Well, our house once again belongs to the 21st century: we have phone and internet service. I’ll be uploading a crapload of photos to Flickr over the next day or so.
We got back very late on Friday.
On Saturday I retrieved Ruby from James & Dahlia’s house and spent a frustrating, wet, and stinky morning giving her a bath. The day before we got home, Ruby found something god awful to roll in. Possum crap, I think. Anyway, it had been two months since she’d last had a bath, so she had plenty of her own natural funk going on, too. In the two months, she’s also been playing vigorously with three or four other older, larger dogs and has gotten STRONG. Giving her a bath was like participating in a WWE Smackdown with bonus soap and water. She nearly escaped the bathroom three times and it ended in me holding her in a headlock with my left arm while scrubbing her from shoulders to haunches with my right hand, then dumping water over her with an outsized QuikTrip cup. The bathroom was swamped and I was soaked from head to toe and stunk like wet dog, coconut pet shampoo, and possum shit. I dried her off as best I could, mopped the bathroom floor, and took a shower myself. The whole melee probably didn’t last more than half an hour, but it felt like a whole morning’s endeavor!
In other pet news, Smallcat is now Minnie Pearl. Smallcat is a stupid and shitty name; more a description than anything. I can’t even really remember how she ended up being called that…something my ex started probably. Anyway, the name she came with is Sugar, which is equally wretched as Smallcat and quite possibly a case of false advertising since she’s the polar opposite of a sweetie. I figure she never answered to any name she ever had, so it won’t really traumatize or affect her especially to have her name changed so late in the game (she’s around seven years old, I think). I think the name fits, since she’s raucous, forward, and nosey. Minnie, as she’s now called, would make a fine Town Gossip if she were a human. Okay, so she ain’t much of a flirt, but anyhow, she’s been re-named, and Minnie isn’t half a bad name for a smallish cat.
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I’m damn glad to be home…don’t know if I’d said that yet, but I sure am. I am decidedly enjoying the comforts and conveniences of home, the cuteness of the critters, and the ability to pile on more sweaters or take a hot bath if I am cold…which I frequently am, because it’s very November right now.
Since when we left, it was still basically summer and now it’s nearly winter, I went through my clothes and put away all my summer gear and dug out the sweaters and heavy-weight clothes. I did a little of what I’ve been calling “fashion editing,” which is to say I weeded out some stuff that had gotten way too shabby (heck, completely ruined would be a better description) and some more stuff that’s just not terribly appropriate to my lifestyle. Anything that was still presentable and reasonably cute but “not really me” is going to Goodwill. The stuff that was too wrecked out hit the trash. I’ve got several dresses I am going to remodel into skirts, since I never wear dresses but I frequently wear skirts. I downgraded some of my old work pants to at-home pants, since I still have plenty of perfectly acceptable office-appropriate clothing. I’m still working on that vow to stop going around looking like a total mess. Twice, while we were on our trip, I was mistaken for a homeless person. Ouch! And I have been mistaken for a homeless person here in KC before. Double-ouch! So, I’m trying to spruce up a little more, you know. When your own husband tells you that you look like a bag lady when you’re wearing a specific coat, you should probably stop wearing it, right?
I’ve got some job-hunting stuff to go and do, but soon I will be back with more info on the Big Trip and other fun and games.
Michelle – Did you at least get some money when you were mistaken for homeless? I’m also working on sprucing up myself. Up until last year I was wearing a coat with humongus shoulder pads and Tracey told me I looked ridiculous and had to get a new coat. He’s not very fashion conscious, so if he said it looked bad, I knew it had to be true. I’m awfully glad you and Joel are back. It was unsettling to me to know that you and Joel weren’t in the city, that you were out there somewhere. I know that probably sounds weird. In any case, I’m glad you’re back!
[…] The last time I bathed her singlehandedly, it was a dramatic and messy experience that left both of us chastened. This time, however, it went really smoothly. I don’t know if Ruby is becoming more amenable to baths (she certainly doesn’t enjoy it, but she was a lot less hysterical about the process this time) or if I’m just getting better at bathing her, but we didn’t swamp the bathroom, nobody got hurt, and I didn’t have to go all WWE on the dog. I sat on the rim of the tub with my left leg in the water and used my knee as a barricade to keep her from trying to escape. It worked very well so I considered it a fair trade off, although I completely soaked the left let of my pants from the hem to just above the knee. The dog isn’t stinking me out of the house now, and that’s the main thing that matters. […]