Luna Tail

As I was loading the dish washer the other day.. my husband there with me, kinda helping, kinda overseeing, I just had to laugh and think. I wasn’t doing it quite the way he thought it should be done. And granted, I’m not the best dishwasher loader in the world. I stack stuff together too much and sometimes it doesn’t get as clean as maybe it could.

But he was getting a little upset and I had to stand back and think that getting upset about the dishwasher being loaded is a little pointless. So I joked with him about it… and I think this is one of the reasons we get along so well. Both of us hate confrontation, we hate to fight, and we don’t like feeling angry. And so we usually let the little stuff, like how we load the dishwasher, just blow on by and we don’t worry about it.

When I’m out and about with friends and their spouses, I am sometimes surprised at the things they fight about. Really… maybe it’s time to just stop, look at what you are fighting about, let go of your ego and your desire to be ‘right’ or to get in the last word, laugh about it, appreciate your significant other, and be happy.

I heard, once, someone say.. what do you want to be, right, or married? Well, I’d rather be happy and so what if the dish washer isn’t loaded just so… or there is dog pee on the floor, or Tatum wants to ‘help’ prep the spare bedroom for painting and in doing so likes to chew up the sand paper? (Dang her toenails are too long.) I’d rather not worry about it. I want my dogs, my husband, and myself, to be happy. So as they say, don’t worry, be happy!

Man, I am getting old. I spent only three measly hours this morning sanding and cleaning two of the walls in the spare bedroom. And I am so stiff now I can hardly stand. You’d think all the dog sports I did would actually get me in better shape. Or be more flexible, anyway. But apparently not.

The first picture is before I emptied out the room and started. These last two are after I was done with the two walls. Whoever lived here before us must have smoked, because the walls are yellow and dripping. Not as bad as some I’ve tried to clean and paint over… but bad enough. Plus, whoever painted didn’t put any primer on the baseboard or the door molding. I’ve been sanding it off completely, and easily. And I just don’t know if I’ll have the gumption to sand it all off, or if I’ll just sand most of it off and call it good.

Maybe my sister will like to come help me paint once the prep work is done. Painting takes the least amount of time, though. Prep takes about 100 times longer. Oh well.. it’ll get done. I’ve been avoiding this room for almost nine years. It’s the last upstairs room to get painted (well, except the kitchen, but the kitchen is gonna be gutted so it doesn’t count). So finally I’m getting around to it.

I’m not rushing, though. I’m taking it easy and only doing what I feel like doing at one time. I don’t care if it takes me all fall, or all winter. I want to do it slowly and do it right.

Not sure what color I’m going to paint… the carpet (the only room in our house left that has carpet) is blue with grey flecks. And I don’t want either blue or grey, and I’m not sure what will match. Oh well, I’ll find something!

I found this test and thought it was interesting. I do believe the results pretty much describe where I am in the political spectrum.

You are a Social Liberal (83% permissive) and an… Economic Liberal (21% permissive) You are best described as a: Socialist Link: The Politics Test on OkCupid.com: Free Online Dating Also : The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

I want to make more money. Yeah I know I know… there is an issue that I have to actually consider first, which is spending less money. Like on buying a MiniVan. My husband isn’t working right now, but we were joking, the other day, about how our (my) spending habits haven’t changed much, we are not too strapped… considering I just bought a Minivan. LOL And I walked out of the dealer without giving them a dime. Pretty impressive. When I talked to a guy at my credit union about the loan, he told me my credit score is 805. Max is, I guess, 850 or so, so I have pretty darn good credit. People love to loan my money.

But I don’t like loans, or debt, that’s why I don’t have much. Just the mortgage now and this new minivan. But anyway, I want to optimize my blogs for more income and I’m not sure how. As I don’t really like that many ads all over the place. And the ones I do have don’t seem to sell very well anyway!

Maybe I just should focus on content. Lately I’ve been focusing on restoring my VPS, that is where all my time has gone. That, and doing dog sports. But the dog sports are winding down now, and I hope to have a bit more time. Maybe I can use some of that time to do some blog optimization.

Well I’m back from St. George, Utah, and flyball with my dog Chase. Muffit and Tatum came along for the ride too. It was fun. I pulled the trailer down on my own… the first time I ever took it on my own. I was scared and nervous until about half way home today. Then my nerves finally settled and I was fine.

I also had a passenger, a 14 year old girl who is a member of our flyball team, and her border collie. It went well though I was nervous about what we’d talk about and I’m always a bit shy as I don’t know her too well. But she’s super nice and it was fun. And I was nervous about the van and the trailer and getting there okay, but it went just fine. The van pulled the trailer nicely I will admit. Better than my old Outback did. My drive home was by myself, and it the weather was nice and the traffic was good.

So when I go to more dog shows next summer, or Vegas vacations, I can take the trailer myself. Now, though, I’m just glad to be home and I’m rather glad to be done with traveling for dogs sports for the year. The next trip is the cruise, end of October. For a while, i get to have some weekends off and to rest!

Well, I am still in the thick of restoring all my sites. Unfortunately, I may have completely lost the database for UtahDogs.com. Bleh! I am still looking for a backup but it’s not looking very good. That sucks, it’s an old site.. been around since 2000. So I really hope I don’t loose all that.

Though data is just data, not really real anyway. And I’ll be in St. George this weekend doing flyball, so I won’t be able to do any restoring. Maybe I should do some futures trading instead of blogging.

Oh well. Life goes on. This blog is almost fully recovered now. I don’t remember what I had on my sidebars, so they are a bit bland. It’ll come, though.

I’m listening to Twilight, book on CD. It’s pretty good so far. A bit too mushy.. yeah even for me! But I love vampire stories for sure. I would love to meet a friendly vampire someday.

It occurred to me, over the weekend, as I was lying in bed one night after doing agility all day with my dogs, that I am just so tense… my neck pain, and my jaw is always tight and feels like I’ve been clenching my jaw all night. My face needs a massage as it is also sore. The main pain is, as I’ve said in the past, my neck, but maybe it’s all coming from clenching my jaw?

So I spent some time googling about this. Maybe it’s my meds, my Sertraline, that is making me tight like I am.

So check out what this site says:
Health Central Bruxism

For the detection of bruxism, some experts recommend the use of a simple 60-second screening examination that involves a number of screening questions. These are:

• Do you clench or grind your teeth, or has anyone told you that you do?
• Do you ever have headaches or pain in your neck or shoulders.
• Do you have a clicking jaw?
• Do your teeth or jaws ever feel tired when you wake up?
• Do you have sensitive teeth?
• Do you have, or have you ever had, pain in your jaw or in the sides of your face in the area of your ears?
• On which side of the mouth do you chew?

Um… yes yes and yes..?! Actually, the only one above that I’d answer no to is if I have a clicking jaw. I haven’t noticed that. And which side of the mouth do I chew on.. usually my right, I think, but I haven’t noticed.

According to wikipedia on Bruxism one of the causes is SSRIs. Which I guess I’m on.

And so once again, I figure out my own problem. Hrmph. So that’s why the chiropractor and the doctor couldn’t find anything for my neck pain. Now, of course, I have the crap from my accident. Which is separate from this and new. But still, I think I have Bruxism. From my Zoloft / Sertraline. Now, I get to figure out what to do about it.

Maybe I need to sit and listen to some free audio books and relax. I listened to Harry Potter on audio book and I loved it, and I need more for my new van so I can listen!

MiniVan-1Buying a car is way to freakin’ easy. Man.. go in, say I have excellent credit (which I do) and they fall over backwards. And the dealer was nice, too. They didn’t even hassle me or push me. And I got a tow package thrown in. Though of course I had to take the van home today, because it’s just new and fun to drive!

MiniVan-3Levi is modeling it for us. He is such a good boy, jumped right in. I’ll be pulling out the seats and putting in dog crates. It’s a 2007 Hyundai Entourage. $17,000 which isn’t too bad. I hate to haggle, so maybe could have gotten a better deal but whatever. I’m happy with it.

MiniVan-4My Outback is still in the shop, probably until September 10 or so. When it comes back I’ll be selling it. I’ll miss my Outback, I really do like that car. But the Minivan will be better for me and the dogs, and safer too.

I like the color okay, the papers say light blue, but looking at it it looks rather Gray. My old Toyota Pickup was gray like this. In some light, though, it kinda does look light blue more than gray. And it has nice indoor lighting to read by if needed. It doesn’t quite have all the bells and whistles my Outback did, but that’s okay, I didn’t need them anyway!

Anyway, I need crates and things to put in it now. And I don’t like having this loan… Bleh. But it’ll be gone, hopefully, shortly, with the outback. And as much as I loved the Outback, I hope I’ll love the van more!

Carfax is that place online where you can go check out a vehicle’s history. Not that I’d be opposed to buying a car that’s been in an accident, as long as it’s been repaired to factory specs… I was just wondering if anyone has used Carfax and what you think of it?

I am considering buying the unlimited plan. It’s only $10 more than the 1 car view plan. And only a few $ more than the 10 car plan. But of course I’m having a hard time deciding.

There are two Hyundai Entourage’s that I’m really interested in, Loaded with climate control and heated seats. And I’m thinking of getting an auto loan through my credit union for one. Then I’ll sell my Outback. Though I’ll miss my Outback, it’s a good little car. But I think I’ll like the Minivan better.

So anyway, thoughts thoughts. I hope to go have a look at the two Hyundai’s tomorrow after work. One is north of me, one south. Of course. The one north, though, is about $2,000 cheaper. So I’m not sure why, and thought I may want to check out Carfax to see why!

bathroom before 01 I actually did some cleaning today. I’m afraid of cleaning… well, not so much the cleaning, but the anxiety that I always feel while I’m doing it. Always…? Well, today I was so much better. And it’s even Day 21. So for about the next 7 days I’ll be in high PMS mode. But the last time my friend and I were in to the Holistic Vet, she talked about how Magnesium can really help hormonal changes, and so I thought I’d try it out. And I spend about 2 or 3 hours cleaning today.. and the anxiety stayed away! I didn’t feel that awful hungry feeling of stress inside of me. It was weird, and quite nice, I will say!

bathroom before 02So I’ve been taking my Vitex Agnus Castus and adding in the magnesium,. and I think it’s really helping! I’m going to read up on magnesium and see what I can find. Oh.. and these are before and after pictures of the bathroom. The first two are before.. not sure if you can see the mold spots on the ceiling. Bleh. How does mold get on the ceiling? Man, I hate to clean. I hate that you have to do it over and over again, like every week! I’ll do it once a year or so, but dangit I have better things to do with my time than clean every week, and the dirt keeps coming back!

bathroom afterYeah.. this is the after picture, and it looks the same, to me, as the before. LOL but if you came to my house I hope you would notice a difference! No more mold on the ceiling! I was paying for a maid service, but I can’t afford it now with the husband not working. Oh well… so I get to clean myself once in a while. And it is just once in a while, for sure. I think, sometimes, when the house gets dirty, it’s just time to buy a new one. LOL. I’ll go have a look at some mortgage quotes to see what I could get!

Anyway, it felt good to do some cleaning today, to spend some time at home instead of off doing dog sports. Though that’s what I’ll be doing most of tomorrow, again. Which will also be fun. As I was cleaning I was thinking it was almost therapeutic and relaxing, to just be home, in my little cave which is my house. I like to cave up, it recharges me, energizes me, and I think it’s helping me to feel better.

I need to change this theme so that there is a wee bit of spacing between the images and the text, I do think.