Free and clear!

Done!

I sent the hard copy of my thesis off to Victoria this morning.

That is it! I am done done done! Yippee! Huzzah! I am free!

and what did I do with this newfound freedom?.....

applied for a Masters in Library Science.

Basil's brush with death

Basil the Bunny was attacked by a cat this afternoon.

We got complacent at our new house, with its enclosed backyard. We hadn't seen any cats roaming the neighbourhood, so we figured the only problem with leaving Baz in an outdoor cage for a few hours during the day was the weather.

Then mom stepped out onto the back deck and saw a cat chasing a streak of grey across the yard and through the gate across the driveway.

And then she saw that the side of Baz's cage had been ripped apart.

We ran out into the front yard screaming, "BASIL!", and couldn't see her or the cat anywhere.

Then I started to think, how the hell do you find a five pound animal that is terrified out of its wits, possibly hurt, and doesn't come when you call it? doesn't even make a noise to tell you it is there? probably doesn't even know how to get back home if it has run too far? that we don't even know if its still alive?

Then I saw the cat, huddled under a trailer next door, without a rabbit in its mouth.

At the same time, mom found Baz huddled against the curb across the street. No visible blood. We were quick enough in yelling that the cat backed off. either that or there had been a car, which I don't want to think about.

I cuddled her under my chin and her heart was beating again by the time I got her back inside, and she curled up on my shoulder under my chin for the next hour until her heart-rate slowed down again.

Two hours later she is completely fine, and is hopping around outside of her cage for the first time in the new house, feeling very brave now that the crisis is over, and she bested a cat.

Her mom is not quite so fine. Baz will not be going outside again very soon. Especially now that the cat knows where she lives.

Neighbours are awesome

Our family lived in our old neighbourhood for over 30 years.

We made some very good friends in the neighbourhood.

Those friends helped us move.

You guys are awesome.

You helped pack a million dishes.

You helped clean our fridges and other places that haven't seen a duster in almost 30 years. ewwwwww.

You helped dig up plants to bring to the new house.

You took loads of crap to the thrift store, the dump, the humane society.

You took loads and loads and loads of boxes over to our new house.

You stashed our stuff in your houses because there were not enough hours in the day to move it all before we had to give over the keys.

You helped us christen the new house with laughter and good food.


Thank you so very very much.

Loot Bags

We have come up with the perfect solution for our excess of stuff from the B&B: everyone who comes to visit the new house will receive a loot bag.

Each loot bag will contain:

-a Gideon's Bible
-a Brita Water Filter Pitcher
-a set of slightly used but clean towels
-a set of slightly used but clean sheets
-your choice of side chair or end table

I think that should slowly help us cut down on the clutter!

All moved in, no room for us

We are all moved in and my mother has just christened our new kitchen floor with a broken bottle of green food colouring.

This is because there is currently no room in our kitchen to put a box down to unload it.

My mother had a interior designer friend of hers come and look at our new house before we moved in to see what furniture we should bring with us to the new house. She assured us that most of our major furniture items would fit, especially the family antiques. And i am sure that she is right, she just forgot about all the smaller furniture pieces, the ones that are currently completely filling our living room, and the fact that we have possessions, that are all currently in boxes taking up the rest of of the space in the house. And the garage.

Somehow we were able to convince ourselves that we could easily fit all of our stuff into a house exactly half the size of the old one, simply by getting rid of the extra beds and a couple of chairs.

Now the wishful, "someday we will have built-in bookshelves built along this wall" has turned into, "we are going to IKEA tomorrow and getting some bookshelves to screw together and create the look of built-ins."

Don't get me wrong, I love this new house and I think my parents will be really happy here, there just needs to be a serious purge of all the crap that they thought they could hang onto.

The green food colouring is a case in point. There isn't much of a mess because it was almost all dried up in the bottom of the bottle. The bottle broke, because it was old and glass. How old, you say? I would estimate it was from the 60s. It came out of my grandmother's house.

See how much we need to purge?