Lunch With The Whole Fam Damily.....

Well, I've been on some new meds that haven't been totally agreeing with me and have felt flu-like for a couple of weeks now. I started to take half doses and today I felt better. So, new and improved Hubby took Holly and I out to our local Chinese buffet. I decided to bring you all along with us...and took pictures of all the crap we ate. We ate ourselves sick and then went shopping. All in all, a fun day!

Will post more tomorrow, looks like it's time for a nap..oh, and the pictures are a bit mixed up, but you get the idea.

Take care

Tory

Let's Talk Art...

1 & 2) Trisha Romance

3) Renoir ~ Banks of the Seine at Champrosay
4) Renoir ~ The Garden in Montmartre




We haven't talked about this before, have we? I love art. If I were rich, I'd be one of those people at the big art auctions. My favorite style is impressionism, especially Renoir or Monet. I also like Rubens. There's something about looking
at these beautiful works that just makes the whole world seem like a wonderful place to be in, suddenly. Of the more recent artists, I really love this Canadian artist, Trisha Romance. She is absolutely amazing. The detail in her painting are incredible. I don't know how she does it! I have been to her studio/museum a few times at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario and felt as if I was standing on hallowed ground, almost. She has an inoperable brain tumor, and it scares me to think that we may lose this unique talent.
I, myself, have tried to paint, but it is harder than it looks. I paint the equivalent of 'stick men.' This really sucks because I really love doing it...sigh. I keep promising myself that I will get painting lessons one day. That should have gone on my life list, actually..or is it there? I can't remember.
In other news...
Lumpy complained, 'Mom, I just got my cage the way I like it and Holly came along and cleaned it while I was out!'
Holly replied, 'Shut up, Lumpy, you smell.'
Lumpy whined, 'Mom, she's calling me names.'
Poppy replied from the pantry, 'As soon as I get off the nest, I'm going to renew my efforts to kill you all!'
Take care all,
Tory

So...What do ya think...?

One thing about blogging, you can always find something new you want to do. I noticed that Andrew at http://www.4thavenueblues.blogspot.com had something called a twitter, which was really fun to read. Now I wanted one too. I had no idea how to get one..so off to search for it all day yesterday. It seems to take me all day to do stuff other people can do in 5 minutes. Oh well, it kept me out of the pool halls..
I digress...
I finally figured it out and got to twittering, but didn't like the way it looked on my site...what to do?!
Today I realized that you could have 3 columns on a web page..Aha! I tried to figure out all that template jibberish and then Holly walked by. Aha, again!
I said, 'Holly, I love you.' She replied, 'Whatever it is...no!' I'm not beyond pleading and whining, she should know that by now. Finally, she sat down at my computer and found a new template for me, with 3 columns. For a second, she was my hero, that is until I realized that all my pictures and widgets were gone. But I managed to get them back up, for the most part, and I am so happy with how it all turned out. That Holly is a good kid sometimes, so I don't plan on selling her yet. I was going to put her up on EBay, but maybe I'll wait a bit.
Poppy has only one egg now,as the other one is broken. She is so mean to Bailey, I'm considering getting him his own cage while she's on the nest. Tonight she bit him very hard on the foot and made it bleed. Holly and I were mortified, and felt terrible for him. I'll have to call my bird supplier and see what he thinks. Poor Bailey. We should have known because Poppy has all the earmarks of a serial killer. We'll have to keep our eye on the situation.
Queenie and Gus are doing great. I'll have to take some video of them in the next day or two and put it on my photo/video blog, so keep checking back.
Fun with hearing loss...I heard the announcer on t.v. say, (about a serial killer) 'Tears from a kitten, but not for his victims.'
I think he must have said, 'Tears from a killer....
That's all for now, group.
Take care
Tory

My Mind is Blown...

Well, peeps, I am flabbergasted! Just checking out some of my comments and found a very disturbing one under..'Heaven..I'm In Heaven'. I really can't quite get my head around it...this sounds like a very disturbed person indeed. I do realize this is an open forum for back and forth communication, but when I read this...well, it really gave me the creeps. Take a look yourself if you don't believe me!! Does he sound like the next school shooter to you? And there is nothing I can do to stop him as he posted anonymously.
I'm not afraid for myself,of course, but he really does sound very dangerous to others and possibly himself. Don't waste your time reading the whole thing, but just have a look and tell me what you think? Of course, I had to make a joke out of it, but....yikes!!
I will pray for Mr. Anonymous tonight, as I fear he is someone who has fallen between the mental health cracks and he really needs help.
Take care, guys!
Tory

Oooh...I'm So Mad...

I was going to give my site a new look and somehow I totally lost everything. Holly tried to get it all back, but no luck. I will have to work on it to restore what I've lost...so be patient with me.
I'm soooo stupid!!
Take care
Tory

Happy Easter All...

By The Way....

I Almost forgot to tell you all....Poppy has two more eggs!! Here we go again.
Take care
Tory

Empty Nest Syndrome....

Well, I've been abandoned...my grandbabies are gone. Apparently, Ariel cried for her Nanny half of the way home ...sigh. Of course, I cried when they left and felt heartsick to see them go...sigh. We had a wonderful time, the house was busy and loud and I loved it. They grow so fast and I feel like I'm missing so much. It's hard to believe that Ariel is 5 and in school already. She's so smart, and drew me a million pictures while she was here. Most of us had ice skates on in the pictures...so cute. Baby Boy is getting so big as well. He has the cutest little face and says the funniest things. He thinks baby Scarlett is a boy even though his mother keeps telling him she's not. He also thinks Scarlett is the family pet. He pats her on the head and says, 'Cute little animal!' One day Ashley noticed that his jeans were bulky, so she asked him, 'Stephon, what do you have in your pants?' He replied, 'My testicles!'. (Do you ever write a word that you're almost 100 percent sure you've never written before? Testicles would be one of those words for me...and now I've written it twice in one post! The 'testicle word elves' will be very pleased with me.)
Last but not least, baby Scarlett. She is so beautiful with her deep blue eyes. She is such a happy baby and smiles constantly.
...Sigh.... We were so busy, I didn't get around to taking any pictures, so the morning they left, I thought I'd better get some...the battery was dead in my camera..but not to worry, I gave them a new camera for their computer and Ashley promised to send some soon.
In other news...the baby birdies are real birds now, In a cage and eating seed. They are fully weaned. I was afraid to stop feeding them their formula, in case they went hungry, but they're doing great. They've been weaned for a week now. Too cute..I will take some videos of them soon. They fly so gently, almost like hummingbirds. So, just for fun, I checked out their pelvis's to get a clue as to their gender. Gus is definitely a Gus...but Leonard definitely feels like a female. So, we changed her name to Queenie. Because their bones are still soft, it is hard to tell for sure until they are about 5 months old...but I'm almost positive. If not, too bad...we will force Queenie into dresses and heels and insist she remain a girl, for our amusement..(I put the word 'fun' back in dysfunctional, don't I?)
I have to tell you that I found Forsythia's blog http://lifeinmerlin.blogspot.com/ and read the whole thing in one sitting. She is so funny. One of the things she writes about is what she calls, 'Fun With Hearing Loss'. I hope you don't mind, Forsythia, if I borrow this idea. It's so funny.
Yesterday, I heard the news anchor on t.v. say, 'It's going to take a lot of pigeons for your commute home today!'
What she actually said (I assume) was, it's going to take a lot of PATIENCE...
Have a great week, everyone!
Take care
Tory

Heaven..I'm In Heaven...

Well, peeps, I am in 'Nanny Heaven' right now. I have Ashley, Rob and my three special grandchildren with me for the week. I am loving every moment of it. My baby Scarlett has grown into a little sweetheart, and Ariel and Stephon are getting big as well. I wish I could keep them forever. But no, their mother is selfish and won't give them to me. I just want to borrow them until they're 20 or so...what's the problem. I wish they lived closer...I want to be with them so much more than this. However, It does tend to make this time sweeter and maybe I wouldn't appreciate them as much if they were around all the time. Good news is...once Ashley is finished school, they will be moving back around here and I will never take my grandchildren for granted...ever! I don't want to even think about the time for them to go home...I'm going to just enjoy the moment.
That's why I haven't been doing much on my site lately..however, there will be new pictures coming soon on the photo/video blog, of course of my wonderful, beautiful family.
I hope you all have the best week, like I am.
Take care
Tory

Some Sad News and Some Glad News!

Well people, I'm devastated to hear that Jeff Healey, a popular Canadian singer, songwriter, and fabulous blues guitar man, died yesterday at only 41, succumbing to cancer. I have loved him for a long time, and he has a blues bar here in Toronto that Hubby and I kept saying we would go to, to hear him play. Unfortunately, Jeff only played on Thursday nights and Hubby works evenings during the week, so we never made it there. The amazing thing about Healey was that he lost both eyes to cancer at a year old, and fought various types of cancer all his life. He picked up a guitar at the age of 3, learned to play sitting it flat on his lap and the rest is history. My condolences to his wife and children. May he rest in peace.....sigh.
Now I have a story for you all called 'Adventures In Toryland'. In the last year or so, I've noticed a growth on my face. It kept getting bigger and uglier. I was pretty sure it was a wart, but it began to look like some sort of sea urchin/fern. So the last time I went to the Dr.'s, I asked him about it and he confirmed it was in fact a wart. He said next time I came in he would burn it off for me, or he said if I didn't want to wait, I could tie a string around it very tight and it would fall off in a couple of days. Well, I forgot about it for awhile, until one day I noticed that it had grown to the size of a basketball and began winking and waving to strangers. I called him 'Shorty'. Finally it was time to get rid of my conjoined twin, so I happened to be in the bathroom, admiring my awesome beauty...stop laughing!...when I noticed the dental floss on the counter. It was the minty, waxed kind...whatever. I actually thought that could be a good thing if poor Shorty was going to rot to death on my face. Minty is definitely good in this case. Anyhoo...I tied it tight around Shorty, yes, he did put up a bit of a struggle but I subdued him...first a body slam..then a kick in the fronds. Pretty hard to do in our little bathroom, but subdue him I did. (Think rodeo, where they chase the little cows and tie up their little feet!) I then wrapped the floss around him and tied it as tight as I could. Yes, I did hear a little whimper from Shorty...but I remained cold hearted about it and moved forward with the plan. I cut the floss as close to Shorty as I could, but you could still see it. So, a haircut was definitely out of the question for awhile. Plus I have this terrible habit of putting my hair behind my ear without thinking about it. When I did this, it showed poor Shorty with his tongue sticking out, strangling to death and the suspicious ends of dental floss sticking out. I was constantly doing this in public until one of my family members noticed and whispered, 'We see Shorty!' I would of course, quickly put my hair back over him. Anyway, I had a Dr.'s Appt. today and he cut Shorty off. Hooray!!! I have a only a little scab where he was and then it'll look fine.
Good-bye Shorty...sob..I'll miss you...NOT!
One other thing before I go, I've decided not to edit my comment section. It's a pain in the neck to anyone wanting to leave me a comment. I will just delete any unwanted comments from whoever it is doing that.
Take care
Tory

Ugh....some People!!!

I don't know about any of you guys, but I am literally being stalked by someone who is filling up all my comment boxes with advertising. I went to his website and told him to cut it out, so now he's doing it anonymously. So, for now, I will have to approve comments before I post them. Just for now. I don't plan on giving this guy any space on my blog, so hopefully, he'll just give up. Thanks for understanding and please don't let this stop you from all your great comments. I hope this will rectify the situation quickly and we can get back to normal around here.
Take care all
Tory

Oh Yeah, I Forgot To Mention....

O.K. I'm gonna come clean about the quitting smoking thing....I didn't quit. I know, I know...I suck. Holly is really bugging me about it. I was practically hysterical the night before just thinking about it. I will again set a quit date and try again. Just one catch, the quit date will probably be around January 2028...just kidding...sort of...AARRGG!!! I just don't feel like going through all the pain and anxiety of it. If I could just wake up tomorrow and just never thought of it again, that would be great. But it doesn't happen that way.
I'll keep you all posted about the situation.
Take care
Tory

Family Day ~ Woo Hoo!!

Today is the very first, newly appointed 'Family Day' in Canada. I think they were just looking for an excuse for another long week-end. As with other national holidays, banks, stores, government offices and other businesses are closed. Should you have to work, you will be getting paid time and a half on your wages. Since this is the first one, ever, I am at a loss as to protocol for this holiday. Some of my questions, if I should happen to get a call from the Prime Minister today, will be as follows...
1) Do you have to spend it with your own family, or can you force yourself into the family photo's of strangers?
2) Will you get arrested for this and have a restraining order posted against you, or in the spirit of family day, will this unknown family, (unknown until today, that is..) have to simply call me Aunt Edna and put up with my shinanigans? (such as get drunk, tell stories about their grandmother's foray into the golden days of burlesque...in which her act included a can opener...and a garden gnome...) I digress!
3) Define 'Family'!! Would it count if I decided my family would be Bunny and a handful of Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches...with sombreros and Nike sneakers? (actually, some of them wouldn't be caught dead in Nike...the whole child labour thing...)
Now, to call it family day was a pretty good idea, but not very creative. What good is a national holiday if we can't exclude and segregate people and groups of people? The following would have been good choices, in my opinion, for names for the new national holiday....
1) National Name That Dustbunny Day!
2) Have Your Yak Spade or Neutered Day!
3) Does This Look Infected To You Day!
4) National Smile At A Whore Day!
5) Rough And Scaley Elbow Day!
6) Tell Everyone You're Going To Quit Smoking, Then Don't Day!
7) Name this national holiday, Day!

Feel free to make up your own, folks.

Now, in other news, please check out my photo/video blog for new videos of Leonard and Gus. Today we took them from Poppy and they were hand fed for the first time. They did very well. We thought Poppy would be upset that they were gone, especially since she took such good care of them. She couldn't care less!!! Not a bit, and the baby's don't seem to mind that they are away from mom. It was all much less painful than I thought it would be. We expected screaming and crying...from me, of course..but it was all good.
Talk to you soon, Kids.
Take care
Tory

Updates...

For those who care, I have added new video of the baby birds. Also, I've started a food blog at the request of my kids.
Not much happening in my life right now, but will make a proper post as soon as something happens!
Take care, gang.
Tory

3rd Anniversary Saturday

Saturday was mine and Hubby's 3rd Anniversary. We were going to go out, but since our two hockey teams were playing against each other, we decided to spend the evening at home and we will go out for Valentine's Day, somewhere special. So, we had a quiet night, but it was nice. And look at the beautiful roses he bought for me. For some reason, I just couldn't stay still enough to get a good pic. Could have been the magnum of champagne...

Anyhoo, Leonard and Gus are doing so great. You can actually see growth in them from the night before, in the morning. I say they're cute, but really...they are quite ugly. What makes them cute is their size. Other than that, they are rather alien-esk. But they look good and healthy. Poppy must actually be doing a good job! I don't know about you guys, but I'm shocked.

Take care

Tory

And Another New Birdie Baby ~ Gus!

Just a short post to let you all know that another of Poppy's eggs have hatched, sometime Thursday. I will be putting up a video of the two on my video blog a.s.a.p. Both seem very healthy and move around a lot more than you would think, being so small and all.
Holly and I are so thrilled and even the New and improved Hubby had to admit they were cute. The second one was actually peeping while still half-way in the egg. So cute!!
I'll keep you posted.
Take care
Tory

WWC ~ Round and Pride

Round ~ A little candle in a round bowl, a tiny round pill bottle, a small roundish bean-bag doll, and finally, a Powder Puff Girl and her big round head.

Pride ~ My Children and Grandbabies, of course. The proud new parents, Poppy and (finally) a picture of Bailey. Not a good pic of Poppy, but a pretty good one of Bailey. And finally, my little lighthouse lamp (I collect lighthouses). It was such a find for me and was only three bucks!! I didn't realize there were lighthouses in the shade until I lit it up. It was a great surprise.

A New Member to Our Petting Zoo!!!

A grand announcment from us...one of Poppy's babies has hatched somewhere between 5p.m. and Midnight, last night. Holly went in to check the nesting box, as she does every night before putting the birds to bed. At first, she thought that the egg had broken and it was no good. Then it moved! I was in the washroom (of course!) and she's shouting at me, 'Mom, something happened!'. I hurry up to go and see what was going on and sure enough, there was Baby Leonard! (We named him after the man who sells us all of our birds.) However, we may have to adjust the name once we actually find out if it's male or female. We're so exited! It's so small that I actually had to go and get my glasses to make out which end was which! He's only between 1 and 2 cm. We took pictures, but were having a hard time since he is so small, but check out my Picture/Video Blog for video and pics. He is so adorable that Holly and I just want to touch him, dress him up in something fetching and put sunglasses on him for photo ops...but we're really trying not to. He probably wouldn't enjoy it. Poor Bailey sits by himself all day while Poppy sits on her clutch. He looks so lonely, but will still tear off into the nesting box if we get too close. But I'm determined to get some pics of him today, to show you all how beautiful he is.
I will also be looking around for the WWC for this week. I can't remember what they were, so I'll have to check again.
Talk to you later, Kids!
Take care
Tory

Please, Somebody Kill Me...

Do you all see that horrible countdown clock I've added to my page??? I am going to quit smoking on Feb. 3. Yes, Holly forced me to watch Oprah, and it was about quitting smoking. Bastard Kid!! I've already decided that if I don't know what to do with myself when I quit, I have several options:
1) Cry
2) Kick Holly's butt!
3) Smoke one of the animals
4) Sleep for months at a time
Wish me luck, Kids and I will say sorry in advance for anything I may write on this blog after Feb. 3. The opinions of Tory, at that time, are not necessarily those of management!
Take care
Tory

WWC ~ Envy

Who wouldn't envy a cottage in God's country? Or a lovely cruise? I miss my love nest!