This morning I tweeted about the double rainbow over Victoria. Here are a couple pictures I captured of it too. Very nice. Thanks to Sox for letting me know about it. I was in the basement working and would have missed it without her phone call.
I was at the Dollar Giant in Langford a couple days ago, and when I walked up I saw that their prices had risen. An indication of the times I know, but are signs really that expensive? Morally can they keep their name of Dollar Giant? Shouldn’t it now be Buck and a Quarter Giant?
I was at Costco getting some household items. On my way back home I was just on the onramp to the highway when I could see two dogs running toward me along the side.
I blocked traffic for a moment until the two dogs got close then I jumped out to see if I could corral them. Unfortunately there were no collars on the dogs, and they slipped through. Another truck stopped behind me and the driver and I called the dogs, and flagged down traffic.
The pooches got a little scared at this point, and made a break for the other side of the highway. They ran across our 4 lanes, across the median, and across the other 2 lanes without any incident. I was very thankful for the lack of traffic.
The other guy whistled very loudly, a skill I do not have. Both dogs came to us, and he wrestled one of them into his truck while I held the other one. Down the highway another car driver was talking with a pedestrian, so me and the painter guy drove down to her to see if she recognized the dogs. Alas she didn’t, and the painter had to head to a job, and couldn’t take the dogs with him.
We then moved the dogs to the back of my car. They enjoyed Yoshi’s bed quite a bit, and liked the views out the window. Incidentally, these were very big, fat labs, one chocolate, one black. Nice, friendly dogs.
The painter took off, and I called Sox to get the phone number to the SPCA. As I was talking to Sox I looked up in time to see flashing red and blue lights. A policeman had pulled up behind me, so I explained to him what had happened.
After a few calls I learned I would have to drop them off at the pound near Elk Lake, which was very inconvenient for me. One of the CRD people met me at Thetis Lake instead.
I really wanted to re-unite the dogs with their family, but I had no idea where they came from. Standing at the side of the highway I was really worried that I was going to watch one of them get with by a car or truck. I’m glad I was able to help the dogs, but I really hope their family finds them quick. The CRD lady mentioned that I probably saved the dogs’ lives by not leaving them there.
Sox and I both woke up to some strange sounds downstairs right around 5:15 am. The noises were muted, but sound like a rustling noise. It honestly sounded like someone was downstairs in our house.
I also read this warning from the police so that heightened my anxiety.
My first thought was how did they get in. Second was where the hell is Yoshi.
Sox was concerned too, so I told her to put on her lamp thinking this would cause an intruder to leave. The noises continued.
While Sox grabbed the phone and got poised to dial 911, I got up and noisily put on my slippers again hoping this would cause an intruder to leave. The noises continued.
As I was going downstairs I heard a familiar noise of Yoshi’s claws hitting the hardwood. He was sleeping on the couch. The noises were him getting restless early in the morning. This happens when we don’t lock him in the kitchen at night.
Aaargh. I got locked him in the kitchen then went back to bed, but with the adrenaline flowing, there was no way I was getting back to sleep. Then Yoshi started whining around 6, and that was when I decided to just get up and take him for a walk.
November 30th was my last day at work. I have voluntarily left two other jobs, and on both occasions it was a rather sad last day as I packed up my belongings and removed any personal information from the company computer.
Nov 30th was more sad for a number of reasons. I didn’t really want to leave. The people I worked with were awesome, and I loved the work I did. Sure, the company I was working for was starting to clamp down and institute from policies that I found rather distasteful, but the people and tasks were what kept me going.
That day I had nothing to do except pack and clean. Once that was done there was a final lunch with the gang, and then I loaded my truck and left.
My plan is to take the month of December off from work related activities. There are a couple opportunities that I plan to explore, but I am not launching a huge job search just yet.
Friday night we took the kids out to the Saanich Historical Artifacts Society to ride the Christmas train. It was a fun time, and both the kids enjoyed the train ride. After the train we headed to White Spot for dinner.
Saturday I went for a walk with the kids at Elk Lake while Sox and Yoshi went for a run. On the way home we stopped at Cannor and bought our Christmas tree.
Saturday night I then took the kids downtown to see the lighted truck parade while Sox got ready for her company Christmas party. The walk back to the car afterward was pretty hard since Elliot wanted to be carried part of the way. After I got home I quickly got ready while Sox put Amy to bed.
Today Sox took Elliot to a ginger bread house party, while Amy and I hung out at home. This afternoon Elliot helped me put up the Christmas lights outside.
Now that the kids are in bed I still have to set up the tree and string the lights on that so tomorrow night we can decorate it.
Last night though I got a different kind of telemarketer. The person I talked to mentioned something about a trip to Cancun. I immediately knew they were trying to sell me something, so I simply asked “How much will this cost me.”. The lady said she was passing me to her supervisor.
When the supervisor got on the phone I simply repeated my question on cost. His reply was normally this trip cost $2000, but that through their deal it would only be $499. Immediately I informed him that I was on the DNCL and that his company could be fined for calling me.
He muttered something about adding me to their Do Not Call list, but this got me to thinking. How am I supposed to report infringements against the DNCL? A quick perusal of the site, and I see there are instructions on how to report a complaint. Perhaps later today I will file that complaint.
These are stainless steel bottles that the kids can easily use. The only problem was that we somehow lost the little silicone valve piece from a few of them. We had three unusable bottles kicking around, so I thought maybe I should do something about that.
I went to their website and emailed about buying new valves. They sold replacement lids, but that would have meant recycling the old lids which were perfectly fine.
The lady that responded was very understandable, and sent us three replacement valves for free. This was awesome. Something I hadn’t noticed was that the bottle design had changed, and the valves for version 2 don’t fit in version 1 bottles. I’m hoping that I can get some more valves for those ones, or I can buy replacement lids barring that.
Anyway, the point was Innate-Gear has made me happy as a customer by simply mailing me some replacement parts for free.
I’m pretty happy with the fact that I was able to raise $520 (my goal was $500). Surpassing that was good, but now I need to make a goal for next year. Speaking of next year. Next year I won’t have any supporting facial hair. I caught a lot of flack from Sox over that. She felt I was cheating. I don’t think the same way, but next year I will go for the Mo only.
This year I also managed to take a daily picture of my Mo progress. You can see the pics here.
All in all it was a fun month, and I managed to raise some funds for a very important cause.