As many of my friends know, this is undoubtedly one of my favorite if not THE favorite of holidays for me. I’ve always enjoyed Halloween, and continue to do so. This year is particularly fun for me because I was able to take my dog Sofie to her very first ever Halloween party! I’ve only had Sofie since April of this year and she’d never really done anything like dressing up or being around other dogs!

Saturday evening we went to a Halloween party being given by the shop where I take her to be groomed. It’s a lovely little store actually. It’s called . There were plenty of other small dogs of all sorts. A couple of Westies, a Pom, a Maltese and 4 other Yorkies! Sofie is still pretty shy around other dogs, but I think she had fun. And she even won Scariest Costume. LOL, as you can see, there is nothing scary about her costume, but she didn’t fall into the other categories and they made it so that every dog got a prize.

At the end of the party we drove home in a horrible rain storm! I hate driving at night, and worse, on a rainy night! But we made it home in one piece and were happy to spend the rest of the evening with The Gang.

One of the most interesting things I love about this holiday is hearing about true ghost stories. I’ve never really had many incidents happen to me. I do now and then see out of the corner of my eye what looks like a cat pass by, or feel something on the bed, when no kitty is around. And once I did see Maks go into the bathroom, only to follow and find Maks was nowhere upstairs! The only time I’ve ever felt afraid to be somewhere was many years ago, I think I must have been 9 or 10, we lived in a house in Michigan that to me was one of the scariest places for me.

When we first moved in, I went into the basement, and walked to the room that was directly under my bedroom. I stood at the doorway of this room, which was unfinished, as the rest of the basement, and there was dirt in the corner. As I started to walk into the room, something compelled me to just turn around and leave. I couldn’t walk into that room, and instead did indeed turn around and hauled ass up the stairs. I remember many evenings not being able to sleep, and once even had to wake my mother up and ask her to please sleep with me because I was so afraid to be alone in that room. I never saw anything in that house, but I’ve never in my life before or since been so afraid to sleep at night anywhere as I felt in that house.

Today, I think the plan is to just hang out at home and hand out treats to any trick-or-treaters that may come by. Hopefully, there will be plenty of spooky movies to put us in the mood to enjoy the rest of the holiday.

Of course, to anyone out there with pets, PLEASE keep them inside. Especially your cats. It’s a cruel world, and on this night it is especially dangerous for cats.

Stay safe! Happy Halloween!

I tried posting yesterday, but one of the many things that annoy me was hard at work. My laptop is in desperate need of an overhaul. I have a feeling I may have some virus in my system as it’s taking forever to load even the simplest of pages. After I’d spent nearly half an hour writing a post, something wonky happened and of the 500+ words in my post, only 28 actually decided to make an appearance! Gah! I didn’t have it in me to try posting again. Had I tried the laptop may have found refuge inside the television, and I’d have been out one laptop and one TV!

My original post had to do with cyclists. Yes, they annoy me to no end. You’re driving your car, just cruising down the road and you wind up behind a band of these guys. You know there is no way they are actually going the speed limit, so you wind up waiting for the moment when there are no cars in the oncoming lane just to go around them. Basically you have to nearly put yourself in the path of an accident to avoid running one of these fuckers over. There I said it, they’re fuckers! My annoyance with these morons is compounded by the fact that my boss is an avid cyclist and I can no longer stand the man. Which brings out my next annoyance, stupidity.

My boss called me on Saturday morning. He basically wanted me to stop what I was doing or had planned to do that day so that I could drive home, log into my office computer and write him a check on Quickbooks. After telling him I was at my father’s house and that I didn’t know what time I’d be home, he became miffed, only to finally calm down when I asked him why he just didn’t write the check himself? I could hear that epiphany moment building up in the deafening silence! “I can do that?”

Okay, WHAT THE FUCK?

“Uh, yeah, why wouldn’t you be able to?” I asked. I had no idea why for the last two years this man has constantly bothered me at home to specially write a check for him. Turns out, he didn’t think that he could write checks out by hand, if we used Quickbooks. Honestly, I can’t wrap my head around that one.

Really? Why the hell would it matter to a computer program if you decided to write out a check or print it? It’s information you enter! A check is a check. I mean, is it me? Do I expect too much? This man pays himself six times what I get paid and he has the intelligence of a pap-tart!

I’m relatively new to dog ownership.  I had a dog in high school, but he was more my brother’s dog and he took care of him.  But Sofie is my Yorkie who I’ve had since April of this year.

Last night, I developed this searing pain in my neck and shoulder.  I think I must have pulled a muscle while bringing in some groceries.  Really, it was a huge bag filled with 48 cans of cat food.  I’d slung it over my shoulder not thinking it may not have been a good idea.  So, last night, the pain was just unbearable.  I managed to trudge through the heavy downpour to the CVS across from where I live and got some pain pills and one of those heat patches.

Sofie and my gang (the cats) usually sleep with me.  But Sofie is a notorious bed hog.  She’s around 12 inches long and weighs all of 5-6 pounds, yet she loves to kick me until I move so that she can have as much of the bed as she can get.  I just wanted a good nights sleep last night, so I decided she’d sleep in her crate.  Now, I’ve always heard and read from other people who do own dogs that dogs don’t poo or pee where they sleep or eat.  Sofie obviously didn’t get that memo.

I woke up this morning to find not only her pee pad playing host to the brown smelly guests, but her bed!  She’d actually slept on a big pile of poop!  Gah!  I have no idea when she did this, but seeing as it was all still…soft it was likely pretty near the time I woke up.  I had no time to wash her off, so I took one of her wipes and wiped her down. When I get home she’ll have a nice bath!

I don’t know why she did that.  I know why she may have peed, since last night she would only go once before bedtime.  It was raining, and she usually goes twice outside, but only wanted to go once.  I’d set out a pee pad for her when we came inside and she pooped on it, but that’s it.  That’s another reason I put her to sleep in her crate.  I wasn’t in the mood to clean up any accidents on the bed.  It’s funny, when I first got her she wasn’t house-trained.  So she peed inside all the time.  Then I got her to use the pads.  Now that I need her to use the pads when it rains she won’t go on them!

I swear, between this little dog and my cats, I think I’m going to go insane.  That is, if they don’t kill me first.  I’ve almost fallen over Maks and Czari twice!  Czari has a habit of sitting right behind me when I’m at the sink, and Maks loves to walk right in front of me while I’m walking.  If I didn’t know better I’d this this was all part of some elaborate plot to knock me off.  But I’d like to think they’d know better.  As smart as they are, the fine art of opening cans isn’t something they’ve mastered.

Saturday’s are always busy.  I wake up early and go visit with my dad for a bit, with my girl Sofie.  I usually leave around lunchtime, since I don’t like to be there in case my dad’s wife offers to make me lunch.  I’m a vegetarian, and every time she offers to make me something it’s an ordeal.  The last time she offered to make me lunch, she was making shrimp, and I said I didn’t want any.  Of course this lead her to tell me that shrimp are animals and they are non-thinking and don’t feel anything so not eating them was basically stupid.  Non-thinking and don’t feel anything?  I’m convinced this woman was a shrimp in her past life.   Anyway, I figure leaving before lunch saves me from listening to her idiocy.

After I left I went to a little craft fair at my friend Lisa’s church.  It was interesting.  Lots of neat little booths and a few cool ideas.  I didn’t buy anything for me, but I found two very cute bows for Sofie.  Her hair is long enough so that I can hold it up with a small bow.  We didn’t stay long, since it was beginning to rain, and I had to get several more errands done.  I dropped Sofie off at home and then went on my way.

First stop, the feed store.  I buy my gang (my cats) pine pellets, but I buy then Equine pine pellets.  Yup, you guessed it, it’s the stuff they use in horse stalls.  This stuff is great!  It’s basically the same pine pellets you buy at the store, except at the pet stores the biggest bag you can get is 25 pounds and that will run you close to $20.00!  However, at the feed store you can get a 40 pound bag for $8.00!  It works unbelievably well at keeping the odor at bay, and it lasts me a week.  It’s saved me a ton of money on littler, and it’s natural!  Then I was off to BJ’s Wholesale Club for several more great scores.  I got myself a huge box of Ramen noodles for less than $6.00 and a case of 48 cans of Friskies for $20.00.  That’s about $.42 a can!  I mix a can of that with my gang’s regular food, and I also use that to feed the stray kitties.  It’s going to help me save a good bit of money in the long run.

Right now, that’s what I need to do.  I’ve been having to get creative on my spending on just about everything.  I mean, eating Ramen every day is not great, but for now it’s what I have to do.  It’s just temporary.  I know at some point I’m going to find a job that pays me what I used to be making after my boss cut my salary.  I think once I get back to that point things will get back to normal.

Tomorrow is the start of a new week and I start it with a positive attitude.  Something good is coming my way!!!!

After much thought, and enough tears to fill two water towers, I decided to follow the advice of a good friend.  Maybe this blog will be the therapy I need to get myself out of this funk.  I’ve grown a bit cynical these last few years, as things just have NOT been easy.  But hey, I woke up this morning so it can’t be all that bad.

Life gives you lemons make lemonade right?  Hell no! Let’s make lemon squares!  They are way more fun to make and eat.

My blog will be about anything and everything.  I don’t want to limit myself to one specific theme.  Our lives change daily, so why limit my subjects to just one thing.  Here you’ll be reading about my ongoing learning experience with being a vegetarian, my cats, my dog, my non-existent love life.  My experimentation in the world of crafting, television shows, cooking, entertainment there’s something for everyone!  I may also add sections for links and photos.

I don’t know if I’ll be posting daily, but I’ll certainly be posting at least once a week.  So stay tuned!