Death of a Laptop

Well, I wanted to blog about this weekend sooner than I did… but I killed my computer. It wasn’t premeditated, but it happened. It was Saturday morning and I was at my parents’ house dog-sitting Lucky while they were out of town for the weekend. I was on the Internet, when out of the blue, my computer started giving me “Danger Alerts” and warned me to download virus protection. Unfortunately, I already had the virus because the pop-ups were trying to get me to download a fake Spyware program. Here is a picture of what I did to my computer:

Well, my laptop is now alive again … thanks to the tech specialist at my school – yes, I killed my school computer. She had to completely erase it and bring it back (I think that’s called re-imaging). I’m just glad that I was able to save all of my documents, photos, etc… before the virus took over.

As for the rest of the weekend - Heather, Travis, and Bailey came up on Saturday afternoon to hang out at with me (by the way, thanks Heather for bringing Bailey with you). Since my parents live on the lake, we were able to hang out on the dock and get some sun…

I also walked around on Saturday and Sunday to take some pictures of the flowers at my parents’ house – they were pretty. These are just my favorites - there were plenty more...

Spring Cleaning

Not much was going on this week… and my paperwork at school is finished, so I looked for another project. Unfortunately for Travis, he decided to read outside one afternoon, which made me get motivated to clean up the screened in patio - it was a mess!

On Monday, I moved all the furniture outside to hose it off (it had pollen all over it) and I vacuumed the floor (and the spider webs off of the walls) while the furniture was drying and the patio was empty. While I was doing this, Travis noticed that the screens were messed up and he fixed them… probably because it was too difficult anyway to read while I was vacuuming around him.

We then moved the furniture back inside and rearranged it until we were happy with it. Here’s how it ended up:

We also made some more space by moving extra chairs that we never used to other places around the backyard. The two in the back of the yard (left picture) used to be in the patio behind the table and the three in the corner (right picture) used to be stacked beside the hot tub.

We also put a ladder (that we had outside anyway) beside the hot tub as a somewhat decorative shelving unit. I thought that it would be neat if we could eventually add wooden boards across the steps to the opposite rails for extra space, but it is working for now even without them.

If you noticed the box under the ladder – Travis made it last weekend to hold the supplies for the hot tub. I was impressed that he used extra wood that we had lying around in the garage and that all he had to buy was some hinges for the back to hold the lid on. I probably would have gone out and bought a box…

Unfortunately, the wood was a variety of shades and parts of it were painted different colors, so I decided to paint it all one color on Wednesday. However, I felt the need to use paint that we already had, or "decorating it" would have cost more than the box itself. After searching, I eventually found some reddish paint in the garage and used it. It doesn’t match the ladder as well as I would like, but Travis was okay with it, so I guess it works for now.

I wonder what my next project will be… maybe I’ll finally get around to cleaning out my closets!

Stickers

I ordered some stickers today to put on the back window of my Jeep. I always think that its fun to see what other people “like enough to stick to their car", so I found some that suit me. If you know me well, you will know that I obviously picked a brown lab for Bailey and you may have guessed that I also got a tree. I love trees (especially in the fall when the leaves change color), my favorite kids' book is "The Giving Tree", and I like to go camping - so the sticker seemed appropriate.

I think they are outdoorsy, but not too masculine because they look a little like Boy Scout patches (apparently, they are called merit badges). I found some on-line that are like my stickers - the "Dog Care" and "Forestry" patches.

I also have a Wildflower license plate tag, so my Jeep will soon have a very cute backside.

(Don't worry mom - that's not my license plate!)

We Wii

Last weekend, Travis and I finally celebrated Christmas! I know that sounds odd, but we had agreed to buy each other a Wii for Christmas and we were not able to purchase one until last Saturday. I had searched all over Atlanta… thinking that I could surely find one soon after the Christmas rush, but they were never in stock. I guess we could’ve gotten one on E-Bay, but I didn’t want to pay more than they cost in the store to get one. Especially because the Wiis on E-Bay are listed by people that are buying them at stores only to sell them at a profit – I hate those people! It’s people like that who make it nearly impossible to find a Wii anywhere in a store…

Anyway, I kept searching and my persistence finally paid off - we now have a Wii sitting in our living room! I eventually found one when I decided to stop at a Wal-Mart in Chipley, Florida on the way back from Destin over Spring Break. I figured that I would check some smaller towns on the way home to see if I could find one and it worked. According to a brief search on-line, the population of Chipley is about 3,746 people (whereas the approximate population of Duluth is 25,838 people). I’m glad that somewhere finally had more supply than demand…

After waiting months to get one, we have played it quite a bit in the past few days and I have now acquired a “Wii Injury.” Laugh at me if you want, but my arms and shoulders are sore because I was putting forth my best effort to beat Travis at some of the games. Unfortunately, in my attempt, I was waving my arms around like crazy. I had no idea that swinging a fake bat could make you sore, but I probably stretched out some muscles that haven’t been used in a while. I must be really out of shape…

So far, my favorite game is the Wii Sports that comes with the system - it has baseball, bowling, golf, tennis, and boxing. We also got some other games (Wii Play, Carnival Games, and the Mario & Sonic Olympic Games) that utilize the “motion” aspect of the Wii and we have enjoyed them also. Here are some pictures of Travis Wii-ing (I know that isn’t a word):

Spring Break

Last week was Spring Break for my school (and all of the other counties around Atlanta). This means that thousands of people head for Florida… including me! This year, Travis’ parents joined us for the first part of the week, so we found a place to stay near Port St. Joe that was dog friendly (Bailey loves the beach, so he always goes with me on Spring Break). It was called Whispering Pines and it was nice place to stay – it was near the beach, roomy enough for four people, and a good price. I also liked that it was in a remote area so there weren't any crowds, but that meant we had to drive further to buy groceries or go out to eat. Here we are enjoying the beach:

On Tuesday, when Travis' parents parted ways with us to continue on their trip to Orlando, Travis and I headed for Destin. For the past two years I have gone camping at Henderson Beach State Park for Spring Break, so I booked a site for this year also. It’s a great way to go to the beach without spending too much money on a hotel room. The campground is right beside the beach – so you can walk to it. Although it’s camping, the weather (by this, I mainly mean temperature) is nice in the beginning of April - so it’s warm during the day and cools off at night when you want to sleep. Plus, we take tons of stuff to make ourselves comfortable while there – a two room tent, air mattresses, lounge chairs, a portable grill, and more. Packing is a pain… but it’s worth it. Here’s a picture of Travis at our campsite:

If you’re wondering about the balloon, Travis’ birthday fell during Spring Break this year. The plus side of this was that everyone chipped in to get him the perfect gift – kite boarding lessons from XL Kites! He had always wanted to try this, so he was thrilled to finally get out there. It looked really tough (especially from my lounge chair on the beach), but he got the hang of flying the kite and was able to get up on the board.

Yes - that's Travis on top of the water! Kite boarding was definitely his favorite part of the trip, but I have decided that I have two favorite parts of the trip – both of which involve seeing “my boys” happy. The first one was obviously watching Travis kite board and getting to hear him describe the different aspects of it. The second one was watching Bailey on the beach – he just loves digging in the sand and chasing toys into the water!

However, Bailey loves the beach even more at night - that's when the crabs come out! These next pictures are self explanatory...

Here are some of my other favorite pictures from the trip:

Bloodhound

Last Tuesday, around bedtime, I decided to give Bailey a pedicure (well, trim his nails). Anyway, I cut one of his dew claws too closely and it was bleeding. There was blood everywhere! It took me until after 11:00 to get it to stop bleeding – that’s when I eventually got him to lay still and stop licking it.

The next morning, I got up and went to feed Bailey breakfast… and it started bleeding again when he got up and moved around! I did not have time for this – I had a meeting at school and it was my turn to bring breakfast for everyone (so I couldn’t skip it). Fortunately, I visited a new “doggy day care” place that is on the way to my school about two weeks ago in case there was ever a day where Travis or I couldn’t get home at a decent time to let him out.

I was so happy when I got there (Pooch on the Hooch) and they took him. I couldn’t leave him home alone when he was bleeding - not only because I would feel guilty, but also because he would bleed on everything. They said I didn’t even cut his nail that close, so they were amazed that it was still bleeding. They told me that if it continued to bleed, that they have “cement/glue” stuff that they can put on it (since they do grooming there). Anyway, when I left him, they were giving him tons of attention and talking about how much he’d get to play… and to think I was worried about him bleeding all day!

When I picked him up and brought him home Wednesday afternoon, he was exhausted (which I’m assuming means he had a wonderful time). He barely moved all night. I have now decided to take him on Wednesdays for the rest of the school year (which is only 6 weeks). I tutor a student on Wednesdays anyway and I always get home late. Hopefully, this will help with the “boringness” of the week and will let Bailey get some exercise and socialization. This would benefit me too, since they said that they will help me train him to not hump other dogs or get too aggressive with toys – which he does at the dog park (and it’s hard to train him there with everyone giving you dirty looks).

The problem is: I didn’t feel too guilty about paying for daycare when there was a good reason… he was bleeding. However, I can’t believe that I am paying for doggy daycare now just to make him (and me) happy. Oh well… I guess I’m a just another sucker!

Spring Fever

So, I decided to do some “Spring Cleaning” this afternoon. For one reason, it needed to be done at some point… but I did have some motivation to get it done now – Travis’ parents will be here in a week. They are flying in next Friday to spend some time with us before they continue on their vacation to Florida with some of their friends. It happened to work out really well… they had planned a trip to Orlando the same week that I have Spring Break at school (and had planned a trip to Destin). Through e-mails, his mom and I figured out a way to merge our plans for the first part of our vacations. His parents are now going to fly into Atlanta on Friday and we will leave on Saturday to spend a few days together in Port St. Joe. By the way, hi Claudia – I know that you read this…

Anyway, I discovered that it is amazing how much dirt you will find when you are looking for it! In the past, I have lived in apartments – which are cleaned by professionals before you move in. Then, you have no excuse to not keep them clean. They are tiny, how hard is it to clean 3 rooms? Well the house that we are now renting is another story – I’m guessing that some parts of it haven’t been cleaned in years!

For example, notice the picture of the large window and the other picture of the small window:

I clean the large window all the time. It is in the den, so I notice it - I look out of it on a daily basis. When I cleaned it, not much was on the paper towel. However, the small window was another story… a very gross one - one that you don’t tell kids under 13. It is a window in the half bathroom downstairs that I had never thought to clean. This is the pattern that happened for the rest of the house. I’m glad that it is all clean now, but I’m a little disturbed by what we have been living in. Although I’m not sure that Travis cares - he makes fun of me for being too anal about cleaning the house… maybe I should show him the “paper towel proof” of how dirty some parts of it was.

Also, I want to add that Bailey was NOT happy about the cleaning – it involved spray bottles - so he hid… which I don’t understand, because he loves to swim in the water. Maybe he was trained with a squirt bottle of water or something when he was younger (I adopted him when he was lost at about the age of one). Anyway, here is a cute picture of him hiding under the coffee table while I was cleaning.