In which I lost my mind and woke up with a new (used) dog.

So last night I was on a walk with Rachel, Maddy and Ash, when I got a phone call from Rachel's friend Kat. She was driving back from Chicago, where she had gone to her aunt's house to pick up a dog.

Kat loves animals and she has three dogs, and now this aunt, who seems to be a little nutty, is moving to Montana to live with her daughter, and she wanted Kat to take her dog - supposedly this is temporary. So Kat and her mother went to pick up the dog in Chicago, and ended up coming home with the dog, a cat, and an extra dog! She said her aunt was keeping this other dog in a crate and that it has been staying in the crate for hours at a time, and also seemed to be afraid of the aunt!

So Kat said she had to take the dog, because the aunt was just going to take it to the pound, but Kat couldn't bear to let her do that, so she brought the dog home with her, but since she already has 3 dogs of her own, plus now her aunt's dog and a cat, she wanted to know if I could take the dog. That's when I temporarily lost my mind and said yes, and now I have a dog at my house.

Oh man. This dog is not housebroken at all! And he's three years old! He is very friendly, and is having a great time playing with a squeaky rubber duck that used to be Maddy's but it is the dog's toy now. It was a set of three ducks, a Momma and two babies, and Maddy only played with the babies because they are small. The Momma was too big for her to hold, but it's just right for a smallish dog to squeak the heck out of!

I shut the dog in the bathroom last night so he wouldn't pee all over the house while we were sleeping, and he was fine. He is used to being in a crate, so I imagine the bathroom was like a castle to him! I'm going to look for a crate for him at Walmart today, just to sleep in or to stay in when we aren't home, until he is housebroken. When he's housebroken, we'll just use the crate for traveling or for when we are going to be gone from home for a few hours.

The cats hate him, of course. They are avoiding him like crazy, and I put a baby gate across the doorway between the dining room and the kitchen, and closed the french doors between the living room and the dining room, so the cats have the dining room and the downstairs bathroom to themselves - a dog-free zone!

My new dog's name is Sonny. Rich says he is too old to change his name, so I guess it will stay Sonny. Kat's Aunt said he was a Lhasa Apso, but he isn't. Rich took a look at him and says he is a Cockapoo, which is better, since they have a good temperament and are smart, like poodles. Also, they don't shed much, so that's good! He's laying by my feet now, chewing his squeaky duck.

In other news, Maddy crawled last night! She was trying to get a little cracker that was just a bit farther than she can reach, and she crawled two steps to get it! Rachel immediately laid a little trail of crackers for her, and she crawled again, twice, to get the crackers! So apparently when properly motivated, Maddy can do new things! Just like Kung Fu Panda!

Pedicure socks are open-toed!

Kim got up early, packed her car and went back to school this morning. She didn't even forget anything! Well, she did forget something, but she came back for it. When I woke up this afternoon, I called to see if she got back okay, and she said she had already unloaded her car and was on her way to class.

So with Kim gone, when Maddy came over to play tonight, I had her all to myself - Rich was at Tae Kwon Do. She looked through the toy basket and I had to make the one toy work for her over and over, because she is too little to make it spin around, but she really likes the spinning!

Then she got distracted by my phone because Kim was texting me, so I let her play with it for a minute. She is not so interested in the toy cell phones. Then I remembered that Rich's old cell phone was upstairs so I ran up and grabbed it, and she had that one to play with (chew on) so I could rescue mine and wipe the drool off of it.

Maddy has had a terrible diaper rash this weekend, so I decided to give her a dry diaper to help keep her skin in good shape. I took off her diaper, and her bum looks much better, by the way, and then I remembered that Rachel read on the internets that you should let their bottoms air-dry and leave them uncovered to help heal them, so I didn't put a diaper on her right away. Like a sucker, I left her bare for a few minutes, and of course she peed on the floor, and also on the little one piece thing she was wearing.

I mopped her up and put a dry diaper on her and dressed her in a dry nightgown I had from when she was smaller, so it was a close fit, and she was a little annoyed with it. I distracted her with a bottle and a Youtube video of Voltaire, and then Ash came to pick her up and take her home. Whew!

Tomorrow I have a chemistry test that I have been reviewing for all weekend, and I just had a text conversation with Kim about it.

Kim:
Good luck on ur test. Don't panic!

Me:
I will use my Rescue Remedy drops and not sit staring in terror like a deer in headlights.

Kim:
U will be ok. Do u need a Xanax?

Me:
No, I will be too tired in the morning. If I take a Xanax I will pass out with my face on the desk and drool on my paper.

Kim:
Haha, so pass on that idea.



Okay, I'm going to study now. When I'm done reviewing, I will just relax and knit on the pedicure socks I'm making for Kim.

Labor day weekend.

I'm tired of the month of August, in which I was on antibiotics for cellulitis almost the entire month, and I'm tired of taking antibiotics, which gave me an allergic rash, and I'm tired of taking steroids to chase away the rash, and the antihistimines to stop the itching.

But now it is September, and the weather is beautifully cooler, and I finished the last of the antibiotics on Saturday, and I'm almost done with the steroids, and hardly need the antihistimine at all, and all that, along with the much cooler weather, is really making my whole life look better.

Kim is home for the weekend, and has been in her old place on the couch, with her laptop on her lap and cats sitting next to her. Sando hasn't been around as much as we would have expected, because he's working every day this weekend, but he came over after work on Saturday and signed my copy of his book, and then stayed until late.

Kim and I have cooked a little, and taken a walk every day, and today I showed her how to repair a hem on one of her favorite t-shirts, and gave her a little sewing kit to take back to school with her for future repairs.

It's not very exciting stuff, but it's been nice.

Everywhere I go, damn, there I am.

So it's my day off and I had a dentist appointment - just a cleaning. I went to that, and look ma, no cavities, so that's good. Then I had to stop at the store for cat litter and milk, and one of those roasted chickens that you take home hot so you don't have to cook it yourself, so I got that, and for some reason, the whole store and everyone in it was annoying!

I was trying to be zen as I got my few things and then as I checked out, the bagger was being all cheerful and friendly, and for some reason that I haven't figured out, she thinks we are good friends (maybe because I've been shopping there a long time? I don't know.) so she was being all chatty about the stuff I was buying and it was just getting on my nerves.

She was babbling about the cat food I was buying, and I don't know why I responded at all, except that it is expected of one, to be civil, and I made a remark about cats peeing in the house and that they don't even deserve to be fed, and omg, she told me about the psychology of cats and how they have to mark their territory and if I have moved to a house where other cats have been living, that is why the cats are peeing, because they can smell that other cats have been there...

I could not be bothered to tell her that we have lived in this house for 16 years and the cats have nothing to be marking territory for, unless they are just trying to show us who is boss, so I just shrugged and walked away and did not roll my eyes right to her face, which I think shows great personal growth.

Scratch, scratch, scratch

I have a rash from antibiotics, and even after my doctor changed my medication, I still have an itchy, itchy rash! This is making me unhappy! Rich told me this morning that I should just stop taking the antibiotic, and I did actually skip the morning dose, but when I woke up I started taking it again, because people, you should not stop taking your antibiotic before you are finished taking all of it. That just helps the remaining bacteria develop immunities, and we don't need to grow stronger bacteria!

So I am taking Benedryl to help fight the itching, and it helps a little, and I'm using a clear Anti-itch lotion that Rachel had at her house. I'm still itching, though. Don't be jealous of my beautiful life.

I am still slaving away over my intro to chem class, and ugh, it's no fun at all. I could not be doing this at all without Rachel's help, and I am grateful for it. My friend Diane is taking this class, too, and she asks me for help, which is so humorous if you think about it. It's truly the blind leading the blind. She is impressed by my mad chem skillz, y'all!

Every night I go to Rachel's house and work on chemistry while the precious fat baby rolls around on the floor by our feet, playing with her toys, and I pick her up to love her, but then Rachel makes me put her down and figure out metric conversions. It's so unfair! I just want to blow raspberrys on the baby, but no, I have to slave away on chemistry instead.

So that is the story of my life this week - I scratch, do homework and play with the fat baby. The baby is the only part that is fun.

In which I remember our family motto: Cs get degrees.

I know it's been a few days, but I've been busy, and not with anything very interesting to write about. I'll try to write more of the boringness, though, because people are starting to complain that I never write.

Since my last post, I have continued going to the chem class, but it hasn't been anything worth journaling about. The kid with the completely tattoed arm hasn't been back to class, so he must have dropped. The annoying whiskey-voiced woman came in one morning and sat down beside me, but then she left the room to go smoke or whatever, and I got up and moved away from that seat. I wasn't trying to be mean, I just wanted to sit by Diane, and there wasn't room at the table for all three of us!

We had our first exam in the class on Wednesday and I got a B, thanks to Rachel's tutoring. I am not learning anything in class, because I go to class after work and I'm too tired to take it all in. Since I go over the notes and homework with Rachel, sometimes class is like a review of things I've covered, so it's not a complete waste of time.

We got Kim back to school last week. It was my working weekend, so Rich took her back by himself. He went with the van so he could take the harp, and she drove her car. Even though they took two cars full of her stuff, she still forgot things, so I'm filling a box with the things she asks me for, and she'll be home next weekend and can take the box back with her.

What I'm knitting today:

I'm working on a little shrug for Maddy to wear to church over her dresses. The air conditioning is always too cool at church, and Maddy has one little sweater that she wears every week, so Rachel and I are both knitting sweaters for her! I had mine about half done when I noticed the stitch count was off and I had to rip back 3 or four inches. It's a pattern from a Debbie Bliss baby pattern book. I'm looking at another sweater for her that has a fair-isle design around the yoke, and some beading that is sewn on after the knitting. (Yes, Sarah, it's the same one you made for Eugenie's little girl. Where did you get the beads?)

I'm also excited about the Bella hat that Diana knitted for Chanelle, so I'm going to make one for Kim. I still have a sweater on the needles for Carolyn and I need to get that one done soon so she can wear it this Fall! Rachel got very excited about making the fancy buttons for it when we were talking about it yesterday, so I will probably finish it soon with Rachel's encouragement!

What I'm reading today:

I'm re-reading a mystery that takes place in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan, and I bought the next book in the series and downloaded it to my Kindle, so I've got that to read this weekend.

What I'm watching today:

Rich and I are planning to stay in tonight (not that we ever go out) and watch Kung Fu Panda. I just got it from Netflix on Scott's recommendation.

What I'm cooking today:

I'm planning to make chicken noodle soup because Rich says he is sore all over from TaeKwonDo last night. I haven't been cooking much for about 3 weeks, maybe a month, because it's been so stinking hot, but now I feel like cooking again. I made spaghetti last night, with turkey sausage instead of ground beef and it was really good.

So that's what is going on here, at the House of Boring. Aren't you happy I wrote something?

In which I have no class, but I had to go to one.

Today was my first day of Intro to Chemistry. This is the second time I've taken the class, and this time I'm taking it as a lecture class instead of self-paced. Last time I took the self-paced class and it was horrible, because I am not very motivated, and also, I don't like to do things involving numbers - they make me feel woozy and I have to lay down.

I had to go straight from work, so I stopped and bought a bottle of Diet Pepsi to keep me going, and I met my friend Diane outside the building and we walked in together.

I think the best part about the class will be making fun of some of the other students. It certainly won't be my amazing new knowledge of chemistry.

One woman followed us down the hall to class, talking in a cigarettes-and-whiskey voice about the stressful summer she had, and after class, she followed us outside and joined us in talking to someone Diane was introducing me to. Whiskey Voice lit a cigarette and started babbling about herself, and her kids, and her love of chemistry class - ugh. I was so tired from being up all night that I just stared at her and nodded, wishing she would go away, and finally Diane excused us. As we walked toward the parking lot, Diane said, "We need to avoid her in the future!" and I couldn't agree more.