Home Improvement Fantasies

Lately I've been watching a lot of HGTV and I'm finding that, between all the home improvement TV and the work I'm currently having done in the hallways in my house (old, horrible-mustard-colored-textured-walls scraped down, new beautiful creamy-beigey paint going up, with crisp white trim) that I am becoming completely obsessed about things I want to do with here. Bathrooms to be renovated (and of course I keep changing my mind about what I want there), kitchen cabinets to be updated, new carpeting, new tile, doors and windows to be replaced, colors to be painted in this room or that, furniture to be bought, the list goes on & on and I just can't stop thinking about it all, I'm even dreaming about it now. And I have a very small, simple house! I can't even imagine how I would feel about this if I had a big and/or charming house with tons of potential. The mind boggles. I will say one thing though, I truly can see why people are so tempted to take out equity loans and Helocs and whatnot. Very tempting as I sit here trying to cash flow the bit of work that I'm having done. Must. Resist. Urge.

Of course, I'm also watching a lot of House Hunters as well, which makes the temptation to start real estate shopping also very tempting ... Someone, please save me from myself!

What?

I'm relaxing. So sue me.

Extreme Pug Close-Up

Things I Love

A Friday night, snow falling fast & furiously outside, fire going inside, dogs all cuddled up and piled on top of me. Nowhere I have to be for a couple of days, fridge is stocked, movies are queued ... ahhhhhh, life is good.

Lunar Eclipse

I was able to stand out on my deck at around 10 PM last night and witness the lunar eclipse. It was pretty amazing! I stood there in the dark (once that I determined that the view would be more effective if I turned off my outdoor lights) with my mouth agape just staring off into space for about 15 minutes. It was a crystal clear night too with all the constellations in attendance. Of course the dogs were a little weirded out by the silence and the dark and had to make some of their own noise as accompaniment.

That sure is something that you don't see everyday, I'm glad that I got the chance to.

All Apologies

So, I had a tech guy at my desk today to fix something on my computer and he was making fun of me for having a picture of a Pug (Fitz) as my wallpaper by saying, "nice kitty". So I start to talk about how I used to live in NYC and didn't want to have a big dog in a small apartment, blah blah blah. And then I stopped myself. I mean, WTF? Here I am defending my decision to own a certain kind of dog to some total stranger ASS (who was wearing far too much stinky cologne, by the way). Why do I feel the need to do that (about everything), why? And it's not just about the dog, I am forever apologizing about myself to people. I've got to stop that shit.

Tig the Obedience Star

Tonight was Tig's last night of his "basic" obedience course. He got a graduation certificate and everything! Anyway, from the start of the class he was a total star, completely enthusiastic and over the moon with happiness to be there each week. And he always seemed to have a lot of admirers. Kids who always seemed to want to touch him, other participants who complimented him. He even seemed to be a favorite of the instructor. I've signed him up for the next level of class, but that doesn't start until the end of April, so I spoke to the instructor after class about what I can be doing with him in the meantime and she suggested that we can perhaps sign up for some private lessons with her in the interim, which I think we'll do. Tig just loves going there so much and seems to get so much out of it and I actually enjoy it too. I've also signed Fitz up for the class that Tig just completed. So it looks like I'm going to pretty busy with dog stuff for the foreseeable future.

Things I Love

Trader Joe's. How many different ways do I love this store? I can't even count them. From the wonderful produce, to all the fancy cheeses, to the many and various prepared meals and other items, and all the ethnic selections and flash-frozen fish! It's a complete delight at every section. I went to my "local" Traders this morning and had to wonder to myself why I don't shop at this place more often, it's just such a wonderful store. Of course it's probably not the best idea to go there when you're hungry as I was, but I now have a fridge completely stocked with plenty of goodies. Too bad there isn't a blizzard in the forecast.

That Wacky Pug

So the other night I was sleeping and I woke up at some point and couldn’t find Fitz. He had somehow completely disappeared. Sometimes he gets under the covers and may migrate more towards the foot of the bed, but he’ll usually pop his head out from under the covers if I call him. But, nope there was no response, he was no where to be found. But, oddly, I could feel him moving around. Delirious with sleep, I finally turned the light on, got out of bed and started digging through the covers trying to find him. It turns out that a snap or two of the duvet cover had come undone at the bottom and he had somehow managed to crawl inside of that opening and gotten himself disoriented and lost inside of the comforter bag. I think he heard me calling him, but couldn’t find his way out and ended up stuck and trapped in a corner. When I figured out what was happening, I was laughing so hard that I couldn’t even help him at first. But finally I unsnapped a few more of the buttons and reached in and was able to drag him out and rescue him. That silly, silly boy. Of course you have to also realize that this all happened at around 3:30 AM. 3:30 – 5:30 AM seems to be prime dog drama time, after all.

Things that Crack Me Up

There is this auto-parts store that I pass sometimes, I think it's a chain or something. Anyway, what makes me laugh is that they have these little white cars that I keep seeing on the road, all over the place, I'm forever passing them everywhere. So they have these little, white cars and each car has this little hat propped up on the roof (a hat!), and it just completely cracks me up every time I see one. I also have to wonder, what about this after-market auto-parts business necessitates the need for these weird little cars (with hats!) to be out and about everywhere? Like there is an auto-parts emergency somewhere and some guy has to jump into his tiny car and speed some parts out to the customer. Weird. But, funny.

Sleep is Good

Do you ever have those days where you feel just absolutely exhausted, and for no good reason? You haven’t been working out hard, you haven’t had a bout of lousy sleep. Work hasn’t been overwhelmingly aggravating or worrisome. You’re just bone tired, just because. That was the way I felt yesterday. Just exhausted and spacey all day long and feeling generally horrible. I came home and felt like a zombie, I didn’t even boot up the computer, never even took it out of my computer bag – that NEVER happens! Finally, I just went to bed early (9:00!)

Of course, the problem with going to bed early is that I tend to wake up a few times during the night and last night was no exception. And last night was of course also the night that a couple of the dogs decided to have a puke fest. Tig at 4:30 AM (what is it about 4:30 AM and dogs puking? I swear that is the Puking Hour) and then Fitz at 5:30 AM. Ugh. So between all that, waking up suddenly at 1:30 AM and thinking it was morning because I had been asleep for a good, long while, getting up for the bathroom multiple times (which happens every night, of course), I still feel much better today, so I must have managed some good sleep after all. Somehow.

Things I Hate

People who are so self-important that they think sitting on a conference call meeting on speaker in a cubicle is perfectly acceptable. You know, because the World revolves around them. And everything.

Note to Self

If you're drinking a glass of wine and you get up to go do something in the other room for a few minutes, you might want to put your glass up somewhere where that Pug (Fitz) can't get to. Otherwise you might come back to a glass full of Pug slobber. This is especially applicable when it happens to be last of the wine in the house. Dammit.

I suspect that my GPS thinks that I’m stupid.

So I bought myself a GPS about a month or so ago as a sort of combination birthday / Christmas gift to myself. I wasn’t sure how much use I would get out of it because I don’t tend to go anywhere, but on the occasions that I do, it sure is a pain in the butt to drive and try to read a map and directions, since I’m usually driving alone and the dogs aren’t much help in that regard. So I bought it and in a way, it’s kind of opened up a new world to me. I’ve had to make a couple of trips into Boston for work over the past couple of weeks and it’s been very relaxing to be able to just plug in the address and go. I’ve had a couple of appointments here and there too where it has been helpful to be able to just drive and not think about it. I finally found this riding stable out on the twisty roads a few miles from my house that I had been looking for (got lost a couple of times previously looking for it). It’s really a great gadget and one of those things that once you have one, you wonder how you ever functioned without it.

I like to try and confuse it though. Sometimes I will ask it to take me home and then I’ll choose another route. I swear the machine sounds exasperated by the second time it states, “re-calculating”. I imagine an intelligence behind the voice shaking head, rolling eyes and muttering, “what an idiot, what part of ‘turn now’ did you not understand”. It’s fun to drive down some country roads here and make an unexpected turn and wait for the GPS to direct me to an alternative route and see how confused and snarled it can get. So far it has always managed to direct me home though. Heh. It doesn’t take much to amuse me after all.

Ahhhhhh work, I love it!

Between the holidays, a whole bunch of vacation time, a number of days working from home ... it feels like forever since I've actually been at work. It was nice to have a true break, I really did forget all about work for a bit, but I have to say it sure is nice to be back now too. I'm feeling all fired up and ready to dig into anything that comes my way. I missed working! Hopefully this feeling will last for a good while (ideally until the end of 2008 when I can repeat the whole holiday process again and refresh).

What do you do if

you stupidly buy a frozen pizza on special at the grocery store, but when you get home you realize that there is no way it's going to fit in your freezer? Well, if you live in New Hampshire in December, 2007 you bury it under a big pile of snow that is sitting outside on your deck. Sheesh.

Relaxing Christmas / Chaotic Week

Christmas day turned out to be quite lovely and relaxing. I went down to my cousin's house in Hollis, NH and had a really great day. It was my cousin and his wife (and their two, teen aged kids floating in and out from time to time) and my other NH cousin and his wife and me and that was it. We had a great time just hanging out all day and socializing and drinking wine and even watching some very old home movies from when we were all incredibly young. It was a hoot to see their parents and mine hanging out in the movies when they couldn't have been much older than 30! I don't remember them ever being that young. For a change, my cousins' step-sister did not show (with her four children). She's okay, but I've always had a rather uneasy relationship with her and four brooding teenagers tend to add a real chaotic element to the day, so I found the day much more fun without her and her brood. I didn't want to bring all the dogs with me because I thought it would be too much, so I selected Fitz because he's been such a good boy lately and I thought he would get along well with the other dogs (cousin Peter has an enormous English Bulldog and cousin Greg has an Italian Spinoni, which is a type of large, shaggy sporting dog). Also, Peter's daughter, Viv loved Fitz as a puppy, so I thought she might like to see how nicely he has grown up. I'm proud to say that Fitz behaved beautifully and had a very good time himself, sinking into the passenger side car seat and snoozing deeply the entire ride home, he was that tired from the visit. So, all in all it was a very great day.

The mystery of the Hunk of Orange Salt continues. I received a perfume bottle (!) in the mail from my father on Christmas Eve. This is a somewhat odd gift too as I don't wear perfume and am not too sure where to put this either, but it's not nearly on a par of strangeness with the salt thing. I spoke to my sister at length yesterday and while I did not bring up the salt rock, neither did she mention having sent something. I guess I'll just come out and ask her once she gets home from her vacation in Salt Lake City.

So, the rest of the week is taken up with appointments, ugh. Yesterday was a consultation with the oral surgeon for my dental implants. My original surgeon ended up leaving the area, so I have to start new with someone else. And of course, since he has his own requirements, I have some other prep stuff I have to do (and pay for) -- impressions and labs and such. But I've made the appointment and am having two dental implants done on January 11th. Then that has to heal for three months and I have to go back to my original dentist for crowns, etc. Which will be a few thousand more, of course. I wasn't aware that the crown part wasn't part of the whole implant cost and process, so the costs just continue to grow.

I have an appointment this morning to put some cargo netting in the back of my car (to hold packages so that they don't roll all over the car) and then it's back to the regular dentist for yet more work for other issues that are plaguing me. Basically, I've been in more or less constant pain as the teeth on side opposite of where the implants are going bear the entire pressure of all chewing activity. One tooth with a huge filling literally cracked under pressure last month and has since been further broken open by the dental work and root canal (last week) to eliminate decay. I'll eventually have a crown done for this tooth too, but in the meantime the sharp edges of the broken tooth cut into my check without relief. And now the newest development is the tooth underneath that one is flaring up -- there seems to be a pocket that's opened up between two teeth and underneath the gum line that packs with food immediately (which also causes immediate pain) as soon as I eat anything at all. So, I'm getting all of that looked at this afternoon. Ugh. Just UGH.

The expense of all this is literally making me shake, but I really don't know what else to do. Except, that is, to curse my former NYC dentist whose incompetence caused most of these issues. The tooth that cracked, for instance, was mostly made up of filling and thus was very fragile. I've been told recently that most dentists would have put a cap/crown on it to protect it. The dental implants are necessary because of this ill-conceived canter-levered bridge that same dentist had talked me into years ago which never worked well. He then added insult to injury by jamming a huge screw post into a tooth under the bridge after a root canal -- a result of the bad bridge -- which completely fractured the root, finally making that tooth not viable. I am just depressed and livid and trying to find the positive in all of this. But in the meantime, it's endless ongoing dentist appointments, constant pain and discomfort and a diminishing bank account for me. And I don't even get a new kitchen or bathrooms once it's all done. But there is nothing else to be done really, the alternative is losing teeth and it's also not something you can sit on and wait about either. So I just have to suck it up and deal. It doesn't make for a very relaxing vacation week, but it's easier to try and do it all now than to run around on work lunch hours or something. Sheesh.

Merry Christmas!

Some Pictures

First, a picture of the Orange Rock Thing (ORT) or, if you prefer, the Hunk of Orange Salt (HOOS):







Some pictures of the incredible snow we had over the past week and a half (the snow is up to almost my waist in some places -- and I know because I had to go out and push through it to drag Fitz out from under a bush the other night. Lovely):

That Time of Year and Weird Mystery Gifts

I used to really hate this time of year. The commercialization, the financial pressure, feeling like an outsider to the season by not having a significant other or close family. But I've found that since my financial picture has improved, I feel so much more optimistic about the holidays. I now love to give gifts while not having to stress about paying the electric bill. I've also gone past caring about what I get in return. Well, that is until today. Kind of.

So, the mailman came to the door this afternoon carrying a box that he said was kind of heavy. The box was from a place called the, "Alive and Natural Health c/o Horizon Distribution Logistics" (what the ... ) I opened it and inside was this bubble-wrapped thing with this electrical cord dangling out. Cutting away the bubble wrap revealed this orange rock on a stand, with a cord to plug it in (WTF???) The tag tied to the cord reveals it to be a, "Salt Crystal Lamp (mined from the foothills of the Himalayas)" and is apparently a natural air purifier. Whatever. So I plugged it in and am currently sitting here looking at this glowing orange thing completely mystified as to who sent it (there was no card or even a gift receipt or catalog included in the box). It could maybe be from my sister (she is the person most likely to send me something like this, I suppose), but she had already send me three embroidered stockings with my dog's names on them a few weeks ago to hang on the mantle, so I wasn't really expecting anything else from her (and she hadn't given an indication that anything else was coming). Or it could possibly be from my father, but it really doesn't seem like the kind of thing he would send and also, when he asked about a week ago what I maybe wanted, I had sent him an email with an idea or two, neither of which was even close to this orange rock lamp. On the other hand, I haven't received anything from him yet, so maybe it is his gift. So, I'm not sure what to do. I guess I can call and ask him if he sent me something, but it's just so weird. Really, a Pottery Barn gift certificate would have been perfect. I don't mean to be ungrateful (and I'm not, really), but I don't know why he thinks he needs to suddenly get creative now. It can't be from him, I just can't imagine! But who then, WHO??? The mystery is killing me. And where to put this orange rock is the other part. Where do I put it? Where??? Sheesh.