In this neighbourhood, the mean dogs come out at 4:00pm.

Generally I walk the dog either around 11:00am, or 3:00pm, depending on my schedule for the day.

The other day I had to go out at 5:00, and in an effort to avoid the wearing of pants as long as possible (one of the very few perks of being at home more often than not these days), I delayed the mid-day walking of the dog until 4:00.

Oh my.

In our 2-ish kilometer jaunt, we encountered no fewer than four completely awful, aggressive dogs. These dogs are the reason leash laws are in place.

Poor Sasha was accosted for crimes such as:

-> Chasing her own ball
-> Walking through the park
-> Walking away from having her bits sniffed
-> Existing.

I was admittedly lucky that my dog chose that day to actually remember her “Canine Good Neighbour” training, and actually broke away from the dog-fights when I told her to “leave it” and “come.”

And I really wonder at the mental facilities of the woman who had her dog off leash when she knew it was going to try fighting my dog for ownership of her own ball (not when chasing, but when returning), or the guy who had his behemoth on a regular collar lead, and couldn’t control it when it lunged at Sasha for being so offensive as to be heeling beside me as we waited to cross the street.

These are the people who give dog owners in the city a bad name. I bet they don’t scoop their poop either.

So, you’ve been warned: if you want to avoid the mean dogs, stay away from the Cornwall/Macdonald area on weekdays (or at least Mondays) around 4:00pm.

I am still trying to resist the Facecrackbook.

The invites keep flooding in.

Mostly I am afeared of pictures from my youth, fueled by young hubris and much liquor, being tagged with my name once I’m there. And some things are just best left in the past.

But other than that - while I’m feeling weak and impressionable - does anyone have a *good* case for actually signing up?

Thank you for being environmentally responsible

Originally uploaded by peechie.

It’s been a long while since I’ve purchased inkjet cartridges. I don’t print all that much and they only end up needing replacement every 12-16 months. In the past, it’s actually been cheaper to buy a new printer (since I generally buy the cheap, crappy ones and they don’t last very long).

So I was pleasantly surprised when I received two postage-paid envelopes with my two-pack of cartridges to return the empty ones to HP for recycling.

Considering the waste problems exacerbated by the influx of peripherals ending up in dumps this little move toward a bit of extra environmental consciousness made me almost (not quite, but almost) feel okay about forking over nearly $70 for the privilege of printing, and adding further volume to my recycling bin.

I’m sure I’ll eat my words in another 9 or 10 months, but this wedding planning thing is dead easy. Boring even.

We’ve currently got the following things booked and ready to go:

Ceremony & Reception Venue: Long Beach Lodge Resort, Tofino BC
Photographers: Blue Olive Photography
Florist: Crabapple Floral

As well as an officiant, our cake, and some entertainment.

We do still need to tackle invitations (and figure out who exactly to send them to), but that doesn’t seem like a terribly major undertaking.

I suppose we do still need something to wear, as well as some other decorative details, non iPod music, and hair/makeup whatnot - but for all intents and purposes, this thing is ready to go.

It certainly helps that by having the wedding in Tofino, most of our decisions are made for us. The resort handles all aspects of the ceremony & reception (no separate caterers and flatware rental companies), there are only 4 marriage commissioners to choose from, and there is one florist. The photographers were a no-brainer.

But having all these things done doesn’t stop me from acting indecisive around vendors - watching them fall all over themselves trying to woo me with their wares is one of the best parts of being a bride-to-be!

After all, it was only by engaging in some wedding-related conversation while donating blood, that I received this priceless gem!

One of the nurse’s assistants at the clinic where I was donating blood also moonlights as a makeup artist. It’s heartbreaking, really, that I won’t be married in the city, so I can’t have my own hair feathers, heavy eyelashes and bright fuschia lips! The only word I can really think of to describe this particular look is “special” - perhaps you can do better?

Someone was asking me yesterday about social networks. And what with the constant stream of emails and posts about facebook, twitter, et al, I figured I may as well chime in on my stance.

No.

Just no.

My feelings on social networks and web 2.0 in general strongly mirror Derek’s, who said it so well, I’ll just give you his words:

I have this thing about trying to keep my online existence stable, so if you link to something of mine, it will still be around in a few years. If I gave you my email address or ICQ account number in 1996, or my blog URL in 2000, it still works…. I like to have an archive that persists.

I have this blog. I have my photos on flickr. I have a profile on LinkedIn. I really think that’s enough. I’ve had the same email address and cell phone number for at least 8 years, with no intentions of changing them.

But when you get down to the nitty gritty of my reasons, it’s honestly mostly out of sheer laziness. It’s a universal truth that any product with staying power will do one of two things: Increase Pleasure or Reduce Pain. I enjoy blogging, I find WordPress easy to use. Pleasure Increased. I very rarely included pictures in my blog posts, because I found it a huge hassle to upload them to my webspace and remember the code to insert an image (doing it so rarely meant I never bothered memorizing it). Enter flickr, and whaddya know - an easy way to store my photos, and include them on my blog. Pain reduced.

As for LinkedIn - It’s an easy way for me to remain connected with past colleagues, especially now that I’m job hunting, and maintain a network in a fairly unobtrusive way. It also keeps professional networking easy for the socially uncomfortable (myself included) by setting the tone for a conversation. Asking my old boss for a recommendation on my LinkedIn profile is easy for both of us, rather than dropping him a line out of the blue and asking for referrals or references when we haven’t even spoken in 3 years. LinkedIn for me is reducing pain and increasing pleasure because I’ve gotten some great introductions through the service as well.

Don’t even get me started on Second Life. Dealing with Real Life is more than enough most days.

So while I’m not writing on walls, or tweeting, or soaring through virtual worlds, or whatever else people do on the myriad of social networks available - I AM on the internet. I’m googleable by about 12 different variations of my name, and not at all hard to find or get in touch with.

Also, curmudgeon that I am, I’m really trying to spend my energies on valuable and authentic social relationships. Someone who only finds me because I happen to be on facebook, and starts a conversation with “So, what’ve you been up to in the past… 10 years…” is, nine times out of ten, just curious about where people in their past are now. If there was actually a solid basis for friendship, we’d have probably kept in touch a little more regularly.

However, the person who takes the time to google, find my blog, photos or profile, and actually makes an effort to keep in touch a little longer than the lifecycle of the average social networking site (Friendster who?) - well that’s what I want online social networking to deliver.

Post gone.

Our true friends are those who are with us when the good things happen. They cheer us on and are pleased by our triumphs. False friends only appear at difficult times, with their sad, supportive faces, when, in fact, our suffering is serving to console them for their miserable lives.
~Paulo Coelho

It’s no secret to those who know me and care to ask that the whole job-hunt has me pretty miserable these days. I could say that I’m trying to harness the power of positive thinking and all that jazz, but in reality there are as many days that end with tears as those that end with smiles or just exhausted ambivalence.

Yet I still don’t feel compelled to blog about it.

About a year ago, you could hardly stop me from pouring out my misery online at being single and the horrible injustices I was suffering while attempting to find someone suitable to date. Or, if not suitable, at least not wanting to make me scoop my brains out with a spork to forget the encounter.

Then I found someone - and things were really steadily going up in my life. Great man, great job, great dog, great home. That lasted about a year - you’d think that wouldn’t be long enough to erase the cynicism, vitriol and spite in my wee, black heart when one of those ceased to exist in my world.

You’d be right. And still, I felt no compulsion to blog about it.

And I didn’t really understand why. Until now.

I attempted to throw a party last weekend. For all intents and purposes, most things about my social circle and the invite were the same. Early reports indicated it would be an even bigger success, since the location was far more desirable to potential party-goers. Last year, 90% of the people who RSVP’d “Yes” attended, plus a motley assortment of extras. This year, barely half the confirmed attendees bothered showing up.

What’s different?

This year I’m not nearly as interesting.

A year ago I was a dating blogging sensation, who had just entered into a relationship with a man who had his own fair share of scandal.

This year? We’re just another set of yuppies. For the most part, fortunate and exceedingly happy ones.

I could fill pages and pages with cutting testimony of my job-hunt frustrations and foibles.

But underneath it all lies a desire to keep these personal feelings for myself and those who have more than an idle curiosity about them.

I’d rather live quieter, knowing who my true friends are.

I’d rather be happy, than interesting.

I’m having a party.

You’re invited (link removed).

Unfortunately, I think you need an evite account to view that.

But seriously - come on over, it should be a good time!

So, I do believe that at some point last week, I promised a post of things that don’t suck. And failed to deliver. But! I do have, hot off the presses, something that definitely does not suck!

FREE STUFF!

Because I referred some friends to SPUD, I (out of 83 eligible referrers) won their draw for a prize! Three free sessions to build a personalized strength training and nutrition plan from Duquette Strength!

I had my first meeting with Roy Duquette today, and boy was that a wake-up call.

I know I’ve been feeling generally mushy and sluggish over the winter months, but I found out today that while I’m the same weight, and even a little thinner than I was a few months ago, my body is comprised of a whopping TWENTY-NINE PERCENT body fat. Gross. I have scenes from Fight Club running through my head. My poor, abused body only has 89.6 lbs of lean muscle mass doing the work to carry my lard around.

Hopefully, with Roy’s help, that’s all about to change.

I’ve picked up some supplements for protein, healthy oils, and greens, and have strategies to incorporate those into my already pretty healthy (but admittedly carb-heavy) diet. I go in later this week for a postural and alignment analysis, to tweak the nutrition plan, and to get started putting the workout together. After that I have one more free session of personal training.

And since we’re on the topic of health and all, there are a couple websites that have been sent my way for quick reviews - they’re both worth a glance.

Along the Fight Club lines, there’s a web campaign out (www.bewiseaboutbeauty.org) by the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery. It’s exactly what you think - an information site about the details of various procedures, and recommendations on how to find a cosmetic surgeon.

Most interesting factoid? That Liposuction does not actually remove cellulite. Because tight bands of fibrous tissue cause cellulite, extracting the fat layer that resides just under the skin may actually worsen the dimpled look. Armed with that tidbit, I suppose I’ll just restrict my own personal plastic surgery experience to watching Nip/Tuck.

The other site is more about nutrition, but far less user-friendly. At eatbetteramerica.com (a project of General Mills) there are a few fun things to look at - if you can get past the super slow-loading flashy mc-flasherness of it all. While the site thankfully doesn’t brow-beat the user with brands the way some other sites (Kraft Foods) do with their “ingredient assembly” excuses for recipes - there’s nothing really revolutionary here for anyone who’s well-versed at all with basic principles of nutrition.

There is a pretty nifty section on how to “Healthify my Recipe”, where the test chefs take Aunt Ida’s Fatty McFatterson Mac & Cheese recipe (among others) and change the ingredients up a bit to make it less of a heart-attack in a bowl.

In case you don’t want to suffer through the flash (which has twice crashed my browser whilst typing this), I’ll give you the Readers’ Digest Version: Don’t start every recipe with a pound of butter, put down the fucking whole milk and eat a carrot or two!

Though I guess it’s hard to make these kind of changes when you don’t know where to start. And if you absolutely must have the Macaroni in your life, may as well make it healthy.

Which brings us back to my experience today. Roy was awesome in helping me find ways to incorporate extra supplements into things I’m already eating! My morning smoothie gets a boost from some greens powder and flax oil. Even my morning Choffee (hot chocolate powder in coffee) changes to Chocolate Whey Isolate powder in Coffee. Giving up coffee was non-negotiable.

So, armed with some new knowledge, and about to be gifted with more, I’ll try going about my day a bit more mindful of increasing my lean mass and getting fitter instead of fatter.

I’ll report in again as things progress - perhaps in a week, perhaps in a month - depends on how fast my body composition changes. Of course, it would probably go faster if I’d decided against my post-gym, drive-thru Chicken Snack Wrap on the way home from my appointment with Roy - which (FYI), if you are a fast-food lover, is another thing that (in my Mc-deep-fried-chicken lovin’ opinion) does not suck.