Maggie's Holiday

Is this the face of someone mising their mum while she was away???

Yeah, didn't think so

um, yeah, so this is a little embarrassing .....

I was reading this and was reminded of a similar incident a few years back ....

I was house/dog sitting at a friend's place for a couple of weeks. After I got home and unpacked all of my stuff I realized that I had forgotten something. This is kind of the conversation that ensued ....

"Hey -- welcome back! Good trip? Great!! So, um, well, yeah, this is a little embarrassing, but I kind of forgot something in your bedroom. Yeah, nope, nothing like that. NOOOOOOOOO Not condoms or slinky underwear. Nope, my stuffed dog "Trouble" What???? Marlow ATE HIM?????!!!!! You found him under the pillows and thought how nice, Kathryn left a toy for Marlow. Sorry, all that's left is a plastic eye."

Somehow I think that leaving illicit material behind would have been less embarrassing.

almost too much cuteness to bear

Maggie went to stay with her auntie in Squamish for a few days last week --- looks like she had a terrible time, non?

Shootings at Dawson College, Montreal

By now pretty much everyone in North America has heard about this tragedy in some form or another. It struck pretty close close to home for me, being from Montreal, and in particular because the apartment my parents, until very recently, lived in while in the city overlooked Dawson College and I attended the college, many, many years ago. It's all well and good for us Canadians to say that guns and violence are an American problem but I believe that this incident was a huge dose of the unfortunate reality that is our current culture.

I was up late last night, unable to sleep for a variety of unrelated reasons, and caught some US network news casts and was kind of shocked and then impressed that they were reporting live from Montreal about the shootings. Given the natural preoccupation of the 5 year anniversary of the 9/11 bombings, it was nice (wrong word but I can't think of another) to see them expanding their sometimes narrow focus of world events to include what some consider to be an insignificant country to the north. However, my cousin just sent me the following email that she sent to a radio station she listens to from Bellingham, WA, directly across the border:

"There is a large country just north of you called "Canada" - ever heard of it? 13 students were shot yesterday - one confirmed dead - at a college in Montreal, Quebec. It would have been nice for you to acknowledge this horrible event in your news report this morning. Instead, your D.J.s chose to yammer on about car brakes and property taxes. Why?"

Why indeed.

*EDIT - half of this post seems to have been eaten by blogger --- the rest of the intended post waxed poetically about how the whole point was not that we should care about what the American media thinks of us, and why are we always concerned with what they think and report, etc. but that the tragedy and horror of such a terrible event happening in an extremely safe city and country. Then I got this email from my mum this morning (slightly edited as I am not going to share everything my mummy says to me):

"have been in Montreal for 2 days (yes, during the shooting at Dawson which was very scary as we were in the neighbourhood... greene avenue etc. weren't witness to it but definitely had our day disrupted with traffic etc as you could not go west of Peel or east of Greene Ave... quite a large area for a Westmount type... still don't know a lot about the killing or how bad the last four students are in Hospital but whatever, it was a horrible event and so shocking in our very very safe city.... Daddy has a story to tell re the event as one of his lawyers that he was meeting with that day was involved at the outset innocently walking into Westmount Square when he was confronted by the murderer who asked him to take a bag out of a car and carry it...he said why and no... and the guy pointed a gun at him and told him to take the fu..... bag or he would kill him... needless to say he took it but fortunately shortly after walked into a police car, threw the bag and ran... and then events unfolded.... ask Daddy he knows all the details... lots of love Mummy"

yeah, so I have standards

Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Beautiful Girls
Metropolitan
Love Actually
The Princess Bride
BBC Pride & Prejudice

Q. What do these films have in common??

A. They have been watched and enjoyed repeatedly by me and if you hope to stand any chance of having any sort of lasting relationship with me (read like longer than a weekend) you had better get used to this and LOVE it.

Other desired features include, but are not limited to, the following:

Dancing in the kitchen just ‘cause it’s fun

Embracing the joy that is eating cinnamon toast fingers, in bed, with hot cups of tea

Waking up to the first snow of the season and running outside right away to revel in it --- coat and boots over jammies

Realizing that it’s because she’s Maggie

Crossword puzzles are done in ink and reading anything of mine before I get the chance to is a crime punishable by death (seriously)

Generally speaking, I am right

This is by no means an exhaustive list and I am certain this also serves to solidify many people’s belief that I am not quite sane (or ever so slightly difficult …)

Happiness is a warm puppy, really

God but this picture gave me the ever-so-much-needed warm fuzzies this morning.

One of the many, many joys of being a woman

Went 4 rounds with the endometriosis last night, as opposed to the usual 9 or 10, so all things considered I got off pretty light. I haven’t had a bout in a couple of months and so thought maybe it had passed --- after all there had been a good 10 years of dormancy until it reared its ugly head again last June. I had felt rather off all day and so engaged my usual preventative fasting tactic (my reasoning being that if there is nothing IN my system to begin with, then there is nothing to be forced OUT). It doesn’t really work, but it gives me some source of comfort.

In any event, on schedule at 11 pm (it only ever happens at night, usually after 11), the pain kicked in, the vomiting and other loveliness ensued and then I spent a good 40 minutes lying at the bottom of my shower with scorching hot water beating down on my lower abdomen. Pretty picture, non?? However, like I said it was only 4 rounds, so I did not feel like committing Hare Kari, which sometimes feels like the most logical option.

Having never had children I don’t know first hand what labour feels like, but I have a feeling that this is pretty similar ---- uterus contracting at pretty regular intervals, and all that, unbelievable pain and shaking and then that tricky calm with no pain, but YOU KNOW IT”S COMING!!!!!!! The self-styled hydrotherapy combined with some serious painkillers eventually kicked in, enabling me to drag my sorry soggy self, wrapped in my fluffy robe, to the couch to settle in for a few mind-numbing hours of CSI, ’cause although dopey from the drugs, sleep tends to elude me for many hours.

So yeah, I am whining and felling really, really tired. Not to mention highly irritable and apt to bite your head off if you so much as look at me sideways.


You have been warned and ..... Happy Monday.

YIKES!!!

Was just down in Starbucks, perusing their cd selection while waiting for my coffee. Sam Moore, of Sam & Dave fame, has released a "new" album of cover songs which looks to be quite excellent. However, on closer inspection it was revealed that he is doing a cover of "Blame It On The Rain" --- infamously "recorded" by that marvel of 80's marketing Milli Vanilli.

That is just so very wrong.

I only carry real money

DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT ANTI-AMERICAN. QUITE FOND OF OUR NEIGHBOURS TO THE SOUTH AS A MATTER OF FACT. HOWEVER, PEOPLE LIKE THE ONES DESCRIBED BELOW GIVE THE REST OF THEIR COUNTRY(WO)MEN A BAD NAME

I was getting coffee this morning on my way in to the office and there was a bit of a hold-up at the front of the line. What was the cause of this hold-up? 3 Americans paying for their morning cup-o-jo with American currency. In and of itself an annoyance ---- the assumption that anyone will simply take American currency in a country other than the United States and give them the current and correct exchange rate. Imagine trying that in their country? Yeah, that'll happen --- they treat Canadian currency like it's Monopoly money and won't even take a Canadian penny for chrissakes!!!!!! When I was in the service industry (waiting tables, tending bar and the like) I would happily take American cash AT PAR. Amazing how many people accepted that. Yet I digress.

What made it worse than the fact that they simply assumed that the foreign currency would be accepted without question was the following statement:

"I only carry real money."

Nice.

oh the drama

Care for an update on the drama in my personal life? No? Tough. Here it is …

I believe I mentioned a few entries back that news of a certain parting of the ways (okay so it was the news that my non-date-date of last year had broken up with the slutbitchwhore woman he had been dating since CRUSHING MY POOR FRAGILE HEART). This event of course prompted a phone call to me, which I waited a full day to return and which then resulted in our setting up a “date” for a hike with Princess Maggie. Oh, and of course I did not mention that I knew the information, nor did he offer it up. This is how we “communicate”.

To be honest I was more than half expecting him to bail on the whole thing at the last minute. But he did not. Instead, falling back into the pattern he developed when we were dating, he called in advance of his arrival telling me that he was on his way and that “he was really looking forward to seeing me”. Yup, my heart went flippity flop when I heard the message 'cause well that’s the kind of girl I am and that’s one of those things that he used to do that made me fall so hard for him in the first place.

Anyway, we hiked and we talked and we laughed and he hunted up and threw sticks for the furry princess and we were more relaxed and at ease with each other than we have been in months and months and months. We went for lunch, we bought Maggie treats and then he brought me home. I honestly expected him to simply drop me off, but he turned the car off and took everything out and came in with us.

This is where things got a little weird --- I knew he had stuff to do yet he was just kind of hanging around, playing with Maggie and her bear, like he was waiting for something --- that did not happen. I am not making this easy for him.

Verdict? A most pleasant day with a lovely man and I just have to be careful with my heart.

The next week we chatted a few times, emailed back and forth, the flirtation of yesteryear definitely back BIG TIME and made plans for Thursday. That got scratched due to kid stuff, which I am totally fine with, so we planned for Friday. He came all the way downtown to get me from the office as I got to leave early (YIPPEE!!), drove back across the bloody bridge and then suggested several lovely options for lunch. I opted for grabbing a sandwich and hitting the beach (my own suggestions and what I wanted to do). Again, a lovely relaxed excursion. He brought me home, kissed my goodbye and said we’d chat when he gets back from France mid-month.

Enter the drama

I believe I have mentioned Chris, owner of Jake the lovely choclate lab, who I dated a few times, he got back with his ex, and that didn’t work and we have dated a few more time? The architect with the lovely house? The logical one for me to be with? Well, we went out for drinks Friday night and as we settled into our respective cocktails he asks: “are you seeing someone?”

WTF?????

Seems his friend Joel saw Peter and me having lunch last week and then saw us again on Friday and assumed …. who knows what but of course he felt the need to tell Chris. Who says men don’t gossip??

Now Chris is not aware of Peter’s existence in any way, shape or form, but we really haven’t got to that point yet. It’s not like we’ve pledged our troth or anything.

My answer? I was with Peter, a friend and former colleague (all true) and the next time Joel “sees me”, he might consider coming over and saying hello.

What a way to put a damper on an evening.

Puggle is "IT"!!

For those of you new to this space (or those of you who don't remember each and every entry I have posted, for shame!!), Decker is one of the dogs who stays with Miss Maggie and me when his dads go out of town. Decker is a puggle and really quite unique and adorable. After his first stay with us I posted some of his puppy pictures. This post was then linked here and touted as a "cure for depression". The photo was subsequently picked up by puggle.org and made "pic of the week".

And now, this:

Decker's dads were in NYC a few weeks ago and one of their friends showed them this article. Our little Decker has certainly made the big time!

Now, how to parlay this into hooking up with Jake Gyllenhaal ........

am I insane????

Some women get a stirring in the uterus when they see babies. Me? I get that way about puppies. Maggie is fabulous, of course, but she’s 71/2 now and I think that it might be time to introduce a puppy to the mix. I have canvassed the people at the office and everyone seems to be in agreement that I could bring said puppy to the office for the first little while, until it would be fine left at home with Maggie as “keeper” and going out on walks with the group.

This is where I want to get a puppy from. A chocolate coloured Maggie --- does it get any better than that??

Plus-Sized Cars

That’s right --- Ford’s 2007 line will feature cars designed for the “plus sized” consumer. I mean COME ON ---- if you find yourself too fat to fit behind the wheel of your car, maybe you shouldn’t be behind the wheel of your car? Maybe you should be walking? Or riding a bike? Or? Oh I don’t know, something. I’m not trying to be mean or make fun of people you are larger than average, but seriously, is this not a bit extreme and ridiculous?? Now I have had weight issues all my life and am certainly not one to preach about how being fat is bad and everyone should be a skinny size 0 or anything, but how large does one have to be to actually NOT FIT in a car? And why, instead of doing something about maybe getting healthier and slimmer, increase the size of the cars to accommodate America’s growing waistline (and when I say America, I mean North America as Canadians are getting up there in the obesity area right along with our neighbours to the south).

And then there’s the obvious: how embarrassing is it to have to shop in the “husky” section of the automall??

Friday randomness

Maggie and I woke up a bear that was sleeping in a tree the other morning (another reason that I am totally re-thinking those 5 a.m. runs ...) --- one of the perks of living where we do. You don't get that living in the BIG city .....

A random girl in the ladies room at the office told me that I smelled "delicious" and asked what perfume I was wearing. I don't wear perfume, so it must have been the absolutely FABULOUS hair straightening tonic I bought a few weeks ago at London Drugs for all of $1.99. (or maybe just my sweetness shining through)

I am going out with Exhibit 2 tomorrow. I am a weak, weak woman.

dancing her way to Texas

My friend Katie (with me in the photo below at the office Christmas party last year) is joining the Texas Ballet Theatre. She leaves Sunday to start what is bound to be a very successful career as a Prima Ballerina. I am so very excited for her!!!!

Game on?

If you impart rather juicy personal news to someone, knowing that you have friends in common, particularly friends in common that would be interested in said juicy information, you are safe to assume that the friend to whom you have imparted said juicy information is going to relay said information to the potentially interested party thereby relieving you of the responsibility of actually having to impart said information to the potentially interested party yourself, yet leaving you pretty much certain that the information will be so imparted, right??

And so the game continues …..

Why?

Exhibit 1

Attractive
Never married
No kids
Great dog
Owns a lovely house in a lovely neighbourhood
Employed – architect
Ex no longer a factor
Available


Exhibit 2

Attractive
Not quite divorced, hell the ex won’t even sign the separation agreement
2 teenagers
No dog
Rents a choc-a-bloc apartment, has never owned a house*
Not-employed lawyer
Has broken my heart AT LEAST once
Not available to me


Who do you think makes me quiver when he calls??



*Exhibit 1’s lovely house’s deck actually overlooks said apartment, with binochs I could probably see in

Making Friends

Maggie made a new friend this morning. Bears a striking resemblance to this little fellow:





We are currently taking any and all sugegstions as to how to deal with this ......

of cupcakes and men

I must be fighting something --- every day this week I have felt as through I spent the night before pounding back multiple bottles of tequila (which I have not) and barely make it through the say without nodding off and once actually dozing while talking to someone!! Also, all I feel like eating are these beautifully decorated cupcakes (which I have not as yet indulged in) and Krinkle Kut Kettle Chips, sea salt and black pepper flavour.

And before you even go there, No I am NOT pregnant.

I am also at risk of getting sucked back in by the currently underemployed and emotionally (and perhaps otherwise, though that is debatable) unavailable lawyer with whom I was involved last year at around this time. Message to the elusive dad of Biscuit: rescue me from this potentially disastrous fate!!

Those beautifully decorated cupcakes are sounding like a really good idea right now …… chased by multiple bottles of tequila, of course!!

Scruffy, but in a clean, sexy way

At George in Yaletown Friday night having cocktails with a friend. We both noted an extremely attractive, if slightly scruffy but in a good, clean way, man on the patio at a table with several other people who all seemed rather plastic and pretentious.

"He reads books and builds things and has excellent manners" was my friend's comment

"He has that dead sexy Billy Campbell thing going on" I noted

hey, wait a minute, it is Billy Campbell

I tried rather unsuccessfully not to stare, but really, can you blame a girl??

(and he has quite possibly the NICEST hands I have ever seen)