Dog Day Afternoon

\

Sunday I took Rocket over to Dix for the the Pup Up Dog Park. A good time was had by all. And by "all" I mean hundreds of dogs and people! It was a full house! The field that was being used had been an activity space for the patients at the hospital. It had  playground equipment and a basketball court and baseball field and some work out areas. It was fully fenced and is now crying out to be a dog park. It has trees and seating and easy parking and would be a great dog park.

Rocket played with the dogs but his favorite activity was going up to people and saying "Hi! I'm Rocket! Pet me!" The crowd was packed with professional dog petters  and  so they were happy to do whatever he wanted. And he was such a whore too, he would just trot up to a seated person and say "Hey, why aren't you petting me?"

I missed the memo about bringing  a blanket and chairs and lunch, because the people who did get the memo looked like they were having a blast. I still had a really good time.He did this over and over again. I think he spent more time with people than he did with dogs and he spent a lot of time with other dogs.

Look how big that dane is compared to Rocket!

Friday Cats Blogging

Vindication!

Well, I'm off the hook. It was not my fault. The alarm did not go off, it wasn't me turning it off and going back to sleep. It was set and it did not go off. I feel vindicated. I also feel like I am going to get a new clock.

This morning the damn thing did not go off again and the clock was too far away from me for me to grab it  and turn it off and go back to sleep. I'm also hyper aware of the alarm now and I'm sleeping really lightly now, so that's great! I love barely sleeping.

I had to use Alarm 2 over the weekend and "alarm 2" worked just fine, so that tells me that the clockwork works fine.  I thought it was me that was failing but it wasn't me, it was Alarm 1! It let me take all the blame! It has stopped working and it totally let me feel like I had done something wrong. What an ass.

 Now Alarm 2 is now my default Alarm 1. And now I don't have an Alarm 2. I liked having Alarm1 and Alarm 2.

This time I also wasn't as late either. I did have to forgo the dogs walk but  that wasn't very much of a sacrifice. He didn't seem at all heartbroken about not getting his morning constitutional and I was happy to save the time.

Today was also Administrative Assistant Day. I feel your shock and awe. It is the best day of the year next to Christmas! This year we got a historical explanation of AA day, from its start in 1952 as a way of thanking secretaries all the way up to the present as away of recognizing , us,"The Backbone of The Division". We got pizza and I  found this on my desk this morning.

Yay me.

Today was gross and rainy but I still rain many errands and put the dog in daycare, which is in errand in itself, twice because I had to drop him off and pick him up.

At lunch I went to order more checks - something that could be done online but that would require that I have saved the slip of paper with the needed rows of numbers on it and I did not. I only need to order checks eer eighteen months and slips of paper get lost, so I drove to the bank and did that and while I was there I got money to pay my Sams bill since I had no checks to pay the bill, which I did at the cash machine because it was faster then messing around with the teller, of course I got stuck behind some guy who must have been refinancing his home loan. I then went to McDonalds and got caught behind a couple of guys ordering for the entire construction site. While I waited I daydreamed about what I had to do after work. Pay the Sams bill, should I pick up meds or wait? Probably wait, go get the dog from daycare, drive cross town to pick up dog meds, get something for dinner...

But first, after the already too long work day we settled in for our interminable staff meeting. This week is Secretary's Week, AKA Administrative Professionals Week  , a few weeks ago was "Nurses Week", a week or so before that was "Social Workers Week". Yay me. In years past the managers took all of us out to lunch. The  first several years it was lovely restaurants and anything we wanted, and then for a another few years it was a country club and anything they had on the luncheon buffet, and now tomorrow,: pizza in the breakroom.  It is better than last year, last year we got nothing.

This year I keep all the pads of paper and batteries in my office to keep them from hoarding. If I didn't take control they would just make like chipmunks in little nurse hats and fill their nests with pilfered office supplies. They hate having to ask permission and I'm like "Yes. I know. Life Sucks. Take ONE". Appreciate me damnit.

Bad Me.

I rolled over this morning, casually to check the time, because normally I do this several times and its usually 2:15am, and 4:10am and 4:45am.  Its always before my alarm goes off.

Not today. Today when I casually rolled over to check the clock it was 5:49am! 39 minutes after I am supposed to be out of bed! at 5:49am I am supposed to be reading Fark at the table and eating my breakfast! This was not okay. I overslept. I do not over sleep. I am early. I wake up early, I  wake my alarm up! I do not over sleep. And I overslept . I don't know how this happened and you can be sure that heads will roll. There was no time to kill anyone this morning but there will be meetings in the coming days.

I rushed to get ready and began to shed morning rituals. No walk for the dog, he can use the yard, no breakfast for me, I can take it to work with me, I don't really need to read Face Book or Fark! Check the email and get out the door.

Poor dog! He really needed to go out and go for his walk, he likes his morning walks and all he got was thrown into the yard and told to "take care of business" Quickly. Fortunately he was able to do this because I needed to roll.

I got to work with plenty of time but I hate that loss of control and those moments of panic. My alarm was set, I checked it before I went to bed and when I looked at it this morning, it was still set so I don't know if it went off and I turned it off  and went back to sleep or if the clock is broken.

I think its because I got in the habit of turning off my alarm over the weekend, I had been setting it so that I would not sleep the day away. It didn't work. I would just rurn it off and go back to sleep. The thing is, I've never been able to to turn it off  easily, I have to sit up and deal with it because it is not easy to turn off. It is just a button but its kind of an awkward button and I have the clock turned away from me because the light it too bright and it keeps me awake.

The new plan is I am moving that little bastard out of my reach, and possibly, turning it from not at all alarming sound of classical music to the very alarming sound of the buzzer. I need to be disciplined.

Shopping

So much shopping!  So many trips to and from various stores. I did my shopping and then the animals shopping, and  food shopping for a tree! So much shopping for the animals! The cats food had run short and I forgot to go to the vets, but that's alright because I can go to Petsmart and buy it form them right? Not right, they won't sell it to me because there is no script number on my script!

This is a new wrinkle. I have been buying this cat food from them for months and now they are all picky about numbers? How rude. It did help that as I walked into the Petsmart the clerk all but shrieked at  me : HI WHAT CAN I HELP YOU FIND??

I was looking for cat food and I knew where it was. I didn't need her help or to be screamed at. I found my food and returned to the registered and handed her my script. And she called her manager who told me and my script to go to hell. They didn't even let me negotiate. Absolute dicks. I walked out and went to the grocery to find cat food that might not hurt my cat. I immediately  tweeted a complaint at Petsmart that they haven't responded to yet.

Cats turn into real hipster foodies after you feed them wet food a few meals in a row. They also eat it a lot faster than they do their dry food. They just suck the wet stuff down, the dog runs up there to eat their food and there isn't anything there to eat. He licks their bowls, but I think is out of habit. They clean their plates.

Okay. So, I bought what I thought would feed the cats for two days. Wrong. It fed two cats for a day and a meal. I also noted that the dog was running out of food. Fine, I thought that  would kill two birds with one trip to the store. I know they sell Freshpet at Wally and they sell the dogs food there too. Well, they sell Freshpet for dogs not cats. This was more than a little frustrating. I got the dogs food and we went on to a different, further grocery store to get more food for the cats. I am hoping they don't refuse to eat their kibble when they get reacquainted with it tomorrow when I pick more up from the vet .

I did buy myself toilet paper, go me! at Big Lots and while I was there I found some fairly decent vegan ( I normally take a firm stance againts vegan anything) red sauce with no added sugar and very low carbs and that was a sign I needed to make spaghetti squash and ground meat dinner again. I almost bought a different sauce made from a different squash but I wasn't sure I liked the squash and it was higher in carbs and so I gave it a pass. I might get it the next time I'm in the store and I probably should have picked it it up just because it was interesting.

Thursday

(Today we are not thinking about all the things that have anniversaries today. April 19th is not a nice day)

I think I learned an important lesson today : Do not lay down after work. Just don't. Stay vertical at all times.

I could have gone for a nice walk in the nice weather  but No, instead I took  nap instead and wasted most of the daylight. I should have taken a walk, a walk would have been better for me and the dog. Walks are good, naps may feel good but they aren't good for you. Naps are the devil.

It doesn't help that the dog and both cats think thats naps are a very good way to welcome me home and they all are huge fans of napping and if they can celebrate that fandom by showing me how much they love napping by napping with me?! The day just got better! All three of them already sleep 17 hours a day, if they can sleep an extra hour or so with me as a back up guest daytime sleeper?, why not? I'm there all night but there is just something special about napping together during the daylight.

I blame work making me work too much. I need to work less. Or take more breaks, I haven't taken a good break at work in too long. I need to do more playing on the computer and less time working on it. I should be wasting more state time.

The dog likes the walks, I think, but clearly he can and does live without them too. I need them more than he does and clearly, I also live without them just fine too. I think in all honesty, I take him downtown so other people can admire him. They get so happy when they pet him and I watch them relax and and calm down just by petting his ears and talking to him. He is a furry antidepressant. The longer they interact with him the happier they become and the more they smile and less stressed out they become.. They talk to me about their current pets and pets they had as children and stories about those pets and they go to a softer, less rushed place. I've seen it time after time.

They pull out their phones and show me pictures of pets both living and gone on and tell me stores about their fifteen year old cockapoos. II never guessed so many people were walking around with pictures of their late pets on their phones, a lot of people have a lot of pictures of late pets. I know because I've seen them. Of course, I also have pictures of my late pets on my phone too.

Wednesday

Two mornings in a row I've had  my routine disrupted. Monday, I was dressed for a warmer morning than I encountered - Sue me, Sunday was gorgeous and I figured that Monday was be equally so. It was not.

I had to change clothes - a bigger issue than you might expect, I had plenty of time to over think my choices the night before but a very limited time the next morning! My over thinking does not like to be on a timer, I need time to fully explore every possible avenue and normally this takes some time, having to do it on a much compressed schedule was stressful. I do not need stress first thing in the morning. Normally, I try very hard to avoid any stress at all in the morning by making things very easy for myself and doing things exactly the same way and on the same schedule and not having any surprises - like a change in weather! Fortunately, I had time on the walk to decide what I was going to change into and it was available and so it wasn't as stressful a change in my morning as it could have been. But it was enough. 

Tuesday,  I set out to walk the dog and got all the way to end of the street before I discovered that I had left the house without bags! The horror. I had to turn home and the dog got to "walk" the backyard instead of around the block. I felt bad for him. I'm hoping that Wednesday dawns as warm as it is supposed to and that I remember to bring bags on our walk, these disruptions are not okay.

Speaking of disruptive, I accidentally locked Tiny kitty in  the downstairs bedroom over night! I had to go in there to get a shirt to wear to work and I thought the kitty was upstairs already. I went upstairs with the dog and went to bed immediately. I was tired and I thought both cats were there! I feel like a bad pet person, I should have counted noses before I turned off the light. Poor kitty! locked into a room all by himself! Crying by the door all night! Well, I bet he slept on the bed a lot of the time, he isn't a dumb kitty. The bed is very warm and soft and I know he likes that in a bed. It was still mean of me though. Tonight I put him upstairs early. He is already complaining but I think he would rather be upstairs with me than downstairs ny himself.

Monday

I was so good this weekend! I mowed the front yard, I did laundry and put it away and I got my weekly shopping done and put gas in the car!  And on Sunday I watched  several episodes of Monk one after anoter which is kind of like reading one of those books set in a yarn store where the main protagonist is a cat who solves murders.

I also spoke with the lawn mowing guy about mowing the jungle in the backyard but he ran away and hasn't been back, and so I don't know the status on him actually doing anything about the jungle - but I know I am not going to tackle it.

I might just have to get used to the Natural Look.

My front yard looks great, very sleek. I am happy with it. Right now however I am listening to the wind outside and hoping that everything stays where I left it outside. Already my lovely vines around my front door have been blown down and are now my  climbing vines are crawling  around my front porch deck. This is not lovely. The culprit, along with an assist from the wind was the wire that I had around my front door snapped and my plants fell to the ground. Not okay at all.

The dog and I took a walk while we waiting for it to get ugly, while it was just windy, we could have taken another walk later but it was much visually uglier then and I didn't to hedge my bets. It still hasn't really started raining yet so I could, in theory go out now but I really don't want to and I don't think the dog really wants to either. Its very windy and he hates wind, it makes him uncomfortable and upsets his inner sonar or doggy GPS or whatever. Its just easier to take him outside and let him pee under the carport and not mess with a full on walk.

Oh. And I forgot. The dog had a chance to kill a mouse on Friday and he completely muffed it. We were coming back from our walk and I saw what I thought was a baby bird on the ground, running. And then I thought "Baby birds don't run that fast. Have I seen a baby bird run?" , and then we got closer and I discovered that it was not a baby bird it it was a mouse!

Now, I just had a discussion with Brosky about how his much smaller and younger dog killed a Vol - On Purpose. His dog is a Boxer, a dog from a breed without a prey drive, and she still killed the little beast because she knew it needed killing. My older and bigger dog and from a breed with a well developed prey drive just chased it up and down and sniffed it! He could have killed it with a single tap from his paw! All he had to to was throw it in the air a couple of inches with his nose and he could have killed it from fear alone. But NO. the little beast went on the spread disease another day.

I was very disappointed. This is the same dog that tries to climb trees to get squirrels! Like he would even know what to do if he caught one! I would probably end up with a pet squirrel.

Friday Cats Blogging

Not being served.

I came into work tired. I woke up every hour on the hour to look at the clock. I wasn't awake all night, I slept, I just woke up frequently to look at the clock. So. Much. Fun. Loved. It.

 Later on in the morning when I was putting on make up I looked like I had been punched in both eyes. It is not a good look. This is why I invested in good quality make up, I went from "victim" to "How Can I Help You!?" in minutes. True, someone told me I looked pale once I was at work, but I would rather look pale than  punched.

Before I was "pale", I marched into my office head on straight, shoulders square, all ready  to work and turned on the computer and signed in to the first three or four places we have to sign in and then nothing. Place five wasn't responding. And hasn't responded all day. I was all ready to do my work and be productive and all of that and I and everyone else got stopped at the border. No work for us.

It didn't respond at 6: 40am and it is now 2:10pm and it is still not responding ( 4:00pm, left for the day, still not responding). I was sure that when I left to go to lunch at noon, I would be greeted by a fully functioning computer when I returned at 1pm. I counted on it. I was sure that by the time I got back ( I was supposed to eat a protean bar in my car, but after suffering with no computer all morning, I decided I needed to be rewarded with McDonald's, I got a very nice Happy Meal and a tiny stuffed  Emperor penguin)

 ...Everyone else would be playing catch up - because they promised us at 6:50am that they just had to get the server back up and it would be "five minutes" Longest five minutes ever. We after all have people who have taken a lot of courses on how to work on computers working on our computers! None have degrees in it, but damn it, they have taken a lot of classes from the state. Its a wonder we have functional computers at all.

Everything else they feel completely comfortable outsourcing but our IT they keep in house. We can tell.

And now I have a headache. I don't know if its from the computer issue or the weather issue or something organic, I blame IT.

Thursday

Yay Thursday!

Okay thats all I got.  It was a good day though, I did kind of fall asleep on my desk, briefly,  which I blame on an early migraine intervention, and not at all that there were some left over cupcakes that needed eating... but I did wake up in time for lunch and after work I didn't fall asleep at all! Wheeee!


I went to Wally at lunch, because I have to go to either Wally or Sam's every day and yet again I forgot that I need more fake sugar. I did remember that I needed more strawberries and peaches, and those I did get , finally, my home Wally hasn't had peaches in a week and I was getting frantic I tell you frantic. Its a been a grim three or four days, I tell you.

So, I came back from lunch, well fed, fully awake and ready to face the rest of my day and I walk in the door into a wall of shit. Someone stepped into what must have been a huge mound of shite and walked it into the building and just kept going. And what is worse? We had a Fun Run on campus over the weekend and I have my doubts that what was stepped in was dog shite.

Yay for the rest of the day.

Wednesday

Blame the cat for no entry.

If this was your life, would you be getting up off your nice warm chair and disturbing your nice warm kitty? I don't think so.  If you aren't watching LA to Vegas,  you should be.

Tuesday

I had a busy weekend. Friday I came home and discovered that the dog snacked on his futon, that made me super happy - well, he did only snack on it! Thats a big step up from his usual feasting. I did have to get a new sheet for it and restuff it and re-tape it, but I didn't even think about it until Sunday because I wasn't up for it.

Friday night was First Friday so I went shopping and bought things I didn't need. I bought a birthday gift that I hope I don't forget about, and two very fancy, very decadent, very not at all going stale croissants . It was nice to be out on a warm night for once.

Saturday was cold and rainy and windy. A complete bummer. So I found things to do inside, I painted my shelves! Its turns out I bought a lot too much paint, so this summer I'm going to paint inside of the table, its now very pink and doesn't need to stay that way. I already painted the inside of the doors since they are open frequently, so the inside should get done sooner rather than later.

I know they gray looks dark, but it matches the darker gray in the birds and it works in the room really well. I was concerned about the different grays not working together and now I am not. The lighter gay of the walls goes with the lighter gray of the birds, but the lighter gray of the birds isn't exactly in the foreground, and it was disappearing - but now I feel better.

Then, I went to the mall. ON the way to the mall I had to drive down Lower Greenville, well, Raleigh's version of Lower Greenville, and those girls were wearing shorts! It was 43 degrees with a constant rain and a wind. It was miserable! I was wearing winter clothes because it is still winter. Shorts and tee shirts! Like it was spring. Its not, it was, briefly, and then it went a way.

I was a not-very-bright undergrad once upon a time too but when it was cold I respected that it was cold and I dressed accordingly. But it was rarely cold and when it was cold we kind of liked it. We wore sweaters in October because it was October and you are supposed to wear sweaters in October even though in October it was 85 degrees. We got really, really tired of summer. When I wore shorts in February it was because it was 80 degrees.

I got to the mall and got a spot, that wasn't the big deal, the big deal was that later, when I was finished, I was able to find my car again! That was the big deal.

Sunday, it stopped raining but it was cold. I finally took Rocket for a nice walk which was nice for both of us.

Friday Cats Blogging

TGIF

All this working at work has got to stop, two days in a row and I come home and have no desire whatsoever to immediately go for a miles long walk or go for a walk or do much of anything. I do however want to shut my eyes for just a second though...

It ended badly for Team Take the Dog For a Walk, but Team Nap With The Dog pulled out another win. The dog seemed just as happy the time he would have been out walking, napping, so at least he was satisfied. My fitbit is not speaking to me.

Its just so wrong, I need to not be such a good worker and go back to spending the day goofing off and playing with phone. I go for more walks after work and when I goof off more. I did finished another book today, now I have to find another. I want another title by the same author, Martin Cruz Smith, but he is not cheap and even one of his back titles is  pricey. I might just suck it up though because I haven't read Gorky Park is years and it is a good book, but I read a bit of one of the newer books and I liked it too - I can't get both, that's too much of an investment - so maybe I'll draw lots and see which one I end up. MCS writes a lot but I'm only interested in one  of his characters, so its not like Im going to buy his entire oeuvre .

Its also fiction and I think I deserve credit for reading some fiction after so much non-fiction. I think its good for me. I do love a good murder mystery. Ideally, KIllers of the Flower Moon will get cheaper and I can buy that. Its a murder mystery and its non-fiction! Double score. And its about how we got the FBI, so screw you 45.

This weekend I have so much to do, I have to paint, I have to run errands, I should mow the back yard and even more fun? Its supposed to rain! So at least hopefully, I can get the painting done finally. In really, really want to. And the errands, I have errands I should run in the evening but by the time I get home I don't want to leave again and there is only so much I can get done in a lunch hour. The weekend, its like a 48 hour lunch.

Thursday

I didn't actually take the dog for a walk today - work sucked okay! There was a subpoena and this time it wasn't for someone else, which totally sucks because of course I am the one who gets to fill it because why not! And I do have file room subpoena PTSD, but no one cares about that.

But as it turns out this time it only requires me to hit print, over and over and over again, while sitting at my desk. I can do that.

And I still go all my other work done too, I have until Friday to get the rest of the order filled.  Still sucks though.

I came home, thinking it would be a good day to walk the dog. I took the dog out to pee, I came back inside and saw a puddle on the floor. I looked at the cats - hard. They have never had an accident, but there is always a first time. They weren't in the room so I looked hard into the space they would have occupied if they were in the room, then I looked at the dog, who was in the room, I couldn't figure out when he would have had time to do this, then I sniffed it. It wasn't pee. It was way to clear and watery to be anyone's pee.

I then looked to the sink,  I mean, I gave it a really dirty look.

The recently repaired sink.  The recently paid for sink.  The sink with entirely new guts sink. The still cleared out sink that I haven't even put the stuff back underneath it sink because I haven't felt like it sink. It was coming from under the sink.

I made a 911 call to my plumber. Hey. Its leaking under my sink  . Fifteen minutes later he was under my sink. It wasn't the guts, it was the faucet. The faucent had been dripping earlier in the week but it had stopped - that should have been a clue, it stopped up at the top but it started underneath . When you are spitting up blood , you have to wonder whats going on further down the pipe. I needed to have looked further down the pipe. Because it was waiting to flood my kitchen. Kind of, there was a puddle!

Anyway, he tightened everything that could be tightened, stopped the leaking and went home to study up on warranties on the faucet, which he installed.

And then I hung up my new Mom-Made drapes. I think they look very nice and lighten the room considerably.

Discount anything pink, and think dark gray, and you have the idea.

Wednesday

This time the animal keeping me away was Ace. I was woken up by the sound of purring in my ear, apparently, for  hours. I kept waking up and finding him on my pillow but with most of him on my chest, staring at me, purring.

Now, this is great, and he hasn't done this in a long time and I'm glad he has forgiven me for whatever I did wrong, and he does hold a grudge and I really have missed him a lot... but gee whiz.

But I should sleep better tonight because I didn't take a nap! No naps for me! I kept myself awake after work! And I took the dog for a walk! Yay!!!!!! I literally didn't do anything else, but at least I did the big things. I did make dinner and take the dog for a walk!

Its a good thing I don't have a long list of things I need to get done or anything.

Tuesday

First genuinely warm day of the spring and a perfect day to walk the dog after work and I come home and fall asleep on the chair. By the time I finally get up dinner is late and its gotten too far along in the timeline to walk the dog. Not okay. Its days like this that makes my fitbit very disappointed with me, I can feel it sighing mechanically and shaking its little sensors. Tough shit weirdo one of us is a biped one of us has a battery, you don't move unless I do and I didn't move today. Deal with it.

I make my dinner, I fix the dogs and I clean the cat boxes.  Super I got things done!

I did finally change clothes and then I did pretend there was some chance in hell that I might still make it outside.  The self delusion is real, I should have just been completely honest with myself  about my plans and my level of motivation for the evening and  put on pajamas and been warm because while the outside may have finally warmed up the inside is still cold and now so am I- and now I'm going to have to change clothes again for no reason and that feels like a waste of time and effort when I could have just cut out the middle outfit all together.

I did hear it rain a little earlier so I felt all self righteous about not going out after all., but then I never checked to see if it was actually rain and not just stuff from the tree falling , so I decided to go faith alone that I was right and my post-work nap was not ill timed and wrong. I was tired damn it! The dog was restless and kept getting up and moving and normally he's a pretty good sleeper but he would not stay in one place for more than a couple of hours, it was driving me crazy. I don't know how I kept myself from face planting on my desk all day but it sure caught up with me the first time I stopped moving. I sure hope he used his time wisely today and caught up on his sleep.

He kept thinking he wanted to be under the covers and then he would be under the coves and would get, I guess, too warm, so he would  leave and then he would want to get back under the covers which would require waking me up to help him. Over and over and over. So much fun.

It is possible for him to do this without waking me up, I know it is because I know he  does this and he doesn't wake me up to show me how clever he is everytime. I know this because sometimes we go to sleep and he is on top of the blanket in place A and we wake up and he's under the blanket in place D and I have no memory of him getting there. He can do it and he chooses not to.

Dog ownership is not for the faint hearted.

Hoppy Easter!

Its the Easter Doggy!