Dog Rant

Dog Rant

So, my biggest 'want' in life at the moment is a dog. Well I've always wanted a dog, but now that I've been thinking more about it, I think we really could make living with a dog WORK and it would be great for me! I could finally take walks outside in the evenings without being afraid, I could go to dog classes, and meet people, and have a devoted companion to keep me company!

So I went online and started looking for used dog runs, etc. and stumbled across the SADDEST bunch of ads I've seen in a long time.
Pictures of people holding their puppies (who are for sale) up by the front legs, just dangling them in the air, people getting rid of their 10 or 11 year old, sweet-eyed golden lab because they had a baby (and the pic there broke my heart too - it has a b-day hat and some hawaaian lays on, you can tell it was once a truly LOVED dog), people giving away their kid's best friend (the dog who sleeps in Johnny's bed each night) because hubby is too lazy to take allergy medications to stop his sneezing, posts by ignorant jerks who say things like 'we bought a puppy from a mill the other day - it was so sad, the dogs were all in very bad shape. We noticed the one the guy showed us had a gash on its leg, and when we asked about it, he put it back and grabbed another one. We took the one with the gash because we felt sorry for it'... Why the HELL are you buying from a MILL!!!???
For all of you ignorant people out there, please please please educate yourselves: http://www.nopuppymillscanada.ca/home_page_2.htm
And if you are looking to buy a dog, do not buy from a back-yard breeder - those people posting in the free-ads papers (and online) who claim they have 'champion bloodlines' and 'CKC registered' dogs, may have that, but that doesn't mean they're a reputable breeder. It means they found out their dogs decend from some noteable bloodline somewhere (and many do), and decided to pay the $50 fee to register themselves as a kennel. I know, I did it for my sheltie puppy's former home, so I could show him. The people knew NOTHING about the breed but that they were both shelties.And finally, before you go to the petstore and drop upwards of $1000 on a dog, who probably came from a back-yard breeder and is an epilepsy patient (etc) waiting to happen, go to your local shelter and check out the sweet adult dogs who probably started out the same way, as a cute puppy in a petstore window, loved and then abandoned, or never loved at all. Look into their eyes and make sure you mean it when you promise to keep them forever, or go home and get yourself a video game or some other form of expensive amusement, as this is surely all you're looking for in a pet. At least when you throw THAT into the corner, it won't care.
Okay, I'm done. :)

Blue Monday

Blue Monday

So, apparently it's "Blue Monday" today, according to A-Channel Morning (annoying people but I have a habit of watching it religiously every morning). It's supposed to be the most depressing day, and I can see why it might because it's smack in the middle of the colder season(s), the bills are piled up high after xmas, resolutions are starting to be broken, and tax time is looming... Lucky for us, it was also a nice sunny day, which put me in very good spirits, I don't have a lot of bills really left over, tax time is tax time, I try to pretend it doesn't exist until a week before the deadline, and the days are slowly but surely getting longer, which signifies an end to the cold (though it really hasn't been that cold). SO!! I have decided to start a new tradition for my 'Blue Monday', I'm going to buy myself a nice potted plant for my office on this day every year (if I remember) because I was very nicely rewarded today when I decided to take a trip to the grocery store on my lunch break and discovered the Gardenia. The lady in that section was attempting to unpack all the boxes of plants, and it caught my eye (so GREEN!) so I dove in there and grabbed this pretty little shrub with big white flowers on it. It's now sitting on my shelf over my computer, and every so often I get a whiff of it's beeeautiful perfumey scent and it makes me smile. :)

I also found this site today, which led me to discover the book (named the same) and I'm going to pick it up tonight: www.yougrowgirl.com. I'm starting to try to plan out a garden of shade-loving plants for this year, with some large herb containers on my sunny deck. I can clearly use all the help I can get and this book seems to be exactly what I need... :)

Hopefully tonight I'll also get time to write down a 'guide to not killing my houseplants' as it occurred to me that my plants are all looking sad (or dead altogether) and it's really due to my total negligance ( I don't even know what kinds of plants they all are). That'll go on my fridge and hopefully things will start picking up.

Oh, and an interesting thing I learned this weekend, while we're on the topic of plants, don't put plants in your bedroom! During the day, when there's light, they breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. Overnight, when it's dark, they do the opposite and breathe out carbon dioxide and IN oxygen! Not only that, but they're hard on anyone with asthma or allergies. I was surprised to learn all that when I've read so many articles in magazines that say 'want to purify your air? Grow plants in your home!'. I never would have guessed that my stocking up on plants, to help clean the air for Luc (who is an allergy AND asthma sufferer), would actually be hurting him.

Well, happy Blue Monday, go get yourself something green!!

xx

Soap

Soap

So I was home alone tonight, and decided to finally try my hand at making soap. So here are a few of the finished product. I am saving my 'special' soap making for the weekend. I'm hoping to use honey, ginger, cloves and oatmeal to make more 'natural' soaps. These ones here were made with special dyes and essential oils. The eucalyptus/mint has mint leaves in it and the chamomile/jasmine has chamomile in it. Fun! :)

2007

2007

Well, we rang in the new year last night with some 15 or so people in our house. It was a nice gathering, lots of new faces, free-flowing booze and piles of food. The shooter chess game was a definite hit too. :)

So this year is starting off a little 'strange', I guess. I went for a walk today and it was beautiful out, the sun was shining, everything was melting, it felt like a warm spring day, you'd never guess it's Jan. 1. My poor day-lillies are again starting to send up shoots along the foundation of our house. They'll be in for a rude awakening when they realize they have about four more months to be 'frozen' before they should be trying to grow.

I took down our tree today too, which always makes me a little sad. I comprimised by allowing myself some 'winter' decorations like my winter wreath, the lights outside, and a few candles and ornaments here and there on shelves, to stay until the spring time. We had a really nice, quiet, family-oriented Christmas (I even went to church with Mom and Becky which was quite nice), and a good New Year party with new and old friends alike. It was an interesting mix of French and English as well, but at least I got to practice some of my French as there were a couple people here who didn't speak a word of English. Anyway, I'm hoping the nice end to 2006 signifies that 2007 will be a good year.

Well, as it is my intention to NOT make this into a 'journal', I think I'll quit before I launch into some long-winded story about nothing and say 'Happy New Year to all', I hope we all find good fortune and love and friendship in life this year. :)

S