Well, That Didn't Go As Planned

I recently got news that I will be moving across the country. Alone. As in, Pepper is staying here. My only consolation at times is that Peggy will be here to make sure she gets her loves. Doesn't make me feel much better though. Poor pup knows something is wrong. Anyway, for obvious reasons this blog has lost its purpose. If you were here for the pup, I'm sorry, I won't be posting about her for probably two years at least. If you were here 'cause you like my writing (you are very weird for that) then check out my new blog: My Grand Alabama Adventure

When You Hear the Whistle...

A few days ago Peggy's husband made me this super cool bracelet. It's braided para-cord (the stuff they use to tie parachutes to the backpack) which is blaze-orange with reflective thingies in it, and the buckle is a whistle. I decided to try to train Pepper to come when I blow the whistle, so I can get her to come back when she's too far away to hear my voice.

I thought I had a brilliant plan to train her. I grabbed a handful of treats and went out in the yard with her expecting her to run around exploring like she usually does. No such luck. She knew I had treats and therefore decided to not move more than two inches from me, in the hopes that she would get one. I tried to make the most of it by blowing the whistle softly to make sure it didn't scare her. Finally I was about to give up. I shoved the treats in my pocket and went to pick some strawberries. Apparently the backyard is much more interesting than the front because Pepper immediately wandered off. I periodically blew the whistle, followed with my regular "come" command, treating her when she listened. After I ran out of treats we called it a day.

I didn't really get another chance to work with her on whistle training for the rest of the week, and didn't really think about it much, until early this morning. One of our smoke detectors decided it's battery was low... at like 3am. It's incessant chirping wormed it's way into my sleepy brain and finally irritated me enough to force myself awake. When I went to sit up I found Pepper sitting patiently by my bed. Now this wouldn't have been surprising except that Pepper knows she is not allowed in the bedroom. I thought, this is weird, and shooed her out. She trotted out into the living room until the smoke detector chirruped again, and she came right back to me and sat expectantly. Due to the extreme hour, it took a few more rounds of this before I realized that the smoke detector's chirps sounded very like my whistle! Poor Pepper thought I kept calling her to me and shooing her away! Apparently Pepper is smart enough that just 5 minutes of training can teach her a completely new skill. Once we got the stupid smoke detector to shut up I had to go soothe my poor pup and try to explain that it wasn't me calling her and it was time to go back to bed. I hope today I'll get a chance to test her new skill in the "wild!"

A Break, Ground and Refocus

Sorry for the lack of posts for a while. I realized I was doing more whining about work than sharing cute stories of training Pepper. I decided I needed to take a break to get my feet back on the ground so I could refocus and get back to where this blog was supposed to be. Yesterday I signed Pepper up for a Canine Good Citizen training class. It starts September 13th and goes for 8 weeks. At the end of the class they administer the real AKC test, so if all goes well Pepper will have her cert by November 1st. Next Friday has been dubbed "take care of Pepper" day. First we go to the vet for her "well pet" visit and possibly rabies shot (I lost track of when she needed it). Then I drop her off at the groomer and take the vet paperwork to the city office and get her license. Hopefully this will help me get back on track for what this blog is really supposed to be about. Thanks for being patient with me :)

Shake Things Up

Yesterday a lady from Employee Relations (a branch of HR) made me cry. Not teary-eyed sniffles, sobbing so hard I dripped snot on my keyboard... at work... surrounded by men. It was not a good day. All I asked was why I was being treated so poorly for a) needing to be on a "mind altering" medication and b) not wanting to have to submit paperwork twice. I followed the rules and it did me no good. I just wanted to know why. Instead I got a rather fanatical lecture that used the word "rules" more times in one breath than I normally hear in a month. It was so vehement I really had no idea how to respond. Indeed I was literally speechless. It took me several minutes and a lot of deep breathing to even manage to politely hang up. Why I couldn't rudely hang up, I don't know. My friends want me to file a complaint. I agree that the lady needs some lessons in human relations, but I don't think I'm the one to give them to her. I'm feeling rather... shattered. Maybe it's a combination of things, not the least of which my man being gone. I could use one of his hugs right about now. Pepper kept me company last night. She's a lot better at "sleeping" with me than the first time I tried. It's still not terribly restful, but it was cosy. Maybe the kitty will keep me company tonight, if she's not still sulking about me letting Pepper in her domain.

My man is gone for another 10 days still. My bank account is at an all-time low. I most likely have a "positive" drug test result in my file at work. And my Mommy is over 2,000 miles away. How did I get so far from my comfort zone?

Roller Coaster

I don't know why I felt so up and down today, but it was probably a combination of things. Nothing went terribly my way and I'm still stuck in drug-test purgatory. The very end of the day I got in a good conversation with my coworker about the next stage of my project. He's helping me with Access 'cause I've never used it before. I'm getting excited for our end product, I really think it'll make a difference.

After work I picked up the little one, grabbed some snacks, and went to a softball field. Several of my friends from work are on a team, of which I am an honorary member (mainly 'cause I bought a shirt). So we went to watch them play. It was kind of sad, and I really had no idea what was going on, but it was fun. It actually wasn't too hot in the shade. It helped my mood immensely. I also got a few texts from my man, which helped too.

When I got home this little bite of joy was waiting for me:

Hard not to smile with the taste of sun-warmed strawberry in your mouth.

Lonely Already

Work was fine today except the part where I got the run-around from Medical about my stupid prescription. See, apparently, despite turning my prescription into Medical as soon as I got it, and every time I get it refilled, I'm still expected to have my doctor fax it to the lab. Now, if I had NOT turned in my prescription to Medical and had tested positive, I would have been sent to town to work in the office for a week or whatever giving me time to "clean up" or produce my prescription and re-test. So basically I am in the EXACT same situation as if I had NOT done what they told me to, except doing the "right" thing I have spent a lot more of my time in Medical and even got to do a fun field sobriety test despite my medication being for the SOLE purpose of making me MORE alert and focused. To say that I am irritated is an understatement. Oh, and to make matters worse this is how I found out: got a message last night that said to call a number, I called the number, they told me to call another number, I called that number was told to leave a message. I left the message and was called back later. They told me, at that point, that I had to call my doctor and have her fax my script to this other number. Now my doc is out of town right now. And I really don't like calling places. So I called Medical to ask why the heck they hadn't sent my paperwork to the lab that is owned and operated by the same freaking company. The first lady gave me the phone equivalent of a blank stare and said "let me get you a nurse." Um, I thought everybody in Medical was a nurse, hence being in Medical. Anyway I got transferred to a nurse and got to explain my situation again. I got a slightly less blank "stare" and was told I needed to call the *other* medical office in town. So I called yet another person and explained my situation yet another time. This person really had nothing more to tell me except to insinuate that it was *my* company's policy to do it this way and therefore it was *my* fault/problem if I didn't like it. This is about when the only thing keeping me from screaming obscenities and slamming the phone down was that a certain somebody raised me to have better manners than that. So I said a rather terse "thank you" and hung up. Then I went to HR. My HR guy in town (he's technically my actual rep, not the lady at the site, but they don't mind for the most part) is pretty cool, I've gone to hear his band play at one of the local bars, and we're FB friends, 'cause that's totally relevant. Anywho, he agreed that having to make six phone calls about something when I was told I did the right thing in the first place was totally un-cool! So he's going to make some calls and try to figure out what the heck is going on. It probably won't amount to much, and I will probably have to figure out how to get my prescription faxed to the stupid lab in wherever the 401 area code is. But at least my frustration was validated.

Wow, that turned into a WAY longer rant than I expected/planned. Oh well.

After work I went to pick the little one up, ran home to sell my desk and let her pack to spend the night with her cousin. I got $40 for my desk, which we promptly took grocery shopping. Where we played the grocery shopping game. The game is played thus: carefully write a grocery list, go to the grocery store leaving the list on the kitchen counter, buy groceries, when you get home check the groceries you bought against your list. You get a point for each item you remembered, subtract a point for each item that wasn't on the list, bonus points for getting everything you needed. For the first time ever, I won!! I bought everything on the list, and nothing extra! And I even had cash left over! How awesome is that?! How sad is it that I'm excited about this? Anyway, on the way back from the store I dropped the little one off at her cousin's house.

When I came home I put away the groceries and harvested a HUGE cucumber from the garden. I sliced cucumbers, cooked up some quinoa, ran the dishwasher (forgetting to put my lunch dishes in it first), and put meatballs in the crock-pot with sweet & sour sauce and pineapple chunks for lunch tomorrow. I then cleaned up the kitchen a bit. I checked my food diary for the day and decided I had enough calories left for some Fiber One cereal and a scoop of ice cream cake, so I put those items in my diary and went to get my cereal. When I looked in the cereal box I saw that there was about one and a half servings left, so I poured it all in my bowl, added a little extra milk and decided to call it even. I finished my cereal, set up the coffee pot, and deleted the ice cream from my diary. Then I brushed my teeth and here I sit. Alone. *sigh* Despite how often I wish for the house to myself, now that I have it, I don't want it. At least last night the little one and her friends where here, so it wasn't *that* bad. Ah well, time for bed. By myself. Good thing I have lots of pillows...

[insert witty title here]

Saturday brought an awesome, dare I say Epic? birthday party. Plenty of food, friends, and good times. And booze. Don't forget the booze. While the daytime BBQ portion of my party with friends and family was great, I think the "after party" with my closest girlfriends was even better. We had some seriously deep conversation for how drunk we all were. And I think we all came out more balanced and feeling less... alone. All in all it was quite fantastic. Up until the spending half the night on the bathroom floor party. But even that wasn't as bad as it could be. My bathroom floor seems to have been made to doze of too much drink.

Sunday was a total downer. While I didn't have a hangover per-say, I really could have done with not having to get up. Let alone get up to take my man to the airport. He's off to another project for two weeks to help them with a major computer overhaul. This will be the longest we've been apart since we started dating. I think the previous longest was 5 days. This will be a full 14. My bed is horribly big and empty without him. I'm hoping to stay busy while at home so I don't think about missing him too much. I also want to do something fun just the little one and me. We'll see how it goes.

Today started off ok, if slowly. Got to work a little late, but whatever. Everything was going fine 'til my douche canoe of a boss called me in his "office" to inform me that somebody had taken exception to my shirt. Now our dress code states that out at the site shirt sleeves must be a minimum of 4" but it doesn't say where that 4" is measured from. I was wearing a shirt of which style I have several and have worn to work on many occasions. I argued that the sleeves on said shirt were 5" and thus acceptable. My boss, and unfortunately HR, disagreed. I finally gave up but said that the dress code is very ambiguous and open to interpretation and should clearly state where measurements are made from as obviously my definition of "sleeve" is different than theirs. The dress code also mentions "business casual" which is seriously the most ambiguous dress term ever, and "mini or micro skirts" which I'm sure means a WHOLE lot of different depending on who you ask. Anyway, as it was too hot to wear a coat, I went to town. Where my lovely man had put my profile on my new computer so I didn't have to redo all my settings!

I putzed around with my work for a while 'til I got horribly distracted with being REALLY hungry. Or maybe I was bored. At any rate I wanted to stuff my face with anything and everything I could get my hands on, which, unfortunately, was not much. So I spent most of the afternoon feeling sorry for my empty tum-tum. I did managed to convince myself to eat something healthy when I got home instead of taking my leftover ice cream birthday cake straight into my room with a serving spoon to shovel it in. I went to my last appointment with Brian the sadist, which apparently he had forgotten about. We did a quick workout ending with him promising to e-mail me some workouts I can do on my own while my bank account recovers from my compulsive shopping.

On that note, does anybody have any ideas for more "positive" activities I can try to do when the compulsion to shop hits me?

Oh, did I mention that my man got me an AWESOME construction toy set for my birthday?? 'cause he did and I love it and him SO much! And my friend Red got me a Galileo thermometer and barometer. These things are going on my new desk in town :) AWESOME

Road Block

I'm feeling rather dissilusioned with my personal trainer. He was almost 20 minutes late today and didn't even appologize. He did my weigh in and I've lost 3.5 pounds and 0.5% body fat in 5 weeks. Although I feel like I'm making progress I need to kick it up a notch. I have 213 days to lose at least 25 pounds. That's just about a pound a week. I can do this! I hope... I really need to stop being a lazy bum and start walking Pepper every day and going to the gym more often. Maybe I should dust off my roller blades...

Well That Was Interesting

Today started with me willingly getting up at 4am to go to the gym with my man. Another hour long workout in the bag. If I keep this up I just may be ready for Mardi Gras! After a quick shower, packing lunch, and making a meal shake I headed off to work. I took care of a few things when my Chief happened to walk by. He said he could have our meeting right then so off we went. While he didn't promise anything he seemed to think the seminar was a good idea. He said he didn't know what his budget was, but if I wrote up the formal request he'd look into it! Maybe I really am crazy 'cause I actually like going to seminars. The last one was great and I learned a lot. When I got back to my computer my supervisor messaged me asking where I was. I told him I was about to head out to the site, did he need something before I left? No, but I had been selected for a "random" drug screening. Oh joy! Now I know I don't do any illegal drugs, and Medical knows about my prescription that shows on a basic drug screening so I didn't think anything of it. When I got out to the site my supervisor had to escort me down to Medical, don't ask me why. I got to blow into a breathalyzer for the first time ever (yay?) and then pee in a cup (they didn't even have toilet paper in the bathroom!). Sure enough it came up positive, but they assured me it was expected. What I didn't expect is that the HR lady picked me up and took me to her office and called my supervisor down. I still wasn't really worried, and my HR lady is pretty awesome, so it was all good. The look on my supervisor's face was priceless though 'cause apparently he thought I was in trouble (apparently he thought I was actually capable of doing illegal drugs!). It turns out that the test they can do on site only shows positive or negative, it can't tell WHAT the positive result is from. So when somebody has a prescription that can throw a positive they have to send the sample to a lab to determine the exact drug that is present. Until the lab results come back I'm not allowed to wander around the site or operate machinery (on site). So I can work in town, or in the one office building on site. Yay? Whatever. After having a laugh and a bunch of druggy jokes we settled back down to our normal Thursday routine. Until 12:24 pm. I recieved an e-mail. It said
I got my P.E.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm only a little excited :) I managed not to scream and jump around, barely. I ran and told Peggy, and then my man. Then I called my Mommy. It was funny 'cause when I told her I was getting a stamp she asked if I would stamp something and mail it to her. I was totally planning on doing that since the first time I took the test! She said she would frame it and hang it in her house. I also found out there's no restriction on what color ink I get, so I can totally have a purple Professional Engineer stamp! I'm totally geeked out. I totally didn't get any more work done for the rest of the day :P On my way off the site I got "randomly" selected for my car to be searched. Apparently today is my day for "random." Anywho, this Professional Engineer is tired, so I'm calling it a day.

Fudge Muffins

It would seem that I did not accept my compulsive spending and move to curb it soon enough. In order to pay this month's credit card bill I will have to completely wipe out our savings and we will have $400 for two weeks. I, of course, feel horrible. My man hasn't once told me it's all my fault, or any other negative thing. He helped me come up with some ways to save money over the next couple weeks like doing burgers instead of ribs for my birthday party. He even offered to take money out of his personal money market account to tide us over. I really hope it doesn't come to that. I'm now in damage control mode. Maybe this is what I needed to scare myself straight, I don't know. I'm posting everything I can get rid of on Craigslist. Here too. This is what I have, if you're interested:

Twin size captain's bed with 3 drawers - $100

Apevia computer tower/case, not working - $25

19" LCD monitor - $50

Set of computer speakers - $10

Glass top computer desk - $50

I'm also sending back my defective power supply that I was supposed to take care of like two weeks ago. Hopefully they'll credit me for it, although it takes 3 weeks to process. I'm also waiting for a $500 from my FSA account. And as soon as I get my PE I can submit my reimbursement claim for $2,500. Not that any of that is going to help me in the next two-three weeks, but it's something. I should also be getting a check for my most recent jewelry commission. I'm going to spend every moment of my spare time making stock to sell with the supplies I have on hand. So if anybody out there wants some jewelry...

Brian had to cancel our appointment again today. I'm not too tore up about it because my man dragged me out of bed at 4am this morning to go get an hour workout in before work. I have two more appointments with Brian that I've already paid for. I told him that after that I'm going to have to wait a couple weeks to see if I can afford more appointments. Peggy is considering joining my gym so we can do some of the classes together on the weekends, that will help. And if I start going to the gym before work I can walk Pepper after. Or maybe, considering this retched heat wave, I'll walk her in the morning and go to the gym in the evening... I'll figure it out. 

Work has been very up-and-down so far this week. I was able to get the last facility's buy-in on my process improvement. I now have a budget of 100 hours to put what I'm calling Phase 2 into action. I've been absorbed with converting pages of data into my new format. It may seem tedious, but it's not bad and it makes the time fly. The down side is that my immediate supervisor suddenly went from 3 months of not giving a shit what I do, to being a total shit. He says he never approved me to work on this project, or to work in town. And of course I don't have anything in writing that says otherwise. And my lead, who wanted me to work in town, is out of the office until the 26th. Also, my annual review is due at the end of the month and my supervisor is the one signing it. Never mind that I've only worked for him for a couple months. Everybody else that I've worked for is gone now. If it weren't for my AR, I totally would go over his head to one of the two other people my lead talked to and got approval to pull me in town. But I'm worried that he would take it out on me by giving me a bad grade which directly impacts my ability to get a transfer or a raise. So I have to suck it up and try to figure out what shoved a stick up his ass. *sigh* I hate workplace politics!

Slightly better news, I'm meeting with my new Chief tomorrow (was s'posed to be today, but I got confused on where it was and totally goofed). I'm going to ask him to send me to one of two seminars coming up in September. And I'm going to ask about possible reimbursement for starting on my Masters. Wish me luck!

Anyway I'm going to clean up a bit and try to pass out. I had a hard time falling asleep last night and *somebody* dragged me out of bed at 4am! Goodnight world.

Here's a picture of Pepper with her head stuck in an ice cream container:

So Freaking Hot

When we got home yesterday the car said it was 108 degrees. That is ridiculous. I can't stand this kind of heat. Especially since the AC in my car doesn't work. Today on the way home from work it was 105. No amount of wind can make that feel comfortable. At least we have AC in the house...

Yesterday we stopped at one of the bigger malls on the way home from the theme park. I bought things I didn't really need. Clothes and shoes and jewelry. You see, I'm a compulsive shopper. It's in my blood. I'm not excusing my behavior, just explaining. I'm very much like my aunt. She had OCD and was a hoarder. I loved her, but I don't want to be like her. I've been diagnosed with OCD, and I see in myself hoarding tendencies (at last count I had over 30 kinds of lotion...). So far I haven't spent outside my means, but it's been getting closer. My last couple credit card bills have been hard to pay off. So when we got home yesterday I gave all of my "plastic" to my man. Including my debit card. I now cannot buy anything without asking him first. I hope that this will help get my compulsions in check.

Today I contacted the state Department of Licensing to find out the status on my PE application. To my surprise I only needed one more experience verification to complete it! They didn't even make me pay the fee again! So this morning was spent finishing my verification paperwork and this afternoon I got it signed, sealed and stamped. The DoL should receive it by the end of the week, and if I'm lucky will approve it by the end of the month! I could have my licence by the end of the month!!! *happy dance* When I get my license I will feel like I deserve a new computer and will likely take my mom up on her very generous offer. Well, I'll probably wait to make sure we can make my man's fall tuition payment first. He starts at the State university in the fall. I'm so proud of him!

Speaking of school, I requested information from several universities offering Masters programs online. Depending on how much it costs and if I can get reimbursement or not I'll start working on my Masters within the next couple of years. My other goal is to get my Structural Engineer license. That'll take another 4 years of experience and 16 hours of testing. Apparently I'm a masochist. Go figure!

Did I mention that my appointment with my personal trainer was cancelled today? Good thing too 'cause I don't think I would have survived going out in this weather again!

4th of July Pictures!

Theme Park Birthday Fun

Today we went to the theme park for my birthday. Everybody wanted me to go on a roller coaster. I don't like roller coasters. I'm afraid of heights, and I'm prone to anxiety attacks. But I knew they wouldn't leave me alone, so the first thing we did was get in line for the smallest roller coaster in the park (other than the kiddy kart). The closer we got, the tighter my grip on my man's arm. I survived the 55mph, 85ft drop... barely. I kept my head down, eyes closed, and a death grip on my man. After that I felt confident refusing to get on any other coasters. I had fun riding some other rides and just wandering around. We had hit Costco before going and I got a UV blocking light jacket, it was a life saver! We all survived 9 hours in the heat and sun without any sunburn! Overall it was a lovely day and everybody had fun. After a quick soak in the hot tub in the hotel, I'm ready to call it a day!

Catching up... Again

Let's see, where was I?? Ah yes, Wednesday. Er, I mean Tuesday. Just that kind of week. Tuesday was spent planning for Wednesday's BBQ party. And partaking in a "bbq" at work. We hit 12 million work hours without a single lost-time incident. So we got free lunch. That's really all there is to say about that. When I got home, I started working on getting the yard ready for the party. I cleaned out the big cooler and sprayed down the front entry-way. Put up this cute little decorative fence and some solar path lights. I put things away, power-washed the patio and generally cleaned up. I also made key lime pie ice cream sammiches. Wednesday my man woke me up *asking* if I wanted to go to the gym with him. And by "ask" I mean he worded it as a question, but said it in such a way that I really couldn't say no. We got to the gym at 7, to find it didn't open until 8. I was SO dissapointed. (this is where a sarcasm font would come in handy) I texted Peggy and we started our day! First it was off to Big Lots, where I'd never been before, to get some decorations. I found some awesome tiki torches and a little American flag lawn wind spinner thingy. And red, white and blue star lights. And some more solar path lights. Then we hit up Walmart. We found cute bikini tops to go under our shirts. 'Cause we totally need more clothes. Grabbed some soda and ice and a pool for Pepper and headed back home. About two hours into decorating and setting up the yard we realized we hadn't put any sunblock on. Pepper kept us company the whole time. She enjoyed running free, and playing in her new pool. It's pink :) I'll post a picture when I get home. After we got everything set up outside and most of the food ready, we got ourselves ready. A cool shower does wonders to revive a body! The party was great. Lots of good food and better company. The weather was great for my thick-blooded self, although everybody else was cold. The only bad part of the party was that Peggy had to go home early 'cause she had to work Thursday. I took the day off, even though I only had 7 hours of PTO. I even managed to stay up for the fireworks (pictures of that later too). Thursday we got up and started to get ready to go fishing. Normally, when my man goes fishing he leaves before I get up. This time we didn't get going quite so early. Ok, we didn't get going early at all. After a couple false starts, we finally got to the fishing hole around 2pm. I had my awesome camp chair and my Kindle. And lots, and lots of sunblock. Aparently we needed bug spray too. My man's mom quickly caught two trout. After that the only ones getting a bite were the moscuitos! It was super peaceful at the fishing pond though. It was hot and sunny, but not opressive. Birds were singing, a light breeze blew through the trees. We spent a couple of lovely hours sitting by the water. Not much to show for it, but a slight pinkness on my shoulders and some weird tan lines. After scarfing some dinner we packed up for our mini-cation. This morning I went for my Friday visit with Brian where he developed some lovely new forms of torture. First he put straps around my thighs which he then hooked bungie cors to. So my legs were strapped together basically. This is when he put me on a treadmill at 14% grade and had me walk with "long strides." I hate him. As if that weren't enough he then pulled out an oversized rubber band. He had me step on it, then put it over my shoulders. At that point he told me to do squats. With my legs still stapped together. After that point I got to do what I dubbed the penguin walk. It hurt. A lot. Brian must be a sadist. Anyway, I finished my workout without crying or passing out. After my lovely workout I took a shower, we loaded up the car, and headed out. Off to our lovely mini-cation for my birthday! We saw the Amazing Spiderman in IMAX 3D :) And we had an awesome dinner at the Moon Time. Tomorrow we're off to the theme park! If I'm lucky I won't get totally burnt to a crisp. Now I think it's time for bed. I'll have lots of pictures for you all when I get home! 'Cause there's totally more than 2 people reading this :P G'night!

R&R

Just checked into our hotel for the weekend. Ready for a weekend of fun with my man, the little one, and her friend. I've just been informed that we *have* to get a "family picture" while we're here... on a roller coaster. I questioned how that would work seeing as I hadn't intended on getting on a roller coaster this weekend. I guess we'll see how this turns out. If I have time, I'll post about the rest of the week's goings-on. Otherwise you'll just have to wait 'til I get home. Sucks to be you! ;)

In a Strange Turn of Events...

...Monday started out well and ended shitty.

So I started my morning by taking Pepper for a little walk before work. It was crystal clear, not a cloud in the sky, and plesantly crisp and cool. The sunlight had that quality it gets right at sunrise where everything seems so... sharp. We walked once around the block on the leash, and once off. Pepper was such a good girl and stayed right near me. She even came back to me every minute or so to "check in." She did run off to chase a bird at one point, but came right back.

I went to work and prepped for my 9am meeting. My goal was to sell my idea for a process improvement to the second facility lead. It wasn't a total success, but I did get the go ahead to start stage one of my plan. I think once I get the database going and show them what I can do with it, they'll agree to the rest. I was pretty stoked. And my lead is happy with me.

Most of the rest of the day was finishing investigating the scope of an issue. Somebody found an error in one of our calculations. We had to figure out how many other calculations contained the same error. So all of us started sifting through every single calculation, going back to 2001. We found 131 calculations with this one error. Somebody will now have to revise those 131 calculations to fix the error. Somebody like me. Oh joy! But at least it's work, and it's engineering, so I won't complain too loud. At least not 'til I'm on my 15th calc...

We had a quick group meeting. All 5 of us. It was lively. My lead told us he had been offered the position of our recently passed coworker and he accepted. We're all really happy about that. He's an awesome guy, and really a pleasure to work for. He's also going on a much needed vacation for the rest of the month. After that I thought about working on my Annual Review. I wanted to wait until I knew for sure if I passed my test or not.

My test results were in the mail when I got home. I had Brady open them. I, for the third time, failed the California State Specific Seismic portion of the Professional Engineer licensure exam. This means I have to go back to California and take the test again. Which means I have to spend another $500 or so before I can get reimbursed. And my reimbursement is only going to be about $2,500. I figure I've already spent over $5,000 on this test. The worst part is letting my friends and family down. I feel so bad that everybody was rooting for me and I still failed. *sigh*

My man made me feel a bit better with some delicious (and healthy) cedar plank grilled tillapia and roasted potatoes with herbs fresh from the garden. Then I was off to the gym. I didn't feel like going, but was kind of hoping it'd make me feel better. Not so.

Today my personal trainer actually managed to make me cry. I did a very slow 10 minutes on the treadmill. Then Brian directed me to the stair stepper. I wasn't thrilled, but I'll give anything a go at least once. Let's just say it didn't go well. I thought we had already gotten passed this, but I guess I have to say it again: for the most part, when I say I'm done, I really mean it! Well, I tried to tell him I didn't have any more to give, but he kept telling me not to quit, so I kept trying. At least until I was crying too hard to breathe properly. Finally I just stopped and refused to try anymore. Finished the shitty workout with 10 minutes on the rowing machine. I'm glad I don't go back 'til Friday.

Trying to salvage the rest of my evening by rocking out to Pandora and buying some new music for my iPod. Trying not to think about having to put "complete PE" on my development plan for the fourth year in a row...

(Not So) Lazy Sunday

Saturday was not nearly as productive as I had hoped. I went to see Magic Mike with a friend, then totally spaced that I was supposed to go to the grocery store. I did do a load of dishes before running off to a Miche party with Blonde Friend. We forgot half of our stuff for the party so I ran home to grab it. After that the party went smoothly. This party is an example of why we do this: wonderful ladies, awesome purses, and fun to be had by all.

This morning I woke up realizing I hadn't gone to the store and thus hadn't made the cool jello pies for my friend's birthday/graduation party. Red has been my partner for Engineers Week and my good friend for five years running. She's always there when I need her, keeping my head on straight. I sure couldn't have done as many E-Week presentations as I have without her! This last week she graduated from Charter College with her AAS. Incidentally she got her grades a few days before her birthday, thus the double party.

I headed off to the store with my man to get groceries for our 4th of July party and some pie and presents for Red. Before leaving the house I had to choose between a bazillion flavors of ice cream to make for the 4th. My man got me the ice cream bowl attachment for my stand mixer last year when I passed the main portion of the PE exam. This will be my fourth batch of ice cream this season, key lime pie ice cream! Anyway, off we went to the store. I found a bottle of wine I hope Red will enjoy. However I could not find the freezable wine bottle coozie I was looking for. When we got home from the store and put the groceries away I went to Walmart to try to find the freezer coozie thingy. I found a card and wine bottle gift bag, but no coozie. Off to the other grocery store. Found a gift card and some goats' milk soap, still no coozie. I finally gave up.

At the appointed time we loaded up the cooler, camp chairs, and the pup and headed off to the park. When we got there Pepper went to meet a little yappy dog. Said yappy dog apparently doesn't get along well with other dogs. If you know your dog doesn't get along well with other dogs, and is completely untrained, why on EARTH would you bring him to the park?! Pepper did not make a sound when the other dog started snarling at her, she did lunge a bit, but backed off when I blocked her view. I took her on the other side of the picnic shelter and put her in some shade on her yard stake. When I went back to the food area I heard the yappy dog's owner mumbling that the "big dog" caused a ruckus. *harrumph!* The rest of the party went well. I shared my hot dog with Pepper because she was being a total calm, good puppy dog. A little later an adorable German short-haired puppy came to the party. Pepper (and the pup) were very good at meeting each other and hung out in the grass in the shade. When the pups were hot we took them down for a romp in the river. Pepper showed the pup how it works ;) I invited the pup to Pepper's birthday party coming up in September.

After a couple of plesent hours at the park we headed home. I cleaned the filter on Pepper's water fountain and added some ice to it to keep her cool. My man and I took a nap. Then I decided I needed to finish my second necklace commission. I'm really pleased with how it came out. I'll deliver it Tuesday when I'm back out to the site. Hopefully that will give me some spending money for our mini vacation for my birthday! Here's a picture:

Then, at 7:30pm on a Sunday, I decided I needed to clean the bathroom. I am such a freak. Oh crap, I forgot to set up the coffee pot!

Progress

Today I had my first weigh-in since starting to see Brian. I was nervous about it earlier in the week until I noticed that I could *just* get to the next notch on my belt. I have mostly convinced myself that is more important than the number on the scale. But it turns out I needn't have worried, I've lost 3 pounds in as many weeks! I'm rather proud of myself. Especially considering my less than stellar eating habits. He then proceeded to use the evil fat calipers on me to determine how much muscle I gained and fat lost, because that's what should have happened since I started working out. Well, either his first measurements or today's measurements were wrong because the computer said I actually gained fat! Brian was completely flummoxed (I just wanted to use that word). He ensured me that the numbers were somehow wrong and we'd re-take them next week. He then proceeded to torture me for almost an hour. Ugh! At the end he set me up on one of the treadmills that can go really steep, put it at 2.5mph and 13% grade! He then said "Stay here for ten minutes, I'll see you Monday!" and walked off. I plodded along trying not to fall off the back of the treadmill when a guy walked by, smiled and said "Good job today. He [Brian] is a tough one, you did great." I'm pretty sure I turned neon red as I stammered a "thank you." Peggy keeps telling me "thank you" is a complete sentence, which is good 'cause I'm not sure what else one should say in such situations.

The rest of the day passed in the usual manner, laundry, cleaning, errands. I did get *a* computer set up for myself. I haven't decided what to do about my computer situation yet, but in the mean time I've considered the family laptop. I have it set up at my desk with one of my good monitors, keyboard and mouse. It's not mine, and it's not great, but it's better than nothing. My mommy offered to loan me the total amount for the computer I want, or give me a large chunk of it as a gift. Part of me, probably the spoiled part, wants to accept her offer so I can get what I want when I want it. But I don't feel like I really deserve it right now... Maybe if I get my PE I'll feel better about it. Time will tell I guess. I should know Monday, Tuesday at the latest. I hate waiting.

Making Progress

I think Brian the evil Personal Trainer and I are starting to get a feel for each other. We harass each other until  I'm working too hard to talk, then we focus. As soon as I stop calling him names, he only pushes me to maintain instead of trying to force me to push harder. In turn, I honestly go as hard as I can. It works. He also applauds my successes, even if they're less than what he's used to. Today we went outside (after 10 minutes on the treadmill and 15 on the rowing machine) and he had me walk as fast as I could down the street. He said I have an awesome power walk :) Then we went back and did some ab work. After some ridiculous oblique sets and straight up core stuff, he asked if I wanted one more. I said, sure, why not? He replied "you were supposed to say 'fuck no!'" Imagine laying with an exercise ball in the center of your back, body parallel to the floor. Hold a weight over your head in line with your body. Now lift your shoulders off the ball, keeping your arms straight over your head, and say "banana!" That is how my workout ended. No joke. Brian made a comment "If we were drinking there would be some sexual meaning to that." I couldn't agree more.

Today I was back out at the site. I had a meeting with a couple guys to explain my idea for a process improvement to them. They are on the input end of the process. I'm on the output end. Right now, nothing actually gets to me, even though they're inputting everything I could possibly need. I decided to take action. My lead is really happy with me right now. It feels freaking AWESOME! Monday I take my idea to the lead of one of the other facilities. After the holiday I take it to the final facility lead. Hopefully they like the idea too and I can put it in action. I am actually really excited! This is why I became an engineer.

The Passing of a Close Friend

Last night I laid to rest my close friend, computer. My computer has been with me since I moved to Washington. Her death was a long, painfull process, for both of us. It was time to take her off life support, donate her organs, and be done with it. Hopefully soon I will be adopting a new, brighter machine. Good night dear friend, rest well.

New Scenery and Power Outages

Friday was super crazy. I had a dentist appointment at 8, then psychiatrist at 10:30, then hair at 1, then football game at 7. In between I was making sure my man and the little one got to all of their appointments as well as tried to do laundry and clean the house. Everything went well and was on time and everything. My hair came out super duper awesome. Peggy and I go to the same stylist. We're convinced she's a witch. Neither of us like to fuss with our hair much, and we both love "punky" colors. We also hate making decisions. This is where our Hair Witch comes in. We tell her to have fun, and she does. At the end of our appointment we have an awesome 'do that requires little upkeep and looks really good on us. No normal human could accomplish such a feat without magic, hence she's a witch. Anyway, here's my super awesome 'do:

I'm trying to get the bulk of my hair back to my natural color and grow it out. You see, I have ridiculously thick hair. Some of the thickest Hair Witch has seen/felt. It also grows really fast. And it sucks up dye. Before I cut it all off most recently, it was approximately down to my bra strap. It took 17 ounces of dye to color root-to-tip. A normal head of hair that length would require something like 8 ounces. Needless to say it gets very expensive to keep up a non-natural color. So I'm going natural... Well, almost. I figure I can have fun with my bangs and just leave the rest of my hair alone. This will also cause less damage and allow me to grow my hair out faster. Ok, enough about my super awesome hair.

Saturday started with us going to Costco. I went to the optics counter with the little one while my man started our shopping. Without going into gory details we'll just say that my man finished the shopping, checked out, and loaded the car before I was done at the optics counter. That was annoying. After unloading the car, starting another load of laundry and taking care of some other stuff around the house, I took the little one and her friend to Ulta. It's our new favorite beauty store. The dermatologist said that the little one needs to use mineral makeup, that it's the best for your skin. A day after that appointment we got a coupon for 20% your whole purchase at Ulta, and noted that they have Bare Minerals starter kits. It was meant to be! So of course we both had to get starter kits, and a bunch of other things. I spent way too much! 

Saturday evening, around 8:45, somebody rang the doorbell. I told Pepper to sit on her bed (about 10 feet from the front door) and peeked outside. I didn't recognize who it was, but we have a "No Soliciting" sign so I figured it was important. I opened the door and the guy asked if I was the owner of the house. I really don't like when people ask if I'm allowed to make decisions. I had one guy ask "is the man of the house home?" I should have shut the door in his face! Anyway, after assuring him that I own my house, he asked if my neighbors had told me what he's been doing on our street (you know like the alarm companies ask?). I told him no, and pointed to our "No soliciting" sign. He said "oh, but I'm not a solicitor." Then went to point at one of my neighbors and said "we just installed a system for them..." So I asked if it cost money "... well... um... a little bit..." I told him that is indeed soliciting and shut the door in his face! I was so proud of myself! That's the first time I've told a solicitor off! And I was so proud of Pepper, she kept her butt on her bed the WHOLE time the door was open, until I told her OK! Then I told her she was a good girl, but I kind of wished she had mauled the guy for harassing me at almost 9 o'clock in the evening!

Which reminds me of a funny anecdote about somebody trying to sell me something a while back. So this guy rings the doorbell and I open it up. He starts giving me his speech (how do you spell schpeal? shpeel? is that even a word??) about a security system (he's the one who asked if the "man of the house" was home). I tell him "I don't need a security system, I have a vicious attack dog." (totally straight faced). Pepper chose that instant to run out and start licking him. I somehow managed to keep a straight face and said "See? She's vicious!" He had no idea how to respond. It was super funny, except for the part where he wouldn't go away until I made Brady yell at him. I really should have just shut the door in his face too. But anyway, it was freaking HILARIOUS, and still makes me laugh!

Anyway, back to my weekend... 

Sunday morning my man went out fishing with his dad and buddy. I did the grocery shopping then started on his birthday desserts. We had his birthday dinner with the family, home-made fried chicken. Then dessert was (low fat) lemon-lime layer cake with from-scratch berry lavender sorbet. It was da BOMB! Oh, almost forgot to mention, my man's niece helped me decorate the cake. It turned out pretty cute with lemon and lime flavored fondant.

Sunday night, before I went to bed, I got a text from my work's automated notification system. It said that our site had no power and to check the hotline before going to work in the morning. This is not the first time our site has lost power for whatever reason. It happened previously almost three years ago. That time the hotline said site people should stay home, so I did. Around 2pm that afternoon I got an e-mail saying that if I hadn't gone to work at our town office, I had to take PTO for the day or make it up later that week. So this time when I got the same message, I went in to our town office. There was mass confusion, many people didn't show up. My boss being one of them. I had already been planning on working in town today because I am doing a special project for my in-town lead and it's a lot easier to do that when I'm next to him.

I decided to get up at my normal time of 4:30 and use my extra time (from my shorter commute) to take Pepper for a walk before work. She was incredibly happy to see me grab the leash off the hook. We walked briskly for 15 minutes. Pepper was her usual good self, even ignoring some sprinklers starting right next to us. After fielding questions from a lot of people asking what the heck was going on, and playing musical computers 'cause there aren't enough for everybody, I settled down and started work. To use a phrase from one of my college buddies, I went data mining. I ended up staying a bit late so I could get to a good stopping point. I think I did more productive work today than the entire previous three weeks combined. It felt good! I got my data whittled down from almost 400 points to 125 relevant, sort-able ones. Tomorrow I start linking data points to specific calculations. I'm actually kind of excited. I love this kind of stuff. Does that make me weird? Anyway, I think I will be working two days in town and two days at the site each week. Probably Monday and Wednesday in town so I can take Pepper for a walk before work since I have my personal trainer after work those days. Hopefully then I can walk her after work on Tuesday and Thursday and at least one long walk on the weekend. I think this should keep me focused and interested. Boredom is my enemy!

I left work around 5:30, stopped at a friend's house to drop off a check and chat for a bit, and still got home about the same time I would normally leaving at 5. I changed, grabbed a power bar, and headed to the gym. I did a mile on the treadmill before Brian came to start my torture. He turned my legs to jello. Step-ups, squats, step-step-squats, squats with weights, more step-ups, and then my arch nemesis: wall squats. The first "set" I did about 15 seconds before my feet slid out from under me. I managed to finish my 30 seconds (I convinced him that I can't do a minute yet) without stopping again. My second set I did the whole 30 seconds without stopping!!! Even after all the other leg exercises I did already! I was totally stoked. Then he wanted me to do the rowing machine. I suggested the elliptical instead. The rowing machine seems to give me a rather nasty tension headache. I started off by almost breaking his arm with the stupid handle on the elliptical. Then he kicked my butt by making me squat down and pedal really fast without moving my upper body. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to walk tomorrow...

Slight side note: I also got back on the food journal band-wagon. I'm using Fat Secret. It's free and easy. There's an app for my phone that I can just scan the package of whatever I'm eating and add it to my journal. It also has a HUGE database so most stuff is easy to add. My problem comes when I have home-cooked meals. That's where my OCD kicks in and I get frustrated at being unable to find an exact match. Then I give up on the whole journal and go back to my bad eating habits. This time I have enlisted Blonde Friend and Peggy to join me and help keep me on track. Hopefully they can remind me that the journal is a guideline and doesn't need to be perfect. Brian announced that I have my second weigh-in this Friday (he said Monday, but I want to do it in the morning). I think I'll print out my journal and bring it and see what he thinks. Anyway, wish me luck!

The Meaning of Life

This has been a rough week. Sunday night my man overindulged a bit for father's day. Despite assuring me he would go to work Monday, he called in sick. And then my old boss came by and, without warning, blurted out that my coworker had passed away. Mr. UofM was one of my two biggest mentors and a good supervisor. He had been fighting colon cancer for over five years, so we kind of knew it was coming. For the longest time he continued to come to work 40 hours a week while he was getting treatment. He never complained, nor really ever brought it up. A couple years ago he was gone for a while, but he came back and continued working. He had to go on leave again a few months ago. On some level I guess we all knew he wasn't coming back this time, but one can't help but hope. While I am sad that he's gone, I'm glad he's no longer in pain. He was resting peacefully at home, surrounded by his family.

The memorial service for Mr. UofM was yesterday afternoon. It was hard. It was also long, and involved a lot of standing. I was glad I was able to see his sons who are my age and some other work folks I don't see very often. And in related news, Covergirl's new Exacteyelights waterproof mascara is fantastic.

Monday I went home as soon as I could after hearing the news. The rest of the week I've just floated feeling mostly numb with random bursts of tears and almost manic humor. My friends have been invaluable talking to me about random things and sending me funny pictures of cats. Pepper has been sticking to me like glue when I'm home. Letting me cry all over her and compulsively rub her ears. She also doesn't mind being squished in a full-body bear hug. What other dog would be ok with that?!

The saddest part of the funeral, for me, was when I realized how little I really knew Mr. UofM. I knew that he was incredibly smart, he went to UofM for pete's sake! I knew that he was kind, and supportive, cared about his underlings and their careers. He always had time for me whether I had a work question or a life question, or just needed somebody to listen. He was incredibly patient, even when I was being dense. But there was a whole other side to him I knew nothing about. Mr. UofM built wood boats, was the youth group leader at his church for years, and was an utterly devoted husband and father. Hearing the stories of his other friends and family made me wish I had had the time to learn more about him.

Between my old boss retiring and Mr. UofM's passing and all the lay-offs and budget cuts, I've been feeling like I was cut adrift. I haven't been able to focus and I really haven't done much productive for several weeks. I finally got fed up and told my structural lead that I want to move back to his office. I feel like my boss here doesn't really care about me or my career. I also think I have more technical experience than he does. He never offers any help or suggestions and rarely pays me any attention. Maybe I'm too needy, but I feel I need some direction and guidance in order to grow professionally. My lead thought this was a good idea. So, hopefully soon, I will be moving into another office. Whether it is permanent, temporary, or part time is yet to be seen. But I think any option will help. I need a change of scenery to help me refocus and get back on track.

Shock

I just found out that one of my favorite bosses passed away this weekend. We knew it was coming but still... I feel empty and sick. I wish I could go home and hug Pepper.

Father's Day

Sunday started with my man waking me up around 6 am asking if the ice cream was going to be ready. This threw off my whole day making me constantly feel like it was two hours later than it actually was. After I got the ice cream in the freezer, had some coffee, and caught up on my blog posting I started in on the baking.

First I made some lemon blueberry coffee cake to go with the triple chocolate ice cream for Father's Day dessert. Well, actually I cleaned the kitchen first. My future father-in-law was coming over to our house for dinner, so I had to get it presentable. Then I made two loaves of banana bread. Then I made the black current scone mix I picked up a few weeks ago. After baking all that and cleaning up a bit, I took a break and read my book for a while. My man puttered around in the garden and yard.

A while back we had made some pasta dough and put the extra in the freezer. Since the potatoes in the garden weren't ready yet, my man decided to roll out some pasta. He also made some fresh pesto which I turned into a pesto cream sauce. While I was getting ready to cook the pasta, the little one did dishes. My man grilled some fantastic steaks and fire-roasted veggies. I used my new Ikea tray to carry everything out to the patio. We all sat down and enjoyed our first outdoor meal of the season. It was fantastic.

After dinner we enjoyed some cigars and whiskey (amaretto for me) and the good weather. The boys LOVED their father's day dessert, which made me happy. I gave my man a straight-razor shaving kit which he liked a lot. Overall it was quite a pleasant father's day. Except when my future father-in-law asked if I had talked to my dad. I immediately felt like I was going to throw up and barely managed a "no" before my man rescued me with a "she's not a father's girl." It was a strange reaction I wasn't expecting, but oh well.

Catching Up

This is likely to be a rather long and rambling post. I'd suggest you settle in with a nice cup of coffee and a comfy seat. I'm sitting on my rather expensive but fantastically comfortable couch with a mocha I made myself (well the closest I can get without an espresso machine). It is relatively quiet in the living room this morning. The little one had a friend over to spend the night, so we won't see them 'til lunch. My man is in the bedroom watching TV. It's just me, Pepper, and the cat. The only thing that would make this better is if it weren't 80 degrees outside and I could have the windows open.

Thursday started horribly. I woke up when my man's alarm went off at 5:21. I need to leave the house no later than about 5:23 to catch the van. I missed it. I ended up running out the door without any food. I didn't even manage to grab my backpack. I also forgot it was my turn to bring Thursday morning treats. I will never live that down. Now I have to bake like crazy to try to make it up to my coworkers. The rest of Thursday went pretty much along the same lines. I had a  headache. It didn't go away until I left. Luckily for me I left early. The Secretary of Energy was coming for a visit and gave a speech at my work. He made everybody stay over an hour late for it. I decided I wasn't interested in anything he might say, so I left well before he got there. I'm glad I did. My man said it wasn't that great, except for the hour of overtime. Instead of standing around in the June sun, I went and had my industrial bar changed out. Now it's a spiral with pretty sparkly gems on the ends. I also made an appointment to have my hair done and I donated some stuff to Goodwill. I also tried to give a homeless man some food for his dog, but he wouldn't take it. The dog seemed in fairly good health, so I decided not to push. Also the man was really scary. I don't think I'll be doing that again. At least not when I'm alone.

When I pulled in the driveway I saw that the lawn had been mowed. It was immaculate! I was trying to figure out when my man had had time to mow the lawn. Then I walked in the house and the kitchen was absolutely spotless! A huge grin spread across my face. Now I know why my dad always had us clean the house really good when Mom was coming home from a business trip. It is an amazing feeling to come home to a clean house. My man came home almost two hours later than he normally does. But he had some lovely dry-aged steaks from the local butcher. He threw them on the grill and made us steak and eggs. It was delicious. Pepper got the scraps and took care of the dishes. She's quite good at cleaning dishes. Before he started making dinner my man asked if I had mowed the lawn. I was puzzled, no I didn't do it, it was like that when I got home. The kitchen too. I told him I thought he told the little one to do it. He said he hadn't told her anything. Then we got a text from the little one "Please try not to make a mess, I just cleaned up." Oh the irony. A teenager telling her parents not to make a mess because she just cleaned up! I told her we'd try not to.

Friday I woke up late again. I didn't wake up until 7:21 (what is up with 21??) when I had planned on getting up at 7:00. I had to rush to get to the gym for my 8 o'clock appointment with Brian. I did 13 minutes on the treadmill before he took me to one of the back rooms. Ok, that sounds bad. It's a smaller workout room with equipment mainly focused on training athletes. He had me stand in front of a bench and do squats where I just bumped my butt on the bench. Then he had me stand in front of a box that was just over knee height. He told me to put my right foot on the box, then step up on it 10 times before switching legs. I looked at him incredulously. My last summer of College I was in physical therapy for my knees. The gave me the same exercise, but instead of an almost 2 foot tall box, they gave me a one inch tall box. One inch! And I couldn't even do that ten times! Well, that was at the beginning of my therapy. By the end I could do 25 steps on a 10 inch box. I told Brian we'd better start a little shorter. He looked at me, then agreed and allowed me to start on a one foot tall box. I did five steps on each leg on the shorter box. Then I did five on the big box. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Wasn't fun, but wasn't torture either. The rest of my workout was more strength and range of motion training. I only got dizzy enough to have to stop once. And I did wish I had my inhaler by the end, but it wasn't too bad.

After the gym I ran home and hopped in the shower. I was getting out of the shower about the time I was supposed to have Pepper at the groomer. Great. I rushed through getting dressed, loaded Pepper in the car and practically flew down to the groomer. There was a bit of a traffic jam at the front counter, but Pepper was very good. Pepper LOVES Miss R. My sweet girl isn't afraid of going in the car, the groomer, or the vet. I asked Miss R. to cut Pepper's ears really short since we've been swimming in the canal. The longer her ears are, the more likely she'll get an infection. Once Pepper was settled in with Miss R. I rushed to my next appointment at the eye doctor. I got there late too. *sigh* I hate being late! The eye doctor had a cool new toy that takes a picture of the back of your eyeball. That was pretty cool! I have a scar on my retina. Isn't that interesting? The doctor said it was nothing to worry about unless I start seeing flashes of light.

It took a lot longer for the doctor to come see me than it usually does. Perhaps it's because I was late. But I was supposed to meet Peggy at my house at 10:30 because the HVAC guy was coming to put a new damper in for me. At 10:28 I hadn't even seen the doc yet. I texted Peggy the code to the garage and told her I'd be late. About the time I was checking out she said the HVAC guy was there. Great, I was late to another appointment. I rushed home. Peggy and I chatted and watched Cesar while the HVAC guy did his magic. Apparently when they built my house they put a damper in the main duct, but not in the branch that services the master suite. So the air in my bedroom came out like a wind-tunnel and I actually duct-taped the vents shut. The little one's room hardly got any air at all. So very not cool! But the nice gentleman got it all fixed up for the low cost of $230. Totally worth it though. He also suggested I sign up for their regular maintenance plan. I'm very proud of myself for not signing up right away!

At 1:30 we went to pick Pepper up from the groomer. She is SO freaking cute with her ears trimmed short! She looks like a puppy again.

It's kinda hard to get a picture of Pepper. Anyway, Peggy and I took her for a walk along the canal. Well, first we tried to get a picture of the three of us to put on the blog homepage. It is very hard to do a self-portrait of two people and a hyper dog. Here is what we ended up with:

Well, it was fun at least. We're goofy, but it's ok. After giving up on getting a decent picture, we went for a walk. Slathered in sunblock and wearing hats. It was hot, I wanted to stay home. Pepper was very good. On the way out a couple of horses passed us. I told Pepper to sit, and she did. Shortly after we turned around I let Pepper off her leash so she could go for a swim. She splashed right into the canal and swam around for a while. She is so cute!

The odd thing about these walk/swims is that Pepper jumps in the canal of her own volition the first time. She swims for a while, then gets out on the opposite side. She'll walk parallel to us for a while, then we call her back to our side. But, while she wants to come back to us when we call, she has a very hard time going back in the canal! We have to call, cajole, bribe and otherwise beg her to come back for quite some time while she puts a paw in and steps back over and over. It is the strangest thing. We also saw a duck. Pepper has at least three breeds of bird dog in her. She wanted that duck. Pepper also runs incredibly fast. She kept pace with the flying duck until both disappeared around a bend. I need to get a whistle to recall Pepper when she's out of shouting range. We caught up to her a while later, the duck nowhere to be found. 

After we returned to the house I tried to get Pepper in the bathroom to rinse the canal water off. She wanted none of that! I finally ended up having to pick her up and carry her into the bathroom. She looked pathetic! With her big, brown, sad puppy-dog eyes and her scraggly wet fur. I gave her a bath anyway. And a nice big bone. After that Peggy and I flopped on the couch to watch Cesar until our next task of the day. We have undertaken helping Blonde Friend train her four-year-old purebred cocker spaniel, Brutus.

Brutus is a good dog. He is sweet and friendly and energetic. He just isn't trained. He tries to run out the door every time it's opened and takes Blonde Friend for a walk rather than the other way around. I love to mush his cute little face around when I go over to their house. Such a cute thing. Anyway, I bought some fun toys for him to play with and we headed over. Before going for our walk, we took him in the back yard to burn off some energy. He is still very much a puppy, running around the yard chasing toys and bugs, jumping and playing. Very cute to watch.

When it was time to go for our walk, I showed Blonde Friend how to assert her authority and now allow Brutus to go through a door first. It's a small thing, but important, ask Cesar. For the first part of the walk, I had the leash. I showed how if you walk too slow your dog will be all over the place and it isn't a Walk. Once I picked up the pace Brutus fell in quite well. I could hear Peggy explaining what I was doing, but I tuned it out. It was just me and Brutus. Whenever he got side-tracked, I stopped and waited for him to refocus. He learned very quickly that if he didn't stay with me, he didn't get to walk. After a while we passed the leash off to Blonde Friend. She learned just as quickly as Brutus. It was a beautiful thing. Since it was late and everyone was getting hot, it was a fairly short Walk. But a very good one. We left Blonde Friend with some "homework" and promises we'd walk again next week.

After that, my man and I went to the bar, had dinner, and passed out. Well I did talk to the neighbor lady who used to be a dog trainer. She told me where I can find the local Dock Dogs group, the kennel club, and suggested Pepper and I try agility. I've always thought Pepper would be good at agility, but I'm not sure I have enough time. I also don't think I can run fast enough to be her handler. Then I had a brilliant idea: the little one could be her handler! She can run and is much more agile than me, being a gymnast. It would be great exercise for both of them, and I think it would give the little one a big confidence boost. Now to get her into the idea...

Saturday morning was spent running around gathering specialty beer, cigars, steaks, and groceries. I then made custard for some triple-chocolate ice cream for Father's day. I also did some prep for the Miche party Blonde Friend and I were doing that evening. The afternoon passed in a haze of rather domestic happiness. My man made some steak quesadillas for dinner. Then it was off to the party. Got home around 9:30 and went to bed.

This morning my man woke me up asking if the ice cream was going to be ready for this afternoon. I think I told him I was trying to ride horsies. I'm not sure. I dragged myself out of bed and ran the custard through the ice cream maker and got it in the freezer to harden. Made myself some coffee, and here I am. Now it's time to bake. I'm making blueberry-lemon coffee cake to go with the chocolate ice cream for dessert. I'm also making banana bread and black current scones to make up for forgetting the goodies Thursday. Pepper is wandering around, the little one and her friend are still sleeping, and my man is out in the garden messing with sprinklers. I think I shall put on some cartoons and get my bake on.