Friday Cats Blogging

Colors

Yesterday I inadvertently traumatized myself by wearing brown shoes with gray pants. I thought that the pants were brown - they looked brown under the available light and I went with that they were brown, they were most sincerely not brown.

I looked like a People of Walmart all day. Not a good look, and then later, I sneezed all over myself and discoved hat my nose was bleeding! I doscovered this on a red sweater so that was marginally better than discovering it on a white shirt, but only marginally because it was a bright red sweater and not  a blood red sweater. It wasn't, it is now.

Such a super awesome day. For today, I checked that my pants were absolutely the color that I thought they were, absolutely gray and that they matched my shoes, it is important. The day was better from the start.

 I need to be more careful when I go pants shopping that I don't buy in the inbetween family of shades, I think that was the problem. I think the pants were kind of both brownish and grayish in the wrong light and that is fine when you are trying to match a printed sweater it is not fine when you are wearing the wrong shoes. You think I am over reacting here, but I'm not! You spend the day in brown pants and gray shoes and you tell me how you feel about yourself by the end of the day? It is not going to be good, I can tell you that.

Being a walking Fashion Don't is embarrassing even if a grand total of no one sees you and fewer that than that even register that you have made this mistake - because you notice for them and that is almost worse! I went to Wally dressed like that but nobody noticed because half of them were talking to themselves and the other half were wearing pajamas - No joke at all. A lot of people talk to themselves at Wally and a bunch of people feel comfortable wearing their pajamas to go shopping at the Wal-Mart.  I haven't noticed it at my Wally, but that the Garner Wally, a lot of the clients are pajama clad  and bonkers. For real. The Knightdale Wally the clientele are poor but proud, wearing street clothes and keeping their mouths shut. Whatever their psychosis is, they keep it to themselves.

I think I also go to Wal-Mart too frequently.

Did List

Still to do :
-one more cookies batch
-cookies distributed into bags
-cookie ingredient stickers made three tries to get the spelling right!
-dog to Santa Petco and Petsmart, Petco the card contest this year
-dog cards made cute!
-boxes purchased
-cookies boxed, with dog cards and Christmas cards
- card labels to be inputted from hard copy to computer and then printed out
-  corrected cards to envelopes and labeled and stamped
- cookies labeled
-cards, cookies mailed two trips!
- gifts wrapped


Done. So now I'm watching Pitch Perfect 2 on regular TV and being really glad I didn't watch it on Netflix because I am not enjoying it as much as I thought I would. I thought I would be more into it than I am. I am just not that into a capella girl groups or a capella. I thought I would be, but I'm not, I don't get it. Its not that interesting. Maybe I should have seen PP1. It just seems a lot of sound and fury about contemporary choir music. Its essentially about a  girl group singing covers of pop songs.

Is it supposed to be making fun of the High School Musical/Glee/That other movie series - because I would be down with that, I hated those and that would be really fun. However, they take themselves entirely too seriously for that. They are entirely up their own asses in a very not humorous way.

I really like the cast members though, here and there. Not all of them. Some of them, and when you get tired of the principles its kind of a game of "spot the guest star", and while that is fun, you shouldn't be spending the whole movie doing that, its not nice. I will not seeing Pitch Perfect 3.

Got Done List

Still to do :
-one more cookies batch
-cookies distributed into bags
-cookie ingredient stickers made three tries to get the spelling right!
-dog to Santa Petco and Petsmart, Petco the card contest this year
-dog cards made cute!
-boxes purchased
-cookies boxed, with dog cards and Christmas cards
- card labels to be inputted from hard copy to computer and then printed out
-  corrected cards to envelopes and labeled and stamped
- cookies labeled
-cards, cookies mailed two trips!
- gifts wrapped

I got so much done! ( and some yet to do) I thought I had it all done right up until I was getting the last couple of bags ready for my last two cookie people and it came to my attention that I had two more people who were without cookies. I kind of knew about one of the parties but I had forgotten about the other. I had really hoped to be done with cookies. I'm not done with cookies.

These at least do not have to be mailed, they are in town cookies and they are going to be just one variety - probably cheese because it is the easiest to work with and to get my hands on. The recipe makes two trays of cookies, one tray for one dog, one tray for the other. I hope it will be adequate.

I still have to mail rando cards to the vet and a couple of people on FB that I don't have addresses for yet, but I'm going to ask for - but I'm mostly done. Its down to gift wrapping and a couple of gift cards. I even got the people at work taken care of and that wasn't even on my To Do list, water bottles, .88 a pop, too good to pass up. Now I just have to clean the house and get the upstairs ready for new windows.

Friday Cats Blogging

Better get Done List.

Hello!

I checked my list and what was not on there was "edit cards", well, I did that. I sat there and cut a hundred pieces of black tape into tiny little pieces and covered a mistake on my cards. So fun. But that's done now. I also finished putting my card list onto the computer, back where it belongs and then put it onto a thumb drive. I now of course have thought up a couple of more people I want to send cards to who are not on my list. I will waste state resources on them.

Then cards and labels have to become as one. Then stamped. Then mailed. I would like to do this at the same time I mail off the cookies. Are the cookies ready to be mailed? No. Am I finished baking the cookies? No. Should I be? Yes. How many more do I need to get done? One.

Do I have boxes yet? No. Do I have enough stamps yet? No. Do I have bags in which to put the cookies? No.

Now I have to find my labels from last year and go to a Kinkos, preferably not one near a college campus - are there such animals? and print out my labels. But. There is still the dogs cards that have to be taken care of, that means at least one trip to Santa for the dog. Have I done that yet? No.

Then a trip to a CVS or Walgreens and a card, then . Have I already decided that I am going to do all of the above THIS WEEKEND. Yes.

To-Do list

I'm back. Sorry. SO much to get done. The holidays literally snuck up on me and now I have four things to get done simultaneously and I am not good at multitasking .

What I am good at as it turns out, is napping with the pets. This evening for example I took a nap with the Big kitty, at first I was doing off watching him also napping across the room and I was thinking just how pretty he is, how smooth and round and even he is. I was thinking how much like a Japanese ink drawing he looks... and I fell asleep completely.

I woke up, an hour later - so wrong, with the same cat curled up in my arms! This is not a cat that just curls up in arms! It was so nice. I felt very special and I am pretty much the only person in his life, its hard to be more special than that, and it still made me feel like I won the lottery.

Eventually, he remembered that he had other places to be and I saw that the dog seemed very lonley on the couch and I was still a little tired - what it was only 8:30, and I went to go see him. He was very open to a joint nap.

I didn't just nap the evening away, I also decorated the tree. as much as it is getting decorated. I put my yarn ball garland on the tree and it looks lovely. So Pinterest it hurts, but lovely.

It is showing its age a little, yarn does not age well in the raw, but it still looks nice,

Before

 After

Today at lunch I mailed my elf his ornement . Next summer I am absolutely going to remember to do the hand off while I am still there. It was very spendy to send a .99 ornament in a .50 box to the great white north. Wow. The box felt like it was full of air and I felt like they charged me for at least three pounds of dog food.

Still to do :
-one more cookies batch
-cookies distributed into bags
-cookie ingredient stickers made
-dog to Santa
-dog cards made
-boxes purchased
-cookies boxed, with dog cards and Chrsitmas cards
- card labels to be inputted from hard copy to computer and then printed out
-  corrected cards to envelopes and labeled and stamped
- cookies labeled
-cards, cookies mailed
- gifts wrapped

Jeebus. Posting will be sporadic.

Friday Cats Blogging

Freezing

Instead of rushing home and walking the dog, first time this week! I rushed home yesterday to... go and buy a new freezer! Dramatic and sexy no?

First I went to "Discount Appliances R We" and they didn't have any. Lots of used stoves and refrigerators, I had wondered what they had in there, but no used box freezers. NEXT

Then I went to Best Buy. I bought my washer and dryer there and got a good deal and thought lightning might strike twice, they didn't have any in the store but offered to look online to see what they had on their site. Super I said, lets do that. They had exactly hat I wanted for $99! Exactly what I wanted for exactly what I wanted to pay! What could be better? Well. It would be better if they actually had the freezer they reeled me in with.

Other than the ideal freezer, that they did NOT have, anywhere in the state, they had a smaller one - the one I want is a 5 foot. This is smaller than it sounds, it is very small. It is about as small as you would want a freezer to be before you are dealing with a lunch bag. The next freezer they had was more expensive and essentially, a lunch bag .

I was annoyed and I left.

Onto Lowes. They, of course, had exactly what I wanted. But not for what I wanted I pay. Here it was $129 - not the worst news ever, however, if you wanted them to deliver, they tack an additional $79 on to the total. That does make it too much. If I lived in a newer house and it wasn't going into the basement I would try to heft the 79 pound beast myself, however, I don't and it does.

They charge for everything now! They are like the airlines! You buy the product, you pay for delivery and then you pay for installation! The nerve! I would totally think very hard about buying  a major appliance from them in the future. That's just entirely to many add-ons to the purchase. Why is the consumer paying for these services? hose should be just part of the service that they provide.

I don't know what has happened in the last few years but whatever it is  complete bull shit. The last place I bought that sort of thing was Best Buy and it might have to be my first stop from now on. Even with the bait and switch freezer bullshit.

We see something and we are saying something

I didn't have an entry yesterday. I was making dog cookies - four batches down two to go, listening to Christmas carols on Spotify, , isn't that just the best thing since sliced bread? And I finally got them into the oven to dry and I was tired . It was late, I had TV to watch and to be honest, I didn't feel like writing an entry so I didn't.

I didn't have anything to  say so I just didn't. I watched Fixer Upper, I don't like them very much and I would rather never spend time in Waco - Spoiler, it isn't really a nice town and it isn't cute. For real. Its not. Don't be fooled. And I had totally missed Precinct 99 or whatever its called, who knew Andre Braugher could be funny? Who knew that stick that Detective Frank Pembelton had so firmly up his ass on HLOTS was a misplaced funny bone?

I had things I needed to get done.

And then today we wake up and just about every guy on TV is suddenly a perve. That Today Show guy, what the hell?  "Where in the World is..." Now we know why they sent him out to the middle of nowhere - To get him out of the God Damned studio and away from the female staff! The guy was a walking HR video. And NBC does not deserve any credit for firing his hansey ass for "his first offence", apparently according to the article in Variety, he's famous his misuse of women. "Everybody" knew about him and no one did a God Damned thing.  "First offence" nothing, "first time the women went to Variety instead of your do nothing management team". You want to stop articles like this from appearing? DO SOMETHING before the victims have no other choice than to go to the ENTERTAINMENT PRESS to get their story told.

And what about Lake Wobegone guy? I thought he stepped down months ago anyway? And WTF? I saw on Jezebel, home of the Hair trigger guilty white liberal babe  a posting from a woman who had worked on PHC that he was a letch and a scum bag from way, way back and she was not at all surprised. But also, home of the hair trigger,  guilty, white liberal so "letch and scum bag" may or may not be accurate or it may be perfectly apt, hard to tell with that site. But its odd that there has been nothing, no comment no explanation.

What told all these men it was okay to be this way? I never worked with men who acted like this, I worked with a respiratory therapist who never passed up a chance to look down my blouse, so I stopped wearing blouses that could be looked down, that slime ball,  but The Today Show guy got naked in front of co-workers and gave them sex toys! I would have gone screaming to EVERYBODY if a male co-worker got naked and made a demand.

But we smile and wear blouses that button up higher, I had blouses I had to tape closed to make them "safe". When I think about it, that doesn't sound great, I should have told HR, who I also really, really disliked. I knew he did it to everyone because I was warmed about him and his peeping from one of my friends. The Whispers they talk about. Soon after that the facility closed and everyone got scattered to the winds. He's out there looking down blouses.

Post Thanksgiving

And so I did all the stuff over the break! I bought Christmas prezzies and now my list js almost done! You don't just go to the mall to go shopping, you go to mall for inspiration! Day-after-Thanksgiving-shopping is not just for propping up retain, its for being part of our society as a whole. Wre spend entirely too much time finding new and better ways to separate ourselves from each other - for good reason! A lot of us are miserable creatures that do the rest of us a disservice  just by walking among the more decent among us.

However. The mall is a great equalizer. We all love The Gap! We all need something for that  loved one that all we really know for sure about their tastes  is that they love orange and only wear natural fibers - but not cotton because they read something online one time about how cotton doesn't "wick" or some nonsense and now you buy this person a calendar featuring puppies every year. Everyone has this person. We share this douchebag.

 I made three batches of dog cookies and now only have three left, I made the dog cookie list - almost as hard as making the cookies. Its hard ya'll! Who gets cookies, who does not some people get cut because the list gets too long and I can't make cookies for the world year after year. I tried to get the list culled a bit but people got added - a cousin here, a neighbor there. I did manage to cut a neighbor I added last year because I haven't actually spoken to them in a year so off they go! I need to have standards.

For all my Up With People Joy To The Mall talk, I didn't actually buy anything at the mall. I bought everything I bought online and I bought a lot. A lot. I bought myself a lovely Christmas sweater and some make up but I don't think that counts.

And then I sat down to write this and I grabbed my mouse and it doesn't work! I replace the battery. Nada. I pull out the widget and put it back in, Nada, I restart the computer. Nada. The mouse is dead. I can use the mouse gizmo on the laptop but I don't like the mouse gizmo on the laptop! I want my mouse back! I don't think I can wait for Santa for this.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! a little early

And because I had never seen it before and it reminded me of the "On hands and knees!" instructions that my family will recognize, I present Marneys Thanksgiving Letter  so that we may all be thankful that we do not have to eat dinner with this woman.

Monday

I have discovered that dozing with the dog on the couch is a very time consuming task. He's just so amenable to it! He's warm and squishy but solid . He is what I imagine those really expensive mattresses are like. I've never tried to balance a glass of wine on him but I bet it wouldn't spill after he had been a sleep for a while. I have however never bounced on him, I don't think he would like that. I think that would result in spillage. And  an unhappy dog, why would I intentionally make my dog unhappy?

But besides being incredibly comfortable and warm and lovely and all kinds of positive, couching with the dog is  also a  terrible time suck. I think I'm only going to hang out there for a few seconds and the next thing I know its been thirty-five minutes or more! It's the or more! that is very concerning and troubling, its really bad to say you are going to go and just lay down for a second or so and the next thing you know its been much more than a second or so - and its that "or so" that becomes entirely too long. It is for that reason that I am forbidden from doing  this in the morning, I don't even look at him on the couch because it is such a strong urge to go and curl up with him. I don't have a spare "or so" to burn in the morning.

In the evenings when I do have a lot more "or so's" I go to see if he will let me curl up with him because sometimes he doesn't want to share space on the couch, he can be in a mood, and he will get up and go elsewhere and that makes me feel really unloved , I mean if your dog doesn't even want to hang out with you, what kind of person are you? But then, what kind of dog have you raised?  It can really mess up my evening - right up until he needs to go pee and remembers who opens the door around here.

But if he doesn't need to pee,  I can always get him though. I just pull out the blanket and he is drawn in like a moth to a flame or a weim to a comforter. All of a sudden he wants to curl up on  my lap, he wants to be my friend, he wants to spend time with me his best friend ever. And I let him do it, every single time because I am sooooo easy.

Weekend

I was supposed to start writing this a half hour ago but then I fell down the Amazon wish list list hole and shit happens. All I wanted to do was add a couple of things to mine and do some housekeeping before I set it loose in the wild and that made me go look at other peoples wish lists and made me wish that they would do some house keeping on theirs: You put this on there in 2011? Do you still want Foie Gra?  or Is that the only genre you read? Really? Its crap! Widen your horizons!. Then I looked at mine, I need a new car charger for my phone, I could also use another charger for work and I think I want slippers to live under my desk at work. I want to help Santa help me.

Saturday I had a good day hanging out with the fam and the dog ate my lunch bag. A visit to my wish list and a new add. Sunday, I went to The Sunday Supper , I went to the first supper last fall after Matthew and it was very nice and they raised 189K! in an afternoon. This time they weren't raising money, but they were announcing that the one time event was now a real fund raising concern that had registered with the IRS and has a board of directors and a business plan and goals and everything.

Among their goals is to spread the joy, they want by the end of 2018 to have 10 more cities have one of the dinners. So far there have been three in NC, one in Kinston, that was underwater last fall.

I think I'm not quite the mover and shaker that the even was planned around, it was also a thank you for the volunteers for the meal last fall. I was just a diner at the meal, but I did buy a couple of tee-shirts and I am now talking them up.

If you are looking for a fund raiser for a large problem or you want to help the hungry, a Sunday Supper might be your solution, go to the site, give them a call and they will help you with the logistics.

Friday Cats Blogging

Fun days in the neighborhood.

Did you know that if you get shot in Raleigh and the police can't find who did it, they sit vigil in front of your house? Two cars with lights on 24-7? Yeah, I didn't know either until a guy a block over got shot.  From WRAL

James Rowland, 48, was rushed for medical treatment to WakeMed after he was shot in the 200 block of South Tarboro Street just after 7 p.m. A motive in the shooting was not immediately disclosed. And police have not said if anyone has been arrested in connection with the case.

Police asked anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at 919-843-4357.

 I don't know what they will do if he dies, possibly sit shiva for him, I don't know...  From WRAL

A man wounded in a Tuesday night shooting in Raleigh has died, police said Thursday.James Dermont Rowland, 48, was shot in the 200 block of South Tarboro Street. He was taken to WakeMed, where he died.No other information has been released.Anybody with information about the shooting is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 919-843-4357

  And shiva it is. He hadn't lived there long, there was a woman in that house but she left and he moved in, but I don't know when, it could have been this weekend, either he or one of his neighbors just moved in, I saw the truck this weekend. I wasn't home when it happened. I think if he got shot in his yard I would have heard the gunshots. I know I would have heard the sirens.

 I was at Wally, No, I wasn't. I was leaving for Wally at that time and I didn't hear gunshots or the sirens because they hadn't happened yet. I saw the after effects,I only saw the lights from the cops, the ambulance would have already left. I thought it was an accident, a big accident, maybe one that had just happened. Something had just happened but it wasn't an accident. And I absolutely garundamntee you that someone knows who shot that man. Someone knows. A lot of someones knows.

People do not get shot on accident in this neighborhood. There hasn't been a murder in years and that was sad too, some poor man was murdered ( hit over the head with a large bottle, blunt force trauma.) because the neighborhood thugs thought he looked "rich", he just looked "dapper", so they killed him. And then left the body in front of a house that had just sold for 400k.  All that money and police tap around your yard and the police at your door! Wheeee! Of course, those people the thugs didn't bother. The actual rich people.

I  was sitting on the chair watching nothing on TV and I saw the dog curled up on the couch like he is in the morning when  I don't dare go near him, but this time? It was not in the morning and I was like "Hmm. I see no good reason why I can't go curl up with him now.

And so I did. I muted the TV and went to the couch and curled up  around him and it as exactly like I thought it would be. It was so perfect and warm and soft and puppy lovey that I fell a little asleep and then I woke up and I was a little, okay , a lot concerned that it had  gone from the night before to the day of and I came up with a lot of reasons why I should not be curled up with the dog right now.

Fortunately, it was still the night before.

I was now very awake, he needed to pee and since it was not hours later than I had thought it was, I needed to do all the little jobs I didn't do because I fell asleep when I was curled up with him and so I took him out and did my boring little jobs and got ready for tomorrow and he went back to sleep.

Pillow Pet

Today as I was napping on the dog - the best pillow ever. Soft and warm and supportive, a pillow that excels in all ways a pillow can excel in - with the added benefit that it actually loves you. Rocket is the best pillow ever.

I have tried to get my family to try out the best pillow ever. - because I don't have much, but I do want to share what I have and what I have is TBPE, however,  I don't know if TBPE wants to be shared, I don't know if he will be TBPE for people who are not me. I'm not positive that he will do this trick for other people. Or if other people really want to use him as a pillow, I mean he is, technically, a "dog" and he is covered with "dog fur" . I don't see this a problem because I am also covered with dog fur and so is everything I own including the cats, but others may not be so sanguine. They might demand a pillow case. I don't think he would go for that.

"Oh, are you going to lie down? Okay, I'll send the dog in. No, he's going to be your pillow! No, he's great at it! But you are going to have to nap on the chaise, because that's the best place for him to be a pillow, everywhere else he doesn't do it as well. No?  But the chaise is very comfortable! Just lay down with him for a second... He is mostly clean!" He is the softest, warmest, best pillow I have in the house! I promise you will sleep better with him that with a regular pillow! What if I try to put a pillow case on him?".

How about the Pillow as a trick? He likes performing. I don't think he would sleep on command but maybe?

But let's say he would.

I can't imagine getting to him to do it on command, however, he is very, very food motivated, He will do anything for food. He might even sleep for food: "Okay, boy, Go to sleep! Go to sleep! Curl up!, Good Boy! Now I'm going to curl up with him, and try to drift off. I need silence and total darkness for this. Okay? Thanks!"

 It's not a good bar trick. I don't travel with a couch, and I don't think watching us sleep would be very compelling under the best of circumstances. And we would still lose to a one eyed  rescued terrier cross that  yipped whenever it heard sound.

But, damn, he makes a good pillow! I wish others could experience the wonder of the Rocketillow. He's warm and soft but still firm and supportive. He almost forces you to go to sleep! Every single time I say "Oh, look at him being all pillowish, I think I'll just  see how long he'll tolerate me taking advantage of this", the next thing I know the evening is suddenly over, I have gotten nothing done and suddenly it is very late. Maybe this is calling. He was born to be a pillow pet.

Monday

And I'm back!

Blogger was very blogged up and I tried to post Thursday and it didn't let me at all, and I tried really hard, and Friday was a holiday and so I took it off and now I'm back!

I celebrated by starting my Christmas shopping! I got an early start and have a grand total of two gifts! Whooooo! Out of  a whole bunch!  So really, not much progress there at all! I do however have my Christmas cards done and that does make me feel good about myself.

I do not have any dog cookies baked nor do I have my official dog cookie list made up yet. I told myself a fairy tale once upon a time that now that I had a freezer that I would dutifully make one  batch of cookies per month year round so I would not have to make multiple batches all at one time ever again. Yeah, about that.  I'm going to make multiple batches all at one time, probably at a few times. Super awesome, Merry Christmas to me!

But it isn't even Christmas yet. It is Thanksgiving!  And it it isn't even Thanksgiving yet at that. I won't mention that I bought a really neat new house lighter upper at Sams' today that is even more neat than my last years neat-o house lighter upper because this years version the colors are much better and brighter. I'm going to use last years version on the part of the house blocked by the tree. Wheeeeee!

Wednesday

Why did the dog need to eat the Kleenex box that was sitting on the table next to the chair? Its been sitting there, the Kleenex box, that is, not the  table, for a good year - since I was sick and I needed a Kleenex box at hand at all times. It did its job and has been resting comfortably since then.

No one, including me, has been near it since then.. Today, I went upstairs to change clothes and the dog went with me because he always comes with me, and after I shouted at him a couple of times, he realized that I was not going to let him eat out of the cat's litter box or their dishes, Gawd I am the biggest bitch ever! And that he was going to have to spend the whole nest five minutes sleeping on his bed or my bed or really doing anything that was not eating out of the forbidden cat box or cat bowls -, got annoyed and went downstairs in a doggy huff,  where he took out his frustration by eating the box but not the kleenex because why would he eat the kleenex? He had just had a very good meal and a breath freshener for dessert.

I think he may be annoyed that I bought him a new Santa suit today that may inadvertently look like a bit like a NSFW Santa suit as it looks a bit like he's wearing assless chaps! Its the New Santa for 2017, This year he wears pants!

Tuesday

I took Rocket in for his yearly teeth cleaning and physical. It cost me $500. My yearly teeth cleaning and physicall, did not cost me that much.

I also did not need to be put under general anesthetic .That was a big part of it. That's spendy. He also got a needed vaccine and a pedicure and  his yearly blood work with is also spendy. His insurance should cover the dentistry and the bloodwork and hopefully some of the incidentals... He was according the staff, a very good boy.

We did not go for a walk when we came home because it was misting and he was still trying to sleep off the last bits of the procedure.

I understand his teeth were in fairly good shape, even the broken one in front I thought they were going to have to pull - they didn't! Wheee! Although they did find random bits of fabric and non-specified jelly like "goop" between his teeth. Goop. I just don't even want to know. I do know that the goop and fabric smelled like the worst odor you can imagine. I could have used it to peel wall paper. It almost made me gag.

I have been assured that his breath is much improved and to keep it that way, they sold me some borderline prescription doggy breath mints.

Monday

I was very good I came home, changed shoes and took the dog for a walk. It wasn't even twenty after four yet.  I came home,  five-thirty, and made dinner for myself and dog and then just kind of sat there.

There was a whole lot more time left then there usually is. I watched my NYPD -Blue rerun. I started watching again, it the first season and I really like that one. I like the Simone years but I detest the whiney woman he hooked up with and she was such a PITA. He could have done so much better! The last seven or eight seasons were good but they played musical second bananas and that got old. Ricky Schroeder was a walking set of ticks looking for a character, and then there was a bunch of  cop chicks filing through and they kept changing they Leutnant  .  It was kind of a mess.

Thank Gawd for the fast forward feature and Dennis Franz.

Because I suddenly have all this time, I started work on my Christmas cards. Normally, I may have started on these, say, last September but I didn't. I started on them in November. I have a few contender pictures. All almost identical, but very slightly different. I still have to decide if I want to try out Wally or if I want to invest in the cards, its going to depend on if I can find a good deal. I would much rather invest than go Wally. I've gone Wally on things I should have invested in and the outcome was not the best. However, Christmas cards aren't a long term investment, I don't know....

I now have to start on the cookies. But first I have to clean the kitchen.

Weekend.

Saturday. Saturday I did no-thing Less than nothing. I got up very late, I got dressed, I did walk the dog so that my fitbit wouldn't completely hate me and then after that, I sat on the chair with a sleeping dog and watched a Cabin Masters Marathon and that was pretty much it until it was time for bed. I also ate cold leftover pizza when I got hungry. All and all I think a very good Saturday. I also threw my alarm clock againsts the wall. Twice. It felt good.

Sunday, I felt well rested and ready to go. I went to Church, went to Target to pick up the dogs meds and a new user friendly alarm clock, did my weekly shopping at Wally, Went to Sam's to do some shopping and to gas up the car, did the laundry, picked up some lunch. Then I came home and stripped the bed, made the bed and took the dog for a long walk.

All in all a great weekend.


Except for the poor people in Sutherland Springs, TX , who lost 4% of their population today. I spent my college years in central Texas but hadn't heard of the town, it is too small and too far from San Marcos. The shooter was from New Braunfels, where I have been. He was a terrorist and I won't print his name or his picture. If Raleigh lost 4% of their population today we would have lost 18,042.

Friday Cats Blogging

TGIF

Christmas came early around the old home place. I finally was able to pick up my silent auction wins and bring them home -after much driving around and getting lost and cursing my GPS. It was not entirely its fault there has been a huge amount of construction in that neck of the woods and I can't blame it for getting confused. I was confused. Everything looked different and I was beginning o think they moved the whole damn SPCA building, because it was not where I left it. They built and entirely new street and kept the same name, the old street is now more of a service road, if we had service roads here, which we do not - however, you can only get to the SPCA on the service road because it leads to the road that leads to the SPCA, the new road with the same same does not.. It gave my GPS  and I  matching headaches.

It was very frustrating.

But I persevered and got my prizes . Or actually, the animals got their prizes.

Rocket models his sexy new collar, it needs adjustment because its  skosh too large, but its gorgous! I think its going to be his dress collar because there is no way he's wearing this is daycare or getting it wet or doing anything that might endanger it. I mean, its still going to be his every day collar, but he's going to have a "play collar" for rough housing.

This is the cats new litter box. Its supposed to control the spread of litter. We'll see. I still haven't seen a cat use it. I'm also hoping it till control the dog getting into the litter, he has developed a habit recently and I would like to break it.

Clock

Do you know how you can tell you under invested in your alarm clock? You can tell you under invested in you alarm clock when you spend seventeen minutes resetting said alarm clock because it is so hard to reset. Better alarm clocks are easy to rest, you press here to set the time, you press here set the alarm. Easy. It takes a couple of seconds. Do you now how long seventeen minutes is when you are being thwarted by a piece of cheap plastic wrapped in cheaped technology? Endless. All damn evening.

 Spend too little and  there goes your evening. It is hard to reset. On purpose. Press here to reset or to turn on the radio, and here to rest or change the channel! Over and over again.  I turned it on and changed the station over and over again! I was about going out of my mind with this! And then, out of nowhere it allowed me to set the time and the alarm, after the same action was repeated over and over and over, it did what I asked. Also? I now hate Raleigh radio so much.

It all started because I looked at my alarm clock and saw it was blank. This is alarming from a digital alarm clock. Blankness is alarming. I need my alarm clock to be forever at attention, it is never allowed to go on break. I need it to be at work all the time. A  digital clock is a slave. It works 24-7-365. No days off,  no holidays no  vacation. I need it to be ready for me whenever I need it. 213AM? Right there with me, 5:02AM, right with me. I need to know what time it is when ever I need to know what time it is.

I looked at the clock and it did not know what time it was. I was flabbergasted. It wasn't blinking 12:00, it was BLANK. No clock ever just goes blank, what is blank? This is unheard of! What kind of cheap peice of shit did I buy here that goes blank when faced with a lack of power? BLANK? what kind of response to lack of stimuli is BLANK? The correct response is to blink 12:00! We all know this! This is how we know we have lost power, we have been trained. I don't understand this BLANK business? What if I hadn't noticed until I went to bed?! Gawd! I would have never gotten to sleep and now I worry about my alarm going off. Thanks POS alarm clock.

I finally got it set,  after mashing ever button on it, after hearing bits and pieces of every station in Raleigh, short answer - Thank Gawd for Sirius!  after doing the same thing over and over again: According to the directions! Suddenly it allowed me to set the time and alarm. Well,  I hope, Jesus I hope I was setting the time and the alarm! Stupid peice of shit would lie to me. The next time, probably, sooner rather than later, I buy my alarm clock from Target instead of Wally. Better quality, going to cost more but won't take seventeen minutes to re-set either.

Halloween 2017

I had eight little kids who didn't even say "Trick of Treat", they just stood there and presented bags. I turned off the light at 8pm and took off to Oakwood to see the real action.

Here is what it looked like in the daylight

And this is the Big Show. The Oakwood Halloween House

It is amazing! Decorated top to bottom, side to side with everything halloween related and adjacent. If it can scare you? They have it. They have animatronics and real people, Everything is set to spring out and scare you. There is always a lot of screaming. It is awesome. And its just these peoples house.

Happy Halloween

I would have a real entry today except for that Rocket has a second job. His first job is  fuzzy, wuzzy baby doggy woggy, best friend, guard dog - and on his off time, he is a Pillow .

It's what he is really the best at.

The perfect pillow. His little back end is just the right combination of firm and cushy. He is so perfect in this guise that I ended up spending entirely too much time taking advantage of his good offices. It doesn't hurt that he really doesn't mind being a pillow at all.

Its really a nice thing. He's very warm and soft and its like being enveloped by the world's most loving burglar alarm.

Weekend

Saturday I did what I had been hoping for all week: I slept in.

I had been dreaming about sleeping in since I got off the plane Sunday afternoon. Monday hurt, Tuesday hurt, Wednesday- Friday just caused me pain. I had been planning on that sleep in all week and it did not disappoint.

God, it felt good.

Sometimes just not having to wake up is the best plan ever. I had kind of thought I might use the weekend to clean my house but then the weekend happened and I didn't clean the house at all. I did do some laundry and I ran the dishwasher. I needed to rest and I did. I also cleaned out my DVR.

Sunday however I had plans. I had to be somewhere. It was raining and had been raining and I had kind of hoped that maybe they might reschedule . No, they didn't. They didn't reschedule or rent big tents so that they could keep the whole thing out of the wet.

I arrived a little after it started and had to sit in my car until the rain went from deluge to just steady downfall. Rocket hates the rain and we were going to be out in the rain. In costumes.

I was the only adult in a costume.  Just me, in full head-to-toe costume.You can either go hide, because, for real, this is very uncomfortable, which I entertained, or you can just go with it and wander around getting your picture taken - which is kind of fun. But still, it's a little weird, the things we do for our dogs.

Finally, it was time for the 3:30 costume contest! And lo and behold, more  adult people in costumes came out of the woodwork - bastards! Where were they? Chicken shits.

We all lined up and walked the red carpet.

We did not win. We never win. There is a bias againts 1) pure bred dogs, 2) store bought costumes, 3) single people. Next year, we will not be entering. I did however, win two very nice things at the silent auction.

I can't say that I totally disagree with the winners, I took their pictures too.

Foreground, second place,  Flower dogs, background, honorable mention Flintstone Family

 I think he didn't place, but I liked him.

3rd place, Bambi

1st place, Bob the Builder.

Friday Cats Blogging

TGIF

Did my thing. Watched my TV.  Didn't run any errands, came right home after work, made my dinner, fed my dog, walked my dog.  Sat on my chair. Life is good.

Today someone called me to ask if we came to inspect pools. We do not. We do voluntary institutional residential settings - with kind of an asterisk-  If you want to complain about your no good boyfriend being mistreated in prison? I have a number for that, your low life son being bothered in  jail? I have a number for those too.  Those are about as far out of our lane as I go that I can immediately help with.

Someone else wanted to complain about something else that was way, way outside of our lane. And then they get annoyed, pretty uniformly they get annoyed because we don't have authority over everything in the entire world. I don't even remember what it was, it was too silly - oh, roofers! He wanted to complain about his roofer!. I want to know why if they can look us up on the computer, they now need me to look up their next stop. It doesn't make sense to me. SHort answer? Call the AG. Bother them.

Over. It.

You know what I really want to do? I want to come home. I want to walk the dog, change into my pajamas or equivalent, make dinner, eat dinner and then sit in front of the TV until I go to bed. Period. That would be my ideal evening.

I don't want to run errands, I don't want to go somewhere I don't want to do anything. I just want to sit on my chair and watch TV until it's time to go lie in my bed.

I would also like it if there was something on my TV to watch that I want to watch, preferably not visual pablum. But you know, that is why they invented Netflix.

Back To Life.

I'm back! I was back yesterday but I had to run right out and go see David Sedaris do a reading at the the concert hall downtown  and then I had to run to the store in a deluge to get food for a dopic birthday thing we do at work every quarter.

I also had a  dentist appointment in the morning that turned out as not an every six months appointment, it was a only-four-months-after-the-last-one-appointment so we decided to pretend it didn't happen and made a new one for March. I didn't get charged because it wasn't my fault. I don't make these appointments, they do. SO. Free cleaning for me! Wheee!!!

SO a really big day for me. I also picked up Rocket from boarding and he was oddly chill about the whole thing. I mean, like really chill. Like he could give a damn about seeing me again. He was like "whatever". He also  came home with diarrhea.

That was  all on  Monday.No rest for the wicked. I haven't unpacked yet or uploaded my too few pictures or anything! I have almost no pictures of my classmates but I took a hell of a lot of pictures of the damn marching band! WTF.

 Today was Tuesday and the dopic quarterly birthday thing. I got through the day, we also had  yet another staff meeting, the second in two weeks -  they are supposed to be scheduled for one meeting per month and we had two in two weeks! Not okay.

I came home after the stupid meeting, actually got it together and walked the dog in a timely manner and came back to the house. And watched TV. a lot of TV. I deserved it! And then I went and picked up some nice healing pumpkin for the dogs stomach and put gas in the car.

Wednesday at lunch I'll go to Wally and do my real shopping and then I'll get some lunch and then maybe after work I'll pick up some meds at Sams. Slowly get back into real life.

Friday Cats Blogging

Reunion Bound

I leave in a couple of hours and I think I've had my last crises of fashion. Its now just a matter of getting everything wear it belongs when it belongs! Harder than it sounds.

The dog is going to boarding - this is a huge leap of faith, he's never been by himself over night and its killing me just thinking about it. I think its going to be really, really tough on him but I have no other choices. The days will be fine because its at day care and he really likes day car but the two nights are going to be tough. I haven't talked to him about it.I hope it is not too scared by the the experience and comes out Monday not too setback. I hope this doesn't make him hate me,

The cats are going to be on their own. I'm leaving them with clean boxes and lots of food and water, I hope they are okay with it.

I hope the house is okay with it.

Packing

Again, not a "real" entry. I am in the middle of packing up my stuff and trying to remember all the things I want to bring with me - remember your camera! remember to charge that battery! remember to clear out that memory stick, or at the very least, put a new one in!, Do I need to bring the whole camera bag? Do I need to bring the bag? Its just another thing to carry around.

Also, so many fashion crisis. Times like this having a handy girl friend around would be so helpful! I need someone close by to bounce these things off. I have a friend but she is neither handy or close by, she is too far away and busy most of the time so she is of no help. I had to weather the crises by myself so I over packed. A lot. I am bringing two pairs of boots and two pairs of shoes and three pairs of pants and a skirt, just in case because you do not know! Its about the vibe! I was much better with tops, I did not over pack tops, much, but I'm pretty sure that I am going to add a sweater because I think it might be cooler at night.

I do not travel light. And I need a bigger suitcase.

Tuesday

Okay, now I would have a real entry today except... We had a very bogas staff meeting after work today so I put Rocket in daycare for the daycare - first time since he got  attacked and he did really, really well and played all day.

And because of the meeting we got home late and while it was still light it was clearly not going to stay that way and so we opted out of our walk. And Rocket was very tired and didn't really need a walk.

Which leads me to why there isn't a real entry, he was curled up on the couch and he looked so soft, and did I mention I worked all day and then had this meeting? I had a really long day and there he was so soft and sleepy and pillow like and on the couch...

I  ended up waking up way too late for a real entry and then there were the Barney Miller episodes I felt duty bound to watch, and then it was time for Brooklyn 99 and I really like it so  there just wasn't time to do all the things I should have gotten done.

NC State Fair 2017

Sunday I went to the State Fair with Brosky

I am jot really thrilled with how they turned out, normally if I go to the fair, I go during the week,by myself and I have more time and space to get the pictures I want. It wasn't possible Sunday night. It was a good exercise though in just getting the shot and not screwing around.