Spring Is Here!

Well, kind of!  This was our backyard in the morning, a few days ago.

Janet had just cut the lawn the day before, so the frost is in nice straight rows.  This is the kind of thing Janet thrives on!  Whoever said retired people need mental stimulation hasn't met Janet. 

Phil is whipping up another batch of our delicious meals.  We like to give him a hand, if we have the time.  I like to try and stare him into hurrying up.  Rockers has stopped for a brief moment to serenade.  Usually Rockers paces in a circle from the kitchen, through the dining room, into the hallway and back into the kitchen the whole time Phil is making our dinner.

He thinks we adore him, but all we really want is dinner!

Another sign of spring:

Lots and lots of little birdies.  Janet loves them.  Unfortunately, the bamboo they are resting on has died and now needs to be cut out.

Jack stopped by our house the other day.  He and Gwen want to take Janet and Phil out for Chinese food.  Mr. Beau bolted up the steps and made himself right at home.

 Mr. Beau is like greased lightning, so there isn't a good shot of him.

Here is Rocker's imitation of a three legged dog.

That's Rockers club paw in the forefront.  It is way bigger than his other front paw and he is very self conscious about it. We always whisper when we talk about it, so he won't know.

I carefully positioned myself in the kitchen, and it paid off in spades.  I got to lick the remaining beaten egg out of the bowl.  I had to be very still and quiet as I don't want Rockers to know I have this treat.

If I stand up, Rockers might catch on.

Janet took us the beach this morning and we chanced upon a gaggle of small children who we quickly turned into an adoring fan club.  They were part of a camp for Spring Break. 

Next thing you know, we'll be dodging the paparazzi!  Come back little girls and we will pawograph a photo for you.

Remember the Souper Sunday they had last weekend?  Did Janet take any photos of her contribution?  Nope.  Did she take any photos of all the soups lined up?  Nope.  Did she take any photos of all the guests at the party?  Nope.  How about all the breads and desserts lined up?  Nope to that one too!

She's Getting Better!

Yay!  While Janet is still not 100%, she is way better and actually has some energy.  This is a huge improvement.  We doggies are happy for her.

A couple of years ago, Janet purchased some dog toys for Noodles at Costco.  They were labeled as indestructible.  The people that made these toys have never met Noodles.  There were 3 in a package and the first two were "noodleized" quite some time ago.  Janet brought the third one out the other day to see how long it will last.

Brand new, out of the package.  Noodles doesn't seem to care about it too much.

Cagey, cagey Noodles managed to sneak a piece of kelp into the house.  She loves her kelp.

We don't know why Phil insists on taxing our limitations.  He wants us to eat our food while he holds the bowl.  Why can't he just put the food on the floor?  Noodles is OK with forging ahead, but I'm nervous about this situation.

See Phil's sparkly new fleece jacket with DFH on the sleeve?  He "won" this jacket for having the second highest sales at DFH last year.

In an effort to get herself moving, Janet decided to make something new to eat.  Sometimes this works out well and sometimes we have to leave the kitchen because she uses such bad language.  She made the Fancy Mac & Cheese from Pioneer Woman and the Cheddar Swirl Buns from the Smitten Kitchen.  This experiment turned into the really bad language version.

She said this Mac & Cheese was way too labourious and used a multitude of pots and pans.  She also said the taste was fine.  It had roasted mushrooms and bacon on top.

The recipe for the Cheddar buns described them as "dangerous" because they were so delicious.  The only danger with these buns would be if someone threw one at your head after they were baked.  They rose about an inch high, causing Janet to have a bit of a meltdown.  Yet another yeast failure for Janet.  Why won't she leave yeast alone?

I am so loving the sun, shining through the foyer windows on my sore back.  I went for acupuncture yesterday and now I feel way better.

We are having another block party!

This Sunday.  It's at Wendy's so we won't get a chance to see everyone.

76 Days Left

Two people told Janet there is a new cold virus floating around called "100 Day Cold".  That being the case, she only has 76 days left.  We doggies aren't religious, but we beg and pray there won't be 76 more days of this.  Janet's usual joie de vivre, ebullience and eternal optimism are all but gone.   She is but a shadow of her formerly buoyant self.  It would also appear she is somewhat delusional as she hasn't held any of these mindsets since she was 6 years old!  She also hasn't done our blog for more than a week - this has never happened before.  Her new best friends:

NyQuill.

 Diamond Jim came home from Whistler with new skis.  Janet said WTF!  He then reminded her that she got a new stove.  How long will he milk this stove situation, do you think?

He said they were on sale.  These sure don't look like the skis of yesteryear.  Earlier this winter, our Uncle Bob broke his leg; again!

He also came home with some salmon.  One of the other skiers took some salmon that he caught up to Whistler and gave it to Phil as they had an abundance of food.

 He did however, get back into the swing of things with making our food.  In an effort to extract every morsel, Noodles pushes her bowl far and wide.

Down the hallway, by the bathroom door.

After she finishes with her bowl, she polishes off mine.

After all that exercise, she needs a rest on the TV room sofa.

Here is my imitation of a two legged doggie:

Here's Noodles imitation of someone who actually does have joie de vivre, ebullience and eternal optimism!  We live the good life.

Very pretty, but not in our yard.

Something Is Afoot

Stuff is going on at our house.  First, Phil dons this crazy helmet and even crazier sun glasses.  Are they sun glasses?  We doggies don't know a whole lot about this kind of stuff.

We do know he should remove the price tag from the helmet.

It turns out he is going skiing!  Without us!  Without Janet!  What the fu** heck is going on?  While he is busy dumping us at home, Janet made a nice pasta dish, Bread Salad and Olive Bread for him to take to the get together.  Janet was sneaky and read his email sent items and he says "I will bring a large pasta dish".  Whoa!  We thought Janet was going to go balisitic as he made it sound like he was making the dish.

So, now that he is gone, this means the following:

Janet has to do the recycle and garbage on her own.  Wait...she does this every time by herself!

Janet  has to make dinner on her own.   Wait...she does this every time by herself!

Janet now has to make our dog food.....OK, OK, Phil actually does this on a regular basis.

Here is Noodles, helping Janet with some cooking.  Do you think a guy could get any closer?  Do you think any Doggie Mistress would be as tolerant as Janet is?

Janet Is Still Sick

Janet says she is really tired of trooping it out and wants this headache/cold/flu to go away.  Stat!  We think that might be hospital talk.

Noodles did an empathy gig, complete with cough syrup and tissues.  Personally, I think she just wanted to sleep on the bed.

To show Janet how much we love her, we asked Phil to get her some flowers for us so we could give them to her on Valentines Day.  We have to rely on him because we don't have any credit cards (Noodles is fiscally irresponsible).   Of course, he manipulates the situation; turning the whole thing into his idea.  Mr. Liar Phil had the audacity to tell her there were three flowers as one flower was from each of us.  Given that Mr. Prepared Phil waited until the end of the day on the 14th, we think he was lucky to get three!

Janet and Phil were out the other day, and chanced upon something they had never seen before.

A bus being towed!  As a genuine reflection on how boring their lives are, Janet was riveted by this and watched until it was all done.  She said it took only one man to do this!  After he had the bus on the trailer, the wheels under the trailer roll backwards to bring the trailer up off the ground.

Due her illness, Janet stayed at work on Tuesday for only one hour.  On Wednesday, she felt much better and had lots of energy, so stayed for her whole shift.  Thursday was back to feeling not so good,  but she did the whole shift anyhow.  They were making chili for dinner.

Janet loves this huge cooking vessel.

Noodles is super excited because tomorrow is the final episode of this season of Downton Abbey.  This means that Janet will speak to us in her regular voice instead of her "Lady Janet of Monteith" voice.  Blimey!  The media says the final episode is going to be very sad, so we hope Lady Janet doesn't shed tears on her jumper whilst eating her crisps.

Our "New" Blog and Janet Gets Sick

 Bronwyn told Janet that she didn't like the way our blog photos were larger than the outline.  Janet thought she was wrong, but when she mentioned it to Phil, he agreed.  So, Janet set about to the fix the problem and quite by accident, ended up with a whole "new look".  Now everyone in our family has a blog except Jeremy!

Janet becoming ill is a very rare event.  She almost never catches any bugs.  Until this week!  Now she has a headache, sore hip joints, sore chest and bad cough.  It goes without saying that she is trooping this out and not milking the situation at all.

Before she took ill, she took her bike for a 30KM ride on the Galloping Goose.  Janet hasn't ridden this far for a long time.

This is the Gorge on her way home.  Phil bought Janet a really bright biking jacket in the U.K. which she wears all the time.  However, by the time she got home, it was nearly dark.  When she got in the house she told Phil she needed a bike light. Voila!  (Wait....when did we learn French!)  Phil had already purchased one for her.  Please, oh, please don't make this his Valentines gift for her.  She isn't so sick she won't blow a gasket!

I am really afraid of the vacuum cleaner, so always have to move whenever it's in the same room I'm in.

Now, it's finally put away and I can relax with my Very Important Doggie pose.

Whew.....that's better.

Noodles was very naughty.  In fact, Noodles lives to be naughty.  She loves to go to the basement and knows she is not allowed.  Phil caught her red pawed coming up the stairs.

She is riddled with guilt!

Janet thought some nice Split Pea Soup with Ham would make her feel better, so she whipped up a batch in the fancy pants All Clad slow cooker our "dots" gave her for Christmas.

Just put in all the ingredients in the order given and push the start button.  No need to even stir!

Shiny.

Janet Has A Bad Week

It's been a whole week since Janet blogged for us.   Get the lead out, Sister!  In fairness to her, she said it was a shitty poopy week with tons of mistakes.  I wonder if we can use bad words when we turn 12 years old?

On Tuesday, she was working at her volunteer job and was making coffee.  This escapes even us doggies who know squat about coffee - why fill an already full container?  There was coffee running everywhere - on the counter, the floor.

Janet was in a huge panic, so neglected to photograph when the counter and floor were fully covered with coffee.

Judy helped clean  up.

On Wednesday, she decided she wanted to make a Grill Cheese Sandwich for lunch.  She was in a hurry as she needed to leave the house in 15 minutes.

We know the same about making sandwiches that we know about coffee, but we are pretty sure there isn't a recipe for a Cajun version!

Isn't that cute the way the sandwich image is still in the pan - after it has been scrubbed thoroughly!  Lucky for Phil, he didn't do it.  Of course, the chances of Phil being at the stove are slim to nonexistent.

Finally a small measure of success.  Burritos!  And assuming success means greyish guacamole.

Janet still hasn't read the manual for her new camera (or the new stove, or the new dishwasher) so doesn't know how to shut off the flash.  The guac was actually a nice deep green; not the grey matter reflected on the plate.  When will she learn to not photograph food on yellow plates - no manual required for that!

At this point in time, Janet is desperate for something to be excited about.  Off she went to City Hall to get our new doggie licenses for 2013.  They are issued in a numerical order on a first come, first serve basis.  You may recall that last year Janet was aiming for number 1 and 2 for this year.  Hah!  Like Janet could get her shit poop together to be the first in line!  Last year, we were number 752 and 753.  This year - 750 and 751!   Janet's life is so dull that she actually thinks this is fascinating and tells everyone she can.  Even complete strangers!  She is completely oblivious to their eye rolls and desperate attempts to get away.

Super cute fire hydrants for this year.

Noodles, in a completely out of character move, puts her needs ahead of others and steals my dog bed!

I'm bigger, so I should get the bed!