Thursday, October 30, 2008

I'm not a big Halloween fan. Actually, that's not entirely true. I've never been around people who are big Halloween fans, so I never have developed that particular interest. But I did like the occasional office Halloween party (in Utah, during the day, so no, it wasn't like it was anything prurient or anything). And I'd love to coax the puppy into a Halloween costume (although I think it might be a year or two before I can do that...).

This year, I'm actually giving serious thought to carving a pumpkin. However, that might suck me into the whole Halloween/Trick-or-Treater thing. I actually wouldn't mind dressing up (in what, I'm not sure, although I've got a 'Queen's Robe' (with fake ermine and everything) kicking around) and handing out candy to the kids. The problems with this whole fantasy is that 1) Ben, the sick poodle, would go bananas anytime anyone came up to the house, 2) our street isn't lit and our driveway isn't lit (not to mention our porch being sketchily lit), so there's no way anyone would find us anyway, 3) the HOA probably has some 'Halloween regulations' that I know nothing about, and would get stuck with tons of candy and no kids (no loss there.... the candy would get eaten....), and 4) I doubt that the spouse would be super excited about trick-or-treaters; he's not so keen when the UPS man comes, so I doubt that kids in funny clothes looking for handouts would excite him.


*ahem.

So, maybe I'll just carve a pumpkin and light it for myself. I keep passing the supermarket 'pumpkin patches' with the urge to buy one. I guess it is tomorrow or never, huh?

Speaking of tomorrow or never... Brach's Harvest Mix. When I was a kid, my Dad would sneakily buy bags of candy corn (my Mom never approved) and let me snack on it. And then, after I was about 8, I didn't eat the stuff. So about a month ago, I bought a bag of Harvest Mix (candy corn, Indian corn - or whatever it is called - and pumpkins). All sugar, no nutritional value, and great in VERY small doses. However, it will all go away tomorrow, so I guess I'd buy a couple of bags before everything turns over to Christmas decorations...

Friday, October 24, 2008

Pluth. No idea what the damage will amount to, (insurance will cover that, other than the $1000 deductible.... Damn deductibles are starting to add up....), but it will be at least $10K to do the basic fix to the sewer pipe. If we want to fix all that needs to be fixed because of builder incompetence? Could be anywhere from $50K to $100K. And this is not exactly the market to make 'improvements' like this. I'm guessing we'll just do the $10K fix and wait for a few years and see if the market returns.

Gah.

To quote, "I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue."

*sigh.

The only plus? Ben (the standard poodle) is holding his own; his kidneys are holding steady, but we can't do anything to treat his cancer without blowing up his kidneys. So, the cancer will kill him, but he seems to holding steady for now. And he's comfortable, thanks to modern medicine. So that's a good thing.

Oh, and another good thing? The old lady (the 17 year old miniature poodle) WANTS to play with the puppy. The pup outweighs her about 2 to 1, and while the old lady hasn't wanted to play, she's been showing signs for the last couple of days, and today, when the three of us went to the basketball court to 'play tennis' (i.e. chase tennis balls), the old lady actually went bounding after a few. And then immediately got tackled by the pup. A few times, after which she just came bounding to me when the pup went after the ball. But it is really encouraging to see the old lady WANTING to play. It's been a very long time for her to be this healthy.

Yep, just call us Chaos Manor....

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Heh. My insurance company rep is just loving me right now. A week ago, I hit a pothole in my Pacifica and blew up the passenger's front end. (As my driving coach commented after reading the report, "It looked like you rolled the car a couple of times, stood it up on it's nose and then beat it with a hammer." Umm... I know I was a little speedy, but I have no idea how the car suffered the damage that it did. Seriously. The pothole is a bitch, but damn. $2500, and SERIOUS repairs, including a new wheel, rim, shock, a-arm, and tie rods. Among other things. Damn. And I also got some bumper damage done, when some moron hit my rear end at a grocery store, and didn't have the courtesy to leave a note (thanks, asshole). Another $1100. With a $500 deductible on that, too. So, $1000 to get my almost-paid-off Pacfica back to new. And the sucker will be paid off in April of next year, so, for $1000? Eh. The pothole thing pisses me off. The asshole who rear-ended me pisses me off even more. You hit me, and it costs ME $500? Eh. There are bigger things in the world to get upset about.

Like why my insurance agent is going to love me even more.

About 2pm today, I notice a sewer smell in our downstairs. I mentioned it to my husband, and we both speculated that it was related to the work that the water company has been doing on the main pipeline into our development. No worries.

We take the doggies out for a walk, and meet the husband's business partner, who meets us at the house. They smell the smell, run some water in the downstairs, and then do some guy stuff (playing guitar) for a while while I putter around the house. About a half hour later, I decide to go down to the basement to get some stuff to start dinner.

And I hear water running. I kind of think that Gary might have left the water running to expunge any sewer gas, but I figure I might want to check the bathroom, just in case.... Because it sounds pretty harsh.

I walk out of the hallway and into the bathroom, and there is an inch of water on the floor, coming out of the pipes from the toilet. I try to turn off the water, but can't find the right valve, so I instead cry out, "Guys, we've got a problem. A SERIOUS problem." Gary and Charlie come rushing down (very admirable, given that they are both gimps! *grin) and Gary gets the water shut off, and then the two of them start mobilizing the water-removal process; I grab the shop-vac and let the boys start to remove the water, while I call the disaster kleen-up people, the insurance company (because we are likely to have lost our hardwood floor downstairs) an a plumber, in case it is us, and not because of development issues.

As of right now, we've got people sucking water out of the floor, we've got plumbers shocked at how far backed up our plumbing is, and I'm just figuring that my budget for the month has been blown out of the water. We will probably get out of it okay (there are some geologic issues that could have lead to a sewer pipe break) but still. EEESH.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Hiya. I have just realized that I spent about 90% of my time talking to Mom and Dad, and that most of that doesn't get relayed (not Mom and Dad's fault; I'm just sort of lazy....). And since I like to record daily/weekly events in my life, I'm doing the Blogger thing.

Don't expect this to be exciting. This is going to be me decompressing at the end of a day/week/whatever. Sometimes it's easier to write than to talk. And certainly, I've got a lot of blah-blah-blah that isn't worth talk (or typing, but typing seems to be therapeutic.... *grin.... I can't remember her name, but the lady that was my typing teacher ("asdf-jkl;" and yes, I STILL look at the keyboard....) would be surprised....).

And yeah, I like parentheses. *grin.

Anyway, hi guys!!!!

As for what's going on in the world? You've got the email regarding Ben (eh....), and the rest of things. I'll certainly post Fiona (and Family) pictures here.

In other worlds? I'm reading Gone With the Wind. I know this is something that every teenage girl reads at about 13, when she watches the movie and falls hopelessly in love with either Ashley or Rhett. Me? I was just irritated at Scarlett for being such a Dumbass. But I picked up 'Rhett Butler's People' at the grocery store when I was expecting a long stay at a tire shop. And as I read, I realized that I had probably missed a lot of the story. So I bought a copy of Gone With the Wind. And like with the Harry Potter series, there's a Whole Lot More in the book than in the movie. (Duh. You'd think I'd know this.)

Anyway, it is fascinating me. Especially since I am also reading 'Valley of the Dolls'. Why? Eh, as I'm reading it, I'd say the same thing. I'm reading it because it struck me as one of those things (like Gone With the Wind) that any remotely aware person has read. Frankly, it is incredibly insipid. GTWT (Gone With the Wind) has its insipid moments, but Valley of the Dolls? This seems like a female 'Catcher in the Rye'; self indulgent, over-rated, and maybe scandalous in the time it was published, but now, there's a lot more 'fluff' out there that has a lot more plot.

Eh. So I've read it. I'm actually more interested in Gone With the Wind. Enough so that I've got 'Scarlett' on order. As a romantic, I hope to hell that Scarlett stops being such an idiot, but there's a big book ahead of me, so we'll see.

And on that note, I've got to deal with doggies. More later.

Dr. Liz