Bless Your Heart

So my dog Nelson still has to wear this cone because he won’t stop licking his arm. It creates a sore that won’t heal. He’s been to the vet and they said he’s just bored and some dogs just do that. We’ve tried everything. Sprays, salves, etc. He’s got so many toys it’s like a minefield in my house. You can’t walk through a room without stepping on one. So the only thing we can get that works is the cone. It’s annoying because it bangs into the backs of my legs when he follows me around & it slams into you when he jumps into your lap. He’s so sweet though and we’ve tried to take the cone off, but he goes right back to the licking.

This morning I call him in from his morning romp and the cone is covered in mud & leaves & ick. So there I am in the shower with a cone. It’s too big to wash in the sink and I was trying to get ready for work. Then I’m running all nudie patootie through the house trying to get the clean cone back on my dog’s neck. My life should just be a TV show. I wonder who would play me?

Anyone out there a big Sopranos fan? HBO sent me a poster. It’s very cool, but I don’t have any place for it. Any takers?

Yesterday I took advantage of double coupon day at the grocery store, then raced home to throw together my first crock pot meal in my new crock pot. Mom gave it to me for my birthday. I cut up an onion & pepper, threw those in with a cut up chicken, some cream of’s soups, a beer and some garlic then ran out of the house to try and catch a movie on time. I met up with my sisters at my mom’s house where we hung out for a little while with Morgan’s new kitten, Roger Shakakahn. My family always names their animals weird names. He’s really cute. I forgot my camera though, so no pics as of yet. We watched Sara’s wedding video, it was really good and made me regret that we didn’t have one done. But, what can you do now? So then we went to see Signs. We were going to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but my Mom wanted us to wait and see that when she can go too. I thought Signs was pretty good. I liked the suspense & the comic relief, the kids were really well cast- I thought it was neat how they were both serious and cute all at the same time. They didn’t do much along the lines of wrapping up the whole deal with the aliens. Why did they come? Are they coming back? Etc. But I think the aliens part was secondary to the rest of the plot line, so it didn’t really matter.

After the movie I went home and finished up my crock pot creation. Husband came home and we had dinner & watched Collateral Damage. Two movies in one day. But he really wanted to see it. We were really impressed with our crock pot dinner. The chicken was so tender it literally fell off the bone. It was really good- and very tasty. Neither one of us was brought up on crock pot cooking, so this is all new stuff for us. Now we’re all excited about what can we make next in the crock pot! How lame & domestic can one couple get?? =)

Dinner last night was really fun with Natalie & Paul. The place we went to, Flying Saucer, has a beer list that reads like a menu. Husband was all excited to try some beers on draught that he’d only had in a bottle up til last night. Paul got this cool beer sampler with 5 or so beers in tiny glasses. I was all impressed that Natalie ordered a dark frothy beer instead of a girlie drink like me. I had a Woodchuck. I just can’t drink beer. They were a lot of fun and we look forward to doing some more hanging out soon.

So today I’m going to see either Signs or My Big Fat Greek Wedding with my sister Sara, going to my Mom’s to meet the new kitten, Roger, and trying out my new crock pot for dinner when Husband gets home. That means I have to stop typing and get to the grocery store right now for crock pot ingredients. If it turns out well I’ll post the recipe later.

Aren’t these beautiful? They’re my favorite flower. They smell so good. Husband brought them home for me the other day.

Today after some domestic improvements I’m going to the hospital to see Ray. Then tonight Husband and I are going out to dinner with Natalie and Paul. We can’t wait to meet Paul, and for Jon to meet both of them. We’re going to this new place called Flying Saucer. They have over 80 beers on tap so Husband will be in heaven!

See this? Know what this is? These are socks stretched over the footboard of the bed in our guest room. Why? We have a puppy. Let me explain. When we moved into our house we didn’t have a bed for the guest room. So my mom upgraded Morgan to a full size bed and recently gave us her twin bed. Before we got the bed Nelson had this room all to himself. This is where he sleeps at night. During the day he roams free in the house. The other day I noticed that the posts on the footboard were all chewed up. I’m so mad about that. This is a nice bed and we wanted to keep it nice for when we have kids someday. But I can never stay mad at Nelson, that sweet puppy face. He just turned a year old so we’re hoping he’ll outgrow it. In the meantime I read that if you spray cloth with this “No Stay” stuff that helps trains dogs to stay off furniture, then put the cloth where you don’t want him to go, that he’ll stay away and stop chewing. So far it seems to be working, but now we have goofy looking furniture! Rachel, I hope you’re reading this. Buy some today!

Ray & Elizabeth are an awesome couple. They’re so fun, so funny, so kind and sweet & so happy to see you every time you meet up. They are always together, never one without the other. They came to my showers & the wedding. We spent last New Year’s Eve with them and my mom & Hale & Morgan. They’re just cool. Ray was feeling kinda icky the last couple of weeks, flu like. It just kept hanging on. Then came the blurred vision, mood swings, and driving through red lights without knowing it. A friend said he probably had this viral infection that was going around. So Ray went to the doctor earlier this week. The Dr. sent him for and MRI. The MRI people sent him directly to Mercy hospital yesterday without telling him what was going on. Then just yesterday they told him the news. Ray has a very large, inoperable, malignant tumor in his brain. They operated on him last night until 1am this morning trying to relieve pressure on his brain. At 6am this morning they told him that with chemo he may be able to live about 6 more weeks. 6 weeks? I can’t comprehend this. First my friend Melissa dies from spinal & brain cancer in June, and now Ray? These are good people. Poor Elizabeth, Ray’s wife, is absolutely beside herself. Everyone’s all torn up about this. They have a son and a daughter who are about my age. I can’t imagine losing my mom so this must be just awful for them all. So now, kind friends, I ask a favor. Please say a little prayer for Ray & his family. Thank you.

I’ve decided to switch back to Yaccs for my comments. Enetation had nice templates, but it just took to long to load, and they’ve been offline for a week almost!

When Husband and I were in Baltimore the other week our hotel room had a limited number of TV channels. So just before going to bed there wasn’t much on and we found ourselves watching the Anna Nicole show. It’s like a car wreck, you know you shouldn’t look, but you can’t help yourself. We came in about 10 minutes into the show so we weren’t sure if maybe she was sick, or had been sedated because of a car accident or what. So last week we caught it again, just to see. I think that’s how she really is. I can’t watch it anymore. I think RuPaul said it best. “…after watching the third installment of the reality show, i realized i’d had enough of her. the slurring of words, the fighting, the pouting, the dynamics of the relationships and mostly the ignorance that is …ANNA. throughout the episode, i couldn’t help but feeling guilty about being a part of the exploitation of her, especially since she seems to be oblivious to it. she makes it very difficult to root for her because a.) she is no fun b.) she is not in on the joke and c.) she’s as dumb as a bucket of rocks. last night’s episode also made it very clear that her assistant KIMMY is in love with ANNA (remember what happened to SELENA ?), and that ANNA’S son and lawyer will bolt as soon as they get their piece of the settlement money…” Thank you Ru, you hit the nail on the head.

In more happy entertainment news: last night I finally saw “Run Lola Run”. It was great. I loved the 3 different scenarios, I loved the “and then” mini scenarios within the scenarios, I loved Franka Potente. And now I know the German word for please. I’m all about learning my foreign languages via dvd. Amelie taught me French and Lola teaches me German. The UN should be calling any minute for me to be an interpreter.

So it seems Survivor will be starting up again. I was a fan of the first season, a lesser fan of the second, and I haven’t watched since. It’s opposite Friends! But I still am drawn to the CBS site to check out the new Survivors each season. I like to see what they choose as their luxury item. Some of the new Survivors have chosen a shaving kit, family pictures, a brush, flag, and a frisbee. Those all seem logical to me. Even the frisbee, we all know you can get bored out there, plus it can be used to paddle a boat, dig a trench, collect rainwater, etc. The luxury items that I don’t quite understand are: pajamas (don’t they let you bring clothes anyway?), skateboard (last I checked wheels don’t roll really well on a sandy island), body paint (hey- I’m a creative chickie myself but I just don’t see how far this will getcha), and the topper…fuzzy slippers. I love my slippers, but where they’re going it’s probably hot and icky and I can think of a million other things I’d take before my slippers. Now maybe they provide you with, or you’re allowed to take things like lip balm, lotion, sunscreen, etc. I don’t know, I’m out of the loop. If that were the case I wonder what I’d bring. I’d be trying to stretch the rules with clothing. I’d take a bunch of sarongs as they could also provide shade from the sun, be used as a blanket, etc. I wonder if palm pilots are allowed. That would be perfect. I could journal, play games, list the people I want to vote off. Oh! I could take my neat sheet! What better place to put to use it’s sand and water repelling capabilities. Neat Sheet should partner with Survivor and send some over to the island. Sales would go through the roof. What would you take as your luxury item?