Happy Canada Day. May your celebrations be joyous and still on your food plan.

Cheering for Dagmar and life's transitions. Sounds good that your DH will get a job with more fun, more pay, and less hours - it's unusual to get it all instead of compromising one or two for the others.

I'm recovering from a family meal at a Cambodian/French restaurant with the standard challenges to eat rationally. I wish I'd totally avoided the bread basket, but did limit myself to one slice of a warm sour dough delight. We brought the kids back here for fresh fruit on our patio to avoid their to-die-for dessert menu.

Waving toward Cape Cod hoping saef has a serene recovery visit.

Good morning all! DH and I had an enjoyable couple of hours at the fireworks display last night. The weather had cooled down to a beautiful summer's evening and it was nice to lie on the grass and watch the summer sky darken and the stars come out. The fireworks were beautiful, as always, and I was glad DH could be there to enjoy them.

He and I are both working 1/2 day today and I start my 16-day pet sit tonite @ 8 p.m.. We will have an early dinner as he has "band camp" and then I won't see him until next Saturday night probably.

My cats will get less "human" time these next 2 weeks than the pets I look after. That is the reality of DH's current job. I'm relieved that he is going back to the old job and is finally reconciled to staying in the industry he's been in for the last 20 years. And there are all sorts of other possible part-time things to keep him a bit interested. His boss wants him to look into social networking as a marketing tool and I will benefit from that by having him set up a Fb page for my business.

So it looks like we will both be self-employed for the rest of our working lives and probably working part-time when we "retire". That's not so bad.

Good week all!

Dagmar

Good morning to all!

Dh will finally return Wednesday and then he and I leave for the Florida keys on Thursday. So looking forward to the trip! Tons to do before them. Off to donate blood this morning and then on to packing, shopping, and errands.

Hope Saef and Allison are both enjoying their vacations!

Hi all!

Had a pleasant weekend in Montreal. Caught some beeps and boops of the International Jazz Festival, none of which were terribly impressive, and caught up with my former roommate and his friends. They eat like horses and are all skinny, boo hoo, life isn't fair.

My roommate has to take her Alzheimer's grandpa to an emergency neurologist appointment because he's hallucinating. I want to do something nice for her/them but I'm not sure what.

Just checking in. all is well. Heading to the gym.

Hi all,

I am so far behind! Hi everyone! Finally my power is back and life is returned to semi-normalcy, which still means busy, this time of year. I went to the gym Friday and did a NRLW workout for the first time in about two weeks. Oh. That's where my core is. Felt good though. I know my schedule must change in the summer, but I think I only strength trained twice in June. I can do a little better than that.

On Thursday night I fly to my sis's for a long weekend, where my parents and her in-laws will be to celebrate my niece's 2nd birthday. DS emailed yesterday to say they've lost power and might have it back by Thursday. Good thing I've got some practice with these power outages. At least they also have a generator to run the refrigerator and a few other things.

Emma update: I was so proud of my fur child this weekend. When she was about 10 months old, I had my book club over for dinner. Bc at the time she could not calm down when people came over, she was confined in her crate in the bedroom and whined and wailed the whole night. Since then I've let her stay out when people come over. She still gets excited, but will calm down and be good after a few minutes. Saturday I had book club over and we had a guest, who as it turned out was terrified of dogs (and hadn't asked ahead of time about a dog). So I put Emma in her crate, in the living room where the party was, gave her a bone, and hoped for the best. In the past this would drive her nuts. If she could hear your voices, she would cry. But she was quiet for 3 hours Saturday, and when I let her out, was still totally calm. Good girl!

Michele, have fun in the Keys!!! Such a fun place. Which Key are you staying in?

Krampus, I'm sure offering to help your roommate with anything you can offer in terms of support from home would be appreciated (e.g. cook dinner, take care of her cat, plants, goldfish, etc), and provide an ear for her when she needs it.

Dagmar, glad DH has made a decision about work. Hopefully this situation will be less stressful for both of you. Happy Canada day!

Bill, good for you for avoiding the dessert menu and eating fruit instead. Yes, I hope Saef is having a relaxing trip, too!

Hi everyone else! Have a great week!

Hi folks!

Megan, glad your power is back.

Have fun, vacationers! Anyone have 4th of July plans? None here. I'm taking tomorrow off work and taking Carter to the vet to have his teeth cleaned and his nails trimmed, so mostly I'll be hanging around the house with him relaxing while he sleeps and stumbles around like he's drunk (they have to knock him out to clean his teeth). Good thing I'm strong enough now to lift him out of the car, although I may need the techs to help me put him in when he's done with the procedure.

It has been blazingly hot and dry here. We finally had a storm the other night, but we've had temps above 100 and possibly the driest June on record. A bunch of towns have cancelled their fireworks displays because it's so dry they might start fires. My city also banned personal fireworks, but nobody is paying attention to that. Will keep my fingers crossed that nobody sets our house on fire. Poor Carter will probably be terrified all night.

Megan-- Hooray Emma-- good girl!

We are staying in Tavernier. I'm not familiar with the keys so it will be a big adventure for us! We are flying to Miami and arriving very late so sleeping there. On the way out, we are also spending one night in Miami.

Started my dog sit last night. My clients were still here for about 15 minutes but that was fine. I stayed downstairs and unpacked groceries etc. After they left I took my suitcase up to the room I sleep in and no computer!

I can t take a further cut in my income by not offering live-in service but I also can t (sorry about the punctuation - keyboard is set at french) work without email access. And I can t afford a wireless gizmo etc.

Frustrating!

I didn t eat in response, though the house is loaded with chips and beer! . I will have to use my client s work computer (and figure out the darn french setting). I dončt dare shut it down and reboot as I m afraid it will be password protected so weird punctuation from me for the next 16 days.

Good day all!

Dagmar

Dagmar, if you were pet sitting at my house, you would not have computer access. I don't let anyone use my computers.

If all you need is internet, you could get an iPod Touch for about $200. However, you'd need wireless access where you were staying (a wireless router/network in the house). If that wasn't available in the house, you might be able to get onto the networks in libraries or other nearby businesses/community centers while you're out. A lot of places have free wireless in the U.S.--I don't know about Canada.

Jay

I have no problem bringing a laptop and using wireless. I just wish they would have told me that they'd taken away the computer I WAS allowed to use.

I don't know anything about all the smaller devices - smartphone, ipod etc, but I think they do have a monthly fee, yes? That's why I only have a basic cell for $10 per month - I can't afford anything more. And with DH now probably not ever being able to bring in large money we have to be even more careful of our budget.

I will have to figure this out as it's becoming an issue at more and more of my client's houses.

It's funny - these are professional people who balk at paying me for a sick day but they think I live at the same level as they do.

Dagmar

That stinks DAGMAR!

Yep, there is a fee for all devices.

If I trusted you enough to take care of my golden's and stay in my home. I would trust you enough to use my computer.

RIP Andy Griffith, just read where Andy has passed away. What enjoyment his acting has brought us over the years.

Quick flyby from me today. I'm covering our catering offices for a vacation and have been busy busy busy.

Hope everyone has been having a great week!

There is no monthly fee for an iPod Touch. It is not a phone. It is for internet access, music downloading, personal assistant, etc. You can also take pictures with it, I think.

Jay