Guess who's turning one?

That's right! Today!


A few random facts:

She "plays" with her food while she's eating and starts getting full. All out, rolling in it, growling, etc. :)

We call her a lot of things aside from her name. Our favorites are Turbs, Turbsy, Turbo-doggie, and Pogs (puppy + doggie - gie + s). Sometimes Turbs-a-runity. If you know Joel, you'll understand. haha

We spank her when she's naughty. And guess what? She's pretty well behaved overall.

She also knows what "Do you want a spanking?" means. It's her last warning. heh

She still gets "sit" and (lay-)"down" mixed up sometimes.

She would go outside (for the bathroom) every 20 minutes if we let her. Mostly just to sniff around and see if any neighbors are out. This can be frustrating. :)

I always said I would never have a small dog, and be one of "those" people. But now, I completely am... and don't care! However, I draw the line at "Mommy" and "Daddy." Sorry, that thing didn't come out of me. Nor is it human. ;)

She's one of the few dogs I'm actually not allergic to. We all know the hubby wasn't going to go for a standard poodle.

If Joel's out of town, she starts getting antsy downstairs around 5. She knows he should be home by then. :)

She always perks up at vehicles... I swear she can pick out GMC/Chevy pickups from all the rest. haha

She is the absolute biggest cuddle-bug when she's tired. Love it. :)

She knows she has to sit on the couch while I'm working. Then she knows when the washer/dryer signals go off, she gets to go "help" me with laundry. Haha.



Have a great weekend, everyone! Mine will include a convention!

Whine. Sigh. Annoyance.

Dealing with the helicopter company again.... do I ever sound like a broken record?

This time we're dealing one-on-one with them. No more insurance companies.

But, in order for us NOT to give them all a lump sum, we have to fill out a very detailed form and APPLY to get to pay in installments.

Hello. We're 22 years old. We own a house. And vehicles. And we (I) have student loans. And I'm still in start-up mode in my business.

Do you think we have $21,000 just sitting around? Especially to use for medical bills? Maybe in mappy-pappy land. Or in Palm Springs, where all the rich and famous (and the helicopter company, coincidentally) are located.

So meanwhile, I'm running around to get together last year's taxes, pay stubs, a couple months worth of checking and savings account statements, and business financial information. Just got done going through a personal financial statement... detailing out each bit of income, all our assets, and expenses (no place for liabilities... we have LOANS, people!).

Good news and bad news.
The bad news is our bottom line looks pretty grim.
The good? There's no way they can expect us to pay hardly anything for monthly payments.


PS. Would it feel weird to anyone else to pack up all this sensitive, personal information and ship it off to a medical provider in California?

PPS. Let's vote. Who here thinks we should enlist a lawyer's help? If nothing else, to at least explain to us our rights in this whole situation?

Hardware Upgrade v.1.06.87

How to install new hardware in your computer:

1. Do NOT back anything up. No files, pictures, nothing.

2. Open the pretty shiny packages with your new stuff.

3. Call your tech support and put them on speaker for the next 5 hours.

4. With their help, put in the new hardware.

5. Start up the computer.


6. Do what your tech support tells you for a few hours.

7. Windows still doesn't load.

8. Start to realize you could potentially have to re-do all your books and lose all your image files since April.

9. Follow your tech support's great idea. Install NEW Windows to a different hard drive, then copy all the files from the old to the new.

10. Start computer. Boot to NEW Windows.

11. Old Windows boots up. What??

12. Jump up and down with glee.

13. Do a massive backup, which takes about 4 hours.

13.5 Dig out a fan for your poor, overheating external hard drive.



14. Put the hardware back in, wipe clean your drives, re-install Windows the right way.

15. Spend a full day's work putting programs back on and downloading drivers/updates/etc.




16. Thoroughly enjoy your fast programs and new Windows.

17. Remind your tech support you love them.

18. Buy your tech support a gift card. (Wait, my tech support doesn't read this, does he?)

19. Laugh with glee when your tech support still answers your calls.

20. Remind yourself to get an auto-backup system in place.

21. Prank call your tech support.

22. Resolve not to do another hardware upgrade for a looong time.