Let's see...

What is new?

-Marley is still having accidents, mostly the solid ones. I know that she is having them as part of a behavioural problem, because we let her out before we leave and as soon as we get home, and she's not alone that often, but we have been spending a lot of time in the house, and she spends most of the day sleeping. Need to get on a more regular walking schedule, and play with her every day! (Working on it)

- I woke up today feeling motivated, to eat healthier, to go for more walks, to get more done. (To stop distracting myself with the tv when I get homesick, instead, I hope to do more productive things. Like get healthy again.) I bought more fruit (been making fruit salad a lot lately, and needed to get a fresh supply anyway...) and a few veggies (I'm not a fan of most... except some cooked in bad enough ways that it's healthier for me to not eat them.) and I plan to make the best of them. I also plan to take Marley for a few more walks a week, presuming she promises to stop rolling in sh!t. *see below.

- I need a new bra. Desperately. I have about 3 or 4, but all but one are unwearable (Why I still have them, I don't know.) So, I wash it often, which is shortening it's life span, too, and I have a feeling that I should make an appointment in Edmonton for a fitting and start saving some money again to be able to afford the ones I have to buy. (F-ing chest is too big to be able to buy from any regular store, unless I want to cut off the blood supply to half. And it's extremely uncomfortable to do that...) So, hopefully the back pain will dissipate during the second half of my trip to Cold Lake... First thing I will do when I get there is wash my new bra. Second thing, say hello to everybody... (ha, ha, ha... just kidding. I will unpack second. lol).

- New car is working out great. After we got it an oil change, new tires, new spark plugs and wires... And the engine is knocking, but other than that it works excellent! Very fuel efficient...

- It is still up in the air whether or not Chris will be joining me on our trip to Cold Lake: they offerred him on thursday to 'qualify' early... (Brakeman, right now. Still has more training to do to become a Conductor. Three years after that he could qualify for Engineer, if available.) His on the job training was supposed to be 45 trips/tours/shifts/whatever and on thursday, he was at 30. So, 2/3 of the way done, because either he's doing a great job, or they are short workers... but either way, he was offerred it. It means more money, but he'd still be in training to qualify for Conductor. He's already doing the work of a brakeman, they've been short a few days the last week and it was either he just do it, or the job comes to a screeching halt. I don't think he's completely decided yet...

If he stays in training, he might be able to have the whole weekend off for the trip to Cold Lake, but he might be in Prince George. If he takes the Brakeman position early, he will be working 6 days a week, and most likely will be able to get the weekend, plus the friday off. So, then we would have to leave on Sunday. Or, even if he couldn't get the friday off, since we'd be taking two cars to Cold Lake and only one back, I could still come down on Friday and Chris could come down early Saturday. And then we'd leave on Sunday. I don't know what's going on at this point. There's still the potential he might not be able to come down at all, meaning we'd have to figure out another way to get the car to Cold Lake...

Hey, I'm just trying to get Willy a car, damnit.

-We shaved Marley... it was way too hot, and trimming is so time consuming, and makes me warmer struggling with her, and being in such close quarters with her and usually Chris, too. Just too hot to trim normally. However, the trimmer gets hot too, but it's still easier, and she's not as scared of the trimmer as she was of the cutting noise the scissors make. (Rescue Remedy works pretty good, too. Made her a little high, tho, I think.)

* It's been over 6 months since we got her and she's proven that she has a thing for rolling in stinky stuff. So far, the list includes: dirt, cat poop, garbage and most recently (today) horse poop. Luckily it was dry and it didn't stick too much, but it stills ticks me off to no end that she ruins a good walk with that urge that I don't understand that makes me turn around and go home. (going to look up why dogs do that now... from http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=2&cat=1547&articleid=1152 :

"A. It is thought that dogs may choose to roll in foul-smelling things to mask their scent, just as wolves do. Wolves may roll in decomposing carcasses or the feces of herbivores (plant eating animals) to disguise themselves. They want to cover their own odors so their prey will not be alarmed by their scent. This way, they can sneak up on their prey and have a better chance of making a kill.
Some behaviorists feel dogs may roll in smelly things to 'advertise' what they have found to other dogs."

Huh. Still, gross.

And a waste of water, too.