Bon… Now there’s talk about postponing Halloween. That sucks. I can still vividly remember as a kid the one Halloween that was postponed because of a gigantic snowstorm, I was so sad! We always toured around… Even if it was rainy/windy. It’s really that H1N1 getting people worked up. The earth won’t stop going around, we can’t stay locked up in our houses forever, and Halloween is only on October 31st. It’s not on November 7th or 14th. An article from the CBC has a doctor saying “It’s very important that people not disrupt their important family routines because of this outbreak.” Just apply the normal hygiene measures: wash hands, sneeze in sleeve.

Anyways. My house is having Halloween tonight. I have candy ready and my carved pumpkin is outside.

For example, this morning I forced myself to get dressed to take Happy running before the rains starts for the whole weekend apparently.

We get at the spot near the beach I like to go to with her. It’s at the end of the village, so there aren’t any other dogs to distract Happy. The main road isn’t so near either, so it’s not too dangerous for passing cars. And it’s near the sea so it’s nice to walk there. Happy on rocks near the water…

1) Happy never really learned to walk/run freely. As a puppy she was always on the leash. Or at the dog park, where it’s fenced in and she can’t run far.

2) Growing up I gave Happy different toys that were household things, for example empty toilet paper rolls to chew up or empty soda bottles to play with.

The combination of 1 and 2 while running free in Blanc-Sablon doesn’t always yield good results. I’ve been teaching Happy to come when I say her name and clap in my hands saying “viens” once or twice. She’s getting quite good. Except when she finds an empty plastic bottle laying around. And there are lots. So she runs off with it, lays down and chews it. She doesn’t want to come when I call her. When I approach her, she just runs to another spot to lay down and chew her bottle some more. It’s REALLY frustrating. Treats don’t work, she’d rather have her bottle than a treat.

Today I said to myself, the hell with it, I’m going home and leaving you there. So I just started to walk back to the car, not even looking at Happy. She followed me from a distance, always finding a spot a bit ahead of me to continue chewing her bottle. Once we were really near the car she let me approach to tie her leash on. I let her keep the bottle and she carried it in the car.

I wish I’d never let her play with empty bottles as a puppy. I created a monster.

It’s confirmed… The people that are sick since Monday it’s indeed the H1N1 influenza! There was a floor-hockey tournament last weekend and it’s most likely where the virus started spreading. Teams from all villages come to play. It’s a perfect hot spot! Good thing mass vaccination has started already.

Today I got vaccinated agains’t the H1N1 flu. At first I didn’t want to get it. I’ve never got the seasonal flu shots before and never caught it either. Last year, as a health centre employee, I was strongly advised to take the flu shot but didn’t. What made me take this one is the fact that it is a pandemic strain of the flu. And being a health centre worker, if there was a pandemic, I’d have to be available. They could even put me to work at different tasks than my usual ones. I am not planning on getting the seasonal flu one though.

The post office staff was a bit busy today with my parcels!

I got a great book, “The Road Less Travelled,” with amazing pictures and great places to visit instead of the typical ones that have become extra touristy. It’s huge and is a perfect coffee table book!

Then I got two photobooks I created, one through Picaboo and the other hardcover through My Memory Book. I wanted to be able to compare the two. I think I’m going to use the Picaboo one at the craft fair because of it’s better quality/price value. The hardcover one I’ll give to someone for Christmas.

The last thing I got was some fabric… A yard each of the pretty fabrics from Studio e and Michael Miller. They will probably end up as grocery/tote bags for the craft fair.

Doing this segment on the radio has been fun but also a bit frustrating… I head a lot of things around that I can’t speak about because it’s not from a confirmed source… About elections in a certain village of the Coast, about the H1N1, about a plane company… I’m making phonecalls, since Thursday, and I’m not having much luck with people returning calls. It’s very annoying. And once again it’s making me reconsider. If it’s too stressful, I’m going to stop. So one of my leads better come through today.

Update: None of my leads came through. I’ve decided to stop doing the segment. It only lasted a month. I hate “quitting” and feel really bad about it, but I guess it’s just not the right time. I’m sure I’ll have other opportunities just as neat as this one in the future.

I think Happy sleeps quite a lot. On weekdays she’s up 1 hour with me in the morning, 1 hour at lunch and 3-4 hours in the evening, from after work to about 19h. That means she’s sleeping 18 hours, which includes two gigantic naps while I’m at work mornings and afternoons (lucky her!).

On weekends we do more activities together, so I figure she gets about 16 hours of sleep.

I was wondering if it’s normal and I did a quick search online. It seems to be in a somewhat normal range, although I haven’t found a definite number of hours answer, they say from 12 to 20 hours a day.

I am still thinking about my Iceland trip from June… I loved it there. It’s actually somewhere I’d love to live. I’d have to learn Icelandic!

Reykjavik was a pretty city, with friendly people… It had a vibrant/energetic feel.

The nature everywhere was amazing, absolutely terrific landscapes.

There were really pretty villages with great looking traditional houses.

Despite an ongoing headache, my weekend has been good until now! On Friday I went to help J.&M. fix the salmon for the smoking process… We had to remove each remaining bone from the filets with tweezers!

Yesterday I took advantage of the nice sunny weather to do laundry and hang it out to dry… Probably one of the last times for this year! I also went on a walk with Happy. She ate something she found… But I would only found out in the middle of the night.

Happy woke up at around 2h, about to throw up… She got sick and vomitted a pack of ketchup… The small ones you get at take-outs. It was a bit pierced, but still ketchup inside. Probably she bit it a bit, some ketchup came out, she found it yummy and ate the whole pack! Good thing she vomitted it out! She could have gotten sick a lot I think!

I also made some craft. There’s a fair at the end of November. I prepared a kit for two using some cute apple and pears fabric: napkins, napkin rings and placemats.

Truly inspired by a picture I saw on the net I also made hanging Santas from driftwood.

This morning I watched a flick, Hancock. Didn’t think I’d like it this much! It was cute. Today is a yucky windy rainy day outside.

Growing up I loved having penpals… In the back of youth magazines there was always a page with people giving their addys, asking for penpals! I had a few. Recently I stumbled accross the Postcrossing website. It’s a site where people throughout the world exchange postcards! Addys are randomly given to you, you send a card, the person receiving it registers it. You see how long it took for the card to travel! And you get some back too!

My first two cards arrived on Friday! The first was from Germany…

The second from Taiwan.

Strangely it took less time for the Taiwan card to reach me (14 days versus 15 for the German one)!

I’ve started to plan my next trip… With my brother to Europe for his graduation.

14 June: Montreal – Paris
15-16-17 June: Paris
18 June: Paris – London (train)
19-20-21 June: London
22 June: London – Amsterdam (plane)
23-24 June: Amsterdam
25 June: Amsterdam – Prague (plane)
26-27-28 June: Prague
29 June: Prague – Venise (plane)
30 June: Venise
1 July: Venise – Rome (train)
2-3-4 July: Rome
5 July: Rome – Cinque Terre (train)
6 July: Cinque Terre
7 July: Cinque Terre – Rome (train) – Montreal (plane)

Bro wants to visit the major capitals and Venice… I added Amsterdam (it’s been way too long since my last trip), Prague and Cinque Terre. The plan seems a bit ambitious. But I guess it’s doable. I’ll have to look at more options before we settle on the final plan though!

Inside:

Outside:

Inside my gladiolus flowers are finally blooming! I nurtured them all Summer. A week ago when the temperature started getting near freezing in the night I cut the 3 plant stalks and put them inside in a vase with water. And I’m so happy they are blooming! So pretty.

Outside it’s snowing! The first “real” snow that’s not melting as soon as it hits surfaces, covering my scarecrow. Tomorrow it’ll probably melt, but it’s neat to walk out tonight. Happy was trying to eat flakes as they floated through the air. So funny!

What a week it has been at work… The theme was: When things start going well again, something’s going to happen to make it not go well anymore.

Luckily it’s weekend and that means time off at home to do anything I wish! And this afternoon that thing was a scarecrow sitting man! I think I did an ok job. Happy was scared of the “stranger sitting on the balcony” at first… But glad to report that now she’s excited when she sees “him.”

I managed to do quite a lot today!

The day started extra early because of the neighbour’s dog barking outside at 6h! Argh! But it was a good thing… Because we only saw the sun a few hours this morning. I took advantage of it, going on a walk with Happy. We went on the road to Mosquitoe Fall, where people have cabins. It was nice with Fall colours. As much colours as we get here anyways… A few trees with yellow leaves, the tundra changing colour and red berries in some trees. I picked some up to make a wreath.

Of course Happy found the only water hole of the area to play in!

At home I watched a flick, baked a cake, cleaned up the craft room (it was so messy I couldn’t work in it anymore) and hung my silverchair posters up… They’ve been rolled up for years. The yellow one is from my teenage years. Back then it was on my bedroom wall, with sticky blue gum/tacks.

The black and white one I bought in Toronto when I went to see them live a few years ago. I love silverchair. They were the first band I loved as a teen. And still do today. Their music changed and evolved, like me. I also love that most of their gigs I had a press photo pass and got to take amazing pictures of them!

When I’m at the laptop and she feels like playing she brings me the toy of her choice and drops it near my chair.

When she hears me do the power off routine at the laptop (unplug power cord and press modem’s on-off button) she comes running to me, thinking it’s time to go out for her toilet break… Even if she’s at the other end of the house sleeping in my bedroom she hears it and comes!

When I’m taking a bath she likes to come get fresh cold water from the bathtub’s tap. She doesn’t like drinking directly from the tap, so I put my hand under the pouring water and she drinks what falls off my hand.

Now… A 3-day weekend, not much planned. Lots of people seem to be gone on weekend trips.

An old Offspring song just came on my iPod. I listened to it so much as a teen, and still know all the words.