Feel Like Complaining

It's that time of year again when we plan our August vacation. You would think six months in advance could assure you of at least a choice of a few places to stay at a reasonable place. The Oregon coast is a given, no swaying from that destination. We started at a motel that we have stayed at a few times in Manzanita. Nothing? Nothing. As much as we didn't really want to stay in Cannon Beach, I spent a lot of time looking up availability and prices. So much of their lodging is owned by large companies so when you do a search for availability, you are searching through several properties at once. Prices ranged anywhere from 200 to 600 a night; and we wanted to stay six. No can do said I, the tightwad. It's just never been this hard before. They have totally outpriced the average family in that town. I headed back toward Manzanita and further south. As towns gets smaller, there are less places to stay, but they are cheaper. I looked at Rockaway Beach, where we have stayed...

.......our first house guest, Gracie. She's a 5 year old Shih Tzu and is as sweet as can be. She's pretty mellow, more of a couch potato but does have some playful moments. She's used to sleeping with her people and since I am a basement dweller, The Kid took on that task. Not used to sharing her bed, she didn't sleep well and ended up on the couch with Gracie in tow. I'm not sure what tonight will bring but it's been real fun having her around. At first I think Hubby was not too keen on the idea of pet sitting, but as Gracie sat on his lap last night I could see his resolve melting. This was just my solution to missing Nellie so much. And it's because she was such a good dog, it made this decision easier to follow through with. My appointment calendar is filling up too. Next weekend I will start a 10 day job (in owner's home) watching over a dog and two cats. It's only about 20 minutes from home and 10 minutes from my Mom's so I'll be ab...

Cabin Fever that is. It usually happens about this time of year, but not always. If it's been a mild winter and we're still able to carry on with our lives with no fuss or muss, it's not as bad. I can't even say that this has been the worst winter we've ever had, but I sure am getting tired of it. If I'm not at my Moms all we do is sit around and watch TV. I get so bored that I have taken up napping in the afternoon......I never used to do that!! The only time I venture out is to shovel, and go to my Mom's, the store, or the gym. Snow just isn't fun anymore. I'm not a kid, and I no longer have a young kid. Heck I don't even have a dog anymore to run around in it. We used to have so much fun at the park or football field with a young kid and dog. It's just a giant pain now. On Thursday we had a short lived ice-storm so I went around the yard to get some pictures. That's the most I have used my camera since summer. The last few days, th...

I got tired of waiting for Fetch to call me (still haven't to this day) and I certainly didn't want to call them back. I went back to the first business I looked at and applied. By the end of the day I was approved and by the next day my background check had passed. I've watched some videos and taken quizzes, filled out my calendar for availability, have my own url, and ordered business cards. Hubby is going to be my promoter. In jest I call him the 'Master Bullshitter' because he can talk to anyone. He could have a conversation with a tree! He's good though, that's how he built his own businesses in the past so I guess we should call him retired so he can help me. I don't expect to get rich at this. I just want to fill up my time and my heart helping out people with pet sitting needs. Over the weekend we were supposed to have our first guest but because of the snow they had to cancel their trip out of town. We were all so excited, but disappoin...