Life with the Two Crazy Dogs

The boss is not in this week.  She has gone to Anaheim for a conference and just last month she was in Orlando for a family gathering.  I told DB it would be nice to look up some Orlando vacations when Ally is older.  He gave me the look like “are you kidding me”.  I know how much he detest going to these places.  I for sure do not mind going to Disneyland, Disneyworld, all these touristy places.  I have never been there and definitely I want to experience it at least once.  The same thing with visiting the big cities in the states - NYC, DC, Miami, Chicago, Atlanta, and the list goes on.  Sigh, hopefully I win the lottery with a million bucks I can go on visit these places/cities on my own.

I was chatting with Simmie online last week and our conversation popped out a question of what will I do if some thing happens to DB.  Honestly, I don’t know.  Most probably I will continue to stay in here.  DB told me he has enough term life insurance for me to live and pay all the debts, funeral and whatever that’s left to be paid.  I know I will sell the house and move to a smaller townhome with the boys or who knows, I might move out of the state.   I will cross that bridge when it comes knocking on my door. 

It’s Aloha Friday again.  I was going through my office cabinet this afternoon, the cabinet where it was once shared by other departments in our HR area.  I know, it seems like Fridays are the days I will putz and waste my time doing things that are no brainer.  I found bags of promotional products from the marketing division of  our company.  I have no idea how they came into existance in my cabinet.  Ms E thinks when the marketing folks left the area a couple of years ago, they dumped their junk into this cabinet as if it was a dumpster.  I didn’t even bothered to ask it belongs to who and the dates on the items were around three years old.  Why take the trouble to track the owners.  It’s better to spend my extra time chatting on Yahoo.

Maxine’s brother, Cody, is pumping up for his first Mr. Bodybuilder competition this fall.  I saw him last month and he has definitely has added some meat in him and with all the weight lifting he was doing daily, it gave him a lot of results.  Maxine told me his trainer recommended some prohormones that are legal for body builders like Cody.  That is good to hear especially from all the news about some baseball players taking human growth hormones to enhance their performance.  Since this will be Cody’s rooky year, he will have to play by the rules.

I never thought I would have an acne face at my age.  I suppose it is payback time for having a nice, smooth and clear face when I was a teenager up until I was 26.  Then the acne started popping up in abundance, like weeds growing on the yard!!  I know when I was smoking it didn’t help with the acne control either.  I used to buy acne treatment cream for my face and body especially the back.  Since I have quit that bad habit, I still have zits all over my face.  I know it is not food that is causing the acnes.  It must be touching my face when my hands, fingers are dirty.

Our neighborhood had a mega garage sale couple of weeks ago.  Our neighbor did ask us if we have anything to put up for sale, yes, we do but I did not feel like going through our basement and cleaning up our garage for that.  The neighbor directly across us had a few strollers and car seats put out for the sale.  I thought of bringing out the Christmas decor we acquired from our former neighbor in Apple Valley, but then I need to dig through the basement which is now a storage place for our junk.  Maybe the next neighborhood garage sale, we will bring our stuff out to our next door guy to try to sell them on our behalf.

Ms E and I were cleaning our filing cabinets this afternoon.  We have kept all the affirmative action plans for the entire company since 1986.  She and I do find these kind of “mou liew” stuff to do when we are bored of what we are doing, and especially when our bosses are not in.  Yes, we tend to slack off.  But at least going through the cabinets to get rid of the old plans to make room for the trophies our department has acquired through the years for excellence service and COE of the year.  We do work hard for these awards but we still have time to goof off a little to destress ourselves.

The boys, Cooper and Ranger have been spoilt by me a lot.  I told my friend if can be, I would like to reincarnate to be a domestic dog like one of these boys.  Ranger in particular has the most TLC, tender loving care, from both DB and I.  First of since he was an abused dog from being neglected by his previous owners and he had no human contact since he was a pup, we both felt very sorry for him.  I, especially, showered him with tons of pats and special treats for him.   The next crazy thing we did was sending both dogs to a dog spa where they will get a bath, some kind of soak, and grooming.  It was worth the money because when they both came home, they were smelling good, their coats were soft with a shine on them and they were both tired.

One of my bad vices are browsing the internet, and when I do see the current dog products these boys are taking or using like their glucosamine, Missing Link powder, rawhides and ear cleaning solution.  I used to buy them toys but not anymore.  The rawhides will keep them entertained better.  Plus with Ranger’s skin allergies, he has to be bathed every week with a special dog shampoo for his itchy skin.  A dog itchy skin emits a smell from the extra oil from their oil glands which can be hard to tolerate if its not bathe often.  The shampoo I use are from natural oatmeal and other natural microbacterial ingredients that help relieved the itchiness.  I try not to use shampoo that contains all these harsh microbacterial ingredients that is making his itchy skin too dry and flaky.  Some of these shampoos are also suitable for his hot spots.  Yes, Ranger is a problematic dog, but we still love him the same and his adorable face and character melts yours and every one’s heart!

It is going to be a year this November since I visited Malaysia.  The trip back last year was great, a very quick three weeks for me.  DB’s was even quicker.  He only had two weeks which seemed like a week plus.  Doesn’t it always feels like the time flys by faster when you are having so much fun? 

This year will be a quiet year, no overseas travel for us.  I found a site where I can search for cheap airline tickets if we want to travel overseas or domestic.  The site, lowfares.com is search engine for travelers looking for cheaper airfares.  The site is easy to utilize.  Simply enter the city or the airport you are departing from and to.  Next input the date you are flying out and the return date and hit the Search button.  The system will then ask you to choose three out of six choices to pick from; for example, Expedia, Kayak, Orbitz, CheapoAir and Priceline.  Once you picked the three choice, click on Search All and it will bring you three different windows with the individual sites you had chosen.  The sites will bring you all the lowest possible fares you can select for your destination. 

The site also provides travelers to look at  lower price deals  for different mode of travelling: by air, car, or a cruise.  One can also look for cheaper priced hotel deals from this search engine.  Of course, all these low priced deals come with a condition.  What it does is, you pick the deal like for me, I would pick from MSP to Boston with the price of $317+ for the ticket, which is a very good deal.  However, I would have to use the ticket between a certain timeframed specified by the site.

Moreover, this site has all the travel news you want, from what to do at a certain city, how much certain airlines charges for a checked bag, or what are the alternative to travel by air.  By train probably?  Yes, I think travel by train would be another option to travel cheap with the high gas price. 

So, for my want-to-visit-Boston trip, I would check out this cheap airline tickets search engine to buy me a lower price ticket.

My PC at work is going 3 years old and according to the company PC policy, employees can get a new one every three years or sooner IF your PC or laptop is acting funky.  I should have gotten the laptop that was given to every Corporate employee, but stupid me said I will stick to my desktop.  This desktop has given me a ton of problems and what’s worse now is the fan is constantly blowing so it’s making the fan noise all day long until I shut her down.  Ms. E said I should speak to my boss to get a notebook computer as a replacement of my crappy desktop that is slower than the snail.  Maybe a talk to my boss on Monday for a new work gadget?  Yeah, right, department budget is too darn tight for new equipment.

Ain’t it nice if I can take the rest of the two days off this week?  I know I should have taken them off when I signed up for my vacation days.  There is still August where I can take a day off during the month and wait for Labor day in September where I will take another two days off for a long weekend.  I never used to like taking days off, I was sort of a workaholic, but not now.  I have been doing stuff I have no time to touch them on work days, like freeing up the memory cards that are laying around the desks and counters.  I am a clutterer but I know where my things are.  I try to be clutter free but it only last for a week.  How can I learn to be clutter free?  Put things away the moment I am done with them.  I know how to say it but can never do it.

Last weekend was another weekend with Nadine and Mark.  We went out for an early dinner at Red Lobster on County Road 42.  Great meal, ate all the shrimps I could hold.  As usual after our meal, we girls will head out to the mall and the guys back to the home to enjoy Mark’s home theater.  Nadine being her, the first thing she would do when we get to any mall are the jewelery stores.  The first store she hopped in was the store Mark bought her her first pair of diamond rings on their 5th wedding anniversary.  No diamonds are ever enough for her.

Yep, you hear that right, I slept in this morning on a Monday.  Aloha Monday, no work til Thursday!  Of course, Db had to wake me up at 4, asking if I want to take the boys out for a walk.  (I did ask him to wake me up at 4 - less traffic in the morning, less fumes we breathe in.)  DB said it was 76 degrees and 85% humidity and I told him, nope, I’m not going.  Rolled over and slept til 8:10. 

The boys came in to bug me for a while but they saw no response from me, they laid down til I got up.  Hhmmm, that was so nice of them.  Yeah, they know now that they don’t get what they want that easily.

Think I shall finish up some paid posts which will help with my dried up PayPal account.  I’m still glad I have some to write, not a lot but little is better than na-da.  Or pick one of the books I bought months ago and start on it.  And when I’m done, I will hit the couch and flip on some movies and do nothing.  The boys are happily chewing on their raw hides now.  Once I sit on the couch in the living room, they will migrate there and chill, snooze til their body clock tells them it’s dinner time.

Being a pet owner is almost the same as having a kid in the household.  I remembered when I was a kid, my dad brought home a little mutt dog which we named her Countess.  Both my brother and I loved Countess to bits.  We would play with her like she is another person, but we never cared for her like in bathing or feeding her.  Our mom did it.  We also never bought a single stuffed animal for her either.  What did my brother and I got for Countess to play with?  We found sticks, three branches, old rubber toys, and the best fun we had for her was we wrestled with her.

Now that I am a pet owner for over eight years, I have gained some pet tips in my hands.  My first pup was Cooper.  Hubby got him when he was only eight weeks old.  I have not much idea on how to care for dogs, especially dogs that are kept indoors.  I had to learn from how to housebreak Cooper and get him used to his kennel.  Then we had to deal with his separation anxiety issues when we leave for work.  He would dirty his kennel at times and be barking and whining til the he could be heard by the neighbors even when he was inside the house!  We then started to leave him in his kennel for 10 - 15 minutes a day, which we practically walked out the door and return.  He barked and whined the initial times but after about 6 - 7 times of repeating the process and each was longer, he got over the hang of being alone.

Since Cooper was my first pup, I bought him pet gifts from the store or online.  There are times I would get him a squeaky toy, raw hides that were big enough to last him for a few days.   When he was a pup, he could chew anything on sight.  The raw hides work wonders that curbed his urged on chewing the furniture or shoes laying in our house.  The only thing I have not bought him is natural dog food when he was younger.  Now that he is older, 8 years old, and living with another senior dog, Ranger, we started buying them natural dog food which seems to help Ranger for his skin allergies. 

Maxine and I were talking about what we can do to get motivated to exercise.  She said I should not have problems on how to lose weight since I’m constantly walking the boys.  No doubt I am walking for everyday, but I don’t do the twice or thrice a day walks anymore like I used to many years ago.  Maxine and I are thinking of joining the “Y”.  Well, dear, not for me right now.  Money is extremely tight.  I guess I would have to cut down on my snacks during the day.  Yeah, that is my main problem, eating chips, all sorts of junk food when I get home from work and then take a nap!  Sure fire for some weight gain there.