Perfect Football Day!

The Falcons aside, today has been the football day I've been waiting for for years! As most people know, I'm a big Colts fan and of course cheer them on all throughout the year, so it's super sweet to see them going to the Super Bowl again. And while I'm not gonna claim to be a big Saints fan or jump on that bandwagon, I can assure you I have been a Drew Brees fan for a long time (he's always been my back-up QB on my fantasy team) and by default, I usually pull for the Saints for that reason. Did the same for the Chargers. Anyway, every year, at the start of the season, my dad insists I guess who is going to be in the Super Bowl. This year, I said, "Saints and Colts." Looks like my prediction finally came true.

Anyway, I have been working my tail off this last week, trying to get caught up on all the hours I lost when I was sick and my mom was in the hospital and I was sick, myself. (I should be good by Tuesday or Wednesday this week.) Otherwise, nothing really noteworthy has happened for me to blog about. I went back to that store that is going out of business and bought another picture for my bedroom. I took some major steps towards looking for a job in another city. I hung out with family and friends, even though my weekend hasn't gone as planned. We've had tornado warnings (I love this time of year.) I've been working out a little bit (trying to get back into the habit) and of course, playing with the dogs.

Sadie is getting big - she's doubled in size since I got her - and she and Gabby are getting along so well. This may be the dumbest thing I've ever written, but her ears are starting to stand up. I point this out because I really hope she grow up to look like a German Shepherd and that's a big sign. The weather warmed up this week, so we were able to go for a few walks. We haven't hit the park yet (I need to buy a leash for the little one), but we did go for a few romps through the woods. I'll post a few pics to hopefully make up for my lack of blogging (and this ultra-boring post).

These are some pictures I took today and last night. If the place where I got her is to be believed, Sadie is about 12 weeks old now.

The girls snuggling up beside each other (and me) on the sofa last night, as I worked and watched TV.

The girls playing today (also on my tattered and torn sofa). Gabby was actually asleep and Sadie trampled her.

Watching the first half of the Colts game (it looked pretty bad there for a while).

This is the picture I bought for my bedroom. If I had to describe the theme in there, it'd be beachside bar/nautical/sailboat (not cliche beachy) . Main colors are blue and white. Hopefully, by the time I get in a new place, I can settle in and get everything decorated as it's supposed to be!

P.S. Today is one of my oldest friends' (Melissa) birthday. She is 29. When we were kids (we've been friends since 1st grade) she used to brag about being the oldest of the two of us and I used to get pretty jealous. Today, when I wished her a happy birthday/called her "old lady," I had to laugh at how much the tables have turned!

R.I.P. Mac...or Whomever

Remember Mac? For those of you who weren't with me then, in early September '08, right after I'd moved out of my cute historic downtown home, I was out running errands and decided to run by the old house to check the mail. My mom was with me and as I was pulling away, she spotted an abandoned kitten (he was probably about 3-4 weeks old) in the yard and she ended up taking him home and raising him.

Well, Mac died today. (I was going to say "his journey ended" or "he's no longer with us," but I hate when people say stuff like that or "he passed away.") He's always been kind of sickly. He was never able to meow and he never went through puberty. As a matter of fact, he didn't act like much of a cat. He always wanted my mom to hold him and was generally very clingy. Over the last few days, he suddenly became very lethargic, stopped eating or drinking, and yesterday one of his eyes started bleeding. By this morning, you could barely tell he was breathing. My mom had planned to take him to the vet this weekend anyway, but today I think she knew that she wouldn't be bringing him home, so she called and asked me to go along with my dad.

The problem with my dad and I taking him is that we aren't big fans of this cat. Before we were even out of the driveway, we agreed that it wasn't worth paying hundreds and maybe thousands of dollars to attempt to revive him and even agreed on a story to tell my mom in the event the vet got all Jesus-like on us and decided to try to heal him (I know that sounds harsh but this cat was near death anyway). And to be honest, we weren't even quite sure what the cat's name was. As you see, I named him "Mac" when he was found, but my mom soon began to call him some stupid name like "Itty Bitty Boo Boo." (Seriously, I cringed every time she said it.) Every once in a while, someone would come up with another nickname but it never stuck.

So, today, I walk into the vet's office and the girl says to me, "Is that Boo?"

"Who?" I asked.

"Boo. The sick cat...?"

I looked at her and said, "This is a sick cat but I don't think that's his name."

"Well, what's his name?" she asked.

"Um, well, this is my parents' cat, so I'm not really totally sure what they call him," I said hoping to make us at least look we actually cared about the poor thing. My dad came in behind me, holding the cat, and I hoped he'd take over.

Instead, he pipes up, "What did y'all say? What's his name? I thought it was Cortez?" (Sigh.)

"Well, he's really my mom's cat; we have nothing to do with what he's called," I said, grasping for some last bit of dignity. After all, I have an appointment to take my dogs to this same office next week.

Too late. The receptionist is looking at us both like we're idiots. "Whoever called to make the appointment said his name is Boo. So, we'll stick with that. Besides, cats usually come to whatever you call them."

I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying, "I don't think anyone's going to be calling this one anything for much longer."

I proceeded to fill out some paperwork and my dad took the cat back to be examined. Once I was finished, the receptionist told me I could go back with him and I said, "No, thanks. I just came for uh, moral support and to help my dad find the place." I took a seat in the waiting room and petted a big black lab and checked my email and Twitter from my phone and before I know it, the receptionist has come up to me and is whispering in my ear in her most concerned, apologetic tone, "I think your dad decided to have the cat euthanized. Would you like to go be with him as they do it?"

I looked at her, confused. "Um, no thanks," I said with a little laugh and looked back to my phone before I realized she was dead serious. "I mean, uh, I uh, I can't handle stuff like that."

"I understand," the girl said and went back behind the desk, but I'm pretty sure she had labeled me the most cold-hearted person in the entire universe at this point.

And it's not that I'm cold-hearted. Admittedly, I'm not a cat person. If that had been my Gabs or Sadie, or even one of my parents' dogs, I'd be back there holding it until the very last second if need be. But I just can't click with cats. And don't get me wrong, I don't want to see any animal suffer, but my dad was with him and he was so out of it, I'm not sure he even knew where he was. So, yeah, it was sad and I felt bad. Hell, I came home and gave my puppies (who stayed with my mom) some extra love, but I didn't feel the need to say any last goodbyes or anything like that.

Anyway, so it turns out Mac (or whatever his name was) had some sort of horrible disease that he most likely got from a neighborhood stray. The vet could have tried to treat him but they were looking at a huge bill and even then, only a 25% chance he'd live. And given that he'd already gone blind, his quality of life wouldn't have been so great. Plus, my mom would have had to administer treatment for weeks and she's still having to keep up with her own treatment as it is. The vet seemed to agree that putting him down was not the worst thing to do. (Well, that's what my dad said; it wasn't part of our plan, though.)

So, Mac or whomever died today. He was about a year and a half old. He was a sweet little cat but he's better off now, I suppose.

Bargain Shopping & Other Stuff

Well, I haven't really updated this week because I've been celebrating the fact that I can actually leave the house now! Woohoo! That and I've had a lot of work to do. It's been a pretty boring week. Monday, I actually made it out of my driveway (took a couple of tries and I did slip and slide) but then I got out and ran several errands I'd planned to take care of over the weekend. I even went to the grocery store and stocked up on healthy crap and I'm ready to start back on my diet.

Tuesday, I stayed home and played mommy/nurse to my dogs. They both have little colds. I was slightly worried it was kennel cough, even though they've both been vaccinated, but whatever it was they got over it pretty quickly. They both go to the vet next week for their shots and I really didn't want to have to take them twice. I saw to it they got plenty of rest and love and even locked them in the bathroom while I ran a hot, steamy shower. Beat that, people with kids!! Ha ha.

Yesterday, my mom and I went to this store that is going out of business. I got two nice mixing bowls, two sailboat Christmas ornaments, and the five pictures you see above. All for about $30.00. As you know, I love a good bargain and most everything in the store was 50% - 80% off. The picture with the old produce labels is going to most likely be cut down and framed as three pictures and hung in my kitchen; the Cuba picture is going to go on top of the bookcase I took forever to paint this summer, which will slightly change the theme of my living room. The sailboat picture was going to go over the bookcase, but I think I'll end up using it in the bedroom because my decor in there is sort of nautical - not beachy, more like a little seaside pub or something. It's hard to describe. The smaller two pictures are actually on tile. The floral one will also be part of the living room and the blue one with the beach shack will go in the bedroom. Though, seeing as how I'll probably be moving by the end of April, I'm not in a big hurry to hang pictures.

Today, I've pretty much worked all day and played with the dogs. Those two are getting along so well! I never would have thought it. Sadie loves Gabby and Gabby, well, she tolerates Sadie more than I ever thought she would. They love to play with each other (Gabby rarely played anymore before), chase each other, Gabby lets her climb all over her and they even snuggle up at night or during naps. It's almost like it was meant to be; seriously, I was so worried about how they'd get along. I really can't wait until it warms up and we're able to go outside more. I'll try to post some new pictures later this week or next week.

Oh well, this is a pretty boring post but I'm trying to stick to one of my many resolutions, which is to post more. Even if it's just the mundane details of my life. It's time for the "First 48" season premiere (WOOHOO!) so I'll wrap this up with a video. I'm sure most of you have been following the news coverage of the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti. Steve Harrigan is a Fox News reporter, and if you've ever watched him, he's a pretty no-nonsense tough guy. Well, today, on Studio B, he broke down in Haiti and I thought it was pretty good coverage.

Snowed In! Literally.

So, as I mentioned, it snowed on Thursday and yesterday, temps never got much above 20. Which means unlike the usual Atlanta snow that melts the day after, this stuff stuck and froze over. That was fine, I didn't leave the house and really didn't need to, aside from the fact that my friend Roxy and I were debating going to an event for Karen Handel in Atlanta and I ran out of paper towels after cleaning up after the dog. (I've never seen so much, um, stuff, come out of something so little.)

Well, today, Saturday, my dad called and told me he'd be running out to the store and I asked him to pick me up some necessities, such as the above mentioned paper towels and um, Doritos. He was also going to come remove a dead bird from my back porch. Poor thing landed there last night and was barely breathing. I probably should have done something to provide it with a humane way to die, but I figured I've done my share for the animal world this week. Plus, I was kind of afraid it was diseased and I didn't want my dogs to catch anything.

So, my dad gets here, performs his maintenance duties, and I decided to go back with him to let my mom visit with Gabby and Sadie. She's still somewhat ill and can't leave the house much and she seemed sort of anxious for us to come. Well, we got about 50 feet up my driveway before we were sliding all over everywhere. My dad attempted to go up it in his truck, every which way, but we just couldn't make it over the hill. He even got out and tried to shovel away some of the ice but it was too solid. He ended up walking home and the girls and I came back in to eat Doritos.

The moral of the story? I will never move up North. Forget their poor manners and backwards politics (just kidding, people), I couldn't handle the weather. The cold and snow is fun for a day or two - it's a novelty, but after a week of this crap, I'm miserable. It's depressing!! I'm tired of being stuck in the house. It's ridiculous trying to train the puppy to go out in this weather; most of the time she just stares at me and shivers. Gabby, who likes cold weather, doesn't even like this. And I can't even wait to see what my heating bill is going to look like. I've had to run it nonstop or we turn to icicles. Plus, it's drying my skin out and making it impossible for me to get over the respiratory parts of my own illness.

Call me a wimp or whatever you'd like, but I'll take my 100 degree summers over this negative one windchill crap any day. I was supposed to go to my grandfather's 84th birthday party tonight, but it looks like that's probably not going to happen unless some major melting occurs. I considered walking since it's not even a mile, but my dad (who is in pretty good shape) said it nearly killed him to walk up to his house. Oh well, at least I can get caught up on work and some movie-watching.

And at least these guys know how to keep warm:

Snow!

We got a whole half an inch or so of snow last night. Enough to shut down the schools and clog up the grocery stores with milk and bread-seekers from near and far. Here's the view outside my front door this morning:
Here's the view of the woods behind my house. Wish things would have gotten a little more covered, but oh well:

Here's Gabby out checking things out; she loved the snow a couple of years ago but as she gets older, seems to not care so much:

And here is Sadie checking out the snow this morning. She liked it last night - ran around biting at it and picking up snow-covered leaves - but she didn't seem to have much use for it this morning.

The three of us went back outside and she stayed on the covered, snow-free patio. Sure, this is not a snow picture, but come on, she's so cute!

Sadie

As I mentioned two days ago, I am now the proud owner of a new puppy. If you know me at all, you know I've been contemplating getting one for quite some time and especially since I moved to this house. Since I'm working from home at the moment, I figured it'd be a good time to get one, so I could get it trained and get Gabby used to it and all that good stuff. Well, I'd pretty much decided to wait until after the start of the year, but I didn't exactly plan to get one so soon.
With Christmas, my mom being in the hospital, and me being sick and out of commission for about a week, I got a little backed up on my work hours and on New Year's Day, I was working to get caught up. But as is often the case with me and work, I decided to find everything and anything I could do to procrastinate and somehow I found myself on Craigslist, looking at pet ads. I saw one for "German Shepherd Mix" puppies and clicked on it, only to find one of the cutest little dogs I've ever seen. He was one of a litter of four that had been placed in an animal shelter about 45 minutes northwest of me. I clicked the link to view his siblings; there were two girls and two boys and one of the girls, nicknamed "Darby," immediately caught my attention.

Over the weekend, I thought about it, and decided that if Darby was still there by the end of the week, I'd go get her, but by Sunday night, I found out that three of the puppies had been adopted on Saturday. According to the website and the lady whom I spoke with, she was the only one left. I took that as some kind of sign and decided I'd go up there first thing Monday morning.

On Monday, I got up and drove up to what has got to be one of the crappiest cities in Georgia and went straight to the shelter. The man took me back to see her and my first thought was, she doesn't exactly look like she did in the picture, but she was adorable all the same. She'd knocked her water bowl over and was soaking wet and the man said she'd climbed halfway up the gate to her little pin before I got there. He let me take her in a room to play with her and after a few minutes, I told him I'd take her.

At some point Monday night, I realized that the puppy I brought home was not the one in the picture that I wanted so badly (actually, I think I knew that all along). She'd been mixed up with her sister, "Daisy." Even so, I think I ended up with the right dog. Admittedly, she's not exactly what I wanted anyway. I love big dogs (the bigger the better) and really wanted a large breed. However, I refuse to pay a breeder for a purebred dog when there are so many poor babies in high-kill shelters like this one, so I knew I might not get exactly what I wanted. On the other hand, I've wanted a German Shepherd for a while and I realize she's not one but she definitely has some in her, so it's quite possible she'll look a lot like one. I'd love it if she got that big. Right now, at what is estimated to be eight-nine weeks, she's about seven pounds.

Regardless of what she looks like or how big she gets, I have fallen in love with this dog. She's got the sweetest little personality and so far she's pretty well-behaved. The only major problem I've had is when I tried to take a nice, relaxing bath last night - she sat beside the tub and practically howled.

So how is the Gabs taking to her new little sister? So far, she's doing a lot better than I thought she would. The first day she hid in the bedroom. Yesterday, she ignored her (and me). Today she's doing a little better. Sadie wants to play with Gabby and Gabby wants no part of it. She does sniff at her and doesn't run away if she gets within two feet of her anymore. As a matter of fact, the three of us are laying on the sofa together right now. Yes, there is a pillow partition between the dogs, but baby steps. Eventually, I think Gabby will be glad to have a companion because she doesn't like being left alone; I came in the other day and she was sitting in my chair, howling. I'd never heard her howl before. As for me, I was really afraid I was going to regret the decision (I always do when I get a new pet, yes, sadly, even when I got the Gabs seven years ago), but I've had no regrets at all this time. It seems like she was meant to be here and that's saying a lot for my fear of commitment!

Below are a few more pictures. I've been taking them with my phone so the quality kind of sucks, but I'm sure there will be many more of both my girls to come. (Wow, I'm going to become crazy old dog lady, I just feel it.)

Meet Sadie

Gabby has a little sister now. Yep, I finally took the plunge and got a puppy. That's the best picture I've been able to take...hopefully I can add more (and more of a story) later in the week. Right now, I've got lots of work to do! That is, if I don't freeze to death first. I've never experienced temperatures this cold, consistently!