The beaver is a proud and noble animal
Notes from a bemused canuck
More news from the cat breeder:
No matter where Tolly is when the fridge door is opened…he is there before the fridge door is closed! So when he is with you and you can't find him…just open your fridge and he will appear!
CHICAGO, June 28 (UPI) — Formal attire for dogs has been a hot item at boutiques as more people include Fido in their weddings, the Chicago Tribune says.
Male dogs have been showing up at nuptials as ring bearers in formal black tuxedoes, and female dogs have been spotted in white mini-gowns and colorful bridesmaid dresses. Wedding shop owners say more single people feel adding their pet to the service is acceptable.
“Couples don't have children, but they do have a dog, so it only makes sense that they would stand up in their wedding,” Sheila Spitza, co-owner of the Wet Nose Pet Spa, in Geneva, Ill., told the newspaper. There have even been formal ceremonies for canines tying the knot as bride and groom.
“Who's to say what's right or wrong? Everyone has their own level of eccentricity,” Spitza said.
An apparel designer in San Antonio says his wedding clothing for dogs has really taken off, with one of two inquiries a week.
I wonder if I can get that in cat-size…
I've had the base image in a folder on my desktop for the longest time and I've finally gotten around to doing something with it :)
Got email from our cat breeder:
he is adorable, a right little character…loves his food and has the loudest voice, usually used when he wants his food!! Most of the pics I get of him are while he is asleep…or when he has just woke up. He has this habit of dashing around like a lunatic for an hour or so, then just collapsing on the spot and falling asleep!…lovely little chap.
He'll fit right in :)
Haven't written anything of substance in a while, so I'll make this one count.
We're slowly reclaiming our back yard from its natural wilderness state. I cut the grass for the second time last weekend under the watchful eye of a suicidal sparrow who kept landing in front of the lawnmower to get at the fresh bugs, with Katy going “watch out for the biiiird!”. It's still looking rough so we bought a rake to try and pick up the grass clippings that are left behind. Katy was off on holiday this wednesday and had a go at it. The lawn won in the end, but she still managed to get half of it raked clean. It's slowly getting better. Our goal for this year is to get it in a clean slate state that we can use to make something pretty next year.
She also had a whack at pruning the shrubbery in front of the house. We can now get in and out of the house without being attacked by the bushes now (even though it looks like a WMD went off in the front yard)
We're in Leicester this weekend. Since I was supposed to be in Canada at the moment, I had the week booked off as holiday time but I'm only taking Thursday and Friday off. Since we finally got the paperwork from the Home Office, wedding plans are officially underway. We bought the paper and envelopes for the invitations we're going to make. We bought the wedding rings (well, they're ordered, at least. We're paying them over 3 months to lessen the pain) and Katy knows which dress she wants. We stopped in a bridal shop today to have a look at suit styles. I'm going for the top-hat-and-tails look, with grey pinstriped trousers with a charcoal tail suit, cream vest and burgundy cravat. I need to buy some cufflinks, but I've seen some nice mother-of-pearl ones at the jewelers where we bought the rings.
And now for something completely different, we bought a BBQ! It's a pre-emptive wedding present :) It was on sale for 20% off, so that's ok. We just need to assemble it and get a bottle of propane and suburbia, here I come :)
We got email from the cat breeder this weekend. It appears that our gray-furred cat is turning brown :)
He's still just too kyooooote!
Katy and I saw Santana in concert at Wembley Arena this weekend and boy, did we ever get our money's worth! The show was 3.5 hours, with the first act doing a 1h set and Santana playing a solid 2 and a half hour set without interruption!
Since the concert, I have come to a few conclusions:
1. I am offiially old, because the concert was LOUD! I should have known better, because I brought earplugs with me when I went to see Rush live and I was happy I did. I came out of the show with a hell of a case of tinnitus, but the music was kick ass.
2. I prefer Santana's earlier works better than his latest ones. I think I had a small orgasm when he played the first riffs of Black Magic Woman. The most recent stuff from his latest album is still good, but it's a bit too involved. Too much happening at the same time. He played a lot of the songs I wanted to hear though, like Oye como va, Black magic woman, Smooth, Maria Maria, Foo Foo, Put your lights on, and I'm forgetting a bunch more (like I said, it was a looooong set!).
3. The average age of the concertgoers must have been around 37. Easily. If not in the early 40s. The woman with the business suit complete with shoulder pads was not the typical concert fan, but man did she seem to be enjoying herself :)
The concert itself was really good, but tiring. We'd planned things well though. We had decided to make our way to London without any real haste, check in to our hotel (which we booked right next door to the arena), chill out by the hotel pool, have a meal at the hotel and head out to the concert. Things didn't quite go according to plan.
We thought we were booking a good room in a 4-star Hilton hotel. At least, that's what was on my reservation sheet from Expedia. We were expecting something similar to the conditions we had when we spent a weekend at the Casino Hilton in Hull when Katy first came to see me in 2004: fine dining, beautiful views, marble bathtub.
The Casino Hilton this wasn't. Hell, we didn't even see any mention of the Hilton chain.
I don't know how this hotel could be rated 4 stars. It shouldn't be. The bed was clean but lumpy and very uncomfortable. There was no air conditioning in the rooms, which were quite hot and stuffy. There was no mini bar nor fridge. The kettle was completely full of scale. The prices for room service and at the bar were quite high for what was being offered. The view we had was the side of a competing hotel and a really big parking lot. All in all, we were thoroughly unimpressed and really disappointed.
Wembley itself is like being in the rougher parts of Leicester. I felt like a visible minority there :)
Anyway, it was a good weekend, and I put a bunch of pictures online here: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/santana_wembley/
Katy and I went see Confetti last night (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427089/)
Most excellent movie. A wedding magazine is holding a “most original themed wedding” contest with 3 couples getting married on the same day at the same venue. One is a tennis-themed wedding, one is a naturist wedding and one is a big production singing/dancing wedding.
The whole thing was completely unscripted and they just improvised around the basic concept. It was brilliant. The actors didnt know about what everybody else was up to and were even encouraged not to talk to some of the other actors before filming so it would really be the first time that they met them once the camera started rolling, to keep it more spontaneous.
We got it last week but I didn't have the time to put it up. You may now go “Awwwwwwwwwwwwww”.
