A Story About a GIMP (Brody Dog)

Well, Friday night I watched a quirky little movie called "Employee of the Month." It was pretty good, with several twists at the end. A couple I was expecting and a couple I wasn't, so made for a great ending. Paul caught the end of it, and got to see the twists which makes him want to see it now. I also have "Phantom of the Opera" and "De-Lovely" still to watch. I've given up getting movies that Paul wants to see as his work schedule is so nutty that we get nothing watched.

We planned on cleaning the front deck yesterday, but morphed into remarkably lazy people and got nothing accomplished, except Paul got some laundry done and we went to Wal-Mart. Also, in the morning picked up poor Brody dog. She blew out her CCL and had to have it "fixed." We decided to try a new vet since our last one was a horrible lady who overcharged us. So, we randomly picked a vet that was close to the house. Our old vet always had to muzzle Brody because the dog hated her guts and felt she would be happier with less fingers. Which for those who know this dog, would be shocked at. She's the most loving and wonderful dog who loves nearly everyone. Made me wonder what this "great" vet did to her. So the new vet, Dr. Mark (er...something, names have been changed to protect the innocent, or just cause my memory has completely failed me), met us the day after Brody blew out her ligament. She immediately walked (well, hobbled) right up to him, tail wagging like mad. She never growled once. He then explained our options to help her out and we made an appointment for the surgery on Friday. By that time, she was again tentatively starting to put a little more weight on the offending leg, but we still wanted to do the surgery after reading on the internet info about this particular injury. So, we picked her up yesterday and she's shaved and has some massive stitches around the knee area. She's now the three-legged wonderdog. The leg just hangs there as dead-weight. She takes nearly a full minute when deciding how to lay down because normally she just flops down, but can't now. When the vet tech brought her out, she saw Paul and I, and then noticed the vet in a hallway near where she was. She immediately made a detour to the vet, hopping up to him, to ostensibly say goodbye. I was like, "what'd you do to my dog man?" He obviously bewitched her. But made Paul and I laugh and feel soooo much better about him. He's obviously a wonderful man, any friend of Brody's is a friend of ours.

Another interesting thing about this clinic. A woman and her daughter had brought a very sick puppy in, and they could do nothing for the tiny guy, so had to put him down. When the woman came up to the counter to pay, where we were waiting, the tech said, "Oh, honey, there's no charge." Fell in love with everyone of these people immediately. Also, the surgery ended up costing less than what he originally quoted us, still crazy expensive, but less is more as they say.

Today should be fun. We're meeting up with some friends at their mom's house who has an inground pool and having a little BBQ and some time in the sun. My entire goal today is to lose my flip-flop tan on my feet. I'm about to go get the dishes done right now since we're again out of glasses. This is generally my motivation to do dishes...we're out of something.

After this nutty week at work is over (grants, grants, grants) I'm going to start fund-raising for my friend Tracy. She's running a 26-mile marathon in October to benefit the Lymphoma Society and needs to raise $4000. The majority of it is going to a little 4-yr-old girl who has leukemia that cannot be cured. I'm going to do a mail email to all I know and include the website where you can make donations...it's 100% tax-deductible and every little bit helps. My cousin Chris got the okay to get some money at work, and we're hoping that she can help out a lot! (Thanks, Chris-you're a rock star!!) All she had to do was show her boss the picture of Allie (the little girl) and her boss, of course, melted. So all, be prepared, and remember $5 from a lot of people can go a long way...so watch for my email and get those credit cards out! It's a very worthy cause and I'm incredibly proud of Tracy for finding the fortitude to accomplish it!

Well, I guess I'd better stop stalling and get those $&*%&#$* dishes done!
Love, B

What I did this summer...well, maybe this week

Here's an update on my long week. Last week was spent doing a lot of boring work stuff so I won't mention that for fear of inducing a coma-like state. Big skip to Friday. After work on Fri., I drove to Nebraska and met up with Tracy at her house. We then went to my brother and his girlfriend's place and caught up and had some laughs. Then Sat. morning Tracy was nice enough to take me to a coffee shop and I got a massive mocha (yummy!!). Then we went to the bridal shop and she tried on her bridesmaid dress for her sister's wedding. They are so pretty! But the dimrod at the shop ordered it a size too big even after Tracy told her she was running a 26-mile marathon in Oct and would probably be losing some weight. I guess they maybe hear "I'm going to lose weight" from a lot of people who don't follow through so just ignored it. BTW, she looks fantastic! And I'm so proud of her for what she's doing! Then we went back to the apartment and I hopped in the shower because now I'm about to be really, really late. I picked up Nicole and we headed to the baby shower. Tasha looks so cute pregnant. She's one of those women who gain weight only in her belly and she looks great! Because of my crazy week, I didn't have time or energy to buy a gift, so I just stuck a little money in there and then told her we'd go shopping and get her something she needed, but didn't get. We went to Tasha's apartment to unload and then talked for a while. Then back to Tracy's where we relaxed for a bit and then got ready to go out. We walked over to Brewsky's for dinner and a beer, then over to Chris' house, where we BS'd for a little while longer. Chris is going to try to raise some money for Tracy and hopefully will get some cash out of her work. On to the Point After where the band wasn't too loud or obnoxious and where I enjoyed three beers to Tracy's one rum and diet coke. I know, usually it's the other way around with Tracy being ahead of me by a couple, but she's so dedicated to this marathon and drinking isn't in the training plan. We shot some pool and then headed home.

I crashed out around 1:30 am and was rudely awakened by a monstrous German Shepard (Bear) at 5:30 am. After some explanation about the merits of sleeping in, he left but thought 7:30 was also good. Then back at 9:30 when I finally got up after contemplating how mad Chris and Cole would be if I killed their dog (I decided not to find out). I showered and headed over to Tom and Sherry's where they've put up an above-ground pool. We had some fun and I didn't want to leave although I finally did at 6:30 that night. Got home and crashed out a while later.

Yesterday was our 7th anniversary and so after work I stopped by and got a copper fire pit for Paul (and me!) and picked up a giant chocolate chip cookie. I stopped by his work and dropped off the cookie and talked to him for a little while. Found out he has this weekend off so we're going to start destroying our kitchen and getting the new cabinets installed. He got home around 9:30 or so and we went outside to admire the pretty fire pit (many oohhhs and ahhhhs were said by all!) Then inside to watch TV. Whew, the romance of our anniversary stuns me. Damn his work anyway.

Good things that happened though. I got my financial aid award letter for school and am now about to go into debt by another $18K. Yay! Loving the debt thing. Hope this program pays off! And got my books for the first year (at a serious bargain of only $250-guess graduate school doesn't nail you on books too bad). Paul noticed them when he got home and asked if I'd flipped through them yet. I told him no, I put together the fire pit. So he picked up the one that's called Forensic Pathology and sees some really nasty stuff and is like, "ewwwww." Dork, shouldn't gone for the nasty one. So, I flipped through it too and it's really interesting stuff. All my other books look great too and I can't wait to read them and start learning!!

Anyway, that's where I'm at as of this moment. So, blog at ya later.
Love,
B

Weekend Update

Well, here's my update to my list...what I actually got accomplished. Didn't do too bad considering I'm a lazy bugger. On Sat. I watched two movies. Mean Girls and Wilmbeldon. Two icky girlie movies that I knew Paul would want nothing to do with. They were okay...nothing to write home about, ya know? Then I went to the tattoo parlor and they were closed! Whoever heard of a tat place closed on a Sat. at 2 pm. Sheesh. Then went to another one, and THEY were closed. I'm taking this as a sign that I shouldn't get my last tattoo just yet, so I'm going to let the idea sit for awhile and then see how I feel about it.

Then I got home and did dishes. Fun times. Have I ever mentioned that I despise doing dishes? Ugh. I've now been married 7 years and only for one year in our entire married life have we had a dishwasher. This is my fondest wish. To someday have a dishwasher again. I'm such a simple woman.

That's pretty much Saturday. Sunday, I went to Wal-Mart and only wanted to ram my cart into three people, so successful shopping day. And managed to only buy that which I went in for. HA! Take that Wal-Mart!! You didn't lull me into needless buying! So anyway, came home and transplanted the tomatoes. The roots were so tungled up I had to tear into them a bit. They were all droopy and sad after and I was convinced I'd committed 1st-degree murder, but they've perked up since then and I think they may survive!

Anyway, got completely distracted there. It's now two hours later than when I started this blog and I have no idea what my train of thought was. Getting old I guess. So, it may be better to post this and I'll finish up whenever my brain starts functioning again.

Love,
B

Weekend of fun and sun...er, maybe not

Big plans for the weekend...er, maybe not. Sorry, for a second there I thought I had a life. Sheesh. Anyway, here's my plans. Maybe if I write them on here, I'll be forced to do them all (could work, right? Give me hope, please). Here's my "accomplishments" list:

1) Do the laundry (this is supposed to be Paul's job, but we'll cut him some slack since he's working so hard. Doesn't mean I can't mock him about it...but it'll be our secret that I don't mind too much.
2) Wash dishes. Dish situation is now at "Level Orange." We are nearly out of plastic cups and will have to start using the glass ones. This is hazardous because Paul likes to break things (unintentionally of course, at least I think so).
3) Organize my closet. People who have been forced to live with me know that I'm sloppy. My morning ritual consists of trying on clothes, discarding them because they "make" me look fat and said clothes not making it back on the hanger. Then they pile up during the week on a rack in my closet. And my shoes are everywhere although my hubby kindly gathered them up and threw them in a big pile on my closet floor. I guess we've been married long enough that he knows how to "hint" at me to do things.
4) Read journal articles for work and get my prensentation started. I have to give a long (20-25 min) talk at work on Fri., so must start getting that together. I don't want to be stressing about it Thurs. night and so am trying to not procrastinate. Whether this will actually be done remains to be seen.
5) Clean the entire house. HAHAHA...sorry, had to throw in that much needed humor.
6) Repot my out-of-control tomato plants. They're starting to get frisky and crowding each other out. This may require having to make an impromtu trip to the local Lowe's for supplies. Sigh. I hate having to leave the house.
7) See if tattoo I want is do-able. I think I've finally decided on my final tattoo design. But it's pretty intricate and I fear will be very large and complex (this equals pricey). So, luckily, there's a tattoo shop less than 5 min from the house so I plan on stopping by tomorrow because we are on the same schedule during the week so I can't ever get in there.
8) Take a 3-hour nap at least once this weekend.

Wow. That's a lot of stuff. I'm guessing only half will get done. I'll try to post something about what I actually got accomplished. So, anyway, time to hit the hay!! Niters.

Love,
B

ACK! Attack of the poison ivy!

I think I've now been officially indoctrinated into the world of "grown-ups." I have my first case of poison ivy. Fortunately, it's just a few spots on one of my inner arms and isn't too bad at all. Me and my rash met when I was attempting to channel the spirit of Martha Stewart. It was fate some might say...but I say it was nothing but bad luck. I recognized the ivy and tried to be careful when snipping it out, but obviously, I suck at careful. But the little flower garden I made around our big tree in the front yard looks great! No pain, no gain. (And, yes, I feel the burn...er, rather, the itching.)

That was one of my weekend projects to get the area cleaned up. Hubby planted some flower seeds in the spring but barely any took and we got overrun with weeds, grass and (who'd a guessed it) poison ivy. So, I went to Lowe's and bought a bunch of perennials and annuals to mix it up a bit. My theme was "Riot of Color" basically because I'm entirely too lazy to plan out some big plan thing. So, I weeded out the riff-raff and got the flowers planted and so far, none have died! This is a huge accomplishment for me! (Golf-clapping for myself.) Then I hopped into the shower and was off for a BBQ at my boss' house. I got there and had a Corona in hand within two minutes of arrival, so success. We all sat around and bullshitted for about (wow) 8 hours. You'd think we saw enough of each other at work, but we rarely have the time to just chat. I see more of my co-workers than I do of the hubby...wait a minute. Maybe THAT's the key to a successful marriage. Haha. My other weekend project was to make my ghetto tomato cages for my going-crazy tomato plants and to rig up some sort of support for the sugar snap peas. Got those done early Sat. morning too. Gosh, I was productive! In case you're thinking I've morphed into someone else, don't worry, I was lazy most of Sunday, so it balanced out.

Last night there was some excitement in the ghetto. I actually made it to bed at around 11 pm (early night for me) and at 2 am hubby shoots up out of bed (he heard a scream)...then we both hear a woman yelling. He gets up and goes to investigate (cause don't you know, he only sells car by day...by night...he's CARMAN, superhero to the ghetto tribe). I attempt to ignore and go back to sleep...no shakes, jake. So get up and look out the window. He comes back in and then shortly thereafter, we see a woman in pjs and no shoes jogging down the middle of the street. She doesn't come back. He thinks, drug deal gone bad. I think, hmmm, domestic dispute. Then we see a shirtless man coming from a different way...he goes the opposite way of the woman. Then a car coming from the woman's direction going in the man's direction. (If you follow that, whew...you're a champ). Then nothing. After nearly 40 min. I finally convince him that no one was killed. Obviously I was right and he was wrong. When will he learn?

Anyway, I'm going to hit the sack and I'll fill you in on my exciting weekend coming up. Who knows...maybe I'll get hives! Fun times.

Love,
B

Babble and Yabble

Well, what to discuss on here. Feel like it's time to blog, but don't have too much to talk about so I'll start typing and see where this takes us. (Fair warning to readers, side effects of the following blog could result in extreme boredom, depression, but probably no anal leakage, so read safely and hold onto all moving parts.)

It's raining again. It's been raining for a couple of days which really has to be putting a dent in the drought in the midwest, but since I'm not sure how far down we were, maybe not. Hubby cringes because he then has to cut more grass, more often. He's currently cutting 4 or 5 other lawns besides ours drumming up a bit of extra money for his toys he likes to have. But when he set this all up, he didn't realize how many hours he'd be putting in at work, so that's making it interesting finding the time (and days when it's not raining) more diffucult. He's really sensitive to poison ivy and last summer fought with it several times, once so bad, both of his eyes swelled shut, so we tried to find him a product called "IvyBlock" which you put on before you think you may come in contact and it's supposed to help prevent the oils from penetrating the skin...no luck at Wal-Mart. I'm going to hit a pharmacy this weekend and see if I can find it for him. Better to prevent totally than try to treat after the fact.

I think I'm going to bite the bullet and get Season One of Carnivale, HBO's recently cancelled original show. It was great for those of you who may not have caught it. Well worth the investment. (Official plug-help save Carnivale: http://www.savecarnival.org). Seriously, try to check out this amazing show!!! It's got 24 hour-long eppys to get through, but I've never been this addicted to a show before and so involved in it. I'm sort of a TV snob when it comes to most of the crap on TV right now, but Carnivale was amazing and wonderful and...just great. That's why I'm so sad it was prematurely cancelled.

Alright, I've totally yabbled and babbled on enough now and bored you all stiff. Promise my next blog will be exciting and splendiforous!

Love,
B

Attempt at Random

Randomness is now my middle name (yes, I had it legally changed, sorry mom/dad), so this post is dedicated to random thoughts. (What this means is that I don't have anything specific to write about, so I must attempt to collate into something I've dubbed "random." Pretty slick, hunh?) So, good news is that I've had my first BIG paper accepted for publication. Major woohoo. So, at my not so young age, I've managed to get two peer-reviewed publications in. Thanks to my boss for giving credit where credit is due. This is more rare than we would like to think in the science community and I've been fortunate in not only getting a job, but getting a good boss and co-workers. Also, helped finish up a grant for money, money. That's what us geeks must rely on to continue getting those papers (and those paychecks). For all you non-sciencers out there, doing this stuff is expensive. The materials are expensive, the equipment is expensive. Even publishing costs money sometimes. So, that's the caveat to doing good science. Money, money. (How many times can I say "money, money" in this post, hehe).

Got my new RAMM stick in the computer and we'll see how it goes. I'm a little nervous and even now think I need to run a hardware diagnostic to make sure the little shit is happy. I think I will forever be wary of my computer and it will be getting regular check-ups from now on. I was originally going to get some software to do backups but have now decided that I am going to invest in an external FireWire hard drive. I can use this on the laptop I'll be getting too. And for the "bargain" price of about $150-170 I can get 80 GB of free space. Probably make this little eMac blazing fast (my head may spin). Alright, I think my boring computer saga is now over and we can all move on to brighter and happier things.

I got interrupted several hours ago because my brother and his girlfriend arrived. They're flying out tomorrow morning for a wedding in Vegas and are using us for the cheap hotel we are. Nothing better than free baby. My only advice will be to watch out for suspicious showgirls. Never can trust those women...hehe. So anyway, I think my randomness is currently at an end (sheesh-random is seriously over-rated, this was soooo boring!!) Didn't help that my thoughts got interrupted. I'm a one-mind kinda gal and I can't process well when I don't do things in a linear fashion. Well, niters for now.

Love,
B