My poor little dog

My poor little dog got hit by a car yesterday.


He often escapes from our backyard by digging a hole under the fence. We are constantly repairing the fence in various places because of this. Sometimes he comes home through the back, and sometimes he comes around to the front of the house.

Yesterday, he was gone less than an hour. We didn't even know he was gone. I looked out back, and asked, "Where's Taquito?" My husband didn't even know I'd let him out.

So I looked out the front door, and there he was. But he was leaning against the house in a strange way. I opened the door, and he came up to it, slowly, and slowly hopped inside, with his tail between his legs, like he'd done something very, very wrong. He stopped walking, and turned around to look at me with sad doggie eyes.

I bent down, asking, "Is something wrong? Are you okay?" And that's when I saw the huge gash in his leg. I immediately began changing my clothes, and hollered at my husband that I had to take him to the vet right away. I told the dog to go to bed, to get him out of the way of my 3-year-old. He walked all the way to his bed, and lay down. I changed into clothes as fast as I could, called the vet and told them I was coming, and went to look at the dog. He was closing his eyes, as if to sleep. At that moment, I thought he was dying.

I ran for his leash, which is the one thing that can coax him out of any spot, and luckily, I was correct this time, too. He hobbled out of his condo, I snapped the leash on, then gently picked him up, avoiding the gash in his leg. I yelled for my husband to open the door, then yelled for him to push the button for the garage door. I got my dog to the car, then to the vet. Brought him in. Put him on the scale in the room. And after observing him for a couple of seconds, the tech got the vet right in there.

Now, I thought he had cut his leg pretty bad. I thought a big dog had bitten him. The vet came in, and began examining him. She lifted the skin at the gash. And that's when I almost fainted. The skin flap kept going up and up and up....all the way across his "shoulder" and up to his neck. It was a huge flap of skin that had been ripped right off his muscles beneath. He was, in that section, literally skinned alive.

The vet and tech took him to the back to give him an IV and clean his wound, and also to get him away from me, because I was quickly becoming somewhat hysterical.

The doctor suspected that he had a dislocated shoulder, and as such, recommended I take him to the animal hospital, because if he did need surgery, someone at the hospital would be there for him overnight, but nobody was overnight at my regular vet's. Okay, here we go again. This time we take him in a blanket to the car, with an IV stuck in him.

I drove to the hospital, carried him in, asked repeatedly if my vet had called as she said she would, etc. They took him immediately to the back. I sat down. And then I didn't talk to anyone for about an hour, which sucked. It pissed me off, but there wasn't much I could do. The TV was playing one channel: Some Dude's Wild America. Those wildlife shows with the ultra-mellow narrator. Good god.

After a long time the vet came out and told me they wanted to x-ray him. I knew this was going to happen, so I said, "Yes, yes, do it and tell me what's next. I know you have to x-ray him!"

So she did. And you will not believe this. Bighorn sheep butt heads in slow motion!

No, that's not what I want to tell you. The unbelievable thing was this: NO broken bones. NO dislocated shoulder. Absolutely unreal. So the vet gave me an estimate of what it would cost to sew him up. I paid. I then left, and picked him up at 8pm.

My poor little doggie was walking, slowly and carefully, but walking. Drunkenly, but walking. I took him to the car, and he HOPPED into the front seat. He promptly laid down, but I was amazed.

He's been in his condo all day, resting. I took him out 3 times to pee. Each time he looks better and better. He ate a bit today.

This 9-year-old doggie is now an indoor doggie. I'm so glad he's alive. I can't believe he survived being hit by a car, which is what the vet concluded, with some conviction. He probably got clipped by a bumper, which ripped his skin.

He's so small and quick........I hope the people didn't see him. If they did, they'd better steer clear of me. I'll bitch slap them up the street.


My poor little doggie. He's such a lucky boy. I hope he comes out of this whole thing okay.

More blatant self-promotion.

One purpose of a blog is to let folks know what you're up to. I always wonder about strangers who may read this. Why are you reading it? Do you read blogs for fun? Are you bored? Are you looking for porn?


Or are you just downright filthy?



I have the answer! Olde Crone's Bewitching Bath Soap will cleanse your skin, while leaving it soft and smooth, moisturized and smelling lovely. Don't take my word for it. Read the customer testimonials on the home page.

Are you, stranger reading this blog, crafty? Do you like to make things for yourself? Do you find yourself shopping, and constantly saying to yourself, "Pfft! I could make that, for a lot cheaper." If so, then perhaps you would be more interested in my ebook, Making Soap In Your Own Kitchen. Many others have had the same thoughts as you, and are now making their own soaps. You can, too. It isn't difficult.


Speaking of my book, I recently dropped the price, and I sold triple the amount of books that I normally sell in a week! Hooray! This self-publishing thing is a really good idea. I think I'll do it again, only with a print book. Of course, I could make up some shorter, downloadable reports, on how to make specialty soaps. Hmmm. (I'm giving you a glimpse into my thought processes...scary.)

Gotta run. Gotta do some work for one of my many enterprises. You go see my soapy site, now.

I know, I know.

I know. I haven't written in a while. I've started teaching at the University, and it really blows me out of the water, energy-wise, for about 3 days afterward.

However.

I've gotta let you know--this group of students is HILARIOUS. Many of them know each other, and we played Two Truths and a Lie to get to know each other, etc. and they really got into it! It was hilarious! This one guy just lied for each of his statements, but didn't let us know until after he'd lied again, saying, "Yeah, that's the one that's a lie." But they were all lies! We were rolling. They were elaborate lies, too, involving cranes and cars, and rapping like Snoop Dogg at a wedding.

They've got a lot of energy. To give you an idea of what they're like, our most heated discussion came when we were deciding whether or not we should have a schedule for people to bring snacks.

Somehow hopeful.

I cannot explain why I feel hopeful these days, but I do. And when I say "these days, " I literally mean just the past couple of days.

I absolutely cannot explain it.

I have this hopeful feeling, this feeling that, no matter what, everything is going to turn out ok. Everything is moving in the right direction, and everybody will love whatever I do, and I will get the job I want, and when I publish my book, everyone that I want to will buy it.

It's weird.

When a person hates her/his job, many strange psychological things can happen. Depression. Despair. Bad hair days. But I don't think "hopeful feelings" is one of the symptoms of job hatred.

I just can't explain it.

So instead, I'm rolling with it. I'm taking steps in the right direction every day, and when the opportunity presents itself, I'm gonna jump on it.

Hope you're outta my way when that happens. It could be spectacular.

Back to the green.

Okay, I'm a sucker for pink. But I, too, couldn't take the Pepto quality of it.

Blogger needs to get more template choices, is all.

New Year. New Look. Readers chime in.

So, I'm a sucker for pink.

This is why: my birthday is in February. And whenever I see little tchotchkes in shops, all artfully displayed, and they're all pink and white, with hearts and sweetness, I love it love it love it. And that's because I think of my birthday and get all happy.

Hence, the different look of my blog. Too bad it doesn't have any little hearts.

Lemme know what you think.

New Year. New Ideas.

It doesn't always happen that I start thinking about money in particular at this time of year. It's just that, well, taxes are due soon, and I need to make sure I can cover them.

We usually have a big ebay selling stint from February through March, in order to cover the tax bill.

In any case, I've already started my taxes. I think this may be the last year that I do them myself. My time is getting more and more valuable. However, I am a control freak about my finances, which I do not think is a bad thing. However, sitting around for hours and hours, adding up receipts does not hold the mystique for me that it used to. I can't imagine that it would cost that much. And I always owe on my taxes anymore, anyway. Harumph.

So, because I'm full of the money-making ideas, I present a list to share. Perhaps I'll help/inspire someone else, as well.

My idea list:

• AWAI . I wanna buy their Six-Figure Copywriting thingy. I think it could prove very useful.
• Getting my book finished.
  
• Finding some writing work.
• Making sure I'm on the right track, financially.
• Making sure my thought processes are on the right track, too.
• bump up the ebay stuff. Way up. Gotta make some cash.
• apply to a couple more farmer's markets this year. Bump up the soap. Way up.
• No teaching this summer! Just soap!
• Okay, some writing time, too.
  

It's difficult to fight this extreme fatigue I'm feeling and have all these ideas, too. I don't know why I'm so tired all the time.

MASH unit

What do you think would happen to you if you worked in an Army M.A.S.H. unit, for 5 years straight? If your work was constantly an emergency, someone else's emergency, and everything you did wasn't good enough? And everything you did wasn't done quick enough?



And it all just kept piling up and piling up, and there was nothing you could do to make it stop?


Now remember, in this scenario, you did this for 5 YEARS STRAIGHT.


What do you think would happen at some point? Bitchiness? Depression? Bad fashion choices?

You know the answer as well as I do.

Back to work.

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!


I am sitting in some "staff development," listening to this woman, go on and on about her agenda. Always her agenda. Always she pushes her personal academic agenda onto all of us. It is so tiring.

And it is also one reason why people leave this profession. Their ears start bleeding and they have to retire.

Oh, and after they sent us off in small groups to talk about an article and come up with some ideas on things we can do in our school, I offered our group's idea. The response? An unequivocal no. Of course.

Don't ask for my ideas if you don't want to hear them!

Vacation Log: Day 17--Last Day. :(

'Tis the last day of my vacation. Baby girl got up at 4:45am, and did not fall back asleep. I got up with her around 6:30am and made pancakes and bacon. They were delicious.

Little monkey played for a long time in the morning, while I read the paper and did some work on the computer. Newsflash! I did my sales tax returns for my soap business, and I have the money to cover the taxes! This is an accomplishment for me, anti-saver.

I called my mom today, and talked with her for a while. Her knee is getting better, and she's been going for walks outside. This is a major improvement for her--that knee has given her trouble for a long time.

*sigh* Did some laundry. Watched some kiddie tv. Now I'm just waiting for bathtime, so I can go to bed.

And go to work tomorrow.


*sigh*

Vacation Log: Day 16

It's January 1, 2006!

Should I resolve something? Is my life so desperate that I need to "decide firmly on a course of action," to make it better?

How about this: I'll just continue to go to work every day, and make enough money to feed my family, and continue to be a generally good person.


(Am I cranky, or what?)


Okay, okay. I'm just scroogy. I'll stop now. "I resolve to be less scroogy."


How about we make resolutions that are fun? How about, "I resolve to speak in old-fashioned phrases more often." Example: "Fill up the car with petroleum distillate, post haste!" Or "He doesn't have the sense god gave a goose." Yeah. That'll make my life better.

I also resolve to speak my mind more, and care less what people think. That'll improve my life, too. Not that I care too much what people think, but when you work in a school, this thought that everyone is dissecting your words and actions does take over, somewhat. So, I'm gonna speak the truth. There's some life improvement for you.

Truth #1: It's freaking cold in my basement, where my daughter is watching Boobah right now.

Truth #2: I actually love Boobah.

Truth #3: Getting in touch with old friends is awesome! I talked today with a friend who I haven't seen for 12 years. It is so great to find out how he's been doing, and what he's been doing, etc. He's been leading a very interesting life. Except now he lives in Houston. Too bad, that.

Truth #4: Tomorrow is the last day of this vacation. Boo.


Grade for day 16: A+++++++

Vacation Log: Day 15

Well, both of my old friends got back to me. Yay! I'm so happy.


Yesterday was Dec. 31, 2005. Whoopity-shite. I don't make too big of a deal with the calendar change. It's a good excuse to have people over for drinks and snacks and Trivial Pursuit. Which is exactly what we did.

And it was so much fun! Thanks, folks, for coming over and snacking on the snacks, and drinking the drinks, and playing the games! I had a great time!


Grade for Day 15: A+

Vacation Log: Day 14

More sleepy sleep. Yaaaaay! Thank goodness. I wore baby girl out at the mall yesterday. Went to Cherry Creek to play on the breakfast food. It creeps me out to see huge sausages lying around on the ground, but I get over it for my girl. (In the link, that is not a photo of my girl...it's just a photo I found, as a point of reference to those who do not know of the giant breakfast food.)

Today I am spending the entire day at home with my girl. Well, we might go somewhere, but if we do, we will have to take the bus. Papa took the car to go pawn shopping in Colorado Springs. He and his friend Bam do this every so often--apparently the pawn shops down there have different stuff than up here in Denver.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Time Passes<<<<<<<<<<<<<

We didn't go anywhere. I'm still waiting for papa go come home with the car, so I can go to Costco. Gotta get snacks for tomorrow night. We do not go out for the new year festivities. We do not even capitalize the new year festivities. We stay home and play games. With Steve.

Anyway, I'm sittin' here, feeling weird, because I just located a couple of friends from college, with whom I haven't spoken in a long time. Well, one of them a long time, and the other a loooooong, long time. And it's got me all nostalgic and weird, because I knew them in college, and that was a very weird and exciting time for me. I've changed a lot since then, hopefully for the better. Some things for the worse, I guess.

I guess that weird feeling is called "regret," which is really a wasted emotion, if you think about it. There is absolutely nothing I can do about the past; I can't fix it, change it, or otherwise modify it. It is what it is. I can just hope that these folks will correspond with me, at least just to say "hey." The other probably will, but one of them?


I'm not so sure.


Day 14 grade: A- (for the weirdness)

Vacation Log: Day 13

Lots of sleep. Sleep, sleep, sleepy sleep. Love it. Got a lot of it last night, which was warranted. Little Monkey slept through the night. Hoo-ray. She need to repeat this habit, nightly. No more of this 3am business!


I'm all paranoid, now.


So, today I had some "me" time. I went to see Harry Potter. Yay! It's awesome. If you've read the books, I bet you will enjoy it. They had to leave out a LOT of details, of course, but I don't think they detracted from the story. Fabulous time.

I'm now off to the library to pick up a DVD that I'm borrowing: WalMart: The High Cost of Low Prices. Ought to be interesting. It's only 3:38pm right now, but today is shaping up nicely.


Two movies in two days. It's been a good vacation. Oh, and I got a soap order last night, too. Made some money, saw a movie. Yep. Good day.

.............Time Passes..............

Stayed at home the rest of the day. The little dog dug a hole under the fence and ran away. Had to go get him in the car. Watched that WalMart movie. It's fabulous. I recommend it to everyone who even slightly thinks that they don't like WalMart, but they can't put their finger on why. The movie will tell you why.

Day 13 Grade: A

Vacation Log: Day 12

Today's blog starts in bed. At 3am. Approximately. Yes, once again, cutie woke up. This time, however, she climbed into bed with us and fell asleep. I, however, did not fall asleep immediately, because she was sleeping on the edge of the bed, on Papa's side.

This was disconcerting for me, and any mom out there will understand why: even though she was with her Papa, there was always the danger that he would fall asleep, lose his grip, and she would fall out of bed. And our bed is higher-up.

Papa finally put her in the middle of the bed, between us, and right at that moment, I fell back asleep, knowing she wasn't going to fall.

We all woke up around 8am after that, and our day was a plain day, until 2:30. Before 2:30, I read the paper, played with Cutie, shopped for groceries. Then Papa joined me, and we went to the bank, washed the car, and went to the post office.

And then we went to the movies.

Okay, I wanted to see Harry Potter. I've read all the books and seen all the movies, and love it all. The Man was going along begrudgingly. He wanted to see a movie, but thinks the Harry Potter series is for kids. Anyway, when we got to the theater, it turns out that the online movie times that I checked were inaccurate. There was no showing of Harry Potter at 2:30. Luckily, there was another movie showing at 2:30:

King Kong.

Oh, how I love that Peter Jackson. I didn't know just how much I would love this movie. I have not seen any version of King Kong, not the original and not the one from the '70s. My man has seen both several times, so he knew what to expect. I knew a bit of the story, so I knew a bit of what to expect. I will not spoil anything for you, but I'll tell you this:

I'm aerobically worn out after seeing it.

Day 12 grade: A+

Vacation Log: Day 11

Well, finally, cutie slept through the night, so today was a better day all around. We just stayed home and did little projects. I moved the microwave oven to a different spot. Did some dishes. Helped cutie with her train set.


.....................



That's about it. Huh.


Day 11 grade: A

Sleepytime update

I kept the monkey up until 10:30pm, to ensure her fatigue. I was also thinking that, if her sleep is no longer at the 11-hour stretch it used to be, then when she wakes it will still be at a (relatively) reasonable hour.

She came and got me out of bed at 8am. This means she probably woke up around 7:45am. Which means she slept for 9 and 1/4 hours.

Which means we need to remember this, when putting her to bed, so she doesn't wake up at 3am.

Any. More.

I finally understand.

My parents made a relatively big deal of Christmas. They always gave us gifts that they knew we would like, and I remember them sitting on the couch, drinking whatever they drank in the mornings, watching us play. Dad would sometimes play with us, if the toy required assembly, etc. They would sit and watch us, at some ungodly hour of the morning, as we played with our new toys.

As a kid, I always thought that adults got the shaft. They would just sit around, watching us, and they didn't get anything from Santa. I didn't understand how they could be so happy.

Today, I do.


Today, I assembled a train set for my daughter. It was not difficult, as it was manufactured by Fisher-Price. It has tracks that include a hill, a windmill and a factory, and two engines and 4 cars. Okay, here's the cool thing: the main, larger engine is battery-powered, and there is a remote switch that controls it. After about 10 minutes, my daughter is now making the train start and stop around the track. Every time she makes it stop, she says, "huh?" even though she is the one who made it stop, and she knows it.

Oh, and now she has just figured out the manual switch on the tracks, to make the train go up the hill, instead of under it. Smart girl.

And just a minute ago, I was standing there with her Papa, smiling down at her as she played with her new toy, and I was completely overjoyed.

I think parents give gifts at Christmas so that they can see pure, unadulterated joy in their children's eyes.

Vacation Log: Day 10

Aaaaaaaand she woke up around 3:30am, again. Aaaaand the dog was barking outside at that hour. I asked TM to bring the dog in before someone called the cops. So he did, and she cried in her condo for about 20 minutes. So, he put her back outside and she was happy. I cannot win. Right after the dog was put back out is when LM climbed into bed with us. We spent some time quietly with her in our bed, but she did not fall asleep. I do remember asking her if she had a diaper, and she said, "Yes!" So Papa changed it and put her back in her bed, but she came back to our room about 1/2 hour later. We tried to get her to sleep. Didn't work. Put her back in her bed. Didn't work. So I got up with her, and I got dressed. I was going shopping early today, anyway.

So I took the cutie with me. There we were, outside the doors of Target at 6:55am, and she was jumping up and down, having fun. We shopped at Target and at Linens 'N' Things, and after that I thought she would be hungry, so we went to a diner for some breakfast. She was NOT hungry, and pretty much tormented me the whole time I was eating.

Got home. I tried to put her to bed, because she was obviously tired, but she would have none of it. So I got Papa to watch her so I could finish my shopping. He did, and I did. When I came back, I got LM something to eat. She was very tired, but adamantly refused to go to bed. I desperately wanted her to go to bed, so that I could nap, which is something I never do. I could hardly see straight. Nonetheless, I read the paper, read a magazine, read books to LM, and waited.

At about 1pm, I heard her calling me from her room. I looked in there, and she was on her changing table. This is a pretty clear indicator that she needs a diaper change. So I did--and while I did, she STARTED FALLING ASLEEP. Right there. Her eyes would droop, and fly back open, droop, back open. So I picked her up and put her in bed. Of course, she started throwing a fit again, but this time she didn't have the energy to fight longer than 10 seconds. She was out.


And so was I. I took a solid 1 and 1/2 hour nap today. It was awesome. I still feel a little groggy, but at least I can get through the day in some productive fashion.

To wit: I assembled LM's train set! It is cool! It has a wireless switch that makes the train go and stop, and it has a feature where, when the train drives past the windmill or the factory, the gears work the mill/factory so that things spin, whir, move, etc. and you have to flip the switch for the train to move on. It's really cool.

So now we are just hanging out at home. We're keeping her up until 10pm tonight, so if she gets up after 8 hours, it will still be a somewhat reasonable time to rise. At least for me it will be reasonable. We've got to get her on her regular schedule. No more of this 3am nonsense! Except, everytime it happens, she has a diaper. So it's not like she just wakes up--I think she wakes because she is uncomfortable, and then simply decides to stay up.

Grade for day 10: B- (because of the horrible "no sleep at all" feelings)

Vacation Log: Day 9

Today was Christmas day.

I let The Man sleep in. I got up at the same time as Little Monkey, and we just hung out. She played with her toys (still very excited about her trains), and I read the entire Sunday paper. This is a treat for me--usually I don't have the time for it. I made us some breakfast/lunch (we got up late), and after the paper was finished, I got dressed, got cutie dressed, and we went to the park.

Yes, the park. On December 25. It was well over 60 degrees outside. Lovely, lovely day. For the first 1/2 hour, we had the park to ourselves. Most folks were spending time with family, I guessed. It was a great time--we spent about an hour there, basking in the sun, sliding on the slide, and LM spent a lot of time on the swing. Some days she loves it, some days she hates it. Like most of us.

We went home and had some dinner. It was around 4pm, and I suggested that we try again with the Christmas lights; we knew LM would want to see them. So we got in the car much earlier than yesterday, and went straight for the retirement community where they do up the lights.

Well, LM fell asleep AGAIN. This time, we were undaunted. We woke her up when we got there. She woke right up, and was happy to walk around with us. And walk around, we did. She was enthralled by the displays, and walked right up to some of them and sat on the ground, mesmerized. It was very cute. I think we went there more for us than for her; it was so much fun for us to see her so happy, because of pretty lights.

We got home, and we ate again. I made sure LM had a full tummy, so that she would sleep well. She had her bath, and I put her to bed, and she fell asleep quickly.


And so did I.

Grade for Day 9: A