Life with the Three Crazy Dogs

The boys were so lost since I started school on Tuesday nights. Last week, DB told me the boys were waiting for me next to the door to the garage the entire time I was gone. The only time they moved away from their position was, of coz, their dinner and treats (carrots and apples).

They were whining a lot. DB sent them out for their business, Ranger went right to the gate and stared right out to the driveway. Called him, he wouldn’t budge.

Last night, they were laying by the door to the garage again, next to my running shoes. DB told me they were waiting for their walks when he got home from work at 4. DB went out to the mailbox, they followed him and refused to go in the house. When they got in, they went to the front door and sat there staring out till they heard their bowls “clang”.

When I got home last night, it sure feels like I was gone forever, the boys were all over me. Ranger was rubbing againsnt me like a cat and Coops was practically hopping around and tried to jump and most probably wanted to hug me!! They wouldn’t leave me alone. They wanted to play and followed me wherever I went. They were leeches.

It is so strange why they only “cling” on to me but not so much clingy to DB. I guess they know DB is the discipliner and I’m the spoiler. Adoi, susahlah like that.

Today, Ranger was so eager to go for his walk when I got home. He was practically pulling me as I was walking. Cooper is more obedient – walks next to me. Ranger, what can I say. He only graduated from kindergarden. Cooper is a “college” grad. Anyway, as if to compensate from his lost time, Ranger was cruising – 50 mph. I didn’t want to run this afternoon since I ran this morning, but had no choice. Mr. Cruiser wouldn’t slow down. So I ran and went to the mini hiking trails. Over there, they both snooped a lot so it gives me a breather. I can feel my knees are giving me problems again.

Took Coops leash off which gives me more control over Ranger. What was really funny was they these running and speed off spurts. Good too, let them run off their energy. Right now they are happy, Ranger is laying next to me and Coops is laying by the door so no one can “harm” me!! LOL!!

School started last week Tuesday, 23rd. I’m trying to keep up with blogging and my school reading and assignments. Pretty hard to do. By the time I’m done reading blogs, which I have to say it’s a must for me now. Addicted?? I think so.

School starts at 6 p.m. and ends at 9:50 p.m. It’s a long ass-class. I was surprised to hear from the instructor:

“I won’t be doing much talking in class. You guys will be doing the talking in this class. This class is four-frigging hours, don’t expect me to do all the talking.”

Four-friggin hours of class and only one break. Alamak, die of sitting, man. Can just imagine my ass growing wider every hour!

Thought I would be able to catch up with my blogging and reading my blogroll, nope didn’t happen. Gotta clean the house coz DB volunteered me to cook for his buddy who is coming over for dinner tomorrow night. As usual, kelam kabut, vacumn, dusting the 1 inch thick dust of the piano, pictures, etc and clean the bathrooms. Good thing it was -25F windchill this morning and early afternoon. I didn’t go for my run, the boys were super antsy. Bugging the shit outta me. Too bad.

Got done with cleaning and prep up the Monte – gotta put sheets and towels on the back seat so the boys won’t leave their fur behind. DB had to check over the car…put Heet however that’s spelt, checked the oil and added windshield fluid……gotta check them since it’s really cold out.

Put the boys in and off I the gas station. Was very glad to see the price of gas dropped to $1.95/gallon. Then we went to the dog park. Boys were like running everywhere. Really crazy. It’s as if they have not gone for a run or walk for ages. I suppose all the cooped up energy from yesterday evening and this morning. I didn’t run them yesterday evening as I cut Ranger’s nail too deep – onto the quick. Damn…..there was blood all over the cement. Super thick too.

Anyways, the boys are now all pooped out from all the running they did. I’m listening to my Chopin’s Nocturnes and blogging; instead of reading my text book. I still have one more day to finish my reading.

DB is busy completing his application for his job interview at Seagate for Tuesday. I’m glad to hear that, but both of us are trying not to be too happy about it yet. It’s a whole day interview with the engineering directors and senior directors. No interviews with managers. We thought it was strange. All the directors DB is interviewing with are Chinese (except for one Caucasian), those with mandarin pronounciation type of names….eg Song Xue. Is this is female or male?? That’s why his buddy is coming tomorrow night to give DB some interview testing skills. His buddy is the former VP of Contamination (ESD) at Seagate.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this interview will work out. DB needs a different job – a more brain challenging job, not a mind numbing job like his current job. We shall see.

Three weeks after we moved in to our place call home, we prep for our trip to Montana, to Marlboro’s Crazy Mountain Ranch. I booked a place for the boys at Kaos Kennel for boarding and brought them there the day before we left. The boys were so excited that they were going for a truck ride, little did they know we will be dropping them off for the weekend and a half. They were jumping with excitement when we got to Kaos. Brought them in and Mandy met us and did the paperwork, gave her the boys’ food, treats and medication. Then we took them to their kennel. Ah, their excitement died in a zip. They were whining as soon as the kennel door shut, tails down and the sad puppy eyes. Man, it was hard to leave them there. Mandy told me to leave the kennel and don’t turn to see them.

Got home and the house was so quiet. No fur speed bumps on the hallway or under the dining table, no slurping of water going on, no begging for food. Just felt plain weird. DB and I packed our bags which Marlboro sent us and airline tickets.

I won a Marlboro sweepstakes from Phillip Morris (PM) in March of 2006. PM sent me the entry to the contest in February and I was wondering why they were sending this to me. The entry form included a CD of the Marlboro Crazy Mountain Ranch in Montana. I viewed the CD and thought I should go ahead and try it. We have not won any kind of contest before, what the hell.

FedEx came and rang the doorbell somewhere in March and delivered a letter from DB Blair, the organizers. Said I won the contest to the ranch, travel dates will be in the fall. Fill up more forms and mail back within 4 days. Mailed those docs back by FedEx, paid by PM and wait.

In June, FedEx delivered the formal documents – background screen, medical, profile, and legal stuff. All documents included a clause that I the winner have to be a smoker. All along I have been telling them I am not a smoker. DB had to complete some documents, too, not as many as I did. In July, a letter came via FedEx and confirmed the flight details and what I would expect in August.

DB still thinks it’s a hoax. He thinks there is something behind all these free stuff they mentioned. I Google Marlboro Ranch and read and saw the pictures from contestants who have been there. August 4 came and I was confirmed a winner of the sweepstakes. The letter had our confirmation of our flight dates, choice of complimentary smokes, accommodation arrangements, and activities sheet arrived. Faxed those back and on September 10, I received the airline tickets, two luggage and baseball caps with the logo of the ranch, luggage tags, a check of $1500, and itinerary. We were told to wear our baseball cap when we are at the airport. DB was still skeptical about this whole thing. He said he will believe it when he gets there.

The day came for us to fly out to Bozeman, MT. Got to the airport and saw a few folks wearing that cap. Boarded Northworst flight and it was indeed the worst flight I have ever flown with NWA. The air-conditioning kaputed with all the passengers on board waiting for take off. We were sitting in the plane almost passed out when the kapitan came on the PA and told us what was wrong. Duh!! We knew the air-conditioning were toast coz everyone’s faces were beetroot red. The kapitan should at least tell us to get the hell out of the plane till they fix it or put us on a different plane. No, we had to sit in the roaster for 45 minutes while the maintenance crew fixed the frigging air-conditioning. That was a great way to start our trip.

Eventually the plane departed and we got to Bozeman, of course, 45 minutes later. When the plane started to descend, there was this clown yelled out “Welcome to Bozeman International Airport”. There was only one runway and the airport is like the size of Ipoh Airport. Yes, it’s really that small.

We got off the plane and there were Marlboro agents directing the ranch guests to the reception area. We did not have to worry about our luggages. Just head towards downstairs to the reception area, check in with more Marlboro agents and have a snack.

There were about 46 of us and all were hard core smokers. The moment they got to the reception area, they head outside for their cigi. DB and I wanted to get check in and move on. But no, we have to wait for our coaches. Unfortunately, our coach was the last one. When it arrived, we were told to check our luggages that were all lined up like corpses against the wall. The agents did a roll call and we boarded the coach.

The coach was not a smoke free coach. Smokers lit up right away and DB and I almost died!! Actually it wasn’t that bad for me, but DB had quit smoking almost 30 years, he said the smoke got too thick for him. Our “tour guide” gave us the spill about the ranch, where we were now, the food at the ranch, we don’t have to spend a dime at the ranch as everything is free, free flow of food and drinks, and how long the trip to the ranch takes. It takes 45 minutes to get to the ranch from the airport. The coach passed through a really tiny town with the population of 200 or less. Kids attend school proms probably with their cousins!

When we were almost to the ranch, the “tour guide” told us about the free gifts waiting for us when we get to our rooms. All the passengers still do not believe her. DB was still in that skeptical mode.

At last when we got to the ranch, it was beautiful. It was like we were back in the 1800s with modern amenities. Check in at the Stage Stop where the front desk is. Got our room key which was the Lincoln Room in the Bank. OK, whatever you say, missy. Followed the map and found the bank. Opened the door to our room and wahla!! There were those gifts on our bed:

2 Stetson hats
2 red windbreakers
2 black fall heavy duty jacket
2 red/black backpacks
2 red bandanas
2 Swiss Army watches
2 digital cameras
2 pens
2 red t-shirts
2 pairs of sunglasses
2 pants (those 2-way type pants where you can unzip the bottom half)
2 ashtrays
5 packs of Marlboro Lights
2 activities itineraries
2 recipe books
1 Zippo lighter
Postcards
(I think that were all we got on the first day)

DB’s jaw dropped when he saw all the goodies. We were told to try them clothes and hat on ASAP as we were the last coach to arrive, the store for exchange will be closed soon. Everything for me fit except the hat, red windbreaker, and the black jacket. Brought them to the Stage Stop and did an exchange on the hat for a larger size and smaller sizes for the windbreaker and jacket. No such luck. The jacket and windbreaker were “guai poh” sizes and they were the smallest, too. I’m just fortunate.

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Since I’m at the age where my GP needed me to get my base line done, I finally went for my baseline mammogram on Wednesday at Park Nicollet Clinic. I have been procrastinating about it since last year. I didn’t want to do it coz I heard it hurts especially if you have small boobs.

Scheduled the appointment with the radiology department and went it when my name was called. Changed to a gown and in I went into this room with a huge machine.

The technician was an older lady and asked me a bunch of questions, you know the usual: Have you had any children? Have you had a mammogram before? Any abnormal lumps, discharge, the results will be mailed to you, read it carefully, and the list goes on.

Then she told me to place my right boob on the machine and I was thinking to myself, what is there to place? Could hardly lift those suckers up to place them on the plate. Well, she helped me and told me what to do and so forth. Then she told me she will tighten the clamps to compress the boob. Boy, did that hurt. Another thing is, I have to hold my breath when she takes the image. When that was done, I have to do my left boob, left side and the right side. I don’t mind doing it but that frigging machine stinks of BO!!! It was disgusting. I would assume the technician or someone else would sanitized the machine after each patient. I guess not.

Thought I was done with the four images, but not, she said she wants to take the left side boob again because it didn’t look good. So, my poor bee sting boob went for a compression again. She took a few images of that and finally she said “that’s good”.

When I took the gown off, my boobs were super red. Thank God I don’t have to do it till I reach the big 40, unless bad comes out from the images!

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2006 was much better. I made a trip to S’pore for CNY and surprised my parents of my visit. My sister and I “pakat” (collaborated) and she planned with her hubby how to get out of their house to pick me up in the middle of the night. One thing about flying Northworst (Northwest) Airlines, their flights arrive in the middle of the night and leave S’pore early in the frigging morning. Sis told our parents her hubby had to be on duty at the airport. Ah hah, parents bought that!! As soon as I walked on the jet way, I felt like ripping my sweat pants off – the blast of humidity and the heat coming from the Arctic weather.

Collected my luggage and headed to my sis’ home. It was 6 years since I was last in S’pore. Everything seems so strange. I forgot how much smaller the lanes are and the lorries! I could not remember when the last time I used that word “lorry”. One thing about S’pore is their freeways are constantly lit up during the nights. I was able to look-see better in the dark.

Our parents were definitely surprised and mom gave sis hell (sorta) for not telling her I was coming over. I was in S’pore for 12 days and back to reality. It was too short of a trip. My boss could not let me out for too long due to affirmative action plans deadlines. 12 days was better then none. I thoroughly enjoyed my trip and was able to see my five nephews. I have never seen my brother’s youngest boy and my sis’ youngest boy was not even a year old the last I saw him. The boys grown so much. I finally saw my brother after 8 years. So much to catch up between the two of us. It was a worth-well12-day trip.

After I got back, DB and I had to renew our renter’s lease with the bitch of a landlady. Man, she is one heck of a woman. Everything has to be her way and she always thinks she’s right. She agreed to renew the lease for another 6 months. At the mean time, we were finding ways to up our credit score. Since we were officially bankrupt as of November 14, 2004, we cannot purchase a home for 2 years. DB wants to purchase a home with a VA (Veteran’s Administration) loan, but nope, we can’t. Gotta wait 24 months. Cilaka!!! So, we continue to work on increasing our credit score by securing a credit card, opened another account at US Federal Credit Union, paid all bills on time, no late payments at all, and read on articles from Stephen Snyder, Life After Bankruptcy author. We attended his seminar in early January, 2005 and we found it very resourceful. He gave out a ton of tips on how to increase our credit scores to buy a house and vehicles after bankruptcy.

In May, we checked our credit scores and it was slightly above the average compared to the lower 400s and 500s 1+ years ago. So, we contacted the same realtor again and told her we were looking to buy a house. She got a hold of a loan office from Bell Mortgage and she said the same thing about VA loans. If we can secure a loan from the VA, we don’t have to cough out money for down payment and the interest rate is lower. So the loan officer work things out and we cooperated with whatever paperwork she needed.

At the mean time, we were surfing the web for houses. Our wish list for a house were: built in late 1990s onwards; 3 or a 2+ car garage; 3 bedrooms; rambler (getting old – can’t go up and down the stairs that much!!); big kitchen since we spend 80% of the time in the kitchen; quiet neighborhood with no noises from freeway or main roads; automatic blinds and of course fenced yard. Yeh, we bookmarked those homes within our price range. We sent our wish list to our realtor and the same day she sent us an email if we are interested in this house http://client.rnc.imprev.net/611/4931/index.ipv. The first thing we saw was the kitchen – too small, the rest of the house was awesome. Realtor called and told us there will be an open house the same weekend.

We went and saw the house. Indeed the kitchen was smaller than what we wanted but it was open and airy. Came home and we talked about it for a week and we finally told the realtor we were interested in that house. She arranged for us to see the house again and then the stress began. The seller, the wife, was pregnant and she was bitchy about everu questions we asked. Hey women, do you want to sell your house or not?? Plus dealing with the phone calls with the loan officer, started packing since end of August was round the corner when the lease expires we had to move out anyways and getting ready for our trip to Montana. We were running around like a chicken with the head cut off.

Finally on August 8, 2006, we signed our lives away. The amount of paperwork to sign during a closing was nuts. A lot more now then when we bought our first home. Yeah, we are new home owners now. Yehahhh!! Happy, we can move in on August 25, but wait it’s not over yet. We still need to clean the rented house for showings, finish packing and make arrangements with bro in-law and gang to help us move. Bro in-law said he will round up his boys (son and son in-law) to help us on the 25th. A week before the scheduled move, DB called his bro to finalize the time and so forth. Bro in-law said he can’t make as he picked up a few shifts for the State Fair. (Bro in-law is a paramedic). What about the boys? They can’t make it either – can’t take time off from work. Sonofabitch!!! Boy, were we pissed. We knew we can’t count on them much, but we took the chance. What the hell we gonna do?? We scrambled for whatever funds we had and called a moving company to move the heavy stuff, mainly the piano, big screen, refrigerator, washer, dryer, lawn rider and dining room table. (Turned out, moving companies do not move lawn riders.)

In between all these havoc, we need to show the house to future renters. You know when these folks show up, the present owners need to disappear for a while so the landlord can show the house in peace. F-ing-eh, so “ma fan” (troublesome) – gotta take the boys out for walks or rides, and usually these folks will take longer than they said when the appointment was initially was made. There were 5 – 6 showings but no go. On August 25, moving guys from Three Men and A Truck (they were horrible) came moved all the heavy stuff to the new house. Step-daughter’s friends came the next day and helped moved the rest of the medium-weight stuff the next day. The rest of the misc. stuff, we moved them. After getting rid of stuff we don’t want, there were still so much shit left. Anyhow, we moved in to our house after being a bankrupt for 1+ year. We were proud of ourselves. All of our hardwork to increase our credit score to the 700s and saving whatever we had worked out beautifully and now we are strapped to this home sweet home of ours for 2-years with a fixed rate of….you don’t even want to know….you want to know? Be prepared!

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The rate was fixed at 9.2%. “Sei um sei”?? And it’s ARM for 2 years. After two years, we can apply for a VA loan from the same mortgage company. The loan officer mentioned it shouldn’t be a problem. Hopefully it’s true.

(To be continued….Montana Trip)

That’s all for Part 5. School starts tonight and I’m already stressed out!!

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