The past few Weekends in Review + our unexpected hiatus

I've had a bit of a hiatus from updating this blog because our dog was hit by a car.  Poseidon's going to be fine, but we've still got 6 weeks to go before we get full clearance from our vet that is broken arm has fully healed.  He hasn't been impressed with our insistence that he wear his cone of shame (although he's been trying to style it more like a cape).

Prior to his accident, we were enjoying the Ottawa winter and were exploring our local dog park with our good friend Susie and her blonde sidekick Simba (aka Poseidon's canine bff).  Simba is a 5 year old golden retriever who loves being chased and is starting to tolerate Poseidon's enthusiasm.

The morning of the accident, at Poseidon's insistence, we were out of the house at 8 am, we managed to brew ourselves some coffee, picked up some cookies at Bread and Roses Bakery, and the continued on our way to the river path.  That's when we spotted this monster of a contraption breaking up the ice. 

It was pretty loud and menacing looking, but it did a great job of breaking the ice.  The 'claw' arm would haul the body of the boat (is it a boat?) up onto the ice, and the weight of the boat would crack the ice.  The purpose of breaking up the ice is to prevent homes further up the waterway from experiencing floods in the spring time.  If they just waited for the top ice to melt, it would take too long and many people would have flooded basements, so they blow up the ice literally every year.

The machine was pretty cool, but the dog park beckoned, so we didn't stay too long.  After a good 20 minute romp with another golden retriever (Poseidon isn't exactly loyal to his go to canine pals, he's ready to play with anyone who is game, sorry Simba), we continued down to the Rideau Falls where all that flowing water was gushing.

In the meantime, we've been hanging out with Poseidon in our mudroom, trying to keep him entertained and limit the amount of movement he insists is minimum.  He's been enjoying an unusual amount of treats, chew toys and belly rubs.  This past Wednesday he finally had his stitches removed and was de-caped.  The vet says that he's in very good shape and that he expects him to be 100% in 6 weeks.  Yay!

Thomas' dad came up for a visit and we took advantage of his visit to go out and celebrate St Paddy's day in the Market.  We stopped in at our ever trusty hang out The Brig.  Thomas managed to order a green beer (pictured beside the Guinness below, I'm not sure if you can see its tint), and we considered our civic duty fulfilled.

On the topic of civic duties, we also needed to replace our toilet.  Our toilet in the basement gave up after/during the keg party, and the the toilet upstairs started giving us trouble too, so Thomas and his dad rolled up their sleeves and replaced it.  Here's the before picture, we'll try to post an after picture next week.