two dolla

yay for parades and block parties

One of my favorite things about living in the suburbs of Minneapolis is Pride Weekend. There are billions of things about it that I love, but I’ll save you the details and just give you super awesome things I’m looking forward to this year.

Tiffany. And Kimberley Locke.

They’re both performing at Sunday’s Block Party. And the parade is on Sunday. I love parades. Especially since Mollie’s giving me tickets she won to sit in the grandstand during the parade! Drumheart will be in the parade, and I kind of became super obsessed with them when we did the AIDSWalk a couple of months ago.

Yay for Gay Pride. That’s what I say!

adorable can’t even describe it

I took Little Gay Riley Fancy Pants into the doctor yesterday to follow up on his ripped toenail situation to decide if it needed to be removed or not. Good news is that it’s a-okay, and Riley Pants will be able to have pedicures again once the nail grows back out.

We were waiting in Room 4 for our turn with the doctor and Riley was getting impatient. I was trying to occupy him by letting him jump on me and scratching his head, when the doctor came in and said, “There’s my boyfriend!”

That prompted him to jump down off me, and trot his wiggly self over to her where he instantly lifted up his left paw so the doctor could inspect his damaged nail. And he stood there patiently until she was done looking at it.

I know everyone says dogs don’t know things like that or can’t remember things like that, but it’s so hard to believe that sometimes!

a really bad dog whisperer – that’s me.

There has been possibly a total of five months I’ve owned my dog where he hasn’t been on some type of medication. Pain medication when his nuts were removed, two rounds of allergy medication for a rash that wouldn’t go away, 45 days worth of Ivermectin for his alleged Demodectic Mange, typical Heartworm medication every month, and now he’s on another round of pain pills and antibiotic for his recent toenail situation.

He’s not the best medication taker in the world, but I can usually figure out a way to get a tablet or capsule of some sort rammed down his throat. The syringe full of 5.4 cc of cherry-flavored Ivermectin isn’t his favorite, but he knows he gets a slice of cheese when he’s done, so that’s become an easy task.

His recent twice-daily dosages of Cephalexin have become what I like to refer to as a huge bitch.

Shoving the pill in a wad of peanut butter no longer works, nor does wrapping it in any type of meat and/or cheese substance. I resorted to the nasty trick of holding his mouth shut until he swallowed it Friday night, but he pulled some scene out of Girl, Interrupted and hid the pill under his tongue for a good three minutes.

Since I’m only in the third chapter of Cesar Milan’s book called “Cesar’s Way” and it hasn’t covered how to make a dog eat a pill yet, I’ve resorted to my own special tactic.

Half a can of wet dog food (he normally gets dry), a few dollops of peanut butter, a ripped apart slice of cheese, and one tinly little 500mg capsule. This is his idea of a all you can eat buffet – it’s all of his favorites in one stinky dish. And he ate the pill.

Yes, Cesar Millan might possibly be slightly crazy, but I’ve pulled a few of his tricks and, while I don’t have the quick Mexican accent like Cesar, Little Riley Fancy Pants knows when I mean business and when it’s time for me to be the leader of the pack.

Did I mention I love my dog? Because I do.

the pinnacle of excitement

My weekend has been so overwhelmingly exciting that I don’t think you can handle it. However, the amount of sleep I’ve gotten over the past three days will surely last me for a while, and you know, some good old fashioned lazy ass sleeping was kinda what I needed.

I went to go see The Break Up yesterday, just to get me out of the house. Otherwise, I’ve been working. Like seriously working. I was out of the office Monday through Thursday last week training, so I got absolutely nothing done.

I worked from home on Friday with the whole Riley toenail situation, which ended up making my work day start at 10:00 and lasting until around 7pm or so. Super productive, yes, but not productive enough to make me feel like I’m caught up from the week training. So today is another marathon work day.
I honestly need to come up with some top secret plan to convince my boss to allow me to work from home. I’m so super productive and I work like 13 hour days and don’t even notice it. I’m sure that wouldn’t exactly be healthy after a while, but at least I could work in my pajamas all day long, and get copious amounts of work done.

Iin any case, I don’t think I have any reason to venture out of the house today… unless you count making sure my dog has food and I’m at the gym as reasons to get out of the house. Which I probably should.

since i never remember my camera anymore

I shall steal pictures from others to show what I did last night.

After the Twins swept the Sawx, I joined The Posse at Tony Jaro’s River Garden to continue on with The Greenie Century. This is where we drink 100 “Greenies” in the span of a month between all of us. Greenies are green. Apparently, they’re vodka sours with something that turns it green and some special powder Danny the Bartender stirs into it. Yes, they’re special. And they make pink ones, too. Called Pinkies. Cute.

I was only there for a short time, but Cindi gave Matt and I matching sailor tattoos that refer to our love of Greenies and the Gun Show we both put on.

Then I drank some coffee (probably my first coffee ever that wasn’t from Starbucks or Caribou and had whipped cream of some sort on the top) and ate some Tex Mex (that seemed like a really good idea at the time) at the Uptown Diner.

(Thanks to Bill, Cindi, and Jenni for the pictures!)

being responsible is no fun

It’s 3:30 a.m. and I just got home to find my puppy boy has broken a nail on his front paw. I know how he did it, but that’s not the problem. The problem is, what do I do? By the time half of you read this, I’ll probably have already called the vet of the groomer by now, but still… it’s concerning me now and that’s why I have a blog, dammit.

He’s not limping or anything, but the nail is visibly split. If you were in my shoes, would you take him to the vet? I pay $19.95/month for freaking PET INSURANCE. I’m pretty sure this is covered. Or would it be overreacting and should I just yank it off myself? (Ohmigod, I’m cringing at the thought of that right now.)

so not an early riser

There’s one thing I’ve figured out, and my dog will agree. We don’t like getting up early. And by early, I mean before 7. Ever.

We (and by we, I mean, everyone besides me) decided yesterday in our training class, that training should start at 7:30 today, so we can be done earlier and miss traffic.

If someone could knock the sleep crusties out of my eye with a jackhammer this morning, I would appreciate it.

I’m glad we’re starting earlier, since the result is getting out earlier… I’m just, you know, still sleepy.

circus sideshow, here i come!

Why, yes, that is a picture of me breathing fire this weekend. Not only was our weekend in Wisconsin fun, but educational!

And I totally stole this picture from Jenni.

we like to party

What I would like to do right now is tell you in many, many, many words about how awesome my weekend in a hunting cabin located 190 miles away was. It would take hours. Plus, I have bruises to figure out tend to, one last search for any stowaway ticks, and a few things left to unpack.

I have training at work all of this week, and you all know how much I love training of any kind.

I just went flipping through all the pictures of this weekend, and I’m so glad I have some of the most awesome friends in the world. Aside from a bruised shin due to mounting a propane tank with no hands, a scraped knee from falling down the porch stairs while wearing fireman boots, and still trying to figure out if I did indeed really fall out of the top bunk onto the floor last night, it was a perfectly awesome weekend.

I leave you with some of my favorite pictures. The Flickr set from my camera is here. Other people are uploading theirs now, too, because I just looked at my Flickr contacts’ page and noticed three pictures of me from three different people, all with me wearing an orange hunter’s cap and insanely large sunglasses.

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friday shuffle: precamping edition

1. My Favorite Mistake – Sheryl Crow
2. Misery – Pink
3. The Long and Winding Road – Beatles
4. 83 -  John Mayer
5. Photograph – Nickelback
6. When You Say You Love Me – Clay Aiken
7. Church of the Poison Mind – Culture Club
8. Bawitdaba – Kid Rock
9. All You Wanted – Michelle Branch
10. Tonight – New Kids on the Block

Needless to say the first three songs had me kind of worried with the pending drive to the camping building (that sounds more hardcore than cabin).

In any case, I should pack now. Clean clothes would be a neat thing to take. As long as they fit after the car’s been loaded with booze. I mean, uh, camping supplies.