Happy birthday to BF, Megan! I hope his family calls him.

And congrats to DD, Allison. Austin is a nice city, I think.

Megan - what Shannon said.

Dagmar

Interesting. DS and I are in the car on our way home when my bluetooth phone rings. I answer via the car radio. It's his school calling (gasp)! He immediately things he's in trouble (I know better). Turns out he has perfect attendance this year and the Indio Task Force (a city a few cities over, don't know why they're doing this) is awarding him with a ticket to Coachella Fest this weekend. I've always wanted to go to Coachella, but the crowds are horrendous, traffic is even worse, and besides, who would he go with? The school is currently checking to see if he just gets the ticket given to him (so he can sell it--think $$$$$) or if they actually strap it on his wrist (it's non transferable). The school will let me know and possibly he'll be able to take it and sell it.

So I have to take my dog in to see an orthopedic specialist next week to see what is causing the horrible swelling in his elbow. At least he's on NSAID's now and he's not in any pain like he was earlier today--and probably for the past several months.

Good morning everyone! Back to Ohio after being in California for a week. We had passover with DIL's parents and then to a lodge near Yosemite for a tasting for our DS wedding in June. It was not so much the food that did me in at the tasting as all of the wine tasting we did, but for the sake of the wedding I sacrificed myself ( !!
Hope everyone had a good Easter. it sounded like most of you avoided deadly Easter Candy!!
Steve

Allison, congrats to your son!

Welcome back to the midwest Steve! Too bad you got here right when it turned cold again.

Speaking of which, after that frost last night we're afraid our peonies might be zapped. They have huge flower buds but hadn't bloomed yet, but they are super droopy looking this morning. Fingers crossed that they can recover when it warms up later today...

Good morning maintainers!

Hope everyone has a good weekend and stay on plan

Morning all,

I'm taking today off bc I have to work all weekend. BF's family stinks. At least he has better friends, and thank you all for the birthday wishes too. That is all I have to say about that.

Steve, it was good of you to sacrifice yourself for the sake of the wedding.

Allison, I hope you get Chico sorted with the specialist and get to the bottom of this mysterious joint fluid. It's so hard to see our fur babies in pain.

Anyone have any fun plans for the weekend? As I mentioned I will be working all weekend, nothing fun here. I might go to a friend's BBQ this evening, though. Have a great Friday all!

I'll be working through the weekend, too, Megan, but I hope to get away briefly for a charity antique show that will be held at one of the area elementary schools. I'll be browsing rather than buying, unless a really great secretary desk turns up.

There is a federal-era secretary that I love at an antique shop in Covesville, Virginia, which I just looked up on Google Maps. If only it were a couple hundred miles closer. I would buy it in a minute. The transportation thing is tricky.

Have you guys heard the phrase "having a come to Jesus meeting"? I was talking to someone recently who had never heard it before....

The school had a "come to Jesus" with DH & XW on Wednesday. DSS is on probation - his grades aren't satisfactory, his behavior is unacceptable and if he doesn't improve he will be removed from the ALP program. His teacher told him about in Wednesday afternoon and laid down the new rules. He seemed resigned to his fate at our house last night. He will have a specific amount of time to do work in class, if it isn't complete it goes home for homework. If work has to come home he gets a number on his chart. He is not going to be tracked on points to reward good behavior, that never lasts. They are going to start tracking points on things he does wrong and everything on his chart will impact his privileges at home. We'll see if that helps. His teacher let us know that he is having a great day so far today in the ALP class, we'll see if it lasts through lunch and the rest of the day.

Good afternoon everyone!! Trying to get back in the swing of things here, and trying to get my weight to stabilize a little more after being a maintainer for about 6 weeks now. I am satisfied with the amount of food i am eating, but need to add in more to stop losing weight so i have added in nuts, bananas and yogurt- strictly healthy foods that are reasonably dense - any other suggestions?
Shannon I really hope you can get your DSS straighten out- I am certain it must be a real source of stress for you right now.
Megan sorry you have to work at weekend- enjoy today!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Warning, doggie rambles ahead, read at your own risk.

I don't recall what I posted here versus in the other thread about Carter, but we're trying to find a new sitter/care arrangement for him since our old sitter is closing her business. Yesterday we left him overnight at a doggie hotel that we had a groupon for to try it out.

We picked up Carter this morning and while they report he was generally fine, I don't think we'll be bringing him back there. He has a scrape on his nose that they say is probably from trying to stuck his head under the door of his room when people walked by. When we picked him up he was basically rushing out the door and the whole way home in the car he was panting, whining, and barking. He seemed to have gotten friendly enough with the people there (while he was nervously running around the lobby he ran to the staff member for comfort several times), but I think being around so many other dogs stressed him out. They said he was very friendly during their one-on-one time with him and seemed to like that much better than the daycare. He just gets wigged out when he's with more than one other dog I think. DH is working from home today to keep him company and get him settled back home again, which he seems to have done pretty quickly.

In any case we will meet with the person we are scheduled to meet tomorrow for in-home sitting. My main concern with her is that I kind of feel like we're getting nickel-and-dimed compared to the other sitters and the one we had before, because she charges an extra $18 to come and let Carter out and feed him dinner in the afternoon on top of the $60 for overnight, and she has been very suggestive that we have her come by frequently outside of our vacations for Carter to stay used to her. It makes sense, but I'm not sure if her motivation is about Carter or about the fact that we would be more regular income for her (or both). We may also talk to one other in-home sitter who does a 6pm-7am stay (thus no need for an afternoon visit).

In general I feel confident enough now about getting care for Carter that I am going to suggest to DH we go ahead with requesting time off work.

Jessica, can you get referances from some of her other customers ?

Jessica - you are a great doggie mommy.

My mom used to send me Mother's Day cards every year thanking me for being such a great 'kitty mommy' to my cat, Gracie.

I wish I could come stay with Carter. I need a vacay.

Shannon - Yep, I know the phrase "Come to Jesus meeting" - as used when things are tough and somebody had better shape up. I wish your DSS well.

A vinaigrette for your distraction: Santiago Ramon y Cajal could be described as a juvenile delinquent if the term had yet been invented. He spent 3 days in jail at 11 years old for creating a canon that he fired at the neighbor's garden wall! His father, a doctor, in desperation took him to the office to draw anatomical charts to make a book for the medical students. This caught his attention, and he went on to study medicine. He's the guy who figured out that the neurons in the brain aren't connected - but abut at synapses, which won the Nobel Prize in 1906. His drawings of this are just lovely.

Good luck in keeping your sanity while waiting for the right thing to catch this young man's fancy.

Here's a 29 minute film that covers that story.

http://www.nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/index.php?id=1456

That is a great story, Bill. I've got the video bookmarked for when I get home. Maybe we can find whatever it is that catches DSS's attention... right now it is Super Mario.