My so Charmed Life

Having what could be considered an odd name I never had a personalized license plate for my bike. I missed out on all of those your name means… cards. Never before have I felt this left out though. Google your name (not the words, your actual name) and the words ‘likes to’ in quotes. Such as: “Season likes to” Some of the results are amazing.

“Misha likes to“
…lick a lot–people, sheets, blankets.
…mouth and chew on everything and everyone
…freestyle rap
…spend his time being a revolutionary, playing scrabble, going to lawn bowls or other nerdy yet ‘cool’ things

“Tara likes to“
…spice things up with her dominatrix persona (daaa, sigur!)
…dance on cars
…say… Be Stylish… Be Unique… Be Unexpected… Be Savvy!
…fly, and not just by taking drugs

“Aunt Sue likes to“
…play with you, but you must not be rude
…fall down allot (sic)

“Brock likes to“
…think of himself as the Highlander of his analyst class, wielding an indestructible claymore of corporate finance.
…nurture his fondness for literature and African American history
…play with pots and pans and balls

Seriously, who cares about Michael Phelps smoking from a bong? What does it matter? Did he force you to smoke? Did he blow smoke into your face? What does it matter. Big freaking deal. It could be worse. You can debate the evils of pot, but “gateway” drug or not, who cares. He didn’t kill or harm anyone. Go find real crime to be upset over.

Apparently it’s not just me. Dan Hopper at Best Week Ever is sick of the people clamoring for Phelps to be arrested. He’s got a great imaginary conversation with a police officer for all of those people who think Phelps should be arrested. Read it. It’s good stuff.

Hushbear and I have decided to adopt a wheaten terrier. Of course my first instinct is to adopt a rescue, but we’ve been thinking about how nice it would be to have a puppy. Here’s where some of the problem is. I’ve put in an application with Wheatens in Need. I’ve also been emailing different breeders in Texas. If we are to go the puppy route, I would want to get one from a reputable breeder. I know it’s more expensive, but then you know that the dog is healthy and if the parents have had any problems.

I want to be careful about who I adopt from. I’ve found puppies out of state, but how do you check to make sure they are healthy? How do you know that the breeder socializes them and isn’t just in it for a check?

Since this is probably the only time we will adopt a puppy from a breeder I want to make sure to do it right. A good breeder breeds no more than once a year. A dog can usually have two, but the strain is so hard on the female that good ones wait at least a year between litters. Most of the good breeders seem to show their dogs.

There is a breeder in Spring that sounds perfect. He’s close by, the litter won’t be born until April, it’s obvious from the videos and pictures on his site that his dogs are well cared for. He usually doesn’t place dogs based on sex, but he said if the litter is large and predominantly female he is willing to work with us. I like it that they aren’t born yet because we might be able to get one without its tail docked. I don’t judge people who dock their dog’s tails. It’s none of my business, I just like a long tail. There’s something about a big tail wagging greeting that doesn’t transfer when it’s just a stub.

I’ve received emails back from 4 other breeders in Texas, none of them have puppies or have plans for litters until the fall. Hopefully one of the others is having puppies soon, or things work out with the guy in Spring. If his breeding took, and it sounds like it probably did, we would be able to get a puppy from him in early June.

I don’t cry all the time anymore, but it still hurts. I’ve been sick and I keep reaching for Isabell. She was such a funny little goofball and she always made me feel better. Our house is so boring and quiet. I know I sound like a broken record, but 3 weeks out I figured things would be a little better.
Hushbear put more pictures of her up in the Isabell album.

I was going to put up a few pictures of our girl, but blogger seems to be having problems. Since it’s not cooperating look here, here, & here.

This article speculates on the rumor that Michelle Obama might be pregnant. Though I doubt it, it would be nice. It would certainly bring even more references to the Kennedy family.

The article says that Mrs. Obama could be the second first lady pregnant in the White House. Um…What about Jackie Kennedy? She had a baby, Patrick. He died of RDS two days after his birth. If I remember correctly, her trip to Dallas was the first official trip for her after his death.

I was just surprised by this. They go back to Grover freaking Cleveland, but they forget about the Kennedy family?

I have nothing interesting to say. Plenty to complain about, but not really worth the energy to type it. I have a dentist appointment on Wednesday at 7:40am. That’s interesting. Well, if you have a tooth fetish…

This is all over Facebook, but I figured since I don’t have much to blog about right now (that’s a good thing) I would put it here.

1. I’ve lived in 11 houses/apartments that I can remember (Update: 13 according to my mom)
2. I don’t like staying in one place for too long, so I used to paint our house a lot (since moving isn’t really an option anymore)
3. I’ve been with Hushbear for 12 years 2 months and 11 days (no, I don’t know that off the top of my head)
4. I’ve only adopted dogs from shelters before and feel guilty that we might be adopting a Wheaten puppy from a breeder this summer
5. To offset my guilt I plan on giving a donation to the shelter or a Wheaten rescue organization
6. When I see dogs loose in the neighborhood I always try to get them back to their houses. Even if that means going door to door asking if people know who the dog belongs to… I think my neighbors are getting sick of me
7. I hate my next door neighbor and secretly hope he goes to a nursing home soon
8. I still miss Isabell just as much today as I did two weeks ago
9. I want to go to grad school to continue obtaining useless history degrees
10. I am very organized at work, but sadly that doesn’t transfer to home
11. I need at least 2 days notice before people can come over; I need to frantically clean (or frantically shove everything into my messy office)
12. The first boy I kissed and hushbear are both shorter than me
13. I love my car
14. I want to knock my house down and rebuild
15. I’m always worried that somehow my webcam is on and people are watching me
16. My first car was a 1991 bright yellow 2 door Ford Festiva, it was found abandoned on the side of the road and then I abused the hell out of it
17. I spend a lot of time online
18. I have done our taxes every year since 2000 and we usually get between $5000 & $8000 back (Yeah, we really overpay!)
19. I have asthma & epilepsy
20. I would really like to have twins because if my next pregnancy is anything like the first one was, it’s very unlikely I will be brave enough to get pregnant again
21. I’ve been in college off & on since 1997 and will finally have my degree in May
22. I am very opinionated and can be quite bitchy; it’s not entirely my fault, I think it runs in my family! (hi mom & aunt sue!)
23. I love to plan trips and feel very fortunate to have been able to travel so much over the past couple of years
24. I am so glad that I’m not working anymore (sorry PICGirl & RPhGuy)
25. After my brother was born I refused to call him by his name. Instead I called him Oscar Mayer.

Hushbear is sick -like really sick. Temp of 102.2 kind of sick. Now I am coughing and my chest feels tight. (Albuterol isn’t helping much with the chest.) I was sick less than 2 weeks. Not cool.

Nope, not a euphemism for my boobs. I mean Baby & Maggie. I’ve been posting about Bell so much and I realize that I should do a post about the other two girls in our life.

Let me introduce Baby.

This is my pretty, pretty princess. Baby was adopted from the Humane Society by our friend Beth’s daughter. She came to live with us in September of 2000. The first weekend she came to stay with us she and Isabell would swim, get out of the pool, play in the dirt and get back into the pool. It was…lovely.

Baby is our friendly girl. She loves everyone the minute they walk in the door. Even if she’s never met you she acts like she’s been waiting for you to come in the door her entire life.

She loves being with people. She will follow me around the house all day. It doesn’t matter where I go. she’s my shadow. Her favorite things in the world (other than everyone she meets!) are floppy toys and rawhide chews.

Baby and Bell were the best of friends. They used to “put on shows” all the time. They played so well together. I can tell that she’s sad without Bell. She’s just not quite the same. I keep finding her in Isabell’s cage sniffing everything. I wonder if I should take the cage down or just let her hang out.

This sweet girl is Maggie.

We, ok I, adopted her from the SPCA in October of 2006. She was…a little rough looking. She had been brought in with her litter of puppies. All the puppies were adopted right away, but The Mags was still there.

The name on her information sheet at the shelter was Janet. I’m a total dork so I said “Janet, Miss. Jackson if you’re nasty.” Yeah, there was a guy with his son right next to me who looked at me like I was insane. I said “uh, Janet Jackson? Control? He and his son left. 🙂

Maggie was in the cage with another dog who attacked her every time I got near them. Yes, that’s why I adopted her. She was being bullied. I asked the girl to get her out because I felt bad for her. I spent a few minutes with her before she started asking to go outside. As soon as we went out she pooped in the grass. I decided that since she was both sweet and housetrained she was perfect.

Oh yeah, and she was 3. Oh wait, she wasn’t. They said she was 3, but when we took her to the vet he said that they were extremely off. Yeah, his best guess was 7. So my small young dog that I went to adopt 2 years ago is now 9 and weighs like 50 pounds or so.

She’s very shy. She’s scared of everything (Hushbear started calling her Maggie Smack Smack). I really think that she would have been the perfect dog for an older couple. She needs a nice quiet environment. I think it’s going to be really hard for her when we have kids, but she’s such a sweet girl and we love her.

These are my girls.

They don’t really care for each other but there appears to be an uneasy truce for now. I’m still holding out hope that they will be good sisters too.