Some little projects

We have actually completed some small projects here in the last few weeks. I don't know why I haven't posted about them. So here they are...
A little improvement that makes life a lot easier. I wish I had a before picture of this. This is in the laundry room/back porch. Before, this corner had a pile of brooms and mops and pet food that kept overflowing right into the doorway to the house (in the right corner). Now, as you can see, it has some order. I installed the rack in about 2 minutes and it holds all the brooms and mops, and since they are off the floor now there is actually the perfect amount of room for the food to set on the floor and out of the way.

The freshly scrubbed floors! Aren't they beautiful! Trust me, this is a HUGE improvement over what they looked like before.
The kennel has been expanded. It used to be 10'x10' and is now something like 36'x12'. I could be off there...actually, I probably am, but its huge now. Before there was only enough room for the doghouse, feeder, water trough, Clementine, and the puppy with a little room left over. Now there is room for 2 doghouses, 2 feeders, the water trough, the two dogs, and plenty of room to run. I mean seriously they run up and down it. It's so long that it had to be supported with t-posts so the sides wouldn't fall down. The doghouse sitting outside of it belongs to the dog that ran away. We are still keeping it in hopes that she may come back.

The reason for the jungle like setting of our yard is that the lawn mower is broken :(

Randomness

The iris's finally bloomed! Of course the time they finally bloomed is about the same time Cledus decided to tear them up. He had already completely cleared them out under then window. Oh, and ignore the cable coming out of the window...that's just until we get the antenna properly wired into the house. I hate it, but I just keep telling myself it's only temporary so its ok.
Remember the absolutely adorable puppies we had? Well, this is the only one that has not found a home yet. See how big she is? At 6 months old she is huge! And has a mouth on her...she found her "big dog voice" recently and barks at everything. She's absolutely sweet and lovable, and every bit of a puppy still. We are still trying to find her a new home though.
And this makes me sad. James has finally decided that he's tired of his truck and its now for sale. It was listed on Craigslist this past weekend. I love this truck. It might be one of the most loaded trucks I have ever seen (including Bose & remote start)I will give him some credit though...he's owned and driven it for 3 years now, which is a record for him. When we first started dating, and even well before that, he averaged at least 2 vehicles a year. Just because he gets bored with them and wants something different. He's now decided that he needs a diesel.

We are getting ready to enter the next phase of the dining room. I'm just not sure if the next step should be stripping or plaster repair. I'm not sure which would be better to do first. I'm thinking maybe plaster so I don't have to worry about ruining woodwork that has just been freshly restored.

Round 2? Bring it on!

I had a run in with the most stupid UPS guy I have ever seen yesterday. I saw the truck pull up and the dogs started barking. I went to answer the back door and the dogs went running out barking all the way. They ran right past the guy, but the guy turned around and started waving his little machine while yelling at them (they were not even near him when he started doing this, they were probably 20 feet away) and they went right up to him barking and jumping at him. They did not jump on him, only around him. The guy continued yelling and waving his machine at Cledus and was kicking at Sox! I was yelling at him to stop waving the machine because it was getting Cledus worked up (where he wasn't before) and the guy wouldn't stop. He instead started yelling at me that my dogs were attacking him (when they weren't...they hadn't touched him) while I was yelling at him to stop waving the damn machine. Cledus then knocked him over! The machine went flying! Cledus got what he wanted though and went up and sniffed the guy and went on his way. The guy stood up and I told him that Cledus was not attacking him, that the dog hadn't even touched him. Cledus was feeling threatened by the machine and wanted him to stop, and that was why he knocked him over. I also told him Cledus has never bit or attacked any one before. The guy said he really thought the dog was going to and that was why he started waving the machine, to keep him away. What? You don't do that! About this time Cledus came trotting up to me to make sure he did the right thing, and the guy started waving the machine again, yelling at Cledus to get back! I started yelling at him again to please put the thing down because now Cledus was ready to go (he was waiting for me to tell him it was ok). The guy finally put it down again and Cledus went up and sniffed him and then went and peed on his truck! The guy was ok, he said Cledus didn't bite or scratch him and he didn't want to file a report. He also asked that the next time we are expecting a delivery that we not have the dogs out and don't answer the door if we can't keep them inside. Understandable, and I told him that wouldn't be a problem. To make one thing clear, this is apparently a new driver. Cledus loved the other guy, and they would even play. But that guy had never threatened Cledus before. I have a feeling that as long as this guy delivers here we will have a problem.

The reason why I say this was the most stupid driver I have ever seen is because he did everything wrong. I was raised around dogs (bigger than Cledus) and was always taught that when you feel threatened by or are afraid of a dog you never call attention to yourself by waving things around, yelling, or running. Instead you back away slowly or stand still and never let the dog see that you are afraid. James said that if Cledus would have bit the guy that we would be making a complaint to UPS because the guy was threatening and intimidating our dog, causing him to go on the defense. James also said that the reason why Cledus just sniffed and went on after round 1 was because the machine was not in the guys hands any more, so there was no threat. That Cledus wasn't worried about the guy, just the thing he was waving.

This was Cledus trying to explain things to me afterward. I ended up being late to my interview but they were understanding. I took this picture while I was trying to calm down and make sure my new camera was ok because it also took a fall at one point.

Uh-Oh...

Saturday was an interesting day for us. I planned on James removing the drop ceiling, and instead he planned to go to Washington and get an outdoor dog kennel. It was free as long as we took the dog with it. No problem. Its an outdoor dog and very shy and timid so we thought it would give Clemintine some one to play with. We thought wrong. When we got home the dog didn't want to get out of the truck. I finally got her to get down on her own, and she hit the ground running! She took off accross the backyard, stopped to sniff the neighbors Shih-Tzu's and was gone. I tried to catch her and almost caught up when she was checking out the other dogs but she took off again and disappeared. Completely gone! So we got in my car and went looking for her. We live in the country and are surrounded by fields. You can see a long way right now and she wasn't anywhere. So after an hour of checking out fields and leaving our phone numbers with every one that lives within about a mile of our house we got back in the truck and went back to Washington to get her doghouse. And tell the guy we lost her. That was horrible! I have never lost a dog before! He was understanding though, except he said that he had never seen the dog run before! Never! He didn't even know that she could run like that! So her house is sitting in our backyard, and she is still no where around. I feel really bad about it because I have never had this happen before. We're still hoping that she comes back, but we don't think she will.

After all that the day was wasted so we stayed home and played basketball on X Box and waited for the dog all night. Nothing else got done. And its now Monday and the dog still isn't back. Today's plan is to finish cleaning up the disaster in the 2nd bedroom. Next weekend we are going to take down the drop ceiling. I can't wait to get it down, I think the room will look bigger and that musty mildew smell that showed up when we opened it up will be gone again.

Puppies

Awww...aren't they cute?! This was the first time I could get close enough to get a picture of the puppies and it came out good. There are 4 black and 1 brown. They are now about 4 weeks old and are already almost the size of our Shih-Tzu! We had to disrupt the pile shortly after this picture was taken though. We had old blankets in there and the mama ripped them to shreds, so then we had cedar chips in it and she dug them all out. So now we have straw in there and she seems ok with it so far.

Time for a change!

This is the current state of our entertainment center (please excuse the fact that I forgot to rotate the picture) and its really annoying. It doesn't fit the house in any way. I bought the entertainment center when I had my first apartment and we have outgrown it.
So we upgraded to this...
I love this! It fits better with the house and while there isn't room for all the movies and CD's it will hold the DVD player, VCR, XBox, and a stereo (I'm switching out the big one). I got the media situation under control though. I am going to mount a victorianish (is that a word?) bookcase above it to hold all the movies and stuff. I just have to refinish it first. And I got a shelf to hold the unity and memorial candles until we find something more appropriate to put them in (they shouldn't be on the t.v. any way)

In other news:

This is Lucky. He was a rescue kitty. I love how big and fluffy he is and he's so sweet. (BTW...he's going to get fluffier as it gets colder, this is his summer coat) He also likes to get into trouble...
Thats right...one paw is orange! I had to post this cause its just too funny! I had canned ravioli last night. I forgot to put the can in the trash and left it on the stove. Lucky helped himself to it and now his paw is dyed orange! He's been cleaning on it all morning and it won't go away! I figured out it is ravioli sauce because the can was in the dining room when I woke up. Maybe he learned something from this...probably not though.

Socks and his kennel

I had some one tell me that its cruel to keep a puppy in a kennel and that we should give him away if we can't take care of him! We take great care of our pets and they are incredibly spoiled. So I just wanted to let every one know that Socks is handling the kennel well. Its set up in our living room. He spends a few hours in there depending on work schedules. The most time he's in there is 1-3 hours. I hate doing this, but there have been no accidents on the floor and the litter box has been peaceful (as in not looking like it exploded). And the kennel is not the same as a crate. Some people leave their pets in crates (small boxes) for that amount of time or longer and I would never do that. His kennel is designed for a large dog (he's a Shih-Tzu, they're small) and is about 5'x4' and about 4' high...and he's only about 2' long and about a foot and a half tall. He's got water, food, a bed, and toys in there and plenty of room to move around and jump all over. He goes in there on his own, we don't have to put him in there. And since we've started doing this he's actually starting to housebreak! Hopefully we won't have to do this long. He's a little over 1 year old and it takes about 3 years to completely housebreak a Shih-Tzu. Oh, and the lady that told me I was cruel...she was buying puppy pads for her 2 year old dog that refuses to go outside and said that she keeps it locked in the laundry room when she's not home! I think thats cruel! I would never keep an animal in a confined area with no windows or doors and poor ventilation! She also said that when she tries to move the puppy pad outside the dog brings it back inside and does its business! I think she's doing something wrong there.

On the home improvement subject...James reminded me that its been 2 months and the dining room floor is still not done. I reminded him that he can do it too. I've been in so much pain lately that I just can't do hardly anything. Maybe we'll get started on it again soon.

No tile, but solved the case of the litter box bandit!

On my last post I stated that the bathroom floor would be tiled this weekend. Did not happen. I also mentioned the litter box being emptied onto the floor...it happened 2 more times over the weekend, but we finally got to the bottom of it. Socks! Our adorable little Shih-Tzu decided to play...and then sleep in the freakin litter box! He got in trouble, got a bath, and got a kennel! We put a kennel in our living room for him for when we're sleeping or not home. I hate to do that to him, but thats disgusting! I have no idea why he's doing that! And it just started...he never did that before! So now that we have this massive kennel taking up our living room I'm hoping this doesn't happen again. The floor didn't get tiled because it was wet most of the weekend. I'd clean it up, we'd leave for a while and it'd happen again. So maybe it'll get done next weekend.

In other news we went to a housewarming party this weekend. One of James friends just got moved into his house and had a party. It was a lot of fun, and a beautiful house needing absolutely no work. I'm a little jealous! Actually it needs one thing...a wall between the master bedroom and bathroom! There is no wall at all...its like having a toilet in the bedroom...kinda disturbing. The owner named it the "voyeur room" because when you sit on the toilet you see everything in the room and when you are in the bedroom part all you want to look at is the toilet. Weird. As you can imagine it was the topic of many discussions. Mainly the advantages (number one being when you're drunk you don't have to leave the room or mess with doors) and us girls pointed out the bad (there's so many I won't list). And we donated our vacuum to him since he has carpet upstairs and no vacuum, and we have a vacuum and no carpet. The weird thing is I almost looked at this house before we bought ours. Decided not to see the inside because the asking price at that time was just way too high. Instead we decided to buy a house that cost a ton less, but we're probably going to have to invest as much money into as what that house cost. Oh well...we love our old house even though it needs a ton of work. It'll be beautiful again some day and until then we are living here just fine.