Cootiehog

The Final 24 Hours

Mar 5th, 2010 | Vacations | No Comments

We’re in the final 24 hours of our trip. The past couple days have been great – we spent the entire time in DogTown and I LOVED the dogs I worked with. I spent time at Old Friends, which is an area for older dogs. I had fallen in love with Tramp, an older dog we saw during our tour on Sunday, so I was excited to go back to visit him. What a SWEET dog. The caregiver in charge of Old Friends was wonderful and friendly, and as such I decided to go back yesterday as well. I loved hanging out with Bob Barker (a HUGE yellow lab), Tramp (a tall terrier), Ben (a sweet but shy black lab), and Kimbo (a 13-year-old deaf Keeshond). I love older dogs – they are so mellow.

Meredyth and I got to work with puppies the past two mornings, too. I fell in love with a Rottie puppy named Navy and wanted him very badly – but he is leaving for his new forever home this morning. Besides, Rottie puppies grow up to be 90-lb adult Rotties, and I KNOW Denis wouldn’t have liked that one bit. So I have to be content that he’s going to a home where they’ll love him.

Today we are checking out of the timeshare in St. George and heading over to a nearby artist’s community for a bit before heading back to Vegas. We will then spend the day doing the cheapest (read: free) things we can possibly do with a bit of gambling mixed in here and there.

This week has been fabulous, and I’m pleased to say that I got out of it exactly what I wanted. I got to spend time with dogs, cats and horses; I got to spend one day doing next to nothing except RELAXING; and I got to mentally recharge my batteries – something I haven’t been able to do in over a year due to my layoff last January, the subsequent and constant search for work, freelancing, and taking care of the kids. So all in all, this was the PERFECT vacation.

Checking In!

Mar 2nd, 2010 | Vacations | 1 Comment

Hey everyone! I’m halfway through my vacation and thought I would check in. I’m using a MacBook, which means there may be plenty of typos in this post because the keyboard is so flippin’ small. It’s made for a 6-year-old pair of hands, not a 40-year-old pair of hands.

The trip has been awesome. Flew without a hitch to Vegas last Thursday night, and literally just crashed into the hotel bed for the night. My hotel was about as far from the Strip as one can get, but it was $40 for the night and comfy, so it worked for me. In the morning I got up, had breakfast, and headed to the Hoover Dam for a couple hours. The tour was fun, and the dam was certainly impressive. And I can now say I’ve been to one of the Wonders of the World!

From there I went to the airport to pick up my friend Meredyth from the airport. As soon as we picked up her luggage we were off to the timeshare in St. George, Utah. The directions from Google were a disaster and we had to stop twice for directions – and each time we were within 1/2 a mile of the place when we stopped to ask. We just couldn’t FIND it! The timeshare is decent. It’s a two-bedroom, two-bath condo type of place. It’s clean, the kitchen is full-sized, and the location is beautiful (mountains all around). The first night I had no cellphone coverage but it’s been okay since that first night. Once settled into the timeshare we went to go get groceries for the week and then just chilled out.

Saturday was DOGTOWN DAY. We drove the 90 minutes to Best Friends Animal Society. Okay, it was more like 2 1/2 hours because ONCE AGAIN our Google directions took us in the completely wrong direction and we went AN HOUR out of our way. But we made it in time for our orientation and then headed up to DogTown for the afternoon. We only walked a couple dogs but it was fun nonetheless. The dogs there are precious. They are mainly older dogs, and on the larger side. We walked Ogy and Purdy. Very sweet dogs.

Sunday was Cat World day. We spent the whole day in cat land. We cleaned one area that housed about a dozen cats. They had both an indoor room filled with beds, toys, food and litter, as well as a huge outdoor area that had more toys and tons of great perches and hiding spots. A few of the cats in that room had physical problems (blindness, paralyzed back legs), but they were ALL cute. My two favorites were a black cat named Kyra and a red cat named Timmy. They both crawled in my lap and demanded petting at some point, and I gladly sat and did exactly that until they got bored and moved on. *lol*

Meredyth and I both agreed at the end of the day that we preferred DogTown. The reason? CAT PEOPLE ARE CRAZY, Y’ALL. Seriously. Some MAJOR weirdness that day. The dog people seem so laid back and easygoing, whereas the cat people were very particular about the cats. Strange.

That night we went out to see a movie. We saw “The Blind Side,” which I loved. What a great story.

Yesterday was my day to spend with the horses. Meredyth went back to DogTown. My morning with horses was okay – I encountered Crazy Horse People though, who kept speaking baby talk to the donkeys. I found that quite annoying. A donkey doesn’t care if you live or die – why on EARTH would you babytalk to it? Fortunately things improved after lunch. The Crazy Babytalking Horse People who were volunteering with me went off to work at Cat World, and I was joined with two freshmen in college who were AWESOME. Our BFAS caregiver was Margaret and her dog Kiva – what FUN the afternoon was! Sure, we mucked out pastures (poop scooping on a much larger scale), but we also got to groom a horse for a while and some of them loved to be petted. All in all a very satisfying experience yesterday afternoon. If you go to Horse Haven to volunteer, try to do it when Margaret is working. She is a GREAT individual and her dog is AWESOME.

Today we’re taking it easy. Meredyth’s allergies have struck her pretty bad in the past 24 hours and her lips are swollen to twice their size (very Angeline Jolie). She’s going to call her doctor to see if he can call in a prescription for her to pick up. Since we only have one car, it’s not like I can head off to DogTown and leave her – I wouldn’t be back until late afternoon and she’d have no way to get her prescription. So in a bit I’ll be calling to cancel our day at DogTown and advise them that we’ll be back tomorrow. Seeing as DogTown gets tons of volunteers, it shouldn’t be a problem.

The rest of the week will pretty much be the same. More animals through Thursday, and then Friday we check out from the timeshare and head to Vegas for the day/night.

The Time Has Come

Feb 25th, 2010 | Books, Television, Vacations | 2 Comments

Lots of updates! Last week I found out that a friend I had invited to go to Utah with me finally decided to come! I’m flying out tonight and she’s be meeting me tomorrow morning. We’re very excited about the trip AND the chance to hang out for the first time in over 5 years. It’s going to be an awesome trip.

I’ve loaded up my MP3 player with books. I’ve got 2 1/2 to listen to on the plane rides. Two books to recommend that I finished recently: “Cranford” by Elizabeth Gaskell. There is a wonderful Masterpiece Theater miniseries based on the book, but while sharing a lot of the same basic scenes the book is wholly different from the miniseries. Both are fantastic and worth reading/watching. The other book is “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett. It is easily the best book I’ve read in ages. Specifically, I listened to the audiobook and think the ladies reading that book are the best narrators EVER. Just fabulous and they made listening to the book an absolute pleasure.

I turned in our tax stuff yesterday to our accountant. I’m hoping he can work his magic. I know that we’ll owe taxes because of my freelance work – my hope is that I’ve set enough aside over this past year to cover the amount I’ll owe. Each time I got paid for freelance work I’d move over 25% into my savings account. I hope that was enough.

I believe my co-hort this week (Meredyth) is going to be bringing her laptop, so I should be able to log in here occasionally and provide updates on what I’m doing in Utah. I’m also taking a camera but I’m not sure how many actual photos I’ll take since it’s not a true “be a tourist” trip.

Lastly, let’s talk American Idol. The girls were horrible on Tuesday night. Simply horrible. The only one truly good was Crystal, the hippie chick. As for the guys last night, I only liked two of them: Casey and Andrew. Those are pretty much my picks for the final three this season. They were great. I’ll be on a plane for tonight’s boot show, and they are getting rid of four. No idea who they’ll get rid of, but as long as my top three stay, I’ll be happy.

Already Approaching Vacation Mode

Feb 19th, 2010 | Vacations | 1 Comment

So Denis has been in NYC this week – I dropped him off at CLT airport on Wednesday and he flies home tomorrow evening. His mini-vacation has gotten me more excited about my own trip next week.

I’ll obviously be spending most of the time at the animal sanctuary, but I still have a 24-hour period in Vegas to fill. Any suggestions on what someone can do (besides gamble) in 24 hours in Vegas? My gambling budget is very small ($150 at the most), so I’ll need to find more to do than playing roulette for 22.5 minutes (that’s about how long I predict my $150 will last). I also need CHEAP things to do.

I’m fairly certain I’ll be riding a couple of the rollercoasters because I LOVE rollercoasters – the Manhattan Express rollercoaster and the Stratosphere Big Shot are the two that top my list. Speed at the Sahara is the third one I’m considering. The prices to ride are high (over $10) on each ride, so I’m leaning towards only doing two. I’ll see how long the lines are – if the line for the third one is long, I won’t do it.

So give me your suggestions – I’ll be arriving back in Vegas at 10 a.m. on a Friday morning and don’t fly out until 1 p.m. on Saturday. I’ve got the whole day to fill up – what should I do?

Things Are Moving Along

Feb 16th, 2010 | All About CootieMom, Earnin' Extra | No Comments

Not much going on, but we’re busy.

Denis leaves tomorrow for a quick trip to NYC to see his family and friends. He’ll fly back on Saturday. We managed to get him some super-cheap airfare ($125 round trip including all fees/taxes), and he’s staying with a friend ($0) so all in all it’ll be a cheap weekend for him.

The kids are doing fine. CootieBoy went to a friend’s birthday party this past Sunday. The birthday girl is sort of his “girlfriend” and he was upset when he couldn’t sit next to her during cake time. So everyone graciously shuffled chairs so that CB could sit next to his sweetheart on Valentine’s Day. Very cute – I wish I had taken a camera to take pictures. Hopefully the girl’s mom will have a couple to share with me.

We didn’t do anything for V-day. We never do. Not one for greeting card holidays, you know. However, my parents did give the kids some stuff, so they didn’t go without. On the way to the birthday party on Sunday CB asked me about V-day, and I told him it was a day set aside to tell people that you love them, and he said, “But we do that EVERY day!” and I said, “Yes, yes we do,” and was very proud that he gets it already at the age of 5 1/2. Of course, CootieGirl was upset she didn’t get more candy. *lol* I fear she may be the girl who coos over the 1 carat diamond but secretly wants a 2 carat diamond. Woe to the boy that dates HER when she’s a teenager.

I’m working on a freelance project right now that is painfully difficult. The audio quality is NOT good and what should have only taken two hours to type took four hours. In addition to this project another client of mine contacted me about some work, and I know on Wednesday I’ll probably get an email from a third client who has been giving me weekly work for about a month now. So I’m swamped. But with any luck I can get these things done AND get a nice payday before I leave for Utah next week.

UTAH! NEXT WEEK! Hard to believe the time has finally come. Nine more days.

Checking In…Doing Well

Feb 10th, 2010 | All About CootieMom, Earnin' Extra | No Comments

Yesterday we got a call from CB’s school that he was in the nurse’s office not feeling well. I went and got him, and by 2:30 – 3 p.m. he was fine. There was NO NEED for him to come home. His so-called “fever” was 99.1 when they took it yesterday morning, but he ran cold (98.7 or less) from the time I got him home. *sigh* So he’s back at school today.

I got a new freelance gig. This one sounds interesting – it’s a guy who dictated a book and needed it typed up. He’s having me start with the first hour of audio and if he likes what I do he’ll send the rest of the audio to me. He went old school – he used cassette tapes. So the project won’t actually start until next week when I receive the tapes. He knows I’m going on vacation at the end of the month and is okay with the fact that the project won’t be done before I leave OR worked on while I’m gone.

I’ve been walking a lot this week. I walked 4 miles on Saturday, then 2 miles on Monday, and 1.4 miles last night. If it doesn’t rain today I’ll go out and do another 2-3 miles tonight once Denis gets home from work.

Okay, time to head to work. Bye!

Oh Narnia, Oh Narnia

Feb 5th, 2010 | Books | 6 Comments

A few weeks ago the kids had a book fair at their school. We were allowed to order online, of which I totally took advantage. Cootieboy’s books arrived a couple days ago. I admit that I ordered something for myself: the complete Chronicles of Narnia. It’s a miracle that I’ve gotten to the age of 40 without reading those books, much less owning them. CB’s book fair was offering the complete boxed set of paperbacks for only $20. I couldn’t resist!

When the books arrived on Tuesday (CB ordered a Spongebob joke book (I know *hanging head in shame*) and a book about a car race inside a volcano), he expressed an interest in reading “the lion Narnia books,” as he called them. I made him read the car race book on Tuesday night since it was a Level 1 book that he could read aloud to me on his own. Then last night he asked again about the Narnia books. So I plucked “The Magician’s Nephew” from the shelf and began reading Chapter 1 (yes, we’re going to read them in *that* order). I warned him up front that the book was NOT a picture book, and so he’d have to listen to me read and picture the story in his own head. He’s only 5 1/2, so I wasn’t sure how interested he’d still be in the book by the time I got to page 2 since there were no pictures.

But I shouldn’t have doubted him. I read all of Chapter 1 and he really enjoyed it, asking questions at the end about where Polly went and whether Uncle Andrew was a good man or a bad man. So he completely paid attention and said he wanted to hear Chapter 2 tonight. I’m ticked pink that we get to read the stories together since the story is brand new to me, too (well, not “LWW” and “Prince Caspian” since I’ve seen those movies).

And while we read that one at night, during the day I will be listening to “The Help.” I’m only two chapters in and I already LOVE this book.