HoundBlog

It’s been a long time since I wrote a blog post on this blog. Probably no one is reading this anymore. And that’s to be expected. If you neglect your audience, you can expect them to lose interest in you.

My life has changed so much in the intervening years from my last post here.

I graduated college (BS in Information Technology — that’s still the crowning achievement of my professional life), got offered a new job and subsequently was offered a second new job which I’m still at. Those new jobs brought huge challenges that consumed (and continue to consume) a lot of my time and energy. I still maintained life with the dogs and photography though, but let the creative writing lapse. There are only so many hours in the day and alas, as I age, only so much energy in the pot.

Age — that has happened with a vengeance.

My friends are gracious and tell me that I don’t look my age. Thank you! I am vain enough to appreciate that VERY much!

However, my body tells me otherwise in myriad different ways.

• hot flashes
• joint aches
• lack of stamina
• easily tired
• depression
• insomnia

The list could go on longer, but I won’t bore you with any more — that would make me a whiner which I try very hard not to be.

I see my sisters and my mother age and have to thank God that I have it so easy! No matter how hard my row has been to hoe, it’s been much harder on them! I must remember to focus on the happy and good things in my life. Focusing too long or too hard on those not-so-good-things just seems to make them all the worse.

One of my FaceBook friends posted a little image with some words of wisdom.

If you FAIL never give up because F.A.I.L. stands for First Attempt In Learning.
END is not the end. E.N.D. stands for Effort Never Dies.
If you get NO for an answer, just remember N.O. stands for Next Opportunity.
BE POSITIVE!

My mantra for the next few months.

Go in Peace

We drove to Ohio this weekend to spend some time with Chris, Anika and Wesley. We arrived around 11:00 am on Saturday and went to the Air Force Museum where we toured many of the exhibits on display. It’s a history of aircraft from the first Wright Brothers plane to modern aircraft. There was a LOT to see!

There was also a lot of history of the wars in which aircraft were used and much about foreign aircraft as well as American. All of that was very interesting! The kids seemed to enjoy it as well. Ani was intrigued by the clothing worn by the airmen in the early days and had a lot of questions about it. Wesley was just fascinated by the planes themselves and the designs that were painted on them.

Chris, Sam, Anika and Wesley

We met Chris’ girlfriend/fiance for the first time. Sammi is a sweet girl and it was obvious the kids adored her. Ken and I liked her a lot too.

On the way back to SC, we made a side trip in Tennessee to visit Ma. She was in good spirit s and seemed to be pleased that we stopped in. It was great seeing her and I really need to go see her more often.

The drive home was uneventful and we arrived around 5 pm tired but happy with the trip. The dogs and birds were happy to see us and greeted us like we had been gone a month instead of just two days.

Happy October! I hope you are enjoying this lovely fall weather as much as I am! The cool mornings have a nice crisp bite to them but the sunny afternoons are just right….now is when I need to be on vacation 🙂

Puppies are growing! They turned 4 weeks old Monday and are at that too-cute-to-resist phase. Comments from the sire owner and the sire’s breeder are encouraging, so we think we have a few keepers in this catch.

Features we like are their nice deep bodies, pretty markings and well shaped heads. They still don’t look a lot like Whippets, but will moph over the next week to 10 days into what we expect a Whippet to look like. They have great temperaments! Nice and outgoing. We had a couple over to visit Tuesday and the puppies were happy to see them.

My school starts back next Monday. I initially didn’t want the 3 week break, but must admit that I’ve enjoyed it. I am ready to get back to the grindstone though. That piece of paper has become an obsession of mine!

I had my annual review yesterday. Got the best review in the 10 years I’ve been there. He put in for a raise and we will have to see if it gets approved.

I’ve begun serious work on the company SharePoint site. I have to say that while the finished product is very slick, it’s the most confusing thing I think I’ve ever worked with to get it that way. UGH! My head feels like it’s about to explode with all the stuff I’m learning about this. Give me a simple website any day of the week!

Well, it’s time to head down that long lonesome highway one more time.

I hope you have a great day!

Love to all,

Margaret

Tomorrow is the first day of fall. All I can say is goodbye summer! Although I”m not exactly looking forward to winter, I am not unhappy that the heat of summer is behind me. As I age, heat becomes more and more a factor in my personal comfort.

Evidently my air conditioner thermostat wants to work with me in that respect. Lately, the air has been running pretty hard and our bedroom for example is quite cold. Ken thinks the thermostat is on the blink. If it weren’t for the high light bill, I wouldn’t mind quite so much, but it was pretty tough to swallow this month.

Started the puppies on raw food yesterday. They took to it like little ducks to water! It was amazing to see them get all excited and root around in the puppy pan for their portion. We didn’t give them much as Butterfly is still feeding them WELL and they are little chunks! Then when it was time for Mama to eat, they were trying to take the food out of her mouth 😆 — that was truly a sight to see!

Had some deer in the front yard the other night and there was a buck with the female and her two fawns. He had the weirdest horns I’ve ever seen. They looked more like what you would see on an Antelope as there were no branches to them. They were at least 2′ long, too. I’ve certainly seen young bucks with no branches on their horns but not one with horns this long. Unfortunately my photos are blurry although you can see what I’m talking about well enough in them.

We did not much of anything this weekend – it was rainy and just a good weekend to get in some down time. I know I needed it and think Ken did too. The dummy played golf in the rain Friday — at least he limited it to 9 holes, but still…

I got to play Farm Town enough to advance to the next level, so I’m at level 33 on the one farm and 32 on the other farm. I advanced on one of the Farmville farms too. — I know what a waste of time!

Didn’t hear from Eddie this weekend or either of the Norkett boys, so figure most things should be OK with them.

No calls from work this weekend either.

Quiet

Peace

Ahhhh

I cannot believe how quickly this year is going by! Guess that’s one of the “benefits” of getting older….hmmm

The Kennel club had an event last weekend for Responsible Dog Owner day. Last year’s was a huge success and we were awarded a $1000 from AKC for it. This year was dismal. We did all the right “stuff” as far as preparation and getting people to do demos and set up/tear down, but we were asked to have it in conjunction with an event the Parks and Recreation was having at the water park called “Waggin’ at the Water Park” and they put us on this soccer field that was above and behind the water park. We had maybe a dozen people come up the hill to see what was going on.  Needless to say we didn’t get much of our message out. I hope next year we elect to do another stand-alone event.

This weekend is the Southern Specialty in Atlanta. This is the first year in many that we aren’t going. But I understand. Nikki isn’t mature enough looking and Oscar just doesn’t have what it takes, so Ken didn’t want to go. Maybe next year when Butterfly’s puppies will be ready to make their mark on the world.

Next weekend are back-to-back matches in Greer put on by  the Clemson Kennel Club and Greenville Kennel Clubs. I’ve been asked to judge at both matches, so will be busy all day. I asked Ken to come, but don’t know if he will or not.

Other than that there’s nothing going on for us. We’re just kind of hanging around the house when we’re not working. I guess we need the down time.

Speaking of down time, I have the next couple of weeks “off” from school. I finished this last class (Public Speaking) with a 97.3 average, so my 4.0 overall average is still going strong. Next class up is Business. Only 8 more classes before I graduate with my Associates of Science degree. That will be in March of next year.Then it will be another year before I have qualified for the BS degree. — I should be a champion already of BS, but there you go…….

Gotta run! Love to all

Margaret

Ma reminded me yesterday that I haven’t written anything in this blog for some time now.

I’ve no excuses for that. Just seem to have all my free time sucked up by other things right now. Still, I need to keep this updated regularly, so will endeavor to make time for it.

Ken woke up yesterday all stuffed up and by last night was feeling pretty rough. I did convince him to take some over-the-counter remedy which enabled him to sleep last night but he wasn’t feeling much better this morning.

Eddie’s doing well and is making positive moves to leave the Navy by next year. I know lots of other people who would be sitting back and bewailing their fate, but he’s making me very proud by turning the lemons into lemonade and very tasty lemonade at that! Good job, son!

I got a nice little surprise in the mail yesterday — from South University which is the online college I’m taking courses through. I was chosen to be on the Spring 2009 Dean’s list which means I had a 3.5 or better GPA. Not too shabby for an almost senior citizen 😛  As the Brits would say, I’m quite chuffed.

I posted a status to Facebook yesterday that I was sure would bring my sister out of lurk mode, but failed miserably at that. Even the boys didn’t comment on their Mama’s lack of guts when faced by swimming rodents in the middle of the night. Oh well..such is life.

Guess I need to get back to work. Thanks for reading.

Love to all,

Margaret

I know I have been horribly negligent of this little blog lately. All I can do is cite work and school for excuses (although Ken will be quick to add in FarmTown).

I know this weekend I was living my worst nightmare!

You all know how I feel about laundry — do I need to remind you what a thankless task I believe this to be?

Well, it seems that we some how managed to get infected with some kind of biting insect. It was NOT fleas as the dogs all have had baths and Frontline applied, but Ken and I both were itching to beat the band. I never saw any bugs that I could say was the culprit. The lady at the pest control place said it must be bedbugs, but we haven’t been anywhere to contract them (unless Ken isn’t telling me something). Anyway, we treated the bedroom for bedbugs and that involved removing every piece of clothing, bedding, curtains and pillows and washing them all.  It took me two solid days of literally loading the washer, transferring to the dryer, folding and putting away to get it all done. I think Ken and I have too many t-shirts. If this doesn’t work, I think I will commit hari kari.

I still think the little rescue dog that came from Georgia brought something with her, but the pest control people say that bedbugs don’t travel on dogs. I haven’t done any research on that, but it doesn’t ring true as other biting insects don’t care what species mammal they are biting.

Wherever they came from I certainly hope they are now eradicated!

Now if we can just get the itching under control, we will both be much happier people.

Love to all,

the itchy Margaret

Ken and I had a movie weekend this weekend.

It was a lot of fun! Saturday night we went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince — it was a great movie especially if you’re a Harry Potter fan (and we are). We went out to eat beforehand, so didn’t have any popcorn at the movies.

We tried out a new to us restaurant in Belton — Jake’s. Where they had all-you-can-eat fried flounder. It was OK, and we’ll probably go back sometime.

Sunday afternoon we went to see Ice Age 3 — didn’t get to see it in 3D as the theater didn’t offer it, but it was still a really cute movie.

Had a couple of those moments in it where you end up snorting coke everywhere — Ken shushes me when I have those as I have a tendency to belly laugh pretty loud and long…well…it’s funny! You’re supposed to laugh!

This coming weekend is the Greenville dog shows. Big majors in Whippets, so keep your fingers crossed that Ken gets a piece of that action. Nikki needs one more major on her quest for championship and Oscar needs both of his. Winning all 3 days would finish Nikki and get Oscar within one point of finishing.

Might as well dream big, right?

My new boss started today. I’ve met him and we talked briefly, but that’s been the sum total of my contact with him so far.

Guess I should get back to work.

Love to all,

Margaret

Nothing much is on tap for this weekend for us. I’m taking the rescue dog to the Vet Saturday to be checked out – you’ll get the update on that. Other than that, just laundry, taking trash to the dump and all the normal weekend tasks are on the slate.

I need to do toenails and groom Payne and Snoball — I’m afraid I’ve let those get way behind. The toenails shouldn’t take too long to do and I don’t think Snoball is that bad, but Ms. Payne needs a make over.

The weather has been tolerable this past week – in the high 70’s and low 80’s which has been quite pleasant. We’ve had some rain in the late afternoons but no thunderstorms (thank goodness!). Maybe I’ll even find some time to weed my garden…..any bets?

Maybe I’ll get some more reading done — I still have 3 or 4 books to read.

I will be moving my office sometime next week. I’m glad I don’t have much stuff to move. Since we’re getting a real head of IT, they are allocating us some real office space and all 4 of us will actually be close to each other instead of spread out through the building. The new guy starts on the 20th.

That’s about it for now.

Well, I guess I had best go. Have a great weekend and don’t do anything I wouldn’t.

Love to all,

Margaret

Well, I hope you had a great weekend — Ken and I didn’t do much of anything.

Friday of course we had THE LIST of stuff to do. We began by taking Sabrina to the vet to have her staples out, then grabbed a bite to eat and headed for Georgia to pick up Butterfly. Came home, dropped Sabrina and Butterfly off at the house, then headed to Greenwood to run a couple of errands. When we got back home, we discovered that while we were gone someone had gotten into a fight and Aurora had a bite on her head. I gave her an antibiotic and some pain meds, cleaned out the wound and proceeded to feed everyone. She ate, but I kept her crated for the night. By morning her poor head was terribly swollen, so a trip to the vet was in order. He gave me some higher potency antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory. By morning, the swelling was almost gone and she was acting pretty normal.

Sunday we went to see UP — a movie by Pixar animation. It was OK, but I was a little disappointed in it.

Monday was back to work and it was a nice quiet day for a change. My current boss did come by and tell us that we are getting a new boss starting 7/20. I just happen to have met this man and he’s nice, so I have no problems with getting a new boss. Perhaps now I’ll get timely reviews and pay raises — it’s only been 3 years since my last one.

Ken’s worked overtime the last couple of days and emailed me that he’ll be working this Friday as well as next Friday — guess that means the moratorium on overtime is suspended for now. I know he’s happy, but I was getting used to him being home at regular hours and having quality time with him on the weekends. Oh well….that’s life.

The little rescue girl seems to have a vision problem. I’m waiting on permission from the WRAP board to have her taken to a specialist if my regular vet says she should go. I am thinking though that she has PRA which is an inheirited disorder for which there is no cure. If she does have it, she’ll eventually go blind. I know that sounds terrible, but my previous experience with blind dogs is that being blind isn’t so terrible for a dog. They have such great senses of smell and hearing that they manage pretty well without sight as long as you don’t move the furniture too often on them. For now she sees well enough.

Well, I guess I should close this out and get back to work.

Take care!

Love to all,

Margaret