Thank you Universe, for...

Long Weekends

Spending an extra day sleeping in, vegging out watching TV and snuggling with my man?  Probably not everyone's idea of a perfect long weekend day, but we're still hibernating.  It was glorious.

George

He seriously has to be the sweetest furball on the planet.  He had to be on tranquilizers for a while
during our time with the boys and became skittish and anxious and the poor thing just peed whenever they startled him eventually.

But he's back to being a super-adorable, incredibly lovey, mellow cat.  He is so ridiculously affectionate and has the best, fuzzy and spotted belly that he loves rubbed.  Who could ask for more?

PVRs

What an amazing freaking invention.  I remember when we had to sit forever with the TV guide to program a VCR.  It was easier to just skip the dang show if you weren't going to be home.  Now we can spend a day after a trip watching whatever we want.








What are you grateful for today?

Gratitude

Traveling with my husband

I am so lucky that I get to travel sometimes with my husband to his conferences.  It leads me to fun places and adventures I never would get to experience otherwise.

This most recent trip has been to Edmonton, where we stayed at the Staybridge Inn and Suites - which I adore.  The people here are the nicest I've ever experienced in a hospitality environment since we stayed at the Aria in Vegas.  The hotel is beautiful and fun and quiet and lovely.  I feel so lucky to get to be on this trip, and just have the chance to relax in an incredible environment.

I guess this is a double gratitude - both for my trip and for the company my husband works for which allows me this opportunity to travel with him and experience these places and things.

Our fabulous petsitter

Anyone who knows me knows how very, very much my animals mean to me.  We used to bring Ivy -
our dog - with us whenever we travelled, but as she's gotten older she's been less interested in long car trips (and more interested in napping with her kitties on the sofa).  My cats, of course, are not fond at all of anything outside of their home turf!

We found a fantastic pet-sitting service, locally, and they are a life saver.  I'm so grateful to feel like my animals are safe and happy while we are gone.  (You can find our petsitting service here: Happy Returns).

Dude, it's spring!

While autumn is my favourite season, I can't help but love Spring almost as much.  The green everywhere, flowers starting to bloom, and fresh smell of ozone after spring rain is balm to a winter-hardened soul.






What are you grateful for today?

Stealing from the Library

"Isn't that stack a little precarious?"

"Mmm?  What stack?"  I look up from the summer sweater I'm crocheting.  My husband points to the stack of books on the shelf, the bottom book jutting out over the front of the cabinet by at least three inches.  "Oh, probably."

"Are those all library books?"

"Mmm.  Yeah. And a DVD and audiobook."

"You have all those out of the library right now?"

"No.  I have one more on the nightstand."  I offer him a sweet smile.  "And you have at least four or five more out yourself, you know."

"Oh, yeah.  I do."

"Three are cookbooks, I just haven't had time to type the recipes into the computer yet."  I eye the stack.  "It does sometimes feel like stealing to have so many good books at home though..."

"It's not safe to have those books stacked like that.  Not with that around."  He points at the sprawled cat on the floor, who has been running around with a straw in his mouth like a crazed maniac for the last half an hour, and has just now become exhausted.

"I actually had to move the books over there because earlier today he sent them all over the floor.  It was like a cartoon, he was running on top of them and they kept shooting out behind him."

"And this is the safer alternative???"

I had no answer for that.

Books and Balls

See, I was going to title this "Books and Bowls" but that was less fun.  I'm going to be one of the writers covering the 2011 Super Bowl live on Mahalo today, along with a handful of others, and some video people working live from the office to capture all the cool plays and killer commercials.  If you want fun live coverage of not only the action but the side action too (I'll be doing commercials, celeb appearances, shows, stuff like that) just set your browser to Mahalo.com to check in.  We'll be working pre-game, game, half-time, and post-game shows to bring you info on everything you ever wanted to know about the Super Bowl.  Should be fun!

To help with the pluralization of balls, I should update you that our cat George has a fixation with a certain yellow and white plastic mesh ball that he loves to play fetch with, but only if Richard is asleep or out of the house.  I think he's afraid it's going to be stolen or something.  Stepped on maybe, he's lost a lot of those plastic mesh balls that way.... not by my feet, I'm close enough to the ground to still see what I'm walking on :)  When Richard is home, he persistently brings a large slurpee straw back to one of us for fetching play.  He stole it from the trash a while back, and loves it so much that neither of us has the heart to take it away from him.


Books!
11. The guinea pig diaries : my life as an experiment Jacobs, A. J.
12. Your big break Edwards, Johanna
13. House rules : a novel Picoult, Jodi
14.  Whispers and lies Fielding, Joy
15. Full dark, no stars King, Stephen


A note on House Rules: I started reading this over the summer, but it was long, there were many people waiting for it behind me at the library, and I was caught up in gardening.  I returned it, and downloaded the audio book instead.  I've been listening to it for ages, off and on.  I loved it, but it was an emotionally intense read, like many of Picoult's books are.

The Guinea Pig Diaries is very funny if you like non-fiction essays.


Also, I totally spaced on my FAQ page and forgot to address this one:

Why are your books formatted so oddly and why do they link to your library when half of us can't get there??

Okay, they are formatted oddly, with non title caps and the authors name backwards because I copy them directly from the "Reading History" tab of my account on the library website.  That copies the link for me too, and if you click on it, you can at least check out the book.  The library website has enough information, such as summaries and such, that you will know if you want to read it, even if you plan on going to buy it at your local store, or request it at a local library.  And if you *are* from here, you can just click to request it, so yanno, good for you for being from Alberta.  Or something.