Early this morning, Gemini passed away in his sleep. We spent hours at the emergency vet Saturday and they weren't able to give me a diagnosis and his symptoms weren't jiving with the blood work and test results. After ruling out many thing, I decided to take him home to keep him calm, on pain meds and then take him to my vet today. Sadly, he didn't make it.

Gemini was the first dog I ever owned. All the mistakes of dog ownership that could be made, I made on Gemini. But despite all of that, he turned out to be relatively well mannered, most of the time. He was my heart dog.

The only time I ran him in the Blur of Fur, he stopped in the middle and took a whiz. All I could do was laugh, cuz that was my Gemini.

He greeted everyone he saw, whether they wanted to be greeted or not. He was my needle nose moose, my gemstone, my buddy, and the sweetest pup I ever met.

I'm going to miss that big boy.

Heater

Tomorrow, July 27 will be Heater's 12th Birthday.

Friday, July 31st, will be Heater's 1st "Gotcha Day" for me.

For those you reading, us people owned by greyhounds are a bit obsessive about our hounds. We will celebrate things such as birthdays and adoption days.

We have a language of our own, that include words like zoomies and stuffies.

For a senior dog who never raced, Heater can do zoomies as well as Gemini. Around the couch they go, when they stop, nobody knows.

Heater bounced out of a home of nine years and come to me as a foster. Senior dogs can be hard to place, but he was only here for a few weeks then was adopted. I didn't cry, a lot anyways. A foster mom is suppose to prepare the dog for the new forever home.

That adoption didn't work out and after about 6 weeks, he bounced again and came back to my home. He was here that time for about a month without any interest.

A greyhound couple came to look at Heater to add to their brood. Heater growled at their dog! I had never heard such a thing (up till that time anyways) from him. It was that day I decided to adopt the old man.

What I didn't know was that Heater had already decided he was here to stay!

Since then, he has become my "dirty old man". At GreyFest last year, I was busy looking at something at a booth and looked down. Heater had his head UP A WOMEN'S SKIRT!!!!!

Now, just about every morning, to get my attention as I am getting ready for work, he tries to lift my skirt up. Don't let that innocent face fool you......

He can be a bit of a butt head!

It is hard to believe a whole year has come and gone. I love my little Heat-Beat, Beaterman, Old Man, Heater-Beater, BeatMan, Butthead, Nuzzle Butt.

He does have some separation anxiety issues, which makes him whine for attention. But, with Gemini's company, and his favorite stuffie, he does ok.

Happy Birthday Heater!

Camp Kate's

I've been home for a week now, and Gemini and Heater have finally recovered from a week at Many Hounds Inn - a.k.a. "Camp Kate's".

For those of you familiar with SEGA, you've heard of Many Hounds Inn. For the other readers, it is a kennel that houses just Greyhounds, and Kate does a wonderful job taking care of the dogs.

The dogs come home worn out and tired. I have to wake them up to go outside!

Kate even sends home pics! Gemini is the one in the front of the pack - causing all the trouble, I'm sure. And only Heater's posterior is showing here!

And, during this doggy vacation - Gemini (the one in the Mickey ears) found himself a girlfriend! (I'm sorry, Kate told me the bitch's name, but I forgot!)

As you can tell, Gemini is trying to act cool, even licking his lips!

I can't thank Kate enough for having her place. It is incredible, the dogs come home well taken care of and so happy.

As a matter of fact, when I arrive to pick them up, Gemini greets me and then goes right back into his kennel and lays down. Kate tries to tell me that it's because he is scared of the car ride (which is true) but I know the truth. . . he'd rather stay at Camp Kate's than come home. Who can blame him!!!

Angie and I

Angie has been my best friend for going on 20 years now. We decided a few years back to get matching tattoos, to commemorate. Well, during my trip home last weekend, we did it. We have both been inked before and went to the one place we trusted: Liquid Courage.

They do only custom work, and they are AWESOME! The idea started out as small tats on our toes, maybe an infinity symbol or something.

Then we decided to go with something on our hips. Still relatively small, the size of a quarter or golf ball. We did some research and found lillies were a symbol for friendship, so we decided to go with calla lilies. The artist, Jeremy, drew up the design. It was a bit larger than a quarter. But, to shrink it down, we would have lost detail and we both loved it. We had two tattoo artist tattooing us at the same time. We have the exact same design, the colors are just a bit different. It is so us! It hurt like hell, but it was so worth it! Here is a pic of the final product:

(BTW, I'm not the skinny one!)

Thank you Jeremy and John at Liquid Courage! You did awesome!!!!

time for an update....

I was informed recently that I haven't updated my blog for a while, and I just looked and it has been almost 2 months! Oh my!!!

Well, my mom did come and stay for a month to help clean the house. I started out by calling her Rosario, after Karen's maid from "Will and Grace". By the end of the trip, I was threatening to send her to Mexico City if she broke anything else!

On day 4 of her being here, my washer broke while she was using it. Now, my washer is upstairs. She didn't notice that the overflow pan was overflowing and ran 2 more loads. Yes, 2 more loads.

Water then starts dripping down through my ceiling fan in the living room and down through the vent in the living room.

The next day I called my insurance company and, wow, was I impressed. They had a water remediation team out here that afternoon.

Those are the holes they cut in my ceiling to dry out the ceiling. They had fans going for 4 days.

Then the contractor came out to fix the holes, and fix the laundry room. And the washer repair guy was out to fix the washer.

During this time, I had the privilege of taking mom somewhere she hadn't been in over 40 years, The LAUNDROMAT!!! It truly wasn't the highlight of her trip.

After all was said and done, mom goes into my deep freezer, and finds that most of it has thawed out. What did she break this time???

Turns out the contractors had unplugged it while they were here, but it was more fun to blame mom.

For mom being here a month, we only butted heads a few times. She does NOT like my choice of cleaning products and did not like the way I wanted to clean out my kitchen cabinets.

We also re-landscaped the backyard.

But all in all it was a fun time.

I took mom to the Aquarium and the Coca-Cola museum, and she still can't stop talking about it.

I made her touch a sting ray and the crabs!

The dogs miss her so much. For a whole month, they had company all day long.

But, later this week I leave for a family wedding, so the dogs are going to Camp Kate's and, although they can't understand the concept of future excitement, they will be so happy there!!!

TaTa for now!

Fireplace works!

So, my fireplace hasn't worked all winter long! And this wasn't the winter for the fireplace not to work!!!

So, today when the Heating and Air guy was here doing the annual maintenance, I had him take a quick look, and neither one of us knows what happened, some wires got jiggled (by the way, "jiggled" is a very technical term), and low and behold, the fireplace is back on! YIPPEE!!!

So, Gemini is thoroughly enjoying it!!!

Confession time...

I hate housework! I know, who doesn't? Well, I have successfully avoided the big "spring cleaning" and the big "fall cleaning" for a couple of years now. And lately, I've been barely keeping up with the weekly maintenance cleaning. Unfortunately, the budget has zero room for a maid. I'm a CPA, I've tried to be really creative with the budget and there is NO room.

So, my lazy butt came up with an idea. I will bring my mother down here for a while to do my spring cleaning. I made the offer to her, to buy the plane ticket, feed her, and buy all her smokes. (And that can get expensive, especially now-a-days!). So, she accepted the offer. Then, I made the list of things that need to be done and read her the list, giving her a chance to back out. She started to add to the list!

So, my mother is coming in a few weeks to stay for a month to do my spring cleaning.

Our latest conversations go like this:

Me: I'll leave you a list of chores each day when I leave for work.
Mom: That sounds like what I used to do with you when you were a kid.
Me: Yup! It's coming back to haunt you isn't it.
Mom: I'm your mother!
Me: Remember learning about endentured servents in the early days of America? Well, you will have to earn your passage back home.
Mom: I'm your mother! Not your employee!

Seriously, I've been teasing her a lot, and we have the type of relationship that we can do this and it's no harm, no foul.

A conversation with a family friend went like this:

Friend: What are you and your mom going to do when she is there?
Me: I'm going to work and she is going to clean.
Friend: Where are you going to take her, on weekends and such?
Me: She will be working on weekends, that's the only times I'll be home to do the heavy lifting for her.
Friend: At least she can go on your patio to see sunlight.
Me: When she is done with her daily chores.

The friend knew I was joking. I actually have some fun things planned for mom, but this teasing has been so much fun for me. Yes, I plan on taking her to the Aquarium and the the Coke Museum, two places she has wanted to go since I've lived her but we haven't made it to yet.

And if she finishes all her chores, I'll take her to a Braves game!

Catherine the Great

Family rumors swirled around years ago that my great-grandmother had documents that proved somehow my Mother's Father's side of my family could trace our family back to Catherine the Great. My mother and her cousin recently reconnected and the rumor has resurfaced.

I have no idea if it is true of not, but I told my mother that I have always thought I was a Princess. Yes, she laughed, so feel free to do so also.

Anyways, as you may know, in the history of greyhounds, once upon a time, only royalty was allowed to own them. I purchased a book for Mom on Catherine the Great for her birthday and low and behold, there was a reproduction of a portrait of Catherine walking her favorite greyhound!!! (Maybe I was Catherine the Great in a former life LOL)

Some distant cousin is researching the family lineage, but after this tax season, I, too, plan on doing some research. I want to be a princess!!!

Now, I need to get back to finding my tiara.........

As Murphy Brown once said.....

"I am an only child and never learned to share."

This is a phrase I often jokingly say. Gemini may have picked up on my attitude lately. He was an only dog for well over a year, then there was a parade of fosters, and now Heater has been with us since July.

There are two well-sized dog beds in the living room, usually one dog per bed and everyone is happy.

Well, the other night....

This left Heater laying somewhere else, but Gemini was happy! Spoiled Brat! He may be taking after his mother more that I care to admit!!!

Happy New Year!!!

Just a few hours left until we say goodbye to 2008 and we ring in 2009. Anyone have any big plans?

How about New Years Resolutions???

I typically don't make resolutions. New Years Resolutions fall flat by mid-January anyways, but this year I'm going to try again. I'm not going to make the typical lose weight, quit smoking, blah blah blah, resolutions.

I know I want to blog more. As you can tell, I have neglected blogging for a while. I'm not sure anyone will even read this. I've been in a funk lately, then the holidays came on so quickly and I was busy. I know, just excuses. But, I'm back, and I'm blogging now, and I intend on blogging more often!

I want to make some changes in my life. I'm not sure what they are, but I know I need to do something different. Might be something small, might be something big, I'm not sure yet. I just know something isn't right because things are as they should be. So, things need to change. When I figure it all out, I will let you know. Vague resolution, but it is a start. For those that know me well, they know something has been amiss for a while, I'm trying to figure it all out guys!

I want to train the muttniks better. Heater has regressed a bit on the separation anxiety. Probably with all the holidays and I'm home a bit more, so that need some more work. And all dogs just need more training.

That's it! What are your resolutions for 2009?

Gemini says have a Happy New Year and here's to a short recovery from all the drinking!