Cake Batter

Earmuffs Lily and Maple. I saw the cutest dog in life on my quest to indulge in a full like it size of cake batter ice cream with snickers and m&m's so perfectly smushed in @ Cold Stone Creamery. Nothing, I mean nothing gets in the way of filling my body with over 1000 calories of pure goodness except for this little six year old angel.

What makes her even sweeter is she is a therapy dog. She has spent countless hours at peoples bedsides during their last hours and works with autistic children. Just the sweetest thing really, she liked being picked up like a baby. J had to physically remove me from her. I regrouped and dove into my cake batter like a pig in poop. What a sweet day in Sydney.

Franey

We finally got around to hiking Franey! I was always recommending Franey to guests even though I was just going from hear-say. Now I can say it first hand, it is well worth every short breath. The view at the top is absolutely phenomenal, I am sure in the summer and fall the views are extraordinary. There wasn't much green but still breath taking. It was quite windy the day we went up so we didn't get to spend much time up there as I would like to have. It would be so nice to bring a book up and just take it all in. The hike takes about 3 hours roundtrip, give or take. We didn't stay up top for all that long but we did take time to sign our names in the guest book which resides in a fly infested shack. We also went to a lake on the way down which I forget the name of. Again, I would love to hang around that in the summer as well. I will definitely be up there again, sometime soon.

We have crabs

We love having fishermen as friends. Our pals came over the other night with pre-cooked (thank god) crabs. I couldn't help myself and had to taste a leg before J came home, just to make sure it was good :p. Lobster season is up next. Can't wait for some lobster in a couple of weeks.
Thanks guys xoxoxoxxoxoxo

Anuk

Meet our newest addition Anuk!! She is only ours for two weeks, Maple and Lily are loving having the extra friend to play with. No, I am not getting any crazy ideas to get a third dog, simply because that third dog adds an extra half hour of cleaning everyday. The fur in this house is crazy! It has been a rainy week and the mess on the floors from these cuties is atrocious. I pretty much gave up the need to have a clean house this week. The mess has won the battle.

Isn't she a beauty?

Stan

This past weekend marked the two year anniversary I met schmeagle and his puppet master Stan. I promise you only the weirdest things happen to me. I have about 50 stories that can prove this! Here is one of them.

Every year Winnipeg has this magnificent weekend set out to try different kinds of wines. They like to call it the Winnipeg Wine Festival, the proceeds help Special Olympics Manitoba... which you all know I hold close to my heart. It's just an all around beautiful thing really. I don't have all that much wine knowledge per se, but I sure do like to drink it!

My two girlfriends and I were so pumped to attend the 2009 wine fest. We got all dolled up and couldn't wait to sample as many wines as we humanly could. Who actually spits wine out, really? Not us, that's for sure. After visiting 10 booths, we are starting to feel good. The wine connoisseurs didn't make any sense to us as we can't smell any nuts, or oak, or taste any smoke. It just tastes like "sweet berry wine"! We developed these hoity toity accents and just giggled like school girls the whole time. Embarrassing, but fun! Needless to say we were more then a little buzzed. Thankfully the booths started to close down and we decided the bar would be the next best thing. My one girlfriend had a birthday party to attend too so she called a cab and off she went. As Amanda and I were waiting outside the convention center for her boyfriend to pick us up, I ran into a coworker and his cousin. We were outside chatting away and they decided it was a good idea to join us in our next adventure. This man comes up and interrupts us asking if we needed a lift. He was by himself and was dressed quite sharply. We all thought he was affiliated with the wine fest. Amanda called her boyfriend back and said we didn't need a ride as this lovely man was offering us a free ride in his limo. Sweet! So off the four of us went following the limo driver Stan. After walking blocks and blocks in downtown Winnipeg I started to get that gut feeling that something is not right. We should have asked for his card. If he has a limo why didn't he offer to pick us up from the front? Ah well we love free limos!! One of us asked Stan how much further we had to walk and where was this limo, he replied with "just up here". A block later we approach this s.u.v, hmmmmm. "Umm Stan, where is the limo"? Stan, "Oh, this is my limo, this is it!" We all awkwardly get in, which is soooo ridiculously stupid!!! Amanda rapidly starts texting her boyfriend to come and meet us. While she is doing that Stan pulls out his buddy Schmeagle. Who looks a lot like this....

  Stan stays "Schmeagle really wanted to meet you" with sock puppet on hand. Schmeagle said a few hi's and we started hysterically laughing. Is this guy for real? Yes, yes he was. Amanda and I bolt out the car ( we should have never been in) and rudely ditch my coworker as there is not enough room in her boyfriends car. Those guys didn't even get out, they caught a ride with Stan and Schmeagle. After we arrive at the bar we see my friends shortly after. I quickly asked if they lost Stan and they said he couldn't get in. We all start laughing and couldn't believe that had just happened. All of the sudden Stan shows up... he got in VIP. He spots us and whispers screams in my ear "Schmeagle misses you". I had to capture footage of the infamous Stan to put a picture to his face when I told this ridiculous story.

EW!!!

We hid from him for the rest of the night after these pictures. We even switched bars. Needless to say nothing will ever top the randomness of Wine Fest 2009. Well I do have a story from when I lived in Hawaii but we will save that for another day.

Super Chocolate

If its piping hot out, I enjoy nothing more then a nice cold beer or chilled glass of white wine enjoyed on our fabulous deck. If its foggy and a bit chilly out, there is nothing better then a nice cup of hot tea. I have grown to love the Super Chocolate tea from Davids Tea. If you let it steep for only 3 minutes it gives you the perfect flavour of cinnamony chocolate goodness.

He looks as though he is taking it all in, but he is checking what painting needs to be done.

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." --Martin Luther King, Jr

Check out this link from the Huffington Post Today Is Not a Celebration For Me