The Cure for Boredom is Curiosity.

Dexter must go through a phase once a year that makes him impossible to live with because the time is now upon us. I believe that this is made worse by the fact that the people at the kennel LOVE him and he gets special privileges. "He's so well behaved" they tell me. Right now I wish that was true because if I have to go hunt him down to find him in mischief again, he's going to be sleeping outside for a very long time.

The holidays are doing me in. I completely understand why my dad wanted to cancel Christmas every year. I am sick of shopping. I am tired of trying to find an inspired gift or having an inspired gift idea and the item is out of stock and won't be available until January. I think the final straw is the fact that everywhere I go, the holiday spirit is non-existent and people are just plain rude and mean. Today, after coming back from dropping RTL off at the BART, some woman in the car behind me honked at me because I stopped at a stop sign. I'm not sure why the stop sign is there, but it is and it was 8 o'clock in the morning and there are little kids walking to school, so I stopped. And she honked. I stayed at that stop sign an extra few seconds because I'm tired of being bullied by people who are in a hurry.

I know that I personally have done a few things in disregard of others around me. I'm trying to be good and patient. Yet it seems that everyone else isn't trying at all.

And the dog! Either the dog is going to kill me or I'm going to kill the dog. Dexter decided that eating a bag of chocolate chips last night was the thing to do. No lectures on dogs and chocolate not mixing, I still haven't figured out how he got the bag. Not much sleep last night because of him feeling bad. I just wish he could learn his lesson. At least the cat isn't climbing the tree.

I've kicked the dog out of the house for the day. I'm going to clean my house and wash clothes and put myself back into a peaceful state of mind. I need to do a little shopping for RTL's stocking. I'll do that later after I'm regain my peace. And if anybody else is ready to give the holidays the finger, please feel free to rant and steam.

15 days until January 1, 2006
and only 373 days shopping days until Christmas 2006!

I've done most of my last minute errands before I leave.
Went to the drugstore and stocked up on travel items. I love tiny bottles and tubes of everything! It's so much fun.

Dexter has been ready to go to the kennel since this morning. I had to trick the cat out from under the bed. Poor thing thinks she's being abandoned again. I would love to be able to leave her at home by herself, but that's just asking for trouble. It breaks my heart to take them to the kennel though. Dexter loves it because he gets to play. Bella just takes every opportunity to escape. I don't know what I'm going to do when I have kids and need a babysitter. It won't be the kids crying because mommy is leaving, it will be mommy boo-hooing.

And lucky me that I took them to the kennel when I did. I was gone about 40 minutes. When I got back, I started having a little freak out because I thought the tree in front of the house had fallen. Well, a tree did fall, but it was the tree in front of the neighbors house. It fell where I had the car parked earlier! I was thanking my lucky stars that I left when I did because it would have been me and/or the car that got hit instead of the sidewalk.

I need to pack and get my backpack together. I still need to email Patty a few last minute stuff. And I need to check the final nail polish color. I need to make a list.

The dog in his joy of tearing up everything this morning ended up eating RTL's leftover bag of chocolate covered coffee beans! Not good. I didn't find this out until RTL called to tell me that she had made it to JFK and said "Oh, I forgot to pick up zippy of chocolate beans off the table." At least there were only about 5 or 6 in the bag, not the pound of fudge from the last time he had chocolate. He's either going to be the death of me or the death of himself.

I don't know if RTL made it to Madrid or not. She hasn't called as of yet. Although, I don't think her plane lands until 8-ish in Madrid which is midnite-ish here. I'm still trying to come up with a list of things I want her to bring back. Nothing from Spain, I'm still trying to come up with an idea for Germany and I want bulbs from Amsterdam. Hopefully, she'll get a chance to go to Aashmeer for those.

It's cold here today. It was nice and warm yesterday. Blast those artic breezes!

Dexter is curled up in his bed sleeping. I put his sweater on because he was shivering. Bella has found a nest of warm clean clothes. A bit disturbed since I'm cleaning while she gets her beauty sleep.

I did some birthday shopping for the nieces and nephews. Jacob turns two on Friday, so I bought him a Veggie Tales collection of silly songs. DVDs were a suggestion from Grandma. His mom and dad bought a portable dvd player to keep him entertained in the car and in church a few months ago. Apparently, they now realize that his choice of entertainment is not exactly church appropriate. He LOVES The Wiggles, but embarrassing for mom and dad. *aunt giggles helplessly* Thus Veggie Tales will now teach him silly songs to sing in church. Britt turns nine today, so a gift certificate was in order so she can go pick out what she wants. So many birthdays in September. Mom Patty is going down under. I should send a card to Christy at least. I still need to find something fun and exciting for my brother. And I think we are probably going to put together a box of Slim Jim's, Kool Aid and goodies for RTL's brother.

Which leads me to another question, what is dry body wash? I know what dry shampoo is, but I've never heard of dry body wash. If anyone has an idea, please clue me in so I know what to look for.

I am cleaning house today. I can't stand the mess anymore. Too many projects and not enough time. I'd love to hire someone to come clean the house top to bottom just once. RTL asked me last night if I would be ready if Martha showed up at the door unexpectedly. Any other day, i'd be ready, but obviously not today.

Off to scrub.

I haven't listened to JLC in about a week and I'm suffering from withdrawal. I'll have to make my smart playlist even smarter than it already is when I stop listening to my 80's flashback - all day and all night.

Been out doing errands this morning. Had to be up at the crack of still dark out this morning. RTL had to catch an early morning flight to Redmond, again. I'm thinking that Redmond should just be moved south a few miles. It would make it a lot easier for me to avoid early morning NPR wake up calls.

Then off to the floor store to return the floor samples we borrowed over the weekend. We had all the hardwood floors refinished before we moved into the house, but we didn't/haven't done anything to the floors that were tiled or the closet floors. We were considering installing some in floor heating for the bathrooms, but have since discovered cork flooring. So I think we've narrowed it down to cork tiles for the bathrooms, closets, and pantry.

And I went into the new Target that is closer to the house. OH MY GOODNESS! It's beautiful! Two floors and clean and not junky and it's very Berkeley.

Haven't been to the grocery store for people food or the pet store for Bella food. I'll get around to that eventually. I've got access to the car for the next couple of days to make running errands less of a hassle.

I've put on my junky clothes so that I can implement phase 6 of the juniper attack. Sounds like a B horror movie from the 50's.

The dog has been relegated to the back porch today. No cozy inside bed sleeping for him. Besides the toilet paper, digging through RTL's workbag for paper scraps, and the copious amounts of other mischief he finds; today he figured out a way to reach his treat bag in the pantry, ripped through the plastic baggie and ate what I believe to be approximately half of the treats in the bag. Not sure if the cat aided and abetted in the crime, but I believe that climbing the litter box was part of the plan.

Taking a break from RTL's freelance work briefly to do all of this. Let's consider though that I sat in front of the computer for about 13 hours straight yesterday to finish phase 1 of the task because RTL's freaking out about getting it done. Yes, I am having that moment when I want to ask "if we didn't live together would you be breathing down my neck like this?" I am semi-regretting that I agreed to help out. I keep reminding myself that it pays property taxes for the year.
Also taking a few moments so that the maid, dishwasher, laundress and gardener can get some work done around the house. They forgot to show up this weekend, so I had to giggle a little (OK, I laughed so much that I almost got the hiccups) when RTL couldn't find the clean clothes she wanted this morning. But the mess is driving me crazy, so I think some cleaning up is in order.

A moment of tribute and celebration for Anne Bancroft.

Her death is a downer on this gloomy rainy day in what is suppose to be sunny California.

The happy notes for the day are an empty plant bin and RTL picked out her own clothes to wear today. Three days straight! This could also have a lot to do with the fact that I've forced her to purge the closet. How many times did I hear " I forgot I had that" during the process. Now I just have to prevent a huge influx of new apparel for a couple of months.

I'm looking forward to the next Harry Potter book and movie installment. Still more than a month away for both, however I won't be lined up waiting for the bookstore to open at midnight and nope, I haven't pre-ordered anything.

I need to call my dear friend F and see how the baby is doing. It's just a little difficult with the time change and I don't want to call when the baby is sleeping or eating.
I need to call home as well.

And if anybody wants Dexter, well, I'm willing to send him to a home that is willing to feed him toilet paper, preferably off the roll. He has no brand preference.
You laugh all you want because you don't have to live with it. I'm tired of getting up in the morning and finding the house tp-ed inside. He's about to start sleeping in the crate again instead of his nice cushy bed. Although, I do have to laugh because he hides bits of toilet paper the way most dogs hide bones. Don't tell him that though.