Gonzai Gallery

CJ went back to the doggie dentist today for her followup. She's lost a pound (I think Roxie found it) and the dentist thinks her mouth is almost healed, but he wanted her to wear the cone for another 5-7 days. Wanna guess what CJ did today? If you guessed split the cone in two trying to get out of the crate, you would be correct. No more cone. I suppose I should try to buy another, but I'll see how she does tomorrow first.

The TV volume has behaved the last 48 hours. I don't know what was up with that. But that beeping noise is back, just a few hours after my latest fix. I can't even figure out WHAT is beeping, dangit. Meanwhile CJ needed just 12 hours to bust the newly reattched latches off the crate.

No wonder I'm watching Dr. Horrible.

Lessee...

I checked the Emmys a couple times but hit a commercial every time. However, I see the Emmy voters were both astute and Baltimore homers. Astute, because Homeland was the best freakin' thing on TV last season (and there was a lot of great stuff to choose from) but I never expected it to win Best Drama. Best Actor for Damian Lewis? He deserves it, but I'm pleasantly floored by it. Meanwhile, other winners were Julie Bowen (from Baltimore), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (filmed in Baltimore) and Game Change (filmed in Baltimore, I drove through the set at one point.) Very cool.

Also cool, buried by emotion category: the Ravens' Torrey Smith is playing tonight - and has scored two touchdowns - a few hours after the death of his younger brother. Wow. Just one of the crazy things going on this game. And by the way, can we please, please, PLEASE have the real refs back? Gack.

ETA - Holy crap. We won.

Not cool at all...anyone want a dog? I don't know how, but CJ managed to get a hold of a leather art portfolio five feet away from and above her crate. She completed shredded the $200 portfolio, along with a few pieces of original artwork and dozens of copies of art that I had sold. She never got outside the crate, but somehow dragged the portfolio into the crate. I don't know what to do other than to attach wire mesh to the sides and front of the crate, but I don't have any left here and I don't know if Home Depot would have such stuff or if they can cut it to size, as I don't have the equipment to cut heavy wire. Ay-yi-yi.

CJ's new, expensive, 'doggie Alcatraz' crate arrived yesterday. Took me (with 'help' from Mom, who doesn't know the difference between a bolt and a nut now) almost 2 hours to haul it upstairs (it weighs around 50-60 pounds), clean it and put it together. Except for the latches, which seem a little weak, this sucker is solid. Half-inch posts and 3/4 inch frame, stainless steel. Bust out of this one, dog. And the latches, while the weak point, there's two of them and of my own accord I decided to install them going in opposite directions, in further deterrence. I hope. I mean, I'd like to think I'm smarter than my dog...anyway, other than some whimpers, she survived the night in there. My hands and back are killing me, but I think I've finally gotten one item of stress off my plate.

And then I'll get the credit card bill for this. Eesh.

Partly because I slept in, partly because I was achy all over, but mostly because the jackass with the dog crate e-mailed Sunday night to say he still had the crate and would I like to pick it up on Monday? So I e-mailed back, gave him my cell number again, and waited. And of course, not a peep. I want the damn crate, and I can't afford one new, and this is the only one I've see out there used; but apparently, he doesn't actually want to sell it. Just wants to string me out and make me skip a day with friends. Asshole.

At least I finally managed to give CJ a bath. Which she hasn't forgiven me for yet.

When I got home tonight, she had destroyed the third side of the crate and I have nothing to fortify that side with. She got far enough outside that side of the crate that she shredded all my art show paperwork, several photos I was hoping to use for artwork later, and some newspapers I kept for nostalgia. I have a whole trash bag of shredded papers now, and nothing to keep her inside the crate. And just in time for Balticon, when I won't be home for 3.5 days and my mother won't let the dog out. Great, just great.

CJ has developed some nasty farts the last few days - her food hasn't changed and to my knowledge she hasn't gotten into anything else. Meanwhile I started not putting her in the crate at night, because she was crying so much. Well, now she's happy - she's sleeping at the head of my bed, a couple feet from my face. Where she farts all night. How lovely.

Yesterday was not bad for a Monday. I shoulda known better. As I was getting ready for bed, I saw CJ had inflicted yet more damage on her crate, so I spent a lot of time - and a lot of stress on my hands - rewiring and zip-tying the thing back together. My hands kept bugging me all night, so I didn't sleep much. Neither did CJ - she woke me at 5am. Seems she had a reason, the power had gone out, for who knows how long, and now my alarm clock was flashing midnight. (The battery backup doesn't work.) Had to get up and go downstairs looking for a clock that still had the right time, then turn on the lights and reprogram the clock. Didn't get back to sleep before the alarm went off. Sheesh. While waiting for CJ to do her business, I sat down at the computer - and discovered that the backup for that had shut down. Rebooted the computer, and...the reboot failed. Something went awry when the power went out. Had to run a full recovery on it. Oh, and reset all the clocks that didn't have the right time. And then I didn't have time for breakfast. I'm not having fun so far today.

As if my day weren't long enough...I come home to find that CJ spent apparently the entire day flipping out in her crate. Mom didn't even check on her, much less do anything about it, so CJ went crazy on the crate for nearly eight hours. She broke off two of the metal bars completely, snapped off three of the zipties I had used to re-enforce the joints of the crate, and chewed off the ends of six more zipties. Meanwhile, once the bars were broken off, she was able to reach the carpet, and she destroyed about a square foot of that, in the middle of the room. (Can't replace it; too much stuff in the room to move.) And the hole in the carpet is bloody, although I can't tell from where as all nails and teeth are accounted for. Still, gah. Mom insists she didn't know what to do about it, so she did nothing. How about letting the dog out of the crate at some point? Or at least going up to see what's happening? Or even call me and tell me so I can give her suggestions? Double gah. I feel like I can't leave the house anymore, if the dogs don't wreck something my mother will.