Monthly Archives: March 2006

My Germaphobic Nature didn’t keep me safe

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While I’ve become a germaphobe – I cover my hands with my sleeves to open door knobs at work and I flush the toilet with my foot now – I gave a germ-free exemption to J. and now I have a cold. So I guess my neener-neener-neener rants at J. last week when he had a cold and I was healthy didn’t do me any favours. I woke up at 3:30 this morning with tonsils so sore I couldn’t swallow. OUCH!

So back to my 10K step challenge. Yesterday’s total was 5376 steps I think – actually that’s just from 1pm onwards after I bought it. I’m at 1001 steps today so far (it’s noon). The booklet that came with the pedometer suggests that if my daily average is 5K-7.5K that I should be up to 10K steps in 6-12 days. I’ll keep ya posted.

It’s lunch time and I am absolutely not hungry at all. Must be the walking, or the cold, or the tennis ball sized tonsils, or the Buckleys I gulped down (I LOoOOOOOVe Buckleys), or the sore throat lozenges. So I guess I’ll use my lunch break to write in my blog ;-) Hi everyone (wave) !

OH YEAH! My house got nailed with a couple paintballs last evening. One on the side of my new steps and one on the back of my house. J. thinks it might have been an accident, but I’m suspicious. A lot of punks in my neighbourhood. I took digital photos before we washed off the paint. If it happens again… well I guess I’ll probably call the police .. although that’ll probably make me an even bigger target.

10,000 steps is a lot of steps

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Well I got this great idea yesterday that I was going to start wearing a pedometer and aim for the famous 10K steps a day.

Today at lunch I went to Walmart and got a pedometer for $12.95. It’s just a simple one – step counting and that is all. It’s a little gadget you wear on your belt and reset each morning.

I put it on just before 1pm. I was excited to see how fast steps accumulated each time I got up at work to go to the bathroom! After work I took Monty for a 40 minute walk. We’re both pooped. Step count since 1pm = 3720. Whew!

The idea is that 10K steps is about 5 miles or 8 km. The experts figure that represents at least 30 minutes of additional walking a day which should keep you healthy. To lose weight, you should aim for 12K steps a day.

I know that in University I was in WAY better shape. Probably because I had to walk everywhere and I loooooooved walking. I didn’t eat any better then than I do now. Walking is easy and enjoyable and something I can do with Monty so this is a good idea.

I don’t think Monty, as a 5 month old pup, should necessarily be pushed to walk longer than we did today, so I’ll have to get in extra steps on the treadmill. The booklet that came with the gadget said to start with 5K steps and increase.

Does anyone else do the step counting thing?

Pet Store Walk

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Monty and I walked up to the pet store today. He’s a really good walker on leash. I hope he keeps that trait! Unfortunately he pooped while we were crossing a street!! (Yes, I picked it up).

He went puppy-psycho for the lady who runs the pet store – crying and whining and singing and wiggling. She gave him a cookie.

I stopped and talked to the older gentlemen who lives a couple doors down from me. I hadn’t met him before even though they’ve probably lived there for almost a year already. He recently lost his dog to cancer so he wanted to talk about her for awhile. He told me the guy across the street had his van spraypainted the other night. He said the man who lived there before had his vehicles stolen a few times! Oh please let me move before any ever vandalizes my place more than ripping out my tulips (I still think that boobie-trapping my tulips with razor blades this spring will prevent it from happening a third time).

I’m listening to “James Blunt” right now. It’s a nice CD. Monty is passed right out.

I Pulled Off the Surprise

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J. was out of town again this week. His plane was due to get into the Sault airport just before midnight last night, and it being a worknight and way past my bedtime, I told him to drive himself and I’d see him the next day because I’d be sleeping.

I decided I was going to surprise him at the airport, if I could stay awake. It’s way nicer to be greeted at the airport when you come home – at least I think so. But then I started thinking of all those scenes in movies when people try to do the surprise greet. You know the scene.. where the woman goes to surprise the man she’s seeing, but there he is with another woman, or two, or he’s dressed like a woman, or he isn’t there, or he’s drunk, or he wasn’t happy to see her.

Putting that out of my mind, I called for a cab to the airport around 10:40pm. The airport here is way out in the country. The cab driver was a unique man with interesting things to say, but what cab driver isn’t. It cost $30 to get out there, so I was really hoping J. would be on his scheduled flight.

On the way into the airport with my cab driver, 5 little deer ran across the airport driveway in front of us. That brings my weekly deer total to 16. Not bad, eh?

I was at the airport at 11:00pm, but the rumour hanging around the maybe 8 people in the entire airport, was that the plane from Toronto was coming in early. I grabbed an iced tea from the beverage machine and grabbed a seat to watch “That 70′s Show” on the televison.

The plane was there by about 11:25pm. I surprised him good. So good it seemed like it took a couple minutes for him to realize I was there. He was walking into the airport with his head down so he almost walked right into me. Hehehehhe. Got him good. And no, there were no bad movie scenes – no other women, and he wasn’t dressed as a woman. Hehehehe. Whew.

So it’s Friday. I’m a little sleepy but it was worth it.

Visit from a Squirrel

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A red squirrel visited my trees today to drink up the sap that was running from the limbs I had cut off in January. Luckily he wasn’t too scared of Monty and I so I could take some photos:

Red Squirrel

Red Squirrel

Red Squirrel

Here are some of the deer photos from our drive yesterday. The first one is of a deer squatting to pee!

Deer Peeing

Many Deer

Many Deer

Many Deer

DAY OFF!

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J. and I both had today off. It’s been so wonderful!

We took a big load to the dump from my garage, and then a nice drive out to Iron Bridge with stops along the way. We visited my friends in Bruce Mines.

We saw 11+ deer on the side of a hill. J. was able to get some good photos that I’ll post up here over the weekend. Even one of a deer squatting to pee!!

We stopped in a store J. had heard about for their famous really old cheese and their summer sausage. The summer sausage was stamped with the farmers name – Martin – and his town – Atwood, Ontario! Wild! So we bought cheese, the meat, and some bread and made lunch on the side of the road. I don’t care for summer sausage much, but it was good enough.

It was so nice outside and sunny, just cold! Perfect for a drive!

We drove through a couple used car lots too. I sat in a 2002 Jimmy, 4×4, clean, safetied, 91,000km, $13,900. It was very nice. Now which organ shall I sell… :-) OH yeah, I’m waiting until my truck keels over.

Did I see Julie’s MSN saying she went to the SPA for the afternoon? Do tell Jules!

Okay I need to clean up the house and myself. Homemade turkey burgers on the BBQ is on the menu for dinner!

The Dream is Dead

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What dream is that?

The Honda Element dream.

I have seen the light. I still think Honda Elements are cool, but I don’t want one anymore.

Why?

Well because they are $32,000. Think of everything that I would be giving up to afford a $32,000 vehicle. Plus the interest – heck it could end up being a $50,000 vehicle with interest.

I want to have a new and fun vehicle. I want to have a safe vehicle. But I don’t want to give up future vacations, home improvements, vet visits, shopping trips, gift giving, and dog toys to get one.

So I am going to drive my truck until its next major repair. Then I will get a line of credit for maybe $5,000 to $8,000 and I will buy a used SUV. It will still be fun and it will be new to me. I think an SUV will be best so I can have Monty travel safely in his crate, and still be in the same climate controlled area as me, not in the back of my pickup under the cap like he is now.

So I’ll be taking my Honda Element fundraiser drive off the side bar. It was a valiant effort. I raised $3.12. You will have to stay tuned for what I decide to do with that pot of money. Maybe return it to the donators, maybe just go wild with it. I haven’t decided yet.

Saw II

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I watched Saw II tonight.

If you watched the first one and liked it, then you should watch the 2nd one. I don’t think it’s near as clever as the first one, but it wasn’t bad.

It is definitely is more gory that the first one. I know that I was peaking through my fingers as they covered my eyes a few times, and I’m pretty sure I might have gasped a few times. I’m sure I didn’t outright scream, but you’d have to ask J. to confirm that. I can say that I didn’t hear him scream though.

So I’ll rate it .. hmmmm… 2.9/5
Yeah that’s right, I said 2.9 out of 5. I’m the reviewer, I can make up my own scale.

Jarhead

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I watched Jarhead a couple nights ago.

It wasn’t good, and it wasn’t bad. It was nothing. I learned nothing, remember next to nothing, and experienced nothing. I don’t remember anything really happening in the movie. It’s from the Gulf War and is centered on one character, but I didn’t develop any emotional attachment to him as a lead character. The movie started, and then probably 30 minutes later than it should have, it ended.

That’s my take.

Tonight… Saw II. Stay tuned for the review, which may be a wee bit more in depth than my Jarhead review, but not promises :-)

Monty ain’t no beauty stud yet

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Monty had his first conformation class last night. He was a bit of a wild child. He actually drew blood from the intructor! She had to pretend to be a judge and look at his teeth and everytime she did that, he got all excited and tried to chew her fingers. I guess he chewed a little too hard! He wouldn’t stand still at all for exam. But he is just a pupster! We’ll have to work on it. J. even came and cheered(?) us on from the sidelines.

I didn’t get to watch Amazing Race again since it showed at 10pm. I was asleep by 10:05. I can’t imagine how they can get good ratings, unless I’m the only working soul who appreciates 8 hours of sleep.

Zeus ate more tuna last night and this morning he was in the litter box when I got up and was moving around like normal again. I don’t think he’s pooped yet, but he had a good appetite this morning and ate more tuna and some soft cat food. Let’s hope that bone passes through!!!