Pet$

Pets are so expensive. It's the eyes, I swear. They look at you with those eyes, and before you know it you're coming home from "Christmas shopping" with dog toys and treats and goodies she just has to have, and you're talking like some kind of brain deficient because she's such a "cutie wootie oh look at her big paws I could just eat her right up for supper".

Tesla has turned out to be a fabulous little puppy. She enjoys learning new tricks, and has the ability to focus intensely for quite a while considering she's only 15 weeks old. Thanks to puppy classes and hours of work, she knows the basic commands of sit, down, and stand. We're working on stay right now, it's going slowly. She's not a fan of having to remain in one place for too long. Puppy energy.

She knows some tricks too, like speak, gimme 5, gimme 10, jump up, off, shake a paw, and drop it. Some of them will be useful in preventing her from eating things she's not supposed to, like loose change off the floor, or the cat, but most of them are just fun.

She's at the point now where sometimes she'll just try doing tricks without the command, just to see if she can get a treat. It's pretty funny. She's too cute.

High five!

Yes!

Treat!

Cats are expensive too, as it turns out. Especially when they have problems with their penis.

A few days ago, Paul stood up on our bed and promptly started peeing. When I rushed into the bedroom to stop him, I saw there were only a few drops of pee on the bedspread, not a big puddle. He had also been rather fatigued for a few days prior. Tesla had a vet appointment that night to get her final round of shots, so we decided to call the vet later that day and see if we should take Paul in at the same time.

At work, I called the vet at lunch time and told her what had happened. Her response was along the lines of "Your cat might die at any second". Turns out, male cats can often be susceptible to urinary blockage, especially those fed exclusively dry food, like Paul. Urinary blockage can be rapidly fatal, as toxins cannot be expelled from the body and kidney failure is nothing to sneeze at. Sooo, I rushed home in a panic and drove the poor kitty to the hospital. He had to stay overnight with a catheter up his noodle. He came home the next night with an arsenal of drugs, bloody paws, and an extremely nice attitude toward us.


I figured he was being so nice due to the drugs mellowing him out, but I wasn't complaining since not getting bitten in the thigh hard enough to draw blood when all I'm trying to do is get into bed is how I like to live my life.



So, the brave little soldier gets 6 pills and 2 shots of liquid shoved down his throat every day, and has to eat a prescription diet of canned food which he hates. This morning though, he attacked my ankles as I walked up the basement steps and I was overjoyed. A massive vet bill later, my kitty is back to his old self. I wouldn't have the little asshole any other way.

A new addition to the family

Puppy!

We bought ourselves a puppy last night. She gets to come home with us Thanksgiving weekend. We're going to name her Tesla, and Paul will probably never speak to us again.

Recap

I realized I haven't posted any sort of update recently, despite the fact that quite a lot of shit has gone down recently that sort of changed things. I mentioned most of these events as potentials in earlier posts, and then never elaborated. I should be making cookies right now and not writing this, so I will make it short.

1. I bought a car about a month ago. A 2010 Toyota Matrix. It's white and I had the windows tinted and a sunroof installed and it's the sexiest beast on the road. Also, two days after I picked it up, I allowed Andrew to drive it, and he hit the biggest motherfucking raccoon that has ever walked the planet and cracked my fucking bumper and I didn't talk to him for a few days but that is another post all in itself. I would have pictures of the car, but it broke before I had the chance. I'm not bitter.

2. We're probably getting a puppy. A golden lab. Thanksgiving weekend. Maybe. I'm very excited.

3. Andrew finished a half Ironman. For real. For those of you who don't know, a half Ironman is a 2 km swim followed by an ass-raping 90 km bike ride and then to finish off your self-flagellation, a half marathon, or 21 km, run. It was in Huntsville and the weather was perfect and I have hundreds of pictures but I haven't transferred any to the computer yet.

4. My job has kicked my ass to Jupiter the past few weeks. A couple weeks ago we had an ISO audit, which was stressful, but fine. Then shortly after, everything started tanking in that the other lab tech was in a car accident last Friday and didn't come to work Monday and let me tell you, shit went south really fast. I got into work and one of our batches had failed a QC test so I had to remake it by myself. It also happened to be the largest mother effing batch we had ever made ever, so I was at work extra super-size free refill late. Tuesday and Wednesday I was at work half an hour late both days for differing reasons, then Thursday another fucking batch failed testing so we had to make it again and Jesus Fuck, I am so exhausted.

I can elaborate more on these points later. I may not. For now, it is time for sweet sweet lovin' with the television.

La la la, la la la, la la laaa, la la la

Our neighbour Gary just brought us a bottle of wine for cutting his grass for him, and now I am a tad bit tipsy. You wouldn't believe the typing errors I am making.

We are thinking quite seriously about getting a dog. A vizsla. One of these ones specifically:


This breed is reportedly incredibly active, requiring at least 7 hours of good exercise a week. That works out to about an hour a day, for those of you with your fingers out. Since both Andrew and I are pretty active people, and we love being outside, this dog would be perfect for us.

I want one quite badly. We've been talking to a breeder who has a puppy available right now, so I guess we'll see if that pans out.

Wow, I'm really quite drunk. How embarrassing.

Anyway, that's what's been going on around here. I had a lovely long weekend. Yesterday was Andrew's birthday, I made him a beautiful chocolate/caramel tart with come dark chocolate ganache topping, it's pretty effing fabulous. It tastes rather like Cadbury cream eggs, which are a guilty pleasure of mine. No pictures though :( There were mini sparklers and everything.

I am supposed to be going for a run today. I should go sober up. Or something.

You're gonna make mistakes, you're young

I'm not quite sure how Andrew and I manage to do everything ass backwards to the way "normal" people do things, but we do. When we decided it might be a good time for us to perhaps start looking for a house to buy, we ended up making an offer the first day we went out. Our agent assured us it wouldn't last long on the market, and she was right. It was rushed, stressful, crazy, and it didn't work out because there were people around who were more hardcore about the house than we were, on the first day it was put up for sale. Those sellers were lucky bastards. I digress.

Friday Andrew found out he has been accepted to RMC for the fall. YAAAAAAYYY!!! He's been offered the chance to complete his Master's degree in 6 months, which is insanely fantastic, if you ask me. We've been waiting since late spring, when he first heard about this option, and everything was finalized mid-August. Finally. So now, we have a bit over 2 weeks to figure out his transportation from Milton to Kingston twice a week. We have been doing some brainstorming already, and we had pretty much 98% settled on buying another car.

Yesterday to celebrate his great achievement, we thought we'd go around Milton to the dealerships and test drive some shit. We went to Honda first, and tried out the Fit.

Source

It was a pretty nice ride, it was surprisingly spacious inside, had a lot of really useful seat configurations for transporting stuff (we transport stuff a lot), and was all around a decent car. We were pretty sure we'd be getting a Fit. The car salesmen did their best to convince us it was in our best interests to buy it RIGHT NOW or at least LATER TODAY rather than coming back because the Fit is an endangered species and it's really hard to get and this deal is only on until Tuesday and Angelo made a reading mistake so we'll give you $500 off but ONLY TODAY so we shook their hands and hightailed it out of there.

But we did really like the car.

Next was Toyota, because I've wanted a Matrix for just about ever. They happened to have a demo 2010 white Matrix with the Touring package and dark interior for sale with only 4000km and I nearly peed my pants I was so excited. A demo was exactly what we were hoping to find, and one with low kilometres that they were willing to sell is a fucking incredible deal. We hemmed and hawed, but I really wanted it and Andrew really wanted it. I took it out for a drive, Andrew drove for a bit, it was a long drive with a huge sales guy in the back seat. This car is similar to the Corolla we have now, except slightly heavier and obviously, a hatchback instead of a sedan. It drives like a dream and has storage space I fantasize about when I should be working. Just like your hot girlfriend, it looks good from the outside, and feels good from the inside. We can add a sunroof and tint the windows and I will be the luckiest bitch in town.

Source

It's a sexy car. We didn't buy it on the spot, because I wanted to go home and think about it. Toyota was much better at not pressuring us to buy buy buy now now now, which was nice. We came home, thought about it, and we're going to go back Monday and get that shit. Providing it hasn't already been sold by then. Oh man, I can't wait for my new car.

At both places, moreso at Honda but still to some degree at Toyota, I felt slightly patronized and more than a little discriminated against because of my age. Both dealers assumed that because we were young, we had no idea what was going on, and that we don't understand financing or discounts or taxes. It was almost funny, because I could step back while they were explaining these things to these kids, and come back with an intelligent question. I've bought a house jackass, a five year financing plan doesn't scare me. Not even a little. I know what I want in a car, I'm not stupid, and I'm not going to be pressured into something because I look like a young girl out on her own without her mommy. /rant.

Hopefully, Monday evening, I will be the proud owner of a quasi-brand-spanking new 2010 Toyota Matrix. I love new toys.

K-k-k-k-kids love my nuts

Because I have a gloriously long commute to work, I get to listen to the boys on The Edge morning show every day. They're frickin' hilarious, and I often end up terrifying the drivers surrounding me by spontaneously busting out the laughter.

Yesterday, a listener emailed in a remix of the infamous Slap Chop commercial. Vince, who we also know from Shamwow, has got some explaining to do.



Seriously? Seriously. It's even better if you don't watch, just listen to the audio. I was laughing so hard in the car, there were tears streaming down my face and I was in danger of a high speed collision.

Find!

Andrew and I drove around town today looking for yard sales because we're 67 and love old vases. We found a big team effort sale, and also scored the jackpot for bikes. They had an old women's Fuji road bike, a pretty black one that was just my size. I offered the lady $20 and she took it.



Hehe. I did some research into it, and I believe that it is a 1988 model.

According to Andrew, it has really good parts, and it's pretty light for an old bike.

It was probably like $600 new, so even though it's as old as my sister, $20 was a total steal.

I will ride this bike like a bucking bull.

I like doing activities

My Louis Garneau Equipe jersey is impossible to find. Apparently, they are no longer making them because they are a limited item. Our Cyclepath only has larger sizes, which I am not. Everywhere else doesn't even have them available, and cannot get them because LG is out.

Booooo.

Luckily, I am flexible. We went to MEC tonight to look around for other options. We went 10 minutes before they were closing, partly because it took us a while to decide we were going to go, and partly to prevent us from spending the hundreds of dollars that normally get spent there whether we mean to or not. MEC is one of the happiest places on earth.

Somehow, the normally extremely critical, analytical shopper in me found a jersey that I liked within 30 seconds, tried it on, loved it, and bought it before 5 minutes were gone. Very rare for me.

This is it:



It's Castelli, and the colours are much (much) better in real life. Purple. Soft.

Awww, Paulie is curled up on the mountain of boxes in the corner. He rarely induces an "awww" response out of me, so it was worth commenting on.

He got up and left. He's a restless sort of cat.

I have been sucking it up in the active department this week. I fucked up my ankle last week from running, so I'm taking a few days off from that to let it heal. This somehow has lead me to not do anything. Well, that and the weather; the crappy rainy/hailing/overcast/freezing spring weather. Supposed to be nicer this weekend.

I can't wait to move. One month from tomorrow! Yay!

On being an Adult

It's been a hell of a long time since I made an attempt to update here. I do have a good excuse though. I have been buying a house.

Que?

Yup. I bought me an old (well, new, actually) three bedroom, one and a half bath townhouse in Milton Ontario. It's gorgeous and it's to be mine provided we can finish all of the crazy shit that has to be finished in order to complete the transfer. Buying a house is not for kids.

We've also been busy pimping the cat. You heard me. He always drinks out of the bathroom sink, which is fucking disgusting. We can't just close the bathroom door because it doesn't have a window so the stank just gathers and that's worse than finding cat hairs in your toothbrush. So. Paul is now the proud new owner of a cat drinking fountain. He's such a diva.

Additionally, he scratches everything. The couch, the walls, the doors, the bedspread, our legs, etc., and since we're moving and planning on having Nice Things, we needed to remedy this potential for disaster. My solution? Bright blue Soft Paws. Hah! They work, too. And Paul is pretty now. He's such a diva.

I cannot wait to move out of this dump. I think that's all that needs to be said.

I've been getting back into training hardcore the last few weeks. Andrew got me a fantastic heart rate monitor for my birthday, so it has been some good motivation to get out and move my ass.

I went on a bit of a shopping spree yesterday as well. I may have accidentally gone into a Lululemon store, which is dangerous at the best of times, but especially so when I am way into being active. I only bought one thing though: A sweet-ass running skirt that makes my ass look just as sweet as my description suggests. Chica chica yeah.

I also bought new Mizuno running shoes last week, and some pretty pink LG biking gloves yesterday. Andrew also ordered me a spectacular LG jersey. I sound crazy, even to myself.

I love Lululemon. Coincidentally, Lululemon just opened up an online store. Bad news bears children.

Work has been going well. I'm plenty busy, which is good for me, but I am always tired, which is not. I think once my benefits kick in in a few weeks, I will go to the doctor to have some blood tests done. I just want to make sure there isn't some regulation problem or something. Ugh.

Today I have been enjoying doing nothing. I rarely get the chance anymore, it's a special treat. I actually didn't get out of bed until after 9. It was insanity.

And, that is all.

BScH

It's official. I have letters after my name.

Yesterday was the weird and wonderful ceremony of convocation. I graduated along with the rest of the College of Biological Science. Our speaker was a hydrogeologist, who not only does work completely unrelated to the discipline of biology, but also gave a long speech that gave the impression he was looking to hire new graduates into his company. It was odd.

So, my Bachelor's degree is done, over, kaput. Onto being a grown-up now.

So long, sweet childhood!

Who needs sleep? (Well you're never gonna get it)

I am exhausted.

I got a sweet new job making baby juice, and I've been getting up early, commuting an hour both ways, and standing on my feet all day, all week. I'm a real adult now; it's terrifying and wonderful.

I'm working again tomorrow, but I had today off. We went out for breakfast, got groceries, bought me a dress for grad, cleaned the entire apartment, made cookies, fudge, and spent a lot of time not relaxing.

It's a good thing that I do not have to work on Family Day, or Tuesday, or Wednesday, because I am starved for sleep and the couch. Tuesday is convocation, so I'm taking that off to make up for working Sunday (tomorrow), and Wednesday the only other lab tech isn't in and since I'm not trained to actually do anything, going in would be pretty useless. This results in me having a huge stretch of holidays that are not holidays, in my second week of work.

Pretty sweet deal.

Tomorrow Andrew is going to the auto show with his family. I was supposed to go, but then I got hired and was asked to work, so...we know how that turned out. But I will be around for supper. We're having sweet potato soup that we started in the crock pot tonight, lamb, and salad. It should be epic.

All in all, I had a wonderful Valentine's day.

My only indulgence would be that I eat a lot of frozen yogurt...

I have been a very busy beaver these last few days. I had a job interview earlier this week, and set up another for next week. A few days ago I cranked out a reconstruction of an Incubus t-shirt I've been hanging onto for a long time. I was very happy with the end result. I really love the red material I used, it's soft and sparkly and totally rocker chick.

On Friday my old desktop computer finally heaved its last breath. It's been barely clinging onto the threads of its existence for the past two years or so, so it was not a surprise to me when it suddenly turned off and refused to be revived. Because I'm graduating in just over a week, Andrew decided conveniently that an appropriate graduation gift would be a new computer. Yay! So now I have a lovely new HP laptop, unfortunately with Vista.

So far, I hate Vista with the passion of a thousand burning suns, but I am trying to keep an open mind. It's a huge pain in the ass, and causing me all sorts of inexplicable problems. I imagine I will end up either having Andrew downgrade me to XP, or I will install Ubuntu because I have all sorts of love for that operating system, except for some compatibility issues that require a little extra effort to deal with.

Today I convinced the boy to take me for a walk by the pier. It was beautiful and sunny so I took the camera along. It certainly helped my winter depression to get out of the apartment, although it was really windy down by the water. I bought some vitamin D fortified orange juice today as defense against the Canadian winter. I can't wait for spring.

Mass and migraines

Both have been unpredictable and a little irritating.

Does anybody else gain weight when they start exercising regularly and eating healthily? Or am I the only lucky one? Andrew got a scale for Christmas that measures weight, fat percent, and hydration. As I exercise more and eat more fruits and veggies (V8 V-fusion is fantastic), my weight has been increasing ever so slightly, along with my fat percent. So, I am not adding heavier muscle, I am...making more fat. Oh, the wonders and joys of my body.

Also in the luck department, I never used to get eye-tearing, moan-inducing headaches centred intensely around my left eye. The last few years I have been getting these monsters for about a week, every few months or so. I was in denial for a while, refusing to believe I too had succumbed to the intense pain gene that is prevalent in both sides of my family. However, I think it's time to admit it. I get migraines, and they suck.

A lot.

There is one developing today. It's been trying to surface all week, I can feel it hovering there, threatening to burst forth when I least expect it. On Sunday it was almost full blown, but I somehow managed to conquer it with a few Motrin and a nap. I'm not sure I will be so lucky today, or tomorrow. I've never escaped an attack before. Especially not one that has been building slowly, biding its time, positioning itself just so.

I'm scared. Hold me?

Defrost Disaster

Yesterday we woke up to a freezer full of water that should have been ice, defrosted meat that should have been frozen, and mushy, mushy bananas. Egads!

I spent my morning yesterday making spaghetti sauce (might as well use the ground beef while it's hot, so to speak), transferring foods outside, and wondering whether my digestive system is fortified sufficiently to handle chicken that may or may not have been sitting at room temperature just long enough for a small kingdom of salmonella to set up shop.

Trying to salvage what food I could, I made spaghetti sauce, two loaves of banana bread, a loaf of cheese bread, and strawberry banana daiquiris. Unfortunately I still have a frozen yogurt tub three quarters full of brown banana mush in the fridge. I don't have that many recipes that use brown bananas. Also, the cheese bread didn't use up any defrosted frozen stuff, I just wanted it.

Never a dull day around here. Especially when there are daiquiris about.

PS The fudge is fucking fantastic.

Fresh Cream Cheesecake with Fresh Berries

Over the summer, I managed to get myself addicted to the Food Network, which has been detrimental to other areas of my life, like school. Luckily I'm in my last semester, so maintaining an 80% average isn't necessary, as I won't be needed my scholarship renewed again. On a note related to that however, despite the fact that my marks absolutely do not matter at this point, I still can't adapt a carefree attitude towards school. Sigh.

Anyway, September is a month of birthdays for me. Two of my sisters, both my parents, and my boyfriend were all born in September. My youngest sister, deciding to give my wallet a break, got herself born on August 28th. HA! Thanks a lot Jo!

I still haven't gotten around to the point of this post, which of course, is the aaaahh-mazing creamy cheesy moussy mound of heaven that I made Andrew for his birthday. It was a while ago of course, but I can still feel its delicious rich texture in my mouth...ohhhhhh...whoops, got a little drool on me there. This was the result of hours of me trying to whip 18% cream by hand (you can't whip 18% cream) and finally giving in and using Dream Whip:


I bought an electric hand mixer the next day. This dollop of white ecstasy was based on a recipe I found on the Food Network website, but of course, being the queen of not having everything required on hand, I made a few substitutions.

It was still on the list of the top 5 most delicious things I've ever eaten. Next time though, I'd get real, genuine heavy cream. And save my arm muscles a lot of fatigue.