Category Archives: Purely Personal

Back to the dentist

Hopefully a word of warning to future crown-toothed friends.

I suffered through a 2 hour dentist appointment yesterday. It was #2 of what was supposed to be three appointments for getting crown. #1 was to build the tooth back up. #2 (yesterday) was to prep the tooth, take molds for the crown and get a temporary. #3 is going to be applying the crown.

However,this morning, when I was brushing my teeth, the temporary popped off and though I tried to spit it into my hand, was nowhere to be found. Obviously down the drain. I was a little tired to actually think to close the drain first. Duh.

So tomorrow morning, it’s back to the dentist (for which I have no insurance) for another temporary crown. Oy vey!

Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

Inka and Alex

My parents had to put down one of their dogs earlier this week. Beautiful Inka. Two days later, the owners of Alex, one of Inka’s brothers, had to put him down, too. Inka and Alex were 10 1/2 which is pretty old for a newfie. They were from a litter of 13 that I will never forget -good ol’ Pippa had all those puppies all at once.

We put a little rememberance of Inka and Alex on the home page of my parent’s kennel website.My mom, dad and I had fun writing this and giggling about these beautiful dogs who have such big personalities. So much easier than bawling some more. www.blueheavennewfoundlands.com

Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

My two very old dogs that defy their age!

I took Tasha and Daisy to the vet today. They are both newfoundlands. Tasha turned 12 in December and Daisy turned 11. Tasha was a “rescue” who I adopted when she was 2 1/2 yrs old. She had come from a home where she literally had lived in the back yard her whole life. She was kind of naughty when she first came to live with me having never had any freedom – so she ran away a lot. But I knew that if I couldn’t get through to her, nobody would have enough love and patience to do it. So I took her to dog training and let her sleep on my bed. Soon she loved me so much she just wanted to be good and grew up to be a quintissential newfie – the gentle giant. Now Tasha is 12 years old, which is very unusual for a newfie to live this long, and other than some “old age” stuff … loss of muscle mass – most noticably on her head, a little swelling around the knees and having slown down a little -she is in really great shape. She’s happy, healthy, still runs around and has a great appetite. Even her eyesite and hearing are still awesome. Today at the vet, after verifying all of this to be true, he also told me that her heart was perfect. PERFECT! 🙂

Daisy is 11. We kind of stole Daisy from my parents two summers ago. She came for a visit and stayed. Daisy is astonishing in her own right. Except for grey eyelashes and a grey mustache, she looks and acts and moves like a five year old dog. When we go outside in the morning she jumps up and down until I throw her bumper for her which she races after and then prances around with when she gets it. Daisy floats up and down stairs – very different than Tasha who has to kind of bounce her back legs together to get up and down. She too is an amazing dog and this very experienced vet finds it hard to believe she is 11 years old.

I just needed to record that.

Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

Online ordering – funny sales trick

I am ordering vitamins online for my dogs at Puritan’s Pride.

They have a buy one get one free deal.

When you get to the shopping cart and you have selected one item, it suggests to Buy 2 Get 3 Free. If ou change your quantity to 2, then it suggests “Buy 3 Get 4 Free”. So I kept going to see where this would max out.. I ordered 3 and it suggested “Buy 4 Get 6 Free”.  4 then said “Buy 5 Get 7 Free”. I kept going up to 20, where it was now telling me “Buy 21 Get 31 Free”. I then tried 40, it kept suggesting more. I don’t eally need 102 bottles of B-50, but it was fun little distraction.

Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

Don’t tell me how to vote

Vermont’s statewide town meetings are happening tomorrow. This is a day long event where residents of Vermont’s towns discuss and then vote on budgets and any local elections.It’s a really cool process and a great way to engage everyone in the future of their town. Here’s some info on it from the state of vermont website

In Huntington, there is a race for the town clerk and town treasurer. There is one woman who has held both jobs for a number of years. There are two people who are challenging her, one for clerk and a different one for treasurer. Because it is so local, to me it’s pretty personal. I am friendly with all of the candidates. I am surprised to see placards for one side or the other on people’s lawns because it is so personal and a slap in the face. I don’t care if George Bush knows that I don’t vote for him. I don’t attend the same parties that he does. Rich and I didn’t wait at his house for the ambulance when Rich cracked his head open on Camel’s Hump. I won’t see him at the pancake breakfast or spaghetti dinner.

One of my neighbors has been calling me every few days but not leaving messages. I can see this from the caller id history on my phone. I know this means that they are trying to call me to tell me who I should vote for. I already got a few of these phone calls. A woman I know and like a lot who is campaiging on behalf of one side left a 5 minute message on my answering machine. Someone I didn’t know called last night who was a little more subtle – encouraging me to vote and then telling me that she supports a particular candidate and hopes I do to.

Am I turning into a curmudgeon? I dunno. But it’s definitely aggravating me enough to write about it!

Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

A little break from the computer

My 15 year old niece is visiting this week and her mission is to get me away from the computer. She’s doing a great job. Yesterday we went (this is not something I’m very good at) shopping in downtown Burlington. It’s really fun going to Victoria’s Secret with a teenage girl. Hee hee. Today we are going to snowshoe up to a lean-to on the Bean Trail near my house. The Bean Trail is a side trail that leads up to the Long Trail. It’s about 15 degrees out, so hiking uphill will keep us nice and toasty. Snowshoing? Yes. The snow has finally arrived….well a little bit at least. We have about 8 -10 inches of nice new snow but of course it’s basically on top of grass and rocks since we lost all of our base. At least it looks pretty, though.

My mission while she is here is to expose her to different foods. Yesterday we went to a health food store so she could see that there are in fact more vegetables than broccoli and carrots. She has now had (and liked!!!) kale and red cabbage for the first time. We’ll do veggie sushi. But she has definitely declined on the seaweed – something to do with seeing it on the beach too often. We’ll see how far I get in a week. Heh. Tomorrow I think we will go to Montreal, though we’ll have to pass on the city’s famous smoked meat since she doesn’t eat red meat.

Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

The work-at-home donut disadvantage

I think this post is just for my friend Dave who works at home and has more than his fair share of blog posts about donuts.

Rich bought a box of little chocolate covered donuts last night. I begged and pleaded with him to let me have some. He’s a good husband though and tries to help me when it comes to succumbing to my dreadful addiction to chocolate. Especially as he’s the one who has to hear me whine about the way my jeans fit (or don’t, as the case may be).

His first response was “donuts are for people who go to work”. That did not go over well since I happen to work about 12 or more hours a day. So then he tried “donuts are for people who leave the house to go to work.” Boo hiss.

After he “left the house to go to work” this morning I came downstairs knowing that surely, because he loves me so very very much, he had left me a few of these little tasty treats. But they were nowhere to be found. He told me later that he had departed with the fully sealed box of donuts this morning. I had to make due with oatmeal, since the closest possible source is a 25 minute round trip drive. So here it is, nearly lunchtime, and I’m still thinking about those damned donuts!



Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org