I LOVE 'CAMP DAY'

I love my doglets. Actually in my grown-up married life, we've always had a dog. I'm a dog person. But....... it's true, I love the day they head to 'camp'.

That's what I've always referred to it.

It's the day they are gone to be groomed. And what a sweet deal it's always been. We've had a groomer, that has groomed our families' dogs forever. She groomed the evil Inky (the biting poodle) and onto Tweaky (the soccer star poodle) dogs of my childhood.

Anyway, when Mark and I got married, she groomed Sadie, the tiny Yorkie, our first born!!

When we added Sweet William, (Willie), a supposed Yorkie, but MIGHT have been a small warthog, or werewolf, she groomed him too.

After that, came Phoebe, the Maltese, she also was groomed by Donna Dog (as we called her).

Enter the rescues, that came DAMN close to costing me a husband, (lighten up already Mark) and they go off to her too.

She even keeps them at her house when I travel. What a sweet deal. They love her, and she loves them, and her husband, he ADORES tiny dogs, and they are nothing if not tiny.

Now, what is so sweet about this deal? What isn't? Let me tell you.... She comes from about 40 minutes away and picks up the dogs... keeping them all day, then returning them later in the day looking beautiful, hairbows and all!! Even smelling good.

But, it's over. She's moving. Yep, they are heading south.... I'm sad. The doglets are sad. Mark's sad... who's going to keep them when we travel?

Did you know the airline charges $125. each leg, for each doglet? UNDER YOUR SEAT....like hello, they fit in my carry on. Weigh far less than my 'stuff' I take to occupy myself, and they are adorable...

Wonder if they can get frequent flyer miles? Or upgrades?

BACK TO UPHOLSTRY.........

I'm home from Texas.

The weather is NOT welcoming at all. Corbin and his pretty girlfriend picked us up last night at the airport. It was cold, raining and Mark didn't have on socks. He's a southern boy at heart... or just ready for summer.

We stopped at one of our favorite restaurants for dinner. I like a place where the waitress knows you and brings you 'your' highball (told you I was going to use that word). We had a nice time, followed by a dessert tray courtesy of Tara (the GREAT waitress).

And so we are home. Back to the reupholstering project I mentioned earlier. It's still here waiting. Like a bad nightmare revisited.

It's the boat cushions. When we bought the boat it was upholstered in a hunter green...with a small oriental rug to match- really? That's so not my look. At all. So I decided after MUCH searching to choose something more 'me' and more nautical(ish).


I got a bid from an upholsteress, and with raised eyebrow, thought she's crazy. Like I'd pay that... we CAN do it. Right. Well, we could also run around naked, but we have sense enough not to... but no sense here. I ordered the fabric, a modern take on a starfish for the v berth and a lovely stripe for the sofa and loveseat. Yes, A STRIPE. What was I thinking? They have to match, the stripes I mean.... let's just torture yourself further Ardith. Like this isn't stressful enough. Ugh.

Anyway, it's coming along, and I really am liking it.

But.

It needs to be done ASAP... it's a mess in my dining room... and..... stupidly I said I'd have Easter. Why do I do these things to myself?

I'm thinking of going with more of a cocktail party theme.... it's MY kind of entertaining, or maybe, an old fashioned hippie motif. We could all sit on cushions on the floor....

I know where we can get some cushions. Far out, man.....

Happy Easter~

THE OCEAN CALLS...

 Yesterday we sat on a pier out in the Gulf of Mexico discussing how we really need a 'Home by the Sea'.  

 

And we do. We both are revitalized by a trip to the beach, maybe even me more than Mark, then again, maybe not. At any rate, the sound, the smell, the mist in the air, the wind, which EVERY time I'm on Galveston Island is STRONG. Then again, it is Texas, thus it is BIGGER and in some ways better, I'm beginning to think....

Mark played hooky, and called me yesterday about 2:00 and said, I'm on my way home (see now I refer to the apartment as home); let's head to the beach. Well, that's all he had to say, I was flying around getting ready.

We packed up our stuff, headed down to the parking garage, and our car was missing. I felt that, lump in my throat feeling of disappointment. NOT that the car had been 'taken' but I wasn't going to go to the beach.... Long story short, we finally found that our car had been 'relocated' as they are resurfacing the parking garage. Odd, there is this thing called a telephone, that one could use to notify someone that their car was being towed to another floor. Hum, didn't realize until recently that the parking garage is obviously run by the U.S. government, as it certainly does things inefficiently and unnecessarily expensive. With idiots in charge.

Anyway, we were off...

We arrived, drove along the beach, finally parking and just hung out, enjoying the weather, views and people. Oh my, there are so many people who obviously have no mirrors at their homes. Otherwise they'd NEVER go out looking like that. Serious.

We watched some kids surfing, and some people fishing and just soaked in the moment.

Reluctantly, we tore ourselves away from the surf, back to our car and headed to dinner at a restaurant we'd actually eaten at a few years ago.

We were going to sit out on the deck, but there were a lot of nasty birds around, so I just couldn't. Instead we sat by a window looking out at the water, where we saw this tall ship moored.

I asked our waitress about it, only to learn we'd actually seen this tall ship last year when she was in Chicago at the tall ship show. She is the 'Official Tall Ship of Texas'.

Cool.

What a long trip she took last year, I'd have liked to have made that trek.

Great afternoon, great end to a great week in Texas...

THAT'S JUST THE WAY IT IS..........

Some things will never change......Ha, but don't you believe them.

 Saw Bruce Hornsby last night at the House of Blues in Houston.  Man can he play the piano.  Mark plays the piano... he really needs to practice. Just sayin'

 Love live music.  Love the beach even more. And we are headed there this afternoon... I'll try to remember my camera so I won't have such cruddy Blackberry photos to torture you all with.

That's just the way it is.....

RACCOONS AND THE LIKE.......

 Last summer, we had a 'raccoon' encounter, that caused Corbin and I to laugh.... a lot. 

I was putting out the dogs for the last time that night, he went out to lock his truck.  I noticed the garage door was open and pushed the button to put it down. As I walked back in, I saw Corbin staring at the garage, slack jawed.... then I saw it.... a fat raccoon body caught by the garage door... it's head stuck. It was flailing all over the place. I pushed the button, the door came up and the fat raccoon fell down, jumped up and ran toward Corbin, saw him, looped around and headed for the back yard. We laughed... for a while; it was funny, he was ok... Corbin said what made him look was he thought he heard water running. I said you'd pee too if your head was stuck in the garage door!

The next day, I inspected the situation. Our garage is NOTHING to write home about. Old and drafty, there was a gap that obviously his skull could catch in, but it wasn't tight enough to kill him. Whew.

Fast forward to this spring. Mark and I loaded up to go out for dinner. As we backed out of the garage and he closed the door, there it was again. A big fat raccoon body stuck. Same place. I will say, it renders me speechless when it happens, and I pointed stuttered and punched the button. Wham! he landed on his butt, took off behind the garage ~ again.

Good grief.

So, Saturday night, we came home from dinner, I got out at the gate, while Mark put the car in the garage. He stopped, got out. Then I saw something in the driveway. It was a raccoon. A HUGE raccoon, laying on it's side, darling little hands (I find so fascinating) crossed.   Dead.

We were gobsmacked. Mark said he didn't see anything fall from the garage door when he ran it up? I didn't notice any thing when we left... where did he come from? What happened?

Mark made the removal for the night, and buried him the next day. Poor buddy, I'm afraid he fell victim to my evil garage door.

I'm going to miss that fat little bugger, tearing threw my garbage, leaving hand prints all over the porch and stealing birdseed from the feeder while standing on the back porch rail.

He could after all be family. We've raised a lot of baby raccoons over the years.

It's not such a funny story anymore.

A GUEST POST TODAY....

From my sister Melissa... read it a weep.... literally.


Twiggy's story...

Twiggy is the exact reason why puppy mills need to be closed down and why you should NEVER buy from a pet store. The store will say, "we didn't get him from a puppy mill". Well OK the store may not work directly with a puppy mill, instead they got it from a broker. A broker purchases them from a puppy mill and turns around and sells them to the pet stores. So looking at it that way, the store isn't lying.

We named her Twiggy, it's not the cutest name but it's the most fitting name. When I picked her up from transportation (March 28) the driver told me she was absolutely terrified of EVERYTHING. As soon as I saw her my heart broke but I also got extremely ANGRY - what type of person does this to animals.


Long story short, the "mill" that threw her out stated that she had just lost a litter and was depressed and had not been eating for a few days. This girl was starved for weeks! Taking her out of transport she was covered in flea dirt and other disgusting stuff, her hair was sparse and in many places completely gone. You could see and feel all her large bones through her skin. My younger kids didn't want to pet her because, as William said "I can feel her skeleton". She is either a Havanese or Maltese, we cannot tell yet.


The pictures above are the first pictures I took of her when I got her home and she has had a bath so the fleas and filth aren't showing. Actually these pictures make her look better than she did in person. Naturally she was terrified of me and everything else. However, when I opened a can of dog food and she got a whiff she was interested. She wouldn't get up and come to the bowl, so I put the bowl in her bed and she ate some of it. That was the first barrier we crossed.


It's almost been a month since Twiggy has been with us. She now wags her tail when I talk to her, follows me everywhere, eats out of my hand, will allow me to hold her in my lap, and for others to touch her. She still crouches down into a tiny ball when I'm going to pick her up, we are working on that but she will likely do that forever. She didn't like the snow, grass, or really being outside at all, she was so scared I finally just used pee pee pads. Having lived her whole life (2 1/2) years in a little cage does that to you. Now that it's warming up she is becoming more comfortable about going outside. She will follow me out, but still doesn't go outside on her own. She always sleeps with her back against something, still has trouble making eye contact and runs when I bend directly over her (then rolls in the ball when she realizes I'm going to pick her up) but these things will change with more time and her learning to trust me more.  

  These pictures are current as of today. With my family she has discovered comfy beds and blankets and never sits or lays down unless she is on one. She is learning to trust adults and kids and doesn't mind other animals. She finally knows what it's like to be loved and have food always available. You will notice that her tummy if full and she is fatter. She isn't one to pose for the camera so I used the best ones I could get.


She is going to need an extremely loving home with lots of doggy beds, blankets, and chew bones. She needs love and attention (don't we all) and a lap where she is always welcome. She isn't available for adoption just yet but will be after a little more time with us.

Take a moment, and get a kleenex.....


As I said, this is a 'guest post' from my sister who fosters.  Think LONG and hard before you buy that darling little puppy in a store.  Think about his/her mother... who lived her whole life in a tiny cage, overrun with fleas, living in her own filth being bred to death.  Think about Twiggy, who the Puppy Mill owner stated ate her own poop... that's why her fur was bad.  Well, funny she hasn't done that since she's being fed FOOD, you bastard.  Maybe you'd eat it too, if THAT'S ALL YOU WERE FED.  And frankly, that's what you deserve.....

Then most importantly, think about adopting a rescue, they make the best, most grateful, loving pets.  I know first hand; both Clementine and Millie, my sweet girlies, came from this hell,  but now, are living large and spoiled beyond compare!!

WAKE UP MAGGIE, I THINK I GOT SOMETHING TO SAY TO YOU......

Guess who I saw in concert over the weekend?

Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks... and let me tell you- it was great.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Rod Stewart is 66. He sure doesn't move like a 66 year old. He's strutting all over, dancing and playing and sounding just like he did 30 years ago. Amazing. And, he's got a new baby....so apparently that all works well too.

Seriously, who the hell wants a baby at 66?

Anyway.... Stevie Nicks looks great too. She sounded good, not QUITE as good as she did back in the Fleetwood Mac days, but she still has it. She did kinda seem like her feet hurt ~ she had that 'oh my god, all I can think about are these heels, and I'm dying' walk going on. You know, we've all been there. She did offer a nice surprise though... her friend Sheryl Crow came out and sang with her. Now, her feet weren't hurting... and she had some seriously high heels on.

But, to back up a moment...

We arrived, found our seats, and hoped that no one would sit by us.. HAHAHA. They did of course, a group of (I'm sorry, I'm feeling a little bitchy) tacky looking women came in and sat next to me. Well, one did, and apparently she couldn't smell the fact she was bathed in a cloying nasty perfume, that was going to kill me. So, I made Mark switch seats. He suggested that it wasn't cool that I wasn't willing to suffer death by perfume, but it was okay for him too. I pointed out, that perfumes (some, well, actually a lot) make my head pound, and it was MY idea to come here (whine)...so he relented. He's gentlemanly like that. So next to me now, was a handsome man...actually I was centered between two of them. The evening was starting off great!

In front of us however was a weirdo. Period. I noticed before the concert started he had a book about Stevie Nicks, he was holding, like she was going to come over and sign it?  Really? Then he kept jumping up and going nuts while she was performing.... get a grip buddy, she has no idea you are alive, nor does she care...then he snapped a couple pictures....... of himself. Really. Who does that? At a concert? With, I am sure, the handsome man and me looking startled in the background. This was before he inhaled a large box of popcorn.  I told the handsome man, it was kind of like a side show. This was after he got into a heated discussion with the unfortunate person next to him and the usher had to tell him to knock it off.

So Stevie ended her performance and weirdo blew her a kiss, and held out his hand, like she was his love and leaving for war or something. Too weird. Now weirdo didn't care a fig for Rod, it was all about Stevie. And, really that bloke Rod was something else. 3 wardrobe changes, colorful and funky. He is a showman. Most certainly. Stevie had on all black, my signature color, and the a fore mentioned shoes that were killing her.

 (photos courtesy of Chicago Tribune, I forgot my camera)

After the concert, we came home and hit a going away party for a girl I've known her whole life. She was born a few months before my son and they grew up together. I remember being 8 months pregnant and her mom was having emergency surgery and I had her for the day. She was only a month or so old. I took her to an auction, and got the strangest looks.  Gosh that seems like it was just a few years ago, not 23. She's moving to Houston...for a job. I told her I'd see her in a couple weeks, I'm going to go down for my monthly trip with Mark. Yee haw.. I'm thinking she needs to nab herself a rancher with oil on his property and live happily ever after. Just a thought.

Today we began a reupholstering project. CAN I MENTION THAT I HATE THIS??? Unless it goes off without a hitch, which is a rarity. It was a little tense around here. I'll let you all know what THIS PROJECT is and whether or not Mark and I are plotting a painful death for each other (as we are prone to do when we do something like this together) once I have the energy.

But, right now, I need a highball...

What the hell is a highball? And why don't we say that anymore? I like that word, think I'll start a rebirth by using it. It goes well with my cigarette holder, that I'm going to use if I ever take up smoking.

It'll all be so cheeky.

WHAT HAPPENED TO MARCH????

We had Spring Break last week. Well, even though I don't work regularly at the school anymore, I still thought of it as my Spring Break. I didn't head off to the tropics... I headed to the couch pretty much all week, feeling like dying would be a welcome relief to whatever was overtaking my respiratory system. Kleenex, Vicks and Ginger Ale were my friends.

I did rally on Saturday to host a birthday soiree for my oldest child, to whom I gave birth to when I was 5.  Do NOT EVEN consider arguing that with me.

Anyway, I had the family, minus the city kids (they had to work, boo hiss) over to party. And, because, I think she's pretty serious in her relationship, I invited his parents. (I'd held out, because we are all so weird I didn't want that to be the deal breaker). Super nice people, gotta say, my kids have a knack for picking out good 'in laws'.

Anyway, Typhoid Ardith, hosted a casual party, took some really crappy pictures. WHAT is up with my camera (it COULDN'T be the user).... Everyone seemed to enjoy the food, and Jessica seemed to enjoy her presents.

 (told you the pictures were bad)

After that was over, we headed to a fundraiser sponsored by a sweet local girl who has MS. She hosts this every year, making a LARGE donation to the MS Society. In spite of my ongoing illness, we had a great time. And something that NEVER happens to anyone with the last name of Trumpy happened........

We won the 50/50. and it was sssswwwweeeeeeeetttttt... just sayin'.... really sweet.

One other little thing, why is it you can blow gallons of crap out of your head and not lose a pound? Seriously, I really should be a size 0. Or maybe even in children's sizes by now.