Odds and Ends

What's been going on here:

Yesterday I spray-painted the outdoor dog pen - it was starting to rust. I staked up a huge tomato plant I have in the garden. I took the puppies out for their walk. I worked on the novel I'm writing. I watched tennis. Took a few mini-naps.

Today, the puppies went to see mom and dad. I did laundry. Washed some dishes. The puppies didn't want to get out of the carrier when I brought them home, so they slept in it the rest of the day. Except for a brief moment when the dragged the newspaper out of it and shredded it. Then they went back to sleep in the carrier. I may have to get them a crate of some kind to sleep in. I don't want to give them Phoebe's crate. I want something smaller, more den like for winnie and pj. Worked more on the novel, watched this thing about Harry Potter. Didn't understand a whole lot of it since I've never read any of the books or seen any of the movies. I'll probably watch Dateline tonight and the interview with JK Rowling. Weeded the garden. Cleaned the bathtub and toilets.

The puppies were terrors today at mom and dad's when it came to doing their business. they just did not want to use the puppy pads. I was cleaning carpet all morning. They are in their rebellious teenage period.

A Good Walk

I took Winnie and PJ out for a walk today. They are getting more comfortable with being outside. They don't like their harnesses too much but they put up with them. They had a good walk - walked down around to the front yard and played with Steffi. Winnie escaped from her harness but she didn't know it. She was busy playing with Steffi. So, I hurried up and got her back in the harness.

I'm taking the harnesses to mom's tomorrow so she can sew more velcro on them. They are still too big for Winnie and PJ.

Headaches and Purse strings

I've noticed that after West Virginia passed the law that makes you sign your life away to buy a box of Sudafed, there was an increase in copper thefts. I guess the people who would have been making meth have now turned to stealing copper to get their money. Well, on the news last night, there was a story about this elderly woman who went to sleep one night, woke up the next morning and found she didn't have any water. So, she called the water company and when the water people came out to her house to check things out, they discovered that someone had crawled under the woman's house and had stolen all of her copper plumbing.

Way to go WV - you may have reduced the meth crime, but you've increased thefts. And we all still have sinus headaches.

Pretty Good Saturday

Got up and went to the store this morning. Spent more money than I needed to because I had coupons to use. Read the epilogue to the last Harry Potter book to see how it ends. Everyone's been talking about it for weeks so I just had to find out. Not that I've ever read any of the Potter books. But I know the names of the kids in the book so I scanned the pages to see what happened to them.

Got home and watched the third round of the British Open golf tournament. Winnie's honorary daddy, Sergio Garcia, is leading going in to the final round.

Worked on my romance novel that I've been writing for over a year. I'm on what I think might be the final pass at editing and revisions. I need to get the synopsis and query letter written and mailed out.

I took Winnie and PJ for a walk today. I put them in their little harnesses and put the leads on them and took them out. They didn't pull me in half today. And they were ok for a while. Tried to play with Steffi. Met Lapcat. But Winnie for some reason got scared so I picked her up and then PJ's little tail drooped and I got her too and brought them inside.

On the back of an insert to the Saturday paper, there's a Dell computer ad for laptops. I'm thinking about getting one. But I don't want to jump into it and get one right away. I am the one who took months to decide to buy a $7.00 purse.

Earlier in the week I got a check for my one day of jury duty that I had last week. On my excuse slip that I have to turn in to my employer it says that jurors will be paid at the end of the term. Well, the end of the term is October but I got paid this week. I think I should take that slip and tell them that since they paid me that means I'm done with jury duty. LOL. I could try to sue, but no attorney is going to take a case that pits them against the judge and the circuit clerk. LOL.

I kept meaning to take a nap today but never did get to it. Between cooking a turkey for Steffi and watching golf and then taking the puppies out, I just didn't have time.

Bad Fritz!!!

I took the puppies outside tonight on the leash. They didn't know how to walk around at first. They were scared and not used to being tied together by the leash coupler thing. But they eventually moved around some and wiggled a lot and kissed steffi and tried to love on Fritz. But Frtiz growled, snapped, and rolled Winnie. Winnie yipped like he was killing her. So, I took the puppies back in the house and left fritz and steffi outside. Winnie's fine. She was just scared. Fritz, however, is going to have to come to terms with the puppies. They are here to stay.

Jury Duty

Well, I got picked for jury duty. Booo!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now for 4 months straight I am being held hostage by the county circuit court. I have to be available just in case I am selected to be part of the jury selection process each week. Basically, every Monday I have to call a phone number and listen to a recording to see if my name is there. If it is, I have to report to the courthouse the next day with about 30 other people and of this group, the court will choose the 12 jurors and 1 or 2 alternates.

It's ridiculous to be tied up this way for 4 months. Even the defendents get bail but not us jurors. Luckily today all the trials they had scheduled for the week were settled with plea agreements today and I only had to sit in the jury room for 3 hours doing nothing but missing work. They started out with 26 indictments for this court term and so far that I know of, 6 have been settled. There may be more that I don't know of. One that was settled was a murder case which might have taken a couple of weeks so I'm glad that one isn't on the docket. Maybe I won't have to do much this time.

I think they have at least 101 people in the jury pool and probably more. The sign in sheet that I had to sign my name to this morning had numbers beside our names and the numbers were not in order. The highest on the list was 101 so I'm thinking that at least 101 people have been pooled for jury duty.

The court will pay $40.00 a day to each juror who has to be called to the courthouse and they dont' take taxes out. Some people in the jury room were under the impression that this means they don't have to report the jury pay to the IRS. I don't think it's the case that if no taxes are taken out then you don't have to pay taxes on the money. I have to pay taxes on my interest income from my bank accounts. If any IRS folks are reading this, email me and let me know about reporting jury pay. You'd think I would know this as I have an accounting degree, but tax regs are a whole different animal. You could have a 4 year degree just on the US tax code.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I read the episode summary on wikipedia for the final episode of Doctor Who that has Rose Tyler in it. It sucked. She tells him she loves him, but he doesn't get to tell her. I watched the first few minutes of the next episode and it was horrible the way the Doctor missed her. She has to come back. Someone tell Billie Piper to forget about being typecast. There's a story to tell and only she can tell it.

Celebrating July 4th

Today, in honor of July 4th and the celebration of America's independence from England, I declared my independence from bath tub soap scum. Yes, it was a hard fought war with toxic tub cleaner raining down on the enemy, but in the end, freedom prevailed. Clean at last, Clean at last.......... you get the idea.