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June 27, 2009
Introducing: Grandpa Sandy
I went down to Hearts United for Animals Thursday with a friend of mine. She was picking up some dogs that she was going to be transporting. And I didn’t exactly come home empty handed, either. It was NOT supposed to be an adopt a dog day but it turned out to be.
There was a very sweet and friendly dog who had recently arrived. His person had gone into a home and couldn’t take him with. So, at the ripe old age of 14, after having a home all his life, he found himself homeless. It just broke my heart, especially because I knew at his age, he’d never have another home to call his own.
I couldn’t stop thinking about him all the way home and I knew his personality would fit in really well with our kids. The only question was, what would the husband say and would the kids get along. Guru agreed – after the shock wore off, and then I packed up my kids when I got home and drove back down to Auburn, Nebraska to make sure the kids would get along, and they did.
On the one hour drive home, Sandy sat on his back legs and waved his front paws in the air. He ADORES car rides and being outside. He walks beautifully on a leash and appears to be perfectly potty trained. He’ll go sit in front of the front door when he it’s time to go outside.
Sandy is a sweet little guy who fits in perfectly to our family. He is a 10 lb white poodle and has the cutest little brown nose. He’s pretty spry for his age and adores people. We are so very fortunate to call him family
June 13, 2009
Marble, My Playful Guy
I decided to try out Windows Movie Maker to see about doing a nice video up of my dogs. I didn’t realize (but hoped) I could splice multiple videos together… and I can! So, I’ll be working on a nice video of the kids and posting it. Let me know what you think.
Our three dogs are alums of Hearts United. Stop by and check out the wonderful animals available for adoption at Hearts United for Animals
May 25, 2009
I’m Back!
I know, another unexplained absence from my blog. It’s been a combination of really really busy (19 hr days / 7 days a week), which is a good thing combined with blog block. If you’ve noticed the changes in my blog you’ll see there’s been some changes and that means, I’m recharged and back!
I went to a ReBar Camp in Denver Thursday through Saturday, which is a technology training class for Realtors. Boy am I excited and recharged. It was just what I needed. Even my real estate blog has suffered a bit and I’m so excited and ready to get back.
While I was in Denver, I had the opportunity to meet up with my cousin, DJ. It had been WAY TOO LONG! Here’s a few pics.
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- She’s Mine! Eat your heart out Clay & Susan
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- Self Portrait
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- What a gorgeous little girl! Dj’s daughter
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- WOW! She lights up the room when she smiles!
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- Mandy
I also included one on Mandy, our forever upside down dog. That’s her favorite position.
Anyway, back to Denver. I drove my Prius for the 8 hr trip there and back. Got great gas mileage and it only cost $60 to get there and back. How cool is that? It was an uneventful drive. I Twittered the entire way. Be sure to check me out on Twitter – @SellingOmaha . I added my Facebook badge to this blog but I’m rarely there. Twitter is definately the place to find me.
February 19, 2009
Lessons Learned
I received this email from a “FRIEND” and it was too damn funny NOT to share!
As part of a well rounded philosophy of life, I believe that it is important to never close out a day without learning a lesson. Today I was fortunate enough to have learned several, which I share with you now, in no particular order. For those who were unaware, Troy, April and I made some homemade Root Beer on Saturday.
1) Root Beer is sticky.
2) Before attempting to serve homemade Root Beer, it is important to have well constructed tapping gear.
3) 30 feet of hose connected to the tapper still produces pure foam at 40 PSI.
4) If you think the connection is tight enough, it isn’t.
5) 40 PSI is a lot.
6) The spectacle of a beer volcano (a good story in its own right) pales before the sheer awesome power of a Root Beer detonation.
7) My kitchen has many nooks and crannies where sticky stuff can drip.
My kitchen will forevermore smell of Root Beer.
9) The CSI shows are right. If a person’s body is in front of an explosion, you really can find a “blast shadow” where the body absorbed the impact, thus protecting things in the “shadow.”
10) Root Beer is cold.
11) 40 PSI, applied to a 5 gallon keg, is sufficient pressure to accelerate Root Beer to transonic speeds.
12) My butt will block a Root Beer detonation quite well.
13) Root Beer hurts.
14) Root Beer is sticky.
15) Root Beer is not recommended as a body wash.
16) Electronic items and Root Beer Bombs do not mix.
17) When cleaning Root Beer, do not stand in one place too long.
18) Root Beer dries FAST.
19) Root Beer, when dried, can be used as a virtually indestructible cement.
20) Aerospace firms should investigate the sticky power of Root Beer for purposes of bonding composite parts of high-performance aircraft.
21) Root Beer adheres to socks just as well as to shoes.
22) Do not plan on getting anything else done on a day when you have a Root Beer Bomb.
23) My refrigerator needed new art work anyway.
24) If you are going to have a Root Beer explosion you will be very lucky if, by pure chance, you are standing next to the keg when it happens.
25) If, by chance, you are not standing next to it, the Root Beer will KEEP exploding until the CO2 runs out.
26) The CO2 will NOT run out if the pressure canister is still attached to the keg.
27) 40 PSI is a lot.
28) Once you have done the dishes and they are dry, put them away immediately. That way you won’t have to wash them again should a Root Beer Bomb detonate in your kitchen.
29) Burning Root Beer does not smell as good as you might think or hope.
30) It is impossible to get ALL the Root Beer off of electric burners.
31) Burning Root Beer generates smoke.
32 I’m not even sure I like Root Beer.
February 6, 2009
What I Want to be When I Grow Up…
Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit
the ground each morning the devil says,
“OH CRAP, SHE’S UP“! …
the ground each morning the devil says,
“OH CRAP, SHE’S UP“! …
January 23, 2009
Poochies
I’m pleased to report the dogs are all getting along well. Mandy is a very self confident kid that is at home wherever she is. It’s like she’s been with us for years. She has a minor agression issue where she growls at the other dogs when she’s working on a chewie and one of the other dogs walks by. That’s understandable considering she was attacked by a dozen chiwawas at the place she was at prior to Hearts United for Animals. She still has bare spots on her rump where her hair didn’t grow back.
Mandy has the cutest little bark and growl. I’m trying to capture her growl on tape but no luck yet.
Marble is coming out of his shell even more now that Mandy is here. It’s pretty cute. He runs and greets me at the door, jumps on me and tonight gave me a couple of kisses. That’s HUGE step for him. He’s coming more when he’s called and even gets close enough to be petted. And tonight, he took a treat from Daddy, his arch enemy.
I FINALLY convinced Guru to give Marble a treat when Guru comes into the bedroom. Marble still growls and barks at him. He’s the Paul Revere of the bedroom, you know. Since Guru has been doing it, the intensity of the growling and barking has really decreased. And the tail is beginning to wag. Hopefully, we can remove that behavior soon.
It’s really nice having a little one around the house again. Mandy is 9 lbs and seems so little. Yet, Anne was only 6 lbs. Mandy LOVES to play catch and has made herself comfortable with all of Anne’s stuffed animals. A few of the animals are half the size of Mandy and I find myself not playing catch with those animals because they are “too big”. Yet, Anne played with them and she was that size.
Mandy loves to play catch so much that one night we played for 2 hours! Three times, she stood there panting after we threw her toy. And we thought “she’s finally exhausted”. But nope, she was just taking a couple of breathers before running to bring them back.
January 12, 2009
My New Year’s Resolution
I only have one this year. I plant on petitioning the movie company who made Rain Man to change the line:
“K-Mart Sucks” to “Walmart SUCKS“.
Who’s with me?
January 12, 2009
AeroGrow Garden – Day 1
Do you know how hard it is to buy seeds in the middle of winter? If it wasn’t for the internet, it would have been impossible. So, I restarted our garden by planting rosemary, chives, cilantro, dill, basil, and thyme. If I had realized there were seven slots, I would have bought parsley, too. But, since I didn’t, we’ll have twice the amount of cilantro, our favorite.
Here’s an interesting tidbit for you. The labels that are on the seed pods (you can’t see them, they are under the dome. I’ll try to get a better pic later.) were ironed on. The labels serve to help prevent disease or something, so I had to actually iron them on to the plastic seed container.
Fun facts to know and tell that you don’t care about. But, that’s ok, I still don’t mind sharing. Really, it’s just noise…….
January 11, 2009
Christmas "Theme"
Before I get into the THEME, did anyone notice many people in PJ’s in our Christmas photo? Last year, I was three weeks post surgery and didn’t want to attempt street clothes. So I wore my milk bone dog biscuit PJ’s (pictures are posted here if you really have a burning desire to check it out) and everyone who arrived exclaimed “I didn’t know we could wear PJ’s”. This year, everyone was invited to wear PJ’s and most did.
Ok, on to the Chicken theme time. We christened this Christmas with the “Christmas Chicken” that you see in the pic. I thought I should tell you why this ugly, non-edible chicken will be blessing our Christmas table for years to come. Many of you are probably thinking “It’s Connie, nuff said“. But, imagine that, I’m still going to tell you. <Insert ear plugs now- remember, I warned you.>
It began at Guru’s Christmas party. (Translation: this means it’s all his fault) We took a gift for the gift exchange and imagine my surprise when the gifts were being opened that many were “white elephants”. I love white elephants, and we didn’t play properly!
I was number 57 of 70 people to pick. I could select a fresh gift or steal. Hmmm, what do you think I chose? STEAL!!! I stole a coffee mug/plaque set. Plaque said something about innovation and mug said something about laziness. Perfect!! But, it wasn’t meant to be. Since my gift was stolen, I had to pick again.
I selected a new gift and got a gift certificate to TGI Friday’s. And I was bummed -BORING! Fate saved me to steal again and this time I stole the dancing flashing stuffed reindeer that I knew would make Guru’s lips disappear….but wait, ……….don’t steal it! Damn!
Disgusted, I announced to the room that I wanted the TRUE white elephant gift and stole that gecko dinosaur spotted UGLY piggy bank. Everyone was laughing and then I had the whole room howling when I ran to Guru, cupped his face, and told him “Honey, look what I got for YOU, I can’t WAIT to put it on our Christmas dinner table”.
Yep, you guessed it – stolen. Why anyone would steal it is beyond me. They must have been smoking the same crack Guru was went he FED Mandy her EAR DROPS! My next selection, an autographed pic of Colonel Clink was stolen, too.
I ended up with a cranberry scented candle, my favorite scent, so I can’t complain. But I am and aren’t you disgusted you didn’t put the earplugs in?
I couldn’t forget about that ugly, stupid bank that I’d become attached to in such a short time and wanted to share with my Christmas guests. A week later, I was at Goodwill and stumbled upon this funny looking chicken and decided it was an appropriate consolation prize. Hence, the birth of the Christmas chicken.
Guru was NOT impressed with the “Christmas Chicken”. As a matter of fact, the words that came out of his mouth inspired me to decorate chicken and have our guests see if they could guess the Christmas theme (aka: what Guru said). I thought “Choke the Christmas Chicken” was SO OBVIOUS and was surprised no one guessed it. So I put everyone’s name in a pot and Gino won the prize – a electronic sign for the car window that can be programmed for 5 phrases. It even had a remote control to make it easier to flip off drivers on the road! Gino did you program a flip off phrase?
Ok people, I’m done ranting. You can take out the earplugs cuz you’ll need to know this next part.
The rules for next year’s Christmas dinner are:
PJ’s
Guess the Chicken theme
White Elephant Gift Exchange (rules will be email prior)
January 9, 2009
No More Music
Yes! I finally figured it out. The stupid Lincoln Park song is GONE! My ears are at peace. Too bad Guru’s stuck – FOR LIFE!!! LOLOLOL
January 9, 2009
Memorable Quotes
I’ve been writing down and collecting everyone’s embarassing quotes for some time. I’m not as organized as I would like so I know I’m missing several. Now is as good as any to share them and the context in which they were made.
“My wife tells me size matters“.
Steve – when going to select a wrapped white elephant gift
“I’ve had a month of can’t come“.
Laurie – apologizing for not coming on for an entire month to the Wednesday night dinner group.
“Taco sauce is just gazpacho when not using chips“.
Unknown – sorry guys, I forgot to write it down. Feel free to claim it.
Hmmm, I thought I had more than three. I’m sure they are hiding somewhere. I’ll keep looking.
January 9, 2009
STOP THE MUSIC
I apologize for the anoying music on the site. It’s driving me crazy! I added several slide shows and can’t figure out where the music is coming from to shut it off.
I’m working on it and hope to get it stopped soon. Sorry!
January 9, 2009
Oldtimers Or Is He Just Tuning Me Out?
Today was a long and productive work day. Guru and I met for dinner at Outback. We were both pretty tired and just wanted a quick dinner. I told him I felt like relaxing when I got home so I was going to relax by making fun of him online. At least I tell him straight up, right? LOL
Unfortunately, I can only remember two Oldtimer moments (it must be contageous) so I’ll share the “best” one first.
1) Last week we took the dogs to the vet. 
Mandy Boo Boo needed to get her checkup and Llana had a urinary tract infection. Mandy had an ear infection, which is typical for Poodles. Doc asked if we’d ever treated the kids for it and Guru said his previous Poodle had frequent ear infections he’d treated. I wasn’t familiar with treating it so the Doc explained in detail about cleaning the ears, once clean put 2 cc’s in each ear, massage in…. blah blah blah.
After paying, we waited for the drugs to be brought out and the tech also explained the directions. So, what do you think happened that night when Mandy needed her ear meds? Guru cleaned the ears, prepped her 2 cc’s of meds and proceeded to let her LICK the meds up. Let me pause for a moment so you can reread this again and pick your jaw up. And would you believe he claimed “I didn’t know it was supposed to go in the ears!”.
I’m sorry, what part of two directions at the vet and instructions written in English on the bottle do you not understand? Is this Mars meets Venus and I’m missing something in the translation? Did I not speak LOUD enough? Please, do tell.
On to #2. I like to call this Backward Ass Driving. We were shopping in NW Omaha the other day, finished up at the Oakview Mall and were going to drive home to Bellevue. Wouldn’t you think that Guru, being the military man, would be all about effeciency and work smarter not harder? Below are two maps. Which route do you suppose Guru insisted on taking to drive home?
MAP A – 20.41 miles
MAP B – 26.94 Miles
Yep, you guessed it, MAP B. He claimed it was “faster”. I still can’t figure out how it’s “faster” to drive North when one lives SOUTH of the city. And do you really think he wanted the extra time to listen to me? Let’s just eliminate that myth right now….. LOL
And at least I don’t post his crap on a site like this or this. That would be so much worse than this mediocre post but for the record, I’m bummed they beat me to it….. Chow!
I think this picture sums it up, from either perspective.
January 7, 2009
Kids Update
It’s been a week since we brought Mandy home and the kids are getting along great. We’ve nick named her Boo Boo.
Marble and Mandy love to snuggle together. Let me tell you, that took some encouraging. He doesn’t shake as much when she plays catch, and he likes to follow her around. We’ve been encouraging him using Cesar Milan techniques. Marble gets food and treats before her and when she’s getting a belly rub, he sits above her.
Guru was home sick today so I stayed home attempting to persude him to go to the doctor/hospital. Guru thought he was having kidney stone and was in extreme pain and refused to go to the doctor/hospital. HELLO LAS VEGAS PEOPLE, does this sound familiar? He was as sick, if not worse, than his food poisoning in Vegas. And getting this conversation back to the dogs, (TRANSLATION: No sympathy for people who won’t take care of themselves….) since I was home, the dogs congregated together on the loveseat. It was pretty cute.
We’ve found out that Mandy loves people food. She’s so tiny that she can climb from the couch to the coffee table and help herself. Tonight she helped herself to my salad. And, just like Anne, she’s bright enough to figure out how to get up on the dining room table. Something tells me she’s going to keep us on our toes. That’s ok, Anne sent us a good one.
Mandy is pretty expressive. I took Guru some soup in the bedroom tonight and shut the dogs out and she was pretty determined to go keep the food, I mean, him company. So she ever so delicately scratched at the door. She does the same thing when she wants to sit in your lap or if she wants to play fetch.
On another note, Llana has a pretty bad urinary tract infection. She’s lost a bit of weight and hasn’t been very hungry. She’s been on medicaton for 5 days and is finally starting to perk up and eat. And the best part is last night, she let me sleep through the night, instead of going out once if not twice. That was a treat.
January 3, 2009
There’s a New Sheriff in Town
…. and her name is Mandy. She’s taken the Guru household by storm! We are excited to announce the Guru household has expanded! Dec 30th we adopted a darling 8yr old & 9 lb grey toy poodle from Hearts United for Animals! (click the HUA link for Mandy’s bio)
I don’t know how it happened but Guru woke up one day and fell in love with her on their website. Marble, Llana and I drove down to meet her on the 30th to see how the kids would interact. It went so well that they allowed me to bring her home for a “sleep over” so Guru could meet her since he couldn’t get there between adoption hours.
I was surprised at how comfortable Mandy was on the ride home. She spent half the time looking out the window and the other half sleeping on top of Llana and Marble. When we got home, she explored the main floor and then made herself comfortable on the landing with a rawhide chewie. She LOVES them so much that if they are “unattended” she stockpiles them by burying them in the fabric underneath the alpine Christmas trees. Too cute! I don’t think she’s realized yet that Llana found her “stash”.
When Daddy got home on the first day, she ran to greet him at the door and insisted on a belly rub. It was love at first sight! Mandy was so excited about her new toy (aka: Daddy) that when he had to go to work the next day, she kept barking and chasing him around the house trying to entice him to stay and play with her.
It’s unbelievable how well she fits in, and in less than two days. She appears to be potty trained and walks great on a leash. When you ask the dogs if they want to go potty, she is the first one to the back door. If Llana and Marble aren’t as quick as she would like, Sheriff Mandy rounds them up. She also let the border collie next door know that she’s the new sheriff in town – from our backyard….LOL! She’s only had two tiny accidents in the house and that’s only because that’s where Marble previously marked.
The kids get along well although Marble is a bit scared of her. She’s decided he’s below her in the food chain so he’s nervous around her. She’s been marking all of his spots in the backyard and she growls at him if he walks near her when she has a chewie.
We took her to the vet this morning and other than an ear infection, she got a clean bill of health. While we were in the waiting room, she decided bless another customer there with the pleasure of her belly and laid there for at least 5 minutes, patiently waiting for him to notice her. It was pretty comical. She’s quite the character and we are truly blessed to have her.
December 14, 2008
Still Hate Vista
Yesterday I called Cox Communications to find out why I can’t send emails from home via Outlook anymore. Worked for six months and now all of a sudden, nothing. I’m sure it’s somehow related to VISTA sucking. Anyway, the man I spoke with tells me they don’t support Outlook but he’ll call me tonight when I’m at my computer and see what he can do. I couldn’t get him to verify the internal and external mail servers until I get home.
So I race home for his 6 pm call. And would you belive it takes him 5 minutes to tell me it’s not their problem, it’s an Outlook problem, they don’t support Outlook, and I’ll have to call Microsoft. Don’t get me wrong, he was very nice but DUH, he could have told me that without the follow up call.
So, I call Microsoft and I was pleasantly surprised to find they show I still have free support until March. I think their dates are way off and am sure they are compensating in some way for all my VISTA bashing, but hey, it was nice to not have to pay for the support call. Long story short, Microsoft tells me the outgoing telnet port is blocked and the only way to get it unblocked is for Cox to unblock it.
So, back to Cox and a LONG WAIT for another customer service person. And would you believe they tell me it’s not their problem. It has to be a router problem and they want my husband to reset the router – despite the fact that the other computers in the home work fine. Needless to say, hubby chatted with the man and somehow got upgraded to a higher level technician who knew that wouldn’t work. The new technican did show me it’s not their port and determined it to be Norton.
So, yep, another call and it’s now only 3.5 hours later. I’m thankful that the Norton assistance was done via a web chat, only took 45 minutes and did fix the problem. I’m also thankful for finding out I have Microsoft assistance for 3 more months. Boy are they going to get some VISTA SUCKS calls now.
Flickr Photo courtesy of jonwatson
