Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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Archives for August 2008

Hyper dog – is it because she’s in heat?

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Midnights been really hyper lately. It’s driving us mad.

We’re having a strange summer here. July was hot humid and rainy and now August is rainy and much much cooler than normal. Since it’s cool we’ve got the doors open. I think it’s driving Midnight crazy – maybe she’s smelling other dogs or other animals because while the door is open she runs around the house whining at us to get outside.

She doesn’t do this all day, but she does do it for a good part of the evening and a bit of the afternoon. She was never like this before so I have to think that maybe the confusion of being in Heat has made her a little wrangy. It’s like she’s been given some of those diet pills that hype you up. She barely naps during the day anymore and just runs around like a nut. Not to mention all the extra gas she’s been having lately!

Have you had a dog that experienced heat? Particularly their first heat? Did the dog act differently than normal – maybe a little more hyper, a little more whiny?

Her hyper behavior is making it really hard for me to work on my sites! I’m taking some courses and trying to participate in the 30 day challenge and it’s really hard to keep up with her wanting my attention all the time.

Over the past week she’s seemed a little bit finicky about her food too. Now that’s unusually as normally when we put out her food she runs over and eats it all up. Over the past week she’ll actually hesitate to eat or stop and leave the room in the middle of her meal. Either somethings wrong with her food or she’s feeling off for some reason. Any ideas?





Blaze Media Pro All in one audio and video converter

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Have you ever wished that you had software that could meet all your audio and video editing needs? Well I’ve just been introduced to Blaze Media Pro software and I think you’ll find that it not only meets all of your needs, and has so many features that you’ll never want to use another piece of software to edit your videos or audio files.

Blaze Media Pro allows you to edit your videos and audio files in all of the popular formats such as MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, AVI, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, WMV, iPod, PSP, 3GP and many more. The software includes a full audio and video converter, burner, video capture, audio recorder, data CD/DVD burner, add special effects (there’s a list of 30 special effects that you can use), create and manage playlists and more all in one software application.

I think this software would be great for any bloggers that are thinking of or who already do video or audio podcasts on their sites. Think about it – instead of using two or more programs to edit your video or audio creations you can use just one piece of software. Just imagine how much time you’ll save.

Some of the features that I really like are the ability to extract and save sound files, add audio to video, extract frames to image files in batch mode and the fact that you can create videos from still frame images or by piecing together parts of other videos to create your own awesome movie.

If you want to try out this software you can download a free trial version of Blaze Media Pro. Try it. I’m sure you’ll like it.

Huge propane facility blast in Toronto

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I’ve been sitting here glued to the TV since about noon today. I’ve been watching news updates and footage of the massive explosions that rocked Toronto at approximately 3:50 am this morning. The explosions took place at the Sunrise Propane facility in Downsview.

I happened to be awake at the time of the blasts. I heard noises that I thought were either coming from upstairs or from my neighbors – they’d been moving all their packed boxes around to get ready for their contractor until 1 am this morning and definitely started up at 5 am again this morning … but I think the noises I heard were the blasts.

I mean, people in Aurora and Niagara on the Lake heard and saw the plume of flames from the eruption and I’m a lot closer to the explosion site than they are so that must be the noises I heard.

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Major highways (401 from hwy 400 to Don Valley) are closed in and around the blast area. It’s the biggest road closure this city has ever seen! There are three or four festivals going on in Toronto this weekend (Taste of the Danforth, Beerlicious, and the Chinatown festival) and I’m sure that people going to those festivals as well as trying to travel around the city are being severely affected by the road closures. Subway stations, buses and even one major mall in the area (Yorkdale) were closed down as well.

I even heard that they made an area over the blast site a no fly zone. I’m not sure if that’s still in effect but it was for several hours. I’ll bet this might have even affected people trying to fly in and out of the city between the no fly zone and all the closed major traffic routes.

Approximately 12,000 people in a 1.6 km area near the blast site have been evacuated. This includes my ex-brother-in-law, niece and nephew. I’ve already offered up space in my home to them if they need a place to stay.

Homes and businesses close to the blast site had windows blown out, roofs collapsed, and more than likely there’s structural damage to thousands of buildings. People were knocked right out of their beds.

People witnessed the blast from as far away as Niagara on the Lake (1.5 hours from here) and Aurora (about 50 min drive from here). Some said they thought it was a dirty bomb or nuclear blast. Looking at the footage and photos I can understand why they felt that way as it really looks like a war scene. It reminds me of watching footage of scud missiles hitting targets in Iraq.

This is rated as a 6 alarm fire and the city has gone into emergency response. I’m sure if I was working in the ER today it would be crazy busy! Perhaps not busy due to those injured coming from the blast area, but from ambulances with other ill people being diverted to our hospital.

Surprisingly they aren’t reporting many injuries. News reports say only about 8 people have been taken to local hospitals for minor injuries like cuts and bruises. However one plant worker is missing. It’s believed he was the person who initially saw smoke coming from one of the tanks and called 911. Also, a firefighter was found without vital signs and it’s now been reported that he passed away. I’m not sure what injuries he suffered, perhaps he fell.

My husband also wrote about this massive explosion on his blog. In one post he has a Google map of the area affected by the blast. You might want to take a look at that to get a gist of the size of this! Toronto is the 5th or 6th largest city in North America and between the evacuated areas and major road closures a good portion of our city has been affected.

As I said the blast was from a propane facility. Initially there were evacuating people because they didn’t know if there were toxic chemicals in the air. I believe they now think that any toxic chemicals have burnt off and since propane dispels quickly they don’t think the air is toxic, but people are not allowed to return to their homes and businesses because they are still fighting the fires (trying to prevent a huge tanker full of liquid propane from exploding) and because buildings close to the blast might have major structural damage.

My heart goes out to all of those affected and or displaced by the explosion. If there’s anything I can do please let me know.

The photos that I used in this post were borrowed from the My News section of CTV.ca. You can visit that section of the news site to see more photos and videos sent in my area residents who witnessed the blasts.

Gardening is so easy this year

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I’m very happy with how most of my flowers and plants are doing this year. My plants all seem happy and healthy and with all the rain we’ve had this summer I’ve barely even had to water the garden or lawn. I just have to go out and tidy up the plants when they get unruly every now and then. This may not be a good year for doing summer things thanks to it being wetter than normal, but it’s a perfect year for the garden!

My roses are lovely and flowering much more than normal. This one is called Morden Sunrise:

 

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And these are Liatris or as they are more commonly called “Gayfeather”:

 

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If you have a garden or perhaps even a small flower bed do you think it’s doing better this year than it normally does?

The only real problem I’ve had with my roses is a little powdery mildew. It makes the roses look like they have dried acne medication on their leaves. It’s easyto treat though – just mix a teaspoon or so of baking soda with about a litre of water and spray it on the affected plant. Cures it fast!

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information. GTS participants remember to check in at As the Garden Grows each week so that we’ll know you made a new post!

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