Rover, age 4 months, taken just before Halloween 2002.  In Elora Gorge, if I'm not mistaken.  On a day with weather much like it was earlier today- warm enough, but most definitely Autumn.

- - -
* Stop talking about politics for a moment or two.
* Post a reasonably-sized picture in your LJ, NOT under a cut tag, of something pleasant, such as an adorable kitten, or a fluffy white cloud, or a bottle of booze. Something that has NOTHING TO DO WITH POLITICS.
* Include these instructions, and share the love.

We never taught roverthedog that when I go for my wallet, she's getting a walk. (In contrast, she ignores my ipod: sometimes she gets a walk, sometimes I'm washing dishes.)

We certainly never taught her that when we're sitting on the couch with her, if we yawn or stretch, she must get off the couch. She's fine-tuned: when I put down the paper, before I even start stretching, she'll wake up and hop down. It seems that when we yawn or stretch at other times, she pays no attention: it isn't that she thinks a yawn/stretch are a sign she's doing something wrong. And sometimes even a small yawn will get her off the couch. (Then she comes back and puts her head on the cushion and looks up at me until I pat the back of her head and she jumps back up.)

roverthedog is acting strangely- clingy, won't stay settled, panting a bit, occasionally whining. At the same time, she's not listless; she jumped up when we offered a walk. And ran around like her usual lunatic self on the walk. But now, laying on my office floor, definitely not happy.

I'm 75% expecting she's OK till the morning before I call the vet; but it's that 25% that wants to call the emergency number...

(giggle).

...yesterday a LGA food-stand sold me a Bloom-County branded bottle of tea, made by Honest Tea. I wish I could say it was tasty, but... it was weirdly peach flavoured. But the label's cute. "This Fair Trade oolong tea is halfway between a black and green tea; like Opus is halfway between a chicken and a doorman." Yeah.

I'm very glad to be home.

Today, d. and I took advantage of the 14-degree weather (!) to take R for a long walk in the Guelph arboretum, where our little bundle of fur got herself turned into a bundle of swamp-mud and twigs. Conveniently, they had a clean-water pond on-site which we could send her through before heading back to the car.

Tomorrow's the first day at my new job! Yay. Paperwork and more paperwork, most likely. I'll be sure to get photos of my new office some time this week.

Oh, and this about "Welsh Dragon Sausages" running afoul of the UK label laws, for their sausage name having "Dragon" instead of "Pork"... is really funny.

I'm catching up through Sunday, which was a pretty nifty end to our weekend in Boston.

The high-points to the morning for me were:

Seeing Wendy after Quaker Meeting. She's a writer, reaching retirement age, half of a lesbian couple who we met through Queer Quaker circles, and we got to know them much better while we lived in Boston. Wendy's partner, Polly, is trying to finish her PhD and both dan and I had tons of empathy with the both of them. Wendy's the sort of person who lights up a room, and it was great to have twenty minutes with her.

Walking in Harvard Square before Meeting was quite peaceful. Since it was early on a Sunday, traffic was quiet, so my predominant impressions were tree-lined streets, birds chirping, insects buzzing, very old brick buildings, and lots of cobblestone.

This led me to mostly thinking about privilege and obligation during Meeting. I'll keep thinking about it, and try to come up with something coherent and interesting to write. :)

Subjective time is funny. Dan says that during Meeting there were no breaks between people talking that were longer than two minutes, sometimes no more than 30 seconds. I've got no reason to doubt that, since his time sense is- honestly- much more accurate than mine. But I had a different perception, that some messages were separated by lots of silence, during which time I digested the message and went back to considering what I was meditating on. That silence changed the entire meeting for me. I agreed with him afterward that there were far too many messages, but I thought the overall meeting was "Ok".

We missed seeing Sharon and Mark, who we'd hoped would come to Meeting. Mark is Dan's nephew, who just turned nine; we last saw them when they came to visit us a year ago. But making the connection was going to be difficult, as they were in the 'burbs and apparently had a full weekend as well.

After Meeting and catching up with Polly, we had leftover-dinner for lunch, and spent a little while book-shopping at the Harvard Book Store. They get points for noticing and telling me that a $10 book I was buying (as a Christmas present) was in remainders as hardcover for $6. Bonus!

Back on the green line to our hotel, to meet up with Malia and Amy. Dan had mused that he wished we had their phone number, since there were bound to be a better place to meet them. At the other end of the subway car... were Malia and Amy!

We got off at the Common, and spent the afternoon sitting above the Frog Pond catching up with the both of them. They're great folks; both in their mid-thirties and they've been together three years longer than we have. When I first met them, it was probably about two years into our relationship and I was impressed that they'd been together for a whole *five years*. Heh.

As for that afternoon, we lazed around until about 5:30, then caught our respective trains and d. and I made our way to the airport, getting home late to *roverthedog* already *home*. (It's really great having a neighbour watch the dog for us. We *so* owe them a dinner).

quingawaga's hair looks good as blonde, I'm glad to report. (seeing it in dusk, through a chainlink fence).

Rover discovered she can climb under the fence, in an attempt to say hi more easily. She then proceeded to wind her leash around both quingawaga and mccorpsecorpse while being cute and waggy. Sigh.

I biked an hour each day yesterday and today. Felt much much better than a few weeks ago when my bike had a flat and I drove to work all week. 's funny how having a bit of energy to bike will lead to having more energy after I bike. Feels good. I need more exercize; I'm thinking of starting up swimming again, but the university pool is closed all summer for repairs. So that means I'm back to the swimplex, which isn't very convenient for work hours. Maybe I'll get up early. Or, maybe pigs will evolve wings.

This weekend looks like: errands and housework tomorrow; Quaker business meeting on Sunday, followed by houseguests I'm really looking forward to- Sadelle and Ann from Vermont. It's totally chance that I became friends with Sadelle. We both volunteered to maintain a website (for our queer Quaker organization) and gradually expanded from there. She and Ann are doing wonderful organizing work in Bennington- they've apparently got the largest Gay/Straight Students organization in the state. Vermont's a weird mix of liberal/conservative, and I don't think any city can comfortably just assume socially liberal values will be there for them. Though things look good right now. So maybe I'm being too pessimistic.

Anyway, they're in Toronto this weekend for the 9icb conference, and I get to see 'em when they're done.

...I was realizing last night while talking with dan that I've not visited Toronto since last winter, before the new year. I've been to London, New York, and the Bay area instead. And in two weeks I'll be in Chicago. I sorta miss Toronto.

How to make roverthedog very happy:

1) remove 1+ litre of duck-stock from the fridge. Notice it seems to have a nice thin layer of fat on top.
2) put stock pot on stovetop
3) tip stock tupperware over the pot. Notice the fat is thick enough that it's not pouring.
4) tip juuust a bit more, so the stock breaks through the fat, falling all at once into the pot
5) watch stock fly out of the pot, onto stove, shirt, floor.

After I stopped cursing, I poured it back into the tupperware, and it was only a small volume that ended up elsewhere than the pot. But boy, what a mess.

Rover was quite helpful as far as she could reach.

So tired. But in a good way.

I got up nice and early, that is to say 9:30 new-time, and baaaarely got to Quaker meeting. After, I came home and had a big salad for lunch, then started checking stuff off my todo list. I cleaned the kitchen, ( trimmed Rover ), and took her with me to retrieve my bike from the University. We had a wonderful walk there, and a pretty OK run/bike/walk back. I was curious how she'd do with running next to the bike. She looked like she was having fun, but not hugely enthusiastic (she wasn't trying to outrace me, for example). I took it quite slowly, and I stopped when she wanted to stop and sniff. Remembering d's biking fall with her, last autumn, I held the leash very loose, so if she yanked I'd lose the leash, not my balance.

The return included a three-hour pause at L & D's house, our next-block neighbours. Their son A. had been taking a wagon around the neighbourhood on trash day. When I showed up, he and a friend were sitting in the yard with a TV in the wagon, watching the static. Which is funny, because L & D are pretty strict about not watching TV. Until today, they've avoided having a regular TV set for the entire life of their kids; you can totally see the effects if you watch the kids interact. They're terrifically inventive, and verbally proficient, and all-around great kids. So today there were negotiations, starting from "you can keep one TV, and it will stay in the yard" down to "OK, it can stay in the basement." The kids are good negotiators. Probably because they didn't watch any TV.

L. tried to use some Jewish Mom guilt tricks on them, but she lacks practice and didn't do it effectively, so the TV stayed. I gave her a few pointers, such as appealing to God with outstretched arms. ...but that won't work so well, since she's atheist. Ah well. She can talk to the light-fixture and pretend, like, um, lots of other Jewish mothers...

L and I spent a while comparing families. Her parents are only 7 or 8 years older than mine, which surprised me because she just turned 48. I keep forgetting that my parents are old; I was born when they were over 30.

I stayed for dinner (how could I turn down jambalaya and brownies?) and when I next looked at the clock it was just after 10pm. I have a kayaking date with D soon after I get back from my vacation. He says there are tons of rivers which are super kayaking but are only navigable for the next few weeks. I'm excited, I've never kayaked before really.

And now, to bed. My todo list doesn't look so awful now, I'm pretty much ready for my trip. I had hoped to make ice-cream this weekend (so I don't spoil the milk and cream I have in the fridge) but I suppose I still have tomorrow evening to try.

Yesterday morning, I did around-the-house errands while dan was at chorus rehearsal. I finished everything I wanted to finish before d. got home, and I even lollygagged a bit while folding laundry, watching a bit of Lord of the Rings. (Though I enjoyed the little added bits in the extended DVD, overall it seemed less magical- is that 'cause I'm watching it on the small screen? Or perhaps it's just that the hobbits are corny, and I'm noticing more the second time around? I wonder.)

Leftover Thanksgiving dinner for lunch. Finished off the turkey, but (yay!) there's still some stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce left. Mmm!

Because it was a wonderful Fall day, d. and I went for a drive. Ten minutes out of town, we were smack dab in the middle of a festival at a tiny intersection of a town. Good Germanic Mennonite stock, mostly farming people from all appearances. We bought some butter tarts and d. found some apple-butter in the general store. I really wanted to take photos of the townsfolk, but it seemed a bit rude so I didn't. I settled for taking photos of Rover. (Dang, I probably could've posed Rover in front of some nice Mennonite townsfolk... That would've worked. Oh well.)

As d. remarked, it's weird that just two days earlier, the richest man in the world was just ten minutes to the south.

We eventually wound up in Stratford, where I got yummy cocoa and dan bought bread and ewes milk cheese at a brand new bakery/restaurant. Rover got to play with a couple of people 'n dogs, and chase her ducky friends at the riverfront. All in all, a pretty relaxing afternoon.

Yesterday was a good day; rich and full.

We finally got our butts in gear and went to dim sum brunch with Chris, a guy I know through local geek stuff. It was really good- certainly the best chinese food I've had in town. And fast, too- we sort of felt we should give them their table back because of the lunch rush, but even if we'd lingered another 10 minutes, it would have barely been an hour-long lunch.

Parenthetically, I can't help but wonder, if we've lived here three years before trying this place for dim sum, what else could we have we been missing while we complain to each other about the town? (I could rattle off a laundry list of things we miss, but I won't because that would be deperessing.)

Well, OK, just one: it would be great if it didn't feel like the town rolled up its sidewalks at 9pm on weekends. OK, I feel better for sharing.

Also yesterday: we took care of a couple errands, which weren't so bad because the weather was so warm (20C / 68F). We started on a long walk with Rover, but the skies threatened to open up on us, so we aborted and instead d tried to take a nap while I did round 3 of raking. Which the trees happily made superfluous because it was windy. Oh well.

I also got to hang out with our friend leslie, who I think d and I have blogged about before, but is one of the neater people who live in our neighborhood. She's a talented writer and a "butch mamma" (in her own words). She threw her back out yesterday but still came downstairs to say hi and chat for ten minutes, even though I told her to go back to bed. Like I said, butch.

In the evening, d made a yummy comfort-food meal of roast duck breast, mashed root veggies, and wilted baby spinich.

I love d for lots of reasons, but one of them is that he'll whip up something really great just because he feels like good food. No muss, no fuss. Of course, that could be partly because I do most of the cleanup. Still, good deal I say.

Later on, we went to see "Team America" which was better and worse than I expected. The marionette oral sex scene was funny, as was Kim Jong Il's song about how lonely it is to be a brilliant dictator. On the other hand, a few jokes were repeated too many times (Film Actor's Guild, and references to too many testosterone action movies I haven't seen...)

I can't say I would recommend it to others, though if you liked the South Park movie, you'll probably like this one. Much like after seeing the SP movie, I feel like washing my brain out with soap, which isn't a terribly nice feeling.

Ah yes, and I remembered to change all the clocks... forward. Oops. But then this morning I felt like I'd gotten TWO extra hours of day when d pointed it out to me. Yay, loads of extra time! :) Gotta figure out how to do that more often. Or something.