They Came, They Went!

My, oh, my....it has been so hectic!  We have watched as Janet and Aunt T have been whirling dervishes, cooking up a storm.  Our newly minted son in laws did a bang up job on the dishes.

Banana and Ted came home and Meg and Derek came home.  Lack of photographic evidence, but Jeremy also came home.

We are crying!

Now we are whining!

Bronwyn came home and immediately threw herself into some heavy duty relaxing with us.

Bronwyn looks exhausted from watching her mother work so hard!

Janet got some nice Christmas booty.

She got the new Kindle, a fancy All Clad slow cooker, two cookbooks, an Italian apron and a pair of Bogs!  Janet always goes the "it's not necessary to get me anything" route, but oddly enough, never mentions anything being returned.  Whoops...make that 3 cookbooks.  Janet bought "Smitten Kitchen" for Lolo, Meg and Briana.  Meg bought "Smitten Kitchen" for Janet.  What book will they all buy the same of next year?

Derek and Phil quaffed back some beer in retro Japanese beer glasses.

You can tell by Derek's face that he really enjoys a good beer!  Kampai!

We listened to our new babies heartbeat on our portable "at home gurney".

Aunt T rolled out the pastry for our Tourtiere with Janet's pastry roll in the foreground.  She thought it was so painful, she went out and purchased a new one for Janet.

Getting ready to say goodbye.

They promised to get Banana a Mele Kalikikimaka shirt for next year!

The Wilkinsons' leave!  Noodles wants Aunt T to leave the old rolling pin so she can chew it up.

Time sure flies by when you are having fun!

We Are Getting Ready For Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We finally got a replacement tree that Janet thinks is barely better than the original, but so be it.  You know Janet, easy going, easy going.

Janet was busy cleaning the baseboards in our house - they get very dirty where we doggies shake ourselves off when we return from a rainy walk.  She really wishes we would shake off outside, but where would the fun be in that?  Janet uses QTips to clean out the corners of the wainscoting.  She started out with four and in the end only had three.....Noodles???

We had some of our Volunteer Friends over for a small partyette.  Erin and Mariem and Barb were unable to come, so it was a small gathering, but still lots of fun.

Welda on the left, 86 years old and comes to chop vegetables every Thursday for 4 hours; Doreen at the back on the right who we will miss as she has to go back to Salt Spring to sell her house; Katherine who has been volunteering here for a minimum of 10 years.

Lolo and Stevo came on Monday night with Janet's Christmas gift.  Janet was so excited!  It was the new Hali'imaile General Store cookbook.  Janet has wanted this book for at least two years.

Remember how we always say how sloppy Janet is?  She is looking at this book that she has owned for less than 12 hours and still manages to spill her lunch on it!  Bad Janet!

Janet said she was really busy at work today and they were shorthanded.  They keep milk and sugar in jugs and Janet by accident dumped a jug of milk into the 50lb. sugar bin!  She was so angry with herself.

Fortunately, Janet didn't have to dump the whole bin.  She said it was a really ugly, sticky mess.  The other volunteer on duty broke 4 cups, so this was a shift that would have cost them money.  Ouch!

It's Our Party And We'll Bark If We Want To!

Guess what!  We turned 11 years old today!  Janet We are super excited.  Janet and Phil made us special hats on Phil's fancy printer machine.

Do you think at least one of these morons has too much time on their hands?

In our party splendour.

 We had a special dinner of Chicken Tartare with Seasonal Vegetable Melange a la mode with Cookie.  Janet is pumping this as special, but it's actually what we eat every night, except we don't get the cookie on top.

Noodles, ever the life of the party, looks like she has had one too many.  See how my ribbon is blue for a boy and Noodle's is pink for a girl?

 Noodles might have had one too many, but she managed to turn her party hat into a party treat.

Christmas Is Coming

It was our Christmas Block Party this Sunday.  We weren't invited as it was held at the neighbours house.  They are leaving Victoria in the spring and wanted to have the party at their house.  It's more fun at our house as we get to socialize with everyone!

Wendy, who always has a good time; Michael and Mark.  The party was at Michael and Brenda's house.  They are moving to the interior.  Six degrees of separation - Michael is from Lethbridge!

Jeremy was home for one week from Northern BC and was working on some stuff in the basement.  The sound of one of the machines drives poor Noodles insane.

She managed to recover when we went for a walk and came home very proudly carrying this stupid piece of kelp.  Noodles always scours the curb edge down at Willows Beach looking for small pieces of kelp.  Janet doesn't like her to get the kelp as she gets very territorial.

It was Phil's birthday on Monday.  He is 64 years old!  We think he looks pretty good, even if you take into account he lives with Mrs. Major Anal Janet.Personally, we have heard Janet mutter under her breath that if that ugly mess continues in his office, his life expectancy will be a lot shorter than he anticipates.  We really hope nothing mysterious happens to Phil and Janet, is subsequently,  incarcerated.  Where will we go?  We bet Mike and Bronwyn would take us.  We really hope Phil cleans up his office!  We like our street.

We have purchased a Christmas Tree from the same tree family for several years.  A couple of years ago, Janet and Phil drove out to the farm to select our tree.  Sadly, in the middle of a field, all perspective on size was lost and they came home with a giant tree that had to be cut down and even then, fell over twice once it was put up.  This year, they had a tree delivered to the city and Janet is very unhappy with it.

Janet says it has huge gaps on the trunk....very obvious and about a quarter of the bottom is starting to yellow.  Phil is in the process of complaining about it.  Ugly, right?

Janet is Leaving!

It's Minnie again.....I kind of dissed Janet for the last couple of days as Mike and Bronwyn came home and brought Rose and Don with them.  For the last 10 days, I have slept with Janet, off and on through out the night.  We always, always, spent every morning in bed ipadding together for about an hour.  I kind of forgot about all that when there were new people in the house that I could socialize with.  I feel bad because Janet faithfully took me on my long Fairview Lake walks every second day and spent alot of time with me.  Janet was sad. 

You can plainly see how bad I feel!

Janet thinks this guy is so cute.  He lives across the street from our house.

We knew Janet was leaving because she had her suitcase out and was moving much more quickly than she has for the last ten days.  Here we are saying goodbye...kind of.  Truth be known, we thought we were going for a walk, so were really impatient in the photo.

Nice socks, Janet

Did we go for a walk?  No way!  They went for Italian lunch...whats up with this Italian lunch spot?

Here they are bonding when Bronwyn isn't looking at her iphone!

Janet had an uneventful flight back to Victoria (that is code speak that means she actually managed to find her gate, unlike a couple of trips ago where she was in the wrong terminal and added 5 hours onto her travel time).  Phil was so excited to see her, he was 25 minutes late, leaving Janet outside in one of the heavier rains Victoria has ever seen.  She was pissed rolled with the punches, as per her go with the flow mind set.  Luckily, sushi dinner was shortly after, so she was pacified.

It was dark when she got home and Noodles and Rockers were super excited to see her.  In the light of the next morning, things didn't look so good.

Phil left 10 days of recycle in the back porch.  You may wonder how much further the actual recycle bin is - about 5 seconds more time.

This is a tiny sample of the dog fur that was on their floors.

Groceries in the living room - a real classic look.

Random pieces of wood, all over the floor. That kindling has been in the fireplace for a least a month because Phil WAS going to light a fire then.  Compared to the logs allover the hearth, the kindling was nothing.  What did Miss Go With The Flow do?  Cry!

Emma's Turn

It's finally my turn to get Janet to post a blog for us.  Noodles always hogs the limelight, but I am here and so is Janet!

Janet has a routine when she comes to PDX to dog sit us.  She always takes Ruby and I for a spin round the 'hood in the morning and in the evening.  On alternate days, I get to go for an hour long walk around Fairview Lake. Rubs is really old now and sleeps away most of the day, so she doesn't get to go.  On the other days, Janet walks to one of three restaurants in Fairview for lunch.  As soon as we get back from our little spin round the 'hood, I bolt back for the door, hoping she will have forgotten that we did that yesterday.  She NEVER forgets!  She is also off her lunches out as two days in a row, she stayed home with us.

Bacon and Tomato Sandwish

Oddly enough, she has grown tired of eating sandwiches for supper.  Janet was going to make Red Lentil Carrot Soup, but apparently red lentils are a scarce commodity in this neck of the woods.  Instead, she made Split Pea Soup with Ham in Brownyn's slow cooker.  She had never made this before and thought it turned out pretty good.

Ready to go - just push the button!

Topped with the croutons she made that weren't burned to a crisp!

Today was one of our Fairview Lake days and it was really nice out!  Everyday up until now has been freezing cold with bitter winds or freezing cold with bitter winds and rain.  Move over, Maui - it's all about Fairview today this morning.  Guess what?  The weather party was short lived!

This was the really nice part of the day.

Here I am getting into the back of the car.  This is the beginning and end of my effort.  I always have to be lifted in. Seriously, why bust my butt jumping in if one of the people will help me?  It also gives me some "cute helpless puppy" cred.

While it looks like I am not wearing a collar or leash, I actually am and Janet is holding onto the leash.  She says I have selective hearing, so can't go off leash.

Somehow, Mrs. Good Housekeeping  managed to turn a perfectly white bath mat into a soft mauve colour.  As we speak, it's in the washing machine with bleach!

I'm doing my best to have a relaxing visit with Janet.  She's not the taskmaster everyone says she is!

One Whole Year

It has been one year and two days since Janet started to make posts on our blog.  Time sure does fly by!  We doggies live a rich and fulfilling life and here is some of what we did over the last year.  Suffice it to say, we weren't invited on all outings!

It snowed!  We had so much fun.

Janet started yoga and riding her bike, both in the same year!  She isn't nearly as lame at yoga as she used to be, but she's still not lululemon material. 

These yoga togs are from Costco.

 They went for sushi a couple of times in the last year.  Who is dumb enough to believe they only went a couple of times?!?  Should Janet and Phil be rendered mute, they could still enjoy their sushi as they eat the same things everytime they go.  If the restaurant gets a new sushi chef, they will be screwed!

Janet is in Portland right now and she says she is getting super hungry just looking at the photo.

 Phil got a new car, so that meant there was no way Janet wasn't getting her new oven.

Janet had her last stove for 17 years and Phil had the Volvo for only 5 years.  Doesn't seem fair that he resisted the new stove for so long.  Phil says it has cost about $250 to run the new Leaf for the whole year!

 One of our "dots" got married.

 And then another one got married.

The youngest "dot" made 90 jars of jam in ONE day and thought she was going to die from heat stroke.  Our favourite son went up north to work.

Point in case about the sushi - this photo was taken at Shizen Sushi!

Janet and Phil went to Hawaii and on a trip to the U.K.  We were only allowed to go on one vacation at Hood River, but we loved it!  Hot weather, fruit orchards, Mexican food - what's not to like?

Bring on the Tortilla chips and Pico de Gallo!

Phil had surgery and Rockers had surgery.  Rockers was forced to stay in his "man cave" while Phil could roam freely during his recovery.

Here's to another great year of blogging!

We Went, We Left

Yes sir, we hoppped into the good old Volvo, got on the ferry and drove to Portland on Tuesday.  Noodles was on her best behaviour, which is always a relief for Janet and Phil, but they did have back up anti-crazy dog pills if it went sideways.

It turns out Don and Rose arrive the next day.  Something is going down as we can see flippers, swimsuits and can smell coconut body lotion.  They must be going to Hawaii and we really, really want to frolic on the beautiful beaches.  Janet says doggies have to be crate trained to go on the plane, so that sadly leaves us out.

Here we are, looking and feeling very needy:

See how much we love each other?

Rockers know something is up because he never sits like this.

Rockers needs some hugs.

Janet and Phil were indeed, living the high life.  They drove to Hood River and had lunch at our favourite - The Taqueira.  They said the food was delicious, as always, but the ambience inside in the winter can't touch the summer patio.  It also wasn't the same without the rest of our family members taking up the whole picnic table outside.

Truth be known, Janet said she was freezing her *** off inside and we think everyone knows Janet's tolerance for a cold room is pretty high!

They drove past our first vacation rental that we all loved so much, especially Mr. D.  It looks like a family lives there year round.  We loved that house - doggies get to roam free in cherry orchards and chat with nice horsies. 

This road was just around the corner from the house we loved.  It has been blocked off so they can extend the runway at the airport.

Meg reminded Janet that they rode their bikes past this area last summer and a lot of fruit trees were burned and piled up.

There were a few sad, lonely looking pears on some trees.

To add insult to injury, they went downtown for Italian lunch not once, but twice!

Linquine with clams

Delicious!

 This morning, Phil packed us back up in the Volvo and we said "too  bad, so sad
  Sister" to Janet.  We didn't want to leave her, but a doggie has to do what a doggie has to do!

Now, Janet is all lonely.  Or, on the other hand, we guess she can do whatever she wants!  Here is what people in lonely land eat for dinner:

Grilled Mozzarella Cheese with Carmelized Onions on bread from LoveJoy Bakery.  They just discovered LoveJoy Bakery on Saturday.  It's the bakery that supplies the bread to Piazza Italia  the restaurant where they had lunch.