I'm Back! Intros please...

Sorry it has taken me so long to get back on here, but rest assured that I have arrived safe and sound in Onalaska, Washington. It was interesting getting the move together; the moving company was AWESOME - they delivered all my crap intact and on time. The moving truck arrived on Sept. 17th bright and early. There were only two guys, and I thought it would take them forever to get the truck loaded with just two of them, but they were fab-u-lous and had everything loaded and ready to go by 1:30pm. I spent the night at a hotel and then went back the next morning to clean and pack up my truck. Unfortunately, I managed to leave one box behind in the garage; it had stuff that was near and dear to me in it (including my ergonomic keyboard that you can't find anymore) like my tax returns for the last several years, and a really nice collage picture frame with pictures of all my great-nieces and great-nephews in it. I realized that I had left it behind sometime around Bozeman; too far to go back and get it, and no bars on the cell phone to call the landlord. Oh well, thought I; I will call him when I get to Sissy's. Surely he will call me if he has any questions about what to do with it; after all, he is an intelligent human being and I left him my new address and my cell phone number on the kitchen counter with the AC remote and the garage door opener.

In my glee of starting my new chapter in life, I forgot that my landlord is a twat and a knob-end. I reached him a few days later and he told me that he had "gotten rid of" the box of stuff. I cried for two days. He doesn't know it, but his ass has a future appointment with my sister's foot.

Anyhoosier, my trip went smoothly. Until...

As I was going over the pass between Montana and Idaho, I felt what I thought was a rock being kicked up by my Rodeo's front passenger side tire. No big deal, but it sounded like an awfully soft rock. Hmm. Fast forward to climbing the hill on I-90 going through Couer d'Alene, ID. Another soft sounding rock being kicked up. Now it feels like there is a bit of a wobble in that tire. Hmmm...am I losing lug nuts? Since I was *this close* to peeing my pants anyway, I stopped at a rest area just outside of Post Falls. Went pee, looked at lug nuts. Nope - all accounted for. Hmmmmmm... Continued on to Spokane, and now the wobble-type-feeling is alarming. I can barely keep the steering wheel in my hands. Time to get gas, will inspect tire at gas station. I pulled up to the pump, looked at the tire, and nearly pooped my pants. There was a large (5" at least) section of the tire MISSING. Metal wires were sticking out. It's a miracle I didn't blow the tire! I ran into the gas station asking if there was a full service station or a tire store nearby. There was; I gingerly drove as fast as possible to it, pulled into the parking lot just in time to see the guy locking the door. PANIC!! I begged him to change my tire, and he was more than happy to put my spare on for me, check my other tires, and put a little air in them - free of charge. Bless his little pea pickin' heart!!

The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful, but I didn't get to Sissy's until almost 1am. I. Was. TIRED. But happy. And tired.

Did I mention that I was tired? Yes. OK, just checking.

So now I would like to introduce you to some of my new house mates. Please to enjoy.

This is Bruiser, or as I call him: Bruiser Buckman, Uber Pooper with the Wild Willy. You may remember from one of my last posts that Bruiser had seriously injured his spine. The vet said that he would never stand or walk again, and Sissy was heartbroken - to say the least. Well, the Flying Black Weenie Dog of Death was not to be dismissed so easily as that. Not only does he indeed stand, but he walks and runs too! Well, his front legs work normally, but he puts his back legs together and hops with them. He can out run me, so... Sissy bought him a little stroller (think baby buggy as opposed to an umbrella stroller) so that we can wheel him around the house with us when he wants to be with us, but we don't want him ON us. We take him into stores with us (the top zips shut with a mesh so that he can see out, but people are not able to touch him) and we take him to the park in it, etc. Even though he wants to run around and jump up and down, his spine is still extremely fragile and still healing, so we try really hard to not let him get too active. It's amazing how quickly I fell in love with him, and he with me. Sissy is still first in his heart, but I come in a real close second, and that feels wonderful.

Sissy, Bruiser and I took a drive one day out to the Washington coast - just long enough to say, "Look! There's the water!", then we turned around and drove back home (pics of that day will follow). We drove through the local Dairy Queen, and Bruiser got his own cone. HE IS SO CUTE!! (shut up)

Bruiser tells those pesky seagulls to poop on the car at their own risk boy howdy.

This beautiful smiling gal is Luka.

We aren't sure what kind of dog she is; it appears that she has Blue Heeler, Pit Bull, and perhaps Akita in her. She is super duper smart and very protective; she has chased bears and god knows what else off the property. She just appeared at Sissy's house one day and never left. She is Awesome.

This lovely lady is the youngest and newest member of the family, Miss Muffin.

She is about a year old and we think that she is a calico/Rag Doll mix. Although she appears dainty, her tag line is: Hi! I'm Miss Muffin. Let's wrastle!

This is Miss Muffin's nemesis, Teddy.

He is a pure bred Rag Doll, and he thinks that he is a dog. Seriously. I am so not kidding. After dinner, when the dogs get their little dessert treat, we have to give him one too. He does not purr like a normal cat either. I actually got him to purr the other day, and Sissy was amazed as she had never heard him do it. You can't tell from this picture, but he has the most gorgeous china blue eyes. Oh, yes, and he is a total Pill.

This is the old man of the family, Barnes.

He is at least 20 years old and is beloved by all the cats - even the dogs love him! He has a super industrial sized purr - you can actually hear him from across the room.

This is Gus Gus (yes, after the mouse in Cinderella - my brother-in-law named him).

We actually think he is gay (not that there is anything wrong with that) because he acts like a total queen. Barnes is the only animal in the family that will tolerate his presence (except for Ethel), but the other cats hate him and Bruiser would love to bite his big fat butt if he could ever get the chance. We don't really understand this, he seems nice enough.

Ethel makes up the complete animal family here, but she has some serious heath issues and lives solely in my sister's bedroom and is very, very shy. She is a great round black kitty with huge yellow eyes; she suffers from chronic (as in daily) kidney stones and is not usually in the best of tempers. I will try to get a decent picture of her to post soon.

So, that's all of us; I'll share more later. Right now, my hands are tired since I cannot type on my fabulous ergonomic keyboard anymore because some TWAT that shall remain nameless threw it out...but I don't want to talk about that. I will fill you in later on the job hunt, etc.

Thanks for all the nice emails - thanks for not giving up on me!

TTFN.