Happy Victoria Day to my fellow Canadians! Here we are, ten days after Miss Wendy the Enormous joined us as our latest foster dog. She has been an absolute dream: this dog is so eager to please that she goes to her kennel on command, and she walks right beside me on a halti. After…
Category: Simply Not Cool
Not a Mammal Monday: Pigeon Circus
Sometimes, a person who considers herself an animal lover ends up in awkward situations, at even the most unlikely times. While I normally avail myself to mammals in need of help, this past Friday I ended up offering assistance to a different species entirely. In retrospect, I should have written about this incident the day…
Camera Shy?
Miss Charlie, our SCARS foster dog for the past six weeks, had an opportunity to present her beautiful self on Global Edmonton Morning News this weekend. Note I say “had an opportunity,” rather than “Charlie showed our city and most of the province her beautiful face.” Here’s how it all went down. Knowing Charlie Bear…
Limu the Smuggling Turtle?
Spring break tends to fall around the same time each year, which is a good thing in terms of booking holidays somewhere lovely, and a bit of a bummer considering my holidays from school always overlap my godson’s birthday. For the second consecutive year, The Electrician and I were out of the country for the…
I Was Godzilla
Oh friends, this has been a rough week. It started Tuesday night, when The Electrician and I were out for dinner with his mom. Early in the meal, I started having sharp pain when I tried to chew with the teeth on the bottom right side of my face. It was significantly uncomfortable, but I…
My Husband, the Hero
For most of the past week, The Electrician and I have relocated to the spare bedroom because the guest bed has a much firmer mattress, and we hoped it would help my knotted-up spine correct itself. Between the change in bed and the three treatments on my neck I suffered through, I am close to…
I Am a Slow Learner
I don’t know why I do this to myself. I have a terrible habit of browsing the “impulse” stand at the grocery store while I’m waiting for my turn at the till. Like most folks, the people who organize supermarkets anticipate–correctly so–that by the time I finish shopping a giant store full of a thousand…
The Hoarse in Second Place
Several worst case scenarios exist for classroom teachers. My personal greatest fear is somehow soiling myself in front of a group of teenagers. Clearly, having a fecal explosion in front of a class would require me to move to another school immediately, possibly to another city far, far, away. Luckily, it’s the sort of thing that…
Seriously, Ovaries?
I saw the doctor yesterday to get the results of my recent pelvic ultrasound, which was scheduled after lingering pain in what felt like my ovary, and suspicion that I’d ruptured an ovarian cyst. I had a cyst at least once before that grew to the size of a ping-pong ball, so I wasn’t too…
Breaking the Habit
Here we are, folks, three whole days into 2013, and I have not had a Diet Pepsi this year. Sorry. I suppose I should have warned you before dropping that kind of news. Me without Diet Pepsi is the kind of unsettling minor shock associated with someone replacing the bologna in your sandwich with a…
Who Writes These Instructions?
On Friday, December 21st, I had a diagnostic pelvic ultrasound in an attempt to determine why my ovaries (or something else in that region) have been giving me so much trouble of late. The appointment, unfortunately the soonest one I could get, came nearly four weeks after I experienced what I can only describe as…
Responding to Tragedy
Like the rest of the world, I’m stunned and sickened by the recent violence in Connecticut. I don’t have any answers, although I know the internet and social media are zinging with suggestions for how to prevent similar incidents in the future. Debating gun control and the availability of competent mental health care is appropriate,…
