Hi There

Hi....yeah. Just a small hiatus there.

Okay, not actually that small.

I managed to not die of boredom, and finished my systems architecture class. Honestly, if I was a young 20 something and hadn't worked in IT before, I don't know how I would have passed. It really wasn't an undergrad class. That's just my opinion though.

In other news, Daughter finally got her license. This also meant having to buy a cheap-ass car in order to facilitate any real autonomy – for both of us. Yeah, I could just have her drive my car when it was available, which is pretty much never. It would also mean continuing to drive her around to every extra-curricular and social activity. Anyone with teenagers knows this is a full time job by itself.

So yeah. Cheap Jeep. So far it's only been in the shop once, but thankfully it's got “good bones”. These things live forever. I had one for the better part of 12 years, and know other people who kept them running for over twenty. Plus it has the added benefit of four wheel drive – since we live in the Snowy North - and lots of actual METAL to act as a giant bubble around said teenager. I mean geez, cars are all plastic these days. Anyway, more on the used car experience later.

You may have noticed I stopped bitching about work over the past year or so (well, I should say any of the three people still reading this blog. I figure I've lost all readership due to grievous blog-neglect). Anyway, I finally like what I'm doing. Also, not being on-call 24x7 is beneficial to not having a heart attack at 44. I'm just too old for that. Still, it's not that coding didn't hold a viable future for me, only that coding at my last job was a bullet train to a fresh circle of hell.

Hubby is traveling for work a lot more now, so I've got doggy detail. This is fun because the dog mostly doesn’t listen to me, and usually pushes the envelope by acting like a two year old on crack.

The most unsettling part is taking the dog out before bed. We have lights around the house, but obviously not in the forest, which is right over there.....and there is nothing creepier than shining a flashlight into that thick darkness and seeing ten pair of green eyes staring back at you.

Have I mentioned that the dog doesn’t like to be rushed with his bowel movements? He can't just go outside and do the needful. No, he has to make a round of the yard and inhale any remnants of his previous deposits, eat rocks, and roll around in a musky, flattened patch of grass where I presume the deer have been camping out. So while he's sniffing around doing doggy things, I'm shivering and hoping that whatever is giving me the stink eye from the woods isn't hungry and/or have large teeth.

Our dog.....it's a good thing he's cute.

On the cat side of things, well, he's still on the Kitty Prozac. So far so good, six months and no extraneous pee. He's still a complete asshole though.

Our cat.....it's a good thing he's cute.