Bring on the Thanks

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I also realized that while writing my posts day to day I’m always thankful for the activities or topics that I’m posting about (the positive ones anyway), but I often don’t state this gratitude outright. So to make up for what some may view as some lacking thankfulness or gratitude posts, here goes…

* I’m thankful for our home – I may complain about it from time to time, but we’ve got a good thing going here and the neighborhood is awesome (she says having just returned from a lovely evening walk).

* I’m thankful for the boys – it’s not always easy blending a four-legged family, but our guys have taken to it quite well. They’re also always looking out for each other (when the pupster wasn’t feeling well, the kitkat was right there snuggling close and giving him hugs). They’re also great napping mates (see yesterday’s post regarding my love for napping).

* I’m thankful for my darling, non-sports loving, geeky, mellow, moppet-haired hubby – he’s my dream come true and all I could ever hope for in a partner (even if does desperately need a haircut right now). I aspire to be as calm as he can be in stressful situations – I’m sure I’ve said it before, but he’s so go with the flow and mellow its enviable.

* I’m thankful for my car. It’s a very simple, very inexpensive, bargain-priced Hyundai Elantra, but I love it. It’s the perfect size and it has and does pretty much anything I’d ever want or need a car to do or have. Mind you, I’d love a little sporty 5-speed so I could whiz through those Hollywood Hills, but considering this car cost less than my old sporty car that I bought over 15 years ago, I’m just fine. But once we make it rich, a sporty weekend car will be mine! Bwahahaha!

* I’m thankful for modern medicine and awesome doctors – both for me and for the pupster. I’ll sing it to the world, our doctor is awesome – along with our vet! We get special appointments if we need them, we get follow up phone calls after treatment, but more importantly, we get heard. Our doctor heard my casual chatter about little thing that seemed off and immediately suggested that we check my thyroid and even though my numbers were relatively low, she got me on the meds and it’s made a world of difference. She totally rocks!

* I’m thankful for chocolate – okay, I might be PMSing here, but really, nothing beats good chocolate. My friend recently visited Japan and brought me back some KitKat bars (at my request since that’s a common search keyword here for the blog – blog post to follow in the near future) and man, they’re good! Even cooler still, she’s in London this week and will hopefully be able to bring me back some Cadbury Dairy Milks or Fruit & Nuts. How exactly does US chocolate manage to taste so crappy compared to European chocolate?

* I’m thankful for my Mac and the lacking blue screen of death. Ah, so nice and so simple to use. I’m thrilled that I made the switch without argument or dragging my feet. Now I just need to learn to use half of the fun programs.

* I’m thankful for my friends. I seem to have had some slight bumps in the road of friendship these past couple of months, but I’m moving on. I know that I’ve got a great batch of friends that have been in my life for years and seeing them again, or talking to them from time to time feels like slipping into the most comfortable pajamas…just right.

* I’m thankful for NaBloPoMo – it’s brought so many blogs and bloggers that I’d otherwise never have known about into my life. And that’s not counting the cool things you can learn – like yummy Mexican restaurant recommendations while visiting Tucson! So handy and helpful. Fussy totally rocks for starting this up.

* I’m thankful for the time I’ve been able to spend working from home. I know that I sometimes vent about my job – who doesn’t, right – but it’s nice to know that I can work from home, have fun, and be able to take off on a moment’s notice. I honestly believe that working a 9-5 sort of job would kill our relationship (the hubby being a workaholic that doesn’t go to bed before 2:00am), so I’m thankful to have the opportunity to work with something that’s so flexible and creative.

I could go on and on, but I feel comfortable leaving this at an even ten. Well, that plus the pupster is begging for his dinner (and his medicine) and I still have Thanksgiving stuff to research.  So I leave you with a pretty picture from my birthday getaway two years ago (San Juan Capistrano), just because pretty things to look at are just one more thing to be thankful for…

Capistrano_wagon.jpg

I love to Nap

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No, really.  If you were to call my house, anytime between 2:00 and 5:00 you’d likely wake me up.  Mind you, I don’t not sleep for three hours!!  It’s more like 30-45 minutes.  But it’s pretty much a daily occurrence.  A somewhat daily occurrence that the boys love.

My favorite part of the weekend, aside from finally having time to just hang out with the hubby, is what we refer to as snuggle time.   Snuggle time is when we all get back into bed, read a little, and love on the boys.  It’s also one of the few times that the boys will willingly snuggle together (or closer together than they’d normally be).

Sometimes, like today, snuggle time quickly escalates into sleepy time where everyone falls asleep – some for longer than others.  Today, ahhhh…today was a wonderful snuggle time turned sleepy time.  That makes this a perfect Saturday in my book.

And of course, it helps the healing energy to get to the right boy at the right time…Griffin is nearly all better – the ears are no longer swollen and he spends more time not flapping than flapping his ears.  See, there really is something to napping.

He Can’t Seem to Catch a Break

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This has been a tough week for the pupster.  First we’ve got his little bout of whatever after we picked him up at the boarders on Monday, then he’s stuck in a car ride from hell and back as we go to Tucson.  Then today, his ears inflate to the thickness of a checkbook and he scratches himself so badly, blood squirts everywhere.  he can’t walk two steps without shaking his head and flopping his ears.

So yeah, we just now got back from the vets.  And let me just say, I love our vet as much as I love our doctor.  They agreed to stay later on a Friday to squeeze the little guy in so they could see him.  So the hubby and I raced across town, mere minutes before rush-hour gets it’s start on the 101 and made it in record time.

The Doc just thinks that something bit him and he’s having an allergic reaction.  He gave him two shots and some meds and sent us on our way.  By the time we made it home, the swelling had already gone down a lot and the head shaking and flapping has also cut down.

We’re sure he’ll be fine.  We just need to set the timer to remind us to let him out to pee every hour or so (from the diuretic shot).  Mind you, as I was typing the line above, he threw up again.

*sigh*

Poor little guy.  I think I’ll go sit on the couch and cuddle him so he’ll stay still and rest some.

It’s Friday, Let’s Get Random

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No matter how long you try to be good, you can’t keep a bad girl down.

Man, I’m exhausted.  I mean too exhausted to even try to be a bad girl (but I’m lovin’ Gossip Girl and I love Kristin Bell’s narration on there and well, that’s just a great quote).  So let the randomness begin…

  • Man, I was in a bad mood when I wrote that last post.  Sorry, didn’t mean to be quite so pissy, but damn, freeway construction sucks!
  • Why is it that whenever we leave the kitkat home alone the entire house gets covered in cat hair?  I mean clumps of it on the floor when normally this doesn’t happen.  Weird.
  • My hands are crazy dry and I can’t seem to find the right hand lotion to magically fix me all up.
  • I’m tired of crappy restaurant or fast food.  This week had way too much crappy food eaten at horrible hours.
  • We’re (unfortunately) doing a family Thanksgiving with my hubby’s family.  I only say unfortunately because 1) the host home can’t cook – and they’re in charge of the turkey,  2) the rest of the family is expected to bring the side dishes but no one has created any sort of plan (and I have up on planning any and all family gatherings last big get together – for reasons explained here), 3) they’re rarely on time so you can bet that what food is around is now overcooked, cold or whatever else – this also screws with the order of things when the person that supposed to bring the appetizers shows up 2-4 hours later than the rest of the family, and 4) the family isn’t willing to try anything new or creative so that leaves some pretty standard, sub-par food selections.
  • That said, I actually enjoy visiting with my in-laws.  They’re good people and can be tons of fun.
  • So now I need to come up with side dishes that 1) won’t be duplicated (see lack of planning above), 2) will be something that’s not too strange or creative so others will actually try it and 3) that travels well since we’ll have to drive about an hour or so and who knows what access I’ll have to cooking/reheating options.  The hubby wants me to try some cornbread stuffing, I’d like to bring a salad and some veggies and maybe make some rolls or something.
  • Man, I’m so behind on reading everyone’s blogs AND on the DVR.  Not to mention that I have multiple blogs to write for my site and I have less than two weeks to read The History of Love.
  • Dude, I was running around today with somewhere between $100K – $200K of engagement rings (and a diamond tennis bracelet) in my purse.  Don’t be too impressed, I was just running an errand for a friend and returning some stuff to her friendly jeweler (as she was doing a favor for another friend looking for engagement rings).

And now I must get off the computer for a bit and find some lunch.  And oh yeah, I still need to unpack and vacuum up all that cat hair.  And open a week’s worth of mail.  You know…get back to life and all that.

Later y’all!

Yeah, Sure I’m Thankful

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Thankful to finally be out of that fucking car! What the hell were we thinking driving to Tucson and back?!?!

And who the fuck thought it was a good idea to close so many freeway exits without signs to show you where to go? Or, I don’t know, closing two freeways, at the intersection and at least 3-5 corresponding exits in each direction…good idea?!?! Fuck no!

I spent way too much time exploring the Inland Empire and Orange County tonight. Way too much fucking time.

I’m sleepy…must go to sleep. So, so, SO happy to be home and staying home for the next however long. Traveling by car, with just a quick overnight and then back on the road…yeah, that sucks. Big time!

Happier thoughts once I wake up late, late, late tomorrow!

PS – Geggie you rock! Cafe Poca Cosa was awesome! 😀

NaBloPoMo: Welcome to the Half Way Point

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I’m sure by now a few of you (myself included) are wondering what in the world is left to write about. Well, as I’m always trying to improve my writing and my blogging (both here and for my site), I’ve found that there’s some great information out there.

* The folks over at Blogging Bits offer up A No-nonsense Guide To Clearer, Sharper, and Better Writing as well as suggestions for Overcoming Writer’s Block (check out there blog for other great writing & blogging topics – truly a great resource).

* SEO 2.0 also has a post chock full of good ideas – in fact they’ve got 101 ideas for things to blog about (many of them linking back to great posts with even more ideas).

* Problogger is a great resource with a wealth of information for the professional (and not quite so professional) blogger. Did you know that there are 20 Types of Blog Posts?

* There’s also plenty of info out there at NewBlogger (formerly Blogging Made Devilishly Simple) and my goto guy Andy Wibbels from Blog Wild (he is my blogging hero!).

* And let’s not forget Mighty Girl‘s book, No One Cares What you Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog. There’s some great info there, especially if you need suggestions or prompts for something to write about. I speak from experience here and I mean no harm, but if you can, order it direction from Amazon or through your local bookstore – online processing is not their forte and it doesn’t seem that things have improved much since the book first came out.

When all is said and done, I do hope that the folks at Blog World put up some audio from last week’s conference in Vegas. It sounds like there was some really good information out there. Now if I can just stop traveling long enough to actually write about something already.

On the Road Again

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By the time you read this, I’ll surely be well on my way to Tucson (a city that I seem to have challenges spelling correctly) considering we woke up at the butt crack of dawn – which happens to be way, way, WAY earlier than I prefer to wake, mind you. Since the hubby never got to shoot Herbie (outside of sound check in San Francisco) we’re making the 7+ hour drive to Tucson to shoot him there. This time around though, he’ll be given 100% full access to photograph all he wants. Thankfully. This was only a week in the making and what we wanted from the start.

The other cool thing this time around, is that the hotel will only be a few minutes away. In San Francisco, since the drive to Santa Barbara was going to be so insane, we stayed an hour out of the city (plus is was like half the price!). So this time, we’ll be driving into town in time for sound check, then the pupster and I will poke around town a bit. Hopefully I can have a little fun before the show. I’d love to be able to check out Old Tucson if I can.

But man, who knew when I agreed to this NaBloPoMo thing that we’d be on the road so much. I feel like I’m spending all my time either pre- or post- publishing stuff. The weird thing, I haven’t even had a chance to really blog about anything other than my day to day antics. I mean there’s a whoe slew of stuff I’d planned to officially write about, you know to try my hand at writing consistently. Guess not. Ah well, something to aspire to. At least we’re nearly halfway through the month, right?

My First Meme Here…

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Anitra over at I Love a Kiwi has tagged me for my very first (non-LJ) meme.  The name of the game is coming up with 7 Random and/or Weird Facts about myself, then tagging seven other bloggers to do the same. (I don’t think I know seven other bloggers to tag – so if you’re interested, just feel free to do this on your own).

  1. While in grad school, I worked as a phone sex gal telephone actress – super easy work and good money.
  2. I’ve only kept in touch with one friend from high school (though I did just track down another friend a few weeks back) and have no desire to attend any of my class reunions (including our 20th next week).
  3. I only add salt to 4 things (without first tasting it) – anything egg, anything Mexican, homemade chicken noodle soup and anything potatoes – otherwise, I could care less about salt.
  4. I seem to have a pretty horrible memory for people – I’ve been known to meet people  2+ times and never, ever recall the previous time I met them.  Worse still, I would up living with a guy (roommate) that I went out with and fooled around with once 2-3 years prior to meeting him again.  Five years later, as I was driving across country, I finally (FINALLY!) realized that they were one and the same person.   Talk about being fucked up.
  5. I can easily read a book in one day – especially if it’s anything chick lit – but rarely will I remember a thing about the book I just finished.  Which also means I’d more than likely repurchase or reread the book and not figure it out until I’m nearly finished (see above).
  6. I have a purse fetish.  Lucky for me, I recognize it and can avoid going crazy.  Thing is, you’ll often find me petting purses when I’m out shopping (it seems that the more expensive it is, the more I cuddle and pet).
  7. I love, love, LOVE children, but I honestly have no real desire to have any of my own.  That said, since I’ve been around kids since I was 12 or so, I go crazy when I go longer than a month without loving some kids – luckily I have friends that need babysitters 😉

The Pupster is Better!!

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Two hours later he was right as rain. It started with the kisses, moved on to tail wagging and then went to full on moving about and chasing the kitkat around. I gave him a scrambled up egg for dinner (just an egg, nothing added).  We took him out for a brief walk, just up to the corner and he was a full on walking force to be reckoned with.

I’m actually wondering if it was a reaction to the manure/fertilizer the landscapers laid last week. All last week I walked him so he wouldn’t walk on it and wiped his paws down before he came inside. When the hubby let him out yesterday while I was still out, he was out and about on the grass/manure and the hubby didn’t wipe his paws off. By the time I came home, he was liking his paws.

I think I remember something similar like this last year (or the year before) regarding the manure/fertilizer. I don’t remember the specifics just thinking something like “hmm…surely they wouldn’t use fertilizer with something in it with their dog, our dog and the grandbaby running around.”  I have a feeling though that they don’t really think about that since their dog has it’s own fenced in area and the grandbaby spends most of his time on the blacktop riding his bike.  Either way, seems very strange, but I’ll keep a close eye on things and learn from my mistakes.  Hopefully, the lawn guys come today and will cut and bag that crap.

We’ll keep an eye on him though and thanks SO much for thinking good thoughts.

Poor Little Guy

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IMG_0581


We picked the pupster up this morning from the boarders and everything was fine. He was happy, he was bouncy, he was his usual self. Now, five or so hours later I came into the living room from unloading the groceries and I see that he had an accident on the rug (so not like him…even when he just can’t hold it, he goes by the back door, not in the middle of the room). I didn’t yell at him (he was left home with the hubby and he’s notorious for not remembering to let him out).

When I put him outside though, he just sat down in the grass with his head hanging. He wouldn’t come to me, wouldn’t even look at me, he just kind of wobbled there while sitting. Eventually, he laid down. The hubby then went out and picked him up and carried him inside – he was totally limp and breathing kind of weird.

So we wrapped him in his blanket and put him on a pillow on the floor. The hubby was laying down with him and blamo, he puked. Twice. I’m assuming it was breakfast since he hasn’t had anything but two dog cookies since he got home. So now he’s just laying there, on the floor, totally lethargic.

So now we’re just keeping an eye on him to see if we have to take him to the emergency vet. I know something is up though since the kitkat is staying close to him (and they’re not that close) and the pupster isn’t closing his eyes and resting, he’s just laying there staring off into space. The only time those two can have a good snuggle is when the pupster isn’t feeling well and won’t growl the kitkat away.

So please, keep him in your thoughts. With luck this isn’t anything more than an upset stomach.