Monthly Archives: October 2012

Oct23

The Second Big Goodbye

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On Monday 22nd October, we said goodbye to our pretty blond cocker-shnoodle, Emma. After several dry weeks of no one being interested in adopting her, a well-connected friend emailed our little “Family Wanted” poster to a bunch of her equally well-connected friends. And boy, did that ever do the trick! We were suddenly flooded with phone calls and emails enquiring about Emma. So I had the privilege of interviewing several interested parties, and had a few visit Emma here at home. And one fantastic family stood out. They happened to visit a few hours after I mentioned to my mum, “I’m waiting for somebody to come in, sit on the floor, and wait for Emma to approach them. ” And so this family did just that, no prompting, nothing! They just knew what to do with a shy dog. And even before they ended their visit, even before I spoke to Alaric and the kids about my views, I knew that this was the right family for Emma. Call it gut feeling or intuition or dog-ternal instinct. I never even remembered to ask what they did for a living, until the lady volunteered that information the following day.

The following day, I took Emma to visit her potential new family, and she was quite at ease in their house, and with their other dog too. But their cat intimidated the hell out of her! I loved that the family’s huge, elegant house felt warm and inviting, not museum-like and intimidating. Emma was curious and sprightly as she explored the house and grounds.

And so, on Monday we said our goodbyes, and I drove Emma over, with all her gear in tow. As we entered the neighbourhood, Emma started whining in that high-pitched breathy way, the way dogs do when they can hardly contain their excitement. A very good sign. After a few minutes, I kissed her, and more or less bolted outta there, with an almost brusque goodbye to the new owners, in order to cry like a baby on the drive home.

But I know she’s happy there: the new owner emailed later that day to say that Emma was settling in well, and that she was already in love our blond princess.

The house feels oddly empty, now that it’s completely dogless. I suppose it will take moving to the other side of the world, to get used to it?

 

 

Oct21

“A Good Time Was Had By All”

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What a weekend!

On Saturday 20th October, we invited our friends and family to celebrate with us, before we ship out to Thailand. Of course, because Alaric and I are both lazy about preparing for a party, we had all the food catered (awesome curry from Alima’s in Toronto.) And when our invitees asked “Can I bring anything?”, I had no qualms about replying, “Sure! Bring a dessert.” Even the salad was purchased, man! For a piddly $7.99, you can get a huge garden salad, all washed and cut up for you. You’d be mad not to buy it. Maybe we’re not so much lazy, as got our priorities straight: it’s really important to us to ENJOY our get-togethers, rather than spend too much time in the kitchen, cleaning, serving, making sure everything is perfect. Needless to say, the queen would not fit in, since she’d have to pour her own drinks…

We might have bitten off more than we could chew: our little house was bursting at the seams with 51 adults and 24 children! The volume of chatter was almost overwhelming at one point. You could hardly hear the music. And you’d think that grown men would not need to best each other in conversation by talking more and more loudly. That said, I love that the conversations were alternately intelligent and downright idiotic. An excellent fête – as they used to say on GBC radio, “A good time was had by all.”

And this, naturally, is where they mainly gathered:

On Sunday 21st October, it was the kids’ turn to have their party. Once again, in the spirit of minimal work and maximal enjoyment, we booked the party at Boston Pizza. Becca invited the girls from her class and close circle, and Keeran invited his “boyz”. A little segregationist, perhaps, but that’s what they wanted for their party.

It turned out to be just about as noisy as the grown-ups’ party, albeit with only fifteen kids! The good folks at Boston Pizza had the children make their own pizzas and sundaes, by choosing the the toppings.

But the party didn’t end there: Keeran brought a friend home for a few hours, for more play time. And Becca went over to her friend’s house for the same thing. Gotta love that there’s never enough play time, no matter how much time you give them, eh?

All in all, they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. And here they all are: