Two Dogs and One Cat FOR SALE!

Ain't that the truth?

Last week, the cat puked on the bed. So at 9:00 at night I had to wash the comforter, sheets and mattress pad. And the comforter is so big it won't fit in the washing machine and I don't want to pay for dry cleaning (this is the THIRD time he has puked on the bed) so I wash it by hand in the bathtub and then hang it up in the shower to dry. Oy. Why must he always throw up on the bed?! He never even sleeps on the bed. He's hardly up there at all. Except when he feels the need to get sick.

Not two days later, we come home and one of the dogs has peed in the hallway, on the carpet. Argggh. We've been leaving the dogs inside every day this summer since it is 107 outside. They are (usually) very good about staying off of all carpet in the house. This has been the rule for years. But I guess when they have to go to the bathroom they just can't go on any of the tile. That would make too much sense. They have to go on the CARPET. Ahhhhh!

THEN. Later that same week, we come home from work and I walk in the house and smell something. Uh oh. I was for real too scared to look. I made Mark walk around the house and find the source of the smell. Yeah. Dog poop, on the carpet, in our bedroom.

The animals are trying to run me out. I keep telling them, "you're lucky you're cute." Or YOU would be out of here!

Where did the summer go, Grad School, and WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT IS ONLY 93 DEGREES OUTSIDE?!

Life is rushing past at a pretty rapid speed these days. This week is my first full week back at school, which means (gasp!) I have to work tomorrow and I have to stay all the way until 4:00 each day. It's pretty brutal. But my new boss started yesterday, and I think she is going to be a great addition to our team. So with some new changes around school, it feels almost like a whole new job. Which is nice and refreshing.

My grad school classes start in a few weeks, which is also going to be an exciting new change. I'm still meeting every few weeks with the head of our Lower School, who is serving as a mentor to me this year. She is such a great resource and is going to be such a valuable contact for me this next year. I am both excited and nervous-slash-borderline-nauseous at the idea of getting in the classroom sometime soon to teach some real, full day classes. Hooray!

Let's make this a totally random blog post and bounce around a lot, shall we? If you live in Dallas or Texas or anywhere in the entire middle of the country, you know that it's pretty hot outside. And I pretty much hate the heat with a passion larger than life. Well, I do LOVE going to the pool, but otherwise, I'll stay out of the heat thankyouverymuch. Well, I am a bit of a weather bug and like obsessively watch the local news every day to find out what the weather is going to be like each day (see also: Pete Delkus is my old(er) man crush). So I have gotten pretty into this whole When Will We Break the Record Streak of Most 100+ Days In A Row and Overtake the Dreaded Summer of 1980 (for which I was not even alive). And you guys, we are going to tie the record tomorrow and break it on Saturday! I've been watching this countdown play out on the news every morning, evening and night for the past 2 weeks! It is so! exciting! Every seven day forecast since like July 4 has been sure that we'll beat this record and go down in the books as the longest, hottest, most horrible summer in Dallas EVER and I was going to tell my kids and my grandkids and my great-grandkids that I lived through it.

But then. Out of nowhere. Clouds! We haven't seen clouds around here since May and they just blew in out of nowhere today and bam. We haven't hit 100 degrees yet today and it's not looking good that we'll get there at all. ONE DAY SHY of tying the record. Whahhhhhaat? We've suffered through 109 degree days and we can't even set a record?

Tragic.

Ok. The cat is bugging me to feed him and I've got dinner plans across town, so I'll end this rant for now. But, since you've read this far, I will sneak in a little surprise wedding photo, for no reason at all.

Just before making our big entrance in the Grand Centennial Hall of Lindsay, Texas. Holla!

Someone Shot the Cat

I heart him.

A Long Weekend

Happy Post Easter! How excited am I that I am still off from work? I cannot argue with a four day weekend. Today I will be watching Whose Wedding is it Anyways, all day. And eating the entire contents of my Easter basket. Here's a little peek into my holiday:

I was off Friday, so I met Mark for lunch at Houlihan's. Yum. It is my favorite. This was the first time I'd ever eaten lunch there. They have this deal, like a pizza place - get your lunch in 15 minutes or it's free. They actually put a little digital timer on your table and start it after you place your order, so you can make sure they don't go over. We had a Free Entree coupon from Mark's birthday (join their email list), so we got out of there for about $15 and we even ordered TWO desserts! How I love you, Houlihan's.

Friday evening I met the girls for Happy Hour at Gloria's. It was just warm enough to sit out on the patio. Always a good time.

Saturday afternoon Kelly and I drove up to Muenster. When we got there we hit up the shops and I got two adorable new shirts (love shopping with Mom!). Both are tie dyed. I am all over this tie dye trend. I LOVE it. Then we went back home to start Bake Fest 2009. We made: Sundae Pie, brownie bites, cut out cookies (butterflies and Easter eggs), pumpkin bread and cupcakes. I do not know why we felt the need to bake so much. It's not like there was anyone else but us there to eat it all!? And, to make it worse, once we were knee deep in these projects (because yes, we did them all simultaneously.. you should have seen the line for the oven), Mom realizes that some sort of strawberry shortcake spilled in the fridge and had dripped all the way down. Everywhere. You know that gooey jarred strawberry stuff that you put on cakes? It had spilt on the top shelf and run down everything, collecting in the two drawers at the bottom of the fridge. Sticky. Thick. Red. Messy. On everything. Every salad dressing. Every bagged salad. Every vegetable. Every fruit. Every leftover. Everything. So we cleaned out the entire refrigerator as well.

Mark came up Saturday night in time for dinner. He brought his two dogs and they wore out the puppies. All four slept in the garage that night, during one of the loudest thunderstorms I've ever heard. My bed shook from the thunder. The family watched Marley and Me that night. We all cried and hugged our pups an extra time that night. I also brought Gus up for the trip because I have been having major guilt issues about leaving him alone at home so much. He usually does really well at my parents' place. This time he was on freak out mode and walked around the entire time whining. Cat whining is quite annoying.

We all made it to Easter mass Sunday morning, dressed in our Spring time best. Even though it was cold and overcast, we forged on. We crammed in the packed church and sat behind a family with four little girls. They were a handful to say the least. The youngest fell and smacked her head on the wood pew, twice. There were a lot of tears during that service.

The Bunny came when we got home. I got the Ped Egg (so appropriate for Easter, yes?) and Mark got A Barrel of Monkey's. Random? We feasted on pot roast before hitting the road back home. I rode up with my sister so I could ride back with Mark. We didn't think this plan through. Because with his two dogs, my cat and the two of us.. it's not really physically possible in his car. So we rode back with Gus in his carrier on my lap. At least it was a short-ish drive!

Last night I watched The Sound of Music on TV. Perfect ending to an Easter weekend! Mark had NEVER seen this movie. He was quickly annoyed, as I knew every single song. His roommate was also amused and laughed out loud at me. Many times.

This morning, I knew I had to take my car in because it's been leaking something all week. The thought of having to spend more money on my car, 5 days after the new tires, was making my physically ill. I got an oil change at Wal Mart last week. We checked the oil level this morning and it was basically completely empty. So I was ready to fight with Wal Mart. Demand that they fix whatever they did to cause this to happen and fill me back up with oil. I went in with my game face on. They took a quick look at it, told me the lid of plug or stopper or whatever hadn't been tightened all the way. Took all the blame. Fixed it up for me and REFUNDED me for the oil change. They even refunded the flat fix they did as well (which we know did no good). It was icing on the cake. They were so apologetic and told me to drive safe as I left. I love when people are nice. It made my day. So I took the $50 they gave me back and got my car inspected down the road. Please let that be the end of all things car for the year.

Now I'm hanging out at home, enjoying the end of this long break. I've got some fun things in store this week. Mark's test is two weeks away, and then we'll get our old, stress-free lives back. Can't wait.

Blogging Temporarily Delayed...

... due to a certain someone who thinks I've been gone too long and on the computer too frequently. I'm working on an update of sorts, but won't get around to finishing it up tonight, since three times now he's climbed up on my keyboard.

More to come.. soon i hope.

Cat Naps

Today is the coldest day of the year, as is true for most all of the country right now. Gus is opting to sleep the cold days away, but he does follow me around from room to room, curling up next to me for a snooze. He's such a cute little guy.

Up With the Chickens

I woke up at 6:00 today, thanks to my early rising cat who wouldn't keep quiet in the bedroom I share with my sister at my parents' house. I finally got out of bed around 6:45 and dragged him downstairs with me so Kelly could at least sleep in peace. We watched the sun come up and now I'm watching the Today show with the volume down so low I'm having to read their lips to understand the stories. I had two Christmas cookies for breakfast and am browsing all the online sales. Does anyone have short legs? If so, these pants at JCrew are a steal of a deal. I wish they had my size.

Yesterday I played Santa's elf and wrapped close to 30 presents for my mom. It must have taken me 4 hours. Wrapping takes forever! I had to hand-make bows for them out of craft ribbon, which at first was really hard and ended up being pretty fun. I got really good at making those bows. I also baked a batch of Neiman Marcus Cookies. Have you heard the story about their recipe? They are a bit of work to make. The recipe calls for blended oats, chopped nuts and a shredded Hershey's bar. We didn't have a candy bar, so I used a handful of Hershey's kisses and and a cheese grater. It took some time, but the cookies are delicious. Especially for breakfast.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Oh Christmas Tree

Here's a shot of my tree. You can't really see him, but there's a little cat curled up underneath it. It is his new favorite place to sleep!

Celebrating Moms

Happy Mother's Day to all!  Today I called my mom, emailed my godmother and hung out with this little guy, who likes to call me Mom.

This pic was taken with the camera in my laptop, before we went to bed.  Gus curls up with me while I'm reading or watching TV before bed, then he leaves me for the closet, where he sleeps most of the night.  I think he thinks its his own bedroom.  I hope everyone had some quality Mom Time today!

The Face of Unhappiness

I did what I said I would never do.  I gave my cat a bath.

Wordless Wednesday

Lazy Days

It's been a slow, lazy week. I had Monday off for MLK Day and spent the morning lounging around with Gus. He loved it. So did I. Tonight I am babysitting for four kids under the age of four. Something tells me it won't be such a lazy time tonight!

Miss(ter) Independant

Gus has been at home for almost one week now. He's quite the social kitty and always wants to be in the center of the fun. Take a look for yourself. I guess it won't be as hard to hide him from my apartment's leasing office as I thought. Pet deposit? What pet deposit??

She'll never find me here!

Can you see my little nose?

Under the bed, always.

My new favorite hiding spot

Gus

This weekend was a busy one.. like always! Friday night I met some friends at the Gingerman, Saturday we went to SMU Homecoming for some tailgating and to watch the UT game, Saturday night we watched the OSU game, and then today it was church and cleaning up the apartment. But! In between all that... I got a cat! He is a four month old gray tabby and he's the cutest little kitten you've ever seen! His name is Gus.

The quest to find Gus wasn't easy. There are tons of homeless kitties out there that need owners, right? All I have to do is show up at a shelter and they will hand one over, right? Wrong! Friday night I had an actual appointment to meet with a lady who fosters cats. She had a cat named Tulsa who I found on PetFinder and thought would be a good cat for me. This lady was the epitome of a Cat Lady. She had nineteen cats living in her house. Nineteen. She informed me that they travel in packs, just like wild cats. The two packs do not get along and therefore must be fed and kept in separate rooms. Needless to say, I opted not to adopt one of her gang member cats.

Saturday morning, before heading to SMU, Mark and I swung by Petsmart to check out their adoption fair. That's where I found Gus. I saw him sitting in his cage and knew he was the guy for me. Even when I held him at the fair, he was so calm and so sweet and would just let me pet him forever. So I filled out the paperwork, bought a litterbox and some food and less than one hour later, I was walking out with Gus in a cardboard box and a car full of supplies! He's been home for almost two days now. So out of those 40 hours, he has spent 39.5 of them under my bed. The poor little guy is terrified and won't come out unless I reach under there and drag him. Once he is out though, he's just as happy as can be and will sit on my lap and even roll over for a belly rub. I've just got to get him used to his new home and I'm sure we'll be the best of friends!

This is where I hide all day!