Expensive But Great Weekend

This past weekend was a doozy!

Saturday was our crazy day; it started off as every Saturday morning does with puppy school for Daisy. This week we reviewed previously learned tricks (sit, lay down, watch me, stay) and learned how to walk loose leash without pulling (which she still doesn't get so we'll skip the advice and stick with our trusty Gentle Leader). We converted a pitbull-hater on our way out which was a big thing for me. We were leaving the store and this very loud, white-trashy lady walked in with her questionably-hygiened family (I know I'm awful, but they could've used a little help) and freaky little chihuahua-mutant-mut, and she sees Daisy and absolutely squeals with terror. Trembling, she asks me, "Oh My GOD, is that a pitbull? Why would you have it in PUBLIC?!" I want to strangle her for being so ridiculous and narrow-minded, but I calmly confirm that she is indeed a pitbull and assure her that my dog is of no threat to her. Keep in mind Daisy is not yet 5 months old; she's still very puppy-ish in appearance, demeanor, and mannerisms, aka a big, clumsy, adorable dork. The lady is shaking, and seems unconvinced that my dog is harmless. I explain to her, quickly and in short easy words, my viewpoint on the breed and how pitbulls are really wonderful dogs, but tend to be the most common victims in bad raising. I explain that she is just a baby and the sweetest one ever at that, and promise her that my dog will not hurt her. She glances at her oily scruffy husband out of nervousness, and hesitantly asks me if it is okay if she pets her. Daisy, at this point, is exhausted from training and politely sits in front of her and bows her head, wagging her tail a little bit. The lady bends over and pets her, and Daisy reaches up and gives the smelly lady a kiss. She started for a moment and then, realizing she was being kissed and not bitten, starts laughing excitedly and stupidly as if she'd conquered a dragon. She petted Daisy a little longer and then stood up and proclaimed, "I'm so terrified of pitbulls, but she is just the sweetest thing!" I nodded in my polite-but-I-told-you-so way, and she thanked me for helping her overcome her fear of pitbulls. Despite her craziness, I am happy to help show anyone who is scared of pits how amazing they can be. This was the emotional highpoint of my day.

We didn't take Daisy to the park because it had rained the day before and because we had to meet Bear's grandma (Red) for lunch in Petaluma. So we drove home and dropped Daisy off and headed to Petaluma for some good ol' IHOP (YUCK!). I've never been a big find of IHOP but wherever Red wants to go is where we go and that's just fine. We got to watch a police ordeal involving some crazy lady and her possibly-abused child (who she fairly violently dragged to the bathroom, kicking and screaming like he was going to butcher, which prompted the manager to call the police just in case [as he already had a black eye... you just never know]). Everything seemed to turn out fine. I had these awful "garden crepes" that were positively drenched with an awful hollandaise; totally couldn't eat it and the leftovers (that I will never eat) are still in my fridge. Olive gave Bear his birthday present, (finally!) a check for $1000 toward the new computer. This was the last financial piece (and obviously the largest) in our new computer puzzle, so after lunch we went to the bank, took care of all the money, and sped home. After about an hour of tweaking it to bang-for-our-buck perfection, we placed the order for our brand new Dell XPS 630 Ultimate edition, with all kinds of awesome crap in it. As Bear says, it's about 1 step down from the top of the line and it's going to be AWESOME! We also, after much debate about how broke it was going to make us, succumbed to our frivolous desires and ordered a new 22'' Samsung monitor off of Newegg because our current monitor will not properly support the video cards in the new system. So about $2650 later, we will now have an awesome and perfect computer and I don't wanna hear anymore complaining out of my husband (okay... and out of me, too) about lack of a decent computer ever again. Ta-done.

We also had a party to go to at 6:00 on Saturday night, up at Bear's boss's house at the top of Los Alamos Rd. (which is basically like the highest point in Santa Rosa, you don't get a better view or a more gorgeous house). Bear's boss (Rob) has been lobster diving a few days prior and wanted to have a big party to aid in the consumption. We were more than willing to oblige. Photos of this amazing feast, and the views from the house, will be posted as soon as I get the new computer (and hence have one that will work with my camera).

Sunday was by far more relaxed, all we did was fret over what we spent on the computer and then took Daisy to the Rincon Valley dog park. She had a blast and had really needed it. There were a couple of awesome dogs there. My first favorite was a baby English Bulldog named Seymour; he was one of the cutest goddamn dogs I have ever seen and was a week younger than Daisy. The dog that took the cake though, was an older black French Bulldog named Potato. What a poor, hilariously sad little chunker he was. Being a Frenchie, he of course had terrible breathing and sinus problems; if you're a dog person you know this plagues all the short-snout breeds like bulldogs and pugs. But poor Potato, he was just hyperventilating to the extreme and the owner said it was totally normal for him. As she put it, "as long as his tongue doesn't turn blue, he's fine. And even then, he just passes out and needs a minute to re-coop, then wakes up and is fine!" I was aghast at this. All the other doggies were running around him and he would just spin in circles, watching them and gasping. It was like watching a severely asthmatic child; "Mommy I want to play with the other kids but *GAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSPPPPPP* I can't breathe!" It was hilarious and so sad at the same time and I can't figure out how to feel about it. It seems cruel to continue to breed these breeds this way when they have so many problems; I don't imagine it's a very pleasant way to live your life. And Potato was this way after 3 major surgeries, apparently he used to be worse. We stayed until sunset and until Daisy was completely tuckered out, then made our way home and sadly accepted that the weekend was already over. No fun.

Btw, quote for the weekend:
"Your demonic child is about 35 thousand times more likely to bite you than my pitbull." -me, uttered sarcastically during the drive home from the lobster party, discussing the stupid bitch who insisted that my dog is a crazed, violent maniac and that there's nothing I can do to stop it (based on "prominent dog psychology" reports she has read). All the while, her 5 year old is screaming incessantly, spinning and running and yelling at people, demanding --no, violently insisting on-- everyone's full attention, completely out of control, and a little spoiled brat just like her mother. And the lady completely ignored all of it, just continuing on with her profound speech on how my dog will kill my children someday... it's inevitable, you know.

....

Yeah.

_______

Anyhoo, I/we may have some awesome possibilities coming up, but as I've already posted about a novel in length, I think I'm gonna cut off here and hit the hay. Positive news next time!

My Silly Poem & Computer Bliss

So below you will find the product of a week's worth of procrastination, of waiting until the absolute last minute because I was dreading it so much. Don't know what all my fuss was about... it wasn't that bad:

Oh my glycocardio,
How much I love you so!
You give me tachycardia and palpitations,
Not being near you is my greatest frustration.
My goodness the diaphoresis, I feel faint!
The hypertension you give me is nothing quaint.
Give me some antihypertensive so I can relax,
My love for you is surpassing the max!
So out of control, I’ll need an EKG
If you don’t come over here and kiss me!


I wanted it to be longer, but that's about as far as I had the patience to take it. I'm too tired for more, I'd rather blog!

I must say I'm excited to have this blog; it's much better than MySpace's. I know we don't have kids or a "family" to be updating people about but I think it will be fun anyway. We have a dog child that everyone always asks about, so for future reference you should know to check here for Daisy updates!

We are hopefully ordering a new computer this weekend, which has been LONG overdue, and which means I will actually be able to remove the last 3 months worth of pictures from our camera and put some on here. Our current computer is so old and jumbled that it freaks out when we try to connect the cable or plug in the card, so all pictures as of late have been sadly confined to staying on the camera. It will also be nice to actually use and update things I can't now, like my ipod. All my music was on our laptop, which died, and then my fairly new ipod had issues so I had to trade it in for one of the brand-spankin'-new ones (i.e. so new that they don't even have those iClear protective cases for them yet... phooey!). Since I can't access my music, my new ipod is completely empty until we get the new computer and remove everything, including all of my precious music and THOUSANDS of pictures, from the laptop hard drive. I'm very excited about it; it's like a real super-computer and will be awesome for everything, even gaming for Bear (ok, and for me a little... that new Spore game is really intriguing me). It's a Dell XPS Ultimate edition with like a Quad-core processor and a 10k rpm Velociraptor hard drive, dual 512 NVIDIA GeForce video cards, etc. All the cool stuff. WAY excited.

So once that arrives, I will be computing much more often, and will be able to make this a much more interesting blog. Until then, boring and picture-less shall have to do!

School's A Drag

So I'm taking 3 classes this semester --all of them online, thank god-- that are really a drag. I'm taking Microsoft Word Core Level (so boring and so BASIC... I've known this stuff since I was 14!), Psych1A (zzzzz), and Medical Terminology. The latter is the one I'd like to bitch about today. This is by far my hardest class; learning the terms and workings of the human body is so hard! It's really like learning an entire new language. My homework this week is to write a POEM using some of the medical terms I have learned thus far. WTF?! Now, I used to be quite the poet in my mellodramatic teen years, but this is just so beyond me. For one, I can't remember the vast majority of the terms I've learned, and for two, how the hell do I make them into a poem?! I'm so over my head and frustrated. The Drop The Class feeling in my gut is rearing it's ugly head but I refuse to give up this semester. I'm doing better than I have ever done and I think I can pull a 4.0. That would make me very proud of myself and I could use a little pride in myself right now.
Don't give up, write a poem, don't give up....

Bear is at class tonight, too. He is doing well, though he's taking a class he's already taken 2 times. He's taking it because they're going to be covering Civil3D and he wants to learn more about it; the subject matter of the course changes every semester so he keeps taking it over and over again. I wish he would take other things too though; I want him to start working toward his degree and I think he underestimates how much Gen Ed he has to do, which he could get all done at the JC before transferring.

We have a lot of school to do... it's very frustrating and I feel like we'll never reach our goals. I want to finish all of this before we start a family, but we're so behind and we really have a limited amount of time for the family starting. I just hope we can both get done and get settled a bit into our careers and not have waited too long on the kids. Only time will tell, I suppose.