No worries!

I survived my ride-a-long!! It was in reality kinda boring. These poor guys get called out on a lot of goofy stuff. The most scary thing was racing to a call. The HUGE amount of multi-tasking that was going on was CRAZY! He would be hitting siren sounds, typing into a computer, driving at 80 mph and trying not to hit the idiots that wouldn't get over for him. My life flashed before my eyes several times.

We had a nice chat along the way and he's a fairly new officer (been on the force for 2 yrs) so that was interesting. Although I felt super old. We went on 6 calls in the 3 hours I did the ride-a-long. All were goofy. Nothing too exciting, although that's ok by me. The officer kept apologizing for boring me, but I was all "Hey as long as I leave here with no gunshot wounds, it was a good night." 

Apparently, they do ride-a-longs all the time, you just have to apply for it. We met up with another officer who had a civilian with him too, so it's pretty common. 

Unfortunately, I have no great stories to entertain you with. Just a suggestion, don't call the cops for something goofy. 

Belinda

Nervous much?

All of us in the Trace and DNA sections are supposed to do ride-a-longs with officers. As mine is tomorrow night (what sort of genius does theirs on a FRIDAY night???), I'm a smidgeon nervous. Hopefully we won't see any crazy action but I just wanted to tell everyone hey and remember that I love you all. Just in case, ya' know.

Heh.

Belinda

Promised Pics

Here's more pics of the pub crawl. Drunky-mcDrunks.

Me and the Potter! Every once in a while, I'm amazed at how tall he is. Or how short I am.

What I love about this picture is the scary dude in the mustached t-shirt lurking in the back. So, for those of you not in the know, this is Nikki and Tom. I'll let you guess which is which. Heh.

A much more dignified photo than the "gang-sign" one in the previous post. Potter, me and Brenda. Paul and Brenda are holding the goblets bought by Nikki and CJ at the flea market. I think they cost all of a $1.50 but were a huge hit with most of the ladies in our group.

The mustached wonder women of KC!!

There's my stache. I like mine to be all turny-up and stuff. I'm amazed Paul is seen with us in public.

Hope you enjoyed all the mustaches!

Belinda

Couple of pics

I swiped some pictures from Nikki's blog. She tells the story better than I do so check that out.

Our team names were "Janet Reno Dance Party" and "Go Fuck Yourself Cancer." Both are brilliant (and TOTALLY AWESOME) I have to say.

This would be AFTER mass consumption of lots and lots of beer. We looking pretty good for being so lit up! I have only the vaguest memory of this photo, so I have no idea what the hell we were doing. But it's funny. So, there ya go.

The big after-party scene. Free booze for ALL. This would be were I actually went from being just a little bit buzzed to really pretty hammered.

The first bar. And the fake mustaches. Mine didn't last because it was itching my nose. I have no idea how boys wear these things. Brenda and Nikki kept their's all day, but Ashley and I lost ours pretty quickly. Although I did get asked by a random guy about free mustache rides. Heh. People are funny.

In the car on the way there. Brenda and I were all happy and smiley. Although Brenda may be confused and thinkin' she's a gangsta.

This is Hungry. He followed us EVERYWHERE. Stalker. Check out Nikki's blog for more of Hungry's mad-cap adventures and more pictures. I will try to get the rest of Nikki's pictures from her this week and put more up for your enjoyment!

Belinda

Happier Toby!

Mom requested a video showing a happier Toby and I aim to please!

Belinda

I survived!!

Pictures will be forthcoming of the big event yesterday! It was a lot of fun and we had a CRAZZZY group of people on our team. Somehow, miraculously, we never lost anyone of the 23 people. 5 bars and lots of beer!! Paul slowed down and ended up not drinking for the last forever and so was able to drive us drunkards home. Although we do have Nikki's car here, heh. 

It was a great time and we would definitely  do it again!! I didn't take my camera to the actual event because Nikki had hers, so I will try to steal those pics and post for your enjoyment. And they are funny. As a teaser, imagine the ladies of the group in fake mustaches. I don't know WHY we were wearing them, but they got a lot of compliments and I even had a strange guy ask me about free mustache rides. Good times, people, good times.

Belinda

Who needs a liver?

A very large group of about 23 of us are going to be participating in the pub crawl for cancer event here in KC tomorrow. The money goes to lots of groups usually, but this year is getting given to Breast Cancer Research which makes it extra special for me! We have two teams and we hit five bars and drink 4 pitchers of Coors Light at each bar. Then afterwards, we get totally open bar for about three hours.

Don't worry, we have DDs set up and ready to go! It's been going on here in KC for several years and has started to spread over the US. If you would like more information, click THIS! 

Nothing like drinking for a good cause! You get all silly drunk AND feel good about yourself!!

Wish us luck and I'll try to post some pics afterwards!

Belinda

The saddest dog on the planet

Workin' Hard on the Weekend

The weekend turned out pretty nice, so we worked our asses off.

First up. Move a shit-ton of gravel. We have this little side driveway thing that has been pretty much a cess-pool of mud since we moved in. Paul got 8 tons of gravel and then had to move it.

He moved it with that little ol' bucket too, since I was dominating the wheelbarrow. Such a gentleman. Notice he's smiling. It's because I'm his wife and I'm silly and make him laugh. Mostly.


That there is what a shit-ton of 8 tons of gravel looks like. It took a while to move it around. Although I was just moving a measly ton of dirt, so I can't take any credit for this at all.


The greatest journeys start with a single step. AND the greatest gravel driveways start with a single bucket of rock. God DAMN, I am a poet.



Here'd be my shit-ton of dirt. But it looks all little and wussy compared to the 8 tons of gravel. That Potter. Always upstaging me.


Day 2 of the weekend and another ton of dirt later...we got the beds all full of dirt and planted with stuff.


Potter "tilled". The quotes are overkill, but the ground was in no way ready to be tilled. I had great desperation that I would never get a garden going with the rain and we just decided to go for it, DAMN THE CONSEQUENCES!! So, here's a watermelon plant for your enjoyment.


I did something different and ordered pepper and tomato plants from online store. The box was pretty trashed when it came on Friday and 75% of the plants were destroyed. Here's the lone survivors! Peppers, woohoo. This is Gypsy and Fat N' Sassy peppers. I love that name. Fat N' Sassy. Yes, I am.


Zucchini, three different varieties. These seedlings have been slowly strangling to death in the house and in their little plugs. They are so not looking okay. We'll see if any survive. Don't worry, a whole 'nother bed was seeded with fresh zucchini seeds.

My five rows of love. Yay for our tiller!! Thanks Santa :)

Them be potato plants growing in that thar tub!

My new two toys. In the front is the cucumber trellis, that tall ol' big thing in the rear area is the bean tower. The idea of what I dream they will look like are below.

Cukes all happy and off the ground!

Imagine that lady is me and I'm plucking thousands, nay, MILLIONS, of beans off my tower! I have a rich fantasy life. Or a really, really boring one.

And in case you were gnawing at your fingers in wonder and anticipation about my destroyed plants, a phone call today to Jung's has gotten me a whole new package of the plants that were destroyed! Well, only if they only have the varieties I originally ordered. I put a lot of research into these choices. They are not just willy-nilly decisions. If they don't have what I ordered, I get my money back. But here's to hoping that they do and round 2 of shipping works better than round 1. Cuz that was just sad.

Belinda

2nd Time is a Charm??

So, over the weekend Toby decided that those standard ol' sutures were not only boring, but needed to be removed. Over the course of the weekend, he managed to rip 5 of the 6 out. As a result, we got to go to the vet again today and he got NEW fancy sutures. What an elitist. Check out the hardware! They are this super awesome metal sutures. And I think they loaded him up. Before, he had 6 stitches, today he has 10. UPGRADE!!!

Still yowza. But prettier sutures!! He's such an accessory whore.

And, as a bonus, he gets to wear this stylish ensemble. The CONE (dum, da, da, dum, dahhhhh). This is not a happy dog.

Oh yeah. Misery baby. It's sorta hilarious, because he's totally not used to his head/neck being that large. He keeps banging it on doorways. The real fun was when he really, really wanted to lay down and totally thought he couldn't. He's a smart dog and he figured it out eventually. Pretty sure doorways will always be funny.

Good news is that he can't get at the sutures. It was pretty hilarious at the vet's because the vet brought out the cone and was telling me how to use it, blah, blah, blah, then said he might not need it, blah, blah, blah. Then Toby totally found his balls and started gnawing at the first stitch right there. The vet said "All right, buddy" and took off his collar and wound it into the cone which he then slipped over Toby's head. Hah. 

I will also post about the garden in a bit. We actually got it pretty much ALL done!! Yay! I feel so much better.

Belinda

My poor dog!

When the vet called me yesterday and told me Toby had done fine and the mass wasn't cancer and it got all removed, but the incision was pretty big. I was thinking 2 maybe 3 inches.

And I would be wrong. I picked him up today and his incision looks HUGE. Photos below! And they shaved him. A lot.

Wow. That looks painful!! Sorry buddy.

The vet tells me he took out nearly a pound and a half of fatty tissue. Toby just got skinnier!

Yowza. I'm supposed to make sure he doesn't lick at it and he goes back in two weeks for the sutures to be removed. Every time I hear him licking at ANYTHING, I have to stop what I'm doing and check up on him. So far he's only tried to get at it once. Hopefully, he'll stay away from it. Brody was pretty happy to see him. I had to stop her from accidentally bumping into his bad side, but she was bouncing like a puppy!

Since I was outside with the dogs, I went ahead a took a couple of more pics of "garden".

Potatoes! I wasn't sure these would really do anything, but in about 80 days, I'll have taters!

Do you see all the lovely white flowers?!? Yay, strawberries!

I think my tomatoes came today, so that's interesting since I have no actual GROUND to put them in. Maybe I'll get some dirt this weekend and get the raised beds started. We'll see what Potter says!

Belinda

Poor Toby!

One of my babies is at the vet's tonight. Toby had a fatty mass removed today and he's recovering at the vet's. Everything reportedly went well although he has a large incision. It's kinda ironic as Nikki's dog River got spayed today too. Must have been a surgery kind of day! 

So, here's to hurtin' dogs! I'll take a photo tomorrow if it's not too yucky! 

Belinda

Little bit o' garden

Some garden updates (well, what little garden I have right now!).

Spinach, radishes and lettuce are doing well!

Strawberry patch. They are attempting to invade the surrounding area, but that's ok!

Hey, how did these two sneak in! Oh yeah, to raise the cuteness factor!

Le sigh. All sad and empty and stuff. But imagine rows and wonders of plants!!

TROY!! TROY!! We did good! This is one of the peonies we didn't have a clue how to plant!

TROY!! TROY!! This is the other peony plant we didn't have a clue how to plant. Damn. We're good in our confusion.

So, that's all I have going outside besides the potatoes but since they aren't yet popping out of the soil, not a very interesting photo. Once they do though, I will post a pic! Try not to pass out from expectation!

Love,
Belinda