Birthday boy!

Last Sunday was Gordon's B I R T H D A Y, so I had to be nice to him ALL DAY. It was very difficult, I must tell you.

First I made him these chocolate chip waffles with a side of strawberries. He proceeded to drown them in maple syrup.

 Later we went off cross-country skiing. It was a bit slippery, still quite icy under the inch or two of fresh snow. I fell on my butt three times but Gordon managed to stay upright. We took a selfie in the woodlot.

The dogs had a blast. Sophie is always on some mission...

And here comes the B I R T H D A Y  B O Y !!

We really love cross-country skiing and we should do it more often.

Sophie was distracted!

And look who came along! I was a bit worried it would be too much for old Tristan, but he was quite energetic and seemed very happy. 

Sweet old boy. I'm glad his various meds minimize his arthritis woes enough to allow him to plod along with us. He has developed a bunch of new lumps that we had biopsied this week. His hemangiosarcoma (spleen and tumour were removed in August) are always in the back of my mind, but he is still doing well and enjoying life.

Sophie has not slowed down one iota and is as energetic at age 11 as the day we got her.

It has been a bitterly cold week, with temps down to -35C/-31F (although my wildlife cam registered -40C/-40F one night). Being as fascinated by weather as I am, I don't mind experiencing these extremes for a little while each winter. I do feel sorry for the ducks and chickens, because I don't let them out of their coops into the barn in this cold, for fear of frostbite. So they are a little cooped up, so to speak! It warmed up a little this afternoon so I let them out for a few hours to run around the lower barn.

I took this photo of the shadow of our chimney yesterday...

In this weather, the furnace goes through logs like they're toothpicks! It's amazing how much wood we burn at these temperatures. We do have an oil/wood furnace and can use either fuel, but I prefer using wood. I always feel warmer, and I hate paying for oil!

Louise keeps warm another way...

She looooves her daddy!

When I got up the other morning, this is what the thermometer looked like:

An hour or two later, it hadn't budged. The funny thing was, the night before I forgot to turn on the clothes dryer. The next morning, I found my clothes frozen solid in a lump in the bottom of the dryer (which vents outside.) THat is a first!

Meanwhile...

Louise kept warm next to the slow cooker!

The last 48 hours have been quite eventful. First off, I wiped out on the two wooden steps leading to our family room and landed so hard on my back that I had the wind knocked out of me (and bruised my back and arms and dropped my laptop, which thank goodness didn't break!) I've never had that happen but I now completely understand where the expression comes from. I thought I was going to suffocate but Gordon, a veteran of many childhood wind-knocking-out incidents, talked me through it.

Then yesterday morning, Gordon gave me a nice-looking cuppa tea that tasted liked bad cheese. The brand-new carton of milk he'd used was sour. Gaaaaaah!!

Then when I was feeding the cats supper yesterday, Emily leapt from the kitchen table to the "kitty credenza" (where we feed the cats) just as I was walking by with Louise's supper. I was covered head to toe with raw-meat cat food. The newest fashion for 2014!

And this morning, to top it all off,  I LAUNDERED MY PASSPORT! Aaaarrrghhh!! Yes, I have to replace it now. I got it out this morning to take to the Service Ontario office because my driver's licence and health care were expiring. I (stupidly) laid it on top of the laundry hamper I was carrying to the basement, which was full of dark clothes that blended perfectly with my blue passport cover. 

Then I threw the whole lot in. And remembered the passport about ten minutes later!

I'm hoping that's all the excitement for now. I turn 50 next week, which is more than enough for me to deal with at present. :)

Have a great weekend!