pics,pics,pics,pics

As promised many, many months ago...... Lots of pics. This is Squirt, she was dropped off by a nice lady that had rescued her from a drunken neighbor. She was 10 weeks old when we got her (maybe) and after looking for good home for several moths we have decided to keep her (mainly since we can't bear to part with her) The official line is " we have to be sure that she goes to the right home". Of course the best home for her is ours!!







Wildfire!! You have heard of all the fires here. We had a close one, the fence you see is our property line. Too close for comfort. Fortunately the wind was blowing the other way from the house and kennel and we escaped unscathed. A little too close for comfort.























I'm doing this remotely from work (check out LogMeIn.com!). It's a little slow for all these graphics. I'll post more soon...................

I'm sort of back

I wanted to share this terrific description of those morons that like to dog fight.

"It's about power and control and it appeals to people who feel insecure and insignificant and powerless in their own lives so they take it out on creatures less powerful than them by training them to be aggressive," he told the BBC News website.

"It satisfies a rather seedy bloodlust among people who often feel disenfranchised and alienated from society."

Oh ho, seems to fit the bill........................

The End (for now)

I am soooo bad about updating that I have decided to take a hiatus from blogging. Maybe for a while, may be forever..................not sure right now, sort of ambivalent (no, not that!!).

It Lives!!!

The DSl is in, it works!! Life is good!!

Something different

2 posts in one day? What is going on with him. I grew up overseas and my folks loved to travel so I have been to the following places.......



create your own visited country map

create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide

FINALLY!!!!

It's happened, it's (almost) true. The phone company told me that we have DSL available in my neighborhood. Neighborhood? I live in the f***ing country with nary a soul to be seen!! Drool, slobber I can't wait!!!! Well, to be realistic it won't be true until I can connect. It will allow me to be more productive when it comes to blogging and I will be able to post pictures to my hearts content. That after promising all of you (2 of you?, 1 of you?) that I would post this or that and then never do it. It's too much trouble and risky to post from work. Well, we'll see. If the modem arives on time I should be on byThursday night.

Kennel was slammed for Thanksgiving. We had sooo many dogs you would not have belived it. We did exceptionally well and we have offically decided that this is no longer a hobby......

Some pics, finally

OK, so I know that I am slow but here are the before pic of the back yard. I will post the after in a day or so (suuure they say)

Coming Soon!!!

Ah, vacation looms!!! Sunday we're off to spend a glorious week doing nothing but acting like the grown-up kids we truly are!!. I have purchased, and hold right here in my grubby little hand two, 2! park-hopper, all locations tickets for Disney, muhwahahahahaha. I am so pysched for this I can't stand it. I feel like a 8 year old the week before Christmas, I CAN'T WAIT ANOTHER MINUTE!!! Oh, God, won't this week end!! On a more serious note, it appears that we have all bases covered. 2 extremely trustworthy friends to housesit, employees to cover the kennel, time off and we're almost at lift-off.

The roof is finally done after some judicsious hollering at the roofing company. If they only communicated it would be sooo much better. It looks awesome! he desck is finsihed and the coping around the pool is installed. Jimmy is supposed to be at the house today to talk about the garden/hole in the concrete portion of the deck. Size, fucntion etc. I think we want to do a water garden in that spot. It would look awesome! Anyway, I do have some pics of the deck being built and some before pics of the roof so those will be coming. I want to have the entire series ready for you at once......

I will probably not post again until after vacation (surprised?!?!?).................see ya!!

Ha, Finally!

Well, yesterday was the first day that we actually had both the roofers AND the landscapers working! Who-ho! Conversation between the roofers and my wife

2 pm Wife "You aren't leaving now are you?"
Logan (roofer) "naw, just have to go and pick up some material that they delivered to the wrong job site."
Wife "OK then, see you later"
end of story, end of Logan, of course he didn't come back!

645am this morning 'doorbell rings, dogs go nuts, cats run helter skelter'
landscaper "could you bring the dogs in we're here to work"

Now which would you have the most faith in? Hmmm??

I PROMISE TO POST SOME PICS SOON (sure the general public says, and the goverments here to help us....................)

Wow, 2 posts in one day?!

Just trying out some stuff, look at the bottom of the page at the pictureviewer thingee, pretty cool, huh? Just doesn't have any place for captions...............those are on flickr........

Hmmm

Your Deadly Sins

Sloth: 60%

Wrath: 40%

Envy: 20%

Gluttony: 20%

Greed: 20%

Lust: 20%

Pride: 0%

Chance You'll Go to Hell: 26%

You will get bugs, because you're too lazy to shoo them off. And then you'll die.

How Sinful Are You?

Roof, Kennel and Backyard

We are going through another spurt of growth here.

We are finishing the kennel. Those of you that have kept up(?!) know that we had only the east side and back of the kennel finished. We had to turn away biz for the 4th weekend so we decided to go ahead and finish it out. Awesome! We now have 34 runs (plus cages etc) so are now the biggest kennel in Alachua county!. We also decided to finish out the floors in the runs. We had originally put linoleum in the common area in the back but have since decided to run it into the runs so the dogs have NO bare concrete to deal with. It really makes it look neat and clean. The shade covers arrived for the outdoor portions so once the awning guy comes and finishes our entranceway we will be done!! At least until we build another..or...We went and looked at another kennel that may be for sale shortly. There are only 4 in the county and if we were to buy this one we would have 1/2 of the kennel space in the area! Anyway, I digress, it was such a dump that I'm surprised that they do as well as they do. Well, one reason is that the kennels themselves are in the back of the property and the owner will not allow vistors to that part. No wonder, it looks like Cambodia during the genocide. It would take a LOT of work to get it up to standards. Well, we'll see.....

We're having a roof put on the house. We were discussing what still needs to be done at the house and we are always taking about the roof and the backyard. For having 11 acres we do not use the backyard. It's the dogs domain and not really people friendly. We had a hardscape archietect out to give us some ideas and he came up with a great plan. We signed the contract on Sat and he will start soon as the roof is done. We're also having the leaky roof fixed. Since we never, ever want to have to deal with the roof again we decided to go with a metal roof. It will be sooo nice not to see the hodge-podge mismatched roof again. I will definately post before and after pic of both projects. Gotta run, work calls.............

Its August already!!

Lets' see. A tropical something headed this way (maybe). It's hot and we have gotten almost no rain. Other news................

OK. one by one. Chris is sort of headed this way. Its on the track to hit us but it's way too early to panic, or is it? I'll check the generator and make sure we're set. I remember 8 days of no power (actually it was only 4 until I found the gennie) but it sucked nonetheless. All the food in two freezers melting. We ate bbq, the dogs had bbq, steaks, bratwursts, pork, chicken you name it. I was never so sick of bbq in my life. Water pouring out of the afore mentioned freezers on my wood floors, showering by dipping from the pool, sudsing and rinseing. Oh, I did forget to mention that the well quit working in the midst of all this? Don't forget we live in the country and the only service we get is power and phone. The rest is on us. Septic, Direct TV, dial-up internet, you have heard that from me before, check earlier....Anyway, It pays to be ready.

It's been hot, maybe not as hot as some of you, 100 degrees in NY this week! Man oh man, not the place to be. I remember summers in Queens at my grandmothers and the heat and humidity, and it was only in the high 80's and low 90's. I can feel the sweat just thinking about it.

We have been full at the kennel, I mean flat out busy since the middleof June. We have started putting in the runs on the other side. That will give us a total of 34 runs, 10 stainless cages (for the teeny dogs) and the cat room. We'll be the biggest kennel in Alachua county when we're done. We're actually thinking about building another one (or buying, don't want to say too much..) on the other side of town. We are putting on another employee, a part timer, high school kid, but still....I can't believe how well we're doing. We have decided that I will stay here at my sucky day job for a while yet. We'll review how things are every 3 months and re-asses. I don't want to cut off my nose to spite my face. Other than that it's been business as usual, run run run!!! ta!

Whoohoo another update

Things are finally slowing down at the kennel. It's both a relief and a shame. We had an outstanding run these last two weeks or so. We had many dogs, many customers and whew!!! Our part time help, bless her little soul, worked 45 hours last week. She's on vacation this week, it probably came at a good time for her. She doesn't complain at all and works hard but I could tell she was looking for a break. She'll be back on he 17th and she won't have that many hours until the next holiday (Labor Day?).

Carolyn and the girls are down from NY and it's nice to see them all. It's too bad they don't live closer. I know that Dolly would like to see them more often. At least they stay for several weeks at a time.

Dollys' sooo happy with her palm trees (pic last post). I can't wait until they grow a bit. Oh and we're getting an awning for the front of the kennel so it doesn't look so institutional. Pics when that occurs. later then...................

July 4th Weekend

Well it's been almost 8 weeks since I quit smoking and except for one slip I've been doing good. I really was beginning to think I would never quit. Looks like I actually did it. Congrats to me. It feels good. I haven't put on too much weight, a few pounds at most. The kennel is doing awesomely well. We have 43! dogs in there for the holiday! That's a lot of feeding and walking. It's paying off though, We're doing much better than I had ever imagined. We have had the fence guys out to measure and price the other side of the kennel. We will ultimately have an additional 16 runs. That will give us the grand total of 34 runs. Thats almost doubling our capacity. Better start thinking about an additional employmee or so. The pace is brutal but it comes in spurts aroung the holiday. Gotta run, dogs to walk!! A pic of Dollys new palm trees....

Still going

Now on day 7! Tommorrow will be a week smoke-free. I'm doin' pretty good. No more Valium, I don't need it. Sometimes I miss it though....but I will not be chokin' my life away. Let some one else be the statistic!

5th day

Well it's been 5 days without tobacco. Doesn't seem so bad but boy do i sure want one sometimes. Not that I have a nicotine craving, it's more like a habit (no pun intended). I was used to 1)having a smoke after lunch 2) having a smoke while walking the dogs 3) having a smoke when I couldn't stand this damn job one more minute. So now I have to find something else to do. Drugs are out (damn!!), I don't drink anymore......so what do i do? contemplate the trees, road........a little frustrating really, I guess I miss the whole effect of smoking, the pack, the lighter, the way to light up, holding the cig. It's going to be hard but I'm determined to do it. I am much stronger than a little tube of an addictive, health destroying herb. I mean if it's herb I wanttttt..............

Time to Quit!!!!

Smoking that is. After reading some interesting (frightening) stuff on smoking (tobacco that is). I am taking the plunge. I have had only 3 drags (guilt-ridden ones at that) since Friday night. Pretty good, between my welbutrin and valium I have killed no-one yet and it doesn't seem that bad. I really miss the times I smoked. For example after lunch was a time for reflection (and a couple of butts), walking the dogs was time for reflection (and a couple of butts). Sounds really stupid when you put it in words.

Why you might ask. Well it started with a cold about 6 weeks ago. Turned into bronchitis and just sat there. Everyday and night cough-cough-cough, spit, hack sniffle. Pretty pathetic if you ask me. So off to the Dr. Mr Doctor sir, I have cold that won't go away. Do you smoke? is the FIRST thing he asked. Damn....OK, explained to him that I had tried before, was going to try again etc etc etc. He perscribed an inhaler, not your ordinary kind. You know albuterol, puf ever few hours etc. Oh no, this one has directions on the side for people with EMPHYSEMA and serious lung related ailments. Now you gotta understand I am turning 50 this year and have beeen smoking since I was 15. Let's do the math...35 YEARS! Well, if that aint a looong time. Seems like that's enough time to do some serious damage. So I start thinking, a little shortness of breath, a little chest pain, too much hackin' and coughin'. Hmmm....If I'm going to put anything in my lungs I want it to be fresh air or dope. So I have chioce, I can either really try and stop or I can keep on and die relatively early. I have a lot I want to do so I'm gonna quit. So now it's been almost 3 days and I'm not doing so bad.

Wish me luck, wish me success, so far I'm doing OK...

7 weeks later......

Well it's been a looong time since I posted. Really too much going on. Kennels doin' great, we even had to hire a part-timer to help. Otherwise we have been really busy. We moved buildings at work and are now in Dilbert-land. Oh joy. I'll try to post again before August.....

Fur trade

Check this video that Stacey pointed me to. It's really disgusting that people (any people) can act this way toward animals. Stuff in Korea is equally as bad. I try to avoid all Korean and Chinese products for this reason. If I see those "cute" little furry trinkets in stores I will complain to the manger about them and threaten (DO!) stop shopping there. I will not be a party to this kind of tourture. There is enough horror and terror for animals as well as people just in nature, I see no reason for this to continue.

Although I find that PETA is a little over the top in some respects I support them for the animals sake. God Bless our little friends and for the tourtured amoung them may they find peace over the Rainbow Bridge. May those that steal animals for this and other practices rot in a special hell.

I lok forward to the day that meat for human consumption is grown in cloning vats so no animals are ever killed for consumption. Although I do eat meat (I tried the veggie path, I just couldn't do it!) I try to ensure that the meat I do eat is from "humane" sources. I wonder if there is really such a thing. I support most strongly any measure to ensure the mitigating of the
terror that many of these animals must feel. I must say that I feel a bit like a hypocrite writing this. I can't help it, I want to do more. I write a lot of letters and give money to those I can.