Life with the Three Crazy Dogs

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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