more goodbye's

what an exhausting week. after giving the eulogy at my grandma's memorial service, i was completely drained. i think chris, nugget and i fell asleep for a good 2-3 hours late that afternoon. we had a very low-key weekend with absolutely nothing planned, which was quite peaceful.

now that we've said goodbye to grandma, we're now getting ready to say goodbye to nugget. 6 months ago when we signed up to raise him, we knew this day would come but it still caught us off guard. it feels too soon to say goodbye, and i just can't bring myself to say goodbye to him yet. as i write this, chris is watching tv and nugget is curled up in his lap. it's so sweet :-) i know everyone who's raised one of the halloween or mineral litter puppies has grown fond of their dogs and tuesday's going to be a very sad day indeed.

just one note: out of the mineral litter (jade, ruby, diamond and coal), nugget is the last remaining puppy. jade and coal were released as pets but ruby and diamond were VIP's through the variety club. i'm keeping my fingers crossed that our boy pulls off some magic this week during his assessment, but i'm also a realist...his preydrive instinct is pretty strong...we'll just have to wait and see what happens. i'm going to put together a photo montage of our highlights w/nugget. so many pictures to go through!

on a slightly happier note, faedra's golden retriever puppies will be arriving at PADS in mid-february, so my monday night cuddles will be resuming...can't wait! and perhaps i'll even get to keep one of them...we'll see! i've also heard through the grapevine that 2-3 other labradors are pregnant, bringing even more puppies into PADS this spring. so exciting!

dear grandma

i'm so sad that you left us, but i hope that you and grandpa have been reunited in heaven and you're happy again. you lived an amazing 95 years as a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, aunt, cousin, friend, and i'm honoured to have been part of it for 30 years. the past few days i've been thinking back to my childhood, and i'm so glad to have lots of happy (and funny) memories:

• eating popsicles on your driveway after family bike rides around steveston
• picking all the fruits and vegetables from your garden
• looking for frogs in your ditches
• finding (and eating) marshmallow bars (and various other items) that you'd hidden in your chest-of-drawers
• you're the only person i know who bakes cookies while watching exercise shows on tv
• finding your dentures in totally random locations :)
• when i was a pre-teen i had a crush on one of the workmen doing repairs to your house, and you told me to give him a popsicle, but i was way too shy so you did it for me :)
• the pink wall-mounted rotary phone in the front hallway always fascinated me, as did the rice-bag of eggshells at your back door
• the new year's day family gatherings at your house...always so much food to be eaten!
• watching japanese beta videos while you sewed
• seeing you scoot around in your custom-made walking wheelchair

yesterday was emotionally draining for everyone, and i'm sad for the days ahead. don't worry about aunt billie...mom and aunt miki are looking after her...she's in good hands :) the hardest part of you being gone is finding something to keep me busy on sunday afternoons now. for 9 years, it's been a routine and all of a sudden, i have nothing to do. i spent my first sunday at mom & dad's so that kept me pre-occupied...but what to do this sunday?

first i lose you, and next week i'm losing nugget...2008 has been pretty rough so far. i'm looking for the sunshine again somewhere on the horizon.

i love you grandma and miss you lots.
love, tracey

a wickaninnish weekend!

on friday afternoon chris, nugget, and i made the journey out to The Wickaninnish Inn in tofino. i wouldn't recommend driving the pacific rim highway at night...the road winds alot, and the conditions weren't the greatest...lots of potholes :P but during the day, the drive is definitely more pleasant, especially in the cathedral grove area near port alberni.

view from our 2nd floor room

chris and i both enjoyed our spa treatments at the ancient cedars spa, and nugget definitely enjoyed his time on the beach. here are a few pix...

view of the sunset from the hotel lobby and our room

um, there goes the window!

wow, talk about an exciting end to my day! in case you missed it, our office building (terasen gas) made the headline news on most of the tv stations. one of the windows on our 19th floor had cracked back in december (possibly due to debris from shangri-la; it was due to be repaired any day) but today's windstorm was the last straw, and it just blew right out! fortunately it was held in place by the caulking on one side, but that's about it. the 4 x 3 ft sheet of tinted glass was flapping about...back & forth, back & forth...a few times it was pretty scary...we thought it would crash right through onto our floor! uh yah, did i mention that particular window is like 6 feet from my desk?!

i'm not sure how to describe the windowpane, but we're lucky that it was a dual-layer (?) and the inside part of the window is still intact...so no, our office doesn't have a new air conditioning unit :-) you can view the newsclip here. within minutes of the incident, georgia street was shut down and traffic (vehicle and pedestrian) was diverted.

on a happy note, none of us were hurt during the incident, asides from having the bejeezus scared outta us. anyhoo, shortly after the incident i shut down my computer and nugget and i kept well away from the window! i've never seen any windows shake and rattle so much before! for once, i had a front-row seat of the action!

when i finally left my office an hour late, i had my 15 seconds of anonymous fame on news1130...if you heard the 2 different clips i apologize...i'm not the most elloquent speaker, nor do i know any big descriptive words :P and now i'm looking forward to work tomorrow...i am absolutely fascinated and i desperately want to know what the next step is! the 4 of us sitting right beside the window might need to be temporarily relocated tomorrow...yikes!

h&r update

here we are one week after the new year's hit & run incident. in the past week, i've dealt w/the rcmp, icbc and cdi. i finally saw my claims adjuster this morning at icbc, and was informed they have started an investigation into the h&r. they've taken the partial plate along with the make and model of the car and are hoping to narrow it down to a handful of vehicles and find the person responsible for the damage. i also received an estimate on the damage...less than $2,000 (give or take...depends on the labour charges) and i'm hoping to get it into a repair shop by the end of the month.

on another update front...nugget had his first puppyclass of 2008, and i was pleased to get positive feedback from several observers. everyone thought nugget had improved greatly over the holidays...some of his obedience commands were stellar! but of course, he still picked on the weakest dog during his solo off-leash time. poor trixie didn't know what was happening to her! and alas, the end is near...nugget is being turned in to PADS on february 5. at our class next week, we'll be informed of the "procedures" for that fateful day :( in the meantime, we'll enjoy our last month together with our boy...we still have a few more adventures to get through!

(un)happy new year

2008 started off with a bang. literally.

after a drum-tastic NYE party @ vic's, chris and i were 5 feet away from our condo driveway when a car pulled out of it's parking spot and hit my car. as if hitting us weren't bad enough, after i made eye-contact w/the male driver, he totally took off! yes, that's right...we are another hit & run statistic :P

at the ungodly time of 3:40 a.m., it's absolutely amazing that there was a (sober!) witness who came forward, after attempting to chase the male driver to get his licence plate. lucky for us, we got the make & model of the car, and the witness got a partial licence plate.

chris and i were shaken up, me more so...suffering minor back stiffness and neck pain, and harbouring a lot of anger at the driver especially after seeing the damage to my car...there's a significant dent, crack and scratching along the passenger door and body of my car. thankfully nugget wasn't hurt either! poor guy was startled from his deep-sleep and couldn't understand what was going on :-(

needless to say, my hopes of making custard cookies on new years day were crumbled. instead, chris and i had to go to the rcmp detachment to complete our police report, followed by a conversation w/icbc dial-a-claim, and then canadian direct insurance.

i truly hope that we were able to provide enough evidence for a thorough and complete investigation into this accident. after the holidays, who can afford to pay for car repairs/deductible, etc.?

it's all about me :-)

after what seemed like an endless celebration of other ppl's 30th birthdays in 2007, it was finally my turn :-) even though i had to work on the 28th, it didn't dampen my bday spirits at all.

i have to say i was definitely well-fed this year! one of my colleagues, laura, took me (and nugget) out to lunch at saltlik where i enjoyed the beef dip w/skinny fries...yummy! for dinner, my parents took us out for dinner at the hart house, where i demolished the crab cakes, sablefish, and vanilla bean creme brulee. as if that wasn't filling enough, we went back to their house for more dessert...cherry tarts and frozen lemon mousse! crikey that was a lot of eating!

unfortunately when i woke up on the 29th, i had caught a cold :P however, i wasn't letting that stop me from my birthday celebrations w/my nearest and dearest friends! we had dinner at the transcontinental where i enjoyed the calamari and then the halibut burger w/fries. mmm, grease! for dessert, we headed back home for ice cream...this time i made vanilla ice cream w/mint chocolate girl guide cookies and a lemon raspberry sorbet.

i think the best part of the evening though was playing rock band :-) i love the drums, and i can't wait till we get our hands on it for the ps3! poor nugget went into hiding for a bit...i'm thinking he wasn't a fan of the singing...i wonder why, mike?!?! hahaha!

all-in-all, it was definitely a fantastic 30th birthday!

merry (?) christmas!

hmmm, i'm still not really in the christmas spirit. i'm not sure why though...we've been at metrotown 3 times this past week doing all of our shopping (that's enuf to turn anyone into the grinch!). we had our office party at the beginning of december. the chocolates have been arriving on a (almost) daily basis for the office. we had our cookie exchange, and i baked more goodies last night, with more to come later today. christmas eve dinner, and christmas lunch and dinner are all lined up.

oh well, i have a few more hours of work to get through today and then hopefully i'll be in the spirit of the holiday season. right now i'm actually feeling that sense of dread...it's similar to packing up for a big trip...like i've forgotten something important. as far as i know, i've bought all the presents i needed to buy, i've got treats to take to chris' aunt's house and my parents. i'm not sure what i could've forgotten! i guess there's not much i can do about it now!

merry christmas everyone!

gifts, gifts, gifts

if you're looking for a last-minute stocking stuffer, or a gift for someone that you just don't know what to buy, i have the perfect gift!


"change the world for ten bucks" is a great book full of 50 ideas on how to make your life better, including ways to help the environment. it's not a "preach-y" type book that's all up in your face and telling you how horrible you are for using plastic bags (i'm guilty!)...instead, it gently suggests alternatives to current habits. (at least when i go to superstore, i re-use the plastic bags i already have at home!) not only that, but it has funny little anecdotes to lighten the mood/subject. for $10 (or $9.50 if you have an irewards card), it makes a great gift. i've already given 3 away! the only reason i discovered this great book is because i received it as a gift yesterday :-)

in addition to receiving this book, i've been bombarded with starbucks gift cards. i'm doing my part, and will be buying a travel mug so i can help reduce cup wastage.

and this christmas i bought myself a present :-) knee-high boots! i've been looking for boots (leather, pointy toe, skinny low heel) for years and years, and just when i'd almost given up i went to feet first at metrotown. i was crushed when i encountered the usual problem...i can't zip'em up past my calves. however, this store was different...the salesgirl told me that the leather can be stretched by their leather-stretching machine! what?! that's the first time any store has offered to do that as i face this problem repeatedly. so i left my boots for a couple days and voila! i have knee-high boots that i can zip up! it's gonna be a merry christmas after all!

meet frankie!

for 1 week, nugget and frankie were on a puppyswap. PADS tries to swap the dogs into completely different environments - nugget went to live in a house w/an older couple who don't work and have 2 cats, while frankie came to live in our petless condo, commute on skytrain and accompany me to work. i have to admit i wasn't looking forward to my first swap, but after we brought frankie home we realized that he and nugget were like twins from different mothers! they both love to cuddle on the floor, they both sleep a lot, and they're both super-mellow (nugget's a bit more excite-able). all-in-all, it was a great swap and us raisers were happy to have our little boys back.