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It's long....but worth it. Her reaction was priceless. I am so happy. :)

As a public service, I'd like to make this announcement, to educate the public and help counsel those who may be considering this option now, or in the future:

DON'T have hemhorroid surgery if you can help it. It is NOT fun. At...all. Not even a little bit.

So, unfortunately, I speak from first hand experience now. And have been out of commission for the past several weeks (months now?). But, I'm slowly getting back in the swing of things, and I'll try to update our blog with some of the many adventures or remodeling and Anna funnies that have happened over the past few months.

This has been a long held belief of mine. :)

For example, if you were running a weather forecasting center, and you predicted that today's high would be, ohhhhh say, 79 degrees. And then the day's temperature actually climbed to nearly 90 degrees, would you continue to display your screw-up all day...or would you update your "High Temp" to correct the faux pas. They could program it to show the forecasted high, if it hasn't been exceeded...or the ACTUAL high if it has been. That CAN'T be that hard?!

Then again, I am the one who keeps making plans by the forecast that isn't smart enough to correct itself with real data, OR get the temperaure within 10 degrees of accuracy. Now who's stupid... hahaha

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Ahhhh....as those funky 60's (???) guys sang...this is The Sound of Silence.


We finally bit the bullet and bought Rigby a no-bark collar. You know...the ones like a little mini-electric chair strapped securely to their necks that zaps them each time they bark? Yup - that's the one. The decision was made for me when Curtis and Anna left me here alone for a bit after my surgery to go run an errand. Rigby barked non-freaking-stop for an hour. And since I couldn't get up, and it hurt to yell, I just had to sit there and listen to him. But, I was not completely helpless. I did have our laptop. And PetSmart.com. And the blessed UPS man.

So, that was 6 days ago, and the time that elapsed between ordering it and it arriving made my resolve soften some. Until he started again this morning. Yeah, that did it. "Heeeeeeeere Rigby! Mommy bought you a new collar!!"

He was suspiciously quiet all morning. Maybe because Anna wasn't here? We were both waiting for it. *I* was dreading it. I kept feeding him cookies and snuggling him because I felt guilty. (But then when I thought he might bark, I kept dumping him off of my lap for fear of him shocking the crap out of ME when he DID bark.) Curtis, on the other hand. He was positively gleeful all day, just waiting for it. I swear, the man giggled. His eyes lit up every time a school kid walked by or the UPS man pulled up. But no....quiet all day.

Then...Anna came home. He leaped off of my lap (thank goodness), ran for the door, and the sound that followed went something like "Woof! Woo -- YARP! (silence)" I felt bad for a moment, then marveled at the silence while he just stood and watched her come in the door, put her stuff down and run to see us.

Silence. Amazing.

Some of you probably think we're cruel. If you know me, you know that our dogs are love beyond reason. But Rigby, he needed it. And I love it. And it's QUIET. *sigh* I think I'm going to invest in the remote control one for annoying visitors.

This is getting long - but I'll close with one bit of irony from when I ordered the collar. I was $.01 short on my order total to qualify for a $10off coupon, so I was looking for something little to add to the order. I added a little dog collar on clearance. I didn't realize, until after I was done, the collar I had selected said, "WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!" all the way around it. Now that's funny.

Since I am out of commission with my surgery here, you're missing soooo many great photo ops that no one else thinks about. Like, Anna dancing aroun our bedroom with my inflatable doughnut around her neck, pretending it's a princess crown. That pretty much says it all.

Then there is this oldie but goodie. It was when we were 'drying out my two cabbage patch kids for Anna after years of storage and a good bath. You can consider it a re-enactment of the surgical positioning that I endured. Good times....

We have been discussing with Anna that it is not OK to say 'Oh My God". Oh my "gosh" or "goodness" is OK, but not the other.

So, apparently she took it to heart. Tonight when we started bedtime prayers, she began, "Dear Gosh...."

Oops! Clarification is in order, I guess. As soon as we stop laughing.


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Anna is getting over an ear infection, and has had some wax in her ear. She tells us when it is there, and if she needs help getting it out. So, today she and Curtis had the following conversation:

A: I have wack in my ear.
C" It's actually called 'wax'.
A: No it's not silly! It's wack.
C: No, sweetie. The stuff in your ears in called "WAX".
A: No Daddy. There is just one piece in there, so it is called wack. There isn't more than one piece. If there were more than one, THEN you'd call it wacks.

Damn....she's pretty good.

We spent the day at the beach with our friends during our trip to Disneyland. There are some things that you just gotta love about living in California, despite the traffic, politics, high cost of living and real estate woes. This is one of them.

I love my two sweethearts.