Hi folks! I'm back from vacation and only two pounds came with me. We had a great time in England. Four nights in London, where we saw a bunch of museums and the Royal Botanical Gardens, as well as the usual sights. After that we got a rental car and visited several gardens, Salisbury, the New Forest national park, Stonehenge, Bath, the Cotswolds, and a bunch of various places along the way, ending up at Windsor Castle our last day. I think my favorite places were Stourhead Gardens, Hidcote Manor gardens, and the Roman baths (in Bath). We drank lots of tea and ate lots of traditional British food. I certainly hope that people there don't actually eat the full English breakfast every day because it is kind of like a heart attack on a plate (two sausages, two strips of "bacon" -- more like Canadian bacon than American bacon, a fried egg, fried tomato, baked beans, and toast, typically extremely greasy). We walked a whole lot but I didn't get any other exercise, so I'm pretty satisfied with 2lbs. I thought it would be a lot more.

Carter was happy to see us. Our dog sitter kept us updated via email and there were only a couple disasters, like Carter getting an upset stomach and having diarrhea all over the carpet (she cleaned it up and you can't even tell, I'm trying to decide how much extra to pay her for that), and ripping DH's yoga mat to shreds because he was upset. DH is working from home today and doing laundry for us while I am in the office.

In other news, I finally got the last of the genetic carrier screening tests that DH and I were doing back and luckily we don't both carry any of the same nasty genes. I have at least one nasty one, and he has one nasty one, but they're not the same so it shouldn't matter. So in any case if we manage to have a kid they are not likely to have any of the conditions we tested for.

Jessica-- that is great news all around! Glad you had fun, didn't gain much, and Carter survived.

My dd has been pet sitting for her adviser and she is getting way underpaid. She is sitting for a spoiled jack russell for 4 days-- she has to brush her teeth twice a day, feed her four times a day, give her medicine, listen to her cry and beg-- and she only got paid $80 total. She won't say anything because she is her adviser and she's been wonderful to her but I doubt she'll agree to do it again. She probably spent $80 driving back and forth between the dog's house and her apartment to see and visit her kitty.

Tell your dd that dogs don't tattle. I tend to have the dog I'm looking after adapt to my schedule. Generally fine for the dogs (I do extra stuff for meds and feedings provided they are really necessary) and no one has to know. Some owners make their dogs extremely neurotic and the dogs have their only chance to be "dogs" when I sit them. Most dogs love that after about a day of sulking.

Dagmar

I'm having my office assistant dog and cat sit when we go to Hawaii. She used to have a pet sitting business, but didn't renew the license. But that's of no consequence to me. Depending on the number of cats we'll have (2 or 4 depending on whether or not DD brings her two), I'll pay her accordingly. I'm pretty sure there will be four cats plus Chico, so $10 per animal per visit, which comes to $100 per day (that sounds reasonable, don't you think?--there would only be a couple of days that she'd have to make a special trip, all the others would take place before or after work and we're only a few miles out of the way for her).

Now I currently feed my two cats 4 times a day--but I would never expect her to do the same! But what's funny, when I know I can't give the cats their second breakfast (you know, golf gets in the way!), I'll feed them twice as much for the first breakfast. And wouldn't you know it, when we get back from golf they start yammering for more food. I think they've just gotten used to the four times a day--regardless of the amount of food they're given! But yeah, none of my animals would tell me if they got a meal late or early or not at all!

I charge $55 per day to sleep over with a dog. Plus $5 additional for each additional pet. My regular "walkies" clients get a "group" rate of $60 per day.

I never recommend leaving a dog alone. Just doing visits is generally not enough for them. Cats are usually OK with a daily visit of one hour (unless the owners are away for an extended period in which case I recommend 2 visits per day).

With dog sleep-overs I spend every second evening with the dog - go straight there around 4 p.m. and stay and spend time with the dog until we retire for the night. Generally the other evenings I come home for dinner for about 2 hours. So the dog has company most of the time the owners are away.

Everyone has their own system. The person hiring the sitter and the sitter should both be clear on just what the sitter is expected/going to do.

Dagmar

Since it's my office assistant, I'll let her know that she can bring Chico to the office during the work day--that will give him plenty of company! Today there were at least 8 people that stopped in--some JUST to see him!

DD sent me a text last night and then called after her spin class. The bicycle we got her for her graduation was stolen from her apartment building's underground, locked parking garage. I don't know what it was locked up to--but I'm starting to think she may have locked it, but not secured it to something. Anyway, she was going to go talk to the apartment manager about it but I said she needs to file a police report as well. I'm mad because she had said she was going to store it on her patio (2nd floor--no access except through her apartment) but it rained, so she moved it down to the parking garage. I would have just moved it inside the apartment.

Anyway, that upset me and I didn't sleep well at all last night.

And then I forgot that this is Wednesday and it's late start for DS's school, and I woke him up an hour earlier than I needed to.

It's not going to be a great day.

Allison, your daughter, like the rest of us will learn the hard way. She must file a police report. I hope she gets it back
Sorry your day is starting off bad, it can only get better.

[QUOTE=alinnell;4351990

And then I forgot that this is Wednesday and it's late start for DS's school, and I woke him up an hour earlier than I needed to.

It's not going to be a great day.[/QUOTE]

Sorry about dd's bike!

My dd would KILL me if I woke her an hour early. Today is her late day too and she gets up at 7 instead of 6. I usually leave at 6:45 but I waited until 7 today so I could make sure she was up before I left. She had a big day yesterday and was exhausted-- I didn't trust that her alarm would wake her. They went to an amusement park for their senior picnic-- the idiot didn't wear sunscreen-- she is as white as they come-- I reminded her and everything. So she got quite burnt-- she's lucky it wasn't worse. Then she had a singing event last night and got home late.

Tonight is an awards ceremony that we've been invited to. I've been told it is for students who are receiving scholarships-- she applied to several-- I'm not holding my breath but it sure would be nice. My dh is also on the phone right now finding out if he got a new position he applied for. It's important to him, but of no consequence to me (except because it's important to him)-- same pay, no move, same travel... But a new boss and possibly more opportunities down the road.

I also made the last payment on my dd's service dog. I pushed the coordinator to see if she knew which dog dd would likely be getting. She still can't promise anything because the dogs may not work out with their advanced training-- but it looks likely that she'll be getting a yellow lab named Owen.

Michele, their is a young woman at my church, a quadriplegic and in a wheelchair, she has a service dog, a beautiful Lab. The congregation has been asked several times not to pet him as he is working, but people just can't resist him and go up and pet him all the time.He just looks bored, I almost expect him to yawn and say "can't these people leave me alone, I've got a job to do here."

Yes, DD will learn the hard way. We all do. She's upset with herself this morning because she didn't want the hassle of bringing the bike upstairs (really, it must weigh only 10 pounds!). She's also upset that she used a regular (but heavy duty) bike chain. She said she should have had a u-lock.

My son, after I woke him early and reminded me it was late start, then said, "don't worry, I still love you."

Labs are the greatest (IMO) service dogs!

I'm starting to freak out about my upcoming trip this weekend and trying not to. Having Monday as a holiday has got me in a panic as I realize I have fewer days to get everything done!

I leave Friday at 6 am. I am going to wake up at 2 am (almost no point in going to sleep!) and leave the house by 3. I'm uncomfortable driving to the airport and I don't like driving at night so I'll be anxious. I have to park the car and get a shuttle to the airport and I hate to be late so I know I'll have extra time. I have a layover in Philadelphia so I'll have to see what they have to eat in that airport. I won't get to New York until 6 pm and then I'll be going out to dinner. Saturday is the wedding and then I leave Sunday to fly home, with a layover in Chicago. It will be dd's first time staying alone and she'll be responsible for the pets-- hope all goes smoothly! I know the hotel has a "fitness center" which probably means a treadmill and an elliptical-- I'll bring my clothes and hopefully can get a quick workout on Saturday before the wedding. Or maybe the area will be nice and I can run.... I get lost easily so I'm not sure I want to attempt that though.

Just feeling anxious about all of the unknowns-- seeing relatives I haven't seen since I was a teenager, the unknowns that come with the food, the traveling, etc. I'm sure it will all go well..... I'm excited for my cousin's wedding-- I've never been to a "gay" wedding so I'm quite curious about it.

My daughter had a bike when she went to UCSB...

We bought her a real good lock and chain which she used, bikes were locked outside the dorms...

one Saturday morning when I went to visit, I noticed hers was one of a few locked up...

when I asked her why, she said most of the bikes were stolen from one area and rode to another so few locked the bikes 'cause they were stolen!

She said kids would just come out of class, grab a bike outside and ride it to their next stop...

she found that out the hard way, by trusting and not locking hers up at first...

Luckily for her she found it when she went looking.

Junior Seau's bike was stolen out of his house the same day he committed suicide....found later...

people are ruthless!

Michele, from my experience, gay weddings are pretty much the same as straight weddings, but the language is changed for gender equality. There is also often some language about social justice involved, but that can be true for straight weddings as well (I seem to recall we had some of that in my weddings.)

Regarding dog sitting, FWIW we payed our dog sitter $76/day for an overnight and afternoon visit.

Ah, stolen bikes... Don't we all learn the hard way. Mine was stolen in the office's corridor, years ago. I then made a point in only buying second-hand bikes, that I'd take the extra step to scratch and cover in mud just to make sure nobody would ever want to steal them. (Now I almost wish someone would steal my current one, it's so crappy and heavy, and I can't be bothered to load it in the car to throw it away. )

In other news:

Got the results of the competitive exam I'm taking this year... turned out I passed the first step, now I'm eligible to take the oral part. It's in, like, 3-4 weeks and I haven't worked at all for it, but given that I hadn't worked much for the first part either, we'll see. I'm more bothered by the idea of having to spend one more month to catering to kids who don't give a fib about my classes: I could use that precious time to revise, instead of, well, wasting it. :| (And staff meetings and school reports to fill in are coming in, and I just can't care anymore.)

Got my new teeth at last, too. And the bill. I'm so heading straight towards debt, I'd better stop counting and worrying about it altogether. *shrugs* (Had to cancel my gym membership, too. I just can't pay for it anymore. )