I got SO MAD at my dog yesterday!

I decided to go to the gym after work, so it was probably a little after 5 by the time I got home. I always drive into the garage, go into the kitchen door and put my stuff down, and then let Xander out of his crate and run him out the front door so he can go to the bathroom. But yesterday when I got to the kitchen door, I could hear him barking in the kitchen. I thought, "Oh crap, he got out of his crate!" Sure enough, he broke out...not sure when, but he definitely had enough time to destroy the house! He knocked a bowl off the wine rack...I'm surprised that it didn't shatter. He got anything that had touched food off the counter...a whole container of cookies that I had just baked, a roll, and a piece of bread (he ate right through the plastic bags and containers to get to the food inside). He emptied the waste basket in the living room and upstairs in the bedroom. Then he puked all night. I was so frustrated when I saw the mess, I screamed at him. I mean, nothing seems to work with this stupid dog. I've tried to teach him things that a "good dog" does...when he behaves, I reward him and pet him and fuss over him. But when he's bad, what am I supposed to do? I hate hitting him, although I will give him a swat if he jumps, another one of his bad habits, but I don't want to hit him in a place that's really going to hurt him. Unfortunately, when he jumps, the only part of him that I can really smack is his face or head, and I don't want to do that.

I thought that owning pets was supposed to be more fun than stressful, but my animals definitely cause me anxiety.

Laundry problems

I don't really mind doing laundry...I have a nice front loader washer and I line dry most of the clothes to conserve energy. Most things come out just fine, but I've been having a problem with Chris' dress shirts. They have what almost looks like greasy spots on them, and the spots become more pronounced when I iron the shirts. The spots aren't there when I put the shirt in the washer, they only seem to become obvious after the shirt is dry. And it's not like the spots come from food or anything...some of the spots are on the back and arms of the shirts.

So the point is, if anyone has any suggestions on how to get rid of these spots, I'm all ears!

Need help with plant identification

Chris and I bought two house plants. We had been talking about bringing some more greenery into the house, so finally we went for it. We've always had a lot of viney plants around the house, and those grow like crazy, but we've never had the more tree-like plants. I'm finding that I have no idea how to care for them, which, I believe, is causing them to die. I'm wondering if they'll even survive because we keep our house fairly cool in the winter, and we don't have a lot of sun coming in, but I'm going to do my best to keep them alive! Any advice is welcome!

I think I've managed to identify the first one as a Corn Plant:



However, I have no clue what this one is:
Can anyone help?

Snow pictures

Thought you might like to see some pictures from my ride to work this morning. Dunkirk (where I live) had just a dusting of snow...this was what I encountered along the way. I saw a few cars off the road, and have heard of a few more accidents that have happened more recently. It's scary out there...I don't think people realize quite how bad the roads are today.

Weird headaches

Ok, so twice in one week I'm complaining about medical ailments...sorry about that. I'm a pretty healthy person and not really a complainer about "feeling yucky," but I'm really confused about what's going on in my head, and I thought maybe keeping a little journal about it would help me possibly pinpoint what's causing it.

Early last week, I started having really sharp, almost stabbing pains in the back of my head on the right side. The pains were pretty intense, but they would go away within a few seconds. After several days of that, the pain seems to have migrated to the left side of the back of my head. It's strong enough to make me kind of squint my eyes in pain, but then it goes away.

I'm not the kind of person to rush to the doctor for every little thing, which is why I thought I'd just kind of keep track of this and see how long it lasts. (What happened this past Wednesday was way out of character for me.) I've had what I assume are migraines in the past, which would involve intense pain that would increase for an hour or two until I would finally vomit, then it would fade over the next hour or two. From what I understand, 4-6 hours is a pretty short period of time for a migraine, but I have every other symptom. The headaches I have now are nothing like those.

As always, advice and feedback are welcome. I'll see how things go over the next few weeks and see if I need to rethink a visit to the doctor's office.

Happy conclusion of a long work week

Ok, so nothing particularly special happened to make it a "happy" conclusion to the week, I'm just glad to be home!

Tomorrow I'm going to Jamestown (about 40 minutes away) to work at the "What's New Fair" at Jamestown Community College. I'm working the Body Shop booth, and I'm kind of excited about it. I'm never all that happy to spend time away from Chris, but I want to do this because I hope to pick up a few new customers. (I realize how sad that might seem to some of you that I don't even want to be away from Chris for 4 hours, but I consider myself extraordinarily lucky to be married to someone I love to spend time with so much!)

I stopped at the gym on the way home today. I didn't really want to go, but I've been putting it off for two weeks...the week Chris was at his conference in Florida, I wanted to get home to let Xander out of his cage, but I did yoga at home, so that was good. Then earlier this week, I was tired or busy (I know "tired" isn't an excuse, but it worked for me), and on Wednesday I was sick (see blog post from that day if you really want to know--and my guess is that you probably don't want to know), and Thursday evening Chris had to work at the Opera House, where he helps out every so often, so we grabbed a quick dinner out and then I felt too full to go straight to the gym, so I came home. So today I stopped on my way home, largely due to the fact that I got out of work at a reasonable time! I even made a stop on my way home from the gym and still got home before 5. Weird, I know!

I work at Maple Grove High School, and the football team is playing at Rich Stadium tonight. In case you don't know, that's where the Buffalo Bills play. (Actually, now it's called Ralph Wilson Stadium, but to many of us native Western New Yorkers, it will always be Rich Stadium, and the place where the Bisons play (AAA baseball team) will always be Pilot Field. So I'm excited for "my kids."

I guess there isn't really a point to this post, but I just felt like writing. I'm wating for Chris to get home (he was arriving at the gym just as I was leaving), and we're going to cook some dinner and relax. We won't be watching the hockey game because it's on a channel we don't get. Hoping for another shutout, though :)

Until my next pointless post...peace!

Trying to find a way to get rid of VHS tapes

A couple years ago when I was finishing up my counselor certification, I took some graduate classes via video tape/self-guided work book. Now I have about 15 VHS tapes for which I have no use, but, as you well know, I can't just throw them out! I'm looking for a way to either reuse them or recycle them, or a combination of the two. Any and all suggestions are welcome! I've looked up some things online, and most of them say "Donate unwanted tapes to children's hospitals or nursing homes," but believe me, no one but the people taking these classes would want to view the tapes.

Sick day

I'm editing the content of this message since I'm sure there are details my readers just won't want to know ;)

I felt kind of funny, but not horrible this morning when I was getting ready for work. As it got closer to the time I usually leave, I felt worse and worse. I'm not the type of person to make a big deal out of not feeling well, so I left for work, the whole time wondering if I it was a good idea to make the 35 minute drive when I was in pain that seemed to be increasing. I got about halfway to work and the pain was so bad I pulled over and called my secretary to tell her what's up. She said JUST GO HOME!!! So that's what I did. I think that was the longest drive of my life, trying to get home with the pain increasing every second. At 8:00 I called my doctor and they squeezed me in this morning. (For those of you who don't know me, I HATE going to the doctor, so I know I felt horrible because I didn't think twice about making an appt.) She ran some tests and put me on an antibiotic. I'm not all that thrilled about being on meds, but that's the only way I'm really going to get rid of this infection.

So now I'm sitting at home, and I'm feeling better, so I feel kind of guilty for not going to work. In a way I feel like I overreacted by calling the doctor so quickly. I'm the kind of person who believes that my body will take care of itself. (But then again, why do I get so many infections?)

I'm going to try to take advantage of this time to get some stuff done around the house now that I'm up and moving around again.

Voted today

I'm surprised and impressed with how excited people were about voting today. I think that a big part of what makes today special for me is knowing how women years and years ago fought for our right to do the very thing that I so easily walked in and did today. I'm proud to be an American, and I'm proud to be a voter, and I'm proud to be a woman. And now I'm going to play Guitar Hero.

Is the Christmas season upon us already?

When we were grocery shopping on Sunday, Christmas music was playing over the PA system. I've seen Christmas decorations out for quite a while, and that doesn't bother me, but Christmas music in early November does bother me. (Maybe "bother me" is a strong term...I guess I just think it's silly, and a little too pushy to start marketing Christmas nearly two months early.) The radio station I listen to plays Christmas music from Dec 1 until Christmas, and I love that, because I feel that Thanksgiving officially kicks off the Christmas season. Oh well, I'm just going to try to embrace and enjoy. Many people I know have talked about cutting back this Christmas season, but I think that's great, to be honest. We usually get a lot of gifts of items we really don't need...frivolous stuff that collects dust and isn't of any use to us. I'd be fine if I didn't receive gifts at all, but it's inevitable that our families will give us stuff, so I've stressed the importance of only giving us stuff that we NEED, or maybe stuff that is a little nicer than we'd normally buy for ourselves, like real maple syrup or jewelry making supplies.

I can't help but think that with all of the cutbacks that people are making this season, maybe it will be better for us. Maybe it will help us get back to the "true meaning" of Christmas, which is different for just about everyone, while at the same time bearing the same meaning universally...kindness and love.