Canadutch » Friends

KreaDoe 2011

Breigh — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 09:41:20 +0000

This weekend I went to a giant craft fair with my two friends Penny and Genevieve. It’s a yearly fair that takes place in the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht and you can find supplies and workshops for pretty much any craft you can think of. Of course, I had my trusty little point and shoot along with me!

If you were looking for stamps, this was the place for you! I’m pretty sure I saw about four million of them. There was a lot of stuff for card making and scrapbooking as well, with quilting and other crafts thrown in the mix.

I found that after going through about half of the place I started getting a feeling of seeing the same things again and again. As I was walking I was thinking “Oh yay, more stamps” or “Bleh, more card paper”. Granted, I’m not into stamping or making my own cards so perhaps for those that are, it’d be heaven! Just, most of these stands had all the same things. It was worth it for the odd stand that did have something different, like the guy with the plastic candle things that ran on vegetable oil (that I STILL wish I had bought), or a man from the UK that had really awesome cross stitch patterns (again, wish I had bought one).

It’s definitely worth the visit, and if you can afford it I’d suggest doing some of the workshops. We went just to look around and check the place out, and we had a really good time. I think next year I will visit again but I will sign myself up for one or two workshops ahead of time, I saw some really cool stuff going on there.

Afterwards we went into the city center of Utrecht and had some food and did a bit of shopping. All in all a really fun day out with some really great gals!

No related posts.

101 List–Join a Book Club

Breigh — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 12:46:49 +0000

Number 16 on my 101 List was to join a book club. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for quite a while but never really bothered to look into. So when some friends of started one, I was all over it!

I’m not actually in the above photo, as I had forgotten my tripod and was busy taking the photo myself, but you can see the friends that are currently in the club with me. A great group of ladies who are a lot of fun to sit around gabbing with. We do chat about the books quite a lot but of course the conversations often move on to other subjects as well.

The first month I hated the book (Middlesex) but this month I absolutely LOVED the book we read. It was called The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and I plowed through it in no time. Next month we are reading The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, a book I’ve been meaning to read for a while now. In December we are reading The Help so that we all get through it before it comes out in the cinema in January. I’m really looking forward to that one.

One more thing off the list!

Penny’s Race Day

Breigh — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:45:10 +0000

Last weekend I went to watch my friend Penny run her first 5k. This was a huge thing for her and she had been working incredibly hard to get there, so there was no way I could miss it! I was so proud of all she has achieved over the last while, and I couldn’t wait to be there screaming for her as she crossed the finish line. I was also keen to take photos because while I have taken photos from races before, like the Rotterdam Marathon, I’ve never known anyone that was taking part. I was excited about the challenge for myself photography wise but also to capture the memories for her.

It was a beautifully sunny day with Indian Summer in full effect here in the Netherlands, the temperatures were set to go up into the high 20’s! Xander and I made sure to leave early to make sure we got a good spot to park and that we were able to find them in time before the race. I’m glad we did because there was quite a crowd and it wasn’t long after we arrived that the masses really started arriving.

She was running together with two of her friends, which was great because I’m sure it was a lot less daunting than if she were to do her first one on her own. Her husband’s cousin was also running in the race but we weren’t able to find her before the start.

She and her friend Suzanne were raring and ready to go. They had been planning this together for quite some time and were pretty excited. I couldn’t blame them, I was excited too and I wasn’t even running.

Once the race was getting ready to start I found a spot to squeeze in on the sides. I was a little irritated because some really tall Dutch guy had his arm stuck out videotaping the whole thing, which blocked my view (and probably a load of people behind me as well) and made it difficult for me to get photos. I bitched loads to Xander, in the end trying to do so extra loud so the guy would hear and knock it off, but it wasn’t until whoever it was he was waiting for went by that he finally moved out of the way.

I’m not sure it mattered though, because I quickly remembered how difficult it is to take photos during a race. Do they all have to move so fast? What’s the hurry?

Even with the guy gone I could hardly see, so I had Xander watch and yell when he saw Penny coming. I just barely caught her as she came into view and then was gone in just a few seconds! Before the race I told her to stop when she saw me and give me a few poses, but she didn’t listen. After taking the photos I screamed like a mental patient, all “WAHOOOO PENNY GO PENNY GO PENNY!!!” until Xander reminded me that she had her earphones in and couldn’t hear me anyway… then stepped away and pretended not to know me.

Once she and her friends went by we scurried off to the finish line to wait for them.

Her husband’s cousin and one of Penny’s friends, I’m sorry I don’t remember their names now… both finished before I was able to get in and get a photo. Again, such a hurry! You’d think they were in a race or something!

When I finally did manage to wiggle my way up to the rail I was just in time to catch Suzanne crossing. She looked so happy and looked like she could turn around and do it all over again!

Penny wasn’t far behind and look at how proud she was! I started screaming again, I didn’t care if she couldn’t hear me, I was proud of her too!

This time she DID stop so I was able to get more photos. I’m not sure if it was for my benefit or that she was just keen to stop moving, either way it worked for me!

I continued to stalk her and her friends from the sidelines, taking photos of them and some of the other runners. They were having a great gab for a while, which I assume was about the race, the heat, the other runners around them and whatever else runny people talk about after a race.

We finally caught up with Yuri’s cousin and I couldn’t stop thinking of how unbelievably alike they look. Yuri and his cousin, I mean… I wish I’d gotten a photo of them together because the strength of those family genes are astounding. If you know Yuri and saw this photo you’d be all “Hey Yuri, why are you crouching down like that, and why do you have that blond wig on?”. Seriously, it’s insane.

It is my life’s mission now to get a photo of them together… OR, to put a blond curly wig on Yuri and get a photo of that. Actually, that sounds like a lot more fun.

Anyway, back to Penny…

This is the look of a woman who just achieved something pretty amazing. She set herself a goal, worked hard, went to that race and kicked ass.

I think I told her about 100 times how proud I was of her. I also, being me, came dangerously close to getting weepy a few times. Whatever, it’s what I do.

She is an inspiration and I’m so glad I was there to see all her hard work pay off! Well done, my friend!

IMAGES Texel Trip

Breigh — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 20:11:45 +0000

Back in June I went on a day trip to the island of Texel (said “Tessel”) with my photography club. This is something I was really looking forward to as I’d not been to any of the Dutch islands in all the time I’ve been living here. It was a bit of a long way to go for a day trip but it was so worth it, I loved the scenery and catching up with some of my photo club friends.

Texel is one of the islands in the far north of the country. All of which I hope to visit at some point, so this made a good start! The trip was really well organized by one of our club members, so we all met at the ferry in Den Helder (bottom left of the photo) and got the ferry to Texel, where a half open bus was waiting for us to show us around the island.

It was a very windy day, and we had some rain, but we didn’t let that stop us! Some of us were even stubborn enough to spend the entire day in the open part of the bus.

These girls from the club came well prepared with scarves and rain jackets! Unlike me, who showed up with a summer jacket and a hoodie, neither of which had a hood that would stay up!

I know, I look incredibly stylish, don’t I? This was just after I’d climbed to the top of a lighthouse (that I will show later) and it was windier than hell up there. Thankfully I brought lots of stuff to keep my hair out of my face, not that the wind really allowed it to stay under control at all!

Who cares! I climbed a lighthouse and didn’t die!

First we visited the small village of Den Hoorn where we had about an hour to walk around. It rained most of the time so the photos were a bit limited.

I really wish I could have gone into that house to see the artwork inside. I really wondered how they were able to leave all those paintings out in the elements without them getting faded or damaged…

After Den Hoorn we boarded the bus again and headed over to De Slufter, which is a national park and nature reserve.

There was a guided tour, but people were also free to roam and take photos themselves, so I chose the latter. I was glad in the end as when it started raining really badly I legged it for the bus, and those who did the tour were out in it for a lot longer!

After sitting in the bus warming up, the crowd came back and we shuffled back to our spot in the back open area. It was getting a little cold at this point because we were all pretty wet, so we were happy to hear that it was time to head to the beach for lunch! I jokingly said to the friends I was sitting with that the minute we are actually indoors the sun would come out… and I was right!

Even though the sun was out it was still really windy, but the wind surfers and kite surfers were in heaven! We didn’t stay long at that beach as we still had other places to visit, but I did manage to snap this photo of one happy and tired kite surfer on his way out of the water.

Next we headed to the big beach with the lighthouse, which was my favorite part of the entire day! What a lovely spot that was!

That’s the lighthouse I climbed! Yeah, I know it looks small, but it’s not!

See, it’s huge!! Big and tall… and tall, and high!

Believe me now? I climbed it…

Ok I have a confession, it was kind of easy. It wasn’t just one long flight of stairs but a few smaller ones with rooms you could stop in in between. Each of those windows was a level where you could stop and catch your breath, which worked great for me.

It was really worth the climb though, what a view!

From up here you all look like tiny little aaaants!! (Name that movie!)

All I could think of was how much I’d love to pitch a tent in that grass and live there all summer. Then I was told that you aren’t allowed to swim there because of the currents, and I was over it.

After climbing down the lighthouse we all hung out on the beach for a bit, I spent some of my time taking photos of my friends, who welcomed a beautiful baby boy into their lives just a few weeks later!

From the beach we went to a little fishing harbour where I tried my first taste of Kibbeling, which is basically just fried fish. It was yummy! I didn’t take too many photos there as I was a little tired, but this one guy did catch my eye!

Oh what a life! Stretched out on the deck of his ship having a nap, completely oblivious to all the tourists standing around taking his photo. I can think of worse ways to spend the afternoon!

So that’s it… that was my first trip to Texel, and what a fun day. Even though the weather was crappy at times, the company was great and it felt good to be out in the fresh air seeing somewhere I haven’t been before.

If you ever get the chance to visit Texel, go for it! It’s not a very big island and you can cover a lot of ground in a day! I hear there’s really great camping there too!

101 List – My First Pedicure

Breigh — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 07:53:54 +0000

Last week my friend Penny and I got together for pedicures. It was my very first pedicure ever, can you believe it?! It’s something I’ve always wanted to do but either I didn’t want to spend the money on it or I was freaked out about people messing with my feet.

Penny kept pushing me on it, so I finally gave in and decided to give it a go. Another friend told us about a place in Zuidplein where she goes, so we decided to go there.

First, let me say I was little wary. After my experience with getting acrylic nails at an Asian Nail Farm I wasn’t sure I wanted to try one of those places again for my pedicure. When I got the acrylic nails put on they damaged my nail beds quite badly, I also left with bloody cuticles, which was unpleasant. I call them Asian Nail Farms because they are usually big places that just push people through like cattle, it’s more about quantity than quality.

But… it’s cheap, and that’s what keeps people going there. It’s also what brought us there for the pedicures.

Anyhow, I was quite excited about it, in spite of my hesitance about the location.

Well, it was both a good and bad experience… It’s one of those things that at the time is frustrating but later becomes a good story you can laugh about.

We showed up at the shop and were able to just walk in, which was great. I was so happy to see that they had those big massage chairs that we could sit in, I looooove those chairs! I used to go to electronics shops and sit in them just for fun.

The excitement started to wane a bit when I sat in the chair they pointed to and the arm fell off. See the arm of the chair in the photo with the remote on it? Well, every few minutes it just flopped off to the side. They are made to open outwards so people can turn sideways and slide off the chair, as it’s a bit awkward with the tub in front. The swivel was broken on that arm though so instead of just opening outwards, it just fell outwards like it was falling off. I must have picked that arm back up 100 times… The girl kept looking at me and telling me not to do that, like I was some how purposely pushing it off. That was when I started getting irritated. I eventually managed to get it to sit there, careful not to move my hips at all because the slightest nudge made it fall again.

I messed with the remote for a few minutes getting my massage on, which started to ease my frustration and get me to relax. The girl put the water in the tub and threw some sort of blue stuff in and I started to soak them and wiggle my toes against the jets. It felt great and before long I wasn’t thinking about the wonky chair arm at all.

Aaaah, I was relaxed, I was hanging with my BFF, I was about to get my very first pedicure… this was awesome!

That is, until the chair tried to eat me!

No lie, it was like a cartoon or something, it literally felt like the chair was trying to eat me! Look at the photo again, see that pad that’s between my back and the chair? Well the way the chair is made, if you pull up that padded flap you see all the mechanical bits inside the chair. I don’t know what was happening but the rolling thing that went up and down my back kept getting caught in something on the bottom of that pad and it pulled the bottom up. This caused the pad to scrunch up into a weird mouth like shape that opened and closed against my back, trying to swallow me whole. Even Penny was looking at me like “What the hell is going on with that chair?!!!”

The girl came over twice to fix it, lifting the flap away from what it was tangled in and flattening it out. Just when I’d start getting comfortable and relaxed, the chair would try to eat me again.

Here’s the funniest part though, when the girl would come, she’d act totally irritated with ME, like somehow it was my fault that their chair was completely buggered. They should have moved me to a different chair, or I should have asked to be moved, but I didn’t want to move away from Penny because we were there together and trying to chat and stuff.

In the end, the girl basically just turned the thing off and was like “No massage for joo!”, so I spent about 90% of the time there in a chair that does nothing. Unless you count the arm falling off because that continued the entire time.

This was just about the first 10 minutes that I was there, and I was becoming a bit worried about what I was going to experience once they actually touched my feet. The girl seemed totally irritated with me, because of the chair constantly messing up, was she going to take it out on my feet?!

Well, it’s possible she did, she tried to boil my feet. True story… I SO wish I’d had my camera handy to take photos of all this, but it was behind me on a shelf and they were already ticked off enough with me. Plus, I was afraid to move because I didn’t know what else was going to go wrong with that damn chair. The only reason I had the above photo was because Penny had her phone on her.

Anyway, you’re probably wondering what I meant when I said she tried to boil my feet. Well, it means just that… she tried to BOIL. MY. FEET!

After all the chair massage drama was over, and I learned to just sit still like a statue, I could actually think of what was going on with my feet. This is how it went…

Tammy: Fucking chair…

Penny: Omg I know, what IS it with you?! You have the worst luck ever with this stuff!!

Tammy: I know, right?!! I swear, when I write stuff on my blog people must think I make this up, because nobody has this much bad luck.

Penny: Nobody could make this shit up.

Tammy: Wow, this is pretty warm, huh?

Penny (Relaxing and sighing) Nice, isn’t it?

Tammy: Yeah..

*Few minutes silence*

Tammy: Wow, this is really warm, is yours really warm?

Penny: Yeah it can get pretty warm.

*Few more minute silence*

Tammy: It’s hot, it’s supposed to be hot right, not just warm? This is pretty hot….

Penny (Laughing): Yes, it’s supposed to be hot.

*Few more minutes silence… I start wondering what special kind of foot wimp I really am*

Tammy: It’s REALLY hot, is it supposed to be really hot?!!

Penny (Starting to feel like she is out with her three year old, I think): Yes, it’s supposed to be hot.

*Feeling like the queen of foot wimps, dying to take my feet out but choosing to “man up” instead*

*Few more minutes silence*

Tammy: THIS IS REALLY FUCKING HOT!!!!! IS IT SUPPOSED TO BE THIS HOT?! OH SWEET JESUS, PENNY IS IT SUPPOSED TO BE THIS HOT?!!

Penny (Mom voice): Then take your feet out for Pete’s sake!

*Pull my feet out*

Penny (gasping): OMG LOOK AT YOUR FEET!!!

*Looks at feet, feeling both horrified at the color of them, yet strangely satisfied that I’m not a foot wimp after all, that something really was wrong*

Penny: Jesus, I’ve never seen feet that red!! holy shit!

Tammy: I TOLD YOU, I TOLD YOU IT WAS HOT!!! That’s not normal right?!! Mother of god, it hurts!

I think we were creating a bit of a scene because the girl came running back over, people were starting to stare, and my feet felt like they were on fire. She messed with a dial between my feet and told me it was safe to put my feet back in. This was after holding her hands on my feet for a bit and telling me how warm they are.

NO SHIT, SHERLOCK! I can feel it too!

Again, I wish I had been able to get a hold of my camera, but I think if I tried to move, or asked the girl to grab it for me, she was going to stab me. Penny tried her hardest to capture the redness but her camera phone just couldn’t cut it. You’ll have to take my word for it.

Let’s just say, I looked like I was wearing red socks, it really was that bad. Not just red, but BURGUNDY.

It was around this time that the other girl came to work on Penny’s feet. Penny, who all this time had been sitting in her perfectly intact chair, getting massaged and enjoying her front row seat to my horror show. I was watching the girl clipping, scraping and cutting stuff on Penny’s feet and I won’t lie, I was truly frightened.

If a CHAIR could cause me this much misery, what would a pair of clippers do? This girl was coming at me wielding something that looked like a cheese grater and she wanted me to let her put it near my feet. All I could imagine was the trail of blood I was going to leave through the mall on my way home.

Yes, I know that’s a bit dramatic but seriously, I had just experienced Chinese water torture first hand. I was traumatized!

I considered asking Penny to hold my hand, but I thought that might be the last straw for her. This was her day OFF as a mom, after all.

In the end the pedicure itself turned out to be the best part! There was no pain, no blood and she actually did a pretty good job! She did all her clippy, shavey, scrubby stuff and I left with beautifully painting toenails and a lot less crap on my heels.

So, do I consider my first pedicure experience to be a success? Oh jeez, yes and no!

No, because I’ll never everrrrr go to this place again. That demon chair and the way the girl acted towards me because of it made sure I’ll never visit them again. A lot of the experience was uncomfortable, frustrating and even painful.

That said, I still had a great day with Penny, we went to a movie, shopped, went out for dinner and just had a really great full day together. Something we don’t get to do nearly often enough.. Even though it was completely buggered up for me, we SCREAMED with laughter on the way home telling my husband about it. It sort of sucked a the time but now we have a really funny story to tell… AND the motivation to go do it again and try another place to see if it works out any better.

I’ll definitely go for another pedicure at some point. I liked the actual pedicure part and I think I’d really enjoy it if I had someone a little less pissy doing it and a better chair.

So, if you want to go for a pedicure, I wouldn’t advise visiting Le’s Nail and Spa in Zuidplein. That’s just my personal opinion though. The original friend who recommended it and Penny seemed to have a much better experience than I did! So, I’ll leave it up to you.

Petting Giraffes at Dierenpark Amersfoort = AWESOME!

Breigh — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 10:53:15 +0000

I’m baaaack! Actually I’ve been back for almost two weeks, but I’ve either been busy, didn’t feel like writing or was having issues with my host. Anyway, I’m here now and that’s what counts.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of the our time in France yet because I made a deal with myself that I’d catch up on all the photos from other adventures before I even started them. Argh, it hurts! I’m so itching to share all of the cool places we saw and things we did!

The first set of photos I promised that I’d work on were from my trip to Dierenpark Amersfoort back in June. A friend of mine had split up with her boyfriend and was returning to the US, so she wanted to get together and do something really cool together before she left us. She has a friend who works at the Zoo in Amersfoort and said that she’d mentioned she could take her behind the scenes to pet and feed giraffes and was wondering if we’d be interested in doing that.

HELL YEAH I was interested!

So one day three of us got together with the girl who worked at the zoo and had the most awesome day. Not only did she take us ‘backstage’ to see the giraffes, but she also spent the entire day with us showing us around the zoo and giving us info on all the different animals. It was fantastic!!

Here’s the photos!

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

You can also view the photos here on the Flickr set.

We had such an amazing day that day. It really was so much fun and such a nice way to say goodbye to a good friend.
If you are interested in visiting zoos in the Netherlands, I recommend this zoo wholeheartedly. I’ve been to three zoos here in the Netherlands (this one, Blijdorp in Rotterdam and Burgers’ Zoo in Arnhem) and I think this may be my favorite. Not because it’s the largest or has the most animals but as someone who enjoys taking photos, the enclosures were great. Many of them had just glass separating you from the animals, which gave you the ability to get up quite close, which you can’t do at a lot of zoos.

Hopefully you’ll have more luck getting that white tiger than I did, he was quite elusive… but, it gives me a great reason to visit again someday!

MISS YOU, ERIN!!

Autumn in the Veluwezoom

Breigh — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 06:44:02 +0000

I can’t believe I didn’t share my photos of the Veluwezoom! I was looking into the archives of my blog to find the photos and realized I never posted it, how can that be?

Back in November Xander and I got together with our friends Candace and Fran for a photo walk through the Veluwezoom. It was so beautiful and the perfect time of year for a visit.

Oh well, better late than never, right?

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

We had such a great day that day, I still can’t believe I totally forgot to write about it!

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Breigh — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 06:13:46 +0000

Ok, maybe just lions…

Last month Xander and I got up early and headed off to Arnhem to meet up with some friends at Burgers’ Zoo. I have wanted to visit for quite some time now as I’ve heard really great things about it, and it gave me a great chance to meet up with Sonya and Candace again. We all enjoy photography so it was a lot of fun exploring the zoo with them.

I took a load of photos so I’m going to post them in stages, because I have no control when it comes to trying to cherry pick my photos. So, this post will be about the LIONS, which are always a favorite for me.

The lion enclosure in Burgers’ is miles better than the one at Blijdorp Zoo in Rotterdam, which is pitiful. Actually, calling it pitiful would actually be giving it too much credit. It’s way too small, there is no space for them to move around, they always look agitated. I hate it.

The only thing that did bother me was not having any open air areas to take photos of them, there was a room where you could stand and take photos of the lions through glass… which was a struggle because the glass was covered in dirty little child nose and fingerprints.

Overall the zoo was alright but it wasn’t as fantastic as some people made it out to be. I think because we got there a little earlier in the season, a lot of the animals were still indoors. It was a fairly big zoo but I think I still prefer Blijdorp. If they improved their lion and tiger enclosures at Blijdorp it would go a long way to improving their rankings among the zoos in the Netherlands I think.

I will be back with more photos soon, including some rather disgusting photos I took at one of the monkey exhibits. Ok not rather disgusting, completely disgusting… I haven’t even gotten around to editing the photos yet because even I don’t want to look at them. Which means I must share them with all of you! You can thank me later!

Cecab Rotterdam vs Groove Kings – A Face Off!

Breigh — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 11:28:02 +0000

Saturday my friend Penny and I went into Rotterdam for a girl’s day before she leaves for holiday to California for three weeks. We shopped, had lunch, shopped, sat on some terraces and shopped. It was a beautiful with our first 20+ degree weather of the year.

At the end of the day we went to watch a display that was being put on by two clubs here in Rotterdam, Cecab Holland and Groove Kings. It was a lighthearted face off between the Capoeira club and the breakdancers, and it was SO much fun to watch!

Before it all got started, the capoeira club put on a display for the crowd. It’s such a strange sort of martial arts, but the chanting and music was oddly relaxing.

Then these guys showed up, and the fun really began! I really love watching breakdancers. I wish there was somewhere I could go on sunny afternoons to watch them perform and take photos. I had only my point and shoot with me that day, I really wished I had brought my DSLR.

I still managed to get some pretty good photos though, and I’m so glad I had a camera with me at all! I would never have known this was going on if my husband hadn’t seen an ad for it in the paper and told me about it. He knows I love this stuff!

It was amazing what some of them could do. The flips, jumps, twists and bends that the rest of us mere mortals couldn’t even imagine being able to pull off without a trampoline and a body cast.

Here’s some video I took throughout. It was better to see the movement than just photos, I think.

How I Got Punked For April Fool’s

Breigh — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:22:12 +0000

So, today is April Fool’s day… and it started out like this, when I sent out a warning to the internet on Twitter (and Facebook).

You see, there are a lot of things I hate, cuz I’m like that, I’m a hater… and I really hate 1) being startled 2) being tricked. The reason for this is because it is SO DAMN EASY. I am both jumpy and gullible by nature so I really am easy pickings when it comes to things like April Fool’s day and those viral videos that make you jump out of your skin.

If you are friends with me on Twitter or Facebook, you’ve seen that I’ve come to the decision that I am going to part with my turtles. It has been a long time coming and was a very difficult decision. We need the space in our flat, we are tired of fighting the damp every winter and the mold that follows, we are tired of the windows being full of condensation every year… and I’m just finding the upkeep a bit too difficult.

So, today my husband and I were sitting on the sofa discussing what we were going to do and if we were going to rehome all of them or keep one, and if so which one. This was a difficult conversation for me because it’s hard enough to part with pets, but I am a hormonal mess at the moment, so even just discussing it had me almost in tears.

Then I heard the sound of someone messaging me on Twitter, and I went to look.

Translation: Homeowners Association: Because there are now so many dogs in the building, there are plans for a restriction of maximum 1 dog per household.

I’m really starting to wonder if he had his ear to the door before he sent me that message. It’s like he KNEW I was in the process of discussing rehoming pets!

No, I’m sure he didn’t, which when he reads this will make the entire thing even more comical on his end… but anyway.

I fell for it hook, line and sinker! I had totally forgotten that it was April Fool’s Day and I panicked, sending Xander to check the mail and his email to see if we had gotten the message. He was a shocked as I was, until he came back in the door and said “Wait a minute, maybe this is an April Fool’s Day joke!”

You’d think I’d clue in then, would you? Yeah, not so much. I needed confirmation! Until I actually heard him say it was a joke, there was a possibility that it was true!

He’s right, I did just have our new VVE guy on the phone and he DOES sound serious!! He was not very nice at all in fact! He seemed like just the type who would make a girl get rid of her dog! OH NO!!!

Translation: Have you read the email? There must have been complaints. It will be discussed at the next meeting. Strange, huh?!

He didn’t say it was a joke. I asked, and he didn’t admit to it… SO IT HAD TO BE TRUE!!

That was it, the panic was on and there was just no turning me off then. I had to know. I had to know RIGHT NOW if he was joking or not. Xander had his number in his mobile and he told me to call and ask him, but I had already been so buggered up from discussing rehoming the turtles, just from being in hormone overload that I knew I would have started crying the minute he answered the phone. Plus, I just hate talking on the phone. So I asked Xander to call him… then things got really bad.

Xander: YOU call him!

Me: NO, YOU call him!!

Xander: YOU want to know, you call him!

Me: OMG would you just call him!!

Xander: Call him and pretend to be all upset, oh that would be so funny!

Me: Who is pretending? Call him, call him now! Omg please call him. We can’t give a dog away! Can they do that? Does the VVE have that power? Oh god no we have to move!! You won’t make me give up one of the dogs right? YOU wouldn’t want to give up one of the dogs, would you? Would you give up one of the dogs?! That’s it we’ll just have to move.

Xander: *Laughing so hard he can’t speak*

Me: STOP LAUGHING!!!

Xander: *Doubles over, gasps for breath*

Me: I hate the phone, I hate calling people, YOU KNOW THAT CALL HIM DAMMIT!! I don’t want to have to give my dog away, I HAVE TO KNOW!

Xander: This is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen!!! *Choking with laughter by this point*

Me: *Starting to go all high pitched woman anger noise* CALLHIMCALLHIMNOWORIAMGOINGTOFREAKOUT!!!! (Already freaking out)

Xander: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! *Starting to taunt me now which really gets my back up*

Me: *Looking around for something non-breakable to throw* I am getting really mad!! I’m going to throw something!! YOU BETTER CALL HIM CALL HIM NOW I MEAN IT STOP LAUGHING!!!

Xander: This is HILARIOUS!!! *Laughing harder*

Me: *Completely irrational and crying by this time* I MEAN IT! I am going to throw this cutting board at you, I will throw it, don’t test me!! I will throw it you know I will you better call him I mean it CALL HIM RIGHT NOW that’s it I’m going to throw it!! *Raises arm to whiff it*

Xander: Jesus woman, alright… I’ll call!!

Me: thankyou.

So Xander phoned him and asked if he could forward the mail from the VVE, and he finally cracked and admitted that is was a joke. WHEW!! Ok, crisis averted. I don’t have to give away one of my dogs, I don’t have to move… but I do have to get revenge on my neighbour. Someday, somehow, I will make him pay.

He SO is. I’m not quite sure what I will do yet, but I will have my revenge. In the words of a crazy dude from MONK “When he least expects me, that’s when he can expect me!!”

Yep, he got me good… and I’m definitely laughing about it now that I’ve calmed down. He had the PERFECT timing with that joke at the very time I was discussing rehoming other pets, it’s like he’s psychic or something!

Oh man, This is war.

This was my Project 365 photo from last night. Me and my babies having a cuddle after dinner. Look at those faces, you’d freak out too at the thought of losing them! Ok, maybe not to the crying, screaming, exorcist head spinning way that I did, but still.

Yep, he’s in for it alright. It is ON like DONKEY KONG.