Wake Up and Meet the Puppy

My favorite cat video, I can watch it over and over again:

Sometimes it's a really small world

Remember the other day when I posted about the lady we met on the plane whom we gave a ride to?

Well, today when Jp was at the airport to fly back to Kelowna, he ran into her again! And he met her husband at the Kelowna Airport and they gave us an open invitation to stay at their lake front house in Vernon.

Isn't that a small world? We met her on a plane on Thursday and then he's on the same flight with her on Monday? That's just crazy! Well my mind is blown.

Yarn Yuck

Looking for something to do this wintry Saturday afternoon?

Browse through this blog: Yarn Yuck.

Gratitude continued

Thankfully, we made it home last night. Our plane was only delayed about an hour and a half. This is actually very lucky as there were many passengers who had been sitting around the airport for about 11 hours waiting for flights and many flights had been cancelled. I saw people being sent home and asked to return the next day.

When we arrived in Vancouver it was +3 degrees and so the roads were only wet and not icy at all. We had a safe drive home. I am very grateful.

On the plane I talked with a lady who had been one of the people waiting 11 hours. She was in pretty good spirits. In fact, most of the people I saw where handling it quite well, I don't know if that's because most people are used to snow delays up there, or that Canadians handle these things better, or that the Westjet staff did such a good job at keeping everyone calm and cool. As usual, the Air Canada passengers didn't seem to be fairing as well.

Because of the long delay and the late hour that we were arriving, the lady beside me was going to have to cab it to her sister's house as they could no longer pick her up. So we gave her a ride home, it was on our way as it happened. She was thrilled.

So we arrived safely to our cold, cold house. But luckily all was fine (I was so afraid that a water pipe would have broken while we were gone).

This morning I picked up Eco who had been staying at the Vet's office during the day, and was taken to the vet's home each night. We received regular email updates while we was gone and Eco was very happy to see us. She was perfectly fine (because last time she came back sick, sick, sick)

And so, now life returns as before, but I am very grateful for the quick little get away and that everything went so well.

Gratitude

I'm so glad we put our snow tires on last week before the rush.

And I'm actually happy to hear there is rain in the forecast as our plane is expected to land around 9pm tonight and I don't want to be stuck somewhere.

Keeping my fingers crossed ...

Scarf in Progress

A couple months ago when Cynthia, Carol and I went thrifting and yarn shopping, I splurged and bought this beautiful Noro yarn. I was planning to make something for myself. I perused many patterns and decided that entrelac would be great for this yarn. Entrelac is a way of knitting 'sideways' to create a diamond pattern, almost appearing as if the 'fabric' was woven.

Here is the yarn I chose (the four skeins at the top):

I decided I'd make a scarf. Here is my progress, I am almost finished one skein - which makes me 1/4 of the way complete.

I was loving the colour progression until in the middle of the burgundy it ended and they tied the lime green right next to it. Dang it - I am not happy about that, but I have no idea how the next 3 skeins will go (they might do the same thing) and so I'm just going to keep going and see where it takes me.

My progress from here on will be slow as I'm trying to make a few Christmas items which I need to complete by December 10th - no later for shipping on time.

I Remember

My mother was a little girl in Europe during the Second World War and has many stories of how she and her little brother Jerry would search for Red Cross packages dropped into ditches and fields or stand in food lines to obtain something for the little ones at home to eat; and how her little baby brother Paul was born in the middle of the war and was so weak he could barely raise his little head.

She recalls the horrible sites and sounds of the Nazi's dropping bombs throughout the city, sometimes only a couple of buildings away, and losing playmates or school mates because of it.

She tells of black outs and dark paper on the windows and tracer bullets and German soldiers banging on the door demanding that the women give up their husbands or give up the location of their neighbour's husbands.

My grandfather was injured during the war and had a plate in his head and walked with a limp for the rest of his life.

And my mother recalls the joyous day at the end when the Canadian soldiers marched into the city to declare a better life.

For me, remembering those who sacrificed their lives for our freedom is not so difficult to recall. And I thank every single man, women and child who has personally forfeit their self, or those who have given/lost  a family member so we all can have and live better lives.

Thank you.

I remember.

And I am grateful.

Did somebody say 'latke'?

Yup, that's what is for dinner tonight. Get your fresh hot latkes everyone....

Ultimate Sleep Comfort

So if you're a lab and you're sleepy and there's 

a laundry basket next to your bed, 

wouldn't you do this too?

The Belly of a Grashopper

Ever wonder what the belly of a grasshopper looks like? 

It looks like this:

Why a grasshopper showed up on my house in November is the next mystery I'll have to solve!

(Photographing a tiny object at night was also not easy and by the time I came back with my tripod he was gone)

The Life Span of a Dog Toy

Eco has some favorite dog toys so I decided to re-buy them when they wore out. Here are the befores and afters:

The bottom one is a tube that's supposed to be able to float, but Eco manages to get holes in the plastic float tube fairly quickly - the toy on the bottom has been split in 2 lengthwise. We still play with all the pieces.

Below, is her favourite new toy - Mr. Octopus! Can you believe the squeaker has lasted 3 weeks?! I've never had a dog toy squeaker go for that long. I'm a nice neighour, I take it away at night so I don't drive everyone nuts. To me a dog with a squeaky is the happiest sound in the world (next to a baby laughing) and makes me almost pee my pants (baby laughs don't do that to me though).

And now, somebody say "ACTION!"

Daiso Fun

Yesterday I drove Jp to the Vancouver Airport but as we drove, it became obvious that I was not going to turn around and jump into the long line-ups, if you're familiar with Vancouver then you will understand that I wasn't too eager to be part of this: Hwy 99 backed up from the Oak Street Bridge to the tunnel.

So I hit Yaohan Centre and Daiso (sorry Carol and Cynthia).

The main reason was to get some little lunch boxes/bento boxes for my brother. You see every Wednesday he caters lunch to my sister-in-law and her staff at the office. He's always coming up with some creative ideas including buzzing a loaf of warm bread up the office on his scooter. We thought it would be fun to get some little Japanese lunch boxes, so I picked him up a selection of boxes and bags and other little ornaments, and sauce containers etc. I forgot to take a picture before I wrapped it all up for the post, but perhaps he'll share a finished lunch photo with us.

Here are some of the items I picked up for myself:

I can't speak Japanese and I totally respect people who can speak/read/write more than one language but I very much enjoy the translations on the packages, how about these:
- Useful cute pattern sticker
- Sewing sweet holiday - what shall we make?
- Funny Stamp. What a cute & fun shape. The design of this shape is as bellows. Please it never licks and do not put it in the mouth though ink is harmless.
- This item is an eraser. Pay attention never children put it into the mouth
- Do not put sharp stuff into it,it may cause breakage. If got dirty, hand-wash it with neutral detergents and dry well. Avoid using drying machine. Spread out and dry well in the shade.
- Only use for writing instrument. The dropping or throwing of pen may cause ink leakage. Avoid ink contact with clothing - hard removal and causes of discoloration.

Nothing too hilarious, but still fun, no? 

A Happy Halloween

Well I must say, this was the smoothest, least stressful Halloween in about 10 years. The biggest difference of course was not dealing with a super freaked out noise phobic dog! You have no idea how difficult that is, especially since I'd be dealing with it at least 30 days before Halloween. But that's all in the past now - Eco reacts to the firecrackers but has no fear of them. In fact a couple of times last night we were out in the back yard playing ball as we always do and she continued to play as she always does. Firecrackers continuously went off in every direction last night, but none were too close so I didn't have to worry about my house going up in flames. Whew! Maybe I'm actually start to like Halloween again.

Today is All Saints Day and is to be a solemn day, which it feels like since it's raining hard on a cold, dark Monday  - blah, what a way to start the week. To me, November first means I'd better get cracking if I'm supposed to make Christmas presents!

How about you? How was your Halloween last night? Do you have lots of things you're planning to make for Christmas?