Doggie Update

Last night I had to pick Mojo up from our vet, and transport him over to an Emergency facility in Dartmouth. Sort of stupid that the clinics don't do overnighters anymore, so everyone has to use the Emerg. It's a nice facility though so I was glad to see that. Just a pain in the ass, and disruptive to a recouperating animal.

He had his IV line still in, so I had to make sure he didn't get all tangled up trying to walk to the car. Interesting. Then getting him the car was a whole other challenge. He's still so tired and weak, and his back end is just so tough for him to deal with. He's being a super-trouper though. Poor guy.

Leaving him at Emerg was hard. I actually cried when I drove away. There was some other people leaving their dog overnight too, and we all had our sad faces on.

I had to go back and pick him up by 7:30 this morning (the facility is strictly Emerg and off-hours...so they close at 8am when all the other clinics are reopening). This was fine, but of course I ended up back at our vet by about 7:45 and they weren't there yet. I see a flaw in the system...they knew I had to pick him up by 7:30 and bring him back, so you would think they might plan for that. Anyway, it worked out fine because I let him out of the car in the parking lot to lay down and he seemed to enjoy the breeze. He's been pretty cooped up the last few days.

He stays at the vet for the rest of today, and when he finishes up his bag of fluids the vet will reassess and give me a call. If he has perked up and maybe tried to eat then I can bring him home tonight. If not, it might be another overnighter at Emerg for him. Cross your fingers and toes for us!

I did find a mild bit of humor in the situation though. This morning I had him laying in the parking lot and then realized it was the handicap spot...haha. He was all sick and sad with his little IV bag, so I thought it was sort of funny and snapped his photo. I don't think he was amused....but I needed the giggle. :)

Sick as a Dog

I have now learned where that phrase comes from. Because our doggie is very sick and it's sad and scary.

Poor Mojo stopped eating and drinking the other day. Which as you all know is highly unusual for the biggest pig of them all. He'll eat ANYTHING. Well, except maybe mushrooms.

He seemed a little off on Saturday evening, but was still the life of the party and got himself tons of treats from all the guests. But Sunday we noticed he wasn't drinking his water, and then when dinner time came and went and he hadn't cleaned out his dish we knew something was up. We chalked it up to the heat and humidity and figured he'd probably eat in the middle of the night when he cooled off and got hungry. I got him to eat a ton of ice cubes from my hand too...so we were sure he was just overheated.

Monday morning we had to get up early because DBF was heading off to sea. I had heard Mojo roaming around in the middle of the night, heard him slurp from the toilet (which is odd because I've never seen him do that), but in the morning he seemed OK...just upset that daddy was leaving. So I paid attention to him all day and he still wasn't eating...not even interested in any treats and still not really slurping much from his water dish. Monday night I tried the ice again but no go. I took him for a walk to see if I could get him worked up enough to drink something...but he was very lethargic and barely made it around the block. Not good.

So I decided to give him some time on Tuesday and then I was taking him to the vet. Sure thing on Tuesday he wasn't any better and I could tell he was getting weak because of not eating....so

off to the vet we went. He was soooooo good. It's very cute, but sad at the same time because it's so not like him. He walks slow like a very old man and just lays down every chance he gets. His tail is still wagging and his tongue hung out for the car ride, but he can barely work his hind end enough to get into the car.

Anyway, vet checked him out and then recommended xrays and bloodwork. Xrays didn't show much...a light discrepancy on his liver, but nothing conclusive. The bloodwork showed all kinds of things...elevated white count, high sodium and nitrates....which could be because he's dehydrated....but also a calcium count that is off the chart... which is an indicator of lymphoma. Definitely nothing conclusive, but freaking scary. Hopefully it's actually just some sort of bacteria infection...but the only way to really tell is to let him take some antibiotics and see if he perks up, and then an ultrasound if necessary.

She gave him some subcutaneous fluids (under his skin) to get him a bit hydrated overnight, and we started him on amoxicillin just in case. I took him back today for actual IV treatment in the hopes of getting him properly hydrated. Cross you fingers that it works. After the treatment the vet will redo the bloodwork to see if his counts have lowered at all. If they have, then it's probably good news and we'll see if the antibiotics work....otherwise we'll do the ultrasound to see what else could be going on.

Ugh.

And to top this all off, DBF left on Monday for a month at sea and can't come home. How shitty is that? I'm gonna look after his best friend like he's my best friend.

Poor puppy.

Reminiscing

On Wednesday evening, one of DBF's buddies from back in Winnipeg dropped by with his family for a visit. The boys haven't seen each other in years so it was a good old time looking at photos, drinking, chatting and just plain old having fun.

He came with his wife, their two kids and a niece. We started the visit by plunking the kids in front of a DVD (haha...but they were happy with this as they had been driving squished in the SUV all day). Us adults just got to relax with some snacks and a drink. Nice.

Of course the boys got a few beers in them and got on a roll with the stories about the old times. Then they got out the photo albums and we all got to see them with their glorious late teens/early 20s hair and bicycle shorts. Oh my, how styles have changed! LOL.

We did some BBQ. Some more chatting. More movies for the kids. More drinks of course.

Around midnight we finally put the kids to bed....and just as they did that DBF took the chance to demonstrate our stereo's capabilities. So freaking loud...I had to leave the room. haha. Then off with that, down with the kids, and a bit more relaxation time for the adults. His wife decided to go to bed shortly after that, and although I was finding it really entertaining listening to the boys, I decided to head off to bed around 1am (as they were starting in on talking about war and cars and boy stuff!).

I read my book for a while because they still had the stereo on. When I heard the stereo go off, I decided to go to sleep...but just as I was dozing off, they turned it on again. This happened a couple of times....on, off, doze, on, off, doze. Then DBF had his guitar out....so no more dozing for a bit.

I must have finally dozed off around 3:15, but then DBF came to bed at 3:30...and tossed and turned, tossed and turned....got up, tripped over dog...laid down, tossed and turned some more. Then I guess we both fell asleep.

Until 5:30 when the alarm started going off. And he didn't hear it, so I kept snoozing it. Until 6:45.

Moral of the story. We really need to plan more than 12 hours for these good old buddy visits. I'm getting too old for the all nighters. haha.

Calling all Haligonians!

So it's that time that I need to start finding some local professional services....

Can any of you recommend (in the Clayton Park area preferably, but if you have someone you love then I'm willing to go pretty much anywhere...) the following:

1) Doctor - I'd like a woman, but if you have a male doctor that you love and trust (and that is accepting new clients) then let's hear it.

2) Dentist - finally got the forms for DBFs dental plan, so it's time to clean these not so pearly whites.

3) Chiropractor - I thought I'd finally gotten away from needing one, but apparently not.

BB10

I finally got caught up on the episodes of Big Brother 10 I DVR'd this past week.

Can't say that I'm in love with anyone just yet. It was pretty funny to see that Brian guy get backdoored right away though. That's what happens when you think you are king of the castle far too soon. Cocky gets bit in the ass. Too bad though because he likely could have kept things interesting.

Not sure what the big deal is about Memphis. So far I haven't seen anything that leads me to believe he's the dark horse that could win this thing. Not that you can ever tell this early on.

I like Ollie, but it's too bad he likes April. Bitchy blonde bimbo. Blech.

And I could do without Renny. She's wierd and annoying. Unfortunately they'll probably end up keeping her around for a while because she's no threat to anyone.

Jesse could prove to be better at this than we thought. Well, if he can quit looking at himself in the mirror. Love yourself much?

That's all I've got so far. At least now I have something to keep me entertained while DBF is gone for the WHOLE MONTH of August.

Blogger Love

I have been tagged about a half dozen times now, so I figured this was a good time to take a break from work and do some posting....

5 things found in my purse (DBF calls it my purse-a-saurus...although it's big it's not overly full):
- wallet I love (finally found one that holds everything I want it to)
- cell phone that I rarely use (didn't want to give up my uber-contract, but don't know enough people here to really need it)
- my new pink camera in it's cute little case :)
- mini Neutrogena sunscreen (got this as a freebie from the Cancer Relay)
- roll of US stamps (I just went to the post office for work stuff)

5 favorite things found in my bedroom:
- the cat
- the dog
- the ceiling fan
- the spot on the dresser where the new TV will go
- the huge-ass coolio window that no one else on our cookie cutter street has

5 things I have always wanted to do:
- have a family
- go to Spain
- go to an all-inclusive sunny resort (well, probably not ALWAYS but the last few years for sure)
- grow a kick-ass garden (plants and veggies)
- have a cottage near the water with a white picket fence

5 things I am currently into:
- weekend getaways with my honey
- blogging
- working out (who knew!)
- TV on DVD
- making our house a home

At this point pretty much everyone has received a tag I think. I would tag Mikey, but he's a stupid boy and won't do it. :)

TV Love

DBF and I are addicted to watching whole television series on DVD. We are starting to tap out though. Everything we like has either gone off the air, or we are waiting for the next season to hurry up and come out.

The other day DBF discovered one of our faves on On Demand from Eastlink so that was a score. Twelve glorious free episodes of Season Two of Dexter. Love it. Only two more episodes to watch tonight though, then we are back to waiting again....

Next up we want Entourage. It seems like forever that we've been waiting for another season of that one. And Nip/Tuck. That was our most recent find...but we burned through four seasons in less than a month and now we're dying for another one.

We have also watched all of Six Feet Under (my personal fave, six seasons, best series finale EVER), Deadwood (season one was GREAT, season two was OK, season three sucked ass), Carnivale (only two seasons), Dead Like Me (only two seasons...lame), and hmmmm....I'm sure there are more.

Personally I have also seen the whole series of Sex and the City (a couple of times cuz I own them all) and Gilmore Girls (this one is good for if DBF goes to sea in the Winter and I'm hunkered down on the couch). DBF has seen all of the Sopranos (which I plan to see eventually) and has all of Arrested Development as well.

Anyone have any suggestions as to something else we can dive into while we are waiting?

Damn

I just realized that I forgot to tape the first episode of the new season of Big Brother. Poop.

Camping in Nova Scotia

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Our first camping trip since our move to Nova Scotia. In fact, our first camping trip since two Labor Days ago. Last year we were living at separate ends of the country (while DBF was out here on his course and we didn't even know we would be moving) so no camping at all for us.

At first it seemed as though someone up there didn't want us to go camping. The place we wanted was booked, then the weather was supposed to be bad, then we heard about the campfire ban, and so on....but in the end we got up on Friday morning and decided to just go. I worked my buns of until noon then emailed my West Coast co-workers and wished them a happy TGIF and signed off for the day.

We chose to go to Porters Lake Provincial Park as it is the closest campground to us and they still had lots of available spots so we didn't need to book online for the extra fee. :) A couple of friends had wrinkled their noses when we mentioned the spot, but we figured since we've never been anywhere around here it would be fun for us.

And it was!! What a beautiful spot! The lake is huge and gorgeous and blue. The campground is large and spacious (a bit dusty but what campground isn't?). Our site was in a great location and it was massive and mostly grassy. And we didn't have a neighbor until late last night and even then they didn't bother us at all. Fairly private in general with just enough exposure to enjoy the goings on along the roads and stuff. They even had a proper bathroom with running water and real toilets...which I know defeats the purpose of roughing it...but it sure is nice to wash my face at the end of the day.

The fire pit was a bit chintzy but it served the purpose, and hey, at least we were allowed to have a fire at all! We kept warm for only $3.50 for wood (back in BC it's like $5 for half as much) and had enough of a blaze to cook our smokies and that's all we needed.

Friday afternoon and evening we just lounged around the site after we set up. The sunset was freaking amazing. Super bright orange, then pink, then glowing magenta. Awesome!

Saturday morning DBF got up early with Mojo and I ended up sleeping in for another couple of hours. hehe :) When I got up I made us a yummy breakfast of bacon, scrambled eggs with mushrooms and hashbrowns. We forgot our coffee cups, so drank our tea from our travel wine glasses. LOL. Then we took a run to the front gate for extra ice and fire wood, then a nice long walk around the park. I considered going in for a swim, but we had Mojo with us and he doesn't like water and kept barking at all the other dogs. He's not good at sitting still for beach sitting either (and it's not a very big beach, and it's rocks not sand...). Instead we just took some pictures and enjoyed the walk. The sun was blazing! Then we decided to drive back out to the road and see if we could find a store for something refreshing to drink (we only had booze and Cokes and in this heat we needed something less dehydrating). Once we had waters and Powerade in hand, we came back to the site and just enjoyed the afternoon playing cards and reading our books. Our evening was spent at the fire pit again, with Trivial Pursuit and hot chocolate with Bailey's. :) Oh, and yet another fantastic sunset.

This morning we slept in a little longer then got up to another yummy greasy breakfast before packing up to head home. Yet another beautiful day! The location was just the right distance away to feel like a little trip away from home, but close enough that we were home by noon. DBF cleaned my car (holy dust and dog hair Batman!) because he's nice like that, and I unpacked and tidied up our stuff.

We were both covered in a massive layer (or ten) of dust and camping grime (ewwww....sunscreen)... a shower has never felt so good! Too bad a shower doesn't cure mosquito bites...but such is the price you pay for spending the night in nature.

All in all I totally recommend it. A perfect camping weekend.

Free Books

Thanks to Eurydice, I happened upon this fabulous book contest over at Trish's Diary.

I love to read, but never make enough time for it so I hope I win the 14 books so I can bury myself with them and some ice tea on the deck. :)

Check it out!

Car Ride

And just cuz you haven't seen enough photos of us and our life....hehe...here are the pics from the first road trip last Saturday...(these were on my old camera so I almost forgot!).

Here's Mojo enjoying the car ride:


Here's Mojo happy to be out of the car with Daddy:

Here's me trying to make sure there's a picture of me and my honey:

Here's me figuring out where to hold the camera to get us both in the shot:

Photo Extravaganza

Here are a bunch of photos I've taken over the last week or so with my new little camera....

Our neighbor's weenie dog, Gertie:

Fresh strawberries:

New umbrella plant I picked up for $10 (actually much nicer than the one I had to leave behind when we moved...):

Lillies in my garden:

My front garden coming along nicely:

Our front porch:

And here's Stoopy enjoying some of my tasty yogurt (taken with my old camera and you can totally tell...):

Sadly it's Monday

I want another long weekend! Waaaa! The weather is gorgeous...so sunny and warm, but with a light breeze today...perfect! Supposed to get up to 28 degrees today...and maybe 31 tomorrow. Hopefully this stays now for a while. We've decided to go camping this coming weekend no matter what the weather predictions are. (It was supposed to be rainy and crappy this past Saturday according to the news all week, so we didn't go camping...and of course it ended up being beautiful out.)


On Sunday DBF had our neighbor over to watch F1, so I opted to do some shopping. I had decided to head back over to MicMac Mall to check out the Jacob lingerie store I saw there last weekend for some much needed new undies and a neutral bra....but on the way I decided to stop at our Old Navy for some tank tops (I realized while getting dressed that I only have one or two truly presentable tank tops). Well, Old Navy looked like a bomb had been dropped....I truly have never seen a store that messy or picked over. I lasted about two minutes before I dropped the one thing I had picked up and walked right out.


So off over the bridge I went to Dartmouth. As luck would have it there is another Old Navy at the mall, so I popped in there and thankfully it was clean and organized. Found four cute new tanks, two nighties and some blue shorts. :) Then up to Jacob where I got my undies and two new bras because they were on sale (I think La Senza has now seen the last of me...this was a way better find!). Also got some cocoa butter and scrub from the Body Shop for softening up my Summer feeties.

Then, while window shopping, I stopped into Aldo, mostly just looking, but well you know how it goes.... found a pair of gold strappy sandals that I really liked but of course they didn't have in my size (they rarely have 10s or 11s). So the salesguy recommends that I can just have them ordered in and delivered to my house....say what?! Yup, basically like ordering online, only since he does all the work he still gets the sale...fine with me. He was very helpful and deserves the commission, it didn't cost anything extra, and if they don't fit or I don't like them I can just return them to the store. This could get dangerous. :)


I also stopped and looked at some beds because we need one for our spare room. We don't want anything expensive, but I'm not looking at the $399 ones because they are too crappy. Anyway, long story short was that the particular store I went in did have a set that I liked and it was only $30 over my max, but the guy was a schmuck so I think I'll keep looking. Sort of a nice guy, but I could tell he was bullshitting me and I hate that.


Picked up some groceries on the way home and had BBQ'd steaks and corn on the cob for dinner. So yum! After dinner we went for a walk around the neighborhood, then a drive to the video store. Picked up In Bruge...don't do it, it was supposed to be good and quirky, but it was more weird and boring...and also the first disk of the first season of Mad Men. Watched one episode and so far, so good...but it's no HBO show. :)

Another Saturday Drive

Saturday morning we decided to go for another drive since we had such a nice time last weekend. We chose to head up to Victoria Park in Truro....actually we were looking at something to do with the Bay of Fundy, then noted that Truro is on the edge or end of the Bay or a part of it or something so that's what led us there. Then some surfing the web led me to find Victoria Park.

We loaded the doggie and the extra baggies and water into the car, stopped at our new favorite restaurant The Armview for a cheap but yummy breakfast (seriously.... $5.70 for my breakfast...2 eggs, bacon, toast, hashbrowns and coffee...score! plus patio seating!) and then hit the highway. It's about an hour's drive to Truro....and the gastank light came on about 1/3 of the way there....and even though I know that my car can go a LONG way once the light comes on I was starting to get nervous....but we didn't want to pull off the highway so we just went for it. Of course, it was fine.

Got to Truro, but didn't have a map, so just drove around until we found the signs for Victoria Park. What a gem!! This huge, beautiful, sunny, green and lush park. Mojo isn't so great for walking with crowds of people so we opted to stick to the lower main trails and didn't get to go off the beaten track....but it was still a lovely walk. I'd like to see it in the fall or spring when the waterfalls are really flowing. Afterwards we got drinks (cherry slushie for me!) and sat on the grass watching the funny band play.


Don't ask why I'm carrying my purse...we had already started down the path when I realized I had it and I didn't feel like going back to put it in the trunk.



On our way out of town we stopped at the viewpoint for one of the Tidal Bores on the Bay of Fundy. If I remember correctly a tidal bore is when the water is flowing out of the canal but being pushed back in by the ocean tide, creating a crazy whirlpool tidal effect. Mostly it just looked like muddy red water due to the massive amount of clay, etc. Still quite pretty though.


Then home we came to relax for a bit, then out to dinner with some friends. Followed that up with another quiet night in with wine and some Trivial Pursuit. I was poopered from all that sun!

Short hair needs to be done more often!

Do you ever just wake up and look in the mirror and decide that today is the day you need a haircut? And it has to be today! Not tomorrow, or whenever the next appointment is available! Today!

I don't know why I had a morning like that. I don't even do my hair for working at home. Maybe it was because I was thinking that I really ought to be doing my hair more often. Or maybe it is because I just haven't been in love with my hair since about a week after I got it done last time. Or maybe it's just cuz I'm bored.

So I called up the salon and asked for an appointment with whoever was available. (You know you are desparate when you are willing to take "whoever"...haha)

So the lovely Megan did my hair today...and before I even had a chance to really tell her what I wanted, she basically pegged it. Now, it's straightened because that's what all stylists seem to like to do, so I won't know until I get to style it myself...but I think I might have finally gotten what I wanted in the first place. Not that my cuts have been terrible or anything, but I changed my style pretty drastically so it's obviously going to take a few tries to nail it...if that's even possible.

Anyway...enough with the blabbering...here's a few shots I took of myself just now.... :)

How we spent our four-day weekend...

Friday evening:
We thought it would be fun to try to find a pizza place that I had heard about from one of the girls on my Relay for Life team. I'm sure she said it was called Red's and it was in Hubbards...but the only Red's we could find in the phonebook was in Upper Tantallon, which is only about a 20 minute drive from here, so we set out to find it. Upper Tantallon isn't very big, so we are pretty sure that we found the right place (it was actually a take-out fish n chip place that said it "proudly serves Big Red's pizza") but it wasn't the kind of place we were after so we decided to head back towards home. We were considering just heading into downtown to see what presented itself, but then DBF pointed out that I'd been wanting to try this place called The Armview that it right on the edge of the big rotary (Armdale Rotary) at the end of our main road. It looks like a total dive, greasy spoon from the outside...but we had noticed they got funky new patio furniture and there always seems to be a lot of people there...so we figured it wouldn't kill us. :) Well it turns out that it has recently been bought and turned into kind of a hip, upscale diner. Still obviously was a greasy spoon or something at some point, but reno'd and cleaned up with a yummy new menu. We each had a burger and they were AWESOME. We'll go back for sure. They must do a late night bar scene too....there were turntables on the counter and they had a good wine/martini/bar list. (They haven't finished their website yet, but here is a link from The Coast.) Then we went home and watched Definitely, Maybe....good movie.

Saturday:
The weather promptly decided to go south...Murphy's Law...but we still stuck with our plan for a leisurely drive to the South Shore. We loaded Mojo, his blanket, his dish and some water into the car and set off for our adventure (with McD's in our tummies and Starbucks in our hands of course). Our intention had been to go as far as Risser's Beach to check out the camping situation, but we ended up heading to Graves Island and then on to Mahone Bay instead. We would have needed to hop over to the main highway and just didn't feel like it. haha. We enjoy the old highway...more scenic...and I saw lots of cool places to stop to see when travelling that way with my Mom in the fall. If we had a truck, we would have had two brand-new, lovely handcrafted Adirondack chairs come home with us. :) The weather was grey and it tried to rain a couple of times, but all in all it was a nice drive anyway. Graves was a beautiful spot, but the campground was WIDE open with absolutely no privacy, so at least we learned not to book it for weekend getaway. We're still on the hunt for the perfect camping spot. :)

While perusing the internet to try to find a downtown pizza restaurant that I had heard about, I happened upon the website for another restaurant that we had wanted to try. Cafe Chianti. I showed it to DBF as a suggestion for a future date night, and he said why didn't we do it now? Well, OK! Twist my rubber arm for date night! So we got ourselves all dressed up (I swear I felt like I was getting ready for a first date...and was very pleased with the end result...and then of course forgot to get a picture!) and hopped in a cab for downtown. Dinner was awesome! The waiter was great, he offered us a great wine selection, DBF admired the man's crazy mustache, the food was excellent (although VERY rich!), and at the end of our meal DBF ended up befriending these two little old English ladies at the table beside us. They discussed the war and their travels...hilarious, he can make friends with anyone! We even walked with them for the few blocks to their hotel. So cute! After that, we carried on to the Shoe Shop for drinky-poos at the bar.

Sunday:
The weather turned total ass. Wet and gross. We basically hit up the grocery store so DBF could make us a yummy weekend breakfast and then hermitted in the house for the rest of the day. I don't even remember what we did for most of the day...haha. In the evening we watched a movie called Control, about the lead singer from Joy Division....good movie, terribly sad story.

Monday:
Weather was still a bit crappy, but at least it was warm. Windy and humid is an odd combination! We had a leisurely morning, then set out to do a bit of shopping and a few errands. Finally made it over to the MicMac mall in Dartmouth (it's the largest shopping mall East of Toronto apparently)....it's a mall...haha...a good mall, but just a mall nonetheless. Didn't buy anything, but did discover a Jacob Lingerie store so I'll be going back for that when DBF isn't with me. :) We stopped at Costco on our way home, where I picked up a new camera (just a little point and shoot digital...exactly the same as my old camera but brand new model) and we finally got the pizza that DBF had been craving. Turns out that $10 Costco pizza is pretty decent. Then we headed off to the movies to see Wall-E...which was cute, but honestly I was starting to get a bit bored...the storyline wasn't quite what we thought it would be. The graphics were Pixar's best yet though. When we got home we decided to have some wine (oh, after our DQ desserts...haha) and ended up staying up until 3am just chatting and playing Trivial Pursuit (90s edition...the questions are so bullshit...LOL).

Tuesday: HAPPY CANADA DAY!
Obviously we needed to sleep in due to our late night and wine consumption...and apparently Mojo was OK with that! The sun was shining when we got up...yaieeeeee...so DBF mowed the lawn and worked on trying to revive this weird dead patch in our front yard (the healthy part is sooooo green, but there's a dead patch that just isn't coming back!). I puttered in my flowers for a bit, then freshened up and just sat in the sun with my book and my coffee....very nice! We got talking to the neighbors while we were out in the yard, and they offered to have us over for drinks in the afternoon. We had planned to go downtown to check out the Canada Day festivities and to see our other neighbors' band play, so we thought we'd have the drink and then we could all head into town. Well, we ended up going for the drink, then the boys got into the video games while us girls chatted....and well, I didn't get to see any fireworks. :( haha, but we really like our neighbors so it's all good.

So, even though the weather thwarted us for the most part, we still made a good long weekend for ourselves. Thank goodness we only have three work days now, because we need a vacation from our vacation!!