Happy birthday Grandad

Today is my Grandad's birthday... Happy birthday Grandad!



(The photo in this post was taken during the trip Mam and I made to visit Grandad at the end of August).

Tori

Kero's korner: my time with Willow

Hi humans!

I've been spending lots of time with Willow lately. She has some fun toys, so I played with some of them. I ate some of her treats as well... Mostly rawhide, I think. I did find a bone too, but we argued over that and the humans took it away, which neither of us thought was right. But all of the humans agreed it was the best thing to do, so we had to just put up with it. It's so unfair! Humans think they get to do what they want, just because they can walk on their hind legs and have more flexible paws than we do. Don't they know it's meant to be what we want that goes?


Anyway, I gave in and played with Willow a bit. I don't bounce about much, but she seems to want to do it almost all the time. I really don't know where all this energy she has comes from! I didn't have half that energy when I was her age! I get tired just watching her sometimes. But I figured I'd play with her for a while. We had a good bounce about, then I took a nap on the back of the sofa while she threw a teddy around the room, then caught it again. It was my teddy, but Mami said to leave her to it, because - apparently - Santa Paws is coming soon, and he's supposed to be bringing more toys. So that's OK. If I remember rightly, he brings treats too! I'm sure that's what happened last year. I think Mami said he comes in three weeks.

I had walkies with Willow too. We walked by her house, so I had lots of stuff to sniff that I haven't sniffed in a very long time. It was nice to have doggy company for my walkies. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade Mami's company for anything, but having another dog along for the walk is just awesome! I mean, if it weren't for her, I'd have missed a good sniffing spot this morning! Humans just don't notice things like that. I think it's those funny little noses you humans have... They just don't smell things as well as doggy noses do. It's not your fault. In fact, I feel sorry for you humans... You miss out on so many good smells with those tiny little noses.


Oh yeah, and I also taught Willow how to tell the humans when someone's at the door. She didn't know you were meant to bark when someone knocked at the door, or rang the doorbell. It's OK though, she does now. I bet Mamgu and Dadci are really pleased with me for teaching her that! Now they'll never miss knowing someone's at the door... Especially with that big, booming bark Willow has!

OK, well, I want to grab a quick nap before food time, so I'll let this do for this week.

Licks and sniffs,
Kero

Westie magnet

The above photo is of a birthday present I was given slightly late. In case you can't tell, it's a magnet in the shape of a Westie's head. I just thought I'd share a photo of it on here for the benifit of anyone interested in seeing it. I meant to post this sooner, but I've had a lot of stuff I've wanted to post first, so it's only today that I'm actually getting around to posting it.

Enjoy whatever's left of your day! Stay safe, and stay warm!

Tori

Calenders, my weekend, etc (LBE)

It's the first of December today, and you know what that means, right? Yep... Advent calenders start today! What? It's tradition! Since I've been old enough for them I think I've only ever missed one Christmas, and that was because I left it too late and couldn't find one anywhere! But every year since then I've grabbed one as soon as they're in the shops. I've had this year's advent calender - which is a Winnie The Pooh one - since early to mid October. LOL! And Mam helped me put braille numbers on it yesterday so that I can find the right doors myself, because finding the right door for each day is part of the fun... That's why they're all jumbled up!

Anyway...

As anyone who's been reading my blog since Friday will know, we spent the weekend at my parents' place.


We didn't do much on Friday, but on Saturday Mam and I went out for a large part of the day. It should have only been a couple of hours, but we ended up doing a couple more things than planned, plus we ended up having something to eat while we were out, since it was passed lunch time, we hadn't eaten since breakfast, and we still had a couple more things to do before going back to their place.

We went to Asda to check the price of Sky boxes, because I'm helping them put their Sky back on, but they need another box, and the person I talked to from Sky hardly spoke English, so I couldn't figure out what she was trying to say. Anyway, Asda sells accessories for the boxes (controls, new leads, etc) but they didn't seem to have the boxes. So we decided to go to Currys, because they deal with people like Sky and such, so they could give us a straight answer. And they did too! The Sky is being set up on December 8th. We were only checking prices and planning on waiting until after the new year, but they had an offer we wanted to take advantage of, and it ends just after Christmas (I believe the actual date is December 28th).


Then we went to Borders, and... Well, you can read my second Saturday post to see what happened there. It ended with Mam getting an audiobook for me for Christmas, and me having one for now. I got "The Borrowers" by Mary Norton. I did pick the Christmas one myself, but I can't remember what it was called. Which is good really, because then it will still sort of be a surprise. :)

After that we went and had something to eat in Tescos cafe, then did a couple of bits of shopping in Tescos. Then we went back to our place to fetch something, and ended up staying for a while talking to Eleri. And, after that, we had to go back to Tescos again, because we'd forgotten something. Well, at least we remembered then! Then we went back to my parents' place.

On Sunday, Mam and I started cleaning up their spare room ready for when Carl and Rachel come to stay for Christmas. Then she helped me play on her Nintendo Wii for a while. Turns out I'm quite good at pitching for her baseball game, and at bowling. In fact, the bowling game I can basically play by myself once she's got me through the main menu. I just need someone to do that bit and tell me my score at the end. I played the bowling game again Monday morning. I managed to almost catch up with her high score, and earned a silver medal on the bowling game for it. Mam's high score is 567, mine is 524! I think I got a bit over enthusiastic though, because my right arm started aching yesterday afternoon, and it's really killing me this morning. I am known for getting a bit too enthusiastic when weilding bats and balls of any kind though. And the last time I went bowling for real, I got so enthusiastic I ended up sliding a little way down the lane after the ball, and had to crawl as best I could close enough to the end to grab Kelly's hand and have him pull me up, because I couldn't stand up. LOL! And the last time I played a game involving a bat and a ball, I missed the ball and hit the poor dog instead. I didn't do any damage to anything during the short time I was trusted with the Wii baseball bat though. But we think that's because there was no actual ball for me to try and hit, and I just had to concentrate on the swing. Dad did ask that I stay more towards Mam's ornaments than his though, since it was her idea to let me use the bat itself. LOL!

I think that just about covers the weekend. We were going to walk the dogs, but it was absolutely pouring with rain, and not even they were interested in going for a walk. They only showed half-hearted interest even when their leads were touched, and when they saw the rain they lost even that bit of interest in the idea. So we didn't bother. I mean, they have a big garden there, and why get soaked when even the dogs don't want to set a single paw out of the door?

So, let me see... What else has been going on? Well...

The weather has been awful! Basically, rain, rain, and... Oh yes, that's right... More rain, of course! With the odd dry spell, thunder storm and hail shower thrown in! And this weekend we started getting proper frosts, especially first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening.


As you'll know if you've read the craft update I posted yesterday, I've been extremely busy with crafts lately. I've finished most of the projects I had that I wanted to make. I just need to make a couple more things that are to do with the handmade giveaway thing, and a couple of bits I promised to make for a family friend. Then I can see about making the couple of items I wanted to make for myself. After that, I may make a couple of bits and see if I can sell them on ebay. ;)

I seem to have achieved something resembling a sleep pattern. How long it will last is anyone's guess, but for now I'm managing a good 6 to 8 hours a night, and it is actually at night too! :)

And I've been joining in with the roleplaying sessions, since I don't mind an odd game, and the campaignes do sound interesting. Roleplaying is postponed until after the holidays now though, because this side of Christmas most people just don't have the time to fit sessions in, and - in the case of the GM (that's Games Master, for anyone who doesn't know) - do the necessary prep work for each session. So we decided it would be best for everyone if it was postponed for now. Which gives me more time to get around to getting more dice. I do have a set... It's a purple set I got from Kelly. He didn't actually buy it for me though. It was his, and I swapped it with him for the set I had originally, which I've had since I was about 8 or 9. I wouldn't have swapped it normally, but Kelly's set was purple! It doesn't give me enough dice for most of the systems though, so I need to go get some more. Bet I can't get any more purple ones though! Well, if that's the case, I'll have to just get what I can and put up with it.

I've not really been playing on Valhalla though. Carl (my brother) and I did have a couple of Saturday morning sessions together, but various other things kept happening, so we ended up only doing that for a couple of weeks before abandoning the idea, and I haven't really been on there since. I've been too busy doing other things. As it is I'm often not getting to blogs each day. It really is a good game, but it will still be there when I'm ready to play. Besides, Carl is spending a lot of time on another mud (multi user dungeon) type game he's found, so he's not exactly missing me while I'm not on Valhalla. In fact, until the next time we play together, when he realises I haven't really levelled up, he probably wont even realise I'm not playing... He could just think that I just haven't gotten around to updating my characters on Dad's forum. Well, unless he reads this, because if he does then he'll know for sure I've not been on. But he very rarely comes and reads my blog, so I doubt he'll read this post.

I have no idea what I'll be doing today. Well, I know I need to make bread, because I didn't bother when we got home yesterday (it was close to dinner time, so I didn't expect we'd need any last night) and we don't have any. But other than that? *Shrugs* I'll probably go and listen to some audiobooks and work on some more of those craft items I need/want to make. I do have a few audiobooks to listen to still from the ones Iggy sent me... Thanks again for those, Iggy... Plus I now have "The Borrowers" to listen to. So, unless something else I need to do crops up, I expect that's what I'll do. Either that, or I'll carry on working on getting the Christmasy posts I have planned for this month scheduled. No, I'm not telling you about them yet. I will soon though... Honest! Or, perhaps I'll do a bit of both? Work on posts for a bit, make bread, then go and listen to audiobooks while working on crafts? Yes, that sounds like a plan!

OK, well, I think that's all I want to say for now. Anything else either can - or needs to - wait a while.

I hope you are all happy and healthy!

Enjoy your day! Stay safe, and stay warm! :)

Tori

November 2009 craft update: wooly warmers, clay decorations, and random gifts

It's time for November 2009's craft update!

The first thing I want to show you is a photo of the clay ducks I made a while back, since they've FINALLY been painted. Actually, they've now been painted for a couple of weeks. I only say finally because I made them back in the Summer and it was late October/early November they actually got painted.



Kelly painted the ducks for me, but this next item was partly painted by Kelly, partly painted by my Mam. Kelly did the base coat, Mam finished it off.



Last month I mentioned the fact that I'd made three more Christmas tree ornaments. Well, here they are:



Yes, I know there are four things in the photo, but the Santa ornament was actually posted last month. It's just that it was beside the others, so it ended up included in the photo. The star, bell and tree are the ones I hadn't posted before, and they're the reason for the photo.

I also made another Christmasy ornament. This candle:



That's meant to be holly around the base of the candle.

And here's a photo of all the Christmasy ornaments now that they're painted.



I have finished making a couple of other items, but I haven't had a chance to sort photos for them yet. I'll tell you about them when I post photos of them in next month's craft update. Also, the dragon and the skull candle holder didn't end up included when photos were being taken, so I guess they're waiting for next month too. So, that's it for clay items for this month.

Now for the knitted items!

First of all, a hot water bottle cover I knitted for my Nan for Christmas (that Nan doesn't come on blogs - the one who used to be posting a lot was my Grandma - so she wont see it). Nan suffers badly from cold, and she takes a hot water bottle to bed most nights, so I thought it would be nice for her to have one with a cover instead of having to find something to wrap it in or something.




I also made a knitted hat, but I wont say who this is for, since that person does come and read my blog from time to time. Very rarely, but it's getting too close to Christmas for people to forget seeing items I've made them now. So, I'll keep quiet about who it's for.



I also made these fingerless gloves for someone (not saying who, but it's not the same person as the hat).



And this scarf is for the same person as the fingerless gloves.



I think that just about covers everything for this month. Like I said, I'll tell you about the items that I don't have photos for next month. There's plenty for you to see for this month anyway. ;)

Enjoy whatever's left of your day, stay safe, and stay warm! :)

Tori

November celebrations

To everyone who had their birthday since the last time I said "happy birthday" to everyone - this includes my sister-in-law, Sherry who had her birthday on November 23rd, and anyone else I missed saying happy birthday to - I would like to say a belated "happy birthday" now! So... HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :)

Also, happy 11th birthday to my Mam's Goddaughter, Shireen, for tomorrow!

And, happy anniversary to Kati and her hubby for today!

Tori

The Scotsman (FD but AED)

One morning a Scotsman is having breakfast in Paris, (coffee, croissants, bread, butter and marmalade) when a Frenchman, chewing bubble-gum, sits down next to him. The Scotsman ignores the Frenchman who, nevertheless, starts a conversation...

Frenchman: 'You Scots folk eat the whole bread?'

Scotsman (in a bad mood): 'Of course.'

Frenchman (after blowing a huge bubble): 'We don't. In France , we only eat what's inside. The crusts we collect in a container, recycle it, transform them into croissants and sell them to Scotland .' The Frenchman has a smirk on his face.

The Scotsman listens in silence.

The Frenchman persists: 'Do you eat marmalade with your bread?'

Scotsman: 'Of course.'

Frenchman (cracking his bubble-gum between his teeth and chuckling): 'We don't. In France we eat fresh fruit for breakfast, then we put all the peels, seeds, and leftovers in containers, recycle them, transform them into marmalade, and sell the marmalade to Scotland.'

After a moment of silence, the Scotsman asks: 'Do you have sex in France ?'

Frenchman: 'Why of course we do', he says with a big smirk.

Scotsman: 'And what do you do with the condoms once you've used them?'

Frenchman: 'We throw them away, of course.'

Scotsman: 'We don't. In Scotland , we put them in a container, recycle them, melt them down into bubble-gum, and sell them to France .'

Disgusted (R/WP)

As was mentioned in Kero's post yesterday, Kelly, Kero and I are spending the weekend at my parents' place. Anyway, today, Mam and I left the two dogs with Dad and Kelly and went to go and spend a voucher I had for my birthday, because the shop it's for has recently announced that it will soon be closing down. I normally don't spend birthday vouchers and money until after Christmas, but we didn't want this voucher going to waste, so it had to be spent while we knew the shop was still open.


I have to say, I'm absolutely disgusted with them!

I had always liked this shop. They're pretty good at stocking most books and audiobooks, and reasonably priced. Buut - if it weren't for the fact they're closing anyway, so this is irrelivant - I wouldn't go there again! Why? Because they are obviously intent on making as much money as possible before they close (to cover some of their losses, I assume). And I wont believe anyone who tries to tell me differently. Not after what happened today when we were there!


What happened was...

The voucher was worth £10, and they have a 20% off sale. OK, fine, no problems. To make sure the audiobook I chose was going to still use up the voucher, we would buy one that cost more than £10, and pay the difference. The one I chose was £15 before the 20% reduction. Up to this point we were happy. So, we go to pay, and are told that...

"In order to use the voucher, you must spend double its value, and then we will deduct the value of the voucher from the price you have to pay. If you don't spend a minimum of double the voucher's value, then you can't use the voucher."

The first thing we asked, of course, was where it said that. It didn't!


Apparently, because they're shutting down vouchers would normally not be usable. Supposedly they had to fight to get even this option. The guy claimed it was the same when Woolworths closed down. Supposedly people had vouchers ranging from £5 up that they couldn't use anywhere, so their money was wasted. The problem with that is... We know it couldn't have been. You know why? Because all Woolworths' vouchers are usable in several other shops, all of which are still open now. So, how can those vouchers have no longer been usable when they still were, even if not in the same shop?

Anyway, the vouchers from Borders UK (the shop in question) are only usable in Borders... Hence us being there today... So, that left us with basically just two choices. Either forgetting it and having my £10 voucher go to waste, or spending £20 or more so as to use the voucher.


After both of us had let anyone within earshot know how disgusted we were that those were our only options when they weren't even as recently as the middle of the week (apparently, the new rules came in on Thursday) and that if those were thhe planned rules then that information should have been printed on the vouchers, we decided that our only real option was to spend the £20 so as to use the voucher. Though both of us are disgusted that we had to do so, since we shouldn't have had to spend more than the voucher unless we chose to do so. And - like I said - if they had plans to do this, they should have printed the information on gift vouchers. Or, even better, stopped selling gift vouchers all together!

I don't care what anyone says... This is just another example of how people want to make as much money as possible out of other people, since what they're basically saying is, "you either don't use your vouchers and we keep the money that was spent on them originally as well as the items in store. Or, you give us more money to thank us for letting you still use the vouchers. Either way, we make money off of you, so we really don't mind which one you do!" And they have the 20% off sale going on so as to soften the blow, and lure in customers without vouchers to use before they close down!

Tori

Happy 5th birthday Willow!

Today is Willow (my Mam's Black Labrador)'s birthday... She's FIVE years old today!


It seems amazing that she could go from this tiny little thing....



To this...



Yep, she's still climbing in things! LOL!

Happy birthday Willow! :)

Lots of tummy rubs and ear scratches,
Tori

Kero's korner: not at home

Hi humans. Kero here!

Sorry this is later in the day than usual, but I'm not posting from our house this week. I'm still borrowing Mami's laptop, but we're all at Willow's house with Mamgu, Dadci, Uncle Wayne, and Nani. I'm not too sure why, but Mami, Dadi and I are staying here for the whole entire weekend.

Anyway, I haven't done much this past week. Actually, I haven't done much at all lately. Mami and I have been for walkies, but there's not much point keep talking about the walkies. We just walk along the path we showed photos of last week, and hope it doesn't rain too much. It's been doing a lot of that lately. Raining, I mean. Rain, rain, and more rain! Mami doesn't seem to mind it much, but I absolutely hate it! I don't like water that much in general... Unless it's in a bowl for me to drink.

We've had thunder storms too! I REALLY hate those! They're like fireworks... Really scary!

So, that's basically it. Most of the past couple of weeks have involved going for walkies, trying to avoid getting rained on, and hiding from the thunder. And now I'm at Willow's house for the weekend.


It's Willow's birthday tomorrow. Happy birthday for tomorrow, Willow!

I'll tell you about my weekend in next week's post.

Licks and sniffs,
Kero

A big thank you

Everyone says at this time of year how thankful they are for their family and friends. How thankful they are for the clothes on their backs, and the food on their tables. How glad they are to have a roof over their heads. And so on. It happens every year. Thanksgiving rolls around, and messages of how thankful people are for everything in their lives are plastered all over the place. A simular thing happens around Christmas... Messages of how greatful people are to have their family and friends still around. To still have a job and a home. And to have decent clothing, and all kinds of good things to eat.

I'm thankful for all these things too. But not because it's Thanksgiving - especially since that doesn't happen over here - or because Christmas is almost here. No, I'm thankful because so many things have happened lately to show me how fragile and precious life is, and how lucky I really am. I'm only posting this today, because I thought it would be appropriate, and because it's today that I'm ready to write it.

Things have been hard for me over the past couple of years, and they're still hard. But I have my family and friends, I have food on the table, and clothes on my back. And I have a roof over my head. So, I'm lucky. Because many people don't have friends and family they can count on when they need a shoulder to cry on, or a helping hand, or whatever. Many people don't have decent clothes, but tattered garments that are rags - or not far from it. Many people don't have the security of knowing they've got a solid roof over their heads, and will still have one there tomorrow. And many people can't guarantee enough food to eat. So, on this day of Thanksgiving in America, I thought I'd take a moment to thank those people who have been - and continue to be - there for me when I needed someone to hold my hand, or a shoulder to cry on. Or just an ear to listen to what I had to say, because sometimes that's all you need... Someone to listen!

So... Thank you!

Tori

American Thanksgiving 2009

I assume I don't actually need to tell you that it's Thanksgiving in the USA? No? Didn't think so! Instead, I'll just say... "Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in America, or anyone else celebrating today!"

Tori

Hey... Did you know...

... That Christmas eve is four weeks tomorrow? Or that Christmas day is one month today?

Thought you might, but figured I'd tell anyone who happens to have been on some other planet for some time, and has only just arrived on Earth, and happened to stumble across my blog while looking for hotels with rooms available at short notice, and that take intergalactic credit cards.

Well, it could happen... You never know! ;)

Enjoy your day... And stay safe!

Tori

Sorry and dentist

Sorry I've not been on the blogs properly. I have a few things going on, and it makes concentrating on blogs difficult sometimes. Plus, there are days when I really haven't got time to come around the blogs. You've only been getting posts from me every day because I scheduled a bunch of stuff to give you something to read, or - in the case of the photo based posts - something to look at.

Anyway, I realised today that - though I have been writing posts for every day - I haven't done any general update posts or whatever. I never told you, for example, that my return trip to the dentist to get the hole filled in my wisdom tooth was rearranged, and ended up being on the 11th instead of yesterday. Turned out our dentist is away this week, and there was a free spot earlier in the month - which they aren't sure why we didn't get to begin with - so we went then instead.

It was my first time having anything done other than having a tooth capped, and I can see why some people don't like going to the dentist. I'm still not bothered, but I can see why some people would be.

Mam said the needle they use to numb the area near the tooth would hurt. I guess I'm just too used to needles or something, because I hardly noticed her - meaning the dentist, of course - sticking it in. I was vaguely aware of it, but noticed it more because she told me she was doing it than anything.

Honestly, I hardly gave the dentist trip a thought - and I'm talking about before, during, and after the appointment - to me it was mostly just a case of, "oh, great... Another doctor with an excuse to stick needles in me and pull me about!" I mean, I consider myself lucky to go six months without having a needle stuck in me for some reason, or a doctor - or, in this case, dentist - pulling me about!

Yep... To me, she's just another doctor with another needle!

Tori