Playing Catchup

Since this is my first real blog post since June, we're playing a bit of catchup!

The most significant development since then is the purchase of our house! We closed on this place in September and moved in during the hurricane... because of the hurricane really. It's a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath, 1400+sq.ft. bi-level with a great backyard. The pups love having the room and we love not throwing our money away every month! It has required a bit of work, but we got the place for a steal so it's worth it!



We've also had another foster dog since then. His name is Simon and he's a standard poodle puppy! As of this moment his is on a home trial with prospective new owners. We should know by 10/30 whether or not they are going to keep him. He's a good pup but very energetic!



And finally... I am once again unemployed. We got new management at work and I went from maybe being promoted to getting fired in 2 weeks. There are a lot of words for the type of chick that the new manager is.... but I will spare you.

Since I have nothing better to do at this point, I'm going to make a real effort to post more often. We'll see though!

Review: "Trail of Fears" in Hilliard

I won some tickets to "Trail of Fears" in a radio contest recently. Since we were in the area, Eric & I decided to go check it out. Admission for this attraction is $10 per person.

Our first impression came from their website.... or should I say myspace page. It reads like a middle schooler wrote it and it's very poorly laid out. The next impression came from the horribly spray painted signs pointing the way on the roads near by. By now you can probably tell where this is going.

Once we got there, the parking lot was almost empty. I have pretty low expectations at this point, but it was free so hey. We walked through the barn full of country knick-knacks for sale and jumped on the hayride back to the "haunted forest." They broke us into smaller groups of 6-8 people and started us through.

The trail itself is heavily fogged and poorly lit which aren't necessarily bad things. Our "tour guide" followed in the back for some reason which just confused us most of the time. The other guy following just kept yelling stupid stuff like "What is that?!?" trying to psych us out. Some of the costumes weren't bad and the performance of the Texas Chainsaw crew was decent, but the rest left a lot to be desired. I spend most of the time laughing!

The worst part was definitely the "maze" though. It was fogged so much that it was hard to breathe and the massive amounts of strobe lights gave me a headache. The fog also gave someone in our group an asthma attack.

All in all we didn't pay for it so I can't complain. I definitely wouldn't pay for it though!

We're all gonna die!!!!!!!

Well not really, but the tornado sirens are going off here at midnight. Mike just reminded me that I haven't blogged in like.... forever so here ya go people!

World's shortest update:

*We adopted (kinda) an Italian Greyhound named Allegro, Leggs for short. He's 6 years young, very well mannered, very sweet.

*Benny was adopted by a very sweet family and has already made friends with their cat!

*We put offers in on 2 houses and got neither of them... the most recent one was because the other offer, put in by house flippers, was a cash offer so they could close sooner. BASTARDS!

*I'm still working at PetPeople and it looks like they may be training me as an assistant manager. I'm still looking for a better job though.... being poor sucks.


Other than that, everything is the same 'ol stuff. I need a social life. Anyone want to do lunch?

Back to the present

I'm still working at PetPeople and I really do love my job. It's really fun seeing all the pets that come in and a lot of the pet owners are fun too. My coworkers are all really kewl (except one of the high school part-timers, but he's OK I guess...) so that always helps the day go faster. They seem pretty happy with me too as I'm learning fast and I'm actually winning the sales competition we're having!

It's been a little rough adjusting to working with my stomach problems though. I'm supposed to eat small meals every 3-4 hours and it's not always possible to do that at work. The botox really isn't helping anymore and I've had a few really rough days, but hopefully I'll get my meds upped or something. I haven't had to call off because of it yet though!

Last but not least, we've decided not to pursue purchasing this house we're renting. The landlord's asking price was a bit steep, but we could have given him a counter offer... the thing that made our decision for us was the backyard though. Every time it rains it washes up pieces of broken glass that are just under the dirt. We've had 3 dogs slice their paw pads open so far! It would be very expensive to fix the yard and make it safe for dogs and any future children. Sooooo now we're looking for a house!

With the economy the way it is, it's definitely a buyer's market. There are a lot of cheap houses for sale right now so we're hoping we can afford to buy. If we can get a good deal on a house that needs a little TLC, we could end up making a decent profit in 5-10 years. We don't have too long before our current lease is up so we'll have to work fast. If we can't buy, we'll have to find another place to rent!

R.I.P "Bubba" Bear

As I said.... casualties. My childhood dog, Bear, had been going downhill for quite a while. He's had strokes, his joints were shot, he was deaf and half blind... the poor guy was really at the end of his days. My dad couldn't accept the fact that he was in pain and that it would be humane to let him go. My mom has been trying to change his mind, but for all the wrong reasons. She's sick of having for some time now so she can get new carpet.

While my parents were separated my mom dragged my dad out to dinner to discuss what was going on. I'm not sure what all was said, but my mom agreed to come back home under certain conditions. One of those conditions was counseling... but apparently another was putting Bear to sleep. The decision was the right one, but my mom was in SUCH a hurry to be rid of the dog that they had him put to sleep without even telling me. I found out the next day from my Grandma!!

OK. My mom's a selfish bitch. I can handle that.

Rewind: <--------------
Several months ago I accepted the fact that my last visit home would probably be the last time I saw my dog alive. I figured he would die on his own or my dad would finally see it and do the humane thing. Knowing my mother, I didn't want to talk to her about "arrangements" for Bear once he died. My dad is much more understanding about this stuff but I was still embarrassed so I had Eric tell him I wanted to get Bear cremated. My dad agreed to have that done for it and he understood we would pay for everything.

------------> Back to the present
I called my dad to ask what they had done with him. He says they just told the vet to "take care of it." In other words the dog I was unable to take care of in life would be disposed of at the local landfill. He also said he remembered that I said I wanted him cremated but that he didn't think I really meant it. I was sooooo mad that I hung up on him and I NEVER do that. Apparently he understood how upset I was and called the vet's office. It turns out that the vet still had Bear, but he had to be out of their office the next day.... and the place in Sandusky that did pet cremation closed. The next closest place wanted $200 and didn't supply any kind of urn. I knew the place here in Columbus would cost under $100 and included an urn... so we drove to Sandusky the next day to pick him up and had to take him directly to the funeral home in Columbus.

In the end, everything happened as it should. I'm still mad at my mom but she'll always be a bitch and I still have to deal with her so I put on a happy face and move on. My dad meant well and fixed his mistake so I don't hold anything against him. I've grieved for my dog and he's safe here with me now. He wasn't very well cared for in the last years of his life and I couldn't help him... at least I can give him a respectful resting place.

Strike that

My sister was fine and understood that it was going to be good for them. One problem.... Mom's back with dad.

They're going to try counseling, but I can't see it helping them. The fundamental problem is that their personalities aren't in sync. Mom wants to go out to dinner all the time, party with friends (she's a wine-o,) vacation a ton, travel, shop.... she's a complete busy-body and is incapable of just RELAXING for a weekend. My dad is all too good at relaxing. He doesn't like eating out and would rather grab a bag of pretzels that re-heat leftovers.

You'd think that she'd be OK going out with her friends by herself, but nope! She was the same way when I was at home. She's up at 9am so that means everyone should be up at 9am. Drove me crazy... still drives my dad nutz.

Oh well. Problem now is that my mom has leverage on my dad and she's VERY good at using it. I can imagine everything is "do this or I'm leaving you" and it will only be a matter of time before dad says GO!!!! In the mean time, there have been casualties... to be continued.

Weirdness in my life

There's no way to say this delicately. My mom left my dad today.

They're both in their 50s and this was their second marriage for them both. I've seen it coming for quite some time so I'm not too stressed out about it. They'll bother be better off this way I think.

My sister is the one I'm worried about more than anyone though. She's much more about this family stuff than I've ever been. It's even worse since she's still in college... in Tampa, FL. I can only imagine how weird it must be for her!!

Other than that, I'm left thinking about the mundane effects of this whole thing. Who's keeping the house, or are they selling it? What the hell am I gonna do with all the stuff I'm storing in their basement?!?! When I go home for the holidays where am I staying?

Weird.

Good fences make good neighbors....

until their little brats start throwing stuff over the fence!!!

So our neighbors are kind of "white trashy." They had kids young and their kids had kids young. Now grandma and grandpa are baby-sitting 4-6 kids so their parents can be kids... In and of itself that's not too much of a problem. The kids are there on the weekends during the school year and pretty much every day in the summer. They're noisy, rude, and everything else you would expect from unruly children. I can deal with that! I've never complained ONCE about the noise, or them riding their bikes on my lawn, or them taunting my dogs through the fence. No harm no foul.

Here's the problem: shit's coming over the fence and it's NOT toys. Well, toys are coming over too, but that's not the problem. They're tossing rocks, trash, and whatever else they can find. It's bad enough that we have to go over the lawn and pick this stuff up to prevent damage to the mower.... but recently there's been some dangerous stuff coming over. We found some kind of decorative, metal, garden spike in our yard. It could have seriously injured someone or even killed a dog when it came over the fence. Yesterday I almost got beaned in the head by a rock while I was doing yard work!

I decided enough was enough and went over to talk to the "grandpa." Knowing kids are a touchy subject, I was VERY polite. I showed him what had come over the fence so he could see it's kind of a serious problem. His response? Hostility and "that's what kids do." He said that he doesn't bitch about my dogs barking (which I don't allow before 11am or after 8pm and try to limit to an hour or less... but "that's what dogs do.") so why am I bitching about his grandkids? I told him my dogs had to go to the vet twice now because they injured themselves on the stuff their kids are throwing over the fence. He started yelling at me and slammed the door in my face! I heard "grandma" talking about how I'm being ridiculous as I walked back to my house.

Am I being ridiculous? They just need to control their little brats!!

Benny needs a home!

The 14 days is officially up and Benny is officially "my" dog! We got his dog license and HomeAgain is in the process of transferring his microchip into my name. In the mean time I've found out that Hilliard has a law on the books that prohibits anyone from owning more than a combination of 4 dogs & cats. That means we really need to get Benny placed into a good home as soon as possible. The cops aren't knocking on my door or anything, but that's the last thing I need. We have 4 dogs of our own and that's enough for now. Know anyone who wants a dog? He's seriously an awesome dog, we'd keep him if we could!

Botox is good

I had my botox injections on the 31st. They got the IV in fine, knocked me out, did their thing, and I went home all doped up on valium! My stomach felt weird for a few days... not really upset but it felt like I swallowed something prickly. That's passed now and it does seem like the botox might be helping. Here's hoping!

Employed!

Well, Franklin University is officially dumb. I got a letter in the mail on Saturday saying "Sorry, you ain't good enough." My friend on the inside tells me that they didn't hire me, but they didn't hire anyone else either! They have some temps working there now... but I guess there's been quite the shakeup in the department. They hired a BUNCH of temps and they're instructing current employees to document things in a way that it's OBVIOUS that they're writing the training manual for their own replacements. Guess it's not so bad that I didn't get hired!

I did, however, get a job at the local pet store! PetPeople is where I've been buying my dog food for about a year now. They carry the high-end food that I have to use because of my dogs' food allergies. It doesn't pay the best, but I get 15% off all my dog food and 25% off everything else!

Funny

Can't help it. I just HAD to post this.

Procrastination

For once I'm not referring to myself!

Franklin University called me again today to tell me NOTHING. The nice lady said she was just calling to update me on where they are in the process. Apparently 3 weeks after my interview they are STILL interviewing. Seriously? They have to be joking me. This is ridiculous! I bet half the people that interviewed have found another job by now! They should be done with the interviews at the very least and be into deliberations on who they are going to hire.

I am annoyed. Very.

But on the up side, tomorrow is my birthday! Hopefully I'll feel well and Eric and I can go out for dinner, maybe a movie. Speaking of feeling well- that's the other thing I have to look forward to. I'm getting my botox on the 31st! Everything is scheduled and I'm very excited because I've heard the results are usually GREAT.

The saga continues

I just talked to the vet. They said "Tiberius's" owners still aren't returning their calls. If you were missing YOUR beloved pet how many days would YOU wait to call back? Anyhow, the vet wouldn't give me their contact info yet... said they wanted to try again tomorrow and then they'd give it to me. This annoys me, but whatever. Push comes to shove I can have him re-scanned at CAHS and get the info myself. It's starting to look like I might need the cops to step in to even get an answer from these people! The sad thing is all this delays his vet care and his adoption, as if he hasn't been through enough.

OK, maybe there IS something to a name...

We took the dog we've been calling Benny to the vet yesterday. The first thing they always do with rescue dogs is to check for a microchip. Well.... he has one. They called the Home Again company to get his microchip information and his former owners apparently named him TIBERIUS! Seriously, WTF kind of name is that? LoL!

We didn't get any other vet care after that because we are obligated to contact his "owners" because he is technically still their property. The vet office is trying to call them via the phone numbers Home Again had on file but they haven't had any luck yet. I'm not so sure I want them to find the owners though. This poor dog has been abused and neglected horribly and if these people did that, they have no business getting him back.

If the owners decide they want him back they're up for a fight. I'm not handing him over until I know he is safe. That may mean having the Humane Officers step in if need be. Hopefully when they realize they could be in trouble they decide to give me the dog. In the mean time we're still calling him Benny because he doesn't respond to "Tiberius" at all.... and it's a really dumb name.