29. July 2009 by Khizmet.

If you have never driven from south western Ontario and across the top of Lake Superior…..I’m not sure you can call yourself a Canadian. It is 2 days of grueling persistence….luckily the landscape is so overwhelmingly beautiful….grueling turns into drooling….we are doing this trip with our 2 dogs… as you can see …Siren is very “paws on”

 between Marathon and ThunderBay is the most beautiful rest area.  The first time Alf and I stopped there in 1995, we understood  the group of 7 paintings so much more deeply!

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25. July 2009 by Khizmet.

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23. July 2009 by Khizmet.

He did it! He passed grade 3! Which means that my verbal control over him has gotten much better. OOOOh he was such a good boy in class….my leash was totally off, and his little drag line was tucked in his collar most of the class.  His most spectacular moment was once again…ignoring a little pug-cross who wanted to get all up in his butt….wait a second…I don’t mean it like that….puggy pup wanted to visit….not what you’re thinking….sick-o!  So that means on to grade 4…. in the mean time though I hope to teach him a new trick every 2 or 3 days….

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23. July 2009 by Khizmet.

it’s the little things, like baking bread….that bring me much joy….these loaves turned out to be soft and squishy…. light and fluffy…..usually my bread turns out like pucks…and once they get cold…might as well toss ‘em.  I love my silicone baking thingys.  A cookie silpat was the first silicone baking thingy I got…and I was convinced…..

 Why do I want to bake bread?  When I was really little, my older sister Laurie used to pose all kinds of interesting scenarios to me and my unsuspecting younger sister and brother.  One that sticks with me is….what if you were the last person on earth?  At first I was all happy thinking that I would be able to get any toy that I wanted…..go ride any horse that I wanted….then I realized “goodbye electricity”… and that once I ran out of all the packaged food in the world, I’d have to get down to business and have to do the dirty work that my mom did…like grow the garden myself…butcher chickens myself…already knew how to pluck the smelly scalded beasties….. that was a fun job as a kid….not.

Baking bread was just one of the everyday things my mom did…. and she didn’t really trust us to do that job when I lived at home still….so even though I watched the process for years, doing it, is actually a different thing entirely….  I smile now when I think back and thought what a treat it was to get store bought bread… and store bought milk too…(because I could taste which cow it came from when we had to milk cows…some are saltier than others)

 and now…it’s a treat to get fresh home baked bread…and I love weeding the garden….hm, I wonder if I’d like raw milk now? I guess if didn’t know the cow personally.

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16. July 2009 by Khizmet.

  Turbie is doing so well in his class now!  I had excellent fun in the last class…once again he didn’t throw a hissy fit if another dog got in his space…he checks in with me… the funniest moment in class was our out-of-sight down stay…. most dogs were great…Turbie was super! He even held when other dogs were getting up to look for master…. we got back into the building and were told to just stay at the front wall….and then one of the assistants knocked on the door….well….. CHAOS ensued! My Turbie was up howling and searching desperately for me…. he looked so scared..and so cute!!  He was easily put back into his down… and the rest of the class went smoothly compared to that….my little guy even gave  ball retrieval a good shot in class!
Just look at how good he is over his little jump!!!

And now…for more beautiful Flowers….

Osteospermum up close…..how absolutely amazing!

this little weed is so pretty!

Liatris Spicata up close from the top…before it has bloomed…I have these in white and purple.

Crocosmia Montbretia  before it has bloomed as well….this…is my favorite flower in my yard

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11. July 2009 by Khizmet.

Today was the Student Gala for Haft Vadi belly dance studio.  What a wonderful time seeing friends and what they have been working on in class for the past few months.  Mandy did an awesome job again organizing the show….whew …that certainly is a high stress job!  Here are just a few photos that I managed to get.

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7. July 2009 by Khizmet.

Woo Hoo! Turbo had a spectacular class! No Barky blowouts! and there was opportunity too!  That was the most fun class I’ve had in Grade 3, we had to do 1 minute out of sight, sit stays and down stays… turbo broke…I’m very surprised, he is usually stellar, it was the first task of the night so maybe he was a bit more anxious than usual. We proceeded to “go outs”..oh he was a good boy on those!! Next we did agility jumping…and the only fault was with me! I couldn’t go fast enough for  my boy! OMGosh he will be an awesome agility dog! My first run was really bad (my fault) so I did it again, better, but still my fault on any errors…and that was the opportunity for a bark fest when another dog got in our area and bumped him on the butt, but he was very responsive and just zipped right back to me….so happy!  the next task is a stumper for me… retrieval…. he rocks at home, he’s a fiend in the yard, but to go fetcha ball at class? …he doesn’t see the point of it… what a goof ball!  after our round of stations we went into more formal tasks like our visual cues, he’s a star at those too…I LOVE my TURBIE!!!!

Here is his victory roll over

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6. July 2009 by Khizmet.

So starting my gargoyle collection was very much like my decision to wear leopard print clothing…..covetous when I saw others wearing it but didn’t think I should….then when I started wearing it….LOVED IT!  So went to adam and eve garden decor in Kitchener where these 2 lovlies followed me home… this one gothic

and this one is just in a foul mood…..

 this little dufus one is from Wal-mart…

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6. July 2009 by Khizmet.

warning…spoilers!

So I can’t help myself….I continue to watch Merlin on CTV at 8 pm on Sunday nights…. a lovely griffin was the nemsis of the day… I found it laughable that when Authur was fighting the griffin and he fell backward and was vulnerable to attack… all of the other knights  drew back instead of lurching forward to protect him….am I missing something? Is there some sort of medieval law that if a man falls…he should die honorably by the beast, alone without help? Then…argh!!! it makes no sense that when it is revealed that Lancelot killed the griffin, that Uther did not instantly jail and subsequently sentence him to death for being a warlock…for Gaius insisted that the beast was created by magic and could only be killed by magic….( Lancelot isn’t a warlock…Merlin was there in the shadows…just making it look like Lancelot killed the griffin….and subsequently…it would make Lancelot look like a warlock…what is Merlin thinking???!!!???)

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2. July 2009 by Khizmet.

Last night enjoying a Stargate marathon and this dialogue was particularly funny..

 Daniel: “Oh God”

Ori: “Your Gods cannot save you now Daniel Jackson”

Daniel: ” No, that’s just a statement of general dissatisfaction”

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