Potty training

I think I talked about this before?

About six months ago I bought a system for potty training cats.  But I ended up buying the wrong thing.  I bought the bonus items and not the actual system.  On it's own it wasn't usable, and it wasn't worth the cost of returning it in the mail.  Today I decided to buy the rest of the system that I meant to buy before.  The cost of cat litter has gone up, so if it works, it will pay for itself in 3-4 months.  Plus cat litter is gross.  So I'm going to give it a shot.  Or maybe it's more accurate to say that the cats are going to give it a shot.  Here is the plan:

It looks easy as 1-2-3.  I'm sure it won't be.  I give it a 50/50 chance of success.

Hello Possum's!

A blog post that read referred to readers as  "my darlings, my dears".  Another blog calls readers "my lovlies."  It made me smile that someone would write that (and not come off as fake).  Who talks like that anymore?  And then it made me think of Dame Edna.

I loved Dame Edna, she always referred to her fans as possums and my dears.  No one under 75 says that anymore.  I thought Dame Edna died, but just the character died.  Maybe she'll return one day with her gladiolas and her friend Madge.  I'm sorry blog readers I don't have a term of endearment for you.  Maybe one day. 

Stats

I love the new stats feature on blogger.  Above is the list of the most common words people searched that brought them to my blog.  There is a definite hockey theme here. How does Bieksa not even rank?
My blog is pretty heavy on the Kesler pictures too, I would have thought there were other puck bunnies google-ing him too.  Sorry, it's a long way until the next hottie of the game series.

Petr is drawing the people in too. I did a quick search to see what other pictures are available.  Nothing too exciting, and then I saw this smiling dimpley face.  Hellllloooo Petr.  This isn't even the same Petr Sykora, but whatever.  Looks like he plays in a Russian league and had a pretty good year.  He made the cut as the first official non-official off season hottie.  Look me up if you want to come to Canada and leave mother Russia behind.

















And this is driving traffic my way as well.  Interesting.  Thanks for the plug 5 years ago.  Not sure I feel the same way about carnies though.  I assume this was Whitney's doing?

Rainy May Day- rambling update

Yesterday I went for a hike in the rain and got soaked through to my underware.  It wasn't too bad, except I looked like a drowned rat.  I'm glad I didn't see many people on the trail.  I don't have real rain gear anymore, so I was ill equiped.  I've been waiting around for the rain to stop before I head out, but it looks like that isn't going to happen.  No hiking today. 

The size medium workout gear arrived, and it all fits.  I wish I had consciously thought about what I was doing when I started, it would have been nice if I had weighed myself or took a measurement or two.  I think I weighed somewhere around 180 in September, and I remember thinking that all of my jeans had shrunk in the dryer.  The scale doesn't really tell me too much.  I weigh myself maybe once a month when I'm at the grocery store.  Lately I've been hovering between 155 and 160.  I've been wearing my skinny jeans for a while now, I remember I couldn't do them up, and the thighs were too tight.  Now they are loose, and I have been taking them off without undoing them.  And the scale is not budging, so I've been weighing myself less and less because it's going to drive me insane.  I'm happy loosing inches... for now.

Next ramble.  Watermelon.  I wasn't a fan, I thought it wasn't very flavourful.  Watery, not sweet, hardly any taste.  My taste buds have totally changed.  Now I'm totally obsessed with watermelon.  It tastes so differently to me now.  I can't get enough.  The other day I brought a whole mini watermelon for lunch.  It can't get any easier packing lunches: 1 watermelon, 1 spoon.  Done. 

Next ramble.  Dogs.  I keep thinking it would be nice to have a dog to take with me hiking.  As long as I'm renting this isn't going to happen.  So for now I'm researching.  I want a smaller dog, bigger than a Chihuahua, nothing breakable, but not so big that it's going to kill my cats.  Smaller than 20 inches because most stratas don't allow dogs bigger than that.  I want it to have enough energy to come with me on a hike, but not so much energy that it's a full time job exercising it.  I want it to have short preferably black hair, no long hair.  And I don't want a puppy.  I have no interest in the house training phase.  At first I thought I wanted a boston terrier or a pug, but they are pretty played out.  Too many medical problems, and they have breathing problems.  The leading candidates:

Manchester Terrier- it's bigger than a mini pincher but smaller than a doberman.  This is Dimitri, I think I'm in love with him.  I would adopt him tomorrow if I owned my own place.

Rat Terrier- bigger than a Chihuahua, and less crazy than a Jack Russel Terrier.  They are smart, and easy to train, and are really good at agility courses (think Super Dogs). 


And then there are these awesome dogs from Taiwan.  Lots of smaller dogs, strange mixed breeds.

it's like a little mini chocolate lab, short legs.

or this little mini black lab/terrier type thingy.

How can you say no to this little face?  Shiba Inu and Formosan mountain dog mix

But I guess it's taking a bit of a risk adopting a Taiwanese dog.  Some of them were street dogs, and some were abused.  Most of the dogs above were rescued when they were puppies so they aren't wild dogs.  Most of them are still in Taiwan, so you don't get to meet them first. 

The coolest looking dog (but he's not for me)

See what I mean?  There taiwan dogs are different from what you usually see.  It's like a Dalmatian and a border collie or something.  Guaranteed to have a super crazy high energy level.

What sort of dog person do you think I would be? 

Pet Peeve

Huggggggggggggggggs

The internets solution to not being able to physically hug someone.  Every time I come across this little sentiment, the first thing that comes to my mind is... Fuck off.  If the intent is to give the person some comfort, then use your words.  Express something that has some meaning.  A word does not have more meaning the more g's you add. 

There is a raw food website/forum that I belong to.  I joined when I first went raw, but stopped checking in because one of the main moderators cannot write a sentence without typing Hugggggs.  It's included in her emails too.  She sent me a hugggggg for my birthday.  I respect this woman less and less and I would punch her in the arm if I ever met her in person.  I just popped in to the forum to see what's up.  Huggggs flung all over the place.  It looks like this hugggg thing is catching on with the other middle aged women.  Now everyone is doing it.  

Thanks for the hugggggg, sending you a huggggg too! 

Fuck off.  I can't stand it.  I'm not a hugger in real life, and I'm not a virtual hugger either.  I only know one person who actually uses the multiple G approach online.  I'm pretty sure she doesn't read my blog, but just incase you recognize yourself in this.  Take my advice, stop it.  No one wants your fake huggggs. 

Does this annoy anyone else or am I alone on this?

Jim the Realtor

I don't even know how I stumbled on this youtube channel, but it's amazing.  Jim was a high end realtor in California, but when the market tanked he ended up selling foreclosures for the banks.  He takes us on a tour of homes on the market.  He has the most sarcastic, dry sense of humor.  He is so honest, there is no sugar coating a piece of crap house.  The best part, often he is the realtor trying to sell the house!  Some examples:

I had no idea that people would actually trash their homes when it goes into foreclosure.  Some of the homes people take all the doors, fixtures, appliances, and anything of value.  One guy even took the toilets and then poured concrete down the drains.

Last weekend I was sick laying on the couch watching his videos.  I learned so much about the why the housing bubble burst and why things aren't going to improve quickly.  Here's why, a house goes into foreclosure, then the bank tries to sell it.  A realtor lists the house for the bank for less than the vlaue of the house, but doesn't allow for the house to be shown, and it gets no offers.  But they aren't worried about it because they already have a buyer lined up.  So then they go to the bank and say look, it hasn't sold, so let's lower the price.  The bank agrees.  Then their buyer offers less than the current listing price, and the bank accepts it to get rid of the debt.  The bank assumes the realtor has done their job, and the price is an accurate value for the house because there was no interest at a higher price.  So now the banks have lost money on that house (and lend less money out because they are losing money on foreclosures).  But the real problem is that now that selling price becomes the new benchmark for the neighbourhood.  So then the next house that lists uses that shady dealing to price their house.  Jim the realtor drives around and showes how this is driving the prices down, and how it is causing people to become up-side-down on their mortgages.  So interesting!

I found one!

Today I was at a team building day for my job. Its on the other side of town near my favorite organic veggie place. While on break I noticed a community garden across the street. I just went and checked it out... And guess what? They have a huge compost bin!  It's right out there in the open. So I should be able to pop in there whenever. Problem solved. I admit that I had considered deleting my last post because I thought the lack of compost bin might be my undoing. Now I think I have no excuse.

Note this also my first attempt at mobile blogging. Not too difficult.

Challenge

If you were to take a peek into my garbage (god knows why you would want to) you would see fruit peels, bits of veggies, pulp from my juicer, almond milk containers and ... kitty litter.  I've been thinking that with the exception of the kitty litter, everything I throw away is either recyclable or compostable.  But I live in an apartment, so I don't have a composter, and the cats have not grasped the concept of using the toilet.  For a while I was flushing my juicer scraps, but I was concerned that I was going to plug it, so I stopped.  When I know I'm going to go to my dad's house, I'll store up the scraps that the chickens will like and I bring those with me.   

I feel bad throwing out stuff that I know doesn't need to be thrown out.  So I have given myself a challenge.  Ready?  My challenge is to not throw out anything except for kitty litter, and coconut husks and mango and avocado pits (cuz they don't break down very well).  Hang on.  Did I just announce I'm becoming a hoarder?

Nope, I'm going to try to either compost or recycle everything.  Is it possible?  I'm going to find out.

Here is the plan.  My freezer is empty except for some frozen fruits.  For now, I'm going to freeze all of my compostable scraps and then taken them in bulk to my Dad's.  I can already see the flaw in my plan.  Quantity.  My freezer is going to be packed full in less than 2 weeks.  My crappy city has a compost pick-up, but only for single family homes, and they don't allow for drop-offs..  For now it's a pilot project, and was supposed to be expanded this year, but nothing so far.  So I looked at other nearby cities, they don't do drop-offs either.  I cannot believe how hard it is to compost if you live in a condo.  Most cities that pick-up compostables, do not do pick-ups from multi-family complexes.  Considering more multi-family complexes are being built than single family homes, I think this will have to change. 

Worm composting is an option, but from my experience, worms are delicate.  Their home can't get too hot, or dry, or wet or cold.  I would feel bad if I killed them, and I would have to bring them inside in the winter to keep them alive.  Not really wanting to do that. 

I think I might have found an option though.  It's a community demonstration garden... with 7 compost piles on site.  I wonder if I can sneak in and compost bomb them?  I'm going to find out. 

Have any tips for me?  Do you have a compost pile, if so, can I come and give you my compostable bits?

Self Diagnosis/ Diagnosis by Google

It's been a long time since I've blogged anything mental healthy. 

I've been thinking a lot about my diet and how it might seem a little crazy to other people.  I've also been thinking a lot about my control issues.  The two things are tied to each other.  I blame a lot of it on Celiac disease. I didn't need to be hyper aware of what I was eating until I needed to avoid gluten.  So I now have a long list of foods I will never eat again, and a short list of foods that I will eat.  I was watching a TV show about eating disorders and extreme diets; quelle surprise to see my exact diet diagnosed as an eating disorder.  Hmmm.  Is eating unhealthy food required for good mental health?  They were going on and on about how being a control freak went hand in hand with eating disorders.  Made me start to thing about that.

What's psychology girl to do?  Go online and do a questionnaire of course!  The verdict?  Strong tendency towards bulimia.  Maybe, but don't you have to barf all the time?  Celiac disease use to make me barf, and now I have a huge aversion to tossing my cookies.  I refuse to drink to excess just to avoid it.  The person with my diet in the tv show was diagnosed with anorexia.  I was surprised when the results for me came up bulimic.  So maybe it has more to do with the person and less with the diet.  Fuck that, I'm not going to start barfing. 

So then I thought I would do a couple more questionnaires and see how I'm fairing! 
1) I do not suffer from a social anxiety.  - Interesting, because I actually kinda thought I did!
2) I don't suffer from anxiety in general.  
3) I have some depressive symptoms - Interesting, I've never felt so good!  So then I took another test and answered 'yes' to 1 out of 10 questions.  So I'm good.
4) OCD - I answered 5 questions out of 8 questions 'yes'. "Your score is 63%. You have indicated that you have several symptoms that fit the criteria for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)".  I already knew that hello deodorant :)
5) PTSD - (Post traumatic stress disorder) answered yes to 45% of the questions. 
6) I also don't have any personality disorders.  Although the first time I did the questionnaire I had three different personality disorders!!  Then I realized I answered some questions wrong.  What a relief!
7) Schizophrenia-  not a bit. 
8) bi-polar - nope

The questionnaires are interesting, but the results don't mean I have any of these illnesses.  I did find it interesting that I scored higher on some scales and lower on others and that I got completely different results depending on the questionnaire.  There were very few questionnaires that I didn't have at least one positive response.  For example, the depression scale asked if I sometimes had a difficult time sleeping.  Everyone has trouble sleeping from time to time.  And one of the anxiety scales asked if I had headaches and neck pain.  My answer was "often," but that's because of my car accident, it has nothing to do with anxiety, but a questionnaire doesn't know that.    

On the surface, the results make me look like a bulimic, obsessive compulsive troubled by her past.  That's like a character from a book!  I'm not nearly that interesting.  And no, I don't believe that I really have any of these illnesses.