Out and About

Last night I took Missy to Lebanon Hills around 8 pm. We walked about a mile, and the weather was just perfect. It was my first time taking Missy solo there with the retractable leash, and it went absolutely great. I plan on making that a habit. Today I met Carrie & the girls at Hyland Park in Bloomington, and we checked out the Nature Center and had a picnic lunch. We were going to walk on the trails, but we had so much fun in the Nature Center, and it was hot by the time we would have started walking, so we're saving that for another time.

After we cooled off with some Jamba Juice, the girls headed home and I stopped off at Scott & Minda's. We played games, which was another perfect thing to do.

I still want to take a road trip to Pine City, and I'm hoping to get a trip to Ohio planned soon. This fall I'll also be going to Madison, and in February, I'm going to Wisconsin Dells.

Throw in a camping trip somewhere, and maybe a trip to Florida next winter, and I might have this Wanderlust thing beaten down into submission.

She Lives!

Didn't sleep very well last night, but other than that I'm feeling okay. I got to eat chocolate ice cream, custard, potato soup, and butterscotch pudding yesterday. My parents came up to drive me to the oral surgeon and took good care of me. Last night the oral surgeon even called to ask how I was doing. That was very kind.
But it's now 6:30, just about time for a nap!

Less Wisdom?

Ok, I'll admit it, my tooth was bothering me before I went on vacation at the beginning of the month. But I chalked it up to stress and got on with it. One might question the wisdom of having a small pain and ignoring it, but not me.

Anyway, I've known for a bit that my upper right wisdom tooth was broken, but I decided to wait until this morning when I was in AGONY to go see a dentist about it. (stubborn, lazy and dento-phobic, that's me) He said the words that I was expecting to hear-- the wisdom tooth must come out. And while we're at it, its twin on the other side should go as well. Sigh. I was hoping he would do some absolutely painless dental magic... Ok, no I never really thought I could get away without some kind of dental agony. So Friday morning, I go under the knife. Or the giant, scary-looking dental pliers. Don't know. Don't care. I will be blissfully asleep, I'm hoping for 48 hours or so. But probably just during the procedure.

Sigh. I want to go back to being boring. I liked that.

July's Time Capsule

1) A gift you gave: A scrapbook page for a customer at the store
2) Something you apologized for: Misspeaking
3) The last person you thanked: Susan, while working
4) The last movie you watched: Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix
5) The best food you ate this month: It's a toss-up between a few places in Georgia, but probably the Chateau Elan's Versailles Room was the best.
6) The last place you ate out: Chipotle
7) Something that made you cry: Remembering a moment with Rufus
8) Something that made you laugh: The spontaneous road trip
9) The last person you talked to on the phone: Dave, last night before bed
10) Someone you're thinking about today: Stacy
11) What have you created this month that you are proud of: The pages in the Georgia scrapbook
12) What is your mood today: Restless
13) What is today's weather: Sunny to partly cloudy. High 82F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph.
14) Something you are thinking about: getting a filling replaced

CREATE Challenge

Last month at the scrapbook group, I challenged the group to use a piece of CREATE paper and document things about how they create. It was very cool to see the different directions everyone took.

Goodbye Friend

Rufus James
August 20, 2000 - July 10, 2007

Very Very Sick

Rufus has now been sick with canine lymphoma for a little over two weeks. In that time, he has gone from my healthy, happy boy to a very very ill dog. We tried a drug regimen but it didn't go well. So I'm very sad to say that this week it will be time to say goodbye.

Ahhh......

Vacation! Saturday afternoon we spent on Hilton Head Island, in South Carolina. It was marvelous.

If anybody is keeping score....
Lisa and her army of styling products--0
Georgia Humidity--1

Yesterday.

Yesterday
I worked crazy hours at the "real" job, working Monday instead of Friday this week. I started at 6 AM and finished at 7:30 PM, with a LOOONG lunch in the middle.

I taught a noon class at the store. It went fine. It was a computer printing and journaling class.

I had a stress headache for most of the day. Nothing could budge it. Nausea, the whole bit.

I talked to Dave, and got totally ticked by him. Hung up.

I took Rufus to the vet again. He loves it there.

I found out that Rufus is likely to have Lymphoma. We'll know on Wednesday.

Ah, my Blog!

Well, gosh, it's Friday again. I've been heavy into scrapbooking this week. My nose is doing really quite well, I did see the doctor and he thought that it looked good, all things considered. It wasn't straight before and it won't be straight now, but internally things looked ok.

In three weeks, I'll be heading to Georgia to spend 4th of July week with Dave. Before that, I'm working at the store quite a bit.

Here is a page that I made for Tom the Pirate.

How Weird is My Life?

Yeah. I worked all day, got home, let the dogs out. They were still excited and playful, so I sat down on the living room floor to wear them out a bit. Missy was tearing around like a puppy, bowling over Rufus, and, I'm not sure exactly what happened, but she ran into me and her head or her shoulder hit my nose HARD. I heard a crunch kind of sound and got up to go into the kitchen for a paper towel. My nose is bleeding, I can feel where it separated, and I'm thinking, OH CRAP, now what do I do? I'm not a fan of heading to the ER only to be given tylenol and an ice pack, but I wasn't sure if I should.... It also vaguely crossed my mind that the last time I had a facial injury, I had to submit to about a million questions to verify that I was not a victim of domestic assault.

Hey, I'm a victim of domestic assault. My dog beat me up.

Anyway, that was NOT the reason I didn't go to the emergency room, and it wasn't because I didn't want to trouble any of the kind, dear friends who would have taken me. I called my mom (the nurse) and explained, and she agreed I could stay home, and then she called a doctor that she knows, just to make sure he agreed, and she checked up on me. I made myself a lovely ice pack and had a relaxing evening.

It aches today, but doesn't look too bad. I'm guessing the bruises will come out in a day or so. Something to look forward to.

A Nice Break

Dave flew home Saturday morning, and flew back to Georgia on Tuesday afternoon. We had a good weekend. We relaxed, had nice dinners, saw friends, and he fixed my laptop (now virus free!). Before he left yesterday, we had a photo shoot with the fabulous Minda.

Now, back to work, back to life. I think Dave gave me a cold. Hard to believe it's almost June!

Yaaay!

Well, I'm not going camping in Wisconsin this weekend with Dave's family. And I'm not going camping up near Alexandria with my parents. Instead, I'm going to stay home, with my HUSBAND! Yes, he'll be home from Saturday until Tuesday.

Missy Made a Friend

Wow, this weekend went by fast. I worked Friday night and Saturday, and then Saturday night went to Scott & Minda's for general merriment. I thought we had been making progress on Andrew "getting over me", but at dinner, he gave me the eyes. Yikes. Yeah, he's still serious. Not quite sure about that boy.

Sunday, I picked up Keitaro at the MOA, and we spent the day hanging out. Nothing too exciting, but it was really fun. This morning I took him to the airport for the long trip home.

Darn Socks!

(That's a pun. I apologize. The persons responsible have been sacked.)

One baby sock down. This one didn't survive a three mile walk. Tomorrow I'm going to see if I can take him in to get his nails trimmed, that will help. I did put a shout out to a couple of friends with small children that I am on the lookout for 0-6 month baby crew socks. Preferrably dark colors. They're not expensive at Target, by any means, but, you know...

I am Amused

I was walking through Cub a bit ago, and looking for some variety of very rich, very chocolate ice cream. Preferrably one with brownie chunks. Instead I found these little fellas. I was amused. They were on sale. They came home with me. My eyes first settled on "The Gobfather": Chocolate ice cream with fudge covered almonds and nougat swirl. Yum. That will get the job done.

Then I saw it.

"Vermonty Python".

I laughed out loud. (crazy lady in isle four....) I read the description: Coffee liqueur ice cream with chocolate cookie crumb swirl and fudge cows. Fudge cows? Coffee liqueur? I'm all over it. Everything about it reminded me of a family I know.

So, now it's sitting in my freezer, waiting for me. (yes, that's my freezer, yes it's that empty, what's your point?) Maybe tomorrow I will have to see if they're as good as their marketing. 'Round about the time that I start looking for anything in my house made of chocolate.

Consumerism and gluttony? Yep, got it covered.

Wedding Pages Class

Tonight I worked on a couple of pages that I'm designing for a wedding pages class. They're really actually quite nice in person. The picture is terrible, a fuzzy mess.

But you catch the drift... it's using the new Wedding line from Reminisce, and it's purposely neutral. I have one two-page layout left to design, but for now, this is enough to show what the class is about. Which reminds me, I should put it on the website. Ah, even on my night off, always working.

Today I said something to a friend, and I'm just itching to make a page about it. In total seriousness, I said to her, "yeah, I have to do laundry.... my dog's out of clean socks." As I was making dinner (yes I cooked) I thought of that and chuckled. I think I need to take pictures of Rufus in his variety of socks. Embrace the silly.

As far as Rufus's feet go, they're pretty much the same. He had both feet bleeding over the weekend, but I got them bandaged up with the help of Mom, R.N., and they've been better since then. I've decided to push off deciding about the surgery until June, but I fear it's unavoidable.

Monday's Adventures

This morning, while I was at a doctor's appointment, I mentioned that I had gotten a couple of warts on a finger and the tip of my thumb. No problem, he says, and he comes back with a cup of liquid nitrogen. Heh. You ever hear the one, "Cure's worse than the disease"? Yeah, pretty much. Right about now, I have big, nasty blisters. Hurts like the dickens. But, it will all be worth it. I hope.

Then, this afternoon, a fabulous thing happened. We had been negotiating with Ms. Wishywashy about buying the townhouse. Over the weekend, we were stalling because there was a possible second, better offer. The offer we were waiting for never materialized, but then, out of the blue, Mr. Paycash-close-Friday arrived. Well! I'm a huge fan of him. Had no idea he existed. Can you believe it? Apparently there is a story behind it, but I don't know and I don't care. By this time Friday, the townhouse will be off our hands. Thank the Lord.

So, yeah. I'm still marveling at the offer that came in, and also being a big baby about my poor smarting hand. Life is funny sometimes.

Oh, and do you want to see the Reminisce paper that I am totally obsessed with? Here's a little snippet of it:

Is that SO me or WHAT?

Tag

I saw this on Nancy's blog a few days ago, and I thought it was fun. I decided to consider myself tagged by proxy, because I wanted to play.

I am supposed to give seven random facts or pieces of information about myself and then tag seven folks. I will follow Nancy's excellent example and NOT tag anybody, but if you want to play, then by all means...

1. I am a recovering comic book geek. I probably could still participate in a fairly lively discussion about a variety of comic book characters, and some random information about the artists and writers is probably still stuck up in my head too. Batman... Superman... oh yeah. If it happened before 2003, and it wasn't in a movie, I could probably tell you about it. But I've never watched the movies. I was a geek with standards.

2. Every night before I go to bed, I braid my hair. If it was good enough for Ma Ingalls, it's good enough for me. The real reason is that if I don't, while I'm sleeping, mischevious pixies come and tie my hair in knots. And now you know the truth.

3. I didn't do well in High School because I wouldn't "play the game". I wonder what I would have done differently if I knew then what I know now. But I wouldn't want to go back to high school. Ish.

4. If I could meet anybody, not including a dead relative, or Jesus, I'd want to meet Audrey Hepburn. I want to know if she was as cool in person as she was in the movies. I know she is long deceased. I still have a girl crush on her.

5. I absolutely love working from home. It is absolutely splendid to not have to commute and also to not deal with all of the weirdness in an office environment. But I wish I could hang out with some of my co-workers more often.

6. I DO NOT WANT THE BIG WEDDING... but I did find some paper for making invitations that I'm a smidge obsessed with. If the wedding means I can buy the paper... hm, maybe ok.

7. I lived in the same house from birth to age 16. From age 16 to age 31, I lived 10 different places. When I dream, and I'm "at home", I'm either at my parent's house, or a strange conglomeration of houses and rooms I have seen before.

That's it! Now, it's up to you.

If you are inclined to say an extra prayer, please say one for Brendan and his family. Love you guys.