Give it away Give it away Give it away now

Last week, a very unpleasant smell was wafting from our garage, or so we thought. I was convinced that some small animal had made his or her way into one of the boxes in our garage and never made it back out. I told Jav that our garage was a rat-trap (possibly literally), and we really needed to get it cleaned out. It turned out that the smell was a dead possum that was in the monkey grass on the side of the house. We assume that the direction of the wind that day made it seem like the smell was coming from the garage. But the wheels are in motion in my head now, and I want to tackle that garage.

The problem is, I know we could make a little extra money if we had a garage sale. But I have never had a garage sale, and the thought of having to clean up all of that junk, er, I mean stuff, set it out on card tables or whatever, and ruin a perfectly good weekend of my life makes me a little sick to my stomach, just like the smell did. I really want to start taking it in batches to Good Will. Or better yet, let someone come and pick it up. But then I know I'll feel guilty about not contributing in my small way to making some income for us.

And then there's the Ebay argument. Jav thought it would be great if I could try to sell some of the nicer items of junk, er, I mean stuff, on Ebay. I started with a really pretty Bombay Company jewelry box, which I originally paid around $40.00 for, and was in really good shape. I ended up selling it for my starting bid of $10.00, and then proceeded to spend $20.00 on packaging supplies to get it shipped to the buyer. Then I realized I didn't charge him enough shipping cost, and the 2.50 balance came out of our $10.00. This all made me so mad that I swore I'd never sell anything on Ebay again. Jav thinks this first time shouldn't count in the formation of my opinion, keeps pointing out how much I learned, and wants me to try something else before I completely give up on the idea. So I am going to try again, with an antique pewter twin hurricane lamp. That doesn't work, but is really pretty. And will cost an arm and a leg to ship because it's so fragile.

And if anything goes wrong, I will load up my car the next day with everything I can fit in it, and they will not be able to unload it fast enough at the Good Will drive through.

How are the Mighty Dogs fallen...

I am very, very sad today. I found out yesterday that Stanley, my 13-year-old Wonder Dog, has an aggressive type of cancer. We kept finding little lumps on his sides, and even though I was worried it was probably something serious, I was still hoping the vet would say that they were just cysts. Molly has been staying really close to him (see picture), which only proves dogs have alot more insight than people give them credit for.

This dog has been so wonderful for me, and for all of us in our family. He needed me to help him, and because of that he ended up helping me and pretty much changed my life. I was SO hoping that when it happened, he would just go to sleep one night and not wake up. Now I have to be concerned about whether or not he is in pain (it's so hard to tell with dogs, they can be very stoic), or if I'm trying to hold onto him when I need to let him go. This is really the only really bad thing about owning pets. They just don't live long enough, even though my sweet Wonder Dog has already beaten the odds. I just have to be really positive and love him like crazy until I think it's time. But it sure does hurt.

An apple a day?

Molly, the dog with the incredible iron stomach, decided that one of the fake apple Christmas ornaments (that I use as cat toys) would actually taste pretty good. This was all that was left when I got it away from her. The carpet was a really pretty shade of magenta too. We will add this to the list of amazing things Molly has eaten.

Fun with Activity Mats 101

We have been given three hand-me-down activity mats, and the latest fun thing to do is line them all up like a long tunnel and let Gabriel creep around and go crazy.

Moments of joy

Do you ever have those moments where you feel so profoundly happy that everything in the world seems to make perfect sense for awhile? I seem to always get them early in the morning at sunrise, or at dusk, which makes me think I either have a real connection with the sun or the moon, but I don't know which. I had one tonight. It's been such a great day. Gabriel and Jav gave me a Bougainvillea and a giftcard to Calloway's for our front bed plants. Our neighbors Billie and George brought me a card and a geranium, proving once again that they are the best neighbors in the whole world. Jav went to get my favorite blueberry cake donuts for breakfast. I got to take a nap. We went to see my Mom and give her the garden bunny Gabriel and I picked out, and my Dad got to see Gabriel pulling up on everything and trying to stand. Jav went to get On The Border for dinner (fish tacos=smiling face). We ate outside with Gabriel in the perfect eating outside weather. It was after dinner that I got to have my best gift of the day. I was just standing doing dishes, looking out at our beautiful backyard as the sun went down. I was listening to a combination of Jav and Gabriel having their post-bath goings on and 90.1 At Night, going from Brave Combo to Ella Fitzgerald to an obscure Beatles and then to k.d. lang. The dogs and cats were laying about here and there. And it hit me how incredibly happy I am right now.

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful Moms I know, and especially to my own ever-patient, always-there-for me, hilariously funny and totally understanding Mom.

Storms

What is the deal with the weather this year? Maybe we just got complacent over the last couple of years since we had virtually no rain. Our bad weather siren has gone off 8 times so far this year. (Jav thinks whoever runs it has decided to sound it off even when it's not necessary-a CYA move of some sort). We have been in either Gabriel's closet or our internal hallway 7 of those times. The first time was just total panic that we didn't even know where to go in this house. But in the weeks that followed, I have got the storm drill down to an art.

First I get Gabriel to a contained area so I won't have to worry about him. Then I calmly start finding and picking up cats to put in their carriers. I can always catch Henry (poor guy is blind and can't run away all that well), and Bones, and sometimes Zoe. But I have never and will never catch Fred. He burrows under a bed or a couch so far and is extremely wily. He's really more like a ferret than a cat. So he's on his own if push ever really comes to shove. Then I corral the dogs in the hallway by shutting all doors to rooms off the hallway and putting down some boxes in the one open area where there is no door. Then I turn on the radio in Gabriel's room, hunker down and wait. This is a stressful time; not only because of wondering what's happening outside, but because the dogs are restless and panting, the cats are wailing and scratching their carriers, and Gabriel is usually starting to get squirmy. If nothing happens for awhile or the threat seems to go away, we move to our bedroom and watch David Finfrock. Gabriel's first memories are going to be of watching brightly colored storm-tracking radar with Mommy. If we're really lucky, Jav is home to help out with all of this hullabulloo too. But that's only happened twice, and I have accepted the fact that I'm probably on my own. And so far we are very thankful to only have received lighting, thunder, some wind and tons of rain.

I feel for all the people in our area that are having to deal with losses, big and small, from Mother Nature.