dinging in the rain

no the title is not a typo, its just cheezy. last nite we did dinner and mountain goat brewery with some friends. we decided we'd ride the 8km to richmond in a convoy-- rining our bike bells as we went. we acually made it all the way there and back without some idiot honking at us repeatedly even though we're all being completely legal, riding in a bike lane, obeying traffic signals and all that (the last couple times we've had a couple incidents with stupid drivers honking at us). we ended up staying at the brewery bar until it closed and then pushed our bikes out the door (you get to park your bikes right inside the bar which is just part of the brewery that they set up as a pub on friday nites for the public) and discovered it was raining. only me and one of the other girls brought water resistant wind breakers- everyone else just had jumpers. the ride home was fun though. i love riding in the rain when i'm dressed properly or i'm on my way home so i can change out of my wet stuff. it wasn't cold at all so it didn't really matter that my hands hair and jeans were pretty wet and the 8km went pretty fast while we dinged (is that a word?) our bells and one guy just kept saying "convoy hoy!!" every couple minutes. it'd be good if we have a rainy day soon so i can go ride the muddy creek trails when i have some time and get muddy and wet 8) i haven't done that in a long time-- its really fun!

translation

i bought wombat a hot water bottle from the $2 shop yesterday (yes, i bought the dog a hot water bottle- it's part of my attempt to get her to regularly spend the entire nite on her own bed). the writing on the package is sooooo funny!!! it's made in china and obviously the person/people in charge of translating the package into english are still trying to learn this very difficult language. here is the instructions on the package (all grammatical and spelling errors are intentional):

RUBBER HEAT WATER BAG

DIRECTION

1 Heat water bag is used in medical treatment health and common live to get warm.

2 The water temperature that the heat water bag used should be around 90[degrees]C. The water should be not over 2/3 than the capacity of the heat water bag.

3 After filling water, must let the air in the heat water bag out and let the screw tight. Check if there is leak water phenomenon.

4 When baby use the heat water bag, should let the heat water bag a little far from baby.

5 When the heat water bag is used or storage must avert it to be weight on or stabed, not touch sour, alkali, oil and sunlight shoot.

6 Storage heat water bag should fill a little air inside. Put it in shady environment.

7 The dirt on the heat water bag can be washed by soap water than use water wash it clean

8 The heat water bag should not be put in the display window so long time, especially the display window in the sunlight shoot.

i took me a couple reads to get though a couple of those and understand the message(i.e. #5) but i think i got it now. it does all make sense, just the wording is.....interesting.
i have enough trouble trying to learn languages that actually follow the rules they are based on, english must be so hard to learn as a second language.

now it really is freezing!!

we finally broke down and turned the heater on this morning-- first time since probably around november sometime. i looked at the temperature later and it wasn't just in our heads that it was freezing-- it got down to 8C last nite!! thats cold (at least in my world it is). atleast its still getting into the 20s during the day.
and now for some completley unrelated photos (of wombat of corse):
"her" new chair. zac moved this chair to the lounge room today so he could reset up the drum kit in the spare room. wombat took to it immediately and insists on jumping up any time one of us crawls into it (and also when no one is on it)-- it was ray's favourite place too.



me and my baby cuddling (she doesn't look too impressed in the photo but she was quite happy for a minute or 2 until zac grabbed the camera)


deliberately avoiding eye contact. she loves to sit in the sun and makes this cute expression when she sees us walk out the back door. when i grab the camera though (i've tried a couple times) she refuses to look at me (i think we've used the flash on her too many times-- she knows what the camera does)


she looks like she's pretty sorry in the photo. i actually gave her the stick in the house knowing she would make that mess. its my own fault.

i swear i'm not addicted

so we figured out our computer's issues (although the screen is pretty much permanently damaged). its the electrical stuff- it got worse and worse until this evening when we realized it wasn't just shutting down/restarting but there's crackling in the walls and other outlets are also turning on and off again. not a good sign. we went and got the landlord next door, hoping that he would call a qualified electrician. he came over and made us flick things on and off and just told us we have too much plugged in. he's gonna come back tomorrow and take another look inside the fuse box (he's not an electrician, just a retired guy that knows a bit about electrical work and other stuff-- but never really works for perfection). i'm hoping he'll decide to call an electrician cuz i really don't want the house to burn down. he told us we shouldn't have our phone and answering machine plugged into 1 outlet. those aren't really high powered items. i don't see how they could be a problem (although the computer i can see as an issue, not sure what to do about that though cuz ALL the outlets in the house are single outlets so we need a power board to plug in just the computer and modem (plus we've got the speakers and printer).
so because i'm scared to use any of the outlets that have been flickering on/off when the computer is on (and restarting the computer repeatedly) i've moved the hard drive, monitor, keyboard, modem and mouse across the lounge room to a free outlet not connected to the crackle-y ones just so i can check my email and write on my blog. really- its not an addiction.

another meme

a friend posted this meme on facebook. thought i'd do it.

TEN FIRSTS
1. First Best Friend: not sure. maybe amanda something or other in preschool
2. First Hamster: butterscotch (she had babies 5 days later so i had 7 hamsters and then 13....)
3. First Piercing: both ears at 5 yrs
5. First CD: weird al yankovic’s “off the deep end”, followed shortly by nirvana’s “nevermind”
6. First Car: 97 chevy cavalier
7. First Love: zac
8. First Stuffed Animal: not sure. i had LOTS. don’t know which came first.
9. First Concert: not sure… probably hokus pick at camp (I think it was the nite of my 15th b.day)
10. First Time Drunk: not sure…..
(i just realized number 4 is missing so i guess that was only 9 firsts)

NINE LASTS
1. Last Beverage: coffee…. That was several hours ago. I should probably drink something else (probably something w/o caffeine or alcohol).
2. Last Vehicle Ride: Thursday of easter weekend—a friend drove us back from the comedy festival in the city
3. Last Movie Seen: borat (at the theatre), can’t remember the name of the last one I sat thru on dvd. It was a few nites ago. It was funny
4. Last Phone Call: my mom (although that was over the computer)
5. Last CD played: a nature sounds cd last nite (zac’s been choosing cds all day today. Don’t know what the last one was)
6. Last Bubble Bath: a couple weeks ago.
7. Last Time You Cried: a week ago
8. Last Kiss: just before dinner
9. Last Concert: bertie blackman the other nite

EIGHT HAVE YOU EVERS
1. Have you ever dated one of your best friends? Yep.
2. Have you ever been arrested: no
3. Have you ever skinny dipped: Yes
4. Have you ever been on TV: Yes
5. Have you ever kissed someone and regret it: no
6. Have you ever had dream you thought was real: a few times
7. Have you ever been sent to the emergency room: yes
8. Have you ever been in a fist fight: only with my brother. No one ever got hurt too bad

SEVEN THINGS YOU'RE WEARING
1. fuzzy socks
2. my sweats with “twu” on the bum (they were so cool 10 years ago)
3. black weakerthans hoodie
4. my engagement ring
5. underwear
6. silver nail polish on my toes
7. ….thats it.

SIX THINGS YOU'VE DONE TODAY
1. walked the dog
2. checked email, blogs and facebook
3. fed the dog
4. went for coffee and a walk with zac
5. watched the footy on tv
6. bought wombat a new toy

FIVE FAVORITE THINGS IN NO ORDER
1. the ocean
2. family
3. friends
4. nature
5. music

FOUR LEAST FAVORITE THINGS
1. being cold
2. fights
3. job hunting
4. war

THREE CHOICES
1. where to have our wedding reception (on the grounds of the b&b or at a scout hall across the road from the b&b, or possibly the reserve by the b&b)
2. what to do before I go to work in the morning (I have several things I want to do but I can only get a couple done, not sure which are most important)
3. buying a new computer screen now cuz we need it (its mostly dead and the weird colours it gives off hurt my eyes and make it so I can’t edit photos) or waiting a few weeks and try to find one on sale (we just missed 2 going for $91 at dick smiths)

TWO THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE
1. travel to lots of new places (and revisit favourite places)
2. get married on a beach (as long as I don’t get hit by a truck or something this year I’ll get to do that in 10 months)

ONE THING YOU REGRET
…….i honestly can’t think of anything. There must be something that I wish I’d done differently. It’ll come to me at 2am……

a bed fit for a princess

wombat has been getting up on our bed repeatedly at nite (she now jumps up and dives straight under the covers between us hoping that we won't kick her out if she's quick enough to bury herself under the doona). i figured maybe she thinks our bed is more comfortable (as well as warmer-- i still gotta get her a hot water bottle). i took a foam mattress into the room last nite and put her fuzzy bed bottom on top of it. she went straight to sleep on it last nite (and i had to coax her repeatedly to get her to come on the bed when i got cold cuz zac wasn't coming to bed for a while). when zac came in he tucked her back into her bed. she only got up once during the nite, crawled onto our bed, discovered she couldn't get between us, jumped down (usually she'll just go to the foot of the bed if we don't let her in the middle) and went back to her own bed. i didn't even tuck her back in and she stayed there until it was light out and she heard me wake up and move around on the bed. then she came up for her morning cuddles. we might be onto something with her new bed. she just wants somewhere extra comfy to sleep (but during the day she's happy sleeping on concrete in the backyard).

oxymoron

i was reading a post on this blog about australian animal attacks and the article he linked to on a dingo attack on fraser island caught my attention-- they are hunting for the dingo (which has been identified but not found-- how do identify a dingo from another dingo unless it was one of the ones with the tags on?) and it will be "humanely destroyed." i don't think that's possible. if you destroy something, there's nothing humane about it.

our little (furry) girl

i took wombat to the creek yesterday morning (i've been trying to do that at least once a week for a couple weeks now). there's a spot where i can get down the bank and sit on the edge and try to coax (read: pull on the lead and praise her lots) her in without me ending up in the creek. usually it takes a lot of pulling and several tries to get more than a couple toes wet. yesterday i got down to my spot and called her down. she came down and put her front paws in. next thing i know she's standing in the middle of the creek up to her belly in water!!! yea wombat! she stood there for a minute. a group of ducks (what would you call that-- its not a herd or a gaggle....?) was sitting on the bank right across from us. i pulled a bit on wombats lead so she wouldn't forget she was on lead and yank me into the water trying to get the ducks (pigeons seem to be the only bird she really in interested in chasing and that didn't start until we'd had her a few weeks. not sure what we did to encourage that behaviour). she just looked at the ducks and did her own thing and then came back out of the water. soooooo good! she's still doing really crap around other dogs. as long as they're far away and don't look like cats its ok. just if they get near us we've got problems..... at least she's muzzled (but if another dog got aggressive at her cuz she's being stupid she would be pretty defenceless).

new game

the other day zac and i were walking thru a field and we saw a small dog pushing a soccer ball around with its nose. the people were just standing there while their little dog wore itself out (and a second dog just kinda watched, only taking the ball once in a while). we though that would be a great game for wombat cuz she can do it with the muzzle on. later that afternoon i was in the park across the road and i found a madagascar bounceball along the back fence. i kicked it to see what wombat would do. she went nuts!! i don't know whether she really loves it or its torture cuz i'm pretty sure she's actually trying to get her teeth in the ball (which isn't gonna happen with the muzzle). i got zac to come over with the camera and get a video of it:

and here's the end result of the game:

(the frog look)
good way to tire her out.

language

wombat is quite smart (and i'm not just saying that cuz she's my baby). she's got a pretty good grasp of the english language (understanding it, she's yet to speak in english....maybe that'll come one day). besides the basic dog commands of sit, stay, down, up... she knows "outside" (which means the backyard-- she'll jump up and go to the back door if you ask her if she wants to go outside), "park" (the park across the street), "walk" (going further than the park-- she goes to the front door for both those. with "park" she knows to go to the curb/kerb and then we go across the street. with "walk" she knows we go right or left out of the driveway). she knows "breakfast" (and the aussie "breakie") and gets very excited and runs to the kitchen for that. she knows "bed" and "YOUR bed" (sometimes if we just say "go to bed" she tries our bed so we say "go to YOUR bed" and she knows to go to her own bed). she knows which toy is her kong (ask her to find the kong and she'll go get it) and her koala. we haven't taught her names for any other toys yet. she's a quick learner. we haven't really tried to teach her anything. she's just picked it up from hearing us say it. the only thing she has had a LOT of trouble with is "heel". i think it's not really that she doesn't understand but more she just gets too excited outside and isn't focused enough to do it (she will heel sometimes but she's not really consistent with it). we'll get there.

vegan japanese

dinner looked so good tonite i had to take a photo before we ate. its udon-shiitake stir-fry with sake and ginger (from vegan planet cookbook) and sushi rolls (i've only made sushi a couple times and i'm still pretty crap at rolling them but at least they taste good). the bowls and plate are from our engagement party- they made the dinner look extra nice (tasted really good too. the food not the plates).

not funny jokes

this morning my co-worker got out a book of kids jokes and started skimming thru it. the first couple kids started to arrive so she decided to try some of the jokes out on them. even the kids didn't find them funny. at one point she went to answer the phone and i picked up the book. the first one i read took me a minute to get:
q: what kind of biscuits can fly? a: plain biscuits.
(plane/plain for those of you as slow as me-- my excuse is that it was still early, my coffee hadn't kicked in).
a minute later the kid sitting next to me repeated the joke only when he said the punchline it was "flying biscuits." (he didn't quite get what made it a joke). a couple minutes later he repeated it again to a mom and a kid who just came in only this time it was "what kind of cookie can fly?....a flying cookie!" um.....yeah.
between him and another boy the "jokes" getting less and less joke-like as they sat there and made up their own for 5 or 10 minutes. i kept laughing when they'd tell me new jokes though, not cuz they were funny but because they were soooo random and didn't make any sense at all. example: why did the kinder cross the road? (what?!?) answer: because it got run over by ten hundred cows!!!! (huh?)

138 minutes

that's how much hockey most people i know back in canada watched last nite. 4 periods of overtime!!! and the canucks won (it was game 1 of the western conference quarterfinals) i'm hoping they'll show that game at the next hockey nite in melbourne at glitch bar (which hopefully will be soon-- the last one was in january). not much left of the hockey season before the stanley cup finals.

entertaining work

the kids had a lot of funny conversations today (it tends to happen more when we have a smaller group and we can sit with them and chat). at lunch today we were talking about foods that we liked. a girl stated "i like sandwiches." the boy next to her turned to me and said "i like you, shawna." how cute (and then of course everyone at the table said "i like you too"-- they haven't reached the age where its no longer cool to be teacher's pet).
later in the afternoon we were heading back outside and a group of 4 kids were sitting in the doorway. i walked past and noticed a boy helping another boy to get his socks on (he's convinced he can't do it cuz one day his socks were really tight and he needed help. i think he's forgotten that normally he can get his own socks on). i commented that that was nice of his friend to help him. i walked back past the group a couple minutes later and one of the girls is helping the other girl put her socks on. i made a comment about everyone helping eachother. one of the girls just stated "that's what friends are for- to help you put your socks on." i gotta get one of those kind of friends (and one to do the housework and always cook meals and do the shopping.....)
the best conversation though was also with the boy with the sock trouble (the conversation extends back a fews ago). his mom just had baby number 3 today. about a month or so ago i was talking to her and she said she was letting her oldest son (the one in kinder with us) help name the baby. we asked what names he had pick. she said he wanted "patrick 2" (after his younger brother) or angus. we said that angus wasn't a bad name. her response: angus had been the dog's name.
so today his grandma brought him in and he came running up to me to say that his mom was having the baby and she was in the hospital. we asked him if they'd picked a name for his new little brother and he replied "max". in the afternoon his dad came to pick him up and told him that his new little brother was born and asked if he wanted to go meet him. the boy got very excited and ran to tell me and the other teacher.
boy: max is born! i get to meet him!
dad: do you want to know what his name is?
boy: max.
dad: no.
boy: what is it then?
dad: oliver.
boy: oliver?!? why is it oliver?
ha. he was still excited to go meet him though. his dad showed us pics on his (very high-tech) camera phone. he's pretty cute.
hopefully the kids will be just as entertaining tomorrow. it makes time go faster if they're entertaining.

dirt

give the dog a nice comfy trampoline bed and a dog house complete with foam mattress and where does she choose to nap outside?

not just once, but she kept going back to her dirt spot. her other favourite spot is on the pavement in a corner that needs the bits of dried up weeds pulled from the garden swept out of it. that corner i can understand though cuz she goes there in the morning when the sun shines on it but the dirt that NOTHING will grow in next to the smelly compost??

hi. my name is shawna and i'm an addict.....

i've spent WAY too much time on facebook this past week. found a few random friends from way back though. its such a great procrastination activity. i keep coming back cuz i think of random people to look up or i wanna check for updates. i even got a friend on it 2 minutes after she told me on messenger that she wasn't going to accept my invitation to sign up. so much for studying for her final exams 8)
i also learned another new thing tonite: how to take a snapshot of a web page. its sooooo simple too (i just never bothered to look up how to do it before). just press ctrl and print screen then open up paint and paste it there. then you can save it.
i also made a new friend today not thru facebook. the last few months of zac's old job he was doing some casework for a refugee guy. zac became friends with him while helping him and "A" has wanted to meet me (and wombat) for ages. zac has tried to invite him out for coffee a few times but he's always been busy. today we were wandering around sydney road and we ran into him just as he was heading out for breakfast. we ended up spending a couple hours with him (perfect cuz we had no idea what we were gonna do with the afternoon). unfortunately we didn't have wombat with us but we will definitely be meeting up with him more often-- he's already planning for us and some of his other friends to all go out to lentil as anything for dinner (its "pay what you feel". he's never been there. we walked past today and our friend who works there was sitting out front doing the books. when "A" realized this was the pay what you feel place he'd heard about he got excited started making plans for everyone to meet for dinner).

7 hour brunch

a friend invited a bunch of us to her place for easter brunch. the weather was sooooo great this morning so it was a nice ride up to her place in coburg and perfect for sitting out back and barbecuing brunch. after we ate we had an egg hunt!! that was great (other than all the chocolate eggs that were in sunny spots were pretty melty or exploding out of their foil). next thing we know we're inside playing sing-star on ps2 (ok, me and steve watched, zac erin and alissa played). i think they went thru every song on the disc ('80s sing star) except for 2 no one knew. i just played with the ocd jack russell dog (she was cool!). next thing we know, the sun is setting. we had a nice ride home (and thanks to some more air in his tires steve was able to keep up with the rest of us-- he wasn't as out of shape as we thought after all).
i forgot to find my chocolate bilby this year until yesterday. i tried 5 stores after i remembered but didn't have any luck. tomorrow i've got a couple more places to try. i HAVE to have a chocolate easter bilby.

yeti

the woman who owned the coat ross noble was wearing put her video up on youtube:



you'd never know it wasn't a real yeti 8)

we got the ross noble 4 disc dvd set of last year's 'randomist' tour with our engagement vouchers for jb hi-fi (and the rest of the jb vouchers we're gonna use to buy 'the extras' season 1 and 2 after season 2 comes out next month). we watched part of the ross noble dvd set yesterday- soooooo funny (i would have been quite shocked if it wasn't funny). can't get enough of that guy.

fizzy logic

the comedy festival opened last nite so we went to see ross noble just like last year. it was brilliant-- tangent after tangent after tangent..... and he still got to the end of the story he started with. when zac first booked the tickets we were all in row A. knowing what a ross noble show is like zac went back thru the internet booking site and booked again. we had tickets dead centre near the front of the balcony section-- we'd rather laugh at someone else being the butt of his jokes. he went off about chinese dragons, being killed by a bowling pin set up machine trying to use it to put on pyjamas, bogans, a moroccan kid using "a dingo ate my baby" as a catch phrase, drilling baby seals, pandas eating bamboo poles shoved up some poor guy in row D's arse...... i'd have to say the best part of the show was a poor girl who just had to go to the washroom half way thru the second half the show. after she left the auditorium (just as he'd done with anyone who had left the room before her) he started making fun of her knit jumper thing (or harness has he referred to it). i was crying i was laughing so hard. and of course when the woman came back in the entire audience burst out with laughter (just couldn't help it) and she had to make her way back across the stage in front of the front row to get back to her seat on the far side. i was a little disappointed when he went off on religion though. he thinks its all crap and spent 10 min going off on christians, mulims, and jews (although he says he "respects their rights to be idiots"). i didn't find any of that bit very funny. overall a great show though. i think about 2 1/2 hrs with an intermission and a 10 minute question period at the end that ended up with him wearing the faux fur coat of a woman in the front row while a few dozen mobile phones were held up to take yeti footage (i'm expecting some of those videos to be up on you tube later today).

eggs

at work today i was given the job of going to the supermarket to grab some eggs. i asked my co-worker if i should just get 2 dozen or should i get more. she was very confused and so i translated to should i get 24 or more than that. she still seemed a bit confused but said to get at least 30 cuz we have 15 kids in for the day. i went off and got the eggs and came back. i put them on the kitchen counter and headed back into the room. i assumed they were going to be decorated so i asked if i should start boiling them up. now my co-worker looked VERY confused. she asked what kind i got and then looked in the kitchen to see 3 egg cartons. i was supposed to get chocolate eggs for hiding for the egg hunt. i went back to the supermarket and explained the situation and asked to exchange the chicken eggs for chocolate ones. fortunately the cashier found it really funny too (she was laughing as over the speaker when she had to call a supervisor to authorize the exchange). i was much happier buying chocolate eggs though.

more wombat

wombat had her first trip to c.e.r.e.s. cafe yesterday. i think she thought it was ok (she even layed right down for the last few minutes we were there-- we had to go cuz zac got pooped on not once but twice by the small twitty birds that hang around the cafe).

here she is playing with new toys:

she made short work of the tennis ball on the rope (she always does that, the rope is still fun to throw though)

she LOVES this koala i picked up at savers (value village for north americans-- its the EXACT same shop, just the sign says "savers". even their gift certificates say value village cuz they're printed in the usa). she's pulled its little black nose off but she still hasn't gotten the ear she's chewing on off (and it was already half off when i got it)

our tired naked (no collar) puppy curled up for a nap (she kept trying to curl herself up tighter).

i had to drag her out of bed for a walk this morning!! i had to get up before 7 when its still freezing cold. she had worked her way onto our bed for a cuddle less than an hour earlier and was tucked, head first under the doona (comforter) in the middle of the bed. before i got out of bed i tried to get her to turn around and put her head up by me. no movement. when i got up i realized why. she had worked her head out the bottom end and was nice and warm and she could breath. no way she wanted to go out into the cold for a walk. i dragged her out though and she liked it (and we'll do the same thing tomorrow). after that she's zac's responsibility for walks on weekday mornings.

over accessorized dogs

is it wrong that i really wanna get wombat a hoodie or t-shirt with this on it (from puppy phat)?

random road trip

zac finished his "old" job on friday and doesn't start his new job until the 10th. he was determined to get away somewhere. when the holiday program staff schedule was finalized for my work it turned out that i would be off until this wednesday. zac wanted to head of to daylesford on the weekend to stay at the conti. we went there almost a year ago (as well as a couple months ago) and i just remember freezing most of the weekend last year. i had a great time and we did a great hike but i was cold. i really didn't feel like spending the nites freezing in one of the cute little hostel-like rooms at the conti and showering in a shower room that is the same temp as outside.
we ended up being busy most of the weekend so i started looking on wotif.com on sunday morning to see what i could find for that nite. i found a deal for birches in daylesford. the cottage that the deal was for (the wren cottage) was also dog friendly (no dumping poor wombat at her grandma's for a nite--although i'm sure she would have loved that too). i booked us in for last nite. it was great! we got up there mid-afternoon, checked in to our cute little self-contained cottage and took wombi for a big walk around the main part of the lake.
wombi and zac looking way too cool:

me and my pup on my favourite pier at the lake:

a boy and his dog:

wombat had sooooo much fun! we walked her around the entire lake (the main part and then the other more secluded part that you have to cross a road to get to) this morning. she even went in the water completely by her own choice today (she went in yesterday too but that was because she stepped in the mud at the edge of the lake and zac placed her in the water to clean her legs and belly- she was very good about the whole thing though). she even picked out a stick for zac to throw for her! the video is the furthest she got in the water-- she did it a couple times before trotting off to chew her stick to bits.

she was amazingly well behaved around other dogs (except for one incident outside the puppy phat shop in town that wasn't really her fault but it resulted in her going crazy at a little puppy that darted out from the shop unexpectedly and then caused her in her stress to attack the wooden dog sitting next to her on the footpath). she's exhausted now from her 24hrs of extreme fun and stimulation and me and zac are VERY relaxed from the trip. we'll be going back to birches again (i think that'll be our winter place to stay in daylesford, with wombi of course; the conti will be our summer place there).

the cottage was great. it had a large bedroom with tv (and dvd player and vcr), stereo, wood stove (and a/c but that we didn't need that at all). the bathroom had a deep spa bath which was soooo relaxing-- i spent 1/2 the evening in it. the kitchen had pretty much everything you could need (even a picnic basket that you could use). i didn't take any pics outside but it had a little patio area and then a private yard area with a gazebo where we ate our dinner (hot chips, potato cakes and vegie sausages) and fought off mozzies with the useless citronella candle.

i went a little overboard with the bubble bath....

i had to turn the jets off for a bit to let the bubbles go down.

it was sooo relaxing though. by the time i'd wrinkled myself up in the bath and played around with the wood stove getting the fire going i was ready to crash. it was only 9:30 (at least 2 hours or more earlier than i've been going to bed the past couple weeks and i had gotten up at 11am that morning)! we had a good 12 hr sleep last nite too-- except for a few interruptions by a slightly confused and cold dog that wasn't too sure about staying on her own bed after the fire died down and from midnite until 4 am kept jumping on our bed hourly hoping to cuddle (we finally gave in cuz we got tired of taking turns getting up to remove her).