Oops

Apparently it's 'Oddjob' not 'Oddball'...per Cousin Mikie. This is like 'Greg' vs. 'Craig'. All names should be written down, name tags, so on.

I forgot Oddball!

I forgot our new family memeber Oddball, a pug - hilarious nutball and a welcome addition! She loves me, she's a great cuddler and runs around in circles like a maniac when she's excited.

The elusive Darla - this is the only picture of her I could get, she is terrified of the camera and actually stayed out of the living room until I put it away...cute as a button.

Elwood in his winter t-shirt, no booties...

Tori looking all cute - she's the calm mature one.


Bowling score for Cousin Mikie.

Gail boozing it up. Don't tell her I posted this...she'll disown me.

Long time no post update

Sorry for the long hiatus - between Bloons Tower Defense 4 coming out and re-reading Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series I didn't have much time or energy for communication. I also cleaned my junk room finally and some other areas in my place which took a lot of time and effort. I was in the Peg for 16 days over the holidays and wanted to get as much tidied up as I could before I left, so I could come home to a reasonably clean and organized home. A good start to the new year, which it was. I even unpacked already - if you know me you know this is a f-ing miracle. Normally I leave my luggage half unpacked for weeks...or longer. Anyways, I am glad I went home for a couple of weeks because it gave me time to totally relax there and visit with people at leisure. For the past few years it's been crazy hectic as soon as I get in - breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks sometimes with different people or doubling up to get everyone in. This time I spent a few days in my pj's, I cleaned up Mom's basement (8+ boxes of stuff to give away/sell, 5+ bags of rubbish, now sitting in the backlane), I went to Cathy's Yoga class (Bikram Yoga - I almost puked but survived and plan to do it again), I played Bingo (and LOST). I still went to breakfast, lunch, dinner, and drinks but not usually in the same day and I only had to double up once with Julie & Sharon (but it worked out and yummy East India Company buffet can't really go wrong - I did end up taking some weird unidentifiable meat thing which I left on the plate, but everything else was delicious).

I went to see Men Who Stare at Goats with Brenda, and Avatar with the Geography boys. Avatar was amazing to watch though a bit cheesy at times(typical for James Cameron) so I highly recommend seeing it in the theatre. Unless you have a 52" widescreen T.V. at home you won't get the full experience. Men Who Stare at Goats was interesting but not a laugh a minute. I am glad I saw it and doubly glad it was in the cheap theatre. I also made it to Dim Sum this year with the old Geography crowd and it was delicious except for a weird deep fried thing - it was kind of like a mix between marshmallow and chicken nugget inside and it kind of grossed me out. That's dim sum though - you have to try it to find out which is fun, as long as you don't gag. I had a great time visiting with all my friends and family.

Mom was petsitting so I also got to play with Darla and Tori (a mom and daughter wee poodle something or others) and actually started balling my eyes out when I was leaving. I mean I love my Mom and miss my friends and fam but leaving the dogs actually broke my heart. It was kind of funny, and my Mom took it well 'cause she knows me enough to not take it personally. I just really enjoyed living with dogs again, and will miss them terribly. I was ready to go home and missed Hal but the dogs were very charming. I am a self-professed dog slut, meaning I love every dog I meet and tell every dog I meet that I love them and that they're the most awesome dog and so on. I don't think it's a bad thing, I think it's important to make the dog feel special. And, they are the most awesome dog, just not the only most awesome dog. Elwood, Cousin Mikie's dog, for example is AWESOME and cute as hell in his winter t-shirt and booties, but so are Darla and Tori, and so is the dog Coco I met at Auntie Fiorina's (a Shitzu? and Pomeranian cross - kind of Ewok-like) and so is Charlie that I met at the Kennel, and so on and so on. I can't help myself.

Moving on, the flight home was ok and I spent only about 2 1/2 - 3 hours in the Calgary airport so I can't really complain. My cousin Victor lent me the first 4 House of Night books so I finished reading the first one before the flight from Calgary to Abby. I should have packed the second one in my carry on but I was very limited for space - what with the 10 million tins of clod hoppers, shortbread, chocolates and so on I packed as much in as I could in every nook and cranny. I had a pretty good haul this year so my bags were stuffed. And, of course, I had to bring Auntie Mary's cabbage buns back ('parishky' is how it sounds in Ukrainian but I'm not sure how to spell that). I had to set aside certain things to take next time I visit but I have mad packing skills thanks to my Dad so managed to get in almost everything I wanted to bring.

Hal was ecstatic to see me and was following me around the rest of the night. He woke me up at 6 am to be pet so I pet him once and told him to leave me alone for a few more hours - however Hal has never been a good listener so he proceeded to try every hour to hour 1/2. I stayed in bed till 9:30 (11:30 MB time) and then made my coffee, went online and proceeded to have a typical Jennifer Sunday. It's great to be home, though I had to eat some of Auntie Mary's chocolate peanut things for breakfast because I have no bread or milk. Sleeping in my own, not-Twin, comfy bed makes up for lack of proper food though. I think I need to buy a new mattress when I'm at Mom's again for that damn bed - no wonder I have back problems. It's total crap.

My hands are cramping from all this typing - what with the 16 days away I guess they're not used to it anymore. I'll upload some photos for you to enjoy. Happy New Year, etc.!

Wallaby cuddling

I have a long weekend, the last of my furlough days and a birthday gift for myself. I LOVE not going to work. I couldn't sleep in really but it's 10:25 and I'm still in my pajamas, so to me that's a good morning. Instead of calling clients, and desperately waiting for lunch hour, I am relaxing, watching Star Trek Nemesis (it's better than talk shows...) and playing video games. I may go shopping later, but then again I may not bother. It's bliss! Anyways, I unfortunately didn't really participate in anything for Remembrance Day because we had an interesting presentation at the Zoo on Wednesday morning about a conference 2 of the Keepers went to. There were a lot of fundraising and enrichment ideas and they wanted to get the Volunteers involved. During the meeting Boris, an African Spurred Tortoise, was walking around, enjoying a change of scenery, and he started getting into a bit of trouble under the Bird-eating Spider enclosure so I got to hold a Wallaby while the Keeper pulled Boris out. Lucky me, I got to keep holding Disney during the rest of the presentation and fed her some leaves, and cuddled her a bit. It was awesome. Apparently she really likes cuddling, and was really comfortable in her blanket. My arms got really sore, but I persevered till the end, not wanting to give up a wonderful opportunity like that. It is moments like that that make me so happy I started volunteering. Most of the time it's cleaning, walking around, occasionally really hard work, and of course the varieties of poop clean up. And, it's all completely worth it for those moments when the animals seem to recognize me and come over to say hello, or I get to touch or hold them. I even touched my first tarantula, not quite as nice as the Wallaby, but I was proud of myself for not completely freaking out and running away. Volunteering there is one of the best activities I've ever been involved with.

A week or so

Sundays seem to be the best day to catch up on things so here I am. I think it's the sleeping in (for me that's 8:30-9:00, though today was 9:30! WOW!), and lack of obligations. I may or my not change out of my pajamas. Sundays are bliss. Anyways, I spent 3 days training this week because we are switching to a new database in a couple of weeks. Day 1 was kind of fun and also made me want to slit my throat. By the end of the day I was almost in tears & raging. I thought I should quit and look for a new job. The training system was problematic which just made learning that much harder and frustrating. My temper couldn't take it and I couldn't imagine doing my job properly and envisioned myself going completely postal. However, on the drive home reality hit, and I realized that even if I could find another job I would still have to learn a whole new system. Finding a job is a huge IF anyways. I have a general arts degree and have spent most of my work life in sales or the food industry. I have zero marketable skills. Sure, I can photocopy reduce perfectly, but unfortunately nobody gives an f- about that. I sure as hell can't get hired based on my charms, though I hear cleavage can work advantageously if I chose to use it. Day 2 therefore was better, having no choice but to make the best of it. By Day 3 I was almost comfortable, or at least not completely depressed about it all. The weekend couldn't come fast enough though. Yesterday I volunteered as usual and then played video games for the rest of the afternoon. Not overly productive but that's a typical Saturday. My intention is to clean up today. Note the word 'intention'. Monday will be back to normal at work, and due to Remembrance Day and taking a long weekend next weekend I only have to work 3 days this coming week. YEAH!

On a side note, I rented 3 movies last weekend: Gran Torino, Coraline, and Sin Hombre. Gran Torino was amazing, and I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it yet. It's got racial slurs oozing out of every pore but it's kind of like Gulliver's Travels in it's hatred, spreading the hatred and disgust equally among all the different types of people. Coraline was interesting, and of course really cool animation. I admittedly fell asleep half way through but I was tired so don't blame the story. Sin Hombre is a Spanish film about people trying to get into the U.S. and dealing with poverty and gangs. It was really well done, brutally sad, and worth watching for sure.

Half hour

My apologies for the long absence. I have not been in much of a sharing mood I suppose, as well as obsessively reading, playing Zoo Tycoon, working, and so on. I'm waiting for the big So You Think You Can Dance finale so thought I would take advantage of the free time. I spent the week working at the dog kennel, it was really fun, exhausting, but fun. By Friday I was finally not sore but sadly that was my last day. There were not as many dogs as last time but it was still busy enough for me. I almost passed out Monday evening but roused myself from the couch long enough to let them out for their last pee and then went to bed. I played a hell of a lot of fetch as well since we had a daycare visitor named Fozzy who LOVED playing fetch with a fiery passion. And, for the rest:

Abbey - a Great Dane, loved to chew and chase the small dogs on the other side of the fence. She always wanted to play fetch when I was playing with Fozzy but not so much when I tried to play with her. She would jump up though, higher than I can, and toss her rope around. It was hilarious. She was great to hug as well.

Candy (big one) - a Sheppard cross I think, she was a bit shy and wasn't into playing at all but loved barking at the other dogs and at cars. She was so excited to see her owner!

Candy (little one) - a poodle type, very cute and loved attention. She was the biggest barker, and would really only stop when I was hanging out with her, and wanted to cuddle all the time.

Molly, Lucy & Lucky - I still didn't get who was Lucy vs. Lucky by the time they left but they were all pretty cute. Two pugs and a pug cross, all three would jump on me and each other for attention. They made me laugh, alot.

Katie - a terrier, she was a bit of a suck and an instigator. She would bark like mad at the other dogs but was nothing but a suck with me. She loved cuddling as well.

Sony - a German Sheppard cross as well, poor thing she was so scared, because it was her first time at a kennel. She was really sweet though and at least liked the big yard.

Maggie & Miracle - two beagles, Maggie was Miracle's Mom. Miracle was like a little sausage, loved to eat and walk. Both loved the butt scratch!

Charlie - a poodle type, just a puppy and did the happy-to-see-me pee all the time. I would have taken her home if I could. She was a big-time cuddler, adorable!

Well, it's time for the finale so I will have to go!

Hmmm

I have been meaning to post a few things but I keep getting carried away with general laziness, occaisionally house cleaning, and a bit of gaming here & there. Now I have no idea what interesting things I meant to post. I guess you're just out of luck. Sorry.