Wednesday, January 30, 2013

from zing to zang in a matter of hours

Things got up to about 50 degrees yesterday, and it rained the whole day.  It was slick where the snow was packed down and one of the buses ended up in the ditch on the way to school in the morning.  Early this morning, the temps dropped and now we've really got ice.  They called off school so we all got to sleep in, which was kind of nice.

Other than that, things are pretty quiet around here.  Diesel still smells like skunk, and it's really bad when he comes in from outside, now that it's so wet and sloppy out there.  The damp really activates the stench. I've got the feeling it's something that's just going to have to eventually wear off, since 3 baths in 3 different skunk remedies didn't do the trick.  That's life in the wild for ya.

Monday, January 28, 2013

We had a stinkin good time at the comedy show on Friday night.  I was laughing so hard my abs hurt about 15 minutes into the show.  I should probably do more sit-ups.

Yesterday, we got dumped on, probably about  or 4 inches of snow.  After the snow, we got rain and sleet, which made the snow really really heavy.  There was a think icy crust on the top and it was hilarious watching Diesel trying to walk through it and pulling his back legs out when the broke through the crust.  Today, the temps went up to almost 40, so a lot of yesterdays snow melted, we've got a high of 50 tomorrow, so hopefully the rest will disappear as well.  This winter sure can't seem to make up its mind, last week we were at 5 below 0 and this week at 50 above.  I think Wisconsin is bi-polar.

Oh, if you're looking for a little quick reading, check out Novelfriends (the link is on the right).  We did a writing prompt this week and the 4 of us all came up with something completely different, which makes sense. Though the four of us have been friends for years and we're all writers, we all write completely different.  The prompt is An Elvis Song, so put on your blue suede shoes and come on over!

Friday, January 25, 2013

ReStore Score!

Yes Jeannie, I was reading the Oatmeal - I've never read it before but The Bloggess had a link to the story on her blog and I found it that way.  I just thought it was kind of funny how similar our fire stories were, though multiple cats didn't mysteriously disappear in my family's fire.  I don't think a linen closet is a typical place for fires to start, but that's where ours did.  The chimney for the wood furnace goes up through the linen closet, it was all up to code and safe and all that stuff, my dad is super-conscientious guy like that, plus he'd been a volunteer fireman for years, so he's seen how fires start.  Anyway, that summer, we'd had our house insulated and apparently, when they were blowing it in, some fell between the chimney liner and the outer compartment and it was that insulation that started the fire.  The scariest part about it was that the linen closet was right across the hall from my little brother's bedroom door and the blanket from his bed was actually trailing out into the hallway.  We were all incredibly thankful that little bro didn't become the star of his own Burning Bed mini-series, though Farrah Fawcett could have played me in the made for tv movie if she wanted to.

Talk about little bro, we're going out with him tonight.  A couple months ago, hubs met Brad Sherwood while sitting next to him on a flight to San Francisco.  Brad Sherwood, as you may (or may not) know, was one of the stars of Whose Line is it Anyway? and now is on the road doing a two man show with Colin Mochrie, one of the shows other stars.  Brad offered hubs some comped tickets to their show when it came to Green Bay, which is tonight.  We got 6 tickets and hubs and I are going with little bro and one of his buddies and WE and his girlfriend.  I'm planning on having an awesome time.

Hubs got home from Hawaii yesterday.  Usually, he calls when he's leaving the Chicago airport - it takes him as long to get to our local airport as it does for me to drive there, so I just leave home when he leaves Chicago and it usually works out peachy.  But yesterday, I had some errands to run first, so I left for Green Bay right after work and had all my stuff done just in time to head out to the airport and meet him.  Then he called me and said he hadn't left Chicago yet due to some mechanical problems with the plane.  By the time it was all said and done, he arrived 2 hours late, which meant I had to kill 2 hours in town waiting for him.  This wouldn't be a big deal if I were the kind of person who likes to shop, but I'm not, and I'd already got whatever I needed at Walmart before I knew he was delayed.  Fortunately, there was a ReStore right where I was, and if I've got to shop, the ReStore is one of my favorite places.  I'd just been doing the math on what it would cost to replace some of the floor in the house.  I like the look of VCT tiles and if I tiled everything I wanted to, it was going to cost me something in the neighborhood of $1000 for materials alone...but then, I went to the ReStore.  They had 3 cases of the exact tile I wanted.  3 cases isn't nearly enough, but it's a good start, and instead of paying $60/case, I only paid $10/case, so that was pretty darn awesome.  Then I found some purple and green tiles as well, and they had enough to do the floor on our new porch, which is going to look sooooo cool.  And I got those for only 25 cents apiece, so the porch floor is getting done for $10 and it's going to be funky looking.  Now I'm trying to decide what color looks good with green and purple checkerboard so I can paint the walls and trim.  I'm thinking probably yellow walls and maybe orange trim, because how happy would it make you to walk into your house and the first thing you see is a yellow, orange, purple and green room?  I don't know about you, but I would be VERY happy, I love me some bright colors.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Well, it's warming up outside, if you consider 15 degrees warm - which I do since it was -5 yesterday.  I am SO over winter right now people.  It sucks to think we're only halfway done with it.  Hubs gets home from Hawaii tomorrow.  After 17 days of the tropics, I've got the feeling I'm going to be hearing a lot of whining about the weather tomorrow.  The eggs keep freezing in the chicken coop before I get around to gathering them.  When an egg that's been frozen thaws, the yolk turns thick and gummy and not very appetizing, so when I've got frozen eggs, I've just been boiling them, chopping them up while still in the shells and feeding them back to the chickens. Not only do the ladies love them, but they're great diversion tactics.  When they hear me come into the barn, the all gather against the door of the coop so tightly I can barely get the door open - it's like 13 year old girls at a One Direction concert.  So what I've been doing is throwing a handful of chicken snacks, like moldy bread, leftover veggies or hard boiled eggs, into the coop so they all run after them and I can get the door open and feed them their corn.   I didn't realize chicken farming involved such cunning and dexterity.

Because of the cold, I keep making soup.  Last night, it was ham and potato and the night before, bean. I thought about making a big pot of taco soup today, but thought that might be a bit of soup overkill, besides, the kids had chili for school lunch today, so they're probably getting souped out as well.  That's one nice thing about working at the school lunch room, now I'm never going to serve the kids the same thing for supper that they had for lunch, which I did quite frequently in the past. Though I never remember to see what's on the menu for tomorrow, so I still find myself making something for supper that they end up having for lunch the next day.  Oh well, it's only food.

Monday, January 21, 2013

baby, it's cold outside

Thanks for the vinegar suggestion, anonymous mystery poster, WE tried that last night, it helped a little, but Diesel is still a little stinky and so is the downstairs bathroom.  Actually, on that first night that Diesel got sprayed and WE gave him a bath, WE then took a shower and doused himself in apple cider vinegar, he said he tried to think of something that smells as bad as skunk that might help diffuse the smell and apple cider vinegar came to mind, he then gave himself a second dousing of mouthwash to cover up the vinegar smell.  He was rather pungent by the end of the evening.

We've been hit with a coldwave, things got below zero today and are going to be just as cold tomorrow.  This is the first sub-zero temps we've had so far this winter, so I guess we can't complain too much, but I still don't have to like it.  Nineteen years ago, when Angel #2 was born (her b-day was Jan 16) it was so cold the day we took her home from the hospital that school had been cancelled, I think it was -35 or something like that, so things do get cold around here occasionally.

I was reading a short story written by a guy about when his house had started on fire when he was a kid.  His brother woke him up, but he didn't realize that it was because it was a fire and he just thought it was time to get up for school.  He got dressed and was in the bathroom brushing his teeth when his brother ran and and yelled "Why are you brushing your teeth?  The house is on fire!"  This little story brought back memories of the time MY house started on fire when I was a kid.  I was in Jr High at the time, so 7th, 8th or 9th grade.  My sister and I had a bedroom down in the basement and I remember my mom yelling down the stairs that the house was on fire.  I pulled on some clothes and was putting in my contacts when my sister yelled "Why are you putting in your contacts?  The house is on fire!"  So, can you see why that story brought back memories?  Unlike the guy in the story though, I knew the house was on fire and had a logical reason for what I did.  This was back in the day when contacts and glasses were really expensive and I had the choice of getting one or the other, but not both.  Of course, I chose contacts, but that meant that I was without back-up glasses.  My eyesight was so bad back then that I was considered legally blind and there was no way that house was going to burn down, taking my contacts with it, while I staggered blindly around for the next two weeks waiting for a new pair of contacts to arrive (this was pre-one hour eye places).  My siblings and I spent the next couple of hours sitting in one of the fireman's cars, sharing the backseat with a giant fruit basket, for some reason.  I don't know why a fireman was driving around putting out fires with giant fruit baskets in the backseat of his car - maybe one of you have a logical explanation I'd be eager to hear.  You'll be relieved to know that our house didn't burn down, though we had to get new carpeting in our hallway and replace all the towels and stuff that were in the linen closet (that's where the fire started).  I also remember there was a school dance that next night (I think the Valentine's Day dance) and I had to borrow my friend Liz's clothes because mine all stunk like smoke, which is a real buzzkill when you're trying to attract that sexy 14 year old boy you've had your eye on for the last couple weeks.  So, now you know the exciting story about how my house started on fire, something I haven't thought about in probably 20 years.  Apparently my life is so exciting that something minor like my house starting on fire gets pushed waaaay to the background of my brain.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

still stinky

Thanks for the suggestions for cleaning up after skunkapalooza everyone. The house still stinks, but I'm working on it.  Angel #4 wants me to open the windows to air the whole place out, but since it's been about 20 degrees outside, I don't think that's going to happen.  Diesel still stunk after his tomato bath, so I tried your suggestion, Stacey, and did the baking soda/Dawn/peroxide mixture, which helped somewhat, but he still smells.  The house itself still smells, too.  Yesterday, I bought some Febreeze and some scented fabric softener sheets.  I sprayed the Febreeze around, which helped a little bit, our dryer exhaust is vented into the house, so I did a lot of laundry and ran the dryer all day, the scent from the sheets helped some, I also sprayed some odor be gone stuff on the sock that's over the exhaust, so that would blow around the house too, I also sprayed that on our furnace filter.  Even after all that, things still stunk, so today I wiped down the walls, cabinet doors, floors and any other flat surfaces in our kitchen and entryway with bleach water.  Bleach stinks too, and my kitchen smells like a public pool and we'll all probably get some kind of cancer from breathing in bleach fumes, but at least it doesn't smell as skunky.  I've still got to scrub the bathroom down good, it still smells pretty bad, but I'm kind of waiting to see if we're going to end up having to give Diesel another bath, first. I don't want to clean it all up only to have a doofus dog shake water and hair all over it again.

In other, non skunk related news, I finally got a computer at work.  It's an old, slow one, but at least it's something.  They're going to order me a new Mac and hopefully I'll have that in a couple weeks, then I'll really be ready to rumble.  My next objective is to find a computer program to help do the kitchen paperwork that's all being done by hand at the moment.  The lady I'm going to eventually replace has been working there 23 years and has everything in her head, but when she leaves in 2 years, she'll take her head with her and we'll really be stuck if we don't have things automated.  As I was helping serve little kids the other day, I ran out of cookies and pulled up a big, 5 gallon pail full of new ones. A little boy saw the bucket, that's a LOT of cookies, he said, his eyes getting huge. Then I told him that after we're done feeding them, all us lunch ladies hide out in the back room and eat cookies all day. His parents are going to wonder why the heck little Johnny all of a sudden wants to be a lunch lady when he grows up.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

I would have sworn they hibernated in winter

We were sitting here in the living room about half an hour ago having family Bible study when suddenly Angel #4 made a horrible face and covered her nose with her shirt.  Then I smelled it and my first thought was that Diesel farted, that dog has awful gas - then I realized that the smell was skunk, which was followed by the quick realization that Diesel was OUTSIDE.  So yeah, WE is in the bathroom right now washing the dog in tomato juice. The Angel and I heard Diesel jump out of the tub and shake off, then WE yelling for him to stop, so I've got the uncomfortable feeling that the inside of my bathroom looks like a giant chili explosion.  On the positive side, I got to try out my new can opener opening up cans of tomatoes to give Diesel a bath.

I've had dealings with skunks in the past, once when we had one on our front porch, hubs opened the door to see what the racket was outside and managed to slam it shut right before it sprayed.  I had to scrub oily skunk spray residue off the door.  The worst episode though was when our two, long haired  collies BOTH got sprayed and I had to scrub them both up, fortunately that time, it was late fall and my garden was full of slightly overripe tomatoes I was just going to let rot, and instead, I put them in the blender and made buckets of tomato mush for their bath.  

**Diesel just got released from the bathroom and is running around the house like a psychopath, rubbing his face on everything.  WE said he got it full in the face and his eyes were swelled up, he was slobbering and was completely out of it.  Oh, what fun.

Oh, and this apparently happened really really close to the house because the whole place stinks to high heaven.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

continuation

I guess I ended yesterdays post rather abruptly - hubs called while I was writing it, so I just hit publish so I wouldn't forget about it, like I've done in the past.  It was good to know that hubs was having a nice birthday and the night marchers haven't gotten him yet.  

Jamie, I got a Kuhn Rikon manual can opener.  My sister and I spent a lot of time at the Wire Whisk debating the various ones they had and finally decided that one was my best bet.  When I went to pay for it, the cashier commented on what a good can opener it was and that she had a customer who loved his so much she said every time he comes into the store he brags it up - he even named it.  So, I asked the cashier what her name was and named MY opener after her (her name also happens to be Jamie!).  I haven't had an opportunity to try it out yet, but I'm hoping I'll be happy with it - after all, if you can't trust the opinion of a kitchen supply store customer who names his can opener, who can you trust?  I also got a new timer since I broke the twister knob off my last one and the one before that got melted on the stove top.  I'm kind of death to oven timers.

After I got my can opener and timer and a few other things and my sister got the things on her list (including crickets for my nephew's gecko, Chuck) we did a bit more shopping before she had to head out, I finally located the girls and convinced them that 5 straight hours of shopping was enough and headed home.  I'm good for at least another 6 months to a year before I even want to think about setting foot in the mall again, though I don't think I'm going to be lucky enough that #4 is going to let me go that long before we have to go on another shopping trip.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Happy birthday hubs!

Today is hub's birthday, but I haven't had a chance to wish him a happy one.  He's in Hawaii right now and is spending 5 days with a group of friends in a cabin off the grid in Waipio Valley, the only time he can get his cellphone to work is if her lets it sit directly on the cell phone booster.  Personally, I'm surprised he gets any reception at all, the cliffs on either side  of the valley are about 2000 feet high, the only access into the valley is either by horse or donkey or a 4 wheel drive vehicle - then of course,there's the night marcher issue.  Night marchers are the ghosts of Hawaiian warriors that are said to go marching through the valley during the night.  In fact, when I told Angel #1 hubs was staying in Waipio Valley, the first thing he said is:  the night marchers are gonna get him.  Hubs friend Marks reaction when hubs invited him was: why are going down there?  There are night marchers.  So yeah, the night marchers are a big deal in Hawaii.  I just hope they let hubs survive to see his 51st birthday.

Hubs also had one of those weird, it's a small world moments since getting to Hawaii.  Hubs, being an extremely friendly guy, got to know the man sitting next to him on the plane on his San Francisco/Kona  flight into Hawaii - the man lived near where we used to live just off the beach and invited hubs to come hang out at his place the night after they arrived.  That day,hub's buddy, John, asked if it was okay if he asked a friend to come with them to the Valley, he thought this guy and hubs would hit it off.  Hubs said sure and arranged to meet John later at the beach to watch the sunset (a small side note,  watching the sunset at the beach is a huge spectator sport, everyone sits on the beach, watches the sunset, then applauds in appreciation when it's over).  So, hubs is at his airplane buddy's house when John calls him to see when he's getting to the beach, hubs is chatting with him when airplane buddy asks, is that John R-? and hubs says, yeah, you know him?  Oh yeah, he's a friend of mine, he invited me to Waipio Valley this weekend.  Hubs told John to get his butt over to airplane buddy's house and apparently, a good time was had by all.

Today, Angel #4 talked me into taking her and a friend to the mall.  I prefer to be eaten alive by fireants, but since we don't have fireants in Wisconsin, it was off to the mall we went.  I called my sister and I dumped the 2 girls off at the mall while my sister and I spent the day together.  We did some shopping too, but went to the satellite stores instead of inside the mall itself, which is slightly less horrific.  While sis had a list of things to get, my only objective for the day was to get a new can opener, my old one had become possessed by a demon and really needed to be replaced before I sliced open an artery or something.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

It pays to be out of the social media loop

I was looking through my spam messages before deleting them tonight and I had to chuckle.  The spammers seem to try to get people to click on their links by luring them in using their social media accounts.  I got emails saying I had important messages from LinkedIn and Twitter, my Facebook account was being suspended due to suspicious activity, my YouTube video hit number among other things.  I've never Twitted, I'm not sure what LinkedIn actually is, I deactivated my Facebook account ages ago and the only YouTube video I've ever uploaded was a video of some furnace ductwork that hubs had filmed and he was out of town and needed to see it so he could put in some registers - hardly the type of thing that makes the YouTube most watched list, there wasn't a honeybadger in sight.  I guess the spammers don't really know how to market to a media hermit.

I had to work at the high school today and was driven totally nuts by a robot baby the entire time I was there.  The 8th graders were touring the school to get them used to the place for next school year.  When they give the kids tours, they avoid the boring classes like English and tend to route the kids through the cool places like the metals shop and the chemistry lab (apparently, the hot teacher is inspiration to sign up for the class).  One of the things they feature is the family living unit where the kids have to carry a robot baby around for a week and they were showing the kids the baby.  You know, those mechanical babies that get hungry, cry and all that kind of stuff in order to teach kids how miserable it is to be a parent and then they won't ever have sex - at least, I think that's what it's trying to accomplish.  Back when I was in school, we didn't have robot babies and had to carry a raw egg around, they never cried, but they did make a big mess if you were a bad parent.  Anyway, that stupid robot baby cried non-stop the entire time I was there, and since the robot baby room is right across from the computer lab, I got to hear that sucker full-on.  Heck, if one of my kids cried that much when they were a baby, I never would have had another one, so maybe the robot baby makers know what they're doing.  I was glad to finally leave the noisy computer lab and go back to the serene quiet of an elementary school lunchroom.

I also was interviewed for the 3rd grade newspaper as a new employee of the school.  The two hard-hitting intrepid reporters asked all those important questions like what my favorite color was and if I had any pets.  At least they asked me questions I could answer honestly, which puts me way ahead of any politicians out there.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Chemistry Final

The end of the school semester is coming up soon and it's time for finals.  WE said yesterday while they were sitting in class, there was a pounding on the classroom door, one of the students opened it up and the basketball coach walked in the room along with another teacher, a big guy.  The coach was dressed in sunglasses, a trench coat and carrying a briefcase while the big teacher stood in front of the classroom door, arms crossed and an intimidating look on his face.  The kids had no idea what the heck was going on.  The coach walked to the front of the classroom, opened the briefcase and took out bottles of unidentified substances - he told the kids that they were finding these mysterious substances all over town and their job was to identify the substances using the skills they learned in chemistry class.  I've got to give WE's chemistry teacher a two thumbs up for originality in announcing the finals requirement (according to Angel #2, he's also super good-looking, I've really got to be more diligent about going to parent/teacher conferences!).

I also got some other interesting news from WE, which tells me I'm going to have to get out and socialize around town a little more.  He told me that when his friends are going someplace where they're not supposed to be, they just tell their parents that they're at his house.  They figure they'll be safe in that excuse because nobody knows us, therefore,they won't call us to confirm the kid's story.  Hubs and I are some of the few people in town that didn't grow up here and are part of the small town network, otherwise, just about everybody knows everyone else in the area.  I suppose I'll have to get out and about at local events and start trading phone numbers with parents - but that sounds like an awful lot of effort and I'm not sure if I want to relinquish my status as a hermit, I kind of prefer being anonymous.  Though, I'm not as anonymous as I thought I was.  The other day, I had to work at the high school in the computer lab.  It was between classes, and I only walked halfway down one hall and a couple steps into the library.  I then went into the computer lab, which is in a separate room and sat in the far corner for about 2 hours, then left.  I saw three kids I recognized during that time, two only by face, the third was one of WE's best buddies, who said hi to me.  That afternoon, WE said about 15 kids told him they saw his mom at school that day.  Yeah life in a small town.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Back to life as we know it

Angel #1 headed off back to California on Friday morning.  He was getting bored around here and, though he was happy to see us, was just as happy to get back to  his own life.  Because he never lived in this area and hasn't even lived in Wisconsin full time since 2005, he doesn't have a lot of friends around to here hang out with, though he did see the ones he does have.  Thursday, one of his friends even talked him into going ice skating with her.  I guess he did pretty good.  Anyway, he's back with his friends and back to work now and I'm sure he's happy to be in the swing of things again.

I dropped hubs off at the airport and he's on his way to Hawaii again.  He was rather surprised to discover that he's not as eager to spend 2 1/2 weeks down there as he thought he would be, apparently, he's been enjoying our Wisconsin winter and would have preferred to stay home.  Oh well, he's got work to do down there and friends to hang out with, so I'm sure he'll forget all about missing the snow and cold when he's sitting on the beach soaking up the sun.

Work has been going good, though I still don't have a computer in my office yet.  It's really got things at a standstill, as it doesn't pay to train me to do stuff the old fashioned, slow way when I'll soon be doing most of my paperwork online.

WE just got home. He belongs to a group as school called The MAD Adventure Club - the MAD stands for Make A Difference.  The first Monday of every month the kids go help out at a homeless shelter.  Last month was their first time and he said they were all a bit disorganized.  This month, they had schedules and job lists made up for the kids and he said the time just flew by and they had a really nice time.  


Wednesday, January 2, 2013

ObamaCare - how it's done at MY house

Angel #2 sent me this picture today that she found on her computer.  It's Angel #1 removing WE's cast with a metal snips.   This was waaay back when we lived in Hawaii.  There's a bit of a doctor shortage in Hawaii, especially on the Big Island where we lived.  WE needed the cast on for 6 weeks, but when I called to schedule having it removed, I found out that the ONLY doctor that would remove it would be on vacation and he'd have to have it on an additional 2 weeks before she could take it off.  Imagine, if you will, the stench of a cast that had been on a 10 year old boy's arm for over a month in a tropical climate.  There was no way we were going to be downwind from that baby any longer than we had to.  So, Ta-Da!  Do-it-yourself cast removal!  The reason we had his 14 year old brother do the honors has been lost to history, but, needless to say, WE's arm turned out just dandy (though the doctor was a bit surprised to see the cast off when she finally got back so we could schedule a follow-up x-ray).

Today was my first day at work.  I can't remember if I told you or not, but I got a part time job at our school.  My main purpose there is to do the paperwork for the school lunch program, but I also am around to help in the kitchen during lunch period at the elementary/middle school.  Since it was my first day (and there isn't a computer in my office yet - yeah, I've got an office(!!!)) they had me helping in the kitchen today and for the unforeseeable future until they get a chance to teach me what I need to do paperworkwise.  It's only 3 hours a day and I only work when there's school, which is totally cool.  I'm home by a little after noon and I've got the whole afternoon to do my own thing at home.  Life is good.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Interesting start to the new year

Things are already shaking down for the new year around here.  Angel #4, hubs and I all stayed home, hubs and I were in bed before midnight like the party people we are.  #4 stayed up to see the new year in, then went to bed.  Angel #1 went to a party at a friend's over an hours drive away, so he spent the night there and came home this morning.  WE was called over to a party at a friend's house about a mile down the road, his girlfriend picked him up and dropped him back off at some unmentionable time in the morning.  Then, around noon, things got all jiggity.  WE and hubs left this morning to do some work, they came home for lunch and WE mentioned that someone had been trying to call him but he'd either been in the basement without bars on his cell, or he was too busy to answer, so he didn't know who'd been calling him.  He then mentioned that his girlfriend hadn't texted him all day, which was really weird.  I told him to call the number to see what was up, shortly afterwards,he came in all worried.  The caller had been his girlfriend's mother, she said she couldn't find her daughter and was wondering if WE knew where she was.  Things were a little hazy about if she actually had even made it home last night, which would mean that WE was the last person to see her.  WE said she usually sends him a text when she gets home, but she hadn't done that last night and he was worried sick about her, it's less than 3 miles between our house and hers, with nothing in between us besides 4 or 5 houses, woods and a whole lot of fields so there's no place she could have gone in the ditch or stopped anywhere between the two places.  After about 45 minutes of worry, WE ended up going to GF's house, no one was home, but her car was in the driveway so he went in, looked around the house a bit and found her sleeping in a room other than her bedroom.  Apparently her mother didn't think to look through the entire house before deciding her daughter wasn't there.  Whatever happened, we're all just relieved that she's okay.

Okay, next adventure. Turns out one of Angel #2's first acts of the new year was to head out to Urgent Care.  Unlike most people who need medical care on New Years Eve/Day, #2 wasn't at a party and let things get out of hand, she had to be into work by 10 last night.  She and the other two people who were stuck on the night shift had a little New Year's Eve party, bringing snacks for a baby potluck and an impromptu conga line through the surgery - ah...the wild life at a veterinary hospital.  Well, around 6 this morning, #2 was cuddling a cat who's days are numbered.  The cat freaked out, which was out of character for it, but can be excused since it's dying and all, and the cat chomped her right on the thumb.  Apparently, cats mouths are just teeming with bacteria and a cat bite can be majorly bad.  It wasn't long after the bite that #2 felt dizzy and light-headed.  The others on her shift thought it best if she got it treated, so, at 8 this morning, she found herself waiting for Urgent Care to open and is now on a series of antibiotics and anti inflammatory drugs. As far as she knows, the cat was unaffected by the bite, but is still in hospital in the process of dying.

So, yeah, Happy New Year, everybody!