Bad dog and jobs

You have to wonder why. Out of all the things he could have chewed on while we left him alone in the house, why does he have to choose the irreplacable thing. This is the remote control for the dvd player. I suppose it's possible that it will still work but I'm not all that hopeful about it. Last time we left him alone, he chewed up a newspaper. Perfect, I was done with it anyway. Now we're going to have to put things out of his reach when we leave. The Christmas tree is going to be interesting.

Now a little idea I pinched from Polt. Feel free to pinch it from here. Tis nothing new, just a recounting of the jobs you've had. Kay here goes.

The first real job I had was in a bank. This was when I was a 15 year old high school student. After school I went to (I think it was called) Security Pacific Bank to file checks. This dates me, doesn't it. I took all the cleared checks and filed them in the appropriate customer's folder and then once a month I bundled the cleared checks up with the statement and put them in an envelope for mailing. When machines were ready to take this task over, I lost the job.

Next was a stint in a Del Taco venture. They opened a concept shop where they married ice cream and video games. Two things I adored. I loved that job but ultimatley the concept was a flop. I remember days where sales were under a hundred bucks. No bueno.

At the same time in the summer, I worked as a camp counselor. The thing I remember most about this job was that I had to be there at 6:30am. For a teenager, this was torture.

Then there was the graveyard shift job I took at a company that transferred paper documents to microfiche. My job was to remove staples from documents before they were sent to the microfiching department. That's all I did - remove staples. If there is a hell, that is what it will look like.

Then I worked for my dad's friend's cabinet shop. My job was to go to different city halls to scour recent building permits and then hit up the contractors to bid on the cabinet part of the jobs. It was fun until I wrecked the boss's car. It was a little truck he had purchased barely a month before. Badness.

After that or maybe at the same time I got a job at BJ's Pizzeria where I waited tables for the first time. I rememer I quit that job by throwing my uniform in the manager's face. She had cut my hours in half to accommodate a friend of her's that she gave a job to.

A few weeks later I was hired by the Hyatt Regency Long Beach as a busboy in their fine dining restaurant. I worked my way up to evening waiter and this was the job that got me through college.

Next up was the Rose Cafe in Venice. Another waiter job but we had lots of celebrities come in at that place. That's where I waited on Arnold the gouvernator many mornings since his office was next door at the time. I got fired from that job for embezzlement. I still don't regret that though as the owners were tyrants and they deserved any pain that came their way.

After that, I did a stint as a delivery driver for a gourmet take out business. Yawn.

Then I was hired by the Ritz Carlton first as a waiter and then as a manager. After a couple of years of management slavery, I asked to transfer to another property as a dining room captain so I could "go back to school". Really though, I just didn't want to be a slave anymore.

I quit that job to go visit Serge after he was stuck in Montreal after getting blocked by US immigration. That whole story is here.

When we snuck Serge back across the border and came back to California, I got a couple of waiter jobs, the more important of which, Spaghettini, became my life for several years. I became a manager for them and opened a new concept business for them, a bakery cafe with ready to heat and eat meals. I quit after our first profitable month. I wanted to go out on top.

Serge and I focussed on building our own website design business, which Serge still does today under the name Drafter.com. It was then that I decided working together wasn't a positive influence on our relationship.

When we came to Montreal, I worked in a restaurant for a couple of summers to solidify my French skills but mostly I've been teaching English. I've been doing that now for 8 years, longer than any other job in my life. Most days I love this job so I figure I'll be doing that for the foreseeable future.

There were other jobs in there too. I got a few modeling and acting jobs in my California years, but as you can see, I was never really discovered. Sometimes I wonder what life would be like had I gotten a job early on and stayed with it. A job with a retirement plan. I'd only have about 15 years left to retirement. But then I'd have never met Serge, learned French and lived abroad and gained dual citizenship. I'd have to say I'm pretty happy with the way things turned out.

This n that

Unbelievable. I could not roll my eyes any further back in my head when I read about the outrage over Obama's bow to Japan's president. You'd think the ridiculous screechers would have preferred Obama lifted his leg and peed on him instead. Apparently to some, Obama has disgraced the nation by respecting the other country's culture while on their soil. I honestly don't know what is wrong with people. All I can think is that they are so narded up because we have a black president and even further panty wadded because they can't publicly criticise him for his skin color that they invent ridiculousness such as this. Tell you what. Let's switch. You guys can have Stephen Harper and we'll take Obama. Wouldn't that rock, Canucks?

I'm working eight hours a week for the next month and then I'm off for 6 weeks. Yay, I get to read, knit, walk Georgie and play games on the computer. I'll probably plan my lessons for the intensive courses that start again next January too. As long as I limit spending to the essentials, I'll be fine. I added a blog on scrimping, saving and traveling but haven't set it up except in name. I may work on that over the next couple of months as well. If I could make a few bucks from click throughs to sites like Priceline and Hotwire and books I recommend on Amazon, it might be worth a go. Other people are doing it and making money, so why couldn't I? Serge and I are kicking ourselves over how we were such early adopters with the internet but didn't buy up domain names like we could have. Oh well, you know what they say about hindsight. So true.

Georgie's poopy troubles are over. Pedigree Health & Vitality has solved the problem. I'm quite happy about it because of the obvious reasons but also because we don't have to spend oodles to figure out how to appease his digestive system. Look here he is with a spot of peanut butter on his maw. Slurp slurp slurp slurp slurp slurp slurp.

Weekend update

We went over to Serge's mom's house yesterday for dinner. More birthday boy festivities were held and just look at how excited he is over the Dressmaker II that he got. It's a portable sewing machine. I can't imagine what he thinks he's going to make with it but if I get a go, I'm going to fashion Georgie garments with it.

It was the first time we have taken Georgie over to visit at another human's house and, as I feared, the housetraining rules he has come to understand at home did not apply at the mother-in-law's. She's cool though, being a dog owner as well. Her dog goes in the house on newspapers and we are pondering whether or not to switch Georgie to that method. He peed and pooped in her house. Actually, he peed twice in the car on the way over there. Little fucker. I think it has something to do with the rain. It was raining quite hard when we were getting ready to go so Georgie got kind of wet as we were prepping the interior of the van. (We had to put the bench in that we had taken out to move a dishwasher.) Sara used to have pee pee accidents when she was wet too. It's like the feeling of "wet" makes them think they are outside or something. I know it seems like all I talk about is the damn dog, but seriously, I couldn't relax at all last night since I was constantly fixated on him and what he may damage. Luckily, his "accidents" were not on any carpeted areas, nor furniture. He got lots of exercise playing with Tigars so he was an instant blob upon returning home.

Normally, he isn't allowed to lie on the afghan that my Grandma crocheted but we made an exception last night. After all, I had bathed him earlier in the day.

12 of 12

First thing in the morning, Georgie likes to sit on my lap while I check my email on the computer. Such a little love muffin.

Breakfast of champions - Cheeze whiz on Pumpernickel. The dog is never far when food consumption is happening, but he waits calmly without any annoying behaviour.

Shower, shave and youknowwhat later and it's time to go to work. Serge had dog walking duty while I ran out to catch the bus. It was really hoary in the morning, frost coating all the grasses and cars.

After the bus it was down into the metro to ride the virus transmission vehicle. There were two sneezes (not mine) on the way to work from passengers. Both times followed by muttering and hairy eyeballs directed that way.

Nerdy pic of me at work.

After class, I went over to the farmer's market to pick up some avocados. They have it all shut up now for the winter. During the summer it's open air.

Then back home and crossing over the train tracks. In the bottom right you can see some ice that never melted from overnight because it's in the shadows all day. The sun's angle is really low in the sky right now, even at noon.

Once home, it's time to take Georgie to the doggie park. He had a great time playing but he had 5 runny poos. I think Metamucil is the next tactic.

I am marveling at my flower pots this year. We have had several light freezes and the geraniums just keep on going. I was shocked to see the pansies bloom again last week as well. This has got to be the nicest November I have experienced here. Mild and sunny practically every day.

Serge's birthday season is here. We went out to dinner with his stepmom. Her treat. We all had seafood dishes at Vinnie Gambini's.

Once home, we discover what a good boy Georgie was even though he was alone for several hours. Kisses!

Then, one of the best Survivor tribal councils ever. A delicious end to a fabulous day.

If you'd like to see other 12 of 12's from around the world, check over here.

All Georgie network

There's really not much to talk about in my life right now except for Georgie. It has really been wonderful for me having a new friend. I find myself looking forward to hanging out with him, taking him on walks and especially going to the doggie park. I can't decide which one of us likes it there better. I feel like a proud parent as Georgie is just the most playful and gregarious one out there. He approaches every dog with a "do you want to play" tail wagging demeanor. And oh how he runs. He is a really fast runner and when he really gets going he makes these strange whelping cries. It's very cute and it appears that this is called "baying", something hounds do when hunting prey. He has several different voices. The "give me my food" wail is my favorite and the piercing "my master has left me" is my least favorite. He also whines excitedly when he thinks I'm gonna take him out for a walk.

Several of the humans at the dog park have asked me if he is a Jack Russel. I always say maybe since he's probably got something else mixed in with him but then I tell them how we got him at the pound where they identified him as a beagle mix. He charms just about everyone. I keep thinking that one day someone is going to stop me and proclaim that he is their dog. I don't think I would give him up. He's stolen my heart.

He's had very loose stools pretty much since we got him. We had switched to Pedigree dry dog food and his turds were much better although he tended to eat them. So we switched (gradually of course) to the high protein "vet diet" brand and it went back to diarrhea city. Poor little guy. So we are gradually going back to the cheap stuff and the butt biscuits are firming up again. We've already run out of all our plastic bags since the shops are charging for them now and everybody brings their reusable ones to shop with. Luckily, the pet supply place has biodegradable ones in the shape of a glove for easy scooping. Unfortunately, they come out to about 15 cents a bag - three times what the markets charge. Up here though, you're likely to get dirty looks if you don't bring your own bags to the market. Oh well, cheap food and pricy bags, I suppose they even each other out.

Here he is at dinner time.

Post number 1345

The other day Dan came over for dinner and as the boys were preparing a pasta extravaganza, I put on the disc I'm in love with right now. Seriously, I cannot stop playing it I am so addicted. It was nominated for a grammy so there must be others like me but it just seemed to perturb the boys. Change it they screamed. Okay fine, I'm not one of those who foists my music on others so I asked if they wanted some faggy music. (I can say it, but unless you're a member, don't.) So I scrolled through the songs until I got to Babs and selected "I'm the Greatest Star" from the Funny Girl soundtrack and then touched the Genius button on the ipod. OMG it was one gay anthem after another. KD Lang, Allison Moyet, Celine Dion, Madonna, Carole King, Swing Out Sister, Scissor Sisters, Kelly Clarkson, Gloria Gaynor, Annie Lennox and George Michael. There were also a few showtunes sprinkled in from Hair, Cabaret and Jesus Christ Superstar. It was so great I saved the playlist and named it homolicious.

We've rented a few films this week. We couldn't get through the Mummy even though the box claimed it was the best of the series. The special effects were pretty good but the script was insufferable so off it went. Monsters vs Aliens on the other hand, was quite the treat. We watched that one twice. We were gonna rent Kill Bill 2 but Serge nixed that. Apparently he really didn't like the first. Perhaps we'll never see it.

On Saturday afternoon, we went to see Bent. It was quite good but not the most uplifting setting since it takes place in Nazi concentration camps. We sat in the front row and could see though luckily never feel the spittle from the actors lips. I used to go to the theater more when I lived in California but there's plenty of it here too, in both languages. It's going on next year's goals list. See at least 5 plays. Anyway, the show is on for another week, so you've still got time to catch this play at an intimate theater on the plateau. Happy Monday peeps!

Snippetry

* We picked up another octopus for Georgie. That has been his favorite toy so far even though he manages to remove all the stuffing mere hours after bringing it home. Serge keeps calling it a squid because it reminds him of Squiddly Diddly. Oh how I laughed and derided him when he said that. There's no such thing as Squiddly Diddly I howled. Nothing like derision to propel someone out of their seat and to the computer. Apparently, it was a cartoon from Hannah Barbera that I had never seen. In my defense, there WERE only 26 episodes total. Couldn't have been that successful.

* I got some good news this week. Apparently I will be paid for all the canceled courses I was scheduled to give between now and Christmas. I don't feel all that comfortable earning money for doing nothing, but at the same time, I don't have to eat hot dogs and mac n cheese for the next two months.

* The parks are carpeted with leaves now. This makes it hard to see what Georgie is sniffing at. The other day he was all interested in something and it turned out to be the rotting carcass of a squirrel. Gah.

* I made "beer bread" the other day from the casa's recipe. No kneading, no waiting for the bread to rise. In other words, super easy. It came out like biscuits so I think next time I'll make it with a cupcake baking dish.

* We went to the Biodome this week since it's free for botanical garden members this month. Saw some monkeys, caymans, penguins, bats, and more.

* Indoor zoo photography simply wasn't working. I don't know if it was the camera or the conditions. If I used flash, the shot was totally underexposed and if I didn't I had to hold still for too long (as I type I'm remembering that I have an anti-shake setting on the camera and that I probably should have used that) to get a clear shot. The above shot is the best one I got.

* We've had Georgie for a month and we are still learning his little idiosyncracies and he ours. For example when we walk him, he often picks up a stick and marches down the street with it. He bites the stick, it breaks in two and he stops to pick up the bigger half and then repeats. I can't figure out his stick criteria though.

* Facebook is so great for the fact that even when your friend moves to Italy, you can still keep in touch and be up on the news. I don't update my status much but I lurk plenty. I've learned not to "like" or comment on too many things or else the follow up messages clog my inbox.

* And yesterday I won two theater tickets on there to see "Bent" this afternoon. Why don't you friend Montreal Tourism liaison for the gay community, Daniel Baylis and you could win neat stuff too.

The sky is falling

There is such panic around here about the flu pandemic. It's another case of the media whipping everyone into a frenzy for nothing. Someone dying of the flu should not be story number one on the national news. She was 83 for chrissakes. We all have a chance of dying when we get the flu, but we don't panic like this every year. This hysteria is causing people to behave irrationally, standing out in the cold for 8 hours with their children waiting to get vaccinated. And it's not even their turn. I don't know how it's working where you live but up here they have set the timeline for when you can get the vaccine, health workers first, then people with babies and compromised immune systems etcetera. I'm eligible starting December 7th. Not that I'm going to get vaccinated. It's the flu, and I'm not scared of it. Last time I got the flu I lost ten pounds. Since then I'm up 25 so a little flu diet wouldn't bother me at all. Anyway, people are lining up in "me first" fashion claiming that they have ailments that they don't so they can get vaccinated first. They also mentioned on the news that those who don't want to wait their turn can drive down to Walmart across the border and pay $30 for a shot. (It's free up here.)

If it were really that dangerous, we would be seeing piles and piles of dead bodies in countries where vaccination is not happening. But no, we're going apeshit over an elderly person's death. Ridiculous.

Economizing, Monetizing and Georgie too

What a pleasant treat to sleep in until 8am. That's the upside of getting laid off. I could have slept even longer too but some contractor came to the door insisting he had a counter to install here. It took several times for him to understand that we own the building so he must have the wrong address. I figure he made the old East and West mixup. We live on a long street that stretches both East and West of downtown so there are matching addresses on either side of city hall.

I was thinking about how to make money from blogging. I saw this article about a BC blogger who is making forty grand a month from his blog. He started it just like most of us, to keep in touch with friends and family but then it morphed into a blog about "monetizing blogs". I don't think Sticky Crows has a big potential for making money (maybe for poop related products ha) but what about something else I know about - how to scrimp and save and make chump change for a living but still be able to travel the world. Hell you can live for a month off of a large bag of rice and beans that'll cost you less than a dollar a day. Dull, but doable. I'll let you know if I start a different blog.

There was a good chuckle on Facebook yesterday when my cousin posted about looking for Thanksgiving centerpieces for the table. Apparently, and I checked to make sure, if you google thanksgiving turkey centerpiece, the first site that comes up is a site that shows you how to make such a thing from tampons. And no, not used. Actually the site is hilarious - tampon crafts dot com. Hey Rox, there's some new crafting ideas for you there. Now I can't help wonder if the owner of that site is making any money. Surely if she (gotta be a she) can, then I can.

I'm off today but it's rainy. We can go to the Biodome and the Planetarium for free this month as part of our "friends of the botanical gardens" membership. Maybe I'll take a tour of the indoor zoo. If I do, you'll see those pics here. In the meantime, have a look at Georgie and cookie time. Ain't he the cutest?

Weekending

It's been quite windy and many of the trees have been stripped of their foliage. This makes for better sunrise viewing out the back window. Come Christmas time the sun will be rising behind the building at the very right. It will slowly march in that direction. Since we live on a corner, we don't usually have any leaves to rake as they blow on by. Sometimes a pile will develop on the side of the house in the lee spot but I just move the pile into the street and the city handles it or it disperses when the wind changes direction. Fascinating, I'm sure you're thinking.

I switched cell phone companies yesterday and it was far easier to do than I had anticipated. I had been paying (well in truth it was Serge who was paying) $42 a month for something I used about 20 minutes per month. That comes out to a couple bucks a minute. I switched to Virgin Mobile and now pay thirty cents a minute. I bought a hundred bucks worth of minutes and that will last a year. No setup fee, no access fee, no hidden anything fees. So apart from having to buy a new phone (sixty bucks) it will now cost me $8.33 a month. Canada has a reputation of having some of the highest cell phone rates in the world, so I was pretty tickled with Virgin. I got to keep my phone number too. The only downside is that it won't work when I travel to the states, but Serge will have his Iphone. He's locked into a three year $80 a month contract for that. More fascination from you, I'm sure.

We watched Kill Bill last night. Are we the last to do so? I liked it except where it dragged in a few places. Campy and over the top and the violence fit right in with the Halloweeniness. Serge kept pointing out plot faults: "How can she fly to Japan right after being in a coma for 4 years? How'd she get a passport?" Suspend your disbelief I kept shushing. Georgie likes watching tv with us and every time there's a dog on tv, his ears prick up and his head tilts. It's so cute. I haven't got a pic of that yet, but here he is with me last night.

And so it goes

So there was an awkward moment yesterday at work. I arrived early as I always do to prep the room and maybe read the front page of the paper. One of my students was already there waiting when I arrived and he told me he always left home early to beat the traffic. I had poop pressing at the door as I unlocked the classroom and we entered to put our things down. Then I said, "I'll be back, I've got to go to the restroom." To this he replied, "Me too." Okay, I thought, I'll just lock the room behind us and I hope he's only got to pee. But no. We went into the only two stalls side by side, mere inches apart in physical space, and let the fudge fly. I prayed that it would slide out blissfully silent but no, it shouted out of me like a backfiring car. Luckily, his was equally vociferous. Of course, neither of us spoke nor made reference to the event afterward. Still, it was awfully awkward. I suppose if I had been in the military, it wouldn't have phased me.

Today's my last day with the health classes. Yes, all of my classes have been canceled from here on out due to the freaking H1N1 outbreak. It's going to be impossible to replace that three grand and I am pretty bummed about it. There was no contract signed so it seems I'm SOL. It's making me rethink my decision to change jobs if the rug can be pulled so swiftly out from under me. Fingers crossed that Serge will score another contract between now and xmas. I guess as of Monday I'm semi retired for the rest of the year. (I'll still have four hours a week.) Plenty of free time, no money to take advantage of that. Looks like I'll be playing lots of free scrabble on the net.

On the other hand, there are some great travel deals the second week of December usually. Maybe we can capitalize on the situation and go to Cuba for a week. I mean my credit card company keeps sending me these checks that you can use to borrow at only 2 percent interest for a year. So that's like what, twenty bucks per grand to borrow for a year? Surely I can do that. This is probably just fantasy talking though. Some gig will probably present itself, knocking as I am on wood, which of course I wouldn't refuse.

Plus all that puppy love is free. Georgie's gonna love all the walks he'll be getting. Happy Friday peeps!

This n that

I'm just popping in real quick to say hi. I'm in the middle of my second intensive immersion week I'm doing for the social workers. It's going quite well. Yesterday at the end of class we were doing an activity where I put some words on the board and one person sits at the front of the class with their back to the board. All the other students had to describe the words and get the person in the hotseat to say them. The category was parts of the body and the girl in the hotseat didn't know the word wrist. The students were trying all kinds of things to jog her memory. One guy shouted out, "It's the thing that gets exercised the most when a guy is single!" I do love me some bawdy. She never did get the word but we all got a pretty good laugh.

Ah that Georgie. He ate a cushion yesterday. Well he didn't actually eat it. He tore a corner open and then destuffed it. Serge wasn't happy but I reminded him that at $7.00 that cushion cost less than a regular dog toy. We had gotten a pair of them on sale last summer.

I'm sure there's more but at this hour I can't think of anything else. Time to hop in the shower and skidaddle. Happy hump day peeps!