Last Monday Suede and I headed out for our second annual trip to the Saanich Fair. Last year we had a great time, so we had high expectations for this year. Checking the schedule, there were a few things we wanted to see, so me made plans, and headed out there.

Turns out the fair is pretty much the same from year to year (many of the same exhibits in the same locations). 🙁 We caught the BMX stunt show, which was interesting, but a little slow! We wandered ’round, checked out the animals, and I took a few pictures. We just weren’t feeling into this year, so we ended up leaving before seeing everything we had originally planned on. Too bad.

My pics are here.

Things have been a little quiet here at muddylaces, and mainly that has been because Suede and I were on vacation last week. We were up on Hornby Island celebrating the wedding of Bill and Anna. The wedding was on Wednesday, but we ended up going for a whole week. We had an excellent time relaxing there. Hornby holds a special place in my heart from road trips gone by, but this trip was also very special.

We did lots while there, and this included walking the dogs on the beach every day. The cabin we stayed in was right on the ocean, which made for a spectacular sunsets. We also walked Yoshi at Big Tribune bay, Whaling Station Bay, Helliwel Park, and Little Tribune bay. All were very different, but very beautiful beaches. All of them had huge reddy brown colored jelly fish washed up on the sand too.

The ceremony was very nice, and since it was a civil ceremony, it didn’t have many references to God or religious intonations. Bill and Anna each wrote their own vows, and the wedding itself was held at Anna’s mom’s house, where Anna was born. The grounds are a nursery, so there were nice flower beds all over, and everything was lush and green. The reception afterwards was really fun as well. The dinner was very yummy, and featured many locally produced foods. The band that played was from Denman Island, just a short boat ride away. In all it was a vey perfect West Coast wedding, that included a small rain shower right at the end of the ceremony.

The next morning there was a pancake breakfast for everyone. They were the most amazing pancakes I have ever had in mylife. I don’t really consider yself a pancake connosiuer, but these were the perfect thickness, were very light and fluffy, spaked up the butter and syrop splendidly, were the right size, and were cooked just right (in butter I think since the edges had a slight crispiness to them). These were buttermilk pancakes with a twist. I learned the secret ingredient was vanilla. Even thinking about them now makes my mouth water. Also, they had numerous toppings for them. Butter, maple syrop, blueberries, strawberries, peaches, and yoghurt were all available. Mmmm mmmm good!

I also got to go mountain biking while I was there. Twice actually. Biking was the reason I ever went to Hornby in the first place. The trails there are just about perfection when it comes to XC riding. There are longish uphills, but the trails are so smooth, fast, twisty and fun they need to be seen to be believed. The only downfall was Graeme. He came on the second ride with Sue and I, and on the last trail (No Horses), just a few turns from the truck, he took a fall and wrenched his knee. It was sore for a couple days, but by the time he was getting ready to go home, he was able to walk on it gingerly. Hopefully it wasn’t anything serious.

Yoshi was such an amazing dog the whole weekend. He had to spend an inordinate amount of time in the truck due to various circumstances. He adapted very well, and wasn’t too much of a bother (until he rolled in something stinky that he found near a log). What did he get for his troubles? Fleas. Poor guy. We stopped at the vet on the way home and picked up some Advantage to clear him up.

The only other bad note for the weekend was that our cabin had the most stinky water I have ever experienced. I learned that the water had a high sulfur content due to a very low water table. Eeew. Showering in it was very disgusting.

In all everything went smoothly for our trip, and Suede, Yoshi and I all had a great time. Yoshi got so much exercise last week that he is still tired from it all today!

In around 24 hours from now I will be heading to Legends to see the Tea Party play! Woohoo. I can’t wait. Although I have seen them a few times already, I love their music very much, and I know that they put on an awesome performance. Tomorrow is going to be a long day at work!

In other news, Suede and I have booked our vacation in October. We were originally planning a 3 week vacation to New Zealand, but because of a lack of $$, and some unexpected vet bills we had to modify our plan. We wanted to leave the country so we could feel like we have travelled. Suede and I are not seasoned travellers, nor are we particularly adventurous, so we had some pretty specific criteria.

In the end we picked a cruise. In fact, we picked a 10 day Mexican Riviera cruise. We are very excited by it, and are really looking forward to it. I have been on a cruise before, and I really enjoyed it. This cruise should be a lot warmer than the Alaskan cruise I was on before.

The on shore excursion sound fun too. Some of the ones we are interested in are mountain biking, snorkelling, swimming, horseback riding, and kayaking. There are some sight seeing ones to do as well. In all I think it will be a fabulous vacation.

Plus, our ship, the Sapphire Princess, has tons to do on board. Aaaah, I can almost feel the heat now!

Today was my day to come home for lunch to let Yoshi out for a bathroom break. It turned out to be quite a lunch break.

As I was nearing the car, I noticed the Johnson St bridge was in the process of raising. That added a few minutes to the drive home, but it was neat to see the bridge in action. After picking up Yoshi, we zipped to the park. As I was getting out of the car I noticed a Bylaw Enforcement Officer van parked nearby. Yoshi was on leash so that wasn’t a big deal, but I didn’t have his licence on that particular collar. I was a little concerned I would get nabbed for that, but I wasn’t about to head home, not with a spastic dog that was really wanting his walk!

Yoshi and I walked past the van, and as I was grabbing some bags from the dispenser, I heard the van door open, and the officer called out to me. I thought “Uh oh, busted!”. Turned out that she only wanted a favour from me. Someone had dropped their keys, and the BEO asked me to mention that to them if I saw the person. No big deal, and on the walk went.

It was a pretty neat day for a walk. It was cool, foggy, and slightly rainy. I haven’t seen days like this in quite a long time. Of course Yoshi was running around, happy to be outside. I love watching him run around like that. It is quite a peaceful, relaxing time for me.

Near the end of the walk I could see that the BEO was still parked there. I then saw her get out of her van and talk to a couple people. One of them then took out a camera and aimed at the water. As I stood near a railing over the water, a seal floated less than 10 feet away. Cool. The seal was in very close to shore, the water must have been less than 2 feet deep there. I stood and watched for a few minutes, and Yoshi, being completely oblivious looked off into the sky. The seal submerged, and swam even closer until it was only about 2 feet away. With a quick flip of its tail, it took off leaving a splash behind that got Yoshi’s attention.

Dropping Yoshi off at home I headed back to work, only to get stopped at a train crossing. Quite eventful driving I think.

The only downside to the walk at the park was that I can see where some people are trampling and/or cutting down blackberry vines in an effort to get more berries. This is a park people. Get a clue. You can’t just do what you want because you want the berries! I get very frustrated with people, especially in a situation like this. I love Macaulay Point park, and I don’t want to see my off-leash dog access to it lost.

Very enjoyable weekend here. Friday night we didn’t really do much, except watch a movie.

Saturday we woke up to some pretty wet weather. It was raining really hard, and it was a nice site actually. The temperature has dropped a few degrees, and everything smelled fresh and looked a little cleaner. We relaxed around the house, drank coffe/tea, ate some breakfast, then vegged for a couple hours. I worked on a redesign for muddylaces here, and it was coming along pretty well, then I ran into a snag. Grrr. Sometimes CSS is stupid.

When it was time to get to work we loaded the dogs in the van (we were looking after Digger, and had K‘s van), organized some donatables, dropped the donatables off, then went on a nice dog walk at Elk Lake.

After the walk we came home, relaxed a little more, then got cleaned up to go out for a deck warming party.

This morning I went for a bike ride with some friends, and I really didn’t enjoy myself. Sue and I then tidied the house, then I worked some more on the redesign (still not done).

A little later today we need to do some grocery shopping, then we are going out to see a movie.

In all a pretty darn nice weekend!

I just had a very sad, and rather unpleasant experience. I went grocery shopping for dinner stuff tonight, and on my way to Thrifty’s, I decided to stop off and pick up a movie. After grabbing the movie Sue and I wanted to see, I noticed there was a water store in the same mall. We just got a new water cooler, but have no bottle for it, so I thought I would go check it out.

Here is where things get sad, and tragic. While walking there, I found a dead cat in the parking lot. Don’t read on if you don’t want details.

What to do. I felt horrible for the cat, well, kitten actually. It was very tiny, and quite obviously dead. Noone else around was paying any attention to it, and most people were just driving around it. This is a parking lot with a restaurant, a video store, and a pet store. Places kids frequent, so I couldn’t just leave it there.

I went to the pet store to see if they had anything to scoop it up with, and they provided me with a box, and came out to help. It was very sad. I don’t want to believe that someone did this on purpose, and I don’t want to believe that they knew they hit the kitten and left anyway.

I touched the kitten to see if it was still alive, but there was nothing. It was still warm though. Its little tongue was hanging out the side of its mouth. I got down to the grisly business of scooping it up (including some parts that should have been inside). Now that I had it in a box, I wasn;t sure what to do with it. There was no collar, no name, no phone number, just the little furry body.

I did the only thing I could do, and that was put it in a dumpster. That made me even more sad that I had to do that. I keep imagining some kid at home sad because their kitten hasn’t returned, and never knowing what has happened to it. I was that kid a long time ago, and I know how it feels*. I just wish there was some way I could get in touch with the owner. The pet store owner thanked me many times for doing that. She was also quite sad, and dismayed.

When I got home from shopping, after putting the groceries in the kitchen, I went upstairs, and gave Aphro a hug, and gently told her that she is never going outside again. Aprho does have a collar that we put on her when she goes out. I hope that if something ever happens to her, someone has the courtesy to call us.

* – my cat eventually did come home, but it was badly injured, and didn’t survive. She was missing for several days before she made it home.