And away we go

Tomorrow we are leaving for New Brunswick. The last time we undertook this endeavor things went well, but Marlowe was 3 months younger and totally not active yet. Now she likes to spend the time scuttling around the living room banging toys and "dancing". And petting Simon.

We are not taking any strollers this time. We do have to bring winter coats. And the cat. I'm not sure how the whole packing of the vehicle is going to work out, but I'm hoping we'll have a little bit of extra space somehow. We are also arming ourselves with a season of Sesame Street to appease the beast with. I can only cross my fingers. And maybe drink some Maker's.

House news

So, after 9 days on the market we have an accepted offer on our condo!  Yay! They are doing the inspection today and if that goes well (no reason it shouldn't) we will be moving the first week of January. weeeeeee.

We were sort of hoping to get in there before Xmas, but 'twas not to be. So instead, we will be traveling to NB for Xmas, rushing back, packing up, moving, unpacking, hopefully getting M into daycare, and then I'm back to work!  All in the span of about one month.

Does this stress me out? Some parts yes, most parts no. I'm glad that we will be starting our new daily routine in the new house. I'm stressed we don't have a daycare spot yet. I'm happy that before the holidays come we will know that our condo sale is going through and can relax and enjoy (?) M's first Xmas. By driving ten hours in the cold, possibly snowy weather, then struggling to fit in time with everyone then driving back. So relaxing and enjoyable.

But, focusing on the positive - things are looking good that we will be moving and we're very very excited. Right now the thing I'm looking forward to the most? When Tess realizes that the whole big, fenced, wooded, beautiful yard is all for HER! I don't think she will ever want to come in the house!

31 weeks 4 days

So, the decision has been made, and I feel soooooooo much better. We've decided to stay put for the holiday. The final straw for me was thinking about what WOULD happen if we delivered while home. The Insider would be 8 weeks early, so chances are she would end up in the NICU for x amount of time while we would be scrambling around, living out of suitcases, worrying about the cats back here and our condo, and THEN once she was finally discharged we would be traveling back to Montreal with not just an infant, but a teeny tiny 3/4 baked infant.

So we're keeping our butts here. And I feel really good about it. I think SB is just happy that even though we are staying, Christmas is NOT dead this year, and we will be able to have a tree, and hot chocolate, and lots of food and holiday movies etc. I'm also envisioning lots of walking in the snow with Miss Beastly (Tess) and taking lots of photos of her frolicking about.

Our nursery is 98% done - just need wall hangings. I'll post photos soon. It's pretty sweet.

And that's all the baby news. She's still rockin' and rollin' in there. Actually, I'll go one day thinking "wow, she isn't really moving around much" and then the next day she'll be almost knocking me over from kicking me. She's already torturing me.

an unresolved resolution?

I have been avoiding the requisite "It's a new year, and this year will be different" post. I rarely make resolutions, and this year is no exception. I just can't. It seems so artificial.

That being said, one of our clients has given me an idea that I quite like. She makes lists, on Post-It notes, and sticks them to her fridge. Lists of things she wants to have. Things she wants to do. Places she wants to see. And because they are on her fridge, she sees them every day (I'm assuming. Unless she doesn't eat or drink.) And as she gets things, or sees things, or does things she crosses them off her lists. Some items are completely materialistic and frivolous, and some are really meaningful experiences - a whole mishmash.

It seems so simple. I have tons of lists of stuff that I want to have or do that are knocking around in my mushy brain. But I love the idea of having that visual every day, and I also love the idea of crossing stuff off, and seeing all the things I've achieved, and also all the items I have been lucky enough to receive. I think it would not only help me feel a sense of worth, but also increase the gratitude I feel to others for sharing their worth with me.

So I want to get on that. But it's not a resolution, really.

Back. Now with less anger.

The holiday is officially over. Yes, New Year's is this week, but that is the holiday that SB and I actually get to celebrate since all the girls are back in town and there are less cats to be visited anyway. So, now we get a few days of repose after a few days of craziness and several weeks of anxiety-laden planning.

As usual, SB and I thoroughly spoiled each other. For him: a new Ultra-Zoom compact digital camera that also shoots HD video. This is because every single time he uses our Canon Elph (nothing against Canon, the new camera is a Canon too) he curses and swears and curses some more so I did some research and I think the replacement is fabulous. A very nice compliment to our DSLR, which is not the handiest thing to bring to concerts and such.

For me: a Kitchenaid stand mixer. I have wanted one of these for many many many years, and when SB witnessed the near meltdown of our wee handmixer at Thanksgiving (literally, I'm pretty sure I smelled some smoke coming off of it) when I made cheesecake, he was inspired to procure me one of these bad boys. I am excited to use it, but at the moment the pantry is a bit bare so I'll pick up some ingredients tomorrow to make some treats.

We also got many many many games for the Wii, which is fun! Except that SB has been playing Call of Duty all day, and while I *think* he's having fun, he seems to swear at the TV a lot more than I do when I'm having fun.

And finally, we used some of our gift cards from the wedding, along with Xmas money from my mom and grandfather to hitch ourselves to the HD bandwagon. We are now the proud owners of a gigantical HD TV which fits absolutely perfectly in the nook of our TV stand/bookshelf unit, so I know it was meant to be. So far the TV itself is pretty great, but what is really blowing my mind is the HD PVR that we sprung for to go along with it.

It's really an embarrassment of riches - we are so very, very lucky. And aside from all the material things we indulge in at this time of year, while we don't get to celebrate the holiday with our family and friends, they all love us very much, and we love them.

Christmas is dead. Part IV

So, another year, another holiday season is looming before us.

This is the time of year when everyone else gathers with their families to celebrate the holidays, doing whatever they all do each year. At first I resented missing out on those things. But now I realize I just miss the option of choosing those activities. Whether I want to drive 10 hours or not, hauling dogs and cats and too much luggage and too many gifts, we don't have the choice. Would I be just as happy to choose, say, travelling over the holidays to a beach, or spending Christmas in Rome? Probably. But I can't choose those things either. And maybe I would be even happier just hanging out in our condo with our own dog and cats, holed up for three days drinking hot chocolate, opening gifts, eating too much, sitting in front of the fire place. Yup, that would probably make me happy too.

But we don't have those choices anymore. For the last three years (this year will be our fourth), we get up on Christmas morning, usually before the sun comes up. We visit about a kabillion cats during the day, usually taking a break for a meal (one year my mom visited and made us a turkey while we were out scooping poop and shoving pills down cats' throats. It was awesome. But usually we stop at one of the delis and either have a club sandwich or smoked meat.) We get home after dark. The end.

I would complain more, and hate it more, except for one thing. I know that every Christmas that we own this business I get to spend the whole day with SB, just the two of us. And we usually have a great time. So as much as I hate it, I really do love it.

Not feeling creative

Wowie, so....

Instead of a well-written post, here's some list action:

My Christmas week was even more eventful than I ever could have imagined. Here are some of the high and low-lights:

1) After about 30 cat visits on Christmas day, on our very last visit at 9:30 at night we enter a house where one of the cats had two explosive diarrheas on woven natural fiber rugs (read: big fat pain in the ass to clean) and two giant vomits (luckily on linoleum). The place smelled SO bad. Kitty was fine boxing day morning, but I'm sure the scent will linger...

2) after leaving the kitchen tap dripping as per client's request, kitchen sink leaks and creates a mini-flood. Fabulous. No damage, other than a few cardboard boxes that were stored under the sink.

3) My Mummy made a surprise visit, declaring that Christmas is in fact NOT dead and that there WILL be turkey dinner at my house this year regardless of how many stupid cats need insulin. Well, who am I to argue with that?

4) None of my employees lost, broke, or otherwise screwed up anything. Phewf.

5) SB spoiled me rotten and I am now the proud owner of a Nikon D40x. I have only played with a it a little bit so far as I get a bit bored taking photos of our two mongrels, but SB has been snapping away. But, the first three photos I took were awesome, which confirms my suspicion that I suck at taking photos with small cameras like our Canon. They never turn out. But now I don't have to care because I have a super awesome kick-ass camera. So excited!!!!

Still hangin' in there

I've been trying to think about stuff to talk about for the past two days. Something to leave you with because I'm sure I will not have time to blog next week. But my brain, it's empty save for prettily-colored schedules and curse words.

I just remembered that I have a whole bunch of super-action shots from dog walks in the snow that I could have blogged about but I am not sure where the camera is.....maybe after the holidays we'll get to that.

Christmas presents are all taken care of. SB never did provide me with a list of "these will wow me" gifts, so I got him some stuff I'm pretty sure he'll like okay, and if he doesn't, there are gift receipts.

NB presents were sent and arrived there yesterday. That was a relief - I totally thought we would never get those there on time, which is disgusting, because we've had them all bought for weeks.

One thing that did make my day - one of our regular clients left a gift for his regular walker and for me - a sweet gift certificate to my favorite spa! Totally unexpected and really thoughtful, so it makes it even more appreciated.

Tomorrow night we are going to see The Nutcracker, which is pretty exciting. We have several clients who are dancers in Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and they will be in the show, so that will be cool, and I have never even watched the Nutcracker on TV, so the whole show will be new to me. I think this will be the most Christmas-y that we get, and while that is a lot of expectation to put on something, I'm sure they won't disappoint.

Status update

Christmas gifts: NB gifts: still not sent; SB's: still not purchased. This is a problem. Hopefully we can send off the New Brunswick gifts tomorrow. And hopefully they will arrive on time. Hopefully SB will quit telling me he wants a new rug and a new vacuum cleaner for Xmas and pick something fun.

Work: glad I put that "leave us alone, we're booked solid" message on the voicemail. Much less stressful this week in the whole message-taking department. Snow = making my work day hell. Also, am pretending Xmas is still four weeks away so I do not throw myself into cardiac arrest thinking about all the crap I'll be scooping next week (that is literal).

Snowstorm: big fat pain in the ass as usual. Our street hasn't even had the sidewalks cleared yet. Some of the main roads had one side done last night and will have the other done tonight. Oh, and here's a fun story. Today while traveling down a one-way street I got stopped up behind a line of like four cars. I could see that in front of them there was a BMW sedan trying to get out of a parking spot, but it's pretty icy out there, so he just kept spinning his wheels. Big shock, none of the asshole guys in front of me were getting out to help. Cars lined up behind us and started honking. There were probably about 20 cars back there when I got out and helped the guy push his car out. It took about 7.7 seconds. I gave the men in the cars in front of me dirty looks as I passed them on the way back to my truck. Come on people. Just come on.

I have been talking a lot about the snow lately (believe me, I would be very happy if it would just go away so I could stop talking about it) and I realize that people outside of our fair city probably have no idea what kind of hell I'm talking about. Here is a description.

a) snow falls

b) snowplows go around pushing snow off the roadway, but up against all the parked cars. This makes a nice little den for your car. Perfect for hybernation. Not perfect for getting to work.

c) snow fall ends

d) you have to work, so you dig out around you car (about 1 foot on three sides, and under the tires) and ram your way out of the snow bank.

e) the city puts up "no parking" signs on the side of the street where they will be plowing. They either prohibit parking all day or all night.

f) theoretically, if you work at a normal job, you drive home and have to fight with the snowbank to park your car. Usually I like the ram and slide method, wherein I ram either the front or back end into the space, hope to catch the tracks of the person who left, and hopefully slide into the spot. I do not work a normal job, so I generally fight with about 6-10 snowbanks per day with all my picking up and dropping off of doggies. I am a very good shoveller now. Very efficient.

g) the city passes for snow removal. This is actual physical removal of the snow. First a special sidewalk plow passes and pushes all the snow onto the street (where no cars are parked because of the helpful orange signs). Then a big giant snowblower passes, accompanied by a big giant dump truck. The snowblower blows the snow into the dump truck, and then the dump truck takes the snow away (they usually dump it in the St. Lawrence, I think).

f) everyone starts getting into fist-fights for parking spots on the good side of the street.

g) repeat the next day.

So, it takes at least two days to clear a street, and when you live on a small street like we do, you have no idea how long it will take them to actually get to your street. It's all very efficient, as you can see. (sarcasm intended).

Bah humbug

I don't know how many times I have to say it people, but at our house, Christmas is dead.

It's not like I'm happy about it - I used to love Christmas. I love giving presents. I love eating food. I love drinking. Christmas = awesome.

But when we bought this business, it was clear that Christmas from now til forever would be non-existent. It is our biggest time of year. We cannot travel. We spent 15 hours on Christmas day last year visiting kitties cleaning their poopers and serving them Fancy Feast. We had club sandwiches for lunch. They were good.

This year I am struggling to keep it together - we are about 400x more busy this year, and although we have help this time, scheduling is complicated, and anxiety is high. SB bought a tree on the weekend, but I don't want to decorate it. I know this hurts his feelings, but the tree stresses me out. So we have had an empty tree in our living room for five days. I haven't mailed any of the gifts we bought. I can't think of one thing I want to get SB for Xmas - I think it's the first time I've asked him for a list and actually needed it.

So, here is a message to everyone:

I'm sorry I'm a grinch. But I am. And that's that. If I thought about all the yummy treats and nog and slush I'm missing out on, I think I wouldn't make it through. So bah to nog.

But don't worry - I have your gifts. Hopefully I will get around to mailing them this week. And they might even get wrapped too.

goo brain

With five days left in NaBloPoMo, I feel like I am at the point where I am just a babbling idiot. I don't have anything that interesting to say. I can't form a proper thought. And I'm thinking about work pretty much 24/7, and I know that's boring. So, sorry about that.

Tomorrow I am starting a week of catsits with the cutest little cat family ever. A blue point Himalayan, a tabby exotic, and a baby flame point Himalayan. They are adorable. I will try to resist bringing home the baby in my pocket.

I'm nearly crapping my pants that December is only five days away. That means the holidays are too close. We have bought most of our gifts, so I will have to start wrapping them up so they can be sent off in time. I am trying to keep our holiday bookings as organized as possible so I can have a good idea of exactly how much work I'm going to have on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Right now we're about halfway to the mark we hit last year, but most of the clients who have booked now are new - our regulars tend to be lazy and book closer to the date. We have grown a lot this year, and I expect to have more bookings, but I'm trying to stay focused and smart. It's important to me that we grow and use this opportunity to make some moolah, but I don't want to feel like shooting myself in the face on Dec 25th at 2pm because there seems to be no end in sight to the litter boxes.

PS - if anyone feels like spending the day at my house cooking us a nice turkey dinner on Xmas day, please feel free to volunteer. Last year we had club sandwiches. They were good. But not Xmas good.

Break out the eggnog

American Thanksgiving time has put holiday movie season into full swing.

I'm sure everyone has their favorites. Every year I see the listings for Miracle on 34th street, and It's a Wonderful Life. The Grinch. All those. But those are not my favorites. Nor have they ever been. I've never seen either of the former. And I don't think I ever watched the classic version of the latter either. Here are some of my favorites:

• Home Alone - I haven't watched it for the last few years, but for a while there it was a staple. Even Home Alone 2 is really great. I love the hijinks with the dummys rigged to ropes so he can move them around. And Joe Pesci - probably my favorite character he's ever played.
• National Lampoons - The rodent in the Xmas tree. The dried out turkey. The dickey. Enough said.
• Love Actually - I always love movies where all the stories are intertwined, but this one does it with humor and warm fuzzies instead of horror and irony. Plus, it's a relatively new movie, and since I usually only watch it during the holidays, I barely remember what happens in it.
• Stepmom - although mildly depressing, it still leaves you feeling pretty good. But in a realistic kind of way. I think this one takes the cake as SB's favorite holiday movie, but don't tell anybody that.
• The Family Man - No, not the Family Guy, The Family Man. It's kind of like A Christmas Carol, but not. There are cute kids in it. SB and I actually agreed that if maybe you could choose which kids you could have, we would choose the little girl in this movie. But since you can't choose which kids you can have, we will forego all that and get a baby Himalayan kitten. (okay, we didn't agree to get the kitten, but it was another moment for me to sneak in a bit of my cost/benefit analysis of the whole situation).

I was planning on posting this list anyway, but when we sat down to dinner tonight, we discovered that The Family Man was on TV. After celebrating American Thanksgiving yesterday by cooking a whole turkey dinner for just the two of us, I must say, it is putting me in a rather festive mood.

I must also say that my mood would be even more festive if we had a DVR and could have recorded this movie off of network television and watched it tomorrow while fast-forwarding the commercials.....

A tale of two turkeys

I could never really understand American Thanksgiving. We have Thanksgiving here in the Great White North as well, but we have it in October, with all the pretty leaves changing, and it is on a Monday, so it is like a regular long weekend. We have turkey. We have pumpkin pie. What we appear to be missing is some kind of hype that I'm not sure I really understand.

Why is American Thanksgiving (AT) on a Thursday? Is it so you will be able to justify an extra week off? Because if you are travelling, you probably do so Wednesday, and then you are there til Sunday, but to avoid travel rush you probably leave Monday.

Why is AT in November? November is not a pretty month. For example, here it snowed and freezing rained all day, and I'm sure our dear friends in Vermont who are celebrating today shared this lovely weather. Not so good for travelling. October is a much more reliable month.

Also, still on the whole November thread, why would you have AT so close to Christmas? It just seems that if you are going to have one holiday that pretty much lasts a whole week, and then another holiday that usually lasts a week, you would want to spread them out a little bit. Again, October wins.

Why do people feel like they HAVE to be with their families on AT? It is a phenomenon that baffles me. You don't have to be with your family to be thankful for them. And you are going to see them in less than a month anyway. We Canucks feel free to hunker down to our birds wherever we may find them. I have had my share of Thanksgivings with my family, but since moving 1000km away, I like to celebrate with my friends too. In fact, the celebrations with friends sometimes feel more genuine because they are not forced, not expected.

If you are American, please fill me in if you know the precise answer to any of my questions. And "it's tradition" is not an answer.

Of course, cynical me, I have a sneaking suspicion that it has to be on a Thursday so that retailers can have Black Friday (although we Canadians still seem to get all of our holiday shopping done without it), and it needs to be close to Christmas so that people are really in the buying mood.

Since Christmas is dead....

I'm definitely not dreaming of a white one.

It snowed in New Brunswick today, apparently. Or maybe last night. I can only say, wow, am I ever glad I don't live there anymore.

I am a big fan of the 2-10 degrees Celsius temperature range. I adore a brisk walk through the leaves with the pups. I dig a nice warm coffee/latte/hot chocolate when my nose is cold and my cheeks are rosy. I love wearing sweaters, scarves, mittens, and my Uggs. But I HATE snow. Snow should be relegated to mountains only (for the skiing and the snowboarding), but I would be elated if they built a big giant bubble over the city so we could avoid the following:

• giant snowbanks that I have to try and plow my car into because they haven't bothered to clean the streets yet (sometimes they check the weather report and rather than getting out there and getting to it, they wait to see if it will melt away).
• ice. Black ice. Giant ice puddles. Ice on stairs. All kinds of it. I can't even count the number of times I've bruised my ass while walking dogs and hitting a patch of ice. And it's the worst here because they don't seem to understand how to use salt on the sidewalks. So whole blocks will have a sheet of ice the whole length. Either you skate your way down the block, or you take it to the streets and risk getting mowed over by a car.
• wet jeans. There is nothing worse than having to walk through a snowbank and getting your jeans wet, and then the wet works its way up to your knees. I have gaiters that I wear when it's too warm for snowpants, but it still happens.

So, I'm thankful it didn't snow here this weekend. But I'm bracing myself because I'm sure it's coming soon.

Also, a small addition to my holiday wish list - I forgot to include a DVR. I think that this would drastically improve my quality of life. As of right now, I am pretty much chained to my television most nights during primetime. This would free up this time for, you know, the drinking and the carousing.

It was like my birthday or something!

Last night I made ribs for dinner, which I haven't done in a very long time. Because they are messy and icky, I generally like to take the opportunity to be bad and serve french fries alongside, because then you can just eat the whole meal with your hands. So I asked SB to stop at our favorite Belgian French fry place to pick up some fries.

He ordered a large fry and the sauces we like, and the guy was like "I'll give you two small fries because small fries are free today".

Huh? Yay for us!

So, obviously if you want to get me a present, free fries are on the list, but with the holidays coming up, here is my gift wish list:

Items I WANT WANT WANT but am unlikely to receive (the same list I give SB for every single holiday/birthday, etc - notice "new iPod" is gone - he really came through on my birthday!):
- Nikon D40x camera.
- a vacation somewhere.
- a male Himalayan kitten

Items I would love to have that are within reach:
- an FM transmittor for my iPod - I haven't really researched them much so not sure which model I want but the last one I had that was stolen was awesome - it worked as a stand for the iPod too and plugged directly into the power source. I think it was a Belkin.
- gift card to FutureShop/BestBuy - in case there are 100 FM transmittors and choosing one is scary.
- Chapters gift cards, since there are about 187 books that I am dying to read
- Shopping gift cards (for Cadillac Fairview malls) or H&M gift cards. Because I have this syndrom lately where I refuse to buy myself clothes. And now all my clothes are old and gross and I am almost naked.
- hugs.

Cuddle up

I just spent the past half an hour reading through the blogs on my blogrolling list complaining about how people don't update enough. Um, hello, hasn't posted since last week. Mmm, sorry. Ha. ha........ha

I made it through psycho Thanksgiving weekend, with the help of SB and some yummy Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes. MmmmmmMmmmmm. We had two pretty full days on Saturday and Sunday, and were pretty exhausted by the end, but managed to haul ourselves off the island to our friend CHAG's house for yummy Thanksgiving dinner. I had so much fun and was so stuffed with food I almost forgot that I was about to fall asleep in my soup. Then we had to visit a geriatric cat who needs fresh wet food four times a day. I'm not even joking. But she's sweet, and old, so I kinda like spending time with her. It's just not so fun at 11 at night after a big giant dinner.

Monday I went out alone to finish up all the cats and was able to finish my day by 2:30. When I got home, SB had fired up the fire place, and I enjoyed the best nap ever in front of it, with my cat. I cannot recommend this enough after a long six months. Just grab a blanket, get in your pjs, let your cat crawl into that nook your knees make when you crunch your legs up, turn on the fireplace and snooze. I felt like a four year old who passes out in front of the TV after being out sledding all day. This may become a new routine, along with my two hour baths in our big giant tub which include me, bubbles, a book, and an IKEA Optimal glass of wine**.

Also, the Hills was a recap episode last night, so no Hills Tuesday this week. :(


**for those of you out of the loop, the IKEA Optimal wine glass holds about half a bottle of wine. It's pretty fabulous, and efficient when getting up from the table, or out of the tub is just a big old pain in the rear.

Christmas is dead

As it goes with our kind of business, Christmas is a very busy time of year. While a lot of our doggies apparently take the holidays off, the kitty cats that we sit for come out of the woodwork for the period between Dec 15 and Jan 8. Because I am a super great person and love my girls, and also don't feel like paying time and a half to them when I have to be around anyway, I will be the only one working on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Now, New year's Day is not so bad, as per the schedule I have as of today (I have at least one addition per day these days). But Christmas. Christmas is dead.

I have 20 visits scheduled that day so far. Each visit is 30 minutes. plus travel time in between. Two of the visits are actually an hour long because it's a diabetic cat who needs to eat all of his food before getting his insulin, and he likes to take his sweet old time. If you calculate that out, it's about 15.5 hours of work. With no breaks for meals. Luckily SB has offered to help me do some of them, but I think this means I won't be cooking a big Christmas dinner.

Since I've been quite concentrated on getting the business ready for the holiday, I am not exactly in a Christmas-y mood. Last weekend SB said:
"Do you feel like getting our tree this weekend?"
"no"
"yeah, i guess it's too early."
"I don't really think I want a tree."

Silence and inner tears on his part.