Lately I have been thinking I should change the name of my blog. Maybe to something more appropriate... perhaps "Ian-the daily dose of insane things Jenny does" or maybe "Ian-why I work so much overtime" or maybe even just something simple like "Ian-my life in the Princess Ave Zoo". Here are a few examples of things that make total sense to me (jenny) but seem to be, um, puzzling to Ian.

A second cast iron bathtub is absolutely necessary isn't it? The first one we found had to be wheeled home on a scooter, but at least I secured a truck to bring this one from across town!

I think it will make a great addition to the upstairs bathroom! Yes, it's heavy, but that's why we have boyfriends named Ian!

Three cats. Enough Said?

To be fair, Tasha lived with me before Ian did.

The absolute devil dog. I bring this entire topic up b/c if you read the most recent post you will know that Layla ran away for a few hours on Sunday. Then on Monday at about 3:30 there was another disaster-

The entire event started with a LOUD CLUNK while were in bed. Ian actually woke up and said "did that sound like a door"? As usual, I was convinced there was a robber, so I said "Yes!" So downstairs brave Ian goes. Next thing I know he has turned the light on and is glaring at me in this calm but crazy way. He asked "do you smell anything?" and in fact I did smell some skunk. Well, turns out there was no robber, but Layla had plunged through one of the windows after a skunk!! Which of course resulted in a stinky spray. So here we find ourselves tubbing the dog at 3:40am on Monday night. (there is no picture-imagine I stopped helping and said "I just need to go grab the camera"...oh gosh)

And then there was the trip to IKEA with my friends. I think there should be a vote on this one, b/c in my mind this was a very sensible purchase. In November we plan to buy a sectional, coffee table and arm chair from IKEA, so it made sense to me to look in the "AS IF" section while I was there. I found this ottoman for $30!!!! marked down from about $90!!!!

Cheers all around!

Nope, I was immediately reminded by both Ian, and the actions that proved his point, that this uncovered ottoman is a perfect place for the cats to scratch their nails, and for Layla to ram her pointy Doberman nose into.

He was absolutely right.

But then there are moments like this where I can see that Ian is happy to have someone more rational to chill with and cuddle with:

And these moments, when I catch Ian trying to make everyone "just get along":

So maybe the name of the blog will not change. Maybe we will just keep on keepin' on!

While having some friends over for an evening of Mexican food, Margaritas and Board Games, I was looking at one of my most beautiful friends leaning against this ugly patch of drywall in our living room and decided it most urgently needed to be fixed. So on a rare occasion Ian photographed me working, so everyone can see that I do indeed participate. Ian is usually just working harder than me so doesn't have time to take pictures of our progress.

Anyway, here I am sanding away at the drywall patch in our dining room. It actually used to be a doorway into our dining room from the front door, but when we knocked out the living room wall, we no longer needed the door and patched it up. There it stayed for nearly a year. So here is the progress (and yes, every girl can pull off a dust mask if she only has the right sander to complement it):
Painting it after it has been sanded smooth...but not too smooth, b/c then it wouldn't match the crunchy, uneven, old drywall everywhere else!
Wonderful farm art to finish off the wall.
Last weekend Ian and I went hiking in Goderich, which of course was the most unfortunate site of a devastating tornado a few weeks ago. Here is a beautiful shot of the half way point of our hike, which brought us to a deserted beach. It so reminded me of Vancouver, until of course I tasted the water and remembered why I love Ontario so-huge bodies of water with NO SALT!
And of course a shot of the new star of our house-Mrs L. This is her on a play date with Kerry.
By the by, today I was gone for the entire day, leaving Mrs L with Ian. When I returned he told me that he lost the dog, went up and down the streets looking for her, then received a phone call that she was more than 8 blocks away from our home! One of those blocks included a 4 lane busy road! Clearly given her past behaviour I am not surprised. This is just a normal thing for that dog. Frankly, I was more surprised when I heard that Ian actually went to claim her. If you put yourself in the shoes of the man who doesn't want any pets, that would have been a really good opportunity for him to "selectively reduce" the number of inmates at the Princess Ave zoo. haha.

So much Yardwork! Here are some pictures of our newly bald yard after cutting down trees along the fence-line. Next step is renting the mulcher (anyone need fall mulch) and then chainsawing and digging out the stumps that are growing right into the old fence.
Piles and piles of trees to be mulched...





This was a shot from the bathroom, but since we have a new window *yay!* there is now a screen to photograph through...
And the dog. She certainly is much more at home with us now. This means she has no problem sleeping on the furniture, sleeping in the bed, eating entire pans of ground beef right off the stove, or drinking out of Ian's beer glass while he isn't looking. what a dog! (for the record, we don't encourage the beer or the beef, it's just a major learning curve around this old cat house, since a cat will never go for a beer. Besides, the cat mentality prefers you to bring the dinner right to them. Why bother jumping up on the stove when I can sit here and you will obviously deliver dinner into my bowl?)