Saturday, December 31, 2011

Can You Believe It..Left Behind!

Can you believe it...one minute we are relaxing around Mike and Bronwyns' house and the next minute, Phil and Janet pack up and leave!  I knew something was up with the sandals in the suitcase.  It's not that we don't like to stay here, but wouldn't it be fun to go to Hawaii?  The worst part is, if we were able to go (make that invited!) it appears that dogs are not allowed to roam up and down the aircraft aisles at will.  That's problem number one.  Did I mention we are afraid of crates?  That would be problem number two.  At any rate, here are some photos of the traitors, looking like they are having way to much fun for our comfort level.
This is the view from the lanai (balcony) of Janet and Phil's condo

This is the really delicious lunch Janet had today (and yesterday!) at the new Sam Choy restaurant .  It's Ahi seared salad in a fresh cooked tortilla bowl.  Delicious.  Janet had her picture taken with Sam Choy about 20 years ago at one of his first restaurants that was in the Industrial Park.

Janet is on the lanai, with her new swimsuit, coverup (on backwards, she discovered later) and sun hat.  More on this shopping business later!  There were not any "Instant 20 Pound Loss" suits, so she had to settle for the "Instant 10 Pound Loss" jobbies.

After the sunset from their lanai.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

We Travelled to PDX

We knew something was up when Bronwyn said to Janet "see you tomorrow", and sure enough!

I am helping Janet pack.  I'm not normally allowed on the bed, so there must be some guilt flying around.  Weird...Janet is packing sandals. Who in their right mind would wear sandals in PDX at this time of the year?
I know we were eavesdropping, but couldn't help.  The volume seemed to be a bit louder than normal -  the conversation turned to who had made the ferry reservation.  Janet thought Phil made the reservation and Phil thought Janet made the reservation.  End result - nobody made the reservation.  Not that big of a deal as Phil drove the car to the Coho the day prior.  The really bad part was we had to get Jeremy to pick us up in his pick up truck.  This means three people and two dogs in the front.  Jeremy suggested we put us in the bed of the truck, but thankfully Janet squashed that in a nano second.  We were really afraid and didn't want to get in.  We didn't cry, but we trembled all the way downtown.  Rockers is still pumping for Ring Pup, so he tried hard to be brave.

After we stopped for lunch, we then went to Hama Hama Bay Oyster shop and bought three cooked and cleaned crab.  Here is the man on the commercial side, shucking oysters.
Janet hates travelling on the I-5 at the best of times.  She was having a fit, as this is what it looked like for most of the trip.
Once we got to PDX, Janet went to the nail place to get a new pedicure and Phil went to Fred Meyer to buy some groceries. Then we went to Mike and Bronwyns house.
Bronwyn doesn't have much interest in cooking, but can clean cooked crab like a old time crab fisherman!  Without any special crab type tools!

Janet turned it into Crab Louie Salad.  We heard them say how good it was.


Tuesday, December 27, 2011

The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Janet broke a cardinal Christmas Rule.  She purchased a cookbook for herself before Christmas.

This is the third Whitewater Cook Book.  The lady that writes them is a chef at a ski resort in BC.
Thinking she was very clever, Janet gave Meg, Briana and Lori a copy for Christmas.  Turns out Meg also bought Janet a copy, and lo and behold, Lori arrives on Boxing Day with the one she bought for Janet.  Don and Rose also came for brunch on Boxing Day.  Rose received a copy of the same book from Laura, Mikes sister.  Sheesh...good thing Janet and Rose and Laura don't exchange gifts!

End of Christmas

Sadly, Christmas is over at our house.  The morning started out with Mike and Brownyn having all their bags by the front door.  Looks like the vacation at Camp Canada is over.
Ruby and Pashy are following them from room to room to make sure they don't get left behind. 
 Noodles helped put the tree up, so I felt obligated to help take it down.  Phil and Janet appear to have suitcases out as well....are they going somewhere?  Hope we aren't left behind!
Here is the gingerbread village some of the kids made.

Monday, December 26, 2011

Cheese

A client of Bronwyn's gave her some cheese that is made at Washington State University every year. When Brad, Kim and Jessie came over, we cut some up with crackers.  I heard Janet say it was the best cheddar she had ever had.  Even we got to try a little bit...it goes without saying that as she cuts it into slices, some will fall on the floor.  Yummy.
Really yummy Cheddar


Christmas Day at Our House

Merry Christmas, everyone!
Hi...it's finally Christmas Day, not that we are expecting a lot in the gift department...perhaps some extra dog cookies?  Janet got this cute Christmas plant holder from her really good friend of over 25 years,  Lolo.

We started off the day with Bronwyn and Briana making eggnog from  a recipe that Bronwyn was given from the man who owns the coffee shop under her office.
Here they are, whisking in the beaten egg whites.

These are the dregs remaining in the glass.  It was really delicious, I heard them all say.  Bronwyn was initially thinking she should have halved the recipe, but had she done so, it would have all been gone in the first half hour.


After we opened gifts, (Janet got a real cool purple yoga mat and carrying strap, amongst other things.  Janet loves to go to yoga as she feels way better after the class, but is a bit worried that having ones own mat may look like she has some level of skill - she recognizes that she is easily the most lame student in the class!) we had brunch.
We had Cranberry Orange Muffins, Apple Puff Pancake and homemade Sausage Patties.  Janet forgot that Mike doesn't like Apple Puff Pancake - as long as we have Mikey has always called all food he doesn't like Prison Food! 
After Briana and Ted cleaned up after brunch, (they actually did a lot of dishes - thanks!)  Janet started to make dinner.  Oddly enough, she was hoping to stand on her feet all day, and with the exception of taking a 15 minute bath, she managed to do it!

We had our nice nephew Brad over with his equally nice girlfriend Kim and her sister Jessie.  Brad is a real cool barista at a local coffee chain and Kim works at Russells Books, which is downtown.  Janet says she isn't sure, but she thinks Russells is the largest used book store in Canada, or perhaps North America.  Jessie is here visiting from Vancouver.

We had some homemade crackers with cheese, Double Baked Potatoes, Roasted Root Vegetables with Balsamic Dressing and Trifle for dessert.  It was lots of fun!
Here is what looks to be a really good trifle.  Unfortunately, we doggies are not allowed to eat dessert.

Here is Phil and our cool cousin Brad.  He is really nice AND he appears to like dogs!

This is a really nice photo of Kim, Brad's girlfriend in the center and her sister Jessie on the left.  This is also a bad photo of Jeremy with his eyes shut...Janet should really consider taking a photo classes.  She complains often to Phil that she takes lame photos, but he always says "no, really they are great".  We think he might have his fingers crossed.

Banana and Ted, on their last night.  Phil drove them to the ferry terminal, where they are taking the bus on the other side to get a car rental to drive to Squamish to see Meg and Derek.  When Janet saw their luggage, she was delighted she was not a part of the trip.

It's Christmas Time at Camp Canada!

Really good news..our buds from the U.S. of A arrived on Christmas Eve for some fun times.  We gave Bronwyn and Mike a rollicking good welcome.  We spent the day around the house doing Christmassy stuff and Janet was making our traditional Tourtiere and Ceasar Salad for dinner.  We called to make a reservation to go out for our Traditional Chinese Dinner on Boxing Day, only to discover it was a Monday, and they are closed.  So, we dumped tradition and went for Chinese food on Christmas Day!  It was excellent..we, of course, had to stay home, but Janet, Phil, Briana, Ted, Mike, Bronwyn and Jeremy all went.

Here's Rubs.  She looks a little bit out of it as she is on her Doggy Meds.

Friday, December 23, 2011

What a Great Street We Live on

Here we are at home, minding our own business while Janet makes Beef Stir Fry with Fried Noodles for dinner.  All of a sudden, there is a huge noise on the front step.  We, of course, start to bark our fool heads off, only to discover it's Carol Singers.  How cool is that!
The little girl in the pink jacket is Natalie, who lives down the street.  Her family has been doing the Carol Singing for quite some time, with friends.  Natalie has a new baby sister, Gillian who is 3 months old.

This is me checking them out.

This is a really pretty Christmas tree that Meg gave to Janet a few years ago.  We haven't used it for a long time as Janet thought one of the candle holders had broken and she kept forgetting to replace it.  Lo and behold, it was completely intact.

Oh Oh!

Things went sideways while Janet was at her volunteer job.  She left at 6:45AM with Phil to do the breakfast service, and then lunch.  We used to get to go at the same time, back in the old days when Phil drove the Volvo.  Now, he has the new car programmed to heat the interior on his computer because he doesn't want to ride in a cold car...not quite sure what he would do if he lived in any other part of BC, or Canada for that matter!

At any rate, sometime between Janet leaving and Phil picking her up to go out for sushi at 1PM with Briana, Ted, Jeremy and Frank Chan, the Christmas tree fell over!  We weren't in the same room, so no one can blame us.  The worst part was the two ornaments that were broken - one was a painted egg on a ribbon that Janet thinks Briana bought on one of her travels.  The other  is a Lladro ornament that Janet purchased in Amsterdam in 1989.  She was upset. 

On the bright side, we did get this today:
A nice big parcel from Meg and Derek!  It was filled with presents for everyone and some cookies that Meg made.  We watched Janet take out the presents, but she didn't mention there was anything for us.  Could that be?  Meg phoned from Winnipeg last night.  They arrived at 2PM and are having a nice time visiting with Derek's family.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

What a Great Day We Had Yesterday!

This was a great day for us doggies.  First, here is me helping Janet make puff pastry.  I was hoping for some buttery morsels to hit the ground, but mostly I just got flour.

 Then, we turned the puff pastry into this - carmelized onion and gorgonzola tart.  It looks pretty yummy, but we are saving it for the block party this evening.

 And, then guess what happened?  Briana and Ted came home!  We love Briana.  We rarely go upstairs, but we were so excited to see her, we went up there.
 Janet worked all day getting ready for the party.  People started to come around 5PM.  We had lots of food - three appetizers, roast beef with buns, three salads, grilled vegetables and lots of dessert.  One of our nice neighbours, Gwen brought a Caeser Salad, a Chocolate Raspberry Torte and some cookies.

Janet said it was too bad Meg and Derek couldn't come because we made two of Derek's favourite foods:
Tuscan Bread Salad - looks like it might have been good, as it's just about all gone.

And, lettuce leaves!  Wait, one of Derek's favourites is lettuce?  Just kidding...it did have Smoked Salmon Rolls on top, but they were all eaten.
And last, but not least, here is us, exhausted after the days excitement.
/
It must be cold in here - would it kill them to turn some heat on?
Good night.






Saturday, December 17, 2011

Two Pawsitively Good Times

Hi, it's Rockers, and I'm back!  We have not one, but two big events this summer.


First, Briana and Ted are getting married in Ontario in May. They are getting married at what looks like a really pretty inn on a lake in an area they like to bike.  I saw Janet looking at sneak photos of Briana's wedding dress and she said it was beautiful!  Sadly, Janet and Phil are not driving, so that means Noodles and I will stay home with Dean.  That's OK...Dean is lots of fun. Frankly, there are not enough anti-crazy dog pills to get Noodles all the way to Ontario in a car!  Really hope Noodles doesn't get so sick like she did last time Dean stayed with us.

Then....
 Meg and Derek are getting married!  In our backyard!  I am campaigning hard to be Ring Pup.  Out of the four of us, I am the best bet - Ruby does not follow ANY direction and Pash and Noodles would chew apart the ring carrying vessel as soon as it was given to them.  I follow directions, and generally don't chew stuff up.  The only problem is that I'm terrified of things that are out of place and I'm willing to bet there might be chairs in the backyard.  Rows of chairs. Canopy.  Wedding type stuff.  We've never had any of this stuff in our yard before.  I need to see if I can wrap my head around this.  I also heard Meg tell Janet she was thinking of using Throckmorton, her teddy bear.  She told Janet he could be Ring Bear - cute, admittedly, but seriously,  who would choose a stupid teddy bear (even if he has travelled all over the world with her and has cute outfits!) over a live, really adorable dog?

Janet is in a tizzy as she now needs two new dresses and she hasn't had a dress on for at least two years.  We know all about Not Your Daughter's Jeans...do you think there are Mother of the Bride Jeans?


Thursday, December 15, 2011

Block Party

Every Christmas for the past several years, Janet and Phil have held the Monteith Street Christmas Block Party.  There was an exception two years ago when I had my ligament surgery and people couldn't come into the house and get me all excited.  I was contained in a corral!  Not to mention, all the scatter rugs all over the house so I wouldn't slip - Janet felt obligated to explain to everyone, including virtual strangers that our house doesn't normally look this this.  Talk about anal!

At any rate, every year Janet says she is not doing that gosh darned (trust me, those are not her words, but I'm only nine and not allowed to use bad language) party, and every year she does it again. Not sure if she has a dictionary, but she may want to look up Glutton.  For.  Punishment.

This is me helping Janet make a cheesecake for said party.  Apparently, it's not too much of a problem that I am right beneath the mixer as Janet never asks me to move.  A bonus, is falling treats, because truth be known, she is a very messy cook!

Janet got this recipe from Aunt T, and has been making this cheesecake  longer than I have been around.  She says it's so easy as you bake it in the oven for 30 minutes, shut the oven off and go to bed.  In the morning, viola!  Perfect cheesecake with no cracks.  Not sure what we are doing for a topping, but I hope I get to help again.  Remember how my brother was bragging about how he got the walks and meals orchestrated.....where is he in all of the festive goings on?  I helped with the tree and now the party!






Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Another Exciting Day...Well, for a Dog at any Rate

We have a really big tree beside our driveway.  For several year, Janet has been telling Phil the tree was dangerous.  Everytime there was a wind storm, which is common in the winter, the street and lawn are filled with branches and debris.

The dangerous offender.
A week or so ago, we had another windstorm.  The end result was a large branch fell off and hit the electric charger for Phil's new car, knocking it off the bracket.  Guess what?  That tree needs to go now!  STAT!
Wait, is it snowing?  Nope, just sawdust.

A big, shiny truck with a bucket and three workers arrived at 8AM sharp.  It took them 2 hours and 15 minutes (and $850, but who's counting!) to take the tree down.

Janet is really glad she doesn't know how to wield an axe.  She is also hoping (and praying) that these logs in the making have not found a permanent home on the front lawn.  A long running joke at our house is how long it takes Phil to do household chores.  Briana was convinced that Phil would charge the electric car with an orange extension cord that ran out of the window in the spare bedroom on the main floor, and down the front step!

Monday, December 12, 2011

Christmas Bake Sale

Although similar to this year's output of baked goods and jam, this photo was taken a couple of years ago.  Janet was in Portland dogsitting our American buds and Phil didn't have time to lay out this year's goodies out for a photo op.
The SPCA Bake Sale this holiday season was a success.  Last year they were unable to have the sale as the two key volunteers who organize it were away for extended periods of time.  The sale is normally held over a Saturday and Sunday in early December.  About 3 or 4 years ago, the Sunday had to be cancelled due to heavy snow on the Saturday evening! We live in Victoria - we are not expecting snow to make anything go sideways.  Unless, of course, you are a school child with undone homework!

The same really nice volunteers are kind enough to come to our house to pick up our contributions.  And even better, they returned our containers with a nice bottle of wine and a really cute card.  Thanks, SPCA...we are delighted to help out!

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Christmas is Coming


Hi!  We have had lots of activity at our house lately.  Phil brought home a really nice, big, fresh Christmas tree.  Today we put on the lights and then did the decorations.  It looks really pretty.  This is better than last year when they went to the actual Christmas tree farm and chose a tree.  They said it was difficult choosing a tree from a huge field as there was not any perspective.  The tree they purchased was really, really big - which would be OK as we have high ceilings.  The bad part was the trunk was so large, Phil had to trim it down width wise to fit in the holder.  Sadly, it fell twice.  There was some unsavoury language flying around like crazy and a few broken ornaments!

We don't know too much about Christmas.  The only thing we do know is that as soon as that tree goes up, it means that the girls that I like so much will be arriving home really soon.  I love those girls!  Sadly, I overheard Janet talking to Meg on the phone and it sounds like Meg and Derek won't be coming this year....too bad!


First, we lit a nice big fire. It just wouldn't be Christmas without Meg's bells!


This is me, helping to decorate the tree.  Please note my brother is no where in sight.  He likes to think he is the only guy who can get stuff done!

Our pretty tree.
Now what's going on?





Looks like Phil is hanging more Christmas lights.  In the background, you can see his new all electric car, Nissan Leaf.  He likes to think he's pretty cool.  We think he's real cool, for a guy who just turned 63 yesterday!

Friday, December 9, 2011

High Crime in Oak Bay

Janet and Phil got an email from a neighbour that was originally from Oak Bay Police for the Block Watch program.

Apparently, there have been six homes in Oak Bay broken into during a very short time span.  Five of the six are believed to be by the same person.  We like to think that anyone attempting to break into our house would flee the moment we let them know that we are watch dogs of the highest caliber!



This is us, guarding the place.