Oh Suck!

Why can't anything ever be easy? Seriously, why can't things just go according to plan...ever! I'm having shower issues. My downstairs shower is half way done...I'm tiling it, and haven't gotten it all done yet, so it can't be used. My upstairs shower decided to fall apart. Literally. I was leaning back against one of the walls, and I fell into the wall. Oh joy. I knew there was water damage, I had sealed up all the grout along that wall over a year ago, but seriously, I fell into the wall!

So, demo time it was. I pulled off all the tile, pulled off all the green board, got the shower down to the studs and bought a new base and shower walls. I'm not going to tile this one. The first issue I had was that I couldn't get the base out. I called over my brother and after some serious work, he managed to get the rubber gasket out from around the pipe and we were able to lift the base out. That thing was really heavy, much heavier then the one I had just bought. So, a couple of days go buy and I didn't have any time to work on the thing. Today, some time became available and I pulled out the new base, read the directions, brought the thing up to the bathroom, put it down in the spot, and guess what? The drain is off by about an inch. I'm going to have to move the damn plumbing...an inch. Just how much does that suck? One would think that when you bought a base that was 36X36 and it said center drain, the drain would be at 18x18. Right? No, they're not...they're at 18 wide by 16 from the back wall. I looked on line to see if I could find any other bases...and every damn one I looked at was 18X16. WFT. Seriously, the one I removed was at 18X18...and my house isn't all that old, only 20 years. Serious suckage, and lots of swear words were flying. I hate plumbing, and this isn't a spot that's easy to get to. Suck, suck, suck, suck, suck!!!!

Guess I'll be keeping up with the baths and washing my hair in the sink for a while.

Oh suck!

"The Joys of Camping" or "I'm Totally Insane."

So, I went camping this weekend. I love camping. I love getting away, being surrounded by nature, going on hikes, sitting around a campfire, eating things cooked over a fire, and all that sort of stuff. Earlier this summer my gf and I found a really great camping spot. It's a "walk-in" type site, where they have a cart for you to haul all your stuff a quarter mile to a fairly secluded site.

So, we decided to go again. This time, we brought the dogs. Three of them between the two of us. Carting the stuff in was easy, no big deal, it's pretty much all down hill. We unpacked the car and got the dogs all settled in a fairly quick amount of time. Friday night was great, we had a good dinner and sat around the camp fire for a while and then it was off to bed.

The tent is large, and we had a big puffy air mattress to sleep on. A couple of sleeping bags, plus a sheet and a blanket. It would have been perfect except for the fact that one of the dogs is 55 lbs. No big deal you say? He should be sleeping on the ground right? I mean, I did bring his puffy doggy bed, plus a flannel sheet and two blankets for him. He should be warm enough right? Um, let's see...NO. So, there are two humans, two little dogs and one big dog on the air mattress that sunk down in the middle because, that's what happens with air mattresses. I was stuck in the same position, with one foot hanging out of the covers (did I mention it was about 40 degrees that night?) because the big dog decided that sleeping curled up with me was the only place good enough for him to sleep. *sigh*

Saturday was fantastic. It started out a bit chilly, but a roaring fire and a hot breakfast took care of the chill and it warmed up to a bright sunshiny day. We went on walks, read books, played games again had a fabulous dinner and a roaring fire that night. Thankfully, Saturday night it didn't get quite as cold. Sadly, the rain that wasn't supposed to come until Sunday afternoon, showed up really early Sunday morning (like 3am)

Rain. Dogs. Tent. Mud. Wet. Yuck! Thankfully, there were a couple of breaks in the rain when we could let the dogs out of the tent to feed them and let them go potty. The rain finally stopped about 10:30 and we were able to start packing up our wet stuff. We had to make two trips with stuff and leave the dogs in the tent, as it was far to muddy to let them out. We carried the little ones part of the way out, so as to keep them from getting too muddy. After putting them in the car, we then had to go and pack up the tent and bring it and the trash back out. When you add it all up, that's 2 miles of walking loaded down with things we did, just to cart out!

I think that may just qualify me as officially insane. But really, when I think about it, the perfect day that was Saturday pretty much makes up for all the rest of it.

I'll try and post a couple of pictures later tonight.

Bad Blogger

So, I guess I'm what you would call a "bad blogger." I don't log in, I never write, never give updates on what is going on in my life. I guess it's a good thing that not a lot of people actually read this thing. It is now the end of September and I haven't written since the begining of May. Summer has come and gone, and I didn't blog about any of it. I guess I could do a recap:

- Had a long talk with a good friend about why I didn't think we could date. I didn't have any good answers.
- Went to Vegas.
- Came to the conclusion that maybe I should just give dating my friend a shot.
- Golfed on a league.
- Started dating this friend (I'll call her A from now on.)
- Bought a wii.
- Got my motorcycle endorsement.
- Told ex I was dating A and the ex went psycho.
- Went camping.
- Went to a few concerts
- Went canoing (twice)
- Went to the MN state fair
- Went to the zoo with my mom and nephew.
- The ex started talking to me again.

Guess that about sums it up.

Oh no she didn't!

Last Saturday I took my two little dogs in for haircuts.

Sasha (who lives with my ex) is a six year old Shih Tzu:

and Lilly is a two year old Miniature Schnauzer:

They've been going to the same woman for haircuts since they were little. This woman has a dog grooming business that she runs out of the basement of her home. She's a nice enough woman around 60 who absolutely adores Sasha.

I dropped the two of them off without incident and went home to await a phone call saying they were ready to be picked up. Four hours later the call comes in and I head over to get the newly groomed little girls.

They are so excited to see me, and ready to go home. Lilly is just being a spaz, running up the stairs to the landing and not even wanting to come down for a treat. I don't think much of it, and chat for a few minutes with the groomer and then hand over the money I owe her. I grab Sasha and I'm making my way up the stairs, and just as I've reached the top, Lilly squats and pees all over the landing. She never goes in the house anymore, but I can't really scold her either. She was trying to tell me that she wanted to go out, and I didn't pay attention to her. I call down to the groomer and say, "I'm so sorry, Lilly just peed on the landing. That's why she wouldn't come down for a treat." The groomer understood, and came to the stairs with a wad of papertowels for me to clean it up with.

So, here I am standing on the stairs leaning over in an awkward position in my running pants and sweatshirt cleaning up my dogs pee. The next thing I know, the groomer is standing behind me and she says "I can see your thong missy." And then....she grabs it! This woman has just grabbed my thong. I'm mortified. My eyes are huge in amazement. I can't believe this woman of about 60 that I don't really know very well has just grabbed my underware! I blurt out the only thing I can think of: "I'm so sorry!" She says in return, "No worries, it's just us girls here." As quick as I can, I get the leash on Lilly and go out the door. I get into my car, and shake my head and start laughing my ass off.

I don't think I'll ever be able to look at her the same again.