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to a garage! (almost.)

Handsome and I spent hours in the garage today – cleaning, rearranging, tossing, and taking pictures for craigslist posts. Note: This is AFTER we took 3 Prius-loads of stuff to Goodwill. We started in the back, and when we stopped for lunch you could hardly tell (from the entrance to the house) that we’d made a dent! Mind you we have ex- and current roommates’ stuff to contend with, as well as a bunch of old furniture, tools, holiday crap, painting supplies, camping gear, skis, board games, etc. etc. etc. Did I mention a ping-pong table? Yeah, tons of shit.

We slowly worked our way toward the house, though, and now there’s a walkway from one corner to the other without having to squeeze by that box, step over that chair, and avoid kicking the old monitor on your way. The organization part is left; everything is sorted into like groups, but they need to be organized on the shelves we just freed up. Oh, and the selling part; we have about 20 sq. ft. of stuff we hope to rid ourselves of in the near future. For cash, of course!

*phew*

The last week has just blown by.

Sunday football.

I worked ten-hour shifts this week (6-4:30, M-Th).

Monday after work I went directly to my shift at WIllamette Humane Society (WHS).

Tuesday was Inauguration Day and we had a big celebration after work.

Wednesday a slight reprieve, but Georgie needed a bath and I squeaked in a load of laundry.

Thursday I had dinner in Portland with my girls.

Today no work, but I took down the Christmas lights outside, organized the tool area in the garage, am still working on laundry, and other various tasks, including looking into refinancing our mortgage to consolidate home improvement debt and student loans. Also perhaps recycling cans & bottles, and dropping off old goods at Goodwill.

Tomorrow 3:30-6 WHS shift, weeding outside (if it’s nice), the above-mentioned items if I get lazy, and webwork.

Sunday 1pm training at WHS for acutal dog walking.

In Between: RELAX some!

Okay, I added a BUNCH of new pictures to my flickr stream including scenes from:

• the remodeling/refurnishing we did this summer
• my leg injuries
• George being a crazy dog
• Eric’s graduation

Enjoy!

I went to a new doctor today because the old one made me feel like a number they were too busy to attend to rather than a name.

Dr. Block is my new favorite person. He put me in a walking boot today; he still isn’t sure it’s an actual fracture (more x-rays came back unconclusive) but we’re doing an MRI on Thursday and I’ll see him next week after the results come back to analyze. The boot is the solution whether it’s a fractured leg or just a severe bone bruise, so he hooked me up now and got me off those damn crutches that I’d been on for over 2 weeks. It’s just glorious; I’ve been impish and positively gleeful ever since. And I haven’t stayed put hardly at all – I just can’t stop chattering or walking around. Is it obvious how happy I am?!

I hate heights because I’m so good (or bad) at falling. So what did I do all day yesterday? Hang out at the top of our 20 foot vaulted ceilings painting the corner between the ceiling and the wall. I didn’t finish until 9:15pm, but its completely done and I don’t have to worry anymore about falling to my incapacitation or death trying to reach that last little bit in the far corner. All we have left is the hallway, which only has about 12 foot ceilings. Piece of cake!

Home improvement is contagious…when we upgraded to the new wood floor, we decided (last minute) to upgrade the walls, too. Today we finished the living room and kitchen area in “Florida Mango” Behr Satin Enamel paint – the ceiling is still white. It looks absolutely wonderful. Beyond our expectations so much so that now all the white walls look boring and we’re thinking of expanding our painting adventure.

Pictures soon, I promise!

It does look awesome!!! *squeal of delight*

I really don’t know how to explain my absence, so I’ll just chronicle the events that have kept me from blogging.

We spent the 4th of July in Montana as per usual. It was wonderful – a full week – but very action-packed. The fireworks were absolutely breathtaking, and since it was Laurel’s centennial celebration of cityhood, they shot off over 12,000 fireworks. 12,000!

Let’s see – I’ve been trying to refinance my house for over 2 months. Its proving to be a long and complicated process that I’m loathe to participate again. Its like having a second job. We’d like to start doing some remodeling on our house but we can’t start until the refinance goes through. So on top of that we’ve done some research on what we’d like to upgrade and to what, and we’ve also been doing some cleaning and purging of crap we don’t need in preparation for the “new do.”

I’ve switched to 10-hour days at work – Monday through Thursday. The weekdays are long but the 3 day weekend is reaaallllly nice. Really nice. It is easy for me to forget that its Friday rather than Saturday.

George took a tumble down the porch stairs (2 steps) and injured his right hind leg – kinda in the inside crease where his hip meets his body. This happened maybe a week, week and a half ago. At the same time, perhaps partly because of it, George also started having urinary problems. Therefore, not only was he having trouble walking – he tottered about and fell alot – he was also having trouble peeing – it came out as a trickle rather than a stream, and it smelled funny.

We were really worried – he was peeing in the house a lot, almost every time he got up – because he couldn’t pee but a little bit every time. He also couldn’t walk more than a couple of steps without falling, and then he’d drag himself as far as he could or bark until someone came to get him. On top of that, he’d fall when he was peeing and pee (or poo) on himself. He seemed okay except that his pride was hurt – no serious pain or sickness, but he was a mess, we were a mess, and nobody was happy. It was a rough couple of days.

Our solution was to keep him off his feet – for an old man dog he’s pretty active, always wanting to be where the people are, checking that all of us are still doing what we were last time he checked, and generally shadowing people when they’re walking around. To do this we resorted to drugging him with the pain meds the vet gave us in December. That basically knocked him out for like 3 days; he’d get up to use the bathroom and then go back to crashing on the couch.

We ordered some urinary tract infection medication for George after a trip to the vet to determine the peeing problem, and we’re using a sling on his back legs to give him some stability when he’s going out to use the bathroom. We also decided to get a more permanent fix for his back legs – a doggie wheelchair from Eddie’s Wheels. Its expensive, yes, but its so worth it for George to be back outside on walks, getting exercise and generally being mobile and independent again.

For right now, George is doing much better today. Those few days of forced rest really seem to improve his mobility – he’s walking much better…he’s only fallen twice today – and he’s holding himself up for longer amounts of time. We’re so happy he’s getting better.

Finally. I am no longer pink. Even for a good cause, carnation pink (and flowery bg) is so hard for me to deal with. I’m just not a ‘pink’ person. Although its the same template, it’s been a bit more modified and turned a color that doesn’t make me think of Pepto-Bismal and retching.

Poke about…I’ve added and rearranged.