Wednesday, May 27, 2009

huh?

I'm feeling a little bit all over the place today.

This week, I'm taking Friday off, in lieu for working over the weekend. Subsequently, it's been a busy week so far as I try to get stuff done in a four day week. Also been working harder than normal in the evenings at home. I'd really love to not have any housework to do over the weekend. Wouldn't that be nice? I did three loads of laundry last night and a bunch of cleaning. The house is starting to look like you could almost let people live there.

We plan to go to Montreal for the day on Friday. It's sort of a belated birthday gift for Mark. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts has an exhibit on now, celebrating the 40th Anniversary of John & Yoko's bed in and we're going to at least see that and make a side trip to Schwartz's (cuz you can't go to Montreal and not visit Schwartz's).

To make up for a less than coherent post, here's a fun Joel Plaskett video to get you through hump day. Enjoy!

Monday, May 25, 2009

what a weekend!!

The inaugural Spring Reunion Weekend was held on campus over the weekend and it appears to have been a huge success. I would have been surprised if it hadn't been though. Kingston and campus are at their very best, at this time of the year and many grads have never seen either in full bloom. Lots of neat, new events were planned and a good time seemed to have been had by all.

I'm feeling a little tired today after putting in some extra hours over the weekend but I should be back to normal by tomorrow. Slept very well last night and had yesterday off, sort of. Because I'd worked on Saturday, and Friday night, my chores all fell to yesterday. I did about 6 loads of laundry and finally packed away the sweaters and pulled out the capris. I have another couple of loads of laundry to do but the lion's share of it is done and that feels good.

The rest of the week will be spent trying to get the house cleaned up again. Between the dogs and the deck construction and just everything else that's been happening lately, the house is a bit of a mess and I'm not thrilled about it. We had to do a bunch of cleaning (unplanned) yesterday because both of the dogs were throwing up. They both ate different things that they shouldn't have (in Sam's case, some garbage from the bathroom - kleenex and a piece of foil; in Gracie's case, some stuff from the basement - drywall and some rubber from a floor mat). I would never have imagined that two tiny stomachs could hold so much vomit, but there you go. Gracie started in the basement and then we got her up into the kitchen where she was sick a bunch more times. She also threw up on our bedroom carpet. Sam barfed on the deck and in the flower bed. It was a lot of puke and they both slept a lot afterward. They seemed to have it out of their systems by last night. After lots of water and a bland, small dinner, they were both find this morning. Fun huh?

The rest of the cleaning will continue. We're just going to putter, a little bit every night this week and hopefully have it all ship-shape by Thursday. We're having friends over for dinner on Thursday. Nothing inspires a clean house like impending company does, does it? I'm quite excited about it too because these are old friends who we don't see nearly enough of and I miss them like crazy.

Friday, May 22, 2009

clouded over

I'm not overly thrilled by the clouds which have gathered and are currently hanging out over my office right now. I'm working at some events this afternoon / evening and tomorrow and I really had hoped for sunny and warm. If we're lucky, it'll clear up!

I can not get over how quickly the week has gone by. The whole month of May actually. I knew, because of what we had going on at work, that the month would zing by but even still, it feels like I'd be hard pressed to remember May at all, in a couple of months.

What with the working and all, I suspect the weekend will fly by too. This week, we managed to get the bins of summer clothes upstairs (they hide out in the basement during the winter). I haven't unpacked everything (and then packed up the winter stuff) yet but it's upstairs, so that's a good start. Everything that will be packed away is clean so I just really need a couple of hours to sort stuff out, do ironing, that kind of thing. I'm the world's laziest iron-er and love the winter because I don't really have to iron anything. My only genuine complaint about summer is the ironing. I'm a whiney baby and hate to do it.

This morning, I would have paid cash money (up to and including $10 CAD) to stay home with the dogs instead of going into work. They are so awesome and cute and, did I mention, Awesome?!

Here's a video of them wrestling on the deck on Sunday. We were waiting for Mark and Andy to get back from the lumber store and this a rather low-key version of what they usually do. Enjoy!!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

skeptical


skeptical
Originally uploaded by Julep67
This morning on my way to work, the town in general, and campus specifically, felt spookily quiet. not sure if the nice weather has folks playing hooky and heading to the cottage today or if it was just me thinking it was quiet. Either way, it was pretty peaceful.

I say was because that stopped at around 9:30 a.m. when some guys showed up to weed whack the area outside my office window. Ever since 9:30 a.m., there has been some mechanical hum happening, at varying levels. Nice!

Despite the noise I'm having a good day, getting lots of stuff done, feeling organized for the weekend. these are all awesome things. What's not so awesome is the news I read this morning about Archie Andrews. Other than the obvious (trying to sell more comics), why would they marry off Archie? I'm thinking it could be a dream thing, like they do on soap operas. He'll not actually ask Betty or Veronica to marry him, it'll be a silly plot that doesn't go anywhere.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

seven


seven
Originally uploaded by Julep67
With all of the other stuff we had going on over the weekend, I forgot to mention that poor little seven died on the weekend. She'd been pretty lethargic over the past couple of weeks and really started to fail at the end of last week. Sunday morning, she passed away.

We called her Seven because we got her on our 7th anniversary. We'd have had her 3 years in August. She was a spunky little fish, super cute with telescopic eyes. We'll really miss her!

Didja watch da Idol last night? We saw part of it. To be honest, we've watched it this season without really liking anyone. I disliked a lot of folks (like that Gokey guy) and honestly don't care one way or the other about who wins (although I think Adam deserves it a little more than Kris).

the week is whizzing by for me. Short weeks always do, although I'm working Friday night and Saturday so it'll not be all that short in the end. I'll get some time off in lieu of working on the weekend so it's not bad at all, in fact, it was something I volunteered for. Next week, we may go up to Montreal for a day trip. It's been almost 2 years since we've been there and there are a couple of things we wanted to do and see and a day trip seemed like a good idea. I love Montreal. I love how pretty it is, and how cool it is and how you can function perfectly well without having to speak french. We have, however, been mocked (well our van has been mocked) for having Ontario plates on it but we just suck it up and don't take it personally!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

bathing beauties


sun bathing
Originally uploaded by Julep67
the dogs and I spent a fair chunk of time hanging out on the deck, in the sunshine, over the weekend. I took their bed outside Sunday and Monday so they could get comfortable.

Mark and Andy spent a big chunk of their time working on the deck. Sam and Gracie and I did our best to stay out of their way and not interrupt the terrific railing installation which was happening.

The deck looks amazing now. There is only one more section to finish (it's the end piece of the deck, installing a privacy panel) and it'll be done. Mark even got some of the landscaping done so things are coming together.

Our next step will be getting some sod and planting grass in the corner where the gazebo was last year. The dogs are really enjoying how the yard has opened up to them. Mark could hardly get Sam to come in last night. I think Sam would have been completely happy to have slept outside last night (although given that there are skunks in our neighbourhood at night I don't think it would have been a good idea).

Although it's not even the end of May, I seriously think we've spent almost as much time on the deck this year as we did the whole of last summer. It's going to be a great summer / deck season this year I think!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

fall down go boom


A Picture/Video Message!
Originally uploaded by taxichefer
All last night, I kept hearing something creaking.

I thought that the gate was open.

I thought that the shed door was open.

I thought that our neighbour's tree was rubbing against our fence and creaking.

turns out, something was creaking but it was the big old Manitoba Maple on our front lawn.

We've been in the house for 4 years and I've never trusted that tree. The city butchered it 2 years ago to make room for heavy equipment which they used to replace the water mains. Apparently, the tree belongs to the city so, when it fell down this morning (after we went to work), they are removing it.

I'm happy it belongs to the city. If it was our tree, it would have cost $650 to have it removed. Apparently, there are trees down all over the place this morning. For once, I'm happy that something like this Is someone else's problem. I can think of lots of things I'd rather spend $650 on instead of tree removal.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

I feel fine

the polyphonic spree always make me smile and they have, on occasion, made me feel happier than a band should probably be allowed to do. It's hard to explain how awesome they are when you experience them in a live environment to someone who is unfamiliar with the wonderfulness that is the spree. It's even more difficult to explain to a dog. Band leader Tim tries, valiantly. I don't know if the dog gets it or not or just doesn't care. Either way, music video + dog = super cute fun!!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

favourite perch


favourite perch
Originally uploaded by Julep67
Our lilac bush looks like it's just about ready to get very pretty. The flower bud thingys started to appear on the weekend and today, they got very dark purple looking. If the sun stays out tomorrow, we may have actual lovely, beautiful smelling, lilacs in the yard on the weekend.

I hope so, I do love them. I can see them from my kitchen window (and from the deck) and they just about the prettiest things around.

Although I was pretty sure that Sam had killed everything in my flower bed last fall, it appears that the hydrangeas may have survived the winter. I plan to clean up the bed this weekend and try to figure out what are weeds and what are actually stuff that we planted. I'm trying to have a whole bed of only perennial stuff because I'm not a big fan of having to plant annuals every year. I don't mind doing baskets but, well, I just would prefer to have a lot of hydrangeas and shasta daisies.

Gardens, spring, sneezing. I really do love this time of the year!

Monday, May 11, 2009

movie star

We had a great weekend, really nice. We had time to chill out, time to play and time to do chores and errands. I came back to work this morning feeling really good. The house is in good shape as far as it's cleanliness level goes, which is something considering how bad I let it get while I was a sick a couple of weeks ago. The yard could use some TLC but it was either rainy or really cold over the weekend. For now, the front lawn is really too long and the back lawn needs some seed or sod but while the deck construction continues, there is no sense in doing that. We'll get it all neat and tidy looking soon, it's still early, right?

Yesterday, I was changing the batteries in my camera while sitting at the kitchen table. The dogs were wandering around and I took the following little video of Gracie. She was interested in the camera but was also watching Sam out of the corner of her eye.

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

It's Mark!


it's Mark!
Originally uploaded by Julep67
I love having my teeth cleaned but hate how your head feels like someone kicked it in afterwards.

Having said that, I saw a new hygienist this morning and she's awesome. She also has 2 dogs so, when I didn't have a bunch of stuff in my mouth, we could talk about dogs. yay!

Mark was at the dentist on Monday, I was there today, the dogs were at the vet on Monday, hopefully we're done with appointments for a little while.

This morning I thought Gracie had disappeared from the yard. Sam was in the house with me and I went to find Gracie before I started getting ready for work (I just like to know where they both are). She wasn't in the house, and I couldn't see her in the yard (our yard is not huge) or on the deck. I started to panic a little bit and called her and called her.

Eventually, I heard her whimper, she was behind a piece of lattice that Mark had put next to the shed. I wasn't sure how she got in behind the shed but at least I knew where she was. I called out and said, "I'll be back to rescue you, just need my shoes" and went back into the house. I had no more than walked into the bedroom than Gracie was at my feet. She wasn't trapped at all, just playing a game I guess. To me, puppy games are more fun when there is less panic and more laughing. I suppose as long as she had fun, that's the main thing, right?

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

hanging on the new deck


hanging on the new deck
Originally uploaded by Julep67
Last night the dogs visited the vet. It was the first time we had booked them both in at the same time and we had a discount applied to our bill, I guess, because we brought them both in together. It was tough though because it was about a million degrees in the exam room and Gracie had blood work done and got micro chipped so Sam had to wait with us in the tiny little hot room for what seemed like forever.

They were both pretty good sports about getting their shots. Both were told that they are in good shape physically and that's always good to hear. Talking to other folks in the waiting room about the various ailments some pets were in for, I felt really lucky that our dogs are fit and healthy.

I'm having another busy week at work. This is our really busy time of the year but it should only be like this for another couple of weeks and then things will get back to normal. I don't mind the pace actually but the time just flies by like crazy which is never a good thing.

We've been busy at home as well. Mark continues to work on the deck and it's looking good. He started assembling the railings on Sunday. For the moment, they are just tacked in, in spots. Either next weekend or the one after, he'll put the posts in and affix them properly. I'll feel better about the whole project once the step railing is in but it takes time. By the end of the month, I think it'll be done and by that time, it'll have warmed up enough for me to finally paint our shed. We want to plant some grass seed out back too but that will have to wait until the construction is over.

In the meantime, we're enjoying the yard, just as it is right now.

Friday, May 01, 2009

friday fog


rewarding Mark
Originally uploaded by Julep67
the fog rolled down University Avenue in a crazy, almost movie like way this morning. then, as quickly as it appeared, it was gone.

strange.

for the first time since the deck extension was added, we had a rain storm last night. our gazebo is now on the extension, which is just outside our bedroom window so the wind howling and the rain pounding was amplified by the canvas top. I think it disturbed the dogs a bit, I know it kept waking us up. It's such a more pleasant sound though, than freezing rain hitting the window. I'll not complain.

Gracie particularly, is digging the new deck. She's realized that she can be outside but not get wet during the rain and is one happy girl. I'm not sure when the railings are going up, we still need to buy them. It may not be until the long weekend but in the meantime, Mark and Andy put up a temporary barrier which will prevent wrestling dogs from rolling off the edge.

When it's done, it's going to be amazing. At the moment, it's merely awesome.