Life with the Two Crazy Dogs

I have been going to the consignment shop. Plato Closet, a lot lately. 

Why??? 

Because I could not fit into my clothes anymore.  They were all sizes zeros, ones and twos.  It’s really sad to say goodbye to those clothes.  They were the ones that I bought when I was still smoking. 

Funny how smoking kept my weight down. 

I love those clothes that I bought from Express, The Limited, Gap, and Abercrombie & Fitch.  These are the few places I go to for my work clothes.  They are a little expensive but they all have my kecik mayung (petite) sizes.

I could not believe I put on so much weight since I quit smoking 6 months ago.   Cigarette smoking do increase metabolism.  Sad to say I am now three sizes up.

The clothes I am not able to wear anymore goes to the consignment store.  As long as they are not too old, they would accept them.  Plus, they only accept branded lables.   And since my weight is slowly going up, I thought why buy new when slightly use is fine?  The clothes in this store are in very good condition.  I bought four pairs of capris, 1 dress pants, 1 blouse, 2 shirts and 2 pairs of jeans for $70.  Two of the capris and a pair of jeans were brand new with tags on. 

This weekend, DB and I are going to the consignment store again.  He has tons of shirts and jeans that he want to get rid of.  If the store accepts them, I will have another shopping spree.

After much complains from me and SD, DB finally gave in and  bought a new vacuum cleaner, a Dyson Animal DC17. 

 The first time I saw the Dyson ad on TV was about a year plus ago.  I wanted it but told myself that expensive sucker has to wait since we were still trying to restore our credit history.  I know DB liked the idea of bagless vacuum (don’t have to worry about buying and changing the bags) and dog hair really bugs the crap outta him.

Our old vacuum, a Hoover Windtunnel, is about 8 years old.  The Hoover is good but it is very heavy for me to carry it up and down the stairs.   Anyways, who likes to vacuum the stairs.  Man, I had doing the stairs. 

The Hoover sucks up dog hair but in order to thoroughly do a fine job, I have to vacuum the path a few times.  SD said our vacuum sucks to high heaven. 

On Friday, I sent DB an email and mentioned we should look into a different vacuum cleaner for upstairs.  Since I will be receiving my tuition reimbursement for my previous class this coming paycheck, I told him I will get another vacuum cleaner for upstairs.  I didn’t think of getting a Dyson; maybe another Hoover or Bissell.   Low and behold, DB said “Let’s get a Dyson and that way we know it’s a good vacuum.”

So we did on Saturday at Sears, his favorite store.

I’m happy with it.  That vacuum cleaner rocks.  It sucks good
It sucks so good it sucked up the threads from the rug and the thread wound around the  roller.  GD!! Couldn’t believe it. 

That’s me…..its something about me using a new toy. At least I got some of it out and the new toy is still working and I’m happy with the results.

I am so ready to call it quits with this class.   The course I am taking is Principles of Management and there is a lot of work to it.  This is an accelerated course and I should know from previous experiences that accelerated classes are tough and require a lot of my free time.  I have free time right now and I’m blogging. 

Why?

Because I’m so tired of watching the videos that came with the book.  I took as much notes as I could and I now need to summarize them to a 1.5 or 2 pages summary.  There are 10 videos to view and each video is 40 minutes.  I have till July 25 to complete these videos. 

Don’t get me wrong.  I find this course to be very interesting.  Forming an organization, managerial hierarchies, ethics and diversity, globalization, control, planning, leading, and resources - all these sound so familiar to me.  I am fortunate to work in a corporation that has the exact formulas within the organization.  I am particularly interested in mergers and acquisitions.  I assume there are great deals of processes to follow that intrigue me.  

With summer around the corner, which I think with the heat and humidity we have, summer is already here.  I tend to spend my summers out on the trails or just working on my scrapbook and jigsaw puzzles.   I told DB I usually slack a lot when I’m in a 16-week class and I work a lot harder in an 8-week course. 

I know I need to get my credits in to get my degree quicker and that’s why I signed up for the summer class, but now I am totally kicking myself in the ass for doing that.   However, I will be kicking myself even harder if I didn’t sign up this summer.  Either way I’m stuck.   I suppose I simply need to sacrifice a little for something more important. 

That is life…… 

 Here are some pictures I took last week.  I’m trying to figure the camera out.

Found this pine cone on our backyard, still hanging on to the twig

Taken at work: the walking trails

Company’s south entrance parking lot

Pine cone on our backyard

Ranger done grazing the grass

Coopster taking a snoozer under the dining table

I have moved my Blogspot blog to Word Press because the former is driving my up the wall.  I wanted to post a few posts last week and earlier this week, all Blogspot did was returned me to the login page.  I was pissed!!!

So, please update your bookmark.  Thanks and welcome!

Thursday afternoon 3:05 p.m. after work, it was too hot to go for a walk. Instead, I brought my text book out “Essentials of Contemporary Management”. I flipped to the page I dog-eared and was started reading and “ding dong”. Followed by “rolf, rolf, roooolf”, and of course, I jumped. Each time the boys bark in the house, it makes me jump, literally. Good thing my heart is still in good condition.

Anyways, I turned towards the front of the house and saw the big brown truck, UPS truck. I went to the door and the guys was still scanning the barcodes on the boxes - 1 big box and 3 small boxes. What the heck are in there? The first thing that came to me was what did he buy now?? Opened the door amidst all the “rolf, rooolf” and saw that the boxes were addressed to me. WTF???? They were from California. Well, the facial products I ordered came and I didn’t order anything else, what are in those boxes.

Thank the UPS guy and hauled them boxes in and were sniffed out first by the sniffers. When all is clear, I opened them up. I thought I should wait till DB gets home, hell no. Got the letter opener and slit them boxes up to a ton of packing peanuts in the big box. Then to the 1st small box……a Canon AS630 digital camera. I didn’t order that. Opened up the last box which was the lightest. Found nothing except a piece of shipping invoice and a rolled up bubble wrap. What in the world, I thought. Looked again, crap….there is a 1G memory card wrapped up in a big piece of bubble wrap.

Opened up the package and took the camera out, checked it out, wondered why did he get this for me?? I told him I was looking for one but didn’t expect to get one that’s FOC. I rummaged through the big box and there was a tripod, camera case, and rechargeable batteries.

I didn’t even hear “Helloooo, I’m home!” I was too busy fiddle jacking with the camera, the boys didn’t hear their old man either because I had the fan blasting at me and them. As soon as they hear him, they ran to the door, tails all wagging 90 miles an hour.

So, here are the pictures I took with the camera.

Took some of these pictures last weekend but forgot to post them on my last post.

Coopster and Riley panting like a freight train….it was 82F in the house!

Memorial Day weekend started off with babysitting Riley. This time we had to pick him up from his home in Savage on Friday afternoon. As usual, he was as hyperactive as ever. We had a shadow the entire weekend. However, I have to say he was much better than the first time he was with us.

When we got home from Savage, we had our dinner and I got ready for my concert at MN Orchestra Hall. Met up with Simmie and we went to the Orchestra Hall together. The performance was so-so. Music was too modern. We left after the 2nd performance.

Then she took me to Dakota Club which is a jazz club. I heard so much about the club and now I get to see it. We hung around for a bit and went to Fallafal King for a late dinner. The fallafals were so good, I could eat a ton of them. For some reason, I enjoy eating Mediterranean food. Oh, I almost forgot about the hummus. They were appetizing that I wanted to eat more, but then gotta think about how late it was already. Can’t go to bed with a heavy stomach – “fat ngok moong” (nightmares). Actually, that’s a lame excuse….it’s more like being vain!

By the time I got home, it was about 10:45 p.m. and I was wired for some reason. I know I should be tired but I guess it was way passed my bedtime. I went to bed at midnight and woke up 6 on a Saturday. Pathetic, but I needed to. Took the three boys to the dog park and spent about 1.5 hours there till the sun was beating on us. When I got home, changed and DB and I dropped off his truck at the garage for oil change and I hit the grocery stores for my weekly duties. Each time I go to the store, I will drop by the nursery for more plants, what else. I didn’t get any this time.

Once I got home and put away the groceries, had my lunch and went out again to get my passport pictures taken at Sears but then, couldn’t do it right away because no frigging appointment. Made an appointment for 1:30 since I only have 1 hour to kill, I proceeded to Blockbuster to return the DVDs I received from the mail. Good thing about this Blockbuster Online Access is sure is handy. I can return the DVDs to the store and pick up any movies that are on the queue. I don’t have to pay for the rental since I am paying a monthly fee for the membership. I rented “The Red Violin” since it has Joshua Bell playing the solos, and “Water”, a Hindi movie about young girls in India back in the 1930s who are widowers and according to the Hindu system, they can marry the husband’s brother, if he wants to. If not, the girls’ parents have to take them to the widower’s house to live for the rest of their lives.

Obviously when I got home, I didn’t get to watch my movies. I have my babysitting duties to do. I took the boys out for their walk, then called Simmie and made our arrangements to meet for Joshua Bell concert at the Ordway.

On Sunday, I went to Mernards to get landscaping lights and some other stuff for DB’s executive bathroom. Then I itchy backside I bought Windex outdoor cleaner for our windows. I saw my neighbor did it and it looks so damn easy. Next stop…..the nursery and bought more plants. Their plants are dirt cheap. I bought 5 Hostas and 5 German sage plants, and a bag of Miracle Grow potting mix and the total came to $48 bucks.

Couldn’t wait to get home and plant them. When I got home, DB was already working on the front yard trimming bushes (shrubs) and I vacuumed the house. Didn’t want to do it coz I want to plant my stuff. Finished vacuuming, headed out, and started digging – digging out rocks. I was a squatting, kneeling, bending over, sitting, digging for four hours. I was so darn tired I wanted to sit on my butt and watch my movies.

SD, her BF and his son, Zack, came over for dinner. We sent her to the store to get brats and buns since I bought corn on the cob a week ago from the farmer’s market. We finally sat down to eat at 8:15. I was famished I could eat more but I over starved myself. DB and I were glad they left shortly after.

One thing good about having them over is they will play with the boys, this time three boys, till they knocked out. The boys were so tired they didn’t even want to go out for their night potty. YES!!!!

On Memorial Day, I finished cleaning the bathrooms and had a good whiff of Lysol Mildew remover. I kid you not, that thing was strong even though I had the exhaust fan and an oscillating fan in the bathrooms. For the rest of the day, I could not smell anything except Lysol. Wonder if I can die of inhaling Lysol fumes in the long run.

Right after I was done cleaning the house, I went out and finished transplanting my plants. Planted the lilies and the rest of the hostas. I was already aching from the day before from all the bending, squatting and kneeling.

Riley’s owner came around 3-ish while I was watching “The Red Violin”. There were total distractions from the boys coz they wanted to go for their walk. It was so hot and humid out, I rather stay inside and enjoy the coolness in the house. DB was so glad to get rid of Riley. He was such a pest this time around. No more babysitting at least till I’m done with school.

After our dinner, I just sat on my ass and watch “Water”. It’s a good movie, very sad, though. I thought my dam would open up big time; it did but very little. I would definitely watch it again, and same goes to “The Red Violin”.

Holiday weekends seems to be more tiring for me. Going back to work was a drag. This four-day week seems so long.