This is the sound...

of my head exploding.

It's scary how I can predict when I'm going to get one. It's not like it's voodoo or anything weird like that, it's just when the temperature goes screwy (like I mentioned yesterday) I'm sure to get one.

Anyways, I ended up taking a happy pill (Fiorinal) but it doesn't seem to be working, so I might end up taking another one this evening. The only downside is that I'm really sleepy and if I take another one, I'm liable to fall asleep when I get my hair done tomorrow. I don't think a buzz cut would look good on me somehow...

Meh

So much for the rumours of a "big" batch this month...*sigh*

Congratulations to those that are seeing their child's face for the first time.

Global warming? Naaaaaaaah...(and other ramblings)

What weird weather we're having here lately! It's the end of November and it was 15 degrees...15 degrees (for you Americans, that's 59 Fahrenheit) AT THE END OF NOVEMBER...in Toronto! Insanity, I tell you, sheer insanity.

But with the above normal temperatures comes crappiness too. It's supposed to be the same temperature for tomorrow with rain, but then Friday we're going to get *gasp* snow. I expect that sometime between tomorrow afternoon and evening, I'm going to get one helluva migraine. Gotta love those quick weather snaps! I actually got a mini one this afternoon, took three Tylenols and *poof* it went away (thankfully).

The weird thing is, I've always been able to take Tylenol without any sort of side effects, but lately I find that when I take three at once I get really sleepy. I wonder if they've changed the formula or something.

On a side note, I noticed that I'm getting some hits from RQ's site since I registered my blog on her site. So if you've come from there, welcome! Feel free to wander around on the site, I don't bite...much.

When I first started dipping my toe in the 'blogosphere' and I found out about her site, I vowed I'd never...NEVER...go to it, but I find that I can't tear myself away from checking it at least 2-3 times a day...even during the quiet times. *sigh*

By the way, Deuce is back to normal! He's still a bit picky about his litter box, so we might end up getting him ANOTHER new one, we'll see how he does with it over the next few days.

Last night he curled up next to me and slept with his tail on my pillow (thankfully he's no longer gassy or that would have been...rather unpleasant). Right now he's walking on the computer table and mewing at me for attention.

We rescheduled his tooth cleaning (and possible extraction...ugh) for December 12th. I'm not really looking forward to it, but he has to have it done. When I spoke to the vet today, she asked if I wanted it done next week. I told her that I wanted Deuce to get back to normal before he has it, especially if he has to have an extraction, then he'd have to go on antibiotics. He doesn't need any more stress. Poor kitty.

Fun and merriment...

Josh and I got up this morning and noticed that Deuce hadn't used his new litter box overnight...at all. I couldn't decide if he was just nervous because it's a new box or if was still under the weather so I called the clinic (yet again). They really must be sick of hearing my voice. :P

They said that he's probably just trying to get used to the new box and as long as he's eating and drinking, he'll have to use it sooner or later. I decided to put him in his box and rub his feet in the gravel to get him accustomed to it. As soon as I put him in, he leapt back out. I was getting worried, so I did it several times and tried to 'encourage' him to use it. I know this sounds weird, but if you rub the cat's paws through the gravel, they will get used to it.

He thought it was a great game and continued to jump out and wrap himself around my legs. At one point I put him in and he thought it would be fun if he lay down in the box (it was new and had fresh gravel in it) and try to sleep.

Silly kitty.

I decided to leave him be and gave him a bit more food. He ate it and about an hour later I nudged him towards the box and he jumped in and peed. Success!

He's still not enamoured with the new box though, I think we might have to get him one that's a bit bigger. He's such a picky little guy...

The important thing is that he's healthy again! :)

On a side note, it now seems that Bloglines is behaving itself again...I thought something was a bit odd when it said I had 94 posts to read. :P

Fun in Batavia (part 2)

Josh and I set our alarm and got up at 8:15. We also set it up for a wake-up call (but this one wasn't as jarring as when we were in Italy in September...when a man banged on our door and screamed "GET UP!" in Italian, or at least I think that's what it was). :)

We decided to head to Walmart and Kmart to pick up some things for Deuce. He needed a new litter box and gravel, I won't pepper you with the details as to why, but I think you can all put two and two together...

We arrived at the restaurant about 15 minutes late, oops. Though in reality it was great timing, Nic, Tim and her mom put our names in for a table when they arrived and when we got there, we were all seated. Bonus!

The food was amazing, anytime I can have chocolate chip pancakes is a GOOD day. Josh had the peanut butter pancakes which just looked too sinful for words...

Anyways, we sat for a while talked about adoption stuff, family stuff, etc. and just enjoyed each other's company. It was great! I'm so glad that we got the chance to spend time with them and her mom. Hopefully we can do meet up with her again.

After breakfast we said our goodbyes (boo), and talked about them coming up next time to T.O. Hopefully they'll be in our neck of the woods in the next few weeks. :)

I wasn't quite finished shopping, I went into Chico's and did a bit more shopping. I ended up getting a red suede-y type material long-sleeved blouse which is just nummy to wear. Since I was already hopelessly over my limit for shopping I walked out of the store with the shirt in my hands and I sent Josh to rip up the bill and toss it in the garbage while I shoved the blouse in the suitcase. My suitcase was so full that I had to shove it in with my finger, just sort of poking it and hoping it would close after that. :P

We got on the road and the trip which should normally take us 2 hours, ended up taking us almost 4. The border was crazy, we were only stuck for about 45 minutes, but the route to go into the states was backed up to the exit at Stanley Avenue. If you've travelled that route before, you would understand how incredibly congested it was. We were also stuck on the QEW for almost an hour . Apparently there was an accident further up (I don't think it was serious, thankfully) but I was tempted to get out of the car and stretch my legs.

We finally got home around 4:00 or so, Josh collapsed into bed and I did two loads of laundry. Woo.

We went to pick Deuce up later in the evening and he seemed to be fine. When we got him home he dove into his food and just purred and cooed; happy to be home.

Fun in Batavia (part 1)

Josh and I got up at 4:00 Saturday morning, had breakfast and got ready to head into Buffalo. We left the apartment at 6:00am and got on the road.

It was unbelievably foggy at that time of the morning, so much so that we literally couldn't see anything in front of us...at times we couldn't even see the road. To say that it was scary would be an understatement.

We got to the border and were stuck in traffic for a solid hour which wasn't terribly bad. Originally I had wanted to leave the apartment earlier so that we'd have less traffic to face, but anyways it was still do-able.

We then headed into Buffalo so I could do some shopping at the Galleria Mall. My favourite store, which doesn't exist in Canada Bath and Body Works was having an awesome sale, 5 bottles of hand soap for $10.00 (normally they sell 3 for $10.00), so I got 10 bottles. Not to mention a couple other goodies. :P

We left the mall around 11:00, headed over to Applebee's, had lunch and then made our way into Batavia to meet up with Nic, Tim and her mom.

We got in around 1:00 or so, relaxed for a while at the Holiday Inn (Josh really needed it). I was really surprised how nice the hotel was and it turned out that we got a HUGE room.

We went over to Nic and Tim's around 3:00 or 3:30 and I met her mom (she's an absolute hoot to be around)!

We were greeted by their menagerie of animals. I'm absolutely in love with their cat Miss Sin (one of their four cats), she's a sweet little torti who sat on my lap and just kept purring (which only made me miss Deuce more). Ginger and Gus (their black labs) were busily chewing on bones, but when Ginger was finished she came bounding over to us and kept sniffing at us. She's a sweetie too, but perhaps a titch overly friendly, unless you like dogs that crotch sniff (don't ask). ;)

I also got to meet their bearded dragons, Carmela, Tony and Meadow (I love the names for her pets), their rat Howard Stern, and their hedgehogs who I kind of lost track of. Not to mention the prairie dogs too.

We ended up heading into Rochester to a neat store called Parkleigh that sold anything and everything that you could ever want to buy. There were a few things, but I held off, since I was already over my limit for what I can officially bring back with me. Not that I always claim everything anyways...but you didn't hear that from me. :)

After we went to Parkleigh, we headed into a mall called Eastview to kill some time and I got a pair of shoes. Then we met up with Tim's colleague and his girlfriend for dinner.

We were supposed to head over to Dinosaur's for dinner, but by the time we got there at 7:00pm, there was already an hour and a half long wait for a table. We pretty much all decided to leave and head to a place for sushi (whose name escapes me). We got there around 7:30ish, put our names down for a table and sat outside the restaurant and had some drinks.

We eventually got a table, put in our orders and pretty much waited to die while the food was prepared. It was just a titch on the slow side, but when the food came it was SO good. I had tempura salmon that was covered in BBQ sauce from Dinosaur's (table 1 ordering a side of irony...table 1...). While it might sound gross, the flavours just melded together really nicely. I also ordered another sushi roll and some miso soup and Josh had two different rolls and some miso soup as well. He had one sake beer, I had one and a plum beer. Nummy. Diet? What diet?

Hey Nic, did you ever figure out if it was J in the boat? :P

Everyone really enjoyed the meal, but when the bill came I was a bit taken aback. The bill for the food came to about $35 or so, but with the alcohol it was another $10 for each sake beer. We had no idea, and I wasn't terribly amused by that, but oh well...live and learn. :P

Nic then drove us back to their place so we could pick up our car, we said our goodbyes and settled on a time for breakfast in the morning...

The eagle has landed!

I called this morning for an update on Deuce and still no diarrhoea (yay), but no action either.

I called again around 4:00 this afternoon and success! The eagle has landed, he had a normal poop (yes you need to know that), I got more details on it, but I don't think you really want to hear about it in depth.

We decided to go to the clinic and ended up spending half an hour with him. He was in a large cage which is placed in an area where the vets and techs can keep an eye on him, and he has enough room where he can move around and stretch, so that's a bonus.

When we went to see him, I opened the cage door and he came trotting over. I picked him up and he started cooing and purring and I just wanted to scoop him up and run for it. He kept rubbing his head against my arms and hands, but he didn't give me a kiss this time. I think he was really happy, or at least what I perceive as really happy, to see us.

All the techs crowded around and said "what a handsome boy he is!" and Josh jokingly said "oh thank you, and what about the cat?"...but none of them got it. :P

Thank you everyone for your concern and well wishes for our little furbaby. It looks like he's well on his way to a full recovery. :)

Poor kitty (part trois) - Get me outta here!

I wish I had one of these so I could look in and see how Deuce is really doing...

Anyways, I called the clinic this morning at 7:30 for an update on Deuce and I was told by one of the techs that he had thrown up some bile this morning. Yum.

I called again around 10:30 to try to talk to one of the doctors and I was told they were all busy dealing with patients (umm, what is Deuce then?) I asked the tech why he threw up bile and she said 'oh I didn't know that he did'. That doesn't exactly instill a great deal of confidence...

I called yet again around 11:30 and was told that the doctor was in a meeting with the administrator but I could talk to her if I called back at noon.

Long story short, I called back at noon and spoke to the doctor, she said that him throwing up bile isn't a big deal (yeah sure, everyone should do it, I hear it's all the rage...) and that his body is just trying to get rid of whatever bug(s) he has. She also mentioned that he has an inflammation of the digestive tract. He's eating and drinking and being playful, but he hasn't pooped. Go figure, we take him in because he was having persistent diarrhoea and now he's constipated (or empty). The doctor told me to call back around 4:30pm when his doctor would be in so I could get a detailed report from her.

I called, yet again, around 4:30 and she agreed with the other doctor that he was throwing up is a good thing. I told her that we were coming in later to visit with Deuce and that we wanted to speak with her in person.

We went downstairs and saw Deuce in a big cage (we asked for the largest cage that they have since he's a big kitty and likes his space). We went over to his cage, I opened the door and he popped out and had a look on his face like "GET ME OUTTA HERE! I WANNA GO HOME!" He sat on my lap for a few minutes, purred and licked my fingers. He seems to be his normal self, but he was a little frightened. Wouldn't you be if you were in strange surroundings without the comforts of home? *sigh*

We talked to the vet again, while Deuce was on my lap, and she said that they can't find anything wrong with him. Her best educated guess is that he had a very large furball that he couldn't get rid of. He was probably trying to pass it out the wrong end, he couldn't and that's what caused his stomach to be upset. She might be right about that because he DID have a large furball, larger than normal, on Tuesday afternoon while he was at home. They're going to continue the medication he's on and hopefully we'll be bringing him home on Sunday.

While we wanted to take him home with us right then and there, we decided that the best place for him is in the hospital. We want to make sure that he doesn't have a repeat of his diarrhoea. Assuming that the doctor is correct, he should be fine.

When I went to put him back in his cage, he put all his feet out, trying to prevent me from putting him back in. It broke my heart to leave him there, but I know it's for the best. I'm going to go visit him tomorrow morning and then Josh and I are going to visit again tomorrow night.

Problems with Bloglines - Catch 22

Well, I've been getting really frustrated with Bloglines lately and apparently, or so I read on Johnny's blog, if you delete the feed and re-add it, Bloglines will work properly again. Apparently it was a problem with Bloglines recognizing the feed for people who have updated to the new version of Blogger.

So I'm going to test the theory and remove everyone from my Bloglines account and add them back in. It *should* work.

I think a fair number of people are just looking at my blog through Bloglines and since it doesn't show as an 'update' there, they aren't coming in manually. So I've gone from a daily hit amount of about 50-75+ to 20ish.

Not that this is going to help you much if you read it on Bloglines, because you won't know this is a new post... :P

Poor kitty (part deux) - pooperific

Don't read this if poop stories gross you out. :P

I was up pretty much all night taking care of Deuce. The diarrhoea was persisting so I called up the clinic at 3:30 this morning to ask for advice. Of course their advice was to monitor him overnight and then call in the morning if he still wasn't better.

He kept running in and out of his box, sometimes doing something, other times just going in and out. Whether he did anything or not, he was continuously vocal. Yes, I know he's a cat, and cats meow, but this just wasn't like him. I ended up calling the clinic and got an appointment for 1:20pm.

Josh picked me up and he took us to the clinic. Since it was his lunch hour, he couldn't stay there and wait for the appointment.

The doctor took us early, and this was the same doctor from Sunday (not the idiot, or rather the one I now refer to as the idiot). The doctor who discharged him on Monday said that he was healthy and good to go home because he had a solid stool. The doctor today said that she looked through the file and there was no evidence that he even had a bowel movement while he was in. I told her to look into this and get me an answer as to why the other vet lied (though I didn't say that the vet lied...but I should have). I told her that we never would have taken Deuce home on Monday had we known this and argued with her over her bill. She waived today's consultation fee. We're still looking at another $350+, not that money is the key motivator, but still...every bit helps.

She took Deuce downstairs to examine him, and I asked her to clean him up a little (I'll spare you the details, yet again).

She came back up, said that she felt his stomach and he doesn't feel blocked and he's not sore, which is a good thing. She asked me if he was still having gas, and I felt like saying "He has more gas than a truck driver at a bean festival", but instead just said "yes". She is going to put him on yet another medication, which is stronger and is a more directed medication for bowel and stomach upset. They may have to do another stool sample and send it out. The vet also said that if Deuce continues having diarrhoea, they may have to tape his tail. Poor thing.

The one good thing is that every time he had diarrhoea, I would take the syringe, fill it up with water and squirt it in his mouth, so he didn't get dehydrated. That would have set off a whole other set of problems for him.

The interesting thing about his previous medication was that the side effects were diarrhoea. So was he getting diarrhoea because he was sick or was it continuing because of the medication?

She said that the dosage was so low that it wouldn't have been the medication, but she still can't figure out what caused this. I decided to leave him there until Sunday, since we were going to board him anyways because we're going to spend the weekend with Nic and Tim.

I felt like such an idiot, signing the admission slips and sobbing.

Anyways, after all this, I went home to have lunch, since I hadn't eaten since last night. It's not exactly conducive to a healthy appetite when you're constantly cleaning the litter box, tackling the cat to give him medication and squirting water in his mouth with a syringe...and not to mention cleaning him up.

Once I got home from work, I called for an update on him. I was told that he's bright, resting comfortably with his paws folded under his body, he ate, but didn't have a bowel movement. Deuce is probably confused as to why he's there. I feel SO bad.

*sigh*

What the...?

So I was looking at Dolores and Shawn's blog and read about the upside down tree and I had to write about it as well. How bizarre!?

How does the tree not tip over? What's the purpose of this configuration?

Now this question is coming from a Jewish perspective, since I've had no first-hand exposure to tree-trimming, etc...

Wouldn't it be anti-climactic to put an angel up on the flat part of the tree?

Thoughts?

...and the cat came back

Deuce is home!

We picked him up this evening and he's improved a lot. He's on two kinds of medication, one is Famotidine, or more commonly known as Pepcid (yes the same Pepcid as you see in the commercials). The other medication is Tylosin, which is basically an antibiotic.

We spoke to the doctor and he told us that he's not sure what made Deuce sick. Yes, we spent over $350 to find out that they don't know what it was. He said that if it was the food or the vaccines that he would have reacted within a day or two. He got sick almost a week after both were done. It could be just "one of those things". Hopefully he doesn't have a repeat of any symptoms.

When we brought him home, he literally ran out of his cage and over to his food bowl. I think he was upset because there wasn't any food IN it. He sat patiently and mewed until I went to the kitchen and gave him some. He seems to be back to normal, YAY!

We officially cancelled his dentistry appointment for Friday (the vet took his mystical magical eraser and wiped Deuce's name off the schedule). We had told the vet he saw on Sunday morning that she should cancel the appointment for us. It must have taken a lot out of her to do it, because it still wasn't done when we picked him up.

We're still dropping Deuce off on Friday evening for boarding for the weekend. We're heading into Buffalo on Saturday morning to spend the day with Nicole and Tim. I can't wait!

Poor kitty

My poor kitty, Deuce, is sick again. Yesterday he had a little bout of diarrhoea and vomitting (yes, you really needed to know this) so I had Josh call the vet clinic and see what we should do. They told us to monitor him overnight and if he was still sick in the morning to call back and they would TELL us if he needed to come in or not.

This morning I woke up to the lovely sounds of a cat crying and puking, I lept out of bed, called the vet and said "We're bringing in our cat...NOW." We cleaned up the apartment, I'll spare you THOSE details, got into the car and headed to the vet. We're lucky, the vet clinic is only a two minute drive from where we live.

We got there, they took him right away, and he let them examine him. He must have really not been feeling well if he let them touch him. They felt his belly and thankfully it's not distended, and his bladder isn't either.

Right now they aren't sure if this is all a reaction from the food change, a latent reaction to his vaccines, or a combination of both since they happened the same day, or something else. We're hoping, obviously, that it's just a food reaction.

They said we could take him home and watch him during the day today and tomorrow, but I felt it was safer for him if he stayed at the clinic. I would rather him be at the clinic in case he needed attention, than having to pack him up and take him back.

They're treating him with a course of injectible medication to settle his stomach and they're going to monitor him during the day and then start to feed him this evening. Hopefully, if he keeps everything down and his stomach settles, we can pick him up tomorrow.

Needless to say, we cancelled his dental surgery for Friday.

Poor kitty.

The Mayor told me to!

Toronto Public Health has started a new campaign to ward off the spread of the flu. The ad to the left is their 'brilliant' solution. For all the parents out there whose children wipe their noses or sneeze on their sleeves, expect the response when you tell them not to "But Mom, Mayor Miller told me to!" There's just a whole level of YEECH about the whole thing.

You know you're unpopular when...

your cat gets mail and you don't. That's right, Deuce got mail today. It was a reminder that he was due for his vaccines. I think they got their lines crossed since he was in last weekend for them, but oh well.

On a side note, is anyone have any problems with Bloglines? For some reason it doesn't refresh the way it should when blogs are updated. As a test I went to Heather's site manually and there was a new post, but when I went through Bloglines, it hadn't been updated. Weird. I noticed the same with a few others as well.

Happy (*$&#(@* Holidays! ***Updated***

Ok, now before anyone gets upset that this is going to be an anti-holiday post, have no fear. It kind of is.

I wanted to add a little ticker at the top of the site to countdown the days until Channukah. Of course, no site that I've come across yet, has anything remotely festive aside from Christmas. One site only celebrated three holidays: Christmas, Thanksgiving and Hallowe'en. I'm not saying that this was any better, but at least it had a few options, not great ones, but options. I figured that with tickerfactory, I could at least find *one* ticker with a candle on it, to represent the miracle of Channukah, but nope not a one...they don't even have a candle in their 'birthday' category, how odd is that?

I guess the problem I have with the holidays isn't so much "Christmas this" and "Christmas that", it's this whole notion of not offending anyone. When did it become a BAD thing to wish someone "Merry Christmas"? There are people who know that I'm Jewish and they still wish me a Merry Christmas. Am I offended by it? No. Do I correct them and say 'well actually I celebrate Channukah'? Sometimes. But I know that the sentiment is there and their heart is in the right place.

Now last night I was channel surfing and came across The Shopping Channel and they were doing an hour devoted to "holiday trees". I'm sorry guys, but the only holiday I know of that has *anything* to do at all with trees is Christmas. We don't sit around and put presents under the Channukah bush. Why were they so afraid to say "this hour is devoted to Christmas"?

This evening I was channel surfing again (ok, so I watch The Shopping Channel, so sue me) and they were talking about jewellery and how crosses aren't just for Christians anymore and they're a 'fashion symbol'. Huh?! Since when? I know they want to sell their product, but come on guys, don't treat the buying public like morons.

***Ok, just so you don't think I'm sitting here typing this with "Diamonelle" rings on my fingers and toes...I do *watch* The Shopping Channel every now and then, but more than anything, I mock it more than I actually sit down and *watch* it. The only thing I've ever bought on there was an el-cheapo scrapbooking kit. I figured how can anyone go wrong with a 3000 piece scrapbooking kit for $30? One of these days I might actually open it up and use it...

Last night when I was watching their jewellery show, a guy was talking about how great their Diamonelle jewellery is that he took out a loupe and was impressed. Umm a loupe with Diamonelle...right. It cracks Josh and I up when we watch the show and how they try to make even the crappiest, most useless items into something grand.***

The HONK strikes back...

Or rather, I did. After feeling really nasty about gorging myself on chocolate cake last night, I was proactive and went back to the gym today. Granted, I didn't gain anything from the HONK, but I wasn't feeling great about what I did. Now don't get me wrong, I didn't sit down and eat the whole thing, nor did I go face first into it without using a fork, but I had more than I should have.

Anyways, usually I try to go to the gym every other day, but I felt the need to go back. I did just over four miles on the treadmill, so that was a full hour and I burned off 370 calories.

Please remind me not to eat that much again...

(And no, Heather I didn't do my exercise in my housecoat. But if I had a treadmill at home, that might be a different story.) ;)

My husband the cat...

That's right, you heard me. My husband is a cat! Let me backtrack a bit...

Earlier in the week I wrote about this. Anyways, we made the appointment for Deuce to have his teeth cleaned on Friday the 24th. We decided that after his dental 'surgery', though I'm hoping it will just be a basic cleaning and he won't need any extractions, that we were going to board him for the weekend and pick him up on Sunday. *IF* the weather is good, we're planning on heading down and visiting with Nic and Tim, to spend some quality turkey time with them; but it's all weather dependent right now. If they get a whack of snow, then our trip is pretty much off. Grrr. This is the one thing I hate about being in a snowbelt...

Anyways, I digress.

The clinic that we take Deuce to, has one dedicated person that handles boarding appointments. When we were in on Sunday we couldn't make the boarding appointment for Deuce, we had to call back when this magical, mystical person (or MMP for short) was there so she could write Deuce's name in her handy-dandy notebook. Even though the appointment book was sitting on the desk, nobody else is allowed to touch it. I guess she'll put a pox on them or something.

So Tuesday afternoon I called up to talk to this person and I was put on hold for a good 5-10 minutes. So I waited...and waited...and waited some more.

MMP: Hi, I understand that you want to board your cat.

ME: Yes.

MMP: Ok, what dates are you looking at?

ME: Well he's having dental cleaning and possible surgery on Friday, so we're bringing him in on Thursday night for his procedure. We'll pick him up on Sunday.

MMP: Why would you board your cat after surgery?

*stunned silence thinking to myself, "Lady, are you judging me because I'm going to board MY cat?"*--but instead I said

ME: Well my husband and I are going out of town and just thought it would be easier if we board him and he's looked after there.

MMP: Ok, what food is Josh currently eating?

*more stunned silence, but I felt like saying "here's his number, you can ask him..."

ME: Umm, Josh is my husband...Deuce is my cat.

*sounds of shuffling paper and clearing her voice*

MMP: Oh yes, right, there it is...he's booked in.

I didn't have the heart to ask if she meant Josh or Deuce...

I think my head is still shaking over that exchange...how can people be *that* dumb?

Which reminds me of another story:

Years ago when I worked at this clinic, my husband (boyfriend at the time though) was picking me up after work. He walked in, went up to the desk and said "I'm here to pick Rhonda up."

The woman behind the counter started typing on her computer and said "I don't have a Rhonda here."

Josh turned to her and said "TWO legs, not FOUR..."

HONK!

I went to the gym again today, did an hour on the treadmill (4 miles) and burned off 365 calories. Once I get to about the 35-40 minute range on the treadmill, I guess that's when the adrenaline kicks in because I can't feel my legs at that point. When I get to the end though, I feel like I want to do more. The good thing though is that my back is hurting a lot less now, so I can probably get back into using the other machines soon, but I'll give it a bit more time.

Then, because I did so well at the gym, I went home, had dinner and a big freaking honk of cake. No, not a hunk of cake; when it's that big it's a HONK.

2 month LIDaversary!

Today is our 2 month LIDaversary and we decided to celebrate it with a bang...or a cake as the case may be. We wanted to celebrate the fact that we've been logged in since we didn't get to celebrate the first month. We decided to go with a "maple" theme and sort of went to town with it...

Josh and I went to Southbrook Farm on the weekend and saw these napkins and plates. Since they had maple leaves on them, I HAD to get them! Aren't they cute? By the way, if you're ever in the Richmond Hill area, the farm is absolutely wonderful. Not only do they have great veggies, but they make amazing wines as well!

Well the plates were settled upon, now we needed something to put ON them...

We went to a local kosher bakery in the 'hood and drooled on their counter while looking at their stock. We settled on this cake and then decided we had to decorate it a bit more...

While we were at the farm, we found chocolate leaves filled with maple and put some on the cake. Then we went to the grocery store and got the #2 candle.

The cake was beyond amazing...did we go overboard? :P

Has toilet training gone too far...?

All I can say is... wow. If the link doesn't open immediately, just click on 'Download Video file'.

I don't think I've ever laughed so hard...enjoy!

Hit me baby one more time...***Updated***

Yes, feel free to mock me in the comment section for using a B.S. song title as the title to the post, but...

At some point between tonight and tomorrow, I'll have had my 4000th hit to the blog. At all the other 'milestones' Connie's been the one to hit it. Since she's on vacation someone else *has* to get it, right? :P

I'll let you know tomorrow who's the one that nailed #4000. ;)

***Well, it wasn't Connie that hit #4000! I *think* it was Doris, it was someone who logged in from work, but since I obviously don't want to say where the hit came from I won't announce it. ;) But the hit came in just before 9:00am this morning...***

14 pound killer...

We had to take Deuce into the vet today for his vaccinations. He was actually due for them about a month or so ago, but since he was sick at that time with his UTI, we held off.

Since he was so great at the vet last time, granted he was there for over a week, we decided to take him there without his Valium (which was a first). Surprisingly he didn't attack, maim, or kill any of the technicians! He didn't even let out a hiss or growl until they brought him back up. But wouldn't YOU be in a pissy mood if someone just shot a needle into your butt?

While they were examining him, I asked the vet to take a good look at his teeth. You see, prior to this visit they really haven't had a good chance to examine him. Even when he was on the Valium he was a psycho kitty. Anyways, they took a look at his teeth and unfortunately he's got a bit of tartar build-up and there's one 'suspect' tooth.

Long story short, he's going in to the vet on the 23rd, stay overnight, and then have dental surgery on the 24th. I just hope they don't have to extract the 'suspect' tooth.

We also talked to the vet about the food he's eating. He *LOVES* his canned food (Medi-Cal Preventative), but he hates the kibble and will eat around it. Anyways, the vet suggested a different food which helps with tartar control. We picked up a bag, took it home and Deuce dove into it!

We went out for a couple hours to run some errands and, wouldn't you know it, when we got back Deuce decided he didn't like the food anymore and decided to throw up all over our bedroom floor. Thank goodness for hardwood floors!

We're assuming he only did that because he was stressed out and he won't do that later when he has more...

Poor kitty. :(

Eek!

I've been tagged by Nicole and Heather, and if you're reading this so are you...

1) What side of the heart do you draw first?
The right.
2) Can you dive without plugging your nose?
Nope.
3) What color is your razor?
Blue and white.
4) What is your blood-type?
Red.
5) Who would you want to be tied to for 24 hours?
My husband or Hugh Laurie...or both, but that's a story for another day.
6) What is a rumor someone has spread about you?
I don't remember.
7) How do you feel about carrots?
We have a love/hate relationship.
8) How many chairs at the dining room table?
Six
9) Which is the best spice girl?
Can I throw up first and then answer?
10) Do you know what time it is?
Does anybody really know what time it is? (I hope at least one person gets that reference...)
11) Do you know all the words to the Fresh Prince song?
Sadly, yes.
12) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator?
Order a pizza...and cash in on the 30 minutes or it's free guarantee.
13) What's your favorite kind of gum?
Juicy Fruit, but it never lasts that long.
14)T or F: All's fair in love and war.
False.
15) Do you have a crush on anyone?
See question #5
16) Do you know how to use some words correctly, but not know the meaning?
Buh?
17) Do you like to sleep?
Zzzzzz
18) Do you know which US states don't use Daylight Savings?
Yes, but I'm not telling you.
19) Do you know the song Total Eclipse of the Heart?
Yes and I *loved* that video
20) Do you want a bright yellow '06 mustang?
First I'd have to get my license...yes, that's right, I don't have my license. Wanna make something of it? :P
21) What's something you've always wanted?
Besides the obvious?
22) Do you have hairy legs?
Nope.

Because I'm anal and nobody made a question #23, I'll add one.
23) How much is that puppy in the window?
$1.95
24) Would you rather swim in the ocean or a lake?
Would I have to plug my nose first?
25) Do you wear a lot of black?
Nope, I don't look good in black.
26) Describe your hair.
Brown, midway between my ears and my shoulders and blah.
27) Do you have Entomophobia?
Yes and arachnaphobia to boot...pretty much a fear of anything that doesn't look cute.
28) Are you an adult?
According to some, yes.
29) Where is/are your best friends?
Not here.
30) Do you have a tan?
Nope, I'm about as pale as an albino.
31) Are you a television addict?
Only for a few shows...House (see question #5 and #15), Desperate Housewives, and Grey's Anatomy.
32) Do you enjoy spending time with your mother?
Absolutely.
33) Are you a sugar freak?
Hell yeah.
34) Do you like orange juice?
Yes, but only the pulp-free kind. I don't enjoy chewing my liquids.
35) What sign are you?
For rent.
36) What color is your Cell Phone?
Silver
37) Where do you wish you were right now?
In China holding our daughter...or is that too obvious?

Please leave a comment so I know that you've added this to your blog and I can read, err spy, your answers. :)

Lest We Forget

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Exercise and some food...for thought

I finally picked my poor, aching body up and headed back to the gym this morning. I've taken the last two weeks off because of my sore back/side. It's still fairly on the achy side, so the game plan was to take it 'easy'. I met my SIL at the gym so we could work out together. It's always more fun when you have someone with you, so we're planning on making this a Friday 'ritual'.

Since my back was still bothering me, I decided I would only do the treadmill. The thought of lifting any weights or doing any of the machines made me pre-cringe.

I figured that since I was 'only' going to do the treadmill, I would increase the time from 30 minutes to 45 minutes. So I was doing a quick walk (the speed was ranging from 3.7 to 4.1 miles per hour) and the time was getting towards the 45 minute mark and thought 'well this isn't too bad', and I kept increasing it by a minute here and a minute there. Before I knew it, I did an hour and walked 3.49 miles and burned off 348 calories...and here I was saying I was going to 'take it easy'. Yeah, right.

By the end of the treadmill exercise I was feeling good, probably too good. I actually couldn't feel my legs, I was on an adrenaline high and felt that I could do another hour no problem. (I didn't.)

After finishing up and getting changed, we decided to go out for coffee and some girl talk. While we live fairly close to one another, we rarely have (or set aside) any time to just hang out and talk. It was really nice, we talked about a bunch of things, but mostly we talked about the adoption. It's nice to talk about it and get a lot of positive feedback/comments about it one-on-one. While I talk about it a fair bit with my family, I hold back sometimes since I feel like I kind of overwhelm them with all the short forms (DTC, LID, etc). Though I don't talk to my brother about it much (hi ugly), I know that he takes his own interest in the adoption because he's told me that he reads my blog every night when he goes into work.

While I know a lot of you don't like your families knowing about, or reading, your blogs, it makes me feel good to know that he's taking an active interest in the daily goings-on about it. :)

Now for something completely different...

I'm fairly sure that Americans don't go in for the whole poppy thing for Remembrance Day/Veterans Day but there's a bit of a controversy brewing in Canada. Every November 11, and the days leading up to it, Canadians are encouraged to wear a red poppy to remember the war dead and veterans from the various wars.

Apparently there's a group in Alberta that's distributing white poppies to remember the victims of wars instead. While it's a nice thought to wear the white poppies, personally I prefer the red ones. There's much more history and recognition to wearing the red poppies than the white ones.

For any of the Canadians reading this, remember the old red poppies with the green centres? I miss those. Why do they always have to go change a good thing?

Any thoughts?

Another one bites the dust...

Well it seems now that the Democrats now run the House AND the Senate, John Bolton may be the next one to fall on the chopping block. How awesome is that?!

I was never a fan of Bolton, and yes this is coming from a Canadian with a strong interest in (though, admittedly, not a full understanding of) American politics, so I don't think I'll sniffle at his political demise. In fact, I may end up doing a little happy dance. :)

On a side note, for those of you that were following my post about this, I can say that after our first full week of adding to the jar, it's sitting at a healthy total of $61. Granted, it's not a king's ransom, but it's a nice little total after a week. I figure if we can keep doing this, plus adding X to our bank account each month, we'll be in really good shape once we get our referral. :)

Well, THIS is depressing

I just saw the news and Ed Bradley died today from Leukemia. I didn't even know he was sick. *sigh*

He was arguably the best correspondent/reporter on 60 minutes, IMHO. This year marked his 25th on 60 Minutes, not a bad accomplishment, too bad he couldn't have seen it through.

Salute THIS...

Poor Rummy, he got kicked to the curb today after the severe thumping that the Republicans got last night. Amen.

To paraphrase him, you don't go to war with the Secretary of Defense that you want, you go to war with the Secretary of Defense that you have. :)

Aww, poor Britney and Kevin

Nobody saw THIS coming...

Apparently, all is lost for Britney Spears and Kevin Federline. Let's all take a moment, bow our heads and weep. (Yeah, right.)

She filed for divorce from him today citing 'irreconcilable differences'. Let's analyze this for a moment...

He left his pregnant girlfriend, Shar Jackson, to be with Britney. Then Britney and Kevin got married because she asked him. (He turned her down initially, then I guess he realized what a great meal ticket she was, turned around and asked her and she said yes.) Then they had a couple kids together, but all during their married life, he was running around and acting like he wasn't married. Recently Britney was asked how she felt about her husband's "clubbing" and she said that she was fine with it.

Apparently she wasn't.

The only ones I feel sorry for are those two boys; they obviously have idiots for parents.

Well...are you?

I'm glad that the CCAA didn't ask this during the paperchase. Yet another fun quiz to while away some time with, have fun, and if you want post your progress below. :)

Welcome home Rose and Marie!

Oh yeah, and Rod and Mary-Mia too.

It was SO nice to change the wording next to their blog on my sidebar from their LID to HOME! :)

Funky searches...

Click on the numbers to see what the search terms were...

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Yet another weird search

I just looked through statcounter again and found that someone did a funky search and landed on my page...

So in honour of all the funky searches that are going on, I'm going to post a little addition to my sidebar under the "Bloggy Fun" heading. I'll probably be adding to this nearly daily as some of them really amuse me. Enjoy yourselves as you read through people's odd...interests. The three listed in the following post, I've already mentioned before...

Shopping fun!

This afternoon my mom, her friend and I went to Mikasa for their semi-annual warehouse sale. They had great stuff in stock and at a savings of up to 80% off, you can't beat that...

The place was absolutely crazy! I don't think I've ever seen so many estrogen-driven women in one place at one time throwing, yes throwing, items in their carts. The gentle sound of the occasional item crashing on the floor and the collective gasp of those standing around, was amusing...but then again, I have a sick sense of humour. ;)

Short, sweet and to the point...

Yesterday the CCAA website was updated to reveal the new referral batch that goes to August 25. Today it was updated again! All of January 2006 is now out of the Review Room!

Well, it finally happened...

I've allowed myself to get excited about the adoption. I mean, really, truly excited. Even though we're ages away from it becoming a reality, I know it's going to happen. Let me backtrack a little...

Josh and I were talking this morning about how we wanted to start setting some money aside for when we eventually travel. We agreed that we'd put X amount into a bank account every week from now until we get our referral. This way, we'll have our donation money and travel money already set aside.

We also agreed that whenever we get a loonie or a twonie/toonie in our change, we'd put it in a jar. We used to do this ages ago to save up money for various things. Well anyways, we haven't used the jar in ages and I never noticed what it says on the jar before. "Daddy's penny jar". How weird/ironic that we started talking about this today and that that's what the jar says?!

When I was out and about on the weekend I went to Michael's to look for maple leaf stickers. I figure if we're going with Little Maple for the blog's name, I may as well get kitchy little stickers to go with the theme. ;)

So I adorned the jar and added our first contributions to the jar this evening.

Ahhh, I'm in a happy place.

Strange and Wonderful!

I've been flitting around with Statcounter and I've found that people trip over my blog using the most bizarre search terms (ok, the second one really isn't THAT bizarre), like:

this
or this
or this.

Some people even find my blog by just typing in "Rhonda Maple" into google..and these are people who I don't know and who were looking for other things besides my blog but decided to pay me a visit anyways.

Don't even get me started on the odd searches that came about when I used the word 'anal' in one of my blog titles...

So it seems that referrals are finally on their way tomorrow. Congrats to all the new parents!

I added a small thing to the blog yesterday (with someone's MUCH needed help). If you look at the URL for the page, you'll notice a little maple leaf icon next to it! While I doubt that anyone would notice it without me pointing it out, I just thought it looked cute. :)