I hate cars

I hate cars cause they cost money when you buy them, once you own them and when you try to get rid of them.

Our Rendezvous is in for servicing today. One front brake is squeaking. Of course brakes are not covered by the warranty. Every time I bring the car in for servicing, I always get the creepy service rep. whose first question to me is, "Do you have an extended warranty?" When I say yes he looks disappointed. Do they get commission for car work which is not covered by a warranty?

He knew I was bringing it in for unwarranted break work so he only asked me the car's mileage, no warranty question today.

I've asked for a quote on fixing the brakes. When they call I think I'm going to ask if it is covered under our extended warranty.

Brake update
Fixing the stupid brakes will cost around $300 and guess what...they come with a life-time warranty. You would think when you buy a brand new car the brakes would be covered with a life-time warranty. I just don't get it.

Animal talk

One new animal fact I learned this week
Wombat poop is apparently square-shaped.

Cat across the street
I never did get around to naming the cat in the window across the street. It and it's beady eyes were kinda of creeping me out.

Eddy has a new girl friend
Eddy loves my girlfriend Patty. For the longest time, every time she came to our house Eddy would pee in delight. The peeing has stopped but he still loves her sooo. Add to his love list, my best bud Laurie. She was over the other day and yup Eddy peed. He has never done this around her before. It must be peeing puppy love!

Eddy planting a nice wet-one on N.

Costco card shuffle

Walking through the door at Costco (for me at least) is always an awkward moment. I never know if I should show my membership card. My observation is some people do and some don't.

The awkwardness comes when the door person attempts to give me the store coupons and I try to show them my membership card. We end up doing this awkward little dance-they trying to hand me store coupons and me trying to show my card, put it away and grab the coupons.

It would be so much simpler if they just left the coupons on a table by the door or maybe I should just make Al go to Costco and deal with the card/shopping shuffle.

A little slow (or just old)

Ace B. was talking about Jessica Simpson sightings in Winnipeg today. I wondered why she would be here, maybe to film a movie? Then I heard she was here because John Mayer had a concert in Wpg. today. Ahhh I thought, that explains it. But then I thought “Who is John Mayer?”

The hamster campaign

My boy wants a hamster. He's been working on us and has even offered to pay for it himself.

It's really me who needs to be ready to buy a hamster-I know I will be doing all the work.

My Mom looked after all of our pets-turtles, fish, cats, dogs, guinea pigs, gerbils, birds, lizards etc. even though we told her we would. No reflection on the level of my Mom's care but we were regularly burying our pets in the backyard.

As a Mom wanting to continue our family tradition (buying and burying family pets) I probably will give-in and buy the hamster. This could be a good thing or a bad thing. I guess it just depends on who you are-my son, the hamster or me.

I'm not dissing the human rights museum but...

what is a human rights museum? I'm not saying we shouldn't build/support one. I just need to find out what it is and why we need one. Is the museum being built in order to showcase the human rights Canadians have, lost, don't have or all of the above? Just not sure...

Looking out my window

My new cube is beside a window. It is great to have the natural light. I don't spend much time looking out the window, possibly because the window is behind my chair. The one thing I've noticed is the cat in the window in the building across the street.

Whenever I do look out, the cat is there, sitting in the window. Yup I just peeked and the cat is there. I feel the need to name the cat. Just giving it some thought.

PCD last show
Tonites the nite they choose the next PC doll. All I can say is Nik and I will be watching. I told ya I was crazy.

Do I really need to worry about humidity in my jacket breast-pocket?

I found a package of silica gel in my jacket breast-pocket this morning (don’t ask). In googling “silica gel” I found out the gel is used to control “local humidity”.

Hmmm if I have a humid breast should I even be at work?

Guess where we ate supper last night?

Yup it was Wendys. The added bonus was there was a Tims beside the Wendys so I was able to get my coffee. Yummmmmm.

My poor crocus plants
Darn those rabbits. I only have one crocus bloom this spring. The rabbits really seem to like them. I think Eddy or Al needs to sleep outside at night. I will let them work it out. I can't cause I'm busy planning what to grow in my planter box.

Thinking inside the box

Every spring I plan/throw-together/struggle with what plants I will put in my garage planter box (see the photo below). Humming birds like to visit this planter. One year we found a small, grey toad hidden among the plants. When I first started gardening (about 20 some years ago) there wasn't much to choose from-mainly geraniums, marigolds and trailing verbena. There are now so many plants to choose from. I think I may need to miss some work!

Where are all the Winnipeg Wendy restaurants?

We really don't go to Wendys very often (one reason being because there isn't any). It seems like these restaurants are disappearing from the 'peg landscape. Why I wonder?

Side bar
Kelly Clarkson's new single. Heard it for the first time this morning. Why is she always so angry? Is it possibly because of the American Idol contract she had to sign? Just wondering...

Better late then never
I should have done this last week but a big congrats to my friend Lora. She is now the president of our local community club. We now have an all women exec. Wow!

Trampoline update
We didn't get a chance to "erect" the trampoline on the weekend. Just ran out of time. I also need to try to figure out how to place an above-ground swimming pool, a trampoline and leave room for some Eddy "private time" space in our backyard. Kinda of hard to do on a 55 x 120 city lot.

Where is everybody?

Not too much traffic driving into work today. My guess is people called-in sick so they could stand in line to get pre-tickets for the August JT concert. It isn't warm enough yet for people to skip off early to the lake.

Bouncy weekend
In between hockey, house-cleaning and relaxing the Ks hope to set-up the trampoline we purchased in the late-fall last year. It could get ugly. Al and I don't work very well together when:
1. You need to read instructions
2. You need to read instructions
3. One of us needs to be able to read instructions.

I plan to send N to a friend's house. Eddy needs to stick around. I may need a buffer between Al and I.

TGIF shout-out (even though it is Friday the 13th)
This Friday’s shout-out goes out to all the Winnipegers who will be outside enjoying the wonderfully warm weekend weather.

The weather is so nice and warm out today. What did I tell ya? Regular season hockey is over and yes the sun is shining.

Thank God for managers

Wow what would we do without managers?

One in particular (who I see/work with on a frequent basis) is always so quick to raise their hand when asked a question in a meeting. In fact, they feel completely at ease to offer their opinion throughout the meeting. No hand-raising needed there.

I'm in awe.

We (meaning us who are not managers/and don't have "staff") would be so lost without their expertise.

Why just today he/she freely offered me their advice. Apparently (in my current job) I have no worries about the new access to information laws. However, he/she (oops I should include their "staff" too) have lots to worry about.

Oh the worries of a manager.

NHL hockey playoff wish
Please, please if there is a hockey God can the Nashville Predators make it past the first playoff round. My boy would be so happy! Go Nashville Go! Let's beat those pesky sharks.

Kinda of embarrassing

The Ks are very happy Team Canada won the hockey tournament last night (even though there were some questionable calls). The Canadians were the best team on the ice (in my opinion).

However, what was up with the "army" personnel repelling from the arena roof. It was a very awkward moment. Were those medals tangled up in one of the repelling person’s hair? Yikes.

Nik's tooth
Hurray! The tooth Nik punched out was a baby tooth. I am glad we don't have to deal with replacing a permanent tooth. :)

Warmer weather
It sure is nice out there today. What did I tell you!

Soccer will be starting soon. I can't resist posting this picture of Nik. He is three years old in this photo. He still loves to play soccer.

Crazy about the Sopranos

I have this love/hate thing going on with the Sopranos. Apparently they mentioned Winnipeg in the season opener.

Click here to view a seven-minute youtube recap video of the first six Soprano seasons. Ya gotta love it (or hate it) especially the "Carmela gets pissed" edits.

I'm thinking about having a final episode party. I hesitate because Nik would want to be there.

Feeling lousy

I'm feeling lousy for two reasons:
1. I can't shake the cold I had over spring break and
2. Nik knocked his own tooth out at hockey and I completely forgot to call his dentist yesterday.

We are not too sure if it is a baby tooth or not (pretty sure it is). I dropped the tooth on the bathroom floor on Sunday and it broke into two pieces. Nik didn't care. He was happy that both the tooth fairy and Easter bunny came.

Team Canada
Our girls should beat the Americans tonite. I'm just looking forward to the warmer weather.

Backyard update
Just to let you know the Ks backyard is free of Eddy's winter treasures. Al spent sometime on Easter weekend doing the deed. Thanks Al!

Hockey and Easter

We finished our hockey tournament this weekend (wasn't the weather warmer today-Didn't I tell ya). Nik lost a tooth (he knocked it out himself) and broke his hockey skate with three minutes to go in the third period. A puck hit the dial on his skate and it blew apart.

Thanks so much to his coach who did a quick repair job on his skate. Nik was able to participate in the shoot out and scored a goal.

Easter goodies
Eddy ate the cookies we left for the Easter bunny. The Easter bunny was forgiving and left our puppy a milkbone treat. Eddy slept with us last night like he usually does. However we had to keep our door closed so he wouldn't steal any of Nik's Easter treats.

Still waiting on the brochure PDF...

I'm lovin' it

Yum. I tried the new McD's chicken snack wrap and it is yummy. The wrap is 320 calories but since I didn't have the ranch dressing it surely was less calories. Yummy I tell you.

Easter and hockey
Our boys played hockey on Thursday and lost 5 to 0. However, this was the best game I ever saw them play. The boys played hard and smart. The other team (we are playing against all older kids) was just stronger and faster. We tied our next game and lost the third 8 to 1. Our last game is Saturday morning at 9.

Just waiting for the women's hockey to finish. Then I promise you it will be warmer!

Two reasons why it is so cold out there

I believe it is f-freezing out because:
1. The women's world hockey championship games
2. Nik is in a hockey tournament all this week

Mark my words once these two events are over-heat wave in Winnipeg!

Some meanness
Today I had a conversation with a very pushy person who has "designed" a beautiful brochure. I'm taking bets (they're sending me a PDF of their brochure) on how "beautiful" the brochure actually is. Hint: They once worked for a color-printing company as a sales rep. Yup great training there.

The brochure was also "designed" in Word. Need I say anymore.

Sorry but I just couldn't resist. Just waiting on that PDF...

The final sign of Spring

You wouldn't know it was Spring today cause it is so cold out there but I am convinced it will warm up. Why? Because last night I finally found the bin of winter scarves, mitts etc. that has haunted me all winter long. I knew I had more winter stuff but do you think I could find it? Yes it definitely will get warmer soon.

Cold weather blessing
It makes it a lot easier to pick up Eddy's poop in the backyard.

Go Canada Go!


Team Canada plays the Swiss tonite.

We're back...

I have to admit this spring break was a killer. It started off good. We went to the Forks, saw a movie and did stuff around the house. The Ks were on a roll. Then the cold/flu bug struck and we were down for the count.

We are feeling better now. Wouldn't ya know it. Just in time to head back to work and school.

Sunday blues
We had to call a plumber in at 8 p.m. on Sunday. He was here for hmmm maybe 15 minutes tops and charged us $100 (Nik take note of this possible career choice $$$$). The good news is only our sewer was plugged, nothing major. (I hope).

Our fledgling photographer
Nik spent sometime yesterday taking pictures of the pup. We really like this one. Eddy is always on the lookout for those rabbits!



People are crazy-not just hockey Moms
I read in today's paper about a man from Oregon who, while traveling with his family, felt too cramped in the car and decided to put two of his kids in the trunk. Unbelievable. Let's throw him in the trunk.