Nov 28, 2007

You're a strange animal, that's what I know

Oh, dear. I’m really dating myself with that song quote. (And bonus points if you a) remember the song and b) can name the artist. *grin*).

Things around my house (er, the Rauch Motel, as I like to call it *wink*) have gotten very animal-focused lately. I’ve never been much of an animal person. I’m highly allergic to cats, and we just didn’t have a dog when I was growing up. So, my exposure was pretty limited.

When I first moved in to my house, I thought about getting a dog, but I was commuting, and out for long hours every day, and I didn’t think it was fair.

And then, I was lying in bed one night and a bat flew into my room. Freaked me right the heck out.
I thought I’d locked it in a room with an open window and it had flown out, but in fact it actually hid in my house for three days before it surfaced again…in the middle of the night. Frantic phone calls didn’t turn up anyone willing to drive all the way to my house at 2 a.m. to help me get rid of it. I ended up calling an exterminator who, upon hearing my frantic plea, offered to come and remove mr. bat without charing me their exorbitant middle of the night fee. I think he thought he might have gotten lucky. Instead he got me. heh.

But my house has been animal free ever since… until a few weeks ago, I had to leave at a disgustingly early hour (I’m a night owl. 6 a.m. just doesn’t exist in my world) and I stumbled down to the front door, half asleep, kicked a few pairs of shoes out of the way until I found the ones I was looking for and as I’m stepping into one of them, a mouse appears from behind me, runs across my foot and ambles across the hallway… I started screaming. A lot. I scared the absolute crap out of T, who *was* sleeping. He comes running downstairs, thinking someone was trying to kill me or something, and when he found out what happened, laughed like a fool. And hasn’t stopped.

What he has started is a campaign for a dog. He’s already picked one out at the pet store across the street.

I’m not sure. In theory, it’s probably not a bad thing. I mean, companionship, something to love, something to keep away mice who like high-heeled platform shoes, and squirrels with a Nanaimo bar addiction. (oh, yes, that’s another story… this past weekend I had family over for dinner and my mom brought desserts. We had extra Nanaimo bars that wouldn’t fit in the fridge, so we thought we’d cover them up and put them on the balcony. Hey, it’s -1 out, it’s not like they wouldn’t be kept cold. But, Spanky (*sigh* yes, T has named the squirrels who hang out on my balcony) decided he wanted to get inside. He got inside the freezer wrap and managed to eat a good chunk of one before we caught him. We re-wrapped the tray up in a couple of bags and put it back outside. (you’d think we’d learn…) Well, Spanky was almost all the way through all those bags before we dug up a plastic container that would fit the tray. When *that* finally came inside, Spanky had tried to nibble through both handles. )

But despite all that, I’m still resistant to getting a dog. First, I like being able to be on my way home and randomly detour for a couple of hours on a whim. Or getting up one morning and deciding to drive across the border. And if we’ve got a dog waiting at home, that’s gonna mean an unhappy dog. Or, er, a relieved dog, but an unhappy carpet.

And second, I’m not used to having an animal in the house. I’m a control freak. And dogs, not really an animal you can use logic on… or reason with.

But on the other hand… there’s the unconditional love and the licks and the snuggles and the company when I’m home alone. Not to mention a built-in get me away from the computer and take a darn break already.

I dunno… so I’m open to suggestions. Do you have pets? Should we get a dog? Why or why not?

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Nov 26, 2007

Don't you hate when…

you start a pile of blog posts and never actually finish or post them? Yeah, sorry about that.

I’ve been trying to catch up… edits, websites, birthday parties (both T and I turned a rather traumatic number this month), computer issues, it goes on. I keep setting dates, thinking *this* is the last day I’ve got too much on the go and I’ll finally take a bit of a break, and then something else comes up. argh.

But I think I’m finally there. The websites hanging over my head are live (including mine, which you’ll notice the new colours in here match my design. ), the books I need to finalize in December are either sitting in my inbox waiting for final proofs or with the final line editor, and the housework is mostly caught up. (Tho, there is the small matter of a couple of loads of laundry waiting to be done. )

So, now I have time to beta-read a friend’s latest novel, which I’m vastly looking forward to, and I officially don’t have any more excuses not to get back to writing, which is something I’ve been trying to do since at least August… And read… oh, I miss reading for fun. You might remember that I got completely caught up in a certain trilogy last week *grin* and I realized how much I miss it. I’ve never not had a book on the go since I learned to read, and this not making time for reading is not good.

Hm. I guess I also don’t have any more excuses to avoid the treadmill, either…

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