Farewell 33...

...hello 34.

It's been a good year and I can be thankful my cake doesn't look like this...yet.

 

I'm Back In Baby's Arms

The first Peony of the summer.

Friday I came home from work very happy to finally see my sweetie. I think I just crawled on her lap and wrapped myself around her. You know those moments when you just inhale their smell and love the feel of them against you. It just felt so nice to be close and feel the calm she brings to me. Everyday I come home from work and when she hugs me, I feel the entire day just melt away and I'm happy and at peace. I hope I have the same effect on her.

Thursday evening she came home late again, we ate a quick dinner on the patio and I decided to follow some good advice and offered to relieve our stress with a romp. She apologetically turned me down and 10 minutes later she was asleep in the patio chair with her beer getting warm. I was not offended of course. It's not as if I've never turned her down. It was a rough stressful week and she had little to no sleep so I put her to bed, did the dishes, fed the critters and went to bed myself.

On Friday we went out to dinner and I couldn't help but take the opportunity to have a little fun at her expense.
Me: "You know babe, last night was the first time in our relationship that you've ever turned me down."
A: *gasp* "OMG, that's right! I'm so sorry, baby. I feel so bad."
Me: "Well I suppose I'll get over it eventually....I guess this is just the beginning."
A: "What do you mean? Beginning of what?"
Me: "Well menopause...I suppose now that the hot-flashes have started you will likely start losing interest soon."
Well that really got her going. She was sputtering and muttering about not being old or losing interest. I let her go on for awhile before I kissed her and told her to shut it. I just LOVE getting her wound up...and she shouldn't make it so easy for me to push her buttons.

Saturday A and I volunteered to do a Meet and Greet for our rescue at one of the pet supply stores. One of our representatives from the Twin Cities, Mary, came to help since it was my first time setting one up and she had all the supplies, including extra dogs. I'm thankful she was able to come since A (who was on-call this weekend) had to go into work for a few hours and totally missed the entire thing. She felt terrible but I know how it is; on-call weekends means I don't make any plans I can't handle myself. It was a productive day though and we had several people come in to specifically check out the dogs. I think we have 2 strong applicants and another possible; not bad if 2-3 dogs out of the 5  representing find homes. The staff was great and we were invited to come back another day.

I was excited to arrive and see they were expecting us.

After several hours the dogs were exhausted and tired of looking cute.

This is Saydie, a sable chin. She was the odd-ball of the group.

A's ex, Mimi and her wife ChiChi, knew we were in town and invited us over for dinner afterwards. I had not been to their house since we did the deed in their bed and I haven't seen ChiChi since the night she was drunk and told me how hot I looked in that black dress I wore for my office Christmas party and how she was putting me on her "freebie" list. I think I jumped back 5 feet and just felt yucky all over. I now had to go to their house on my own since A was just leaving work and wouldn't arrive for 30 minutes. I survived though and everyone behaved themselves and we were roped into taking their 5 year old daughter to see Shreik next weekend. How do we manage these things?

It's hot and humid this morning and I was happy to see our first iris of the year had bloomed this morning too. Now I must run and get myself ready for work. Happy Monday!

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Holy shit, I just gave the guy reading our meter a boobie show!!! I don't know which one of us was more horrified. :)

Yeah, I guess I'm in a mood.

It's a beautiful afternoon, I stayed home from work, the dogs are bathed, the house is cleaned and now I can sit on the patio and sun myself. Around here the house has been full of stress this week. The facility A works at is currently going through their annual state inspection and when you're the one in charge you feel the weight of it full on your shoulders. She's been questioned daily by inspectors while having them dig through paperwork and questioning the rationale behind every decision all while trying to maintain her normal work. When she came home Wednesday night she had already put in 40 hours this week with 2 days to go.

I've been trying to stay on top of things around the house but when you have two OCD, control-freaks living under the same roof it can be slightly interesting. I can't help but be amazed how when we moved in together we just sort of divided up the chores. I hate to do dishes, she hates laundry and so it all works itself out. But let one of us step into the other's place and watch the fireworks begin. Last night I got the "well I usually do it this way" and I got annoyed and snapped back "well it got done and that's all that matters". Her patience is shot and mine is wearing thin as we found out during a 1am argument. Have you ever woke out of a dead sleep and got into an argument? A barking dog woke her, she was yelling and I woke up and started yelling at her to stop yelling. Yeah, that's how much sense you have when you're half asleep and bitching at each other. We made up around 5am and now I can't help but laugh at how stupid the whole thing was.

So I got to stay home today and that was just fine by me. I am really in no mood to look at one more 5 year old child with bombed out teeth due to poor diet/poor oral hygiene/lack of dental care. Some days I can't help but question when the line between ignorance and neglect is crossed. I suppose that is just an opinion though and we all have plenty of those. So on I go just trying to educate and encourage and convince parents about what is the best treatment and hoping they will put their child's needs ahead of their own need for the cigarettes and tattoos. Yes, I did say tattoos. I personally have nothing against tattoos except when I have a child in pain from their teeth hurting and a parent sitting there reeking of cigarette smoke and sporting an entire forearm (wrist to elbow) of new tattoo (still swollen and starting to peel) and tell you they can't afford to have treatment. Yes, this is a true story and happened to me several weeks ago. One of these days my "censor" button is going to overload. The sad truth is that even with universal health care, I still doubt they would get things taken care of. There are a large number of  people who have full coverage but still don't bring their children in for preventative care or have treatment completed even though it's not costing them a penny. So there you go...just another opinion.

I need a break from my co-workers too. I'm still really bothered by the behavior of some of them when we had a transgendered male to female patient come the other day. There is really no need for such ignorance these days and I snapped back at a few people making inappropriate comments. Now what the hell do I know about what it must feel to have gender identity issues. I'm a woman and have always felt that I'm a woman. I only know what I have read and there is no way I could ever truly understand what this woman has/is going through. The one thing I do understand is this woman has an enormous amount of courage to get up everyday, go to work , live her life and know that everywhere she goes there are likely ignorant people making judgements. I doubt many of them making the judgements would have such strength of character.

Now I think I'm going to go get another glass of ice tea before I mow the lawn and start dinner. I wonder what time A will be home tonight?

Weekend in Pictures...Cuz I'm Too Lazy to Write

After over a week of cold, damp and rainy weather finally the sun came out. Isn't it amazing what a difference it can make? I feel like myself again. We spent most of our time outdoors just soaking up the sun and taking care of the yard.

The philox are blooming.

The Lily-of-the-Valley bulbs I planted over a year ago finally grew this sping and bloomed. I was sure the squirrels dug them up over that winter since they didn't grow at all last summer. I was pleasantly surprised to see them peeking through the soil this year. They have the most wonderful scent. 

My hostas are thriving also.

Caligula has kept watch over the flower beds for several years already. Last summer I glued a rhinestone in his belly-button (just to gay him up a bit) but it was missing this spring.

This year we added a lobster we found on clearance last fall.

We had not taken the dogs out for a ride in the RV yet so we decided to head out on a little road test. We loaded up everyone, including the newbies, and gave them a little time to check out the interior. Then we gated off the driver's area and headed out on the road. A was driving while I had doggie duty on the short 14 mile ride.

5 of the 7 on the rear bench.

Sia watches the world pass by out the rear window.

The old man, Giz, was nervous in back but once I put him in the passenger seat he settled right in like he had been riding there for years. Looks like he beat me out for riding shotgun. I'll have to pick up a special seat so he can be harnessed in for safety.

There are actually 6 dogs in this picture. Can you count them all?

Saturday evening A made margaritas (thanks Jude for the recipe) and built a fire. We sat out until well after dark and just enjoyed each other's company.

Since the bugs love me so, A had the tiki torch ready and I'm not quite sure what she was planning to do with the garden weasel.

Even the old cat Stink joined us.

Sunday we had a bridal shower to attend. Our friends were married in Jamaica in January but will be having a small family ceremony in their church and then their large reception in just a few weeks for their friends and family who were unable to attend. The mother of the groom had a special surprise gift for the bride and insisted that A and I be there when it was opened. 

When the bride opened the box there was Dirty Harry (the 18 inch double headed dildo A had given the bride for her bachlorette) buried in sand.

 The bride gifted it back to us in Jamaica and A and I buried it on the beach before we left. We were convinced that it would never be seen again. To our surprise the parents of the groom dug him up as soon as we left the resort and packed him back to the U.S. The funny part was the groom's father (who is around 65 years old) rolled it up in a towel and packed it in his carry-on for the trip home. At the airport his bag was searched, they pulled it out, un-rolled it, dropped it like it was a hot potato and quickly shooed him through security. I wonder what they thought when they saw these two 60-something grandparents carrying something like that around?  I'm sure they were they were the talk of the breakroom that day!

Learning To Trust

Little Jazzy came to us to foster 3 weeks ago already. She is such a friendly little girl and has made fast friends with the other dogs but often times when we try to pet or handle her she is scared. Her posture becomes very submissive and she stiffens and flattens herself to the floor. She wants so much to trust but is still damaged. More often she has been joining the other dogs on the sofa and you could see her watching the other dogs come to us for petting and cuddles. The other day she tenatively scooted herself up beside me and finally a breakthrough!

When she first arrived she was a scary looking little girl. But as her sweet persoanlity starts to show she is becoming more beautiful to me. Now I'm just impatiently waiting for her coat to grow back!

Thanks

A BIG thank you to Stargazer for the Beautiful Blogger award. I will proudly display it on my blog (even though I refuse to follow the rules of this thing).

As long as I have the food I am loved.

Tonight it was a calm feeding time at our house. Every night I get dinner ready while the chins dance and leap and I'm serenaded by my baby girl, Sia. She's hardly a baby since she just turned 9 years old in March. She only has 3 teeth and I feed her softened food but she's definitely grown into a "full-figured" girl (maybe it's all the snacks we share). With the addition of 2 more fosters feeding time has become a little more crazy but the newbies are learning the ropes.

Every night Sia sings, talks and roos. It crescendos until she can hardly stand waiting another minute and then she moonwalks out of the kitchen ahead of me, keeping her eyes on the food bowl in my hands. Of course once I turned the camera off tonight she really started to sing but you get a little taste here.

Pull Your Head Out Of Your Ass!!

Note to self...

 Yeah...this pretty much sums it up!!

"Is that another gnat bite or did you grow a third nipple."

Yes dear readers, that is a direct quote from my sweetie and guest blogger A. Those are the words she whispered to me last night when we were getting "cozy" here at home. Of course we started laughing so hard the mood was lost.

I made the mistake of spending yesterday afternoon out in the yard without bug repellant. Com'on, it was May 1st and windy. Why would I need to slather myself with bug spray?  Because I'm one of the unfortunate people that mosquitos and gnats find irresistable. I can be sitting with a group of people and no one will be bit except me. And then I can't just have the normal bite welt. Of course not, it has to mutate into some huge, swollen bump that I can barely resisit scratching. A and her nursing ways comes to the rescue and she's been slathering me with prescription steroid cream all day. There welts on the back of my neck, arms, legs and can you believe I was bit on my stomach, chest and even under one arm. How the hell does a gnat bite you under the arm?!! Guess I'm back to poisoning myself with DEET for the summer.