trying to block out. Really, it has just been a lot to have a dog who didn't just fit into our well established routine. She is a very spoiled dog, who is use to being carried around and doted on. She is use to being the centre of a universe. In our busy house, while she has gotten a lot of love and attention, she has had to share it. 

What I, the Lady have learned, is 3 dogs is too many for me right now. I will stick with my 2 thank you. The Man would say, that is a lesson he is thrilled to have learned. 

Now, our project will be to get Chris a girlfriend, so next time he is posted overseas, there is someone to take care of Emma!

Wordless Wednesday - Buzz Off

Trouble Tuesday - Poor Phod

Dear Pals,

You know I am the best dog I can be. I try very had to make my people happy and keep them safe. Lady also says I am a big suck-a-bear.

Imagine the horror I felt on Sunday, when Man noticed I was limping. I let Lady fully examine my leg. Man felt it was my ankle that was sore. They decided I needed ice.  I tried to look very sad so they would leave me alone, but it didn't work. I did get a lot of pets. Lady chuckled at how my 'resistance' was. She says I am even gentle in it.

I thought the ice was going to be the worst of it, but then Man said, "no ball for a couple of days."

I am now officially the saddest boy ever. 

Mischief Monday - Constance 2 - People 0

In our municipality, it is now illegal to put any plant matter or recycling in the garbage. Each home was given a composter. Now we have started composting. In the city, we had a green bin program, where they came and collected the rooting food every 2 weeks. We have never had to upkeep a composter before. 

Phod sniffing around the composter.  

Day 2, the raccoon we are calling Constance, opened the front door of the composter and dragged everything out. (We know it was a racoon due to the paw prints on the door). 

End of week 1, something, we assume Constance (and hope it is), actually lifted the composter up by the back (it is nailed into the ground, but it is rocky so the back is not as secure as we would like) and dragged a lot of the food out the back. The Man actually had brought us all out for an early morning pee when Constance was up to no good. We were not allowed to go and catch her/him. 

To try and keep Constance out the people have put dirty on the back. They have put a rock on the top. They have put a layer of dirt inside. They have sprinkled half a bottle of Cayenne pepper inside and around it. 

We feel like there may be an ongoing battle between Constance and the people! We are putting our money on Constance. 

How long until the bandit strikes again?

Flower Friday

We join Flower Friday - to see more pretty flowers, go to our host Rosy's.

From San Diego

Storm Season is Upon Us

Last Wednesday, we had our second thunderstorm of the season. This is significantly fewer than we would normally have by now. The storm thankfully rolled in during the evening on my work at home day.

Miss Lee was very upset at first and ran downstairs and tried to dig her way through my office door. When she is scared she wants to either be outside or downstairs. I brought her upstairs and put on her thunder shirt and she 'settled' in the kitchen. For Hailey, she was very calm, just sitting or standing and panting.

Phod, who use to never show any real reaction to storms, has learned to be fearful from Hailey. While he has never been destructive (go back to around August 12, 2012 to see her worst damage ever), he does want to be near you and pant. 

Emma is oblivious to it all, and I only got her in this picture because she was interested in what I may be cooking in the kitchen. 

I spent my evening while the Man was out cooking (which is so rare) and trying to comfort my dogs. I hope we don't have too many storms (or wind, or fireworks) this season. 

Wordless Wednesday - Her Rolling Smile

43 Random Things About the Lady

As Lady celebrates another year of life - here are 43 random things about her.

Circa 1977 with my grandparent's dog Cinder

1. Her favourite colour is blue.

2. She has a learning disorder that effects her ability to remember letter and number combinations aka she is a horrible speller.

3. She has 2 undergraduate degrees, a Masters and a Post-Grad Certificate in Behaviour Analysis. 

4. She hated reading until she was 16.

5. The book that made her fall in love with reading was Timothy Findley's The Wars.

6. She has not parallel parked since her driving test in 1992 and has no plans to ever do it again (and she drives a lot).

7. Ketchup chips are her favourite.

8. She can't eat gluten or soy.

9. She thinks the best steak she has ever eaten was at Michael Jordan's in Chicago.

10. She loves to do laundry.

11. She loves to paint but isn't really great at it. 

12. She loves to take pictures and hopes to get better at it some day.

13. Her tonsils ruptured when she was 6.

14. She had 4 wisdom teeth, they were removed in her 20s. 

15. She has worn glasses since she was 5.

This day in 1976

16. She was painfully shy growing up (she never talked in class) and still uncertain in novel social situations.

17. She plans on retiring on January 1, 2030.

18. She and the Man got married when she was 21 (and he was almost 22).

19. Growing up she thought she was a cat person, turns out, she is both a dog and cat person. 

20. She is impatient, more impatient then most people know. 

21. Sleep is one of her number one priorities.

22. She doesn't really like shoes. 

23. She is a podcast junky.

24. She would sell her soul for good chocolate and good cheese.

25. While she respects other's beliefs, she identifies as an atheist.

26. She has a 'stitches' phobia. At 18 months 4 or so adults couldn't hold her down to put
stitches in her head and as an adult she just didn't go to the hospital when she probably should have had some.

27. She is terrified of whales and while she generally loves animals, hopes they become extinct. 

28. She has 2 tattoos. No current plans for a 3rd, but time will tell. 

29. She tore the meniscus in her right knee studying for statistics (yes you read that right) and she had to have 2 surgeries to fix it.

30. She has never liked being upside down.

1980

31. She was always the last kid picked for any gym class etc. and her elementary gym teacher had her sit out a lot as she was a danger to herself and others.

32. People see her as pretty black and white, but as she ages, she is starting to play in the grey.

33. Her accessories of choice are necklaces and watches. 

34. She has never participated in any sort of protest or march.

35. She has visited 24 countries. 

36. She loves nature, but doesn't consider herself an outdoors person.

37. Her bird feeder is one of the biggest joy bringers of her life currently.

38. She hates coffee but loves tea. 

39. The first time she was in a plane was to go sky diving.
40. She would call herself a realist but most people see her as pessimistic.

41. She has had the most vivid dreams and nightmares since she was about 18 months.

42. She is an extremely organized person who is really good at getting things done.

43. She loves, loves, loves, loves, lists.

The Craziest Walk Last Week

On Tuesday, around 6 am, Lee, Phod and I headed out for our weekday morning stroll. We have two routes we can take, one being what we call 'favourite road.' It happened to be favourite road day.

We turn a corner on favourite road (about 1 km from our house), and I see to the right, across the field, a house on fire. 

For some perspective. We live in cottage country. On this particular walk which is probably about 1.5 km one way, we pass 1 house on our road, 2 houses on the main road and about  a dozen on favourite road.  I rarely carry my phone with me when I walk.

Lee, did not seem to notice anything was amiss. Phod on the other hand was highly alert. It was clear the fire had just started. We were likely a good football field from the nearest house and 2 football fields from the fire. So there I was without a phone (not that I actually know the name of favourite road, it is a long French one I have never learned), picking up the pace because I am thinking I may have to get much closer to the fire than I would like (when I was 3 I saw a furniture factory burn and probably had PTSD after that and still have a very healthy respect for fire), with the 2 dogs to start banging on doors.

Fortunately, as I got closer, I could hear people out yelling, so I knew people knew. Shortly after I could hear the firetrucks coming up the road around the lake. 

The dogs and I continued our walk away from the fire. Lee was a bit upset we didn't get to go up past the house because that is the routine and not doing so means we don't get to smell the best mailbox ever and our walk is shorter. Phod needed a lot of encouragement to keep going forward. Both reacted calmly when we had to stop to let the firetrucks race by.  

When we got home the Man and Emma were sitting outside. The Man had heard the sirens and looked out and could see the fire across the field from our house. He yelled at me for not having my phone with me. 

It took me another 3 days to remember it and I got these pictures of the house.  I never heard any news stories about it, so I believe everyone was safe.  The lighting is poor in these pictures as it was just my phone, it was very foggy that morning and I only really had one hand (as I had 2 dogs in the other).

Happy Father's Day

In honour my my (the Lady's) Dad, aka "The Big Guy" I share with you some of the boats I saw during my trip to San Diego last month. 

Happy Father's Day Dad! 

Flower Friday - More Flowers From San Diego

We don't have a lot in bloom here so today again for Rosy's Flower Friday we share a picture from Lady's travels.

Training Thursday - Off Leash

This is a real picture, there has been no photoshopping of a leash or tie out

Over the winter, when the snow was deep and it was cold, we were able to start some off leash training with our girl. This is always done with great care (assessing Lee's mood, the environment etc.). Historically, Lee has done much better in the winter than in the spring/summer/fall when all the good smells are around.

However this year, again, under very restricted situations, Lee has been doing a good job at being off leash in the yard (100% supervised as we don't have a fence) for short periods of time. Generally, she has been much better at this kind of thing for Man than Lady (which really makes Lady made as she is the one who has spent the most hours training Lee), but she seems to be doing equally well with both!

We are not sure what has lead to this change. Is it maturity? Age? Whatever it is, we will enjoy it.

So will Lee, who had discovered there is nothing better than an off leash roll. Look at her grin!

Wordless Wednesday - Phod's Down Dog

Troublesome Tuesday - The Last 3 Dog Walk

The mug shots!

Several weeks ago, on a Thursday, we had a walk that went like this:

First Lee got very excited and was pulling because she thought there was an animal in the neighbours driveway. Turns out it was just some garbage bags (bags are uncommon out here as we are to have our garbage in containers as the animals get into the bags).

Then some puppies lost their mind at the raven sitting on a lawn.

Then we saw some deer.

Then on our very favourite road, there was something moving up a driveway, for real. It was a porcupine. We were about 30 feet from it and it was slowly moving up the driveway and Lady did an about face and made us go the other way. She said there was no way we were going to get any closer and no good would come from meeting it.

Then Emma started to throw up. Lady isn't sure if it was from all the grass she ate or if she was just too excited or if there was too much pulling.

Then Emma refused to walk so Lady had to try and carry all 16 lbs of her while walking us.

Then there was a big black dog off leash running around. Luckily it didn't come near us, but Lady made us turn around and not go to sniff our favourite mailbox.

We kept tripping Lady as she was walking carrying Emma and trying to hold our leashes.

Emma kept growling at Lady because she didn't like the way she was being carried.

Somehow we all made it home in one piece.

Since that day, Lady has not taken all 3 of us on a big morning walk. Emma has to sit out. Lady says it is not safe.

We think she just doesn't know how to have fun!

Monday Spark

Flower Friday - San Diego Flowers

Today we join Rosy's Flower Friday with a picture Lady took in San Diego.

Travel Thursday - Lady is Back and buildings

Zaphod here to say, Lady is back. She has been back for a week, but then had lots of work and had to go away again and now she is back and only slightly crazy busy. She says she will be catching up with everyone this weekend and getting back into regular blogging. We have some stories to tell!

Lady went to California, to San Diego, for a conference over Memorial Day weekend. The conference is intense running 8 am until 6 or 7 at night for 3 days. She and her friend went early so they could have a couple days to wander the city. 

While she says it every conference, San Diego is now her favourite conference city! (Previous cities are Chicago 3 times, Phoenix, San Antonio - her second fave and she has gone twice, Seattle, Denver). She wants to go back.

Here are some of the buildings she saw on her travels in the city and in Coronado.