5C's Que Pasa

This past Friday Colin was doing a number of errands in Kelowna and told me that he would pick up dinner. Yeah 😎 I can’t remember when we last had take out. Remember two posts ago when there was so much rain that Colin had to walk around the side of the house and around the back patio to get inside. He had so much to unload but he had to wait till rain stopped. Meanwhile I finished my work project and had my bath.  Of course because hot water is an issue we did the magic we need to do to make that happen. While I was in the tub Colin set things up. As far as I knew we were having wonderful Chinese take out. We always just heat it up later when we are ready to eat.

First time I see this photo but what a lovely setting to see as I emerged from the tub. I was very relaxed after a long soak with a glass of wine. Love the balloons.

As my birthday was not really a special day for me Colin had wanted to surprise me. He certainly did.

The first note I found was on that pink slip of paper on the bottom of that first photo towards the left. It read” Yes! Another birthday celebration. Look in your underwear drawer”.

There I found a $5.00 Lotto scratch card and another pink slip.

That led me to a search under the romaine in the fridge. Ahh a lovely bottle of Pinot Grigio ( 13% ) from Argentina. And another pink slip. That led me to check my recliner.

The pink slip said “oops, wrong clue”.  The new clue sent me to look under my desk mat.

“Got you again” – look under your keyboard.

Where I found a huge bingo scratch. The next clue sent me to look under a bedroom pillow.

Where I found a very very special birthday card. It had a line of doxies dancing in a combo line COMPLETE with the appropriate  music. I and the girls loved it and  did a few dances. The next clue on the pink slip led me to look in the fridge.

Moving to the next clue behind the mayonnaise jar.

A full glass of vino. Perfect timing as I was parched.

So much fun. You do remember that I just got out of the tub when all the merriment began so yes I am wearing a nightie.

Moving along to the next clue.

A large dark chocolate bar with raspberry, my favourite. Next I was directed to the front door.

Wow! Such a large and lovely orchid. I love it. The next clue sent me back to the kitchen with instructions to look in the microwave.

Happy cheesecake birthday to me.

Somehow they each managed a lick of the cake.

So very much fun.  I can’t remember having such a great time. Following the clues was so enjoyable.

It took a good deal of effort to blow out that candle. So much energy following the clues. I loved it.

The girls and I played the music from the card over and over and had so much fun.

Then we got to drink wonderful wine and eat delicious Chinese food, have chocolate cheese cake and so on. Honestly best birthday surprise ( or any surprise ) in my life ever. Such a great idea with all those clues. Here I am two days later still so very inspired.  Love you Colin.

Not very well. The constant winds and cool temps and of course daily rains are not helping. Everything needs heat and sun if at all possible. Even my flowers have barely grown since planted four weeks ago.

The lake had gone down but today was up again because of all the rain yesterday. This was taken when it was going down.

I planted two of my flower pots with an outside circle of portulaca and an inside ring of lettuce with a middle of basil. The basil died because of too much rain water, Colin replaced it today. In the second pot I have cilantro in the middle and it is doing well but three of the portulaca plants have died. Too much rain and wind.

Finally the parsnips are popping up.

The radishes are the only thing doing well. I had to replant the onion seeds a few days ago on June 1st.

Most of these carrots have come up but I filled in the blank spots. These are from a seed tape. But even my two rows of carrots from seeds have only come up 50%.  I replanted those as well.

The peas on the left are doing well but should be ready to eat in a few weeks. Not going to happen. However the Swiss chard and spinach under the mesh only came up 50% and also needed seeds added. We use the mesh box covers to help prevent quail from eating the seeds.

Same lettuce mix that I have in the two round flower pots.

I also had to add more beet seeds.

A few cucumbers seeds have spouted. Sadly on May 30th Colin had to totally replant our three rows of green beans. He dung down with his hands and there was not any sign of any seed having been planted. Very strange. I know that they were planted as I had personally planted two rows myself.

The tomatoes both here and in the pots at home are not growing at all. They seem stunted.  They need sunshine.

A lovely splash of colour in someones small box garden.

Note how Ciela just let her back feet stay flat as she pulled herself up.  So cute.

Yesterday was a no post day mostly because I received a phone call at 6PM that went to 7PM and left me frustrated. It was a sales call from our internet provider, Shaw, offering me a new package as our plan was expiring in three months. The, what sounded like a young girl, had no idea what she was selling and lacked confidence but after 45 minutes with her I went for an upgrade to internet 600.  I suspected she made her living by getting commissions on the upgrades she made. Deal completed I moved on to start my evening at 7pm! She called back 10 minutes later and said that she could not sell me the updated package because we had an old system 😯 I was upset at having to lose one hour of my precious day.  That would have been my relaxing and reading time. Earlier in the day yesterday, I spent just over 90 minutes with Visa about an error they made on my account 🙁 Very long story ( like 90 minutes worth of my precious time ) they credited me $150.00 for nothing. I really was trying to tell them that they had made a mistake. Their loss. They could not see the error of their ways. I really dislike spending so much time of my day taking on these large companies and wasting my time. Customer service is not what it used to be. Next week I have to take on Telus and Shaw for issues with our new cell phone packages. I need to pace myself. However I usually come out ahead financially but really this should be part of the regular service that I pay for. Why does it almost always have to be a battle? So today between Visa & Shaw I made $277.16.

The forecast was for heavy rain, thunderstorms and possible hail. We had a brief period of no rain mid morning and that is when Mr & Mrs Duck came to visit. Of course the girls noticed and wanted out but we decided to not let them out. However the ducks continued to waddle from the lake almost to the shed. I decided to let them go, Ciela decided to hang back. Carlie barked and the ducks turned and started towards her, she backed up and barked loudly. Mr flew over her ( she crouched down ) and then Mrs followed her mate back to the lake. Ciela was out by now and they were sniffing everywhere that ducks had been. In a nano second Carlie found duck poop and rolled in it over and over. Ciela did the same thing but the guck was mostly on Carlie. Needless to say it was bath time. We washed them one at a time in the kitchen sink. It wasn’t until later that I discovered that Carlie still smelled a bit. She will get a second bath later – perhaps a mix of baking soda, hydrogen peroxide and Dawn dish soap. It is mostly on her neck and face but oh so stinky. Duck poop is the worst.

Resting and warming up after the bath. But they don’t stay still for long.

Back outside to look for snakes!

Yes we have garter snakes living in the rocks and they love to curl up in the sun. The girls discovered them a few days ago and now ring the bell to go out often like at least every 30 minutes to go out. The snakes are black with yellow stripes. We have our irrigation system running thru a black tube between the rocks and the patio. The girls mistake that black PVC pipe for a snake over and over. We are constantly going out and telling them to not bark. Is is funny but of course we can’t allow them to bark like that.

Colin had a meeting and errands to do in Kelowna this afternoon so off he went in the rain. The girls hardly moved off their observation perch for close to four hours when he came home.They were so tired so I covered them. Every time a car drove past they lifted their heads to check.

This afternoon I spent another hour of my life on the phone with Shaw following up on last evenings call re our internet system. This lady was extremely knowledgeable about the Shaw products. After listening to the variety of options I made a decision and our new modem will be here next week. Details about the deal will be revealed next week. The rain was so heavy that the Shaw lady asked if I was standing next to a waterfall. I had to go into the bathroom so that we could hear each other. Colin arrived just as I was finishing my phone call. Of course the girls joyfully greeting their Dad added to the noise level.

It was raining so hard that Colin had to walk along the side of our home toward the lake and across the patio to get into the house. The water was at least three inches deep out front. It rained for another 90 minutes or more before is slowed down. Eventually the water level went down enough so he could get to the car to unload it. It is raining steadily again.

Surprise for me:-P We are having Chinese take out for dinner. Of course we will have to heat it up at dinner time. We have to deal with Carlie’s second bath first 🙄

The other day ColIn was getting two potatoes our from under the house ( nice and cool down there for storage)  for a BBQ when Ciela came along and rolled it away with her nose. Colin carried it inside and she stole it yet again.

A new fun toy.

Carlie want to play with it as well.

And there you have it. I just asked Colin and he said that he cut the teeth marks out and that was his potato for dinner!!

I saw some large and loud dog bells for doors on Amazon, great price at two sets for $17.00CAD. They are a wonderful deal and have a nice sound.

I put the old homemade set outside the front door in the hopes that the girls would catch on and ring them to come inside. Ciela used them today. Carlie is slower at picking this kind for thing up.  She really prefers to have the door opened for her in both directions.

Please share these last two images, it may save a dog from a great deal of pain.

We have been doing calendars with our dog photos since 1998. We would send them out as a Christmas gift to our parents and Gramma Katie ( and Louie ) as well as a few select friends in various years. Every month was a photo taken during the previous year.  We had no doxies between March 2017 and February 2021, almost four years. During those years we traveled to Europe. Had it not been for Covid we wouldn’t have got our chocolate doxies.  We would still be traveling the world, but stuck at home Colin realized how much he missed having fur babies. Until we were fortunate to get these two we used our photos in Europe for the calendars.

A composite of earlier days.

You have to love those sibling kisses.