Greys & Things

I learned some news this morning that upset me.  I guess I could be one of the last to know.  I learned a big Guiding Light spoiler.  Have you heard?  The show is going off the air in September!  I’m really upset.  I love that show.  I have only watched for maybe the past two years, but I’m in love with Lizzie, Daisy, Reva, Bill and several others.  I went to town this morning so that I wouldn’t miss this afternoon’s show.  There is a story line right now that I just can’t miss.   As you may remember, we do not have a DVR and our VCR is eating tapes. While at the store, I saw the headline on Soap Opera Digest that Guiding Light was going off the air. I came home and checked it out on the Internet and it is true.  I will have to find something else to occupy my time from 2 pm to 3 pm.  I guess I could exercise.  Nah!  LOL

The only other soap that I watch is As The World Turns.  I am not happy with the story lines on that one right now and have switched to watching Ellen many afternoon.

Life is about change and this is just another change in my ever changing life.  I have decided that I will not be posting daily on this blog.  I know I do have some regular readers, so I wanted to give you a heads up.  I didn’t want you to think that I fell of the face of the earth or anything like that. I would like to thank you for reading my blog, learning about my life and leaving comments.  I enjoyed meeting all of you.  I will pop in from time to time to tell you of my latest camping adventures and also any important updates on the lives of the greyhounds, Jack and Scout. You can also visit them at their own blog, Two Greyhound Town . They are pretty good at keeping their blog updated with photos and their latest adventures.

When you see a motor home traveling down the highway, I hope you smile and think about me, my camping obsessed husband and our greyhounds.  I would say to honk, but you might scare the driver.

Bye for now,

Patty and the greyhounds, Jack & Scout

My back is better today.  It is still sore, but I haven’t had any spasms for about 24 hours.  That is a good sign.  I am walking upright again.  That is always good.  LOL

Jack survived his vet visit, but it was very stressful for him.  The vet was 20 minutes late due to emergencies.  He said he had seen 22 pets yesterday and that put him behind.  He had to keep running in and out during Jack’s visit which added to Jack’s stress.  I think in the future, I will schedule my appointments in the morning.  However, I have been going to this vet for over a decade and this was the first time that it was like that.

Jack received his two shots yesterday and had his exam.  The vet was pleased with his teeth.  I was a little concerned because I went through a time where I wasn’t brushing his teeth and it shows.  Greyhounds are known for having very bad teeth.  Jack just had a teeth cleaning two and half years ago and I really don’t want him to go through that again. Greyhounds are very sensitive to anesthesia and they don’t always come out of it.  I have known several greyhounds that have died during a dental, so it’s really something I don’t want him to go through again.  I have been brushing his teeth daily for the past month and his teeth look better. The vet said he can see that there is an improvement and if I just keep it up, we should be fine.  He does not recommend that we clean Jack’s teeth.  He said it is just not worth the risk.  It was a relief to hear that.  It’s much easier dealing with a vet who shares my views instead of battling one who doesn’t.   I’m wondering if he recently lost a grey while doing a dental because last year he was not so against it.

Jack and I are both glad that yesterday is over.

Jack and Scout are not happy with us right now.  Unfortunately, they are not going to be happy for probably the next month.  It’s not as bad as it sounds really.  Hubby and I are working to get grass to grow in their backyard and in order to do this, we had to block off most of their yard while the grass grows.  Our plan in the beginning was to only block off half of the yard and then do the other half.  We realized that this would probably take most of the summer, so we decided to do it all at once and get it over with.

The backyard started out being our garden.  We had dirt hauled in and hubby worked very hard getting it established.  He loved his garden.  After Jack arrived, I wanted a fenced yard for him.  Our yard is basically wooded, except for the garden.  We decided we wanted to adopt a second greyhound, so hubby decided to give up his garden.  We put in a 6′ fence and we tried to turn the garden area into a yard.  It’s been tough due to a lot of ruts in the yard.  The grass never really became established before we let the dogs in the yard, so we deal with a lot of mud in the spring and winter.  Today, we finally took steps to getting the ruts out of the yard and growing grass.

Scout looks so sad when she goes outside now.  She looks through the orange fencing that keeps her from her favorite running spot.  She just doesn’t understand.  She can still run up and down the yard if she wants to.  Greyhounds run in circles though.  It must be that track training.

The yard before the new grass was planted.

Scout exploring her area of the yard.

It’s hard to unwind after a camping weekend.  The dogs are itching to hit the road already.  They love seeing all the people and smelling all the new smells.  The only thing that Scout does not like about traveling is that she cannot run.  The girl loves to run.  After returning home this time, I let Jack and Scout into the fenced yard and Scout ran 4 laps around the yard, she started into the garage and headed back out for another lap.  She came in again and then did one more lap.  She then rested for the rest of the evening.  Jack is not a runner.  He could care less about having a yard to run in.

I like being able to take a long shower and I can’t do that in the motor home.  Our shower in the motor home is nicer than the one that we had in the small travel trailer, but we do not take long showers.  Unless we have full hook-ups which means the water is connected to the motor home,  we take very, very short showers.  We get wet, turn off the water, shampoo and soap up, turn the water on and rinse.  That’s it.  The worst part of camping to me is showering and sleeping.  I do not sleep well in the motor home.

Our dream for several years had been to own a motor home.  That dream came true last year when everything seemed to align correctly for us.  We camped in it 13 times last year.  This year we will probably do that many trips or more.  Hubby likes to go every other week.  We need to come home to cut the grass and earn money for gas and then we hit the road again.  We have reservations for four trips made already, but that just takes us into June.  We have only toured Missouri so far, but this year, we are heading to Kansas for a greyhound event.  Missouri really has some beautiful sights to see.  We’ve camped as close as 10 minutes away from home to as far as 6 hours.  We camp closer to home when it’s with family and farther away when we are on our own. 

The next trip will be to the Lake of Ozarks.  Hubby’s Mom and step dad will be camping with us. They have a fifth wheel.  I plan on visiting the outlet mall there one day and probably just enjoying the view of the lake on another day.  We stayed there last year and loved it.  The weather was perfect that weekend, so that made it really nice.

I just returned from a trip to “the city”.  I had three bags and which bag did I drop?  The one with jar of cocktail sauce, of course.  It broke in the bag and went all over the salad dressing bottle and the french fries.  I’m glad the cocktail sauce wasn’t with the fabric or thread that I purchased today.  I probably would have cried.

I went to the city to look for fabric for collars.  I finally found a fabric that I think is cute for camping.  It is blue and has ketchup bottles, mustard bottles and BBQ tools on it.  Unfortunately, there was just a small piece of material and I don’t think I will be able to make two collars of it.  I will make it for Jack because it is much easier to find cute things for Scout than it is for Jack.

Last night I finished a computer game that I have been playing.  It was Wedding Dash.  After I finished Pet Shop Hop, my husband said that maybe that qualified me to work in a pet store.  I wonder if now I can become a wedding planner.  LOL  Actually, it wouldn’t surprise me if someone would try to put something like that on their resume.  I verify employment and educations and people lie all the time.  I ran across a diploma mill yesterday.  Basically, you give them $249 and they will give you a high school diploma.  They base it on your life experiences.  It’s true.

Effective immediately, I will no longer be accepting ads through my Entrecard widget.  I will be removing my widget as of 03/31/09 after the final ad has run.  I enjoyed meeting many of you through Entrecard and I hope you will continue to visit my blog.

Last night, I made Jack a collar.  Jack is a big St. Louis Rams’ fan, so it only seemed appropriate that he have a collar with their logo.  He has a bandanna that he wears during their games, so now he has a matching collar.  He was quite happy with it.  He danced all over the house making it very difficult for me to get a decent photo.

I am having so much fun making collars.  I plan to head to the city later this week and look for new fabric.  I have already looked at the fabric at our local Walmart about 20 times.

Someday, I would like to make Jack some new jammies.  However, jammies could be difficult for me.  I mean, the legs will all need to be the same length.  LOL  Does that tell you my true sewing ability?

Happy Tuesday!

It’s hard to get back into the swing of work after a three day weekend.  We have to work five days this week.  Next week and the week after, we will only work four days due to another camping weekend.  I’m self-employed so when I don’t work, I don’t get paid.  The pay is so low right now that it doesn’t really seem to matter.  I really hope things improve soon.  It’s depressing and scary.

After we  returned home from camping yesterday, I went to the store to buy more fabric for collars.  I’m so excited.  I hope to work on Jack’s tonight.  He’s going to have a St. Louis Rams’ collar.  The collar I made for Scout last week turned out nice, I think.  I could make a few improvements, but I was impressed with myself.   I knew she would look great in a melon or orange collar and she does.

Hubby was even impressed by my stitching on this collar.  The first few I tried to make were disasters.  The material was too thick and it kept getting stuck in the machine.  It was discouraging, but I think I have overcome that.  I have more confidence now, so I am ready to make another one.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from the brindle kids!

Jack and Scout would like to wish everyone a very nice day.  We are not Irish, but my name is Patricia. Patricia is only used for legal things and when I would get in trouble as a child.  I was named after my grandfather who was named Patrick, so I feel a little special on this day.  

What do you think of my new banner?  It was so easy to do, so I will probably be remodeling around here pretty often now. I designed it with a free software. XHeader

The motor home in the photo is ours.  We purchased it last March.  It was a dream come true for us.  We had searched for close to two years and finally found this one.  It is a 2006 and was a rental.  We ended up getting it for a great price and it still looks new on the inside.   It has three slides and is quite roomy even with two greyhounds.  We couldn’t believe our luck.  If we would have known how bad the economy was going to get, we probably wouldn’t have purchased it. I always say that if the worst happens, we can live in it.  I hope that doesn’t happen, of course.

This morning I am baking Triple Chocolate Bars.  It smells so good and I haven’t eaten breakfast yet, so my stomach is growling.  It’s made of chocolate cake mix, cherry pie filling, 1 cup of chocolate chips and two eggs.  It is hand mixed together and then baked.  Chocolate frosting completes it.  Yummy!   Hubby just got up, so I will fix breakfast burritos and cure my growling stomach.  He slept in this morning.  It’s 8:15 a.m.   The hounds and I have been up since 7 a.m. and that’s late for us.  We are early birds, normally.

Today, Hubby and I are visiting his Mom and step dad.  I’m bringing the Triple Chocolate Bars to their house.   We will probably spend most of the day there.  The hounds will not be happy with us.  They are pretty spoiled since I work at home.  They are used to Mama being home with them.  They will pull out all their cuteness while we are getting ready to leave in hopes that we will change our minds and stay home with them.  It’s sad to see them both looking out the window watching us leave.  It’s so cute though when we pull into the driveway and I see their two heads popping into the window and they start dancing around as if to say “They’re home, they’re home!”   We get a huge welcome from them when we return home.  Jack sometimes is a little too excited.  He still needs to learn the “four on the floor concept”, but he is getting better about it.  Jack is as tall as I am when he is on two legs.  Scout is such a calm girl. She just chatters her teeth when she is excited.  I love my “kids”.

I haven’t had a chance to tell all of you of some things that happened here on Tuesday of this week.  On Monday I mailed our entries for the greyhound contest that we enter each year.  I had trouble with my postage scale and thought I had put on more postage than I needed.  I was surprised to find a note from our mail lady in the mailbox yesterday.  She said that I didn’t have enough postage on the package, but she had added the postage herself to it.  She said to pay her the $.23 when I get the chance.  I thought it was very nice of her to do that instead of returning the package to me.  I put the money in the mailbox for her yesterday. 

Tuesday afternoon, I received a couple of comments on my other blog, Two Greyhound Town.  One message told me congratulations and another one told me to visit Life With Dogs .  I was very intrigued because I didn’t have a clue what was going on.  I learned that I had won a drawing that he holds each month.  My prize is a collar from 2 Hounds Design .  I am beyond thrilled.  Her collars are beautiful.  Scout and I chose a collar that I think we will both love.  I decided that Scout should have the collar because, well, she is a girl and girls should have beautiful things.  Jack is happy with his camouflage collar.  I don’t like it, but my husband does.

Tuesday night, I walked out on the deck with the hounds and saw a opossum under the deck.  I have to say that I think they are the ugliest creatures on earth.  I yelled at it to leave and it didn’t do a thing.  Fearing that it could climb up on the deck and attack my dogs, I threw water on it.  It just looked at me.  I did it again and received the same response.  I decided to get the pellet gun.  I aimed at it and I just couldn’t shoot it.  I just can’t hurt an animal.  I shot near it and it looked at me and then walked into the woods.  After it left, I wondered if it was sick.  What if it has rabies and comes back and attacks the dogs.  I asked my husband if opossums move slowly.  “Have you been feeding the feral cats again?” he asked.  We just had this discussion two nights before.  I told him we can either put the food in the trash and when trash day comes have our trash spread all over the road by dogs or we can feed the cats who also keep the mice away.  He said “yes, opossums move that slow.”   I told him everything I did to the opossum and he said it was probably normal.  I wonder if it’s pregnant.  This thing was huge.

So, that was the happenings here on Tuesday.  It was a pretty exciting day here.