more on the dog of course

Greg and I just took Myla up the hill between us and Crawford Estates. It's a beautiful sunny day (after this morning's little rainstorm) but windy as anything, especially up there. Myla got to meet a few other dogs and we learned that although she doesn't listen very well, she is at least very friendly & polite with them. And she doesn't always have a sad face!

Last night's crop was lots of fun. I didn't get much done (but what else is new?) but we had some awesome sushi, which Greg and I finished polishing off earlier today, and lots of laughs.

I certainly needed it after that crappy day I had at work yesterday. It was 'take a train to work' day (really) and there was a complete railroad set downstairs in the prime location for all the noise to come directly up to the Reference Desk. The fellow who was running it was hard of hearing so he spent the whole day TALKING IN A REALLY LOUD VOICE TO EVERYONE EXPLAINING HOW IT WORKED AND BLOWING THE WHISTLE. I thought I was going to go out of my mind. I finally asked EGTB to get him to keep his voice down (at 4:00) so things did improve after that. At one point while he was doing his noisy talk & whistle, there was a guy having a loud conversation on his cell phone to my left and a quiet-voiced young woman in front of me whom I could hardly hear. Then when I went to put a book on hold for her the computer crashed. I nearly lost it at that point. I was this close to standing at the top of the stairs and shrieking 'This is a f*ing library for God's sake - everybody SHUT UP!'

But I didn't.

and she's also hilariously funny!

Holly and I were just hanging out on the floor with her and laughing our heads off. Well, really, you just have to laugh looking at her and her sweet face.

These are just some of the pictures Holly & I took. Oh and did I tell you how she cried when I left for work yesterday morning. Apparently today she was fine, but I get greeted with great enthusiasm when I get home!

I think she likes me... :)

What I've learned so far

1. She doesn't chase the cats although she might bark at them.
2. She likes to sit in the front seat of the car & isn't too crazy about the leather.
3. She likes to lie on her bed in my scraproom.
4. She loves to run around in circles in the backyard.
5. She never woke any of us up in the night.
6. She'll be up on the couch the minute you turn your back!

Welcome Myla

 
Well I wasn't sure this would happen but Myla arrived just as I was pulling in the driveway. Her mom couldn't bear to bring her over so she came with her dad. I certainly feel sorry for them, they obviously really love this dog, but I'm glad they've passed her on to us and I think it will be fine. I just took her for a walk - she's a big girl & walks at a good clip which is good for me. Some kids set off a firecracker just as we were rounding the corner for home which certainly startled Myla but not too badly. I hope she settles in OK; she's a sweetie!

Let's try again

This is Myla - guess I'd better find out how to spell her name! She's going to be coming to live with us for awhile. Maybe just for a little while if it doesn't go well, maybe forever if it does! My friend Rose was telling me last week about a friend of hers whose dog needed a new home so I got a call this afternoon. Myla's family has moved to a place that doesn't allow dogs. They may only be there till June but if we like Myla we can keep her. She's 2 years old, part golden lab and part who knows what - something big. She seems like a pretty nice dog, may need some refresher obedience training, but she did used to live with a cat which bodes well for Vespers & Timmy. She'll be coming over Thursday morning and I'll keep you posted!

In other news I just wanted to post these 2 pictures as well:

"The togetherness of computer geeks"

And this great piggy bank which Suzanne at work gave me for a much-belated birthday present. It's so I can buy shoes next time I'm in NYC - for her!! I love it!!

The garden in fall

It's my day off so I thought I'd take some pictures this morning. Needed to take some pictures to scrap with all my new fall embellishments!

Otherwise, when last I posted it was after the non-existent auction. All the stuff from Greg's shop (and more) is back in our basement & carport although Greg is taking a load to the dump as we speak.

I had my hair coloured last week and although people have been clamouring for pictures, you just can't tell what it looks like! Which is, I guess, far more noticeable to me than to anyone else. I wanted to go darker blonde so the roots wouldn't always show so easily but she got carried away and put a bunch of brown foils in the front which I am just not liking.

Greg's brother is coming for a visit next weekend - he hasn't been out here for a few years so we're looking forward to seeing him.

Same old same old at work, people are getting very frustrated there. I am waiting to see how a proposed re-organization may affect me later this year (could be a good thing).

A-M was here last week, walking the half marathon. Good for her! Maybe next year I will give it a try.

Anyway as you can see, my world is not very interesting right now. So there you go...

What if you held an auction....

...and nobody came?

Well last night was a bust! Nobody came.

Poor Greg. I felt bad for him, but he accepted that he'd screwed up the advertising. Too little, too late. There was a little radio advertising. He missed the deadline for one paper, forgot to put the time in the other ad. The flyers that were (supposedly) delivered to businesses in the mail - well he checked with his neighbours and only one of them had gotten it.

So there was no shortage of helpers, but only 2-3 customers. Guess we'll try again tonight although I don't see how it will be any different. He was talking about renting a truck and taking everything to an auction house, but I don't know for sure what the new plan is.

The only thing I know for sure is - it's NOT ALL COMING BACK TO OUR HOUSE!!

no dog

and I am sad. But it's about the worst possible week to try to introduce a new pet 'cause it's going to be chaos around here. And Sally is a lovely dog but she does need some training - not a perfect right out of the package dog like Ruby was. However I'm sure she'll get adopted very soon so I'm not worried about her...and me, well I'll keep on looking. But maybe not this week!

Talk about altered books...

I found this site at dooce.com... Wow! I would love to see one of those up close. Many of the comments refer to the poor books. Please! I don't think any altered book artist uses anything but ratty old books that would end up at the dump otherwise.

I'm supposed to be organizing boxes

but instead I'm taking a trip down memory land with every box that I do look in. Just opened a box of stuff that was in my Mom's curio cabinet. She collected swans, so it's heavy on the ceramic & glass swans. Some of them are beautiful - I'm keeping a couple of my favourites - and some, well, let's just say somebody might want to buy them... Also in there was my grandfather's silver christening cup from Norway which I'm keeping. A couple of days ago we found the copper tea set that my mom liked so much. Teapot, cream & sugar. Made in Sweden and presented to somebody on their 50th birthday in 1916. Not the initials of anybody in our family so who knows where that came from. Like I say, my mom loved that thing & didn't mind polishing it now & again, but it's not my style at all. So I guess it'll go... But boy do I have a hard time letting go of 'stuff'.


Earlier this afternoon I went down to the SPCA to meet a dog I'd seen online on Thursday. Her name is Sally, she's a border collie/dalmatian cross and cute as anything although she needs to lose some weight. So I put a $20 deposit on her so nobody else can adopt her before they close tomorrow. It's really not good timing but what the heck. We'll see what the Mr. says tomorrow when we go see her again.

Help Wanted

So Greg is shutting down his computer business at the end of this month. This is the news I got when I got home from my trip! He has to be out by the end of the month. He's been trying to sell it with no luck so he's just packing it in. (His rent was being dramatically increased.)

What he plans to do is auction off his remaining stock and also get rid of all of our junk at home at the same time. He's not hiring an auction company but is looking for an auctioneer wannabe and some people to help out at this gala event which is going to take place over 2 or 3 days next week (I know, short notice isn't it?). Wednesday through Friday I think.

He also plans to auction off some stuff as a fundraiser for the food bank (which is right across the street from his shop) and was wondering whether any of my scrapping buddies might want to help out by putting in a few hours or donating any works of art, the proceeds of which would go to the food bank, or to another charity of your choice.

So I know I'll be spending the next several days in the basement sorting through all the boxes of stuff down there and wishing I were still in a foreign country ;) But if anybody is willing to give us a hand, just let me know. Thanks!

shoes

Well here I am back home again and feeling not that great. Jet lag I guess. But not too jet lagged to spend the day mostly on the computer! So for those who are interested, I've found pictures of the 3 (count 'em) pairs of shoes I bought in New York. I find pictures online as my size 11's don't photograph so well!

Last Day in New York

Well it's been a blast but I guess I'm ready to go home. Today I'm really tired. We went on a 4.5 hour comedy cruise last night. The comedians were mostly very funny but the 2 hours beforehand trapped on a boat with poundingly loud & unfamiliar music with only about 6 people older than us - well that was a bit much.

But otherwise it's all been great. I saw lots of things I didn't get to last year: Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Macy's,Time Square, Tony Bennett at Radio City Music Hall (which is absolutely enormous!), the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cloisters, and the United Nations. Tonight we plan to go up the Empire State Building. I've had a ton of dinners out, several cosmo's and done lots of shopping. Gee no wonder I'm tired!

This time tomorrow I'll be en route to Montreal, then Vancouver, then home to Kelowna by evening. And a day of rest before going back to work on Friday. Oh and I've taken about 300 pictures since I left home!!

another year older and deeper in debt

So you know how the Scandinavian countries have a reputation for being expensive? Well I'd never really bought into that before - probably because I never go out to eat while I'm here, and I don't usually buy much of anything.

Well this time I did eat out. Heidi and I went for a fabulous sushi dinner last night. It was soooo good! A sushi sashimi combination, not a huge amount, but enough. We also had dessert, Heidi had a 'banana split', I had a chocolate pineapple cake - both beautifully presented - and a beer and coffee each. The bill was nearly $200 for the 2 of us!! At home it would probably have been about $45 each. So that was a shock...but an excellent meal!

I've also bought a few things - a couple of books, a pair of earrings, some other little stuff. After I get through the dutyfree shop I hope I have enough to get some shoes in New York! which reminds me I'd better do some online banking...

Heidi and I had spent the afternoon at the Folkmuseet (folk museum) which is an open air museum containing about 250 old buildings which come from all over Norway and have been rebuilt on this site. It's in the same part of town as the Viking Ship Museum, Kon-Tiki, Fram etc. The last time I was at the Folk Museum it was raining so today instead was a beautiful day.

Blogging from Norway

OK I wasn't going to udate my blog while I'm away but what the heck. I'm drinking so much coffee that it's difficult to sleep so I might as well be productive after everyone else has gone to bed.

An uneventful flight over to New York and just spent not quite 24 hours there. After hanging out at Starbucks across from Mark's apartment for awhile I decided to take a bus tour for the afternoon. We didn't have the most interesting guide but it was relaxing just to sit there on the top of the double decker and gawk around. Unfortunately I've already forgotten what most of the pictures are of.

On the train to Newark airport I met an American family who were on their way to their first trip to Norway, meeting distant relatives. They were fun to talk to and since we had plenty of time to kill before the flight it was great to have someone to talk to.

When I arrived here we immediately drove up to my cousin's 'hytte' (cabin) in Gausdal which is north of Lillehammer. They have a very nice place up there, out in the country but with all the modern conveniences. The pictures are from there: view from the kitchen window, Gudbrand cutting the grass on the roof, my brother Hans & I, and a typical rural scene a little ways down the road. We did a bunch of shopping and getting the hall ready for Saturday. The reunion itself was fun, I have cousins who came from Sweden, France, New York plus me and all the rest who live in Norway. A very multilingual lot too.

So now we're back in Oslo for a few days. I fly back to New York Thursday morning. Tomorrow I'm meeting my friend Heidi for the afternoon. Bye for now!

Last installment of people I'm looking forward to...

and this time I'll be taking digital photos!! I discovered I don't have any pictures on file of anybody else: my other cousins, my half-brother. Ridiculous! But here's where it all started.

This is my great-grandparents, their children & another relative (the shortest girl). The man in the back with the moustache is my dad's father (Harald) and the reunion is for all the cousins who are descended from him. He and his wife Marie had 10 children and there were 23 grandchildren. Apparently about 30 people will be at the reunion, including a few spouses. I'm the 2nd youngest of the generation. My one remaining uncle will be there as well - he's 86!

Well this isn't getting any packing done though is it? Never mind that, it's dinnertime...

People I'm Looking Forward to Seeing part IV

dinner in meat packing district
Originally uploaded by fteleglow

And of course my buddy Mark in NYC! We've known each other since undergrad days at UBC, were in many of the same Linguistics and Spanish classes in 1979 & 1980. Holy cow do you realize how many years that's been???

The people you find in the library

I just have to tell you about this guy who was in the library earlier this week. Picture Matthew McConnaghy(sp?) with just a slightly different face. This gorgeous young man walks up the stairs, wearing a little tank top & long shorts, very Matthew-ish from People magazine photos, I nearly get whiplash watching him go by.

Quite awhile later he (and his shorter much less interesting friend) comes up to the desk to ask if he can have some Scotch tape. I am once again mesmerized by all those muscles and his blonde curly hair. Then I kind of come to and pay attention to his request. He wants some tape to hold together 2 origami flowers he has made. His Michael's bag is on the counter and I can see he's got their papercrafts encyclopedia inside and he's holding these 2 cute little paper flowers. So I tell him about Andrea's paper petals class and we have a little talk about paper flowers and then off he goes.

Not your typical Greek god...

Making Friends

 
Well for at least one evening Zoe and Timmy got up close and personal - and nobody was injured! The truce didn't last long though.

Looks like we'll have Zoe here till Sunday when I will drop her off at the kennel where she'll be for a week while her mom is away on vacation. If I weren't going away as well we could probably keep her longer. It's funny 'cause we're finding her to be really quite a good dog (although she doesn't really like Greg) and she walks well on the leash etc. which stuns her mom because, as is the case with some children, the dog behaves better with other people than she does at home!

So incredibly busy at work this week - I'm just exhausted and looking forward to the weekend where I have nothing to do except laundry, pack, pedicure & lunch with the MIL and family. Hopefully I will get some quality sleeping done too.

blog tag...thanks to Tara!

5 things in my refrigerator:

1. milk

2. Tazo Chai concentrate

3. eggs

4. something green that needs to be thrown out (there's a few of those actually)

5. apples

5 things in my car:

1. Donna Leon book on CD

2. water bottle

3. clothes to go to dry cleaners

4. dog leash

5. gum

5 things in my purse or backpack:

1. wallet

2. cell phone

3. pen

4. flight itinerary

5. passport

5 things in my closet:

1. purses

2. old toys

3. scarves

4. slippers

5. clothes

5 things in the world I want to see before I die:

1. Antarctica

2. New Zealand

3. Cook Islands

4. Queen Charlottes

5. Stonehenge

Thanks Tara - that was a challenge (especially when realizing we really need to go grocery shopping!!! However not my problem, Greg can do that when I'm gone!)

Zoe

 

No she's not my new dog. I'm just dog-sitting while Zoe's mom is in hospital. You can see that Zoe has some border collie in her and I do often call her Ruby by mistake. She's a pretty sweet dog, and is just beside herself that the cats won't play with her. We finally got them to come in the house and it's just hilarious to see Zoe in front of one of them, down in the 'let's play' position and whining because the cat is spitting at her. Apparently her own cat does the same thing sometimes.

So only one more week of work and it's going to be a busy one (see above hospitalization). Which is a good thing as otherwise time would be going by very slowly as it does when you're anxiously awaiting something. I need to get my act in gear, get some laundry & packing organized. Not leave it till the last minute, which is looking like a possibility right now.

People I'm Looking Forward to Seeing part III

Fern & Heidi
Originally uploaded by fteleglow

This is my friend Heidi, whom I met online at the Norwegian Digital Archive website (http://www.digitalarkivet.no if you're interested in Norwegian genealogy at all). She had posted a question about some relatives who came to BC, I did some searching for her, and the rest - as they say - is history!

People I'm Looking Forward to Seeing Part II

Holly with Berit in Lillehammer
Originally uploaded by fteleglow

This is my cousin Berit with Holly when we were there two years ago. She is my "big sister" and a zanier person you could never hope to meet.

People I'm looking forward to seeing Part I

This is my cousin Harald Kristian "Haka" famous in my family for having shown up at my parents' doorstep before I was born and my mother exclaiming to my dad "oh he's not bad is he!" in English whereupon Haka said politely "thank you!". My mom was soooo embarrassed.

The most surprising part of this story is that my mom shared her opinions on good-looking men with my father!!

Countdown begins

Well with less than a month to go I guess I should start doing some thinking & planning for my trip. I'm taking a milk run to Oslo for my cousins' reunion (søskenbarn-treffet in Norwegian) on September 1st. Since I was planning to go to New York this spring, and had already booked my Aeroplan flight before hearing about the Norway thing, I'm combining both holidays. But it means I'm spending the day of Aug 28th flying from Kelowna-Toronto-New York (arriving around 10 pm) and then turning around and flying out to Oslo at 8:15 the next night. I arrive in Oslo nearly 48 hours after leaving home!!

But then I have a week in Norway, flying back to New York on the 6th (the day after my birthday) until the 12th...no way was I flying on September 11th! I'm sure I will have a great time and I'm looking forward to seeing all my cousins again. But maybe once I turn the calendar to August it will all seem a bit more 'real'!

Canine-less in Kelowna

I did go to the SPCA at lunch on Friday, visited the dogs. Buddy is cute but he's definitely a border collie through and through and he's also pretty young, and very focused. Obviously too much work for this family! Many other cute dogs, including Humie (pronounced 'who me') who is lovely but can climb 6 foot high chain link fences. Furry (formerly advertised as 'Fury') is a shepherd/lab cross who I've been kind of interested in for awhile and Friday I actually got to meet her briefly while she was on her way back to her kennel. Mike, the kennel guy, thought she might be a good match for us - she's a pretty low maintenance dog. So today I got Greg to go the SPCA with me and had another look at her. But you know, it was the same impression that I got the very first time I saw her: she just seems to be in her own little world. You call her name - she ignores you, she doesn't come over to the door when you approach (virtually all the other dogs do) and just seemed kind of zoned out. So I declined the invitation to visit in the quiet room with her. Maybe I'm foolish but I think there has to be a spark there right off the bat. So I'm okay with that. I will continue to look.

Stayed up till 1:00 last night reading Harry Potter! Very tired today but it was a great read. I can't say anything else obviously but I liked it a lot and didn't cry too too much. So then it was Holly's turn and I'm shocked that she's not that interested in reading it asap. We left her home today so she could read (she starts a 2-week day camp tomorrow) but she only made it through about 70 pages before moving on to something else. However I read a couple of chapters aloud to her just now and she enjoyed it so we may have to do it that way. That's all right, I kind of wanted to re-read it immediately anyway!

Doggie Anxiety

OK I was just cruising through the SPCA website as I do every couple of days and - gasp - today the last dog on the list is a young male border collie named Buddy. No photo at the moment but the description sounds very nice. I practically have heart palpitations! I know Greg really doesn't want another dog; too much work is his opinion which is very valid. Holly couldn't care less, she's a cat person. And the idea of having to walk a dog twice a day in 35+ temperatures doesn't appeal to me either. But still... I get an hour & a half for lunch tomorrow so I may take a drive to the SPCA. See if they know if Buddy likes cats...

Modern Times

 

Greg brought home a new laptop a few days ago for me to try out but after 24 hours I've decided to stick with old faithful here (a Toshiba). The new one was very shiny, had a 17" monitor but I like this one better.

Then I thought I would like to be able to get pictures off my cell phone & onto my laptop. The guy in the Rogers store said emailing them was the best way. I just found some bare bones instructions and it seems you can only send them right after you take them. I couldn't find any way to get pictures currently stored on the phone to email...too bad, there were a few Artistry pictures on there I would have like to see in bigger than 1x1 format! Anyway I took this one of Greg and thought it came out not too bad for so few pixels.

And today (thinking I would actually scrapbook something) I printed some pictures directly off my memory card in the printer. That was impressively easy! But have I done anything with them? Nooooooo!

My Precious

A while back I had my status on Facebook as "relieved". This is the story behind it.

A few weeks ago I was home sick and thought since I was home feeling crappy I would fill in an extended health care claim form. I was searching for a particular receipt and couldn't find it. Looked all over the house with no success. But I did find an old Costco receipt in the bedroom (specifically from December 23, 2000). The last thing on the receipt was 'diamond earrings $200'. WTF?! I never got no diamond earrings... so I'm laying (or is that lying, I always get those mixed up) on the couch feeling like crap and fretting. Greg bought diamond earrings and they weren't for me?! oh dear. This goes on for awhile. Then I have this sudden flash of memory, opening a pair of heart-shaped earrings with a little diamond chip on them and him saying 'they're real diamonds'. oh right, I remember now... go look in the jewelry drawer. No such earrings to be found. Oh shit. Because...

A few weeks prior to that I'd received an email from a librarian who was organizing a fundraiser for the SLAIS Alumni (UBC's library school) - donate your old unwanted jewelry to be sold to raise funds for the school. Boy I got really into that and went through all my jewelry and packed up a huge bag of stuff that I hadn't worn in years. Including apparently one pair of what turned out to be very expensive diamond earrings. Now you have to understand that my husband does not buy expensive gifts...ever. Except for this one Christmas 7 years ago.

So (did I tell you this was going to be long?) I had taken this bag of jewelry to BCLA with me in April to donate. But by this time I can't remember exactly what it was in aid of or who had organized it. I made a couple of phone calls, nobody seems to know much about it. I go through my old inbox and find the original email, write back to her. No response. Turns out she's on vacation. So I write to another librarian I know at VPL to see if she happens to know anything. Yes the jewelry was actually sold at BCLA, Corinne's away but she'll check with her when she gets back.

Meanwhile I've ransacked the house several times over, looking everywhere I can think of, old purses, makeup bags, etc etc. Weeks go by, Corinne is back from vacation so I write again. She doesn't remember any such earrings but will check at home. Another couple of days go by and I write again, thinking I will put out an appeal to the listserv & find whoever bought them. But then the next day she emails me, she found them!! In the bottom of a box at work. They meet the description, hallelujah! (This is when I became relieved...) I'm going to Vancouver in a few days so will meet her to pick them up.

Thursday Holly and I trundle down to VPL, meet Corinne & she pulls out this little bubble-wrapped package and gives it to me. I open it, look at at them and go...

I don't think that's them.

Seriously - how many pairs of earrings like that would you expect to find at this thing? But these just don't seem to be quite the way I remember them. However, we decide what the heck, I'm taking them. I will take them to my jeweler friend & inquire as to their value and then just put the whole episode out of my mind. Greg would never know anyway (and he doesn't read my blog!) and it makes a good story. But it just goes to show that expensive gifts are wasted on me after all and I should quit my whining when birthdays come along...

I'm baaack

Well that may be the longest I've been away from a computer in quite some time! 250 junk mails in 6 days - wow!

Holly and left for Vancouver last Wednesday night. We stayed four nights in Steveston at our favourite B&B, which won't be in business for much longer so I'm glad we went. Thursday we headed downtown and went to VPL, where I had a couple of people to see. Then we took the Skytrain out to Burnaby for Holly to shop at the Crystal Mall under the Hilton Hotel in Metrotown, home of all things Asian & anime. She picked herself up some Naruto stuff and then we went back downtown for awhile before heading back to Richmond. That bus ride was the only time it rained while we were there which was amazing.

Friday was R&R - we did next to nothing, wandered around Steveston & generally were lazy. Got to watch all the TV shows we don't get to watch at home (heavy on CSI & What Not to Wear).

Saturday morning my friend Marjory came out and we went out for breakfast to the Steveston Hotel. She then drove us into Vancouver to A-M's place. We went down to Granville Island for the afternoon, spent too much money at I'm Impressed, and watched some very funny (but very long) street theatre.

Canada Day we left Steveston (and did not go to the parade, shame shame) for A-M's place. Wandered South Granville a bit and went to see Pirates of the Caribbean which was better than I expected.



Monday we went down to A-M's pool and the sun actually came out! Later in the afternoon James & Richard picked us up and we went out for dinner and to the Casa di Gelato for dessert. Fantastic ice cream!

Afterwards we went back to their place and watched an Eddie Izzard DVD called "Dress to Kill". OMG we laughed & laughed...in fact I did actually laugh so hard I spit red wine on myself (and am hoping it'll come out of my shorts!)

Then this morning we flew back to Kelowna. So there you have it - it was fairly low-key but we had fun.