An assortment of little things

You might be wondering how the caffeine cut-down is going. Thanks for asking - I think its going quite well. I haven't had resort to caffeine patches, and nobody has commented (that I know of) that I've been more bitchy than usual. I won't deny that its been a bit challenging, but its mostly in terms of overcoming habits, rather than suffering from withdrawals. I've been having the minimum caffeine required to keep headaches at bay, which I usually consume by 11 am. But in the afternoon I find myself jonesing for bubbles. Usually I would reach for diet coke at this point, but I have found that diet lemonade is enough to keep my mind off it. So, I'll continue like this for another week or two until I've fully adjusted, and then cut the caffeine by half again.

I've been married for almost a year now, and after careful consideration, Bryan and myself have decided that we each still think the other is ace. We'll be going back to sunny Queensland next weekend to celebrate our anniversary.

I recently became an Aunt for the 3rd time, to little Caelin. She is extremely cute, and a surprisingly feminine addition to the Coad bloodline. I say that because many of us couldn't fathom the idea of having a girl born into the Coad family. After some questioning of Bryan about his family tree recently, we discovered that in addition to his 2 male siblings, he has a disproportionately high (something like 90%) number of male cousins on both sides of his moderately sized family and one of his few female cousins is adopted. So he has always felt destined to spawn a predomonantly male family one day. But this is not the case with me - I was brought up in quite a girly household where even the dog had to be female. We couldn't fathom the idea of boy in the family (although things have changed now that my sister has brought little Benjamin into the world). One day one of will have some adjusting to do I guess!

Speaking of the dog, Molly is going back into surgery tomorrow to have her knee tuned up. I can't remember if I blogged about it at the time, but she blew out her knee joint while chasing rabbits back in July. Knee injuries are apparently very common in dogs of her speed and stature (i.e. Keg on legs, Ferrari engine with a Volkswagen chassis). She had surgery to repair the cruciate ligaments, but after 8 weeks with quite a lot of pain and minimal recovery, she needs a bit more repair. She probably still has some damaged meniscus preventing a full range of motion (and hurting like hell). Anyway, hopefully she will be on the road to recovery after tomorrow's surgery. She's such a stoich little trooper, and a very special pup to me.

The beginning of Molly's career in modelling

It's about time Molly went out and earned a crust. Just kidding - she did this modelling job (a fridge magnet) gratis. Its not a catwalk (dogwalk?), but its a start.

My Pawzessions is for a new online business venture by my friend Sam, where they personalise collars, blankets, bowls, fridge magnets, mugs etc etc, for you and your pet. And I encourage you to keep it in mind when you're racking your brain for gifts for Father's day, Christmas, birthdays, whatever.

P.S. If you really want a fridge magnet with Molly on it, I can understand why. Ask for her by name.

:-)

I am so freakin' happy right now!

Molly is on the mend and back at home now. It turned out to be a severe anaphylactic reaction, probably brought on my eating a bee or a bull ant. I seem to recall her sniffing around some really big ants on the driveway the other day.


The only bad thing is that her chest got shaved when they operated, which means that her Batman Badge is temporarily gone (that's what we call the little white patch of fur on her chest - common in staffies and often shaped like the Batman logo. Although, Molly's is more star shaped than bat shaped). Hopefully it won't be a drain on her superpowers.

She's going to get such a tummy tickle from me next time I see her!

It's Valentines Day...

And I'd like to explore the true meaning of Love. Unconditional, faithful, adorable, caring, gentle, affectionate, playful... terrier

When all else fails hug a puppy

I haven't blogged about it yet, but the last couple of weeks have been pretty crappy after our house was burgled. Bryan and I were feeling pretty stressed after that, but we started to feel better last weekend when my parents and Molly came to visit for a few days and brought with them some home comforts and cooked us some roast dinners.
It didn't take much puppy hugging for us to start feeling that everything was right with the world again.

Awwwwww

Mum and Dad recently bought a new boat. It came with lifejackets for the whole family. Which is important, obviously.

End of an era

In a little over a week Bryan and I are moving on to a new chapter of our lives. Three years to the day after I moved to Vancouver to spend more time with him, Bryan and I are are moving back to Australia. To Melbourne in fact. Bryan is defending his thesis on July31st, and we are flying out on August 1st. Bryan will be starting a postdoc at Monash University in Melbourne, and I will be working at The Burnet Institute at The Alfred Hospital.
I am looking forward to going to Melbourne, despite the worried look I get on my face when people ask me about it. It will be nice to closer to my parents, the flipside being that Bryan's family are going to be far far away. It will be nice to have summers that last for 8 months rather than 2 months, and nice to drive on the left again (just as I was getting good at driving on the right). But I'm pretty sad to be leaving Vancouver - its an amazing place, especially right now in all its summery glory. It might be a cliche, but I've honestly had the best 3 years of my life here. Work has been fantastic - wonderful supervisors and fellow students/postdocs in the lab. I'll be happy if my future research group is even half as good as I've experienced here at UBC (surely nothing could be as bad as places I've worked in years gone by).
I've met lots of lovely people, and many of them will remain good friends long after we've gone.
I've lived in a lovely red house in Kitsilano for the last 20 months or so. One of our neighbours is doing a painting of the house for us as something to remember it by - I'm excited to see it.
Right now we're trying to pack up what we're taking with us, sell what we can't take with us (anyone want a microwave?), and maintain some level of normality while Bryan studies for his defence. Oh, we're also having a party on Friday night to say goodbye to everyone. It will be a good way to finish up the dregs of our liquor cabinet, as long as nobody minds drinking out of plastic cups.
Now I'm all sad. Here's a Boston terrier puppy to cheer me up:

Footnote: Bryan and I decided we'd like to get a puppy once we're settled in Melbourne. I'd love to get a Boston Terrier, but I don't think they're very common in Australia so it might be hard to find a breeder near us.

Cutest images EVER!!!!!

Cute overload really outdid themselves this time. I actually don't know how they can continue, because I absolutely can't imagine there being any photos cute enough to top these.

Nougat the Guinea Pig: "Hey! that is MINE and you know it!"

Toffee the Guinea Pig: [shifty eyes]

Nougat: "Give it baa...GALGGGH"

Doggone cute!!

Ever thought a pit bull would make a good mother to orphaned kittens?


Check out the video clip (Warning: Seriously Cute!!)

This is a puppy after my own heart

Image from Cuteoverload (best time-wasting website ever!!)

New features

I found a cool new blogger hack that lets me add "On this day" information to my blog posts. There was the option of including information from a lot of different sources but I chose to use just BBC and Wikipedia. Now I feel some pressure to post every day, just in case we're forgetting some huge anniversary if I don't.

You may also have noticed my "Very important poll" on the sidebar. That was brought to us by Ning. I may or may not have submitted a photo of Molly to the poll. And so if you see this picture come up,











obviously she is the cutest, and you should vote for her.

How many dogs does it take to change a light bulb?

Golden Retriever - "The sun is shining, the day is young, we've got our
whole lives ahead of us, and you're worring about a stupid light bulb?"

Dachshund - "I can't reach the stupid lamp"

Toy Poodle - "I'll just blow in the Border Collie's ear and he'll do it.
By the time he finishes, my nails will be dry"

Rottweiler - "Go ahead make me!"

Shi-Tzu - "Puh-lease Darling! Let the servants do it"

Labrador - "Oh me! me ! Please let me change the bulb, Can I huh, huh?"

Malamute - "Let the Border Collie do it, you can feed me while he is busy"

Cocker Spaniel - "Why change it? I can still pee on the carpet in the dark"

Doberman Pinscher - "While it is dark, I am going to sleep on the couch"

Mastiff - "Mastiffs are NOT afraid of the dark"

Hound Dog - "ZZZzzzzzzzzz"

Chihuahua - "You Quiero Taco Bulb?"

Irish Wolfhound - "Can somebody else do it, I have a hang over?"

Pointer - "I see it, there it is, right there"

Greyhound - "It's not moving, why bother?"

Old English Sheepdog - "Light Bulb? Light Bulb? That thing I just ate was
a light bulb?"

Border Collie - "Okay lets get all the light bulbs in a little circle..."

Your daily dose of cuteness

I can describe my discovery of Cute Overload only as a little Christmas miracle. Seriously, check it out, you won't regret it.

Thankyou Bryan, O Bringer of Christmas Miracles!

If you love dogs...

Dogster recently made a promotional video clip, which I think is really cool. Check it out here.

Also, if you have a dog and you haven't put him/her on Dogster yet, what are you waiting for? Cat lovers, did you know about Catster?

If your furry friend is listed on Dogster or Catster, share the url with us here, so we can all admire.
Ok, I'll start. Check out Molly here, and Lucy (may her beautiful paws rest in peace) here.

Getting in touch with my inner Cowgirl

Last weekend Bryan and I went to Calgary to visit his brother and sister-in-law (Neill and Sandy), and his parents, who were also in Calgary at the time. It happened to be the weekend of the opening of the Calgary Stampede, an annual event that inexplicably induces the locals to dress up in tight Wrangler jeans, a ginormous belt buckle, cowboy boots ("Remember, you'll be stomping along the grounds for hours, so be sure to buy your cowboy boots well in advance and break them in"), and of course a cowboy hat.

I have never been to Stampede before, and Bryan hasn't been since he left Calgary 13 years ago, so we decided to spend a day getting in touch with our inner cowpersons at the Stampede. We were joined by Neill and Sandy and Bryan's parents. I flat out refused to wear a cowgirl hat (in fact none of us went to any lengths to blend in), and instead wore a Roots hat, just because its funny (nay, hilarious) for an Australian to wear a hat that says "Roots" on it.
So what is a Stampede like? Well, for the benefit of my curious Aussie friends, it's actually a lot like the Sydney Easter show, or the Perth Royal Show. The only difference is that in Australia people wear regular clothes, and there are no chuckwagon races or jousting (yes, I said jousting!). There are still the same fairground rides, hot dogs, toffee apples, farm animals etc.

So what did we do at the Stampede?

• the Tilt-a-whirl ride - my favourite non-scary ride
• one length of the park on the sky ride - basically a chair lift, but surprisingly scary...I'm not keen on heights
• visited the miniature horses and baby farm animals
• jousting
• ate junk food
• a hypnotist show (non-participating)
  
• chuckwagon racing
• Grandstand show, including singing, dancing, and Cirque du Soleil acrobats,
  
• Eukanuba superdogs
  

The Eukanuba Superdog show was the highlight of my day without a doubt. I especially liked two dogs named Tadpole and Pot Roast. Tadpole is a staffie, like my Molly, and was every bit the typical fun-loving, frisbee-chewing, bouncy-frouncy staffie. Pot Roast was a rather overweight bull dog who couldn't run very fast, but he outwitted the small yappy dogs and won the race anyway (the yappy dogs were easily distracted by other dogs, and ran in the wrong direction!).

That's all about the Stampede. It was a good day - I didn't get blisters or a sunburn, and we finished the day off with a spectacular viewing of Aurora borealis.

Sandy and Neill are expecting the pitter patter of tiny feet in January, so we may find ourselves revisiting Calgary around that time. Only in January it will be up to 70 'C cooler than it was last weekend. Umm, I'm not sure how I'm going to like that.