Cart before a horse...

Travis and I were shopping in the local grocery store while he was here. We were wandering up and down the aisles to look for some spa salts, since we had planned at some point to be heading in to a hot tub / spa.

Having picked up a red hand basket, we were gathering food items and some other necessary supplies for traveling out of town. We finally happened upon the skin care aisle, where we began comparing items for purchase.

This was a Tuesday morning, and for some reason the store was a flurry of activity. Who knew Tuesday mornings would be so busy?

We kept having to dodge people moving up and down the aisle around us, and as we were intent on selecting the best items, we did spend a fair bit of time browsing.

As we were standing on one side of the aisle, obviously looking at the other side of the aisle, pawing through items on the shelves, a cranky old lady came barreling down the aisle with her shopping cart jutting out in front of her. She stopped exactly in front of where Travis and I stood. We could no longer reach across to put the items in hand back onto the shelf. She stood there, hunched over her cart, wheezing and yammering on to another old lady with a shopping cart, nearly behind her on the same aisle. They stood there for a few minutes bickering back and forth, and I tried to be patient as they went back and forth.
She left her cart parked where it was, right in front of me, and started to wander off to chat with the lady behind her, debating between which type of ointment they needed.

Finally, I couldn't handle the fact that they charged up in front of us rudely, and just ignored the fact that I was trying to get back to the spa salts! This was a dire emergency. I did what any reasonable person in my position would have done...

So what do you think I did?


I very loudly announce 'excuse me!', and then I proceeded to pull her cart away from her, in the opposite direction, down the aisle so that I could reach the shelf in front of me.

The old hag shot me a death look, snarled some, and with a horrified twist to her mouth, stomped down the aisle, retrieved her cart, and huffed off to another aisle, likely mumbling at how rude I was.


Travis was taken a tad by surprise, not expecting me to have done such a bold thing to some little old lady, but not entirely shocked at my behavior.

Our trip to the coast was nice. The hotel was fabulous. And the spa salts were really worth it. More details on the hotel in a later post.

OCD Flashlight

Warning! The link above has an icky picture on it, don't click if you are grossed out easily.

My dog has recently taken to licking and chewing at a part of his front left leg. He's been in such good health recently, considering all the things he suffered from in the past, that I gave him a little leeway in his healing time.

Unfortunately, he didn't heal timely, nor properly.

Upon taking him to the vet, the vet tells me he has a lick granuloma, likely caused by an OCD reaction with an associated endorphin rush. He told me I'd have to but an e-collar on my dog and give him antibiotics.

So, my dog is now a big flashlight-head, knocking things over, tripping, falling, looking generally pathetic. He has been smacking me in the face whenever he can, and doesn't understand that he can not currently squeeze between my legs anymore without causing me some crotch trauma.

Funny enough, they theorize that my dog gets an endorphin rush from licking himself into a bloody sore, much like kids who cut.

Really?

I thought my vet might perhaps be smoking too much of something herbal, but wikipedia reports the same thing.
(And we *all* know, if it is on wikipedia, it MUST be true!)



So, for a few more days, my crazy ocd endorphin addicted dog will be smashing in to things around the house.

It sure is a good thing he is so cute.

Face Lift!

Thanks to my older brother, Eric, I have a banner image.  He was nice enough to create it and send it to me some time ago.  I finally got around to figuring out how to put it up.  I'm new at this, so it'll take me some time to get the true hang of things.

The colors will change some in the coming days, too, as I find something that I like. 

Other cosmetic changes are on the horizon, but learning first. 

Change, growth, and the future.

Yes, I realize I have been quite absent lately. I've been a bad host, and very neglectful. Apologies to all my fans.


It is now official, the company is going to get rid of my payroll system. Sort of. They want to move all of the users off of the payroll piece, while still keeping the other pieces (health and welfare, HR system functions) in place. This will mean that jobs will be moving to Hutchison, Kansas.

I will *not* be moving to Hutchison, Kansas.

In no way will I entertain the backdrop of Kansas. I am just not that big a fan of Dorothy. I much prefer earthquakes and the occasional flood.

This means, basically, that I will get severance at some point in the next few years. Don't know when, though. A big integration project like the company is undertaking could take years, as many as 4. The track record of the parties involved in integration don't lend me any optimism in expediency. Time will tell.

On a more personal side, Derek and I have officially split. We are living separate lives, under the same roof. We just couldn't work out the details of dog custody, and we are still friends. Besides, we just couldn't deal with trying to split things up. Maybe at some point we might pull away from one another, but for now, separate rooms.


Travis spent a week here, and we all discussed his moving in for some time. He will be going to school at Pacific U. He flew out last week, interviewed on Saturday, and was accepted into the program on Friday.

Way to go Trav, I'm so very proud of you.

Travis will be living at 'Holgate House' with me on a trial basis. If we can all be amicable to one another, we'll see what the future holds. I'm optimistic, but not unrealistic, about the challenges ahead. We are all adults, we'll work it out in a way that doesn't require a restraining order.

I will be flying out to St. Louis in May. I will be there to help Travis finish packing thing, and then we will be driving back to Portland. I have our route all planned out, and am assembling a 3-ring binder. I ought to make my father proud.

I'm looking forward to driving through the midwest again.

I have some fun stories to publish in the coming weeks, but I wanted to provide an update for those who were waiting.


More to come.......