But dogs aren’t sick

I’ve been at home for the past two days trying to get rid of a nasty cold that I have picked up. (Jason gave it to me actually but he feels really bad that he did so I can’t be that mad.) My nose is turning a nice shade of red, my throat is nice and swollen and scratchy and I sound like a middle-aged man when I speak. Now, there is nothing wrong with middle-aged men but I am not one and don’t really like sounding like one.

It’s my last week of work and two weeks before I walk down the aisle and I am sick….very very sick! I better not lose my tastebuds on the weekend because it is pumpkin pie time and I intend to enjoy it!

So I was thinking….where does the saying “Sick as a dog” come from? Are dogs known for being sickly? I’ve seen Regal throw up and then start jumping around again like nothing happened so perhaps being as “sick as a dog” would be a good thing.

You know you are getting older when…

….you change radio stations.

For the longest time I have been a listener of CHUM FM and a little Mix 99.9. Lately I have noticed that the music on these stations (not to mention the banter) just bores me. So I have been spending more of my time on Jason’s side of the car pre-sets and listening to Classic Rock 107.1 and Jack FM. I think it is a definite sign of my increasing age when I no longer get the music of the kids of today.

….now I’m off to sit in my rocking chair on my front porch so I can keep an eye on those hooligan young’ins in the neighbourhood.

Welcome to my new home. Feel free to make yourself comfortable.

Oh hello there, welcome to my new home. Please come in and have a look around and make yourself comfortable.

The time has come for me to stop mooching and find a new home for my blog. Taras has graciously hosted my blog for years but I have decided to finally take some time and move it to another host. The great part is that I moved it to WordPress so the UI is very familiar, I was able to import all my old posts (well you can do this for other blogs as well actually) and WordPress allows me to keep my URL without adding the .wordpress.com (for a small fee of course).

So welcome to my new home. I realize I have been a little slack in my blogging responsibilities but I hope that my new location and layout will help get me back into it.

7 Minutes in Heaven

Well not exactly.  Perhaps I should have just returned home and crawled into a closet but nope – I still had to get to work.

Picture this….

You leave your house and head down the side streets heading to Dufferin to avoid the rush hour traffic just as you do every morning.  As you approach Dufferin you see a big rig with a trailer come barrelling around the corner at speeds that even a car would have a problem turning at.  The big rig is in your lane.  You are on a head-on collision path with a big rig that is still travelling way too fast as it makes the right hand turn.  You slam on your brakes.  The truck is still coming….FAST!  You slam the car in reverse and stomp on the gas pedal.  The big rig swings across the lane in front of you – narrowly (and I mean narrowly) missing the left corner of your front bumper.  You look up at the driver as he and his truck squeeze by you on the left and to your utter disbelief he doesn’t even acknowledge that you are there or that he could have killed you had you not reacted.  You take a couple of deep breaths, swear under your breath a couple of times, thank the powers that be that no one was behind you and continue on your way to work, thankful that you are still alive.

Fast forward about 4 minutes.  You are lined up to get on the Gardiner.  The guy to the right of you (who is in a right turn only lane) decides to merge left.  Okay fine – this surprisingly happens all the time so you tap your brakes to make room and save the right side of your front bumper.  You continue across the intersection and enter the ramp.  You see a flash of a car to your left that seems extremely close to the side of your car.  You realize that the driver of the car to your left has decided that the ramp is going to be two lanes this morning.  You honk and motion to his passenger that this is not in fact a two-lane ramp.  She looks blankly at you completely oblivious to what your problem could possibly be and the driver continues to push his way onto the ramp almost clipping his mirror against yours in his idiocy.  You swerve to the right and hit the gas to escape the lunacy.   You look down at the clock and realize you have only been on the road for 7 minutes and make the sad realization that it is going to be one of those days!

Welcome to my world!!  Come on, everyone say it with me…..DUMBASSES!!!!!!

Tax dollars hard a work…NOT!

I am so tired of calls for inquests and commissions and inquiries and investigations into alleged behaviour from this political party and that political party.  What the hell is the government (the one in “power” or any of the opposition) actually doing to govern????  All their time and our money is spent trying to figure out which party has the most skeletons in the closet.  Who the hell cares?????  If they spent a fraction of the money they spend investigating each other on oh I don’t know maybe the environment, trade, social programs or any other area that actually helps Canadians we would be in great shape. 

It is just so sad that this is the time we live in.  A time where “leaders” are more interested in exposing the short comings of others than they are in actually leading.  Each one is just as flawed as the next - can’t they just agree on that and move on to actually doing something to help the people who pay their salaries???  

Stop spending my money to cover your ass!  Stop spending my money to pay for investigations into every little alleged wrong-doing!  Start spending my money on making my country better!  Dumbasses!!

Wow…who knew I had the invisibility package

I think our car has some sort of fancy schmancy invisibility option that I wasn’t aware of.  At least I am assuming I was invisible when I was cut off twice in about a 10 minute period on my way to work today. 

Do people not even look around them before changing lanes???  Why is it up to me to slam on the brakes to avoid being hit??  What the hell are they doing moving into my lane while I am already driving in that exact spot?????

Long weekend catch-up

Saturday – Took a long walk with dog, ran errands, errands, errands, errands and more errands.

Sunday – Slept in, had breakfast with my Aunt, Uncle and cousin, did laundry (well actually Jason did most of the laundry), watched a movie (at home) and caught up on tv.

Monday – Took a short walk with the dog, ate breakfast, headed to Terra Cotta for a hike with the dog, went to Mississauga to plant some plants we gave Jason’s mom for Mother’s Day, did more laundry (again – mostly Jason), made a great dinner and did some reading.

 The weather was shite but we enjoyed the weekend regardless.  Sometimes it is nice to be trapped in the house.

If you can see out, I can see in!

Last night on my way home from work I was stopped at red lights for 5 blocks one after another.  Each time I looked in my rear-view mirror I saw the same man doing some serious mining for boogers.  He was really digging up in there – it actually looked a little painful. 

Now he was trying to turn himself a little to the left to block the view from the cars parked on his right but did he not realize that I could quite plainly see him each time I glanced up?  Did he care??  He was also doing a lot of wiping on his pants with that finger so I’m very sorry for the person who will be doing his laundry.

I find it hilarious the things that people do in their cars when they think they are alone.  They do realize that the car has windows right??  I guess I have to admit that I can often be seen signing up a storm as I drive about but that is probably just amusing to my fellow commuters.  But nose picking?  Come on people, I don’t need to be treated to visions of your finger shoved up your nose every time I check my mirrors.

If it looks like a duck…

They both come individually packaged.

They both contain flour, sugar, butter.

They both come in Carrot, Chocolate Chip, Chocolate and Banana varieties.

So I ask you – what the heck is the difference between a muffin and a cupcake??

Let’s be honest – if I am eating a Triple Chocolate Muffin – I am just eating a chocolate cupcake….without frosting.  Calling it a muffin doesn’t make it any better for me but I will admit that those “muffins” are pretty tasty.

Look at those ponies go!

Last night Jason and I took advantage of another one of the McMaster Alumni events and headed to Woodbine Racetrack for a little dinner, a little racing form education and a little horse betting.  Jason had been before but it was my first time.  I have always wanted to go but never really got around to it before so this was a great opportunity. 

After getting a little info on how the betting form worked from a Woodbine guy, I threw out what I had learned and picked my first horse based purely on its name and blanket colour.  I bet on the 3 horse wearing a blue blankie (Jason’s favourite colour is blue) whose name is Native Wisdom (Jason is half Ojibwa).  Now I have to mention that this horse was showing 19:1 odds when I went off to bet….Jason thought I was a little crazy but I didn’t care – it was the horse I wanted and so off to the betting window I went with my choice and my $2. 

The betting process felt a little like order soup from the Soup Nazi.  Step up to the window and give info in this order – Race, Amount, Horse, Kind of Bet. 

So I took my money and stepped up and said, “First race, $2, 3 horse to Show”, put my money on the counter, took my betting slip from the machine and stepped back.  Phew!  It was a little stressful but I was quite pleased with placing my first horse bet! 

We took our seats and the ponies got ready to go….”And they’re off!” was announced and the yelling started…..”Come on 3, come on 3…”.  So for those of you who aren’t familiar with the lingo at the track, placing a bet for a horse to “Show” means that the horse has to come 1st, 2nd or 3rd for you to get any money.  When the race began, my pick was showing 30:1 odds – so not a sure thing by a LONG shot!

As the horses got underway, Native Wisdom was hanging back as his odds would indicate he would but about half way through he got himself pumped up and he took off.  They were rounding the final corner and Native Wisdom was hauling ass!  He was over-taking horses and moving up and up and up.   I was yelling and hopping in my seat as my pony got closer and closer to the front.  At the line Native Wisdom was in 2nd!  Yes people that is correct – my 30:1 horse finished 2nd.  Now as I had only bet $2 and your payout is less if you take the “Show” bet as it is a safer bet I actually ended up winning only $12.70 but I don’t care.  It was my first time at the track, my first bet on the ponies and I won.  Wahoooooo!!!  I used my winnings to bet on the other races and even though I didn’t win I had a great time.  I ended up leaving with a profit of $4.70.   I realize that isn’t much but I am quite proud of it! 

Oh and just between us, Jason didn’t win anything…ssh…he doesn’t want to talk about it.

[tags]Woodbine, horse racing[/tags]