Igor. One week and counting up.

Igor's been living with us for one week today. It's been a very exhausting time. I remember sitting and thinking about getting a brand-new puppy about a week before he actually arrived.

I recalled how cute and adorable Niki was when we got her (she still is, btw!), and how fun it was to play with her. That brought me to thinking about how late I stayed up some nights throwing toys for her to chase and running her around the main floor of the house in order to tire her out so she'd sleep. I thought about the potty-training that went into the first loooong while. Even though she was pretty awesome, it was still a bit of work. We had her "puppy room" set up so she could just go into the room and do her business pretty much anywhere in that room, although ideally she'd jump into the paper-lined litter box to perform. She didn't always make it, no. But it was cool.

*sigh*

I decided that I didn't want to empty out the foyer to change it back into a puppy room, so Igor's only option is to go outside on the deck (not great cuz it stinks after 2 years even though we wash it off), or go all the way down off the deck, down the stairs, onto the grass. Yup. Door number 2. The grass. All I can say is thank goodness for outdoor lighting! I nearly took a header off the bottom stair the other night in the dark. I'd forgotten to turn on the big light. Or had it flipped itself off? I can't remember and it doesn't matter. It was freakin' dark and it was raining (yes, raining) and I was tired and he was squirming to be let down NOW!!! The lights need to be turned on at night as my night-vision goggles have not yet arrived in the mail.

He's doing pretty good with potty-training. Well, maybe it's more accurate to say that we're doing pretty good since we're the ones that have to keep an eye on him for "I'm looking for a great place to pee" behaviour. He circles around, like all puppies do. Yay. However, sometimes his circles are ... subtle... and disguised as "I'm looking for that toy I put down a minute ago" behaviour. I can say without argument that he's quick to drop into the doggie crouch! One second he's standing upright and in less time than it takes to blink he's squatting and peeing. One fluid motion. (Pun intended) Tether training really doesn't make much difference with that kind of speed. No, we don't punish him for the booboo. It's our fault (okay, maybe mine), so why screech? I clap my hands to distract him and hoist him up and run for the door. Better luck next time.

This was Niki's rawhide birthday card for her 1st b'day in January. Igor loves it!

Igor likes to chew. Anything that Niki ignored in favour of stuffies with squeakers is what he homes in on. This was Niki's 1 y.o. birthday card. It was pristine until he got hold of it for a few minutes and now a corner is chewed right off. The funny thing about Igor chewing on Nylabones and VeggieDents is that Niki figures it must be good if the puppy's got it. She nipped into his kennel, stole his VeggieDent (a bagful of which we've had in the house for the past several months!) and ate it! Then she went back later and snitched the one he'd been sucking on and ate that too. Such a jealous little darling.

Igor the Wonder Dog! Stairs are no obstacle!!

He's precocious. Physically anyway. I don't remember exactly how long it took for Niki to climb the (carpeted) stairs, but it was definitely not in the 8 week range. Igor just turned 9 weeks old this Wednesday. He climbed the stairs 2 days before that. Not just one or two steps. The whole freakin' flight from the main floor to the bedroom level. That's how many stairs? Um... I could go count them, but I'm busy. Suffice it to say that I was impressed.

Size comparison. Igor vs the small drink bottle.

He's also jumping from the main level down the step into the living room. It's a sunken living room, which I always thought would be cool but has turned out to be a slippery-when-wearing socks and not such a good idea when you're distracted and forget to take those two steps down. He quite literally did a "Super-dog!!!" leap, stuck the landing (gymnastics style) and dashed off in hot pursuit of Niki. Why am I so impressed by that? Because going down stairs is a scary thing when you have to approach it with your head as the leader and it's a skill that takes dogs a while to learn and become comfortable with!

I figure he'll be coming down the main stairs sometime this week. Maybe.

Meanwhile, I think it's potty time again. He just woke up from another nap. Byeeeeeeeee!

Igor Hurricane Stravinsky has finally touched down!

It's been a long 8 weeks, but they're finally over! Little Igor has moved into his new home. He's a tri-coloured Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, born the night of Hurricane Igor, hence the name.

As far as tri-colour goes, he's really more of a black and white with mere dabs of tan. Kiss marks above his brows, tan under his ears and tail. We couldn't get farther from Niki's colouring if we tried!

He's gorgeous and sweet. Very cuddly. Very bold. He's bigger than Niki was. He's 2.0 kg at 8 weeks! A big'un! Only two in the litter probably has something to do with that.

Niki's not too enamored of him. You could say that her nose is seriously out of joint. However, it's only been 20 hours. Today is socialization day with Niki. Getting used to one another, playing with the same toys, figuring out how to eat without arguing. So far, so good. Mostly. They had a fairly successful time in the backyard this morning, with Niki unbending enough to chase after him. I think she forgot herself! We're trying to show her that she loses nothing by his presence. In fact, there's even MORE treats to be gained!

He spent part of his night in the crate beside the bed, but most of the night on the bed with us. Might as well get things settled right away. Note to self: Igor must NOT be on the edge of the bed. He squirmed and squiggled and stretched so much that at one point I reached out in my half-sleep in an attempt to catch him before he fell off the bed. I failed. He thudded to the floor and sat there in a dopey daze, whimpering. He was fine! lol... He spent the rest of the night tucked securely INSIDE the bed! Under my chin. On my chin. On my forehead. Under my pillow. *sigh* It was a looong night.

He actually did fairly well for his first night. He only got up twice in the night for a potty, both times successfully accomplishing what everybody takes for granted within a few minutes. The breeder told me that they'd been calling him "Puppers." I'm thinking "Poopers" would be as appropriate! He did it on the grass! I'm happy about that! Really!!

Igor was born Sept 23, 2010. He's now 8 weeks + a couple of days old.

Some serious teething going on

Thank goodness for Nylabone!

and naps.

He's snoozing on my lap right now. Twitching his feet and wriggling with puppy dreams. Typing is hard with the laptop propped up on the side of my leg. I think I'll post pix and sign off. Happy Day! Oh... Paul's birthday, too! :D ... shhhhh...

Going Pedaly-biking! Happy 40th, Paul!

October and still warm!

I was just realizing that we've had an absolutely glorious week of sunshine! How surprising is that for October? Very! Sure, the mornings are a bit brisk, and the wind continues to blow, but it's been sunny and almost balmy otherwise. I wonder (and I hope I'm not jinxing anything by mentioning this) if there's going to be snow for Halloween. :P

Updates for our little household...

We're still waiting for the replacement windows for the master bedroom. Jeldwen has been by with one replacement set, but they were scratched as well. Waiting seems to take forever. I think it's been about 3 weeks. Perhaps it's time to phone and nag them.

The new hot tub cover has been delivered and installed. It's much lighter than the original. I'm almost glad that the window installers dropped the pane of glass through it. Nice to not have to wrestle the weight of the lid up and over with one hand while holding a White Russian in the other hand.

A new septic tank has been installed. The old one was kinda soft after being used for 20-ish years. The new one is also steel, but has thicker walls and should last longer. Now all I need to do is find somebody who will deliver a load of sod that can be placed over the dirty soil that's exposed in the yard. I'm not putting the dog out there until it's done, nor am I planning to sit in the hot tub with the aroma upwind of us. No, it's not horrible! But the thought of it... Ewwww!

The old septic tank looks like some kind of abstract sculpture!

Hurricane Igor has been and gone. No damage other than that little maple tree I mentioned. The only long-term memory for us is going to be the addition of a little brother for Niki. Since the little thing was born during the hurricane, we've decided to call him Igor. He's a tri-coloured Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. (Niki is a black and tan version) We're expecting to fetch him from Freshwater, near Placentia around the last part of November. That's about a 1 1/2 hour drive from Torbay. The breeder is sending us updated photos. He's so cute!

Igor

The drawing course is proceeding well. I'm bouncing back and forth between graphite and coloured pencil. I did one painting of a cat, but it's nowhere near done yet. I'm doing a lot of research into art techniques for realism. I'd like to get the hair to look as realistic as possible. Not sure if I'll get there anytime soon, but I'm going to keep plugging away at it! Okay, okay... it's fun and I'm enjoying it, even though it's not easy!

Moe

Sean is nearly done the first part of his Construction Electrician course at Academy Canada. Soon he will be looking for a work-term position, and then an apprenticeship! His marks have been terrific and he seems to be liking the work. :D

Kyle is going to be moving out this year. It's not an easy step for him, but he seems to be looking forward to parts of it. He'll be looking for a room mate, as it's easier on the pocketbook. He'll be 23 this December. Dana says that we shouldn't give him pots and pans as his birthday or Christmas presents. ;)

Still working on the painting of Lucky. Colour changing to beige from grayscale.

Did I mention that I got over my Ikea envy? Dana got this lovely set of stuff for her little apartment in Winnipeg and I drooled for months over the way the whole thing worked out. I finally resolved my little envy problem by getting some Ikea for our house. A 3-some of book cases. It arrived while Dana was here for her Newfoundland visit, so she helped assemble it. I LOVE it! The shelves aren't full yet. I'm trying to be discriminating in what I add to the shelves... J.R. Ward, James Rollins, Sherrilyn Kenyon, and Laurell K. Hamilton, to name a few. Yoga and Judo books, Med texts, How-to books for Mac and Plumbing, a few biographies...

Just adding a note of weirdness. I tried to post a photo of the bookshelf, had it labeled "Ikea" and it was rejected. Tried again, after re-naming it "new bookshelf" and it was still rejected. "Server Rejected" Don't know why. Any ideas?

Well, time to mosey along and get back to my drawing. Enough with the computer for now.
Cheers!

Hurricane Igor

September 21, 2010

Torbay is pretty dark. Hurricane Igor has arrived. 

It’s 7:40 pm and power has been off since around 4pm. I hope the fridge stays cool long enough that the milk doesn’t spoil. I’ve done some knitting on a year-old scarf project and some drawing on a donkey’s eyeball, eaten dinner by candlelight and am currently sitting on a couple of floor cushions in the dining room before a not-so-roaring-anymore wood fire. 

It’s cozy. And dark. I just realized that there’s no internet, which means I can’t post anything to Facebook or my Blog until it’s up and running again. 

How dependent ARE we on electricity? Wow! 

Paul says that some stop signs in St. John’s have been dragged out of their moorings completely. Concrete ripped up and all. Trees snapped in half. We lost a part of our maple tree. Trampolines flipped over onto their heads. Our trampoline lost a stave (it can be fixed). The river from Pippy Park was spilling across the Prince Phillip Drive, and cars were pulled over by the sides of the roads. Abandoned. Trees blown into cars, smack-ups. 

Lower Street stream (not ours, but the next one to us)

Our Waterfall!!! 

Paul took the Echo in to work today and said it shifted about a foot over with each buffet of the wind! This is the little car that stood up on two “legs” on Marine Drive! Glad I wasn’t driving today. 

On the plus side, the new windows aren’t leaking! The ceiling of the master bedroom is dry! 

Also on the plus side, school had been cancelled today, so Sean and Miranda were home all day. Kyle had no work, but would’ve been sent home anyway because the Circle K that he works at was closed early due to some ... technical difficulties. Some part of the gas pump blew away (?) and one of the doors to the store got flung off. 

McDonald’s is closed. Serious stuff.

Torbay in Darkness

FYI, we live in Newfoundland, NOT New Brunswick

What's that about?

Well, we've been CouchSurfing hosts for the past couple of years and have enjoyed it immensely! (check it out online) We've had some fabulous people come and stay with us, some funny, (Hey S!) some serious, (you know who you are) some in need of a break (bonjour Sylvain), some looking for adventure (hi Russell!)

Anyway, this year has been both busy and not busy. I've been kind of busy with stuff around the house, which I will write about in another blog one day... maybe a couple of blogs cuz it's a bit much for just one. So, not many CouchSurfers have been to stay with us. I've had to turn them down, left, right, front, and centre. I've been either booked or busy. So, when the New Zealanders asked to stay, I checked carefully to make sure that we had time for them to come. They're a 50-ish couple who were touring Canada and wanted to go (I thought) all the way East.

Check my schedule, looks good. I write to tell them to come along over. They contact me back full of profuse happiness. Give me the date of their arrival, and off we go...

Date of their arrival ... arrives... and Bill calls me on his cell phone. Where are we? Well, we're in Torbay, and I'll give you the directions to our house.

"No, no. I've got GPS. Just give me your address," he says in his quaint "Kiwi" accent.

"I don't think we show up on GPS!" I protest.

"No, no. I've got this covered," he insists.

I stop arguing and give him the address. Now, you must know that the address is already attached to the e-mail on CouchSurfing, as are explicit directions to our house. Explicit enough that EVERYBODY has been able to find us thus far.

They're going to arrive between 4 and 5 pm. 5:30 arrives and they're not here. The phone rings. They can't find the address in GPS.

Big surprise. Where are they, I want to know... Moores-something and Middridge-something... huh? Where the heck is that? I check on mapquest. Nothing to be found. I check the paper map. I find Moores-something in Mount Pearl. No Middridge, but it could be a new street since the map was published. It happens all the time.  I call him back to say that I THINK I know where he is and tell him where to go from there.

Options are to get on the Trans-Canada Highway to our turnoff onto Route 20, or proceed to downtown and crawl up the long way. Either would work beautifully.

It's at least a 20 minute journey. Five minutes later, he calls us to say he's in downtown at the tourist centre. Huh? 5 minutes? Amazing! No traffic and he must've floored his car!

Where in downtown? Well... he's near the wharf... Okay. Water or Duckworth? His response was some sort of grunting noise which I took to mean he was negotiating traffic. Paul gets on the phone as I have to run off to do something else. I hear Paul asking for the name of the next side street. "Market" is the answer. My eyebrows did this upward-pointing thing. Market? New one on me.

Paul's still talking though. I hear the airport mentioned. Are we near the airport? Yes, we are! Go there and call us! We'll give directions from there. It's easy-peasy, smooth-sailing. Their phone cuts off.

A couple of minutes after Paul hangs up (I didn't know the line got disconnected), in the middle of blow-drying my hair, my mind wanders.  Acting on impulse (backed by intellect), I go back to the computer.

Sure enough. They're in New Brunswick.

    ****************************************************************************

We try calling their cell. No answer. After several attempts, Paul tells me the phone line cut out. Okay... maybe it ran out of battery. They'll get to the airport and call us. Where's the airport from their last-known location? About 45 minutes drive from downtown St. John.

We wait. We wait more. We continue to wait. We go to a house-warming. We get up in the morning. I check CouchSurfing for a message.

There's a message. Their phone ran out of money. (?)

I guess there's no pay phones in New Brunswick.

Fireworks Torbay Days 2010

How to make friends in Newfoundland... NOT!!!

Anybody who knows me well enough is completely aware of what kind of person I am. Somewhat assertive (which can also be called "bitchy"), passionate, caring, understanding, demanding... yeah yeah... Y'all know this already.

So the other day I noticed a pair of motorbikes zooming around on the hill over the ridge. For the record, the ridge, while a public-right-of-way, is on our property. There's tons of blueberries growing up there! There's also tons of blueberries growing flat on the ground all over the property next door! Seriously, good pickin'!! These bozos are not only trespassing, but they're squashing all the lovely blueberries!!! Aaagh!!!

The bozos drove off after a couple more swoops. They just ... vanished...

A day later as I was walking the trail to the Big Beach, I found where the bozos entered and exited the hill. From Lower Street, onto our property, up the hill. They're trespassing!!! Aaaaagh! I'm going to have to get more of those big rocks put down there to stop the damn trespassing bikers!!

Well, yesterday the damn bozos were zooming across the hill on their motorbikes again. C'mon, Paul... come with me. I don't normally think I need a man, but I wanted an "INTIMIDATOR" with me. Paul makes a good one cuz he's big and brawny.

I dashed over our hill, across and up where the damn bikers had laid tracks through our place, caught sight of the devastated hillside they've been ravaging with their damn bikes and just gasped in dismay! Flattened brown grass everywhere! They must've been there for weeks trampling everything in sight! The blueberry plants don't stand a chance! Damn those bikers!!!

I wave my arms as the bikes turn in my direction.

"STOP!!!" I shout.

They stop. "Where are you from?" I holler. "Do you even belong here? Do you even know that you're destroying somebody's property?"

I may have thrown in some F-sharps and other assorted sharps. Hey. I was pissed!

The bozos remove their helmets. They're kids. A boy and a girl. Maybe 10 to 13 years old. They point shakily to the south. Right at the faded green house on the property in question.

Oops... New neighbours.

Daddy comes roaring up the hill in full bellow (no, not on a bike). "What're you doing to my kids?!?!"

Oy...

I have to admit that I let my temper carry me along for a little while. I was so totally pissed at the destruction on the property, the loss of the blueberries (those lovely blueberries!!!) that I'd very proprietarily taken an interest in for the last 4 years. (The house has been vacant and up for sale since before we moved here.)

Also, myself and the guy on the other side of the green house have been the de facto neighbourhood watch committee, making sure that nobody vandalized the place or set fires on the property!

For all I knew, these were trespassers. I hadn't seen any signs of life other than the bikes!

I justified my actions. Apologized a couple of times. Not with any real degree of skill or grace, mind you. Have I mentioned that I was pissed?

Father of children expresses his desire that we get off his property. Points out the property line, saying that he owns the hillside up to the top. It seems that he's implying that he owns the bushes... No no... The  top of the hillside is ours! Not his! Yes, it's a public right-of-way, but it belongs to us. Pedestrians are okay, not bikes. (blueberries proliferate on the rocky soil up there!!!)

We turn to leave. Paul tries to lighten the situation by speaking gently to the man. I glower. I'm good at it.

Uh-oh... here comes grandma! Grandma is the woman I'd met last fall on the hillside. (She was on our side, picking blueberries. We'd been friendly, I thought.)

She's roaring. The kids are traumatized. Some crazy lady was swearing at them. *sigh* I apologize again. I explain myself. Again.

She doesn't care about the blueberries. "Blueberries are the last thing I'm worried about!" she says.

Looking at the destruction of their property, I guess she's decided to turn her place into a trail biker's training ground. *sad*

Not finished, Father mentions the public right-of-way. Pointing at the rocks. Paul gently points out that the rocks and right-of-way intersect at the fence of the house down on Lower Street. No more public access through since somebody built the house.

Grandma says that's stupid. I say "welcome to Newfoundland."

Kids aren't to be on our property with their bikes. Father and Grandma look at each other and agree to talk to the kids about it.

Paul and I trudge down the hill, then around and back to our house. I wish he'd been quicker on his feet so he could've prevented me from putting mine in my mouth so firmly.

I think I'll bake some pie and deliver it to the house along with a crazy-lady apology card.

Not blueberry though.