5C's Que Pasa

Dealing with some legal matters re Dad’s estate.  Plus had to take Carmeh to the vet today…not related to her back issues 😥

So I can just leave you with these….

Me in Grade 7. Yup it is small but that is all my brother sent me.

Photo taken over our old yard just across the road from us.  The tree on the left was brought in on a semi from Vancouver.  You can’t purchase trees that large here in Kelowna.

Thank goodness Carmeh gets email.  This was in my inbox this morning.

Hello ,thinking of our darling girl Carmeh as
it is her special day and wishing a very

HAPPY BIRTHDAY
with lots of hugs and kissies to you ,

from Gran Katie & Gran Louie

Keep well and we are so sorry that you have
to suffer so much with your back owies ,
will always love you , little one !

Yesterday, August 7th, Carmeh officially turned 12 and I forgot.  This is not the first time I have forgotten.  Thank goodness for Gramma Katie.  I never forget Caeli’s birthday which falls on April 1st, usually just as we are leaving Mexico but I seem to have a block when it comes to Carmeh.  Fortunately we have extra toys which are hidden and we will pull one out plus some extra treats for her.  Then I will proceed to give her extra lovies.

I promise to let her make all the messes she wants.

Carmeh loved our parrot Cheikka and was happy to sit in the birdcage for hours on end.  We think she thought she was Cheikka’s Mom and was totally responsible for her.  They made a good team.

Happy Birthday Carmeh.  So happy to see you doing better.  I’m off to cuddle my girl.

Today was a bonus day for me.  I noticed a month ago that our outside door handle, a lever type, was losing it’s protective coating.  I asked our builder’s worker ( the guy who thought I was a new lady ) about it.  He said that they would have to take it to Home Depot and see what they thought about it.  Right, so I am going to send my door handles away and leave my door open to whomever walks past and wants to come inside 😯

The handle in question.

So today I called Weiser  customer service here in Canada asking for advice.  Easy peasey.  Once I identified what unit we had, she told me that it was covered under a lifetime warranty.  I only had to email them a photo of the lever handle and a replacement would be sent out within 15 days.  No proof of purchase required.  Amazing.  I can’t believe it was so easy and so very professional.  So glad we chose Weiser products when built our home in 2012.

While doing my errands this afternoon I made a quick stop at the liquor store.  Usually this is Colin’s job but he is on a 17 hour photo shoot today due to the lovely blue sky and sunshine that we are once again enjoying.  Happy it wasn’t me going out the door at 5:00AM 😐   So back to the liquor store and my next great surprise of the day.  Our wine ( Painted Turtle, Pinot Grigio ) is on sale @ $1.50 off per 1 litre bottle.  The sale lasts the entire month.  I guess this is a good time to stock up.

Earlier today I received an email from an old friend.  Dave & Suzanne and the two of us, along with a few other friends, actually took some (many years of ) ballroom dancing classes together way back when and had the privilege of enjoying two Caribbean cruises along with our instructor, where we all did a lot of dancing.  Can you believe that rather than get off the ship in Mazatlan I stayed on board to get a foot massage?  I still remember every detail of that cruise, it was so much fun.  Colin & I perfected a wicked jive.  At least I am now able to explore Mazatlan to my heart’s content every winter, not to mention that after two hip replacements, I can finally start dancing once again.

Dave sent me the following…..

Be sure that you are on the voter’s list. Rumour has it that 1000s of names have been removed… (have you moved, changed status since last election?)

If Elections Canada can’t promote voting…then it’s up to us to use social media to! Please pass this on!
You can easily check that you are registered to vote by going to:

http://www.elections.ca/home.aspx

Fellow Canadian bloggers, please pass this on to your readers.  Between us, we can reach many thousands of Canadian voters.

That’s it for today folks.  Hasta manana.

UPDATE

A more direct link to check if you are registered as sent by Croft.

http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=vot&dir=reg&document=index&lang=e

I am sad to announce that the local cherry season is at an end.  However peach season is here, well almost with apricot season just around the corner.  Cherries are my favorite until the apricots take over my taste buds.

We get a lot of water traffic over the summer. One must not walk about the house naked, cuz you just never know.

Just inside our front gate. Got the turtle in Mexico. Wish I had purchased two.

Carmeh, after the party.

Approximately two weeks ago we had rain, the type that literally bounces off the road.

We’ve just had two wonderful overcast days with some rain.  I didn’t even open the windows until noon today.  So nice to be cool.  The fires ( despite 114 new ones Tuesday/Wednesday ) were aided with the cool wet air.  Tomorrow we are back to highs around 28 – 30 C with a mix of sun and cloud.  I am not complaining, that is a normal high for around here.  Better then 39C.

Margot wanted to know how the rain chain worked. Now she knows.

The final bill for the electrical work we had done was $135.00.  We had been quoted approximately $90.00 so we are more than happy.

When BBQ our salmon we soak a cedar plank for several hours. The moisture from the board makes for a melt in your mouth salmon meal.  These are from Costco. Best get them in the spring before they sell out.

The builder finally sent a fellow to do our final touch ups to the house.  He initially came to see what needed to be done despite the fact that detailed lists complete with photos had been emailed repeatedly.  We had met this fellow three years ago when the house was being built.  While he was here he kept looking at me strangely.  Finally he said ” It’s you.  I thought that Colin had a new lady ” 😯   Actually I thought it very sweet.  Obviously I have changed that much 😆  He insisted that he would be here Monday despite the fact that we told him it was a long weekend and Monday was a holiday.  He never showed and it’s already 6PM Thursday so now what?  Do we wait another year 😥

Can’t remember why I never posted Monday night, that day seems to have gotten away from me.  However it is safe to say I have a lot to tell about yesterday.  We were on the go from 9:00AM yesterday till just after 9:00PM when I said enough.

During our morning stroller/walk we do let Carmeh out of the buggy always once and sometimes twice.  Tuesday morning she moved from a walk to a slow trot to a fast trot and that is when I noticed that she was only using 3 legs, the back left was tucked up.  I guess her leg is just not moving fast enough for her and she just instinctively lifted that leg to move faster.  Her trot didn’t last more than a minute and that was it.  At least she can still move.

Once we got the girls back home and settled we were off for a meeting with our financial manager.  We had seen him in May but needed another visit.  Seems that despite the unsettled market in the past 3 months our profit for the last year has increased from 9% to 10.6%.  We are doing well.

Lucky us, treated to yet another lunch at the new Kelowna Yacht Club. Colin has been hired to do photos for the architect and now finally the conditions are perfect for that.  Soon I hope.

Meanwhile yesterday we sat out on the deck and just watched all the activity. I choose the wonderful quinoa salad  with tuna once again.

Business and lunch done, it was time to dash home.  We had an appointment with the vet to check Carmeh’s blood work.  We were in the house just under 10 minutes when we had to dash out yet again.

Lovely eye candy as we drove out of the park.

In a nutshell Carmeh still has a hot spot along her spine and that may now be there forever, hard to say.  The blood taking did not go so well, Carmeh was not compliant ( and nor would I be at this stage of the game ).  Finally we left the room and let the vet and her assistant do the deed.  I swear Carmeh had tears in her eyes as we left the room.  I know she was thinking that we were abandoning her.  Sob!  The results were back in under 20 minutes.  Meanwhile Carmeh stood facing the exit door, her back to us.  Even the vet commented on how sad she looked.  So WBC ( white blood count ) still low, the good news is that her liver has moved back down to normal, however her ALP remains high although it is down from her extreme high.  It has only been 5 weeks since she came off the Metacam.  We have decided to wait yet another month and redo the blood work to see what if anything has changed.  We compared her results to April 2014 when her ALP was high but 50% less than today.  Her last blood work was done in 2009 and the results will be pulled from the back files when notes were written.  That might give us a baseline for comparison.

Rush back home, oh right today is the block party. I am so not ready. It is hot, hot, hot. So Colin brings over a few of our umbrellas and stands while I start getting my appy’s together.

Not the entire block but a good number showed up.

I only got the memo about bringing appys, not dinner! I had no idea.

Turns out there was more than enough food and my appys were shared by all before the ‘ meal’.

The weather changed quickly. Strong winds and some ligthening, heaving waves and lots of dust form the gravel pit way far away.

The post dinner games came to a sudden stop as umbrellas were taken down, broken glass from flying wine glasses picked up and even some strewn food.  The party continued.  I forgot to mention that we awoke to very strong smoke coming in our open windows.  There was a new fire ( from Monday ) between Hope and Vancouver on Harrison Lake ( Harrison Hot Springs ) and it was out of control and the smoke was filtering down the valley our way.  We also are breathing smoke from the Northern California fires as well as the Washington state fires.  For some reason the weather forecasters don’t seem to think we are being affected by the Oregon fires 🙄

The winds were very strong last evening.

The partiers diminished by 50% including us.  I was tired, it had already been a long day for us.  Sadly we missed the live music and later the karaoke but we could still hear it.  It had been at least 4 years since the last block party and this one was a great success.  I did have a smaller party in 2010 but yesterday was way more fun on a grandeur scale.