Sometimes when I’m at the computer I’d start up Photo Booth to snap a quick picture of my dog or a painting or just how good my hair looks, and then leave it up while I switch to a different application. Later on, sometimes hours, I’ll close all my windows and find some weird face I didn’t realize I was making. I like nothing more than looking stupid so I started capping them and thought I’d share.
People in Vancouver don’t get snow management. They think that the second snow falls, even a little bit, they need to start whipping salt everywhere. My neighborhood is pretty bad for it, but this afternoon I was at the bottom of Robson Street and the entire half a block of sidewalk where the Safeway is was just ENCRUSTED with salt, even though as I predicted, the snow is almost entirely gone.
The thing about sidewalk salting is:
a) it doesn’t make any sense to do it BEFORE you shovel, which so many people here do, and
b) IT IS SO BAD FOR DOGS! It burns their little paws- I’ve taken Dougal and Kichou for winter walks before and had them limping in pain before we’ve even reached the corner, plus it can make them really sick if they lick it off their feet. After that Safeway sidewalk debacle this afternoon I practically had to put Georgie into a puppy headlock to stop her from getting at her toes.
Some people think it’s stupid to put boots on dogs, because dogs didn’t evolve to wear shoes. Fair enough, but they didn’t evolve to walk around on salt-covered pavement either! After the salt fiasco in my neighborhood two years ago I got boots for Dougal and Kichou, and when I saw the creepy maintenance guy with a bag of salt on Saturday morning (in spite of there being almost NO SNOW) I knew Georgie needed some too. She did the dog-boot goofy walk for a second but got used to them surprisingly fast- this was the only video I was able to get because she started running around the house like a little golden rocket.
This morning we woke up to the first snow, although being Vancouver it was a pretty pathetic amount, and it’s sunny out now, so I predict it’ll all be melted by this afternoon. We took Georgie and Kichou out for a walk and they were pretty excited. Georgie had never seen snow before and Kichou, well. HE LOVES IT.
I’m not having a super-fantastic day. Wednesdays are always stressful because I have more kids than any other day and today has also had extra stresses like:
1. sleeping in until 8 minutes before the first kids are dropped off
2. an absurd rainstorm that soaked all of us LITERALLY down to our underwear
3. overall bad behavior and poor listening from the daycare kids
NO FUN. But hey, only 3 1/2 hours and it’s over, right? So let’s move on to better things.
On the weekend I bought a mini-box of the mini-mandarins I’m obsessed with (I posted about them last year) and on Monday and Tuesday I ate them all. They’re tiny but the boxes hold a pound and a half. I’ve also been eating a pomegranate a day. TAKE THAT SCURVY AND WHATEVER IT IS THAT ANTIOXIDANTS FIGHT.
On Wednesdays and Fridays Taylor gets home from work late, which means I either have to wait for coffee until almost noon, or get up early and go get it myself (which clearly didn’t happen since I already mentioned I slept in. HOWEVER it doesn’t matter anymore because last night my darling husband bought a Nespresso machine.
It’s cute! It’s automatic! He’s going to be in charge of any cleaning! I think I put too much water in the americano I made this morning but I’ll get the hang of it! (Smaller cups will help also.)
I just took this five minutes ago when I was straightening my hair. LOOK AT ALL THAT WHITE HOLY SMOKES. I swear if it was like this all over I’d cut off all my ends and be done with hair dye forever. Unfortunately it’s not so I’m going in Saturday for highlights.
And of course, there’s my golden shadow. She’s started cuddling up with Taylor more, which makes me stupidly jealous, but she still follows me around the house.
In other news, I relisted some Fawn and Unicorn prints in my etsy shop, just in time for the holidays! So if you missed out on them last time nows your chance! And later today I’m going out to pick up some prints of Le Coeur de Grenade, which will be listed by the weekend.
Last night I went to the gym for the first time in months. I was feeling angry and annoyed and knew I wouldn’t be able to get to sleep at a reasonable hour anyway, so I decided to go work out. At midnight. My gym has a 24-hour location about five blocks from my apartment, so I might as well take advantage of that, right? It seemed like a good idea at the time, although I had cause to regret my decision when my alarm went off at 6:30 this morning!
The gym is weird at midnight. It’s really quiet, which is awesome since I hate it when it’s super crowded. It’s pretty much just big beefy guys who work out that late- there were only three other women there, and I think two of them just stayed in the locker room, which is pretty weird. I don’t know if I’d go that late again; I’m pretty fuzzy-headed and sleepy today so I don’t think midnight workouts are very sustainable over the long term.
Or maybe she just doesn’t like being crammed into her little rain suit. Taylor says it makes her look like a convict picking up trash on the side of the freeway.
After having Thursday off I woke up bright and early on Friday morning to walk to dogs and clean the house. I started with vacuuming the foyer, and that was when I killed my vacuum. As it turned out there was a clog of dog hair and tennis ball parts in the hose and it fried the motor. BOO. With all the kids and pets I can’t live without vacuuming this place practically every day so after work we went out to get a new one (I looked into getting the old one repaired but there really aren’t any vacuum repair places downtown), a Dyson ANIMAL vacuum. It’s so amazing! The last time I vacuumed was Wednesday morning and (warning this is gross) this is what I got on the first use:
VOMIT CITY! And that isn’t even from vacuuming the whole house- just the carpeted part of the living room. I was trying to take a picture to illustrate the area that produced all that filth but of course the second I vacuumed up all the pet hair the pets had to get all up in it.
Idiots. I know it looks like Dougal is murdering Georgie but in reality playing with him is her favorite thing.
She laid there flailing all her paws at him while he just stood and watched for a really long time.
Anyway. We did do other stuff this weekend besides dogs- On Saturday I picked up my new boots, yay! and we bought a ton of candy. Here’s my selection of sour fruits and soda bottles.
Later on Sym’s dad came over to pick her up, not just for their regular Saturday Sleepover but because they left this morning for a week in Playa del Carmen (although thankfully not at the hotel that EXPLODED this morning). He had this giant obnoxious backpack on and he knocked a bunch of stuff off my windowsill, including my phone. It busted into a million pieces and although I’m skilled at reassembling it, the screen was dead. Boo. Luckily I have an old one; the screen that broke was actually swapped in from another one because the original screen cracked. I had to put the cracked screen back in until the one I ordered online arrives, so now I’m stuck looking at this:
In real life all those streaks are red, making it look like a murder victim phone. Plus I can’t tell how much battery power I have left.
Also, you may have noticed in the picture of the living room that the birthday decorations we still up on Friday. That’s because Taylor still hadn’t cleaned the bedroom, but after nearly garotting himself on a streamer he finally held up his end of the bargain today. I was taking the crêpe paper down this afternoon when I found this intrepid fellow.
I didn’t want to squish him into the garbage, so I tore that section of streamer out and went to go put it outside. When I opened the door a draft blew him back into the house, so I guess he’s still in here somewhere. Lucky bug, I wouldn’t want to be out there in the cold either!
Room, 81/104; Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives, 82/104: Of Bees and Mist, 83/104
See if you can spot the hidden dog.
Dougal is so very handsome.
Taylor is also handsome but you wouldn’t know it since he insists on making a deformed squink face for pictures. And yes, Symphony’s birthday party decorations are still up, WHAT OF IT? I actually promised Taylor I’d take them down today (the crêpe paper streamers are stretching and hitting everyone over the age of ten in the face), just as soon as he cleans the bedroom.
