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If you've wondered why I haven't posted, it's because I just returned from a week long business trip to Toronto and there was barely any time to even get on to my personal computer. Every morning someone would pick me up at the hotel and take me to to office and at the end of the day we'd go out for a group dinner and then someone would drop me off at the hotel, I'd make a quick phone call home and then I'd go to bed and  start the cycle all over again the next day.

This was actually a bit of a rough trip. I didn't really want to go and did not have a very good flight over. Then my hotel wasn't so great either and even had to change rooms. The next day they booked me into a different hotel and things went better but still I didn't want to be away from jP or my sweet little Eco, and I knew that more and more work was piling up all week with me being gone.

However on my last night (last night) they took me on a bit of a tour of the Distillery District(if you like history check out this place)  - with drinks at the the Mill Street Brew Pub (I recommend trying the organic beer and actually the coffee beer would be very nice at the right time and in the right place) , we drove through the Financial District and Chinatown and saw where Breakfast Television is filmed and MuchMusic, and a several other areas. We also drove through Harbourfront and Liberty Village where we had settled for dinner at Mildred's Temple Kitchen. The food there was exquisite but the best part was the cookie box at the end of the meal - you get a very yummy peanut butter cookie, a delicious chocolate chip cookie and a scrumptious date bar.

Well now it's all over and I'm back home and everything turns to normal, right? Now I'm adjusting to the time zone and will be getting some sleep.

What can you do?

So a couple of weeks ago I went for some testing at the hospital. Even though I had an appointment, I sat for 40 minutes - just when I went to ask if I had been missed or forgotten the technician came to get me, they had had some unavoidable delays. It wasn't a great start to the day but I'm understand things often don't go as one hopes.

I was told I'd get the results in 5 days. Two weeks later and the specialist still doesn't have my results, so I (yes me, not the doctor's receptionist) decided I'd call my family doctor to see if the results were sent to him. Yup, sure enough, they had them in their file. I called the specialist's office to tell her where the results were. A week and a half of unnecessary waiting.

So today I go to the specialist and I'm told that the wrong area was tested, and didn't get enough of a sample and so we'll have to do it again. Another wasted trip and I still don't have any updates on my health.

But what can you do? You need find out about that thing in your body and that's just the way the medical system works in Canada. I'm grateful we don't have a system like the Americans do (sorry my southern friends)  but our system can be a little exhausting at times. If you don't like all the wasted gas and time, then just don't get sick!!!!

It's starting to feel a lot like fall

It's that time of year when I leave the house for my morning dog walk with reflectors on my coat and a flashing collar/leash for Eco because it's still dark. About 1/2 way through our walk it's light enough, but soon I won't have any light before it's time to go to work, that's when I have to switch the daily walk to later in the day.

In the last couple of days, it's really started to feel like fall, more leaves are being pushed along the streets by winds from the vehicles, and this morning there was a lovely warm breeze that brings the fall smells to my nose.

As much as I love summer and I love the heat, I always have fond memories of autumn dog walks. Although our Fall isn't like the ones we see on TV which depict warmer weather and big fluffy piles of leaves because in the Vancouver climate, this time of year is usually full of lots of rain and the leaf piles end up being flat, black, wet mounds. In fact those leaves can be downright dangerous - cars can lose traction on wet leaf covered roads if they have to come to an urgent stop. And that's how I broke my nose three years ago - slipping on some wet leaves in the bottom of a puddle on some concrete - slippery, slimy stuff.  As a kid I'd want to jump into a pile of leaves because I had seen it on TV, except in our yard, we usually raked up dog poop with the leaves and the pile was never a big dry pile, so I think only once was a able to jump into that leaf pile - and it really wasn't that great of an experience.

What are your favourite memories of autumn? 

Making Puppies

It's been a while since I've posted and it's been a rather quiet summer blogwise, I know. I haven't been feeling too well the past couple of months and didn't really have the energy to get much done. As well, I really didn't think you'd want to hear me drone on like Debby Downer. I'm hopeful that things are picking up now and recently I've started to pick up a project or two as well - which was something I just hadn't been able to do in those months.

Here is a knitted chocolate Labrador from the book Knit Your Own Dog:

I'm not that happy with it, so I'll be making another with different wool. On Ravelry, I found others who made the same pattern but used larger needles and a thicker wool which I'd like to try. I found the knitting was fine, but the sewing up was quite fiddley and that's why I'm not too thrilled with it.

Texas Needs Rain

After having a very wet winter and spring and most of June and July in the Vancouver area - we are finally enjoying continued heat and sun. Yesterday I overheard someone ahead of me leaving a store and being hit by the parking lot heat, say it was 'California Hot'. For most people around here, we're enjoying this glorious weather because we are pretty sure that within a week or so, we'll be back to rain from October until May.

For the poor people in Texas, they only wish for such an event. Read this. It is absolutely unbelievable what they are going through.

Dog Parks are Interesting

This morning Eco and I walked up to the dog park where we met a Portugese Water Dog called Monkey. Poor Monkey had apparently spent a couple of years in the show ring before he was discarded because he wasn't doing well enough and wasn't smart enough, I was told.

Well, wasn't that the truth? This poor guy didn't know how to do anything! Not even sit. And when I tossed him a treat, it hit him in the eye. I encouraged the owner that having a less smart dog might be a good thing - he might be more tolerant of the  young children in the home and probably won't get into too much trouble, but sheesh, poor dog! And Eco didn't really know how to play with him, she's used to being the chaser but this dog didn't do anything. Luckily a guy came along with a border collier /lab cross so Eco had someone to play with for a while.

Dog parks are really interesting places to be.

Next we're off to a family BBQ for our 10 year old niece - which is also a really interesting place to be.  Hope you're having a happy Saturday.

Costco Shopping Adventure

Raise your hand if you've gone into Costco for something very specific and then left, $200 later, and still don't have the item.

(raises hand)

yeah, that's what I though....

A funny thing happened on the way to the dog park...

Yesterday I saw the funniest thing I have ever seen when I was walking the dog and I have been doing that for 20+ years! Eco and I were walking along and there was a cat in a driveway crouching... when it saw us, it puked and then ran away. It may not sound funny to you but if you saw the cat's face, it was a pretty funny event. Unfortunately it was too quick to get out a camera and no one in the world saw it but me!

Today, Eco and I went up to the 'official' dog park - it's a big source of controversy because first they didn't fence the 'designated dog area' saying that only well trained dogs that can recall perfectly should use the park.  When multiple complaints came in about that city council agreed to put up a fence, but they put up a 4' high split rail fence so owners of small dogs don't want to use the area because little dogs can easily go through the rails and owners of bigger dogs don't want to use it because their dogs can easily jump over the rails. Also, there are no gates. In every other community I've ever seen dog parks have at least 4' chain link fencing and many have a special double gate area so one dog can't rush out and leave when another is entering. Clearly our city council are not dog owners or are pretending to care because what they created was a big giant failure and a big waste of money. (stepping off the soapbox now)

Anyway, back to this morning - I walked Eco up to the park hoping for her to get some off leash runningbut when I arrived I saw two people with their dogs already in the park. Eco is excellent with other dogs but has a tendency to jump on people so I walked past the 'fenced' area. Well the two dogs in the dog area saw Eco and blasted past their  owners and through the opening towards Eco. I knew she would be fine, so I unleashed her so she had a fair advantage of defending herself. When the owners approached, I told them why I had walked by and they said they were prepared for jumping and they were fine with it so we walked back into the open 'dog park' area and let them all play. As it turned out, Eco was so excited to play with the other dogs that she didn't even bother the people except for a couple of accidental crashes, but all three dogs were involved with that.  Eco is 2.5 years old weighing 57 pounds. Her playmates were a 6 month old collie/shepherd cross weighing about 80 pounds and a 1 year old bull mastiff who weighed 160 pounds. Eco may have been older but these young dogs had a great time rolling her over and at one point the mastiff even had her pinned. Another time they chased her so fast she ended up doing a 6' skid across the grass on her shoulder!

As soon as I finish my coffee I'll be giving her a bath as she's covered in mastiff drool and grass. Her sweet little pink and brown polkadot collar is more brown and brown at the moment so it'll need a soak too.  Oh the things we do for our sweet companions!

Happy Labour Day everyone, I hope you are having a wonderful sunny day!

Il Volo

Oh I think I am in love with these boys! I am crazy about way  Italian sounds! Isn't it beautiful?




One day I'll learn to speak Italian!