Stream of Consciousness

I remembered the Mastercard bill just in time. Since going paperless on a lot of our bills, I have trouble remembering them, even though I put reminders on my calendar. Of course, having a paper bill come in the mail doesn't always help. I finally put both the gas and electric bills on autopay, after paying them late a few times (Atmos, I believe, three months in a row). (Those Atmos people are patient, let me tell you!)

Our dishwasher is leaking, which is actually not a bad thing. It's never been great at getting the dishes clean, and I've learned to remember its eccentricities when loading it. (It doesn't clean well on the left side. No bowls of any kind in the bottom rack. And rinse, rinse, rinse everything.) I deliberately bought the extended warranty, planning to someday, when I got around to it, the minute I had a minute, schedule a service call to see if they improve its performance. Now that it's not draining, but instead just letting the dirty dishwater drain out the bottom of the door, it's forcing my hand. GE Authorized Repair and I have a date Saturday morning.

This is the cat pedestal that got wet.
Izzy likes to hang out on it. Yes, in this
position. (She cracks me up!)

We discovered the leak when I moved the cat pedestal we keep in the kitchen. Originally, it was there to help tiny kittens make it up to the counter, where the cats eat (cat food is bad for dogs, and that guarantees they can't get to it). Now that they're all adults, it's there to trick the cats into believing they can't jump up on the counter by themselves. So if we move the pedestal away from the counter, they're flummoxed (and whatever we need to keep them out of stays undisturbed). I moved it yesterday to get to the cabinet behind it, and it left a soggy trail across the floor. We looked, and the carpet on the bottom had absorbed a great deal of water, which we finally discovered was coming from the dishwasher. It's outside now, upside down, drying out. And the dishwasher repair guy comes Saturday.

I've finally, finally scheduled the first Oktoberfest meeting. That one is just with the guys from the event planning company and the city employees they'll have to work with. I talked to the event guys, then scheduled a meeting. Then they emailed the next day to say they needed to change the time. Not a good sign of things to come.

Yesterday I got the worst criticism of my work that I've ever gotten from a client. It was demoralizing, especially considering it was of a first draft, and the worst part was that they just said it was bad (over and over), and didn't give any kind of hint about what they wanted it to actually sound like. I have to guess. (Seriously, do you think I'm going to call and give them a chance to scold me on the phone?) I'm going to give them the best work I can possibly produce, and after Friday, one way or another, we're going to be done.

My friend Barry, the Realtor, is trying to sell a house that's on the market because one of the owners murdered her husband in it. Yeah. How do you price that?

I've been feeling sad & missing JR all day, though I don't miss shrill barking, yelping and screaming every time he had to stay in his kennel. Nor do I miss having to take him on walks six or seven times a day. I didn't mind the walks themselves, actually, just having to do it.

I know, I know. I'm a princess. Or a little bitch. I called several of the Calgary Flames players that very thing on Monday night, while they were playing against the Stars. Maybe it does take one to know one.

Follow up

The corned beef was great. I bought two, while Kroger had them on sale, and I baked the smaller (2 lbs pre-cooked) one for St. Paddy's Day. It was delicious, fall-apart tender, with intense, rich corned beef flavor. The mashed potatoes were these, from Cook's Illustrated Best Recipes and, really, there's no way they're not going to be good. I cooked the cabbage using the basic, pretty much foolproof technique from my big dependable vegetable cookbook. Dessert was…no, no dessert. (Are you kidding? We were stuffed.) Delicious, all of it, if I do say so myself.

As for the dog, JR, I took him this morning to the vet that the Shih Tzu rescue group uses. Okay, I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but I'm not positive which rescue group it is. I'm fairly sure it's DFW Tzus & More. I talked, emailed and texted the woman in charge, and—way more important—got a sterling recommendation of her from Lisa Collins, the women who fostered one of our dogs, who has a ton of experience, and who knows everyone in the rescue community. Lisa assured me that Cheryl (my Shih Tzu contact) is great, and that the group is very particular about placing dogs. Anyway, I took JR to the vet this morning. They'll check him out, neuter him, and give him the green light to go to one of the rescue group's fosters.

I felt more than a few pangs, just because he was so upset at my leaving. Poor thing! He was finally starting to relax and act like a regular dog, and this is going to be quite a setback. But in the end, or at least a week or ten days from now, he'll be much happier. Happier than he would have here, I think, since he'll have other little dogs to play with. I had no doubts about it being the best thing for him, but…well, that's the trouble with loving animals and being empathetic towards them. [sniff]

But still, I'm going to count that as two happy outcomes! And the Stars won last night!

Corned beef & dog

Soooo…what's been going on with you?

Here? Oh, not much. I rescued a dog. A nasty dirty, horribly matted Shih Tzu*, who was moseying down Johnson Road (my street) in Southlake. I was driving home Tuesday afternoon when he wandered into my lane and started walking towards me as I approached. My choices were to either stop or run over him, so I stopped, thinking I would look at his tag and take him home. It turned out that the thing under his chin wasn't a tag. It was gum. He was horribly neglected, covered with giant mats. He looked like this:

So much for just taking him home.

And, BTW, he smelled exactly as good as he looked.

Anyway, after offering him some food & water, I took him to the closest vet to see if he had a microchip. (Well, he could have been someone's pet who'd gotten lost a few months earlier.) The closest vet is right next door to Southlake Crossing Pet Spa, the place J & Andy go to a few times a year so that Andy can get a hair cut (J just get luxurious baths). When I drove up, Courtney, the owner, happened to be outside. She greeted me as I walked up carrying this nasty dog, then walked us over to the vet's office to check for a microchip. When there wasn't one, I asked, gulping, how much they would charge to groom him (really, I couldn't stand to be around him the way he was). She said they'd do it for free, since I was being nice enough to rescue him. Free. That mess in the picture up there. These women are saints. No kidding, they're so nice, and so sweet to the animals. I can't say enough good things about them!**

The groomers were gone for the day, and Courtney was there by herself, but she did what she could on him. He had to go back the next morning for the full treatment and, in the meantime, I had called every veterinarian on the first three pages of Google maps, the local animal control officer, both Shih Tzu rescue groups in the Metroplex and…nothing. Or almost nothing. The Humane Society in Keller gave me the name of a vet in Keller who does low-cost vaccinations. Since it was clear this little guy was going to spend the night in our house, with our dogs around, he needed to be vaccinated.

Cut to the next day. He's vaccinated, groomed, and now looking & smelling much better:

His ears are almost always like this,
one up & one down. Adorable!

I commented on Facebook that the groomers at Southlake Crossing Pet Spa had gone way above and beyond. That doesn't really state it clearly enough, so let me illustrate: his poor little face and eyes were so horribly matted and painful that he didn't want anyone near them at all, much less with clippers. To get him cleaned up, one of the groomers held him up to her shoulder like a baby and loved on him, while the other stood behind her, carefully clipping away the mats on his face. That's the kind of care they take, and how kind they are to the animals they groom. Way above and beyond.

The Shih Tzu rescue groups started returning my calls, and after some texts & emails back and forth, one of them has agreed to take him! They asked, though, if we could keep him here until Tuesday (dadblame Spring Break!). Right now the little dog is living in a well-used wire kennel in our living room, and it was no big deal the first few days. He was so stressed (and had just been vaccinated, adding physical stress to the mix) that staying in his own little den was the best thing for him. But now he's feeling better, feeling more confident, feeling like he wants out, damnit, and who do we think we are, keeping him in this cage?!? Him being out and about, free to roam about the house, wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for those giants (i.e., the other dogs, Andy and J, who are about 25 lbs as opposed to JR's 11 lbs.). He's still afraid of them.

His name is JR (short for Johnson Road, after the street I found him on). (FYI, when you have an animal vaccinated for rabies, they need a name to go on the certificate.) JR loves Rich, will sit quietly in his lap, snuggle up beside him and snooze, but every time he sees me—literally, sees me—he turns into a vortex of activity, a virtual doggy tornado. And if I don't take him out for a walk or give him treats or let him wiggle in my lap (he doesn't sit still) while I try to pet him, he barks the shrill, piercing bark of the tiny dog. If I try to just give up and put him back in his kennel and he can still see me, he screams. (Seriously, you would think we were cutting this dog's head off the way he carries on.)

The only saving grace is that he's kind of a ho for people food. And he loooooves his Charlee Bear treats (liver flavor). Those go a long way to making life easier. Dropping a handful of Charlee Bears in his food dish would be a terrible habit to get into (and we wouldn't be doing it if he were staying here), but it does give me ten minutes of peace.

So that's the dog part. The corned beef part is that we're having baked corned beef, cabbage & mashed potatoes for dinner, for St. Patrick's Day. If you've only tasted boiled corned beef, you don't know what you're missing. The flavor in a baked corned beef is so much more intense, and can stand up to cabbage so much better. (The cabbage and the mashed potatoes are separate so we can mix our own colcannon on our plates if we want.)

Happy St. Paddy's Day, everyone! Wish me luck with my corned beef. And dog!

*Turns out the people who are involved with this breed prefer that you pronounce it "Shih Zoo," not "Shit Zoo." Huh, right?

**Really, right now, schedule an appointment for your pets. Even if they don't actually need it. This kind of kindness and goodness should be supported!***

***And pay for it. They have to make a living!