One week to go

I’m watching a show on TLC right now following three war vets from the Iraqi war – three American women who were each blown up – missing legs and feet, all scarred – and about their lives now that they’re back in America recovering. It’s so sad. They raise a good point how this is an entirely new experience for America – to have so many females killed and injured and maimed in battle. One of them seems so young, you can just imagine what she’s had to witness and endure in her short life.

Anyway, other updates. Jeff will be back in a week. I’m coping well. The first few days usually finds me over-eating and moping around, but I’m all put back together now with a new frame of mind and eager for our next adventure, whether we find out that will be here or out east. We should know any day now.

It’s funny that I always wanted to live in the woods – it was always my dream. What the hell was I thinking. I can’t go outside without being eaten alive by mosquitos and blackflies. The woods is full of all sorts of not so cute, scary animals (in particular: bears, fishers, snakes, porcupines, raccoons). I would be happy if there were only deer and cute bunny rabbits. I despise taking the dogs out at dusk and later to pee. It’s dark, there aren’t the best yard lights here, the mosquitos have me totally covered, and then one of the dogs will look into the woods and their hair on their back will go up and they’ll growl and bark. I hate that! I do love the fresh air out here though, there is one bonus. Right now the pine trees are releasing their pollen. The truck is green! Glad I’m not allergic to it!

Geez, I was sure I had several other stories I was going to share but I can’t think of any of them right now. I guess I’ll just go eat my dinner and try to remmeber what they were….

Contact Lens Solution Recall AGAIN

I’m getting really pissed off with companies trying to make me blind.

For the second time this year, my contact lens solution is being recalled. This time the brand is AMO Complete Moisture Plus. I bought this bottle when my Bausch & Lomb bottle was recalled. Honestly though, I stopped using this bottle of solution a couple of weeks ago because I felt it wasn’t cleaning my lenses like the Bausch & Lomb solution does. And apparently I was right. I’m back to using the free solution Bausch & Lomb mailed me to replace their bad batch I had.

I haven’t found details yet about how to get my money (or my eye health back), but if you’re using this brand, stop now!

F’n Mosquitos!

I had forgotten there could ever be this many f>:XXng mosquitoes. I’d take blackflies any day over these buggers. There weren’t bad, and then, BAM! This morning I took both dogs at the same time to pee. I went out fully dressed, hooded sweatshirt, and I still ended up with bites all over my forehead. Tonight I wore a toque outside! Jeff is getting off really easy going away for 11 days starting on Sunday. I was going to invite people to come and stay and visit with me to pass the time, but I wouldn’t ask anyone to come here – you’d never go back outside! I feel so bad for the wildlife that have to put up with that constant bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

So Jeff got back from Halifax today. He had his final interview early this morning. He prepared well and did his best and now we will just wait and see if it’s in the stars for us to go to Nova Scotia or not. We’ll know within the next 2 weeks.

Not too much else new. I redid http://YouNeedAThong.com with a datafeeds from 3 companies. It will also automatically update itself once a week with products, prices, and the current sales. I’m excited about the possibilities that I have now with access to these datafeeds. This thong site of mine is such a super slutty site now it makes me giggle. So far most people are clicking on the crotchless thong page the most. :) )

Facebook is continuing to awe me. Several people I went to kindergarten with have added me to their network. I would never have found these people (new last names). Several of them have their hands full with children. I’d probably never have heard of them again if it wasn’t for Facebook. I’m loving it. There are groups on there for Rangers too – even an Esker group. I can’t wait to get my scanner out of storage so I can add some of my photo memories too.

Two More Points!

We managed to pull it together on Monday morning to earn 2 more points towards Monty’s Canadian Championship! He’s got 4 points now out of the required 10.

Monty was selected Best of Winners yesterday morning. It was very exciting!

Here is the world’s worst show pic:

Monty - Best of Winners

Here are a couple of candid shots from the grooming table:

Monty

Monty

A big thanks to Jeff for putting up with a weekend with us at a dog show, carrying the heavy stuff around, putting up with me on Saturday when I was super bitchy (I hate wearing nylons), for putting up with my snoring, and for being an all around super supportive boyfriend! :D

Live from the dog show…

Monty earned a 3rd and a 2nd place finish today (okay that was out of 3 and 2 dogs respectively). (yes last place in the open dog class). He was a TOTAL wildchild during the first show and deserved last – he didn’t gait one for the dog, he was just ALL over the place – he even licked the judge’s face when he was examining him!!! EEE GADS!

Hopefully he’ll do better in one or all of the next three shows, but if he doesn’t, that’s okay – it’s good practice, and someone has to take there turns finishing last, right?

We are staying in a little cheap motel – clean, but nothing too fancy. Except they have free wireless internet! And we brought Jeff’s laptop! Woo hoot!

The weather was nice until this evening – now it’s taken a sharp turn back towards winter – it is nippy outside!

It’s not that strange being in the Sault – kinda feels like we never left – except for the sleeping in the motel part. Some people we have ran into talk to us like they didn’t realize we ever left. We drove by my house. There were so many people and vehicles that I didn’t get a good look except to notice the shingles are BAD looking, they haven’t cut the grass yet, they have a massive racing car type of trailer parked in front of the house and the area out side the garage door was totally littered with stuff like maybe they were having a garage sale or something. People everywhere. I didn’t get a chance to look at my flowers or anything, but I’m fine with that. I don’t feel that much of a connection with the house – we’re on to better and bigger things!

Off to the Sault – Dog Shows

We’re off to the Sault for the weekend. I can’t believe I’m going back to the Sault so soon. Crazy. I entered Monty in 5 dog shows over the weekend. I would REALLY REALLY like him to get enough points to earn his Championship this weekend so I never have to show him again, but there is a lot of competition so that might be aiming a little high.

Just under an hour ago, our three deer were back in the yard for a visit. This time they weren’t in the bush line, they were actually in the back yard!! They are soooo cute.

Enjoy your long weekend everyone! :>>

The Three Deer Came Back!

Monty was just growling at the back door so I figured the landlord was probably cutting through the yard on the way to his workshop in the garage. At first I didn’t see anything from the window, but when I joined Monty at the back door I saw the 3 deer where standing with Jeff’s fake deer archery target!!

I took a movie of them!

They didn’t seem scared at all and kept their tails down. There were eating the new leaves.

3 Deer

My Appointment with the ENT Dr.

Today was my appointment with the ENT (ears, nose, throat) Doctor. He asked me a bunch of questions. I explained my big tonsils, sore throat, and my horrible snoring. He eventually took a look in my ears, then my nose, and then my throat. The verdict is that they are abnormally large, have large crevasses on them, but they are not infected. He said that getting them out is not something I want to do and said I really haven’t had problems for THAT long. (since December 1st buddy!)

Anyway, he wants me to go for a sleep study. He is concerned that because I said I have bad snoring now from my tonsils that they are probably blocking my breathing. He thinks I probably stop breathing at night and that it will be affecting my oxygen levels and making me tired and making me feel like I haven’t slept well. All true. I nap almost every day and I rarely stay up past 11 now. I can fall asleep sitting up in a chair.

So now I have to wait until the hospital calls and books me in for a sleep study. That means they hook me up to a bazillion machines and wires and I sleep there over night.

Then he will look at the results and will decide what to do. I said – take them out? He said not necessarily – there may be other things he can do. I asked if there was anything I could do in the meantime to make them smaller. He said there is nothing I can do. Oh and the white stuff is just junk shed off by the holes. He said I could get tonsil stones and it’ll cause bad breath so I can gargle with salt water if I wanted.

I hope they book this thing soon because my throat is making me so miserable. Not to mention affecting Jeff’s sleep. I kinda wish he just sliced them out today.

He also seemed skeptical about the Tylenol allergy I have. He has never come across anyone with a Tylenol allergy. I told him how it makes me get hives and insane itching. He pulled out his trusty little handheld computer off his belt and looked in to it. He verified that what I reported matched the list of Tylenol symptoms – although they were on the bottom after liver problems etc.

Algonquin Park Moose

Jeff and I drove over to Algonquin Park yesterday on the search for some wildlife! Parry Sound is such a great central place to live. We got to Algonquin Park in just over an hour.

We were at least half way through the park and turned to Jeff and said “Jeff, we see more wildlife in our own yard”.

Then it got interesting!

Jeff spotted the first moose – a cow – on the left side of the road. He did a fast u-turn and drove up beside the swamp she was standing in – eating something. Here she is:

Algonquin Moose
Algonquin Moose
Algonquin Moose
Algonquin Moose
Algonquin Moose

Then we came across a bunch of cars and people all over the road. There were 2 bull moose in the right side ditch. Is it a northern Ontario thing – or why is the first thing I think when I see idiots like this – “stupid Toronto people”. The two moose were trying to cross the road. All these idiots were standing on the road and they weren’t moving!! The moose kept charging them – where did they think they were – a petting zoo?? Geez! :crazy: After the first one finally got across, the second one went through the same cycle of charging them over and over again until he got brave enough to just run across.

Algonquin Moose
Algonquin Moose
Algonquin Moose
Algonquin Moose

We saw a couple more after that, and unfortunately a dead one in the ditch :( No bears though!

It was a great day – I love our weekend drives!

My Newest Project

I built a new website over the last week – OneStopRetro.com.

It’s a simple new website idea that I can repeat over and over. I was approved to receive live product catalogs from certain merchandisers once a week. I programmed a script to take it all apart and put the products I’m interested in one database to run one website. Because the datafeed contains product description, photos, and prices then my website will always be up to date without me ever touching it again after the initial set-up.

In this case, I made a site targeted at retro clothing – you know – the look where you are wearing items that have so long been out of style, that they are back in? This site has velcro shoes, Converse, Pony, Reebok, and old style t-shirts.

Now my programming will all be tested in one week when the feed is automatically uploaded to my server and my script is triggered to unzip it, separate the products I want, and update my product database.

On this particular store, I get 12% of the purchase price. I’ve already done some initial marketing and we’ll see if I can make a sale. If I can make a ton of simple sites like this that don’t require updates and maintenance, if they only make a few sales each a month, I’ll be happy. The merchandiser for this particular site has the best return, no hassle policy around so people can easily return and swap shoe sizes. Free shipping both ways!