A point to ponder

While on the treadmill last night, I was gazing out the window, desperately seeking a distraction. What I watched was the most ridiculous scenario, especially considering the fact that the scenario was playing out in the gym parking lot.

A Honda backed out of a spot, approximately 1o spaces from the door.  A few minutes later, a Charger came up the aisle and sat in the middle of everything with its turn signal on, just a few feet back from the open spot.  I'm wondering if this lady is just incapable of driving her big ass car, all the while thinking that she's being over dramatic about parking lot etiquette.  Next down the aisle comes a Ford Fusion (Charger is still sitting in the middle of everything with the turn signal on).  Fusion thinks that Charger is waiting for the open spot., but can't go around it because Charger is in the middle of the whole aisle.  (Charger continues to blink, but is now in reverse and turning its front wheels in a pointless pattern).  Finally, Charger backs up.  Fusion pulls into the originally vacant spot.

FINALLY I see why the Charger was sitting and blinking.  It was waiting for a spot that was TWO SPOTS CLOSER TO THE DOOR.  REALLY!??!?!  TWO SPOTS CLOSER.  AT THE GYM. WHERE YOU'RE COMING TO EXERCISE.  So really, isn't two additional spots worth of walking an added bonus to whatever workout you've got planned for the evening?

Good news!

We got home last night after our marathon weekend of caloric intake to find a message from the vet. All systems are go and there are no cancer cells in any of Chino's blood work that was taken on Friday morning. All of his blood counts and organ functions are normal. When I heard that message I was able to breathe again. I tried to give Chino a hug, but of course I must have been too enthusiastic, because he ran and hid under the table. With a little coaxing, he came out for a little love, before he passed back out into his Benadryl induced slumber.

Surgery is scheduled for Wednesday. Think happy thoughts!!!!

I hear he has to wear a satellite dish on his head - I'm thinking of painting it to look like a daisy.

An interesting observation

Neurotic dog mom struck again and thank goodness she did. This morning I took Chino to the vet to have a little lump on his leg checked out. When we noticed it, I immediately started worrying about it - Nick, not so much. He assumed that it was a clogged hair follicle or a bug bite. To appease and calm me down, we scheduled an appointment to have it looked at. Of course, our worst fears were confirmed and its most likely a mast cell tumor. The vet wants to treat it aggressively and Chino is scheduled for surgery on Wednesday morning.

Of course, as the vet is explaining it to me, I'm listening intently, paying attention and reading estimates as he explains the anesthesia, recovery and blood work. When I walked in the door and told Nick that it could be the "C" word, I lost it. I'm mad and nervous and anxious about the whole ordeal that is coming up.

Nick, on the other hand, handles things completely differently. He's Mr. Calm, Cool and Collected and somehow knows that everything is going to be ok. This is how he handles most situations of stress. He just knows things are going to be ok, although in this instance he was admittedly thrown for a loop since he thought I was slightly overreacting.

Later this morning, after I calmed down, I made an interesting observation. When I had my own health scare a few months ago, I didn't cry for myself. Was I nervous? Yes. Was I scared? Yes. Could it have been bad? Yes. Yet, here I was, bawling for my dog. I guess the important part was that I held it together at the vet and listened and retained most of what he said and was able to explain it to Nick so that he understood the next steps and what to expect. When I mentioned this to Nick, he told me in a matter-of-fact tone, "That's just how you are."

Another list

One of the many items on my many lists and lists of lists has been our pantry. The pantry had landed itself on the "List of things that piss us off". The Piss off list is important because this is how we prioritize our home improvement projects. If it annoys us on a daily basis, then its on the list. That's that, end of story. The pantry annoyed us on more than a daily basis for a number of reasons which included:

Cheapo, stupid wire shelves (Thanks, Dominion)

Inefficient use of space

Did I mention the stupid wire shelves?

We weren't sure what we were going to do with this space until we went to the Central Ohio Home and Garden Show and visited the Closets by Design booth. We were just browsing, looking for ideas, when we met Nancy. She scheduled us for a free in-home estimate for our pantry, since that was numero uno on our Piss off list (when it came to closets anyway).

Well. Tuesday was the day that the new pantry got installed. Saying that it was everything I hoped for and more is an understatement. Its fantastic. It made the other one seem more awful, if that was even possible. Saying that Chino was happy to have an installation man in our house, couldn't be further from the truth. Nick had to tie him to the kitchen table.

Rather than keep you in suspense any longer, I present you with the new and improved pantry. When we open the door, its no longer an annoying closet, its a state of the art food storage facility.

Here it is, ready and waiting to be filled!!!

Notice the U shaped shelves, which give us a wall of space that we didn't have before!

A shot looking in and down - now we can hang the shelf organizers!

As I was posting this, I realized how many pictures that I actually took of the new pantry, kind of crazy, huh? I'm looking forward to going to the grocery store this weekend, coupons in hand, on a mission to fill this bad boy up. Yes I just wrote that and yes, I realize I sound like a crazy suburban housewife, but I don't care.

Pardon the disaster area

Someone apparently took full advantage of his 9+ hours of beauty sleep today. Hmmm...wonder who? Nothing like running around the couch and playing lazy tug of war to brighten an otherwise ugly day. That damn dog, if he's not driving me to need therapy, he's just what the Dr. ordered and 'round and 'round we go (sometimes around the couch actually).

Puppy face

You know that song, "The Things We Do For Love", you've probably heard it in the dentist's office or in a random waiting room. Its a soft rock, easy listening type of song. Well, substitute the word food for love and you'll have landed on Chino's motto. Food makes him do things that he wouldn't normally do. Food brings out the canine within him, canceling out the feline tendencies of indifference. Food gave me permission to stand him up on his hind legs and pose for this picture. Feline tendencies are responsible for the look on his face that says, if it weren't for the brownie that my "dad" is holding up - I would be running away from you, crazy lady.

Multi-talented mutt

In addition to Chino's talents when it comes to eating chicken wings, he's also mastered the art of eating whipped cream out of the can. The cackling in the background is me, because when Chino heard the whipped cream spray onto Nick's Jello pudding cup (low-cal snack, only 80 calories), he got up, ran into the kitchen and assumed the sitting position, which is the most conducive to him getting what he wants. His talents also extend to the realm of spray cheese, but I think he prefers the sweet stuff. The quality of the video is kind of crappy, so I'll "force" the mutt to do this again in some better light.