Sunday Update

A Quiet Uneventful Day after a Busy Couple of Weeks:

Kenya had her annual vet visit and shots, and is trying to become a little more svelte before the next one. The vet said that when I look down at her I should see a waistline.  I said that when I looked, I saw a waddle, not a waistline.   Kenya was the only one not amused, but she felt better when she heard the remedy.  We are to cut back on kibble, not treats ... seems like an odd diet to me ... but Kenya is delighted.  She was less delighted with the next procedures: a manicure and an anal gland check.  Before we left we picked up our 6 month supply of heartworm, flea, tick and other anti-pest meds.

My car went in for its semi-annual check-up on Thursday, and seems healthy, especially for such an old girl.  My mechanic says she is barely broken in at 177,000 kilometres ... and she will be 13 this fall.

Tamarack, Carlos and Ian came for dinner one evening; Techwood and Scott another.  Tammy re-installed Picasa while she was here, and Techwood showed me how to make my photos more portable.  He also left me a book on square foot gardening, and explained it while Scott gave me a back massage.

I headed off to Montreal under false assumptions on Wednesday, but enjoyed my time there.  More about that in a separate post.  It was one of those "DUH! How could you be so dumb?" occasions.

Teddy and Shea came to spend the weekend on Thursday afternoon.  I bought a new magnetic broom in anticipation but despite wielding it almost constantly, am unable to keep up.  Shea is blowing his coat and swimming so I am continually picking up clouds of his undercoat, and what remains behind is sodden and stinky.  Teddy goes swimming in the lake's outlet creek when we stop for a drink.  (He is the only one off-leash.)  Afterwards, he sheds leaves and sticks and other debris for hours and hours.  Tammy says Teddy is his own magnetic broom ... and she is right.  Everything sticks to him and gets tangled in the soft fur.  Despite all that they never leave my side for more than a few minutes, and I do love them.  Kenya is far more independent so it is a change to have dogs who cling.  I am lucky to get a good cuddle with Kenya in the morning, and after that she regards me as good for the occasional massage or stick throwing session. You know the old saw about familiarity breeding contempt.

I had fish and chips at Le Hibou on Friday, and, on Saturday, Pat and Mike brought a delightful delicatessen lunch with lots of treats.  They also brought the hollow stumps down from the parking area to the garden ... five stumps too heavy for me to lift, let alone carry ... 39 steps, a 300 foot path, 22 steps, and another path ... Those stumps had been transported from their source location across the lake in several stages.  One neighbour got them into my car, another got them out, and  Pat and Mike did the heaviest part of the job.

In among all this I have finished Jenny's harlequin chair and sent it off, got a good start on the yard clean-up, got most of the way through the rough draft of the taxes, and done some of the preliminary work necessary to get three pieces of garden furniture ready for the summer ... hope to finish that today. 

I have removed all the sharp bits of wood, nails and screws from the two handmade chairs our strange neighbour threw out after partially removing the arms, and will wash them with TSP today.  I will paint them, and the star table I created from a student cast-off a year ago,  with boat quality varnish which I hope will allow them to stand up to the weather.

Next week looks a little less hectic ... finishing the taxes is the only big job thing still looming.  And my back is feeling almost normal again ... so I am looking forward to a more happily productive period.  I have a number of funky furniture projects lined up waiting, including more outdoor furniture for the deck and the garden.