Baby Shower

Chiro-sister is expecting her first child, & this weekend was her baby shower. Here's Ruthie with a cutout of Ellen, who is in the middle of campaigning for world domination. You can go to her website & down load her picture & then take pictures with it in different locations.

Hahahaha in utero

Ruthie's been feathering the nest. Here are a coupla pix from the baby's room:

One of Ruthie's stained glass pieces. You can't read it, but
there are little tiles on there that say, "LOVE YOU."

Chakra flags & a Ganesh print.

The party was at friend Ophe's. And this gives you an idea of how uber-cool Ophe is; how awesome is this?

Shouldn't everyone have a disco ball in their living room?

Ophe's stained glass piece from Ruthie.

Everything was gluten-free, of course. Mum made one of her famous carrot cakes & left me to decorate. She gave me baggies of nuclear colours & no cake decorating instruments. I had planned on doing something wrecky, especially after this divinely-timed, baby shower Cakewrecks post, but it really did end up wrecky. No one commented on the mispelling. They must have politely thought I didn't do it on purpose. Here's the explanation for sprinkles. No explanation for "red hearts" except that the baby is due on Valentine's Day. Awwww!

Is it a boy? Girl? We don't know yet. Unlike many
designer births, it's going to be a surprise.

The daughter of Ruthie's belly dancer teacher made her a crown with metallic pipe cleaners:


This was the funniest thing, & I wish I had it on video. Ruth kept saying, "Wait--how do these work? It's a pacifier? It stays on your finger? What?"

Since Ruthie is waiting to find out the gender of the baby, Ellen put on her Psychic Hat. She thinks it's a boy. Then she told me the lottery numbers for next Thursday.

I predict you will have an easy birth, says Ellen to Ruth.

M & M Monday

In the a.m. I let the girls out & then follow after I've put the tea kettle on and put on my boots and other arctic gear for braving the elements. I walked out on the back porch and the girls had found a new spot:

Can you see them?

See the bear? Kidding. No bear!

Different angle, they are up behind the labyrinth.

Here's Margaret getting snarley with Millie trying to come into the living room. They've never done anything more than growl and snarl. Millie in particular, just sounds like she's chewing on gravel. It's funny when it's not scary.

But then she falls asleeeeeeep:

I had a quick vizzie to Richmond, so the girls went to Mystic Pet. as soon as they saw me putting the ramp up to the car, they came--well, I would say "running," but it's more like fast-walking!

Yay! We're going to Gareth & Lena's!

They adore Gareth. Lena said that she was calling them to come to her and they just looked at her. Nothing. Then Gareth comes in and they snap to attention. "Come on, you two!" And off they go. I think he loves them as much as I do. :-) Back tomorrow with pix from chiro-sister's baby shower.

P.S. Here's a different M in honour of MLK Day. Here's the whole I have a dream speech. Inspired. Eloquent. Brilliant.

Day of Rest

Like lions lounging on the savanna. :-)

M&M in the Snow

The girls have become much more agile since they've been on doggie Vioxx (Deramaxx). Millie especially, is not grumbling when she gets up in the a.m. They're both a bit spryer and while they don't go much faster, they go farther!

Saturday a.m. I was out in my robe and fuzzy slippers getting them back into the house from up behind the wood shed. *sigh* Really, girls? I've not even had my morning cup of tea!




Really I like this pic because it shows off chiro-sister's stained glass piece. This is the view out my kitchen bay window. Not sure which dog that is in the background.

A final one of Maggie:

Happy as a clam. (not canned--because canned clams would not be happy).

M&M Bonus

[insert eye roll from Mum, here]

OK, so here's the deal. When I downloaded my camera this week, there were just too many cute pictures of the girls to put into one post. So I'm breaking it up. I know one person who's not going to complain. ;-) Hi Mari.

This is Millie's spot:

where she overlooks her domain . . .

These girls don't seem to mind the cold so much. Barkley & Remi were never ones to stay outside if I was in. But M&M--it hasn't been cold enough yet for them to dash back inside!

"Give me a nice sunny patch, & I'm good!"

On the other hand, here's Maggie:

Earth Dog. Happy on the ground! Stay tuned for snowy pix.

The Chair

It was the first time I used my new Blackberry for something other than a phone. I'm standing in a thrift store with XM Radio Guy & he's eying 2 original-retro office chairs. "I dunno," he says. "I don't really have room for both. I just need the one. What do you think?"

"I think they're awesome," I say. I look underneath & google the name of the manufacturer. It turns out they are circa 1962 & they're selling on line for $350. Each. "They really are great chairs," he says. "Would you keep one for me?"

After loading up the chairs into our respective cars, we say our goodbyes and he pulls out of the parking lot. I'm watching traffic and a man crosses in front of my car. Traffic is clear & I pull out. The man who crossed ahead of me was in the middle of the road. I jammed on the breaks & tapped into him. He turns around and starts screaming obscenities at me. We're in the middle of a 4-lane road. He walks across to the side and I pull over. He's still screaming and I'm shaken. "OMG!!! I just hit someone!" I'm scared to get out of the car with Screaming Man, but I can't just drive away! So I got out. I looked at him and said, "I am so sorry! I didn't see you. Are you all right?"

And then. This man who had been spewing filth, stopped. He took a breath and turned into a different person. He said, "That's all right. It's just a natural reaction. I'm just having a bad day." At which point I crumpled into Laura Petri and started crying. "Me tooooo!" Later, as I composed myself and was driving down the freeway, I thought, "Natural reaction? Really? Patterned reaction." Back to the story:

He assured me he was OK, and told me to go ahead down the road. If I'd had some presence of mind I would have gotten his name & number. Anyway, I got on my way, still shaken. I called XM Radio Guy and tried to be brave. "OMG! Is the guy all right?" he says. "Yeah, he says he is. He told me he wasn't hurt. I mean, I just tapped into him."

[pause . . . wait for it] "Is my chair OK?"

Classic. Bill Hutton at his best.

I took the chair and left it at Mum's because I didn't have room to take it back to the river house. She was away on one of her trips, can't remember which one. Anyway, when I picked her up from the airport and we got to her house, we walk in and she says, "What's that chair?" And there it stayed. I was webcamming with XM Radio Guy from Mum's one day and he says, "Oh, hey! There's my chair!"

Of course it wasn't there for long. Mum went into one of her cleaning-rearranging binges & she put it out in the barn. The next time I was at Mum's webcamming it, he says, "Where's my chair?" And Mum said, "Oh, did you want me to keep that for you? I got rid of it . . . just kidding! I'm storing it in the barn for you." Hahahaha

I tell this rambling Chair Story today because it's Bill Hutton's birthday. He's one of the FUNniest people I know, and one of my dearest friends. HAPPY B-day. Make a wish!

And may The Force be with you. :-)

M&M Monday

M&M's Home Decor Tips

I have wood-looking-laminate flooring. It's really great--totally scratch resistant. I've moved furniture, bookshelves, etc. across it. I vacuum & damp mop it--easy to maintain. Except. It's slippery for the girls. Millie slipped on the floor and couldn't get back up. When I tried to lift her, she whipped around with a bark & a snap at me. I'm sure she could have bitten me if she wanted to. It was enough not to make me try it again, tho! I know she did it because she was in pain; her lower back and hips are a bit creaky. I managed to maneuver one of the dog beds under her and then I slid her down the hall, ferrying her to the Land of Living Room Carpet. And it only took 45 minutes. [Side note: It's fun to slide down the hall in my socks. When my nephews came over, it's one of the first things they discovered. I think they were waiting me to tell them not to do that, but I said it was one of my favourite things to do.] Anyway, back to the conundrum:

What to do? I looked at hallway runners:

cheap ones = ugly + not-so-cheap
"nice" ones = still ugly
Conclusion: why not go for so ugly = safe-for-dogs + funny

Millie models hallway carpet. Ah, duct tape!

I found a carpet remnant for $16 & cut it in half. It almost fits the length of the hallway. I had gotten one of those transitional, just-inside-the-door mats that is now outside my bedroom door.
The whole project took more duct tape than I thought. I had to break into my special purple duct tape stash! And then I figured I could use masking tape for part of it. After all that, Mum scored me some hallway carpet runners. Haven't put them down yet. Mum has pointed out, of course, that there are special thingies you put under the carpet to stop it from sliding. Yeah, I know. But duct tape is funnier.

The main carpet is a retro-geometric sort of pattern. Here's Millie. *sigh* With one of my outside-with-the-dogs shoe. They don't ever chew them, they just go to my shoe rack & pluck one off. She looks innocent enough; all cute & dozing. But if Maggie goes near her, she gets all snarly & grumbly about the shoe.

"I'm sleeping but not really."

I moved one of my area rugs from my art studio up to the living room to put between the main carpet and the wood stove. That's the biggest part of floor that's totally covered now. But then Maggie likes to come and sit by me when I'm on the sofa--on the one patch of uncovered laminate floor. *sigh* So I put Remi's old dog beds down for her.

"I'm so cute."

Now they have carpet bases around the whole house, so I don't have to worry about them slipping and not being able to get back up. :-)