Peeking Through the Cobwebs

Let's see ... at the end of October, my dear friends Judith & Jeremy from across the pond in Oxford, UK, came for a visit.  Long, long ago, in another galaxy, Judith and my mom were friends in the Philippines.  We spent two summers with her at her home in England, after she moved back home.  One summer I worked as her nanny for her two children, Rupert & Clare.  Suffice it to say, Judith and her husband, Jeremy, are dear, dear friends of ours.  Melanie fell in love with "Juwith" and never left her side.  We went to Old Salem in Winston-Salem, and one day they went to Asheville to see the Biltmore House.

I just burned my finger on a hot glue gun, so I will finish later.

How Many Peachtree Roads ARE there???

Just returned from Atlanta for the annual World Partners Adoption family reunion.  We had a really good time catching up with old friends.  I drove down with friends in my van (as it had the built-in video player).  They brought along their nifty-thrifty GPS doo-dad.  In the middle of the night Friday night, as the car lay slumbering in the parking lot at the Hilton Suites on Peachtree Dunwoody Drive, some punk-o-matic decided that he/she liked the looks of that GPS doo-dad and decided that he/she was entitled to have it!  A quick jab to the rear window with a baseball bat or some other blunt object, the window shattered and the car was open!  The delicious GPS was pocketed and off they ran.  Probably was in a pawn shop before our sleepy little eyes opened to the rays of the early morning sunrise.

As to why my car alarm didn't go off?  Who knows.  Maybe it did, but someone heard it, cursed under their breath for it waking them up, put a pillow over his head and went back to sleep.  Who pays attention to those things anyway?  All they are is an annoyance.  And where was the burly security guard hired by Hilton to make sure all their guests' belongings are safe and secure?  Either he was "on break" or, closer to the truth, he doesn't exist.  The attitude I got from the front desk was, "Hm.  Sucks to be you!  Here's the phone book!"  No free breakfast, no coupon for the health club.  No fruit basket, nothing.  Zip.

We spent "45 minutes" (as promised) (which turned into 1-1/2 hours) in a nondescript industrial section of Atlanta, on some street named Peachtree Something or Other Avenue, I'm sure, getting the glass replaced in my van.  We made it to the reunion without any more diversions.  Had quite a nice time, actually.   We made it back to CLT in 3 hours (amazing how quickly you can get here without potty or dinner stops).  And may I highly recommend the Burger Barn in Cowpens, South Carolina?  The burgers are out of this world, but I would skip the chicken stew.  What do you expect from a town called "Cowpens"?

 

Adventure in Dog-dom, continued.

...so I go out and check out this dog.  I'm completely bumfoozled because both of the gates in the yard are closed, and I can't see where he got in.  Unless, as I said, someone decided we looked like a nice home for an unwanted dog, and they put him over the fence.  He wasn't a very friendly dog; he growled at us, and wouldn't let us near him to see if he had a collar.  I gave him some food, but decided I wasn't in the mood to get rabies, so I called animal control.  The Animal Lady had a time getting to our house due to a gas leak in the back of the neighborhood.  She finally got the dog into her little noose thingie and off he went.  I felt a little bad, since he probably would be euthanized.  I didn't see that he was even a little bit sociable.  Who knows?

Friday morning our own Boudreaux appeared to be feeling a little bit under the weather.  He hadn't really eaten in several days, and just lay on the couch sleeping all the time.  He wouldn't even run after a Beanie Baby (they're all his now; I knew those things would come in handy some day!!)  So off to the vet we went.  As he was running a little fever, she scared me a little suggesting he might have bladder stones, common with schnauzers.  But the xray showed nothing.  Tonight I made him a scrambled egg, and he wolfed it down (dogged it down?  Ha!) so I'm wondering if his food was bad.  I always buy Purina, none of that Chinese dog food with melamine or lead paint or whatever in it.  Dunno ... I plan to ditch it and buy a new bag tomorrow.  Poor puppy.

So I dearly love dogs, but I think I would like to call a moratorium on any stray animals heading my way! 

The Dog Lady

What the heck?  Am I the town dog lady?  Wednesday we were driving down the parkway (the main drag in our neighborhood) and I spotted two identical beagles trotting down the road.  They obviously belonged to someone; they had collars and looked quite civilized.  So being the soft hearted person that I am, I pulled over and called them to me.  They eagerly came up to me, panting and wagging.  They only had invisible fence collars on, no address.  A lady stopped behind me and pointed out the house where she thought they lived.  I coaxed them into my car and off we went.  We rang the bell, but no one was home.  We left a note on the door who we were, but lucky for us, another lady walked up, a neighbor, and offered to put them in her garage.  Mission accomplished!  Note to dog owners:  Please put an address and phone number on your dog's collar!!  Invisible fences sometimes fail.

The next day, I was making up the bed in Quentin's room, which is the basement and overlooks the back yard.  Suddenly I heard a dog barking, and it was NOT Boudreaux's bark!  I looked out the window and was surprised to see a little black mixed breed dog.  In our yard!  With both gates closed!  What the heck?  Did someone drop him over the fence?  Had he been dumped?

Stay tuned!

 

Pictures? Did someone say pictures?

For your viewing pleasure!

Water ... water ...

Wow, a drought of epic proportions.  First only 2 lawn waterings per week were allowed, now they have banned them completely.  What's going on here?  It hasn't rained here (much) since Labor Day (and no, that light sprinkling we got the other day doesn't count).  Even the water coming out of the tap looks sick.  Yesterday it had a yellowish tinge (no, it wasn't that the kids weren't flushing!).  Very strange goings-on.

Quentin is really enjoying the cross-country team.  He has really stuck it out, and I went to my first meet last weekend.  It was at the Cannon School, which is 100 miles east of our house.  Southlake, the kids' school, where Christian had a football game, is 100 miles west of our house.  (Exaggeration inteded for effect).  I set out with Quentin to his meet, while David set out with Christian to his football game.  Halfway to the cross-country meet, David calls me and says I have all of Christian's football equipment in the trunk of my car.  If I don't get Quentin to the meet by 11, he can't run.  I was indeed in a pickle!!  I decide to get to the meet, then run as fast as I can back to Southlake (note distances between point A and point B above) so that Christian can at least play the second half.  Problem is, I can't FIND the freaking school where the meet is, and when I get there, the entrance is blocked by the course of an earlier race, and cars are stacked in the street trying to get in.  I notice that a friend is right in front of us, so I kick Quentin out into the traffic to get in their car, and peal out going back to Southlake.  I can hear the gas sucking right out of the tank.  30 minutes later, I'm back at Southlake with the equipment, toss them off, and set out BACK to the Cannon School to catch the race.  Quentin does really well (he doesn't finish last!) and I'm impressed at how big a deal this is.  There are about 20 schools participating, and let me tell you, some of these kids can RUN.  I could really get into this.  Pictures of the meet to follow.

School continues to go well for me ... I'm enjoying every minute of it, and am learning so much. 

From my dad's 80th birthday party, 9/1/07.