Serenade of the Seas

Thank you for all your kinds thoughts and words regarding the loss of Zoe. I do miss her.

It certainly put me a bit out of sorts this week - I didn't really feel I got the things done that I wanted to do. I had a couple of packages I wanted to send off - and that didn't get done and will have to wait now until I return home.

We are leaving for our cruise tomorrow morning!! How exciting. Jim's brother and his wife (Barb and Bill) were out a couple of weeks ago and saw a cruise ship leaving port and took these pictures.



If you click on the picture you can see the ship - off to the right is Stanley Park and the white sails behind the trees is actually the Cruise Ship terminal -- Canada Place.

Here is a close up of the ship - it is the one we are going to be on tomorrow. Serenade of the Seas. They were taking pictures of the actual ship that we are going to be on tomorrow.



And tonight around 7 PM the cruise ship Radiance of the Seas went sailing by our house. Our ship sails out tomorrow about 5 PM - so there is a possibility that we will get to see our house - from a distance as we leave tomorrow night.

I don't think we will be on the internet much while we are out to sea. So I might not be back to the blogs until we get back next week. We will be back next Saturday - and my birthday is next Friday - so this is my very special 50th birthday!

I have 4 quilt shops in Alaska to go see -- two in Skagway and two in Juneau. I am hoping to get an Alaskan pattern or two - and maybe a bit of fabric. I don't think I will go overboard buying fabric - but I should support the local economy!! Andrew is coming to spend the week at the house and Jenny is going to spend the week at the Dog sitters - with her friend Lilly the Golden Retriever. It should be a great week!!

Zoebird

When I got home from work yesterday Jim said he had some bad news - my sweet little Zoe had died. She was such a dear little bird. I will miss her terribly.

I had known Zoe since she was an egg.

Jessica had been left a couple of cockatiel's when a room mate moved out many years ago. After she inherited the birds they started mating. They produced a number of eggs in the first clutch but only two hatched - Uno the first born and Zoe.

Eric was living with Jessica at the time and decided to move back home for a short time and brought Zoe with him (he had named her Zoltan) Since Zoltan was really a "she" I called her Zoe. She came to live with us at the age of about 6 months in the spring of 2000. She lived in Eric's room in a little tiny cage and every morning I would let her out of the cage and she would spend the day out and about in the room. She had a little wicker lamp she would sit on - she would wander around the bookshelf and destroy all kinds of paper products. We built a little perch for in the room for her. I didn't have a clue about birds and what they needed or how to care for them. But Eric wasn't much better and when he moved out and Zoe stayed on living with us.

Then I think it was the spring of 2001 - I found Zoe one morning sitting at the bottom of her cage - with a very small little egg and she was not able to fly - she was quite sick. I found there was a bird doctor in our city - it seems that most Vet's don't care for birds. I took her off to the bird doctor and found out Zoe was "eggbound" she was very sick and she spent about a week at the bird hospital. And the vet said to me the first day "You will be coming to visit her daily" So I drove the 45 minutes there and back to see Zoe every day. She would just perk right up and chirp when I walked in to see her - and I would take her out of her little hospital cage and sit in a special little room and hold her. Zoe passed the egg that had been stuck and came home - with a whole new set of instructions on the care and feeding of cockatiels from the Vet. And a bill of $1200.00.

She had to have a big cage and spend the day in the cage unless she was supervised when out and about - it was not a good idea to let her just wander around unattended as she could get into dangerous things. She had a whole new diet -- I cooked her up "gruel" she got fresh broccoli, carrots, corn (she really liked corn) She got pellets and proper bird seed and proper toys to chew instead of books -LOL. And she had a special cage at night for sleeping and a big cage for daytime -to prevent any more egg laying.

In 2003 or so her sister Uno came to live with us as well. The two of them got along quite well. Uno was never that healthy and had some liver problems and the Vet felt that Uno would not live that long. In 2005 Uno died - she was a really sweet little bird and I think she had a good life here with Zoe. After Uno died Zoe became quite listless and lost a bit of weight. We took her back to the Vet and found that Zoe also had some congenital issues. She had a small mass in her stomach and her keel bone was malformed. But she seemed to get better.

We decided to get another bird for company for her as there was a bird that had been found and not claimed at a local SPCA. So Abby came to live with us. Zoe really perked up and started to gain weight with Abby living with her. The vet had told us the last visit that Zoe probably would not have a long life due to the health issues that she had - and they were not really something that could be fixed. The past year I could see her health deteriorate a bit - she had lost a bit of weight - but she was eating and still enjoying her gruel. She was always happy to come out of the cage - she loved to sit on my head. I don't think she liked Abby as much as she liked Uno and she would quite often sit on the perch that was just above where Abby sat on the ladder - just to upset Abby and get her squawking -LOL.

I laid her on a small piece of angel fabric and wrapped her up in a little piece of sky fabric and we buried her in the back yard today under the little stone Chinese lantern. I will miss her. Gosh it is funny how you can get so broken up over a little bird. She was such a sweet little bird. Good bye Zoe.

Here in Calgary for the past week - baby pictures alert!

I have been very busy here in Calgary. I arrived last Monday - a very long drive as I stopped along the way to visit with someone I hadn't seen for 16 or so years. That put me behind by quite a bit. I left Vancouver at 7:30 AM and arrived in Calgary around 9:30. I haven't had much chance to post as babies are very busy - or at least the care of them.

Hunter is still as cute as can be!! He is much more alert and has grown quite a lot. We will find out tomorrow how much he weighs. He is eating really well -- still a bit of a combination of bottle and breast. He seems to have a "full" level and if he is shorted even 20 cc's he knows it and complains! He loves to be held and knows the difference between being cuddled and being put in the bassinet!! He is quite happy to sleep in the bassinet when it is night time and everyone else is in bed but not so thrilled about it during the day. As you can imagine I can be easily convinced to pick him up - a couple of good grunts is all it takes!




Here he is all wrapped up in the quilt from Anna (Quiltmom) - who doesn't have a blog. It is shaped like a four leaf clover with the brightest yellow minky on one side. It is like being wrapped in sunshine!! Great for walks in the stroller. You can certainly never have too many quilts. Thank you so much Anna -- I'd link to her blog but she doesn't have one! I met Anna through my blog last year and I have enjoyed emailing back and forth with her. Anna also sent me a book with basket blocks - the one I was looking for was in there - that was great!!

We did not get much walking in this week. The week goes by so fast and again it snowed!! and hailed!! and rained!! and I seemed to have caught a cold or I have having some major allergic reaction to the terrible weather. I have been very congested and tired most of the week. No real sore throat - just a head cold I think. So I haven't been as energetic as I wish I could have been. I think Jessica did enjoy the company though and we did get a few things done around the house. I am leaving first thing tomorrow morning.

I did get to Freckles quilt shop on Saturday. It is a nice little shop in NW Calgary. I bought a few patterns - not much fabric, a couple of fat quarters only. I was not feeling well enough to do a bunch of shopping. But I know where it is now - and it is easy to get to from Jessica's so I can visit the shop again.




Here is another picture of him with the bunny - as you can see he sure is growing. He doesn't have the "newborn" baby look about him anymore. Although he is still very tiny - I bet he weighs about 8 lbs - or less. He is really doing well. He is holding his head quite well - he still loves his bath and like to lay on the floor and look at his play gym thingy - it has fish and mirrors and things on it. And I am sure that was a smile he gave me today!

I got mail today -- and it is a good thing someone enjoys the sofa!!

I worked Monday and Tuesday and yesterday was just a do nothing day. It felt like I was just spinning my wheels all day. Jim was out of town and I was alone and having some computer issues. I am thinking it is time to think about getting a new computer - any suggestions? I am still using the lap top - Jim is thinking of completely reformatting the Dell downstairs. He doesn't like the Mozilla Firefox that I installed - but I like it and so I am not really using that computer - but then I have no printer with the laptop - and do I want to keep using the laptop or go back to the other computer. Most of my pictures and my Dear Jane and EQ6 programs are on the Dell. I am usually pretty happy with the lap top - but yesterday it was acting up a bit. So I think that is part of what got me out of sorts. All in All Wednesday was pretty much a write off.

But today was a better day as I got a very pretty pin cushion in the mail from Darlene!! I love the fabric. Thank you so much Darlene. It is always nice to get a little something in the mail. And the colours in this little pincushion just perked me right up today.



I love paisley and the photo is the paisley side of the pin cushion, it is a very pretty pink on the other side. Much better day today for me.

Not such a good day for Jim though. Jim got back from Washington this afternoon and he had left his car for the week in a secure parking garage where he works -- you need a special garage door opener to get into the area. His car was broken into last night - nothing in the car to steal -- except the little thing that opens the garage door. Apparently the thief broke something that was "unbreakable" in order to get into the area. There were only two cars in there and Jim ended up with a damaged door and a broken window -- $1000.00 damage. So he wasn't having a good day today. Now the garage door has to be reprogrammed and everyone needs a new little thingy. I would like to point out that I had mentioned that I didn't think it was the greatest idea to leave the car there for a week - but it was supposedly "secure"..........

Jenny got to spend Monday and Tuesday with the dog sitter - who has a golden retriever named Lily, so she had a good time this week while I was at work and Jim was away. Jenny really, really likes Lily. I think Jenny actually prefers dogs over people. When we go on the cruise to Alaska she gets to spend the week with Lily.

Jenny also prefers to be comfortable - you know - there are many places in the house that are much more comfortable than a mat on the floor.



This is where I found her yesterday - enjoying a little afternoon nap on the sofa. I guess it is good that she enjoys the sofa - as we rarely go in the living room and I think since we got it in 2002 we have sat on it every year at Christmas time --- maybe. So it is good someone enjoys it... I guess!!