I have food!

Good news today=short post.

No bacteria in Rusty's urine! And I went to the grocery store so I actually have food in my house that isn't dog food!

And I bought the Neopets cereal.

But there's no bacteria in Rusty's pee! That's the best news I've had in a long time.

Ciao~

I hate baths

Rusty here. I'm mad at Mama right now. She gave me a bath. I worked really hard to smell the way I do! Now I smell all pretty and nice. I need to go outside and roll in something really stinky to get my smell balance right again. But Mama won't let me out of the house! She says it's too cold for me to go outside with wet fur. And there's snow too. I'm just going to lie on the couch and lick myself to get rid of the shampoo smell until Mama decides that I can go outside again. Baths suck.

But it's March!

It's a good thing I finished these mittens, because I woke up this morning to find SNOW on the ground. And it's still coming down! I want to cry. Snow is bad. But maybe I'll be able to get into my garage if it gets colder... I'll have to get dressed and try it. Because yesterday my brother and I couldn't get in, and he needed stuff out of his truck. He thinks the lock might have frozen up due to the cold weather. I can see how it would happen, if frost accumulated on the metal and then thawed, and then re-froze. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

Rusty likes snow, though, so that will be good. And it wasn't snowing when we had to go BACK to the vet yesterday (third weekend in a row!) to get a new sample of urine. Apparently, the lab screwed up the last sample. Grrrrrr... At least I wasn't charged for yesterday's visit, and it didn't take long.

And yesterday, my brother showed me the remodeling he's doing for his fiancee's parents at their house after their minor chimney fire in December. I asked if it was all necessary, and it wasn't. He complained about having the homeowners help, because they saw the insulation and decided they needed new stuff. It was perfectly fine, just a little dirty! It's insulation! Whatever makes people happy, I guess.

Rusty's sleeping right now, like always, but he sends everyone mild affection.

Ciao~

I love my jungle

Yes, Leslie, I do have a jungle. My dad gave me a plant stand for Christmas because the table he gave me when I moved wasn't big enough anymore. I'll bring one of Boris's siblings to work tomorrow (Tuesday) for you to give to Kevin. I hope your back is better.

In other news, I have finished Part 1 of my spaceship story. Yippee! I finally figured out how to get where I was going, and now I can move on to Part 2 (which I just decided to write yesterday). So I can print Part 1 for S.S. to read, because I promised. I FEEL SO GOOD ABOUT MYSELF RIGHT NOW! It's been, like, forever since I finished a fiction piece that I was working on. Now that I don't have a boring boy stealing away all my creative juices, I can actually put the stories that are rampaging through my head onto paper (or the computer). Any boy that's going to be in my life has to not suck out my creative energy. So there.

Speaking of boys/men/males... Last Wednesday, S.C. and I went to lunch with three people from the web design firm. We had Vietnamese, which I'd never had before. It was good. And one of the web design people was a good-looking guy about my age. But I behaved properly, and didn't stare at him. There's also a guy that rides my afternoon bus that's attractive to me... Except I'm a chicken. Buck-buck-buck-buck... :>= <-- That's a chicken, in case you couldn't figure it out.

That's it. At least for today. Ciao~

Finally!

So it only took like A YEAR for this stupid pepper plant to finally put out blossoms. I was going to repot it, but now I'm afraid that moving it will hurt my precious flowers (my preciousssssssssss...). But I probably will repot it anyway and use some string to tie it up for support, because when the flowers become peppers they will be heavy.

I also started germinating some jack pine seeds to make my own bonsai. First I soak them for 24 hours. Then I put them in a damp paper towel, in a plastic bag, in the fridge for seven days. If I remember after seven days to take them out of the fridge and put them in the dirt. I'll have to leave myself a note on the fridge, and check off the days. Otherwise I might forget. I like my plants. Especially poor George the peace lily who got sunburned and is now trying to recouperate from that experience. He actually looks pretty good, now that he's not getting a whole lot of direct sun and lots of nice, Miracle-Gro laced water. My African violets like the Miracle-Gro laced water too. I have some little ones that I split a few weeks ago that are starting to perk up. Yay for Miracle-Gro!

Today is another lovely LAUNDRY DAY, so I'm sitting around in my pajamas being low-key. Maybe later I'll feel like playing my piano, except it needs tuning and that makes me crazy. So maybe I won't feel like playing.

Rusty and I went to the vet again yesterday to check on his UTI, and he still isn't concentrating his urine as well as Dr. Elaine would like, so she's going to send it off to the lab to run more cultures. Argh. And Rusty needs a bath (but don't tell him that), except it's still too cold for him to go outside with wet fur. I don't want him getting any respiratory diseases, to go along with the UTI.

Anybody want a small African violet? When I pass on some of them, I can split up the one I have that's totally exploding out of its pot. Oh, and I can pass around spider plants too. My big spider plant is just sending out spiders left and right. Just let me know! *grin*

Have a good Sunday! Ciao~

Strange things going on in my poor head

So, I've had the same migraine all week. Since Monday. Yup. The generic-brand acetominaphen I've been taking (that WAS working) didn't work today. Which, as you can guess, made me feel real good. Yes sirree, I love my stupid migraines. Excuse me while I go bash my head into the wall...

Which just makes my head hurt more. Hey, having a migraine doesn't exactly enhance the brainpower. But...

After a week of migraine, I'm feeling a little STRANGE. Because that's how I get sometimes. Like when I was taking the good prescription drugs for my migraines. I would take it and go to bed because if I tried to stay awake, well...

However, now it is time for Most Haunted. Because secretly, I think Derek looks like a squirrel in the night vision camera, even though he did leave to make his own show (which premieres right after Most Haunted). And I like watching him look like a squirrel in the night vision camera.

Hope everyone else had a good week, because mine sucked!

Ciao~

Nobody ever sends me any email

Poor, poor sad me. No one ever leaves any comments or sends me any email. Which is why I changed the settings so that you don't need a Blogger account to leave a comment. SO YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE.

Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, guess I'll go eat worms. Along with S.S., who will be eating worms because we didn't need him to come into work today. And the worms that we don't eat will be fed to the dock weenies at the cabin. Yay, fishing!

Only one problem with eating worms. I'm a vegetarian. Hmmm...

Nice warm sweaters

What a nice warm sweater! Here's Rusty playing outside and yelling at me in his new sweater. Isn't he just the cutest thing?

Iknow it's early, but we have to go to the vet today. Rusty needs to have his urine checked, his thyroid levels checked, and get his rabies shot. He's gonna get poked a lot today. But he'll be fine. He'll just be grumpy until he gets a cookie or rawhide chew toy or drink of water or car ride or snuggling or... Yeah. He doesn't stay grumpy for very long.

It's fricking freezing outside, Mr. Bigglesworth. It's February!!! We're supposed to stop having these below zero days, or at least only have one, not three or four in a row. I hate cold. So does Rusty. We want it to be warmer, but Rusty still wants snow because he likes to eat it.

Tomorrow we're having lunch at my parents' house with my brother and his fiancee. Rusty loves his Uncle Matthew! *grin* Rusty loves his Grandpa too. And Grandma. He's shyer with strangers, but if they like him, then he likes them.

That's it for today. I promised a picture of Rusty in his sweater, and now you have it. So I'm going to go play more NEOPETS! Woohoo. Have a lovely weekend!

Ciao~

Wait for it...

Oooo! Look! Another post! With another picture! I must have gone insane.

So, did you go to NEOPETS.COM yet? Look for me and my pets (username abbylou_j). Totally, go play games and have pets and feed them and stuff like that.

I was bored yesterday while I was having a LAUNDRY DAY, so I went through my pictures on my desktop computer (the internet is on my laptop - dude, I'm a geek). And I found a few that I needed to resize (with Paint Shop Pro), so I did and put them onto the laptop so I could put them up here! Sweet.

Actually, maybe I'm just posting because I feel bad for being a slacker (Slacker!) and not posting very often. Not that anybody reads it or anything... *grin*

So, I'm still deciding whether or not I should go back to trying the whole online dating thing. I could use "Must Love Dogs" as my intro line. Errr, that's gotten pretty cliche since that movie came out. And "Insert witty comment here" is so boring, I've seen it a few times. Honestly, the first person who uses it is unique, but the thirtieth person who uses it is no longer funny. And, it doesn't say anything about you. Sigh. I think I'll be holding off on the online thing for awhile longer.

All right, I'm out. Maybe there'll be some interesting stuff to write about this week. Ciao, dudes!

All that sleeping makes you tired

Hey, look! A new post! With a picture! Isn't Rusty just the cutest thing you've ever seen? I've almost finished his sweater, I just have to sew it up and weave in the ends. Then I'll put it on him, and take a picture! I promise. Though I will give no guarantees as to the time frame. *grin*

This is the first weekend in a little while that I've had with few plans, which means it's time for...

LAUNDRY DAY! Yay for LAUNDRY DAY! Yay for clean underwear!

This has been a quiet week at work, but there's still work, just not insane amounts of it. It's the quiet times like this that make us appreciate the crazy wild times. And it's the crazy wild times that make us appreciate the quiet times. And when it's quiet, I spend all day building up energy, so when I get home I have a lot of energy. Makes me a little stir-crazy to have not enough work. Twitchy, y'know?

Last Sunday I found this really cool yarn at the yarn store with my mom before we went to our knitting group. It knits into stripes as you knit with it, and they're RAINBOW stripes! Sweet. I couldn't resist. So now I'm making rainbow striped socks. I used to hate knitting socks, because I hated decreasing for the toes, and having a seam at the end. But on Thursday night, as I was lying in bed, I figured out a way to do the toes so that the seam goes across the top of the toes (look at your socks, you'll see what I mean). I almost got up to try it, but then changed my mind and stayed in bed. So Friday morning, I tried my new way, and by golly, IT WORKED! Makes me feel all smart and stuff. And now, I won't hate knitting socks so much. Cool. Switch between socks and mittens, and I won't get bored with either! Sweet.

All right, back to playing on NEOPETS.COM (I highly recommend it, lots of fun). Ciao to all.

I miss fishing

Say it with me "Times New Roman font is evil." Very good. Now I'm happy. The new website for the company I work at is now live. I remember telling the designers that if they used Times New Roman for the font I would have to shoot them. The font on our business cards is Garamond (which the uninitiated would view as being the same as TNR, though they're different), and I hate Times New Roman. I hate it. And now I feel better.

I want to go fishing. So does S.S. He thought we needed a trolling motor, except my dad, brother and I got one for Christmas, so now what we need is a BOAT. Still waiting for the boat. I want to go fishing. Rusty wants to drink the water in the middle of the lake (not as much sand).

Go read my story (check back a couple posts for the link). I put up a couple new chapters today. So far, that's all that I've written. There are a few other stories that I've got going right now, so it might be awhile before I get back around to The Linden Trees. But I have plans for it. Plans... (insert evil laughter)

Rusty sends love to everyone, as well as smelly gas. My mom heard somewhere that a little plain yogurt will keep him from being quite so... Flatulent. I'll try it, but I'm so used to the stinkiness of him, that I don't even really notice it any more. Thanks to my little brother for getting me prepared.

Have a lovely evening!

Old is a state of mind

I am knitting a sweater for Rusty. I hope he'll wear it without too much fuss, though I'm not sure. He wore his Halloween costume very well without any fussing. (he looked cute in it, by the way) I started working on it today, for a break from the sweater I'm making for myself. I figure, if I have a couple things that I'm working on at the same time, I might actually finish something. If I just work on one thing, and I get bored with it, it just gets put aside and sometimes when I put something aside, it never gets done, because I forget where I was. Don't you hate when that happens?

This time of year is the slow season at work, so things have been pretty quiet. But our website upgrade goes into effect this week. Hopefully, it will happen on Tuesday, but we'll see. On Wednesday of last week, I finally got our new emails working. So now we can abandon our old email addresses, and move to emails that are located in a domain with our company's name. I'm tired of talking to the people at the web design company. It's a bad sign when I've called them so much, I have their telephone number memorized.

I'm watching The Mummy Returns on SciFi channel because there was nothing else that looked terribly interesting. I've seen The Mummy, so I thought I might as well watch the sequel, though sequels are often terrible. And, while I watch a movie like this, I can knit.

Have a good week, everyone!

Writing stories in my spare time

I don't know why I write so much. People always ask me that, and I never know what to say. I write because if I don't write, my head will explode from the stories and characters that are running around in there talking to me. No, I'm not crazy.

http://www.fictionpress.com/read.php?storyid=2092344

I just write a lot. This story is one that I wrote when I was bored (you can read the review, but I'm choosing to ignore it, because the reviewer had only read the first chapter, and didn't really understand what the story was about). One of the benefits of being single again is that no one complains if I decide to stay up late writing stories, and no one complains if they get ignored while I'm writing my stories.

Rusty still has e.coli bacteria in his urinary tract, so we're on even more antibiotics. We're confused as to why it doesn't clear up with the treatments we've done. But now we're going to pummel it with a month of antibiotics. Die, little bacteria!!!

Special note to S.S.: I'm glad you didn't die during your test. Now you know it isn't a big deal, so the next time you'll know that you won't die.

Questions

Rusty and I want to know why some people don't ever voice any of their own opinions. We want to know why some people think that's ok, and an acceptable way to go about life. Maybe I'm just odd, but I think it's ok if two people have different opinions as to how to deal with a situation. I also expect that when a person says something, their actions will match what they said. If they don't, then I feel that's lying.

I don't know how else to put it. Call me eccentric, but I think if two people are in a relationship, they should be able to have different opinions and share them openly with each other. Not wait to share opinions until things come to a crisis point.

Sorry, Teddy.

Hibernation

Fly

black bird

over the sad winter night

where white snow

falls softly

and summer sleeps

as she awaits the sun

*****

So there's a poem from the fridge. And today is New Year's Eve. It's going to be nice and quiet around here. Rusty and I will probably stay up late watching Monty Python, and then go to bed and sleep until noon. I've never been one to watch the ball drop with Dick Clark (who is terribly scary, by the way). And Rusty would be asleep anyway. So I'll be watching Monty Python by myself, which is just perfect, because when I get tired, I can go to sleep.

Have a good night, and don't drink and drive.

Ho-ho-ho!

Happy Holidays, everyone! Rusty and I hope everyone has safe travels and a wonderful time with your families. Rusty would appreciate it if you could send any leftovers on to him, and he'll take care of them for you.

What do you know? A Picture!

Ok, you can stop complaining. Here's a picture of two sleepy boys. This is how everyone looks on a Saturday evening during movie time.

I want everyone to know that I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping. The only present left to get is for my mother. And I might be a good mama and get Rusty something (though I might not). Maybe I'll let him have a rawhide treat on Christmas as his present.

No, seriously! I read it for the articles!

Tonight was the jam session. Good thing the piano got tuned last Saturday. We actually fit seven people around my dining room table and it wasn't too uncomfortable. I'm amazed. Rusty was well-behaved, except for a couple small tantrums about being ignored.

In case you were wondering, we do this holiday gathering every year and play music together. We always have a lot of fun, even those who choose not to play an instrument and just listen. The more people there are, the crazier it gets. I play the oboe, my dad plays the french horn, and tonight there were a piano and a flute. That's the core group. Other players come and go like cool night breezes in the middle of July. It's a good thing we didn't have any more people tonight, though. I have space in my living room, but the group we had tonight was a perfect fit. If I hadn't had this tonight, I could have gone to a couple holiday open-houses with my boss, Cheryl. I really wanted to go and represent the company today! I'm not particularly good at networking, but I'm game for free food and/or food that I don't have to cook.

I want someone to explain to me why Dwight Yoakam always wears a hat that's so big it covers the entire top half of his face. And what is that thing he does with his leg? If anyone can explain it, please do.

Now I'm going to go play out of the new piano book I got yesterday at my piano lesson. Then I'll be going to bed so I can get up early and get to work tomorrow morning. ~Ciao!

TGIF Part 2

I got a little upset with the vet clinic today about their inability to call me with test results. I was told, way back in the beginning of NOVEMBER that they would call me to discuss the results of the urinalysis and blood test on Rusty. It is now DECEMBER and they had not called me to discuss said test results. I will get Rusty's next refill for his thyroid meds there, and then we're going somewhere else. In fact, I made an appointment with another vet (someone I just happened to go to high school with) for tomorrow morning. I refuse to deal with a clinic that can not follow-up with me.

And they always asked if I wanted to put Rusty on their doggy insurance plan. I kept saying no, because I didn't want to commit to always using that clinic because they hadn't proven their service as entirely wonderful yet. I made it abundantly clear when I called today (both times), that I was less than pleased with their customer service. So now we're moving on to another, hopefully better clinic.

Anyway, my piano is being tuned as I type. Hooray! I've been wanting my dad to come over and tune it for at least a month. If I had my way, it would be tuned every week. But that doesn't happen. However, now it will be good until next Thursday's jam session, which will be held at my house. (That's how I got him over here in the first place) When I was looking at houses, the one criterion that was the most important was there had to be an inside wall long enough for my piano. Beyond that, I didn't really have any other things, and I always said I'd know the house when I saw it. And I did. I have my piano wall.

TGIF

It's finally Friday! I thought this week would never end. I need a weekend. Anybody else feel the same way? I can't believe it's already December. It feels like it was just the beginning of November, and Teddy and I had just met. But now it's December! Wow.

There's snow on the ground now, and it sounds like it will be sticking around now. I've already had to shovel 3 times, and I might shovel again this morning. As someone who uses the sidewalks, I get frustrated with people who don't shovel their sidewalks. I don't want to be one of those, so I shovel. If you live somewhere it snows, SHOVEL YOUR WALK. Thank you.