Rough weekend

So far, I've injured myself three times. Wait, make that 4 times.

First time was yesterday morning, heading down the steps with Quincy in my left hand. I fell, of course. Both of my knees just buckled and I went down. Some part of my mind had the through to stretch out my left arm and set him down as I fell, rather than taking a chance on squashing him under me. As a result, both of my knees took the weight of my fall, and my right knee was torn up a lot worse than the left, which was only scratched a little bit. The right knee is still swollen this morning, and there was a LOT of blood. At first, it just looked a bit scratched, but after a couple of minutes, it was bleeding so much that it was dripping down my leg. I think that was mainly from whacking it on the concrete, and not so much from the scrape. It just kept oozing out.

Then later on, I caught him about to eat something bad off the floor, and when I reached forward to get him and remove it, I fell, and landed on my left hand, which tore open across that small pointy bone in the heel of my hand.

This morning, getting ready to go to my nephew's baptism, I attempted to curl my fingers instead of my hair. *rolling eyes*

More later... We're all going to be late for church, because it starts in 10 minutes and they haven't called to say they've left yet. Embarrassing.

Oh, I think I forgot that I whacked my elbow hard enough to bring tears to my eyes and whine for a while, while I was getting ready for church.

Now I'm tired, but M wants to take Quincy to his house to play with Sadie, so I've gotta work up some energy. LOL

Ewwww yuck....

Quincy slept HARD all evening after I brought him in. I wonder if it was the worm medicine. When he woke up, he peed in his nap basket and screamed for me again, so I took him out back to do his business.

It was pretty gross. And he definitely had tapeworms. So I think he will be sleeping in his pen in the kitchen tonight, now that I've made room for it. Every time he hears me typing, he starts hollering and howling for me to come get him and cuddle him.

Ick, not tonight Quince.... I promise I'll make up for it tomorrow evening with a rousing game of fetch, but tonight was consumed with getting the kitchen to accomodate the pen. I only had time to eat and apple and peanut butter for dinner.

Of all the stupid things to let happen....

Okay, I've figured out that my new puppy has tapeworms. No doubt about it. And now paranoia has set in that I might have gotten them from him. I'm not going to go into details, but let's just say that an upset stomach is the least of my symptoms right now. Since I'm going for my yearly exam on Friday, I'm going to beg my doctor to prescribe whatever it is that will get rid of them. Surely, if I don't have tapeworms, the medicine for it won't hurt me if I take it anyway?

I did go by the vet's office, describe how I figured it was tapeworms, and got some medication for him, which he ate quickly because I hid it in a lump of cheese.

Yes, I'm at a stage of mild hysteria right now. I'm starting to freak the hell out.

So I came home today and saw that Quincy pooped all over his pen area in the kitchen. Who knew that he could be holding so much, when I didn't leave him that much food? For the first time, I put on disposable gloves, and cleaned the mess up. First with Odo-Ban, and then with bleach & water. (Okay, I hit all the visible floor areas with the bleach.) Why didn't it ever occur to me to put on gloves? I'm usually so squeamish about everything, but not this time when it really counted.

And it's really bothering me that he's trying to give me a bath right now. I keep thinking of him licking his butt and then licking me, and contaminating me with whatever is in his mouth.

As if that wasn't bad enough, here comes the stupid part. I closed him off in the kitchen while I researched parasites and tried not to panic, and then he started hollering like he'd made a mess. I went in to discover that he'd managed to find a glue mousetrap that I thought I'd hidden, and got one paw stuck smack in that glue. He was trying to get out of it, and just managed to get heavy stuff attached to the trap, so he was dragging a bag of stuff, including a jar candle.

Fortunately, the trap company's website says that you just need to rub the stuck part of the pet with vegetable oil until the bond loosens. His paw came out, and to his credit, he didn't wig out once I picked him and the trap up and started trying to work him loose.

I dread tonight... they said he's going to start passing lots of worms "late tonight" and throughout the night, and that I should put him in the yard, but not all night. What do I do? Pen him up in the kitchen all night, shut the door to block his howling, and plan to get up an hour early to clean and disinfect the whole thing again?

The end of life as we know it with Harry Potter

No, that's not a spoiler. Just a commentary on how final that seventh book feels... Jo Rowling said she has no plans to go on with any more stories about him.

Actually, she never has to write again, if she doesn't want to. LOL She's the second wealthiest woman in the world.

Props to Jo! Well done indeed. Now there's a goal I could aim for. heheheh

I picked up my copy at 2 am Saturday. It had gone on sale at midnight. I read and read and finished it late Saturday night... and felt sick. She lied... She said 2 people died... It was a heck of a lot more than 2!!!!

But I was right about a whole lot of things... especially Snape. And that was the part that made me cry the hardest. I still love the poor guy. :)

Hot time in the old mill last night (fire! fire!)

Our old knitware mill burned last night. They'd been tearing it down this summer, but it blazed last night, so badly that firefighters couldn't get in. I thought I heard fire trucks last night, but I wasn't sure if I'd dreamed it.

This morning when I went outside, it looked like big dark storm clouds brewing. I didn't know until you-know-who emailed me that there'd been a fire on the other side of the block from me. Not a fire exactly. A conflagration.

And it's still burning.

I drove by a little while ago, and you can see fires burning still, through the old factory windows. It was kind of creepy - like the place was haunted. It reminded me of the last scene in the old Vincent Price movie, The Fall of the House of Usher. The one where you know they just used a cheesy 2 dimensional facade and put fire behind it, but for some reason, it gave me an eerie feeling.

My grandfather died there. He had a heart attack shortly after he arrived at work that night, and was pronounced dead when they got him to the downtown hospital. Just a few blocks away from his home with my grandmother, and I'll bet nobody from the mill even went to get her. Well, it's something to find out.

Howling, howling....

Quincy's playpen arrived today, so I've put him in it in the kitchen to get used to it... and per his usual response, he's flipping out in there... Crying, whining, whimpering, howling, honking, and howling some more. I swear it sounds like he's saying my name.

I think the problem is that he just doesn't want to be alone. I understand that. But I also know it was a shock to his system when I penned him up in a small area of the kitchen today. He had pooped all over the place, even right by his food dish, when I came home for good. He'd pooped already in there this morning when I came to check on him during my lunch break.

He's upset, and I think that it's partially because he wanted to play ball with me, and I haven't done it yet tonight. He tossed his squeaky ball around, grabbed it, and butted it toward me - that's how I could tell what he wanted.

Now he's in there doing that pitiful, mournful howling, like his little heart is broken. Just like our first night together. I feel bad, but all evening, he's been pooping and peeing all over the floor and the carpet.

Sheesh, now he's screaming.

I know, this is all to be expected, but I can't figure out when he got his wires crossed that he's supposed to go outside, pee, play his butt off, and then poop in the house immediately when he goes inside. WTF???? How do I stop that?

This morning I waited about 20 minutes for him to do his business, and I ended up being late for work because of it.

But the messes he made in his penned area weren't his usual easy to pick up stuff. Runny... I guess he's literally cried himself sick.

Success with Puppy Kong and Liver Treats

Yay! I got some liver treats for Quincy last night on my 1 am Wal-Mart run, and stuffed a couple into his Puppy Kong. He's been very fascinated with it ever since he heard the rattling sound inside, and he enjoys rolling it around with his paw making his dry dog food or treats fall out of it. I think he likes the liver treats too - he was thrilled and bouncy when that first chunk fell out and he's been chewing on the treat for about 5 minutes. Still licking his chops even after the treat is pretty much gone, but definitely all lovey-dovey on me. :)

I hope we don't have as many housebreaking setbacks as we did yesterday... Had to change his crate bedding twice after he freaked and pooped in there.

I also discovered that Ranier Cherries are just as yummy as Bing Cherries and right now they're a ton cheaper. Half the price. I promise I'm not gonna go carb-crazy on them, but surely it's okay for me to have a little fruit now and then?

I just can't figure out what the heck I CAN eat now. Protein, sure. But I can't live on tuna all the freaking time, and it seems like everything out there is full of sodium or carbs.

I still haven't managed to get anything accomplished today, buy I haven't started feeling better yet. *sigh* All crampy and stomach achy. :( It doesn't help that they didn't have my sugar-free caramel syrup at Wal-Mart last night. :( :(

First vet visit - personal reminders

He weighs 1.8 pounds. Awwww..... :)

No shots, yay. :) But he does have to go back in 3 weeks for some, and for a checkup. She said everything on him looks nice and healthy, and that I can give him some cool broth to up his liquid intake, because I really don't think that he's drinking enough water.

Then I remembered the way he's been scratching at his ears and flapping them, so she got out a scope to look inside... Yep... gunky and earmites. Creepy little white bugs zipping around in there. Now I'm really glad that I had her check them out. I bet they've been bothering him quite a bit.

He trembled some while he was there, probably because it was kind of a scary place. Lots of dogs barking in the back, excited ones coming through the lobby... Every one hundreds of times bigger than my little boy. I still say he handled it all very well. He just snuggled in really close to me.

Then I took him back to the exam room and put him on that cold table... Brrr... then he shivered. He didn't cry or anything, but I wonder if it isn't the slickness of those metal tables that freaks animals out. I've never seen a dog yet that doesn't get nervous when you put him on a cold metal exam table.

Whenever he got the chance, he wanted to be held right on top of my heart, as close as possible. He did manage to ride home by himself in the passenger seat - watching me with big bright eyes the whole time. Then he fell asleep as soon as we got home, so he's been napping in his laundry basket. Probably all that shaking wore him out.

The little girl across the street is gonna pester the hell out of me to "play with him" though. Every time she sees me, here she comes. I was headed into the house with my food in one hand, and him in the other, and she wanted to know if she could play with him. I said no, he needs to go in right now because we just got back from the vet's office. So she said again, "Can I play with him?" I repeated what I had already told her. *sigh* I let her hold him once yesterday and she wasn't very gentle. She also told me that she'd told her neighbors to come to my house and play with the puppy..... Oh brother.

You'll just have to bear with me... I'm in love :)

Quincy is sooo cute... I've already taken over 50 pictures of him in the last 24 hours (well, I did have a lot of help with that, LOL). I'm gonna be all mushy over him for a long time, I predict.

I think he'll have a positive effect on me. :)

Right now I'm wearing him as a puppy neck warmer. I put him back there once today, while I was working at my computer, and he just climbed back up there again all by himself. I guess he likes it - it's kind of a Yorkie trait that they like to sit up behind their owner's heads, in order to be as close as caninely possible.

He's been a really good boy today. Only one accident since I brought him home, and that was just a little puddle.

I thought I'd improvise and put him in a big, towel-lined box so that he could play around in there without my having to constantly watch him, but he kicked up a huge fuss when I did. I think it was because he couldn't see out, and couldn't see where I had gone. So I emptied my laundry basket, put in a towel for him, put in some of his toys, and put him in. He fell asleep in record time. :) He's been napping in it on and off all day, when he wasn't cuddled in my lap or playing with me on the floor.

I'm thinking that if I keep holding him all day, he's gonna be spoiled rotten, so I'm teaching him how to spend some time alone. It's only going to be a week and a half before he has to spend many hours at a time alone, after all. :(

Tonight is night 2... Neither of us got much sleep last night, so that could explain why both of us took so many naps today. I was worn out, that's for sure. LOL I think he is too. One more potty break, and I think we're gonna hit the hay. Well, I'm hitting the sheets and he's hitting his crate. heheeh I'll get some pictures posted of him soon.

Spoiled or insecure?

Quincy hasn't wanted to leave my arms since I picked him up yesterday. It's very sweet, but I realized this morning that catering to that was going to leave me unable to basically carry on my everyday life. I'm still going to hold him a lot, but I'm trying to figure out a way that I can work around the house, keep him safe, and allow him to see that I'm still here.

I've settled on my round plastic laundry basket as a temporary playpen / nap basket. I put down a towel and a couple of his toys (that he doesn't play with just yet) and put him in there while I was hanging up laundry in the bedroom. Within 5 minutes of his whimpering starting, he fell asleep. I think he's still asleep, because I don't hear anything, and I'm in the office right now.

He may be the only man worthy of me cleaning up the house. :)

He's home! :)

And right now, Quincy is snoozing peacefully in my lap with an incredibly full tummy. I know we have another potty break coming up in a little while, and I think I'm gonna work with him a little bit more on sleeping in his kennel tonight.

I know he's going to cry. I put him in there earlier for a few minutes, and by the time I walked into the kitchen, he was making these little indignant woofing sounds at me, wanting out.

He's had a really full day - the boys played with him a lot. He had his first accident in PetSmart. LOL First on one of the boys' new shoe... Then twice on me... Then a big mess in the middle of the aisle, which T cleaned up. They have those "oops!" accident cleanup stations all over the store. So that helps me not feel so bad.

Where the heck are my tubs?

I just went into the attic to get down some storage tubs for a quick sweep of the floor, and there were only 3. Lots and lots of lids and no boxes. My dad and my brother straightened up the attic when they were working up there, and a conspicuous thing missing is the 2 huge stacks of empty storage tubs that I had placed to the right of the attic opening, so that I wouldn't have to sift through the spiders when I needed one.

They're gone. Just the lids remain, and Dad knows nothing about it, of course. Did my brother take them? Or maybe it was that guy he hired to do my roof, who's now in jail for theft and drugs?

That's just great though. I have nothing to put this junk in, to keep the puppy safe.

Going to see the new HP

I called back to my sister's and talked to Matt again. I asked him if they had any plans yet to go see the movie, and he kind of laughed and said, "We were kinda hoping you'd take us."

ROTFLOL So I told him , "Well, that's why I'm calling!" haha That was actually my intent all along.

I called my brother and told him I was taking the other two, as long as plans didn't fall through, and asked if he wanted to bring his son. There's that issue of having to have Dad supervise every visit with him, of course, so I asked if we couldn't make it seem like I was taking all three and my brother just came along for the ride. Well, that's my plan anyway. :)

His mother was in the car and said that it would be okay.

I don't mean to sound selfish, but I was asking him if he wanted to meet up with us there. And I know that I can't make his little boy settle down for a movie myself, especially a movie I WANT TO SEE.

******
No, I was wrong... why would I think that he might want to spend any time at all with his son on a Friday night when that would cut into his time to go out?

The little one was good - he just pestered me for the time every 45 minutes. Apparently he told the middle one he was ready to go home, but after I'd spent all that money on our tickets, there was no way I was going to leave without seeing the movie.

Puppy pick-up tomorrow

I called my sister's house and asked her younger son if he still wanted to go with me to pick up my puppy tomorrow. He was so excited, I could hear him smiling. Seriously.

I had promised him on the way back from meeting the puppy the first time that he could come back with me, and hold him on the way home, so I'm not going to break my promise and send my sister to fetch the little guy.

He was just too thrilled for me to change plans on him like that, so I'm not going to. It isn't that I don't appreciate her offer. I just don't want to disappoint him.

He was asking me excitedly on the phone how I thought the puppy would look, and he advised me not to get the puppy anything stuffed, unless it was a treat ball with actual food inside, because their dog had shredded all stuffed animals they gave her, and apparently eaten a lot of stuffing. Hehehe. How did he know that when I said I needed to stop by PetSmart for a toy, that I was EXACTLY going to be looking for a treat ball that you put food into? I don't think I had mentioned it, but hey, that's fine. :)

Literary terms and Bicentennial Man - Allusion

I'm always trying to get my students to understand why it is so important that they read lots of classical literature. They need to expland their knowledge base so that when references come up in their own experiences, they will recognize them!!

Case in point:
I was watching Bicentennial Man the other night. When Andrew (the android, lol) follows the female robot home from the marketplace, you discover her name is Galatea.
(spoiler alert)

AHA!

In the story of Pygmalion and Galatea from Greek mythology, Pygmalion is a sculptor who creates a beautiful statue of a woman and names it Galatea. He soon falls in love with the statue, which is fairly tragic. He puts flowers, and pretty cloth drapes on it... all the while desperately wishing his statue was a living breathing woman, and being heartbroken because she was simply a chunk of carved ivory. He prays to Venus to help him and she brings Galatea to life. Pygmalion and Galatea get married, have a son, and live happily ever after.

How cute that the female android is named Galatea, right? Is there a Pygmalion? Yes... Rupert, her owner. It seems for a very long time that she's just a working machine for him, but as the movie progresses and he tells Andrew that he's figured out a way to make him a "real man," this dialogue passes between them about love:

Rupert Burns: What do they say?
Andrew Martin: That you can lose yourself. Everything. All boundaries. All time. That two bodies can become so mixed up, that you don't know who's who or what's what. And just when the sweet confusion is so intense you think you're gonna die... you kind of do. Leaving you alone in your separate body, but the one you love is still there. That's a miracle. You can go to heaven and come back alive. You can go back anytime you want with the one you love.
Rupert Burns: And you want to experience that?
Andrew Martin: Oh, yes, please.
Rupert Burns: So do I.

The quote doesn't quite show the sadness on Rupert's face as viewing the scene does. And there Galatea is, doddering around in her usual robot outfit. Kind of makes you wonder why he doesn't do what he can to make her more like Andrew, for himself. It's like the poor guy has nothing in his life but his work, which is actually world-changing, valuable work, as it turns out, and not merely a respectful continuation of his grandfather's work.

At the end of the movie, there's a little surprise. Andrew and Portia are lying on their bed, dying. The nurse comes in and tells Portia that Andrew is gone (want to know how the android "dies"? Watch the movie and you'll see). She asks the nurse to unplug her so that she can die, and when the very pretty, very human nurse complies, Portia says,

"Thank you, Galatea"

Aww.... Galatea was finally human. Or almost. There's no way to really tell from that last scene, but doesn't it make you wonder about Rupert? He was really old himself when he enabled Andrew to start on his aging process. Galatea was still a robot at the last "operation" for him.

I do hope that before he died, something nice happened between Rupert and Galatea. :) There was an earlier scene when she'd had some chip removed, and she was throwing all of Rupert's delicate equipment all over his workroom, and giving him a completely bitchy blessing-out about how he only sees her as a machine to help him. LOL I was wondering if she had robo-PMS or something.

Maybe she liked him too. :)

It adds a whole new level of understanding to just that small part of the movie - if kids don't know the story of Pygmalion and Galatea, how are they going to know how important it is that the nurse in the last scene doesn't just have the same weird name as that old female robot, but that she used to BE the old female robot, and she's evolved, too? Hasn't she technically broken Asimov's second law of robotics? (I can't remember if that was about not killing or not harming a human being - I read I, Robot in 7th grade) So if she helped / allowed a human to die, she couldn't still be living a life as a robot anymore, could she?

But if they don't know the story, and don't think about the implications of who Galatea really is, even though she's a minor character, I'm afraid that they're going to fail to grow mentally and emotionally when they see this scene.

Yikes, they'll miss a TON of really good stuff!

I'd like to get that movie, edit the pertinent scenes of the movie together, and show my students why reading is so important.

Of course, I realize that by doing this, they're going to think I'm a nutcase. LOL But I don't care. They need to get it.

Now, the funny part will be filling out that form to request being able to show edited chunks of the movie in my class. I sincerely doubt that the person I have to get to approve it would understand my point unless I wrote her a dissertation on the importance of Greek myths in modern literature and film allusions.

I bet I'd be asked "What's an allusion?"

The breeder finally called back

She said that picking up on Saturday will be fine, and that he's been running, chasing, and playing a lot.

At this point, I'll believe it when I have him home with me.

My sister called at 7:30 this morning (mainly because she knew I'd still be asleep and she gets a kick out of disrupting my sleep when I'm not working) and said she'd pick him up for me since she only works about 20 minutes away from there.

Do I trust her not to do something stupid that will hurt my puppy?

This is the same person who set my purse behind the wheel of my car so that she could "rearrange" things where she was sittng, left it there without telling me, and let me run over it with the car. Then thought I had no right to be angry with her because everything in there was broken. She and her family thought it was pretty funny. Come on, try and convince me that wasn't deliberate.

She's the kind of person who will stop on the side of the highway because "she needs a smoke break" and be so wrapped up in herself that she'd let the puppy run into traffic and get run over.

Tell her the sky is blue and she'll swear you told her it was plaid, and be genuinely puzzled about why you get everything wrong when everybody knows the sky is pink.

If I let her do this, she'll forget something vital like say, oh, the puppy's health and registration papers.

If I let her do this, maybe she'll forget that a puppy needs to be taken to potty at least every hour, and he'll mess up her car a couple of times on the way home. :) Hmm. That idea has its merits.

I still can't decide what kind of crate to get for him though. I don't know if I should get one of those "pet taxis" that's closed up and dark inside, or if I should get him a little wire crate for his kennel. Everything I read says they're happier and easier to housebreak when they have a little "den" of their own. I need to get him a little playpen too, because the house really isn't ready for him and you shouldn't give a puppy free reign of the house until he's housebroken anyway. By the time he's 6 months old, he'll probably be finished teething and won't be so interested in chewing up all my stuff, so then he can run around most of the time without me.

I feel bad about the idea of putting him in what is essentially a cage, but it looks like that's the approved way for training and keeping a puppy safe - especially one that'll be alone for about 8 hours of every day. Well, I am planning to let him have a pretty good area of the kitchen to hang out in, if not all of it. I just hope he doesn't discover that little torn area of the linoleum under the dishwasher. Chewing that up could kill him. Maybe I'll just keep him penned in the other half of the kitchen.

I've got a feeling that my Dad's gonna let himself in to play with my puppy while I'm at work. LOL But that's okay. Dad really wants a dog, but he doesn't want to deal with all the mundane things like feeding and potty breaks on a set schedule. He says it wouldn't be fair to a dog, and if he's asleep most of the day, he's right. :) So he'll probably borrow my puppy a lot when I'm not here. It'll keep the puppy company.

My sister has screwed me over now, too

Because she said it would be such a freaking great idea, I paid $75 to host a pool party for her two sons' to be their birthday gift from me. (No refunds)

They acted very unenthused about the whole thing, but all three of them assured me they were going to invite people.

My sister just called me (45 minutes before the start of the party) to tell me, so sorry, they could each only get one person to commit to coming to their party. Oh but they've been calling and inviting people for the last two weeks!!!

I know my sister, and I know she never invites anybody to a birthday party until the day before, and then whines that nobody shows up.

SHE IS LYING TO ME. I can tell when she's lying because she does it all the time, and she has no conscience about lying to anyone for the most minor reason, if it suits her purposes.

She wanted me to call and lie about a need to cancel the party. Lie and say that someone was sick. I told her I wasn't going to lie about that and I hung up on her.

Now she's trying to make it sound like this is somehow my fault, and I better not be calling her back to get all up in her face about it, because it's not her fault either. Bullshit. It was her only job to get them to invite people. All the kids have "different reasons" they can't come.

It's a church night. They're on vacation. Wow, what a variety of reasons.

They hadn't even bothered to call any of their hillbilly brood of cousins. Yeah, they really tried. With their usual effort.

I wish I could say that I'm sitting here being quietly angry over this, but I'm not handling it very well. I'm crying so hard that I'm shaking and having a hard time breathing. I'm only writing here in an attempt to calm down and forget about the knives in the kitchen. I'd hate for anyone to know how much of a wreck the last two days have made me, but there's only one person who reads this blog, and I know she already knows what a basket case I really am.

No new puppy news

Dad called me a little while ago, because he hadn't noticed I'd called last night when he came in. He told me that he'd go down there with me on Saturday to get the puppy, and bring my brother along.

And if the puppy isn't weaned already, he soon will be.

He's still hoping like I am that this woman is on the up-and-up, and it's just unfortunate that I've been unable to get her on the phone. It's a freaking long way away to just drop by her house if she's not there.

Truly a desperate (and hungry) woman

I really am trying to increase the protein in my diet and drop the carbs.

After I finally found those 8 cans of tuna that I bought the other night, I opened and drained a couple to eat for my first meal of the day, and probably only meal. Yes, it is 4 pm.

I tried to eat the tuna with no mayo, mainly because I'm out and I'd forgotten that fact. Even though it was still wet, it was dry tasting in my mouth. Ick. Very difficult to swallow.

So began the desperate search in the fridge... Ranch dressing! That might work! There were only a couple of dribbles in it.

I found the relish and put some in but it still needed something... creamy.

Reluctantly, I pulled out the low-fat cream cheese and decided to give it a try. Squished it all into the tuna and relish.

Well, it'll do until I get some mayo. It's not really bad.

Bad karma or good, recycling my shirt?

In 2002, I made the mistake of giving a kid a ride home, and going to the porch to talk to his mother so he wouldn't get in trouble. He wasn't supposed to be at the school, but he did help us in the concession stand. It was a February night, cold, and rainy. I thought I was doing a good thing.

She let their big ass dog attack me, to make a long story short. He shredded my arm and my leg (behind the knee) and I wound up in the emergency room that night, filing a police report. If I hadn't quickly stood up, he would have gotten me in the throat, which was what he was aiming for.

He also shredded a very expensive embroidered school oxford I'd just gotten, ripping a huge series of holes in the bicep.

I kept the shirt, thinking I might need it for court. I never did sue them like I should have. They denied they were doing anything wrong by keeping a vicious animal. It came down to the police telling the woman to give up the unvaccinated dog for 10 days of rabies observation, or he was going to drag HER out and arrest her in front of her children. And destroy the dog, most likely in her front yard in front of the children as well, before Human Services came to pick them up.

They gave the dog over. Lucky for me, it didn't have rabies.

They never even said they were sorry about what happened. Just a simple apology would have done wonders.

You-know-who told me I should just throw it away. I feel that since I've paid for it with my own blood, I shouldn't have a problem wearing it again, if I can disguise that fact and remove the evidence that I almost died wearing it.

In some weird way, I feel like wearing the shirt again would be proof that I'm recovered from what happened, rather than reminding me of a near-death experence. I think about it every time I see my arm, or the back of my leg, anyway.

So I've cut the sleeves off and I'm going to re-hem them into short sleeves. If it looks awful, I can always throw it away. But I really liked the shirt, and there's no way a damn dog is gonna make me get rid of it.

Now I'm really upset. :(

I called three times today to talk to the breeder about when I can pick up my puppy.

First call, early this afternoon, nobody answered so I had to leave a message on voice mail.

Second call, a young man answered, said she wasn't there, and when I asked to leave a message, he said, "We're kinda busy right now," and hung up on me.

So I waited half an hour, and called back. I got voice mail again.

Yes, I have a very thorough handwritten receipt for the deposit. No, it doesn't make me feel any better that I have probably paid $250 for a scrap of paper and a whole lot of bad feelings about myself for being so gullible.

I have their address, so I can at least send her a letter. I can also just go down there at the end of next week when he's 8 weeks old, with my dad and brother in tow, and tell her I'm ready to pick him up.

If she is trying to rip me off, I will sue her. Even if it costs me more to do it than the $250 she stole. I'm sure I'd win, but I would definitely make her pay all fees and court costs.

• I'll also put an ad in the same paper she did, telling everyone what she's done.
• I'll contact whoever I have to ....
• the IRS, because I doubt they're paying taxes on this income.
• the humane society, because I doubt her "facilities" would be considered humane.

Maybe this bad feeling I have is wrong, and her son or whoever answered the phone is just a huge asshole. Maybe I'm not giving her enough of a chance to contact me. Maybe I'm wrongly assuming that they're all dishonest people.

But in the past I've always regretted it when I didn't trust my intuition. My intuition smells a rat.

Stupid stacking desk baskets

I got all of my spelling tests and flash card pages run off for the entire year. Yay! It only took me about 4 hours to do it and I imagine that I'm saving myself about 10 times that many hours waiting in line for the copier.

On the other hand, I managed to bump into the stacking wire baskets I've been using on my desk, and the little supporting legs came off.. Every single one, as I was trying to keep it from happening. Now I have no freaking clue how to put the damn thing back together! Maybe somebody can help me figure it out. Otherwise, I'm going to have to get some kind of replacement.

My classroom is still pretty much trashed, so I think I should probably start putting some things in the places I know they'll occupy. Maybe it'll make me feel like I'm accomplishing something. It's amazing how fast the feeling of accomplishment faded from copying those spelling papers... I think I used 9 reams of paper. It could have been 8, but I'm thinking it was 9.

I'm tempted to stay here long enough to get a few other things started - like all the little forms I'll want the kids to fill out at the beginning of the year.

Wake up!!!

It's 11 am and I just got up about half an hour ago. My eyes are still so tired. But that's okay... I've got the water heating for my sugar-free caramel cappuccino heating in the microwave.

Yeah, I know all the purists out there would be screaming "Nasty!" but I don't have a lot of choices in the sugar-free department. I can only find the french vanilla flavor mix here and I pour caramel syrup in it to change the taste. Mixed according to the package directions,it's so... watery tasting. Yay Davinci Gourmet - thanks for the yummy sugar free caramel syrup. :) If my big Amazon.com tumbler isn't full by the time I mix it, I top it off with skim milk. Hey, it's a little calcium, and it makes it taste even yummier.

I know, it's not REAL cappuccino, but if I drank REAL cappuccino, I'd have to go where coffee-man works, and I just don't have a desire to make small talk with him after he deleted my emails. Maybe some other day.

No clue how that picture-in-a-picture got onto my monitor's screen. hehehe and no idea how to get it off there either. I just don't watch TV that often on my pc. I probably should have gotten a tv tuner card put in my laptop too, so that I could watch basic cable programs in bed, but I really only watch stuff like HBO and Cinemax, unless it's late night. Then I get annoyed with all the heavy-breathing shows and turn it off. It really is annoying to be in here and hear that coming from the next room.

Besides, I can't handle all the sugar, calories, and carbs, and this is the best way I know to control all of that. Doesn't make a bad substitute when I get a craving for something sweet, so there's that saving grace. (Oh, and the caffeine, LOL)

You know it's a sad day when you have to start drinking "Light" fruit juice. Meaning that you won't be able to have the real straight juice fresh from the fruit... You have to have some bastardized version that's been adulterated at least halfway with artificial sweeteners. :( Oh well... at least the light grape juice still tastes pretty good - it just lacks that sting that real grape juice has.

But enough about my diabetic annoyances. Since I've been trying to eat more protein this summer, my fingernails are looking fabulous. heeheh They'll break off soon, I'm sure.

Ah.... listening to David Bowie on a friend's myspace page. I can't believe I'm not the only one who remembers "Cat People - Putting Out Fire
(with gasoline)" from the movie. I actually have the soundtrack on tape here somewhere.

But I have to admit, there was a really twisted impulse that led me to watch that movie in the first place, and it was Malcolm McDowell. LOL Bowie's just the bonus. Now I haven't been that thrilled with old Mal's work since he's gotten older, but my interest in most male actors is primarily hormonal. hahahaa

I still haven't returned the third disc of Princess Daisy to Netflix. Why? I'm still watching that laaaaast scene with Rupert Everett in it. The one where he's drunk, talking to Daisy about how much he loves her and there's still a chance for them. (Nuh uh, she's your half-sister, you sicko.) Oh, he does that desperately, terminally in love thing sooo well. Drool. I even felt sorry for him despite what he'd done to her when she was 15. He really, really was in love with her. (Imagine being all hot and sweaty with your fiancee and telling your sister that you love her in the middle of it... oooh, how embarrassing. LOL) Well, he was definitely obsessed.

Grrr... took a look at my own myspace page last night and discovered two separate video windows with the same video. Darn it, why didn't that thing show up when I wanted it to, last week? Now it's there, long after I got my nephew to embed that very same video elsewhere on my page. *rolling eyes* Now which one do I take out? I can't believe I've gotta dig through the html coding... That's freaking annoying.

Hmm... perhaps if I'd hop into the shower, I would really wake up.

Split toe

Dang it! My toe is healing, but the end where it was split open is freaking numb.

Is this what happens when diabetic neuropathy begins in the feet?

I've gotta get this weight off...

Call to make Tuesday

I have to call the breeder about my puppy to see when I can go and pick him up. He's just about 7 weeks old now and should be ready to come home soon.

I think I'm going to name him Quincy. I really like the name. Doesn't it sound like a fitting name for a perky little yappy Yorkie? LOL (Or maybe a medical examiner, true.) I figured that when I came across the right name, it would sound right to me, and Quincy does.

Not that I want him to be yappy and annoying, but I do hope he's a lively, healthy little fellow who likes to play with me.

And cuddle. :) Since men are so rotten, I'll just have my own little one to love on.

Things to look forward to :)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is in theaters here this Friday. (woohoo, get to see more Alan Rickman!)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be in stores on the 21st. Yay! Well, not yay that it's the end of the series, but yay, new Harry Potter book. LOL

Is Snape secretly a good guy who was doing Dumbledore a favor by killing him? (I vote yes. But since I figured out who the Half-Blood Prince was, I'm probably due to get that one wrong.) Still... Snape could have killed Harry when he was on the run, and didn't take advantage of the opportunity....

Oh, who really cares about the rest of the characters? I just want more Snape. hehehe

Chores at the school I'd better do

I can save myself a ton of time later on in the year if I go ahead and start copying my spelling lessons now, before the rest of the teachers start in on the copier. Year before last when I completed all the copying in January, it made for a much more relaxed spring. I still had tons of papers to copy for other assignments, but at least the spelling was done.

I didn't get a chance to do that for myself this year because I spent so much time copying papers for the "new" teachers on my hall. I was trying to be nice, but it cost me so much in terms of time. It seemed like I was never finished. I should have just left them with the materials notebook I copied for them. Oh well.... spilled milk and all that.

There are still some activity books that I need to turn into masters for the copier. I think that my idea last year to do that so that I could just stack a set into the document feeder and hit copy for the ISS kids was pretty useful. The only downside to it was that I only had two of the books set up. There never were many opportunities at the end of the year for me to work on that project, but I think I'll have a few uninterrupted hours to get going on that task, if I head over there to work on it this week.

Now, it's my perception that I have a lot of "stuff" for lack of a better word, stuffed into various boxes in my classroom. I do that when I'm rushed to pack up and leave at the end of the year, thinking "I'll get back to that later." I threw a lot of junk away this year, but not nearly enough.

I also discovered that my room has become a haven for brown recluse spiders - I know I killed about 10 of them that came out of various cardboard boxes I shifted around. Would you believe that my boss is incredulous about the spiders? He doesn't believe that we have a problem. Maybe I should bring him a little collection of their dead bodies. It took 3 complaints last year to have something done about the ant problem in my classroom. I don't think that was so much him, as it was a lousy pest-control person. They would come in, say they didn't see anything, and leave without spraying. Meanwhile, the ants were still traipsing in underneath my exterior door, along with all the water bugs.

I suspect that a custodian merely came in with a spray can of Raid to take care of the problem. Maybe that's what I need to do - spray the openings of the room myself when they give me that ineffectual song and dance.

Add to back-to-school shopping list:
1 can of Raid
1 bottle of 409 cleaner (since mine was stolen)
1 refill bottle of 409
1 broom, handle decorated gorgeously for ID
more scissors
1 tall director's chair (available at amazon for $20 if I don't wait too long)
colored copy paper for restroom passes and lots of other stuff

I was thinking that maybe I should unload all of those boxes on the floor and then I'd be able to condense the contents. Actually, it would probably feel a lot better to see how much of it I can just throw away and then think about organizing all that stuff.

I do wish that I could think of something more interesting-looking for the first day desk packets than my usual large piece of construction paper turned into a folder. There's no way I'm going to spend money on folders to just give them, and then expect them to bring folders to class. That's just goofy, and a waste of a lot of money. I've tried doing those as "reusable" folders, but they never return them. Kids don't believe in borrowing anything and returning it.... they believe that anything they want is theirs for the taking, without permission or apology. I just simplify things with the fold-overs and I don't care if they return them or not.

Ouch.

Yesterday, walking around all day in the heat at Six Flags in wet shorts, my thighs got chafed to the point that they were raw and walking became pretty painful.

My sister apparently led her husbands and kids in making fun of me when I tried to walk so that it wouldn't hurt as much. They definitely were making smartass remarks while they were walking behind me (I could hear them) and laughing any time I looked back at them. They tried to act like they were far enough behind me that I couldn't possibly hear them, but they made sure I could hear that they thought it was hilarious that I was in pain.

I was mad enough that when they got back to the car, I showed them the raw spots on my legs, and I said, "Here's what you think is so funny." Oh, not so funny anymore? No, go on and laugh some more. Come on, show me what a great sense of humor you have, because it's so funny that it hurts me to walk.

Okay, he's a jerk

He deleted my last two emails without reading them, so I'm going to throw him into that extremely overpopulated category of men who are jerks. At least he could have said something, so now I feel really stupid. Right now I just feel kind of sad. Embarrassment hasn't quite set in. There's a little demon inside of me saying that I should start going out there to do my writing and never say a word to him. I could even be rude like him and wait for him to speak, then ignore him. Delete. Ha.

Actually, I don't feel like laughing about it. I feel like it's some kind of judgment about me and maybe I should just get the message and live with it. Okay, I get it now.

I really don't feel like doing much more than curling up on my bed and crying, but I'm trapped with my sister's family on vacation in St. Louis, so I have to keep it to myself. I know what I'm going to do though. Stop wishing that things in my life could be different.

Yay! I win! LOL

It's 7:30 and I am just now finishing my cappuccino. I slept later than I'd intended to, but I didn't get to bed until sometime after 2 because I was getting stuff ready for our trip.

I'm supposed to be at my sister's house "around 8" to go, and I had every intention of meeting that deadline, but I'm kinda dragging this morning. I kept hitting the snooze buttons on all 3 alarms.

I figured they'd just have to be a little miffed at me for that, but she just called me and very sleepily said not to rush over there, because they're all still in the bed. Call first. LOL Looks like I get to take my time packing and maybe even take a nap when I get over there.

I'm ready for the caffeine to kick in and pull me up out of this sleepy ocean I seem to be floating in.

Maybe some music will wake me up. Gonna listen to XM Radio 80s station while I get ready.

Oh, when I went to my sister's for the 4th of July cookout yesterday, I kind of worked the soreness out of my toe. I went flying a couple of times on their rope swing (until I hurt my fingers... that's just my weight and lack of upper body strength, holding on for dear life while I finished the arc and my feet finally came back to the bank where I could put them down again. The first time I let out this embarrassingly goofy squeaky-squeal that really made my middle nephew laugh. Second time was when I hurt my fingers, but they recovered.

Then we played volleyball for a loooong time, and later on played badminton. It was SO much fun. :) I played barefooted because my sandal was ripping at the bandage on my foot. The tape and my feet got nasty, but the tape held up very well. (I had taped the baby toe to the adjacent one to make the bandage on the little one stable.)

And when they saw the massive bruise across my bicep, coupled with the bandages on my toes... everyone laughed at my being so accident-prone. LOL So did I.

Okay, NOW I'm awake. They're playing some good songs on XM 80s this morning. :D Time for my shower now!

My lovely greening yard

The upside of my brother double-spraying my yard a few weeks ago was that I got a reprieve from mowing it for about 2 and a half weeks while the bermuda reorganized and decided it was time to take over all the dead spots from the former weed occupants.

The downside is that it's becoming lush and green (except for the backyard and that spot on the side of the carport which is totally dead and extends into the neighbor's yard, LOL) and needs mowing TODAY, and I'm a teeny bit pressed for time if I do that.

You know I like to drag my butt around the house when I have somewhere to go on a holiday. LOL

So I'm going to eat a banana, rig myself up with my contact lenses, a tank top for tanning, and a water bottle to hang around my neck (maybe a bandanna if the backyard is still very dusty) and head out for the mowing. What the heck do I do about my toe, though? I usually mow in tennis shoes, and I'm not sure I can get my foot in there with the bandaging! I don't want to be unsafe - my poor little piggies have been through enough in the last few months.

By the way:

Happy 4th of July!

Mom confirms

That I'm baby-toe challenged. She called at the stroke of noon wanting to know if I'd brought Quincy home yet. He's only 6 weeks old - I doubt he's been weaned yet. But I can see those wheels turning in her head... She wants to play with him this afternoon over at my sister's house. Nothing she loves more than cuddling a little puppy. Forget babies.... she's into puppies.

I asked (for her mother's POV, of course) if anybody else had the same problem of always knocking their baby toes on stuff. She said I was the only one, but she did occasionally. I was always knocking my toenails off and getting them caught in the tub drain, which pulled them off.

So even though my brother swears I wasn't a chronic toenail loser, Mom says I was (and am still sometimes). After all.. he was about 12 when I kept doing it, and was he really paying attention to my tiny little feet? I doubt it.

I still have little feet, and you-know-who told me yesterday that he thinks it's a short person / small foot issue, because he doesn't know anybody who does that other than me.

Maybe it's just a me-issue, and I'm a clumsy freak.

I really think that's the more likely scenario.

At least now I know that several hours of grinding a few times a month will give those toenails some semblance of normality. They just get stained by my shoes so easily.

This clinches it. I need an adoring boyfriend with a foot fetish who lives to take care of my tootsies.

Prudishness?

Well, Jennifer made me realize something important.

I tend to over-compensate on the issue of modesty. I do have the top half that allows me to wear low-cut tops really impressively, but I'm usually in a crew-neck something or other that covers my entire chest and the lower part of my neck. I need some boob shirts. LOL Where do they come from?

I guess it's that thought in my head that men can just look at me and tell that I'm "damaged goods," as one smartass recently called me. He deserves a solid punch in the face for that. But he was drunk on the phone, so I guess I have to cut him some slack. Something tells me that I need to take pains to hide what I think is obvious, so that I can say, "Nooooo... I'm nothing like that. See? I'm all covered up!"

What if the thing that I'm actually accomplishing is appearing cold and standoffish with a touch of "Don't touch me" Ice Princess attitude?

Oh no. Could that be it?

I watched "A Midsummer Night's Dream" today, because yes, I wanted to see Rupert Everett. Yes, I know he's gay, and that's a huge disappointment. But he's wonderful eye candy and he makes me daydream about all sorts of romantic things. He'd have me fooled about the gay thing, or he's got someone giving him very good direction on how to look at a woman and touch her ever so slightly. He's leaned over Michelle Pfeiffer, who is sleeping, stroking his fingers over the top of her forehead while his other hand trails around her jaw and chin. Touching with the barest whisper of his finers.

And the way he kisses her seems to have some meaning behind it. Lots of scenes where he's just watching her sleep, plotting her humiliation, and his expression is saying he's crazy about the woman, but he's still poutily mad at her over the little boy she won't give over.

*sigh* Maybe it's just really good acting, but I'd like to be touched like that. :)

I'm just worried now that if anybody tries, he'll need an ice axe to break through and get to the real me, who really is warm and fuzzy inside.

Nearly in tears.... more clumsiness

As if I wasn't already baby-toe challenged enough, this morning (yet AGAIN!) I've whacked the one on my right foot on the plastic "foot" that's supposed to keep my Gazelle from sliding around the floor. It seems like every day I hurt one or the other of my smallest toes on something - protruding things, the door, something in the floor, thin air.

It hurt for a little longer than usual and I put my hand down to pinch it and will the pain to go away, only to bring my fingers back up with blood on them.

Great. Probably gonna lose another toenail over this.

I finally got my contacts in while my toe was bleeding all over the floor, more and more as I worked on contacts. I got the blood off, and rinsed it off in the tub, but it's still bleeding. And I have housework to do, though this time I really feel like sitting on the couch and crying because my toe still hurts really bad and I feel absolutely imcompetent and helpless over this situation. It's pretty bad, because usually when I hurt myself, I just scream a few times until the pain goes away a minute or two later. It didn't help this time. It just got worse.

When I got as close as I possibly could to look at the damage, it wasn't my toenail, but a circular area at the end of my toe that's bleeding. Either I chipped the bone and it cut me or I just knocked a hole in my toe.

So now I'm sitting here with this stupid looking padded apparatus on my toe so that I can still move around the house and give it some minimal protection. I imagine it'll be dirty in a matter of minutes, but I don't intend to keep it on there all day anyway. Just until it stops bleeding, It hasn't yet.

It's silly, but it's like my feelings are hurt just as much as my toe.

Later...
After my shower when I went to rebandage my toe, I could see what the problem is.

I split my toe open, vertically, from the toenail around the curve of my toe. It stopped bleeding, but it's still oozing plasma. I don't guess there's anything that I can do other than pad it well and keep it bandaged, as I hope that it heals.... Knowing my feet and their recent round of unstoppable dryness I'm afraid it's going to take a long time and might get infected.

Lovely way to start a vacation 2 days from now. :(

Get it straight, people!

Nice thing to have to write for my 100th post, huh?

I'm EXTREMELY hacked off right now. Today I got an email from the site where I'm going to be the featured designer really soon, saying that I was late turning my stuff in. Late? For the July 3rd deadline she gave me??? WTF? Why the hell didn't she tell ME she'd changed my due dates? Does she live to bitch or something?

I finally got the about me layout done (like pulling teeth - I hate marketing myself) and then she forwards to me a complaint from the newsletter coordinator saying that the picture was too small.

So I forwarded her own email to me about the size she wanted, and then she responds that oh, they changed the size requirements since then. "Sorry." GRRRRR!!!!! I want to kill her!

I enlarged the picture and sent it back to her, only to get a gripe directly from the newsletter person about how it was still too small... and she had the frigging dimensions wrong.

I'd already replaced the WRONG size with the right one on my computer before I sent the new, bigger one back, so there was no possible way it wasn't big enough.

Looks like she didn't even bother opening the file before bitching.

I. Want. To. Kill.

Now I've also got some gamer who is too cheap to buy the materials to buy a potion from me at an extremely undervalued price. He wants me to go farm them and then sell them to him. Right now, just one of those herbs goes for over 2g, and he wants to pay me just 2g for the whole thing. Can you say, "I'm not doing it again"?

6 Flags accident

About a week ago a teenage girl had both her feet severed by a broken cable on the Superman drop ride in Kentucky. Parks across the country immediately closed all the drop rides of that design until they could figure out what went wrong. Good safety reaction, I think.

Even before that, I wasn't sure if I was going to ride it or not. Last time we went to Libertyland (before it closed. Damn you, whoever's responsible. You murdered one of my happy childhood memories) I rode the Rebellion with my brother and nephew. It's nowhere near as high as Superman, but I managed to black out on it. I lost myself somewhere the second it dropped, and came out of the blackness as we were slowing down to land.

Warning. What was that about, anyway?

It worries me to think that I might have the second seizure of my life and scare my family to death. My sister had to witness the first one, and she said it scared her to death. No more breath-deprivation games for the kids on our street after that. Yes, stupid. Yes, dangerous. No, we really didn't have a clue at the time. None of us tried it again after my convulsions.

How horrible would that be? I'd probably hurt myself slamming my head into the safety bars, and then my nephews would have the horror of seeing me pulled off the ride unconscious and foaming at the mouth. Not to mention that would end the day right then and there with me leaving in an ambulance.

Even if I just passed out, it would be too embarrassing for me to stay there any longer. I can just imagine all the people pointing, staring, and whispering about me all day long when they saw me. *sigh*

Last time it was enough that the heat got me and socked me with low blood sugar. Almost passed out riding on the train. Got off the train and after walking a few feet away from the crossing, my legs buckled under me and I had to sit right then where I was.

I hope I'm not turning into one of those "fragile"people. I'd hate that. Not to mention that there really is nobody willing to look after me if I start having problems. I don't want to have to need someone. It's bad enough needing someone just for emotional reasons.

Insomnia - my fault

So here I am once again. It's pushing 3 am and I'm still awake. As usual, I've got a lot on my mind.

I wish that I could figure out how to put that "Free Hugs" video on my My Space page, but right now, it's beyond me.

Didn't hear from you-know-who on Friday, at all. Makes me wonder if he's just being petty because I wasn't up early on Wednesday to answer his all-too-rare emails early in the day. Come to think of it, I'm mad at him. How dare he treat me this way when he was already pretty much mistreating me?

Fine, I can ignore too. It isn't like I'm losing out on anything.

Still trying to figure out how to get coffee-man interested. But I really do feel like it's a lost cause. Not for him, of course. Just me. For a while now I've been feeling like I am at the end of that love-finding phase in my life. As if all that's in front of me is growing old and dying alone. At this point I can't see what anybody would see in me. The blinders are on. I'm sure there's something in here somewhere that someone could love about me.

An old ex-boyfriend called me the other day, saying that two weeks ago he almost headed to my house and let me know that he and his wife are separating, and that he'll take me back as long as I met a few stringent, almost cruel, conditions. Without even asking me if I was interested.

Where did he get the idea that I'd just take him back??? I mean, heck, he's really rich and now I don't let him push me around when he calls, but neither of those things specifically count as being good reasons to let him into my life again. Talk about taking someone for granted. He was taking for granted I'd do all those things for him again, and as my reward I'd have to quit my job and let practically enslave me.

No thank you. I can be plenty unhappy by myself. He needs to remember about the grass being greener.... Besides, he says I'm still too negative.

Ahem... can you please clue me in about all the wonderful, happy things that have happened for me, which cast negativity aside? I seem to have forgotten which times I was allowed to be deliriously happy. Remind me again how things always go well for me? You can't, can you? Because it's not the case. I'd even settle for mildly happy.

We are going to 6 Flags and not Branson after all. Someone didn't reserve the time-share far enough in advance, so I'm off the hook on paying for someone else's property. I made reservations at a hotel which pretty much covers all the demands my sister and brother in law had. First one being that I had to make reservations with my credit card because they say they don't have any. So if anybody gets screwed, it's only me. Fiiiine by them, I'm sure.

Condition for brother in law: must be near the Krispy Kreme so he can go in and finesse free doughnuts from them. He thinks it's soo slick to get the donuts and not pay for them. I think it's tacky and it makes me uncomfortable just thinking how gleeful it makes him to eat the freebies and not actually buy anything. This is the kind of guy who visits Sam's Club before going to a restaurant... He considers the food samples his private appetizer provisions.

Condition for sister: must have at least an indoor pool and jacuzzi for her and must not be expensive, yet can't be a rattrap. Nice to have near all the restaurants.

Conditions for me: if the hotel does honor my request for a rollaway bed, maybe I'll sleep in it alone instead of having to fight one of the boys for space in the big bed. Otherwise, somebody's sleeping on the floor and it damn sure isn't going to be me if I'm paying for the room as I often do.

So I found a Drury Inn with Cracker Barrel on one side and Denny's on the other. Couple of parking lots away from Krispy Kreme. Free breakfast (and a good one), sodas and popcorn in the afternoon, drinks in the evening. (Not sure what the drinks are about - it wasn't a perk I was exactly searching for.) Indoor / outdoor pool with whirlpool. Laundry machines, microwave, fridge, hair dryer, and all the decent stuff along with cable tv & internet. Avg about $89 a night.

I think I did well.

I'm not excited about going this time, like I used to be. I think it's because I expect them to cancel our plans at any minute. They do that a lot.