The Pug Factory

I stumbled across this today and thought you all might find this pretty funny.

Surprise Homecoming

TLC has this new show, Surprise Homecoming, where US servicemen surprise their families after they come home from overseas. I'm really on the fence about this show. I think it's great that these men and women are being honoured with some time in the lime light, however, I'm not sure that surprising people who have to psychologically prepare for a reunion is a great idea. I hope that everything has gone ok with these families.

Today was pretty low-key at work and this afternoon Lenny and I did some errands in significantly cooler weather.Words cannot describe how much better I'm feeling in this weather. Thank the LORD the heat wave is on its way out. I'm actually looking forward to biking to work tomorrow if this weather keeps up.

A surprise birthday party

This weekend Lenny and I went up to Mildmay for Mark (his stepdad)'s family reunion. It was pretty hot outside but the air conditioning inside the house was oh-so-awesome. In addition to the wonderful food, mingling, and A/C, I was also surprised with a wonderful birthday lunch today! You never know when the next time everyone in the family is able to get together, so this worked out well for everyone and Totally caught me off guard. :) Here are some pictures from today, courtesy of Alanah,  as I forgot my camera yesterday for the reunion.

25?!?!?! Holy caboodles. How did I get this old? 

"Aww man!" :)

"Ahhhh!" -- Alannah caught some pretty precious moments here.

That's better :)

Making a wish! I think I'm still in a bit of shock that there's a birthday party here.

"Yay!"

Reading the cute sauce cards :)

I like this informal pic. It's too cute :)

This one's nice too :)

Showcasing a funny doggy card

Chocolate Scrabble. Nom nom nom! Note Lenny's awesome expression here too. :)

And finally Nico (Alannah's boyfriend) trying out the chocolate fountain for the first time. What a fun way to celebrate!

Thanks again to everyone in Lenny's family -- you guys have made me feel so included and loved and I couldn't ask for anything better.

47

I just want to make a virtual note here that I survived 47 degree weather today. It may have been only 35, but with the humidity, 47 was the high at 4 pm today. Wow. Thanks to a lot of whining and a very kind Lenny, I got a drive to and from work and only had to spend about 30 minutes walking outside for the totality of the day. That aside, even laying down just in front of the fan, I feel like I`m melting... I should mention that I`m SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo incredibly grateful that my sister Paula gave us an air conditioner so that we can at least sleep in the cool.

This evening we went out with the dinner club at Lenny`s work to a place near the market called Gambrinus. They have something like 40+ types of beer available so everyone had a good time.

That`s about it for interesting things that happened today.

Feeling Hot Hot Hot

Leave it to Lenny to figure out how I"m supposed to survive this 37 degree plus humidity weather. Last night I came home feeling quite lousy with a large headache I'd had since the early afternoon. Despite drinking an abnormally high amount of 2 1/2 litres of water over the course of my time at air conditioned work, he force fed more more liquids (that include juice though -- yum! -- what a treat!) and ordered some pizza (also a treat! yum!). I think the pizza/salt in all that delicious meat and cheese really helped to perk me up for a bit but after an hour or so I was back to my big ol' headache.  After he got back from a 22km bike ride and 3km run (seriously!) he made me lie down upstairs and bed and lo and behold, I fell asleep at 7 pm... and am waking up now at 7 am... Lenny does know best. I feel so much better this morning.

As for other news, my mom's surgery on Monday went really really well. She says the pain was less than a root canal and seems to be in really great spirits. How great are drugs these days?! I think the entire family is supremely relieved that everything went well.

A blogger that I've been following since before she had children probably five years ago, had her third healthy child on Sunday. Many of you have heard me talk about Wendi at some point or another and her incredible journey of infertility, adoption, and surprise unaided pregnancy after nearly 10 years of infertility treatments. Hop over to http://flakymn.blogspot.com/ to see baby Abigail.

My new job has been going well. So far this week I've attended some training on PeopleSoft, played musical students within different teacher's studios trying to balance everything out, and have answered about a gajillion e-mails.

Well that's about it for news. I've got to go take out the garbage and recycling now as Lenny forgot to last night during my 12-hour sleep... :)

Allergico ma non allergico di Stompin' Tom!

This morning I had maybe 1/4 cup, if that, of orange juice, and alas my throat is so sore right now that my voice has dropped. :( Let's add orange juice to the growing list of things that have been confirmed allergens. Boo. I haven't been feeling well since last Saturday when I had 4 raspberries fresh from the Guizzetti garden, so maybe I'm just not in the best of shape to "handle" orange juice, but sheesh, 'tis a bit ridiculous.

This week has been really rough health-wise. I think the heat exasperates any ickyness and biking to work hasn't really helped. Work has been very quiet and not overly stressful at all. I'm settling back in with my former co-workers quite nicely and I feel like I'm contributing and feeling productive.

Thursday night Lenny and I went to see Stompin' Tom Conners. Despite the worst sound engineering I've ever experienced, the night was still definitely worth it and Tom was the consummate entertainer; such a heart-warming evening. These were some of my favourites:

Tillsonburg



Ketchup Loves Potatoes -- coincidentally one of my coworker's Wedding Song



Ballad of Stompin' Tom -- by far the saddest song, but gives you an idea about his background



The Hockey Song -- arguably his most famous song

Warrior Dash

This weekend Lenny and I trekked up to Orillia to participate in the first ever Canadian Warrior Dash. This 5km race involved getting very very very muddy, jumping over cars, doing "high knees" through a stretch of mismatched tires, climbing up and down 3 ski hills, jumping over burning hurdles of fire, and did I mention getting muddy? Here are some of my favourite pics of the race.

Some of the many excellent warrior-themed costumes

They had a jumbo tron live streaming video of one obstacle where the participants were crawling in mud under some barbed wire.

Lenny with one of his friends, Jodi, also participating in the race. They got these free hats for signing up :)

The fire hurdles as demonstrated by another one of Len's friends that were doing the race (Mike). You can see another climbing obstacle in the background.

The team of researchers from London that were in the same wave as Lenny.

A very muddy Lenny & Jodi at the end of the race.

A close-up of just how muddy Lenny got.

Each participant got some warrior food and a free beer when they finished. Here's a pic of Lenny's turkey leg :)

This was the pile of muddy sneakers to be donated mid way through the day. It got much bigger after the other 5000 participants went through the course.

All-in-all it was a supremely well-organized event. I wanted to watch Lenny do it this year to determine whether or not I could sign up to do it next year, but after seeing this I think it's not for me... I value being clean and not being challenged this much in my exercise. Alas, I will go again to watch Lenny have the hugest of grins on his face as he gets muddy muddy muddy! Seeing the outfits was also quite amusing...perhaps next time I'll get an outfit together for Lenny and his friends and maybe even Dakota (the family dog)!