Ealier this month, my wonderful dad flew here and stayed with us for almost 2 weeks. As per usual, we put him to work. He painted our living room, organized our garage, and refinished the stairs. Greg helped with the stairs when he could (when he was taking a break from his full-time job and his part-time job!)

During this time, Mika was relegated to either being in Greg's office while he was working, or he was locked up in his crate, which is located in the workshop (Mika, not Greg was in the crate).

Anyway, Mika, being the intelligent, stubborn, strong dog that he is, managed to escape his crate, buy using brute force. Since he knows that doorknobs are used to open doors, he proceeded to bite and claw at the doorknob of the workshop. And guess what? He OPENED it. Here is Mika, with said doorknob.
And here are a couple of close-ups of the doorknob. None of his teeth were damaged, and notice the other half of the doorknob...see how smooth and round it is?
Here are a few before and after shots of the stairs and living room. Here is the before shot of the front hallway. And the after shot. Please note the we WILL be painting the trim at some point, and the ugly ligt fixtures will be replaced with nice, sensible pot lights! I am still waiting for my canvas wrap to be ready, which will be hung between the two doorways on the right hand side. The living room before...don't you just love the nice orange/peach colour???
And after. Looks a little darker in this picture than it actually is. The next shot shows the colour more accurately. And as soon as we get some curtain rods, we will be hanging some drapes.

Greg and I went and saw the new James Bond movie last night. It was good, but Casino Royale was far superior in my books. In one of the last scenes, Olga Kurylenko's character is seen wearing these awesome shoes (she was actually wearing the gold colour, but I prefer the brown). As soon as the movie was over I mentioned to Greg that I loved the shoes, and he, of course had absolutely NO idea what shoes I was talking about.

I did some research this morning, and found them. Unfortunately they are expensive, and they're not availabe (as far as I can tell) outside of Great Britain. While I could easily have them sent to some people I know in England, and they could ship them to me, I am having a hard time trying to convince Greg that these are an absolute necessity to my wardrobe!

I received a call today from the receptionist at the dental office I used to go to.

Dr. C. is a nice guy, and a good dentist. He's gentle and never told me I had to get any work done that wasn't absolutely essential.

I had one problem though. He would ALWAYS reschedule my appointments. Say I'd have an appointment for Monday at 1:00. His receptionist would call me on the Saturday before my appointment to confirm. She'd then ask me if it would be ok if I came in at 1:30. Ok, fine. Not a big deal.

Then, on Monday morning, she'd call again and ask if I could come in at 12:15 instead. Um, ok.

The first time this happened, it didn't really bother me. But it happened each, and every time I had an appointment. So I found another dentist. He's great, and he was there for my scheduled time.

Now Greg still goes to see Dr. C. for all of his dental needs. He has never had a problem with his appointment times, so does not feel the need to change dentists.

Fast-forward to 10 minutes ago. The receptionist calls and says that I am WAY overdue for a cleaning. I told her that I'm extremely busy at this time of year and can't make an appointment. She says she'll call back in the new year.

So how do I break up with my dentist? I feel like I'm cheating on him!

I'm a Bzz Agent. This means I'm a word-of-mouth marketer. It's free, and it's fun. I heard about this website from some MM moms that were participating. It didn't seem possible that it would be open to Canadian residents, but lo and behold, it IS! So I signed up, and have had fun since.

Being a Bzz Agent isn't hard. You have to answer some questions about yourself, your likes, interests, members of your household, etc., and then the Bzz Agent people will contact you periodically to see if you would be interested in participating in a particular campaign. You'll then receive some free stuff in the mail (or coupons to get a product for free) and you try out it, talk it over with people (family, coworkers, etc.) and write a report about it.

I am Bzzing about eggs today. I've always been a fan of wonderful, delicious and versitile egg. Of course I always had some on hand for use in recipes and Sunday morning breakfast, but lately I've been eating a lot more of them. According to the literature that was supplied with this campaign, eggs are not a concern when it comes to managing cholesteral, and have NO trans fats and have only 70 calories. Not bad for something that it so simple, tasty and versitile.

I've been eating a lot more eggs recently. I've rediscovered my love for egg salad sandwiches, Karen (our nanny) has proven herself to be a pro at preparing perfect over-easy eggs, and both of the boys LOVE eggs.

The Bzz Agent people send me a handful of booklets with egg receipes (the pancake recipe is super yummy), so if anyone wants one, just let me know and I'll send it out to you.

The only thing don't recommend is eating a soft-boiled egg with toast while at your computer. I just tried it, and it got a little messy. Bits of shell have fallen between my keyboard keys! But it was certainly tasty!!

Spencer will be 2 in February. Last week, he decided that he wanted to go poop on the potty. He stood at my feet, pointed to his bum, and said "poo, poo" so I brought him upstairs, sat him on the potty, and voila...he did his business on there.

Then 2 days ago he asked again. And again, he did it. Last night he went on the potty before going to bed, and woke up dry this morning. He asked me to take his diaper off, I did, and he went pee.

After struggling with Finn for so long, it's quite a surprise the Spencer took the initiative himself.

It would be nice to have Spencer out of diapers by his second birthday. I'm not going to hold my breath, but here's to hoping!!

It's November 5th today. It feels more like April 5th. I am on the
train right now, heading downtown, and I wish I'd brought my camera.
I can't think of a better way to spend a nice day than taking pjotos.
But that'll just have to wait because, well I didn't bring my camera!

I don't usually take to GO train during the daytime, so it's
interesting to be inboard with the mix of people that I'm currently
riding with. I have the hoity-tooth woman across the way from me,
reading her free newspaper, the teenager a few seats down from me who
is sleeping with her mouth wide open, and the 30-something businessman
with the slick-backed hair listening to music on iPhone. I wonder
what's in his playlist?

So yesterday was Halloween. I was a bad mom this year...no pumpkin carving or crazy decorations. However, both of the boys did have costumes and each got a bucketful of treats.

I wasn't sure that Spencer was going to participate since he screamed bloody murder the first time we put on his costume. Fortunately, he was a trooper last night and absolutely LOVED trick-or-treating. His limited vocabulary prevented him from actually saying "trick or treat" so he'd just yell out "MORE" when someone answered the door and then he enthusiastically dug his hands into the candy dish and tried to help himself. He eventually got the hang of it and let people put candy into his bucket.

Finn was into it from the get-go. I thought he'd shy out but as soon has he got his first candy hand-out he loudly proclaimed "I LOVE THIS" and marched on to the next house. After about 20 houses he said that he'd had enough of this and wanted to go home to eat some of his treats.