Hallowiener Walk

Very, very late post....

Went on a wiener walk for Hallowe'en. Lots of wieners, lots of treats.

Brat went as a dragon. Some people thought she was a dinosaur, that works too. Meet Bratasaurus Rex:




This is our neighbour (and Brat's best friend) Daisy:



There were a few non wieners too:



Awwwwww:



Of course we had games. This is musical hoops:



And guess what tired pooch won best costume?

I'm Baaaaaack....

Where have I been you ask. V.A.C.A.T.I.O.N

Just got back last night. We had a great time but glad to be home again....

Trip included Las Vegas, San Diego, Disneyland, Santa Maria, San Francisco and points in-between (road trip!)

Hubby drove down and I flew to meet him in Lost Wages.

This is a pic he took on route. (Note the cool moon over the mountain)



This is the view from our room @ the Excalibur (Day & night shots)




The cool mall @ the Venetian



Fremont Experience ("Old" Las Vegas)



San Diego Zoo




This is the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego. Best known from the movies Some Like it Hot (it stood in for Florida) and The Stunt Man



Classic San Fran shot



And to finish, Sunset in Oregon



Ok 1 more.

Puppy missed her daddy.....



Off to finish compiling my 5,000,000 emails....

Another Wiener Walk

Went on another wiener walk today at Peace Arch Park. This one hosted by the Miniature Dachshund Club of BC.

Here's the Bratster:



And here is everyone walking their wieners:


This was the first walk this group has done, and it went very well. Mostly sunny, lots of happy dogs (about 40), races and games and treats for the pooches.

Brat is sleeping it off now.

Wiener Walk Redux...

Ok, I lied.

We do have one picture from the Wiener Walk. This was taken by a friend of a friend (Thanks Kathy)

The cute one is Brat. Not sure who the other two freaks are :-)

Wiener Walk

I forgot my camera, bummer.

Brat had a wonderful time. She was a bit shyish, a good thing as she was only a few days past her tutoring. She met a cazillion doxies, and seemed to enjoy herself. So did the humans.

Wienerdogs.org has posted some pics (not of the Bratinator). Have a looksee Here

see ya

Nothing Exciting Tonight....

Haven’t written in awhile, I know. And you ain’t getting much tonight either… Just this great flyer a co-worker found. What were the marketing people thinking! (This is from a Mervyn’s flyer)



g’night y’all

All Is Well....

Brat survived her tutoring with no problems. She was very dopey last night and mostly slept.

Here she is with daddy, showing off her stitches.



And this morning sharing breakfast and back to normal.



Also the new yard (to go with the new deck) is mostly done. A few picky bits to finish, but already 500% better!

This is what the old carport / deck looked like just before we ripped it down:



Here is a repeat shot (from earlier blog) showing the new deck, but with the yard not yet started:



And here is the yard now:



I'm so happy :-)

WHAT Are You Going To Do To Me!?!

Brat's getting tutored today!

She was mad when I left for work this morning (Hubby's taking her to the vet), she had no food, no water, what did she do to deserve this.

The 2004 wiener walk is this Sunday. We'll have to see how she feels, may not be a good idea to take her - bummer!

Where Is The Border?

I went to a wedding this weekend in a park right on the US Canadian border. The actual ceremony was held in the US, but the bride and groom walked about 50 feet north to Canada to sign the registry due to the fact that the marriage commissioner was not entitled to perform marriages in the States. I spent some time before the ceremony watching the lineups to cross both borders:



And then I walked about 100 feet into the park and took this picture:



Everything from those trees to me is in the US. The houses and the road are in Canada. What separates the 2? A little ditch.

How much you wanna bet those Canadians (Surrey, BC) cross the road and go to the American (Blaine WA) 7/11 to buy beer?

BYW, most of the cars in the 1st photo took about an hour to cross

Gotta love international security :-)

Oh Beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticided grain,
For strip-mined mountain's majesty above the asphalt plain.
America, America, man sheds his waste on thee,
And hides the pines with billboard signs, from sea to oily sea.
~George Carlin

(Not that we Canadians are saints!)

New Deck...

So here are a few pics of the new back deck. The floor has since been stained brown and the rest of the structure will be stained a dark green and wine / burgundy colour to match the front porch:

So Who Reads This Anyway.....

I know, I know,,,, I never write.....

But come on, look at the sky! How can anyone find time or inspiration to write with weather like this? As it is I'm using hubby's wireless connection to jot this down on the front porch.

The new back deck is done (pictures later, I need the hardwired machine to upload those), but we're letting the stain set, so it's the front porch for now. But it's a nice new deck, well, because, it's Nice. and New. (and a deck). We've built the railings a dogs head width apart so that Brat can stick her head out, but can't get anything else out. Plus we put a spring loaded gate @ the top of the stairs so that she can't escape. And when I say "we" and "we've" I really mean anyone but me. Build stuff! I don't think so.

So what else is new? Well there was the election. Bah humbug! Yes I did vote. I believe that you can't bitch if you don't vote - not that it did any good. Well I guess it will basically be the same ol crappola for the next 4 years. Not that I expected anything different.

Went to see the newest Harry Potter movie a couple of days ago. Loved it. I am a big Potter fan, call me infantile, don’t care, nyya nyya poo poo. I have very few quibbles with the movie. I thought a bit more detail about the 4 friends (James Potter et al) would have been nice, but I do understand that it’s nigh near impossible to put all the book details into a movie without it turning into another Lord of the Rings. And yes I did enjoy the LotR trilogy, but that last movie did go on and on and on… If you are a Potter fan and you haven’t seen the revamped Rowling site, I’d advise you to pay it a visit.

That’s all for now. Have a wonderful summer Sunday :-)

What A Mess!

So of course when I'm at work all day the dog gets bored, bored, bored.

She has roughly 5000 toys, but does that keep her happy, NO!

She has a training pad holder


That we put newspaper in and lately she has taken to ripping the *)#*R$#& out of the newspaper and throwing the scraps all over her pen.

This is what her pen should look like: (Minus the crate, we've taken that out. The pad holder is behind the crate in this picture)



And this is what it looked like @ 7:19 tonight:


Sigh....

Haven't been writing much lately because... because... Well I haven't felt like it... So there.

But that's probably just as well. With the current excitement level in my life you would at best get an breathtaking account of what I had for dinner (tonight - McFood!) Or perhaps the joy that is summer television (oooooh, a Simpsons I've only seen 56 times)

And here is a strange phenomenon that only ever seems to happen to me. I will - out of boredom - watch some stupid sitcom that I've never seen before. Deciding I hated it I'll set out to never watch it again. 6 months later - again out of boredom - I'll decide to give the show another chance. Guaranteed it will be the same stupid episode I watched the first time. How can you give something a 2^nd chance when the 2^nd chance is the same as the 1^st chance?

<unrelated bit>
We are getting a new back deck and downstairs bathroom. I'll post the exciting pictures when done. Can you wait?
</unrelated bit>

Wanna Know Your Cyborg Name?

Here is another silly site: Cyborg Name Generator. It changes your name into a cyborg acronym.

Here is mine:

Get Your Cyborg Name

I WILL take over the world!

Wonderful Weekend!

Had a super long weekend. Friday it poured, with thunder and lightening, and part of Saturday. But by mid Saturday it cleared up and was in the high twenties for the rest of the weekend.

Went to the Victoria Day celebrations at Queen's Park on Monday. Started out watching the "The Ancient and Honourable Hyack Anvil Battery" at the Queen's Park stadium. This is a 21-gun salute to the monarch, but instead of using guns, or a cannon, they put black powder in between two anvils (bottom one 350 pounds, top one 150 pounds) and then light the powder with a red hot rod. The whole thing explodes with an incredible bang (Very, very, loud!). Repeat 21 times.

After that we went over to the fair. Lots of kiddy rides, dog agility show, junk food, petting zoo and water park. Good donairs, great lemonade. We took Brat (La Wiener) to see the dog show, she was fascinated with the whole thing and wanted to join in. She's 4 months's old now and up to a fantastic 8 pounds. Want's to play with everyone of course, but still just our baby.

Spent the rest of Monday lazing on the front porch and eating ribs.

May sound pedestrian, but it don't get much better.

The Staff Elevator - Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here

The central library is a 9 floor building, 7 for the library and 2 leased out to the government. There are 2 public elevators in the library, 2 staff / public elevators to the leased offices on 8 and 9 and (wait for it) 1 (one!) elevator for library staff. There must be at least 4-500 hundred people that work in this library, and we make do with one elevator.

It's also the freight elevator.

And our cleaning staff and security use our elevator to go to 8 and 9.

Geez.

I know what you are saying "oh boo hoo, use the public elevators" Bite me, I'm too lazy. And we can't take food into the public elevator.

Take the stairs you say. Ha ha ha ha, you made a funny.

The stupid thing breaks down all the time too. Its most popular trick is to stop about a foot above a floor and open the doors halfway. I find jumping up and down helpful.

And people get stuck. A few years ago I spent 2 fascinating hours in there with nothing to read. Fun.

And because it's servicing 7 floors (oh, and the parking garage, so make that 8) the average waiting time is about 5 minutes, double if you are in a hurry.

Please keep in mind that this building is only 10 years old.

About the only thing I miss about the old library is the 2nd elevator.

And the balcony.

Feeling Better Thanks!

Cold is just about gone. It's been the mundaneness of everyday life that has kept me from writing, not illness.

Let's see, what happened this week?

Monday - Nothing

Tuesday - Tripping the Rift. Episode sucked the big one. Guest star - (drum roll please) Emmanuel Lewis of Webster fame. Wow, they don't come more famous than that

Also dinner at Burger Heaven. Yummy as usual. For those who have never eaten there. Burger Heaven does a fun thing during elections. They create a burger for each candidate and you vote with your order. Best (and tastiest) poll around.

Wednesday - Nothing. Taped West Wing and Kingdom Hospital to watch this weekend.

No great Sun Run pictures this year. This is as good as it gets. I'm in the grey sweatshirt. Just behind the guy pushing the baby buggy. (Note: Pictures not available anymore for 2004)

Sorry Fleet Feet Photos. But the 2003 pictures were better...

I Am Tweety....

Here's a silly little quiz that tells you what cartoon character you are. Seems that I am Tweety.

Nothing else today. I'm down with a cold and moping - what a waste of a weekend.

And Today....

Today I hurt. Not as bad as yesterday mind you. But you CAN"T make me walk!

Yesterday it felt like someone had removed my hip bones, poked them with a sharp stick for an hour or two and then replaced them without painkillers.

I go through this every year. But I don't mind, it makes me feel better for the other 364 days when I'm sitting on my ass.

Fun facts and figures

Participants: 48,640 people.

My time: 124:03:00 (2 hours 4 minutes and change. about what I figured)

My placement: 37134 overall. 21383 for women. 2373 in age group.

Bad picture coming soon....

How Tired Am I?

Not very actually. Participated in my 4th Vancouver Sun Run today. Of course being in the fine shape that I am, I walked it. Except for a sore hip (old age!) not too much damage this year. Last year it poured for most of the race and I was a mess…



Shitty finishing time this year, stopped off for a loo break that put me 5 minutes over last years time. Of course until I see the paper tomorrow I won’t know my official time, but I think I clocked in at aprox 2 hours 5 minutes.

But the post walk healthy fitness snack at The Met (Shrimp Benedict) was lovely!

Ow

_______________
2007 update: The Met's site seems to be dead although the hotel is still there. Also, the pub now sucks!

Wiener Love ♥♥♥

I had it pointed out to me today that I really should add something about my pooch here.

Of course since the only people that are reading this are people I know, this will be old news.

But in any case, here she is....



Her name is Miss Bratwurst Sausage Grey Poupon Baker Buns.... or Brat. Of course with that name you'll have guessed she's a wiener. Cute as a button (Awwww) and full of piss and vinegar.

She's in the chew everything in site stage, so she's got a nice big pen in the dining room that she can't damage - too much.

For more pictures look here.

Never had a purebred before. In fact I used to poo poo them. But no more, it's nice knowing what your dog is, and having a pretty good guess at what they will look like full grown. Not to put down mutts of course.

If you are interested in wieners, check out Wienerdogs.org. A local site with tons of info, pictures and fun stuff.

Of course we will be going to the wiener walk this summer. Have a look at a news video from last summer.

woof

How Will You Die?

This is how I will die....

What horrible Edward Gorey Death will you die?

You will swallow some tacks. You are a little weird, maybe not so much in a good way. Buy a yellow tie and wear it on your head.
Take this quiz!

Adventures On Skytrain...

Well yesterday's trip to Easter dinner was a bit of an adventure.

Took Skytrain as usual and all was uneventful until I got to 29^th Ave station. We ended up sitting in the station for about 5 or 10 minutes with no word about what was going on. This was not unusual. Often there are small problems with the train: someone has dropped something in the track, there is a backlog of trains, etc etc. In any case I'm not worried.

Then two Skytrain employees get on the train and manually drive the train forward about a hundred yards or so out of the station. They are chatting away on their walky-talkies but say nothing to us. They stop the train, shut down the power (no lights, no fans, and it's HOT out) and get out of the train and leave us there. Still no info.

After another 10 minutes or so there is an announcement that there is a medical emergency at 29^th Ave station and that they have shut down service between Joyce and Broadway Stations (we are in between). They go on telling us how they are running shuttle service from Joyce to Broadway and other alternatives, but we are still sitting there with the doors closed outside the station. Big help to us.

We finally figure out via the ultra modern communications system called the window that someone has jumped onto the track in front of our train (I'm in the first car) and that the Skytrain guys are providing assistance. Ambulance shows up and they get to work on the guy.

10 more minutes pass....

Same announcement repeats a few times, nothing new....

A young women started to have a panic attack (claustrophobia, too much heat?) and a few people at the other end of the train assist her. A very charming young boy was literally swinging from the overhead bars - his mother ignored him.

Finally, they open the doors and we all walk back to the station on the emergency / service sidewalk thingy.

When we get to the station we were asked to leave and were not given any info on how to continue our trip. There is no shuttle bus and only one regular bus that takes about an hour to get downtown and doesn't follow a route that is helpful to people that were not taking the train all the way to the end.

I'm lucky - one phone call to my Easter dinner relatives snags me a rescue ride (Thanks Mike)

I know that the fellow who jumped has bigger problems than the other passengers; I'm not completely heartless. But that's not my beef. All that the passengers wanted (at least me) was a little bit of information. It seems to me that when the Skytrain employees came onto the train to drive it out of the station that they must have known something was up, why weren’t we told something then. It would have taken about a minute to get everyone off the train. And to answer your next question: No, time did not seem to be a factor, one of the employees farted around with the controls for a at least 2 minutes while the other one watched before we even left the station.

Also, instead of just hoarding us out of the station could we not have been informed of any travel alternatives? I was lucky. I basically knew where I was and I could get a ride. Some of the other passengers looked really lost.

Badly handled people, badly handled.

Dinner was good, if anticlimactic.

Happy Easter!

ER (Empathy Relief...)

Ok, I still like ER, but they're not making it easy. I get the feeling that Michael Crichton is only calling it in these days.

How many traumatic problems can one relatively small group of people have? Stabbings, shootings, love found, love lost, cheating partners, missing children, overseas emergencies, death of parents, near execution, etc etc etc...

AND that was just this season!

Believable for Tripping the Rift (see yesterday's entry), but that's a science fiction / fantasy show.

And where the hell does Kovac get all the $$$, hospital residents are not exactly rolling in dough and he drives (or did) a Viper.

Ok, I feel better now.

So what else am I watching these days.

Well Monday's are dedicated to the CBC trinity.
1. Rick Mercer's Monday Report. A very funny news spoof. Sort of a Canadian The Daily Show but funnier.
2. The Newsroom. Also a news comedy, but more of a twisted sureal sit-com. Unfortunatly over for the season.
3. This is Wonderland. A rougher, more sarcastic, funnier Ally McAnorexic.

Still really enjoying The West Wing. I know some people are really tired of it, but I'm still enjoying the staffers banter.

I'm also addicted to Queer as Folk. A show you either know and love... or don't. Not for the kiddies perhaps, but very human and very funny. BTW it starts again on April 19th.

Hubby still enjoys Enterprise, but I find it tedious. I prefer episodes that show daily life on the ship, but everything is now Xindi, Xindi, Xindi. I know everyone disagrees with me on what makes a good show, but I. Don't. Care. Now I'm taking my toys and going back to my room.

I think that Porthos should get his own show.

Tripping....

Caught the first episode of Tripping the Rift last night. Very very demented. Think Futurama on serious drugs. The first show is available via streaming video on their site. It involved a beauty contest, odd boobage, a homicidal clown family, assorted aliens, and - murder -. If you like good quality, clean family television, you'll HATE this show.

Airs in Canada Tuesday's @ 7:00 on Space (Vancouver time anyway, check your local listings).

Welcome To My World!

Well let's see how this thing works ok? Maybe I'll make a complete mess of it and it will really really suck. But what the hay....

Mostly (probably) I'll be posting stuff on the web that I A. Like, B. Hate, or C. think is really bloody odd.

It's a crapshoot.... :-)

To start you off. Here is a blog(ish) site I really like. James Lileks is a minneapolis writer. Don't always agree with his politics, but he can be very, very funny. His main site is here. And his blog (Called the Bleat) can be found here.

Enjoy

B