Happy Green Year!

I've updated our blog's colour to reflect our household's way of living.

Since buying our home, we've (well, mostly George but I happily comply) have made a number of significant improvements to help the environment while saving us some money. Examples include:
• New energy efficient windows
• New 95% efficient furnace
• New energy star washing machine
• Outdoor clothesline for spring, summer and fall
• Indoor clothesline in spare room during winter (In fact, when our dryer broke down, we didn't even replace it!)

In addition to these upgrades, you can usually find George walking around on weekends with his cocking gun filling various holes. (Get your mind out of the gutter! He's filling holes in the walls!)

Here's to a new, greener year!

Boxing Day

We spent the day at my sister's and always, had a great time. Dinner table conversation was lively to say the least, the movie was absolutely horrible (the singing in Mama Mia! was atrocious!) and the food was delicious. 

In the afternoon we went tobogganing at a local hill. At the bottom of the hill there was a little ramp, which normally would be a good thing. However, beneath the ramp was chunks of ice. And since our toboggan didn't have shocks, my ass is incredibly soar today. Aside from that one hill, rest of 'bogganning was great. 

Today we are off to my aunt's for more turkey. 

merry christmas!

Another Christmas come and gone. It always sneaks up on you and then, poof, it's over. I'd like to take the tree down today but George insists on waiting until after new year. This year he is responsible for taking the damn thing down! 

George and I had a lovely day. After a big breakfast of bacon, eggs and pillsbury biscuits, we snuggled up in front of the fireplace to open our gifts. Of course, the dogs got to kick things off with their stocking full of squeeky toys and bones. Kept 'em busy for a few hours. 

The humans then got down to the important stuff! George gave me a gift certificate for a new motorcycle helmet (That's going to go with my new motorcycle in the spring i hope!) as well as a gorgeous copper watering, plus a stocking full of some wicked fun stuff. I got George some fishing gear (we hop

e to head up north this summer) and a heating blanket. 

Afterwards we plunked ourselves down on the couch and watched the most traditional Christmas movie ever - Band of Brothers. Nothing like a war movie to keep things festive. 

The heated blanket came in handy later in the day as george ate too many of my fine chocolatey cookies 

and wasn't feeling too great :(

On a brighter note... I made a 13 pound turkey for the first time and it turned out great! George did the traditional thing and carved it up. Made all the trimmings, too, including a mincemeat pie (although we were too stuffed to dig into that.)

Today begins our 3 days of family adventures! Wish us luck. 

Happy holidays and 

a glorious new year to all! 

Rob and George

Wow, so much has happened since last posting.

For starters, we got married! Fantastic day. The weather was a bit overcast but no rain (well, a little bit near 11pm but by then we didn't really care.) Highlights include Mom's speech, George's best man's speech, the drag queen and of course... the food! The ceremony itself was pretty great too. George cried like a schoolgirl whilst I was like the Rock of Gibraltar. People are still talking about the food. My best recollection is the smoked salmon and steak. Delicious.

I still can't get over the amount of work my sister and her husband did. No question, the wedding would not have happened without their help.

The next day we hopped on an airplane and made our way to Portugal for two fabulous weeks of incredible food, glorious sights, delicious coffee and four days of sandy beaches.

Since that time we've been back to work.

Oh, and we've unofficially started the adoption process. More to come on that at a later date.

Wedding Update

Well, our wedding is getting closer and everything is shaping up. of course there have been a few hickups, like the guy who was going to make the most fabulous wedding cake ever has had an accident and is unable to use his hands. No worries - our back up plan may not be as over-the-top, but it's going to be super duper delicious.

After spending many weekends looking for our rings, we thought we'd end up with something pretty generic. But then one day we were walking along Queen st in the beaches and decided to pop into a cute little store and there they were: the most gorgeous, original rings ever! They cost a bit more than we expected but are SOOOO worth it. Individually made by an artist in Calgary. George's is even an award-winning design.

We still have a few small things to do but all is looking good. now we start watching the weather reports...

Long story short... our dryer went kaput back in the spring. So we decided to make David Suzuki proud and we purchased a clothes line. Unfortunately, the first one was kinda cheap and it only lasted a few months. So we got the Rolls Royce of clotheslines recently. George was kind enough to hook it up to our upstairs patio wall which is just steps from our washing machine. So convenient and green. Clothes smell great. Although we're not looking forward to winter cause we're gonna have to buy and dryer now!

As far as we know, no one has complained about seeing our undies floating in the wind.

Timmmberrrrrr

Well, our fight with city hall wasn't much of a fight. More like a whimper.

Turns out "the arborist found the tree in poor condition due to a recent storm break, and a hollow cavity in main stem. The arborist recommended that the tree be removed and replaced."

How do you argue with that?

As of today our tree still stands but its days are numbered. However, on a brighter note we've begun making future plans. With the tree gone, our front property will have a whole lot more sun, and a great big empty spot where the tree once stood. So we're thinking of turning it into a vegetable patch next year.

The tree in question is just behind and to the left of the stop sign.