As previously mentioned, real estate is REALLY quiet at the moment. I'm enjoying the down time, but I don't want to get TOO mellow or I'll get lazy. To that end, I am going in to the office pretty well every day. And, in fact, I am showing a house tomorrow afternoon - and I'm quite looking forward to it - enough sitting around.

Guess Kris is the same - he had 4 days off in a row over Christmas and by the third day, he was bored. And even though he was off, he was still going in every night around 10 o'clock to stuff the outdoor wood furnace for the shop.

We had a retirement dinner tonite for one of the agents in the office. Barry is 72 years old (and is pretty sharp AND has a better memory than I do!!) but he hurt his foot last year and has trouble getting around, so he figured it was time. I will
certainly miss having him around & I hope he drops in to the office often!

I picked up some "happy" pills for Max to keep him calmer so he won't spray. I actually had to get a prescription from the vet and fill it at the pharmacy. the label on the bottle says "Reid, Max the cat". Hahaha. hope it works!

today's pictures are not great - I took them tonite in walking back back from the restaurant. The first one is of "main street" Renfrew and the other one is the nativity scene set up at town hall.

Is it just me or does Joseph (the one on the right with the big mustache) look a LOT like Burton Cummings from The Guess Who????? (it's probably just me.....)

Another quiet day - not much happening in the area. We have deliberately stayed away from the post Christmas craziness in the stores. Guess we will have to venture out sooner or later. As mentioned yesterday the weather isn't great. Today wasn't so bad, but around 4 o'clock the fog really rolled in.

We are having a bad time with Max, our oldest cat - he as started spraying (although neutered) in the house. We had thought it was because we had a stray cat camping out in our garage, but the stray disappeared well over a month ago - he would often take off for several days, and one day he simply didn't come back.

Anyway, we had hoped that would de-stressify Max and (as noted in previous posts) at the vet's recomendation, we started spraying some pheronomes around the house and that was to calm him as well. And we try to NOT scold him about spraying and instead, we give him extra attention.

NOTHING has made ANY difference and in fact, he is getting worse! So, we are having serious discussions about his future. He's too old to be adopted and we can't give him away with his little "problem" so things are not looking good for poor ol' Max.

On a lighter note, Jamie gave me Scrabble for my Nintendo DS and I've been playing it - a LOT!! I always liked playing Scrabble, so this is a blast!

However, we MUST get out for a while, so as soon as I finish this, Rick and I are going out for a long walk.

Today's pictures I took today - just the snow on the trees - always pretty. And just as the sun was going down, it sort of turned the sky pink and I tried to get a shot of it.

Freezing rain has kept us in most of the day. It's been alternating freezing rain and snow since about midnight last night. We had to make a quick run in to town to return a couple of movies to Movie Gallery, but that was pretty well it.

Around 10 o'clock this a.m. we started watching "Band of Brothers" - a really good HBO series on WWII. we had seen it a few years ago, but when it came on this morning, we watched the first one in the series - and then the second one came on & we watched it too - & the third one - and so on - and so on - and so on.

It reminded me of the time (many years ago) we dropped in on Rick's mom and sister on a Sunday afternoon. It was about 3 o'clock and the ladies were sitting in their nighties watching the Thornbirds. They started watching the series about 9 in the morning while having their coffee (same as us) and just kept watching one after another and there went the day!!!

Not a bad thing to do on a rainy/snowy day. I think the cats quite like having us home all day - one of us is always available to let them in or out (cuz ONE of them ALWAYS seems to be on the wrong side of the door!!!

Pictures are ones I took tonite out the front door while Buddy was playing in the snow.

Merry Christmas!!!!!

Christmas day has come and gone - when it's all over, I think what an effort we put into one little day!!! Not that I am whining - I enjoy the baking & putting on a nice dinner & even the shopping.

Jamie came up this morning - early just like he said he would! Santa was good to all of us - I have several new Nintendo DS games - thanks guys!!!!

The cats certainly notice there is someone "different" in the house - Tigger who apparently doesn't remember Jamie ever living here, pretty well disappears. Which seems to be a signal to Jamie to chaser her down. Max and Missy kept a low profile but Buddy and Nibbles didn't seem too affected - other than to enjoy the extra attention they get from Jamie

We did have a lizard "situation" this afternoon. Jamie gave Kris a waterfall for his lizard cage and the boys were upstairs cleaning the cage and setting up the waterfall when the lizards decided to make a break for it. This got Nibbles (who is totally FACINATED with the lizards) pretty excited and also got her unceramoniously ousted from the room! After some scrambling, the lizards were retrieved and returned to their cage and Nibbles allowed back in the room to stare at them (her favourite pastime) I think she is still up there.....staring.

Weather was very good today - there has been a freezing rain warning out all day - but thankfully it going to hit us until later tonite. Jamie is already back in Ottawa and Kris is up in Pembroke with friends for the night, and hopefully both will stay put until the weather clears up.

After the boys left, Rick and I went for a walk - very quiet in the neighbourhood - only 3 or 4 houses with lights on.

Pictures are the lizard cage with new waterfall (not much room for the lizards and they still mostly huddle under the light at the top of the cage) and Jamie tormenting Tigger.

December 24th!!

Christmas Eve at last! Baking's done! Shopping's done! All set for tomorrow morning. We're hoping Jamie will make it out tonite, but if not, we should see him first thing in the a.m.

We did have to make two trips into Renfrew today. I wanted to pop into the office to wish everyone a Merry Christmas (and pick up a commission cheque!) and naturally we made a quick stop at WalMart for a couple of last minute items. The store wasn't as busy as I thought it would be and we were in and out in a few minutes. whew!

Then Kris came home from work and since it was too late for him to get to his bank to cash his paycheque, we volunteered to cash it at our bank's ATM (his bank puts a hold on his cheque for 5 days) It was around 6 p.m. and the town was pretty well shut down! WalMart and the other big stores were closed and the downtown was empty. Even Timmy's was closed - so no Timmy's tea for me!!!!

The plan for tonite is to watch a couple of movies (I'm sure White Christmas with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye is on at least a dozen channels) & eat treats.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

Nearly Christmas

Well just a couple of days until Christmas! Today is baking day - Rick and I made out usual assortment of tarts, double batch of shortbread, chocolate/peanut clusters and Kris's special request - gooey rice krispie squares. So, I think we're done!

It's been very quiet of late. Nothing much exciting. We have been staying out of the stores on peak hours, but have still managed to get our shopping done. We really didn't do any shopping until last weekend - but did manage to get it wrapped up in a couple of days. Jamie requested tee-shirts with the Family Guy or South Park logo on the front, but I wasn't able to locate any in time for Christmas. It was too late to buy on ebay (where I am sure they are available) but I can get him some for his birthday in June.

Rick and I purchased a Blue Ray for ourselves for Christmas - I was in the store yesterday looking to buy a couple of movies, so I asked a clerk what section the Blue Ray movies were in, she called out to another clerk - 'WHERE ARE THE BLUE MOVIES????" we got a giggle out of that!!

So, for the next few days we plan to sit by the fire, eat Christmas treats and watch "blue" movies hahahahha

Today's pictures are from our friends Bill and Andrea who have a gorgeous house near Almonte. Andrea puts food out for the deer and I snapped this of the deer feeding in their back yard. And also their cat Felix - a very LARGE cat - although much is just fur!

cats LOVE hats!!

Its been a fairly quiet weekend. I had a deal that closed on Friday and it was one of those deals that kept having issues right up until the last minute. Some go like that - and that one kept me pretty busy for a while.

Yesterday we popped into town to get a few things - its funny how running into Wal-Mart to pick up cat food and a "couple of things" turns into a $180 bill at the check out, isn't it???

Today we had sort of planned to run up to Pembroke, but light but steady snowfall kept us at home. It's Sunday and I miss my NASCAR races, thank goodness for the Discovery Channel!!!!!

Kris went to a friend's for the night, so we had to feed and water his lizards. I just don't get them as a pet. They're not cute or receptive to handling, they don't purr or wag their tails. Their only trick is that they turn brown when stressed - they turn brown a LOT!!! hahaha

Pictures today are of Tigger (long hair cat) and Nibbles (white calico) sporting their Christmas finery! They're such good girlz!!!!

SNOW DAY! LAZY DAY!

The first snow storm of the year kept Rick and I at home today. We knew it was coming, so had planned to stay home anyway. In my line of work, I can do that - on the flip side, though, I have had many MANY nasty drives to get offers and waivers signed.

Staying home all day can make for a long day - I'm used to going into the office every day. I have trouble actually "working" from home - I find I'm more productive when I'm in the office. When I'm home, I tend to surf the net, watch bad daytime TV, read, drink buckets of tea and play my Nintendo DS (which I am totally adicted to)

Rick was more active - he had to snow-blow the laneway twice. For the most part, the cats seem to be enjoying the snow. Buddy likes it the most - he's been in and out all day - likes to chase the snowflakes. and Rick cleared a couple of paths around the house the he likes to run around in.

If you want a chuckle, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2Ph_Cp9a50
or just go to You Tube and search for: surprise kitty CUTE it's worth the effort, believe me!

today's picture is Rick snow-blowing the laneway. BTW, the ugly grey building in the background is our new water treatment plant. We share a well with 35 other houses and the common well used to be housed in a neat (and attactive) little log building. Several years ago (after the tainted water scandal at Walkerton and 9/11) it was decided that our well needed to be more secure. So, this squat, ugly building with chain link fence was the answer - gotta love progress!

White Christmas??

It's snowing out tonite - which is just perfect because today was the day we decided to put up Christmas decorations and the tree. Boy, we have a LOT of stuff!!! When going through all the boxes, I realized just how many decorations we have accumulated over the years. We probably only put up a third of what we have - much was left in the boxes.

The tree was easy - several years ago we bought an artificial tree. We always had a real tree, but Rick was starting to tire of the chore of dragging a tree home and wrestling it into the tree stand - so when we spotted an artificial tree at Scott's Hardware (a really neat, old fashioned hardware store in Renfrew) that we both liked, we bought it and have been using it ever since.

Other than decorating the house, we had a fairly quiet weekend. We plan to stay out of the stores during peak (weekend) hours if possible. I don't have much on the go tomorow, so that will likely be a good time to shop!

As promised, I have Christmas cat pictures! The first one is Buddy having a cat-nap - I took this one last Christmas actually - I still like it! And Buddy (again) taken today while he was investigating the decorations on the bookshelp. And a rather out-of-focus one of Nibbles in her Christmas outfit. She was so good to wear it without any fuss - the others all freak out and runaway (what's wrong with them!!!!!!?????)

Green Again!!!

As I suspected (hoped) our weather turned nice and once again the grass is green! Which is actually a bit un-nerving in December!

Congratulations to brother in law, John, on acquiring a Harley Davidson motorcycle - I've seen the pictures and it looks very nice! But, John, when I told you to buy yourself a bike for Christmas, I meant a bicycle!!!! hahahahaha

I have not done any Christmas shopping yet - I've decided to keep it simple this year and try to go with gift certificate and/or gift basket - so I should be able to manage to get it done in a day or so!

Real estate is fairly quiet - typical for this time of year. I have some closings in December, which is nice and a couple in January. And things should pick up again around February - I look forward to it!!!

Today's pictures were taken at night (no, duh!) of the moon (again, no duh!!!!) Didn't come out exactly right, but one night when it was very cloudy, the moon had a perfect ring around it - was really neat. Anyway we tried to take a picture of it and this was the result. I doubt if it will be making the cover of "Photography Today" anytime soon.

check back in a couple of days, though - I can promise more interesting shots - I bought a santa outfit for the cats and they are very eager to try it and have their pictures taken - so should be more exciting pictures next week - if you like pictures of pissed off cats that is!!!!!! I know, I'm sick!