Broken record blog

So we haven't addressed the graffiti problem because it's so cold and inclement all the time so someone came along and added a tag to the wall. This must have infuriated the original taggers because then they came back and essentially filled the wall in with their logo. Is it wrong to fantasize about catching them in the act and dowsing them with gasoline and tossing a lit match onto them? I think it is wrong, but fantasizing harms no one. Sometimes I really loathe my species.

There's a groupon deal up here for a half price hot air balloon excursion. Serge wants me to book it but there are so many other expenses coming up. Not to mention the thousand dollar electricity bill we just received. It's for two months and covers the two units downstairs as well as our unit but it's the priciest bill we've had to date. Been cold up here. I sure bitch about the price of things a lot, but that's what happens when you're poor all the time. We're only rich on paper, believe me.

That may be changing though. With the new opportunities at the college coming my way, I'm hoping that my work becomes a bit more steady and predictable. Fingers crossed.

Synchronized walking. This was over at the doggie park yesterday. There was only one other dog when we arrived, I guess people were dissuaded by the cold, despite the bright sun. It was so funny a couple weeks ago. I didn't have my camera then but someone had built a big snow dog next to a snow man. Well by the time I saw them, the snow man had been toppled but the snow dog remained a lone sentinel in the park. The funny part was that the bottom half of it was yellow from the litany of dogs pissing on it. I keep hoping someone will build another so I can get a picture of it.

I need to start writing down my blog ideas. They always come to me when I'm writing implement challenged, like in the shower or while driving. Then poof, the idea evaporates before I get to a pen and paper. The ideas are probably dull anyway, like the rest of today's post.

After the black dog left, we were alone for a bit and I tossed snow balls for Georgie. Then this guy arrived. He wasn't interested much in Georgie, but then when I was fixing to go, I displayed the leash and Georgie started running toward me. I wanted to get another pic of him running but then the other dog took notice and decided to try to pounce on him. There's no way I could have gotten this shot by planning, nope, this was all serendipity. And I love it.

Reported speech etc.

We haven't had a sunrise around the blog for awhile. The sun, after having risen for months behind the building on the right is now marching steadily to the left so we have sunrise season for a while. Eventually it will rise from behind the building on the left. Before I moved up here, I never really noticed how much the sun's trajectory changed. It's not quite as pronounced in Southern California. The longer days make my heart swell. I imagine it does the same to you.

Today I wrote all that on the board. I may just copy it and distribute it next time. My arms hurt after doing that. Still, it's probably the most strenuous part of my job. I almost brought Georgie to class for the day. There was a dog all last week at the physical therapy place next door so I figure it wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately, I had allergic students or rather students with allergies to dogs so that nixed that. Don't understand that gobbledygook on the board? It's all about how when we report what someone has said, we change the verb tense. "I'm having a party this weekend." becomes He said he was having a party that weekend. You automatically do this without thinking but in a second language you have to pay attention to the time shifts.

We can't have a post without a Georgie pic now can we? He sure does have a lengthy tongue. I wonder what evolutionary advantage this gave them. Did you know a crocodile can't stick out its tongue? True, though truly useless information too. Here's something else I learned today. The US debt is now at 96% of GDP. Canada's debt is now at 41% of GDP. The top corporate tax rate in the US (federal + state) is 40% but is only 25% in Canada. All sorts of interesting comparisons in the article here. See y'all on the weekend or "at" the weekend for you Brits.

Weekend update

Peen alert! Yesterday there was some green gunk coagulated there. I have no idea what that is but it's gross! My peen certainly doesn't do that trick. The other gross thing Georgie frequently does is drool. Whenever the humans are eating, his salivary glands go into overdrive anticipating the possibility of a morsel coming his way, and two strands of drool will do the pendulum dance. Sometimes the strands even reach the floor.

I've been bad about blogging lately. Not writing nor reading. It's not that I'm not interested, it's just that there are so many other things that must be attended to. I worked up the preliminary tax return yesterday. For the first time in over a decade, I'll be getting some money back. This is largely because nearly all of my income was from actual employers who took over 30 percent of my earnings in withholding. Serge, who works for himself still has to pay the piper. Perhaps I'll help him with that this year.

Work opportunities from the college continue to come my way. I've been asked to develop a 60 hour ESL course tailored to the trucking industry, and then give the course. I don't know if y'all know but truckers who enter the US must have a functional level of English language skills. If they can't clear customs and understand and respond to the agents, they will be denied entry to the states. I predict these men (I'm assuming) will be a motivated bunch. That all gets going mid-april just as my current contracts start dwindling down. I got off the unemployment claim I've had going because of that.

If I had more news, I'd certainly share it with you. Life is fairly copasetic though, and the elongation of the daylight is perking up spirits. It's still cold but we had a warm spell that melted half the snow. The ensuing cold froze all the remaining snow into blocks of ice now. Georgie doesn't like it all that much, he's much more interested in diving around the powdery stuff. I'm sure we'll get pummeled by more storms before the winter is over though. Have a great week everyone. I'll try to check back in half way through it.

Quick check in

No real reason (do we have to have one for Georgie porn?) for posting this other than I like his look in this photo. I always marvel at how different dogs look in photos than when you look at them. Well this photo represents how I see him in real life. It's his serious call me George look.

I also have no point for this post other than it's been a few days and as you know I'm trying not to let it die. Of course everything has an ending, so eventually this will too. I'm in my fourth intensive group this week and they are doing just great. I'm so proud of how much progress they have made. It makes my job very gratifying.

We were talking about remedies today (they're all nurses) and one of them told me how to decongest the nasal cavity without taking any pills or squirting anything up the nose. She claims quite firmly that rubbing vicks all over your feet will do the trick. She works the info-health line up here (811) and has had numerous skeptics call back to thank her for this trick that works. I remain skeptical but I will try it next time.

We're over half way to the weekend and you're already done with this post! Peace.

12 of 12

Good morning Georgie. Did you pester our overnight guest all night? Did you insist on sleeping with her, nay on her all night? You know we don't mind, but non-dog owners might have some issues with that. You need to sleep with your daddies.

Must have coffee. And yes I did sleep in my shirt. Lately I've been sleeping with the last layer of everything. Socks, long underwear and undershirt. It's cozy and warm that way. Serge used to not let me have socks in bed at any time but he's mellowed as he's gotten older.

It was a snowy morning, but Georgie needed to go out and do his business. Even though our street is one of the major streets of this city, weekend mornings are very quiet. Our street leads right downtown but there's no rush hour per se on the weekends.

Georgie so loves the snow. His yin is the perfect antidote to my yang on the matter. As much as I'm coming to loathe it, he always makes me smile diving around in it.

Weekends are workout days. And so I did my shift in the basement. I feel all manly looking at this shot. The bar is so heavy it's bending. There's 72.5 pounds on each side plus the olympic bar which I think is 35 pounds. So squatting 180. Ooga booga.

All through the day yesterday, I played words with friends on the ipod touch. I can only do that when there is a wi-fi connection as there is at home. Usually, I just play my turn when I'm (ahem) doing my morning duties. If you'd like to play, start up a game with me. I'm tornwordo.

The skies cleared up in the afternoon and the snow stopped so I took Georgie over to the doggie park in Park LaFontaine. He ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran. This shot is the epitome of his energy at the park. So cute.

It's been on my list for two weeks and I finally got around to it. I audibly gasped when the cashier rang it up and it came to over $6. I remember getting a quart of oil for a dollar not so long ago. But maybe I'm dating myself. How much is a quart of oil in your neck of the woods?

We went over to Dan's house for supper (Dan forbids photos of him posted) with our overnight guest Ida. Ida came to town (she lives in the sticks) for a one day seminar and when she was done, we went over to Dan's. We brought over coquille st-jacques, and incidentally, the Choix du President brand is the best! chock ful of seafood and the sauce is unctuous (is that a word in English?) and divine. This picture is of course the oil and vinegar for bread dipping. I thought it looked like abstract art.

Dessert was prettier than it was tasty. But I've found that to be true of most "pretty" desserts. Chocolate mousse looks like a mound of doo-doo, but it's delicious. Ditto for souflees. The more gussied up the dessert, the more conflicting the flavors. These had lots of marzipan and coconut figuring into the mix. For me, if you put coconut in it, you've ruined it.

Dan's cat Emile. He was crawling all over the place and we were a bit taken aback when he was jumping up on the counter while dinner was being prepared. Dan said it's the one animal he's ever lost the war with. Thank god Georgie cannot jump up on the counter, because if he could....

Back home, Serge took Georgie out for his evening poo/walk. When he got back he tortured Georgie by hiding his cookie. He didn't hide it there, but Georgie just wanted to make sure.

There you have it. Chad isn't sponsoring this anymore, so I can't direct you to others who have done a photo spread of the day. Update! He is sponsoring it for one more year. You can see other photo spreads here. I like doing it once a month because it gives an objective and a creative edge to the day. I hope you liked this one. Cheers!

The uggathon continues

We can play ink blobs. What do you see in the lower center portion of the photo?

This is a fried box that once housed those two double breakers there. In case you missed it on FB, Sunday evening just as the Superbowl got going, the tenant from downstairs came up and said his electricity was out. We called for an emergency electrician, actually we called several and they all quoted similar amounts, basically $325 plus parts for an after hours call. Anyway, this box leads to another box with a breaker and that breaker was loose and replacing it seemed to fix the problem. Unfortunately, that breaker (a double hundred amp) was a sign of the trouble in the other. This we found out this morning when the tenant came up again with the news of another outage. After all is said and done, we're out $900. That's a week in Cuba dangit! 

I was trying to remember if we had any electrical woes before and so I searched the blog. I ended up getting sucked in reading Feb 06 and saw how different my writing style was. How much better it was. That's because I was trying harder. At that time, I blogged every day religiously. Of course Sara was alive then and I got to cryin over her in one of the posts. Serge mocked me. "You have a dog!" he said in that stop-that kind of way.

Did you ever say "adoy" when someone did something stupid? I did. And after that came duh and doy. I still say duh to this day. You?

Last night Georgie went outside and was all hyper prancing around in the snow. I started throwing snowballs and he was crazily diving in and digging, frantically looking for the ball. Then he started doing this thing he does where he runs up to you and you try to grab him and he fake growls and darts back, then repeat until the hyperactive impulse reaches a zenith and he goes tearing off uncontrollably around the patio. The whole thing was so cute that I ran out there in my socks and bathrobe and played with him stomping around in the two feet of snow. It made me feel kid-like. I'm smiling as I type. Here's another time during the day of him chasing snowballs.

Not hearting the snow

Ugh. The storm track has moved back our way. First the 10 inches on Wednesday, then this morning there is another 6 inches on the ground even though they were only calling for 2 to 4 last night. They have been really bad about getting the quantity predictions right this winter. And tonight and tomorrow they are calling for another 4 inches. So what, does that mean 8? If human beings had evolved in the north instead of in Africa, our arms would probably resemble shovels.

One bright side to the incessant snow is that the city has to ramp up the snow removal operations. Although they have to start over today, during the snow removal operations if you don't move your car when you are supposed to (they put up signage with times) they tow the car to a nearby spot and ticket it. Well, if the van is still in this city and it's abandoned on some street somewhere, we'll be able to find it because the police will ticket it and find it has been reported stolen and call us. So far that hasn't happened but they didn't finish the operation from Wednesday's storm. So. Fingers crossed.

Georgie sure loves it. It seems that most of the dogs do. At the doggie park yesterday, all the dogs seemed more frolicky than usual. Georgie has been better at the doggie park. It must have been that particular mix of dogs that caused him to misbehave last week. Although he is still more vocal, he's just being a regular ole dog.

I'm so burnt out from the last three week's intensives. I have a break this week and only have to work two days. The other days I'll be prepping for the new course I picked up. And daydreaming about warmer climes. We do have something to look forward to though. The parental units have decided to take the family to Europe in October for two weeks. Yahoo! That is sure going to be a blast.

This is dull I admit so I'll let you go. I must do some shoveling now. Oh goodie gumdrops.

Double trouble

Well it's our turn to get pummeled by snow. I knew it when I looked at that scary satellite picture this morning. They were calling for 2-4 inches but I wasn't buying it. I took public transportation to work because I didn't want to risk having to drive home after a foot of snow fell. So glad I did that because a big dump of snow is what we got. Can't complain though, we usually have far more big snow dump events. I might have actually braved the storm this morning if I had had the van. I feel safer in the van for some reason.

Trouble is, the van was stolen Monday night. I didn't even notice it until I got home from work Tuesday afternoon. I noticed the van wasn't parked there so I figured Serge had gone out someplace. I entered the code to unlock the front door but it wasn't locked. "Uh, hello?" I asked and Serge replied, "Hello," from his office chair. "Where did you put the van? Did you put it in the garage?" I asked. Serge said that it was parked on the corner. "Uh, no it isn't," I replied. After running through all the possibilities including contacting the city to see if it had been towed for some reason, the only possible explanation became theft. So the police came and made a report and basically told us not to hold our breath. At first I felt like I was punched in the stomach but after a couple stiff drinks, we started enumerating the upside. No maintenance costs, no digging it out of the snow, no repairs. And it really was a beater, we had already decided we wouldn't make any major repairs on it and the transmission was doing that telltale clunk when it shifted so I don't think it had that much life left. 1996 is pretty old for a car up here and 230,000km is pretty high mileage too. Farewell to the van.

Finally today, I have this ad I took out of the paper this morning. It's for your basic sex shop but I just couldn't (and still can't) figure out what the thing next to the lube bottle is. Any ideas? It kind of looks like a spoon with a hole in it. You can click on it to enlarge. Wednesday down, two days til the weekend. See you then!

Weekend update

Serge says I fall asleep in front of the tv quite often. I never remember really being asleep, just the need to go to bed (and brush my teeth). I couldn't believe it when this picture was in the camera. Not only am I asleep but Georgie is sitting on me as though I'm the throne.  Georgie has been different since we brought him back from the kennel this time. For one thing, he is far more vocal now. He doesn't bark per se, but he howls far more often when he wants something or when he sees a big hairy dog outside. He's always howled at them but it seems more fervent now. Also, I had to take him home from the doggie park early yesterday. He was being very aggressive with the other dogs, trying to dominate the smaller ones and snarling and snapping at the larger dogs that were trying to dominate him. All the while howling at them all. It was the first time I felt embarrassed by my dog and so I picked him up and left.

I remade my work calendar yesterday and it looks so scary for the next couple months. So many classes to give! And they are coming down from the college at my lunch hour this week to discuss picking up more classes. All of this is great but when I look at the calendar, I feel anxious. It's that old immature feeling of, "I just want to bang on my drum all day." By the way, was that code for masturbation? I've always wondered.

We went out last night to a restaurant whose specialty is oysters. Serge and I have pretty much sworn them off after several tries, but Dan, who came with us, tried three cooked versions, plus one in his martini. If you have to doctor up the oyster with goat cheese and barbecue sauce, you really aren't featuring the oyster. I tried a "gingertini" for the first time and it was quite good. Serge and I had mussels and fries which I had purchased prior via one of those "groupon" type deals. Dan also ordered mussels and what was disappointing was that he got far more than we did. The restaurant didn't serve what had been promised with the groupon deal (one pound of mussels), and it was obvious when it was served. Dan clearly had double the portion. We spent loads of other money on drinks and appetizers so they really should have honored their "deal". Instead, we left feeling a bit cheated. When all was said and done I realized we had gotten about a 12% discount on the whole meal, yet they shorted us about 50% on the main course. So instead of wowing us and inspiring us to come back, we feel like going somewhere else. So. Marketing fail.

I will try to pop in this week but I'm working every night except Friday this week in addition to the full-time day gig. If I don't get back here until the weekend, I apologize. Here's another Georgie pick to tide you over. Have a great week!

Head still spinning

Yes, busy as can be. Work work work work work work work. This is the time of year to do it though since it's so heinous outside. Although it's been ridiculously cold (Monday, the car refused to start it was so cold) the huge dumps of snow have occurred South of us, so at least I've been spared much of the shoveling duties the last couple weeks. It still seems to snow a little bit every day though so I have to brush off the car every day. You can really have fun judging people in winter. It takes maybe two-three minutes to brush all the snow off your car but there are many who don't. They hop in the care and take off and let the snow blow off and blind other drivers. It's illegal not to brush your snow off, but there's never a cop around to enforce that. Also, I notice a lot more scofflaw behaviour. People ignoring road signs, turning when not permitted and many running of red lights. It's like people know it's too damn cold for enforcement of laws.

I really should be getting in the shower now. I have to leave in 40 minutes. I got some good news that I picked up another group of nurses which was unanticipated. And then yesterday they asked me to go on an English "retreat" and accompany a group to a hotel stay for the weekend in the Laurentians. That's what I call a real paid vacation. But again, busy busy busy.

What else? State of the Union speech was dull. It's almost more fun when everyone is slinging hatred at one another. Almost. The Canadian dollar is remaining steadfastly above par with the US dollar. Georgie thinks pooping is a game now. A race game. Can we grab the poop before he snarfles it up and swallows? Yesterday, I won the race but one little turdlet escaped my grasp and before I could recover it, snarflage. Ugh. He can be so vile.

Sorry for the disjointed nature of these ramblings but I'm late and really must go. See ya on the weekend.

Stylish blogger and random things

It seems I've been tagged with a little meme that goes with the "stylish blogger award". Blobby, thankfully, tagged me so I now have to write 7 things about myself, link the person who tagged me and then tag others. I don't like tagging others though so this particular chain link of the chain letter ends here.

1. When I was a kid, I went through a hamster phase. Creative naming was not my forte though and when I got two of them for Christmas, I named them Tiger and Tigger. When Tiger died, he keeled over but his heart continued beating for hours. I kept hoping he would wake up, but no. The dead never wake up.

2. In class this week, and I know this technically not about me but since I was there I'm gonna tell you about it - when I asked for new vocabulary the students had learned from the articles I had assigned, one girl said "anus". I couldn't remember any mention of anus in any of the articles I assigned so I asked her to say it again. "Anus," is what she said again. So I started to explain the defecation hole to the class. Horrified, she said, "Noooo, it means nasty or terrible." Like a good student she had looked it up. I had to walk over to her desk to see the word. Heinous. Ahhh, that explains it. Francophones have the dangedest time pronouncing those aitches. We had a good laugh at that one.

3. I haven't had a glass of milk in probably twenty years, maybe more. Milk is for babies.

4. I'm dying to go on a cruise. It's been a couple of years and I'm ready. Someone asked me where I want to go and I said, "Anywhere." It really makes no nevermind to me. I just want to go!

5. I have worked out regularly since I was 27. In a little more than a year that will make 20 years. Prior to that I was skinny but doughy.

6. I've never shaved my head. I had my scalp ripped open by a great dane when I was a kid, and I'm thinking that scar is an ugly one. Luckily, I'm not balding either.

7. This winter has me vexed. It started too soon and it snows practically every day. When it's sunny, it's too cold to go outside. If I can make a couple extra thou this year, I'm going to buy a garage door opener and pay for a service to remove the snow in front of the garage. Then no more scraping the dang windows and clearing the gall-danged snow every day.

Thanks for hanging with me today. I will try to update in the middle of the week. They are announcing a big snow storm for Wednesday which is causing me to panic already. I'm askeered of driving in the snow if I haven't already mentioned that. Really scared. Here's a little Georgie porn to close out this post. Have a great rest of the weekend.

Busy!

Just checking in to say I'm alive. Work work work is keeping me quite busy, so I'll make this short. The funny thing I saw on Facebook, and I can't remember who posted it or I'd give credit where credit is due (can you search your news feed?) but I liked it and have been pestering everyone with it. It's about the importance of the comma.

It's the difference between helping your uncle, Jack, off a horse, and helping your uncle jack off a horse.

I'm sure y'all have seen that one before but it was new to me. And no I do not use it in the classroom. Poo jokes are fine though. Like today when the student kept saying it was dump or dumpy outside. I thought she meant shit but she was trying to remember the word "damp". I had a good chuckle at her expense and that's a good thing, because she'll always remember the word damp now.

I'll check back in this weekend. Toodles~

Weekend snaps

 

I paid a visit to the Spain store, L'Espagnole, where I grabbed some Serrano ham, Manchego cheese and my new favorite snackfood and martini garnish, anchovy stuffed olives. I was hoping Serge would hate them so I could have them ALL, but they seem to be growing on him too. Also, I made crab dip which is a recipe that my aunt served when we were up near Seattle, but as it turns out, I already had in the recipe book that mom made for me a few years ago. It is super yummy. This ended up being dinner for us on Friday night. 

Serge's mom came over for a visit and we hung out in the living room chatting away the afternoon. Since there were snacks on the table, Georgie was very attentive to everything going on and in order to get him to make this look, I said, "Do you want a ...?" He doesn't care how you end that sentence, he wants it. 

I also made a big batch of taquitos. I let Serge make a pot roast and then once it was chilled, I tore apart all the meat so it was a big stringy pile. Then two by two I zapped the tortillas to soften them up and rolled up the meat in them. Once done, I put them in the freezer so they would keep their shape. Then I fried 10 of those suckers up. Serge used the drippings with onions as his sauce. I can only eat guacamole with them. I was only slightly irritated when Serge said he liked Trader Joe's better. Tough titties, we don't have Trader Joe's here. We've got forty more of my version in the freezer.

It has been a cold weekend and Georgie has needed his mittens for our walks. It's so funny how people talk to him when they pass by. "What a good little boy in his mittens," people coo, all the while ignoring my presence. I was thinking on a recent walk that happiness is what happens when the things you have to do are the same as those you want to do - like for me, walking the dog. Then I realized that quite often the very fact that I HAVE TO do something makes me not want to do it anymore. I bet the gods just crack up over that little human foible.

This morning I took out Georgie and discovered that the city workers had again deposited a hill of snow in front of our garage. I definitely think I'm going to buy a couple orange cones. It's not like they can't just push it another 10 feet, because they can. They just don't pay frigging attention. The snow would have been pretty if I hadn't been so steamed up about that. Plus Serge had already shoveled it before bed, so they dumped a pile on a freshly shoveled area! Calm down now and breathe.

I came across my favorite blog post of the month. Thank god for plumbing eh?

Tomorrow, I start three weeks of intensives plus I have 3 evening courses for the other college. What this means is my presence will be spotty on the internet. I'll at least check in on the weekends. Have a great week everyone.

Snippets

* This was a little present that we came home to. Lovely, isn't it? We have to do something about it quickly before we get cited by the city. It's really big too, at least eight feet by five feet. This is the kind of thing that makes me loathe young males. Thank you for defacing our property.

* Out in California, Serge and I witnessed a horrific natural event. It was with my dad's two chihuahuas. We noticed they were playing together when one of them abruptly stopped and went into defecation posture. The other dog was behind doing something near the rear end of the one posturing. We didn't have a clear view and we said, "Is she eating it, is she EATING it!?" and then some dropped to the grass and the other one promptly snarfled up that poo too. Yes indeed, she was eating it like it was coming out of a soft serve ice cream machine. We both groaned in disgust. A few minutes later when we told dad about it, he was alarmed, "Why didn't you stop them!?" Well, we weren't really sure what was happening until it was, and then it was over and too late. It was pretty much like this. Aren't you glad I find these things for you?

* One of the biggest changes I noticed out in California was the medical marijuana clinics that had popped up all over. On the Venice boardwalk there were pretty girls handing out fliers to get you to come in and see the doc. Got a headache, fatigue, sore back, red eyes (I'm not joking) or depression, well come on in and get your medical marijuana card and take home some weed. My friend D said all the pot dealers have gone out of business since it's so easy to just buy it from the store now. I see no problem whatsoever with it, as I maintain it's far less deleterious than alcohol on our bodies and in society. Still, I wouldn't want one of these things popping up next to my house and reducing its value.

* Something cool happened while I was gone. This blog doohickey got third place in the Canadian Weblog Awards for the LGBTQ category. Yay for recognition!

* Incidentally, this is my 1500th post.

* Have you ever injured yourself while sleeping? I don't mean sleeping wrong or waking up with a crick in your neck, no, I mean actual wound making. Well it happened to me. Somehow, I jammed a splinter up under my nail. Our headboard is wooden and apparently not splinter free. Let me tell you, this is not a pleasant way to wake up.

* I had to go clothes shopping. Especially for pants. Everything I've bought pants-wise over the last two years is loose on me. If I tighten the belt, the pants look funny and cinched. So I went to the top of The Bay where they have the liquidation center. Original price on those four things you see? $263.00 How much did I pay? About 87% off or $34. Less than ten bucks per garment. That's my kind of shopping. Real brands too, Dockers and Haggard (and why would anyone choose that name, looking haggard is probably not what we want the clothes to do) though you have to inspect carefully for stains and tears since all sales are final.

* I took him across the street to the pet supply store to weigh him. He was 33.5 pounds. This is great because the last time we weighed him, he was 37 pounds and when we got him, he was 30. Serge and I both think he looks too skinny but the vet said we should keep him around this weight. He has been particularly demanding with food since we got home. Poor little guy was starving at the kennel (per our instructions.)

Finally home!

Let's see where did I leave off. Ah yes, we were getting over our sickness here in Long Beach. Everyone was complaining about how cold it was, and it was jacket weather, but the air was clear and crisp and not at all the kind of cold we're used to up here. We had lots of gorgeous sunsets on this trip. There's Em with Serge up there. This was actually the day before the hideous sickness descended upon us.

That would have been this day. We met my dad and grandma for a doggie park visit and then went down to the Balboa pier to have some lunch. Serge started getting nauseous then. It was another postcard day with snow capped mountains in the background. Remember when I made it to the top of Mt Baldy? Well that's the snowy peak just to the left of the American flag. You'll have to embiggen the photo to see it though.

We spent New Year's Eve in LA but I didn't get any good pics of that night. It was notable though because for the first time in years, I was awake at midnight. In the picture above you see the following day in Vegas with Rebekah. We had a quick two night visit and this was our carnivore dinner delight. There was two pounds of meat on that bone before we got to it. Serge was feeling generous that night because he turned ten dollars into $170 at the slot machines. Unfortunately he gave that all back and then some the following day.

Then we drove across the Mojave Desert to Palm Springs. It was snow flurrying all day and we took small roads to criss-cross the desert. I always feel so spiritual when I'm out there, it's definitely where my heart is and where I'm sure we'll end up retiring. Anywhere but Arizona that is.

In Palm Springs, we went to the Indian Canyons to do some hiking. They had had a lot of rain recently and the harsh barren landscape was interrupted by palm tree filled canyons with rushing streams in them. We did a 4 mile hike up the seven sisters trail to see the waterfalls. Very pretty.

We went down to El Paseo, the fancy schmancy shopping street in Palm Desert. So many tanned and taut-skinned retirees down there that it wasn't that surprising to see this sign. Anybody know what a "unit " is?

At the end of our Palm Springs visit, we headed back to the urban landscape to go to California Adventure. Dad sprang for the tickets as Christmas presents and I had the best time. Mom came along as did Em and the kids. We were there for 11 hours including a little sojourn to Disneyland. The poster you see above was in the lobby for the Bug's Life 3D experience. Scat humor at Disneyland! It was a fun show. My favorite rides were the Tower of Terror and Soaring over California. I can't wait to go back when they open with the new extension of the park in 2012.

Em must have been taking the picture. We stayed until the park closed and watched the World of Colour show which was quite dazzling. There were multiple finales and we kept thinking it was over but then pow pow POW! Again and again. Very cool.

Then it was down to Camp Mama for gingerbread men decorating. This is a tradition that started with the kids. The kids are teenagers now but we keep up the tradition and get our creativity on.

Then we try to give them all away since if we have them, we will just eat them and that would be wrong. I think they would make great Christmas tree ornaments.

Food was a big theme on this trip, especially since warm weather wasn't. Here you see Oysters Rockefeller. We've tried raw oysters a few times and can never muster up feelings of affinity so we thought we'd try a cooked preparation. Meh. Still not my thing. However, I'm really starting to like anchovies. I ordered them with my caesar salad and they brought me a half dozen and I ate them all! I never would have done that as early as a year ago. My tastes are really changing.

Mom is such a great cook, and she treated us to lots of treats. This was a seafood salad we had one night. We also went out for steaks one night and the Feast of the Three Kings party included honey baked ham and mom's famous scalloped potatoes. If you ever make these, you will never be satisfied with any other version. I recommend not analyzing the calorie count, however.

6-8 white or Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and sliced into rounds
1/2 lb. grated cheddar cheese
2 cups heavy cream
Salt and pepper

Place potato slices in a shallow pyrex baking dish. Add cheddar cheese, salt and pepper and toss. Cover potatoes completely with cream. Sprinkle more cheddar cheese on top. Bake potatoes in 350 degree oven until potatoes are tender. (about 1 1/2 hours)

This morning I picked up Georgie and it looks like he lost a few pounds like the vet suggested. I figure this is because they don't feed him off their dinner plates every night like we do. He's such a love muffin, I really missed him. Gonna take him out to the doggie park now. I'll get back into the blogging routine as soon as I can. There's a list a mile long of things to do and I start my intensives next week. I know it's a little late but Happy New Year everyone!

Deserts are dry, not hot

Wow, time sure is flowing swiftly. Much like the chocolate in the multi-tiered fountain you see above. Guiness has certified it as the world's largest. That was in the Bellagio in Vegas. Our whirlwind tour of the Southwest US continues and I'm writing to you now from Palm Springs California. Finally, we have been treated to some sunshine and non-frigid temperatures. Seriously, it was snowing in Vegas while we were there. Before that, we were in Long Beach where both Serge and I got flude poisoning (as my friend M calls it, since you never really know if you have the flu or food poisoning but it doesn't really matter, they both suck, so this term covers it) and spent three lovely days suffering in our hotel room. Serge bounced back better than I did, my weakened immune system allowed a fricking cold to segue into my body. It might have helped had I won in Vegas, but no, lady luck was nowhere to be found.

I rented a car of course for all of this gallavanting. This was the first time I've said yes to the gas refueling option and I'll tell you why. The nice girl told me that they fill the tank at $2.99 a gallon while the average price outside was $3.22 a gallon. Well, you know about my frugality problem, I figured if I could bring it back close to being on fumes, I'd come out a winner. Well. What I didn't know is that this little pitch is a LIE. Yes, the new business model is to bald faced lie to your customers. Because while the $3.22 a gallon price quoted includes all taxes, the $2.99 quoted price includes none. And since I was renting from an airport location, the taxes amount to 24%. A more truthful statement would have been that we will fill your tank with gas at $3.70 a gallon. But of course no one would buy it then right? Basically, young workers across the country are trained to swindle you. It just makes me shake my head in disgust. Bright side? Lesson learned. (And the next time I'm given that little pitch, I'm going to mention that I don't appreciate being lied to.)

We are here for a couple more days, gonna go on a hike and shop on El Paseo tomorrow. Thursday is California Adventure day when we will visit Disneyland's sister park. I've never been so I'm looking forward to it. After that we'll camp out at camp mama's before flying home on Monday. It really is a long time to be away from home and this morning I discovered that the mortgage payment wasn't made and the renter's deposit wasn't made either. I have no idea why though I have left messages with people. Hopefully it's just a glitch and won't cause me hideous fees. I've had enough bad luck this week!

Tomorrow is supposed to be 64 degrees. Not hot, but better than any day so far. I will try to stay focused on that! See y'all soon.