vimy

On this day of remembrance I am recommending a book to read. A book that has humour and war in it’s pages. It is Vimy by Pierre Berton. Jeremy had to twist my arm to read it; I never read non-fiction and military history would be about the last thing I would ever care to read about.

Boy am I glad he was right (in this isolated case).

Between the description of battlegrounds to anecdotes of Canadian civilians turned soldiers you are kept riveted to the real life events surrounding the battle of Vimy Ridge.

Read it for the story of how Canadian soldiers burned down a movie tent because the same movie was shown one to many times or read it for the off the wall battlefield tactics and techniques we used.

Just read it.

halloweird

We spent Halloween with Jeremy's parents. We ate chili on mashed potatoes, drank wine, played Password and watched Abbot and Costello.

For the walk I insisted Tonks wear her Pupperina costume, and I’m glad she did because she got TONS of attention.



First we ran into her best friend Delilah and they had a quick romp. Later we met a dog who the owner told us ‘loved dancers’ and a little chocolate chip cookie who excitedly pointed out the ballerina dog to her parents. It was very cute.



For once I didn’t mind Jeremy walking ahead of me as the sight of him and Tonks walking was especially adorable.



For a costume I pulled together a last minute Mr. Peanut – who is pure evil as we all know.



I carved a delightful jack-o’-lantern in record time. I asked David if it should be funny or scary, he said both so this is what I came up with. I imagine it making the sort of chittering noise that Boo (from Mario) makes. Tonks kept trying to lick its insides, which didn’t surprise anyone.

They only had two rings of the doorbell and I hadn’t handed out treats on Halloween since grade 5 when I hung out with my Grandpa and helped him hand out candy to all the neighbourhood kids (including lots of my classmates, which was odd), but I digress.

I jumped up to hand out candy, and making the appropriate fuss over the kid’s costume, I dipped into the candy bowl and pulled out two fun sized treats for him. When I came back to the festivities it was to find the scorn and shock of the in-laws that I had only given the child two treats. Jeremy was in his element – teasing Clara. He enjoys it so much, and after 5 years I am still just as susceptible and easy to get riled. Sigh. The guilt of being a candy Grinch only lessened after our second doorbell ring. This time it was three teenage girls in only somewhat trampy costumes. I wasn’t going to get up this time, and open myself to more teasing. But when David went to the door he didn’t bring the candy so when I heard the hollered ‘where’s the stuff?’ I ran up with the candy and gave a generous handful to each girl. Of course this time when I returned Jeremy told me I gave away too much candy and the rest of the kids wouldn’t get enough. I ignored him.

When I got home I watched my Halloween present – Trick r Treat. Great movie! Totally creepy and gross but funny too.

All in all a great night. As a bonus I got to take large amounts of leftover candy home – which I am eating for breakfast. Yay Halloween!

interweb fame

That chew toy was too easy, new level plz.


I'm trying not to make every post about Tonks, but it's hard when she's so famous. I submitted some pics to Faildogs.com awhile ago and promptly forgot all about it.

Imagine my joy when I get my daily barrage of email cuteness today only to see my own dearest troublemaker! Adorbaterrible.

i iz a pupperina

...the last thing I thought I would ever hear you say

This title is a direct quote from my mother. What prompted this you ask? Well I told her that Jeremy and I have started playing floor hockey. Like, of our own free will and junk.

Fun and excitement! I’ve got some serious bruises and we’ve yet to score a goal - but I’m quite enjoying it. As you can clearly see.



Lindsay has one inexplicably sweaty armpit. Intriguing...



Craig and Jeremy took the opportunity to 'accidentally' rub up against one another. Shameless.



We quickly realized that the ball was vital to gameplay. Without it we were just standing around with the stick things.



All in all, great sweaty fun. I iz a jock. Grrr.

SQUEE.

tonksday party

Cake and rabies, oh boy!

happy birthday tonks!

This is the very first picture we took of her, on the ride home from her foster family. She was so sweet and well behaved....little did we know the monster we had taken in.

Two years old, my goodness. She gets her presents tonight..so exciting!

i iz a lego

Here’s me as a lego piece. I found the Lego character generator via generator blog, the place to go for time wasting random generation of goodies. I have spent many hours there.

Anyway I had much fun designing myself, though I turned out a little slutty.

And just for fun I made LEGO RIKER! It actually started as Jeremy but Number 1 just sort of took over.

full circle

You know that ancient proverb?

‘life is like a revolving door, you go around and around, things can happen and you may even get out sometime’

Okay it’s not that ancient.

The first time I came to Toronto (nearly a decade ago) Jeremy took me to the Eaton Centre. He blithely strolled in front of me into the mall through the revolving door. I had a moment of hesitation as I took in the mode of entry before smoothly entering the building. At least that’s how I remember it. Jeremy maintains that I looked terrified and managed to grope my way into the mall with a clown-like flourish. I’m sure it was something in between the two recollections.

Anyway in my first year of working in Toronto I jumped the gun a little when entering the revolving door at my office building. I ended up crammed up behind some suit who looked rather bewildered and possibly afraid of me. I laughed rather awkwardly and felt my face flame. It was not my finest hour.

Over the years I’ve become a revolving door ninja. I can make split second decisions, exit and enter with arms laden with packages, I don’t hit my heels and I use the perfect amount of force to ensure a smooth ride for those ahead of and behind me.

So imagine my surprise when I had another embarrassing revolving door incident last week. This time it was me who was looking behind me at some punk kid who was red of face and stuttering his apologies. His friends waited for him (gasping for breath as they dissolved into hysterics) as I huffed and proclaimed “what on earth!”. He apologized and called me ma’am. The ma’am in conjunction with my old lady exclamation struck me as I was walking away with ruffled feathers. I could see the humour. I chuckled to myself and recalled my own such incident years before.

Ah life.

pugsitting

Tonks is ever so excited to have company.

Ever so excited.

This is Kermit.

He did at one point settle down. I have photographic evidence.

Also I swear I did vacuum that day. The dogs were just kind enough to re-fur everything.

s-m-r-t

According to a recent study dogs are about as intelligent as 2 year old children. I can believe it. Sometimes Tonks is super smart but other times I wonder if she’s special.

Jeremy directed my attention to the above article and pointed out that Tonks’ lineage puts her on the 10 most intelligent breeds list and the 10 least intelligent breeds list (Labrador and Beagle).

So it looks like one of her parents was ‘an intellectual that was attracted to bimbos’. Ah true love knows no boundaries, even with gogs. Thank goodness for that, otherwise we wouldn’t have this delightful dog.

Um, this must be one of her beagle moments.

Pulse Perfection Mascara

Once again I have the distinct pleasure of trying a new product and giving my opinion. This time I got extra product to share and get more reviews on. This time it was Maybelline's new vibrating masacara - Pulse Perfection. I handed out the mascara to all my ladies – sisters, pseudo sisters in-law, co-workers, bosses etc. Here’s what they thought:

Hayley
“Found the formula very wet so it clumped if I wasn't careful, but it made my eyelashes look glossy and long. Good for an "every day" look.”

“For the record, there is no difference between normal mascara and vibrating mascara when you jab it into your eyeball”

Rebecca
“Really wet and dramatic. A little fussy to use but good.”

Jenna-Lee
“The actual mascara seems very liquidy, and my lashes stick together like when you come out of the pool. I tried only holding the vibrating part at the base for a second and then pulling it through the length of the lashes without the vibration, but it still took a long time to get my eyelashes separated. It might be because of my lashes. They're really long, but very thin. I never have any trouble saturating my lashes, but I need bulk to add to the thickness. When I wash it off tonight, I'll let you know what I think about that process.”
Mum
“did not like the vibrating part. the mascara it self and the brush I liked.”

Sonia
“Amazing!”

Veda
“I use it without the vibration and I like it.” “I don’t like extra steps to get the same result.”

Aviva
“tried it once so far and I think it's great!”

I concur for the most part. I loved the mascara and the brush…but the vibrating really didn’t add anything. I tested it on the back of my hand swiping with the vibrating and without. No difference. I did one eye with, one without and quizzed everyone I saw that day. No one could tell them apart.

Whether I used the vibrating function or not I got especially long, very glossy lashes. That is probably the best thing about it. Glossy lashes. I sort of noticed it, then I went and tried some of my other mascaras again (yes I have many) before going back to the Maybelline. Wow no comparison. I think they should drop the vibrating aspect (and the price) and market it as super gloss for lashes. They could even up the glossy factor. It’s something unique I’ve never gotten from another mascara. I’m not shocked that the mascara itself is a great formula; Maybelline seems to always deliver when it comes to mascara.

So bottom line? Love it, but don’t need the vibration.

happy birthday jeremy

Sit down little ones, gather ye near,
For the delightful tale you are about to hear.

Listen to my fantastic story,
Of a boy named Jeremy, in all his glory.

This day he was born, he caused a sensation,
With the largest head in all of creation.

His mother, exhausted, cradled him close,
His father counted, 10 fingers, 10 toes.

The years marched on, he flourished and grew,
Sometimes rebelling, as kids often do.

He fought with a wit, sharp and sarcastic,
His sisters’ bane (it was less than fantastic).

He can cook
He can bake
He can fix up a Mac.

He can pout
And annoy,
But he’ll still make you laugh.

For the good and the bad, through the years we have found -
We may just decide, to keep him around.

still here

Ugh. I’ve been really busy so I haven’t posted anything. I hate that. Writing is the one thing that I’ve always felt should be present, be it a quick note, an alliterative sentence or a dirty limerick. For me there is no excuse. If I wait until I have time to sit and write it just won’t happen. And I’m lazy and relatively obligation free.

I went to Canada’s Wonderland a few weeks ago, for the first time in about 15 years if you can believe it. The prospects for hilarious and clever posts were endless - Jeremy freaked out and wouldn’t go on many of the rides and I wore a low cut top and my boobs kept popping out on the bumpier rides. Fun fun fun. But I put it off and now that’s all I got.

I’ve got to review mascara for the friendly neighbourhood word of mouth marketing company, it’s vibrating. Very cool. I just need to get my sisters’ opinions first. That one is still to come.

Oh and it’s really hot. And STINKY. For those of you who don’t know, I live in Toronto and we are currently in the midst of a garbage strike. I’ve seen the plastic wrapped garbage bins (that people shove garbage in anyway) but it hasn’t really affected me as I’m in an apartment and for now they are taking care of the trash. I just put it down the chute as usual. But this morning I was walking Tonks and the various dumpsters around the area were reeking to high heaven. Quite nasty. I hope they resolve things soon. Before we all start looking like that lady thing in Labyrinth.

Anyway this weekend will be full of strawberry picking and Dungeons and Dragons. Excitement! For the moment I have the day off and am doing sweet sweet nothing. Mmmm dipsalusious.

o…n…g…

We had the pleasure and good fortune to attend a Luminato event the other night. An evening with Neil Gaimen. Jeremy, Rebecca and I all gathered our hopeful books, graphic novels, comics and more, tromped on down to the Jane Mallet theatre and excitedly waited for the man of the hour.

He was as rumpled and charming as I’d hoped, much funnier than we expected, and all in all well worth the time and money spent to attend. We did several readings, which were simply fantastic, the man has an incredible voice I could listen to for hours. I’d love to hear him and Alan Rickman have a conversation. Sigh.

Anyway when it came time for the autograph session we had to choose one item to get signed (we had brought three each, just in case). Jeremy opted for Good Omens, so Terry Pratchett can sign it when he meets him this summer at the Discworld convention. Rebecca chose the dangerous alphabet and I decided to go for something different.

Voila.

A picture of Neil and his dog (a rescue) Cabal. He seemed a little surprised to see a picture of them (“it’s a picture of me! And my dog!”) but I quickly filled him in on the story of Tonks and told him that she liked to see picture of Cabal on his blog. I showed him a picture of her and he said she was beautiful and asked where we got her. We chatted for a bit and then he asked ‘Can I keep this?’ holding the picture of Tonks.

Gasp!

I nearly split my face grinning. ‘Yeah! It’s for you!’ I said rather eagerly. Then I moved on and watched as Jeremy got his book signed, saying nothing only smiling rather idiotically. Rebecca somehow managed to get Neil to take off his sweater when she got up there and didn’t leave before shoving her hand out to shake his hand. So forceful. Rebecca I mean.

We left, giddy and squealing and reminiscing about our brief yet unforgettable moments with Neil Gaimen. I showed Tonks the picture when I got home. I think she was very excited. She hasn’t tried to eat it so I think it’s clear she appreciates the value.

five years...dear god...

Approximately 5 years ago today (I say approximately because I drank a lot more back then and the details are a little fuzzy), Jeremy and I said hey let’s be together. Again. For those who haven’t heard the story before, we met and dated in University then broke up and reconnected once I moved to Toronto many years later. A few days later we were living together. Okay maybe not exactly that quick but it sure felt like it.

So here we are 5 years later. Holy mother. Time sure flies. Sure it’s been fun. it’s also been exasperating, hilarious, annoying and cozy. Heck it’s even been sublime.

So I guess I’ll stick around. Heh.

ridiculous

What. The. Eff.

I don't know how I feel about this.

edgrr and dooger and tonks OH MY!

This weekend we went to the farm and Tonks met Dooger, my sister’s new pup (also a rescue via petfinder).

Doog (short for Doogie Howser MD) is a Toy Fox Terrier mix and one funny dog. He’s about the same age as Tonks so while the boys did stick together against the female interloper the playfulness of puppydom won out and they had a grand ole time.

Unfortunately Tonks’ adventuring had some consequences…when we got home we found SEVEN ticks on her. Actually attached. During the weekend there were two more but they were just looking for a place to sink their mandibles into.

tattoo cover up

A la Raidel.

Before:



After Part 1:



After Part 2:



All done!



That’s Lindsay in case you were wondering.

Badass.

The tattoo not her. Well both.

and so it begins...