I made a pizza last night , based on unrelated leftovers in my fridge : roasted corn , ground bison , black beans and onions . I also had a spicy pepper of sorts , which made me realize that I had the makings for a Mexican . . . whatever . . . but sadly it was a little too old to use . I threw it all together ( with salsa instead of tomato sauce because I couldn 't use the hot pepper ) . Honestly , I had really low expectations , but hot damn was it great . This is what it looked like before cheese or being baked - kind of gross , if you ask me . There 's no after pictures . . . it 's gone now . I might have eaten the leftovers for all three meals today . My mom has agreed to stay at my house next week , and keep care of the pets while I 'm away . My dad has decided to come along with me on my trip to Kelowna . Honestly , I 'm not sure if he really wants to go to Kelowna , or if he 's afraid of his directionally challenged daughter driving through the mountains on her own . There used to be a small crack in the sidewalk in front of my house . It 's gone now . . . as in , the sidewalk is gone . They tore it up today , and I 'm assuming will put a new one down soon . The crazy thing is that this is the second time in six years that this sidewalk has been replaced . When I lived in Edmonton , the sidewalks were like spiderwebs , they had so many cracks . I tripped on them all the time . I guess this is a benefit of living in a smallish city , but I 'm thinking that our tax dollars could probably be put to better use . I don 't kennel my pets . When I go away , my preference is to find somebody to come to my house and care for them where they are comfortable . I used to depend on friends and family , but I 've come to realize that that can be an imposition . In recent years , I 've hired two different professional pet sitters . Even after careful interviews and reference checks , it turned out that both of them were either unable or unwilling to do the job properly . One remembered the combination to my door , but forgot how to type it in . . . called a locksmith instead of calling me for help on Christmas day and then lied about it when she presented me with a $ 300 locksmith bill on top of the $ 400 I paid her to take care of the pets . The other didn 't return my calls or emails for three days after somebody tried to detonate a bomb in Detroit . I knew my flights would change - I 'd likely get home later than expected - and I needed her confirmation that she could stay an extra night . Because I couldn 't get a hold of her , I ended up paying an extra $ 200 and making a mad dash across Calgary in the middle of the night , to get home , instead of crashing at a friend 's place for the night . She , at least , had the courtesy not to send me a bill after that mess up . I 'm going to Kelowna next week . I could probably bring Tallulah , but Winter and Cotton would be miserable . I needed somebody to take care of the pets , so I ended up asking a friend of some friends to stay at my place . I don 't know him well , but he 's part of the crew who often goes out for dinner with us on Wednesdays . He seems like a good guy . Corey loves animals , and I 've seen how responsible he is when he takes care of my friend Jen 's bulldogs . And , since he seems to be between jobs more often than he 's employed , I know he can use the money . Arrangements were made . The nephews were informed of my pending visit , which means I can 't back out , and I 've been psyching myself up to make the 9 hour drive ( each way ) by myself . Then my pet sitter jinx kicked in . Corey has recently started a new job with a road construction company . He 's the flag guy . He had blocked off a road and was directing traffic to go around when a guy drove up in a truck . He parked the truck at the side of the road , got out and asked Corey to let him through . Corey explained that the road was closed and he 'd have to go another way . Then the guy got back into the truck , pointed it at Corey , revved the engine and then drove full speed right into Corey . Corey was rushed to the hospital . The police were called , and the driver was caught ( charged ) . It 's been a week or so now , and it 's become apparent that Corey 's back is all sorts of messed up and is going to need surgery soon . Now , in the grand scheme of things , I understand that pet sitting is not and should not be Corey 's top priority right now . I get that , and I feel all sorts of horrible for Corey . On the selfish side of things , though , I can 't help but realize that once again , my plans for the reliable pet sitter have been screwed up . I 'm going to be gone for five days next week , and now I need to find somebody else to take care of the pets . $ 100 I have finally reached the point in my weight loss that I could no longer put off acquiring some new clothes . It was getting embarrassing , my old clothes are so baggy , but at the same time , I really didn 't want to spend a lot of money on clothes that I hope won 't fit me for much longer . And , then there 's the upcoming Italy trip to consider . . . I don 't want to look like a hobo while I 'm over there . And so , I shopped sales and stretched some dollars . If you can still find them , leftover fall / winter stuff can be purchased at a great price near the end of the summer . . . and that 's what I did . I also took advantage of some back to school sales and got a couple pairs of jeans for $ 20 each . ( And they were a size smaller than I expected them to be thankyouverymuch ! ) Then , I hit just about every store in town , looking for shirts that would " do " . I really had very little choice in colour or style at that price . They aren 't fancy , but they were $ 10 or less and they fit me . I threw my new favourite necklace on top of the pile because it goes with every single one of those shirts - almost looks like it was made to match each one exactly . . . except you can 't tell that in the picture . So , take my word for it : the necklace goes with each one of those shirts . And , it ( or maybe a scarf or two ) will be worn frequently in Italy , to class up my $ 10 solid colour t - shirts . I also got a fleece jacket , which is more for wearing around the house than to take on the trip . I didn 't realize until I got home that the arms are a little longer than usual , and there are slits cut into the cuffs . As somebody who grew up being told constantly to pull my hands out of my sleeves , I don 't know if I should cheer about this little fashion statement , or begrudge its late arrival . Here 's the thing . . . I love shoes . However , I have never been a person who likes to wear them . I prefer to go barefoot when possible . I have narrow feet with a very high instep , which means that a lot of shoes put pressure on the tops of my feet . Plus , since the whole foot swelling issue prevented me from wearing shoes for almost a year , and then having worked at home since I got better meant not having to wear anything more confining than socks . . . shoes just seem more uncomfortable than ever before . I did alter them right off the bat , though . They came with regular ( grey ) laces , but I have never managed to master the art of tying laces so that they 'll stay done up for more than 5 minutes . So , I stopped at a kids ' store and got striped curly laces that don 't need to be tied . I can 't say I don 't miss the fluff , though . I used to have a deal with his groomer ; instead of going in every 4 - 5 weeks for a full grooming and cut , he went in once a week for a bath and a comb and we let his hair grow long . Since it 's so much easier to groom a dog that 's done every week , she charged me the same per month to bring him in weekly as she did for the one big groom / cut every 4 - 5 weeks . It not something that works in the summer , when he 's out rolling in the mud but we 're almost past that time of year . Since he 's essentially an indoor dog once the temperature drops , I 'm thinking that once I come back from my trip this fall , I might start doing that again for the winter . Posted by You may notice in this first salad that the tomato is kind of funky looking . I accidentally bought a genetically altered plant for tomatoes without seeds . They aren 't very good - they have less taste than grocery store tomatoes , so I think the rest of them will be saved for a sauce or something . The basil is also from my garden , and it 's so delicious that I can 't get enough . So , I tried again with the wee cherry tomatoes that came from another plant . They were delicious , but their size prevented the typical look of a caprese salad . So , instead I added other veggies and drizzled some fresh lime juice and olive oil over them . YUM . I have loved this cleaner for the last 5 years or so , but it 's been discontinued in Canada . I was OK for a while , but eventually my stash dried up . I 've tried other eco friendly cleaning products , but never liked anything as much as TKO . And , then , I discovered instructions on Pinterest to make it at home . Because I 'm me , I ended up doing something of a blend of a few sets of instructions that I read and then doubling the recipe I came up with . That was a few weeks ago . My little experiment was finally done late this week . I haven 't tried it on everything that the claims say it can do , but it 's worked well on basic bathroom and kitchen cleaning . It 's particularly good at cutting through grease . I started with a pineapple and a bag of lemons . I cut the pineapple according to the instructions found here and saved the peel , the eyes and the bits of pineapple that came with the eyes . I also threw in some of the core as well . . . . so basically I used the waste from the pineapple . The pineapple fruit is still good - I set that aside to eat later . Then I squeezed the lemons to make fresh lemonade so that I 'd have all the rinds for this . I chopped up the pineapple and lemon waste into pieces small enough to fit through the top of an old 4L ( 1 gallon ) milk jug , and shoved about 600g or 4 cups of the pieces in . I added a cup of brown sugar , 2 tsp of yeast and 2 litres ( 8 cups ) of water and stirred until the sugar was dissolved , then I poured it all into the milk jug . I labelled the jug with the date and put it in the fridge . For two weeks ( 14 days ) , I opened the lid to release the gas created by the fermentation and gave the jug a swirl every day . Two weeks later , I poured the liquid out of the jug , filtered it through a coffee filter to get rid of the bits of fruit or yeast , and poured it into a jar . ( I don 't think there 's any worry of people drinking it at this stage , but you might want to label it as a science experiment or something if anybody but you goes into the fridge ) So far , I 've used it to clean the bathroom and the kitchen . I tried using a small amount to clear a seriously , seriously clogged drain in the bathroom sink - I think it helped , but I didn 't want to use it all up on this one thing so haven 't really tested it out thoroughly on that . Next , I plan to use it in the laundry , and to spray some on the dog pen to help prevent the eau de dog pee smell that crops up on humid days . Don 't use a jar with too tight of a lid when you 're making it . I think the milk jug lid was about right , but have read that people who do this in pop bottles have had explosions . Either way , open it daily to release any gas that builds up from the fermentation . Most of the sites that I found for this recommended only lemons or citrus rinds . Only one mentioned the pineapple , but it made sense to me and seemed to work . Mostly , you 're looking for acidic fruit . Saturday night last week , at 5 : 00pm , I stepped out onto my back deck and made the mistake of turning my head to the right . There , I saw my next door neighbour in all his glory , stepping into his hot tub naked . This isn 't the first time I 've seen this , and while I respect his right for comfort , I really have no desire to see his junk . A few hours later , the doorbell rang and it was the neighbour . Honestly , I really thought that he was there to apologize and agree to cover up when outside . He wasn 't . He was there because he has decided that he wants a concrete curb installed along our property line . Only , he wanted it installed on my property because he 's already planted trees on his side of the line that he doesn 't want to move , and he wanted me to pay half . Honestly , I was in such shock that I said " uh . . . . ok " . I then clued in , gave him all sorts of reasons why I didn 't want it - can 't afford it , it would interfere with the french drain that runs along my side of the property line and don 't really like them . He came back with more : he 'd limit my cost to $ 250 , he doesn 't think the french drain works anyway , the river rock on my property spontaneously jumps over to his yard , and the grass that has sprouted up through the river rock is unsightly . That last one almost got me . The truth is , I maybe don 't do the best job of ripping the grass out because it 's along the side of the house where I never go . So , I decided to pay the $ 250 in the name of neighbourly relations . He 's never liked the river rock on my property . . . . tried to claim last year when the house flooded that the rock on one side of the house caused it . He 's expressed a number of complaints about it since as well . And , I really , really hate conflict . I figured that maybe it would just be easier to get the curb and I agreed to let him have his way And then he knocked on my door the next day . He said he 'd do me a solid , and take that $ 250 I 'd previously promised him . Instead of the concrete curb , he 'd rip out the river rocks and replace it with sod . He got a resounding no to that , but still went away with the idea that he 'd not only convinced me to pay $ 250 for the concrete curb that he wanted , but that it was going on my side of the property line as well . I stewed about it for almost a week - lost sleep over it in fact . Finally , I told a friend about it a couple of days ago , who told me to give my head a shake . She told me to march over there , and tell him to stuff it . I didn 't do that , but I did knock on his door and advise him that I don 't care for the concrete curbs , and that I don 't wish to fund his little project . He reminded me of the jumping rocks , and the spreading grass . I said that grass is there because he threw seed in the rocks when he was seeding his own lawn and overshot the property line . He tried to deny it , but I 've got the same rock on both sides of the driveway and in the back yard , and no problems with grass anywhere else . . . nor with jumping rocks . He couldn 't really argue that . Walking my dogs last night , I encountered a lady with an offleash JRT . I called out to say that my dogs aren 't friendly , and ask her to leash hers . She didn 't . It charged us . I picked up Cotton , who went Ballistic , and asked her to come get her dog NOW . She wandered my way . I backed away from her dog , the JRT followed and snapped . We were cornered . I yelled out ( in maybe not such a nice manner ) for her to hurry up . Nothing . So , I turned around , kicked back and booted the dog in the chops . It yipped and ran away . Then she said . . . wait for it . . . you shouldn 't have such aggressive dogs . It 's been a great visit , but the truth is that I was a little annoyed yesterday . I asked her in the morning what she wanted for dinner , and she asked for beef ( which is a delicacy in Japan ) . I made her a hamburger with all the fixings . She seemed to enjoy it but after dinner was over , she went into her room and shut the door . I was on my own for the rest of the night , and feeling frustrated . After the last couple of weeks , I didn 't understand why she didn 't want to spend time with me . This morning , we got up and ate a quiet breakfast . She finished packing , and it was time to go . I helped her with her luggage and then went to stand in the crowd . Mayu stood with me , but her friends gathered around and they spoke Japanese . I 'll admit to feeling unappreciated . When the bus arrived , Ryoko , one of Mayu 's friends who had spent a lot of time at my house , came to say goodbye . Then Nanako , who stayed next door with Jen , came to say her farewells . Finally , I turned to Mayu . I told her how great it had been to meet her , that I had had a wonderful time , and that I wished her all the best . She said a simple thank you , and turned to go . She took two steps before she crumpled to the ground and started to weep . After I came home , I went into the room where she 'd been staying , I discovered that she 'd left me a gift and a letter . Where she only had a vocabulary of about 10 - 15 English words a few weeks ago , she had worked really hard to write three ( short ) pages of gratitude , and to tell me what she liked most about our time together . No doubt , it 'd taken her hours to write that . I realize now that that is what she 'd been doing last night . Today was the day that Mayu and I went to Drumheller . And , my wonderful dad agreed to tag along as well . He said he wanted to go and see the sights , but I strongly suspect that he came because he knows that his daughter is directionally challenged incapable . Which I am . I thought maybe we could find Drumheller with the assistance of google maps , but realized once we were there that I would have had trouble . . . we maybe might have ended up in Montana . . . and I never would have found the little side trips . I was happy to have him come as navigator . So , anyway , the three of us went to Drumheller . I took loads and loads of pictures , because I 'm putting together a CD of them to send home with Mayu . Some of the key ones are below : Bleriot Ferry , which uses the power of the river 's current and some stationary cables to move back and forth and carry up to about 6 - 8 cars across the river . I 've decided that I want a career change . I want to be the guy who rides the ferry back and forth all day and waves the vehicles on and off . We spent about three hours at the Royal Tyrell Museum of Palaeontology , learning about dinosaurs and seeing fossils . We were able to rent a little machine that had a pre - recorded guided tour in Japanese for Mayu . At each major exhibit , she put it to her ear and listened to a description of what she was seeing and other related scientific tidbits . Then we stopped to cross a suspension bridge that crosses the Red Deer River . It goes over to an abandoned mine , which is closed , so the point is to cross it , get jostled around and not fall on your ass . It 's essentially made of chain link , so it was a wobbly trip . Really , though , what I liked most was the scenery . I think I may have scared my dad when I started to point out the houses for sale and talk about the costs / logistics of moving to the area . After the suspension bridge , we took a roundabout route home and stopped north of Calgary at the Cross Iron Mills Mall . ( Mayu is a 16 year old girl , after all . ) We managed to track down gifts for each of her parents , and chocolates for her - and I quote - " homies " . I did not teach her that word . We got home in the early evening , ate some left over pizza for dinner and watched the Mr Bean movie . ( For the record , Mr Bean transcends language barriers , and is apparently laugh out loud funny to Mayu as well . ) It was a good but very long day . I was ( am ) absolutely exhausted . I felt like I needed toothpicks to keep my eyes open to get to the end of the movie , but Mayu was enjoying it and I knew that she 'd go to bed if I did . When it was finally over , I went to let the dogs out for their final pee of the day and I realized that tonight is the first night since Mayu arrived that it 's been a clear sky . She had three wishes when she arrived in Canada - see the mountains , taste maple syrup and see the stars . The stars are the last one on her list to do , so we couldn 't pass it up . We jumped into the car in our sandals , pjs and wet hair and headed down the road to the edge of town . There , Mayu got a clearer view of the stars than she 's ever seen before . ( Apparently , the cities are so bright in Japan that stars are very dim , as well as few and far between . ) I don 't know the constellations very well , but I showed her the big dipper and the north star . Then we got back into the car , opened up the sun roof and Mayu rode home with her neck cranked , looking up through the sun roof to watch as many stars for as long as she could . Tonight I had three Japanese girls and Jen over for pizza . Jen was running a little late , so the girls and I entertained ourselves by practicing Italian . I recently bought a phrase book for my visit in Italy . I 'd say a phrase in English , they 'd translate to Japanese and then I 'd slaughter the otherwise beautiful Italian language . How sad is it that " I want a kiss " and " are you gay ? " are at the front of the phrase book ? Not far behind it was " leave me alone " and " stop bothering me " . Come to think of it , if I knew that the book contained a section for Romance , I might have chosen another one . Before I serve the Japanese girls anything , I give them small tastes . Tonight , I gave them some ground bison that I 'd cooked earlier . . . I didn 't think to warn them . While they were chewing ( after they said it was good ) I told them it was buffalo . Mayu choked in her surprise , and then got a case of the giggles that lasted a good ten minutes . I guess they learned about the wild buffalos that used to roam Canada in school today , but she never guessed that we 'd eat it . Photos were taken of dinner tonight , which I 'm learning is a good sign . One girl , Nanako , took pictures of my kitchen to show her mom . . . I hope she doesn 't think I 'm a slob , as I was in the middle of making pizza dough , and had all the toppings chopped up and spread out . There were also many , many shots of the dogs , and for some reason , the dogs toys . José ( Tallulah 's pet rat ) seemed to fascinate them , and was featured in many pictures - with and without Tallulah . Tomorrow , I get a lesson in cooking Sushi . I was worried when I heard that , but I 've been assured that it can and often is made without fish . I will have to report back about that , because I thought sushi was a fish dish by definition . This might sound all judge - y and negative , but I didn 't like them . I thought that , as a whole , they made apoor impression and I wasn 't happy that they were the people representing our country . Frankly , they seemed like white trash to me . For example , the " dishes " that everybody brought to the pot luck consisted of 10 bags of chips or Dorritos , 3 macaroni salads - two pre - made at the grocery store , some beans , three pots of rice and a spinach salad . Take a wild guess who brought the spinach salad ? ( Me . ) There was a lady there who had a 2 month old baby . She waved that baby around like it was an accessory and not a human being . After a while , I had to get up and move because there was only so many times that I could smile , coo , or say how cute she was . Except , shortly after I moved , the boyfriend - not the father - took the baby , sat beside me and started to feed her formula . He then spent the next 10 minutes telling me that even though he 'd only known her for a few weeks , he felt like her father . And look - she had blue eyes , just like him . I got up again and started to clean up . We 'd been there a half hour . . . the others , who had arrived about an hour before us , all got up and left and made no move to help with the cleanup . I spend over an hour cleaning others ' messes . I had to really watch myself at that point , not to be the cranky b ! tch I felt like being . Shortly before bed , Mayu told me that she 'd been invited to go to the house where her friend is staying . She didn 't know where they live , how they 'd get there or how she 'd get home but I didn 't want to say she couldn 't go . This morning , we talked about it again and I told her I 'd meet her at school so that I could talk to the other host mom . If you can believe it , that host mom was a no show - she didn 't pick up her girl from school . . . just left her hanging with no phone call to the school or anything . In fact , she didn 't even pick up her cell when we tried to call . We stood around and waited for over a 45 minutes before the program director finally decided to take Mayu 's friend home ( and hope there would be somebody there to let her in ) . I do realize that Mayu is 16 , relatively independent and intelligent but there 's no way I 'm letting her go there . So , instead , I told her friend that she could come to my house for pizza tomorrow . I 'll have to call the other host mom tonight and make arrangements . I 'm a little afraid she won 't pick her up then either , but I guess the worst that will happen then is that the girls will have a sleep over .