Ugliest Dog!

Every year Californians hold the World's Ugliest Dog contest. Contestants are mostly Chinese Crested, Chihuahuas and Pugs and they are all beautifully ugly. This year, the honour went to a 14 year old mutt named Yoda!

Here is the link to a photo of the winning dog
and
Here is a link to a gallery of some of the contestants

Don't you just want to smooch them!?

A Gentle Beast

This Father's Day we went out to Wakaw for brunch with CB's parents. Kris was floored that there were four kinds of breakfast meats that had been done on the bbq. Instant Bernhard win. Anyway, it was very kind of them to invite the entire Sawatsky/Foster clan out to eat their food and we had a lovely time. Then I suddenly collapsed into a fit of exhaustion (possibly from the three pieces of pie I ate) and we left about 3:30 to head home. Well, you may or may not know that I believe in being in the right place at the right moment and I think my pie coma happened precisely so this next part of our day could unfold. Two blocks from our house at the corner of Taylor and Lorne we stopped at the four-way stop. To our right was an 80-100lb black lab sniffing around in the grass. We made eye contact. Kris, bless him, didn't move the car because he knows what to do in this situation: stop the car and wait patiently while I attempt to a) identify if the dog's owner is in sight and, if not b) coax the dog into our car. He knows me well and abides my urge to save all lost animals I see. I love him for it. So, I got out of the car and the dog immediately walked towards me, then past me, then into the open car where he pluncked himself down on the floor of the front passenger side like we were late picking him up and he'd been waiting for us all afternoon. I sat in the back for the two blocks back to our house.

Griff, as you can imagine was extremely displeased. She is not the most gracious host and followed Sampson the lab around the yard and house howling at him. Sampson was very calm and completely ignored her, peeing in all her favourite spots. I feel a bit badly for Griff - this is the fourth lost animal in the last two years I've forced her to deal with, though I think she actually liked that orange cat from last summer. But anyway, Sampson had a tag and his owner came to fetch him within 20 minutes after a few cookies and some water. It turns out he only lives a few blocks from us. Good old Sampson, the gentlest dog I've ever met.

An open letter to our marriage

Dear marriage:

You've been in our life for 4 years today. People always told us before we met you that you were hard to deal with sometimes, required massive amounts of attention and compromise and that you would eliminate any "mystery".These are all true things. What they didn't tell us is that you make our houses or extremely cramped one-bedroom apartments next to the methadone clinic a home. You make sitting on the couch or walking the dog a date night that, incidentally, doesn't cost us exorbitant amounts of money. You make preparing Saturday pizza together the highlight of our week. They didn't say how you create a sometimes supernatural telepathic line between us that often eliminates the need for words or that you make the load of shit that piles up in life lighter by half. And they definitely didn't tell us that you would make us stronger, better people who can hold the other up when they need some help, who celebrate each other's little victories with the same enthusiasm as we do our own, and who try hard everyday to love and not hurt each other to the very best of our abilities. Marriage, you're not always easy, but you're always awesome. So thanks.

This is a bit cranky, but...

So I had my first uninvited "I'm going to touch your body because there's a baby in it" experience at work this morning. I know that people mean well, but I'm not sure why being pregnant equates to a free for all in gut-rubbing. I don't touch other people's guts generally, but especially not without permission. Here's a tip, pregnant ladies don't want you to touch them. Our rib cages have expanded by several inches, our stomach muscles and ligaments are sore from stretching, our skin feels tight and also, many of us have some bladder control issues in our current state. This makes us physically uncomfortable and really not great candidates for stranger touching. Also, at this point in my pregnancy, you're probably not rubbing the baby's head, as I'm sure you imagine. It's more likely that you're rubbing my intestines that that have been forced out of position.

Here's a line that I heard somewhere (of course I can't remember where). It's good rule:
Do you love me? No? Then don't touch me.

*I want to make a note that the father of my child (the magnificent Kris Foster) and all other members of our immediate families and close friends are exempt and can touch my intestines anytime they want.

What a week!

This turned out to be a pretty good week. First, the fam made their way from Grande Prairie for a good long visit. Cormac is an awesome walker, giggler and high-five giver now. Also, the cutest peanut ever to grace you with his presence.

Also, the vintage super-dad shirt that I scoured the internet to find for Kris arrived the day before this Canada Post strike business started AND it fit him perfectly.

THEN, I just about had a meltdown this morning when I discovered that Kathy Griffin is coming to Saskatoon in October. Holy s#%t! You don't even know what this means to me. I never thought I would ever see her live and I am like a mad woman right now waiting for tickets to go on sale.

And finally, I got an email from Oxfam - apparently they're giving me $1.3 million! I mean, I know I'm really hungry lately but I never expected such a show of support from an international non-profit agency. Pret-ty pret-ty pret-ty good!