Fluffy Thing Fridays - Arctic Animals

We are having our first official heat wave of the season.  Now I don't hate the heat, but what I do hate is the additional 10-20 degrees of HUMIDITY that is on top of the heat.  I like to drink my water thank you very much.  Not breathe it. 

So in light of the disgusting mugginess outside, I'm dedicating this weeks' Fluffy Thing Friday to animals that live in the snow.

Btw....all of these animals are another reason why Canada rocks.  We may not see them wandering around the city, but up North?  They're out there.

And yes Katie.....there will be a Penguin.

First off.

Polar Bears.  'Nuff said.

The Arctic Fox.  SO PRETTY.  SO FLUFFY.

Harp Seals.  Don't even get me going on how wrong the Seal Hunt is.  

HOW COULD YOU KILL SOMETHING THIS CUTE.

The Snowy Owl.  Badass hunter that happens to be so pretty.

The above Owl may be gorgeous but OMG, the babies are TOO CUTE.

I have no words!!!!

An itty bitty Ermine.

And finally.  Penguins.

Can you tell I've been warm this week and have been dreaming of snow?  I miss snow.

Cheers,

Ash

Ok it's not Arctic, but it is fluffy and white and honestly, this perfectly sums up how my curly haired self has felt this week. 

Btw....it's an Angora Rabbit.  Yes they're real.  And yes, it basically looks like a cotton ball on steroids.....with ears.

My Crazy Cat. Who May or May NOT Think he is Food.

I know that like the parents of human babies, everyone who has a furbaby thinks their furbaby is the cutest, smartest, fluffiest etc.

My 3 year old cat Jasper may not be the smartest, I mean he once fell into the bathtub with me because he was trying to attack the bubbles.  He was not a happy kitty.

He's cute but he's not like the most adorable thing on the planet.  I mean he's no Lil Bub or Grumpy Cat.

What he IS, is the silliest furball I have ever encountered.

It all started when he was a baby.

I soon learned that no matter how pretty or comfortable of a bed I bought for him, he much preferred to sleep in the most bizarre places.

And he later demonstrated a particular love of cookware.

Sleep in the bed you bought me?  Silly woman!

It all started with my homework. 

And my stereo.

 

And then suddenly, it was a frying pan. 

 

Thus began Jasper's love of food containers.

All food containers.

I wonder what kind of tree THAT grew on?

 

Really dude?  A lasagna pan?

My cat epitomizes the phrase, "If I fits, I sits"

But oh, food containers are not the only things he likes to sit/nap in/on.

Clearly he didn't learn from the bathtub incident.

And honestly who can resist curling up on fresh warm laundry?

Oh were you trying to make the bed?  Tough.

What do you mean you don't want cat fur on your towel for when you get out of the shower?

 Don't you want me all over your skin?

Oh is this where your head is supposed to go?  Too bad, I'm comfortable.

Bottom line, my cat will curl up in the most inappropriate places. 

I keep thinking I've seen it all and then BAM, I find him in a soup pot at my parents house. 

So he may not be the smartest or the cutest but I think that he wins the award for silliest.

Cheers,

Ash

Oh were you trying to blog?  I'll just sit here and stare at you.

Better yet, how about I pounce on your hand?

Fluffy Thing Fridays - Porcupines!

OK OK, Porcupines aren't exactly "Fluffy"  but who cares.

I think they're adorable.

Unless of course you're a dog and you don't understand the concept of personal space.

Then, they're kinda horrid.

Not in an ugly way, but in a "I will kick your ass kinda way"

But back to them being cute.

Actually they do look kinda fluffy.

 

Aww prickly kisses!

Just hanging out.  Taking a nap.  Looking kinda fluffy and yet bad ass.  I mean in all honesty, how can you not respect an animal that shoots spikes out of it's ass.  It's like a real life Pokemon.

This little dude is adorably dog-like and doesn't realize that he's kinda scary.

Very chubby and rolly polly.

Ok this is disgustingly cute.

Cheers,

Ash

OK OK it's a hedgehog but seriously, how cute is that?

Fluffy Thing Fridays - Koala!

First off. 

Koala's are NOT bears.  Despite looking like the most awesome teddy bears EVER.  They are marsupials.  I don't really care what they are, they're adorable.

Look at those ears!

I think Koala's are adorable.  Like seriously adorable.

And they look so cute sleeping.

I get that they're pretty much high as a kite from eating all that eucalyptus.  But who cares!

Because all that cuteness must be exhausting!

And I love that they carry their babies around on their backs.

I don't care if they're bears, or high from eating eucalyptus, or will kill me like everything else that's crazy and lives in Australia.  They're cute.  And I want to cuddle one.

I would lose my mind in a similar fashion if the cutest thing EVER decided to use me as a jungle gym all because it wanted cuddles.  I can't deny cute things cuddles.

Cheers,

Ash

Apartment Hunting

So apartment hunting SUCKS.

Like seriously sucks.

Any time you're looking for a place in a large city you have to wade your way through a lot of crap to find the gems.

And if you're lucky, you can actually afford the gems.

My problem is that 1, I need my apartment to be transit accessible so I can get back and forth to work.  2, I'm on a budget so aren't willing to drop $1,400 a month on an apartment.  3, I'd rather not live in a neighborhood that will get me shot.  Oh and 4, no bugs. Or hookers.  But more to come on that later.

You'd think these would be all be reasonable requests that wouldn't be TOO hard to accommodate.

Think again.

Bed Bug Registry's infestation map

I'm wading through listings of places that are the size of a walk-in closet.


Places that are in areas of the city I wouldn't want to be in after dark.

And nice places that I'd love to live in if I could afford the staggering prices.

And what I've learned the most is that if you find a listing for a place that's in a good neighborhood, is a decent size, and is affordable there's almost ALWAYS a catch.

I mean how did people manage before the Internet.  If it weren't for things like www.myhood.ca and www.bedbugregistry.com I could have very easily already moved into a place that could have turned out to be hell.

Here are some of the funnier (or scarier, depending on your mood) things I've found in some of the posts about buildings that in theory should be GREAT meaning they are all in good/safe neighborhoods, transit accessible and seemingly well maintained buildings renting 1-bedroom units approx. 600-800 square feet at a cost anywhere from $1,100 to $1,300 a month. 

I love this.

- Security bulletins on the tenant web portal with alerts about finding needles in the stairwells and hallways
- Bed bugs, roaches, centipedes and other assorted creepy crawlies
- Management randomly shutting off the hot water and or water in general for repairs with no notice (one guy said he never knew if he was going to shower before work in the morning!)
- Bicycles in the underground parking getting tires cut and one person who noted that one of the tenants would randomly smear dog poop on the handle bars of people's bikes.
- Funky food smells (this in the grand scheme of things isn't that bad)

- Wonky elevators that are constantly down for service (in a 2 story building this is just FUN)
- People pulling fire alarms as pranks on a regular basis at 3am
- And my favorite, a building that has a known "Escort Service" operating out of 2 apartments.  Now I'm not sure if the hookers live there or the manager/pimp/creep who runs it lives there.  If push comes to shove I'd rather have hookers for neighbors than a pimp because I'm sure the hookers are perfectly nice ladies.

So this is my dilemma.  I either need to pick the lesser of a few evils that I'm willing to tolerate (no bugs!!!  I'll take the hookers over the bugs!!) Or I need to consider living in a place that is at the very top of my budget or even a bit more.  The positive thing is that I'm currently living with my parents and am able to put a decent amount of money onto my remaining student debt which means that the longer it takes me to find a place, the better a financial situation I will be in.  Not to say that I want to live with my parents for 4 months but if that's the reality then at least I'm saving up money and hopefully cutting my debt in half.  Which is an opportunity I would otherwise never have.

So in the meantime, Jasper and I are going to say no to bugs and hookers.

Can you really blame me?


Cheers,

Ash

Not only does this look EXACTLY like my cat Jasper, but he tends to sleep wrapped around my head and will randomly lick my forehead and hair.  It's totally creepy and I asked the Vet about it and he said that it's very common.  He sees me as his pack leader and it's common for animals to groom each other.

It's still creepy but clearly I'm not the only pet owner who's had to deal with it.

Fluffy Thing Fridays - Orangutans

OMG Orange and fuzzy!

What's not to love about Orangutans.

They look like orange little old men who stuck their fingers in a light socket.

So cute.  Such sweet eyes. 

It's the hair.  It gets me every time.

So silly and mom's all patient.

 

How can this not just make you go Awwwwwwww?

LOL I just want to comb them!

 

Cheers,

Ash

Ok not the type of cat I normally post but OMG.

And the Chaos Continues

Hi all,

I'm still alive.  And I'm officially moved back in with my parents.  *sigh*

For those of you just reading here's the fast forwarded version.

March 20th there was a big fire in my apartment building destroying 4 units because a dumbass who lived below me left a candle burning on her night table while she took a bath.

Insert panic and smoke and horrifying destruction followed by 4 days of cleaning and washing every single thing I own.

Move back in a week later to find out that the restoration company handling the job need to treat every square inch of my apartment with some kind of solution that neutralizes the smell of smoke.

I had 48 hours to pack up every thing I own because all my cupboards, closets, walls needed to be free of everything including furniture. 

So I pack, they clean, I unpack and finally my place looks awesome minus the repairs that need to be made to my walls and door from when the fire department kicked in my door.

Repairs start, I end up with a 4 food hole in the ceiling of my bathroom and a tarp over my head while I shower.  Oh and my bathroom fixture died and I showered with a camping lantern for a few days.

This brings us up to the week of April 22nd when I got an awesome call from my landlord saying that the damage is more extensive than expected and that they're terminating my lease in order to rip out the walls in half my apartment. 

OK then.

Insert more panic and freaking out.

But it's ok.  I call the landlord and tenant board and they tell me my landlord has to give me 120 days and 3 months of rent if they want to terminate my lease for repairs.

Well not really.  Enter Thursday April 25th, I come home to a letter quoting a section in my lease that basically says in case of a fire/flood/natural disaster they can repossess my unit immediately and I have to be moved out by May 1st.

Insert more panic and a fuck load of freaking out.

But thanks to my dad and my aunt and uncle, I packed my entire apartment up on Saturday and moved in with mom and dad on Sunday.

*sigh*

So I'm 29 and living with my parents.  Albeit temporarily.

Now I'm just fighting with my landlord because they're issuing me a cheque for my last month's rent that I pre-paid when I moved in.  But they made the cheque out to incorrectly and the bank won't let me deposit it.  So they need to re-issue it and get the new cheque to me.

Add on the fact that I'm dealing with issues trying to get my Internet and TV transferred or suspended because typically they want 30 days and I don't have that luxury. 

So that's where I'm at right now.  Waiting to get last minute details sorted and I can finally start focusing on finding an apartment.  But the up side of living with my parents is that I have time to look because it's not like they're going to kick me out, and I'm saving some money.  Both good things.

Especially considering my commute went from 20 minutes each direction to about 1 hour 40 each way.

So I've been getting up at 5:30am.  Which is AWESOME.

But honestly it could be worse.  I'm lucky I have parents that live in driving distance and that I have the option of moving back in with them.

Fingers crossed the hunt for an apartment goes quickly.

Thanks for all the love and support.  It's been incredibly stressful and honestly a year ago, I wouldn't have emotionally been able to deal with this.

Cheers,

Ash

ps.  This just made me giggle.