Epic Transport Fail

I must admit, i did suggest it. Meeting these French clients of ours at the airport cuz you know, they're French and i am too and i've been in touch with them since they arrived in Mexico a couple of weeks ago and blablabla. Seemed like a good idea at the time. So i was there, their flight made it on time, i put them in their van en route to their fabulous hotel 2 hours south and off i was to take my bus back home. 

I was half way through to the bus stop when i realized i didnt collect the sign i used to welcome them. So i had to run back to their vehicle just as it was departing to get it back. Oh, did i mentionned i was wearing heels? Cuz you know, i thought it'd be nice to dress up all nice and shit. So i had the great idea of putting heels this morning to go to work. Running is fun. Not with heels though.

Anyways, after my little run, i sat at the bus stop waiting for my bus back home. And i waited. And waited. And bloody waited some more. It was starting to get dark and i was starting to get pissed off. I should have taken the first bus back towards downtown and then hop in my regular Magisterio bus. But noooo. I know best. I know there is a bus that goes direct from the airport to just a few blocks away from my house.

After at least 40 minutes waiting, i stopped the next green bus i saw, asking him if he was passing through my neighborhoord, he said yes and off was i. Finally. 

Except that he wasnt passing through my neighborhood. Not even remotedly. He was passing through the next-door neighborhood which can be close enough unless you're in that particular bus which passes through the opposite end of my next-door neighborhood. 

I got off a dozen blocks away from home, i had to walk for that dozen blocks, with heels, on cobblestones streets, or sandy streets, with no sidewalk, it was pitchdark and not a single cab in sight.

I hated my life. My feet are full of blisters now. The only thing that didnt happen was that i didnt break a heel. I'm home more than one hour later than normally. 
I badly need a foot massage.

I will never wear heels again.
Or take that green bus.
Or be a dumbass.
Ever.

I'll try at least ;-)

The Grand Mother's Experiment

No, i am not cooking any of my grandmothers (may they both RIP) nor anybody else's as it is, but i am an asthmatic and i've been told that there is a plant that you need to cook like if it was a tea that is great for every pulmonary infections including asthma. 

In fact its not really a plant, it's the roots of a plant, called (translated from Spanish) skunk's tail. And you have to boil it with a red onion. And then drink it. 

With that said, hmm,where to start??

Skunk tail...

Can you imagine the smell of this shit? And i'm cooking it on top of it all! When i got it delivered, you should have seen the face of the guy handling the bag to me. First it was wrapped into 3 platic bags (those jumbo super thick trash bags) and then he gave it to me with an expression on his face that was saying, for crying out loud put that away or i'll puke. 

I have a terrible sense of smell so i couldnt smell anything. But now that i'm cooking it, oh dear. It surely doesnt smell good - i dont even want to imagine the taste!

And to top it all, i had to add an onion in there!

I have no idea how long i should cook it or how much i should drink or if i can put sugar in it. I dont know anything.

I have a feeling it's not gonna taste good.

I have a feeling it's gonna taste like feet.

The moment of truth is about to happen....

OMG it's worse than the worse medicine ever, it's worse than feet.

I certainly hope it's effective cuz it's the nastiest taste EVER!!!!

I hate granny's remedies.

But they tend to work (i'll keep you posted)

100 Days

One hundred days have past since you left us. I'm not dwelling on the past or on what happened to you. But reaching the 100 days mark is a milestone and there is a song that reminds me of you. Ride free little bro, ride free.

A hundred days have made me older
Since the last time that I saw your pretty face
A thousand lies have made me colder
And I don't think I can look at this the same
But all the miles that separate
Disappear now when I'm dreaming of your face

I'm here without you baby
But you're still on my lonely mind
I think about you baby
And I dream about you all the timeI'm here without you baby
But you're still with me in my dreams
And tonight it's only you and me, yeah

The miles just keep rollin'
As the people leave their way to say hello
I've heard this life is overrated
But I hope that it gets better as we go, oh yeah yeah

I'm here without you baby
But you're still on my lonely mind
I think about you baby
And I dream about you all the timeI'm here without you baby
But you're still with me in my dreams
And tonight girl it's only you and me

Everything I know and anywhere I go
It gets hard but it won't take away my love
And when the last one falls, when it's all said and done
It gets hard but it won't take away my love, whoa

I'm here without you baby
But you're still on my lonely mind
I think about you baby
And I dream about you all the timeI'm here without you baby
But you're still with me in my dreams
And tonight girl it's only you and me, yeah oh yeah oh

I Am Single Again

It's been a while already, a few weeks even. I just didnt feel like announcing it that publically just yet. For those of you wondering how i am, dont you worry, i'm fine. And i'll continue to be. If you're expecting me to speak ill about ex-Dear Beloved, well, sorry, it's not my thing. Why would i anyway? Not that long ago, i was still convinced that he was the man of my dreams and the one i'd spend the rest of my life with. And speaking ill about someone you've loved and spent almost 2 years with equals speaking ill of yourself and the choices and decisions you've made. And i dont do that.

I dont see this relationship as a failure. Even if it has ended. I see it as an experience. As another part of the journey to discover who i am and what i want. Things and people who are right at a moment in your life might not be right forever. And this is what happened. Sometimes, you have to let go of what stops you from going forward.

I still have a lot of respect and affection for him and truly wish him the best in life. But the dramatically opposite ways of seeing things and life in general got the best of us. 

As John Lennon was singing, "you may say i'm a dreamer", but at the end of the day, if you want the moon, you've got to shoot for the stars. And you might not even get it, but if you dont even try, you definitely wont.

I'm like that. I see the good in things. I see the good in people. I see the good in situations and i life in general. I've just lost my brother 3 months ago and what do i get from it? Pain and sorrow of course but i also see all those amazing people i got to meet thanks to him, all that he's done during his life that has inspired so many people and keeps on inspiring them (and me) and all the good times and memories he left me with. 

I believe not only that good things can happen to me, i believe that extraordinary things WILL happen to me. I dont doubt about it. And that's why i get them. Most of the time at least. 

So yes, i'm good. And i'm about to dream even bigger!

Cause I'm raising the bar

I'd shoot for the moon but I'm too busy gazing at starsI feel amazing and I'm not afraid (not afraid)
To take a stand (to take a stand)
Everybody (everybody)
Come take my hand (come take my hand)
We'll walk this road together, through the storm
Whatever weather, cold or warm
Just letting you know that, you're not alone
Holla if you feel like you've been down the same road (same road)

I'm not afraid (I'm not afraid)

(Eminem - not afraid)

Lost and Found

We are currently remodeling the house, or better said, we're building up a guest room at the back of the garden. Reason why we have workers at home and we've had them for a couple of weeks now. A couple of days ago, when we got back home, one of the workers told us that Lola, our dog, was kinda acting weird and that she had been playing with a toad. OK that's never good but we're used to deal with that kinda situation, Lola has a thing for toads. And the bigger and the grosser, the better. 

I got back inside, get her milk so wash away the venom of her mouth but strangely, she wasn't drinking it this time. She wasn't even salivating like she normally does after playing with a toad.

And that's when it stroke us. She hadn't just played with the toad, she had actually ATE the damn thing. And she was dying of poisoning right in front of our eyes.

I called the vet, he told me to rush to his place and off we were. Dear Beloved drove so fast i closed my eyes the entire time. And Lola was getting less and less responsive.

We made it to the vet "in extremis", he gave her a shot, brought her temperature down (she had 40.3°C instead of 38°C) and waited until she started to react to the antidote to let us take her back home.

And the following morning, apart from her somehow stiff walk, it was like nothing happened. Dogs do live in the moment. 

But 2 days after she almost died in our arms, another incident happened. I got home first and Bullet came to say hi but Lola didn't  And considering she very nearly poisoned herself a couple of days prior, i went in the garden to check on her. Maybe venom is like an earthquake, there's the second wave of it after a while. Except that Lola was nowhere to be found. 

We currently have an enormous amount of crap laying around in the garden because of the construction going on. And i check behind every single piece of wood, metal, plastic, bags that are there and still no Lola.

I called Dear Beloved and told him: Lola is missing, she's not here.

And he said: what do you mean?

How can we be so thick when you hear a news like this. Dude, i mean exactly what i just said, she is not here. She's gone, she's not in the garden. Bullet is but Lola isnt. What part dont you understand?

Well i looked in the neighborhood, calling her, asking all the people i bumped into if they had seen her and nobody had and i was pissed and really thought someone had taken her. I was crazy mad at the workers for not being careful and letting her escape. And Dear Beloved came home and we start scowling each other like it's our fault, like we want to find a guilty person for it . And he stormed out to look for her again. Unsuccessfully.

When we went to bed that night, a part inside of me died a little. Lola has been part of the family for almost 2 years now and not feeding her and putting her to bed was just excruciating. 

I didn't sleep well. Spent the entire night twisting and turning in my bed and woke up like i had only slept an hour. I took Bullet on our morning walk, it was just him and me. He looked at me like he was gonna say: where's Lola? Isn't she coming too? It was weird and painful.

At breakfast, i was determined to make flyers and post them everywhere in the neighborhood. And that's when i heard a bark. That's when i heard HER bark. I don't think there is a single mother on this planet that doesn't recognize her children's voice. Well i don't have children but i have 5 pets. And i can recognize every single one of their voice. 

I dashed out and headed towards where i had heard her bark. And there she was. Sitting like a queen on one of my neighbor's lounge chairs, waving her tail like she was saying: mom, i went camping and it was aaaaaawesome! Can i do it again?

My neighbor told me she didn't know which house was mine and that she was terrified of my dog who had sneaked in her garden yesterday evening as she was parking her car. I'm so glad she chose that garden. 

And i'm so glad i have her back.

I Finished It

I finished that Half Marathon i bragged about earlier. I didn't finish last and i did it in less than 3 hours. So my 2 goals were actually met. I am so proud of myself i cant even start to explain.

We got up at 5:30am to be ready on the departure line at 6:30am as initially planned. There was this excitement going on around us and i could feel the adrenaline raising and honestly, i wanted to be time to get going.

They gave us little bags of colored powder to throw in the air when the "go" was said - don't ask, i didn't get the point either. They wanted to make this a unique only in Vallarta kinda thing but seriously, when you have 176 people throwing powder in the air, you start your run in the middle of this gigantic colorful cloud, you cant see shit and you're covered in 10 different colors. No, even now, still don't see the point of it.

So there we were. All covered in purple and orange (and yellow and pink), beginning to run our 21 km. Miguel and Michael, the other 2 guys from the office dashed out. Dear Beloved was behind me and my first concern was to adjust my steps to my breathing and keep the rhythm. 

So many people passed me but i didn't really care to be honest. I wasn't racing against anybody but myself. It was MY race and it was for ME.

I knew there was going to be a table with water and gatorade every 2km. So when i saw the first one, i was like, well that was fast. Then i passed the return for the 5k. There were 3 races in fact. A half marathon, a 10k (who left 10 minutes behind us) and a 5k (who left 10 minutes after the 10k). At this point, i was doing well, and i was doing well up until i saw someone coming on the return line. With an official number. And i hadn't even reached the 5k mark. For a second i thought, damn, am i that slow? Is it really worth keeping running that? I mean seriously, you're on your way back already??

And then another one. And another. And i was like this is not right. I've been running for less than 30 minutes, there is no way someone is already almost back. And just a few seconds after that, here it was: the return mark for the 10k. And i thought, bunch of pussy faces, they only on for the 10k. No wonder they're already on the way back.

And the base get running running and running running .... You HAVE to have motivating music to run. And the Black Eyed Peas are cool for that! Them among many others on my playlist. 

Things started to get tricky after passing km 9. The road wasn't flat anymore so it's a killer for the knees and the legs cuz it was inclined but sideways. It's not going uphill or downhill, it's going sideways like a Nascar's track. When i finally got to the point i was convinced was the 10.5km mark, and i saw the runners in front of me keeping on going straight, i was like this is a joke, this has got to be a joke, how far do we still have to go??? After running 10k, 500 meters seem like a light-year away.  But i did pass it, i did step on those carpets that capture the time with the chip you have attached on your shoe, i did hear the cheer of the staff standing there and i thought, from this point on, i'm already a winner. 

I knew i could run 10k so passing that mark was the mental minimum i should reach. Anything passed that point was already a huge accomplishment for me. 

And i kept running.

But after another 1.5km of running, we got back to that Nascar's track and that totally fucked me up. I couldn't feel my right leg, i had this big cramp in my foot and i thought, it's not worth hurting myself. So i started to walk. Dear Beloved kept on going.

I must say, the walking i did between km13 and km15 was hard on my mental. I got passed by a dozen runners and i was honestly convinced i was the last of the race. I stopped at the water stand at km14 for about 10 minutes. I was so thirsty, i was exhausted, i was in pain, i wanted to quit so bad. In fact, i wanted it to stop. I wanted the pain to stop.

But then i realized that even though it was hard, it wasn't costing me much to keep walking. And i couldn't get this out of my head, that pain is temporary, quitting is forever. That there is always the easy way out of giving up. And i just couldn't stop.

It's on km17 that i realized i wasn't last, that this older man dressed as a clown was behind me and that if he could do it, damn it so could i. I waited for him to catch up with me and when he told me "si puedes", he gave me that extra push that i so badly needed. And i started to run again, for another 2 kilometers or so. I saw my boss and colleagues on the side of the streets further down the road with big signs and banners, shouting and cheering and it was overwhelmingly awesome.

I walked some more but when i reached km20 and that i could actually see the finish line at the end of the road, i got that energy kick and began to run again. And that's when it became real. I was this close to finish that shit. I was this close to actually finish a half marathon. It didn't matter how much time had passed since i had started, it didn't matter if i was going to be last, all that mattered at that particular time was the fact that i was going to finish this. And i wanted to cry so bad, tears actually started to run down my face. 

It's when i had the finish line standing some 50 meters away that emotion got the best of me. I had this gigantic ball of tears stuck in my throat i could barely breathe. It's when you realize that you're not just going to finish this, you're actually about to cross the finish line. And all the other runners are there waiting for you, and everybody is cheering and clapping and shouting, and there is so much noise and so much emotion but the only thing you really see, is that carpet you need to step on to officially end your suffering.

It's 21 km of pain. It's 21 km of you and the road and the pain. I did it in 2 hours 52 minutes and 28 seconds. It's an emotion that no word is big enough to describe. But one thing is certain:

What The Heck Was I THINKING?

A little over 4 weeks. This is the time i have to train for that half marathon I've signed up for. Less than 2 weeks away from it now, i'm really start to wonder what was i thinking when i said i was in. I mean seriously?

I hate running, i'm exhausted, not a single muscle of my body doesn't hurt and I've gained 4 kilos in 2 weeks. Talking about motivation :(

I only run half hour every morning. And to be honest, i'm actually surprise I've been that good at keeping it up. The motivation i mean. Getting out of bed at 6am is the worse. If i were to listen to myself, i wouldn't step out and stay in bed for an extra hour. But i want to do this. And i want it bad. I want to prove Dear Beloved that i'm gonna finish that shit, and more important, prove myself i can do it. If i set my mind to it, i can do it. And my mind has been set on the finishing line for as long as i remember. 

I run 30 minutes a day, every day of the week. And i still bike to work every day. 20 minutes to get there, 20 minutes to come back.

The running is hard for me cuz I've never run before. Until now, I've never managed to breathe efficiently enough to keep going. I was out of breath in no time, drowning with no air. But i found my rhythm and i'm using my inhaler before the run and it's been going great. It's my body that's screaming like crazy. It's my legs that cant seem to take it. I'm not even out of breath when i make it back home. But my legs are shaking like leaves in the wind, i can barely stand and it's a bit scary. But damn, it feels good.

While i was away on my trip last week, i still managed to run every morning. And for the first time in my life, i actually experienced lactic acids and i puked. It was liberating. It was like reaching the physical limits of your body but still telling it: screw you, i'm doing this whether you want it or not. 

And this has been my motivation. Where i run in the morning, it goes uphill. It's awful, it's painful and i feel like i'm dying a little inside. In 2 weeks, at this exact time of the day, i'll be home, back from that half marathon that i'll have finished just a few hours prior.

I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna show them all who the bloody hell i am.

I'm gonna do it because i want to.

I'm gonna do it because i can.

Treasures of the Yucatan

After a year and half of running that tour from backstage, i finally got a chance to hop on the Trafalgar trip called Treasures of the Yucatan.

Trafalgar is a company that offers touristic circuits around the world, for a determined period of time. Mostly for an older crowd. I affectionately call them "mis viejitos" (my little old people).

The trip was going to last for a week and it was honestly, a great week. Travelling with an older crowd is more my thing than with some spring-breakers who only think about boozing and partying. Been there, done that, i'm up to other stuff now.

And obviously, i was the youngest of them all. Most of them were my parents age, some of them  could have actually be my grand-parents! But culture and ruins was on the program and i had a total blast.

So instead of describing everything i did for a week, i'd rather show off and put the pictures of the highlights of my "vacations" (technically, it was work).

At the top of the pyramid of Ek Balam

Under the arch of Ek Balam

Strolling Campeche's streets

Enjoying beautiful Edzna

Eating cochinita Pibil :P

Admiring the beauty of Uxmal from the top of the pyramid

Taking a dip in Sotuta de Peon's cenote!

And finally making it to Coba (and all the way to the top of the pyramid ... barefoot!)

And that is without talking (or bragging) about the flamingos of Celestun, our cooking class with a Maya family, our city tour of Merida, the hotels we stayed in, the visit of Chichen Itza and all the amazing people i got to hang out with ...

It was awesome. You should all go take that trip!

I'm Gonna Run A Marathon! (But My Dogs Ain't)

Well, it's not a marathon, it's actually HALF one but i thought it'd be more catchy for the title!! 

A few days ago, the accountant of the company i work for sent us an email saying that he wanted to gather people to run the half marathon of Vallarta on November 4th. After thinking about it for a minute, i remembered "running a triathlon" was on my bucket list and i thought, well close enough, i should do it.

So i answered his email with one sentence: I'M IN.

And everybody kinda was expecting me to say that and everybody started cheering and the accountant smiled and showed me the run we'd have to do and damn it's 21 km!

When i told the news to Dear Beloved, he wasn't half as excited as i were. He was even pretty unpleasant, telling me we were insane to do this, we'd hurt ourselves, we'll never finish it, even him could not finish it and had i signed him up as well? And i was like, what? You're scowling me for telling you i just signed up for a half marathon and now you're asking me if i signed you up for it too? Of course i haven't. Well sign me up he said. 

Men are weird.

So here we are, that very same evening, on our way to go buy proper running shoes, and out of nowhere, in the car, i got lectured (again) about this whole half marathon thingy. I'll pass on the details cuz i'd get pissed off again but hey, i'm not trying to make the Olympic team, i can abandon if needed, i wont get shot or fined if i do so and i'm excited at the idea that i'm actually going to have the chance to do this. So drop it, keep your negativity and help me chose the proper shoes.

And he did.

And so the training began. We took the dogs with us the following morning and i managed to run, without getting out of breath (that's definitely a first for me) for about 25 minutes. On the second day, the dogs weren't having any of it and they were like, is that a joke? 2 days in a row it's not funny anymore. I basically had to DRAG Lola for the last 10 minutes of the run and it's definitely no fun. I was kinda looking forward to run that half marathon with our dogs. I believe it's not gonna happen.

Well, too bad for them. I'm gonna do this and i'll keep all the laurels for myself!

When The Unspeakable Happens

It was Sunday morning, Dear Beloved was sleeping next to me and i decided i was going to check my Facebook. And the first post i read was the following, from Street Monsters (the FB page of the magazine my brother had created):

Nous avons la tristesse de vous apprendre le décès du fondateur du magazine : Antoine Collignon, alias Artkore. Une chute lors de la Monsters Race d'aujourd'hui, la course qu'il avait créée, nous l'a enlevé à jamais. 

Il n'y a pas de mots pour décrire notre douleur. Nos pensées vont en premier lieu à sa famille, et à tous ceux qui comme nous ont eu la chance de côtoyer l'homme qui avait pris le risque de fou de créer ce magazine. RIP Antoine...

I read it about 3 times before i woke up Dear Beloved and make him read that to me, to make sure i was actually reading what i was reading. 

Oh, for those of you who don't speak fluent French (shame on you btw), it says the following:

We're sadden to announce the death of the magazine's founder, Antoine, aka Artkore. A fall during today's Monsters Race, the race he had created, took him from us forever. There are no words to describe our pain. Our thoughts are with his family first and then to all of those, like us, who had the chance to hang out with the man who had taken the insane risk to create that mag. RIP Antoine.

My dad was with him at that race and his phone wasn't answering, my mom couldn't get a hold of him either and it was me, 9000+ km away from there, who told mom: your son, my brother, is dead.

As it is so well put in that statement, there are no words that can begin to express the feeling of losing a brother.

Now i had my "reason" for not being in that plane earlier. We were supposed to be at the race. Seeing my brother kill himself would most likely have been traumatizing. The only comfort me and my parents can get out of it is that he died doing what he liked the most, riding a bike, in a race he created, living his dream.

Adieu l'artiste, adieu p'tit frere.

May you ride in peace.

The One When We Got Our Passports Stolen

2 years. That's what i had been waiting for to go on this vacation. 2 years and it went all down the drain in Mexico City Airport when all of the sudden, neither me nor Dear Beloved had a passport anymore. And it happens so fast that it's literally one second, you're excitingly getting ready to do your check-in and the next, you're not going anywhere anymore cuz you cant get out of the country.

We had enough time in Mexico City to actually have arranged to meet with his family for lunch before heading to France. Oh yeah. In order not to carry around our suitcases, we decided to go check them in at the Aeromexico counter. And being the 21st century, you need to do that at the automatic check-in booth first.

I've never been a bright bulb with these machines so i asked the host to give me a hand, put all my paperwork (passport included) on the little stand under the screen and did my stuff. Dear Beloved took the screen next to me to do his thing as well. And off we were to the counter to register our suitcases. Except that i realized when we made it to the waiting line, that i had left the little case with everything on that damned little stand under the screen.

I ran like hell already picturing the host telling me, yes miss, here it is but when i got back to the check-in counters, he said that nobody reported anything.

At that particular moment, it's like the Earth is opening up under your feet and you fall and fall and fall endlessly. It was the end of the world. For me at least. Dear Beloved, of course, remained calm as a crispy lettuce which allowed me to break down completely, crying my eyes out in the middle of the airport. 

His dad, sister and uncle came to the rescue and if anything, i livened up their day. I probably cried more than they'd ever seen in their entire life. But anyways.

Changing our flights was so expensive that we were left with no other option than to cancel our trip altogether. I called my parents at 1 in the morning for them to announce them the awful news and to cry some more. Needless to say that they were so disappointed but hey, i didn't lose them on purpose. End of it all, in that worse case scenario, it happened in the best conditions. We were in Mexico City, where Dear Beloved's family lives, in a country we both live in, in a capital where there is a French Embassy and endless options to keep us busy. Might as well make the best of a bad job.

I knew one day i'd blog about it. I mean, seriously, who else has adventures like this? I knew deep down that there was a bigger reason for me not to go to France that day. Everything does happen for a reason. But at that very moment, i could have killed someone.

Now replace the first paragraph with the following:

Did you take a black case with 2 passports inside at one of Aeromexico's check-in counters in the Terminal 2 of Mexico City's airport on August 27th?

And obviously, signing my name.

Just reading this out loud already makes me feel better.

Epic Pregnancy

Lola has been pregnant for 2 months + now and she was due any minute. When i came back home on Wednesday evening, i knew the end was close - she normally always come when called, especially when it's either me or Dear Beloved coming back from work. Not this time.

She was in the corner of her room, not moving much, barely lift her head up when i got in and looking like she had the world's entire load of misery upon her.

I immediately called the vet to ask for tips and to let him know that my dog was about to pop out puppies. 

What i didn't know, cuz let's be honest, it'd be my first puppy birth (and Dear Beloved's first as well), is that dogs start by secreting a slimy green liquid before the actual labor starts (glad the vet told me that cuz i would definitely had freaked out if i had seen that slime on her when i went to check her up on Thursday morning).

At noon that day, she still hadn't started to deliver her puppies so we took her to the vet who gave her a shot to induce labor. And then the waiting began. And we did just that: waiting, waiting and waiting some more. 

But when her water broke at around 5pm, i was on first raw to see her delivering a gigantic beautiful all white puppy girl. The only not so right point about it all is that the puppy came out outside the bag it normally should and with its umbilical cord already sectioned. And righteously so, Dear Beloved couldn't revived her :( 

But when 6 hrs later, no other puppy had gotten out, we knew something was not too good. That's when the camping started, and the watching over Lola, me up until 2am and Dear Beloved until 6am.

That's when we rushed to the vet for an emergency c-section.

Long story short, after a psychological pregnancy 6 months ago, an emergency c-section, a 2nd dead puppy and 1.5hrs into surgery, we decided to spay Lola. In no way i want her to go through this hell again (neither do i to be honest).

It took her an entire week to feel better about it all and start eating again. She's now back to her happy self, walking with us and Bullet in the morning. We're a happy family again :)

Camping With The Kids

What i really mean is that i'm outside, pending of my dog Lola in case she pops out more puppies since she's been in labor for what may seems like 2 days already.

I'm not really camping but it surely feels like it anyway.

I'm outside in my garden. I have a mosquito-repellent spiral burning next to me, a candle on so i can see a bit, Lola is sleeping like a log next to me and i peed behind the bushes earlier on! :o

I also have the criquets, the fireflies and some weird scary noises going on around me. If it wasnt for the public light, my wireless internet and the fan that Dear Beloved set up earlier on today to "kick" the armies of flies away, it could very much be like camping. We even had pizza for dinner!!!


Why am i on the watch with Lola you might ask? Well as i mentioned above, she's in labor. We were expecting her to give birth these days and yesterday afternoon when i came back from work and i saw her, it was obvious it was coming soon.
And this morning (well, it's not this morning anymore, it's yesterday morning but since i havent slept yet, we'll keep it as such) - so this morning, at aroun 6:30am, when i saw her bed was half covered in that green fluid the vet told me about, i knew the time has come.


Dear Beloved was off and i took the afternoon to be together with him and her. Since things were going way too slow, we had to take her to the vet so she could get an injection to induce labor. Still took her 5 hours to push the first puppy out.


First puppy was a beautiful fat female, all white. Unfortunately, she was born still :(
Actually, Lola delivered her first pup ever like a total pro. She started pushing, pushed her out in less than 5 seconds and start licking it and cleaning it like a good dog mom would do. Except that this little girl was born outside the bag they normally come in with and with her ombilical cord already sectionned. I told Dear Beloved this wasnt a good sign. And sure enough, it wasnt. He did try his best but couldnt revive the little one.


And so far, it's been the only pup getting out of my dog. We called the vet about 2 hours ago, a good 5 hours after the first pup was born and he told us that it can take all night. Reason why i'm outside with her in case she starts pushing again.
Even though i must admit, the probabilities seem low considering the fact that she's currently sleeping belly up with her 4 legs wide open and snoring! jaja.


This is a very traditional position in this house. Every single one of my 5 pets sleep like this. Both dogs and cats! LOL


So yeah, i'm camping outside, while Dear Beloved is sleeping in our bed. I guess we'll take turns but so far i can keep myself awake for some extra time!


Now if you'll excuse me, i need to grab my torch and go find a spot to pee again! 

This is big fat Lola trying to get some rest ... just before i set up my camp!

And this is Bullet, knowing something is definitely going on and willing to participate (very good quiet attitude around Lola - what a good dog he has been!)

I Live in the Countryside

Technically, i don't, but it sure feels like it. And i only realized it this morning - more than 2 years after moving in here.

This morning at around 8am, i went to the store to get some bread. I agree, it was Sunday and Sundays are generally even quieter days but still. There were not a single sound outside but the singing of my neighbors roosters and some birds in the trees. No car, nobody ... It was pretty awesome. 

Right this second, it's pouring rain (i don't remember having such heavy raining in July since a very long time ago) and the only thing i can hear, is the rain falling on the leaves of the trees and plants in my garden and a storm coming that way.

Life is good in the countryside.

There is scarcely any writer who has not celebrated the happiness of rural privacy, and delighted himself and his reader with the melody of birds, the whisper of groves, and the murmur of rivulets.  ~Samuel Johnson