Vacation Planned

Today is the first day of vacation. I don’t return to work until June! This is the longest vacation I have had in probably close to 20 years. We have all sorts of things planned for the month, many are chores, and many things should be lots of fun too. Parks, beaches, Vancouver, bike riding, swimming lessons, Duncan, Yoshi walks, photography and catching up with friends are all some of the fun things.

Yard work, cleaning the house, and selling unnecessary furniture all some of the work things.

This is going to be an excellent month to spend time with Sox, Sprout, and Beet. I am hoping that the weather improves though. Today’s Yoshi walk got a little wet, and that made me a little cranky.

Cory Dwellers

I was doing some running around today, and needed to get Yoshi some food. Since I would be at Petsmart anyway, I decided on getting a couple new fish for the tank.

I perused the tanks looking for something to be compatible with my guppy, my platy, and my danio’s. I came across a tank full of Platy’s and some Albino Cory’s . I thought they looked pretty cool so I got a couple of them for the tank.

The Cory’s look similar to tiny catfish, and are definitely bottom dwellers, which is an excellent fit for my tank. Turns out they need a different type of food so I had to get some of that. I rounded out my purchase with a couple more live plants, and a new snail.

I’m very proud of my tank now. I think I have an excellent blend of fish and plants and I can spend a long time watching my tank.

Power Mower

We’ve got power!

After using a battery powered lawn mower for so long, we finally decided to get a new mower. After dealing with electric ones for so long I made the decision to go gas. Maybe not the most environmental choice, but it is newer technology.

Also, it must be better than wasting electricity on the batteries. It also wastes way less time too. The old electric would start to die quite quickly and I would have to spend ridiculous amounts of time cutting the grass.

With the new mower I was able to rip across the grass and get it nicely trimmed in half the time it normally takes. Nice!

Yoshi Busted

We were out at a playground yesterday, and Yoshi stayed home. We always take the cushions off the couch, otherwise Yoshi will sleep on the couch. Apparently that isn’t a deterrent as we busted him sleeping on the couch. As we pulled into the driveway I saw his head in the window. I snuck up to the window with my trusty camera and snapped a few pictures.

Once satisfied that I had enough evidence to convict him I knocked on the window to wake him. He had the gall to stand on the couch and bark at me, presumably because I woke him up. Nice try Yoshi.

Searching Wallet

This morning ended a rather trying 24 hours. Yesterday morning I wanted to do some running around. I made my list, prepared Sprout, grabed my keys and wallet … wait. Where is that wallet?

My wallet was not in its usual spot, and that is pretty strange for me. I began searching the house top to bottom. No sign of it. I looked in the laundry, in the bathroom, the bedroom, rooms my wallet really should not be in. No signs of it anywhere.

Last time I remembered seeing it was at work. Off to Oak Bay. Nope. We were at Kaptain K’s for dinner, so I called over there. They had not seen it. Back home there was more searching by the entire family. Could not find it. I even went back to work a second time and scoured my office.

I gave up the search for dinner, and decided I was stressed enough and didn’t want to keep looking. As we were climbing in to bed Sox asked me when I would call and cancel all the cards. In my mind it must have fallen out of my pocket, and I wanted to give the locater time to get it back to me. I decided Monday morning I would call the banks and cancel the cards.

As I was drifting off to sleep I was still thinking of more places to look. An odd one popped into my mind: in the closet under Sox’s hanging clothes.

This morning after breakfast I looked in that spot, and as I peeled back the clothes, there was my wallet! Weird. I really have no idea how it got there, but it may have been sitting on some clothes, and as they were picked up it bounced under the clothing, neatly hidden from sight.

It got me thinking about all the cards I have in my wallet. I don’t have an inventory of what’s there and what phone numbers to call. Perhaps I should make such a listing.

Grinder Drinks

Sox got me a new grinder for my birthday, and it is way, way better than my old one. The first time I ground some beans I knew it was going to make a difference in the coffee I make. At a medium setting, the grounds were finer than the finest setting of the old one.

Sure enough, my morning Americano’s are tastier than every.

The grinder has all the features I really wanted. A timer instead of just a button, better grind controls, and a way to disassemble for cleaning. Switching to grinding for a bodum is the simple turn of a knob. The new grinder is also a lot quieter than most others, which is an excellent feature for a parent.

To complement my drinks, perhaps I need some new mugs?

via BoingBoing

via Gizmodo

Coughing Training

What can be done for an ageing dog that is getting more and more neurotic? It is getting very frustrating for Sox and I.

Last night we slept in our guest bedroom because Beet is such a loud sleeper. I was getting a good nights sleep until Sprout started coughing. This noise somehow scares Yoshi, so he tries to barge upstairs. This is only one of a half dozen noises that scare Yoshi now, and it is getting worse. For a half hour last night Yoshi was either trying to get upstairs, or trying to get downstairs to get away from the coughing sound. Some nights it is the low battery noise of the cellphone. Sometimes it is something I can’t even hear.

I feel bad for him, and I know he is getting old, but I keep wondering if there is some training that can be done to desensitize Yoshi of these noises.

Flowers Vertically

I walked Yoshi and Duke, Jen’s dog, this past weekend up at Thetis Lake. The trails were covered with these really cool white flowers. We have a couple in our back yard, but they aren’t as nice, nor as plentiful as the ones at Thetis. They were a bit of a challenge to shoot due to the light, and that some of the cool parts of the flower can only be seen by looking vertically. I spent an hour walking dogs, and didn’t spend much time shooting, but I still ended up with some quality shots.