Why am I tired?

1: Spent the morning cleaning house.
2: Didn't get my Saturday nap.
3: Hopscotch (more like leapscotch, or at least jumpscotch, my nephews don't 'hop' anywhere), neighbour's goldfish pond, making pizza, spinning till you're dizzy at the playground, getting creative with sidewalk chalk. Interestingly, I was more of an observer than a participant and although Connor is now bathed and fast asleep, I think Xander still has some spark left. Not me.

3.

Dance Lessons

I haven't posted for a long time. And finally I get my paws on a computer and what do you know? Blogger has changed the setup again. Here's to hoping I get this right.

KP isn't posting stuff - you'll have noticed that I'm sure. But I did want you to see me and Gotham at the park. Because really, I know you can never get enough of this right?

That's me, in the red.  That ear sticking up? That's Gotham's. Ridiculously uncool.

When I'm done showing Gotham the school of hard knocks, he likes to play shadow tag with himself. I won't tell you the other embarassing thing he does, because KP's gonna post about that another time, I'll tell you this though...it has to do with running after a B-A-L-L. Totally insane. And very unRidgebacklike.

Hear that? It totally sounded like "UURNGMPH!" He's not as easy to knock over as he was a few months ago, and he's getting really good a deking me out, but once I catch him, it's game over.


Here are some interesting ones. Cropped so you can see close up how extremely tough and crazy we are (KP says just crazy). Pretty gnarly, huh?

But really, we're just softies. Don't tell anybody.

Early Morning

If you're looking for reno photos and stories don't read any further. Frankly, I'm quite enjoying not tripping over tools and materials and not having to scrape layers of dust off of everything. So the tools have been put away since the first week of December, poor lonely things. Norm has since acquired some new tools but he seems content enough to play with them in the garage. That, or he knows it won't be pretty if they come out of hiding. At least not right now.

If, on the other hand, you like early morning walks by the river at the tail end of winter, this post is for you. We went early yesterday too, but no camera. I guess they wanted a do-over because this morning they weren't taking 'no' for an answer when they woke me up. Whine, whine, whine, the "we absolutely MUST go to the PARK now" incessant, in stereo, whine. It's that or they knew there was no dog food and the store doesn't open till 10am. Wouldn't want to miss the store opening.

Weird noises in the mist

What's down there? Rory? Is that you? C'mon out!

The sun is coming! The sun is coming!

A little less brown every day.

The grass isn't always greener.

Always be on guard.

LAST ONE IN THE GULLY IS...well, the last one in. 

Gotham knows Rory is stalking him from the gully...he'll get pounced any second.

Sometimes Rory lets Gotham keep up.

Heading home for breaksfast. They don't know we ran out of dog food yesterday.

Free at last!

The great thing about -29C is that when the temperature finally hits -3 it feels like a heatwave. The dogs actually WANT to be outside, so today was a good day to let off some of their pent up energy. You can see it in their eyes. "Can we go now...now? Huh? We're ready...can we go? How 'bout now?"

As absolutely adorable as Gotham is (new babies always steal the limelight), we wouldn't want to forget the real star of the show. 

Besides, as you can clearly see from the expression on Rory's face, Gotham has a lot to learn. "Really? Doesn't he know the ground is too cold for stalking? Make him stop, he's embarrassing me."

It really is a beautiful day.

And Gotham, at seven months, is finding his feet. And his legs. The playing field is leveling out for those wrestling matches and chasing Rory.

Back in the Saddle

Or, back in the mortar bucket...

Didn't quite get finished the backsplash installation today. And what do you know? It's time for supper but the stove is out of commission for now. Guess we're going out.

I'm thinking steak. And red wine. Oh, right, and finishing off the rest of the backsplash tomorrow, including the pretty pencil tiles at the top of the shorter runs. Grout will have to wait until later in the week.

Sealing Tile

Ahhh...2012. The tools having been put away and out of sight for the 23 days since the open house, it's now time to get back on with things. Things, in our case, being finishing up those last pesky bits of trim, molding and tiling on the main floor. Drats.

I'm easing myself back into it. Today's adventure was limited to sealing tile (different of course, from ceiling tile). This soft limestone will be the backsplash behind the stove and the trim around the rest of the counter-top.

Yah, limestone. The thing with natural stone like this it's soft and is prone to pitting and wearing if it comes into contact with acid (think lemon juice, tomatoes...) so it needs to be sealed. It's not something I would use as a countertop material, but with care it will make a beautiful backsplash. 

The pale grey of the stone by itself is gorgeous, but to get the full effect of limestone you really need to use an enhancing sealer so that it retains the wet look that highlights the variations and fossils.

The enhancer takes it from nice, but vanilla, to wow.  Above and below are the same tiles - before and after sealing. The variations in the stone really come forward and the colour is even richer.

And why put the sealer on before I've even installed the tile? Experience. The sealer is drippy stuff, trying to apply it on a vertical surface would be a serious pain. The other reason is that if you've got the stone sealed before you install it any thinset or grout that gets on the face of the tile is easy enough to wipe away if the pores are sealed.

Design Flaw

I couldn't begin to tell you how much time we spent planning the kitchen, well before even one strip of wallpaper was ripped off. The home reno shows and the professional kitchen designers could make you think it's not so hard, but there is a lot to consider. A whole lot. I'm pretty proud of what we accomplished and the last two weeks has seen me spend more time cooking and baking than I have in the last two years. My dawning realization? There is something I didn't consider.  I guess I had assumed that the dogs would hang out on their beds in the TV room, or on the sheepskin in front of the fireplace in the living room. And they do. As long as I'm there with them. Which I haven't been, because a) I'm excited to have my kitchen back, and b) it's just a good time of year to bake.

So, here's my problem:

Yes, I should have bought TWO of those chef's gel mats. One for in front of the stove, but also one for in front of the fridge. Because even though I don't stand in front of the fridge for any length of time, I think I know a dog who would put a second mat to good use.

Oh, sure, the other thing is that I can't get to the fridge or the stove without telling a dog to move. The looks I get...as if they thought the countertop should be plenty of space for me.