CafeChatNoir

Roughly a year ago, my adorable dog decided to present me with a frozen, dead squirrel.

Today (or techically yesterday) is Moxley Day.  AKA, his “birthday” as we don’t know his actual birthday, and he came to the family the week before Christmas.  I decided 12/1 should be the Moxley Day as it wouldn’t get mixed up with Christmas and he wouldn’t get shorted due to the holidays.

I came home, let him out, and as he came back in, yet again, I thought he had a stuffed animal.  Then I realized that the reason he was ignoring the offers of Beggin Strips was because he had something better.  A goddamn possum.  CHRIST ON A CRACKER. WHY DOES MY DOG BRING ME THIS STUFF????

And I had to call Donald to come up and help me get the dog in sans dead (or temporarily stroked out possum) and being a good dog, he did come in wihtout gifts.  And the possum is still curled up and looking a bit of a mess (not fight wise, just bad hairdo wise) on my back deck.  And I don’t know how long it takes a “dead but not dead” possum to get up and GTFO, and I don’t know if they get messy coats over the course of the crappy weather or if this is because my dog slobbered him to death, so I  don’t know if my dog snapped the neck of a sick possum or drowned him with slobber or just got too close to a healthy possum that just “keeled over” for his own protection.

But I will say that I really, REALLY don’t want to have to remove a dead possum from my deck with the snow shovel tomorrow, especially since we don’t have trash pickup again until Friday morning.

And if the damn thing is still on the deck in the morning, then I get to call animal control and have the friggin’ thing tested for rabies and I have to keep the Mox quarantiened for who knows how long to be sure everything is A-OK.  Oh joy.

EDIT:  The possum is FINALLY making his way off the deck, if somewhat slowly – and doesn’t not look thrilled that he got picked up and carried this close to the house in the first place.

Here in lovely Fairfax County we are under a “Dense Fog Alert” from the National Weather Service.  And I can attest that they were correct, as there is a boatload of seriously dense fog out there this evening.

But as I was driving through it, I couldn’t help but be reminded of my days in Driver’s Ed, as Coach* told us that if we were driving in the fog, we should NOT put our brights on, no matter how much we wanted to.  There was something about glare and such, and I could only silently nod my head in agreement.  I was a sophomore, I sucked at all science, and had no experience actually driving anywhere other than around the block, much less in the fog, so it sounded perfectly reasonable.

Until the first time I actually drove in fog, quite some time later.  I drove along, hearing Coach’s voice in my head, and yet I turned the brights on anyway.  Part of it was to simply be able to see what on earth he was talking about.  When he gave the lecture, I only had my learner’s permit and wasn’t driving on foggy nights anyway, so I really had no idea what he was talking about.  The other part was to see if he was correct or off his rocker.

So I flipped on the brights.  And yes, there was a bit of glare.  But the world most certainly didn’t come to an end!  Even with the glare, I could see SO MUCH MORE than I would have been able to see otherwise.  And I survived the foggy drive home.  And all I could think the entire time was, “That bastard LIED to me!!”  (And I was in college at that point and it still pissed me off.)

I don’t know if they’re still throwing the “no brights in the fog” as the Driver’s Ed party line, but I hope not – because it’s just another reason to make the younger generation not trust anyone over 30.

The moral of the story?  Don’t go with scare tactics – they don’t work.

*Because isn’t the assistant coach of the football team the best person for teaching Driver’s Ed?

But hey, I haven’t had cats in over a year, much less KITTENS!

Lily’s e-collar is off, and she’s spent the past 24 hours grooming all the spots she couldn’t reach before.  Last night when I went upstairs to see them, I said, “Awww, look at the naked Lily!” and I swear, Carmen gave me this look of, “How about some praise for those of us that didn’t need protective headgear in the first place?”

Though they’re still confined to the bathroom when they’re alone, their world has expanded to the bedroom now.  I go up and kick back and read and they run around and explore and help me with kitten proofing.  It goes something like this:

- Not a cat toy.
- Not a cat toy.
- OK, technically not a cat toy but you won’t hurt yourself playing with it.
- Hey, that’s my underwear!

Then we get into a bit of information overload and they start trying to beat the snot out of each other, so it’s treat & nap time.  (I suspect this is a bit like crackers, juice & nap time with toddlers.)  I am getting a lot more reading in this way, but I’ll be happy when they’re big enough to come downstairs and watch the hockey games with me.

The continued introductions with Moxley have gone swimmingly.  He is definitely not used to cats that actively approach him, but he’s coping quite well.  This morning after Moxley decided he was ready to go back downstairs, both kittens followed him to the door.  So cute!

I’m not sure the sides of the box spring on my bed will survive kittenhood.  Though we’ve showed them the easy way to the bed, via the cedar chest at the foot of the bed, it’s so much more fun to climb up the side of the bed.  Lily has discovered the fun of burrowing under the blankets on the bed.  This is usually followed by Carmen flying in out of nowhere and landing on top of the kitten lump on the bed.  (Oh, I fear for my toes once they’re sleeping in the bedroom.  Perhaps it’s time to start wearing socks to bed.)

If I catch them at the right time and they’re not quite awake yet, they just want to crawl in my lap and keep snoozing.  If that doesn’t melt you a little bit, not much will.

I am SO glad these two picked me out at the shelter. :-D

In theory, this video should work – if not, I can’t figure out embedding, but there is video -  it is at Facebook, and should be available for all to see.

OK, Facebook’s definition of “everyone” is limited to the FB world, so here it is on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHNPEwt1BIs

OK, Citicard’s MasterCard division either has had a pretty impressive programming screwup, or they have found a great way to gouge customers that pay in full each month and generate no fees for them.

Went back and looked at a couple older statements.  Payment was due on the 11th, and the next statement was generated on the 17th.  So, when the system kicks over to 12:01AM on the 17th, all payments have been posted and processed, etc, etc.

The last statement, the payment was due on the 17th – and the next statement was also generated on the 17th.  So, yesterday at 12:01AM the system looked, saw no payment, triggered a late fee and a finance charge.  And none of the later activity from the 17th is taken into account.  It’s brilliant.  They still get their payment and get to tack on a $39 fee and a finance charge.  BECAUSE YOU CAN’T PICK THE DAY THEY AUTO-DEBIT – it’s always the due date.

And even better, looking at the statement that was generated yesterday – the next payment is due on October 16.  And the next statement will be generated October 16.  And if Citi can’t fix the autopay date, we’ll have this whole goatrope all over again.  (I’ll just cancel autopay before that happens, but sheesh.)

I’m still waiting to hear back from Citi on this nonsense.

Stranger?  My two Citi accounts don’t have this problem – my due dates are still a week before the statement date.  (Which is why I can admit a programming screwup is within the realm of possibility.)

Last November, something went awry with my grandmother’s MasterCard and she had to get a replacement card.  (I never was able to get the actual details of what happened.)  7 days of calls 24/7 because she was sure they wouldn’t send her a new one…  It was not a pleasant week, and I suspect if I go back and look at that week in Quicken, my bar tabs were probably twice as high as usual.

All has been well since then.  Until today.  I get a call from Sharyn, apparently my grandmother received a call from “the bank” (she was sure it was Wells Fargo) about “a discrepancy”…  Oh lord.  I quickly get online and all bank accounts look perfectly fine.  Nothing out of the ordinary. Wells Fargo is fine.  Wachovia is fine.  Sharyn then went to work getting my grandmother unscrewed from the ceiling – we both decided it was probably some damn marketing call.  (It is impossible to get a straight answer out of her when these types of things happen, because she doesn’t remember and then just fills in the blanks with things that help support her case for freaking out.)

Then I looked at what had downloaded into Quicken for her MasterCard account.  It had a due date of 9/17, and that payment had come out of the bank account on 9/17.  However, it was not reflected in the MasterCard balance *and* she was hit with a late fee and finance charge…

Whisky Tango Foxtrot.

This account has been setup for autopay for 15+ years – full balance due each month.  Never a problem.  The statement would say, “It’s coming out of the bank account on day X of the month.” and it did and all was fine, and the date was usually right around a week before the actual due date.  So….why the hell did it debit so late?  And trigger a late charge to boot?  Seriously, WTF?

I get online and look at the payment history.  It is showing a payment, on 9/17, for the full amount.  Then a phone payment.  Today.  For $20.  From the Wells Fargo checking account.  Apparently the “call from the bank” was MasterCard calling about the payment and then she made a phone payment.  And then it became “the bank called about a discrepancy…”

Then I also realized that Citi has changed the autodebit date to the due date.  They pick the date – there is no way to pick it yourself.  And because of how things are processed, I have to assume it “arrived” after 5PM, and then was considered “late” and then triggered this phone call which sent my grandmother into a complete tizzy.

Fan-fucking-tastic.  I’ve got an email into Citi cards to find out why if it shows a posted payment on 9/17 that there was a late charge and finance charge.  And what can be done to move that payment date so it’s actually *before* the due date like it used to be.

If not, then I have to cancel the autopay and do a manual online payment each month when the statement cycles, cause there is no way on God’s Green Earth I am going through this nonsense of her autopay being “late” every frigging month.

And I need to now sit down and figure out what the real balance is for the payment due in October, because there are 2 payments that aren’t showing on that statement and let Sharyn know cause when the paper statement hits the house, it’s not going to be right… (The autopay comes out of an account that I haven’t been able to wrestle away from my grandmother just yet…  The damn thing only pays the MasterCard and the power bill and still causes drama.)

*headdesk*

Not that I don’t love dogs like crazy.  I won’t even go so far as to say I’m not a dog person – I just suspect that I wasn’t built to be a dog *owner*…  (When we had dogs as kids, the first line responsibility belonged to our parents.  Our job was to love them and play with them.)

And yet, I have a dog.

For 10+ years, I was the primary owner of cats.  As much as some may say that cats are complicated, they’re actually quite simple.  If they want to be petted, they will stand on top of you.  If they want to be left alone, they will go to the other room.  If they are hungry, they will stand on top of you and yell at you.  If they’re ticked off at you, they will sit with their back to you for a while, and then go hork up a hairball in your favorite pair of shoes or on top of a freshly laundered sweater.  It’s really quite simple.

But dogs?  Dogs are actually complicated.  They want to make you happy all the time and they don’t get mad at you – they just get hurt at your actions.  Combine these qualities with my relative inexperience with dog ownership and insecurities over my abilities as an effective dog owner, and you have someone who will dump a ton of money at PetsMart, PetCo, and my favorite critter boutique, Outer Barks down at the beach.  (Hey, they have a yappy hour!)

Today, the awesomedog Moxley benefited yet again from my inexperience and insecurity.  The past couple days he’s been licking his paw, and I THOROUGLY inspected his paw pads for rocks, pebbles, twigs, cuts and any other thing that could be stuck in his foot.  Then I finally figured out it was because his thumbnail (dew claw?  I thought they were higher on the leg, but I don’t know…) had not only gotten fairly long, but the little guy had snagged it on something and it had a crack in it.  A quick inspection of his other nails showed it was time for a trimming.  (Sooner than usual because neither one of us has gotten the exercise we should have, and he’s not gotten the benefit of the natural nail file of sidewalks.)

So, given that I have NO confidence in my canine-nail-trimming abilities, and even if I got it right, Mox would know I was freaked out and it would freak him out, so we went out on a grand adventure that I simply told him was, “Hey, we’re going to PETCO!!!!!!!!!”

Which was actually a bit of a bait and switch to say the least.  First, we had to swing by the vet’s office for a rabies certificate (the office is in the same shopping center as the PetCo) because I discovered that the empty S hook on his collar *used to* hold his most recent rabies tag, and of course I couldn’t find the piece of paper certifying that he’d had the shot.  Despite the fact that nothing bad has happned to him at the vet, and they ADORE him (and I suspect they think I’m a moron) he was still not pleased to be standing around in that waiting room.  But we got our piece of paper and headed off to PetCo for a nail session.

While I have heard some horror stories about PetCo with grooming, when I called they said I could just bring him in and they do it right then and there.  My feeling is, if you’re willing to trim nails with the owner front and center, you are probably good at it.  When we walked in, Mox was already not happy cause we were NOT in “fun, games and treats” part of the store.  The lady that trimmed his nails was wonderful, didn’t drag him back behind the swing door/table and just did his nails while he was on the big carpeted welcome mat, so his spoiled backside didn’t even have to touch the tile floor.

And yet, despite the lack of actual trauma, I kept getting the “Why are you doing this to me??!?!?” look.  And of course, we were going to go get treats in the main store anyway.  But, because I had injured him so much by making him sit in the waiting room of the vet, and then getting his nails trimmed by a lovely lady who did nothing but tell him how handsome he was and how GOOD he was…  For a $10 nail trim (worth every penny), I spent $41 in PetCo.

But Moxley now has a lovely stuffed squeaky lamb, a bag of “Mellow Mutt” dried chicken strips (cage free, no less!) a Dingo bone (his favorite), a peanut butter/carob bone shaped treat, and a $5 donation to local rescue efforts.  And nicely trimmed nails.  And repeated praise from me about what a GOOD dog he is.

I’m either really good at this, or that dog has suckered me six ways from Sunday.  You decide.

Tonight when I left the pool hall, I definitely felt something not quite right with my little world.*  Could have simply been the ozone in the air from the earlier storms, but seriously, I could smell something very wrong in the air.  I definitely know how ridiculous it sounds, but there was something very, very wrong in the air this evening, and I don’t know what it is, but I strongly suspect it can’t be good.

I can’t be the only one that has had one of these little odd incidents…  (Seriously, someone agree with me so I don’t get a paid 5150 vacation at InNova Medical.)  Perhaps it’s just remnants of typhoons when we lived overseas, but something just ain’t right.

Time will tell, as with all things.  But still, something is quite off-kilter somewhere.

* I am not a full on new-agey-crystal-hugging-hippie.  I’m still working hard to get to that level, but I’m not there just yet.  My “one step right of Attila the Hun” status from high school brings forth extra barriers.

Be prepared for multiple bizarre posts at weird hours – when you’re in a situation where you’re spending the majority of daylight hours holding your tongue, you have to spew it all somewhere at some point. God bless the internet for giving me the ability to do that. :)

First, deciding to take the later flight in and get a hotel and just tell my grandmother, “I will be there at 10AM on Tuesday” has been one of the smartest things I’ve ever done. I’m more disappointed in myself that I didn’t fugue it out until the 4th trip in 16 months. No getting up at the crack of dawn and dealing with rush hour traffic or insane cab drivers to the metro, no rushing through baggage claim or worrying about the long line at the rental car counter. I’ve been able to take the travel day at my leisure, I can definitely say it’s already a better outcome, as I am chilled out and relaxed and ready to take on tomorrow.

Second, I am still quite spot on with Virginia time – the bar at the hotel closes at 11PM. And I have found a lovely new beer – Kilt Lifter. It’s an amber, but drinks more like a honey-ale., but I can say, it does have a bit of a kick to it. The bartender advised me to figure out a way to take some home with me.

The North Airport Hilton Garden Inn is a typical airport hotel, but they’re also really new, so I’m happy to throw the business their way. Lovely server for dinner, and a bartender that didn’t bat an eye when I looked up and saw the 6 game suspension for Brashear and yelled, “What the HELL???” (While in the dining room – thankfully it was nearly empty.) He only said, “Oh, so you’re a hockey fan?” (Seriously, my one real hate of air travel is the lack of news over issues that I care about. ESPN, if you haven’t done so already, you need to start working with the airlines. Or I need to find a different airline.)

So far, this has been a nice little wakeup call that I don’t necessarily hate traveling as long as at least SOME of it is on my terms. And being able to make the boots on ground day all on my terms seems to have made a very nice difference – and getting that at the beginning of the trip may very well get the rest of it off on a decent note.

Here’s to separating travel days from family days.

Just upgraded wordpress, trying to see if it blew up or not.

Test post – seeing if this does in fact carry over to Facebook, and if so, what it looks like when it gets there.

Well, it imported the last 25 posts, but this one isn’t there – guess it just updates when the feed updates?  We’ll see.

I’m in a war of the wills with the dog.  Not really sure who is winning yet.  Trying to get him to stop licking and let the anti-itch meds kick in before we have to resort to an e-collar, which he will REALLY not like.  So far the best route on his itchy-detox has been to be on the floor with him and when he wants to start licking, we cuddle instead.  Poor itchy baby.

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So, this morning I wake up to find out that the Governor of Illinois was arrested for basically trying to sell Obama’s former Senate seat to the highest bidder.  Corruption is terrible, and it’s embarrassing for the country and no, I am not so naive to think that this is just some isolated incident – I’m sure favors and such are being sold elsewhere in the country, but it still blows.

However, as bad as it is, I laughed.  Not sure why.  Maybe because it was Chicago, the sterotypical home of corruption.  Maybe it was because it seemed somewhat absurd to be selling a Senate seat of all things.  Quite possibly it was because I lost count of how many times they had to use the word “bleep” in the press conference when they were reading some of the wiretap transcripts.

Gotta love American politics.

FTR, I live in the DC metro area.  People like to put up yard signs and such, which is great, but I’ve never quite understood advertising your political leanings in a rather politically contentious area.  (Nor have I understood political bumper stickers – given our nasty traffic, it’s a road rage incident waiting to happen…)

We have 10 days til the election.

Do you think that is enough time to collect yard signs from, say, 80% of the candidates, put them ALL in my yard with one of the BIG signs that says, “JUST GO VOTE!”?

We only have a civic association, not a HOA, so I couldn’t get fined for it, and it could just make my neighbors collective heads explode.  I think it could be fun…

Soooo, some of my posts have been randomly disappearing. Thought I’d figured it out, but apparently not. I now suspect there may be some inadvertent hole in the comment page thanks to the “subscribe to comment” plugin. Sooo, that’s disabled for now, upgrading WP will be the project of the evening and we’ll see what happens next.

Moose – when you commented on my last post, did you use the subscribe to comments button?

New laptop arrived on Friday, had a few missteps getting it up and running and set just the way I wanted, but it’s all good now and it is SO nice to get through the day without it overheating and shutting off.

It’s also MUCH faster than the old one.

So far, I’m not finding that Vista is that different from XP, and I’ve really not had any problems navigating it.

Now, Office 2007 is more annoying with it’s changes, but I’m getting used to it.

Now, I have to go back to watching the Olympics 24/7.

Something is erasing my posts… Just trying to figure out what’s triggering it – so, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain and all that.

OK, the rogue piece of script has been located and removed, WP has been upgraded and now it is a matter of getting all the little add-ons working with the newer version of WordPress.  Hopefully Google/StopBadWare will take this site off their “OMG, it will kill you!!!” list in short order.

I seem to have lost all my categories in the process of upgrading?  At least in the write post page.

OJ and Champagne in the fridge.*

Hot crab dip in the oven.

Just need to find a hat.

And watching Bobby Flay get his ass kicked by a Louisville local in an omlette making competition.

*Just not big on mint juleps.