Have you ever seen the movie "The Birds"?

Me neither.  1963 was way before my time :o)  But it seems like our land out back could be where they filmed it!  See, part of our land is "rented" out to Ducks Unlimited and that part happens to be under water.  It also happens to be where thousands of geese come in the spring.  Seriously, thousands.  And they are incredibly noisy! 

Even though they bring a lot of noise and poop, we still welcome them every year.  It's a sure sign that summer is on the way.  If you come out to visit us, be sure to keep your mouth closed when looking up!

Who are you and what have you done with my puppy??

Well, the trip to the vet was a complete success.  The day started by getting everything packed into the Escape: dog carrier, leash, piggy toy, chew toy, blanket, puppy.  Okay, all good.  Jodie is definitely an outdoor dog, and when you put an outdoor dog into a carrier (or any dog that isn't used to it) there is going to be a fuss.  She basically howled as loud as she can for about 20 minutes.  Then she finally went to sleep.  Just about to the office and I smell something that is, unfortunately, all to familiar: puppy puke!  Doh!  I was hoping she would sleep through the motion sickness but I guess I'm just not that lucky!  Although it was very lucky that I had thrown a role of paper towel into the truck.  Okay, it's not the first time and it won't be the last time I have to clean up puppy puke.  Got to work and visited for a while.  She was very good!  No biting or barking or chewing on the leash, strange.  Then back in the truck to head to the vet, which is about a 5 minute drive, yup, more puke.  Clean it up again and go to the vet.  Everyone was super nice, including Jodie.  She even went to sleep on the exam table!  Really!  Where's the biting and barking puppy I live with!?!  The exam went really well and they even gave her a little puppy package with a new toy!  She didn't even cry when she got her shot.  Although I think I was much more nervous then her!  Then she was ready to go.  Went to visit the other half and show here off at his work (where she laid down on the floor and just went to sleep).  She then decided she was too tired to walk back to the truck so I carried her :o)  And she slept all the way home (no puke!).  A few days later the vet clinic sent Jodie a welcome card!  Very nice of them.  We will be back again at the beginning of May for a booster shot.  Hopefully she's over the motion sickness by then!

MS Society of Canada

Please sponsor Wendy Britton as she walks to help raise money to find a cure for MS!
MS Society of Canada

Jodie Goes To The Vet

I have to take Jodie to her first vet visit tomorrow morning for a check-up and her first set of shots.  Should be interesting.  I've never taken a dog to the vet before so we'll see how we do.  As long as they don't ask me to hold her while they give her the shots!  I don't think I can take that.

PS We will be making a stop at the Axon parking lot around 9am if anyone is interested in meeting her.  Probably better to do it before the appointment because we'll both be in better moods!

PS3 Heavy Rain Review

This weekend my better half and I played Heavy Rain for the PS3. I must say that it was the most original game I have played to date.

The graphics were absolutely amazing! It was like playing a movie. They had the real actors wear sensors and act out the whole game (just like a movie) so that the movements and facial expressions would be realistic (and they were, sometimes scarily so). I can't remember the exact number of hours recording (I think it said 137 hours) and 90 actors to make the game.  And when you see the real actors it is amazing how much the characters in the game look like them.  The did a most excellent job!  I can't even begin to imagine the amount of work that they put into this game.  Even the music was awesome (full orchestra to record 4 movies worth of music).

The controls were designed and executed very well. Instead of controls like X to shoot and O to jump, the controls were displayed on the screen (kind of like one long quick-time event) and were made to mimic the actual action being performed. For example, to open the car door you moved the right analog stick over and down around, like you would with your hand in real life. If you were trying to pull yourself up onto a rooftop it would have you press X repeatedly until you climbed up. Some of the actions needed to be performed slowly, like when applying ointment to a burn (do it too fast and the patient will freak on you for hurting them) or opening a window from inside a burning apartment (too fast and the fire burns you). One part when we were making our way through a power plant required two people (I suppose you could do it if you used your tongue or a toe) because we had to hold L1, L2, R1, R2, circle, x, and square to climb through electrified wires, and if you didn't hold them for the correct amount of time then you got electrocuted. It was pretty intense!

Another difference between Heavy Rain and other games is that if you kill one of the main characters then he/she is just gone from the game. We didn't experience this until the very end when one of our characters died so we were no longer able to use him. I think we will go back and see how it handles other characters dying at various parts in the game. Although, with the moral decisions you are forced to make and the realism of the characters, purposely letting them die may be more difficult then I think! (You get super attached immediately.  I was just watching and it was a total emotional roller coaster ride!)

In this game, you always seem to have a choice when it comes to decision making: do you help the hooker or not, cut the finger off or not, drink the poison or leave. It's all up to you. The game keeps going but it will definitely affect the outcome of the game when it comes to the end. Will you catch the killer or will he get away.  (Our ending was a total surprise to me, but my better half had it totally figured out!)

I say it's well worth a play, or even a watch if you're not really into actually doing the controlling.  And there is already download content (which I should be able to play by the time I get home from work today)!  I would say it was about 15 - 17 hours of awesome gameplay, which isn't bad nowadays.  And I think it offers re-play-ability to see what happens if you make different choices (such as kill the drug dealer instead of letting him live).  It is definitely rated M for mature (lots of nudity, swearing, violence, drug abuse, etc.) so don't buy it for you kids!  They wouldn't like it anyway.  The situations and decisions that need to be made in this game can only be appreciated by an adult (and it will even be lost on some adults).  If you want a no-brainer, point and shoot game, this is not what you are looking for.  If you want a mature game that requires making moral decisions in real-life-like situations and amazing graphics, play Heavy Rain!

My Puppies

Finally got a video of Jaxie and Jodie together and they are actually acting relatively civil. 



Also a "finally", Jodie slept through the whole night last night!  I was very impressed!  Now she'll probably be up 6 times tonight :o(  Oh well, at least I got one night of continuous rest.

I guess it was puppy love...

Jodie had me up at 4:40am today and was bound and determined to not let me go back to sleep.  She had to pee and she had to go right now.  So I jump out of bed, pick her up, run to the kitchen and grab her leash and my jacket, jump into my winter boots and out we go.  And what do I get for all my effort?  A little tiny tinkle and 20 minutes of following a puppy around my yard in the dark.  Yeah for me!  Convinced she's finished, I take her back in the house.  Not 2 seconds later she's crying at the door to go out.  Alrighty then, back out we go, and she goes a little bit again.  Now she's got to be done, I think to myself, but no, she does it again.  Alright, this time I'm staying out till I'm sure she's done.  35 minutes later I'm standing on my front lawn watching the sun come up with Jodie and Jaxie.  Nice to see the sun but I really would have rather been sleeping.   At least once the sun comes up the yipees and other farm dogs finally shut-up.  Back in the house we go.  I've got about 20 minutes available for sleep, but no, there will be no rest for me, now it's play time!  Since I'm about to lock her in a room for 8 hours, I give in and play.  She falls asleep on the living room floor around 6:45am, just in time for me to have to wake her up to put her in her room.  Ugh!  This dog just might hate me.  And yes, she did sleep in our bed again.

Welcome Jodie!

This is our new puppy Jodie.  She is 8 weeks and 3 days old.  She is a Great Pyrenees and will grow to be huge!  But I can tell already, that with us at least, she will just be a huge baby!

She was born on an Indian Reserve about 10 minutes North of Carlyle Saskatchewan on January 15th, 2010.  They already had too many dogs there so she needed a new home.  My better half had been wanting a Great Pyrenees for some time so we were always keeping one eye open for them.  Being on the farm and with Jaxie getting older we were hoping to get one sooner rather then later.  The add appeared on Kijiji so I sent them an email.  A week later we were making the +10 hour round trip to get our new addition.

Of course first we needed supplies.  It has been quite some time since we've had a puppy.  A color and leash (pink Harley Davidson), a bed, food bowls, food, treats, toys, and a carrier were all purchased.

The drive down seemed to take forever.  The closer we got the more we started talking about what would happen if these people were actually serial killers and not dog sellers.  Oh well, we figured, if it's going to happen then it's going to happen, although we maybe should have told more people where exactly we were going.  But it all worked out well.  It was actually a couple kids who were very nice so that was all good.  Picked the puppy we wanted and packed up to make the long drive home.  The first half an hour Jodie cried and barked and made all sorts of noise.  Then she feel asleep for pretty much the rest of the drive home.  Stopped to give her a break but she really liked it better in the carrier.

She slept most of the rest of the evening at home.  She was quiet in the carrier before so we decided that she should sleep in there for the night.  Well, it started out good, but by 2:30am we were up and sleeping on the couch so she could sleep on the living room floor.  Darn babies!

The next day was a good one.  It was beautiful outside so we took Jodie out to meet the rest of the family.  Abi and Killer really could not have cared less.  Ali swatted Jodie's ear and made her bleed and then ran away!  Poor puppy, doesn't even live with us for a whole 24 hours and she's already wounded.  Jaxie was very curious.  Pounced on her once but was mostly friendly.  Jodie was, of course, very curious of everything but thankfully still not brave enough to venture very far from us, although she started to get braver as the day wore on.  There were a few times we had to go running through the mud to get her!  Lots of cuddling was needed after the beating by the other animals and the bath.  She is the biggest suck ever and definitely loves her snuggles!

We tried putting her in the bathroom the second night but the crying began immediately.  My better half decided that she should sleep with us, but really, only this one time!  Yeah right.  So she slept on our bed.  And she actually woke me up at 6am to go outside.  I guess I was a little slow because she still peed on the floor but at least she tried. 

She was none too pleased being locked up for the day but she can't very well be running around the house or outside by herself.  Oh well, we did it with Jaxie and she turned out perfect.

So I guess this is a whole new adventure.  We kind of forgot how nice it can be to have a dog in the house, even if it is one that bites your toes!  Off to the pet store again today for puppy shampoo, a smaller collar, and more toys.  Good times!

My Neighbors Photography Blog

Check out my neighbors photography blog at Esperance Photography She's really good!

It's June! Oh wait...I mean January?

Well I made it through the dreaded holiday season. I even sent out Christmas cards! Skipped the DVDs though, and heard lots of grumbling about it, but oh well.

So now it's January 13th and the temperatures are creeping into the pluses. Seriously. Yesterday when we went home from work it was +5C. Total craziness! There is basically no snow! This is not good news! Go ahead, call my crazy, but my lawn was super dry last year and we had rain and snow. I don't even want to know what it's going to look like this summer. And my new plum trees and plants are not nicely tucked in to a cozy blanket of snow! They are right out in the open just waiting for the deep freeze to come back and kill them. And don't even get me started on the freezing rain! Poo.

Oh well, I guess it's all part of that global warming thing I keep hearing about. We'll be swatting mosquitoes at Christmas in no time. Great.

It's December??

It is already December 3rd and the snow has just started to come. It really doesn't feel like winter. Although, listening to the forecast this morning it sounds like it will shortly!

And Christmas! I don't even feel like having Christmas this year! I am in a total hum-bug mood and I don't know why. I don't want to put up Christmas lights or decorate or do Christmas cards or wrap presents or even do the annual Christmas DVD. I told my other half that I would wrap the presents but that is it. He proceeded to tell me how disappointed everyone will be to find out there are no Christmas DVDs this year let alone no Christmas cards. I didn't particularly care. Let someone else do it this year. I just have absolutely no inspiration this year. I even bought some cool new software last year for making the DVDs and I just really don't care. I don't feel funny, creative, or ambitious enough to do it. I don't even feel like finishing my Christmas crafts. I just feel tired.

I dunno. I wish it was May.

BLOG CANDY!!

Go check out the contest to win some sweet blog candy at Three Trees!  There's a couple great prizes for those of you who are crafty!  Even if you're not, it's always nice to win something free!

While you are there be sure to check out the rest of the site. Deanne is amazingly talented! Check out the cards she has for sale. They are all unique and beautiful and for a steal-of-a-deal price. She is the go-to-gal for all things cards and crafty!

A Blanket For Baby

I have just finished my most recent crochet project.  A friend from work is having a baby so I decided to make a blanket set for her.  Her theme is kind of safari/zoo so I figured a nice giraffe set would go well.  This project involved a blanket, a pillow, and a toy.  This is the first "set" project I have done.  I think it turned out pretty well.  It took about 3 months but it was well worth it.  I hope baby likes it!

First the blanket.  I made the base first (the green and blue).  Then added the tree and grass.  Then came the leaves and clouds.  I then made both the giraffes and sewed them to the blanket.  Last came the clouds and the fringe.

 

 

 

Once the blanket was done it was on to the pillow and the toy.  The pillow was pretty simple.  Make the pillow then add the trees, leaves, cloud, and grass.  Then leg loops for the toy to sit in.  I took an old pillow case and cut and sewed it to fit in the pillow instead of just stuffing the pillow to keep the stuffing from pulling through the crochet.  I could not do the same for the toy so hopefully the stuffing stays in the toy where it should be.

 

If my pictures would have been better you might get a better view of the cute smile on the toy but you will just have to imagine.  I am really happy with how it turned out.  Half the instructions were "Follow the picture" and the picture didn't even show most of the project so I think I did a pretty good job.  Sometimes you just have to toot your own horn!  The mom seemed to like it so that's the main thing.

On to the next project!  Not sure if I'll move on to the next baby set (a sheep theme that is really hard) or whip up some quick dish clothes or slippers for my sister or a blanket for my mom!  Ahh!  So many projects, so little time!  And Christmas is right around the corner!  Better get working!

SUCCESS!!

Well, I did the run and lived to tell the story. The total raised as of run day was $785! So I set my goal at 7 miles.

Here is the elliptical in our basement.  Don't mind the mess!

Here is the air mattress in case I died!  And the TV to entertain me.  I caught up on all my Rescue Me episodes!

I tracked the mileage on the elliptical and the time on the IPod so I could keep track of the time per mile.  And the timer on the elliptical did not go high enough!

  And it starts!

 

 1 mile!  Still feeling good! And 27 minutes, not bad.

 

 Mile 2, still good.  Hmm...25 minutes, I guess I'm getting faster!

 

 3 miles!  Alright I'm feeling it a bit, still 3 seconds faster on this mile.  Craziness!

 

 Mile 4, faster still!?!  What the heck!  Oh well, for sure the next mile will be slower!  On to the 3rd episode of Rescue Me!

 

 Ugh! Mile 5! Wait a minute, only 24 and a half minutes? Look at me go!

 

Mile 6, can barely feel my legs anymore.  Don't know if I'll make 7 but I will do my best!  Hmmm...23 minutes and 24 seconds.  Cool!

 Yeah! I made it!  Somebody shoot me!  And check it out, 22 minutes 41 seconds!  The fastest mile of them all!  Craziness!  7 miles in 2 hours, 55 minutes.  Pretty good if you ask me!

 

 Here's the calorie count:

 

My legs still hurt and I have bruises on the tops of my feet and I've been sick ever since, but I'm glad I did it.  I raised a bunch of money and proved to myself that I could do it if I wanted to.  Excellent!  And surprisingly enough every mile I got a little faster.  Crazy!  Thanks for all your support!  It really meant a lot to me!  Hopefully it will help find a cure!

Three Days To Go

The power went out at our house on Monday. When the power goes out at our house, the battery backup for my 18 year-old alarm clock kicks in and actually speeds up the time. The severity of the time difference depends on how long the power is out. It must have been out for about an hour because when I thought it was 5:45am on Tuesday morning, it was actually 5:06am. Since I had already shut the alarm off and could no longer hit the snooze button, I few choices but to get up. Good time for an hour long elliptical session. I did 2.22 miles (11721.6 feet). Just about half. Pretty good. But I don't think there is any chance in hell I could keep that speed up for 2 hours. I am logging my time/distance on my IPod Touch to keep track and see if I'm getting better or not. Kinda left that to the last minute! I guess that means that I would have to continue doing an hour in the morning instead of just 30 minutes. Might not be such a bad idea. At least they put it back to reruns of the previous evening's George Strombolopalous instead of freakin' Steven And Chris. We'll see I guess. All I know is I'm exhausted and starving!

PS. This is my first post using the new post editor. Seems alright but I like the old Preview better. I am looking forward to the improved image handling.

Fundraising Update

Well, I have 5 days before the big run so I thought I had better give an update on how things are going.

The fundraising has gone way better then I expected. I had set a goal of $500 when I started, thinking that would be tough enough. To my surprise people were more then happy to support finding a cure, and to encourage my suffering. The total so far is an amazing $653.00 (127% of my goal)!! Incredible! That makes me the top fundraiser for the Virtual Run location! Thanks so much to everyone who donated. It means more to me then you will ever know.

So, now people are asking how far I'm going to go. Well, I'm definitely going to do the 5 miles promised if I made it to $500. After that, I don't know. I will try to make the 6.5 miles but we'll see how it goes. I figure it will take probably about 3 1/2 hours to go 5 miles on the elliptical. Why does it take so long you may ask. It's not because I'm a wussy. For one thing, I am totally out of shape. And secondly, each stride is only about 1 foot and there are 5280 feet in one mile. That means just to get 5 miles I need to do 26400 feet (strides on the elliptical). Holy crap! So far I've been doing about 1.17 miles (6178 feet) in about 30 minutes in the mornings. Going to try to get it up to 40 minutes this week but that means a 5:30am start, ugh! And I'm working lates this week at work, ugh! This could be a long week. Gotta try to not burn out by Saturday or it could really be tough.

I have never ran 5 miles in my entire life. I have never even thought about running 5 miles in my entire life. And now I'm going to do it in 1 foot intervals. This may be the dumbest thing I have ever done. Well, the most painful anyway! And all for a cure. I guess it's worth it. :o) Of course it's worth it! Plus, I'm getting in shape and losing weight and bringing my cholesterol down which will all make my doctor very happy. Everybody wins!

PS. If anyone has any tips for me, that would be great. It's about 200 cals for every 30 minutes so I don't know if I need to worry about taking in cals or if I'll be okay. Just water or do I need something like Powerade or what? What should I eat the night before and the morning of? Or am I blowing this way out of proportion?

S & R Gardens

Side Note: A special thanks to Penny, Derek and Deanne, Jeff, and Kim for sponsoring my run! Your support means more to me then you will ever know. I'm up to $90! Yahoo! Tell your friends!

"S & R Gardens" is what I call my mom and dad's back yard. It is absolutely amazing. They put so much time and effort (and money) into their yard I just had to take some pictures and show it off! I hope I have even a smidgen of their talent for making a beautiful yard! Although they have put about 15 years into theirs and I'm only at 2. I guess I have some work to do!

The morning dove was very strange. I could have pet it if I wanted to (which I didn't). I was way more interested in eating then anything else.

S & R Gardens

Alrighty Then

So, despite the fact that no one commented on the last post, I'm doing the run. I'm not sure if no one said anything because they think it's a bad idea or they just really couldn't care less. No matter. I'm doing it anyway.

I'm doing the Virtual Run Site because the 4th is my godson's 2nd birthday so I will actually be doing the run on the 3rd in my basement on my elliptical. The run is an hour and a half. You can do either 1K or 5K (or 3.3 miles). I will be aiming for the 3.3 miles. Although, after talking to a few people, I should be able to do much more then that in an hour and a half. So I guess I have a few options. Maybe for every $100.00 raised over $150 I will add a half a mile or something. My goal is $500 so if I reach it I will end up running about 5 miles. Sounds good to me. I had better start training!

I you would like to sponsor my run, you can click here or use the link on the right. Contributions of $20 or more will be eligible for a tax receipt. If you do not feel comfortable donating online, I can also take cash donations. Thanks for all your help!

Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run For A Cure

My neighbor is doing the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run For A Cure this year and is looking for people to do it with her. I don't like people in general but would like to participate. Turns out they have a virtual run for people who don't live near a run site. I think I might try this. The course is 3.3 miles I think. I could do that at home on my elliptical. That would work. Something to think about anyway. Plus they have an online fundraiser set up which makes it much easier. I will discuss with the other half tonight and make a decision. The sooner I decide the sooner I can get to raising money if I go with it.

It's been a relatively craptacular past 9 months, this could be something good for a change this year. Something to keep my mind busy.

What do you think?

Lilies

I am really enjoying my lilies this year. I have a few around the yard:






I would really like to get some more colors and kinds though. I recently received a catalog from Brecks Bulbs and they have some amazing stuff. I think I'm going to get some Lily Trees. They look like regular lilies but can get up to 250cms and have tonnes of blooms on them. I also think I will get their Super Lily Collection. It looks like a good mix. Oh how my other half is going to be so impressed :o( Meah, I'll just make sure to mention the $35.00 coupon I have :o)