We’re home from the work trip, it sucked, and I hate work trips, but I did get good schwag, so I guess it wasn’t a total bust. Eh.

We went back to the shelter yesterday (we had gone a couple of weeks ago), and looked at dogs again… and this time, we found one. 🙂

She’s an Australian Blue Cattle Dog, her name is Regina (well, now it is) and she is seven months old. We aren’t picking her up until Wednesday, so I don’t have any pics yet, but she’s a sweetie and we are really looking forward to being dog parents.

Unfortunately, I’m not entirely sure the cats are ready for us to adopt a relative of the canine persuasion. We have a towel that has her smell on it, and while they aren’t entirely averse to it, they don’t seem particularly thrilled, either.

I’m sure I’ll have a doozy of a home video on Wednesday afternoon, lol.

My company is running a conference in Baltimore. I made the Porkchop come with me because a) it’s boring, b) I need a drinking buddy every night and c) with him here, I have a good excuse to not go out with my bosses at night.

So far, at the airport the mean people threw away about $50 worth of lotions and lipstick. Granted, I forgot my little plastic baggie, but I figured they’d have one (every other time they have), but they didn’t, so I had to toss my stuff.

Then the taxi tried to kill us.

Also, being in this close proximity to my boss for this many hours is very, VERY wrong.

And it’s the greatest thing in the world.

Truly, it is.

It’s a cotton Mexihammock that I picked up a few years ago and it’s quite lovely.

The Wookie and I accomplished a great deal today. 😀

The Wookie loves the hammock. 🙂

Working from home… 😉

Nice view..

My littlest cat Ellie thinks she is a squirrel. I don’t know if it’s the likeness of the bushy tail or what, but this cat thinks that squirrels are her folk.

We installed a bird feeder, staked to the ground, outside the front window last weekend.

And the squirrels have come. And the cat is sooo happy.

When I was a kid, there were squirrels who would come up to our kitchen door and eat cheetos and peanut butter out of our hands. My sister and I loved it, and we named a cute one who came often Ringer, a nod to the white ring of fur that circled his left eye.

Sadly, one summer our neighbors across the street decided that there were too many squirrels and started a “catch and release” program with traps. (We know, they killed them. Don’t rub it in.)

Ringer never came back.

I think I’ll hold off on naming Ellie’s new friend for now.

I don’t have a lot to say about the VTech shooting, mainly because it’s all been said, but also because it was my first year in high school when Columbine happened and everyone involved was older than I. This time, almost all of the students were my age or younger and that’s devastating to me. The coverage has been prolific, and deservedly so, even though I know the survivors feel it’s too much.

But survivors have felt that way in every tragedy.

April is a crappy, crappy month.

The Chop has a hard time with all the coverage, but not because he feels it’s intrusive. No, he’s instead upset that all the other human tragedies that are happening in the world are under-covered and that we as Americans are so involved when things happen in our space, yet unconcerned with the daily mass murders being perpetrated all over the world.

I understand where he’s coming from, but what I know is that I feel more personally involved with this shooting than with what is happening overseas. Not that I don’t think it should have equal coverage, but I understand how we (as Americans) want more information and feel more sadness about this than about anything that happens there. It’s here. It’s home. It was unexpected. It made no sense.

So that’s that.

I love This American Life on NPR. It is one of the best hours of commentary on radio and I adore it… especially now, because I can listen to the archives while I’m working.

They recently redesigned their website and included ALL of their archives since 1995. The best part? You can stream it free.

Good lord, I will never be bored at work again. 🙂

I swear.

Go watch his little short movie and I promise you’ll laugh.

We’ve been in the new place for a little over a week, and so far, we love it. 🙂

View from the front porch…

View from the driveway, looking toward the water.

View of the front porch.

The house, from the driveway.

View of the living room from the French doors (and Izzie)..

  Half view of the living room from the bathroom..
Kitchen

So it’s a bit messy, but all in all, it’s gorgeous.

For J’s birthday this year, we got her (and us) tickets to a Red Sox game.

So after four years here, I finally popped my Red Sox/Fenway cherry.

And now I am the proud owner of my very own hat. It’s brown, with a baby blue and white B (I’m in the middle). (thanks J!)

I’ve been getting my final bills from our utility companies, and overall, they haven’t been horrible… except for our final gas bill, which I just opened.

$205 for seven days.

Yeah. What the hell? The office is closed, so I can’t call, but does anyone have any ideas about why my gas bill would skyrocket? It’s been averaging about $100 per month, and now it’s $200 for a week? Seems very wrong to me.

I also received the claims forms for the furniture the movers damaged… and they suck on a huge level.

“If this form is not completely filled out IN FULL your claim will be DENIED. No exceptions.”

Oof… it says that three times.

I flip through the pages and find what I have to fill out.

I HAVE TO GET AN EFFING ESTIMATE?!

Hi, it’s an IKEA bed. And I am so not paying to have someone come in here, look at it, and say, “Yeah, that can’t be fixed. Now pay me $50 for giving you this estimate.”

I also need the receipt (which I could probably find.. it’s only two years old :P), pictures (yeah, I already took those) and all the paperwork I ever had with the movers.

Part of me is wondering if I should just give up on it. I mean, if I don’t have an estimate on how much the damages will cost to repair (does anyone even repair IKEA wood? lol), my claim is going to be denied anyway.

Should I really bother taking the time to hunt through two years of receipts for the bed receipt?

I can hear my mother saying, “Yes! It’s the principle!”.. so I know I probably will, but my god, does it really have to be this difficult? They broke it. They should fix it.

This is the second time I’ve dealt with movers, and let me just say, so far, a big thumbs down, F grade for all of them.

There’s an editor who I work with who, no matter how I phrase my emails, thinks I am attacking her to her very core.

She drives me batshit.

I have been dealing with her for months, but today, today I figured out how to deal with her.

I sent an email that actually did attack her.

Or rather, simply stated, “Look, I’m busy too. And this is for your magazine, so you better help me.”

So she apologized and agreed and said please and yada, yada.

Then, of course, not two seconds after I started typing this damn post, she emailed again saying, “Oh I don’t do that, and I do this and this and this.”

Honest to god, I want to smack her.

I make suggestions… they are NICE… I am exceedingly pleasant… yet no matter what, she always takes the defensive.

What the hell?

She’s from India. Could it be a cultural thing?

Anybody?