Soon.........

At long last this week is coming to an end. The House of Morons has sent me to (in order) DeLand, Daytona and Jacksonville for 2 days in a row to help with training. A lot of driving....I really wanted to be here to help Dolly with the kennel. We have more dogs! It's really exciting. Our sun shade for the kennel arrived. A large sheet of screening material to cover the outside portion of the runs to protect the dogs from the BLAZING HOT sun. Good news is that I am off all of next week, Tims' coming up, my brother has the week off also. That will be nice.

I'm still pretty torn up about Loki. I guess it's good that I'm so busy now that it doesn't leave me time to reflect. I have been dreaming about him though.....It's odd, I generally don't dream about the animals (usually dont' dream period). I guess I will ultimately end up missing him terribly. Although we have numerous other pets/animal friends there was always something very special about him. I'm too heartbroken to tell Loki stories right now, ask me later and I'll be happy too...He was a very non-typical pooch, much more human than dog. And I'm not just anthromorphisizing (sp again)....bye for now....

Loki 1992-2005 RIP

I lost my Loki last night. I'm very sad.

At Last!

The Kennels open! The ad was in the Gainesville Sun today and will run through Sunday. Oh boy, I sure hope I know what we're getting into. I hope plenty of $$$$$$$$$$. We'll see though. Dolly checked the messages this morning be4 her mothers (cute the be4, huh?) dr's appt and we already had a call, a woman wanting several weeks for her 3 dogs in August. Yahoo! I'm between hopleless elation and having to shit. Is it always like this? Never been an entrepaner (there goes the spelling again) before. It's sort of exciting. I better get going, I think have to go to the bathroom........

Errors

I have noticed that my spelling is really bad sometimes. Just goes to show that I am so dependant on my spell-checker and I don't use it with this. It comes from being in a hurry and trying to post. It is sooo hard to keep up with the 25 hour days I have now. Gotta run

I am sore......

Well, finally (well very nearly) finished the &^%$$%^&* floor in the lobby. 700 hundred square feet of tile with, of all things, BLACK GROUT. I know why they get $1.50 to $3.00 a square foot for tiling. It took me 4 days too get that done. I can assure you I won't be doing that again soon. I'm a bit long in the tooth to be on my hands and knees for 4 days (no jokes OK?). Anyway I must admit it looks magnificent and was ultimately worth the effort. I just wanted to bitch about how sore I am. Makes me feel better.

Dolly has spoken to the newspaper and the ad for the kennel will be in this weeks (thurs, sat and sun) Gainesville Sun. I am psyched! It will go out to over 150,000 readers. I hope we know what we're doing.... Talked with the sign people and we should be moving ahead with that. Too bad I have to come to the House of Dumb for the day and waste my time. Well, at least I'm getting paid.

Our first guest. Black Lab named Mykola (?????) seems to be enjoying her visit. Since she is the only pooch she gets lots of personal attention and walks and so forth. While I was doing the floor she had the run of the kennel and amused herself with stepping in the cement if I didn't throw her squeaky toy for her.

I do have the July 4th week off. I have an old friend coming for a visit and will attempt tp dragoon him into helping me some with the kennel. It appears that my week off will be split between working at the kennel. Kennel tops, counter tops, transitions, etc etc and partying in th evening. It should be a busy weekend.

I know I keep promising pictures.......some day soon.......

Finally

It's been a little while since I posted last but a lot has happened since then. We had our final inspection yesterday! We passed. We are now open for business! Dolly has her first dog (paying!) as a guest. 18 days! We are most excited. I took a couple of days off of work and put together the kitchen and wired the tops of the runs and began work on the tile in the lobby. I have that about 70% done so I have my work cut out for me this weekend. I will try to post more pictures as we go along but time is always short, short ,short. More later........

Awesome

This is the most thought provoking and disturbing site I have seen in a looong time. Makes you think about your secret


http://postsecret.blogspot.com

Flicker Photos

Finally figured out how to do this (sort of) but kennel pics are at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/livinlife/

doh!

I had mentioned earlier to leave a comment if you would. I just realized that I have an option to restrict the posts in place. Dumbass. It should be fixed now.....

OK we're movin" again

Met with the Fire Department and got them to meet me half-way. Just a little limerock on the access road and we're good to go!. Contractor was there and we have the dirt coming today and should be able to get our final soon (this week?? maybe). This weekend has the tile and stuff coming so I'll be doin' all kinds of stuff (real work, not this pathetic burecratic bs that I usually do). Pics to follow........

ARRGGGHHH

The fire dept is giving us grief over the kennel. They now want a limelock (impervious surface) for the parking lot. We have had these plans approved for over a year. Now, right before the final inspection they want us to change this. I have only one comment (*^%$(&&$$^&(%*&^*&^*&^!!!!!!!. I have a meeting with the head mucky-muck on Monday to try to get this resolved.......Why do things have to be so gd complicated!

On a happier note, we have our first reservation!!!! Two week stay starting the 15th!!!! Yahoo!!

Movin' Along

OK, ordered a shitload of stuff from Lowes' to (hopefully) finsh this kenel up. Tile, water filter system, wood blah, blah blah, got 10% off, 12 months no interest and no payments AND free delivery. I LOOVE dealin'. Scheduled time off, 13th and 14th of this month and the entire week of July 4th. Whoohoo! Most of it will be working in the kennel. Tiling the entrance/lobby and building the kitchen. Can't wait until we open. It's a grand adventure. Now hopefully it will pay off. Everyone says "you'll do great, lots of people need this service" well, we'll see. It would be nice to get to be independent and work for ourselves. My new motto is "Get off the grid". I would love to be unconnected form the power co, phone co and have all my stuff be satellite or wireless. A little dream of mine. I read about this family in the mountains out west somewhere that has done this. It was really pretty cool.

I am pretty fortunate that my boss is a realist. I am getting to wonder about the futility of my job but having some one that understands that all this is a stupid game amkes it a little easier to swallow. I mean who's going to remember that I managed to accomplish this or that in 2 years? It's all numbers and all bullshit anyway. Boy am I getting cynical in my old age! Thats what growing up is all about, being able to (hopefully) separate the bullshit in life from what's really important.In retrospect, there is little that is really important in life, most of it IS bullshit. What is important are your family and living life in a way that is personally satifying (god, my spelling is horrible). The rest can go to hell. Well with that cheerful note I will spend the next 6 1/2 hours pissing my life away here at work.

One other thing. I have been watching my counter to see if anyone is looking and apparently someone is. Please leave a little comment once in a while. Thanks!!!!!

Dollys hobby! Fostering baby racoons!

See, he has to check out all packages for food? or mice? or things cats are interested in....

Us 2 years ago on a cruise (we loooove cruises) From Left Rosemarie (Dollys best friend for a looong time) me, Dolly, Ernie (Roes' hubby) and Dollys ma in the front. Since her moms illness this type of vacation is unfortunatly no possible.

Last Memorial Day, Andrew and Tim shooting. We had a blast, no pun intended!!

Memorial Day

Well, it dawns, Memorial Day. Being a student of history and a wargamer I think that this day gets overlooked by most people other than as a "day off of work, with pay". I think of all the people that have died over the years for the causes they believe in. You think about the sacrifices of men such as the Greeks that held the Persians back at Thermopoleye, the men that died during the charge of the Light Brigade in Gallipolli in WWI, all the wounded and maimed soldiers that gave everything for what they believed in. Our thoughts and our prayers for all soldiers, everywhere. God bless them all and keep them from harm.

A nice visit from Maria and the gks' (grandkids). Barbequed (of course) Maria helped by washing and waxing some of the new floors in the kennel. I finished the tile in the bathroom. Looks good if I don't mind saying myself. The kids, Dominic (4) and Rachel (2) are little darlins' and its nice to have the sound of little feet POUNDING through the house, animals running for cover and general pandemonium. Also managed to get over to Andrews' and get a little gaming in. A new game based on a system we have seen before on the First WW. Very good. Well, I hear the sound of little feet so I guess I'd better go......

A three day weekend

So the weekend begins! First I need to fix the chicken coop, goats pen and the horses stall. They are sooo destructive. Oh well, it keeps me out of trouble (for a while at least!). Maria and the kids should be here around 1 or so. I'll be working in the kennel around that time. I need to finish the tile on the bathroom floor and them start a materials list for the rest of the work that needs to be done around there. The tile for the floor of the lobby, the counter, the screening for the top of the runs. You would be amazed at how many dogs will climb a chian link fence! I sure don't need someone getting out when I'm watching them. I also need to order the kitchen cabinets and get the kitchen lined up. SO much to do. Why can't I just the lottery and get it overwith!

been a while

Well, lets see, where to begin......We went to St Augustine this last weekend. Mel came over to watch the animals (5 dogs, 10 cats, 7 goats, a horse, a racoon in the woods) and to look after Dollys' mom. The woman is a saint. There is special place in hevan for someone that will take all that on for mere money. Anyway, we had a great time. Some serious alone time and time for strolling. We stayed right over the Bridge of Lions on the beach side of the intercoastal. It was walking distantce to downtown (the historical and shopping district natch!). We even, get this this, we even took a NAP on sat afternoon!! Holy crap, I haven't done that in so long I can't even remember when. We had a nice time, visted with some friends, went out to dinner (Captn Jacks seafood mmmmmmm! and a chinese/American buffet (urp)). We had a blast. It was well worth it. We needed some down time. We did decide that no mater what we need to do this again relatively soon.

A day off coming up!. Memorial Day off!! No matter how I bitch about working for the state it sure gives you some nice paid off time. Dollys' daughter and the grandkids willl be coming up. It will be great to see them. Oh shit, here comes work...later all....

Again

Well, here we are again at the House of Morons. For the uniniated, its' work. Working for the state is like, like....like, I don't know. It's sort of like Thanksgiving without turkey. You're there but it is not satisfying. If they were a private company we would be out of business years ago. Oh well, it still pays the bills....

I did post some assorted stuff. Andrew trying to burn dinner, a couple of 'coon pics and the kennel runs. Looks good!