Hairy Houseguest

We recently acquired a houseguest.  The best kind of houseguest--the furry kind, with four paws, and droopy ears.
Her name is Annie and we're watching her for a few weeks while her humans try to find housing that allows her to live with them.
She's a german shepherd mix, Amber's age, and she has stinky breath and a sensitive nose.  She's been with us for a couple of weeks now and seems to fit right in with everyone.  Except Smudge.
Annie's never been around a cat before and really wants to "meet" Smudge.  Unfortunately, Smudge, for whatever reason, took an immediate dislike to Annie and refuses to come out of her room.
Smudge is acting like I did when Mom & I moved into Dad's house--hissing, running away from, and generally trying to ignore the new reality.  Poor kitty....

Slow Government Processing

We've had our fair share of dealing with the federal government as we applied, paid (a whole hell of a lot!), and waited for the Mister's immigration paperwork to be processed.  We did that loop-d-loop 3 times--first for his conditional residency, then for his permanent residency, and finally for his citizenship.
Through all these filings, we got a feel for how speedy the government is in processing stuff for it's citizens:  Not very speedy at all.

So when we applied for our passports on 9/29, we expected not to get them until November.  It was a pretty big shock when they showed up in the mail yesterday--2 1/2 weeks after we applied.  I think this may be one for the record books.
The federal government processed something in 10 business days!  Wow!

The curse of the import car

I sold my beloved MINI Cooper S "Nigel" on August 8th.  The week prior to that, I ordered a new MINI Countryman S All4.  Since I knew what I wish I'd gotten with Nigel, I practically loaded up the Countryman.

It went into production in Austria mid-August and got on a ship mid-September.  It's now at the dealership in Colorado, waiting to be picked up.

The only issue is...the salesman/MA (motoring advisor).  

Apparently he doesn't understand how anxious I am to have a car to drive.  He doesn't realize that I haven't had a vehicle of my own in 9 weeks.  And he's taking his sweet time doing whatever he's doing down there.

It's not a matter of just hopping in the car and popping down to the dealership to pick up the new car.  Nooooo, we only live 750 miles from the dealership.

And we're getting the new car shipped here.  Which means extra days before I can drive it.

It's just a mess.  I'm getting incredibly frustrated and pissed off with the MA, but there's nothing I can do.  He claims he's just trying to get stuff cleared by the finance person there.  One finance person for 4 dealerships.  wtf?  Are you kidding?!

If I don't throw my hands up over all this BS, I'm definitely not using that dealership again.

Why oh why oh why is it so much to ask for a MINI dealership in my area code?

blah.

a day after a weekend

This weekend a few things happened:

I woke up.  I napped.  I made food.  I went shopping.

3 dogs rassled.  2 dogs chased the cat.  1 dog stared at me with quiet devotion.

The Mister cleaned up dog puke.

The dogs tracked in dog poo from the back yard.

Me and the Mister cleaned poo off the floors.  I mopped.

I rearranged the pantry.

The Mister napped.  The Mister watched foozball.  Go refs!


Today, a few more things will happen:

I'll check the mail.  I'll pick up dog poo in the back yard.  I'll mow for the last time in 2011.  I'll pretend to be sad about that, but secretly I'll be giddy with joy.

I might nap.  I'll probably watch a movie.  I'll empty the dishwasher.  I'll make dinner in a crock pot.  I'll try to figure out a way to use my education in a job.  And probably come up with nothing.

I'll repeatedly check the status of my car.  It's close.  It might be here next week.

I'll imagine driving my new car next week.  I'll think of the new car smell and all the bells and whistles I can play with and learn.

I'll hug and kiss the Mister.  And kiss him some more, because I can.  Because he's my Mister.

I'll kiss Lily's face.  She's got a soft face that just begs to be kissed.  I have to kiss it at least 10 times a day, or my day just isn't satisfying.  I'll make sure to kiss Lily after I kiss the Mister so he doesn't get itchy.

Wine may be included at some point.

Cleaning house

As I posted before, I found some old pictures to go through recently.  It started a bit of a frenzy for me.  I ended up going through all of my hard copy pictures.  And I threw a bunch out.

In a strangely therapeutic move, I got rid of all the pictures of the paternal grandmother and biological father.  It's very odd to me, that I've had these pictures for years, and I don't see them very often at all, but removing them from my collection felt like clearing bad memories out of the house.  

Someone asked me, "Are you sure you won't want those at some point later in your life?"  Since I have no positive feelings about those people, then no, I don't think so.  It's not like the feelings are going to magically turn bright and shiny and happy.

I have no good feelings for my biological father.  Most of the memories I have of him aren't good.

As for my grandmother--well, she and her son seemed to be a team of some sort.  She preferred him to my aunt, who has to be the most loving person I know.  Grandma repeatedly laid guilt trips on me for not attempting to keep contact with her son.  As she grew sicker, she turned it into a "life's too short..." lecture.  She was under the impression that he was perfect, I wasn't giving him a chance, and I needed to be the one making sure we kept in contact.

Needless to say, removing all those images from my collection felt like a really big relief.  I took a long, cleansing breath after I was done and now I'm moving on...

Scared of Science

Hot Yellowstone


I will never in my life understand why people refuse to believe in science.  I read the above article with fear.  Then I saw the comments section below the article, where people can post their thoughts on the article.  And now I'm terrified.

Why are people so distrustful of science?  What makes so many people think that the science regarding global warming/climate change is a "hoax"?

What has science given us in the past?

• Vaccinations against debilitating and deadly diseases like Polio and Smallpox.
• Ways to ensure clean water
• Lots and lots of medicine to help people who are sick with diabetes, arthritis, leukemia, Parkinson's disease or depression.  Our lifespans are as long as they are thanks to science.
• Adequate food for most of the planet.  
• Nuclear weapons.  Those happened.  Lots of people died.  What that a hoax, too?
• Ozone layer repair.  If science hadn't figured out what caused it, the hole would continue to grow and a lot more people near the South Pole would suffer.
• Gasoline.  It makes our world go 'round.  Science did that.  You're welcome.

Climate change skeptics remind me of an obese person who thinks they're just "big boned".  No matter how many people tell that person if they just take better care of themselves, they can lose weight and feel better.  But the obese person says, nooooo, I'm just big boned, and continues to eat anything and everything their heart desires.  Until one day they just die, at a young age, because of all the damage they've done to their body.

People who are don't believe in science need to be fed to the endangered polar bear.  At least then the polar bear will have adequate food while it's habitat disappears.

gr.

Panama Canal

My car is on this ship.  I watched it's progress through the Gatun locks (below this post) and then the Miraflores locks (this post).  The Gatun locks are on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal and the Miraflores locks are on the Pacific side.  Yes, I'm obsessed with my car.  You can't even imagine how many pics I'll post here once it's delivered.

Be afraid.

My car is on a ship....

Olfactory Orgasm

Yes, I'm using alliteration.
Mom, that means I started 2 or more connected words with the same letter(s).

Tonight, my nose was in sheer, unadulterated bliss.

First there was the peeling & cutting.  This brought on such a summery frame of mind that I didn't care one bit that it's going down to near freezing tonight, and the day had more clouds & wind than sun.
Then there was the mixing of spices.  Spices make a dish, or cookie.  Whatever a recipe calls for, I usually triple it or more.  I love me some spices.
All this was topped off by a long, leisurely visit to the oven.
The oven is where the magic happened.
The oven melded the joy of juicy peaches, with their lush, succulent flavor and scent, and the crumbly, sugary, spicy, divine butteriness of the topping.  Each component was easily identifiable.  But the buttery scent was what made the dish smell so delicious.
Butter is evil.  Butter is the devil.
Butter should be worshipped.
If there's anything that smells as good on a cool fall evening as fresh peaches topped with sugar, spices and butter baking together, I won't believe it.

Tonight I made a peach cobbler.  And I feel vaguely dirty after describing it.
But I had to describe it accurately.  It's just how I roll.

You're welcome

a big ol' wtf?

I saw an ad in my National Geographic magazine for a fancy shoe.  It's supposed to be awesome and great and the best thing since the internet.
One thing:  there's a logo on the side that looks like a sperm.  No joke.

So, instead of remembering the name of the shoe to look it up for reviews, I go online and do a google search for "spring shoes".
Unfortunately, this doesn't result in the shoe I'm looking for.  But it does give me lots of dandy links for the spring shoe collections.
Lovely.

Next search--and this is no joke--I type in "sperm shoe".  Lo and behold!  The very first link is for the shoe I'm looking for.  I was sure the sperm logo was supposed to be something else, but nooooope.  They use the sperm on purpose because it is the "seed of life".

Ok.  Weird.
The only other time I've seen a sperm logo on anything was on a hat of a guy who, seriously, inseminates cows for ranches.
I don't think his logo was meant to be anything but what it represents.
When did I see this?  At the Mother's Day Brunch in my hometown this year.  It's a ranching community.
I was facing the guy and commented on his hat to my family.  Dad, of course, knows the guy and had to mention it to him.  Ugh.

Anyway, I guess sperm on my shoes is better than sperm on my hat/head.
Just sayin'