Psycho

Hubby said we have to start calling Bravo by his REAL name - Psycho. Because he woke us up last night at 2:30 and started barking hysterically. We think he was disturbed from his sleep because the fireplace came on right then, but we don't know for sure. He continued his sharp, irritating barking until we followed him downstairs to make sure that he knew there was no danger.

Bravo has also taken to "burying" his dog bone cookies in the house. He has gone down in the basement to hide them, upstairs in the bedrooms, and also behind the window seat in the library. He is such a nut.

Today, Greg will work in the shop while I vacuum the house. There is so much dog hair with 3 dogs.

While I was lying down on my heating pad yesterday, Bravo jumped up on the bed with Harriet. He laid his head down on my ankle while Harriet had her front legs & head on my stomach. It was so nice and warm with both dogs surrounding me. Isabelle chose to stay on the floor next to the bed so that I could reach down every once in a while and pet her. I just wish I had somebody around to take a picture of all of them with me. . .

Hubby picked up my Bronco at the painter's yesterday. Yipee. If he has any time left over (?) he can get it finished before Spring.

This is a picture of an early Bronco we had from 1985.

In other news, a guy that is storing a couple of his cars in our shop brought by a sheet metal bender in lieu of the storage fee. Hubster is very excited about it. It is so big he had to store it in the big building for now until he clears out more room in his shop.

I am having to work intermittently on ACDSee as I am working on 2008 taxes, walking the dogs, and other misc things around the house.

Want to pick up some Valentine's fabric when we go in to the store tomorrow so I can make garlands. I can tie the little pieces of fabric onto the rope while I watch television at night.

Hope January went OK for you. Looking forward to February.

Not Tomorrow

Just a few highlights from today.

• Bravo likes canned Green Giant Niblet Sweet Corn
• Harriet BARKED for the first time ever!
• Isabelle actually seems to be enjoying coming downstairs to be with everyone.
• It is such a wonderful feeling to have so many dogs. They all have delightful personalities.
• I started work on filing the income taxes.
• Bravo accidentally got locked in the basement when he followed me downstairs and I did not see him. He was only in there for a few minutes, but immediately started scratching at the door.
• The dogs seem to like to play with me at about Midnight. (just when I want to go to bed!)
• It was in the 30s F here. Like a heatwave!
• We watched Mamma Mia! on pay-per-view tonight. I remember that I hated listening to those songs because they played on air SO much. . .

All Legal

Harriet went into the Vet early Tuesday morning. After not having eaten or drank since Monday night at midnight, she was pretty deprived. Hubby had to carry her into the office this time as she put on full brakes while in the truck!

She warmed up to the nurses in the office room and was led back to the surgery prep area. We left to go pick up lattes & get groceries in Spirit Lake. Hubby drove me around the lake to see Matt H's new home.

Greg's day was very exciting. He took Bravo with him to pick up Joe H. But while they were driving back from town, Joe H's daughter had called. Having fallen down on the ice without having health insurance at her new job, she was unable to call an ambulance and needed to be taken to the hospital. The guys had to pick her up. And pick her up off the ice, pile her into the truck then transport her to a local hospital. After waiting 2 hours at the medical facility for Cindy H to return from lunch (she had forgotten her cell phone that day, so nobody could get hold of her!) hubby finally made it home. The H bunch are always having problems. A one hour trip turned into 6 hours of chaos!

I am still trying to organize all my scrapbook ephemera on ACDSee, but it would help if I quit buying new stuff. A never-ending task. This is the task that never ends, it just goes on and on my friend, somebody star-ted organizing not knowing what they did, and they will go on organizing for-ever just because this is the task that never ends. . .

We picked Harriet up at 4pm; the Vet said that with an underbite, he incisors were cutting into her soft tissue of her mouth. I had authorized them to pull them as it would have had to be done sometime. They caught it in time before it became worse. So the poor dog has no bottom front teeth.

• Little known fact-Did you know that Vets can perform Orthodontia on dogs? Has anybody out there had braces on their dog?

While she was in surgery, she got a security implant. So if the dog ever goes missing the authorities will be able to return her to us. The girls are Legal! Got County registration tags for both Isabelle & Harriet so they are legal. Bravo will have to get his when KRN returns.

Both dogs now have Health Insurance on them. Yippee. That makes the worry of a major catastrophe so much better. I would much prefer offering them health alternatives over euthanasia.

It has been such grey, dreary and depressing weather lately. We had a light dusting of snow on Tuesday. Nothing much. Just enough to make it super slipery and super icky.

Took KRN to the Air Force Base for her flight. Bravo came along with us so that K could say goodbye to him. We stopped at Taco Del Mar on the way to pick up burritos. The plane check-in was at 1pm and we got there quite early. Finally left around 2:30pm as K went to wait in the restricted area. It was very fortunate that they had enough room on stand-by for her to fly back to the UK.

We drove the Jeep home and garaged it until M&K return. Hubby went to work in the shop while I worked on cleaning up the house.

Congratulations America!

The United States of America has a new president. Congratulations. I spent a very relaxing day watching the televised Inauguration of the 44th President.

I was especially impressed with the secret service men who walked beside the limo in the freezing weather with their coats open and sans gloves. Brrr.

Seeing the President and the First Lady walk down the street, holding hands & waving at the crowd brought shivers to my soul. It was a very emotional, touching moment. I am very glad that I was able to share in this special celebration in the history of our country.

Hubby went up to Priest River to get the boat license and Kelsey got her drivers license. I watched after the dogs while they were gone.

At 3:30p we took Harriet in to see Dr. Mike, the vet. She balked at going into the office at first, but after a little convincing (and a little carrying) she got there just fine. Topping out at 47.2 pounds, the dog has a slight case of round worm infection for which we secured some meds for her. And she is in otherwise tip-top health!

My book Kiss of a Demon King by Kresley Cole came via UPS from Amazon on Monday, so I had a quick chance to read it. It was most enjoyable. I have been following the Immortals After Dark series since Ms. Cole started it. Great escapist reading. Not just vampires, but immortal mythical creatures such as vampires and sorcerers, witches, valkyrie, demons, lykae, kobolds, revenants, furies, berserkers, sirens, wraiths, wendigo, vessels, and ghouls.

It's just too bad that KC cannot write faster as I would enjoy purchasing one of these books every 3 months. But at least she is concentrating on ONE series. That is such a complaint that I have with so many authors. They lose interest or lose mojo so they move onto a different series and leave the readers "hanging" out to dry until they decide to finally return to complete the series. Lora Leigh is one such author. I will never read anything she writes again. It is not fair to the loyal customer that they are left waiting YEARS for the author to revisit a continuing series.

New Dog

Wasn't able to sleep very well last night. Spent the early hours in pain from 3am-5am.

Made hubby a nice egg & bacon sandwich on french toast this morning for breakfast.

Harriet is just so darned adorable. Today she spent almost all day long with me downstairs instead of hiding upstairs on the bed.

I got 5 loads of laundry done - including dog toys. Cleaned & put away more Christmas decorations; vacuumed the house; dusted the house; and cleaned the house.

Walked the dogs a couple times. Then K came home with B. B was so excited to see all his fellow dog friends. He tries to "hump" Harriet more than ever!

After the sun set, K and I with all the dogs strolled down to the shop to visit with hubby. He was there with Kevin. Talked to them a while before coming back home.

Went to pick up groceries with hubby; I got canned corn Niblets-those are my favorites. Then watched a few shows before we went to bed.

Fry-Day

After going with us to get morning lattes, the girls pretty much kept to themselves in bed all day. Isabelle slept on her bed while Harriet planted herself on our bed.

I worked on organization of my computer files, washed clothes & did dishes.

Incommuniblogo

I have been incommuniblogo lately as I have been busy working on organizing all my files onto my new neat nifty external HaRd DriVe. This will be awesome to have all my scrapbooking stuff in one place.

Then the overwhelming task of getting everything. . . and I do mean E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. onto a file system on ACDSee. Yip. Yipe!

Went over to get my hair done today at Quincy's (my jewel of a hairdresser) and got a major cut. I'm not going to take a picture as I don't know if I like it or not. We'll see. Maybe I'll grow into it. LOL!

The pups were having fun in the back seat. Aren't they just so darned cute? Beebo was trying to lick grandpa's arm as he got in the truck.

Got Starbucks lattes; then after we dropped Bravo off at Kelsey's friends' house, we got Wendy's cheeseburgers for the girls. Stopped at Kmart to visit the Craftsman aisle for Greg who bought sockets - they were on sale for $1 each.

Hubster worked in the shop for a little while, but came home early as it got so much colder with the fog surrounding us. We had dinner, watched a little My Name Is Earl, then I worked on blogging and went to bed.

Ugly

This is indeed the ugly time of year. Yet it is not even nearing spring, there are signs of thawing everywhere. Not the cute drips falling off the trees so delicately type you see so often on television; but the ugly dirt & garbage showing everywhere that is usually in evidence in the industrialization of a city.

It is also a boring time of year. Bills coming in for Christmas purchases; No holidays to get ready for or celebrate; Resolutions to break. . .

So to end the boredom, I am going to try to upload all the Automotive Magazine covers to Flickr. I had been doing only the Victoria's Secret catalogs that I have been receiving in the mail to document the different covers. But I think it might be nice to record all the info that my husband has amassed in the basement.

The replacement Free Agent 1TB External Hard Drive came from Amazon. (Yah Amazon!) It works and I will have to organize all my scrapbook & picture files on ACDSee onto it. What a project with a capital "P".

Sunday was a lazy day as hubby watched his auto shows & a couple James Bond movies. We walked the dogs a couple times. Boring Day. Sometimes it is just good to sit around & rest.

On Monday Harriet & Isabelle went into town with hubby and me. They dropped me off at the nail salon so that I could get a touch up to my nails which desperately needed it; then we got a Starbucks Carmel Macchiato for me, Wendy's cheeseburgers for the dogs. I do believe that Harriet is putting on weight! Yippee! She needs at least another 10 pounds to look good. We then picked up some stuff at CDA Metals for hubby. He is building some rear-ends for guys. Metal has gone up a lot - $25 a foot hubby said. Oh well. Got to have it.

P-whew! Greg fed the dogs a LOT of leftovers yesterday and they are all suffering major gas. FARTS. Gross. I really don't want to be in the same room as them. Turkey, chili, chicken, cheese, and I don't know what all else!

Isabelle is getting to the point where we have to run her again to get the weight off. I think she has gained another 10 pounds. Harriet has to gain weight - so it is OK to feed her. Bravo is even getting a little rotund. Too bad we don't have doggie treadmills. . .

Still no sounds from Harriet. But she did do a very quiet whine when Greg ran into his friends' shop to pick up auto parts.

It is so cute to see them fast asleep behind me in the library as I sit here using the computer.

This is a picture of Harriet when she first arrived at the Animal Shelter. You can see in her eyes that she was really scared. We had a little break through last night. She got down on the floor and slept BESIDE the bed instead of on top of us. And today when she was riding with us in the truck, she put her head down on hubby's lap as he was driving and went to sleep! Yippee. She feels much more comfortable with us. It will just take time.

Crime & Punishment

After having the New Dog in the house for a while, it angers & irritates me that someone could so abuse a dog. She cowers in fear when we attempt to feed her. She also scuttles after having gone to the bathroom. I have never seen a dog defecate so fast. Her previous owners must have slapped or beat her when she fed or pottied; and she fears men. It will be quite a while before she calms down enough to feel quite comfortable in her new home. But one good thing is that she seems to be keeping on the weight. Her ribs are not exposed as much!

Hubby is very patient with Harriet and the other night she came over to him and put her head by his couch. He allowed her to crawl up and sleep beside him for quite a while. She is still timid of being around him too much.

She is still attempting to play with the other dogs & I ran them around the kitchen again today- Bravo running, while Harriet watched. She wagged her tail a lot.

I just adore watching her stretch when she arises from a nap. She has the cutest stretch; just like a frog with her back legs. Will try to catch a picture of her while she is in mid-stretch.

Walked with the dogs outside several times. All the way down to the shop twice to get the mail, then back again. The new aluminum shovel came today via UPS. I am having to return the external hard drive, but Amazon will be exchanging it for a new one. Thank You Amazon!

Kelsey's hard drive worked just fine and she is in the process of uploading all her files. Lucky kid.

2 Dog Night

Sleeping with two dogs in a bed is not much fun. One stretches out as far as she can, while the other walks on my kidneys during the night. Thank goodness that Kelsey returned from her snow adventure up at Silver Mountain. She stayed overnight with friends and didn't make it back. "B" missed her so much. But the dog comforted himself with us in the bed.

New Dog (as hubby refers to her) is getting used to us. She is putting on weight. She is playing with the other dogs. She even ran around the house tonight when we all ran around with "B". Can you even IMAGINE 3 dogs running around the house - while Bravo makes hot laps, the other two follow him. Then Kelsey and I were running around, too.

Hubby and I took Isabelle & Harriet with us today. Kelsey stayed home with "B" to give him some special one on one time. Hubby and I went to Starbucks (yum), got gas at Costco, shopped for groceries at Wally-World, and picked up burritos at Qdoba Mexican grill. Oh. Almost forgot. Also got COCONUT bread at Great Harvest Bread Company. (double yum)

We had a high of 45F degrees today. Snow is melting everywhere making everything a mess. It is astonishing to be able to see our driveway rocks again after so much snow! Hubby is not worried so much anymore-he was quite panicky about the buildings falling down. Even called our insurance company to make sure we have adequate coverage in case there is a problem.

While we were in town today, we gave the dogs a bath. And Harriet has such a sweet, docile attitude when it comes to taking a bath. It even calmed Isabelle down and she acted much better than she usually does. Harriet shivered directly afterwards, but we made sure that she was thoroughly blow dried & towel dried. We started the truck up directly so she could be contently warm. Isabelle stood still during her bath and we didn't have to cope with the full brakes on the full-size massive Mastiff 'tude that she usually exhibits! She walked up the ramp (instead of being dragged/pushed) she stood calmly while mommy sprayed warm soapy water on her (instead of pulling away) and she even sweetly walked out to the truck (instead of shivering in shock)!

By the way, what was YOUR New Year's Resolution?

42 Degrees

No. Not the Ski Resort. That is 49 Degrees North.

But the temperature right now is 42 degrees. After 10+ feet of snow, it is now melting and the local area is experiencing flooding. It is currently raining today with warmer temps to come.

Several school districts are closed due to flooding, heavy snow loads on flat roofs (WHY, do they build flat roofs in the NW?) and structural integrity issues.

After we got lattes this morning - hubby had put his down on the deck so that he could shovel out some snow. However, Bravo snuck out and grabbed the drink, bringing it into the house & drinking it in the library. What a mess. What a sneaky, bad dog!

So I had to clean it up, and the poor little dude is high on java! His eyes are a little glazed. This is not the first time that he has indulged in the coffee bean. The dog has a serious caffeine fix. He has attacked my Starbuck's drinks in the past while we were riding in the car or truck.

Already made breakfast for Greg - bagel & egg; taken care of 3 loads of laundry; cleaned up a mess; taken down more Christmas decorations. We also officially unplugged all the lights. No more pretty.

Greg is working in the shop today - Bruce will probably be by later to help.

I put Bravo & Harriet out to play and told them to be careful as the entire driveway is a sheet of ice. Going out to the side deck to clean off the ice & snow with a shovel, I soon went to check on them only to find them totally missing. I walked down to the shop trying to call them. Hubby had not seen them. I then spied them down the road. There is no way they could have gotten into the road but the did. Bad puppies. So hubby went to fetch them back in the truck. It was scary seeing them narrowly avoid getting hit by a couple cars. They ambled down the neighbor's driveway by the time hubby had gotten to them. He brought them home and I gave them a scolding and told them not to run off again. Guess we can't let those two out together again. Or maybe it was just all the caffeine Bravo has ingested making him want to run it off. Whatever.

More Snow. Snow. Snow.

We got a little bit more snow. Probably about 3-4 inches. Not enough to bother. But enough to be bothersome.

Went for a couple long walks with the dogs. Isabelle has been showing her dissatisfaction with not being top dog. When we went for lattes this morning (they were out of 24 oz cups again-these people can NEVER shop for supplies adequately) the dog wouldn't even look at me. She has been snarking when Harriet comes upstairs. But Isabelle did the same thing when Mr. B came. . . she will get used to this dog, too.


Fed Harriet lots of bacon, cheese, & egg today. Trying to fatten her up. She really likes Milk Bone dog cookies.

Got lots done in the office; filing, organizing, paying bills. Tax season is almost upon us.

Kelsey left this afternoon so that she can spend overnight at her friends' house, then go snowboarding on Wednesday.

Another Day. Another Dollar. But No Snow.

Sunday, January 5, 2009

Wow. Another whole year gone. Where did the time go?

We got ready & left early. Packed all the dogs into the Dodge pickup. Stopped in CDA to pick up lattes at Human Bean. They were delicious. What little I got to drink of mine. As we drove into the parking lot in the Spokane REI, hubby hit an enormous BUMP. My drink spilled and the dogs went flying! Not literally. Figuratively.

Kelsey picked up some gloves & goggles. When we noticed there was a building beam that had been broken. We got out of the store in a hurry as there have been a numerous amount of buildings collapsing due to excessive snow load.

Wal-Marts in Airway Heights, Post Falls & Sandpoint have all been closed for an indefinite time so that snow can be removed & inspections made to structural integrity.

Greg had been craving steak and since both he & Kelsey had gotten Outback gift certificates we went over the Valley Mall to eat. We were somewhat early so Kelsey went into the mall to look for other necessities.

When we finally got the restaurant, Greg’s steak came out underdone. He had to return it, then it was cooked too much & inedible. We packed up the leftovers for the dogs.

Headed over to Rathdrum to grocery shop, then home in the fading daylight.

Monday, January 6, 2009

We only got about 6 inches of snow instead of the predicted 1 foot. Thank goodness as it was quite a relief not to have the excessive dig-out!

Topped off the fish tank with warm water, then fed them. It reassures me that winter does not seem to faze them. They are swimming around as usual.

After hubby took Isabelle with him to the latte stand - she needed a little bit of daddy one-on-one time. . . he came back & discovered that the Garage Doctor was here. The Garage Dr. fixed our door in lickety-split time and will BILL us! Amazing that a company even does that anymore. I love those people.

Walked with the dogs several times down to the shop. Harriet ran a lot with Bravo. Isabelle ran and played with both of them. Bravo had to struggle just to maintain his own with the two bigger dogs!

The Fed Ex brought hubby's Drill Doctor. A neat gizmo that will sharpen all his dull drills. Yippee. He was like a kid holding onto his excitement when he opened the box.

The US Mail consisted of junk. Down the shredder with those useless pieces. Then the UPS man brought the Infamous Hard Drive. . . Seagate FreeAgent 1TB. However, mine is junk. It won't respond. All it shows is that when I attempt to transfer a file to it, "file is corrupted". I very nearly chucked it in the garbage, I was so mad at the dumb thing. However, it is going to be returned. And I was so looking forward to having all my files consolidated into one hard drive.

Harriet

We adopted Harriet last night and she is just a doll. Isabelle gets along with her just fine & Bravo couldn't be happier to have another friend around to play with.

While Kelsey was out last night, Bravo laid between Greg & me with Harriet sleeping stretched out by my side. Harriet is very attached to me - following me everywhere.

The "new dog" as hubby has taken to calling her. . .went up the stairs a little hesitant at first, but we found out that she could come DOWN with no problem. She is a pro now; going up & down the circular staircase with the rest of the pack!

This morning, we all piled into the truck to get lattes. Harriet acted like she had been doing this forever. It was fun taking all 3 mutts into town with us.

Only real problem I can see with her is that she doesn't have a voice. I wonder if her previous owners had it removed. She doesn't bark, squeak or whine. Poor little thing.

The kids we hired (Kelsey's former high school friends) came over at 11:00 to shovel off the garage roof & the storage building roof. They had lots of fun sliding down & landing in the large pile of snow at the bottom.

Kelsey made them french toast, hot chocolate, and pizza after they were done with the garage roof. They then went to work on the storage building roof. Brrr. It is only 8 degrees out there.

When I walked Isabelle, Bravo & Harriet down, an amazing thing happened. Harriet started running & playing in the snow with Bravo. It was so cute. Will have to send pics to the Animal Shelter to make sure they know she is having fun. They were worried that she had not played in the entire 3 months she was there.

A quick nap for me right now would be a great idea as Harriet kept me up last night-she pants. . .and I had to get up 3 times to give her a drink. She wasn't too sure where the water was located. Hopefully, tonight will be better.

More Snow...What Else is New?

1 foot.

We got more snow. While this is not news, I still have to keep making notes so I can remember the worst winter on record so far.

This much more than surpasses the year we moved here in 1991 when we got over 200 inches of snow for the whole winter season.

My info thus far shows. . .
Dec 16 - 12 inches
Dec 17 - 36 inches
Dec 18 - 18 inches
Dec 25 - 12 inches
Dec 27 - 12 inches
Dec 29 - 12 inches
Jan 1 - 6 inches
Jan 2 - 12 inches

Ugh.

On New Year's Day, I shoveled off the deck while Greg plowed. We had received another 6 inches of snow. Kelsey was still at her friends' house in CDA after spending New Year's Eve with them.

Greg & I went in to get lattes, and a rose at Miller's Grocery so that Kelsey could be holding a flower when she read Matt's Anniversary love email. Matt had asked us to get her a rose. He is SO sentimental. What a sweetie.

After that, it was a marathon of The Twilight Zone on the Sci-Fi Channel.

Shopped on-line for a few clearance items at Hollister and A&F for Kelsey. I wanted to get another scarf.

I have been thinking about adopting another dog as it seems Isabelle has done well with Little Bravo. To wit, been investigating adoptions via the internet. There are quite a few dogs that have possibilities. Even if we don't go today, we can go meet them tomorrow.

Kelsey contacted her friend, Kyle to see if he can come out to shovel our large building as the snow STILL has refused to slide off the roof. It is now getting quite frightening to see the massive amount of snow on it. Kyle usually builds roofs during the summer, but has taken up snow shoveling this winter. Very lucrative.

This afternoon after Greg was done working in the shop for a while helping the extremely needy...(Mr Ed's backhoe broke down yesterday & was fixed & broke down again today), we finally went up to Panhandle Animal Shelter where we picked up Harriet. Harriet's brother Ozzie had already been adopted and she was "socializing" at the front desk. A very sensitive soul like our Izzy (Harriet & Izzy-get it?) hubby immediately knew that this was the dog we needed to add to the canine collective.

Harriet is shy, brindle colored Boxer who tends to follow me around constantly, and is very skinny due to previous abuse. She had been adopted out once before, but returned after 4 days. Very sad. She is in her "forever" home now. I can't even imagine taking a dog back after getting to know them. Harriet won't play as yet, and we have a challenge ahead of us to fatten her up but I think it will work out OK.

Small, Medium, and Large. They all look so adorable.