Belated birthday fun post!

Happy 1/4 of a century birthday to me! Despite being so far away from family and friends, I had a great birthday! I was working when it started, and without even knowing it was my birthday one of my patients bought us pizza! One of them was even a veggie pizza, so after that I knew it was destined to be a good day.

I hated the idea of sleeping the day away, so I only slept for a few hours after work. Yes, I completely love birthdays. I love how the day just feels special, and it's an excuse to do whatever you want. Like going to glow in the dark mini golf, for example. Which is what we did! YES!

Insert birthday fun here!

Totally awesome pinball machine-sized Operation. No, I didn't try it out. There's really no need to embarrass myself on my birthday, now is there?

Hehe, so cool!

Glow in the dark Scott!

Not too sure why it looks like he's wearing a neck brace.

Glow in the dark me!

Glow in the dark sea anenome!

SUN!

I wish turtles actually looked like this.

This reminds me of those cheesy 90's posters with the whales and dolphins in space... which I absolutely LOVED!

And on the 18th hole... aliens destroy Earth. The End.

So what if there was horrible dance music blaring in the background and I lost (by only 2 points, I must add).... I frickin love this place!!! I feel a yearly birthday tradition coming on...

After mini golf we headed downtown. We weren't that hungry yet, and it was a gorgeous evening, so we wandered around a bit. Halifax is such a beautiful city.

Next year I want a sailboat for my birthday!

Actually, I'll accept any kind of boat.

We took a wander around Citadel Park, but we'll have to go back another time because the citadel itself was closed.

Scary looking!

 Pretty city!

I love how the sidewalk is like a boardwalk.

This is where we went for dinner!

I desperately want to make some of those lights above the bar - just cardboard tubes with a light inside and wallpaper wrapped around the outside!

 

Scotty!

He had a Goggle Burger, and I had a balsamic marinated portabello mushroom burger with goat cheese and pineapple chutney. YUMMMM!

 Everywhere you go in Halifax there are church steeples peeking out, very cool.

 Scott is not at all excited about this candy shop.

 I love the old architecture, everything has so much character!

 We're in the Maritimes now, baby!

 Pretty alleyway.

I'll be taking a couple classes here, at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

The evening was perfect. So warm, but a cool breeze off the ocean. Everything felt so magical! And we finished off the day with carrot cake. Mmmmm, perfect.

Long Lake

It wasn't pouring rain today, so we went to check out Long Lake Provincial Park:

It's only a 15 minute drive from our little red circle.

It seems to be a bit of an unofficial off-leash place, tons of dogs around! Apparently when the major off leash dog park (Point Pleasant) was annihilated by Hurrican Juan in 2003, Long Lake became a haven for dog walkers. It's not really maintained much though, so we'd follow a trail, then after awhile there wasn't much of a trail anymore. Seems like an awesome place to paddle a canoe around and find a private spot. Also looked like nice swimming, until we spotted a leech gyrating along the shoreline.

Reminds me of BC!

These people were in little pedal boats, one of them had a husky riding on the back. I think our dogs would have to be old and decrepit before they'd be calm enough to do that!

(Stacie! Scott wears those Merrell sandals all the time! Thanks!)

So there's a bit of a story surrounding this creek....

We were walking back along the beach and came across this creek. I was in running shoes, so had to take them off and chuck them over to the other side. Rewind a little.... about 2 minutes earlier Aluka had done some, uh, soft smelly business on the beach. Being responsible dog owners of course we cleaned it up. So accompanying me on my creek crossing was a bag of poo. But I also had my purse. And anyone who knows me knows that there is a high probability of falling in a situation like this. So I needed to lighten my load, so to speak. We decided it would be safe to also chuck the poo across the creek, that if it exploded it would be an easy clean up. And explosion was inevitable, as I'm cheap and we have paper thin dollar store poo bags. So I wound up to throw.... meanwhile Aluka was being her happy self running around on the other side. Well, she wasn't happy for long. I nailed her in the head with the bag of shit, and it exploded all over her face.

Of course I burst into hysterical laughter, because well, what's funnier than someone with poo on their face? Scott didn't find it quite so funny though, and I can't say I blame him. The charm of living with someone who constantly does retarded things wears off tragically quickly. So I don't have a picture, but here is an historically accurate reenactment:

Poo Doo!



I do feel really badly though, poor Aluka! She was so upset, wondering what the hell happened! Plus eyeball + fecal matter = eye infection, so I hope she's going to be okay.

I'm really digging going for walks and seeing the different kinds of plants that are around here.

And no, I honestly did not see the creepy rock of satan next to this plant until I was taking the picture. Who the heck is so angry that they are out in beautiful nature and feel compelled to carve "Addict 666" into an innocent rock?

Despite the poo disaster we had a nice morning at the lake! Glad we discovered this place, I'm sure we'll be back. Maybe next time with thicker doggie bags and a rosary.

Almost 3 months!

I can't believe that we have been here for almost 3 months already! It's starting to feel like life is on fast forward, minus the chipmunk voices. We are becoming more and more assimilated into Nova Scotia...

Does anyone else think this is the crappiest license plate ever? EYU????

All vehicles in Nova Scotia require an inspection every 2 years and on arrival to the province. We knew there were a couple things wrong with the vehicle... turns out there was $1500 worth of wrong. And of course it was a mandatory $1500 if we wanted to keep driving it. So that blew. On the up side, it really does drive a lot more smoothly now. And on the other up side, I don't despise going to work. Can you believe it!? Not like I love it or anything (who does?!) but I just got off four nights in a row, on 4 different units, and didn't want to drive the car off a cliff (not that I would after all those repairs anyways!) My manager is on holidays at the moment, but when he gets back I will find out whether I am going to get a 0.6 time position (two shifts a week) and whether Scott will have a casual position. Mind you, even if Scott gets a job, it looks like he's going to have to go through that ridiculous criminal record check fingerprinting process again (which if you remember, took 4 months last time) - all because some sex offender shares the same birthday and gender as him. I don't even want to get started on that, it makes me so so angry. We'll find out in a couple days if that's going to be the case. But it almost assuredly will, because his birthdate matched last time, so it will again.

We had another amazing storm last night! My sis Stacie could hear the thunder, rain, and hail while we were on the phone! Apparently it was so bad that any airplanes that landed at the Halifax airport weren't allowed to unload, so people were stuck in the planes on the tarmac for hours.

I happened to be out driving when it started.

And decided to improve my already stellar driving safety record by photographing it.

 The sky after the storm was really eerie and apocalyptic looking.

The thunder and lightning went on for hours and hours... poor Aluka was so upset! She needed some doggie Ativan. :(

Speaking of drugs, my debilitating and almost constant migraines that started in April have completely stopped since my new (and wonderful) doctor switched my birth control! Which means I can stop trying to determine what stage and type of brain tumour I have, which has made everyone in this house happier. lol I've also been started on a beta blocker (Propranolol) for my tachycardia while I wait to see an internist. I just started it yesterday, not too sure if it's making much of a difference yet. Hopefully it will soon, 'cause I'm tired of feeling like poo!

The weather has still been pretty crappy, and the nice days have of course been when I was working. But we're hoping to go camping this month, there are some great provincial parks in NS! Today we did a rainy day activity... we went to the Museum of Natural History! And I have a new favourite obsession animal... the porcupine!

I had no idea that they're so big! And they can climb trees?!!

My new life goal is to see one while we live here.

I'm also very excited to report that one of my already favourite animals is sometimes seen in the waters here! I present to you..... the MOLA MOLA!

I think it goes without saying that I didn't take this photo.

Okay, one more. They also had on display a tooth from one my favourite extinct animals... the MEGALODON!

I will admit, part of the reason it's a favourite is because it is extinct. Pretty sure I would go nowhere near the ocean if this guy was still hanging around in it.

Now if you get nothing else from my blog, perhaps at least you learned something today.

32 year old - dead :( - enormous lobster!

 Gus, the 89 year old Gopher Tortoise!

I don't even know what to say to this. Disturbing and amusing. And what is this kid's name??? Liesl??

And when we're not working and exploring Halifax, we still manage to find productive ways to fill our down time...

Nobody can say we don't treat our children equally.