Fleas should be Outlawed

Despite the fact that our cats are kept strictly indoors, they have managed to become the hosts of fleas for the second summer in a row. In turn, we are also covered in bites from those little bitey jerks. I have gone the route of Advantage or Revolution in the past which have both worked wonders but even then, it was quite some time before the little pests were done feasting on us. This year, I decided that I would try something a little more natural because I'm trying to weed out harmful chemicals around here. I have spent many hours searching the net for home remedies for flea removal, and have come up with a few remedies that I have been trying:

1) Amethyst. No one really know why it works, but they swear it does. I picked up a polished stone for $1 at Tribal Voices and I keep it in their water dish. I can't say that it's working, but maybe it's helping. It's not hurting, I can tell you that much.

Right in the water dish!

2) Apple Cider Vinegar. Many people swear that this repels fleas, but I'm not sure that I agree. Our cats have been fed ACV in their wet food for the last year as a preventative against struvite crystals and yet they still have fleas. Indy is a very high-stress cat which causes him to develop crystals and ACV will literally break down the crystals within hours. Honestly, it's incredible how it works for that. Anyway, they have always been given Bragg brand but a few months ago, Mike bought another brand that was more cost effective and Canadian (gotta support the local economy!!). I'm wondering if maybe that brand isn't so effective because not only did they get fleas again, but Indy has been having "issues" with his urine again ever since the fleas arrived. I just started them back on Bragg last night because the other kind ran out. Let's see if this helps! I'll keep you posted.

Grab this at any healh-food store or "natural" section in the grocery store. RCSS sells it in town here.

*I should add that I dabbed full-strength ACV onto my bites using a cotton ball and honestly, no more itchies. The bites were driving me absolutely bonkers until I did that. Amazing, no? On your animals (and probably yourself too) you should use a 50/50 ACV and water solution for itching though as full-strength can burn skin.

3) Table salt. No, seriously. I sprinkle it all over the carpet and rug, mush it in with a hand-held broom (a brush will do) and let it sit for a couple of days. Fleas love to camp out in carpets so when you sprinkle the salt on, they try to eat it and the salt in turn dehydrates and kills the flea. And for less than a dollar a box, you can't go wrong.

4) Vacuuming. Lots and lots and lots and lots of vacuuming. I go real slow, letting that beastly machine get as many fleas as it can. Then I do it again. I really hate fleas. 

5) Blue (plain) Dawn dish soap. It's safe to use on animals (you've probably seen the commercials of the oil spill animals) and kills the fleas almost immediately. I have bathed the cats in it twice in the last couple of weeks and you can see the fleas float off, dead, in the bathwater. I also mix the dish soap with water in a small bowl and set it up under nightlights at night. The light attracts the flea and when they fall into the bowl, the dish soap kills them. Perfect. 

Found it at Dollarama of all places!

6) Spring cleaning in August.  So far this week I've taken all small things out of each bedroom and moved every piece of furniture in order to really deep-clean all of the nooks and crannies. I have also vacuumed the floors like mad and I'm only putting back into the bedrooms what absolutely needs to be in there. The less hiding places for fleas, the better. Trust me. Also, every blanket in the house has been washed and the bedrooms are closed off to the cats until the flea situation calms down. I will get this under control! I tell you! 


**UPDATE! Monday, September 3rd: 
7) Diatomaceous Earth. This was most popular home remedy that I came across for dealing with fleas, but this stuff was not easy to find. Everything that I read about it said I'd find it at any garden center. Well - wrong time of year for garden centers, folks! I checked health food stores, pet stores, and what was left of garden centers (Home Depot, TSC, etc.). No dice. Finally, after driving around for a while looking for the farmers co-op that recently moved, I hit the jackpot: for $36 I got my hands on 50 freaking pounds of the elusive diatomaceous earth. As soon as I got home, I got to work generously sprinkling it all over the bedroom carpet and the rug in the office that seemed to be flea-infested no matter what I did. Then, I tossed some more table salt over top and rubbed it in with a handheld broom (make sure you wear a dust-mask and goggles - it's very messy, and you don't want it in your lungs or eyes!). The combination of diatomaceous earth and salt is apparently the most effective because the d. earth is the consistency of drywall dust, and has a microscopic razor-like surface that gets between the armoured plates of the flea's exoskeleton and slices into their bodies which then allows the salt to dehydrate the little jerks much faster than waiting for them to eat it. It all sounds so scientific. Anyway, I did this two days ago and have only seen two fleas since - one was still alive a couple of hours after application and I found the other one in the bedroom today, dead as can be. I want to vacuum badly but since it appears to be working and I do NOT want to spread more d. earth for at least a few days, I shall leave it for now. It's not harmful to have on the floors either, in fact if the cats happen to have worms from the fleas, ingesting a bit of this (ie grooming) it will actually de-worm them. Nice!

*Important note: there are two kinds of diatomaceous earth - food grade and pool grade. Be sure you get the FOOD GRADE, as the pool grade is highly toxic due to the way it is processed!!

Here's to hoping it works!

Have you ever decided to battle fleas without using nasty chemicals? What did you use, and how well did it work?

Mother/Daughter Road Trip Part 4: NYC, Day #1

I love New York City. If I could marry a city, this would be the one. I dream of having an apartment there one day (c'mon lottery!). There is just something about this metropolis that calls to my heart, and I know I'm far from being the only one who feels this way.

I first discovered my love for NYC when I was 14 years old and on a week long trip with my talent agency to compete at IMTA. I could have been famous... the list of alumni includes Ashton Kutcher, Katie Holmes, Jessica Biel and most importantly: The Stifmeister himself - Sean William Scott. But instead I, ever the ping-pong ball, chose to be a sailor instead (more on that some other time). Trust me - I'm not as big of an idiot as I just made myself seem to be! Anyway, I didn't get a whole lot of time to explore between screen tests, competitions, award dinners, etc. but I did get to see a bit. And let me tell you - what I saw made me instantly smitten. I think it was Times Square that really sold me on the city, as did the people. There are so many people, and they are all so different. You really never know what you'll see in NYC. Okay, enough about the past. I'm here to tell you about NYC in 2012. Onwards:

Fast forward I-don't-want-to-talk-about-how-many years later. I had somehow (although I really doubt how hard it was) convinced my mom that The Big Apple absolutely MUST be on our road trip. Logic of drive-time and routes unfortunately made it our last stop but I was ridiculously thrilled to be going at all.

Searching for a hotel in NYC that wouldn't break the bank or put us in the slums proved to be very difficult, just as I'd suspected. I searched for many hours reading hotel reviews, checking locations on maps, cross-referencing with subway stops, and making sure anything that checked out also had all of the amenities that we required. Finally I found what we were looking for at the Queensboro Hotel in Long Island City, Queens. It was a 10 minute walk to the nearest subway station through a residential neighbourhood, and about 12 minutes from the time you walked onto the train and walked off it in Times Square. The room was pretty tiny and the beds were pretty hard, but I paid $109/night and it was clean, felt safe, had in-room wifi, a fridge, microwave and coffee maker. Plus they served free continental breakfast every morning (only until 9am though - too early for us night-owls) and free off-street parking. I would definitely recommend the Queensboro Hotel to anyone willing to sacrifice a bit of time, space and bed comfort. Besides - when you're in NYC the last thing you'll be doing is sleeping or hanging out in your hotel room.

Mom and I weren't sure how much we were going to end up using the subway so we purchased a 7-day MetroCard for $29 each which gave us unlimited subway rides 24/7. As it turns out, we didn't take the subway as much as we thought, we just ended up spending more time in one location for most of the day as opposed to the city-wide tours we intended on having. Whether or not I'd get another pass would depend on how long I were staying for and where I were staying. And as a note - the MTA is actually SO easy to navigate and runs so often that you'll rarely wait more than a few minutes for the next train. It's much more efficient than the horrifying TTC in Toronto.

If you're going to be headed to NYC, make sure you check out the New York Pass, an all-in-one pass to over 70 top-rated attractions. I purchased a 3-day pass for each of us, but I swear you'd need at least a week to do it all (challenge accepted)! It was SO HOT during our entire vacation that this gave us the added bonus of escaping the suffocating heat into air conditioned bliss that wasn't crowded by loiterers that were in every store.

But seriously, enough rambling. Here are some of the things we saw/did on the first full day in Manhattan:

1) When it's nasty-hot, either FDNY or the city (not sure which) does this:

Genius, no?

2) Ripley's Believe it or Not! is always a good time (and free with our New York Passes!).

3) So is Madame Tussaud's New York, right next-door. We got to "meet" the likes of Bob Marley, Princess Diana, Will & Kate, Morgan Freeman, Brad & Angie and many more. Wax museums are actually super awesome (even more so when they are free with the New York Pass). Just sayin'. 

4) Spy The Exhibit is seriously one of the most interesting exhibits I've ever visited. I learned a lot about the techniques that spies, both past and present, use to pass information while keeping their identity a secret. A LOT more goes on around us than we would ever realize. That's pretty badass. Kinda wish I were a spy. Kinda.
*Also free with New York Pass

5) Cake Boss Cafe is pretty disappointing in appearance, but the desserts (at least the ones we tried) are really freaking good. This place is set in a cafeteria-like setting in the basement of Discovery Times Square and is ridiculously overpriced so it's very clear that it's mainly a tourist trap. Not to mention, the staff didn't appear to know how to wipe down a table. However!!!! The Tiramisu and Lobster Tail are SO GOOD (and SO PRETTY). I died and went to pastry heaven, especially after trying the Lobster Tail. Just get it to go if you must :-)

Mmmm Cake Boss Tiramisu

6) After visiting Spy The Exhibit and the Cake Boss Cafe, we came out onto the street to a ridiculous thunderstorm. There was a mad dash for umbrellas, while some people were busting out those plastic ponchos and others were fashioning rain suits out of wet umbrella bags. Cops were playing "bouncers" at some of the bigger stores like Disney just to make sure things didn't get out of hand. It was ridiculous. But it looked cool:

Times Square at about 3pm. Crazy storm made it crazy dark!

7) M&Ms World in Times Square. Need I say more?

8) Olive Garden in Times Square. Delicious peach bellinis and Ravioli di Portobello, so-so salad, tasteless breadsticks, miserable hosts and bartenders and crappy service. Once we got our meals, we didn't even see the server once. No making sure everything was good, no drink refills, nothing at all. We had been finished eating for over 20 minutes before I went to search for someone to get our server to bring us our bill. It was tempting to just walk out but - aside from not wanting to get into trouble - I wanted to take my meal to go for later as I hadn't even eaten 1/2 of it. I would not go back and I would not recommend, mostly based on service and cleanliness of washrooms (they were a hold-your-nose-and-hover kinda deal).

9) The Empire State Building is a must for everyone who visits NYC. The view from 86 stories up is stunning. We chose to go up just because that's how it worked out. Am I ever glad we did. There is just something about city lights at night. Check it out:
*Noteworthy: Had we waiting until the following night, we could have been serenaded by a classical saxophone player who plays every Thursday - Saturday night from 10pm-1am.

Times Square as seen from the Empire State Building. So damn pretty.

And that just about wraps up our first full day in NYC. Hopefully you discovered a thing or two while reading this slightly longer than usual post. I told you I had a lot to share! Day #2 to follow ASAP.

Indy thought he'd help me proof-read (sorry - it's pretty dark). If anything is messed up, it's all his fault.

In a Nutshell

Well,  I haven't posted since Monday, but I've just been so busy... you know.... living my life and being all awesome and stuff. It's time consuming, just for the record. Anyway, if you'd like to see what I've been up to this week, read on:

1) I was reminded yesterday how much I love swimming. I spent some time swimming and floating my troubles away at a super-elite swimming hole, complete with waterfalls, "jacuzzis" and a lazy river. No, I'm not telling you where it is ;-) 

But I will give you a tiny peek. So pretty, no?

2) I'm actually kind of mad at the central air right now. I've been outside enjoying the heat for the last few days, feeling it go from sweltering to super-relaxing as the sun got lower in the sky, so the central air was a giant slap in the face when I got home from Paradise last night. So sue me.

3) I became friends with the chipmunk from last week. Now he needs a name other than "Chippy". Suggestions?

Great success!

Billy Goat chipmunk

  

4) Discovered: great patio with amazing food, right downtown Campbellford. If you've never been to Capers, you HAVE to go. The first server who saw us was probably a witch or something because she was miserable and made no effort to hide it, basically calling us morons for wanting to sit on the patio in "this heat" and then ignored us when we sat outside anyway. However, our second server was amazing, so friendly and chatty and attentive despite being busy. I wish I got their names but I failed at that. First server = older curmudgeonly Mormon-looking woman, second server = young and bubbly and cute. That's all I've got, good luck. But seriously, don't let my witch-talk get in the way of your taste buds.

You. Must. Go. Here.

5) This summer, my mom and I are taking a road trip through the North-Eastern States. Major points on our route are: 

• Burlington, VT
• Portland (with a side-trip to Rockland), ME
• Boston, MA 
• NYC 
• Possibly Watertown, NY at the end, if needed

After asking everyone for some tips on where to go and what to do in these cities, one of my friends (who lives in Maine) sent me THE greatest tour-guide email, full of great tips on where to eat and what to see and do while visiting her state.  Having locals give you their insider information is genius. Just sayin'. If her tips play out favourably, I will let you know!

6) When you light cattails on fire, they smoke. If you wave smokey cattails around while being assaulted by various asshole flies, said flies piss right off. Although, I don't recommend going and setting any fires just because I said something on fire was cool, because I'm not taking responsibility for anyone starting forest fires or some shit. 

Bye bye buggies

Yup, I think that's about the extent of my week. Until next time! 

Crayfish & Bucket Lists

My week has been amazing for far and it isn't even Friday yet.

So there. 

It all started with a cottage adventure on Monday night with a few good friends for a mini-birthday party. We wore flower leis, danced to 90's music, and drank a few too many. We made s'mores with giant marshmallows and Reese peanut butter cups, and lit a ridiculous amount of citronella candles to keep away the mosquitoes (it worked). Then things get a little fuzzy...

Lots and lots of fire oooooo

... I woke up the next morning, after having passed out (1st to pass out apparently) with my lei still around my neck and my drink beside me on the night stand. My big bottle of vodka was almost empty and there was a paper bag on a roosters head, which I'm certain ties in with the video that I discovered on my phone of one of my girlfriends leading a discussion on male-roosters and their human body-part name-sharers. I think it may have been a good night, judging by the aftermath.  Once everyone was up and moving, we went for breakfast and then for a drive to some waterfalls where we skipped rocks and played with crayfish.

Click on the picture to get a better view of "Pinchy"

 Back at the cottage, I found a chipmunk that I was determined to become friends with and tried to bribe him with peanuts. Chippies might actually be the cutest little creatures of life: 

GIMMETHENUTSWOMAN!!

Trying to lure him inside... shh!!

Eventually we had to head back to reality, and when I arrived there, I found a message from an old friend that contained a ridiculous picture of me from back in the good ole sailing days. 

Me at 16, doing what I loved most :-

I really was innocent at one point in my life (although this picture probably does not represent such a time).

Since we were headed to Canada's Wonderland the next day, and Mike had to work in Barrie disgustingly early in the morning, we decided at the last minute to head up that way for the night. We didn't end up checking into the hotel until 11pm, but it was worth the extra sleep-time that I knew I was gunna need for dominating an amusement the following day. 

And dominate I did.

After Mike finished work, we checked out of the hotel and made our way to Wonderland to celebrate another birthday. Being mid-week during the school year, the park wasn't overly busy. The longest line that we waited in was 20 minutes, and that was for the brand new roller coaster Leviathan. We took advantage of the short lines and rode as many rides as we could, including a water-ride (which soaked us). And the best part of my day was when I got to cross something off my bucket list: I finally found enough people to tackle the Xtreme Skyflyer with me. It. Was. AWESOME. I'm officially going to take on as many of them as I can. And you should too!

Waiting in our "x-ray gear" to be hauled up 170ft and dropped to the ground at over 100kms/hr.

All in all, it was a busy and excellent few days, and the next few are sure to be just as good. 

Today, I am on a mission to find a fun DIY project to start.... any suggestions?