Toby guarding Steve's shoes

Let me tell you what, he wasn't going to let me near these shoes! I got a great video of him growling his head off every time I got too close. I just have to figure out how to download to the internet and then I'll share. He's one Mighty Protector!

Yes, we did have a storm, how did you know>?

Remnants of the storm that blew through Thursday night, knocking out our power for almost 12 hours. Today Steve found a huge branch just balancing on the cables for our internet way up in tree in the backyard. Maybe that's what happened to my cable last night when it went out and I spent over an hour with MIS trying to get things worked out. For some reason, the internet worked fine this morning. Gotta wonder.

Why my house is never clean...

Meg's car broke down last week, so she's been at our house so she could use my car. Her car was ready yesterday, so we went to pick it up today. Who knew that a car repair place would be closed on Saturday? She had already drug all this stuff up from her old bedroom to take back to her apartment. Then she went to work. Sigh.

I have to give her credit though, she did go to the store with me and carry all the groceries inside, which is a job I hate!

It's time for the FAIR!

I love the Iowa State Fair. Absolutely love it. I think the only year we missed it was the year I broke my leg, but we're seriously thinking of not going this year. It's so hot that I'm wondering if I even want to make a 2-1/2 hour trek there only to poop out in a couple hours. Even the though of a pork chop on a stick isn't enough to fire up the enthusiasm! We're still debating, but my days off next week are Thursday and Friday and both days are supposed to be in the mid-90s. Ick and double ick. What in the world did people do before the advent of air conditioning?

Speaking of which, the Weather Channel had a survey on their website today that cracked me up. It was something like, "What do you think is the greatest weather-related invention?" And the choices were like, umbrella, rain coat, air conditioning, and thermometer. Well, duh... I remember when I was little and my grandma and I used to walk downtown from her house and we'd go to Kresge's to shop because it was so cool inside. They had a sign on the door "Air conditioned... Cool inside" with a picture of a penguin. Can you imagine having to advertise that you have air conditioning today? Ha!

President Faust passed away yesterday. He was only 87 - comparitively young compared to President Hinckley. I loved listening to Pres. Faust speak at conference, he had such a soothing voice, at least to me. I'm thankful for every day that President Hinckley is still with us.

Family luck

Speaking of heat and the luck of the family - Mel (formerly known as Bitchsister) had a little bit of scare with her husband yesterday. He had been out working in the heat all day long and had only been drinkng water. To make a long story short, he ended up being taken to the hospital by squad for heat exhaustion. He was driving home from the job and had to pull into a gas station and call out for some help to get the rescue squad. Bet he stocks up on Gatorade or something loaded with electrolytes the next time he's out in this crud all day long - he had to go back to the doc today for more blood tests because his kidney function wasn't back to normal yet when they let him go home last night. The problem with heat stroke, heat exhaustion, whatever you want to call it, is you'll always be more susceptible once you've had it. That's not good for a guy who's outside a lot!

And that's the scoop from this week.

The heat is ON and the saga of the missing wallet...

Okay, brother dear, I took the hint and here I am. It's hot, hot, hot. Officially at 6:59 p.m. the actual temperature is 90 degrees but the heat index is 103. That's nasty. What's even more nasty is we had some thunderstorms last night and our power was off from midnight until 11:30 this morning. In the winter we can throw some logs in the woodstove and stay in the basement and be nice and toasty, it's not quite as easy to stay cool! Even the dogs won't go outside - so much for the dog days of summer!

I had an interesting morning. The hospital were I work was having a surplus sale, so I decided to head up there early this morning (the sale started at 7, and you know the greedy guys are always early) and see what they had. I had asked dad yesterday if he wanted to go with me since he has a truck - just in case, and he agreed. Well, because of the lack of electricity this morning I couldn't get my car out of the garage. I couldn't even get the stupid thing unlocked from the opener - grrrr, so I called dad and asked him if he'd come pick me up. He agreed, and although it was already 6:30, I thought we'd get there before 7:30, which wasn't too bad. Wrong.

First we had to stop for gas, fine, fine, whatever, let's just GO! After we got the gas we got on the road and after debating on how best to get to Dodge Street we took off. We got to about 96th and Dodge Street when dad realized he didn't have his wallet. Since he used his credit card for gas he had taken the card out of his wallet and set it on the edge of the bed of the truck and when he was done he just stuck the credit card in his pocket and we took off. Soo..... we stopped and checked to see if maybe it had fallen in the bed of the truck. Of course it hadn't, that would require some luck, which my family is sadly lacking lately. Dad started driving back to the gas station and I got them on the phone to ask them to go check. No wallet to be found around the pumps and nobody had turned one in. What did I tell you about luck? We went back anyway just to make sure, and the clerk was right, no wallet.

Dad decided we'd go ahead and go so off we went (again). Let me tell you, my dad used to drive like a bat out of hell. Those days are long gone! ;-) His luck did change though as we approached Fremont when his wife called to tell him somebody had found his wallet! Hooray! She gave us the guy's number and I gave him a call. He said he had found the wallet in the intersection of 90th and Maple, a relatively busy intersection. He had stopped traffic, while he picked up all the stuff that had flown out of the wallet! That I would have liked to have seen - heh! Turns out dad knew the guy, he used to be a probation officer and dad knew him from the police department, although it had been years since they had seen each other and he didn't realize it was dad's wallet until we actually went to pick it up! All that was missing was one credit card - which I really don't think was too bad, considering he also has his police ID, driver's license and - get this - his social security card in the wallet! Obviously, he was a cop before the days of identity theft! Glad he got it back.

Oh the sale? It sucked. By the time we got there all the good stuff was either gone or had a sold sign on it. So much for MY luck!

Buddy

My dad and Pam lost one of their babies yesterday. Buddy, who was a shih tzu and one of the cutest little guys ever, got out of the yard and was hit by a car. His back and pelvis were just too broken to be fixed, it looked as though the car ran over his back end, so he had to be put to sleep. I know he had lots of pals waiting for him at the Rainbow Bridge, but it really hurts to lose one of your furkids. My heart goes out to Dad, Pam and the remaining furkids, Buster and Bailey.

A big Thank YOU to whoever the woman was who stopped when she saw him lying on the side of the road and took him to the vet. Apparently, not everyone in this world is so kind.

Catching up

We had the most marvelous thunderstorm today - lot of lightning, thunder, and tons of rain - and guess where I wasn't? Home. Meg and I were at Wal-Mart shopping and there was no way I was going to hurry to get out in the mess. I had to laugh though, there was a huge flash of lightning followed by a tremendous boom and it must have scared somebody besides me because from the front of the store you could hear someone scream. Hilarious! You know the lightning was bright when it overpowered the lights at Wally World! Ha ha!

I went to the doctor over a week ago because I thought I had a sinus infection. I took 10 days of an antibiotic and today I woke up feeling worse than ever. My neck is so sore I can't move my head. With my stupid luck I probably have West Nile or something. Back to the stupid doctor tomorrow if I'm not feeling better. One of the other transcriptionists is off this week because she had gallbladder surgery today, so I really don't want to be sick. Not to mention the fact I don't want to feel this way either!

We had another cookout (we have a lot of those, don't we?) at my dad's this weekend. Dad and Pam have been married 15 or 16 years - I never did get that straight, and Missy turned 46 this year the same day. Seemed like a good idea to celebrate! It was so darn hot yesterday, and the humidity was awful. The minute you walked outside your clothes felt damp, you didn't even have to move to work up a sweat. It was ugly. The temperature went down with the storm this morning, but by about 3:30 the heat index was back up to over 100 degrees. The dew point was 75 this afternoon. No reason for that. None at all. Ick. (But I'm sitting here in a sweatshirt because I have the chills... Go figure.)

I think Toby and I are becoming friends. He's never really cared too much for me. I really think a dog bonds with the first person who holds them, at least when you're doing an adoption type thing. I was the only one home when Ben and Jojo arrived and they really cling to me. Steve held Toby first at the shelter when we got him (even though he sat in my lap all the way from Des Moines to Omaha), so he's been Steve's dog. I mean to the point that he doesn't want me to change his belly band, and he growls at me when I pet him. He's never bitten me - well, except for that time I was giving him a bite of cheese, but I know that was an "accident" heh... As soon as Steve comes home, I cease to exist for Toby. The past few days though he's really become more tolerant of me. This afternoon I laid down on the floor for a bit and he came right up with the other dogs to curl up next to me. That's never happened before. Made me feel pretty good actually!

I got some great vinyl letters from this place called www.doityourselflettering.com that I used to decorate my hallway. I'd take pictures, but I need a wide angle lens. I have some more to put in our bedroom if and when the painting ever gets done in there, I'll take pictures then. I love the website though, you can order any saying in a bunch of different fonts, colors, shapes, and shadows, and I thought their prices were very reasonable. Do you think it would be overkill to use in every room of the house? Just kidding...

Okay, that's it. My head is killing me. Later.