Lazy Sunday afternoon

I didn't realize how late it was when I was crawling into bed last night/this morning. Three a.m.! Last night was girls night, so I spent it eating horribly, and drinking too much. The eating part, I certainly planned since we were dining at Claim Jumper, but as for the drinking part, I was done after 2. My friend and I were getting ready to leave and we went back to say hi and bye to one of the girl's brother, who also happened to be the bartender. He gave us all a large shot of something  with Jagermeister, Malibu, and who knows what else. Then another too fruity drink and I was really done. 

I almost didn't go because my body was so exhausted! Washing that car shouldn't have taken that much out of me, but it did! A two hour nap did me good. For me, I just wanted an excuse to wear these babies

Today, I'm hurting. My back and legs are sore, probably from a combination of too much alcohol and wearing 3 1/4" heels all night (I rarely wear heels). I usually stay up and drink water when I drink like that, but I was too tired. I skipped out on flossing, brushed my teeth, washed my face, and fell right to sleep under my comfy down comforter. I did not feel like eating anything when I woke up this morning at 10, a result of my binge (eating).  

So right now, I'm curled up in my leggings and sweatshirt, with a bowl of low-sodium-but-still-not-good-for-you Top Ramen and a glass of blueberry pomegranate juice, watching the Arizona Cardinals vs. Philly Eagles game (go Cards!). It doesn't look like I'll be getting much done today. Thank goodness for the holiday tomorrow! My house is in desperate need of a cleaning!

Sammy the bird-dog

I've been super lazy tonight, calling my cake decorating instructor to ask if it was really necessary for me to bring in a cake tomorrow (she let me off the hook--yay!) and just rolling up some tortillas with cheese in the middle along with corn for dinner. I was just settling down with my truffle recipe book when I heard a commotion outside. Sammy was scratching on the sliding glass door and I could hear him running around, toenails scraping over the concrete patio. Thinking he was just chasing another moth, I looked up and was horrified by what I saw. He was chasing some sort of flying animal! I jumped up from my couch in an attempt to save the poor bat/bird from my animal's naughty teeth. As I opened the door to yell at the mutt, I saw a flurry of wings and a shower of feathers. When I got to Sammy, he was spitting out a mouthful of feathers. "SAMMY!" I yelled. "NO!" He gives me this look like, "What mom, I was just playing!" 

Too late, I realized that I had just opened up the closest escape route for the poor tortured bird. "Oh my God," I thought to myself. "Did it get in?" I could see the reflection of the poor shaken bird beating itself against my walls. Crap. How do I get it out? I put Sammy in his box, which resulted in a lot of whining, as he didn't think it was fair that mommy got to play with the fun toy when he couldn't. I left the sliding glass door open and attempted to herd the bird out by waving my arms. I closed my bedroom door and turned the lights off, hoping he would head outside towards the open door, illuminated by the porch light. But instead, he flew into the office, the one door I forgot to shut. It took me ten minutes to herd him out of there with the broom. He actually got onto the broom and I carried him out that way, hoping to make it to the door. But he flew off and proceeded to fly against the ceiling and walls, leaving bits of feather everywhere. It took me another five minutes to finally shoo him out the door. Mind you, Sammy was whining and scratching at his box door this whole time! When the task was done, I was still so mad with him and left him in there for longer as punishment. I still have bits of feather on my ceiling! And on the porch--it looks like a bird massacre just happened outside!

This is not the first time Sammy pulled this crap with a bird. When he was a puppy he discovered an injured bird in our backyard. Jon had let him out to pee and came back to the bed. We heard a persistent squawking for a while, so I finally checked out the window to see what that was all about. I saw Sammy curiously following and sniffing this poor bird that couldn't fly and was trying to warn Sammy to stay away. I ran outside with Jon close behind and we proceeded to chase Sammy, all the while yelling "NO! LEAVE IT!" Of course he evaded us like a pro--little shit is fast! When we thought we had him cornered, he first looked at me and then at Jon, and lunged toward the bird to catch it in his mouth. At this point I was beginning to despair, fretting about the poor bird in my puppy's mouth. He ran circles around the yard, escaping from our reach, all the while holding the squawking bird in his mouth. I was surprised the poor thing didn't have a heart attack from all that! We finally got him and made him drop the bird. Surprisingly, the bird was fine and walked away through the gate Jon opened up for him. I think Sammy must have been holding him very gently.

I just checked outside and that little bird was just chilling on our patio furniture. I had to put shoes on and chase him out of my yard. I do not want a repeat, thank you very much!

What's purple and blue and brown all over?

Me! I bruise so easily and I hate it. It doesn't help that I'm such a klutz. I'm constantly running into things. As a result, my legs and hips always have those telltale blue splotches somewhere or other. I swear if people didn't know any better they'd think my husband was beating me (kind of hard from over 7000 miles away)! Well, Sammy helped me out in that department last weekend. I signed us up for some behavior classes. You see, Sammy is very intimidated by everyone except for Jon and I. This dog goes through life thinking everyone is out to get him. He acts very aggressively towards all strangers, barking nonstop complete with standing hair and even activated anal gland (yuck!). The result is a lonely me, wishing I could have people over for dinner or drinks or whatever. I'm a recluse because of this dog.

Well I say, "No more!" and hopefully Sammy gets better, but if he keeps up the way he's going now, I'm going to have permanent bruising all over my legs. When the trainer is working with him, he is wearing a cage muzzle, made out of plastic. When I'm walking him with this thing on, Sammy likes to rub his snout against my left leg to try to get the damned thing off, resulting in black and blue legs for Tania. See the following picture below

And that's just a couple of bruises. The others were too green to show up on camera. But seriously, my lower left leg was a canvas of Sammy's abuse. I was pissed, considering I had a wedding to attend the next day. Now I was limited to a long dress to cover all his work!  I have to admit, I unknowingly added a lot more purple and blue myself. When I got home from the wedding I gasped as I took my shoes off. On my left foot right at the knuckle of my big toe was a big splotch of purple that didn't belong, accented by a black horizontal line. I thought that black line was dirt at first and I tried rubbing it clean in vain. When I felt a dull pain in that spot, I realized it was another bruise! The camera wouldn't capture this, but it is ugly! The shoes I wore aren't painful unless I stand in them too long, but that pain is targeted at my arches and back, never so visible like now!

They're a little outdated, but I still love wedges! Oh well, I'm not giving them up, bruises or not!

A common weakness among females

I love shoes. I don't think I can have enough of them. I love strappy heels and wedges especially. Unfortunately, my job requires me to stand on my feet and run around most of the day, so I've been sticking to flip flops and sneakers in order to save my ankles and joints for the constant pounding I subject them to. This doesn't stop me from occasionally splurging on what I consider a must-have to my shoe collection. A couple months ago I indulged myself with a shoe shopping excursion, as I hadn't bought a pair of shoes in a while. I found a pair of strappy sandals at Dillard's that I just had to have, since the pair I had been eyeing at Nordstrom's was discontinued. I've been wanting those shoes for 2 years now, and considering they were available last year still, I figured they would be this year as well. Not so. These shoes that I bought were close to what I wanted....minus the wedge heel and the ankle strap. But I loved them and couldn't wait to wear them! Too bad my dog, Sammy, got to them first.

I pulled these shoes out of the closet for the first time a couple weeks ago to possibly wear to a get-together with my co-workers. It's been so warm lately, so I was going to wear a skirt or dress and these shoes. At the last minute, I decided to go more casual and just went with a pair of shorts and a tank top. In my hurry, I left the shoes out of the closet and forgot about them for a couple days, as they were in a part of the bedroom that I don't go to very often. So my precious shoes were out in the open, unprotected from inconsiderate doggy temptations.

It happened while I was at home people! This dog has no shame! I was making my usual rounds in the blogosphere, which takes a considerable amount of time. I noticed after a while that Sammy was being a little too quiet--usually he is demanding something of me: I'm not giving him enough attention, I'm eating something he wants, he wants to go outside (again). When I noticed the lack of annoyance I perked up my ears to hear his location. I heard him doing something in the bedroom so I rushed over there to behold this scene

I could not believe it. After months of not pulling a bad stunt, he had to do this! I immediately grabbed the shoes and asked him "What is this?!" When Sammy hears these words, he knows mommy is very angry. Down go the ears and the eyes--he can't even look at me. "Bad boy!" I tell him. And then the dreaded words: "Go in your box!" (Jon and I call the crate the "box" after we heard his mom use that word--we thought it was funny.) At this point Sammy ran into his box. For us, this is the equivalent of time out and sending a child to their room--he doesn't particularly like it, but he accepts it.

Truth be told, I thought the mutt was over this stage. There were times where I left him out of his crate for a couple hours at a time while I visited with my neighbors or went grocery shopping. I guess I was testing him so maybe eventually I wouldn't have to crate him all day when I go to work. I inspected every corner of the house when I got home, looking for any hint of chewed up baseboards or remnants of my socks and underwear. Up till now, he always passed these little tests. Well, this incident showed me that he's not ready and he has been crated every time I even needed to step out of the house for a few minutes. He totally betrayed my trust and he's going to have to work to regain it!

I'm so upset with my loss! What makes it more upsetting is the fact that I paid $70 for these shoes that I never got to wear! (In retrospect, I should not have spent so much money on these--they totally don't look like they should have cost $70!) The fact that I spent so much money on a chew toy upsets me. I'm looking into getting them repaired. I need to justify spending that much money on them by actually wearing them!

Woke up this morning at 4 instead of 5. Arghhhh!!!! Stupid alarm clock! While I was setting my alarm, the time also somehow got messed up and pushed an hour ahead. I didn't realize until I finished getting ready in the bathroom. My clock: 5:49, Jon's clock: 4:49. What?! What time is it really?! Check cell phone because the network's time is always right. 4:50!!!!

Oh well, I got a really early start, and had time to post this blog. I found a really cool article on MSN about some boys back home in Washington that started a really cool business charity deal for the impoverished in Uganda, called Krochet Kids International. The link to the story was entitled "Saving the world, one stitch at a time." Being obsessed with knitting, I wanted to find out if this story involved my favorite hobby at all. Well, close. These guys are teaching women in Uganda how to crochet beanies for a wage. Once they have enought beanies, they are going to bring them back over to the U.S. and start selling them. I thougtht it was a really cool idea, and brave on the boys' part. I hope they succeed!

Well, it's almost sunrise now. Time to get going!