Musings on a Small Life

When Nicki went off his regular food after his vet appointment in July, I went out to PetSmart to pick up a few other brands for him to try. This is one, which I opened this morning. Those white globs? Fat.   Both boys gave this a sniff; neither would even give it a lick. Gee, I can't imagine why. This food supposedly has no grain, no filler, no by-products. I would dispute the "no fillers" on the label, as all the added fat certainly is a filler, as are vegetables and fruit--all of which can come in the "better" brands, to keep the companies' costs down and maximize their profits. Short of making my own raw, the alternative seems to be the lower end brands that do have by-products, but are grain-free, fruit, veggie and fat-glob free. BTW, when Nicki was off his regular food, I foolishly (in retrospect) picked up some Whiskas paté. The chicken and the beef flavours. And yes, I know, don't feed your cats beef. Or chicken. Or fish...

5:45PM and I heard the girl running through the house. I popped upstairs and had a quick peek out my bedroom window (faces the street), saw the truck, doors open to unload stuff. So thus ends the lovely peace and quiet. I figured it would have to be this weekend, but I hoped for one more week. Still, school does start on September 3rd, so at least Nicki and Derry will have relative quiet for most of the day. I have no idea, absolutely none , how I'm going to endure a return of the fighting, screaming, slamming and pounding. It's going to be exponentially harder now. And whether it's tonight or tomorrow or in a few days, that boy is going to have a complete melt down at being back here and separated from the grandmother. Gods help me.

I took a half-day from work today, walked up to the shopping centre transfer point via a detour into a park, for some quick floral snapshots. It was just too nice a day to sit in front of a computer screen for endless, monotonous hours.  :-)   I started tracking my mood last week--both the rage and my overall mood. Nothing fancy, but I'm syncing it with my cycle to see when I'm spiking, in terms of the hormones. What I'm noticing is that every single day has a notation about how exhausted I am. "Beyond tired" was the accompanying note yesterday. I think I've been "beyond tired" for a dozen or so years. LOL. And that's with taking a gazillion supplements every day, cutting out chocolate for almost 3 months, lots of walking and plenty of fresh air. And yes, my thyroid levels are fine; I have my T4 tested every 6 months because I've been on Synthroid for years. Bet I wouldn't be so tired if I weren't hauling my ass out of bed...

Okay. Making the news in this province is the brouhaha about possible food poisoning from eating a " cronut burger " at a fair stand at Toronto's CNE. Apparently dozens have fallen ill after consuming this , though the source of the contamination has yet to be determined. In the meantime, the "cronut burger" stand remains closed. For the record, it's part croissant and part doughnut, includes a burger patty, maple bacon, processed cheese, and no doubt other things I don't want to know about. I've heard the calorie count is about 7100, though there's nothing official on that score. Last evening's news included a phone interview with a young woman who shared a cronut burger with a friend, and then also had various other heavy fat/cholesterol foods the same day. She couldn't believe how sick she was the next day. Seriously. Folks, while there might indeed be some sort of contamination, you have to be a special kind of stupid...

These are from August 12th; I meant to post them ages ago. I did go down to the harbour again today--and darn it!--had only the little Elph with me, after carrying the old PowerShot around for the past couple of weeks. There was a boat race on, so I did the best I could, will download them this evening and see if any are salvageable. I could have stayed down there for the rest of the afternoon, it was so lovely. Hot and muggy, but with a terrific, strong breeze off the water. Bliss. However, you're stuck with the snapshots from two weeks ago right now.  :-)  This house is across the street from Belleville House A glimpse of Bellevue House through the orchard. One of the many homes that Sir John A. MacDonald lived in while here (he was the first Prime Minister of Canada). BTW, all those apple trees are varieties that were grown in the mid-1800s; none is a newer variety. I "snuck" in for a quick snapshot of the front of the house. I've posted...

Twelve years ago today I hoofed it over to our local humane society, just to see who was there, and ended up bringing Annie (then known as "Fleur") home in a cardboard carrier, in a taxi. I won't rehash the story, as I've written it many times before. I do wish I had lots of photos though! I didn't even think to take any the day I brought her home. I had only a little film camera then, have so few shots of those early years. Digital cameras have been the greatest thing since the wheel! Scanned in from late summer/early fall 2001. Most of you will have seen these two pics already, numerous times. She was my escape artist then, and I harnessed and tied her in the back space for a long time. It's hard to believe it's a dozen years ago. To me, it feels more like 20, so much has happened since then. In spite of all that happened after her hyper-t diagnosis, and all the strife after I adopted Nicki, I wouldn't trade my time wit...

We think we've figured out the work bathroom tissue thing. Since the other stalls have full rolls of our usual 1-ply, we're guessing the first stall got the 2-ply in error, intended for the private facilities for the top brass on the third floor. Heaven forbid they join the plebes, right? Their body parts are more sensitive, I suppose. *** I saw a nurse practitioner at my medical clinic this afternoon, to talk about options re: peri-menopausal rage. I'm going to do some research and track my anger for a few weeks. Maybe that will help me decide what to try--pharmaceutical, alternative, whatever. BTW, she gave me a great URL, put together by the Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada: http://menopauseandu.ca/index_e.aspx Lots of info and resources, including alternative medicine, though some of the data pages linked from their site are older. *** My little "woohoo" out of that is that I got weighed and had my blood pressure taken, per usual...

The last of Saturday's start to the Poker Run. The bird on the far left is especially hard to see. I had zoomed in as much as possible, though.    This boat (below), while not flashy, was especially long and sleek.  Backing out and turning around.   That's one of the harbour cruise boats on the right, the paddle wheel boat.  Kayakers paddling over to watch the start of the race.  Congregating here before the start.  That's the Wolfe Island ferry, making its way through the boaters, over to the Island.  And off they go! They have to round a buoy and head east.             On to something else next time.  :-) Purrs from the boys and peace from me.

It's not what you think. Whatever you're thinking. In my 12 years, 8 months at this institution, I've never once been in any washroom that had double-ply toilet paper. Always single ply, the cheapest stuff on the market I'm sure. Even our malls have double-ply toilet paper. This afternoon I discovered double-ply toilet paper in our washroom. And in these times of fiscal restraint (for all but the upper administration). I had to pull it apart to verify it. Obviously I've fallen into an alternate work reality. Gosh, who knows what tomorrow will bring? Let's hope none of us loses our job to compensate for thicker bathroom tissue. *** Anyway, here are some pics from the Poker Run on Saturday morning. I did take the camera with me for a little lunch time walk today, so at least I'm getting lots of snapshots! Looking toward City Hall  City Hall tower This turned out to be the best spot for viewing the start of the race. A few people ...