OH&S

 
today was my first day back at work. all i have to say is if i have to drag the dog out of bed to go for a walk, its too early to be up and expected to be functional. fortunately most of the morning at work involved sitting (although i was expected to listen as well).
we had a woman come in to talk about OH&S. generally a pretty boring topic. at least she tried to make it as relavent as possible to us (she works in child care so knows exacty what we do and practically how we can actually limit the risks. much nicer than people who just sit in an office handing down rules that can't really be applied practically in the workplace.
she said a few things that were quite shocking. in the last few years OH&S has been reviewed in hospitals and aged care facilities. there are actually hospitals that have signs up saying "we are a 'no lift' hospital" meaning they will not physically lift a patient even if that patient is in danger. they will get other people to assist them in lifting. in theory that sounds good but if a patient is falling, they can actually risk losing their job if they grab the patient to try to prevent the fall. they are required to let the patient fall and then their duty of care begins. that seems completely ethically wrong! i think by taking a job in that industry you should be aware that there are risks and yes, you could possibly injure yourself by trying to help someone but i think that needs to be a risk you're willing to take. and if you keep fit outside of work (i.e. regular exercise) you should be able to minimise chances that you will accidently strain something by a sudden jerk or awkward movement.
in the next few years they will be reviewing the child care field and probably trying to put into place similar laws/rules. seems a bit rediculous. the woman who talked to us today said she's worked in a centre that had some stairs and she has actually injured her back when a 2 year old started to fall down the stairs and she reached out and grabed them to stop the fall. with new rules she could be told that she just has to watch the 2 year old fall down the stairs (agaist all human instincts) and then her duty of care begins after the fall. bit rediculous. 

alphabet meme

A- Available or single? thats the same. neither.
B- Best Friend? zac
C- Cake or Pie? Cake. especially chocolate cake
D- Drink of Choice? smoothies or strawberry margaritas
E- Essential Item? teva flip flops (or thongs as aussies like to call em)
F- Favorite Color? blue or gray (but everyone tells me gray isn't really a coulour)
G- Gummi Bears or Worms? either- as long as they're the ones without gelatin (not vegetarian)
H- Hometown? victoria, canada
I- Indulgence? chocolate.
J- January or February? january cuz i don't have to work and its summer!
K- Kids and names? …… Where?… wombat (our dog is our child)....sleepingn on her bed on the floor next to me
L- Life is incomplete without? zac
M- Marriage Date? possibly feb 23 2008.... somewhere around that date if not then.
N- Number of Siblings? 1 younger brother and older 1/2 sister (and older 1/2 brother who passed away)
O- Oranges or apples? mardarin oranges. otherwise red apples. (other oranges are too much work)
P- Phobias/Fears? .....can't think of any.
Q- Favorite Quote? any quote from the family guy or arrested development that is used in an everyday conversation
R- Reason to Smile? sunny days. and rainy days cuz we REALLY need the rain
S- Season? summer. hot weather, don't have to work....
T- Tag three people! anyone who reads this.
U- Unknown Fact About Me?
V- Vegetable you hate? i don't think there is one. not a big fan of lettus on its own but who eats it on its own anyway
W- Worst habit?
X- X-Rays you’ve had? a few. my wrist, in in elemetary school, in high school and last year, teeth xrays at the dentist, xrays for immigration.... i've had a lot of radiation exposure
Y- Your favorite food? anything i don't have to cook. love american-mexican....
Z- Zodiac? virgo

outsmarted by a dog

wombat is very smart. she's a bit manipulative too. the last 2 nites we've had the same problem (and i think its going to become routine if we don't do something about it right away-- just not sure what yet). so around 9:30-10pm she settles on her bed for the nite. i go and shower somewhere between 10:30 and 11pm. after i get out of the shower (or last nite it was while i was in the shower) she gets up and moves to our room. i call her out and try to settle her on her own bed. she absolutely refuses to go on her bed. she'll lay on the floor and do a nervous wag, she'll roll over on her back in a submissive position but we can't get her to lay back on her bed. she'll keep trying to sneek out of the room and we'll find her curled up on zac's dirty clothes pile. by the time i'm tired of trying to settle her on her own bed and i wanna go to bed we're ready to give up. even though zac's still in the lounge room she doesn't want to be there and definately doesn't want to be on her bed in there. both nites we've ended up moving her bed onto the floor at the foot of our bed and she crawls on it right away and goes to sleep. she uses her cute dog looks to get us to give up on trying to order her around and allow her to sleep in our room! we could just be really firm and close our door but the first nite it happened she'd had a bad experience on her before bed walk with zac (they ran into a few cats who freaked her out and zac ended up smacking her to get her to quit focusing on them-- don't think that helped in the long run). now she's figured out the nite time routine and how to sway us to let her sleep in our room. we'll see how we go tonite.

inspired

i was inspired by niki to blog about my fridge (you can click on the photo to see an enlarged version). the sides of the fridge are even more covered than the front (maybe i'll post them another day). we've got our special magnets including our canada moose, alaska bear, hand painted flower magnet hostess gift from zac's cousin's wedding (hand painted by his aunt), the house magnet i got as a gift from one of the kids for christmas a year ago....the plant magnet near the top is actually a live miniature succulent plant. oh and of course our 100s of word poetry magnets that never get rearranged except when friends come over. as for the papers under the magnets they include 2 copies of the water restrictions (i thought i lost the one we got in the mail so i printed another copy so i wouldn't be getting dobbed in by neighbours for watering when i'm not supposed to), a mini golf score card from 18 months ago in canada (when i beat zac), a funnily worded cardboard slip that comes inside the mouth of taco shells, a photo of one of the kinder groups from last year (taken before i actually had a permanent job there-- but i'm in the pic), an invitation to a party that was a week ago (i guess that one can come down now)and some vegan dog treat recipies. oh and zac's bumper sticker "meat and dairy based diets keep the rest of the world starving (through improper utilization of land resources)".
i guess a fridge does say a lot about the people who live there. funny we only have 1 random photo on it. i guess its cuz we (read zac) put a lot of photos up on the wall (not in frames, just randomly on the walls with blue tac). 

little plug

i didn't realize everyone on blogger is raving about these but apparently they are (i've actually only looked at this post but i did a blogger search and came up with a lot of posts refering to it). i would have one myself if i didn't already have a great food processor. i do however have a couple of the eurolab version of the magic bullet (the 10 second rocket) on ebay. so if you're looking for one, here's my little plug to where you can find it-- unless you care about having your name brand version then you'll just have to look somewhere else.

blogging

why do you blog? i just got a link from rodney to a survey on why people blog. by filling out the short survey you go in the running to win an ipod. here's the link.

everybody likes a shiny object

 
i finally remembered to get my ring cleaned today!! i've been meaning to for a couple months but i just kept forgetting and i didn't know where the place was in the city without the business card zac had. today we were stopping in the city on the way back from the beach so i said we should go get it cleaned. it looks sooooo good now! i knew it was a bit scratched and dull but didn't realize how nice it was 5 months ago. 

wombat's history

 
we got in touch with the woman who originally rescued wombat from the pound in perth and got in touch with the rescue place in melbourne that we adopted her from. we asked her if she could had any information about wombat's previous life before we got her.
she was owned by an alleged drug dealer who used her purely as a puppy producer. once her pups were sold she was dumped (still with her rego tags on!). she was pregnant again when this woman got a hold of her (i'm assuming that she's probably a vet). they desexed her and removed the pups. she also gave wombat all her vaccinations and made sure everthing was good.
as for her aggression towards other dogs, the woman assumes that its probably partly from not being properly socialized as a puppy and that behaviour was probably encouraged by her previous owner.
we're still working on her aggression but i've got her to be pretty focused with me when other dogs are around (she still has issues with zac a lot of the time). we started her on "smakos" today (cuz "dogs go wacko for smackos"-- we now know its true). they seem to work really well (doggy junk food)- much better than the peanut butter cookies or even the disgusting meatball things we got from the refrigerated pet food section. we're just gonna keep workin on getting her to focus on us and realizing that other dogs aren't a threat. she's very smart. she knows a lot of the neighbourhood dogs that bark behind back fences and she knows to completely ignore them now. its just getting her to completely focus on us when random dogs are on the footpath or in the park with us. 

beach day

we took wombat on her first trip to the beach yesterday. we had to go down to barwon heads to look at a couple places for the wedding so we decided to make it a daytrip and take wombat cuz she'd be sad at home by herself.
waiting for zac to pay fo petrol:we actually managed to find a couple deserted beaches where wombat was allowed (on lead). one was a "clothing optional" beach so we didn't bring the camera down cuz we didn't think people would like us taking photos while they're sunbathing or stolling the beach.
wombat thought it was great running along the sand
didn't like the water so much though:
she went in the first time with zac no problem. then i think she realized what it was and pretty much refused to go near the waters edge. we walked along the beach for a ways and she actually did put her feet in the tide (willingly) as it came in a couple times (she was pretty focused on what the tide was doing as we walked near the edge, most of the time she tried to get away from the edge if she saw it coming in on her)
poor little princess was exhausted by the end of the day. she slept most of the way home in the car (she generally sleeps any time she gets in the car though):
she also slept a lot when we got home:

i think she had a good day though (and we did find something we think we really like for the wedding too- sorry lea)

barnyard

we took wombat over to aunt lea's and uncle jay's last nite 8). we decided to watch the movie barnyard that they had hired the day before. easier said than done-- i think jay played around with the amplifer for over an hour before we got picture AND sound on the tv (and when we got it working, it was JUST the dvd player, couldn't watch actual tv). it was worth it (yea, jay!!) but i love anything with talking (or singing) animals (optus has me sold). the best part is when the animals are talking about the fact the farmer is vegan. then they all start discussing what a vegan is. the soundtrack is great too-- such horrible songs but watching animals dance around to it makes it funny (i'd never buy or even listen to the soundtrack cd but its funny in the context of the movie). wombat had fun too (lea let her on the couch as long as she was on a blanket-- wombat was very happy with this treat and after she got over the dog barking on the movie she happily fell asleep between me and zac. now she's got 3 homes she loves.

not as much fun as it used to be

i drove today for the first time in 18 months (3 years since the last time i drove in oz). it was a bit weird being back behind the wheel (denise, i took very good care of your car). i used to LOVE driving but it just seemed like i had to concentrate too much to make it fun. i'm sure if i did it all the time it'd be fun again but i'm not gonna so i guess i'll have to deal with it being not as fun. at least it feels natural to be on the left side of the road though (i think it's cuz i'm on the right side of the car) and i only flicked the windscreen wipers once instead of the turn signal.

new life

i just read another blog that had a link to this. wonder how his new life is gonna look after he's sold this one.

(ice) hockey

thru the canada club email list i got a tip about hockey nite in melbourne. it was happening at a pub not to far from our house last nite. i convinced zac to go check it out with me. they were going to be showing 2 of the games from hockey day in canada last weekend. first up was going to be the canucks and the leafs. we got to the pub just slightly early and found the air conditioned theatre room was full. we took a seat in the lounge room with the giant screen on the wall. soon every sofa in that room was filled and people were sitting in any gap on the floor they could find. the game was pretty good (for the canucks at least). something a little bit wrong about watching hockey in summer clothes and sweating thru the whole game cuz there's no a/c in the room. still really good though. the first period the canucks weren't doing so good (other n the goalie keeping a bunch of shots out of the goal). they came back in the next 2 periods and ended up winning 6-1!!! go canucks! apparently they haven't been doing half bad this season.... i haven't really heard much or looked up anything. it's nice to see them kick the leafs arses though.

7.8mm!!!

that's how much rain we've had in the last 24 hrs. i never thought i'd be so excited about rain but its great. i wish it would keep coming (at least for a day or 2, then i'd be over it). it started last nite and rained hard(ish) for a bit during the nite and then we've had a couple showers today. i'm sur that such a small amount of rain didn't really do much except dampen the ground a bit but its a start. it's amazing how green everyone's lawns look now that they're wet today. its rediculously humid too (like sydney in summer-- everything is damp and feels like it'll never dry....except we're in melbourne and in the middle of a drought so i'm sure it'll all dry up in a couple days).

how did it pass us??

this is a picture of the rain (the blues and greens are light/moderate rain). the weather generally moves from west to east here. somehow all those clouds got past us with nothing more than a bit of spit and now they're east of melbourne dumping a decent little shower. at least its pleasant though. i was able to ride my bike to the train station with a nice cool breeze as long as i was moving. i could have just ridden the 7km to the bike shop. by the time i discovered riding was actually nice though i didn't feel like going back to the house to look at a map and i couldn't remember the best way to ride to the bike shop. my bike is now sitting there hopefully getting tuned up (i get a years free tune ups with my bike from the shop i bought it from so i might as well make use of them) and the rear deraileur fixed by saturday (they're flat out but the guy remembered me from a few months ago and remembered how stressed i was about getting my bike back as soon as possible so he said they'd try to get it done by friday nite instead of monday). i'm gonna go out and enjoy the clouds and the mildly warm breeze with the dog. 

sooooooooooooooo HOT

 
its almost 7pm. with the wind"chill" the temperature is about 45C!!! i've been hiding in the house all day, wetting the dog (and myself) down. i wish we had air conditioning. at least we have a fan that works (but its so hot that unless i spray water on my skin the fan feels like its blowing hot air on me). we were supposed to go to zac's sister's tonite to go swimming in their pool but serveral things made it kind of impossible. first there's power outages all around melbourne (something to do with the fires in the northeast part of the state) so traffic is crazy and trains have an hour delay. zac's mom was gonna come get us but because of the traffic situation that would take her forever. getting a train would be hard because they'd all be packed and we'd wanna take the dog so she doesn't bake at home and its a 25 min walk to the train station....... to many issues. so we're sitting here spraying water, laying infront of the fan, pouring buckets of water over the dog (she's learning to appreciate it) and waiting for the supposed storms that should come thru sometime in the next 24 hrs (its not even supposed to get below 30C tonite-- i'm thinking we might blow up the air mattress and sleep in the backyard cuz the house is about 50C) 

2:54

it's 2:54 am. the dog is snoring on the floor next to me, zac is talking to himself in his sleep in the other room and i'm wide awake at the computer. i had a coffee around 9pm. first it gave me a horrible stomach ache and i couldn't sleep. now that's mostly passed but the caffeine kicked in. i knew this would happen. we were supposed to go to a movie with friends but they were running late and by the time we got to the cinema the one we wanted to see was sold out and there was nothing else we wanted to see. we ended up going for coffee at this amazing place just of lygon street: brunetti's. i've never even noticed it before but it was packed and we were lucky to grab a table outside just as some other people stood up to leave. they do these amazing looking cakes and patries and stuff there. i had a raspberry shortcake which was really good. not sure why i didn't order a decaf coffee. i knew this would happen. good thing i don't have get up tomorrow.
also-- i asked our friends (who live about 10 min drive from us) if they heard the storm the other nite. both of them did!!! they said it was really loud at there place to and POURED rain for about 10 min (why didn't we get any rain??) i'm not crazy. zac and wombat are just heavy sleepers.

hannibal lecter dog

 
this is what our poor beast looks like when she goes for walks now. she doesn't like it that much. she's got her muzzle, gentle leader and a backup attachment from the gentle leader to her collar. poor thing. she doesn't like it much. now at least if she gets to an uncontroled aggressive dog we know at least she can't hurt it (but if it does happen, it'll undo any of the training she's learned).
we had a woman last nite let her yappy little dog (who was stressing wombat out) come even closer to wombat (and wombat didn't have her muzzle on). the woman was on her property with the dog on a lead. the dog started bouncing and barking at wombat. wombat got stressed and not listening to us. the woman let her little yappy dog drag her closer to wombat and zac just had to yell (as politely as he could when he's yelling) for her to take her dog away from ours. i managed to drag wombat a couple houses down and into a park where we calmed her down and got her to re-focus. its hard when she pulls on the lead cuz the training we're doing focuses on positive behaviour and rewards. when wombat doesn't listen to us and tries to pull away her gental leader pulls on her and its uncomfortable. then she'll associate other dogs with uncomfortable instead of treats (the trainer told us not to use the choke chain because even though it give us good control, she'll associate other dogs with a pain in the neck). hopefully one day we won't have to fear her being aggressive towards other dogs and she won't need the muzzle. 

it happened

we went out with some friends who live about 10 minutes walk from our house last nite and i mentioned the thunderstorm that apparently was a dream even though it was so real. then the guy said he woke up to it too!!!!!!! his wife slept thru it but it was real!! he woke up to and said there was a couple really loud booms of thunder. it wasn't all in my head! it was real. and zac and alissa slept thru it! (and wombat).

with all my free time i made a music video summary of 2006:


i did have a 15 minute long one that i was kinda making for zac but after working on it for 2 nites i accidently saved a blank file under the title of the 15 min long one so now i have a blank file saved and no 15 min long video.
oh well, now i have this one that's not bad either.

positive reinforcement

 
wombat went to her first obedience school lesson today. it was a private lesson where we are learning how to train her not to be aggressive with other dogs. the woman who runs the training sessions bases everything on positive reinforcement. it seems like its gonna work. it'll just take time and patience but we're gonna give it a go. we got her fitted for a "gentle leader" which seems to fit her much better than the halti which would go up into her eye when she pulled. she also got a muzzle so now we can feel safer taking her near other dogs knowing she can't hurt them (of course, people are going to be more scared of her now too but she's really a very gentle, loving dog around people). it was pretty amazing when the trainer would take her on a walk around cuz wombat just did exactly as she should (i think she sees the trainer as the "treat lady" cuz she knew the woman for an hour and right from the start she was getting really good chicken treats). she did pretty good when me and zac each gave it a go but it was like magic when jenny (the trainer) took her. we're gonna slowly introduce her to other dogs (from a distance) and just keep feeding treats as a reward when she looks to us or doesn't get aggressive. eventually she'll make the association of "other dog=i get treats". hopefully we'll be able to get her to be friendly with other dogs this way (or at least be able to sit at a cafe and know she won't try to lunge if a dog comes past).
i took her for a walk tonite on her new gentle leader with some treats and she did pretty well (although she didn't like my tofu dog bits as much as the chicken things the trainer gave her. i'm gonna make her some peanut butter biscuits and see if that works as well as chicken otherwise we may have to buy some of this chicken/rice stuff the trainer used). now we just gotta train her on getting used to the muzzle so we can use that (we gotta spend a nite putting peanut butter in the end of it so she sticks her own face in it and gets used to putting it on and sees it as a good thing instead of a punishment). 

it wasn't real?

i had a dream last nite that was so real that until i just checked the weather report now i thought it actually happened. still doesn't seem like a dream but unless the weather stats somehow missed it (and zac didn't hear it either), it was a dream. i was sure i was awake. i dreamt there was a thunderstorm (there wasn't even one forcasted). i woke up to faint thunder around 3:30 or 4am. i remember thinking that we'd now find out how the dog reacts to storms. there was a couple flashes of lightning and inbetween i counted the seconds til the thunder (which was a big boom at this point) and it was about 8 seconds both times (so i think it makes it less than 3km or miles away-- can't remember how to do the math for that). then i heard big drops of rain on the roof. not pouring rain, just lots of big drops. and i remembered i had some doonas and blankets airing on the line as well as some laundry. apparently none of this happened. it was all a dream. i swear i was awake though. i'm sure the dog would have come in if it had happened. she freaks out at the wind at nite. she was good and didn't try to come in once last nite and didn't even come in until about 10am this morning (she's a lazy dog when we're being lazy). i still can't believe it never happened.

do-nothing-day!!

it's 12:43am- its officially do-nothing-but-walk-the-dog-day!!! too bad i've been way too productive for the last 43 minutes (actually last hour or so) and i'm still awake at this hour even though i'm sooooo tired.
my mom left this morning. right now she's somewhere over the pacific (and if i had the energy to figure out how to do it again, i'd track her flight on-line but i don't so i'll just think about her being somewhere over the pacific ocean).
its been great showing her around and having her here for christmas and our engagement party and finally having her meet zac's family. 13 months til i see her again (for our wedding!!!) if we don't make it to canada in october for a friend's wedding.
i started making my mom's birthday gift (that's my productiveness). her birthday isn't til july but i have 3 weeks off now to do random things and this is gonna take a few evenings of playing around to get it to work. its coming along good though.
now i'm going to take the dog to the park and go to bed (and hopefully zac will be back from the gig he went to by that time cuz i sleep better once he's home, otherwise i lay there knowing that if i fall asleep i'll be woken up again).

cool at last

the temperature has finally dropped (for a couple days). it felt weird to put on a long sleeve shirt when we got out to healsville sanctuary in the hills in the outer suburbs. i even wore a rain jacket overtop of the long sleeve shirt too (it rained a bit)
i've only been out to healsville once, not long after i arrived in australia. its a great sanctuary filled with australian native animals. they even have an animal hospital where a lot of injured wildlife are taken.


after healsville we met up with zacs aunt and uncle yering farm for a glass of wine. my mom and denise went out there the afternoon new years eve and had a glass of wine while watching a great lightning storm over the hills.
we also drove out to sugarloaf dam which is usually a good spot to see kangaroos in the wild. we couldn't see any, the grass was really dry and the dam (which supplies a lot of melbourne water) was VERY low. it was kinda sad looking.
after that we went to a vietnamese place for dinner and had amazing big bowls of soup (it was nice to be able to have a hot meal and actually feel good to be warmed by it).
its sooo nice to not be sweltering all day and nite. we're even gonna use our doona for the first time in about 5 nites!!! (the dog is already wrapped up in her blanket wimpering in her sleep on her bed). yea cool change--- now all we need is some good flood-style rains.

the party

we finally had our engagement party (4 months after getting engaged-- we wanted to wait until my mom was out to have the party). it was really fun. we had it at the north fitzroy lawn bowls club and had soulveg cater (the food was excellent and ALL vegan). i'd highly recommend them to anyone.
the speeches:

start of the evening: the cake:
fortunately the weather cooled down slightly and the forecasted rain never hit our area (although we REALLY need it!). i didn't even get a chance to bowl cuz i just kept ending up talking to people. i suck at lawn bowls though (only done it once before) and it was cool to have everyone that we never get to see all together in one place so i didn't feel like i missed out on much by not bowling. the wedding is gonna be fun too 8)
we had a few little mishaps and challanges before the party started but we took care of them. first the balloons. i'd ordered 40 helium balloons that we had to pick up by 3pm when the balloon shop closed. we'd arranged for densie to come help us pick them up with her car. we were gonna bring them home but then we ended up talking to the lawn bowls club and it was ok to bring them there (which ended up being a good plan cuz it was WAY too hot for the balloons outside and in our house). unfortunately just getting them in the car proved to be a challenge. i poped 2 in my handful when the brushed the side of the hot car (the high winds added another challenge). another one went inside the car (hit the window i think). we couldn't fit them all in one load so denise took me and load 1 to the bowls club. zac lost 2 balloons just trying to get back in the shop. we lost a couple more at the bowls club cuz the upstairs room we were hiring didn't have the a/c on. when we got all the balloons there and the room cool we lost a couple more to the a/c (we think it might be cuz they went from hot car to sitting near the a/c unit). we had enough though (the balloon guy was nice enough to throw in a couple more.
then zac's dad was supposed to pick us up at 6:30ish so we would get there before the caterers who were coming at 7. 6:45 zac's dad calls and says the cab was late and they're about 15 minutes away still. zac hoped on his bike with his mp3 player loaded with 4 hours of party songs he'd specifically put together for the nite and went down to the bowls club. right as zac's dad arrived at our house to get me and my mom zac called to say his mp3 player was acting up again (he's had it 2 weeks and its done this a few times) and told me to bring mine. i brought it but i only had about 30 songs on so far and 1/2 of them not really party songs (and zac worked so hard to make a "everybody friendly party mix" on his). his mp3 worked again for a bit before the party started then died for the rest of the nite (its fine again now but he's taking it back tomorrow). fortunately one of our other friends had her ipod in her handbag and we put that on for most of the nite. everything worked out good and the party was lots of fun. and we got some great gifts too 8) 

uggghhh

its soooooooo FREAKIN hot!!!!!!! it wouldn't be so bad if the nites were cool but each nite is warmer than the last (right now the weather bureau says the overnite low for tonite is 25c!!!!).
it was nice today-- denise took us (in her air conditioned car) down to brighton beach (i'd been there once but we couldn't find the beach boxes that brighton is famous for-- turned out they were just around a little cliff that sticks out). we went for a swim there and then she took us on a beach tour. first around to st kilda where we went to soulmama for lunch. i'd never actually eaten there--- its really good. kind of buffet vegetarian/vegan resturant with views overlooking the ocean. definately will be going back. then we drove around to port melbourne (never been there!!) and we looked at a cute little dog cafe on a pier (it had dog bowls, special doggy treats and doona beds for dogs that you can put next to your table for your dog to sit on while you enjoy a coffee). too bad wombat is too aggressive with other dogs. she may never be able to go there (although there was 7 or 8 people there and not one dog!!). we saw the house zac's nanna grew up in and denise lived for the first part of her life. we stopped by the market and we picked up a bigger, tuffer kong toy for wombat at the petshop across from the market (wombat's treat while we have our engagment party tomorrow nite). now we're back at home, laying and sweating until me and zac have to bike out to richmond to see mountain goats (the band, not the animal or the beer-- although the mtn goat brewery is also in richmond and has their public bar open on friday nites. alcohol and heat don't mix well with me though. i'd end up passing out at the gig). 

bucket o' soup

its soooooooooo HOT! too hot to cook. i don't mind the heat except that it hasn't got below 18C the last friday nite and it makes it really hard to sleep. and when you don't sleep well for several nites in a row it makes it hard to do things during the day.
i decided tonite i'd make "cool cucumber soup with lime and cilantro" from my vegan planet cookbook. its easy (except for the fact i had to ride to 4 different shops in 4 different shops in 4 different neighbourhoods in the heat before i found one that was open and had fresh cilantro in stock) and its a nice cool dinner. plus since you need to make it a couple hours in advance so the flavours do their thing it means we can just pull it out when we feel ready to eat and we can relax until then.
the picture above isn't the most flattering pic of the soup but i didn't have the energy to make it look nice in a bowl and garnish it with cucumbers (i didn't want to start a new cucumber and i gave wombat the left over bit of the ones i used).
its just cucumber, garlic, salt, coconut milk and cilantro. nice and easy and tastes great on a hot nite. 

weird fears

we've been trying to get wombat to go to the bathroom while on walks instead of in the yard. yesterday morning zac took her for her walk around the block and she pooped on the sidewalk. she was terrified to go near it when zac had to pull her a bit closer so he could pick it up in the doggy litter bag. last nite we went on the same loop around the neighbourhood. wombat was walking inbetween us. all of a sudden she started walking infront of me, making me trip over her. she started pulling back away from zac who was holding her lead. zac kept trying to make her walk and i was looking around for something that was scaring her (like a hose spraying water). then zac pointed out the spot infront of us. there was a little spot of her poop that zac couldn't get up off the footpath that morning and she was TERRIFIED to go near it. she must have had her face rubbed in it or something at some point when they were trying to housebreak her. she's not scared of other dogs poop-- just her own. she's also terrified of water but i'm working on that one. i think with the heat, she's started to realize me pouring a little container of water on her back is kinda nice. maybe one day she'll actually lay in her doggy pool (right now she won't go near it unless she's gonna try to poop in it by backing her bottom over the edge!!!!).

how to exhaust a dog

the poor dog is beyond exhasted i think. she's had about 8 hrs sleep in the last 24 hrs (not much for a dog) plus she's had tons of people around her and lots of new things happening. we started cleaning the house yesterday afternoon and she just followed us around making sure we weren't going to leave her. then everyone arrived with food and it was very exciting having new people in the house and meat (they brought their own meat and electric frying pan to cook it). then at midnite she did very well with all the fireworks (the neighbours were even setting them off in the street) and we had some party poppers and she thought they were fun too (good to know she doesn't go nuts with fireworks). cuz we're old we were all ready for bed 20 min after midnite (we did stay up til 2 i think though). some friends were staying over so we decided wombat would stay on her bed in our room. she was very confused by this. i settled her on her bed but as soon as i walked around our bed she got up thinking i was leaving her. i decided to settle her and climb right up onto our bed so she'd know i wasn't leaving. she followed me on the bed though. i resettled her while i layed on the bed and thought that was gonna work. as soon as i turned the light out she was back up again. i left her there until zac came in 10 minutes later and both of us had to drag the deadweight dog that was trying to make whining noises (they were purely for sympathy) off the bed twice before she settled. she slept until she noticed us staring at her this morning and saying how good she was for staying on her bed all nite (then she hoped up on the bed and dropped to sleep immediately). now everyone is gone and most of the party is cleaned up and the dog is laying dead on the floor, exhausted from all the excitement.