I was sitting here in my PJs in front of the puter and I was going to write about how Holly, our adopted Eleanora Cockatoo, has been doing much better and how she is finally spending time with us outside of her cage. She has gone from not liking me at all and being terrified of me to liking me the best. Go figure. I finally am able to let her sit on her little playstand next to me while I am sitting at the computer and that has been a long time coming. She just decided a minute ago that she was going to fly over here, land on my head and start preening my hair, hence the pictures that I snapped with the camera on my iMac. What a silly girl. She has been going back and forth between my head and the perch ever since then.

I can't believe the weekend is almost over; it absolutely flew by. Saturday morning I took Annabel to her first training class and she did very well, though she was very nervous. She is going to be great once she calms down a bit.

Yesterday I finally decided I was tired of our bed looking like one that belonged in a crack house- no offense to those who live in crack houses. Our quilt was substandard and was torn in few spots and that enticed Ramona to chew at those spots, making things even worse. I was sick of looking at the torn up quilt, and every time we had to wash it it got worse. I bought us a new ensemble of a lightweight quilt, pillow shams, and throw pillows. I made the mistake of not washing everything first. I should have known because I am a freak of nature that it would cause problems. I thought that because the sheets were already washed that it would be okay since the sheets are what touches my skin. I was wrong. I woke up covered in quarter to silver dollar sized red hives, dangit. I hate my skin. If there was a such thing as a whole body skin transplant I would get it done.

In any case. all of the new bedding is washied now and I hope for a much better result this time. For fuck's sake, why can't I just be normal for once?

These are a couple of photos of the Orbital Manuevering System Pod my co-workers and I have been working on for the last few months and that we delivered today for installation on Discovery, or OV-103, for STS-120. Yay! Thank God it is finally done! More blogging to come on an evening when I haven't been up since 2:30 am as I have today.

Once again, I am a bit behind on my blogging. Posting, reading blogs of others, commenting and posting responses to those that comment here. I will catch up, I promise.

We are in the final stretch of finishing work on the Orbital Manuevering System Pod we have been working on since January, I think. It will be installed on Discovery and will fly on STS-120. I have to be at work at four in the morning tomorrow as we are going to lift the Pod onto a trailer and move it to the Orbiter Processing Facility by way of a convoy. This is the culmination of many months of hard work and it can't come too soon as everyone is really ready to see it go.

Yesterday one of the engineers that I work with, my least favorite one to say the least, made me like him even less. For an engineer, he is not very smart and is frequently in over his head on things. He thinks he is very smart and wants to make sure everyone knows he is so he goes to great lengths to make other people look stupid. He is extremely condescending and you can never get a direct answer form him. He answers every question with another question. If you ask him where to find a certain piece of information he will say "did you look [insert place]? He's like that with every question, no matter what it is. Even if it is a yes or no question he will counter with "What do you think?" or "Did you ask so-and-so?" It is enough to drive anyone nuts.

Yesterday I went to him with a certain thing that I was working on to help expedite things that was not even my job to do- it was actually his responsibility, but I was helping out because I am a team player and all. I asked him a few questions because I needed some guidance and he pushed me aside several times. He sort of pointed me toward some drawings and specifications. He acted like he was doing ME a huge favor in doing so, but it did not help me at all. When my second shift counterpart came in and I filled him in on the situation, he went off the deep end going on and on about something I knew nothing about. It turns out that the only other person that knew the information I needed was the engineer I had gone to that morning who wouldn't help me, Mr. Personality himself. My counterpart said "Why in the hell didn't you go to [mean shitty condescending engineer]?" At that point I was pissed and told him to shove it up his ass, that I had gone to him and that the dickhead refused to help.

Anyway, all's well that ends well. Everything got all cleared up, everything is fine, and my counterpart apologized profusely for being such a jerk, which he was, but I got over it. He is a good person overall he just speaks and reacts sometimes before he has all of the information and he needs to work on that. The condescending "I'm better than you" engineer on the other hand is malicious and I am tired of his crap. He will get no help from me anytime in the near future, and my boss supports me in that. He agrees that I am under no obligation to stick my neck out to help the guy. Why do some people have to be such asshats? Next time I will tell him to pack sand.

I just got this photo emailed to me from one of the other volunteers with the poodle rescue- my favorite volunteer and the one that keeps me wanting to stay invloved with as many events as possible because she and her family are so great and so much fun. This picture is of me with Ramona at the Mall event this past weekend, and I can't help but notice how vey big Ramona has gotten. Good grief! It is hard to keep it in perspective until you see a view like that. She has grown so much. My little girl isn't a baby anymore!

Ah, I have just realized that the "minutes" I posted yesterday only made sense if you have been following our case, and most of it has not been posted here, but rather at the Tortoise Hollow blog. These minutes were from the meeting that took place in early May and we have moved on since then to get an attorney and go for an administrative waiver under the section of the county code that covers "takings." A taking is when a government entitity takes a piece of private land for public use and the fifth amendment says that they must pay the owner of the land for it. It is considered a "regulatory taking" when someone's land is regulated to the point that they cannot use it for its intended purpose and it is considered the same as if the land was physically taken. Please check Tortoise Hollow for the full scoop. We are now closing in on the final date where our case will be heard by the board. The final decision is only days away, however scary that may be.

The minutes from the County Commission Board meeting we took our property/road case to finally were approved and published after many weeks. It is rather surreal to read them after living the situation, but everything in them is true. Here they are with all names changed, including mine.

"Jennifer Hurley stated in February 2006, she purchased a 7.59-acre property in North Merritt Island with the intent to build a primary residence; and since then they have been working toward getting all the permitting in place. She stated they have secured wetland permits from the DEP and the Army Corps of Engineers; and the only thing that stands in their way is the Code that says the property must abut a County-maintained road. She requested a waiver of that section of the Code.

Commissioner One stated they had a lengthy discussion; they worked with Permitting and Enforcement Director Blankety Blank and staff; and the dilemma is they are on a right-of-way. He stated if this was an easement, they could do a flag stem lot; but it is a public right-of-way that creates other issues that they have not been able to overcome. He stated he has shared with them the concern that the Board had previously with similar kinds of approvals; and requested Mr. Blank explain the ramifications of a decision to approve. Permitting and Enforcement Director Blankety Blank stated approximately 14 years ago the Board had staff prepare the Ordinance; it has been amended a couple of times; but it requires somebody to have access to a maintained roadway, either public or private subdivision, and/or an easement with legal access to a maintained system. He stated the other option is to enter into an unpaved road agreement and then build the roadway; and after the roadway is built, it is then accepted and maintained by the County. He stated if the Code was to be waived, they would have access in a public road right-of-way that was not built to any standard; there would be no maintenance of that and no guarantee that they would be able to traverse it safely; and there could be accidents or problems with emergency vehicles, so that would be the ramification. Commissioner One inquired how does this differ from Tamarind Groves where there is the same kind of scenario. Mr. Blank stated Tamarind Groves is a little different; they are actually ingress/egress easements that are dedicated to all of the individual homeowners; but they appear to be road rights-of-way to someone who is not familiar with the legal aspect of it. He stated this is actually a platted, dedicated road right-of-way that was accepted by the Board many years ago; Tortoise Hollow Lane is the name of it and it was just never built; and platting things without actually building the infrastructure is not allowed today. Commissioner One inquired what is the solution to Ms. Hurley’s problem. Mr. Blank stated the first possible solution is for the Hurleys to enter into an unpaved road agreement and build a road, which would be a very expensive undertaking; and they have already submitted their first round of plans for review, utilizing that portion of the Code. He stated he talked to them in the past about possibly vacating the road right-of-way; they would have to work with all the property owners that would be affected; and it is his understanding that not everyone is willing to do that. He stated he would be more than willing to sit down with all the parties to try to explain the best possible solution for all of them; but ultimately they have to make this decision. Commissioner One inquired have there been similar requests previously; with Mr. Blank responding other than the West Tamarind Groves area, he is not aware of anyone requesting to waive this portion of the Code. Commissioner One stated he is struggling with it.

Ms. Hurley stated they did start out with the unpaved road agreement; they spent a lot of money having the road designed only to find many months into the process that they could not get the design approved because the area is surrounded by wetlands and canals; due to the road height that was required and where the drainage swales had to be, they could not fit it within the 50-foot roadway; and they were told that they would need to acquire an additional 15 feet on either side of the 50-foot right-of-way. She advised there are properties on either side that have houses built on them; they were able to build before this was an issue; and technically their legal access is from Johnalessi Road, but since there is a ditch that runs along Johnalessi Road, they use Tortoise Hollow Lane for access to their homes. She stated they cannot get the extra 15 feet on each side because the property owners will not give or sell the property; the drainage swales would end up only five feet off the foundation of one of the existing homes, which would
cause drainage problems; and that is where they got stopped. She stated they discussed with
Mr. Blank and one of the County engineers about the possibility of building the road using retaining walls to build up on either side and then using culverts along the entire length; but it is not possible to tell if that would be approved or not without it being engineered; and they cannot engineer another road on the possibility that it might work. Ms. Hurley stated even the road as designed would be $125,000 or more; and with the retaining walls, it is anybody’s guess how high that amount could go, but it is a major public works project. She stated they also investigated the option that Mr. Blank brought up about vacating; they talked to Commissioner One about it; but it is not believed that it would be practical because there is a 26-acre undeveloped parcel at the end of the road that could be divided into as many as five or six properties later on; and vacating would be taking away the public access for those people. She noted they could not vacate because it is platted with the property across from them; and those owners tried to get it vacated in 2004, but were denied for the same reason, access problems for the large property in the back and the fact that some other properties, such as hers, could be divided.

Commissioner Two stated the Ordinance change was in 1991; and he was on the Board when it occurred. He stated people built on roads and had an agreement that they were going to maintain the roads; but the County Attorney advised the County was really in error in making it available with building permits. He stated the problem was once the County gave someone a building permit, it had certain obligations to be able to get emergency services to them; and it would have to be on a County-maintained road. He stated the other idea was the flag stem where someone owned the land that went to the street; it was just a narrow access, but it was fee simple ownership; and thinking in these terms, there has been continuing discussion, not just in Tamarind Groves, but in the Limon area as well about opening up different areas for County maintenance in order to have building. He stated the County has said it will accept if and when it is built up to County standards; sometimes that is not a problem; but other times it is a problem. He stated the first problem is that in allowing people to build, the County has to service them with emergency services; and if the Board approved this 900 feet, people not only in Tamarind Groves but in other places in District A will be asking for the same thing, which will be problematic. He stated one problem is that they are going to be compelled to go in and maintain; and there will be the person who wants to build and once he gets his home in there, he will ask for benefits. He stated many people buy on a dirt road and then come in to ask the County to pave that road; and this is even more compelling than paving because there is an obligation to the people once the County gives them their certificate of occupancy. He stated it will involve a different Commission; there will be different people because the property may change hands; and the Board may be putting itself in a posture of having to do certain things to meet certain basic requirements as a County. He stated he hopes the Hurleys can work something out; he hopes Commissioner One will meet with them to work on it; but he is not able to support the request because of his concerns.

Commissioner Three stated that is also her concern; they have a parcel and the question is how to get to it; but she does not know that it is the Board’s responsibility to make sure they have access to their property. She stated a lot of times in Florida people buy a parcel that is landlocked; there should be a way to get to the parcel; but she does not think the waiver is the right way to go as it would set a dangerous precedent.

Commissioner One stated he suspected this was going to be the discussion; and he is going to move for denial, but he will continue to work with the Hurleys to see if the issue can be resolved with the property to the north. He stated the Board will not approve the waiver.

Motion by Commissioner One, seconded by Commissioner Three, to deny the request of Andrew and Jennifer Hurley for waiver of Section 65-109, Some County Code, to allow a building permit to be issued on a parcel that does not abut or have access to a County-maintained road. Motion carried and ordered unanimously.

Chairperson Four stated Commissioner One will be working with the couple to see if there are any other possibilities. Commissioner Three stated it is important for the Hurleys to have access to their property; and hopefully Commissioner One and staff will be able to work out something. Ms. Hurley stated they have exhausted all of their options."

I made this lovely video of the kids wading today- enjoy!

Yesterday when I was at the mall for the dog rescue event, I spotted a young woman off to the side that was carrying a plastic container with a tortoise inside. Of course I went up to talk to her. I started asking her about the tortoise and where she got it. She had just bought it from the pet store in the mall, one of the major chain pet stores that are regularly found in malls. We'll call them PetStand for our purposes here, but I think you know who I mean.

The woman told me that the tortoise was the only one they had, and she couldn't remember the name of it. I asked her if it was a sulcata, and she said no, it had a name that started with "S" but she couldn't remember it. I asjked her if there were any more of them and she told me that the one she got was right up front and was the only one there. I asked her how big it would get and she told me it would only get as big as the small container it was in- roughly 6 to eight inches. She said that she was going to keep it in a 25 gallon fish tank and I talked to her about how tortoises don't do so well in tanks and that they need a lot of space. I only talked to her for a minute or two and did not go into great depth because she didn't ask for it and it was not my place to do so. I had a strong feeling that the tortoise she had bought was a sulcata, though and it worried me.

Today as I was out and about looking for martingale training collars for the dogs, I stopped into the very same PetStand that the tortoise had come from just out of curiosity. I noticed the reptile display up front and saw the very spot the tortoise in question had come from- a small empty tank that was labeled "spurthigh." That had been the "S" name the woman couldn't remember. Well, guess what? The name spurthigh or African Spurthigh is used in the pet trade for sulcatas, which are one of the largest tortoises of all. Sulcatas grow to be as large as 200 pounds and can be quite destructive. They like to dig and can undermine the foundation of a home. They generally need a minimum of a quarter to half acre of space to move around. The fact that that crappy pet store sold the tortoise to someone who was not at all equipped to take care of it in adulthood and lied to her about its full grown size is really deplorable and pisses me off. These poor animals are often in the position of being passed around because very few people have the kind of set up at their homes to care for them. Please, do not buy anything from mall pet stores like PetStand as they clearly do not have any concern for the well being of the animals they sell and are just in it for a quick buck. Sickening!

I feel like I am still trying to catch up on everything after such a busy time at work. I was going to say "such a busy week at work" but then i realized that it has been two weeks- I just worked all of last weekend so it all ran together. I got to sleep in until 7:30 this morning which was nice. Most people probably don't consider sleeping until 7:30 sleeping in, but since I have had to get up at 4:30 or even 1:30 am for the past 13 days, it felt great to me. I got to go grocery shopping this morning, play with my dogs, and then we packed Ramona up and went to volunteer at an event at the mall with the poodle rescue.

There is a big thing at the mall each year in July where the different rescue groups and training clubs and such all set up tables and bring dogs to talk to the public. It is a pretty fun event and I thought it would be good for Ramona to experience the crowds. I wasn't sure how she was going to react, so we had the plan to take her home if she was horrible and take Cody in her place.

Ramona, it turned out did a great job. She was really very good and allowed tons of people- children and adults- to pet her. She was very cute and captured the hearts of many; she was a real spokespoodle. It was nice for us to see all of the people we know through the poodle rescue, and now through the dog training club, and through our vet and even through some of the other rescues that we have worked with at events before, such as gift wrapping at the mall last Christmas to benefit the rescues. The nice thing about meeting and hanging around these people is that we know right off that they have similar values as we do when it comes to animals. We are starting to have a nice group of people we see regularly at the events.

There was one poor poodle there today that was brought by one of the other members of the poodle rescue. She just took him in this past week and got him some badly needed veterinary care. Poor little Mookie is a five month old puppy that is in liver failure. There is nothing that can be done for him so she is just taking care of him until the end. How sad. She said that he is just like a regular puppy mostly- he doesn't know he is dying. He has some neurological problems as well so he walks in circles when he is put down, but mostly he is held and hugged and loved. If that isn't a tearjerker I don't know what is.

I am tired. I have been working a lot this week and last night Andy and I started training class with two of the dogs. We took Louie and Ramona to the basic training class to teach them some good behavior. Ramona was well prepared because it was at the same place that she attended Puppy Kindergarten at and she was pretty comfortable. Louie was kind of a wreck, though. Poor Lou has been loved and coddled by us since he was six weeks old so he is a spoiled little brat and very demanding. He actually did pretty well in class though, believe it or not. He was nervous, but he did what was asked of him and didn't freak out too much. He did a lot fo pacing and panting at first and he was kind of trying to hide behind Andy.

Poor Anna has to go see the vet tomorrow as she has been doing a lot of hacking. Please wish her and my wallet some good luck!

Just now as Andy was sitting next to me on the couch eating a bowl of ice cream he suddenly was struck with a violent nose itch. He rubbbed his nose forcefully and said, "it is because someone is thinking about me."

I said, "It is because something is itching your fucking nose, nothing more."

He said, "I guess that means you weren't the one thinking about me" and we both chuckled. Hehe.

We have been experiencing the most fabulous sunrises lately. I posted the one from yesterday this morning, and then on the way to work today I took these shots of the mesmerizing skies. So beautiful. These were just taken with the point-and-shoot camera I keep with me- not the digital SLR, but I think they are still very pretty.

This picture was actually taken yesterday morning when I first got to work, but I thought it was such a pretty morning sky and thought I would share. This is the sky over the industrial area of Kennedy Space Center.

My whole life these last few days has been work. With all of the overtime I have taken on, my poor doggies missed me a lot this weekend. Andy was there with them which was the only reason I even agreed to work such long hours, but I always feel bad because I know they want to spend time with me too. Those sweet little cuties. I am glad that they sleep with us at night. Even if they take up a damn lot of room, at least they get to spend that time cuddled up with us and we know they are safe and comfy all night. I took this photo of Denny yesterday when I was out on the back porch photographing the oncoming nasty thunderstorm. Doesn't he have the greatest smile?

I almost can't believe my crummy luck sometimes. I mean, things are fine for the most part; Andy was able to fix the a/c blower in my Jeep today while I was at work and everything is fine. But after working twelve hour shifts for the past two days, starting at 3:00 am and going to 3:30 pm- extra half hour to account for lunch- I am about dog tired. I went to bed last night at around 8:30 but it didn't help much because my next door neighbors were up hooting and screeching on their back porch and woke me up just after midnight. I was not able to get more than a couple of minutes of sleep after that and had to get up at 1:30 to get ready for work and leave the house at 2:30. So tonight I am REALLY freaking tired.

When I got home today I was thrilled to see that there was already a large party underway two doors down from our house. Then just in the last hour, it became apparent that the same neighbors on the other side of us that kept me up last night would be doing so again tonight- they are having another, larger party. They have two grills out and are already at a low roar. Even the people across the street are partying tonight. A bunch of people just showed up there with huge liquor bottles in tow. What are the fucking chances? I mean really?

I have to go to work again tomorrow. I just want to get some sleep!

I have discussed this before- I am definitely not at all superstitious, and I probably never will be. That being said, I had the kind of day today that if I was superstitious I would very much attribute to it being Friday the 13th.

I had to be at work this morning at three, so I got up at around one thirty, which is really pretty much the middle of the night. I had prepared everything I could last night so that it wouldn't take me very long to get ready, and I backed out of the garage to head to work at about 2:25 am.

I had only backed out of the garage and into the driveway when I noticed that it seemed impossibly stuffy in my Jeep. I flipped the knobs around for th a/c and nothing happened. I repeat, nothing happened. This was beyond just the air conditioning not working, the fan didn't work at all, so the only movement of air was what came in the window.

I was fairly horrified, but tied my hair up quickly, rolled the window down and set off for work. At that time of night/morning, the heat and humidity wasn't too bad, but it wasn't exactly pleasant either. At work I got a meter and check the fuses going to the blower for the a/c. They were all still good. I could hear the a/c go on when I selected it with the knob, it just didn't do any good because the blower would not blow any air out. At least that meant the repair probably wouldn't cost as much as if it had been the condenser or evepaorator.

I made it through the rest of a very annoying day where I was forced to work through lunch, and at the end of the twelve hour day I was ready to be out of there. The Jeep had been baking out in the sun for hours, so it was a total sweatbox when I set out for home. I had rolled up the back window out of the way to get more air circulation but even the air blowing in was pretty damn hot. It was in the nineties with super high humidity and just felt awful. And then I could see up ahead that it was pouring rain. I quickly pulled into a gas station under the overhang to unroll my back window so the Jeep wouldn't get all wet inside. I was forced to roll the side windows up almost all the way because it was raining so hard. It was suffocating in there. Yuck. Of course I had jeans and hiking type shoes and a shirt with three quarter length sleeves, so my hot clothes didn't help any, but I was wearing what is required at work to go into hazardous processing areas. It just straight up sucked all around.

I have to be at work at three am again in the morning to work another twelve hours of overtime, and then I am scheduled for eight more hours on Sunday. I am taking Andy'd truck tomorrow so that he can try to fix the blower on my Jeep while I am gone. I hope that you have better weekend plans than I do!

Some recent events at work have made it a necessity for me to pitch in and work *gasp* overtime. I know a lot of people live off overtime and can't survive without it, but I generally keep it to a minimum because I enjoy my time off. You know, less time for blogging and all. Anyway I have to be at work at three in the morning tomorrow, so I will be cutting my blog writing and reading session short tonight.

Andy's job kind of make it necessary for him to work overtime fairly frequently- not all the time but in spurts. He would rather have the time off, but it does pay well- we get time and a half for overtime and double time on Sundays, so it is somewhat enticing. Do you work more than forty hours a week? If so do you get paid extra for working overtime, or is it just expected? Do you get compensated for your extra time in other ways, such as comp time?

Anyway- I am off to bed here in a few- my one thirty alarm will be buzzing very soon!

Florida in the summertime is infamous for afternoon convective thunderstorms. It is just one of those things. The intense heat and moisture causes thunderheads to build and usually around three pm it starts raining. Today was one of those days.

Imagine our surprise when we looked out the front windows to notice our neighbor, who hasn't mowed his lawn weeds in months just coming out in the middle of a terrible thunderstorm to do yardwork! He started out weedeating around the bases of some palms that were so overgrown you couldn't see the wooden landscape timbers that surrounded them underneath all the grass. It has probably been a couple of years since he has trimmed in that area. The storm got worse and worse and lightening was cracking all around- the power even flickered a little. And the neighbor finally finished trimming, and he went and got the lawn mower out and started mowing.

Add to this the fact that he was barefoot the entire time, and you have a real picture of safety. Of course, we don't think he even has any shoes because we have never seen any on his feet. I didn't think he had a shirt for a long time either. I guess we should be impressed that he finally did some yard work, but I can't help but to be puzzled as to why he did it in the middle of a thunderstorm. Especially since he doesn't work and just hangs out all day. Hmmm. I guess it is not for me to understand.

Okay, so this is a continuation of yesterday's post where Dawn tagged me to write eight facts/habits about myself and my lazy ass could only complete four. So here are the rest:

5. I am known as "Gadget Girl" at work, even though I don't think I am all that knowledgeable of computers and electronics. Everyone brings their new cell phones to me and asks me to show them how to do different things. Today it was pairing the phone with a bluetooth headset. I don't usually know how to do whatever they are asking but I find those things pretty easy to figure out. I have used a lot of different phones and PDAs, so I am familiar with a lot of the menus the different manufacturers use. It is not that I am particularly savvy with these kind of things, it is just that I am more so than most of my co-workers, so hence I am Gadget Girl.

6. I have experienced a dramatic change of my life around the beginning of October last year. If you have been around here since then, you may or may not have realized that it happened, but I definitely have. The big change has been due to finally being medicated effectively to control the chronic fatigue/fibromyalgia that has been bogging me down for at least five years now. It took several months toget the right medication and dosage, but there was improvement all along the way. I am taking Adderall now daily and it has made my life completely different than before, and made me feel "normal" again for the first time in years.

7. I almost always name animals with human names, and most of them have middle names as well. My current pack of dogs goes by Cody Joe, Louie Leroy, Annabel Lee, Denny John, Michaela "Mickie" Sue, and Ramona Jean. My birds are Charley Bean and Holly Mae. I have to admit that Virgil the tortoise doesn't have a middle name yet, but he is the only one. And each kid is called by many different pet names, i.e. Annabel is called Bella, Miss Belle, Anna, Annakins and Ramona is called Ramonita, Mona Jean, Twerp, Little Bit.

8. I sometimes feel sorry for inanimate objects. Okay, I know this one is weird, but sometimes I feel bad for choosing say, a nicer plant at the nursery when I am afraid the one left behind won't get the chance to fulfill its destiny. This extends to items of produce at the grocery store once in a while, but I try not to think about it when I am choosing fruit and vegetables. I know that this is a completely ridiculous thing, but I can't stand the idea of wasted potential. I think this is the same reason that I used to sleep with every single toy and book I owned as a small child. I was afraid for any of them to be left out. Yes, I was a slightly demented child, and yes there was hardly any room in my bed for me with all that stuff.

And that is the end of my eight things, and now I am supposed to tag eight people to complete this meme. I am not big on tagging people on these things so I usually break the rules of the meme by not tagging anyone, but this time I will actually tag Heather and Spinning Jenny as they both have new blogs and this will give them something to post and help people get to know them better. Maybe one of my eight things should have been that I am a horrible meme breaker!

Dawn tagged me today, so here is my best effort.

Here are the rules:

List 8 facts/habits about yourself .
Post the rules at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed.
Tag 8 people and post their names, go to their blogs and leave them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and ask them to read your blog.

Gosh this stuff has gotten really tough, especially now that I have been blogging so long I feel that I have already revealed so much. But I am going to give it a good try, anyway. Here goes:

1. One of my biggest pet peeves is when someone asks to call me back, I give them the number where I'll be, and they call one of my other numbers. This happened to me today- I called to find out about getting my glasses fixed and they had to call me back. I gave them my number at work, since that is where I was. Of course, when I got home, they had called and left a message at the house, where I was NOT. That annoys me to no end because I was waiting for the call. The message said that they couldn't get me at the number I gave- that must have been because they never DIALED it because I was there the whole time. Annoying!

2. This probably comes as no surprise, but I have endless patience with animals. I don't know why because I am very IMPATIENT with people, but I am very understanding with animals and love them to pieces. I will work with them over and over on the same thing and rarely get frustrated. I always try to remember where they are coming from and what drives them and that reminds me why they do what they do. I often remind Andy that what one of our animals is doing at that moment that is annoying the piss out of him is just instinctive. He is usually not impressed.

3. I hate rain, for the most part. Yes, I realize how life giving and necessary it is and all that rot. It still pisses me off, though. I take it as a direct affront when it rains, as though it is only doing so to piss me off. Fortunately it doesn't rain that often here, other than in the afternoons in the heat of summer. I know it is completely stupid to feel that way, but that is what happens. I do love wind, however, even though I have long hair and it goes all in my face.

4. I have a natural curiosity and love of learning. I feel like a big ol' dork sometimes, but when something puzzles me, I feel a genuine NEED to figure it out or understand it. I spend way too much time researching and learning just to satisfy my own curiosity. Sometimes it would be nice just to leave things at face value, but I CAN'T.

This rest of this Meme will have to be continued tomorrow- I need to think of some more unique stuff and my brain is getting too cloudy with sleepiness. I am sure you understand.

Mondays are sucky. Ugh. Andy had to get up at one o'clock in the morning to be at work by two am for the third day in a row, poor thing. I had to get up extra early too, because I had to get all ready for work and do all of the morning feeding and caretaking chores for our pack/flock before I left at just after six am. Normally Andy does at least half of the morning chores. The kids require quite a lot of care.

Just as I was getting finished up and got my lunch packed, I put on my glasses which I generally wear all week at work, but not on the weekends. I discovered a horrible series of scratches on one lens, right in the middle of my straight ahead view. Like they were dragged across the concrete. I tried cleaning them, but to no avail. I am not even sure how it happened. I was running around like crazy at work on Friday, and it must have been then, but I don't recall a specific incident that could have screwed up my lens so badly. What a bummer. Now I have to spend $62.50 to get a new lens and my frames are scratched in a couple of spots. Bummer. I have already learned to love hiding behind my glasses so I feel "exposed" without them. And I need them to be taken seriously. I look smarter with them and somehow command more respect with my glasses, so I need to get them fixed. They are my crutch now, even though they don't change my vision that much.

We are just getting into a big push at work, at least at the facility where I am. We are having to redo work that we have already redone once and it is through no fault of our own, just material fatigue or something- it is still under analysis- and it really stinks. I hate the feeling of spinning my wheels and that is what this feels like. But it has to get done or it will affect the launch schedule so we are expected to jump through our asses to get there, and jump we will.

I hope your Monday was better than mine.

I've got nothing. Really. I spent the day doing things like grocery shopping and laundry. Bo-ring, Then the afternoon was completly absorbed with dog grooming. I gave hair cuts to the two black dogs, who both needed to be groomed very badly. There is the equivalent of at least one whole dog in my garbage can now; I cut so much fur off. It takes quite a bit of time to groom them, but we have tried so many places and have never been completely comfortable with them, and the professional groomers are not very quick either. They like to work on the dogs assembly line style, which means that they end up spending the entire day there even thought they are only worked on for an hour or so. Most of the time they are sitting in cages, miserable. They can be miserable for a much shorter time here at home.

I bought new clippers and blades and a nail grinder to get started. I spent about $190 on them and it seems like a lot until you realize that it costs $180 plus tip to get them all groomed one time. So from here on out the savings will really make it worthwhile. I have one more dog to clip tomorrow, and then I am done for the time being. All in all I am very happy with the way the dogs have turned out the first time I groomed them by myself. I hope they don't hold it against me.

For having a day off in the middle of it, this has been one long damn week. I am so happy to have made it to Friday, woo hoo! Poor Andy. He has gone to bed already because he has to work tomorrow. You'll never guess what time he has to go in to work. Two in the morning! Yes, that is right, he has to get up a little before one AM to get ready so that he can leave here at one thirty and be at work at two. If that's not insanity, I don't know what is.

Anyway, I'll be busy taking care of all of the regular household shit while he is working. That and playing with all of the furry and feathered babies. They need lots of love. I need to haul the bird cages outside and really scrub them down this weekend if it isn't too nasty out. There is just an endless amount of things that need to be done around the house, but I'll try to save a little time for fun and/or relaxation this week. The next two to three weeks look like they will be pretty hectic for me at work, so I am bracing myself. we had a big setback in our progress- through no fault of our own this week and will spend the next few weeks getting back on track. All I can say is that the properties of metals and how they react to hypergols are apparently not completely understood. I'll try my best to keep up with things and to keep posting-please stop by and check in with me.

The fourth of July was rainy and ugly here, but it was a nice reprieve from the chaos of work. Not like we really relaxed that much, but it is more relaxing just being at home. I got the new clippers and blades that I had ordered and I set to work on dog grooming. I got three of them done, and they came out very nice. I cut Denny's hair first because he is such a big doofus that trusts me so much that he will actually lay down and almost fall asleep while I am trimming him. I also groomed Ramona and Annabel. Anna had a lot of tiny little mats in her fur- her fur is just like that, it mats super easily- so she took some extra time, but overall everything went well.

Today we were back to work again full speed, and it rained all day. Ick. And I was very busy beating my head against a wall, but that goes with the territory. I ought to write a book someday- you'd never believe the shit if I told you.

So anyway, I finally got caught up on my responses to all of your comments. Sorry I got so behind on those. I do read all of your comments every day. Now I am off to check out your blogs, and I hope that you have more interesting things going on than I do, because I don't have much that I can write about today.

This particular painting of mine gets lots of attention on this site. I have recently been asked permission for it to be used in a video being produced for the state of Maine- something about solar energy, which I approved- and have gotten requests to buy it. So I have set up a little gallery to sell some prints. I plan on adding some more images once I get a chance and I would like to have this one scanned on a large format scanner so that I can offer it in larger sizes. That should be coming soon. If I can find some time, I would love to start doing some more paintings as well and have some fresh content available.

Click below to go to my ImageKind page where you can order prints if you like. More works will be available soon.

UPDATE: I got a couple more paintings scanned on a larger scanner and added them to my gallery, but the scanner wasn't big enough to do all of the ones I wanted. I will have to travel a little farther to use the one really large color scanner in this county, maybe this weekend. The scans came out really nice- you can see enlarged versions in the gallery.

I was kicking myself today for not planning ahead. I was sitting at my desk this morning amd I heard a noise that sounded like a very large airplane was about to land on top of the building I was in. We are in a restricted airspace, so we don't get casual air traffic overhead, but sometimes the ENORMOUS Russian planes that transport payloads go by and are neat to watch. It sounded like one of them so I stepped out of the side door and looked up to see Atlantis piggybacked on top of a Boeing 747 pass directly overhead at a low altitude while coming in for a landing at the Shuttle Landing Facility.

Strangely I had never seen this before, and it was certainly very neat, but I wish I knew beforeheand what time it was coming so I could have taken a picture. Oh well. This is a NASA photo, not mine, but shows what it looks like:

I was all set to post last night and then, it was gone. My internet connection, that is. The connection was out last night until after I went to bed, so I couldn't get anything done on the computer, which I find very frustrating. We have been good paying DSL customers for five years and have had issues with our connection for the past three years. Only recently did we find out that when they upgraded our speed, that due to the distance we are from the originating point we were 3000 feet too far away for the wires to handle that much data that quickly, which is why we have had a really crummy connection for so long. It has been very slow and bumps us off the internet frequently so we have to go "reset" the modem by unplugging it. It has never really worked to our satisfaction, so I am kicking it to the curb in favor of cable.

More later- I gotta go to work now.