Camping, A New Kitten and Sickness

It's been a quiet and busy time lately. Camping in Sharbot Lake was pretty fun, even though it was a long time ago now. Oops...just been so busy that I kept forgetting to write in a blog entry. :/ Unfortunately for camping it was a really, really hot period, humid here and there, so it was ridiculous. But it was good, we just relaxed, played with my camera taking pictures of the area and doing some night painting, night photography, and the such like. I was really tired then, as I was suffering kidney stones then, which really sucked. But the yeast infection was gone by the time I camped so it was a good thing. I was trying to get myself back together so that I could enjoy camping and all that but it was difficult as I was laid up a lot of the summer as it was, being so tired and in pain a lot. Yuck! Heh...but things got better and improved after a few weeks. Camping was mostly just Steve and I just relaxing and stuff like that, going snorkeling, swimming and just talking, and the such like. It was nice, and Steve bought some games to play while camping there. He got ladderball, which I had never played or heard about, so I learned how to and it was pretty fun.

My mom and John came by in the middle of our camping, just to hang out and relax at the campsite. I was not feeling good that day so I just stayed at the shore and relaxed with my mom who's not a huge fan of swimming and just caught up on news. We talked, played some ladderball and swam and the such like, my mom and John hadn't been to the campsite before so we were talking to them about it, and just swimming and chatting it up. *smile* We had some steaks, and because when Steve and I had first arrived to the campsite, we found that we couldn't have fires all day until after 7pm in the night up till 11pm. That were the hours I could have a fire, so it was a bit late to have supper, but I got used to it after a couple of days there. My mom decided to bring her little propane BBQ with her so that we could have supper whenever we wanted, and they brought over some steaks so it was good...pretty yummy. It was funny though, at one point in the evening after we finished our supper, dark clouds came right to us, and everyone could hear thunder in the distance so my mom and John decided it was time to leave quickly, right after supper. It was crazy. They had to gather up everything and bring it up the hill and back down and up...it was a little crazy, but they got out before the thunderstorm arrived. It was just thunderstorms, no actual rain really. Steve and I hid under the tarp that Steve had set up for camping, and there was no rain, just a lot of lightening and thunder. I ended up going in the tent after a while as I got a bit nervous sitting out in the thunderstorm. But no rain came down really. When it was over, we just came out and relaxed again. The next day we realized that it was really, really, really hot - it was 45C with the humidity so it was unbearable, at least for me...Steve thought it was nice, but hot. *laughs* He thinks that 30-35 is the perfect temperature. But it got to him too, so we were trying to handle the heat but it really got to me and I couldn't handle it anymore, so we both decided to pack up and hole up in an air conditioned car and head home. We had left a day early but it wasn't too bad really. The temperatures most of the summer had been ridiculously hot really so it was bad. No fun!

You can see the video from the Sharbot Lake camping here, I am not a huge fan of it, with a lot of shots of me with the swim goggles and snorkel...heh:

Sharbot Lake Camping 2012 from Steve Savage on Vimeo.

It was a good time. When I got back home, I found that my macro lens that I had ordered from Opteka had arrived, so I had to pick it up at the post office. I got it, and then started testing it out. It's a macro lens that I could just attach over my standard lens and it'd zoom in more than the standard lens could. It was very different trying to work with it, but it was kind of cool. Heh. I got it, and then was surprised by how heavy it was. Wow. I attached it and then tried taking a few photos of stuff close up, and it seemed to work out pretty well. Though it doesn't work with auto focus, but it works really well with manual. I'm so used to using auto focus because I tend to take pictures too blurry as I keep shooting too fast. Heh. So with this I have to really be careful when I shoot - it'll be a slow process, but it's interesting, that's for sure.

We went to a sushi place, Kochi Sushi, a Japanese restaurant the day after we came back from camping and it was quite good. I think we would probably return there again sometime, but it was quite good. There were so many different choices for sushi, but it was tasty! Definitely...heh.

Steve was invited to his friend, Vince's house for dinner again, and he had to go work on his computer to fix something that he had given Vince earlier, so I went with him to see everybody again. I had met them a few months back and they were very nice people. This time was quiet, I ended up just watching TV and just seeing what was going on as Steve was trying to figure out Vince's computer for him and work on it. We both were still pretty tired from the heat of the summer and coming back from camping so...oh well! It was a nice dinner though, and I got to see the gardens that Vince's wife had, so it was pretty nice. We had lasagna there, and every herb and vegetable that were in the lasagna and the salads, were from their garden. It was quite tasty. I do like gardens, but I am not entirely an expert when it comes to produce gardening. I know how to grow flowers, but not grow a garden really. The food was really good though.

I was trying to get Steve to give me ideas on what he wanted for his birthday as it was coming up on the 19th of August, so I asked him what he wanted, and what he wanted to do, and stuff like that...so he started looking up on things he wanted and told me what he wanted. Man, he wanted expensive stuff! Haha...so I had to go out to Kingston and pick up stuff for him at Henry's, and I had to do it with him. I don't exactly have my own car and cannot drive Steve's car myself at all with it being a standard. *laughs* So I had to get him to take me there so that I could purchase his items. It wasn't much of a surprise for him, but I did keep the gift till his birthday so he would actually feel like he was getting something new! I got him a LCD screen for his GoPro camera along with an extra battery.

My mom and John came visiting a few days after Steve's birthday, to take me out for groceries and buy me food I needed, since I was getting low on money for the month, so my mom decided to treat me and take me out to get groceries. It was good, because I then found that there was a fresh vegetable and fruit place, Tincap Berry Farm, just 5 minutes away from my place. I didn't even know it was there, so it was something new to try. The fruits and vegetables I got there were actually quite good. Soon after we finished purchasing the food, my mom wanted to try one of the strawberries and she was all, oh my God! We all had a strawberry and it was really, really sweet, sweeter than I have ever had it before! *laughs* Really good. It's funny, the name wouldn't make you think that it would be a good place to be at with "Tincap" in the title but it was still pretty good. *laughs* And they don't just sell berries, they sell everything else as well. Funny name for a produce place.

It's funny at one point a few days later, Steve needed parts for his computer so that he could run his software to do the camping video a bit quicker, as it was taking forever for it to get finished with his software running so slowly, so we went out to Staples one day so he could pick up a better video card and the such like, and while we were looking around I saw that they were selling the Wacom Bamboo Capture pen and tablet kit for a good price, and I had heard about it through Vince's wife, who says that his kids love using it. He was telling me I should get one, and it makes drawing on the computer so much easier, and I wasn't too sure, because I used to have a really old Wacom tablet (when it was first released back in the 90s or something like that!) a long time ago and it was not exactly that good. Heh. He was telling me it was good, after all his kids use it all the time. So, okay then. So Steve got me the Wacom Bamboo Capture, saying that it was his early birthday present to me - as of two months! *laughs* I thought it was a bit crazy, but oh well. I have it on my desk right now, but I am trying not to use it that much till after my birthday, then I'll experiment with it a bit more. Heh. So far with the little I've used it, it seems pretty smooth and easy to use.

One day Steve decided he wanted to get up just before sunrise so to take video of the sunrise. He told me about what he wanted to do and I was like, okay, you can do that yourself. But he wanted me to go with him, so I was all, but that's soooo early! *laughs* Oh well, it was just ridiculously early, that's for sure. Haha...I finally gave in and went with him the next day at sunrise, and we went to Prescott to their waterfront to take pictures of the sunrise. It was still dark when I got up so it was difficult to wake up... *laughs* I forced myself to get up, got dressed, and then headed out. I was really, really tired but I was ready to go in like 5 minutes and then we headed out...it was pretty cool in the morning so it kind of woke me up as well. We then went to the waterfront, walked around and tried to get good places, good settings to take pictures of the sunrise. It was actually pretty cool. Just watching all the colours change as the sun rose, so it was pretty cool and I liked some of the photos I took. Though, that day I actually went back to sleep once I got back home after I looked at the photos on the computer and edited some of them. Heh.

You can see Steve's video on the dawn here:

River Dawn from Steve Savage on Vimeo.

He entered it for a contest, "Wetter is Better" just for the fun of it - he normally never enters Vimeo contests but he decided to try this one. He enjoyed making the video and taking it, so why not. Heh...it was fun, though just a hour I normally am not awake at. *laughs* It was cool though.

The next little while Steve was getting busy at work, so I started just doing things back home, cleaning up and some random stuff. I started going through my computer and cleaning it up, and I realized I had the Breaking Bad series I hadn't caught up with yet - Steve had been watching the newest season and was all oh my God, about it, so I figured I should catch up with the seasons and be on the same level as Steve. *laughs* I think I had two seasons left to watch, season 3 and 4, so I watched it all, along with the new season. I had stopped at the 2nd season because it was getting very strange and a bit iffy for me to watch. But I really got into the third and fourth, and kept on watching through Season 5 till it ended. It was cool. Crazy, but pretty cool. Now I'm slowly going through Weeds, though I still have like four seasons left to watch. *laughs* It's ridiculous really, so much shows to watch and catch up on. *sigh* But I'm getting there, the shows that I keep finding on Showtime or weird channels are really good...I've found Dexter, which is great, along with Breaking Bad, and now Weeds. All of them are pretty crazy but really good. I also have Burn Notice, Steve has said it's really good but I just have so many series to watch that I'm getting a bit cross-eyed from watching so many shows. But August has been a good month for that - it's been really hot and I was constantly tired, so I was just relaxing and watching TV a bit, catching up and trying to keep cool.

Steve finally was free a weekend, over Labour Day weekend, so we both went out to a park in Brockville and I took some photos, playing around with my new macro lens, along with Steve filming. I was just taking pictures of the park and then we actually switched up and I took video of Steve while he took pictures, which was so awkward for me. Filming is really not my thing, but it was silly really. Heh. I and Steve got some good photos, and Steve got a different type of video out. It's in this video:

7D In The Afternoon from Steve Savage on Vimeo.

One day Steve was surfing through the net for stuff up for buying, so he searched cats, and found that there was a new litter of kittens out and he loved how they looked, and wanted to go look at them. They were just 10 bucks per kitten, and he wanted the kitten that was in the photo. There were only three photos of the same kitten not the rest of them, so he was all, I want that kitten! So we headed out last Sunday evening to look at the litter, and they brought out the two that weren't in the pictures, a black and orange one, and one medium gray one, but not the same one as was in the picture. They were pretty cute, but Steve was determined that he wanted the light gray one, as was photographed in the picture, so they brought her out. Steve was like, I want that kitten. Nothing new with that. He was talking to the woman that had the litter, along with one of her daughters. Her son was in love with the kitten that Steve wanted, always was playing with that one. I asked to see the mother, and see what she was like. She was a very mellow cat and very affectionate. I'm not used to that, so I wasn't sure if the kitten may be like that, but the mother was very nice and all that, so hopefully the kitten would turn out to be pretty good. Just have to wait and see I guess.

The kitten is of course, going to be Steve's kitten. So he had to pick a name and all that, but I unfortunately got stuck with trying to train the kitten around the place. It's not so easy. Yikes! I'm really not used to having a kitten around...she's so hyper and pretty crazy around here, running around and jumping up around here. It's insane. She's eaten some of my plants which has been not good at all, and she has clawed some of my furniture. A lot of the furniture in the apartment is mine, so of course, she has clawed some of them, and I've been trying to calm her down, by playing with her when I can, with cat toys and strings and stuff like that. It's been insane. I'm really not used to it - I'm used to old cats - Violet is 11 years old, so that's pretty old actually. Heh. She's just mellow and likes to lie around a lot. With the kitten, the kitten runs around a lot, scratches a lot, bites a lot...ouch. Hopefully that'll calm down, it's slowly starting to...all wait and see of course. Steve came up with a name for her a few days ago, finally, a couple of days after we got her, which is Professor Purrsworth the 4th. And no, I don't call her by her full name, just Purrsworth. Thank God! It's a little weird, yes, but she does purr a lot, even when she's playing, which is a little weird...normally cats purr when they are content and relaxed, not when they are playing but okay then. New for me.

The weird thing is when we brought in the kitten, Violet really didn't like the idea of having another cat, she was really all resistant to the kitten, who was all over her. *laughs* She gave her one big swipe the first day and Purrsworth got a scratch on her nose, but now the kitten's calmer but still likes to jump all around Violet, who really gets cranky and doesn't like it at all. *smile* Oh well. Not much I can do about that. That's been the time period lately. Crazy but at least it's keeping me busy.

I went in for my physical with my new doctor in the end of August, and got my thyroid checked. I had been feeling really tired and not so great most of the summer, but that could have something to do with me being sick a lot in the summer. So I asked my doctor to check my thyroid, and she sent me out for a blood test. It's been a few weeks since the check up, and there's been no calls from her, so I guess it was pretty much normal. Sad for me. Oh well, don't know how I'm going to figure out why I've been so tired, so sleepy. I'm sleeping so many hours through the summer, so it was kind of driving me crazy. I hate being sick with no answers! *laughs* But hopefully things will get better as the weather cools down - I'm slowly feeling an improvement in my health, which is a little odd to me. All wait and see I guess! Heh. I made another appointment with her though, because in the last appointment I forgot to bring the papers for taxes for her to fill out. So I have to bring it in and maybe ask her what she thinks the tiredness is from. Probably just the heat from the summer, which is a bit crazy. *laughs* I used to love the heat, but I guess it's not a good thing for me anymore, unfortunately, and that's something that's making Steve sad as he loves the heat himself. Heh.

More Sunken Ships and a Wedding Party

It's been an interesting and annoying little while lately. :/ I had been not feeling so great the past little while, feeling sick on and off and it was driving me insane. But I tried to join Steve when I could when he wanted to go out to film and go swimming, but I found that to be hard at times. Steve wanted to check out another sunken ship, Weehawk, after finishing with the Contesgona ship. He went there, and jumped in the water after driving there. The area was pretty busy with kids swimming and jumping in the water and just having fun, so I went walking to Steve to see where the Weehawk was, and when we found it - it wasn't very far from the area where the kids were, Steve wanted to go explore it. I was already feeling so tired from being outside in the sun a lot in the past little while so I decided to just sit back and watch him swim and explore. We were on a high ground so Steve had to climb down the wall to get in the water and swim to the Weehawk.

He swam, said that the current was really strong in the area, and had a tough time swimming it out. He filmed some, but found that it wasn't as interesting as he thought it would be, so he was like, oh, nah. He only filmed it for 10 minutes and then came back to where I was and climbed out of the water up the wall.

He said it was dull, but wanted to try again where the current wasn't as strong. Of course. His first video is here:

Freediving The Weehawk from Steve Savage on Vimeo.

So he went out and tried it again and said he found more parts of the ferry and was more interesting so he was filming more and more. *smile* We just went to the area yesterday and he found that it was more interesting and he had found an area where I could sit in the folding chair and just put my feet in the water. It was nice, though very, very hot under the sun. He got to swim a lot and explore a lot more so he enjoyed it this time. We had a bit of a picnic there while he finished up with his swimming. Here's his second video on the Weehawk.

Freediving The Weehawk v.2 from Steve Savage on Vimeo.

The past little while has been pretty crazy for me healthwise, I was feeling really off lately, and not feeling so great. My kidney was driving me crazy, in a lot of pain and I was feeling very uncomfortable and going to the bathroom was hurting a bit, so I was afraid I had an infection, and since I had it for a while, after going swimming all the time into rivers and lakes I was afraid maybe I had something odd. One day I found that I had a yeast infection, which I was surprised at, so I got some treatments to get rid of it, and was hoping it would get rid of it, but I was still in a lot of pain, so the next day Steve decided to take me to the Brockville General Hospital (since I didn't really have a doctor yet, I'm in the midst of transferring doctors at the moment which sucks! *laughs*) so I went there, and we spent most of the time waiting. I think we went there around 3:30-4 in the afternoon and waited, and waited, then was told I had an ear infection while they checked me over, then waited, then we got in a room, then waited, then was taken for an x-ray, as I had told them I do get kidney stones sometimes, then waited, then had a bunch of doctors come in and out. They said I probably had an urine infection as I had bacteria in my pee. So whatever then. By that time I had been in the hospital for 7 hours waiting, I was okay with a prescription for antibiotics and went home at around 11pm in the night. I was really, really tired and very hungry as we didn't get supper in the hospital. It really did suck. We got back home and ate, and then the next day picked up the prescription for the two infections.

I started taking the pills, and then realized that once the pills were done, I still had pains in my kidney and midway through the antibiotics, I found that I did have kidney stones as the pains were moving along my kidney to my bladder. *sigh* The stones never seem to show up on any of my xrays though. It was a pain in the friggin' ass. But at least they are moving through so the kidney is feeling less painful now. Oh well. But at least my ear infection was cleared up so that helped a bit.

I tried to avoid swimming for a little bit until my yeast infection was gone, but after the treatment was done I realized I still had it, so I was all, hey, what's wrong with me? So I decided to make an appointment with my new doctor and hope she would give me some help for my yeast infection, I wasn't even sure if she had my records yet, so I met her for the first time, and she was surprisingly young. I think she was probably younger than I was! *laughs* It was a little weird, but she was a nice woman so oh well. I got checked over and I did still have it, so I got some medicine for my infection so hopefully it'll be better soon. Not fun being sick in the summer, that's for sure. Ugh.

At one point in July I was thinking I needed to renew my passport before I couldn't anymore. My passport had expired in the beginning of the year, and I wanted to renew it before I had to get it all over again. You had to renew it within a year after it expires so that's what I wanted to do. Oh well. So I had to get my pictures done, and Steve and I decided to go to Walmart to get them done. When we got there we had found out that they had a special going on, when you get a passport photo done, you also can get a photo session free along with one picture for free. So Steve and I went ahead and had pictures taken of us. I really wasn't expecting it so it was a little weird for me, but it was a little funny having it done though. *smile* We got a collection of 7 photos done, five of both of us and one of each one of us. It felt a bit cheesy to have pictures taken of us, but we got some good photos though. We ended up with a huge photo of us both, a 10x14 photo, so that was crazy. *laughs*

Anyway, I had been invited to my brother and Kelly's wedding party that was coming up in the end of July, so I was going there. It was on the 28th of July, and it was interesting. It was a wedding party, in Presqu'ile Provincial Park. We all got to hang out in the sun, heat and water, and just enjoy ourselves. Because Steve had been so tired and always busy at work and stuff like that, we decided to carpool with my mom and John to save on money, especially for parking as we had found out that it would cost 14 bucks per car for parking, so yikes! Steve didn't like that part at all. Wow. So we agreed with mom and John that we'd carpool with them. It was interesting, because Jase had asked me like a few days before the weekend to take Christine with us, and I was like, but we're carpooling with mom and John? So I wasn't sure so I asked my mom and she knew that the car would be full of stuff that we would bring to the park, so she said no, wouldn't be any room. *laughs* So I had to let Jase know and Christine know. So that she could join someone else who lived in Ottawa to the party.

The party itself was interesting, pretty fun. When we first got there, we said hey to everybody, and then Steve and I went to check out the lake but the first thing we laid eyes on when we went to the beach was a dead carp on the shore of the water. It was gross, but I was used to them, as I see dead fishes every time I go swimming in a lake or river. They are just gross though. Oh well, so Steve and I went swimming and it was different. Later when one of Kelly and Jase's friends went swimming there, Karen, actually picked up the dead fish with a stick and threw it out of sight. That was a little gross for me but it was better anyway. The water was all rocks but very smooth and big rocks so it was different. *laughs* The water was really warm so it was nice swimming in there.

We had arrived early in the day, so we were there before most of the people and just said hi to Jase and Kelly and Kelly's family. We swam, had some food, talked and once people started arriving, I began meeting different people, a lot of them I grew up with at school so I was catching up with them, such as old friends like Brenda and Ken, and their son Brandon, along with Christine, who arrived a little later. It was nice seeing them again and just talking.

We had a potluck dinner and just talked and relaxed and ate. After dinner Jase and Kelly started opening presents and just talking, and thanking everybody. Mom, John, Steve and I left soon after the gift opening. It was an interesting day, long, but an interesting day. My mom ended up really liking the park and wants to go there again herself and just enjoying the beach and the water. There were less people there than the beach in Sandbanks that she often goes to, so she liked that part. Heh.

I've also been looking up on different kinds of lenses I could get for my camera, the Canon 7D, and my EFS 18-135mm lens. I wanted to get either a wide-angle lens or a macro lens. I especially wanted a macro, because my lens itself doesn't get that close to things I want to photograph, I wanted to get a macro so to zoom in things even more. And I've been looking in stores and the price range for lenses for me would be between $200 to $1500. So they were pretty pricey. :/ There's a macro, wide-angle, and telephoto lens that I would love to get, but they are all really expensive. I don't mind getting them eventually, but still too expensive right now for me to get. But the funny thing is I was looking up other methods to get things zoomed in and stuff like that, and there were talk about turning your lens in backwards, and stuff like that. I thought that was a little...crazy. *smile* Then Steve found this one site online, for Opteka lenses. The lenses were between 20-100 bucks, that's it. I was confused. You just use your current lens and put the lens over it. I thought that was really different, but looked at samples online with people who uses those lenses, and they are quite nice, that's for sure. Quite nice. So I decided to try a macro - it was only 30 bucks with shipping and handling - it may have some duty on it, but I'll find out when it arrives, may be like 5 bucks more. But that's...cheap! *laughs* Hopefully it turns out to be just as good as it's shown to be. If I end up not liking it, then okay, it's only 35 bucks. If I end up liking it, I may get the other lens they have, the wide-angle lens and the telephoto lens. That's pretty cool. Something to try for now, that's for sure. I don't know when it'll get here, but when I do get it it'll be something to experiment with. It'll be a lot of fun. Heh.

The Start of Summer

Wow, it’s been so busy it’s been unbelievable! Lots of going out to take photos, and I’ve been really slow in uploading them, but I have some up. I’ve been going out taking pictures, exploring different places, and playing around with different photographic methods.

I even went to an abandoned prison in the end of May. Steve had been seeing it a lot and kept saying he wanted to go and explore, and the thought actually scared me. It’s an abandoned prison...too creepy! :/ We went, and it was pretty scary. I didn’t know what to expect, so it was really nerve-wracking, that’s for sure. We walked through a lot of the property and just took pictures, though there were a lot of dead animals in the interior, which surprised me. That was the scariest part for me actually. We went through the cafeteria, the barracks, the infirmary, a lot of different cells, prison rooms, and different things like that. It was pretty disgusting as it was really falling apart, but at the same time, pretty cool. You could see all those dark moldy marks from where the inmates rested their heads on and of course there were mold growing in those areas, showing where the inmates slept or leaned against on the walls next to the beds.

It’s funny because I was going around some buildings, and some of them had plagues on them, and a lot of them said 1985. It was surprisingly new, and it was really falling apart. Ew, is all I can say. I have actually not been to a prison inside, so I was kind of curious (and at the same time, not really) what it was all like. The only time I have seen the inside of a prison cell was when I was in elementary school and getting shown what a prison was all like, but it was mostly just seeing a room, a cell for prisoners and the such like, and that was a really long time ago. It was just interesting, but jeez, I really didn’t need to be surprised by the dead animals lying on the ground in the prison. Yuck! Oh well. It was interesting but pretty appalling for me. I have some photos of it on my photos page. And Steve has a video on it:

Prison from Steve Savage on Vimeo.

I’ve also gone to Kingston occasionally – I had to go and pick up my summer shorts at one point as it was getting hotter and hotter by the time May came around, so I went to my mom’s to pick them up and was surprised by Jase and Kelly with their baby Zaiden; so it was a good visit just catching up with all of them and just talking about stuff. Zaiden keeps growing every time I see him, so it’s funny.

Steve then dragged me out to go do HDR photography in the countryside outside of Brockville another time, and it was a bit weird trying to figure out how to work the whole thing, but it was actually pretty cool. I got some pretty god pictures and I do love the colour that turned up by doing the HDR settings, really vivid. Heh. We were mostly in the countryside and out in the farms and the fields just taking pictures, and one exciting part about it all? I got bit by a tick. Ouch! I didn’t even feel it come up my leg and bite me...I just noticed there was a bug stuck on my thigh when I went to the bathroom after I got home, and tried to flick it off, and it wouldn’t go. I was like, wow, it’s really stuck in my skin? I didn’t know what it was to start with, so I just had to actually grip the bug (that was an eww factor for me! *laughs*) really pull it out of my thigh and the whole idea that it was right into my leg kind of freaked me out that I threw it across the bathroom. When I got out I told Steve about it, and he was like, oh, it isn’t a tick, is it? I had no idea, so he had to look for the bug and check it, and said it was a tick, and told me I had to bring it in the doctor’s and have it checked to make sure it didn’t have Lyme Disease. I was confused, it’s a bug, and now I have to get it checked? Grr. It wasn’t much fun, and it sure hurt to peel it out, it really bit down hard on my leg. Ouch...but once it was out, my leg got better. Steve then put the tick in a plastic baggy and put it in the fridge, to keep until we had to go to the health clinic to get it checked. We finally brought it in and I got a letter a few weeks ago which told me it was just a dog tick and it was all good. Thank god...but it was just gross. I do not want to be bitten by a tick again...ouch! The funny thing is I grew up in the country most of my life and never got bit by a tick...though my dad did twice, and my mom was telling me about how gross it was, as she had to help him take the ticks off his skin. Heh...it really is gross anyway. *laughs* You can see Steve’s video here:

Country from Steve Savage on Vimeo.

You can see me in one shot in the video, and it's likely it's where the tick got in my leg, as I was standing in very long grass that reached up to my hip, shooting pictures.

As the heat got hotter and hotter, Steve finally found it was hot enough for him in June (it was way too hot for me starting in the beginning of May! Haha...) so he took me to his favourite swimming spot in the St. Lawrence River in the beginning of June. I have gone there a few times but not to swim yet, so it was interesting. I went there for one of Steve’s videos, Wind. The water was not too bad at all, cool but still pretty nice for so early in the summer. We have been swimming there a lot this summer. And he finally was willing to let me get one of my A/C’s from my mom’s garage to use in the apartment, as he generally doesn’t like air conditioners, as it’s too cold for him normally. Sheesh...but he finally was willing to let me bring one in and pay for it myself...it’s been so helpful here, that’s for sure. It’s been a really hot summer this year. Yikes.

In the end of June, one weekend, Steve and I went to Charleston Lake for camping, I had booked it to hang out with Kat and her family, but unfortunately the day before they were to leave for camping Kat was feeling really sick and was unable to make it, and went to the hospital to see what was wrong – and they told her that she had to do surgery for her gall bladder, as it had a stone blockage. I hate stones, I know what they feel like, as I get kidney stones occasionally, but not a blockage, thank God...so I just went there with Steve and camped. It was just okay, it was really hot though, but we were right next to the lake so that helped, we went swimming a bit, though the beach was public and shared with everybody, and I wasn’t a big fan of that part. Heh...funny. We did a lot of exploring on some of their hiking trails there. The first night was fine there, but the next night was a Friday night, and my God, how noisy was it? Steve was unable to sleep. Wow. I do remember that there was a lot of people arriving on Friday, lots of people talking, and all that. Our campsite was too close to everybody’s so Steve could hear everything and all that. There was one campsite across from ours and Steve was hearing them having sex while we were having supper over the fire, and he was uncomfortable with that along with me, and then later that night when we were sleeping, Steve said that he could hear someone arrive on the campsite next to us and setting up camp. What? It was like 11pm at night so they had air compressors running for a long time and it was loud. He was so mad, that we just decided to go home a day early, as it was way too noisy there. *laughs* He hated it majorly. When we got home, he actually crashed. Funny. It was pretty bad there, that’s for sure. Wow. He still likes the Sharbot Lake campsite better, as it’s much more private and quiet. Here’s the video for Charleston Lake:

Charleston Lake from Steve Savage on Vimeo.

It’s funny when we got home, and I was cleaning up the bedroom. I was vacuuming in the bedroom and the vacuum somehow hooked on my bookshelf and I was trying to move the vacuum so it wasn't stuck anymore, and then bam! My bookshelf actually collapsed and broke. Wow. *laughs* Yes, there were a lot of books in that shelf, but still! Haha...I had to take all the books out, take apart the shelf, and go to Walmart to find another set of bookshelves to use, and then went through all my books to get rid of books I won’t read anymore and just sorted through it all and tossed a lot. The new bookshelf looks a lot better now, that’s for sure, and there’s a lot less books in there now. *laughs* I really don’t need a bookshelf to just collapse on me again!!

It’s funny, once Steve’s holiday started, in the beginning of July, we went to my mom’s for Canada Day’s dinner and saw Jase and Kelly again along with Zaiden, so that was good. All Steve wanted to do was buy a bunch of new stuff, so he got himself a new water videocamera, where he could film underwater with, and a couple of new Blackberry Playbooks just to play with. I picked up some swim goggles and snorkel so I could use it for swimming, as Steve already had himself a set, so I was becoming pretty poor already with all the purchases. *laughs*

We also tried different restaurants and places to eat at, the first one we went to was Buds on the Bay, that was interesting, not bad at all...we have been to that restaurant twice...the first time we stayed indoors as it was so hot outside, and the second time was just the other day and we were up on the patio just enjoying the view on the St. Lawrence River, so it was nice just eating and looking at everything. The last time we went, Steve was having his kicks on watching the parking cop put tickets on cars parked in the parking lot next to the restaurant, so it was a little funny, seeing the people come back and react to the tickets they had just gotten. Heh.

Steve also wanted to do a lot of swimming, and he was talking about checking out some sunken ships and I was a bit surprised, like, really? I have never dreamed about exploring sunken ships before so it was a little weird for me. I went with him to one ship he read up about online, the Conestoga, and it was something that made me a little nervous. But then again a lot does! *laughs* Well, it also didn’t help that when we first got there, and while Steve was putting on his fins and swim masks and snorkel on, and started to go in the water, when he was faced with a dead fish with its insides coming out. on the bottom of the shore of the river. *laughs* That was gross! *L* I could see it standing up but didn’t notice till Steve jumped up and moved around it...ew! He did some exploring and then I was half-willing to try the exploration as well...I wasn’t sure about exploring it, in case I accidentally hurt myself around the sunken ship or something, so I was a little weirded out by it. Steve helped lead me around the ship and showed me different parts of it...the ship had a bit of it sticking out of the water, so I knew that part was high, but the rest of it wasn’t too bad, all way down there, and pretty disintegerated, that’s for sure. I just stayed up on the surface, while Steve did some diving with his breath held to explore with his new water camera. I didn’t do very much swimming over there, I was a bit uncomfortable and the current around the boat was pretty strong and it was easy to get swept up with the current if you got distracted and looking at the boat...I really had to swim to stay in one spot in the lake, which was nuts. At least it was really, really close to the shore, so it wasn’t too bad really. I didn’t do much exploring, just a little bit, and when I really felt myself getting tired swimming against the current a bit, I stopped and went back to the shore and rested and watched Steve explore more and more. He was so excited about it all, that he kept wanting to check out different sunken boats. I think he went to the Conestoga three times to explore, which was insane. *laughs* There was also another sunken boat, Weehawk, further away in the same area, but Steve didn’t get much good footage, and the ship was less interesting for him. I know he was really into the Conestoga ship for sure, he kept freediving in the water to film more and more parts of the boat...I don’t know how he didn’t get tired, but it would have killed me, that’s for sure. He has two videos, the first one of him holding his camera by hand, but the video ended up looking rough. Here it is below:

Freediving The Conestoga from Steve Savage on Vimeo.

The second video actually turned out better, he used a different method of filming underwater and it turned out better. You can see the result here:

Freediving The Conestoga v.2 from Steve Savage on Vimeo.

It was pretty tiring keeping an eye on Steve while he went there diving...he tried diving in the night, but couldn’t get enough light to really see the ship in the night, so that didn’t work out, but it was crazy seeing Steve try so many different methods for that ship, that’s for sure!

I still had the gift card to go to the movies that I got from Jase and Kelly last Christmas, and Steve finally said he wanted to see a movie – The Amazing Spiderman, that I could watch. Normally we don’t like the same sort of movies, and don’t watch movies together, which sucks. So we went out to Ottawa to watch the movie with captioning for me. It’s funny because the last time I went to theatres, they had rear-window captioning, but this time it was more done electronically in my own tablet, so that was cool. It was all computerized now, and there’s captions for most movies now, so that was a plus, for sure. I didn’t know that they had changed it recently. It was a lot better for me, because when I used rear-window captioning I had to make sure my window was aimed right to where the rear window captioning would be, which would be the back of the theatre. Sometimes I’d miss parts because people would get up and walk, and block my window from capturing it...this time it was a lot different, I could understand the whole movie and sit comfortably, so it was a lot better now. Definitely a plus!

We also have gone bowling at Brockville Bowling Centre – haven’t done that in a while, so it was fun. I lost two games out of three, which wasn’t surprising...I suck at bowling! *laughs* We had some poutine while bowling so it was nice...a nice way to get out of the apartment, that’s for sure. We then went swimming at Centeen Park, which was interesting… I’m used to swimming at the spot that Steve likes, but it’s quite a distance away, so oh well. So checking out Centeen Park and swimming there was different...there was just way too many people there, and of course I get a bit nervous when there’s a lot of people around when I go swimming. Steve likes it as he gets to go diving there. Not for me, so nah. It’s a good spot if you want to jump in the water, but I haven’t tried. I did go swimming though, and the water was definitely colder in that area than it is in the shore that Steve likes going to. I thought that was a little weird actually. Oh well!

It’s funny too, because I decided to renew my passport recently, and as I was reading up on it, I had to renew it within a year after it expired otherwise, I would have to do it all over again, and I didn’t want to...so I decided I should get my pictures taken and send in for my passport to be renewed. It had expired like six months ago so I figured I should get it renewed and get it over with, so I had to find someplace that would take my passport photos, so Steve and I went to Walmart to take them, and for some reason they had a special on where if you wanted a passport you could pose for a few pictures free for yourself, to put up at home. I wasn’t expecting that, so we went ahead and did that. I took my passport photo, and then one of the women took us in the back to the studio and took some pictures of us. Some of them turned out good, one I didn’t like, but generally got some good photos. *laughs* I know we both weren’t expecting that, I didn’t even know they were having a special on! Funny. We’ll be picking up a couple of photos in the end of July. So all wait and see.

Thinking...

Hi everybody…I’ve been asking all over the place whether I should keep my blog. After all I don’t update it as much as I should, as Steve has mentioned to me, as I’ve been really busy. I still have to add one or two more entries but I’ve just been so slow in doing that, unfortunately! Oops. Heh. So I’m just wondering if I should even keep it – I know family tends to like to read it so to stay updated on me and my goings on, but what about anyone else? Friends or people who barely know me? Just wondering about that.

Let me know! Leave a comment if you want. Thanks a lot! I may just keep it for family, which is just nuts. Heh. I just need to find something else to talk about and the such like, so if anyone could help me out, it’d be great! And I’ve also updated the pictures page which I have been so slow on doing – I still have to add the camping photos but I’m still working on them though. *sigh* Just so busy these days!

The Heat, Photos, Friends and Babies

It's been a busy month since I last logged an entry. Wow. I've been trying to go out and enjoy the warm weather, but I was suffering allergies here and there, so that was a bit annoying at times. I was noticing that the apartment was getting warmer and warmer as the temperatures rose in the spring, and Violet was having trouble letting me pet her, and I was wondering why. When I got chances to pet her, I would feel all those hairball mats in her. I realized that she was practically covered in them, and knew I had to cut them out. However, whenever Violet has mats, and I try to cut them out, I often times need another person to help hold Violet still and soothe her while I cut her mats out. My mom used to do that, and now that I'm in Brockville I couldn't get the chance to, so I was wondering how to do that. Since Violet is pretty resistant of Steve generally, Steve really didn't want to help me with Violet. He really didn't want to be swiped or clawed by her so he was leery about doing it.

I had to make him do it, and so we brought Violet in the bathroom with us and shut the door and worked through some mats until Violet really had enough. We got a bit out of her the first chance, and the second chance Violet was less willing, and because of that, we were talking about using one of Steve's shaving kits to shave the mats out to make the mat removal go faster...I wasn't sure if Violet would be okay with the feeling of the vibrations from the machine shaver. She wasn't a big fan of it, but let us shave a lot off, and now she actually looks funny. Most of her butt and lower back was shaved down to nothing and the rest of her is long haired. *laughs* It looked funny for a while, but I got to get a lot of her mats out. She still has more, but she usually lets us know when she's had enough...I hate that. I usually want to get it all out at once, but ugh... lately I have been thinking about the heat, and how hot it was, and started to realize that that's why Violet was matting so much - because of the heat...she tends to sweat more, then matting a lot in the summer. So, ugh. Oh well, soon I'll get it all out.


You can see how she looks here, all shaved off, half-long haired, half-bald. A little sad, I think. But at least I'm sure she feels a bit more cool now, not so hot! Heh...

I was also getting restless during the week that I kept wanting to go places all the time, with it getting warmer and warmer by the day. So Steve and I took some walks out in Brockville so I could check out the area and see more of the town. We went out to the waterfront by the model plane and walked around there, I think it was the Brockville municipal marina...it was interesting. The temperatures were really nice that day so we both just decided to go for a walk and check things out. We have also gone back to Raxx's for another of their meals, and just to hang out.

In the beginning of May, Steve wanted to go back to this one industrial boneyard that he had found a couple of months back, and take me to go take pictures there. He wanted to do a whole thing where he films me taking pictures and checking out the area. He mentioned to me later that I would find things that he had missed the first time out there, so it was like a whole different trip for him. There were also some things I was checking out that Steve had checked out before for his first film, Industrial, on Vimeo. There's this one scene where he props up a pail so that he sits on it, and when we went looking at the machines and stuff, I noticed some mangled metal on the ground and was talking about it, and he told me it was the pail he had set up to sit on for his earlier video, that was all destroyed. I thought it was a little funny...got to check out a lot, and there was a lot to look at, so it was cool. It was funny because I was shooting and I turned around and saw a little bird who was eyeing me on the ground in a distance, and I was all, oh, got to take a picture and the bird just began barreling towards me with it's wings wide open, like he was going to attack me and I had to jump back in surprise, never saw a little bird get so angry before! It sure surprised me. *laughs* Steve said that I actually screamed, but I think he may be exaggerating...I know I was surprised, yeah, but I don't think I screamed, maybe I yelped but screaming seems a bit extreme...the bird did get right against my leg before turning and running away from me...It was really strange. It's a little bird, why would he be doing that? *laughs* Steve thinks it was a female and was protecting her nest, as we had seen a nest in one of the machines earlier. It was really funny though. Was a bit unexpected, that's for sure. I have pictures of that little bird in my photos here. We were out there for maybe a hour, just shooting and checking out different parts of the machine. It was different.

You can see Steve's video here:

You may remember I changed my name back to my maiden name over a month ago? I finally got all my cards in, and then proceeded to change more in the rest of my other items and memberships. It really hasn't been much fun, but hopefully it's almost all over. *smile* There has been some places that like fighting me on changing my last name, which has been insane...but they are being changed slowly though.

Anyway, my friend Kat had her baby a few months ago and I hadn't actually met the baby yet, so I thought I should drop in on Kat while Steve came to Ottawa to pick up something he ordered for himself, a new Glidecam. He's been dreaming about having one for a really long time, and a new affordable Glidecam came out and he wanted to grab up the chance to get it, and in the meantime I thought I should visit Kat and meet her new baby. So we headed out to Ottawa one Tuesday in mid-March, and went to pick up Steve's new Glidecam, and he was all excited, but couldn't use it yet until he came home. It was a little funny, and then we headed over to Kat's place. We went to her backyard and then mellowed outside on her patio with her, her baby Arianna and her mom, Linda. It was good, just talking about everything and just catching up with everybody. I also had to introduce Steve to both of them as they hadn't met him yet, so it was not too bad. Kat was just too busy telling me about the birth, Arianna, and being a mother, to actually officially meet Steve in actuality, but he was kept busy talking to Linda anyway so that was okay. *smile* Nothing new with that. Arianna was pretty cute, and a very happy baby, so that was a little funny. I'll just have to see as she grows up and all that, and see how she'll be as she gets older. That'll be interesting...like all the other babies I have known and gotten to know in the past couple of years - there's just been a big boom on babies lately for me, for my friends and family, so it's a little crazy. Heh.

The holiday weekend, the Victoria Day weekend was interesting. It was a really, really hot weekend, unfortunately! Wow... :/ And Steve had been telling me that Brockville actually did have a beach of a sort around the waterfront, and I was a bit surprised about that. It's such a small town, and it has a beach? It was over at the St. Lawrence Park by the waterfront, so it was cool. Just going there and checking it out. I even brought my camera with me for that so it was interesting that's for sure, and Steve had fun filming. Though, when we went to the water shore, to check out the temperature of the water, there was a lot of little kids running around in the water, not quite swimming as the water was still pretty cool, and one little boy came up to us to talk about Steve's videocamera. He seemed to be very fascinated by it. *laughs* It was a little funny actually. After we went up and talked to the boy's mom, and there was something about Steve where everyone just knew him and the people that worked at his work. So it was crazy. It was cool checking out the beach, and I know it's there, but it was certainly very small so it may be a little cramped. Yikes, just have to see what it's like through the summer at least. We then finished up at the beach and started shooting around the park and different locales, and in the large gazebo, I started shooting pictures. It was interesting, that's for sure. I'm still getting used to Brockville, that's for sure. *smile*

My mom finally came by over the holiday weekend to bring over my fans that I could use in my apartment as it was getting to be unbearably hot with the humidity being so high - if I wanted to use A/C's, I would have to let my landlord know and pay extra to have my A/C's installed. So I wasn't too sure about that at all, so I opted out on that part for now, and just going to stick with my two fans. I may pick up another one for the third room in the apartment, but otherwise, it's beginning to feel better here now. My mom just came by to drop off the fans and to talk to me about all the stuff going on, she was only over for a few minutes. But the place finally feels a lot better, and Violet seems to be feeling a lot better, and hopefully she'll let me cut more mats out of her, and brush her more. Heh...all wait and see. But I'm hoping she will sweat less, and get less mats soon.

One day Steve decided to take me to join him with his co-worker, Matt and Leigh, for drinks. I have met Matt here and there, as he lives in the apartment below us, and Leigh, I hadn't met before, but had seen him on his TV show that Steve produces and works on, Critical Thinking. They all tend to go out for drinks after they finish the show, and he actually asked me to join them one night, so I was willing to, because I had been cooped up in the apartment and wanted to get out. So we went to Boston Pizza to join Matt and Leigh, so it was interesting. They both were pretty nice. Matt and Steve were tired, and Leigh was late, and when he finally got to the restaurant, he was in a goofy mood. It was good, they all were nice, so it was fun. *smile*

When I was over at Kat's place, she was talking about going camping and stuff like that, and also about Mayfest, and how I should come by, but because Mayfest was the next weekend, and I wasn't sure if I could come back to Ottawa again the next weekend, I told her I had to think about it, and Steve couldn't make it because of work anyway, so we started talking about camping, as Kat was going to go camping in Charleston Lake the coming summer, in June, and I was willing to...talked to Steve about it, and then we decided to book times at two parks for the summer. One at Charleston Lake in the end of June, from the 21st to 24th, so to hang out with Kat and her family and just enjoy the place. Neither one of us, Steve and I have ever camped at Charleston Lake before, so we're hoping it's nice there. Steve has always liked Sharbot Lake Park, so we're also going there in August, to the same campsite we went to last year, so that'll be good. *smile* Two camping trips over the summer, which is going to be crazy - and busy!! Wow... Oh well, I'll get used to it eventually, and I hope my allergies won't be too bad for those times. My allergies were bad for a while, but they seem to have gotten better lately, so I'm glad about that. *smile* I want to start enjoying the warmth! Heh...It's just going to be crazy. Sheesh.

The Senators Playoff Game, and the Jones Creek Trails

Hmm, let's see...I've gone to the Senators playoff game in April, and that was a lot of fun actually. Steve wanted to get tickets for Game 6 as it was in Ottawa, and of course it was going to be right smack on the day of my mom's birthday, so that was going to be interesting. He ordered the tickets and was all raring to go. It was funny to see him talk and all that about the game, and if they won, they would move on to the next stage of the playoffs and so on, so he was really wanting to go and see them, as he loves the Sens. *smile*

Anyway, so the day of the Sens game, Steve was working, and then took off from work early so that we could go driving to the Scotiabank Place where they were playing, and we did. I have personally not gone to a NHL game live before, so it was something I was looking forward to. I have gone to the Blue Jays game at the Skydome, but never to a NHL game, so it was something new for me. *smile* We ended up with tickets that landed us in the very back of the stadium, and it was crazily full. I wasn't expecting that. *laughs* But it was cool, and being there for the first time for the playoffs was pretty cool too. We got there, got our seats and then ordered something fast for our dinner there, as we didn't eat before we left. We left around 4 something so we hadn't eaten supper yet. So we just ordered some pizza and munched on it before the game started; and the stadium was crazily full. I was not used to being so cramped up with other people, but after a little bit I got used to it. Steve was yelling the entire game and I wasn't used to seeing him like that, as he's not exactly the most out there type of guy, but when it came to the game, and his team, the Sens, he really was out there, so it was interesting for me to watch him be like that in public. I knew he was like that normally, as he's always like that at home when he watches the game, all gung-ho about the Sens and them winning, and so on. It was just funny to see him like that at the game, yelling along with other really loud fans, so it was crazy. I really am glad I cannot hear. *laughs*

After a little while I had to join in with everybody yelling for the Sens...(I mostly just waved my towel, not yelled) but of course they lost the game, and much to Steve's sadness, they also lost the last game, so they aren't in the playoffs anymore. So it's all okay. It was still fun to go and watch the game, and see how full the stadium was, full of people waving the towels that were provided in each seat and just seeing everyone go wild. Steve even made up signs that he picked up at the dollar store, and just was being silly. One sign was a For Sale sign, and below it, said: "One NYR Team"...figures, and the other sign said "Hey, New York...Got Your Golf Clubs Ready?" Sheesh. It was nothing new, and he made me hold one of them up, so it was just silly. He even had me wear one of his Sens shirts, which was signed by Chris Phillips before, and one of his Sens caps, and he wore the same, just not a signed jersey. He even bought some stickers from the dollar store and made me wear them on my face. That wasn't much fun, as it was very itchy, but it was just silly and what he wanted to do... Normal!

Leaving the parking lot from the game was crazy, I think it took us 45 minutes to finally get out of the parking lot. Then we finally headed back home and just crashed. It was an interesting night that's for sure. *smile*

The next little bit was a little bit busy, with me visiting my mom here and there for dinner and just saying hi, and the such like, so it was not too bad. I was also always so tired and was a little frustrated with being so tired and sore all the time, and I had noticed that I was gaining weight again, and my mom was asking if it was the same medication that I had taken before that didn't work, (which I do believe it was) as it wasn't the same brand that I used before for my thyroid, which was Eltroxin, it was a different one but they said was similiar and should work the same...I had it for the past three months, and I was slowly going downhill and when I told my mom how much I weighed now, she said that I had gained weight, but I couldn't remember, as I was so tired and so disoriented all the time, and it was hard to keep track of anything. When it was time to refill my medication, my mom called my doctor to get it refilled, and she was telling them about how I felt on the other medication and if I should go back on Eltroxin. I wasn't sure if the pharmacy I went to had them currently, so when they refilled it with the brand they had and I went in to pick it up, and they told me that my drug card didn't cover it, and I was like, what? They don't cover the ones that don't work for me, so nah, I'm not taking it! *laughs* Why pay for something that was not exactly making me feel good? They did say that the brand that works for me, is free under my drug card, so it's something to consider, so I told them to start ordering that brand, because I wasn't up to paying for the other brand, especially since it didn't work that great for me. I wasn't sure if they would switch as they didn't really specify, and when I called the Walmart pharmacy to see if they provided it, and they did, so I checked with my doctor to switch pharmacies, and when they called the Shoppers to transfer my prescription to Walmart, they found out that Shoppers did order my medicine for me, and that it was ready. Um...no one told me they were going to? *laughs* So I was okay with it and picked it up there. I started it the past week and after the first day, wow, I could really feel the difference. *laughs* I kind of perked up, woke up more, so it's quite a difference. *laughs* Oh well...so it's better, and they have to keep getting that medicine as it works for me, not the other one. So I feel a lot better now. I have actually begun to wake up and wanting to work out, usually I wake up feeling tired, but not these days. I'm waking up and wanting to work out so it's good, I'm going back to my old routine. I hate the times when I'm so sleepy and lazy and exhausted, it really sucks. I've actually found more of Zuzana's workouts so I downloaded a lot of them and been working out with them so I'm starting to feel better. And now, this time, when I work out, I don't hurt as much as I used to. I used to hurt all over for like a few days after doing one workout and when I did the workouts, it would kill me and I'd be gasping in the end of it and be in a lot of heavy sort of pains and aches. I thought it was weird that I was so out of shape so suddenly. I figured it may have been because I haven't worked out often enough lately, so it was harder on me. But it wasn't the case, it was the case of being on the wrong medications. :/ So weird. Working out now is a lot easier again, so it's a little crazy.

One Saturday Steve wanted to go filming again, and wanted me to go with him, as I had sort of stopped going with him when he went out to film, and wanted me to go with him for this one place and since I was feeling a bit better, not so tired being back on the Eltroxin pills, I went with him. It was down at the Jones Creek Trails, a hiking trail. I wasn't sure how I would be able to go through the trails, as I have been so tired lately and so on, so I tried with Steve, and it was pretty fun. The trails are huge, and there were a lot of people, and it was a nice day even, a bit brisk, but still a nice day. I started taking pictures and going along the trails with Steve just exploring and checking out different parts of the trails. At one point I actually lost Steve as he kept going out and around off the trails and I lost him, so I tried to go and look for him along the trail, and he started freaking out and started looking for me. I had walked by a bunch of people that I had walked by earlier with Steve and he asked two ladies that I had just previously walked by, if they had seen me, and they told him where I had gone, and Steve was surprised I had gone so far, and he was afraid that he would lose me being apart like this so he went running after me. *laughs* It was a little funny though. I had no idea where he was so when I got to one point, a fork in the trail, where signs pointed to the parking lot or continue on the trails, I wasn't sure if Steve would have gone to the parking lot or continued on, and I figured that since he tends to get lost in his filming he would probably go ahead so I tried to go ahead, and soon after Steve caught up with me with the help of the two women that I had passed by at the turn. *smile* On Steve's blog he said that he had his eye caught by something off the trails and was busy filming it and he said that I "used" that opportunty to go ahead without him on the trails. I didn't use the opportunity, I was looking for him then. *laughs* I thought he was up ahead of me, I didn't know he went off the trails. :/ Typical man. It was a little funny actually. He mentioned this: "I could see her ending up sleeping a night in the woods, having to cuddle up to a black bear for body heat. ;)" I really don't think I would have gone that far! *laughs* Oh well. But it was a fun outing though, it was quite the place to explore. *smile* Steve wants to go back when it's warmer to explore it even more. It's a huge trail system, that's for sure. Here is the link to his video of the Jones Creek Trails:



I had an appointment for the Pacemaker Clinic and realized that I made the appointment where my mom couldn't make it, as she was working the entire time then, so I had asked Steve about it, if he could go to the appointment with me, and help tell me what was going on. It was pretty much the same sort of appointment as it is every time, but, there was this one weird occurence that went on in the testing room. An unfamiliar doctor came in and looked over my file, and said that it would be better for me if they lowered my heart rate range on my pacemaker, and I was like, huh? What? They just raised it just under a year or so ago, saying that it would be better for my heart if it was to a more normal range, and I actually do feel a lot better now, I have more energy and it's a lot better, I have not had any problems in all this time since then. So that's why I was surprised that this doctor said that, but it was also a doctor I had never seen before, he wasn't my regular doctor so I was like, oh jeez... So for a bit the doctor and the nurse who was working on me, was talking about it and I didn't know what was going on, all I knew was that the doctor wanted to lower my range which I really didn't want. I think the doctor and the nurse were arguing about it, and all that, Steve was having a hard time understanding the whole conversation so he couldn't really pass on the conversation to me. *smile* So I was like, freaking out at one point, and when the doctor left looking a little grumpy, the nurse then turned to me and told me what was going on. She said that he was just a resident, so he's still learning so it's okay, they weren't changing anything on me, since I was doing well right now, and was having no problems. I was like, jeez...good thing. It scared me for a minute there. *laughs* I hated the range it was on before, as I was always so tired...heh. Funny. It was a good appointment, pretty quick and then I headed to my mom's place, as she asked me if I wanted to go out shopping with her in the afternoon after the appointment, and I agreed, and she'd drive me back home when we were done.

So I went out and went shopping with my mom, looking around for some summer clothes and I ended up getting a lot. *laughs* Oops, but it'll come in useful when the weather warms up. *smile* I also got some groceries from my mom, as I normally get food for both Steve and me as he covers the bill for the TV, phone and internet, but it was getting a bit expensive, as you know, with how expensive food can be. :/ So my mom offered to buy me one batch of groceries to help tide me over for the next few weeks of May. It was a good afternoon, we even went out for an early supper, late lunch at Denny's. It was a good afternoon just catching up with her and seeing what was up. When it was over, when we both were all shopped out, John then drove me home with my mom, and Josh. It was a good day, though I was really tired by the time I got home. *laughs* Oh well.

The start of May has been generally pretty quiet with me just going back to my normal activity schedule I used to have before I moved to Brockville, with me working out here and there, and just cleaning up, and doing odd stuff around the place. *smile* With some odd outings here and there. It's been good.

I'm a Smith Again!

Finally I’m a Smith again...I went out and changed all my cards (my drivers license, health card and my SIN) to be a Smith again instead of being a Stagg. I don’t have the official cards in yet, but I should have them soon enough. I’ve been working on changing my name elsewhere online too, so that’s taken up a bit of my time for the day today.

I didn’t think I would feel any different changing my name back to Smith from Stagg, and I wasn’t too sure because, well, Smith is such a common last name, so many people have that last name and I liked Stagg because it was different, and I don’t often see that on people’s names. Though Steve keeps telling me that I am more suited to be a Smith, because that name just sounds better with my first name, instead of Stagg. So okay then, if he says so. So it’s been changed...I believe that if I ever get married again, it’s not likely I would want to change my name again. It’s just too much hassle to do it, seriously. :S I think when I first changed my name to my married name, it took nearly a year before it was actually changed everywhere. Yikes, just insane. *laughs* So it’s not likely I would change it again. Oh well!

The other day Steve was asking me if I wanted to do something fun for one of his films, it was a really warm and really windy day (around 28 celisus as said on Steve’s car) and he wanted to take advantage of the wind and took me to his favourite shore that he tends to go to along the St. Lawrence Seaway. He wanted me to dance and just move around for the camera and I thought it was a little weird…why would I dance in front of a camera? *laughs* It was a bit awkward, that’s for sure, and he wanted me to wear loose clothing, like skirts, loose shirts and stuff like that. He wanted to do some sort of fun video, where I move around along with the wind and so on. He even had me bring along my exercise elastic bands so they could whip around behind me. When he suggested all of this before coming back from work to pick me up to go to the Seaway, I thought it sounded weird, but didn’t mind as it was a really nice day after all. Heh… You can see the video here:



It was just an interesting video. *laughs* Oh well. This is just ironic for me to be doing – I’ve always been the kind of person that didn’t like being in front of the camera, ever. But since I’ve been with Steve and I’ve been in front of the camera so many times that I cannot count, that I just have gotten used to it. I still am not a huge fan of it, but it’s something I’ve gotten used to, with Steve always having the camera and always talking about filming something.

Oh, yeah, just last night, Steve was talking about getting tickets to the playoffs for the Sens and the Rangers, as they were playing in Ottawa on Monday and he wanted to go and see them live, so he ordered a couple of tickets for me and him to go to so to watch the game. It’ll be an interesting game, as I have never been to a live NHL game before…I have been to local hockey games, or for OHL games, they are fun to watch, so NHL ones would be pretty awesome. It’ll be an interesting evening. Just have to see how it turns out – if the Sens lose Steve would be very, very sad…but it’s funny anyway. He really wasn’t expecting them to end up in the playoffs in the first place anyway.

It would be interesting, that’s for sure. Heh.