Pellet, Cali & The Move

It is crazy to think that all Pellet and Cali know (as far as living quarters) is the old house... For their whole lives, they have always eaten out of the same bowl in the same location, they have slept in the same bed in the same location, they have gone to the bathroom in the same backyard, etc. etc.

With that in mind, it is no wonder that the move can potentially affect them more than it can Norm or I.

Here is a glimpse of the car ride to the new house (please keep in mind that Cali does not handle the car very well, she's whined like this since we first brought her home when she was 5 weeks old):

When we got to the new house there was a whole lot of this going on:

After about two hours of pacing and panting, they each finally laid down:

After three days of insane behavior (Cali busting out of her cage, Pellet wanting to jump through the window, and them not wanting to go outside without me), they finally started warming up to the new house. Notice how the backyard neighbor's backdoor is clearly visible from our porch? yeah...

Surprisingly enough, Pellet has been handling the neighborhood noises quite well - relatively speaking. We are still working on "hush", but for the most part (unless he actually sees a person - like the neighbor cutting the grass) he doesn't bark, he sits and listens to normal noises such as other dogs barking, kids playing basketball...

I could probably write a post just on the "Cali and her cage" dilemma... It seems as if Cali has completely forgotten about her cage and what a wonderful little place it is. The second day we were at the house, I had to step out, so I put her in her cage and she threw a fit. This involved crying, whining, jumping, kicking. I gave her a treat and left. I came back to find her out of her cage.

The next day I tried putting her in her cage in the middle of the day (luring her in there with treats and silly comments such as "good girl!" "good cage!"). She must have lasted about 3 minutes in there before I actually saw her get out of her cage... not sure if you can notice, but if you look close enough at the picture below, you can see how the front of her cage is not straight...

The following day we decided that perhaps Cali has reached the time in her life when she can be cage-free. So we did not even attempt to put her in there at bedtime and yesterday I did not attempt to put her in there at all during the day.

Last night we were watching TV and I heard tapping around in Cali's cage. I got up to find this:

So I gave her a treat... I'm so confused.

Busting a Move

This past weekend we finally moved. 

The process involved a car in front yard and everything - notice the speaker sitting on the roof of the car. Quite classy.

At one point we had all of our furniture out in the driveway...

Who says you can't have a little bit of fun when you're busting your butt lifting heavy things in a hot, humid day?

Truck is jam packed and ready to go. But wait, Norm is fitting more stuff in the cab of the truck!

And Ed is trying to squeeze one more thing in the back of his truck

We ended up taking 4 cars down. One was Ed in his truck (below, and yes, that is the trash can... do we belong in central Georgia or what?), I had the Escape with the large, fragile things (TVs, mirrors, etc), Kerrie was driving my car (also packed to the rim) and Norm was driving the truck.

Unloading the truck was a breeze - thanks to Pam, Kerrie's mom, we had one more set of helping hands. Unfortunately I do not have a picture of the mini flash mob that took place in the driveway as we all started dancing to Katy Perry's Hot and Cold (with Just Dance moves). I'm sure all the neighbors that saw us just shook their heads at us...

Thank you again to our super helpers for spending their day off helping us move.

The kicker of this whole process is that due to my hardheadedness, we rented the 20' truck instead of the 24' truck. So what? Well, our garage back at the lake is still full of things... mainly garage things and attic things which I am pretty sure would've fit in a 24' truck.

Where were Pellet and Cali in this whole process? That's a story for another post.

YouTube Channel

I just created a YouTube account. I've been meaning to look into it for a long time (because it's easier to upload videos to the blog from YouTube than it is from the actual computer) until finally today I took a video with my phone of Pellet and Cali playing outside and it was too large to get it out of my phone via text or email. I noticed I could upload it to YouTube so I said "it's time" and now I have a YouTube channel! Go find it (let me know how you find it, because I still can't figure it out). The name is: NormAndFern.

Once I created the account, I went into technology overload. Not only can you upload videos and like videos, but you can also follow people (and their videos) and then link your videos and activities to Facebook and Twitter...

I have to take this one step at a time. Here is the main purpose of why I created my channel:

Whenever Pellet and Cali play like this, my mom says they are playing like David and Goliath. Wait until minute 1:10 and you can check out our talented little Cali doing somersaults (two in a row).

That's the Story

Today I sent a message to my friend Kerrie. The interaction went like this:

Fern: "so, what's the story?" (my goal was to make plans for later on in the evening)

Kerrie: "Once upon a time, there were two girls. One was old, one was getting there. They both loved many of the same things, eating, singing and dancing were among their favorites. One day the not so old girl's prince charming got a job in a far away land. The old girl thought she would just die without her not so old friend. But in time she realized, every minute with her friend was a special gift sent from God. The distance between them never tore them apart. They remained the best of friends until they were both REALLY old. And everyone lived happily ever after. The End!"

I almost fell out of my chair after reading that. And because it's funny, sweet and true, I just had to blog about it!

So there you have it, that's the story!

Go Away Already

Last weekend we were working on the yard and found all sorts of small holes throughout the flowerbeds (in the pine straw). It looked like an animal had been digging through the straw and into the dirt. Norm said it appeared to be birds... I did not believe it appeared to be birds.

So to clear up the debate, I texted a picture to my friend Kris (whose husband is a superintendent at one of the golf courses, so he knows lots and lots about mother nature). She quickly replied and said: armadillos.

Apparently armadillos only come out at night, and the only ways to get rid of them is to either a. shoot them (at night) or b. keep them away from the yard with... moth balls.

Determined that the armadillos were not going to mess up our new pine straw, we took off to go buy moth balls that same afternoon and went ahead and put them out that evening.

That was last weekend. Since, the weather has been gorgeous and we've kept the windows open... with the beautiful breeze comes in the awesome moth ball scent.

At least our flowerbeds look nice!

Do You Boil It?

This morning I went to the grocery store and among the items I purchased were plantains. I am going to put out a little disclaimer stating that I get quite annoyed when the cashier lady/bagger person comment on the items I am purchasing. I don't mind small talk about the weather, the holiday weekend or whatever, but small talk on the stuff I'm buying is something I have very little to no patience for.

With that in mind, as the cashier rings up the plantains, the bagger boy kicks off a conversation:

Boy: what do you do with those? do you boil them?
Me (puzzled): I guess you can boil them, but I fry them.
Boy: you fry bananas?
Me: well, they are not bananas, they are plantains, they are different
Boy: why don't you just eat them raw?
Me: you're not supposed to
Boy: they will make you sick?
Me (at this point, I am besides myself due to this conversation): I guess they will make you sick, besides, they are nasty if you don't cook them.

Silence as he finishes the bagging and I pay. He offers to help me take my things to the car, which I politely decline. He follows it by: Have fun frying your fruit!

Have fun frying your FRUIT? what?!?

After all that, I walk out to the parking lot and can't find my car... yes, I lost my car at the grocery store parking lot. At one point, a lady who was loading up her groceries notices me standing with my hands full of bags and I get the urge to explain: I have lost my car. She replies: I notice.

......................

I found my car - eventually - two rows over.