We're sickies

Once again, a nasty end-of-season cold has blind-sided us. Feeling fine one day, lousy the next day! I'm sicker than Rick, who isn't 100% sure he's getting it, he might have just been over-doing the outdoor work yesterday causing him to feel tired and achy. I, on the other hand, can say, without a doubt, that I have a cold - sore throat, achy muscles, stuffy head and a cough. this sucks!

Kris's lizards have been busy - as in procreating! We have a new baby lizard about 1 inch long - I'd take a picture, but Kris was worried the flash would blind him, cuz he's so tiny. Can you imagine, a 1 inch long, BLIND baby lizard? Only Kris would be concerned - me? not so much.....

Anyway, for those interested, the baby cannot eat the live crickets, who are, of course, bigger than he is - so he must be fed baby food or wingless flies (??? - if they're wingless, how can they be flies???) However, no wingless flies to be had at the local pet shop, wingless flies are a special order (no, duh!!!) - I think we'll manage with the baby food. He's so tiny, Rick thought of putting a bit of baby food on a toothpick, but we were afraid of skewering the poor little fellow, so we're going to let Kris handle the feedings for now.

Last night Rick went up (as he generally does) to shut off the lights in the lizard home, this tells them it's time to sleep (btw, I can't tell the difference between an awake one and sleeping one....) anyway, the lights also keep the home warm and Kris was quite upset to come home late last nite and find the baby damn near frozen. again, me? not so much....

Weather-wise it is quite cold today compared to earlier in the week when it was bare feet and "scandals" - back to shoes and socks today, although I do see some brave souls out in shorts and sandals!

no new pictures today - but I change my blogger picture to one of Buddy! He's VERY cute.

miles and miles

I've certainly been running the roads a LOT for the last week or so. probably put 400 - 500 kms at least! I've been to Calabogie several times and then Foymount (up near Eganville) on Friday. Yesterday, I looked at a place near Centennial Lake (Calagobie/Griffith area) In fact, I've been sooooo busy, I had to go online to find out where the race is this weekend (Texas, in case anyone else is wondering!)

On Friday, Rick was off to Pakenham for his annual "Mitel" golf tournament - but the weather was so miserable, that after a few holes in the pouring rain they decided to call it a day (a BAD day) and since sitting around in the bar in wet clothing didn't appeal, Rick simply packed it in and came home. I hope he will get back for another game, though - the club did give them a club credit - so he might as well use it!

Kris gets the sutures on his leg out tomorrow - the area around the sutures started to get infected and he went in the emergency Friday night hoping to get them taken out a bit early but the doctor on emerg. was reluctant to remove Dr. Miller's handiwork and put him on antibiotics instead. I'm sure he'll be happy to finally get them taken out tomorrow morning.

I spoke to Jamie yesterday - he only has one week left in his course and is quite confident he'll come out with a very comfortable pass. He does continue to work part-time - he banks his hours until he is back to work full-time and then gets a nice pay cheque! Also, the government sends him a cheque for $1000 when he passes each level, so that helps him out as well.

I'm quite looking forward to this coming weekend when our very good friends (and ex-neighbours) are coming for a visit for. We don't get to see Pam and Terry very often, so I can't wait to see them.

I hear it's raining today in Texas - sure hope it stops in time for the race!

today's picture is of Calabogie Ski Peaks - look! there's still snow on the hills!

WET WEATHER

After a nice stretch of very un-seasonably warm weather, we are now experiencing a bit of more typical weather. Cold and wet - typical April. But due to warm up for the weekend.

I'm actually working a Home Show this weekend, Century 21 has a booth this year, so I'm really hoping for lousy weather (and, no, not because I have to work!!!) because cold, rainy weather sends people indoors (ie the Home show) whereas nice warm sunny days will have everyone landscaping their yards!

Jamie was up for Easter Sunday - nice to see him. His grades continue to be very good and he still seems really into this auto-mechanics course. When he finishes this semester, he should have his Level 2. He plans to simply work a while with his level 2, save some money, and then take his level 3 course in January 2011. In the mean-time, I think he might start watching for a job in a high-performance garage - which is his preference. You mainly do a basic stuff at Canadian Tire - brakes, tires, oil changes etc.

Oh yeah, Kris got a nasty cut on his leg over the weekend. he was on a friend's 4-wheeler on Saturday evening, when he managed to flip it over and in the process caught his leg on the un-covered handle-bar which resulted in a nice long gash requiring 17 stitches to close. He's hobbling around on a cane (when he brought the cane home from the dump last summer, I did wonder at it's use fullness - little did I know.....) anyway, he can't really work or do much - which means he is totally bored and unhappy. And when Kris isn't happy - NOBODY'S happy. It'll be good when he can return to work (next week maybe....?????)

Today's picture is from Easter Sunday - the "boyz" bonding in the living room (bonding means Jamie calling Kris a pansy for using a cane, stupid for flipping the 4-wheeler and Kris retaliating much the same way - oh those boys!)

what a day!

Hard to believe, but it was warmner here today than it was in Florida! Warm enough for us to break out the Pony and go for a long drive! In fact, Rick un-cloaked the Mustang yesterday (when it was actually warmer than it was today) and we went for two very long drives. First to Calabogie to put up a sign on a house I listed last week) then just a cruise up to Pembroke and back!

This morning we made a quick run into Renfrew for some groceries & easter treats. Man the stores were CROWDED - parking lots packed! I haven't seen the Wal-Mart and Canadian Tire lots so full since Christmas. Anyway, due to crowds, we didn't get in and out of the stores as fast as we wanted, but we weren't in a rush.

Tonight just before it got dark, we went for another spin - just cuz its fun!

I don't think it is going to be as warm tomorrow, but still in the 20's. I could get used to this weather!

Today's picture - Rick in the Pony (notice no snow in sight)

R.I.P. Max

Well, today was the day..... In spite of our best efforts, we finally realized Max is not going to stop spraying in the house. We've tried calming pheronome sprays and kitty valium without success - in fact, recently it's been much worse. So, with much regret we brought Max to the vet to....well...you know....

Not a great day - no one was happy about it, but there does come a time when one has to say ENOUGH!!!! Kris took it relatively well (Max was his cat) he was upset, but he knew it was coming.

A fairly busy day in the office, although, I did manage to get to watch most of the rain-delayed NASCAR race this afternoon. My driver, (Jeff Gordon for those of you who don't already know) lead some laps and was leading towards the end until Matt Kenseth bumped him and he went back a few spots, but came in 3rd & I'm okay with that. But, tell me, how can Jimmie Johnston come in 11th and wind up leading the points??????? not fair! Oh well, still early in the season!

today's picture - Max playing in a box.

is this March???

I totally cannot believe that this warm, no-snow, weather continues! Other than a couple of days in early March when it snowed on and off for a few days, it has been positively balmy weather for this time of year. I have not worn boots or winter coat for 3 weeks!! I like it, but it's a bit freaky too!

For those enterprising people reading this - here are two innovations that need doing
#1. lights for laptops - I have my laptop in the living room where I can surf, email etc. while watching TV. Our living room tends to be dark and I cannot see the lap top keyboard - causing me to often mis-type! sooo annoying! If only my laptop came with a tiny light that lit up just the keyboard! how handy would that be????

#2. rotary bathtub cleaner (or something like that) This one is care of Jamie who claims he uses this method for cleaning his bathroom. Take a regular electric drill with wire brush attachment and then stick a thick sponge on the wire brush (so you don't scratch your tub) then a nice sprinkle of Comet on the sponge and away you go! Works well - Rick actually tried it on our tub - only problem is the flying bits of Comet generated by the speed of the drill. A proper unit would likely come with a slower speed, no wire brush and a screen deflector so the scrub-ee doesn't have to change clothes afterwards!!

Well, there you go, kids - two inventions just waiting for the right person to come along and do something with them.

Been a busy week this week - lots of running around for real estate - two deals in the works and 2 houses listed! Wheeeeee.... This morning I drove from Mink Lake (Pembroke area) to Calabogie to get an offer signed - lots of driving in rural real estate!

If fact, we were so busy running around, that I was quite sure I had missed the NASCAR race this afternoon, but turns out it had been cancelled due to rain, so if I can wrap things up at the office tomorrow morning, I can get home by noon & watch the rain-delayed race.

Last Sunday we had a great afternoon watching the race at Bill and Andrea's house. In deference to my low/no carb diet, Andrea outdid herself in snacks and goodies I could legitimately eat & followed it up with a great steak and Caesar salad. Super day, guys! - too bad Jimmie Johnson had to sneak up and win the race!!!! We're all just soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sick of Jimmie Johnson! (I may have mentioned that before)

As I'm typing this, I'm watching a Led Zeppelin concert from 1976 on the VH1 Classic channel- amazing! We've seen a ton of old videos and concerts from the 70's since subscribing to VH1 Classic. Most of it is stuff we're seeing for the first time - back then, we only heard the music - we didn't really have any visuals other than album covers and photos, so this is all new to us. As I said - amazing!

Today's picture - deer in Bill and Andrea's back yard! and Buddy, cuz, he's so freaking CUTE!!!!

Shelly, you're a STAR!!!

On Thursday night we watched Shelly's segment on House Hunters International on HGTV - what a thrill to watch someone you know on TV!!!! Shelly looked great and it was soooooo neat to watch her on TV. Unfortunately, we couldn't tape it as we no longer have a VCR hooked up to the TV and our Blue Ray doesn't record.

Anyway, good job, Shelly! I'm sure we'll see it again on re-runs - I (of course) watch HGTV a LOT! I like to see how other real estate agents "spin" bad things into good - like "I KNOW the house is only 20 feet from the highway - but that makes it SUPER for commuting" stuff like that!

We came home from shopping today to discover the kitchen tap was leaking. Rick just installed it about 3 years ago and now the seals (or whatever) are shot. The good news is that we had a spare, nearly new, tap on hand that Rick was able to install right way - the bad news is that the reason we had a spare, nearly new tap on hand is because it's rather ugly and was installed and quickly removed 3 years ago and we couldn't sell it for $20 at our last garage sale! However, as it doesn't leak it is clearly a winner now!

Well, after a week off, we have a NASCAR Nationwide race this afternoon and tomorrow the Sprint cup race! We're off to Bill and Andrea's tomorrow to watch it - should be a good afternoon of racing!

Meanwhile, I plan to enjoy the Nationwide race (provided my cell phone doesn't start to go off!!

today's picture - Shelly on TV