When can we go for a walk?

Monthly grooming bill:  $55.00

Monthly food/squeaky toy bill:  $25.00

Total vet bill for Missy's eye surgery this week:  $1,991.97

Having your bestest most loyal buddies healthy and happy:  Priceless :)

Shhhhhhhhhh...she's sleeping

Finally our little Missy is home! YEA! All is not well yet b/c she has a ton of healing to do; however, best to heal at home, we think. H & I worked 1/2 day today so we could hop in the car to trek to Purdue for our reunion with Missy. H said we had to take our other poodle, Mr. P, so he could help us bring Missy home. He was thrilled to take a road trip. I know, we are wierd. So, we all drove several hours to Purdue Univ. to pick up our girl...How wonderful to see her again! She has quite a few nasty stitches and kind of looks like she has gone a few rounds and lost...but all in all, she is her happy bossy self so we know she will be just fine.

It is a good thing I don't have kids...I don't think I could handle when they might hurt. It totally makes me cry! I held Missy most of the evening and now she is all cuddled in her poodle-bed and hopefully having sweet dreams about milk bones and table scraps. Sorry to be so sappy...I just really love this dog and I am so glad to have her home! If she will let me, I will post a pic tomorrow. Welcome home girlie girl!

Get Well Soon!

One of my poodles...and my blog model...Missy, has had a rough time this week. Missy is 2 years old and she has had big probs with her eyes for about a year and a half. Her tears just stopped working suddenly so she has had chronic dry eye...which means that H and I have had to pump about a million eye drops into her eyes every day. After many many consultations with vets and doggie eye doctors, we were faced with either letting her slowly and painfully go blind or opt for a surgery that routes a saliva (spit from the mouth!) gland to each eye in order to keep the eyes moist...so she could keep her sight. If you have ever owned and loved a dog you can understand our position. To make it worse, our Missy is probably one of the best dogs you may ever find. Our vet told us that most people put a dog to sleep for this...she also said that if we even considered putting Missy to sleep she would take her for herself...and how dare we even consider putting that dog to sleep b/c she is so wonderful. Ok, rough decision. So, we saved our pennies and took Missy for her surgery on Monday. The closest place to take her for the procedure was Purdue University Vet Hospital...about 2-1/2 hours away. The surgery went fine (whew); however, there have been a few complications and our poor Missy has been *in the hospital* all week! We miss The Miss! She has now had 2 surgical procedures and the doctor is not sure when we will be able to bring her home. H & I are so worried. H & I are also going broke. But what can we do...we just love this dog.
The vet is going to phone us tomorrow morning to *see where we are*. I think we are ready to take a second mortgage out on the nearly-finished house and get our poodle back to us healthy once again! I hate this.

Learning The A-B-C's from Big Sister!

When I was shopping the other day I was in the dressing room doing my least favorite thing...trying on bathing suits. Yuck. It is like a magnifying glass on your body...ok, HERE are the big thighs and HERE we have the teensiest bustline ever. Oh ya, and let's just point out how WHITE she is. It is probably one of the worst things for one's self confidence...especially since turning 40. Anyway, as I was squishing myself into my bathing suit choices, I could hear a group of people in the dressing room down the way...it was a young-ish crowd. From what I could tell, it was a young girl and her older sister and the older sister's friend. Big Sis andFriend were helping Little Sis try on her first bra. It was the cutest thing ever! I was hating that I was being so nosey; however, Big Sis and Friend were so sweet to Little Sis...I seriously almost got teary! The three of them had obviously picked out several bra styles and they all packed into the dressing room to help Young Sis. I could hear Big Sis saying, "OK, first you put it around you and hook it...then you spin it around and put the straps up. Wait, make sure it isn't too tight or it will pinch." And then Friend said, "But you also don't want it too big or your friends will think you are cheating and making your boobs seem bigger." Little Sis was saying, "Ewww, this feels wierd...no, THIS one feels much better!"
I think what struck me was that they were very businesslike and not all giggling and making fun of Little Sis. They were actually helping her and giving good tips while teaching her how to properly fit a bra so she is comfortable and looks good! As I listened to the whole thing, I was so impressed by Big Sis & Friend! What a super sister! Little sis is one lucky girl. She will no doubt strut her stuff with confidence because of her sister. That is just so cool!

Saturday Parts I & II

Part 1: This morning I had to conduct a training for some more new volunteers for the theraputic riding program. Remember, I am the Volunteer Coordinator! This is a very important job that involves nearly every Saturday thru the entire summer. What on earth was I thinking? I hate people, I love my Saturdays, and I detest being the *camp counselor* for each and every event this program has. The training was held at the barn so we could practice with the horses, see the grounds, step in manure, etc. As if on cue, it was snowing today and the high was something like 35. Freezing. Luckily, we have Starbucks as a sponsor so there was hot chocolate and coffee to drink and/or dump over our heads to keep warm. I arrived at the barn bright and early with fresh muffins, breakfast rolls, and a wicked hangover in tow. Dressed and ready for leadership. The good thing is that this group was super...the people were normal! YEA! My hope for my tenure as *Camp Counselor* is to have people who understand how important it is that they show up, do their job, and are safe around the horses...instead of some of the lamoids we have had in past years. The funniest thing today was that we were demonstrating how to hold the student on the horse and the poor horse had not been outside for 2 days b/c of the weather so he was very hyper and kept kind of hopping around and tossing his head like he was saying, "What the f***, just get me the hell outside so I can RUN!" Here we were stressing how wonderful our therapy horses are and this guy was acting like a freak...bet the new volunteers were terribly impressed.

Part2: After the training, I had to don my construction crew/interior designer cap and go to that nasty stone store with H to pick out fireplace stone. As mentioned previously, there are like 10,000 types of stone to choose-from. (I would link that to the previous post but I don't know how yet!) With much discussion and perusing of catalogs, we have narrowed our choice to the Eucalyptus Country Ledgestone. I know, sounds like something you'd hear on a tour of the Taj Mahal, right? It is actually a bit Little House on the Prarie-ish with a bit of Frank Lloyd Wright accent. Old-looking but not overdone...as in, I won't be wallpapering borders of ducks and cows or going to Longaberger (sp?) Basket parties to compliment the look. If Eucalyptus Country Ledgestone is too expensive, I have decided I am going to gather stones from the local Indiana cornfields like Ma Ingalls and end this project. I would approach the Motel 6 about possibly purchasing a portion of the faux brick facade; however, I am not sure it would provide the *look* I desire. Only the Motel 6 can do the whole 80's stonework thing and pull it off.

That is my weekend thusfar. Our little poodle Missy is having eye surgery at Purdue on Monday. I am taking the day off to take her down...how scary is that going to be? She is such the little peach...I hope all goes well and she is back to her chewing/barking/obnoxious/hyper self in no time. Luv that dog! One more thing...H & I stopped at the hardware store and purchased a new fire extinguisher. Be sure you always have one...and I recommend a larger size than the one that squirts only a half cup of extinguishing stuff!!!

I have been demoted.

Well folks, I think my quest for Olympic fame took a leap backwards at my riding lesson on Friday. I am pretty bummed-out about it. As you may (!!) know, I am trying, as an adult, to learn to ride horses...Dressage specifically. As you may also know, I am a big wimp. Further, my body usually does not respond properly when I try to move my various limbs into the proper position for Dressage. My riding lesson last Friday started out brilliantly...I was working away on my trusty schoolhorse and El Instructor was, well, he was instructing. I am now able to get the horse in proper position and moving along nicely. That is, until we canter. The moment I tell the horse to canter, all hell breaks loose and I end up looking very similar to a person on a horse, in a very expensive saddle, in the fetal position. Horses, I have found, do not like this. When their rider is all bunched up in fear, they wonder "Hey, what the hell is going on? Where is the lion/tiger/bear/shadow/whatever that is going to kill us. We should RUN AWAY!" Lucky for me, we are schooling in an arena so when we "RUN", we simply take off around the arena at a very fast pace until we decide. after several go-rounds, nothing is going to kill us and we can gear down to a slower pace. To Instructor's credit, he has tried everything to get me to relax and enjoy the ride. He has been very patient in doing so; however, I think he was getting upset with me last week as I flew at top speed around the arena. I was in a sweat and without several vertebrae in place after the lesson when he said, "How about next week you try riding Immy?" Immy? No way! Immy is not an olympic horse...Immy is a horse who barely has a pulse! I hate riding Immy. Immy is for beginners! Ok, so I was kind of whining to myself. Instructor thinks since Immy has barely a pulse, he will be much less likely to take off out of the starting gate, so to speak, when we go to canter. I am mad at myself for getting to this point. Actually, I am mad at my body. Stupid body. However, this riding stuff is a process so perhaps this will make me try harder! I can't be seen in the Olympic arena with Immy...people might think I can't ride! If things don't improve soon, I'll have to change my blog name to WalkTrotCan'tCanterBecauseIAmACompleteWimpWhoHasABodyThatDoesn'tListenToMe.

Missy posing as a dalmation fire dog

Missy wanted to show everyone the *fire* damage.  I know, bad pic but I was in a rush!  PS:  Missy has her eye surgery on Tuesday!

4-Alarms at the Motel 6!!!

As per usual today, I went home for lunch to let poodles outside, eat, read the paper, etc. One reason I took my job, aside from not having to dress up, is the going-home-for-lunch part. It is like mini-detox during a hard day's work. Usually. I read the paper ate a sandwich, let the dogs out, blah blah...WELL, as I was leaving to return to work, I realized I had left my sunglasses on the coffee table. When I reached to get the glasses, I noticed what seemed to be flames, yes FLAMES coming from underneath the fence that surrounds the mini-Motel 6 patio. Now mind you, the fence much like the fridge, is probably an original...maybe 30 years old? Up like a matchbox, it went! By the time I grabbed the fire extinguisher, the whole gate was aflame and the fire was heading straight towards our sliding glass door. Yeppers, right on track to the gas can and charcoal lighter fluid we keep outside. The fire extinguisher is one H got for a Christmas gift about 100 years ago and we have hauled from apartment to house to apartment. It even had dust on it. I was thinking it might end up on Antiques Roadshow if we kept it much longer. Luckily, the thing still worked and spewed it's 1/2 cup of extinguisher-stuff and slowed the fire for a second so I could dial 911. Meanwhile, the neighbor guy (not Brad Pitt, a different neighbor-guy) came out and was trying to fill with water a tupperware container I grabbed to douse the flames. As helpful-neighbor-guy and I battled the flames with our mini-extinguisher and water filled tupperware, the fire dept came roaring thru the main drag of the Motel 6. The poodles were stunned with all of the excitement and sat obediently by the sliding door kind of as if they were right there to help ward off the wall of flames headed our way. What pandamonium! (I don't even think I spelled that right but surely you get the drift.) As the flames subsided and we stood around the charred remains of our patio fence, I had to do a little Q & A session with the firefighter guy about whether I was smoking or if I had been using the grill. Nope, just home to read the paper and let the poodles out for a pee, sir. I wanted to add, as the Motel 6 manager-lady (who thank god wasn't Shiela -see previous post) walked up to inspect the damage, I am just trying to survive this nightmare of living here until my house is done and I can get my very own horse, go to the Olympics, and return to normal society. Until then, back to work! Good gravy, what a lunch hour.

5 questions dandy for blogfriend Mandy!

Here you are, Mandy...ponder away!

1) When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
2) Now that you are grown up, what would you want to do most if you were still a kid?
3) Explain your most "I absolutely cannot believe I am doing this" moment.
4) What is the best thing you have ever read?
5) Does your husband read your blog? Why or why not? (that is 6 questions; however maybe it could be counted as #5a)

Whew, that is kind of difficult...hats off to kiddo for thinking of q's for his hundreds of blog friends in addition to keeping up his frantic social life :)

I feel like I am on Opera!

I just love these *thinking* exercises...and it is fun to read everyone else's answers, too. Here we go...!!!

1. Who is your most favorite friend?
The bottle of VO on the counter. JUST KIDDING! I know I am supposed to scream out H's name when asked this question and he is my friend; however, the ups and downs of our relationship, at times, have made communications kind of difficult. Sometimes he just doesn't get me...lol...go figure. My favorite friend, probably b/c we don't live together, is someone I met several years ago. We just clicked immediately, completely crack each other up, and can go for months w/out talking and pick up right where we left off, no hard feelings. Because we both moved and got busy with life stuff, we have not talked in quite a while, actually, and I miss him. He was great fun. Even H liked him!

2. What is your cocktail of choice?
It really depends on the weather. (Or where we are living. The Motel 6 seems to call for hard liquor) In the summer I am a beer girl b/c it is easily packable (no ice/mixing involved), in winter I enjoy VO and Diet Coke (I know, gross!) or wine. If I were a rich woman, I would def. go for martinis...lol...they are colorful, come in cool glasses, and there is a wide variety of flavors to appeal to the entire crowd.

3. When was the last time you were publicly shamed/embarassed?
Probably when I lost control of my ipod when I was on the treadmill the other day and it nearly hit the person behind me who was on the eliptical trainer. That or when, a couple of weeks ago my towel fell off of the little *shelf* on the eliptical trainer and it got all tangled in the depths of the machine b/c I didn't stop soon enough. I had to go to the front desk to get one of the staff to help me un-tangle it. Perhaps this is why I don't have many gym buddies at the club.

4. Where do you love to travel?
I don't actually travel much. We have a cottage in Michigan and I love going there for weekends b/c it is such a good break. When I get time and money (!!), I have my eyes on a horseback riding trip in Italy. It is one where you ride thru little towns in Tuscany and have picnics and sample wine. Riding, picnics, and alcohol...what more could a girl want?? I just have to find someone who wants to go with b/c I don't think H would find it very much fun.

5. How is the new house progressing?
House? What house? Please don't make me leave the Motel 6...I am just starting to fit in! Just kidding. H is nearly finished with the wiring and once that is complete, probably today actually, in comes the insulation/drywall! YEA! Martha here has been scoping out colors so we will be prepared to paint when the time comes. We should be in sometime in early July. Mind you, that means extending our lease for a month here at the Motel 6. The exciting thing about that is that by then we will be able to check out the crowd at the swimming pool here on the property. Excellent blog material, I think, if they are anything close to the folks in the laundry building.

Want to spill your darkest secrets too?
If you are interested in being interviewed by me, here are the rules:
1. Leave me a comment saying “interview me.”
2. I will respond by asking you five questions here. They will be different questions than the ones above.
3. You will update YOUR blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

It was a full moon effect, I think

I went to my favoritist job last evening at the barn. There is a new horse at the barn named Luna. Luna is all black except for a teensy crescent moon of white on her forehead (hence the name Luna)...she is so beautiful! El Instructor was riding her the other day and when she moves she looks like she is floating. He is trying to keep her fit for one of the boarders who is getting ready to sell her for mega $$$. Last night I finished with Oz and I decided to ride my trusty schoolhorse, the one who lives outside and is usually caked with mud. (He is no Luna) While I was getting *tacked up*, El Instructor said he was going to hop on Luna. What? In the same Olympic arena as me? You guessed it, dear reader, the dual for the gold medal was on.

For those individuals who didn't have tickets to last night's event, here is a recap:

1) Trusty schoolhorse is about a foot shorter than Luna so as Instructor and I began to trot together in sort of a mini paux de deux, Luna was halfway around the arena before my horse and I even got going. It was more of a paux de one and a half.
2) I was concentrating so hard on getting my position correct that several times I suddenly looked up to see Luna/Instructor headed right for me! El Instructor said, "Don't worry, I'll try not to run you over". Reassuring.
3) I decided, at one point, to canter (for non-riders, the canter is one step up from a trot). When I went to do it, tho, trusty schoolhorse got spooked by the very scary shadow in front of us that was going to attack and kill him so he bolted sideways and took off at the same time. As Luna/Instructor floated past us once again at a magnificant trot, I was straightening my helmet, trying to unclench my hand from the saddle strap, and trying to look cool and collected at the same time. I am not very good at that.
4) In all, schoolhorse and I had a good ride; however, we had a few faults that counted against us. In a competition of this caliber, there just isn't room for costly errors. We're going to go home, work on a few things to iron out the wrinkles, and come back next week.

No gold for us, I'm afraid.

Knock Knock...Who's There?

Last night was the only timeslot I have had open all week to do laundry. Such the busy girl! H was working at the house so I was laundry-ing and and having my cocktail hour solo after a tough day's work when suddenly there was a knock at the door. Mind you, at this point in the evening, I had not eaten since my bowl of low-fat granola at lunch and I was on my second drink so I was feeling *kind of* good. I was also in my "laundry uniform" which is a pair of oversized sweat pants with a t-shirt and oversized fleece NASCAR sweatshirt. I kind of look like an orphan but I do seem to fit-in just right with the Motel 6 laundry crowd, especially with the whole NASCAR look. (I am not a fan but my brother works for NASCAR so I wear it to offer my support.) Who would want to visit? Don't they know the Motel 6 is too small for visiting??? So anyway, I asked who it was and this woman, Diana, answered who I happen to know from waaaaay back when I worked at the bank. She was a coworker...we weren't really friends, but we chatted now and then. Diana also happens to be a Jehovah's Witness. She was visiting the lady across the hall (who hates me b/c I always have a cocktail when she sees me) but the lady was not answering so Diana was worried something may be wrong, seeing that the lady who hates me is on oxygen most of the time. Diana had no idea I live at the Motel 6 so when I opened the door (mind you, in uniform AND slightly intoxicated) she was extremely surprised and thrilled it was me. (Ever the popular one, aren't I?) There were 2 conservative JH guys with her who must have thought I was some kind of heathen b/c I probably smelled like a distillery and my poodles were going nuts with friendliness. It was quite a scene. Diana wanted to use my phone to call across-the-hall lady to make sure she was ok. It ended up the 6 of us (the 2 JH guys, Diana, Me, & 2 poodles) stood there for about 20 minutes b/c Diana was all chatty like my very bestest friend and, needless to say, so was I since I was kind of loopy. It was really funny...but now that I think about it, they will probably be back after some discussion on how to reform the apartment drunk who lives across from their fellow Jehoviah's Witness friend. I must move soon.

You sure had me fooled!

When we moved into the Motel 6 last year, we had to go thru this major lease-signing ordeal with an illustreous member of the property management staff named *Sheila*. It was August, we had just closed on our house, had 24 hours to vacate, it was about 700 degrees outside, and instead of lounging by the pool with a fresh cocktail w/umbrella garnish, we had to move. *Sheila* was one of those people who was very into following the rules. (I, on the other hand, usually can't give 2 sh*** about rules, especially when I am being told I must follow them.) As H, Sheila, and I foraged our way thru the War and Peace-sized lease agreement, I found I myself rather irritated at the way Sheila annunciated each and every syllable. Perhaps it was the stress of the move or the heat or the thought of leaving my beloved home for this 10-month adventure in living. Whatever it was, I was, by the end of the afternoon, starting to imitate Sheila right back at her when I an-sw-ered a qu-es-tion. H was kind of laughing nervously b/c he knows how I can get when I am in this state of stress and I am not kind.

At last we had our keys and we began to move our household. We had moved most of the big furniture and we were making huge progress cramming the rest of our belongings into this teensy space when I mentioned to H that I kept smelling this nasty odor. After some investigation, we discovered the carpeting was saturated with cat pee. Let's just say at this point, I was not so happy nor was I so kind. I phoned the apartment office and *Sheila* answered. I explained the situation, invited her down for a whiff, and asked how soon someone was coming to replace the carpeting. In her ph-oe-nic voice she said, "Well, I don't think there is anything we can do." Wrong answer Sheila. Being Saturday, Sheila didn't think any carpet could be replaced and we should probably just continue moving our entire life into the cat pee-filled apartment and wait until, say, MONDAY. I thought not. Several phonecalls back and forth escalated into Sheila contacting the property manager who happened to be on vacation somewhere...probably a sunny place slamming back umbrella drinks. Property-Manager-Woman sprung from her chaise lounge and coordinated new carpeting, compensation, etc from her tropical paradise holiday. In the course of events, I not only tore Sheila a new hole, I voiced my concerns about said employee to vacationing Property-Manager-Woman. H was stunned. He later told me I was a woman possessed. Let's face it, I may have been somewhat unreasonable; however, it was to be our *NEW HOME*. (So stated in the apartment complex brochure.)

Fast forward to today: I had to run to Target on my lunch hour and, in a bit of a rush, dashed to the cashier who had the shortest line. When I heard the "...and how-are-you-to-day?", I realized I had dashed right into NewCashier Sheila's lane! I not only wondered if she recognized me w/out 4-letter words spewing viciously from my mouth, I wondered why her name tag said *Kitty*??? Did she change her name b/c word on the street is that she had more than one bad experience with a Motel 6 resident? How clever of *Sheila/Kitty*...bet no one else will pick up on the voice-thing and recognize her, tho!

Check out this *new fridge*!!!

Incoming!!

With the fridge-fiasco behind me, I decided to head to the gym after work yesterday to workout and see if the Non-Tom Cruise/Brad Pitt guy was there w/his gatorade and supportive-wife. The building where the gym is used to be a grocery store. It still kind of freaks me out that I am tread-milling right where I used to be buying tampons; however, I guess that is what happens when you live in your old hometown. Anyway, the workout machines are all in rows facing several TV's. The treadmills are in the first row and then there are two rows of eliptical trainers (probably 15 in each row) and then the nautilas machines are behind THOSE. I am not being anal, just setting up the scenario for you...

Last evening I did my eliptical training for my usual 45 mins and then I got on a treadmill (remember, front row!) to kind of wind-down my cardio with a bit of cross-training. I was all "in my zone" with my ipod so I was, naturally, feeling very fit and buff. I had the ipod sitting on the little treadmill shelf while I power-walked. Suddenly, in my cardio-pumping arm movement, I caught my hand on the earphone wire and the ipod went flying! The earphone wire disconnected and the ipod, still blasting out The Venga Boys, hit the moving belt of the treadmill and flew back toward the folks on the eliptical trainers in Row 2. The series of events happened so fast I forgot how to turn off the treadmill...so I was still walking briskly (no arm movements, tho) with one earphone still in my ear and the other dangling along with the connection wire. With my lightening-fast reflexes, I hopped off the back end of the treadmill. My poor ipod body had been propelled about 3 feet after rocketing off the belt! I tried to act all cool and casually pick up the body and re-insert my earphones. I then calmly (!!!) turned off the treadmill, got back on, and restarted my walk as if nothing at all had happened. I have no idea if anyone, including my Non-Brad-Pitt/Tom Cruise Neighbor and supportive wife Jennie, took all of this in or if they were all "in the zone" themselves. No one cared to comment to me when I finished my workout and had to walk thru the 2 rows of eliptical trainers to get to the water fountain. Maybe they were all just very impressed with my amazing reflexes...LOL

A+ Room Service at The Motel 6

You know, I might just decide to live permanently at the Motel 6. What a maintenance crew! H & I were up bright and early to dig the milk, butter, and coffee creamer out of the coolers so we could eat breakfast. When leaving for work, I left a note for Earnest & Co. saying their turning up the setting on the fridge, for some reason, did not work so maybe they have a fridge from 1995 they could install in our apartment. When I didn't hear from anyone by 10:30, I phoned...all ready to barrage them all with "oh ya, and YOU'LL be paying for the next 10 bags of ice!" or "look, nothing else will FIT in the dorm fridge". Unfortunately, I got the answering machine. Maintenance Joe, who works with Maintenance Earnest called me finally to ask if I could please remove the dogs from the apartment so they could "see if we can fix the fridge". I had to leave work and take our pseudo doberman guard dogs to my parent's house. My mom thought she was being halarious by asking if I was going to get a side-by-side with ice maker and reverse osmosis water dispenser and maybe even a built-in TV. Very funny Mother WTC.

I finally got word from Maintenance Joe that they did all they could; however, they could not save the old fridge. I couldn't believe it. "No!", I screamed and hurled myself to the ground in grief, "How could you just let it die?" (I then wondered briefly if maybe they would find a body behind the fridge when they took it out. Let's face it, it had been there since I was in high school!) "Nope", said Joe, "We had to install a new one and it is all set" All Clear from Maintenance... and the pseudo-dobermans could return to the Motel 6! I'll try to see if Missy will pose for a pic to post.

At long last, we now have a spankin new fridge complete with plastic crisper! H is going to be thrilled. I say we halt construction on the house and just check in to the Motel 6 for good. YEAH JOE and ERNEST!!!!!

Motel 6 EMERGENCY!

The weather has been so nice and warm and sunny it is too hard to stay in the confines of the Motel 6. If my warm-weather clothes were to be found (I think they are stored at my parent's house...), I would be wearing shorts...it is THAT nice. Of course, one major downfall of this fabulous weather is when the refridgerater decides to conk. I grew up in the town where we live and I remember I was in high school or early college when the Motel 6 was constructed. (It used to be a cornfield) I would venture to guess the original appliances are still in our apartment. The gold color may have been a clue. Anyway, I was at my horse-exercising job last evening and was happily on my way home at about 9 pm after another Olympic caliber ride on my trusty lesson horse. I was starving and ready for a sweet glass of wine and a light sandwich when suddenly I got a call from H. He babbled something about trying to find the damn cooler in the storage unit and he was buying ice and everything was melted. What??? Yep, he had come home to find that our 1980's era fridge had died. Bet there isn't a warranty, either. He had stopped home before going to the new house to work and when he reached into the ice bin to get ice for his Coke, it was all liquified. That and the ice cream. When we moved to the Motel 6, we bought one of those dorm-sized fridges b/c there was not room in the kitchen one for all of our beer and wine. (REALLY!) H tried to put food into the small fridge but, needless to say, it was already jammed with beer and wine (go figure!). He also phoned the Motel 6 Maintenance Team to alert them of the outage. When he got home from running out to find the cooler/ice/buy fresh milk/etc. there was a note from Earnest (Motel 6 Maint.) that said he and the Maint. Team had entered the apartment and turned the fridge setting to HIGH and they'd be back to check it tomorrow. Yep, that'll help, guys! This morning the fridge was not only still warm, it was starting to smell like closed-up defrosted fridge. I hope Earnest and the rest of the Motel 6 team are on it first thing! More to come...

Just Say No

I have decided I must stop being such a pushover. I used to try to be "An assertive woman of the 90's"; however, since the 90's are well behind us and I am still a big wuss I think for the 00's I will call myself "Just Dump Your Crappy Responsibilities on Me Because I Can't Say No Woman". Why is it that no matter how hard I try I am always the Camp Counselor/Responsible one in the group/marriage/tribe/den? In my marriage, I am nearly always the one who thinks of an outing, plans travel and activities, arranges food, and then executes all of the above so it runs like a well-oiled machine. I have tried experiments to see if anyone else (like H, for instance) surprises me with a date. It just doesn't happen. It is the same with my social life...and I find that by the time we get to the *event*, I am pissed-off, exhausted, not even looking forward to whatever it is, and desperately in need of a drink because I did most of the work to get there. What is wrong with me?

As I have mentioned, I work with a riding program for people with disabilities...remember the golden horseshoes??? LOL Well, I am trying to ease my way out of the thing b/c I really don't have time to devote to it with house building/moving and since I started my second little job of working with OZ and getting riding time for free at my lesson barn. I have told the other people involved that I am just not going to be available for everything and I will concentrate on scheduling the volunteers. Period. This approach is not working. I get constant phone calls asking can I come out to help shovel at the barn and can I go look at this new horse and can I work on this and that...and I have a hard time saying no b/c I am afraid the whole group will hate me. LOL Is this not pathetic??? The reason I am writing about this is b/c I am up at 6 am on a Saturday b/c I agreed to go to the barn to feed the horses this morning while the rest of the group went to the Hoosier Horse Fair in Indianapolis. Now mind you, the reason I didn't go to the HHF is b/c I am supposed to help H with the wiring of the house today. I think the group thought that I was staying home to do all of the horsecare while they are off having fun at the HHF! They were peeved that I didn't offer to feed Friday/Saturday/Sunday! (I only agreed to feed this am...YEAH ME!!) Please note the barn is about 40 minutes from here and the price of gas is $2.25 a gallon...and I was supposed to run out there 5 times? So here I am getting ready to head out by 6:30 while the rest of them are probably dragging my name thru the mud b/c they had to find another sucker to feed the rest of the weekend. Maybe I am making progress by only helping out this morning but why am I feeling so guilty?? Argh.