oh, canada! oh say can you see?

tomorrow's canada day, my first ever as a wannabe canadian! we will be celebrating canada's heritage by doing more crap around the house (the list is neverending) and going to a barbeque at the in-laws house. canuck's family will be visiting from montreal, and for the first time in the 7 years that canuck and i have been together, i will be meeting the infamous "uncle frank". then we leave bright and early sunday morning to head back to the states to celebrate the fourth of july! i'm very excited, i haven't seen my mom in three months!

the house is coming along quite swimmingly, although there is a loooooong list of projects and things that need to be taken care of. for example, i have always wanted my kids to have a nice, big backyard to play in. that is until i realized that when the fanstasy is over, you actually have to cut the grass, water the lawn, dig out the weeds, and make sure there's no garbage lying around so the wildlife don't set up shop on your property. forget about planting any vegetables or flowers! the goal for this year is to just not let any of our weeds make their way into our neighbor's backyards, since apparently that can happen and it really pisses people off. canuck's better at the outdoor stuff, so he tackles that on his days off. my project is to refinish our old bedroom furniture from new york to put in the guest room and/or for use for more future little doc mommy's. i am also going to paint the finished basement, as the previous owner used to smoke down there and it's kinda stinky ewwww....

friendly neighbor story: gary, the self proclaimed "wingnut who lives across the street" is a really nice guy, now retired and a former canadian military man (don't see much of that around here, let me tell ya!). he's been hanging up the italian flag in honor of the world cup for his italian wife and the flags of ontario and obviously canada in honor of canada day. anyways, we saw an american flag hanging outside his garage and we were like, hmm, that's interesting (since canadians are not exactly pro-american at the moment). when canuck ran into him the other day, they were chatting for a while and it came up about all the flags on his front lawn, including the US flag. which, it turns out, he hung in my honor to "welcome me to the neighborhood". what can i say, that's awesome!

so much to do, so little time

we're all moved in, and we're now officially homeowners! i even think the first mortgage payment is due this week, hmmm... this will be a short post, since i have a crapload of stuff to do, but we're still alive and kicking and very happy to be in our new home! i already have a ton of stories about our house, our neighbors, cookie's new room, and other adventures new homeowners experience.

and i love it all!

the joys of homeownership!

as of may 31, i can officially say that i am a homeowner! not that i've been able to spend a night at my new digs, since 3/4 of our crap is sitting in the garage and the remaining 1/4 is scattered all over the house, looking for a place to call home. so much to do, which is why i haven't posted in a while. but i have a house, i have a house, i have a house, so i can't complain!

canuck is agonizing over which TV and internet service provider he's going to choose. i myself do not care much about these things, as long as i can access ebay, the news, and watch my thursday night lineup. i myself agonize over crap like color schemes and what kind of duvet cover would look best with our shiny new/used bedroom furnitre (i caved on that one). all of the wedding china has been unpacked, but i just can't seem to find my regular cups and dishes. and i found my toaster oven and blender, but seemed to have misplaced my microwave. i have pans, but no pots, and i have a waffle maker, but no griddle. a mish-mash to sort through. i'll make a full meal sometime next winter.

summer is arriving, and that means death in the dental office. no, no, no, not dead people, just more dead time and more patient cancellations. can't say i blame them, especially with the beautiful weather and FIFA going on. canuck works in a predominantly portuguese community, and his office was a ghost town these past couple of days. soccer is like a religion to the europeans, much like hockey is to canadians (and i can't quite grasp either of those concepts, but that's okay, i've just learned to accept it). this bolton office is working out pretty well - the staff is nice, the patients are pretty friendly, and the equipment is SWEET. but it's hard getting used to working in the same office as the boss again. the practice owner is pretty nice, but you can tell she's a total type A and is the tiniest bit of a megalomaniac. she even checked one of the fillings i did on a patient when i asked her for help with the electrosurg machine (great stuff, btw, i highly recommend it!) and i almost shit in my pants. but then i realized that hey, this is her practice, these are her patients, and she has every right to do that. and apparently she occasionally does that with all of her associates (i'm one of three). but it still made me feel kinda wierd, you know? so i keep it light and simple with her, and make sure that i'm on my A-game when i go to work there. the end result is that i'm super critical of my work and i really try to crank out some good dentistry. and she also says that anytime i have any questions about anything, feel free to ask, and even vice versa. apparently, the practice is very open with dialogue and critique, passing opinions around et cetera, while in new york if someone checks your work or even remotely glances over your shoulder, it's a sign of bad faith. which was why it was such a shock to me when she did that. but she said she wasn't doing it to "check up on me" she was merely curious (she liked it, btw). so for now, it's all good, but the new yorker in me will always be on guard....