Spring Is In The Air

Hi everyone...on Wednesday, Janet was busy making something in the kitchen.  It had a sweet, spicy, tangy aroma that smelled delicious.  It kind of felt like summer in our kitchen.  Of course it smelled like summer;  Janet was making BBQ sauce! Don and Rose are going to PDX, so Janet made the BBQ sauce, some Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies and Sam Choy Salad Dressing for Mike and Bronwyn.

Janet often makes this BBQ sauce and if when they are invited out in the summer, she takes it as a hostess gift.  She says it's really good and it keeps in the frig for a long time.

Janet was really proud of herself at yoga, again.  She did a full shoulder stand!  OK, OK, she did have to start out at the wall, but finished off unsupported.  She was so happy she took her new yoga mat to the next class.

My crazy ass butt brother can't take a step forward with the mat around his neck.  We heard Janet tell Phil the real reason she is taking the mat to yoga is that the 50+ classes are filled with very cunning yogi, who swoop in and score the spot they want in a nano second.  If Janet takes her mat, she can stake her claim immediately instead of getting the mat first.  Who knew old people were so devious?

Yesterday, a big truck pulled up to our yard and dropped off three yards of soil and compost.  We are very worried...it will be impossible for Janet to relax until this is all spread out.  As anal easygoing as Janet is, this will have to wrap itself up real soon.

The last sign of spring has arrived - no more off leash doggies at Uplands Park.  All of April, May and June, all doggies have to be on leash due nesting birds.  We went for our last stroll today.  It was fun!

Some people still let their doggies off leash in the spring, but Janet loves the birds and doesn't want anything to harm them.

A Lot of Activity at Our House

Sometimes, it's really hard to get Janet going in the morning.  She has to have her two lattes, read her two newspapers (used to be four, but she has scaled back!), eat her breakfast, read the internet, have a bath....well, you get the picture.  Left to her own devices, we could be leaving the house at noon!   I'm doing my best to get the dog show on the road.

Come on, Janet...let's go for a walk.  I've had an upset puppy tummy for a couple of days so have had a special diet of cooked ground beef, cooked brown rice and cottage cheese.

After we get back from our walk, there is a huge flurry of activity.  Gwen and Wendy have arrived with veggies, pots and packages of food and are here helping Janet cook which is so not the norm around here.   They were very busy indeed.

There was lots of chopping, slicing, dicing, measuring, pouring, swearing (well...maybe only Janet on that front), ladling and in general having fun.

We doggies are often left out on what is going on as we can't read...did you know we have to get Janet to do the blog for us as we can't type either?  Turns out it was for a block party at Wendy's house on Sunday.

Wendy and Gwen were the driving force behind the Souper Sunday party.  Janet helped cook and Phil made the invitations.

 Janet made her contribution early Sunday afternoon.  She made Chili with Ground Beef and Italian Sausage from the Silver Palate Cookbook.  The chili is garnished with green onions, grated cheddar cheese and sour cream.

Here are Phil and Rockers helping out with the cooking and cleaning:

Phil loves to think he is the inspiration behind every meal cooked at our house, but we heard Janet warn him that he had better not be dispensing cooking advice to Wendy and Gwen from the TV room!

Happy Birthday, Rubby Dubs!

Ruby turns 12 years old today!  Yay, Rubs.  We wonder if Mike and Bronwyn will let her have a special cookie or treat today.  As befitting someone who is the equivalent of 72 human years, Ruby is cranky, demanding and sleeps alot.

This was all before our time, so Janet went through Phil's files and found these.  This is a picture of Rube the first day she came to our house:

Wasn't she cute?

Licorice, the non dog.  He used to like to do self guided walks to the beach.  One time when Janet's cousin, Mary Jane was babysitting Licorice, he escaped.  The police found him up by Camosun College, which is a fair distance and brought him back in the police car.  Doggie goes to college to seek higher education!

 Licorice already lived here when Ruby came.  You can see some shaved fur on his leg...Licorice had several stays at the Animal Clinic before he passed away. Janet has a cute little clay mould with Licorice's foot print in it.  They gave it to her at the Animal Hospital when he died.  Janet also says you could count on one hand all the times Licorice ever barked....until Ruby came.  He started to bark after that, but because his vocal chords were unused, he sounded like a seal!

 We don't want to steal Rubs thunder on her special day, but here is a sample of how cute we were!

You can totally tell which one is me, Rockers!  My face still looks the same, just larger.

The three of us are all nestled up together by the front door, when we were still pretty little.  Many happy returns, Ruby!

We Doggies Don't Get to Eat Chocolate Mousse

Janet invited their friends, Lori and Steve over for dinner last night.  She made Smoked Salmon Roll Ups, Pan Seared Halibut with Lemon Garlic Vin Blanc and Tuscan Bread Salad.  The halibut was the first of the season...Janet said it was nice to finally see fresh seafood.  For dessert, she made Chocolate Mousse. 

Delicious, Jeremy said!

While Janet was making the mousse, she told us she was remembering "The Girls Trip to SFO" which Janet cannot believe was one year ago this week.  This was what spurred the memory:

Janet used Ghirardelli chocolate to make the mousse.  The trip was supposed to be with all three "dots" but Briana had to cancel at the last minute due a work commitment.  When Briana was a very small child, she got lost at Ghirardelli Square.  Janet, perhaps setting a pattern for being really nutty later in life,  patiently waited in line at the Concierge Desk to inquire after her lost child.  Janet said the line up was about 15 minutes long!  Don't even get Briana started on when she fell out of a moving vehicle....twice.  Poor Banana!

In an effort to prove that Briana escaped from her dodgy childhood unscathed, here is a photo of she and her fiance, Ted.  Although the Ghirardelli Square incident was way before our time, it appears to us that she has adjusted from the trauma.  Bet you anything, she knit that scarf!

Meg and Bronwyn were toasting Briana at Gary Danko Restaurant.

Lulu Lemon, Here We Come!

Janet was positively elated when she came home from yoga on Wednesday!  This is the polar opposite of how she usually comes home, which is dragging her butt.  There was a substitute teacher on Wednesday, named Patty.  At the end of the class, she asked Janet how often she was coming.  Janet very proudly mentioned her unlimited pass and then Patty went on to say that she had improved since the last time they were in a class together.  It took Janet a while to put the pieces together, (Meg says "older" people need to do puzzles, but Janet hates puzzles) but then she remembered that Patty had assisted in the combined beginner/general class they did one day as an instructor was ill.  Janet was super excited!

Enough about Janet.  Yesterday was garbage and recycle day.  As soon as Noodles hears the back door open, she is out and down the stairs.  Janet makes her go back in as Noodles is completely untrustworthy!

Why can't Janet see the moss on the lower rail?  And how about the moss on the sidewalk?

We are trying to help with dinner.  It goes without saying that some of their dinner will hit the floor.

Mike sent a photo of Pashy to Janet on Tuesday, but she didn't see it until today.  Pashy is an "Uptown Girl" with all kinds of fancy duds.  Noodles really wishes Pash would come to Camp Canada.  Mike's photo is kind of fuzzy, but she sure looks cute in her pink boots!

Dog Cookies, Good Food and Bad Food

Lucky for us, Janet didn't let her new found staging cleaning career go to her her head as she was around all weekend.  Jack came into the yard with Mr. Beau to show her how to do something in the garden.  Phil took a picture of us, but Janet found it very difficult to make all us doggies co-operate.  Well, mostly Mr. Beau, as you can see we are sitting and being as good as gold.  Turns out only one of us was behaving - Noodles escaped from the yard.  Not once, but twice!  Janet was very cross with her.

Later in the day, after our dinner, Phil went to the basement to replenish the dog cookie jar.  We are waiting and waiting, drooling and drooling until he comes back.  Ever the devil, sometimes Noodles starts to go down the stairs.  We are not allowed to go into the basement, but Noodles can't resist the all powerful call of the cookies!

You can see her sizing up the situation.  Attention all Brides to Be:  see how good I am being?  You can tell it's me on the right by my club paw from arthritis.

A couple of years ago, Phil bought Janet this fancy pants stainless steel food mill.  She was making gnocchi.  This is the good food:

Here is the finished product.  She made Gnocchi with Roasted Tomatoes, Pine Nuts and Gorgonzola Cream Sauce.  Noodles wasn't interested in helping until the gorgonzola came out. Phil says if Janet wants to use pine nuts often, she needs to get a part time job as they are so expensive now.  Cheapskate!

This is the bad food:

It's supposed to be Dill Cheddar Crackers, but somehow, somewhere, Janet went sideways.  We heard her tell Phil she thinks the recipe has errors in it.  The recipe, however, comes with a pretty picture of the crackers and they sure didn't look like that!  Why, oh why can't she know and recognize her abilities and give up on this cracker/bread business?

Janet's New Career

Yesterday was Thursday, so this means Janet leaves the house at 6:45AM to do the breakfast shift at Our Place.  This morning, Rockers got on Janet's case for our breakfast the very second she got up.  This means we eat at 5:45AM.....I'm not sure if this is a good idea as by the time it's 4PM, I'm starving.  It doesn't matter if Phil gets up first - Rockers never hassles him for the groceries.  Could it be that Janet is a major pushover in the doggie department?

When Janet has to get up really early, she takes crabby to a whole new level!  It's nothing short of a miracle that she hasn't been fired from her breakfast job.  We can only assume she digs deep into her inner reserves to put on a pleasant facade.
 
Janet  told us she was going to be late coming home today, as after her "work", she was  going out for lunch then going to stage a condo for Phil.  This struck us as odd as Janet has zero design skills and, if possible, even less creativity.   Seriously, staging a condo?

This is the end result of Janet's work:

The condo is across the soon to be replaced Blue Bridge and has outstanding water views.  Janet was there for about three hours and watched the weather make very dramatic changes over the water.

Hah...we knew it! Turns out Janet was embellishing her role at the condo, just a teeny tiny bit.  Phil had all these cleaning products out on the counter that he took with him when he picked her up.  Someone else had already staged it and Janet was doing the cleaning.

Nothing like a great big fat dog greeting when you have been gone all day volunteering and "staging" a condo-

Odds and Ends

It was nice on Saturday and Sunday, so Janet started to work in the yard.  It took her several hours, but she managed to get the bulk of the clean up done.  Now, she needs to order top soil and mulch, which sounds like way too many back breaking hours to us.  Jack said his grandson, who goes to UVIC and lives with them, might be cheap to hire.  Bonus - he's young!!

Janet also removed the moss from the back sidewalk.  This took forever as she needs to take all the earthworms from the moss and put them in the garden.  Crazy?  You bet!  Certifiable?  There is a good chance.  One has to wonder how the moss got so thick in the first place.

Once a year, in Oak Bay, you are permitted to haul your garden refuse to the curb and they will come and pick it up.  Janets Thursday volunteer friends tell her they envy the Oak Bay dump as it is so convenient.  It is convenient, but nothing can top street side pick up.  This is a small portion of what Janet has on the street.

Today, that pile at the curb is covered with tarp.  Guess what!  During the night, really high winds started - up to 100KM.  Janet took us down to Willows Beach and at times we were actually pushed by the winds.  Here is Willows Beach which is almost fully covered with logs:

Do you remember we showed you the unlimited Yoga Pass that Janet purchased?  Take a look-

See all the Y's on the calendar?  Those are the days Janet went to Yoga last week, plus she went today as well.  Janet just loves the challenge of purchasing a pass and getting the biggest bang for her (Janet doesn't earn any money, so read Phils') buck!  Personally, if we had so little going on in our lives, we don't think we would post the calendar....perhaps she has an appointment book elsewhere?

See Ya Later, Noodle's Good Buddies

More than  three years ago, Ruby had a "misunderstanding" with the neighbours dog.  It came to light that in Oak Bay (a very anal community - think of it as one huge homeowners assocation) you are permitted to have two dogs only, unless you had more than two when they passed the bylaw.

As a result, Noodles had to vacate the premises for a few days.  She went to stay at Don and Roses' during the day and became buddies with their dogs, Lola and Bronx.  She always acted like she was happy to see Phil when he went to pick her up, but Janet and Phil are pretty sure she had a good time with them.  All this culminated in Ruby doing an Idi Amin and becoming a "dictator in exile" in PDX.

Lola was ill for some time, and passed away shortly after Christmas.  All the Stubbs family and Brownyn were very sad.  Sadly, Bronx, who was not ill, died very suddenly on 07 March.  Rose thinks he died of a broken heart as he just wasn't himself after Lola passed away.

Now, they romp together in the biggest doggie park in the world, where the word "NO" is a foreign language and there are endless cookies and tummy rubs!

Janet and Phil and us doggies feel very sad for especially Don and Rose, but also Mike and Bronwyn and Laura and Scott.

These are not actual pictures of Lola and Bronx, but photos of the type of dogs they were.  Lola was Dogue-de-Bordeaux.  Envision Lola with drool, lots of drool!  She was big, but very sweet.


This is kind of what Bronx looked like.  Bronx was a very funny guy!