I so suck at blogging...

It's been pointed out to me that I SUCK at blogging...my last update was what, February? And now it's...almost May? I swear I have more life than this. I do! But sheesh, if an almost single again mom with a toddler can manage to update once a week, while creating beautiful jewelry in her "spare" time, certainly I shouldn't let little things like...oh, 10 dogs, 2 hours of commute to and from work stop me! No way, Jose!

Speaking of the aforementioned friend....I've managed to lose 14 lbs so far. It's not quite her 40, well and the other 180 some pounds of obnoxious fatthead (unlike her, I can't say a bad word in public, I'm a nice girl) I'm well on my way to slenderness. Well, Ok, I've taken one small step on a long road...but I like "well on my way" better. It sounds WAY more positive. And I joined a gym. Well, not a real, sweaty, testosterone and clanking weights or skinny, spandex aerobics class gym...but Curves. It's awesome. I can zip over there on my lunch hour, exercise, freshen up and zip back to work. All without disrupting the important schedule that is my life (ie...getting the dogs fed before they get hungry enough to start gnawing on my arm).

So, what's been going on at Kamp Kaos? Let's see....

Tile project: The "hey, let's tile the entire downstairs of a 3000 sq foot house by ourselves and, hey, let's do a pattern" project continues. I've got the kitchen, dining area and living room mostly done. The tiles around the edges still need to be cut and put in, but that's BORING and there's not much of a sense of accomplishment, so I moved on down into the entry way and "new" dog room, formerly the libary, formerly a dining room. Oh, wait, I did take a break to do the laundry room 'cause the dryer died, so we went and got a pair of those nifty, front loading Whirlpool Duets, and didn't want to have to move them to tile, so I tiled AND grouted the laundry room over a 4 day period. By the way, the Duets..ROCK. How sad is it that I'm excited that I only have to do 2 loads of laundry a week now? Anyway.....the tiling continues.

Dogs:

Humvee, you know, the visiting puppy who was staying through February? Well, he's 6 months old on Sunday and going to his first AKC show. I'm getting attached to the little bugger, despite the fact that he INSISTS on breakfast by 6:30 every morning, including weekends. Humvee went to a puppy match a few weeks ago, his first public appearance and won Best of Opposite..which means that the Best of Breed dog was actually a bitch, so he was the best dog entered...according to that judge who is, in my humble opinion, almost brilliant. So, Sunday he's going to a real AKC show. One thing that really sucks about showing a 6-9 month puppy dog is that you're the very first class of your breed...and the AKC doesn't work well on "Sparkle Time." (I'm trying to upload a picture of the young man, but having technical difficulties, so go check out his pictures on his "real" owner's website Maskarade Siberians)

Katie's also making her debut in the show ring this weekend. Well, she's shown before, but mostly just to enter to help build numbers to build points (it's a system, just trust me) but now she's starting to look good and we may actually win. Of course, there's still Satinka, who's also starting to look good again (with a new coat) so I've got two very competitive girls.

I was hoping to have my new puppy by now...because you know, I don't have enough to do. Latte the Loser, my official name for her, her new family calls her something much nicer, turned out to be the pet of the litter though. Never fear, like any good obsessive/compulsive, there are more puppies in the pipeline and by August, my puppy jones should be satisfied.

And I almost have my very own outdoor, point-of-use hot water heater for dog bathing...since the installation of the new washer and dryer took away my previous plumbing solution (a hose running out the dryer vent from the water spigots of the washer). Tearing the husband away from refurbishing an airplane to install these little luxuries is well worth the effort of thanking him....but we won't go THERE.

Let's see, what else is going on? Did I mention that I'm an Aunt again? My baby brother and his darling wife, Allison, after a few weeks of hospital residential living, brought home Colton. He came early, but he's doing great. I celebrated by buying out the Carter's outlet store on my way home from (imagine this) a dog show and shipping a box of clothes up that weighed more than the baby.

So, I've covered dieting, tiling, dogs, the new baby and the excitment of a new washer/dryer set...that's about all that's going on in the Land of Kaos.