Canoes and Coyotes

So has anyone out there seen that "Funny People" movie with Adam Sandler and Seth Rogan? For such a large cast of funny people in one movie, it really wasn't all that funny at all. I think that that may have been the point perhaps...but that's just not fair. Why put so many great people in one film and have it suck so badly? There was one part that made me laugh, but really. I only laughed once in the whole 2 hour and 10 minute movie. Was it really worth it for that one laugh? No. Not really.

Yesterday afternoon Chris and I took a super quick trip down to the US to pick up a few things. And by things I mean gasoline, beer and candy. The US border is about a 7 minute drive from Trail so it's very convenient to take a quick trip out there to buy some key cheap essentials. There is a store just passed the border that accepts Canadian money at par and since everything there is cheaper than in Canada, that store is very well received by all of the locals around here. Gas is nearly 20cents/L less which is lovely.

Today was a pretty great day. We kidnapped Splash yesterday and I begged to keep her for the night, which Pam reluctantly agreed to. The one thing about Splash is that she expects to be walked early in the morning, which is great by me! So I crawled out of bed nice and early to take her for a jaunt. The perfect way to begin the day is to be awake before most of the rest of the world and enjoy the stillness of the morning with your pooch friend.

After a workout, some breakfast and a quick run out to do a couple errands, I hauled Chris out of bed so that he could actually enjoy the day and not sleep it away. I don't know how people can sleep that late. Mornings are the best time of the day! We went out of birchbank again so go for a swim and lay about in the sunshine for a while. After disturbing two blue herons that were lounging water-side, we actually came across a canoe that someone had propped under a tree. The owners wrote a note on the canoe to please use and respect the canoe by placing it back under the tree afterwards. This was a totally awesome discovery. On July 18th, 2008, these two guys named Alex and David Hope (they signed the canoe and paddle) put their canoe in the area for anyone to enjoy the use of. So for that, we thank you guys! We were shocked that we had never noticed it already considering it was only about 50 feet from where we drop out towels every time we go there. In in our defence, it was kind of hidden in the trees.



So we paddled around the water for a while which was excellent. At first we attempted to paddle around with Splash in the canoe with us, but she almost tipped it about 6 times before we decided to kick her out. It was her first time in a canoe so it was to be expected that she would be a bit nervous and restless. When we pulled away from the shore, to our delight, Splash took it upon herself to swim alongside us. If she got tired or nervous then she would head back to shore and wait a minute until the next swimming adventure began. The dog swam many miles today. She's amazing that way.

After the great canoe adventure, we took a rest and headed back to the towels. A few minutes into soaking up some cancer rays, Splash suddenly took off running making this huffy sounds that she does when she's about to attack something. Since I knew what that sound meant, I immediately sat up and looked to where she was running to. I guess a coyote (or more than one for all we know) had wandered to where we were laying and Splash took it upon herself to protect us from it and she chased it back into the woods. Our hero! One single coyote would obviously do nothing to us but it was good to know that Splash had our backs in case of emergency.

I've noticed that Chris and Splash have become quite close and that's he's fallen quite hard for that wonderful mutt. She's taken to him as well though. When he was out swimming by himself she would paddle along with him to keep him company and to obviously protect him from any random swimming coyotes. It was very cute to watch.

After we left the swimming hole and dropped Splash off back at Pam's house, we decided to overdress and go out to dinner at a totally un-fancy restaurant. I think people thought that we were lost walking into the Arlington pub dressed the way we were. But the beer tasted great and the food was super good as well so it turned out to be a decent event overall. The cat-call when walking into the place didn't hurt either ;)

Tip of the Day: According to some people, once cannot add too much honey mustard sauce to chicken burgers. Who'da thunk?

I took this picture tonight and I love it so I thought I would share it with all of you. Taking pictures of people when they don't realize it is basically my favourite way to take pictures.