Up late reading The Turn of the Screw--my first Henry James! Creepy
voices and whistling outside are freaking me out.

It is way too freaking cold to go outside...I think I will stay in and cuddle w/ the animals tomorrow. It's not even an enjoyable, drink hot chocolate, and wear cute winter clothes cold. It's a desperately grip your scarf to your face and scream in relief when you finally get into your car cold.

I am so ready for summer.

The most exciting thing that has happened to me this week is getting a warm fleece jacket. Oh, and making a pretty good bowl of homemade chili.

Blogging to you from my new computer, who I've jokingly christened "Edward."
(If you don't know what that is in reference to, you don't know me very well...)
My old one's battery died, and then the mouse started going, so we sorta decided not to put any more money into it. I miss my old compy sometimes, but I also have gotten quite emotionally attached to my new one, so it's a toss up.

I haven't blogged for real in a very long time, mostly because I've been fairly down about the tellable parts of my life, though I've also been fairly happy about the not-so-tellable parts of my life. Like, how much can one say about how cute one's dog is, or how incredible one's husband is? In any case, I guess there just hasn't been much to say.

So, I am still unemployed, and still very torn about that--I don't know if I like not doing much during the day, but I also don't know if working would be better. And I change my mind multiple times a day about what kind of job I want.
Enough about that.

For Christmas, I went down to Galveston to visit my sister and her new apartment by the beach. Here's some pictures of Dwight and I at the beach!







He was great at the beach! I was able to let him run off-leash because there weren't any people around, and he came to me when I called him every time. And he got in the ocean, which I was really surprised about since he hates water and is basically a coward about everything. It was really fun to watch him be a normal dog for once.
Although, he did cut his paw slightly on a shell and bled all over my sheets at Monica's place before I noticed. Boy, was that a bitch to pre-wash. There were at least 25 little blood spots. It was absolutely miserable.

Since Aaron had to work in Dallas until the day before Christmas Eve, he came down to Houston Wednesday night. Things we did during our Christmas break in Houston:
--saw Avatar with Aaron's dad. I loved it, even though the 3-d glasses gave me a super headache during the first half of the film.
--walked Dwight with Clover, my dad's dog. They got along super well, because Clover's a very calm, dominant dog, so they sniffed noses and butts properly, and then respected each other's space.
--had Christmas lunch at Aaron's uncle's house with his mom and grandparents. The food was absolutely amazing, and I've been craving roast w/ horseradish sauce ever since.
--spent Christmas night with my family down in Galveston at my sister's place. Ate another Christmas meal. This one included of creamed corn, which my arteries will be paying for when I'm 60. The recipe consisted of 2 cans of corn, a whole stick of butter, and a whole 8 oz stick of cream cheese. Disgusting! But oh so delicious. I came back to Dallas and tried to replicate it after halving the butter and cheese, but it just doesn't taste as good. I don't think I'll have the original stuff again though, as I might not survive it.
--hung out with Elissa, Aaron B., and Rachel at Elissa's mom's house the day after Christmas. Cache (Elissa's lab mix) and Dwight got to meet each other. This was a bit more...exciting, as they sorta riled each other up. I got to hear Dwight's new chihuahua bark, which he did while playing with Cache.
Side note: While there, Elissa asked whether Dwight had ever bitten another dog or human, so I just want to re-iterate(!!) that no, he has not ever bitten dog, human, cat, or any other thing that's not his food or treats, or the tips of my fingers as I handed him a treat. He chases cats outside but then play bows when he catches up to them (though scaring them in the process, I'm sure), and is submissive with Big Poppa, our cat. In addition, he was bit by a schnauzer once, and did not retaliate, just stood there with his ears back. If he bit a dog ever, he wouldn't ever get to play with another dog and if he bit a human, he would probably get put down. I feel bad for him sometimes, because we have to put so much pressure on him to be well behaved just because of the way he looks. I understand it, because of his breed reputation, but it still sucks.
--had lunch at Katz's with a friend, which was a double bonus because I got to catch up with him, *and* eat a whole order of fried pickles by myself.

Okay, here's some videos I wanted to show you guys.

Dwight and Aaron playing. Dwight sometimes gets in these moods where he wants to lay his paw on our hands. Halfway through, Dwight gets smart and uses both paws.


Beach footage.


More beach footage--I'm trying to get Dwight to chase the seagulls but he's totally oblivious, and keeps running in front of me and then stopping, thus tripping me up. He finally gets it though.


My mom feeding Dwight and Monica french fries. I was really surprised to see my mom doing this, because she hates the soft feeling of animals, especially their mouths. Notice how she tries to give the longest ones to Dwight.

We just took Big Poppa to the vet, and he tested negative for FIV, Feline leukemia, and heartworms! I am so relieved, because we haven't been taking him to the vet because we were afraid of stressing him out and aggravating the feline leukemia, which we assumed he had, since Tupac, who he hung around with, died of it.

^^What a convoluted sentence.

Anyways, yipee!!

I am re-obsessed with Twilight. I saw New Moon a week ago, and I just finished reading New Moon through Breaking Dawn again. Starting on Twilight again.

Why oh why am I mentally 12 years old?

Oh hell, if it lets me lust after the likes of Edward Cullen, I'm resigned to it.

My christmas present is ridiculously Twilight-inspired, too. yay!

My poor blog readers...(all 2 of you)...you must think I have abandoned you. Which, in a way, I have, since my life consists of very little of interest. Unless you would like daily updates on the escapades of Dwight and B.P., which I could go on and on about, but I doubt you would find that interesting. In addition, the "o" button on my laptop is now sticking, thus making it quite hard to write about anything with an "o" in it. Good thing Dwight's name doesn't contain one.

I really just logged on today to tell you to look at this post on CuteOverload.

But I suppose I should do some sort of update. Let's see...

Dwight and I have been battling a patch of ringworm on his belly. (Yeah, gross! Now you get a sense of my day-to-day life.) So we have a routine twice a day--I roll him over onto his side, saying something silly like, "Let's see it! Let's see it!" and then I clean the patch off with some hydrogen peroxide and then rub in a ton of Lotrimin. Thankfully, none of us humans have contracted this deadly disease yet, since it took me literally 2 years to get rid of it the last time I got it (from a shelter dog).
But the thing that makes this story more interesting, is the fact that now, whenever Dwight sees the cotton ball bag, he turns on his side and lifts up his leg so I can do what I need to do. It's hilarious, because unlike other dogs, Dwight doesn't roll over easily for some reason, so getting into position on his side to show me his belly is quite an endeavor for him. I think he likes the quality belly rubbing time, though he's never been one for actual belly rubs. Wierd, right?

Does anyone have any suggestions on fixing ringworm in dogs? We haven't taken him to the vet for it yet, since it seems to be responding to the lotrimin, but we will if it spreads.

Other things on the animal front:
1. B.P. is a love as always. We've got him a collar because there's this guy across the way who also feeds ferals and I think he might let B.P. into his house sometimes, and if he does, I want him to know that B.P. is already owned by us, and not a stray to take in. (Which, how would you not know, seeing how fat he is getting...I guess he's making up for the lean times.)
In any case, B.P. is very good about the collar and keeps it on the whole time he is outside. It's really cute hearing the tag jingle as he runs toward us.

2. Billy the gerbil, who lost his brother Lars a couple of months ago, got really sick for a while. His eyes started getting bigger and bigger, and I was really worried for a weekend. Then, his eyes went back to normal, but looked cloudy. I thought he was over whatever it was. Then, the next weekend, he started gushing blood from his eyes. It was the most horrifying thing I have ever witnessed. Aaron and I were freaking because we couldn't decide whether to take him to the vet or not, since all our experience with taking small animals to the vet is that it stresses them out so much they die soon after (or on the examining table, as per Monica and Jordan's poor guinea pig, Bob). So we let Billy try to get better on his own. He kept trying to rub his face in his sand bath to stop the bleeding, so we took it out and gave him some flour, which supposedly has styptic powers. But it didn't work, and seemed to make it worse, so we took it out. He eventually stopped bleeding, though it started and stopped twice that weekend. Now, he is pretty quiet, but does move around to eat and drink, and he'll take treats from me. In fact, while he was gushing blood and dripping it everywhere, he was still eating! Anyways, gerbils are the hardiest rodents, so hopefully he will recover a bit more.

Ok well, I gotta go. While writing this post, I am slowly eating the mediocre potato salad I made last night, and Dwight is whining at me because he wants some.

It's 3 am and I'm home alone!

Aaron is gone for the weekend unexpectedly, and I feel like a 14 year old left to my own devices. Currently I am sprawled across the bed, bathed in the blue light of the computer screen, with Dwight curled up next to me. Two seconds before I started this post, I was mouth breathing (unintentionally, due to my sinus infection that is mostly better now) and looking up random flickr photos.

All I ate today was a sub sandwich from Jimmy Johns, some popcorn, and a bite of fruit loops. I am way too used to being taken care of...if Aaron is around, he will get me food if I am feeling too weak (or lazy) to get out of the house. And if he is around, it feels less futile to scrounge up appropriate food for two rather than just me. Lucky that Dwight's kibble is easy to prepare!
And then I spent all day finishing up a book about dragons and catching up on TV. What the heck will I do tomorrow? Probably more of the same.

Dwight got his new collar in today! He looks very handsome in it. The new smell is getting to me though.