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grrgoylGuess who wasted no time moving back in last night? Yep, I peeked out to investigate all the banging and slamming to see the FCW (same as just CW, don't be confused) and a male friend moving all kinds of furniture in. When I joked about eagerly counting down to her return, I had no idea it was a matter of hours rather than days or weeks. I might not have been so breezily snarky had I known. She looks a little chunkier which I think is great, assuming that means she's clean. I'd rather have a fat next door neighbor than a tweaked-out one. I immediately phoned Tery, who had already seen her as she was leaving. She said Tracey was sneaking the long way around the building from the upper parking lot, and Tery was almost mauled by her dog before its retractable leash stopped it. Tracey herself hung back around the corner to avoid being seen, unsuccessfully. Though I'm not sure I understand the point of skulking around like that if you're just going to throw things around as if you live in a bowling alley once you get upstairs. With that racket going on, I was very thankful indeed that I had to work last night. More thankful still that the Alcoholic apparently only has email capabilities at work so couldn't harass me about it, cuz you know damn well she was up all night watching her like a hawk.
Until I got to work, where I'm not exaggerating, I had 24 dogs and 12 cats to take care of. 24 dogs and 12 cats! Could have been the makings of a really wacky Disney flick if they weren't all penned up. I was slightly peeved that one of the dogs belonged to a vet tech who had left him accidentally. Of all nights to saddle me unnecessarily with an extra animal, pick the night that I've got a full-to-bursting house. She apologized profusely over the phone though. Fortunately no one was on medication, which was the only thing that made it bearable. The hospital was filthy from such a busy day, and between the mounds of laundry, bloody surgical instruments and all the sweeping and mopping I had to do (not to mention filling out 35 patient charts), I was moving all night nonstop.
The only animal that gave me a headache was ANOTHER senile, half-blind poodle (I'm telling you, no one should get a poodle. They all end up this way). Spanky barked half the night before I finally got fed up, swatted the door of his pen with a broom and growled, "Shut. Up." Whereupon he promptly retreated to the corner, curled up and fell fast asleep. Guess he just needed to be told when it was time to stop barking. Crazy-ass poodles. Oh, except for the moment while I was walking dogs at the beginning of the night and about 8 of them started barking and howling at the same time. I silenced them by screaming at the top of my lungs. In the kennels, I'M the gorram alpha dog and the sooner they learn this, the better we all get along. I'll admit, this is one of the more enjoyable aspects of the job.
I told Tery "the boss" that I was going to start demanding an extra per diem in my paycheck for every type of animal above a quantity of 10. She doesn't agree that this is a great idea. So this is how it feels to have The Man keeping you down...
This morning my fingers feel like useless twigs attached to my hands that I don't have full control over and my brain feels like it's wrapped in cotton. This also explains why I'm wasting time updating rather than working. I'm just getting my fingers limbered up, okay?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Now just to wrap up some buying sagas that I know are keeping everyone up nights worrying.
dchatonly: I filed my claim with Amazon and my jaw dropped when less than 10 hours later they notified me that he had issued a refund for me. I just don't get it. I was so sure he had either fled the country, was in a coma somewhere, or was just a shifty scam artist, and it turns out that he was none of these things. Wouldn't it have just been easier to cancel the transaction and refund me originally, rather than drawing it out for nearly a month and inciting all those hateful comments? dchatonly is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. And I still say I'm well rid of him.
Mr. Advent speakers: I finally coaxed him into a pick-up time and place yesterday. My god, it was like pulling teeth. He withheld crucial information to complete the transaction right up to the last second. He called me to say he was at the Radisson down the street from me, but refused to tell me what he or his car looked like. Had I not been a little less stingy, I might still be cruising the parking lot trying to hook up. And it wasn't like I could call him to say, "Where are you exactly?" because his number showed up as private on my ID.
I pulled in and he approached me from the building. He was a leggy, well-groomed, white-haired man. "I'm the Expedition," was all he said as he pointed at the lot full of cars and followed on foot. Again, the bare minimum of information. I inched forward, unsure how to explain that all SUVs look alike to me. I snuck peeks in my rear window to see which direction he was heading. Miraculously I found it and parked beside it. Big huge enormous gas-guzzling Ford Expedition. He couldn't have failed to notice my newest, biggest bumper sticker that says "Osama ♥ your SUV" or the other one that says "If religious groups want to be in politics, they should pay taxes." Yes, I'm the liberal pinko commie lesbian who will be doing business with you today, sir.
He gave me the speakers, not without feeling the need to throw in a little sales pitch about how great they were and his reasons for selling them. I felt this was wholly unnecessary and just wanted to get out of there. I raced home and hooked them up. They sound great, crystal clear without being overpowering. The first test was back to LOTR:TTT, where they performed just as I was hoping they would: quiet (but perfectly audible) background sounds without overwhelming the center speaker, where all the dialogue comes from. With the tower units I had to crank everything up just to hear them talking, and then would have to hurriedly turn it down again for the thunderous battle scenes. Not cool. Better still, this brand of speakers seems to successfully mute that pesky OWA channel. Regular music sounds great on them too...again loud enough without making you beg for mercy.
I'm sure Tery will disagree with me and will insist on adding a subwoofer. I'll make her happy, though to me a sub is like high beam car headlights: nice to have when you're in the middle of nowhere, but easily annoying other people if you forget it's too high. (I am inordinately proud of this analogy. It came to me last night as I was being blinded by an oncoming SUV.)
Until I got to work, where I'm not exaggerating, I had 24 dogs and 12 cats to take care of. 24 dogs and 12 cats! Could have been the makings of a really wacky Disney flick if they weren't all penned up. I was slightly peeved that one of the dogs belonged to a vet tech who had left him accidentally. Of all nights to saddle me unnecessarily with an extra animal, pick the night that I've got a full-to-bursting house. She apologized profusely over the phone though. Fortunately no one was on medication, which was the only thing that made it bearable. The hospital was filthy from such a busy day, and between the mounds of laundry, bloody surgical instruments and all the sweeping and mopping I had to do (not to mention filling out 35 patient charts), I was moving all night nonstop.
The only animal that gave me a headache was ANOTHER senile, half-blind poodle (I'm telling you, no one should get a poodle. They all end up this way). Spanky barked half the night before I finally got fed up, swatted the door of his pen with a broom and growled, "Shut. Up." Whereupon he promptly retreated to the corner, curled up and fell fast asleep. Guess he just needed to be told when it was time to stop barking. Crazy-ass poodles. Oh, except for the moment while I was walking dogs at the beginning of the night and about 8 of them started barking and howling at the same time. I silenced them by screaming at the top of my lungs. In the kennels, I'M the gorram alpha dog and the sooner they learn this, the better we all get along. I'll admit, this is one of the more enjoyable aspects of the job.
I told Tery "the boss" that I was going to start demanding an extra per diem in my paycheck for every type of animal above a quantity of 10. She doesn't agree that this is a great idea. So this is how it feels to have The Man keeping you down...
This morning my fingers feel like useless twigs attached to my hands that I don't have full control over and my brain feels like it's wrapped in cotton. This also explains why I'm wasting time updating rather than working. I'm just getting my fingers limbered up, okay?
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Now just to wrap up some buying sagas that I know are keeping everyone up nights worrying.
dchatonly: I filed my claim with Amazon and my jaw dropped when less than 10 hours later they notified me that he had issued a refund for me. I just don't get it. I was so sure he had either fled the country, was in a coma somewhere, or was just a shifty scam artist, and it turns out that he was none of these things. Wouldn't it have just been easier to cancel the transaction and refund me originally, rather than drawing it out for nearly a month and inciting all those hateful comments? dchatonly is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. And I still say I'm well rid of him.
Mr. Advent speakers: I finally coaxed him into a pick-up time and place yesterday. My god, it was like pulling teeth. He withheld crucial information to complete the transaction right up to the last second. He called me to say he was at the Radisson down the street from me, but refused to tell me what he or his car looked like. Had I not been a little less stingy, I might still be cruising the parking lot trying to hook up. And it wasn't like I could call him to say, "Where are you exactly?" because his number showed up as private on my ID.
I pulled in and he approached me from the building. He was a leggy, well-groomed, white-haired man. "I'm the Expedition," was all he said as he pointed at the lot full of cars and followed on foot. Again, the bare minimum of information. I inched forward, unsure how to explain that all SUVs look alike to me. I snuck peeks in my rear window to see which direction he was heading. Miraculously I found it and parked beside it. Big huge enormous gas-guzzling Ford Expedition. He couldn't have failed to notice my newest, biggest bumper sticker that says "Osama ♥ your SUV" or the other one that says "If religious groups want to be in politics, they should pay taxes." Yes, I'm the liberal pinko commie lesbian who will be doing business with you today, sir.
He gave me the speakers, not without feeling the need to throw in a little sales pitch about how great they were and his reasons for selling them. I felt this was wholly unnecessary and just wanted to get out of there. I raced home and hooked them up. They sound great, crystal clear without being overpowering. The first test was back to LOTR:TTT, where they performed just as I was hoping they would: quiet (but perfectly audible) background sounds without overwhelming the center speaker, where all the dialogue comes from. With the tower units I had to crank everything up just to hear them talking, and then would have to hurriedly turn it down again for the thunderous battle scenes. Not cool. Better still, this brand of speakers seems to successfully mute that pesky OWA channel. Regular music sounds great on them too...again loud enough without making you beg for mercy.
I'm sure Tery will disagree with me and will insist on adding a subwoofer. I'll make her happy, though to me a sub is like high beam car headlights: nice to have when you're in the middle of nowhere, but easily annoying other people if you forget it's too high. (I am inordinately proud of this analogy. It came to me last night as I was being blinded by an oncoming SUV.)
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-15 02:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-17 06:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-18 02:11 am (UTC)I've had a lot of pets, and I usually feel bad after I yell at them (since small animals don't make much noise, aside from birds), but it is not so with dogs. If they bark first, I'll bark back!
no subject
Date: 2006-10-18 02:21 am (UTC)from Robin O in Seattle
Date: 2006-10-19 09:14 am (UTC)- I am SO sorry about your stupid fucking filthy crank whore condo-minium-mate-sidebar-other-res. WTF? How did that useless excuse for a human get out of jail? Nevermind, perhaps you already chronicled the Completely Horrid Tales of Skank of Crank in your blog, I'll scroll back and read (I'm responding to just the last few).
- I might have a hard time living with a LOL bird who will also likely outlive me. Kind of an existential kickinthepants. Or like someone annoying with text messages, but with an iron constitution and a userID that can't be blocked. Good for you for that, extra especially the rescue aspect.
- In my admittedly limited experience, poodles are actually pretty fine. Well, the mixes, anyway. But, perhaps, in some corners they're not makin' 'em like they used to. I grew up with a little terrapoo mix about 15 pounds that lived to be almost 22, and he lived through a tumor and several attacks from larger dogs. He was a little mutt named Pepper (OK, shut up, I named him when I was 5). He was a really good dog. One of the best of little dogs, ever, really. Christ on a Stick, I LOVED that dog. Sniff. I'm teary now, DAMN YOU. SOB!!
- Oh, but I think you're quite fine for caring for the sicklets in the vet hospital. Even if they do annoy you. It's inevitable and unavoidable, really, the annoyance. They're sicklets. But it needs to be done, and you are doing it, and that is totally cool. You definitely have my admiration for that.
Why am I writing you? Not really because of the above, but because I have insomnia and I asked Bethie if she had any other geek friends (meaning, YOU) that had seen the new Battlestar Galactica. She said NO. And I just had to say, that is just plain wrong. Anyone that is geeky enough to (reportedly) send my beloved emails involving either Buffy or that whole Rowling thing, hasn't seen this? Your geekery is crying out for supplication. It is missing out most urgently. SERIOUSLY.
Let's review:
- *I* watch it. Yes, I know you don't care, but I don't care a whit for Star Trek, Star Wars, or Lord of the Rings. Meh. Blah. I don't care for such things. Yet, I love this. That should be a red flag.
- Beth loves it. Yes, I put that as #2. I don't care. Hush. But you could geek with her over it. And she could use some fun email now. Send her some.
- There are many critical reviewers that are beside themselves with glee over loving it. (i.e., not just me and B)
- It's now in season 3, which means (for this series, and I know because we have them all now) there are THREE DVD sets available for binging/rental right now. If you haven't seen it before, you can totally do a big pig out, which is totally rewarding as all get out and just what we recently did. I just love it when I've not seen a series for the first few seasons, then discover it on DVD, and you can watch like, 5 in a row starting at 1 a.m.. BSG is my new Buffy. Actually, JUST like BTVS, in that I really didn't love it that much for the first few episodes, but sat down and watched the first several when Bethie had a physical prob, but by the end of several got totally sucked in and totally adored it except for the Slayerettes.
- Unfortunately no obvious lesbo overtones just yet, but some strong female hotties nonetheless. Me and B disagree on who those are. I'll let you be the judge.
OK, well, I should go now, but good luck with everything including white poodles and green parrots. :) Feel free to contact us.
:-*, R.
Re: from Robin O in Seattle
Date: 2006-10-20 02:30 am (UTC)Hi Robin. You're the only Robin I know, so no need for the extensive introduction. : )
1) I'm not convinced she's done jail time. Unsure if she just got a slap on the wrist or the court systems are so backed up that a trial is still pending. We all just hope that the incredibly expensive and pain-in-the-ass lab cleanup process has helped her learn her lesson good and hard. And that she realizes she'll be watched v., v. closely so it will be v., v. stupid of her to fuck up again. The good news is this time she's saving her loudest moving-in activities for pre-9 p.m., rather than 2 a.m. which is the timeframe she favored the first time she moved in.
2) I don't have much of a choice with the LOL bird. She was all Tery's idea. I'll admit she's grown on me quite a bit, but I still can't say I'd be all that heartbroken if she left tomorrow. You know how it is trying to make the one you love happy.
3) I didn't mean to bring up all your upsetting poodle memories. Last weekend I had a poodle puppy (Pierre, I called him "oui oui" because all he did was "wee wee") who was adorable, but the senile ones are just such a headache. Granted I'm generalizing based on 2 animals.
4) Thanks for the props. I also feel it's a pretty noble calling.
5) Battlestar Galactica. *sigh* MyFriendDeb loves the show too, and thought I should watch it because I can't get enough of Lucy Lawless (hint: actually I CAN). I might give it a chance someday on DVD, but for now my TV plate is too heavy to lift -- partly due to another series on DVD, "Lost." True, I have 5 nights a week off now, but my patience with sitting in front of the TV lasts only so long. And if Tery doesn't like it, that makes it 5 times more difficult as we try to share TV time as much as possible. I liked the original BG, although I'm told this bears almost no resemblance to it. But perhaps some day, as with Buffy, I will see the Light. That's also the beauty of DVD: It's forever.
As far as sending email goes, I'm sure your beloved would agree that the problem with our communication gap doesn't really come from my end. >: \
From Your One and Only Robin
Date: 2006-10-22 12:11 pm (UTC)Thanks for responding in your very own blog, you are super swell. ;)
1) Crank Whore? Possible just slap on the wrist? This pains me, really it does. Don't get me wrong, I do actually think drugs should be legal. But that means I think they should be manufactured responsibly and regulated and TAXED by the gov, not cooked up illicitly and toxic-ly in random condos next to unsuspecting random other folk. Fuck.
2) I give you back an LOL on that one. Women can be so moody and hard to please! If you're keeping your personal happy homeland in check via green things from the ornithological kingdom, more power to YOU, sister. Thumbs UP.
3) You sounded so sweet with your consideration, and I thank you for that, but I actually enjoy my upsetting poodle memories. Well, I enjoy remembering my little Pepper dog. It's good to remember those we love, even if they are dead. Well, I think. If I love a person/poodle my love will continue after death. I will continue to reference it, proudly. Love you, Pepper!
4) More props. MORE! :)
5) I am so very sad you will not hop upon the BSG bandwagon. I actually asked B a (in her estimation) very geekily question and she said, "That's like something EEEEElaine would ask!" She did not know the answer. Bah. I hoped you would. Yes, I know you haven't watched it yet. But I hoped you would watch it and THEN know. And then *I* could ask YOU. And then you would tell ME. OH, but right, LL is in it. But actually not for a bit. I didn't even think of that. But in one (and I don't think I'm giving away much here, really) she sort of shrieks, "GOD LOVES ME!" and then immediately gets totally brained on the head with a rock and then is sort of . . . (depending on your perspective) . . . . DEAD. Now THAT was some funny shit! Hee.
I never saw this "lost" but I still feel comfortable insisting that BSG is way better. Just because I hate most TV shows, except for Six Feet Under, Deadwood, Weeds, the Wire, and this, and maybe a couple others I'm forgetting but not anything called lost. I saw one of the original BSG's for the first time recently and I thought it was crappy. Of course, it's no longer the 70's and I'm no longer 6, so that might have something to do with it . . .
Bethie needs email, especially now that she has a new blog, and do pat those poodles for me . . .
Re: From Your One and Only Robin
Date: 2006-10-24 05:27 pm (UTC)Beth has a blog?