Tuesday!

Heffalump

@kimmiinthemitten:



@short+sassy, that sucks, and I'm so sorry. 

@banana468, vibes for a healthy kiddo.

DH and I are suffering from massive ennui and FWP this week.  But Saturday night is date night, and Sunday is my massage, so that's something.

Also, I am feeling like I want a dog.  I'm going to sit on this awhile.  But I was browsing the rescue where we got Wooz's (awesome) kitten, and I like this dog:



Meet Lilly, a 1 year old Border Collie mix. Lilly is a social girl that has never met a dog or person she doesn’t love! Lilly was recently rescued from an area shelter after being found alone and lost. She is currently in a foster home and doing very well.

She likes to be where the action is and loves attention. She is a happy go lucky girl and her tail never stops wagging. Lilly is a very smart girl that knows basic commands and would excel in extended training classes. She loves to go for walks and her foster is working on leash manners. She loves to run and play especially with a tennis ball!

She's house and crate trained, and good in the car. She would make a wonderful companion for someone looking for an active, attentive and affectionate dog. She currently weighs 38lbs and will weigh around 45lbs. She is spayed, current on vaccines and microchipped.

OliveOilsMom

Banana - Health and wellness to your household soon!  I had the stomach flu the other week and it was terrible! 

Kimmi - You should really do that!

kimmiinthemitten

@heffalump I'm in love!  That face!!

banana468

Thanks everyone.   Luckily my 6yo has better aim than her brother.   By 6 AM Friday I'd done 3 loads of laundry.

*Barbie*

drid said:

LOL almost every year for my birthday I get tickets to an NHL game, mostly because FI wants to go. He's lucky I also like hockey. 

@drid - we're fans of different teams (me-penguins, him - flyers) so we usually do at least 1 hockey trip/season to see our teams in different arenas. We're trying to eventually get to all of them. I booked a trip to Nashville for a game as an anniversary gift for him in 2016. He's gotten me tickets as a gift before, too. 

@kimmiinthemitten - Happy Birthday! Also, totally don't blame you - your H needs a junkpunch for that one. 
@short+sassy - that's awful about the tools. will insurance cover any of the cost? hopefully they will catch who did it. 

short+sassy

Thanks for the sympathies, all.  No insurance help for a lot of reasons.  I don't think I have it for theft, I know my deductible is much higher than $1,000, and a negative mark on my property insurance would substantially increase my rates...not just for this property, but any time I shopped for property insurance over the next 10 years.  And, in NOLA, we already have the second highest property insurance rates in the country.

I doubt the police can do anything.  There aren't any leads (that I know of).  We're friendly with the neighbors, they did some work for us.  I'll have my H ask them if they know anything, but I'm sure that's a long shot also.

I really would only use my property insurance for something catastrophic, ie at least $10K in damage.  Like a property burning down.  Otherwise, it's just not worth the rate jump after the deductible.  I usually keep my deductibles around $3K-$5K, for exactly these reasons.

Believe it or not, it's a fairly safe neighborhood.  Theft worries is why I won't do renovations in bad neighborhoods.  I'm especially freaking out on how to keep my appliances safe.  We can replace the tools (barely), but I'm too tapped out to replace the appliances.  And, of course, the thief(ves) would have seen all those lovely brand new appliances, but (I'm guessing) didn't have a truck handy to cart them away.  I'm shocked they didn't take the ac/heat window units.  Those are a popular theft item in our area and can be carried by one person.

My radical idea is to maybe hire a handyman to finish doing some of the work, but has to be there overnight.  I can't really afford that either but, its better than the alternative.  Otherwise, I want us to be there after dark and overnight.  Which will be super uncomfortable, because there are no furnishings or tv or wifi.  My H won't like it, but I can't have my appliances stolen also.

And we're almost done.  Argh!!!  That is the part that is killing me the most.  Another month and it will be totally occupied with tenants anyway.

kimmiinthemitten

@short+sassy can you install a camera or anything so you can see what's going on inside when you're not there?

lyndausvi

@kimmiinthemitten - Happy Birthday.

@short+sassy  - I'm sorry.    I honestly do not miss NOLA all that much due to the crime.


I've been MIA lately.  Hope everyone is well.  Between work and my social calendar I haven't had much time online.   I have today and tomorrow off.   The is the first "weekend" I have NO plans.  No friends in town, no parties, no doctor's appointments, do overnight trips to Denver or Vail.  NOTHING. I'm not sick either (was sick for most of Jan).  I don't know what to do with  myself.    Ha.    We were suppose to get some snow.  I don't see any, maybe it's all on the mountain?  Not sure, but I might go skiing tomorrow. 


AW - Last week I finally went shopping for some clothes.   I walked into the Lucky Brand outlet in a pair of 8 jeans.  Walked out in a pair of 2's.   Yikes.  I'm loving my new body.   Hope once this job ends I can keep up with all the steps I've been doing.

short+sassy

kimmiinthemitten said:

@short+sassy can you install a camera or anything so you can see what's going on inside when you're not there?

I thought about that, but I know my H will just pooh-pooh it.  The best hope is that it deters someone, but probably won't.  Then, sure you have a video to give to the police, but unless they know by sight who it is, that won't matter either.

I should buy an ADT sign off Ebay or something.  That's probably more of a deterrent, though still not much of one.

sparklepants41

@kimmiinthemitten Happy Birthday!

@short+sassy that really sucks! I'm so sorry! Hugs for you!

Today I am exhausted. We called all of our families last night and told them we are expecting (H actually used the phrase "we are pregnant" once and I quickly put an end to that!). Then I didn't sleep well last night so I am a mess today and I just don't want to do anything. 

VarunaTT

I'm struggling today.  Actually, I'm struggling all the time.  Now, I'm wondering if this is situational depression or if I'm actually a depressed person and need to get help.  It's not like I can't get out of bed or do things, I just don't want to.  IDK, I'm trying to take a hard look at myself right now and figure some things out.

Oh birthdays.  My 40th is at the end of this month.  I'm not feeling it.  I've already got friends who are poking and prodding about birthday party.  They all want to go balls to the wall party.  I'm just like...I just want to read my book all day, thanks.

That's about all I've got.

levioosa

@kimmiinthemitten happy birthday!!!

@short+sassy I'm so sorry. 

Today is filled with meaningless tasks. I'm dragging myself to the gym unwillingly. Lol. It's supposed to rain all day again today, which is good for us, but once again doesn't help with motivation. I think I need to start getting up earlier and doing more. I'm just so tired all day, and then night comes and bam, I'm awake and can't sleep. 

OliveOilsMom

Varuna - Hugs.  Can you talk to K about your depression?  She may be able to see it in a different way and help you determine whether its situational or something more.  Then you can go from there on how to get help.

charlotte989875

So I text H after I leave the dentist and tell him I have a cavity and need a root canal. His response is "Maybe. Well look into it and see." I ask him what he means and he says "we will talk about it later". 

Maybe I'm a little cranky but what do you mean, maybe? Like maybe the dentist is wrong? 

VarunaTT

OliveOilsMom said:

Varuna - Hugs.  Can you talk to K about your depression?  She may be able to see it in a different way and help you determine whether its situational or something more.  Then you can go from there on how to get help.

Well, I'm trying to take it easy on myself and give myself some time to really see.  While I moved out in December 2016, my divorce was finalized 2/17.  So, I'm wondering if it isn't just a normal mourning period right now.  I think I'm going to turn off Timehop for awhile, b/c it's very apparent to me, looking back, just from what i was posting (I said nothing about my divorce on social media except we're separating and I'm divorced) how truly sad I was.  At the same time, it does feel good to see how far I've come, how much happier I am.  I simultaneously feel sorry for past Varuna's pain and relieved for present Varuna's happiness. It's a weird mix of feelings.  I keep reminding myself that it was a 16 year relationship, I'm not just going to bounce away from it.

also, I think I'm about to start my period, which is both irritating and funny.  

Heffalump

charlotte989875 said:

So I text H after I leave the dentist and tell him I have a cavity and need a root canal. His response is "Maybe. Well look into it and see." I ask him what he means and he says "we will talk about it later". 

Maybe I'm a little cranky but what do you mean, maybe? Like maybe the dentist is wrong? 

MissKittyDanger

VarunaTT said:

OliveOilsMom said:

Varuna - Hugs.  Can you talk to K about your depression?  She may be able to see it in a different way and help you determine whether its situational or something more.  Then you can go from there on how to get help.

Well, I'm trying to take it easy on myself and give myself some time to really see.  While I moved out in December 2016, my divorce was finalized 2/17.  So, I'm wondering if it isn't just a normal mourning period right now.  I think I'm going to turn off Timehop for awhile, b/c it's very apparent to me, looking back, just from what i was posting (I said nothing about my divorce on social media except we're separating and I'm divorced) how truly sad I was.  At the same time, it does feel good to see how far I've come, how much happier I am.  I simultaneously feel sorry for past Varuna's pain and relieved for present Varuna's happiness. It's a weird mix of feelings.  I keep reminding myself that it was a 16 year relationship, I'm not just going to bounce away from it.

also, I think I'm about to start my period, which is both irritating and funny.  

Definitely do things that are good to you and removing Timehop right now might be better.
Plus some people have harder time in winter season, could that be part of it?

Heffalump

kimmiinthemitten said:

@heffalump I'm in love!  That face!!

I know!  If we were to get a dog, she would be the exact kind we would want: active, smart, friendly.  And not a puppy.  Young but not a puppy-puppy is perfect. 

Dammit, stop talking me into this dog!    I'm always talking about how tired I am, it's not like I'm looking for things to do.  Spring soccer starts in a few weeks for DS, and after that swim league ramps up for Wooz.  (And DS's soccer league doesn't allow dogs at the field.  Not that I checked or anything.) 

And she's part border collie--she's smart, and would need to be trained.  Add that to the weekly schedule:  swim x 2, soccer, riding, art, and oh yeah, dog class.  (PetSmart, for example, offers a series of 6 weeks classes, so if we did all of them through Advanced and included Tricks, that's 24 weeks.  Not that I checked or anything.) 

The daydreamy part of me thinks it would be good to take her for a walk when we get home, or after dinner (in the summer, when the days are longer).  It's a great neighborhood for walking, with sidewalks and a walking trail (that runs behind our house).  And we could take her along to Wooz's riding lessons--there are a bunch of dogs who hang out at the barn: the trainers' dogs, dogs who live there full time, and students' dogs.  Those dogs always look like they're having the time of their lives, even the corgi who was eating rocks the other day.  (The trainer swears he doesn't swallow them, he just likes to chew them.)

Days like today, we leave the house at 7:00 and with Wooz's art class, we don't get home until almost 7:00 at night.  That's not very dog friendly. 

DS loves dogs.  Just loves 'em.  He was petting the aforementioned rock chewer for like 10 minutes last weekend, which is an eternity in preschooler time.

We love going to the Whitewater Center, and the Greenway.  Those are both very dog friendly.  And the mountains. 

It doesn't say whether she's good with cats.  She'd have to be good with cats.  I'm sure she hates cats, right?

thefanciestbeckler

@Heffalump you'd better get that dog. She is the cutest dog in the world. Go today

VarunaTT

@Heffalump You know my parents took my dogs and I adore them and miss them terribly nearly every day.

However, I don't miss feeling guilty during my work day that they're stuck inside.  and I don't miss having to worry about 4 hour shifts when I'm out someplace b/c I need to come home and let out the dogs.  I don't miss having to make travel arrangements for them (even though I had it easy b/c my parents dog sat for us).  There's a lot of freedom in not having a high maintenance pet.  

short+sassy

Heffalump said:

kimmiinthemitten said:

@heffalump I'm in love!  That face!!

I know!  If we were to get a dog, she would be the exact kind we would want: active, smart, friendly.  And not a puppy.  Young but not a puppy-puppy is perfect. 

Dammit, stop talking me into this dog!    I'm always talking about how tired I am, it's not like I'm looking for things to do.  Spring soccer starts in a few weeks for DS, and after that swim league ramps up for Wooz.  (And DS's soccer league doesn't allow dogs at the field.  Not that I checked or anything.) 

And she's part border collie--she's smart, and would need to be trained.  Add that to the weekly schedule:  swim x 2, soccer, riding, art, and oh yeah, dog class.  (PetSmart, for example, offers a series of 6 weeks classes, so if we did all of them through Advanced and included Tricks, that's 24 weeks.  Not that I checked or anything.) 

The daydreamy part of me thinks it would be good to take her for a walk when we get home, or after dinner (in the summer, when the days are longer).  It's a great neighborhood for walking, with sidewalks and a walking trail (that runs behind our house).  And we could take her along to Wooz's riding lessons--there are a bunch of dogs who hang out at the barn: the trainers' dogs, dogs who live there full time, and students' dogs.  Those dogs always look like they're having the time of their lives, even the corgi who was eating rocks the other day.  (The trainer swears he doesn't swallow them, he just likes to chew them.)

Days like today, we leave the house at 7:00 and with Wooz's art class, we don't get home until almost 7:00 at night.  That's not very dog friendly. 

DS loves dogs.  Just loves 'em.  He was petting the aforementioned rock chewer for like 10 minutes last weekend, which is an eternity in preschooler time.

We love going to the Whitewater Center, and the Greenway.  Those are both very dog friendly.  And the mountains. 

It doesn't say whether she's good with cats.  She'd have to be good with cats.  I'm sure she hates cats, right?

@Heffalump, if you read back over your post, it is decidedly more "pro dog" than not.  I'm just sayin'.

She's a cutie and that's a great description.  She looks fun.

I'm trying to agree with you about her hating cats, lol.  But, I dunno.  Friendly dogs seem to like all animals.  My Izzy girl is always trying to get our cat and neighbor cats to play with her.  We got her from the pound and they had no idea how she was with cats.  We were prepared to take her back if she didn't, but everything went well.

OurWildKingdom

Happy birthday @kimmiinthemitten! I can relate; my birthday is the 26th, and this time of year always finds me taking stock of my life. 

Healing vibes for @banana468!

Hugs to @VarunaTT, @short+sassy, and anyone else who needs them!

Work is work. We got another attorney on board today, so we now only have to replace two more. Let's hope they stick around; the last one lasted a month!

Tonight I'm helping with bingo at a rehab center. Should be fun. FW was in a mood the last couple days. I told her she needs to go to her vets support group tonight. I hope she does.

bleve0821

@Heffalump, here, I can talk you out of a dog.

Twiggy and Hiccup require long walks.  I get up at 4AM to walk them 2 miles on a dark street that is inhabited by all manner of small critters an individual walking two dogs with high prey drives does not want to encounter.  When these monsters do not get their morning walks, Hiccup eats books, and we don't know what Twiggy does, but they get up to more than enough mischief together.

Twiggy wakes me up at 3:30 every.single.morning, demanding to be walked, petted, and fed.  On weekends, we may be able to coax him back to sleep, but only if he sleeps on top of one of us.

When DH gets home from work, we walk the dogs another 2 miles on an equally dark street, this time with more traffic and fewer critters.  If they do not get their evening walks, Twiggy stands in the middle of the room and barks at us.  Hiccup is more well-behaved, but she gets snarly.

If the dogs do not get either walk, we may as well set the house on fire.

Twiggy eats 5 cups of dog food a day, and we're probably going to have to make that even more because he's still a twig.  Five cups is a lot, btw.  We go through 3 24-lb bags of dog food a month, totaling around $150, because Dobermans have a notorious poultry intolerance and the vet says Alpo is just baked sugar and 99.9% of the rest of the food on the market is made with chicken, turkey, or duck.

My floors are never clean, there is dog hair everywhere, and I never know where my lap is.  My daffodils and irises are thoroughly trampled, the birds never come to the bird feeder anymore, and Twiggy has figured out how to open doors and the back gate, so they're flight risks.  Twiggy also countersurfs.

They can't travel with us when we see most family because of small children and/or difficulty finding pet-friendly hotels without breed and/or size restrictions, so we have to pay extra $$ to board them or hire a pet sitter.

I can also talk you INTO a dog, but I thought I'd be the lone voice of reason

levioosa

short+sassy said:

Heffalump said:

kimmiinthemitten said:

@heffalump I'm in love!  That face!!

I know!  If we were to get a dog, she would be the exact kind we would want: active, smart, friendly.  And not a puppy.  Young but not a puppy-puppy is perfect. 

Dammit, stop talking me into this dog!    I'm always talking about how tired I am, it's not like I'm looking for things to do.  Spring soccer starts in a few weeks for DS, and after that swim league ramps up for Wooz.  (And DS's soccer league doesn't allow dogs at the field.  Not that I checked or anything.) 

And she's part border collie--she's smart, and would need to be trained.  Add that to the weekly schedule:  swim x 2, soccer, riding, art, and oh yeah, dog class.  (PetSmart, for example, offers a series of 6 weeks classes, so if we did all of them through Advanced and included Tricks, that's 24 weeks.  Not that I checked or anything.) 

The daydreamy part of me thinks it would be good to take her for a walk when we get home, or after dinner (in the summer, when the days are longer).  It's a great neighborhood for walking, with sidewalks and a walking trail (that runs behind our house).  And we could take her along to Wooz's riding lessons--there are a bunch of dogs who hang out at the barn: the trainers' dogs, dogs who live there full time, and students' dogs.  Those dogs always look like they're having the time of their lives, even the corgi who was eating rocks the other day.  (The trainer swears he doesn't swallow them, he just likes to chew them.)

Days like today, we leave the house at 7:00 and with Wooz's art class, we don't get home until almost 7:00 at night.  That's not very dog friendly. 

DS loves dogs.  Just loves 'em.  He was petting the aforementioned rock chewer for like 10 minutes last weekend, which is an eternity in preschooler time.

We love going to the Whitewater Center, and the Greenway.  Those are both very dog friendly.  And the mountains. 

It doesn't say whether she's good with cats.  She'd have to be good with cats.  I'm sure she hates cats, right?

@Heffalump, if you read back over your post, it is decidedly more "pro dog" than not.  I'm just sayin'.

She's a cutie and that's a great description.  She looks fun.

I'm trying to agree with you about her hating cats, lol.  But, I dunno.  Friendly dogs seem to like all animals.  My Izzy girl is always trying to get our cat and neighbor cats to play with her.  We got her from the pound and they had no idea how she was with cats.  We were prepared to take her back if she didn't, but everything went well.

Our lab is the friendliest dog ever.  She'd probably invite a thief into the house and then offer up her belly to be pet, but she is a total cat killer.  She also killed my two bunnies.  I'm sure she didn't mean it viciously, but she doesn't know how to play with animals smaller than herself and it was horrible.  So I wouldn't take "friendly" as proof she wouldn't harm a cat.  

banana468

I just looked at the weather report.   We're supposed to get nearly 6 inches of snow Thursday.    What's the over/under that DH gets the bug Thursday AM, school/daycare are cancelled and I'm stuck trying to WFH with an invalid DH, a 6 yo, 2 yo and a driveway I'll need to snowblow?

OliveOilsMom

Atomic - Have you looked into Purina Pro Plan?  They have both beef and lamb formulas, in addition to the poultry ones.  Olive eats the regular Lamb formula because she has a sensitive stomach.  It's around $40 (without a sale) for a 35 lb bag.  I buy mine at Petsmart and its almost always on sale for around $35 per bag.  They will often have 10% more free bags as well.  Meat is the main  ingredient, I believe. 

kimmiinthemitten

@atomicblonde is a fun killer, don't listen to her.

My H is either the dumbest or smartest man on the planet, I'm not sure.  He emailed me to ask me what carry out I want to eat while we watch the Sanders/Cruz debate, what kind of wine he should get, and if I have a cake preference.  He either doesn't realize that he just needs to effing do something or he's trying to set the bar really low so I'm happy with whatever.  But it resulted in me crying again.  ETA - I cried in the follow up conversation to the email, not just to the email itself.  I'm not sure why, but I feel like that makes a difference.

1.  The last thing even I want to do after a day like today is looked at Ted Cruz's ugly mug on the TV.
2.  You know what my favorite carry-out, wine and cake is.
3.  The way you're doing it, makes me feel like I guilted you into this and not like you're trying to make up for last night.

I presently hate him a little bit.

bleve0821

OliveOilsMom said:

Atomic - Have you looked into Purina Pro Plan?  They have both beef and lamb formulas, in addition to the poultry ones.  Olive eats the regular Lamb formula because she has a sensitive stomach.  It's around $40 (without a sale) for a 35 lb bag.  I buy mine at Petsmart and its almost always on sale for around $35 per bag.  They will often have 10% more free bags as well.  Meat is the main  ingredient, I believe. 

We used to feed Toothless ProPlan, until they changed their formula and included poultry products (I didn't even have to look at the bag to know the formula had changed--I could smell it within hours of meal time).  So we switched to Blue, but then they discontinued the formula we'd found that we really liked so we had to switch again.  We're on Wellness now.

The problem we have found is that if any kind of poultry product (by-product or otherwise) is listed in the first line of ingredients, Dobermans cannot tolerate the food.  At all.  I have yet to find a lamb or beef formula not mixed with poultry.  Wellness is the same way, but they at least offer a completely poultry-free food (with fish as the source of protein).  Blue does not.  I haven't checked ProPlan in several years, but it's possible they have some new formulas.

I use a monthly subscription service which makes it far cheaper than brick-and-mortar store prices (which rarely sell this formula, TBW), but the Wellness is still about $45/bag.

I'll pay a little extra a month to not live in a house that does not smell like a sewage treatment plant.

sparklepants41

@AtomicBlonde have you tried Merrick? That was one of the brands our vet recommended to us when we adopted our new puppy. It has really great reviews on Dog Food Advisor and I just double checked the beef & sweet potato formula - there is no chicken in it!

MissKittyDanger

MissKittyDanger said:

@kimmiinthemitten  WW will be your bitchmob



edit: this is also my mother. she would actually text me this.

still an option for Mr. InTheMitten