I am impulsive.
Have I ever mentioned this before?
I am impulsive.


Whenever I think that something is a great idea...I am right in.
RIGHT IN.
This led me to an experience in Saudi Arabia...ALL impulse.
This led me to my first condo-buy in Toronto.
It has led me to a lot more, benign events and experiences, but let's just agree, that one of my character flaws, or colours, is that I allow impulsivity to rule my life.

I found a house that I really like.
Like, I REALLY LIKE this house!
Here's the listing:
http://www.mls.ca/PropertyDetails.aspx?PropertyID=4878414
Whaddaya think?

WCB#64

This has been a roller-coaster of a week.
On Monday, we heard that there may be an offer coming in on the condo. (UP) It never happended. (DOWN)Then we heard that there were other's interested and perhaps we would be dealing with multiple offers. (UP)That, never happend. (DOWN)
On Tuesday, Kristi had her beautiful baby girl, Isabella Carmelina (what a beautiful name!) (UP, UP, UP!)
On Wednesday morning, my friend Paul ended his life. (DOWN, WAY DOWN) On Wednesday evening, we got a lowball offer on the condo, (SLIGHTLY UP)but still no firm sale by midnight. (DOWN)
On Thurday morning, negotiation for condo sale were on again. (UP) Then, we found out that MIL#2 spent the day in the Emergency Dept as she thought she was having a heart attack. (DOWN)Thankfully, it wasn't, but she had to wait all day to get the final results. (UP)
Thursday evening, the condo finally sold. (YES! You heard right...the condo has sold!) It went for a lower price than I had wanted, but I think it is a fair price. (UP, UP, UP!)
Friday, was a fairly neutral day.
Today, we started our house hunt. I feel a little desperate already, as we only have two months to find our new home. )(A LITTLE DOWN) In the afternoon, we went to the Toronto Humane Society. We are seriously thinking about adoption, and increasing the size of our family! (UP) But we realize that we need to investigate this a lot further. Most of the dogs seem to be Pitbulls, which we're not interested in. (Sorry Pitbull fans.) Next, we headed on over to Buskerfest which is taking place in our neighbourhood, and also did some veggie-shopping at the Farmer's Market. With my arms laden-full, didn't I go and trip over a crack in the side walk and fall ass-over-tits in front of about a billion people?! (DOWN!) Oh...what a way to end the week! I scraped the top of my foot, my knee, my elbow, and have wrenched my shoulder and the left side of my neck. What a glam-bag I am!
When we got home, I thought I'd read the paper (why did I skip ahead to the obits? Poor Paul...) I guess Mr. Mao thought he'd plunk his arse down so I couldn't read it and get upset all over again...it didn't quite work...but what is it about cats that as soon as you open a newspaper, they have to sit on it and claim it as their own? Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon?!?
Please head on over to Boolicious who is hosting Weekend Cat Blogging this week. Boo is a food lover from Kuala Lampur, Malaysia who has many mouth-watering photos of Malaysian food, and is, of course, a fellow kitty-lover.
Thanks for hosting this week, Boo! 

I took a mental health day today.
Yesterday, a friend committed suicide. He was not a close friend, in fact, we had kind of drifted apart over the past few years, but he was someone whom I liked and respected.
I first met Paul when I had just moved back from Saudi, and he had just moved back from Texas. We instantly became friends, and, as I was single then, I developed a crush on him. He was so nice! Nothing ever became of that crush but there was a group of us who spent a few summers together hanging out. Paul was always the social organizer and it would be nothing for him and his parents to invite us all up to their cottage for a weekend. His brothers would also be there and we'd have huge bonfires at the lake, and the guys would get their guitars and drums out, invite all the neighbours, and it would be so much fun.
Paul's mom died a few years ago, and I know he took it very hard. His mom was a nurse, and Paul also decided to be a nurse, much to his father's chagrin. I recall his dad making weird little comments about it.
Anyway, Paul hadn't been himself for the last while. He had taken stress leave this summer and had recently come back to work. I frequently saw him wandering around the hospital grounds by himself and conversations I had with him were polite, but flat. I knew he was depressed, everyone did. He didn't try to hide it, but also didn't want to talk about it.
I saw him on Monday in the hallway, and I remember that we had stopped awkwardly to say hello, as people rushed by us.
Never, not in a million years, would I have thought that that Hello... might have actually meant, Goodbye.

Happy Birthday!

Welcome to the world, Isabella Carmelina!
Interrupted Wanderlust's, Kristi , gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl Tuesday August 22.
Congratulations, and Happy Birthday!

WCB #62

I'm a little late for Weekend Cat Blogging, but better late than never? The Gladiolas are in season right now, and I picked these up from the side of the road at a little stand. The colours are spectacular, so bright that Mr. Mao had to close his eyes! Clare and Kiri haven't been seen in a while, so Heather has picked up the ball this week, and Weekend Cat Blogging can be found at Heather's Space Thanks Heather!

In other flower news: My Hostas are also heading into full bloom...
What's the Story Morning Glory?

I planted Morning Glory seeds that I had picked up from the local Opportunity Shop. The seeds were just in a little pill container with no other label on it, so I didn't know what colour the flowers would be.

Lazy Daisy: No so lazy!

The bunnies had eaten the new leaves off of this plant in early June. I am so surprised that they actually bloomed!

On the Homefront...Keep your fingers crossed for me. There might be an offer coming in today!

Fleas Be Gone!

I have a confession to make.
I've got fleas.
Well, I have flea bites. So does Greg. And so do our Weekend Trailer-trash Cats.
You'd think that someone who has had family pets their whole life might consider fleas as the culprit. You might also think that a nurse would clue in, especially since I knew that Mr. Mao had some bites. For some reason, I thought he got stung by a wasp, because he had a big lump under his right arm, and also because I was stung by a wasp. 'Tis the season here in Ontari-ari-o.
About a week ago I started itching and noticed that I had about 10 mysterious non-wasp bites on my back, and one on my belly, and, of course, I kept scratching the belly one. It is now about the size of a tennis ball, and definitely not sexy. It's not sexy when I'm scratching in my scrubs at work, and absolutely not sexy when I'm in my birthday suit. But that's too much information...I know.
Last night, we noticed that our normally very lazy, sleepy, chubby Miss Dutchess was racing around the condo like her tail was on fire. We were quite amused at the 'kitten' in her, and she raced back and forth, back and forth, while we were trying to watch Rock Star Super Nova. Still, we did not clue in.
It was Greg's idea today to get some flea collars for the Fleabags. (too bad they don't come in adult human sizes)
So, I picked them up on my way home from work, as well as some anti-flea mousse, and anti-flea carpet/furniture spray.
We rubbed the mousse into the kitties, and gave them their new collars. Mr. Mao, always the troublemaker, decided to lick the mousse off, which, of course, immediately made him foam at the mouth like Cujo. OMG did he ever have the Spits!
So, thinking that we might have poisoned our little guy, he then got his first bath and a blow-dry in his 7 year life and is now hiding under a table, pissed off. The Dutchess is growly and pissed as well, but she could be conned with food and has now pretty much forgiven us.
Me? Well, I'm still scratching, and am up to my ears in laundry and pesticide stench.

Anyone else itchy now?! ;)

We decided not to go to the trailer this weekend. Turns out that we have BOTH had enough of the Clan.
Greg's estranged sister was in town for a few days, so we all got together with her on Thursday night AND Friday night. She was ok, I'd only met her once before, very briefly. When we were married last November, she did not even acknowledge it. No phone call, no card, even though Greg had tried to contact her and left messages, and I had sent her pictures and a DVD of the ceremony. She's a bit of an odd duck, who I think is embarrassed/angry at the way she was raised. Anyway, meeting up with her was ok. At the end of the night, she gave me a hug, and welcomed me to the family which I thought was very weird, considering that she has not been a part of the family for almost 20 years. I felt like welcoming HER to the family! Oh well, whatever.
We were meant to go to a family reunion of Greg's on Sunday. His grand-parents were celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary. I was quite happy that Greg decided to ditch this idea on Sunday morning. We had his grandparents for dinner at the trailer last weekend, and will have them again next weekend and make it more special. I made them a beautiful Anniversary card, which is probably the nicest I've ever made.
So, we had a really nice, quiet weekend. We didn't answer the phone, and we just hung out and did our own thing. Saturday, we went for lunch on a patio, drove through Toronto's oldest cemetary which is quite beautiful, mosied on through Canadian Tire, bought expensive wine, came home and watched movies. The Princess Bride, and Almost Famous.
Sunday, we went for a long walk (and fielded phone calls from Greg's mom, who is mad at us for not coming to the reunion.)
All in all, a perfect weekend.

A Joke for Hump-day

This is probably an oldie, but I thought it was cute and worth sharing with all the dog lovers and dieters out there:
I have a dog & I was buying a large bag of Purina at Wal-Mart and was in line to check out. A woman behind me asked if I had a dog. On impulse, I told her that no, I was starting The Purina Diet again, although I probably shouldn't because I'd ended up in the hospital last time, but that I'd lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms.
I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pants pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry & that the food is nutritionally complete so I was going to try it again.
(I have to mention here that practically everyone in the line was by now enthralled with my story, particularly a guy who was behind her. ) Horrified, she asked if I'd ended up in the hospital in that condition because I had been poisoned. I told her no, it was because I'd been sitting in the street licking my balls and a car hit me. I thought one guy was going to have a heart attack he was laughing so hard as he staggered out the door!

What it Boiled Down To...

*6 glorious days of sunshine
*1 Tornado watch that turned into a really frightening thunderstorm
*1 behind-the-knee wasp sting
*500 katrillion flies
*3 litres of Pinot Grigio
*1 bath in the lake, complete with shampoo and conditioner
*1 tortuous teenage break-up, with new bf installed within 15 minutes of said breakup
*2 sun down dips for two in the lake
*a 4 hour drive through little villages sans famille de Hackette
* 1 very pretty covered bridge known locally as 'The Kissing Bridge"
*3 magazines, 1 Reader's Digest, 0 books read
*1 bleach-cleaned fridge
*1 ice-cold shower
*7 dinners made for the Clan (by me)
*1 bushel of tomatoes, 4 lbs of onions, 2 quarts of wild blueberries, 5 loaves of rye bread, a slab of maple pecan fudge, and 6 gladiolas bought from the Mennonite Farmers
*1 cat bit by a raccoon (not mine)
*1 cat bit by a dozen unknown insects (Mao)
*2 welcome visitors on Thursday night, and 1 self-invited BIL weekend guest, who, all-in-all, behaved himself not too badly (although his washroom ettiquette leaves much to be desired) (Good thing I'm a nurse!)
*one PMS peri-menopausal melt-down by Yours Truly on the last night
*1 cat playing hide-and-seek the morning we were all packed and ready to drive home (Dutchie)

Red Radish Salad

Last week, I asked my young SIL to pick me up a bunch of radishes at the Farmer's Market. Imagine my surprise when she came back with a whole grocery bag full of radishes! Turns out, she wasn't quite sure what I meant by 'a bunch.'
So, what to do with all the 'bunches' of radishes? How about a Red Radish Salad? The recipe belongs to Rachel Ray and it is pretty tasty, if I do say so myself! Heading up to the Trailer for a week and we will be having no guests. We've got a few little road trips planned but for the most part, I think we'll be enjoying plenty of R & R.
The Dutchess was a little offended that I said she looked like Jabba the Hutt, so I promised her I'd post one that was much more flattering. Close-ups work well, don't they? And her eyes truly are this beautiful shade of emerald!
Have a great week!