Corgi Play Date

Whenever we go to Aunty Gail's house for a visit, Cosmo comes along so he can see his brother Coal. I've been promising Carolyn and Mandy Coal (litter name Fred) pictures forever, and I finally remembered to take some today. I couldn't get the boys in action because the pics come out a blur. I did get them each to strike a pose in between slobber wrestling, though. They both look so happy!

Academic Insanity

Well, I started school today. 5 classes online through the University of North Texas. Not only is 5 classes a lot of work, but I am not used to the online format and am terrified that I am going to forget something, or somehow miss an assignment because I didn't see it. Hopefully all goes well! It is worth it, though. I really need to get that degree out of the way! Not to mention I promised my mom when I left school 9 years ago that I would finish, and I fully intend to keep my promise. So so so much work, though!

Aftermath

These are the pics I took of my car at the body shop. They had it in the back so as not to decrease property value or scare away customers. The tire damage happened when they pulled the car out of the ditch, so it looks really bad. Everything else- dents, bumper, underneath parts, mirror... happened in the accident.

My Latest Car Crash

So I promised everyone pictures and here is the first one. For those of you who don't know, yes, I crashed my car on I5 by the fairgrounds Monday afternoon. It's been a busy couple of days dealing with insurance and car shopping. I'm really sad. I LOVED this car. It's been a really good, safe, sturdy, reliable car, and lots of fun to drive. Plus Uncle Jerry helped me buy it and that was our last car buying adventure together. It's been to Texas and back a couple times, and was just my favorite car ever.

Yes, we are ok. Basically, we were driving down the freeway in the far right lane and the guy next to me decided he wanted to be in my lane. He was coming really fast and it was not one of those situations where he noticed me and quickly switched back out. He was half way in my lane. My first instinct was to try and quickly move to the shoulder, which is really big. I hit those grids, though, and my tires started slipping. I somewhat regained control and tried to get back into the real lane. Then guess what! The guy attempted to lane change right into me again! I still wasn't completely straightened out from my first attempt to avoid him, and this time went into a spin. We made 2 complete 360 degree spins headed towards the ditch on the side of the road, and landed passenger side down as you see. Scary ride. The worst part was watching to see how Quinn was going to land and seeing everything from the car (I carry a lot of crap around, which I will no longer be doing) fly at him and hit him. I was really worried that he would be hurt.

Fortunately when we landed Quinn was fine. He unbuckled and crawled out the back driver's side door. Some off duty police had been behind us and stopped, and they held the door open while he jumped out. I was also trying to get out (though hanging by my seat belt, and fortunately we have no pics of that for you!) and they helped me get my arms out of the window and pulled me through there.

The other driver actually did stop, and when the on-duty police and everyone got to the scene and started talking to him, it became very apparent that he is at least partially deaf! No wonder he could not hear me honking furiously. He kept motioning to his ears and making hand signals to not talk to him because he couldn't hear, and had a really severe speach impediment. Traci can tell us... that means deaf, right? Anyway, 95% sure the guy was deaf, which really pissed me off because I was absolutely baffled as to why my horn did not wake him up. People try to change lanes on top of other people all the time, but the horn never fails to wake them up and avoid collision. Why is this guy licesed to drive?!

The whole thing sucks, but I did come out with a few lessons. The first one is that I need a defensive driving class. The second one is not to drive with a bunch of crap in my car. Granted all of the compartments flew open, but I had a stack of files from work in the back seat that flew, and cd cases everywhere. The other thing, and this will be a hard one for me, is no more dogs in the car without a crate. I am horrible about letting the dogs ride loose, and thank goodness nobody was in there because they would have probably died and also severely injured us in the process. I am still not sure what this means for the big dogs whose crates will not fit in a car. Maybe they just don't ride anymore.

More pictures to come later. I had to get my things from the car yesterday and I got some pics at the body shop where you can really see the damage. They are taking it over to a salvage yard today. Sniff.

Things I Want to Do

I was sitting at my desk the other day being very productive at work (wink), and started making a list of all the things I want to make sure I get done in my life. I figured I would put the list in the blog so that it has some sort of permanency... as opposed to getting lost in my purse. Here is the list, in no particular order:

1. Own a cute sports car. It doesn't have to be expensive or brand new. It just has to make me feel like I had a little fun instead of being completely sensible with my car purchase.

2. Travel to Australia and New Zealand. I'd like to see Australia Zoo, the Sydney Opera House, and go to some of the amazing beaches. In New Zealand I would like to explore the whole country. I would spend some time in the Auckland and Wellington, but mostly explore the south island and the unique scenery there. I think Cook Island has some animals that only exist there. Glaciers are also TOP on my list for the south.

3. Visit the beaches in South Carolina and stay in a beach house or hotel right on the beach.

4. Attend Quinn's high school graduation.

5. Get a Bachelor's degree (I start 5 of my last 15 classes a week from tomorrow!).

6. Get a Master's Degree. They are easy enough to work through and pay for at only 36 credit hours, and they help so much in a job search these days. Plus I would like to go above and beyond the regular expectation of just having a Bachelor's.

7. Have a girly slumber party at the Hotel Derek. This is totally attainable! A blender, some nail polish, room service, and maybe 2 or 3 of my closest girlfriends.

8. Wear a size 10 again. This is also something that is super attainable if I just work on it.

9. Own a house with an upstairs loft.

10. Own property about an hour outside of a small-ish city. That way when the world finally goes to hell in a handbasket I can grow my own veggies and drink clean water. It also must be in a part of the country or world where I will not die without air conditioning. I actually threw up from heat stroke the other day (even though I drank a TON of water) and if that happens when I am 30 I will probably just keel over when I am 60.

11. Have just one dog so I can lavish attention on it.

12. Adopt a baby girl from China.

13. Have enough money that if my brother needs a financial bail out (stupid with the college credit cards? downpayment on a reliable car?) in his early 20s I can deal with that, just like a parent would.

14. Dump my mom out along the Clackamas River like she asked, because she knew I would be a weirdo and keep her locked up in the dresser drawer for an entire year (or the rest of my life) and that's no way to remember someone.

15. Take Aunty Gail on a really nice trip, out of appreciation for all she and Uncle Jerry have done for me.

I think that is it for now. I may add more later, but better to keep it short and attainable. I really could do most of these things (if not all of them) by the time I am 40. In fact, I think that every time I accomplish one, I will re-post the blog and highlight my accomplishment in red, until finally everything will be in red!

If anyone has any suggestions for life enriching things that must be done, I would love to hear them!

Artsy Dog Pics!

I remember what else I had to say! My friend Beth (http://www.tallgrasspdx.com/) came over a few months ago and took these pictures of the dogs. Beth is an amazing photographer, and she is always getting new cameras or trying out new lighting, and I get to benefit by being a willing participant when she wants to get the feel of her new equipment before using it in the studio! She takes a lot of dog photos and even works with Dove Lewis in Portland taking pictures for some of their promotional material. On this particular visit she wanted to see if she could get some pictures of my crazy, always on the move, crew of 5 to gear up for a doggy event coming up. I am going to change a couple of the really close up pictures to black and white, frame them, and hang them all artsy-like in my house!

Side note: For some reaason, I have a lot of snarling Bunny pictures. As far as I know Bunny has not snarled a day in her life. I think she just does really weird things with her mouth and for some reason they get caugh on camera. Beth calls the above picture "Attack Corgi."

Random Updates

I just have not been up for blogging much lately. It is soooooo blistering hot here that I actually understand the meaning of having sweat on my brow. Not from hard work, but from sitting here in 90 degree heat with no air conditioning. What torture.

Well, Bunny tried using her foot today for the first time. Instead of attempting to walk on the top of her foot, she put her pad on the ground. Yay! I will admit, I have been calling her a knuckle dragger. Slightly cruel, but I figured she might get tired of hearing it and switch the the correct side. Plus when trying to explain how she was walking, knuckle dragger was just an easy way to put it to people... it creates a nice, and accurate, visual. The vet said that due to her nerve damage she could not tell the top of her foot from the bottom of her foot, but hopefully that would slowly heal.

Mandy's exercises are helping quite a bit. I noticed after a couple days of playing with the leg, Bunny would start to play with it herself and try moving it around. I think we are going to incorporate a little swim therapy in with that once a week and see if she starts trying more things with it. Thank you to everyone who gave their two cents on swim therapy! It sounds like a really nice supplement to get her up and moving.

The brightest report on Bunny is that the vet tech who told me they might have to amputate was totally wrong. The surgeon said he would have amputated to begin with if certain factors had been involved. Since she has proper circulation and blood flow to that leg, she will be able to keep it. Even if she never uses it fully, she will have it for balance and what not, and the limb will not die.

On a non-doggy note, we are having tile put into our master bathroom next week. I will put up some nice before and after pictures when it's all done. Since part of the plywood over the subfloor has to come up anyway, I just decided to take it all up and put the concrete backer for tile down. Well, before you all start thinking I am too handy, I am having the contractor take the plywood up and replace it with concrete backer. As I have mentioned before, I am not that cool.

Back to the doggy news, Bunny and Cosmo had a little reunion the other night! Bunny has started getting really restless about being confined to her room. So we decided to put the other 2 girls away, and bring Bunny and our calm boys out to the living room to watch some of the Olympics with us. Cosmo curled up with her instantly, and they gave a perfect Kodak moment of being wrapped in a little Corgi ball with Cosmo's head resting on Bunny's back. Aw, the love! Unfortunately, since Bunny and I have been attached at the hip for the past month and I cater to her every need, she broke the pose trying to follow me when I went to grab the camera. So no pics for the blog :( And those of you who noticed the the girls (plural) were put away before Bunny came out, yes I realize that as Bunny's bed rest comes to an end I can no longer be in denial about Lucy. Lily is fine... it is just the fact that she is the size of the Jolly Green Giant, clumsy, and hyper that she and a broken Bunny do not mix well. Lily actually ran at light speed into the house the other day, slid about 20 feet once she touched floor and ran head first into the kitchen counters. That's Lily.

I know I had more to say than this, but I am truly motivated to get out of this hot room.

Swim Therapy?

So, does anyone know, can Corgis actually swim? With those little short legs and long bulky bodies I am doubting!

I saw this online news video about swim therapy for dogs. It supposedly helps with orthopedic recovery. There happens to be a center about 5 miles from my house. It's $45 for half an hour, which is not bad if it was once a week. Of course once a week might not help, and if it was more than once a week that is over the top expensive. Just wondering if anyone thinks I should look into it. Mandy mentioned physical therapy and gave me some good exercises to do. These people claim to have dogs up and walking in 4 weeks after orthopedic surgery so I thought it might be a nice supplement if it really worked.

Opinions?

More Adventures in Home Repair

Apparently the adventures never cease. I was cleaning out my other tub, which we have not used for a year because my mom swore there was a crack in it (I could never see a crack) and once I got it really, really clean... I found the crack! Darn it! I was really hoping the thing didn't exist. Off to Lowes to get some sort of repair kit that a quick Google search reveals does exist. You know how you get something valuable (hopefully) out of every relationship you are in? One of the top valuable things I have gotten from my relationship with Jeff is learning that anything can be found on Google. I am a far more independent person when it comes to home repairs and other scary things now that I know that!

Adventures in Home Repair

Yesterday I went to Lowe's for some peel and stick vinyl tiles so I could get to work on my master bathroom. I am really eager to get my house up for sale, and am SO CLOSE. So any project I can do myself is welcome.

I was so excited as I began pulling up the lenolium. I was just about 2 hours away from having a beautiful new floor and a major home selling project crossed off the to-do list. Every inch of pulled up lenolium revealed pristine, beautiful subfloor, just ready to be primed. Then... as I got to the last few inches on lenolium... I noticed it. IT being a black pattern beginning to reveal itself on my subfloor. My heart sank. I pulled further, baited breath, waiting to see the damage revealed. With a pounding heart I gave a final valiant tug. There it was. ROT.

My heart sank. The black and green pattern of still moist rot is too horrible to even post on the blog (and I have posted pictures of Bunny stitched up from head to toe, so you know this has to be pretty bad). It extends about 2 inches out from the shower, and then travels... spreading... all the way down the shower and out towards the toilet in an L shape. Later in the night I started having horrible allergies and had to throw the heppa filter into the bathroom and just close the door. Needless to say I have emailed the very nice contractor who gave me an estimate a couple months back, and am crossing my fingers that he is available SOON to come fix this problem.

My do-it-yourself spirit has not been crushed. Hopefully this sub floor project will not be too expensive, and at least I will be that much closer to getting my house on the market in the fall.

GROWL... I am out of love with my vet

I have to say that I do like the vet I go to for a few reasons. State of the art facilities, they show obvious love for the animals, and the have a 24 hour practice so you can use them as your regular vet AND for emergencies (and every once in a while just do a routine vet exam at, say, midnight if you feel so inclined). They also remember who you are, and when we had to put Kai, my mom's Rottweiler down, the vet sat in the exam room with me and talked about how much she liked Kai, and the time he broke loose from his room while boarding and terrorized the lobby of the clinic for half an hour until they caught him. What I don't like is this:

Last night we went in to get Bunny's stitches out and was talking to a lady who was picking her cat up after a surgery. When she went up to pay her bill, she was told that the invoice was actually several hundred dollars over the initial estimate. Hmmm. They gave her the old "When we got in there we found that the situation was much worse than what we anticipated." This story is sounding so familiar!

For those of you who don't know, Bunny had two surgeries. I know I shouldn't talk/complain about money openly, but I must share. The first was supposed to cost $600 at most. The second was supposed to be another $800. I am not the best at math, but I felt kind of taken advantage of when my bill after all was said and done came out to $2600. Bunny is worth every penny, of course, and she was very well cared for. However, after hearing this lady get fed the same story I was fed, I felt a little miffed and wondering just how often this happens!

Second, and this is my real gripe... while getting her stitches out the technician noticed that Bunny's range of motion is not what it should be. She is not the surgeon, of course. The surgeon thought last week that things would be fine. However this tech was involved in the surgery and saw the extent of the nerve damage, and mentioned that I should "bring her back in a couple weeks to check on that leg." Because if she ends up unable to use it they might have to amputate! First, do not look at me and say amputate about my dog. Second, get your story straight with the surgeon and try not to scare the crap out of me. 3rd, if the $1500 surgery had the potential to not work why was it done in the first place? Like Bunny needs to go through more trauma in 6 months if her leg is not in working order? This is a 10 year old dog and she is already very displeased with her current bedridden lifestyle.

Sorry if this is an upsetting blog to my Corgi friends (esp Mandy).

And the verdict is... GUILTY

I love our little Bud, who never does anything wrong. That's why this picture of sneaky Bud with a stolen plum is so darned funny! I guarantee it was Lily who pulled the bag of fresh plums off the counter. For Bud to sift through the bag and steal one... priceless! Look at that guilty face!

My Messy House

I am a pretty messy person. The mail is all over the counter because I am too lazy to go through it when I get home from work. Corgis shed a lot so there is the dog hair issue. You can often find unfolded clean laundry on my dining room table and on top of dog crates because, well, once I have done the laundry I really don't want to fold it. Wow, I am painting a pretty picture. This has me stumped, though: MY BROTHER... please refer to the picture of our couch. I woke up this morning and started to clean. The place was looking really good, and then I glimpsed our couch, where we find: a bar stool (obviously to keep the dogs off, this I understand), a belt hanging over the bar stool, school books (in the exact place I set them down next to him last night when I informed him he needed to get some work done), a toy gun, and my personal favorite... the fishing pole wedged between the cushions and sticking straight up in the air. Wtf is up with the fishing pole?

Let's hear it for nice asses!

First, I have to mention that when I signed into blogger.com just now I saw "Blogger Babies" which is the most hideous display of ugly, frightening looking... oh, woops... I meant cute (?) babies I have ever seen. Did anyone else see this? Yikes!

So, I am on my second day of working out. I feel like a complete bad ass. My calves are throbbing and my butt is lifting, and I seriously want to eat a bag of M&M's so bad I could kill someone. Two days of working out does not entitle me to and M&M party. Please, keep reminding me of this. I am trying to cut out refined sugars, eat regular person portions, and exercise for an hour a day even if that is just walking around the park by the house or busting a move on my Tony Little Gazelle. I think it will make a difference. Hopefully I stick with it.

Why work out? Well, I keep having things happen to me that require surgery. I'm too young for that. I can also no longer rub my precious Lolita (the name I lovingly gave my belly the day she became her own entity and started laying next to me) in all of her tightness and chuckle at all the 30 something girls whose guts hang over their jeans. I am now that girl. Woman. Whatever. Truth is, every woman in my family busts 250 in their 30s and HELL NO that is not happening to me. I have gone from a size 10 to a size 14 in 2 years and that is just not ok.

I also have burned in my mind the day that the boyfriend and I were driving around Rice Village and we saw some cute, tan blonde things with short shorts and fabulous arses (um, hello, they had to have been all of 19) and he refered to them as the "Rice Hotties." Or was it "Rice Honeys?" Not sure. It bugged me, though. Not because he was noticing... I could not care less, actually... but because I deserve to have an ass like that, damn it!

I figure at 30 I have another 15 years... maybe 20 (doubtful, very doubtful, but I am looking at Tina Turner and hoping for 30) to have a rockin' bod and then it is all over. Since my younger years were spent in a skinny, geeky orchestra dork body, I am determined to have a nice toned ass in my 30s. It is my mission...

Now I must get out of this room because Bunny stinks like canned dog food. Eck.

Bunny Update

Bunny had her surgical follow up the other night, and it has been decided that she is making excellent progress. She is using her leg appropriately (not at all, except occasionally for balance) for the amount of time it has been repaired. She also has full range of motion! We still won't know how well her leg works until the 6 week mark, and even then a full recovery will take about 6 months. Also on the surgical front, her wounds are healing up nicely, so she gets her stitches out next week. Aside from her trend setting spotty shaved Corgi look (she will always be beautiful to me), she is doing very well!

I do think her vet/surgeon has a little crush on her. My mom and I used to call him Dr. Butthead because he typically comes into the room and makes you feel like an idiot for coming to the vet. He speaks with lots of medical jargon and is one of those animal folks who does not like other people. However when Bunny came in he got just giddy, visiting with her and discussing his surgical routine with me in great detail. It was actually a very nice vet visit! We left with a new prescription diet and some antibiotics to hopefully help with Bunny's mystery stomach ailment that all the other vets have thrown up their hands over. So far, she will not eat the prescription food and has thrown up two days in a row. I suspect the antibiotics on an empty stomach is the cause of the throwing up, so we are eating a bit of rice tonight. He really wanted me not to feed raw while she is on her antibiotics, but that is the only thing she wants to have. What to do?