Bah! Monday!

Oh Monday. You're a sneaky little little jeezer. I wasn't ready for you today. At all. I want my weekend back. I didn't even get the laundry started before it was time to go to bed last night.

Bah!

After dealing with Homer Saturday, Chris and I had breakfast at Timothys, and then headed down to the Charlottetown Hotel. There was a run being held (Wally Rodd 10k), and afterward, a pumpkin toss. The pumpkin toss was a fundraiser for the IWK. Interested parties paid a $1 to go up to the 4th floor and drop their old Halloween pumpkins down to the ground beneath. Chris wanted to take a few photos. No, neither one of us were run participants. The thought of that is laughable, at best. Thereafter, we did a bit of running around - WallyWorld and a stop at the Mall to pick up Lana's birthday gift at the Body Shop.

Saturday night, we headed over to Lana & Bruce's. Bruce arranged a bit of a surprise cake/ice cream gathering for Lana's birthday. It was mostly just family, and they left fairly early in the evening. Chris and I stayed back, and the four of us played several rounds of the game "WTF - Raunchy version". We didn't realize it was a drinking game when we purchased it. It was good for a few laughs nonetheless...and, I suppose, if we all concentrated on making it an actual drinking game, the questions would have packed more of a punch. Thanks for the fun evening, MacAusland's :).

Sunday, we brunched on homemade (well, Chris-made) whole wheat blueberry pancakes (from scratch!), and I finally got caught up on my Thursday night taped tv. I had full intentions on getting a few loads of laundry done and straightening up a bit around the house, but the pull of the television was too great ...having just happened upon a show starring my Bon Bon I had to give my entire concentration to that. After that, I met up with Lana at Cedars for birthday shawarma! It's our tradition to go to Cedars for shawarma on our respective birthdays; really, it's just an excuse to eat more shawarma! Mmmm....shawarma! As always, the food and the company were fantastic!

And now it's Monday - another work week...and I'm surrounded by coughing and sneezing and blowing noses. It's that time of year. What I wouldn't give for the shelter of my warm cozy bed...

An empty cage...

Homer T. Bunny has gone to bunny heaven.

Chris woke me up this morning to tell me he figured he finally needed to put him down. He suspected perhaps he'd had a stroke through the night...one side of his body didn't seem to move. He'd been getting sicker and sicker for the past few months - losing so much weight. He still seemed to have an appetite and drank well, but he was nothing but bones. Chris never wanted to play God and put him down, but today it was such a sad sight, it felt like the only humane thing to do.

He called the vet and made an appointment. I left them to go have a shower.

In the time it took for me to have my shower, he'd died in Chris' arms.

As long as Chris and I have been together, Homer's been around. He didn't do much....what do bunnies do, really? He was a Himalayan dwarf rabbit. A real cutie. He loved raisins, jelly beans and Nibs. Sometimes we'd let him out of the cage for him to get some exercise. It was hilarious when we lived in the apartment because he'd do this little run and skip thing - I called it his 'frolic'. It looked like he was clicking his heels together. He didn't do it much here on account of there being no carpet. He couldn't get much traction on the laminate. He did try though. Chris would put an old quilt down and he frolicked a bit on that. He used to take forever to get a drink from his water bottle...and the clicking sound he'd make doing it used to drive us nuts. He used to take his food dish and bang it up against the bars of the cage to get our attention..."uh...hey guys, my dish is empty...". Chris put super strong magnets on the dish to try to keep it in place. Somehow, he always seemed to manage to get it free though.

The floor looks really empty now where the cage once stood. As much as it drove me nuts, I'll miss that clickety sound he made when he got a drink.

I really am going to miss the little guy.

Rest in peace, buddy.

This little fella cried wee, wee, wee......

It's been a long time since I posted any 'news' worthy goings-on, but after having come across this article, I figured it was post-worthy:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/windsor/story/2009/11/06/chatham-pig-tim-hortons-091106.html?ref=rss

I get a kick out of the final sentence: "'I guess we're lucky we added a section to our health and safety manual for when someone leaves a pig in your washroom,' Morelli said." They already had a section in their health and safety manual...really? Talk about your protection against the swine flu...

Happy Birthday Lana!!

Today marks Lana's birthday, so this is a post in dedication to her.

Lana, I toast you - today and always. Thank you for being a friend - a confidante, a shoulder, an ear, and a hand. For your words of encouragement... for laying it out on the line without the sugar coating when I need it...for the silly times and shared giggles. For your sick sense of humor...for standing up for what you believe in...for your insight, and your strength. Through thick and thin, happy or sad, I'm here for you whenever you need me.

Happy Birthday, my dear friend. May the year ahead bring you every happiness and utter spoilage! xo

"We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over."
-- Samuel Johnson

A mish mash of nothing, really.

When did it get to be Wednesday?? Jeepers... Huge changes going on around work - and because I make it a point not to blog about work, I'm not going into any huge detail. Suffice it to say that we're training for a whole new role within the organization. The change is exciting, challenging... and here I am back in a classroom learning something completely different. By the time I land home I'm mentally exhausted. I guess that's how you get from Sunday to Wednesday in a blink of an eye.

(That entire paragraph took an eternity to write as I'm 'multi-tasking' between blogging and watching Rachael Ray...where Michael Buble is one of the day's guests. I love me some Michael Buble....mmmm, mmmm, mmmm. He's so talented, funny, ...and heck, I'm happy just hearing him talk).

So aside from training, the week has passed pretty uneventfully. We're now in November...Christmas is just around the freaking corner. I haven't even started thinking of Christmas shopping, let alone shop. I haven't given thought to what my Christmas cards will look like...and I'm doing well keeping the sink clean and having clean underwear on hand lately. I'm not entirely sure where the time will come to do the card making and the shopping... I guess I say the same thing every year, though don't I? I have a lot of birthdays to celebrate in November too, so once they're out of the way that allows more of a mindset for the St. Nick season. I'm all shades of bah humbug at the moment, though.

(I haven't even managed to craft/send a "thank you" note to ColleenB yet for her hospitality after the Matt show in Saint John yet, for God's sake!)

So far, I've managed to evade the drasted swine flu...and I gotta say, I'm sooooo effing sick of watching/hearing about the hysteria that is the H1N1 virus. I know it's serious, and I don't mean to belittle those families mourning the loss of a loved one afflicted with it. The 'regular' flu has also had casualties...but no one hears about those. I just feel that the media has blown it up to an unimagineable proportion, creating massive fear everywhere. People are quarantining themselves in their homes - preventing their children from going trick-or-treating on Halloween (and some of those that did were sanitizing the treats as they got in the door!) ... Wash your hands, stay home if you feel ill or have a fever. If you're immune system is compromised, or if you're a part of a high risk group then sure, it's probably a good idea to be vaccinated. I haven't had a flu shot in the past 3 years; I've also not been afflicted with the flu in those 3 years. The year I did get the flu shot, I came down with the flu. Will I roll up my sleeve to guard against swine? I haven't made up my mind. You can bet I won't be standing out in the cold for 3-4 hours to do so, that's for sure.

(I wasn't even going to bring up a mention of the swine flu due to my utter disgust with the media hysteria, but this blog may someday prove helpful in remembering certain moments in history, so I decided to go against my better judgement. And, I wash my hands with soap and water...I do NOT douse them in scads of anti-bacterical hand sanitizers either!)

Ok, the Dragon's Den is just starting, and my hands are so freaking cold it's hard to type. I'll jump down from my soapbox for another night. Happy Hump.

The Rocky Horror Show

ACT put on their rendition of the Rocky Horror Picture Show and Lana had a part in it so I couldn't let her down so bought myself a ticket. I couldn't convince Chris to go, but Tracy was my willing date for the evening.

In all fairness to myself, I had never seen the movie before, and had no real idea what I was in for at all. Did I enjoy it? Honestly, not completely. Parts entertained me though. Had I had a little more background prior to going into the show, I'm sure I would have a whole new understanding/appreciation of what they were trying to do. Having been to the show, however, and seeing parts of the actual show via YouTube, however, I have to commend the cast and crew for a fantastic recreation!

Kudos to one of the lead roles, too ....little Adam Gauthier. I say "little" because that's how I remember him...the little boy I used to babysit... Well, he's all growed up now. Never thought I'd see him sporting heels, fishnets and a bustier, but I digress. He did a fantastic job recreating Frank -n-Furter. The whole cast did a great job. Bravo ACT, bravo. Congratulations on a successful event!

Halloween ....'hood style

Halloween in the 'hood was a success. I was thrilled to be a part of it this year (having had to work til 9:00pm last year and missing it all). Preparations began early afternoon (and in retrospect, we should have gotten up and had an even earlier start). We began with an array of old clothes and a full basket of old flyers and proceeded to stuff them to assemble our "friends" for the evening:

In between stuffing and carving, Chris had to stop at Buy-Rite to pick up a few supplies; he landed home with this mask. Fortunately I did see him coming up the walkway - had I not, you can bet dollars to doughnuts that he would have scared the bejubus out of me. I can never get him to pose nicely for a picture for me...but given an opportunity for a pose such as this, he's more than willing:

All fun aside, we got back to work. After stuffing, we had some carving to do, including carving enough out of one pumpkin to fit Christopher's ol' pumpkin head:

I even got my own hands dirty:

A perfect fit:
And the final product! We added a bit of "stuffing" to the inside of the coveralls to make Chris look less 'real' to aid in successful spooking:

And a look at the patio - Peter Pumpkinhead looks on - our carved pumpkins set up, and a few stray legs come out of nowhere:
I had to grab the token self-pic. I donned the popular 'fro wig:

This is one of our 'friends'. He'd been there for a while...cobwebs had formed:

I decided the 'fro wasn't scary enough, so opted for a different one. This is actually a mullet put on backwards to hide as much of my face as possible:

So of course I make Chris pose for another token self-pic:

A few night shots:



We set up to be posing as still as our stuffed counterparts, hoping to cause confusion as to which one of the bodies was real, and which was not. Who would believe anyone would put a real freaking pumpkin on their head? Chris was golden. I draped a blanket over my legs, and sat with my head turned downward to ensure the hair fell all in my face. Of course, we also had scary music playing in the background, which was controlled by a remote switch, so some times it was deathly quiet, and sometimes a scream, perhaps even a chainsaw could be heard. One by one the little hoodlet goblins came up - most expecting something, as in previous years, some outright refusing to go to "that house" as they walked by. We made sure to not scare the younger ones, but the older guys - well, they were fair game ;). One guy made his friend come up with him, but he wouldn't come close to me for his candy. He asked his friend (who'd already come up for his) to get his candy for him. His friend refused, and he said, "I'm gonna piss my pants...", to which Chris, nor I could maintain composure, and our laughing gave ourselves away.

After the children's curfew we cleaned up the carnage for another year and settled in with some popcorn and watched a few scary movies. I hope you all enjoyed a safe and happy Halloween!