Mad Mags

Much ado has been made about our newest Scottish Terrier, Dewey.

Lest we forget wee, sweet 9 year old Maggie ... Well, I felt she must be mentioned.

She's the Scottie on the right. At the time this photo was taken, we had taken them both to the beach house. Dewey had been with us for 3 weeks.

The look in her eyes says it all, doesn't it?

After much fussing about when Dewey came (he even got a vet visit after one of their more nasty arguments), Maggie has settled down into being a couple.

Where Dewey is lumbering, slow and dim--Maggie is sharp, fast and quick-thinking.

It's pretty interesting to see how being paired with him actually pains her psyche.

She seems mortified when he lifts his leg on things.

She rescues the odd sock that he drags into the back yard.

She comes and gets one of us when he needs to go outside.

She's protective over him when he's not feeling well.

She waits patiently as he drinks all the water in the water dish and drags water all over the kitchen.

However...if he EVER touches one of her toys--it's back to the vet for him...

And she's not kidding.

It's Summer!

Have you ever noticed how time slips by so fast when you're busy?
That Summer in the Pacific Northwest is fleeting?

And you want to grab every last balmy, sunny day and squeeze every blessed moment from it?

Yeah...me too!

Injustice, served cold.

I bought a pack of Crayola crayons.

I wanted to get the kind that had the built in sharpener.

I don't remember having a set all to myself when I was a kid, so I thought I'd fix the injustice.

That's me--fixing all the injustices of my life.

Whatever...

So I went to Target.

I couldn't find them--they weren't with the toys.

I painstakingly asked a sales clerk (a retailer?) where I could find some crayons.

She looked at me like I had just requested porn.

She had to call 3 other people to find out where the crayons were.

Apparently they are now kept in the stationery aisle.

Go figure.

Anyway, I lingered in there for a really long time. These things aren't instant--they must be decided upon.

I found the box with the built in sharpener--it looks exactly as I remembered it.

BUT--there next to it was a an even BIGGER box! I decided to go for the bigger box.

After all-- I AM an American. We go for quantity over quality every time.

I brought the trademarked bright orange-y yellowish and green box home..I opened it.

What did I see?

Instead of row upon row of pristine, sharp crayons in the box--there were 6 BOXES of smaller crayons. No built in sharpener. No special crayon colors called ebony or onyx.

Just box after box of ordinary crayons. Colors like brown. blue. green.

AARRGGHHH!

So I am off to Target tomorrow to fix this travesty.

You can find me in the stationery aisle.

I'll be the one oozing grim determination.

Watch it, Mister!

Wes has been really busy at work, lately.

He's in charge of the molestations and sex crimes for his jurisdiction.

It takes a toll on his spirit, this job.

But he's really thrilled when he can arrest some pervert, give the victim (s) some relief and get the weird-o off the streets--even if it's just for a little chunk of time.

While he says he's 'just doing his job'--I'm really proud he does what he does.

I sleep better at night knowing good guys like him are on our side.

It's all relative, I suppose

Have you ever wondered why you met someone?
Why you felt that instant connection?

Was it Appearance? Spirit? Drive?
Why did you instantly have a rapport?

It's one of those weird unexplainable things.
I've been looking at the people who are in my life and wondering why we have the relationship we do. It's like the moment we talked there was something there.
With each of them, including family members and pets.

Are the relationships in our lives pre-ordained? Accidental?
Why were they someplace at the exact moment I was ?
Why do friendships flourish beyond a simple 'hello' ?

I don't know either.

A SCAM...and us.

Here's the back story....

A week before Brodie moved to Seattle, his 12 month old VW engine blew up.

Since he couldn't leave the state without a car, we lent him Wes' SUV to drive. The new VW engine we ordered out of Colorado was supposed to take 4-6 weeks to arrive. We were really happy to find this guy's ad in a VW magazine. He had built the "Herbie the Love Bug" movie car--both the original and the new one. That told us he knew what he was doing, was trustworthy and had longevity.

So what about our engine??

So far....it's been 7 weeks. Haven't heard anything from the guy building the engine despite several e-mails and a few frantic phone calls.

Not. a.word.

Silence.

Then, Wes received a very disturbing phone call today.

It was a guy who had contracted with the same VW engine guy we had. He lives in Michigan.

He had receievd his VW engine, installed it and it died after about 30 seconds.

$3,500 down the drain.

He had been contacted by an ex-police officer out of Los Angeles who had listened to the engine builders voice mails (learned a neat trick on how to do that!) and was contacting the 15 or so disgruntled people who had been calling the builder.

Wes had a few messages on the guy's voice mail--so they called to let him know what was happening. The builder is a fraud, according to the Michigan guy.

Wes is calling our bank to see if we have any recourse to get Brodie's $2,000 back.

The money we paid out of our account on his behalf.

It's not looking good so far.

We're out $2,000. We're out a VW Bug engine. We don't have our SUV.

Looks like we're royally screwed.

Great.

Taking a teeny break

Taking a much needed rest since I am working a million hours the next two weeks.
Talk amongst yourselves--I'll be back soon.