The Floor

Norm couldn't have put it better:


This is why we find ourselves living like this:

Pellet and Cali playing on the bare floor - before the went off to the pet resort


Cooking pancakes in the laundry room


Living room with dust in the air - side effect of the kitchen floor removal process


Here's the living room again after all the dust settled. Yes, that's the fridge in the back left and the stove on front right... The couches are covered for obvious reasons.

A Reason for Everything

Carpet has been pulled, kitchen floor has been pulled (2 days behind schedule) and there's dust everywhere. There's dust in every single inch of our house.

Up side: gives us a very good excuse to do a deep clean when this odyssey is over!

The Night Visitors

The night visitors have departed. Their poor owners called at 12:05am last night and my cell phone was on silent (as it is every night) and then again at 8:02am. Finally when I woke up I called them and they came running (figuratively speaking).

The poor pups had gotten lose from their back yard. Regardless of all the crazy and hectic of yesterday, we enjoyed the night visitors. Pellet eventually did also - Norm took him out on a leash when he got home from work and socializing took place.

Exciting Friday Afternoon

On my way home from work, I was driving down my hilly and winding road when I came across a chocolate lab walking right down the middle of the street. I pulled over and called her to see if she had a tag, in the process (of me finding out she had a collar but no tag) a black puppy lab showed up. She also had a collar, but she actually had a rabies tag - nothing else).

I looked around and there was nobody around that could potentially have been looking for these dogs - I opened the door to my car and they jumped right in. Thankfully I was 5 houses away from my house, so it wasn't too big of a deal.

I got home and put them in the backyard right away - they were so happy and friendly!

Once the dogs were safe, my mind started going... I didn't want to call animal control because obviously these dogs belonged to somebody and didn't want to get animal control involved, I called my vet to see if they could help and the annoying answering service said that finding two stray dogs was not considered an emergency in order to page the vet after hours... then she continued to ask a series of questions that made no sense and only caused frustration. Then I called the Humane Society and of course they were closed and wanted me to leave a message. Called the vet's number on the pup's tag (local vet) but they never called me back.

So then my last option was to go on a mad search, door to door. A couple of people said "oh yeah, I saw that chocolate lab walking around earlier today, she looked lost" the first thought that came to my head was "WHY HAVEN'T YOU DONE SOMETHING ABOUT IT" but I just smiled and thanked them and quickly moved on to the next house.

Finally I found someone who knows who the dogs belong to - but of course the owners weren't home "they might actually be gone for the weekend" the neighbor said. So I left a note on their mailbox and I'm still waiting on them to get home and call me... My mad search was actually rather productive - I not only found who the dogs belong to, but also found out that two people from work live really really close to us!

In the meantime, I let Cali out (on a leash) and she played with the visitors rather well. She had a difficult time at first with the older chocolate one but she actually got a taste of her own medicine while playing with the little black one.

And then came Pellet and that was chaos - to say the least. So he went right back to his cage.

Now the pups are outside, I've fed them and gave them water. I'm thankful that it's not hot, not cold and it's not raining. For obvious reasons, I'm not comfortable bringing them in the house, but they are hanging out in the porch just fine.

Here are some pictures and a mini video of our exciting Friday afternoon which is now turning into evening and just might turn into weekend...





I remember years ago when I did not care for dogs - at all. Today, I acted out of pure impulse. I've always thought funny things about people who do exactly what I did today. I felt weird. Very weird. But in a good sort of weird way.

Norm Got an Award!

A few nights ago, we attended the Annual Employee Awards Banquet at work. At this banquet, all employees who have been with the company 5, 10, 15, 20 years are recognized as well as employees/leaders of the quarter and then the employee/leader of the year is announced.
Norm and I attended because last November marked 5 years since we started working - ironically our start date was the exact same - November 20, 2003.

So apparently, come to find out, there's this award called the Chairman Award - which is given by - you guessed - the Chairman of the company. So at the dinner, Mr. Reynolds gets up and starts talking about this award, how it's not given regularly and how it hasn't been given in a couple of years. He continues to explain that the award is given to individuals who have shown creative thinking and embraced change (2008 was a great year for change). So then he goes to announce the winners of this award (4 people won) and Norm was one of them!!! It was a very exciting moment - we had no idea that he was going to receive this award. Norm got a nice plaque and a nice check to go along with it.

Norm's creative thinking (one of many) was to change the type of biscuit served at the clubhouses which allowed for a good chunk of savings without compromising the quality of the product.

All this aside, we are very lucky and blessed to work for a company that values their employees as much as our company values theirs. The dinner was excellent, everybody who helped create this event put their best foot forward for us - just regular employees - we were there that night to be thanked for our dedication to the company and this truly showed. In today's economy not many people have the privilege to work in an environment like we work in - yes, things are difficult and money is tight all around - but what a difference it makes when the owners and leaders of companies take time to get to know their employees and genuinely thank them. Wow.

The Lizard

Cali ate a lizard - if you know me, you know that lizards TOTALLY GROSS ME OUT - so the fact that Cali ate a lizard had me perturbed.
As she chewed along (GROSS) she walked along and suddenly stopped and spit out the lizard... yes, the lizard was still alive (at least it was still moving, for obvious reasons I did not get close enough to inspect the damage).
How gross. I'm still grossed out.

Painting

Our poor house has been due for a painting for quite some time... we haven't gone picking new colors or anything, we're basically repainting with a better quality (and washable) type of paint.

Day #1 - yesterday (Saturday morning, before Norm's work) was day #1 - we primed our bathroom and finished all the prep-work around the kitchen, hallway, etc.

Here's Norm ecstatic to go to work after priming the bathroom:


Yes - Cali managed to get herself up underneath the ladder (several times actually):


Day #2 - today we primed the hallway, and put the first coat of khaki in the kitchen and hallway as well as the first and last coat in the entry way. Enjoy videos and pictures of today!

We got creative and found a way to limit the "cage time" for Pellet and Cali, so we moved Pellet's cage to block the hallway while we painted the hallway.


This picture is redundant but couldn't go without posting it, check out Cali's tongue... she is insane.


This was the toughest part... our arms started to go numb...


Here are two videos of today, they show the progress!

One More Reason

This picture really doesn't do it justice, but it's a picture of the remnants of old charcoal that Pellet pulled out of the fireplace and decided to bring to the carpet and eat parts of.

This black stain on the carpet is one more reason why we are pulling the carpet and laying hardwood floors in about two weeks. I-CANNOT-WAIT. Yes, and that's in all caps on purpose. Trust me, you really don't want me outlining the laundry list of reasons.

We'll post pictures of the before and after :) :) :) :)

The Yearly Event

Snow in Georgia is a once a year happening. Usually we get snow sometime between February and March. Last year it was February 1st and this year is today - March 1st! For all of our friends north of South Carolina, snow is part of everyday winter life. For all of our friends here in the South, snow is a reason to:
- raid Publix
- not go to work/school
- build snowmen (no minimum accumulation required, we'll build a snowman and have a snow fight with as little as 1/2 inch of snow on the ground)
- go crazy

So today was that day. Today was the day that The Megastorm hit Eatonton (that's how it was referred to by the Weather Channel, so I'm not exaggerating). Here are some pictures. Enjoy!


They insist on drinking water from the hole in the ground in the back yard (that they've dug up, by the way). I will quit wasting money on water bowls for them.

Both of them do it... we think Cali taught Pellet.