366 Photo Project - Photo 52: Shedding Season

Those that have been to my house might think that Khuno sheds all year round but he has his periods of massive shedding. You can usually tell it's shedding time when you can pull large quantities of fur off his snout. This past weekend Jamie and I decided to tag team the brushing and after 2 hours of brushing and Olympic catch up on the PVR, this is what we were left with. I ended up trimming a lot of his gross fur, especially on his underbelly. Jamie said he looked like a sheared sheep. What I really enjoyed doing (kinda sick I know...) was taking my metal comb and slowly picking at the underbelly fur. It was almost like combing a fro or what I'd think picking at a fro would feel like. I was able to take his super short underbelly fur and just work it with my comb until the fur became long and loose again. I was able to extend his fur by almost an inch! Eventually Khuno got tired of getting manhandled and we figured one grocery bag of nasty fur was enough. 

Swedish Jewellers, I Have Not Forgotten.

Remember over a year ago when I blogged about my hatred for local Edmonton store, Swedish Jewellers? They came up in conversation yesterday and not for a good reason. I was watching TV and noticed a weird noise when I was playing with my rings. It almost sounded like a "clink". I look down and decided to check my diamond and of course, it's so loose that I can almost rotate it a quarter circle. I've never owned rings with stones set in them before so I really have no idea how normal it is for a diamond to get that loose, but come on! I had it checked last winter by Independent Jewellers and the gentleman assured me that the diamond was fine. I'm not saying that Swedish did a crappy job. I just want to share the fact that they were indeed, the last ones to do any work on the ring. You can bet your bottom dollar that I am not returning to them to get this issue fixed, even if they do offer lifetime replating with every ring purchase. Screw you Swedish Jewellers. I. Still. Hate. You. 

366 Photo Project - Photo 51: Olympics

That's right folks, it's throwback time! I thought I'd share this rare photo I have in spirit of the Olympics. Can you recognize the fine gentleman in the photo? Better yet, can you recognize the young adolescent female? The photo below is of myself and Olympic gold medalist, Simon Whitfield! He came to visit our humble grocery store, Save On Foods over 10 years ago. All the girls were starstruck and I was working in the photo lab at that time. I remember we all gushed and asked, "Should we ask for a photo?" and the front end manager said, "Sure why not?" I was so excited to get the photos developed that I accidentally opened the camera before I had a chance to roll the film! I gasped and slammed the camera shut, saving all the photos. That's why you see the exposed red streak along the side. It worked out, giving Simon a nice place to put his autograph. He didn't fair so well today in London but he's an amazing athlete nonetheless. Thanks for the photo Simon! 

366 Photo Project - Photo 50: Puppy Love?

Khuno's cousin, Audi, came over for a play date the other night. They can play for hours as long as Khuno gets rest periods every so often. That night they were taking turns rolling onto their back. Cynthia managed to capture Khuno giving Audi a little lovin'. 

366 Photo Project - Photo 49: Ghetto What?

Ghetto rain coat, holla! All this rain has made it miserable walking Khuno. This is especially true when it's non-stop rain all day and Khuno's gotta go. I was able to slap on my long rain coat and rain boots but since I was home alone, I didn't want to have to deal with a soaking wet dog on my own. I had bought him a rain coat way back but it was one (or two or three) sizes too small. His underbelly fur gets wet and full of grit so I really wanted to minimize underbelly exposure. I couldn't bring the bag all the way to the end because then he wouldn't be able to pee. I ended up using my hair tie to secure the bag to Khuno's tail. It was working great until the bag started slipping forward, causing his front legs to get tripped up. I had no choice but to pull it back a bit and I got stuck with some pee going into the bag. I'll have to whip up something better in the future, but for now the ghetto rain coat kept a good portion of him dry. Don't judge. Unless your judgement is, "Wow so smart!"

Another Year Wiser

With the wisdom comes many other things... Age, gray hairs, fine lines, belly fat, the list goes on and on. With each birthday that passes, I find myself less wanting to celebrate but more wanting to reflect on the year gone by. Remember when we were young and birthdays meant family dinners because we hadn't started school yet to make friends? This was me up until grade 7. I had the occasional birthday with neighborhood friends, but because my birthday is in the summer, I never had classmates come. Fast forward to the age where birthday celebrations meant nights out with friends and significant others, eating, drinking and celebrating. I've done my fair share of those as well. The past couple of years I find myself more wanting to revert back to the good ol' days where birthdays were celebrated with a gathering of family and good food. 

Today I celebrated my birthday by going to the downtown City Market with my husband. We had a great lunch at Dauphine's Bakery & Bistro, which included the Trio Plate and the Croque Monsieur, both came with fresh farmer's market salads. Jamie got a latte and it came in this massive bowl that neither one of us has seen before. The waitress said that's how it was traditionally served. 
After lunch we stopped into our favorite coffee shop, Credo, for a London Fog w/ Rooibos tea and a latte.Sipping our drinks, we strolled along the market and purchased a variety of goodies! Fresh peaches from BC, more fresh organic peaches, lemon stuffed olives, whole wheat pita with chili hummus, cherry tomatoes, assorted tomatoes, dandelion honey, and elk antler/bones for Khuno. I also dragged Jamie into my new office building to show him where I work now. 

We got home shortly after and I came downstairs to find a hand drawn card from my hubby, inspired by the London's famous, "Keep calm and carry on" fad. Then we headed off again with Khuno to Rivercree for a buffet dinner with my parents, brother and sister-in-law. We left Khuno with Audi together alone for the first time and when we returned home, poor Khuno was so exhausted. 
It's been a while since we had a fire pit night so we cranked that baby open and made some s'mores. My amazing friends came over and brought birthday cinnamon buns with them for roasting on the fire, something that we've never done before. Something about fires that just makes people want to roast things on a skewer! 
This past year has been full of changes. We became husband and wife, went on an amazing honeymoon, witnessed several of our friends get married, and I took on a new challenge in my career. It really has been a year for adventure and I know the next one will be just as, if not more, exciting for our little family. Our next big project: re-shingling the roof. 

366 Photo Project - Photo 48: Europe

Hello. Hallo. Bonjour. Ciao. Hola. We're back from our 4 week long honeymoon and it was amazing. We got to 8 different cities, 12 if you count all the Cinque Terre towns, 13 if you count our 5 hour layover Parliament visit in Ottawa and 14 if you count the Frankfurt airport. We aren't big planners as you could tell from our wedding procrastination and it was no different with our honeymoon. We stayed up late into the night booking hotels the day before we left and figuring out our Italy itinerary. It's a good thing our flight out wasn't till 10:00 PM the next day. We packed for most of the following day and headed off to Europe. Over the next few weeks months, I'll be sharing random photos and any stories that go along with it. This photo was actually taken at the last stop of our trip, Barcelona. The beach there was gorgeous with nice soft sand and beautiful golden flecks throughout the ocean water. We tried writing in the sand a couple times and could hardly snap the photo fast enough before the waves washed it away. You can see in the bottom left hand corner that the wave was already fast approaching! Although I miss laying on the beach, it's nice to be home. Happy Canada Day everyone!