LMAO Yet Fairly Disturbing

Every once in a while I check my sitemeter out to see who is visiting. If I see a couple of states, I figure that I probably know these people peering in.

Yet, once I see the title of what they were looking up, hopefully not. Here is what I saw when I looked up one viewer whose location will remain secret:


"which family member you want catching you jerking off"

Not sure why this pulled up my site???? Perhaps because I call some of my family members jerks LOL. Anyway, my answer to this question would be a resounding NOT A ONE OF THEM!!! Never mind that it would be physically impossible for me to do so anyway.

However, get help and thanks for the chuckle that you didn't even know you passed on this morning.

Wedding Day Most Important Day?

I was watching a program where they said "most Americans wedding day is the most important day of their life". Now I loved my wedding. It was very informal, but not fodder for the Your Redneck Wedding show. It did end with a pool event, after every changed out of their fancy clothes later that evening after the ceremony and reception when most of the older folks went home.

It was definately one of the more exciting days, and happy days of my life. However, I would contend it's more of a celebration of the beginning of all the better days of your life with your partner. There are some pretty great days and events that came after that with us as a team.

And if you have kids, I bet a lot of parents would argue that the birth and (if they are good parents at all) the growing up years were all pretty darned good days (some better than others).

Busy, Busy Bee

It's been insanely busy for my business these months. I apologize for not being on top of my blogs. It has become not unusual for me to have 13 dogs in my house at any time!! Not for the faint of heart LOL, though all of them have had some sort of training, so not total chaos.

Not too much to report on the family front. Haven't bumped into my "neighbors" the Donor or Step Monster. Pretty soon, they will not be up here anymore, and as it is, they are up here on a rare weekend. And if it's going to be bad weather, they don't come up at all!! So that has been lovely.

The other donor has stopped posting about me on her blog. Also wonderful, not sure why I would care though. I am pretty confident about myself, the decisions I made, and anyone who reads the blog and doesn't know me is the only one who would wonder about what ever story she might write. I do hope her business and marriage are doing well, and that she has found some happiness and moved on.

Our dog Jazz is getting older by the day. I am doubting that she will make it to her sixteenth birthday this January, but we will see. She still continues to hold a bit of life in her LOL.

Other People With Issues (mother's day sequence continued)

Dear Cowardly Anonymous (my E Donor's "friend" or E Donor):

Strangers who post negatively to others blogs never cease to amaze me. I had one visitor, "anonymous" of course. You didn't talk to your mother and then she died. For some reason you looked up a blog about estrangements (or regularly spy on it for my E Donor), to attack someone else you don't even know, rather than face your own error.

You know, it's like the woman who had an abortion. Now thinks a girl who was raped by her brother should not have the choice she had, because it went bad for her. Not ever thinking that every human being has different experiences, measurements, and decision making abilities.

I am sorry you regret your choice, and was seeking to lash out at others on Mother's Day, then again, I didn't invite you or twist her arm to read my blog on my progress either:) You must be some piece of work. If you are my E Donor, you are definately a piece of work.

Plus, this is not the diplomacy blog. I am pretty direct. So audience be warned. And feel free to seek therapy instead of reading this blog if you have "issues", dear anonymous.

MOANY MONDAY-GOSH DARNED CONTACTS

I have had contacts for three years now. I resisted them for so long in my life, due to fears of if they get jammed into the corner of my eye. Not to mention that I used to be afraid to touch my eye. So I got over that, and things have been going well.....

When yesterday, my right eye contact started killing me. Really painful, and my right eye turned all red and irritated. Next, in the car, I realized I wasn't seeing very well out of my right eye (now I am wearing perscription sun glasses). I had taken the irritation from before to be that it's allergy season for me.

That night, I look in, and I swear I see another wrinkly contact at the top of my eye. Now this makes sense, because it was like I was looking through two perscriptions. Now I am freaked out, as this contact like disappears again, and I can't get it out of my eye.

This morning, I think I may have gotten it out or imagined it. The eye feels better and I can see out of it again. Now way too freaked out to put the contacts in again, and am going to see my eye doctor ASAP!!!!

I knew there was a reason that I always resisted contacts.

Best Idea EVER

Grocery stores (some or most) now boil the darned lobster for you. Guilt free lobster for 6.99 per pound instead of 32.00 at the restaurant, or killing your own lobster by boiling. I am aware I shouldn't feel so proud of that, as bottom line, I had my husband order the death of a lobster for my dining pleasure.

I did honor it by eating everything possible, and thinking it delicious.

Groggy Morning

SOUND OF CUP ACROSS BARS FOLLOWED BY THE CHANT OF:

COFFEE NOW! COFFEE NOW! COFFEE NOW! COFFEE NOW! COFFEE NOW! COFFEE NOW!

I suddenly realize why I have been recently taking the trouble to go to bed early. Because it's so easier to wake up early and go to the beach, which I missed today due to my groggy half awake state!!

I really really need a shower too. My feet are all chopped up from frequent training work on my feet, and sometimes being in a damp state.

All the dogs (my three and my client's two) all seem very sleepy this morning anyway. Course they stayed up late with me as well.

Excellent Day and Week All Around

I got two new clients last week. One toy poodle for a two week board and train to deal with a couple of issues. He is adorable, and will be a pleasure to work with.

One is a Golden Retriever that is having private weekly lessons. He's also an awesome dog. Very funny, friendly and though he's four years old, he's very young at heart. Really fun dog and very nice owner who loves his dog. Hardest part is going to keep the owner either from coddling his dog or pushing his dog. Slow and steady is what is going to make success to this team. Sadly, I do not have a picture of either yet, though I am sure that will change next week, and the toy poodle isn't in until the end of June.

Plus all my favorite boarding and past training clients are busy taking their weeks at Camp Mannerly Mutts, where all good dogs get very tired!! Right now we have Brujo who has played with Leon non stop in between napping when they get too exhausted not to go anymore. Course, Jackie is still full of energy!!

Turistas

I have not seen this movie yet, but I am again in full swing horror movie mode. My recent finds which I talk about on my other blog, have made me all giddy and hopeful to find more gems. The most fun is finding "classic" horror that I didn't know was out there. The weirder the better of course.

Next is finding new movies like Hostel. It looks like Turistas is going to try and be a knock off of that, but it could surprise me. We will see, it's at the top of my Netflix que of course, but the three others are going back today, which means that the earliest that I will see it is on Wednesday.

Good lord, watching pictures of the recent tornadoe in Kansas. I took a trip to Missouri once, and never witnessed tornadoes, but I witnessed enough scary weather (to a New Englander) to keep me off any flat land states forever most likely LOL. Horrible to see what happened there.

By the way, Heroes, is anyone watching this? Talk about parent issues LOL. Silar apparently has some REAL BIG issues as we learned BEFORE he killed his mother last night. Wowee. You would have thought his mom would have known to stop her bitching, and seen what was coming up, especially after she cut her cheek in the snow globe incident. But then again, scissors in the chest accident or on purpose? Then there was the painting in her blood, didn't seem all that upsetting.

I am surprised the husband still loves the show after all of these dark turns. He is more a Disney guy, and though I am not as into it as him, this would seem to be more my genre.

What Is More Important Than Money

News, I have become convinced, is really just one long commercial. Today had an author on of a book regarding how woman should protect themselves financially.

She really ticked me off. It's true, everyone (men and woman both) need to look to their financial future. She was talking about allowing fear to negate any value for woman (or men by the way, she seemed to forget that sometimes men decide to do this) staying at home for their children. That they should be ruled by the fear of the divorce rate, death, disability of their spouse as the sole reason for being in the workplace.

I am thinking that she had a personally tramatic experience. I read blogs on parents who are enjoying their time with their kids so much. It touches me deeply. As human beings, many of us are equipped to survive and roll with our circumstances. Okay, maybe it will be a little tougher to get that job. As for divorce, there is child support and alimony. You can also get a job or be self employed. Easy? No. But worthwhile to have spent quality time with the children IMO. I don't mind that moms go out in the workplace either, or have a two parent working household. Sometimes it is necessary, or both parents might actually enjoy what they do. As long as when they go home, they have a healthy vibrant relationship with the kids....great. But to downgrade the usefullness of a parent deciding to stay home and enjoy the children as less valuable than the dollar? Wow, I think that lady's life must be pretty shallow.

Marketing Madness

I just love what I do. Nothing is better. Unfortunately with being self employed also comes putting yourself out there with sales and marketing. You can use this medium of course, but then there is the other medium. You know the face to face marketing that gets the sale. I am not too good with that.

Also, dog training clients are tricky to select. Oh, yes, once you get to a certain point you want to SELECT your client. (I am talking dog training now for those that don't know, clearly can't put something like this on my dog training blog where the clients go LOL). See there are those that are not going to follow through. Worse there are those that hate their dog, and are sending the dog to you just to get rid of them for the day. The non-follow through ones can end up ruining a dog that was having small problems before. So, as you can see, if you care about dogs at all, the money thing is important to pay the bills and all, but it's not the most important thing. The client base I built is very loyal because of the extra non-billed time I take with them, and the help in other areas that are not necessarily training related.

So you (or I don't, there are dog trainers----most---that definately want the following clientel) or I should say, I, don't want the dog owner whose "staff" does most everything for them. I am not saying I discriminate against rich folks, I am saying I discrimate against those that can't even whipe their own ass. I mean, how likely is it that they are going to train their dog? I have real life experience with this (and was paid a good amount of money) and I am going to tell you it's not bloody likely. Then I like the dogs, like Cash & Tango two lovely St Bernards, but worry about them all the time. Would rather have just not gotten the money or know they were out there to worry about:( I mean, you can imagine how out of control two 175 pound dogs can get, when living outside or in the garage, no human interaction except for a few minutes most of the time, and left to their own devices. It's not that they are bad dogs at all, they are great. But they have not learned things like playing with humans and teeth is bad. They have NO idea the damage they can do just by being friendly and untrained. And so on occaision I think about them, and hope that things have worked out at home.





Plus I have learned some marketing things the hard way from a previous business. For my business for instance, Yellow Pages is not the way to go. You get 100% of "lookie lou" or "price point" calls only. I hate those, they are wasting my time. I should just leave a message "yes, you can get services cheaper, but perhaps not better. Read my site and call when you are ready to work". Course that would probably also drive the good clients away LOL.





Here is the other tricky part, except for that specific demographic that I talked about, you never know up front if a client is going to be good or bad. Sometimes I start out hating the client and worrying about their dog, and the client listens and learns, and then I love that client and they are the best client ever. Have one of those going on right now. It's hard to navigate through "tough love" and "outright bitchiness" to strike the right chord in order to get R done, as they say. Then some have aren't horrible but wish to be catered to without paying anything extra. If you ever overhear a dog trainer say up the charge for the PITA fee (that's the pain in the ass fee). Some dog trainers do bill their clients very individually. I haven't but I have certaintly seen why you might. My non-PITA clients end up getting the flat fee spread to them.





So I have been going about my marketing on this venue first with my very loyal customer base, and here are the three reviews (scroll down) that I have gotten. I love my clients so much!! This so much helps, as I don't think another dog trainer in the area has ANY reviews, and I know that I check these out for sure (if they are there, it looks like it's been slow for people to catch on that they can do this). So even that is hard for me to do a mass mailing to the clients asking for help like that. I hate that, but love the results.





Now is the scary part. I will be hand delivering info to motels/hotels/B&B that take pets, motels/hotels/B&B that don't take pets, veterinarians, groomers, kennels (for training services), et al. This usually requires that a face be put to the person. That means I have to go out and .....gasp.....talk to people one on one. Now to read me type, you might not think that would be a problem. Yes, even if I talk to you offline in e-mail format, but don't really know you, i would be hard pressed to make conversation. My husband can be the polar opposite from me except in a party situation where I think he is worse than me (if he doesn't know anyone).





I hate the face to face calls and requests:) Best thing that happened to me here was meeting, Nan, a pet sitter who is able to carry on a conversation for everyone!!! She is the best, and has referred more clients to me despite my shy ways.





I am thinking of having some sort of pet professional party in the area, as we all benefit from increased referrals and such.

Other Blogs That Show What I do A Bit (not always that great at keeping everything updates, as you can see I have a lot of them):

Mannerly Mutts Dog Training Blog

My Dog Leon's Blog With Video

My Dog Jack's Blog Who is Being Trained to compete, and I have totally dropped the ball on updating his blog.

Moose is A Great Dane, whose owner hated him, but luckily remembered how fond I was of him and called a year later. I have rehomed him, and his name is now Harley and he lives on the beach with Roxie.

Zeek was causing fights among his pack, and now is a pretty happy camper as are his pack members LOL.

Random Thoughts Today

---Recently I was reviewing my husband's health insurance. I noticed that adoption was covered, fertilization procedures were covered, et. Birth control pills---not covered, vasectomy (we used to have an insurance that covered this I KNOW, we used it) not covered, female procedure to do this also not covered. What is up with that? Am I paranoid to think that's the Christian Right Wing influence? By the way the procedures or adoption process to get a baby, WAAYYYY more expensive than preventing ones self from having a baby. Things like this scare me, and I get glad I don't have children who might be affected by this later on. The world is a strange and scary place. Or I am just way too much of a feminist. Dunno.

----In a convo with the cous, I realized all of a sudden that while I have felt like the black sheep in the family, I am actually one of the few cousins with a college degree, and who has done as well as could be done on my own. I mean, honestly, we have done pretty good even though we have worries now and again. I mean, we are not independently wealthy by any means. Any means at all, but more comfortable than most. How did my parents convince me that I was such a worthless black sheep of a person? The light suddenly went on, why do I beat myself up for putting myself through college a couple of years late? I mean, I did it. On my own, well, mostly with help from my now husband then boyfriend of fiance. Certainly not with the help of my family, that is fo sho.

(These are things that flit through my mind, that I think I am going to remember to blog about later in depth, but somehow never make it from my short term memory to the blog page. There is a short in there somewhere.)

----Had the cousin over recently who is in charge of the upcoming anniversary celebration. Happy to report that everyone seems to want me there, and not want me to worry about anything. They have the seating under control. Well at least I hope so, I am not sure the cousin in charge of the seating actually KNOWS about the rift. So hopefully the other cousin isn't like me, and forgets to fill them in. Can you see the seating chart now? Sperm Donor, BA Monster, Me----Yeeks. Whatever, we are adults even if they are infants, and cowardly to boot. Got a newsflash that this is not the only family drama going on these days. More on that at a later date. And not that there is any real drama going on with my situation. I haven't seen my dad since before October 2005, and I think I last e-mailed him March 2006. I have no wish or need to see him, though I am sure I will do just fine at ignoring him should he be in the same place as me. I just have nothing to say to him anymore. The Valentine's poems really helped shelf a lot of that anger. Why? Who knows. Anyone here have an explanation on why that works so well?

------Upcoming presidents for 2008. Please please tell me that there is no way that Mitt Romney can win. Barfola, and I used to live in Mass. Mass has been royally screwed by every governor starting with at least Ducakis (sp?). Weld was good, but he deserted Mass second term, LIKE HE PROMISED HE WOULD NOT DO. Burn in hell, Weld buddy. There was Swifty, who made sure there will be no other woman Governor in Mass anytime in the foreseeable future. I looked up Obama, and kept typing in Osama LOL. His middle name really doesn't help either. I think someone is pulling a punk on us. He seems okay, but I am still not sure what his deal is. Hillary is a maybe but crooked. But hey, who the heck isn't? Running or otherwise? You want a non-crooked president. I guess we would have to re-elect Jimmy Carter, but I am not sure about that.

------Most drug tests in corporate America are illegal search and seizure. Listen, I do not take drugs. I have probably had five or more drug tests AND physicals in order to be hired for a job. You COULD refuse to take a test, and the employer 95% of the time is not going to respect your right, but instead not hire you under an assumption. There are jobs out there where a drug test might be appropriate. Largely, I think no. I am glad to be self employed now, as I do not require a drug test of myself. Now, I am watching my husband needing to submit to them monthly for his job. First of all, this is another hour out of a day for which he is not compensated (he is 100% commission). Second of all, you now need to worry about eating poppy seed bages (which are legal) or what kinds of aspirin substitutes that you may take that work for you. He just got over pneumonia and couldn't take some cold syrups with codeine in it. He's a friggin salesperson for God's sake. Or manager. Jeez louis. Do we really think we live in a Democratic society and that our constitution isn't broken everyday? Any way, it's been annoying me lately. The thing is, how do you ask anyone to stand up to it? I wasn't wanting to when my livelyhood was dependent on it. And the fact that they had me do a physical with some strange doctor, and I just did it. That's sort of frightening. I do not like it.

When Fridays are Not Fun

First of all, let me apologize for my Thursday Thirteen yesterday. It WAS entitled "favorite places that have been changed or are lost". I had written that months ago, so when I finally got to it, I saw favorite places and happily started listing out my favorite current places. I may have caused some concern with this !! Yes, the musical fountain is still at Epcot LOL.

I have since retitled it "Favorite Places" and will submit the other list at a later date.

Yesterday Mass Unemployment called the husband. He just got the last of his two employment checks last week. He gets nervous on these calls, and does not take my advice to just "cut the line" and come get me for these. So he doesn't, and then he doesn't think and jokes around during the questioning. You have to be really careful on answering the questions and think why they are asking you.

The husband's situation is complicated, first of all, because he was working in Mass and living in Maine. The point of layoff came during the transition period, and so his unemployment was paid in Mass. This is nice because Mass's top rate is 551 a week, while Maine's top rate is 331 a week.

So then, if you are responsible and get another job, say in Maine, and then that job closes it's doors and lays off the people in a conference call, it gets all that much more complicated. Plus his first job (the one he is collecting on) was salaried, and his next job was technically commission although he got up front money for it. Any way, all these questions were asked before, the checks cut, and then came the call.

Rob forgot that while he was commissioned, he received the salaried money. So all day yesterday, he's worried about being accused of fraud by Mass Unemployment.

He just gave them another call after talking to me, and that is no longer a worry. Course now he will have to fill out a form, and attend a hearing in Mass no doubt. I think it will all be fine. What a pain though huh? You pay your taxes, you are responsible, you try to actually get a job instead of sponging off the system, and somehow you still get screwed? To have to worry about what kind of job you are taking to worry about collecting benefits that have been paid for your protection in these circumstances. Uck.

Snowy Saturday

You know, for big tough "guard dogs", Dobermans have to be the biggest wimps on earth. Leon goes out to do his business, and husband comes back and reports he let Leon back in, as he was wailing mournfully at the door. Jack did manage to make a dash into the woods by himself for his morning poop and pee. So he is only slightly less pitiful than Leon.

Reminded me of when we first got Leon (1/2004). He was flown in from Georgia of about 60 degrees, sunny and grass to Mass under two feet of snow and cooooolllllldddd. House training was a joy. It did work for me on occasion the frigid gusts of wind would make Leon not want to stand there and just go. There were plenty of times where the unit and ass just puckered up from the windy gusts and did not want to let go of the loot outside. And there I would stand "For the love of God, Leon, go to the bathroom." This was about the only thing Leon sucked at as a puppy, and I saying this knowing he was for the most part house trained in a month or so. Took a lot of work and diligence and NO PEE PADS.

I have the aggressive weim on Monday, and it never fails that we get shitty weather for his lesson, especially now that we are on lesson six which calls for outside distractions. Owners are bound to give me the finger if the cold keeps up and I drag them outside once again LOL. On the upside, last time I was there, I was so pleased with the owner's (and the dog's) progress. Without the owners doing the work, the dog would not be progressing and would become dangerous (or more dangerous) one day. Now he is on the right track, as are the owners.

The snow started last night. Pelting rain started after sleep. I woke up wondering what the can guy was doing up at 2am(used to be people collecting cans on garbage day when we were in the city). However, instead I think it was trees falling and the pelting of ice and rain against the windows.

My husband and I went down to the ocean to watch the high tides. It was the highest we had ever seen and the waves were sloshing a bit over the road. A plow truck was busy just pushing water out of the streets lined with motels across the ocean.

All in all, a nice day except that the husband is still suffering from his walking pneumonia.

Cousin Visit

Well my cousin braved another household visit. We were much easier on him this time. I had sent a note saying we were sorry if we gave him a hard time before. He appreciated it, and said not to worry as he could take a little humor right now.

Course my cousin came over unannounced at 9:32 pm on a Sunday night. Right in the middle of my Rome episode. Thank God for the easy recording these days and HBO on demand for the next day just in case.

But my cousin is a good egg, and it's always nice to see him/her. The question of Christmas here came up and I was like well you are going to want to be with your parents right? And your parents are going to want to be at Tony (my biological sperm donor) and his C*nt of a wife. (didn't use those terms of course, was very pc and diplomatic). So the cousin suggests we could just have ours the next day. Now that would be like a six hour commute for everyone in a couple of days. That doesn't seem pleasant or likely for them.

I said, I will probably take a non-religious holiday that no one cares about, but that I like. Probably Halloween or something. That could be fun. Let's face it, at the gatherings on that side, fun is sadly lacking anyway.

And with the news of our decreased finances (which no one in my family has been told about) well, it might not be a reality as we like to do it up here.

Yesterday I Had All These Thoughts

Where do my musings go when I am ready to write my blog. That's why I pre-prepare my blogs days in advance. Thursday Thirteens are a great help, because I can come up with lists all day long. It's really not that much effort for me to do so.

My husband's dad is stable now. Apparently he had an old blood clot, and he has an infection in his chest. He's still in the hospital, but being taken care of well. That is the only thing that has sucked about moving to the beach (an hour and a half away). He won't move up here, or even out of his upstairs apartment (bad hips). I know how he feels, but eventually these kind of practical things have to be done. Course it could be still many years in the future, like with my grandmother who lived on her own in her house until she was 89.

The husband just walked though all dressed up for a day on the road for his job. Then he announced that he hated his job. He came in to let me know they were going to do Natalie's career history on the Today show. They did Ann yesterday, and my favorite Al will be done tomorrow. So that finished, and the husband has gone down the stairs and on his way. He will vacilate between hating his job, and loving it. Good months he will love it (he's a salesman), and bad months (as is now as they have cut all sorts of programs, so he has nothing to sell) he will hate it. I wish he would start taking steps towards self employment. Meantime, I need to improve my game in that area, and we certaintly can't afford Robert to be full time self employed right now for a variety of reasons, not the least being that I can't afford my own health insurance yet!!

I am about to go get some coffee that has been prepared for me downstairs, the husband brought up the first cup at about 9 am this morning. I have one dog, Leon, completely under the covers asleep (everyone has been pooped, peed, and fed), Jack pressed up against my knees on the other side but above the covers, and old lady Jazz towards the foot of the bed curled up in a ball. Our time thermostat has made the room nice and warm. I don't know about you, but I need a warm bedroom in order to make it out of the bed in the morning. I have been up and about today to take care of the dogs. I have no appointments other than to train Jack, (probably won't train Leon as I suspect his knee is bothering him), clean the house, laundry, bills, update Moose's log (aggressive Weim client), pooper scoop the yard, get the tax info together for our accountant/friend, and that's about it. Not looking forward to it. Oh yes, working out is on my priority list too.

I am just getting over a sinus infection that I have had for three weeks, and won't go away. Or I think it does, then I stop taking the sinus medicine, then I regret it because it's still here. Seems there are a bunch of respiratory and stomache viruses going around right now all over the place. I am a big baby, and completely can't function when I feel sick.

Been a Doggy Zoo Here

Whew, got out of the habit of writing for a couple days there. Sunday, I was just lazy, let's face it. Plus my husband was leaving for a couple of days, so I just wanted to hang out. It's been ripe with doggy clients here, and activity.

Then Monday, I was working on business stuff, and getting ready for what turned out to be an unusually tough lesson. Client's have a dog that is becoming a real danger, and they hadn't thought so. Really quite scary, and hopefully they are up to following the work. I don't have a real "feel good" feeling from them though. I had to finish up all my contract and liability paper work for them to sign, before I could go as well.

So any way, I let life get me a little behind, and am going to save my topic for today, to be tomorrow's instead . You know, so I have something to talk about.

Not Doing Too Badly on New Years Resolutions

I've gotten some business stuff out of the way, and my updates to my web have already started to pay off, literally. Plus it cost nothing but my time. Haven't finished the contracts yet, but they are significantly done.

So today, two things that I am going to try and add to my "schedule" 1) exercise and 2) training Jackster. I have another client dog to train today as well. Yesterday was another Jack, puppy lab, that came over for training. It was his one year birthday, and he was doing so well. He is such a sweety pie.

No real bad news to report today. I have had some dreams but none estrangement related, and unfortunately death related (of my pets that is). No mystery to that with 3 pet deaths in the last three years (due to old age) and one geriatric girl doggie, Jazzabelle. She is my best buddy in the world. Leon's my baby boy, but Jazz has been with us 11 years now, and keeps the obnoxious boys in line. She has been a real help in so many ways. I dread the day where she is not here anymore, as one always does.

It's a Skating Rink Outside/Investing

Our new home (a bit over one year now) came equiped with our first garage, and it's a huge two car jobber!! You gotta love it when you have ice storms, as there is no chipping out or shoveling out that needs to be done. One can just get in their car and go.

Not that I am going anywhere today. Luckily, Nan took over for her client's visits yesterday, and brought Nikki home with her through this. So I am off for today too to finish up business contracts, liability forms, make sales calls, and finish up the web update for http://www.mannerlymutts.com that is almost done. So it's a working day, but I am staying pretty much in my pjs. I am not venturing out anywhere today on car or on foot. Except I am going to need to chop out an area for the dogs so they can pee and poop by getting a footing on the ground. I didn't realize this morning, and everyone took a tumble out the front door, then had a hard time standing just to do their business. I had to rescue poor Jazz who has wobblers, and couldn't get her legs from being splayed. When I went to pick her up to bring her in, I figured out we were both going down hard if I did that, so we just took it slow to the door as I tried to support her backside. Poor girl, it just sucks getting old. Leon fell into the ice with his legs splayed, and then was afraid to come into the door afterward.

Investing, hate it. I do it though as I always make money in the end, but I am only so so at it. Worst past story is that I had a good chunk of Martha Stewart stock right before she went in the clinker. I had written it off, and put my bid in fidelity. The great thing about fidelity bids is that when a future event happens, and your busy, the transaction will automatically be done. However, 9am one morning, I realized that was a baaaaaad thing too. You see they had announced Martha's new apprentice show (even though it ended up being a dud, it was a very favorable view of what it would be then), and the stock soared. If I had left it as is, I would have made something like over $10.00 a share. I basically almost took a header trying to charge from the second floor of my house to the first floor, and still didn't manage to get to the computer fast enough!!! Heartwrenching, but I got over it.

Now it's easy to make money investing when you actually have the money to move around. Not so much when your money is tied up in other avenues, like payment of the mortgage of your new house near the beach. Well, the new house near the beach gives me more pleasure, so I am not bemoaning that. It's this Siruis stock that I have, and I totally believe in. It's been a rollercoaster ride though and I am so far on the unearned losses list (ie value down, and I am holding strong). There is nothing wrong with Siruis, but XM's shananigans were the first to bring the stock down low well below my buying price. Then I swear these people who write articles for investors play games so that they can rise or lower the stock at a whim. Every friggin time, just by reading some article, I can tell whether it's going to go up or down that day, and it has nothing to do with company performance just what this bloke says at so and so broker house. That is what is irritating, because that's what you have to use to hedge your bets then, not the actual accomplishments or assets of the company. Oh well, so the stock has raised 215.00 this morning alone, bringing my unearned loss up to 2000.00. Perhaps if some yahoo investment writer doesn't play the games, I a may be able to earn on the first 250 of those shares that I bought lower. And perhaps if the merger goes through, I win big time.

So the reason why it's easier if you have more liquid cash, is that you can distribute the fees over more shares and by more expensive stocks that are going to go up and down. It's easier to pull out of a stock like this and ride the wave to maximize your profits or minimize your loss. Instead, I feel like I will loose out if I sell, also if I try to ride the waves, I will only be increasing the fee ratio as I don't have that much liquidity to go for the stocks I would replace it with. I also have some preset prices in with fidelity (reminiscent of MSO) so I feel like I need to be checking in now that it's on the upswing, in case I need to cancel one out quickly (if something big goes down). But not doing investing, means not having my money grow at all, which is also not an attractive option to me.

Freezing Rain

Pelting frozen droplets of water are pelting the ground and forming a crust of slickness. I should have bought the infomercial shoe modifiers. The equipment strapped onto your shoe, and had metal dots on the bottom that adhere to the ground.

Unfortunately, I most likely need to find a way to go out this afternoon to Nan's client's house. Nan is a pet sitter in the area that has referred to me a good amount of business, so I try to help her out when she asks. I took the afternoons for her with her client in Kittery, which is first of all a bit farther on a good day than I want to drive, and second of all we are now in the middle of an ice storm.

Poor Pearly's owner was not able to get here yesterday. I don't know how well she is going to be able to get here this morning. Luckily, Pearly is very easy to take care of.

I have nothing else to write about now, but ice storms take the power out all the time, so I figured I best get my blogs updated (although I keep forgetting that this is no longer my priority blog).