Close the door

Ameranth and I ran errands yesterday and just as I pulled onto the highway, I noticed I had not closed my door tightly.

Me: "Shoot, my door isn't closed right, but I don't like fixing it on the highway."
A: "No, not on the highway- you never know what could happen."
Me: "I know, the wind could catch the door-"
A: "And pull it wide open and-"
Me: "I wouldn't be able to grab the handle again-"
A: "then a car would come by and tear it off the hinges and suck you out-"
Me: "my feet and head would be flailing while the seatbelt and my deathgrip on the steering wheel keep my torso inside..."
A: "Exactly! Not a good idea."
..........
Me :"We feed each other's paranoia."
A: "I prefer 'imagination'."

Poster child for PITA

 (as in Pain In The A**)

Rosie told me she had to go out, realllly bad, noooowww. It was 11:30 and I was ready for bed, and didn't want to go out in the below freezing temps to hold the leash for her. Big mistake. 

She did her business as I watched from the door and when she suddenly looked at the woods and raised her head, I stepped out to call her in. Unbeknownst to me, Anna had come downstairs and was right behind me. She slipped out the door and the game was lost. The two raced for the fence and disappeared into the moonlit night.

For the next hour I periodically went to both doors and called the dogs, trying to sound sweet and loving through gritted teeth. At 12:30 I opened the door just in time to hear thundering paws on the frozen dirt road and see them sailing past me down the hill. Some of our neighbors have horses, but those two will leave them alone and they wouldn't be out at night anyway. I just hoped no one's cat would be taken by surprise. If only Anna hadn't been out there, I would have given up then, but I didn't want to explain to Ameranth how I lost her dog.

Half an hour later, my luck turned. Anna was in the driveway! I called to her and she stopped but kept her head turned towards the darkness in the front yard where I knew Rosie was taunting her: "Pussycat! Go home to Mama instead of running free with the big dogs!" Anna caved and came inside. 

I gave Rosie until 1:30 then left a note for J and went to bed. He reported that she jumped back inside the fence and was at the back door about 3.  She slept most of the next day and has not been out off-leash since. I may be slow but I have learned my lesson! 

That devil dog cannot be trusted. (No offense intended to the tasty snack cake)

Goin' out on the town!

Well, not right away, but in March I am! Our passes came today.

 

Ameranth and I are going to PAX East in Boston- that's right, we're going to a gaming convention. In the middle of a city, which is sort of scary to me. I am definitely a small town person and would never attempt this on my own, but Ameranth has had experience in the convention area, and will keep me company. We are going for all 3 days and may even have to take the subway, since our hotel is 2 miles away from the activities. Not only that, but we have to change subwaylines! I am hearing the Charlie song in my head:

Did he ever return?

No he never returned

And his fate is still unlearn'd

He may ride forever

'neath the streets of Boston

He's the man who never returned.

I don't know if this trip officially makes me a geek or a nerd (nerd, I think, because geek implies more knowledge than I possess) but am looking forward to seeing a demo of the new Guild Wars 2 game that will be available there. Sectaurs and Minnie are going as well so that will be added fun.

[I was going to update with some pictures of the bedroom rehab, but since this is my 300th post and a little past my second blog-iversary, I figured I'd go with something a little special]

Wednesday roundup of rambulations

Have you ever noticed how automatic brushing your teeth is? No, because that's the point- you don't think about it, even when you want to. The tooth that was removed last week was an in-between one on the side, not a molar in the back that you can easily skip. I had to look at my face in the mirror to direct my hand manually Not To Hit The Sore Spot. I couldn't even zone out while brushing the right side and front, because then my hand automatically zips over to the left side- and I am an enthusiastic brusher! Anyway, no horrendus horrondis painful mistakes were made and we are well on the way to normalcy. Or what passes for it in my mouth.

Speaking of that (and I realize that no one wants to know any more about this, but tough) I still have 22 of the original issuance of 32 teeth, which Ameranth thought sounded terrible. I pointed out that was 2/3 of the total and I have lived roughly 2/3 of my life and while that really makes no sense, it made her feel better. And it's better than not having any-although family members have told me otherwise. Strong teeth genes do not run in my family. Sad face.  Thank goodness we have an excellent dentist, who had better not retire before my teeth are completely gone! I worry because she has already started cutting back on her work week.

Rosie is still being let out back only on leash, since she has realized that she can get over the fence anywhere at this point. Anna could too but has not attempted it- indeed she barked at Rosie and herded her away from the fence during some off-leash experimental outings.

Ameranth is still working and has 40 hours scheduled this week, so she is happy. Tax refunds will swell her coffers and get her to the point she needs to start her across America trek this spring. Oh Goody.

Speaking of swelling coffers, Ameranth introduced me to Assassin's Creed II and I am spending way too much time on the XBox. I like the running around on rooftops and finding the items needed to fill collections, but some of the quests are timed and that is not good. I run off the roof and bump into guards and stab people I am supposed to be only tackling. Oops, sorry Borgia courier. The game is pretty and very historical feeling, starting out in Da Vinci's Florence. Today, we were walking through the Sears TV department and heard "home of the templars" and both stopped, thinking we would see the game playing, but it was a History show. When we saw the city shot, Ameranth said. "Oh it does look like..." and I agreed. Much to our surprise, a salesman behind us asked "What does it look like?" and after jumping we explained, feeling slightly dorky, but he knew the game and agreed as well.

Finally, did anyone watch Jeopardy last night , with the computer Watson playing? I only saw Final Jeopardy, but Watson had around $35,000 and the two men had $5000 or less. The category was US Cities and they both got it right, while Watson entered "What is Toronto?????"  (The question marks were Watson's, not mine) Really Watson? Toronto? Not in the US, buddy.  However the wily machine bet only $947 so he won that round anyway.  Not having watched the whole show, my question is how did they adjust for the machine's (assumed) fast response time to click in? The knowledge might be fairly even, but the computer reflexes have to be faster, don't they?


And hey, we got Valentine M&Ms at half price today- Score!!

Winter Fun

One of the bloggers I follow, Kelly from In Real Life, is training for a marathon and showed lovely pictures of her outdoor run. In the winter. In Canada. I salute her energy and determination, and I look forward to following her progress.

My own interactions with winter have had their highs and lows this year. The 'highs' I showed last week as I conquered Mt. Porchroof and cleared the slopes.

We left the ladder in place, partly in case we needed to rake the roof again, but mostly because we didn't feel like wrestling it out of the snow bank. The snow bank that I had made much bigger and that the dogs have decided is their preferred route on and off the porch.

 

They also like to pose up there, pretending to be Yukon King watching for Sgt. Preston, I presume. While I had to help that snow off, (thanks to us messing up the pitch while building the darn roof) a nearby shed roof took care of itself, unnoticed until ...dun dun dun..the Great Escape!  Sitting at my computer facing the porch window, I saw a flash of black from the corner of my eye. I looked up to see Boomer running towards the corner of the yard- the corner of the yard where the shed roof meets the fence! 

It was still too high for Boomer, but the other two were already out of sight. Anna and Rosie were on their way to the local sushi bar, right across the street. Jack Traps sells bait fish during the winter and I don't know if he dumped his dead fish, or customers left them, but there were frozen fish all around his giant ice trap flagpole, from minnow size to 5 or 6 inches long. Anna rolled, Rosie gulped. 

I grabbed a shovel and went to move a mountain of snow while Ameranth headed out to get them. Then she walked over the fence to tackle the other side. (That's a six foot fence, by the way) The 2 inch crust of ice that let the dogs stay on top was not enough to keep us from plunging thigh deep in snow as we shoveled. I trenched further along the fence as well, since I was there and I knew the successful escape would have Rosie trying again.

Sure enough, when we took them out back the first thing they did was run to the corner, then Rosie prowled the perimeter, raising her nose to assess the height. We thought she couldn't make it out and we were sorely mistaken. A few minutes later the other two let us know Rosie had flown the coop. Rosie now has her bathroom breaks on a 20-foot leash and I am hoping we have a thaw soon.

Ameranth and I had a hard time not taking this personally, seeing that we had all just come back from an off-leash walk in the woods. An off-leash walk that ended with the two huskies running into a low part of the field, out of sight, then popping up to cross the road into a neighbor's yard. Thank goodness the house is empty, since they were right up on the steps making themselves at home. 

Once more, we swore that they could never be allowed off leash again. At least not together- Anna is good at listening to Ameranth when she's alone.  Rosie gets her 'wolf look' and starts slinking away, pretending she doesn't hear a thing. Later she rests her head on my leg and promises she will never stray again. She needs a 12 step program. Actually, that's what she's on right now- she can take just about 12 steps on that 20-foot lead!

The drugs wore off

Hmm, after reading the comments I got on this morning's post, I thought I should clarify a minor point. I did get a free milkshake, but not directly from the oral surgeon- he didn't whip it up for me himself. I got a coupon and we stopped at Mickey D's on the way home. But it was free and welcome after the whole "nothing to eat after midnight" rule.

Ameranth was kind enough to be my designated driver and did warn me she was not very good with drugged people. (Perhaps I should have asked more about that, come to think of it) When the nurse told us I could go (which I have no memory of) Ameranth asked me if I was all set, and believed me when I said yes. But she did come back to take my arm when she saw me tilting against the wall, and gingerly escorted me across the slushy parking lot. She took my coupon and fetched my milkshake, warning me not to drive off while she was inside. I do remember thinking about turning the van on for the heat, but refraining because I thought she might panic and run out without the milkshake.

Anyway, the tooth is gone and the estimate they had given me was high, so I paid less than expected (Yay!) It was about as good as a day at the oral surgeon gets.

At least I know it's Tuesday

Hah, I am proud of myself for being able to grab Keely's Random picture thingy this time. Especially since I just got home from having a tooth out and am still minorly spacy. I love general anesthesia. No feeling the dentist yanking to get some stubborn totth, no tensing up in anticipation of pain. Just some goofiness, oh and a free milkshake courtesy of the dentist. Yum Yum, spooning in the chocolaty goodness past the gauze in the tooth gap.


I better go sit down,but before I go, a random convo from Ms.M. while X and Shoeshine were visiting last week. X was apologizing in advance for any noise the baby might make and hoping that their sleep would not be impacted.

Mr C: Don't worry- I can sleep through anything.
Ms M: Yeah, he's spent time with lots of men on a boat- nothing bothers him.
Mr. C: I was in the Navy! And it's a ship, not a boat!"

Cleaning up

This is what I did this afternoon.

 

Because we are getting more snow tonight. This is a once-in-a-lifetime shot of me on a roof (I don't do heights) but there was so much snow everywhere it really wasn't scary. And much easier than using the roof rake. The east and south sides of the roof are bare- thank you metal roof-and-sun combo!

J went inside for a break after I assured him I would not go near the edge while alone. I took my breather up there because once I got down, I was not returning. As I sat there, I realized just how fast my heart was beating and decided that I  a) better slow down the shoveling and b) not try to clear the entire thing because I didn't want to be the person in the news article that had a heart attack after shoveling and you say "What was she thinking?" 

So now we have a huge pile of snow between the ladder and the railing which gave the dogs a great place to play this afternoon. But I found that Boomer thinks that it makes a handy peeing target as well. Just a step away from the door, how handy!

Our company left Thursday and the house is much quieter now. Sigh. We had a nice shopping trip on Tuesday to L.L. Bean and found a cute pair of boots with a colorful sea turtle design and a matching raincoat for Ladyslipper. Trying to get her to model them was quite an exercise for her parents, who modeled their Mad Bomber Hats too.

One more and I think this may be my favorite one.

Not much else going on around here. Back to life as usual with J. While out and about this morning, he mentioned he was hungry, then a few moments later:

J: " No hotdog vendors out, huh?"

Me: "Are you kidding? they would freeze their buns off! hohoho.......oh come on, that was funny"

J: "Okay that was funny" but he didn't sound like he meant it.

We bought groceries and ate some French bread on the way home.

Last night we actually went to bed at the same time, an unusual happening since J's bedtime is around 7 pm. I had my flannel pajamas and fleece socks on, since I'm always cold. I normally pull the sheet over the top of my head, since my hair doesn't keep me warm (plus then J can't breathe down the back of my neck)but J complains that he gets tangled up in it. I thought we were all arranged and ready to snooze and then I hear: " Mmmhmmmm, I wish you were naked"

My reply: "Mmmhmmmm, I wish you were asleep".