Internal Memo

To:  All members of the Saratoga Animal Shelter

From:  The Shelter Director

RE:  Recent Flights and Safety Concerns

The Saratoga Animal Shelter has launched today a new safety campaign designed to keep members alive.  The campaign centers around the slogan "If You Fly, You Die." Recent incidents have indicated that some members do not realize the risk they take when taking flight.  From now on, members are urged to repeat the slogan, "If You Fly, You Die," and ask themselves if they may be going to participate in an event that could be considered flying.  If the answer is yes, members are requested to quit the activity in question immediately and return to a concrete structure.  At no point should a member's feet or pattes be off of the ground.  Any member who finds himself unsure if his or her activity could be considered flying, will be able to consult the "If You Fly, You Die" poster, coffee mugs and t-shirts that will be distributed as part of the campaign blitz.  These materials will be distributed at the next Board of Directors meeting.

Thank you for your prompt attention to these matters and remember, "If You Fly, You Die."

That in Which the Hapless Heroine Gets a Physical Therapy Appointment

What?  It's only six months from my surgery, but I gots me a physical therapy appointment on Monday!  Woot, woot!  I'm not feeling too too confident, due the conversations I have had with the physical therapist's office, which, in two conversations did not inspire confidence, but I'm ready.  In fact today I feel pretty damn good.  I walked around and did, what I would consider, mostly normal stuff and right now I'm only in my pajamas because my bra decided to have its wire poke through only three minutes after I left the house and so I spent all day trying not to be in pain and I couldn't fathom putting on a second set of clothing once I got home.  I just went straight to PJs.

In other news- this morning Gretchen and I were treated with a great view of the moon from her classroom window.  By the time I grabbed the camera the moon had moved a bunch so the pictures doesn't really represent the lunar beauty we saw.

Also, since the pink room has more room, this has aided the dogs and now all three of them can be in the room with me while I work.

Photo 366

One of my other New Year's Resolutions was to do a photo a day challenge.  I looked around on the Internet and found a site which offered some different themes for each week, but they were for 2011 and I had to tweak them a bit.  The first week's theme was newness and this week's theme is breakfast.  I'm positing the photos on a separate blog Photo 366 only because I'm confident someone else will want to participate as well and we can post our pictures together.  So far, I would not call my photos very artistic, but I've got another 359 days to practice!  I made a Google calendar with all the themes, so if you want to participate let me know and I'll e-mail them to you.

http://2012photo366.blogspot.com/


In other news, I set up my computer on my new desk this morning.  So far it's pretty awesome, though I can't get the right bottom drawer open.  I'm slowly working on getting the room cleaned out so that I can start moving the sewing stuff in here.  It's going to take forever, because I can do about 10-15 minutes and then I have to lay down.

Je suis fini

Yesterday Earl decided he couldn't take it anymore and hid himself behind the pillows.

Sigh....

When I got to school today I discovered that my school laptop had been stolen out of my classroom last night- sometime after 5:05pm when I left.  I knew immediately when I walked in the room that it was gone, but I came home to make sure I hadn't lost my mind.  I knew I hadn't because I was too sore yesterday to carry the laptop home and also I had bought a new purse on Tuesday to put it in and my purse did not have my laptop in it.  I'm pretty careful about keeping my work and personal computing separate, but my brand new DVD of Astérix Chez les Bretons was in there!  And all of my French music!    My French music!!  Sigh.  Turns out my laptop wasn't the only thing stolen from the area and the total now is about over $3000 worth of stuff.  Since it was the school's I'll probably get to order a new one from the insurance, but that's a pretty expensive upgrade to Lion.

Under Construction

I had to go to Jury Duty today.  I was pretty excited about it because it was such an opportunity to people watch.  The lady behind me in line had brought a date and the person in front of me had brought a baby.   Once we got into the court room, I had to throw out the Big Guy's name and the fact that I had put together the "How to Pick a Winning Jury" powerpoint presentation for last year's state bar convention and now I am no longer on the jury because I could not, in good conscious, be part of that.

The Saratoga Animal Shelter is currently undergoing a series of changes and cosmetic improvements.  I am in the process of relocating the sewing room to the pink room (slightly larger) and moving the Max/Toy Repository/Guest room to the yellow room.  This is going to be a long process because I want some new furniture, like an actual desk where I can place my pencils and also I can't really move more than a box at a time.  After Jury Duty I went to the Salvation Army to see if I could find a desk.  I didn't find a desk, but I did find four chairs.  It was love at first sight, but at $60 a piece I was reluctant.  In an atypical fashion, I asked the girl if only certain things were 50% off and she said she could give me the chairs at $30 each.  She promptly loaded them up and then Super Sara came over and took them out.  It solved several problems because I was able to move the bench to the hallway and use it as a place to put quilts.  I am so excited!  I am going to recover the chairs.  (Ok, to be fair, my mom will help me recover the chairs.)  First, I'm going to try some upholstery cleaner because they look pretty good already and they are super comfy!!

Resolutions

Mad home skills

I had quite the day today.  I was Betty Freaking Cocker this morning and at one point I was making waffles, cooking soup, vegetable stock and chicken and doing laundry all at the same time.  That's some hardcore domesticity right there.  In the process of plugging in the waffle maker, the was a spark, then fire and then smoke that came out of one of the electrical sockets in the kitchen.  Normally, this would cause me to panic and possibly cry, but I wasn't worried since the handymen were going to come over.  They looked at it and said it was fine, but they fixed three other electrical outlets that needed some attention.  They also put in a new light over the dining room table.  This one is stylish and exponentially less obnoxious than the other one.

My New Year's Resolutions are pretty simple: drink more water, watch less TV and listen to more French.  I have to spend some quality time listening to French because I feel sometimes like the only French I speak anymore is French I.  Therefore, I have resolved to listen to France Info when I get home and am preparing diner or when I'm at school when I normally would be listening to Miranda Lambert.  And let me tell you how glad I did this today because right when I turned on France Info there was a report, swear to God, about how you can reserve hotel rooms in Paris for just two hours in the afternoon, you know for a little, something something with the person you aren't married to.  The guy in the report said matter of factly,  "Well, you know, some people don't want to go to the office or the car."  The lady running one of the hotels (three stars) said that for her it was easy because she was a nicer hotel and she had the cleaning staff who could refaire la chambre right after the lover's tryst.  Let me tell you that this information is not information that is in any textbook I've ever used and I'm going to file it away in case I'm ever cheating on someone with a Frenchman in Paris.  Mostly I'm just concerned about other cultural tidbits I have been missing.

I also watched Max today.  It was a bit rough because he did not want to sleep anywhere but on top of me and the handymen were here and also the duck was a bit rude with him.  I took Max out to look at the duck and I believe this was the conversation:

Duck:  Your grandma dresses you funny and you are not the bright center of the universe.

Max:  (WAIL! SCREAM! CRY! SERIOUS TEARS!)

Seriously, I had to tell Max that I wouldn't let the duck talk to him like that again and that I was going to kick her ass when he left and that she was a mean duck and that she didn't mean it and he shouldn't believe what she says because his grandma doesn't dress him funny and he is the bright center of the universe.  Then we went inside and played and listened to France Info.  Best part is I watched that guy from 10-5 and I don't even need to take a pain pill!