Ugh

Yesterday I had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

It started the night prior, with winds so strong, our bathroom fan buzzed and hummed for hours. I'm a terrible sleeper, so I lay awake for hours until the wind died down for a while.

The next morning my usual 30-40 minute commute took an hour and half. Twenty-five miles takes a very long time when you are averaging ten.

After I get to work, I receive a call from the bank regarding suspected fraud charges on my work procurement card (a central component of my job is procurement using a credit card). My card is now canceled and I'm stuck with a lot of extra work until my new card arrives. And this has happened to me multiple times over the past few years despite the care I take with my card. I know I'm not doing anything wrong and its most likely random, but it is very frustrating and shines such a poor light on me.

Consequently, a nice police officer came to take my report, and she was younger than me. I'm now older than police officers. That's a trip.

And then I saw this (thank you, Dooce), and couldn't feel pitiful any longer:

Doesn't Play Well With Others

Gretel wedged herself in between Mac and me on the couch the other night.

I took the dogs to the dog park after work today, and Mac is really pushing my buttons. Between being spoiled over the holiday vacation by having someone around almost constantly and getting whatever he wanted at my parents' house, and being in a fun teenage-phase of development, he's been such a pill. Then he turns those big brown eyes on me and I completely melt. Sigh.

So, I took the dogs to the dog park and as soon as we're in Mac high-tails it over to a couple playing with a toy football with their dog. And he wants that football. Nothing will stop him, which makes him very, very annoying. I don't want to be that dog owner, so I leash him up and drag him away. He manages to tear the leash from my hands twice! Now I'm yelling at him, in a dog park full of people and their well-mannered dogs. Great, I've become that other dog owner. Time to implement some hard core training and NILIF with this guy who has become too big for his britches. And reclaim my sanity.

I was chatting with another person at the park who asked about my Wonder Twins, since they are a very odd duo. After a few minutes of is that your dog? how old? he's very cute! blah blah blah, she whips out, "So are those really your dogs, or are they family dogs?" Umm... "Well, my husband and I own them, so I guess that makes them family dogs." Seriously, I'm not 16! For Pete's sake I'm nearly 30! I know, I know, take it as a compliment and at least I'll look young when I'm old, but really! And Chris recently got carded buying a video game because you have to be 17 or have a parent buy it for you. Perennial teenagers... one day I'll buy liquor without having my driver's license scrutinized. Or see an R-rated movie without ID.

This week's Barefoot Bloggers recipe comes from Karen of Something Sweet by Karen (she has some very nice photos on her blog!). Karen chose Banana Sour Cream Pancakes, and I love breakfast!


I halved the recipe since Chris isn't a breakfast eater, and ended up with 6 pancakes. I usually mash the banana and add it to the dough, but in this recipe you sprinkle diced bananas over the batter in the pan. I liked how they lightly caramelized when you flipped the pancakes. However, mine didn't cook all the way through. They were dense and the sour cream made them moist. I put the pancakes in packs of two in my freezer, so I can pop them in the oven on broil in the mornings for a quick breakfast. The pancakes were good, but not great.

We got some new elements for our fish tank recently: A giant palm tree and a tiki hut. And since the fish don't get much face time around here...

Fishy Cabana

The blue cichlid is named F***er, since he's a mean fish and killed all the other cichlids. There's also a Chinese algae eater. Together they're known as The Fish Sticks. Can you find the algae eater in the picture above? Let's take a closer look...

Why, hello there!

I've put the Cable-Down Raglan on hold for a while. I'm just not feeling it right now and have other goals, namely the Cable Comfort Throw.

Yarny Coziness

The color is very off in this picture, its a dusty blue in person, Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick in Denim. This is supposed to be a gift knit, if I finish in time; we will see. I'm sure it will be very warm and cozy, since I've knit two blankets with this yarn already.

That's all for now. I'm off to make a strong hot toddy and put myself in bed, to see if I can't shake this cold that kept me up all night. Or just hit the good ol' bottle of NyQuil. Its always fun to develop a cough the day after you do a lot of abdominal exercises when you just took a couple weeks off from exercising.

* cough * OUCH * cough * OUCH * cough * OUCH!

TGIF

I really enjoy my Fridays. I get off from work a little early and usually grab Ayla to go have fun somewhere. Most of this past summer we went to Shadow Cliffs, part of the East Bay Regional Parks system. The main lake has a swimming beach, fishing docks, boat rentals, grassy picnic grounds, and probably a ton of other stuff. But I haven't really been there, because if you go over the hill on the other side of the parking lot there's a bunch of little lakes and dogs are allowed to be off-leash. That's such a rarity, the grail search of dog owners out here, a place where your dog can run unfettered by nylon or leather leads.

So today we headed out to Shadow Cliffs for what will probably be one of the last trips till next season. Ayla loves going here. She really likes swimming, or her approximation of it. She often makes friends with the other dogs we see and I've met some interesting and mostly nice people. They're not always nice though.

A couple of weeks ago we went, and there's one beach area that Ayla can use to get in the water. All the other areas have drop offs and she's a bit wonky and can't handle them. So we're playing fetch in the water, she's splashing about and having fun, when two fishermen come up behind us. One sets his tackle on a table a ways back while the other continues on. I nod my hello and continue playing with my dog. A few minutes later the remaining fisherman comes up behind us, rod in line. In disbelief, I ask is he's planning on fishing here, to which he responds, "Yes, its the only clear space [its not the only one, he didn't want to walk farther]." I say, "Yes I know its a clear space and the only one where my disabled dog can get in the water." "Hmmph," he says, readying his cast. "Well, I guess we'll leave," I say. "Oh you don't have to," he responds. "But I don't want my dog getting hooked on your line," I say. "Hmmph." "We have to go now, Ayla," I say and lead her away while she's looking behind her.

What? Why would a fisherman want to fish where a dog has been swimming? There's not going to be any fish there! And why would someone push their way in where someone else already is? What happened to first-come first-served? I was just flabbergasted and left, though I wish now I had said something and stood my ground. Anyway, we walked a loop around and came back, by which time he had left, and resumed playing in the water.

That rant aside, it really is a wonderful place. Here's a little slideshow of pictures I took today:

Its been a nice relaxing day and a good start to the weekend. After Shadow Cliffs we came home and rested, then I did some grocery shopping. For dinner I made Giada De Laurentiis' Veggie Meatloaf with Checca Sauce, which I watched her make last weekend and have wanted to do since. It was tasty but turned out more like a casserole. I think there's probably twice as much rice and lentils in the recipe than there needs to be. Two measly eggs and some mozarella isn't enough to bind it all together, like Giada's was on the show. Chris liked it and the checca sauce, so I'll play around with the recipe and get it to work right. Oh, and don't serve it with mashed potatoes. Can you say carb overload?

I Don't Get It

Warning: talk about restrooms and the items therein follows...

As I've mentioned before, I work in a trailer. In my trailer is a conference room, offices, a common area, and two restrooms. These restrooms are not gender-specified (i.e., no separate "mens'" and "womens'"), despite the fact that there is a urinal and toilet in one and only a toilet in the other.

Why, oh why, would any of the men want to go in the room without the urinal where they have to lift the seat to proceed with business? Its not that I have a problem with seats being left up, but we could all avoid having to touch it in the first place, especially since our janitorial services seem to be few and far between. So why not use the urinal instead? Its not that often that both rooms are in use. Yes, I realize we all wash our hands in the restroom (I hope!), but I still don't want to touch the toilet seat if I don't have to. Please stop making me!

End rant.

Renovations and Ranting

Chris and I have been working our tails off doing a lot of home improvement projects. We've done baseboards and door moldings, lots of painting, new vanity, counter, and toilet in the bathroom, and we've been working on the kitchen.

A couple months after we bought our condo at the end of 2005 we took our first pass at the kitchen. It had awful cabinets, we had no money, so we opted to paint them white. It took at least two weeks! And it was incredibly hard to do, much more difficult than you would think painting cabinets could be. But the end result was good enough for our attempt at slapping a bandaid on the whole situation.

Well, March 15th of this year we ordered new cabinets for the kitchen through Home Depot. It is now May 2nd, and we still haven't gotten all of them. We got a little more than half the order in three weeks after we placed it (1 week overdue already). But their special order people didn't even check that it was all there, a fact we discovered while taking inventory and loading the boxes of unassembled cabinets and doors into our cars. After a week of going to Home Depot daily -- "You know, you can call us instead of coming in" "Yeah, but no one answers the phone" -- they finally reordered the items and some that arrived damaged. Undetered, we went ahead with ripping out the current stuff and installing what we had. Three weeks later (and again, a week overdue) we got a couple more cabinets. Its been a couple weeks again and the last remaining items haven't come in. They'll tell me they're arriving that day, then that they were backordered. The latest is that the rest of the order will come in on May 7th (a Sunday?!).

Le sigh. I really don't like Home Depot. I just wish the Lowe's wasn't 30-45 minutes away. However, the new stuff does look lovely.