Home Away From Home - Check Out The View!

We drove into Ruidoso, and utilizing the directions give to us, promptly got lost. We finally stopped and asked directions, and found the house. It’s a brand new house, beautifully decorated and furnished, in a brand new subdivision. It’s pretty remote, sits on about 10 acres, paved roads with all the amenities. We’re 5 minutes from town, but who wants to go to town? Not me. And I haven’t. We will this afternoon, finally, but ThatManILove has been content to let me lounge around and be a couch potato.

These pictures are what I saw when I woke up yesterday morning. Sweet. And then, I went out on the porch. There are no hummingbird feeders, but I was being swarmed in a cool, friendly way by tiny green hummingbirds. Awesome.

I think we're going to see if we can secure it for Christmas. Ready to spend a Christmas in the mountains, Elder and Younger Sons?

The Prey

In the past, we have seen a couple of mice in this house. I’ve not seen any lately, but I’m always looking, because I hate the wee furry creatures!

Last night, ThatManILove left the TV room and went into the bedroom to get his book. We always keep the dogs in the same room with us, so when TMIL left the TV room, he shut the dogs back into the room with me.

I was blogging and watching TV, and realized Zanna was way too still. I looked around the room, and found her...on point.

She was looking at something behind the TV.

I thought, “Great. TMIL is in the other room. Whatever it is, if it’s a mouse, when I move, it’s going to run, and Zanna will probably try to catch it, and we’ll have a wreck in this room!”

I quietly ease off the couch. She doesn’t even flinch, that Zanna-girl is on a hard point. I ease onto the rug, trying to be as quiet as I can. Creeping up to the TV, I take a peek behind the TV, right where Zanna’s nose is pointing.

Thank God it’s not a mouse. Or a snake. Not even a lizard.

It’s a housefly, and i try to kill it. (Yes, I missed.)

A teeny, tiny, common housefly. And I bet with all those eyes the nasty things have, that fly was scared to death. Because you know it’s gotta be seeing about a million spots on a hard-pointing quivering in her footprints out of pure excitement wonder pup ticked German Shorthair.

I had to say “No bird, Zanna! No bird!” three times to get her to break point.

I laughed so hard, I cried. Her trainers will be so proud.

Give Me Trees and Mountains - And Cooler Weather!

Since i’ve whiled away two days by posting entertaining pictures of my dogs and their friends, I thought I’d catch you all up.

Today, a week after my job was eliminated, I finally sent out my last e-mail responding to all the others I’ve received from friends and customers concerning my job situation. Though I wouldn't dream of skipping the process, it is kind of a dying to self process. I'm embracing that. I’ve also been busy taking care of details that happen to you when you leave your place of employ:

• checking on my flexible spending account and trying to resolve the balance
• checking on cobra insurance and what to do next
• checking to see what to do with my 401K

Tonight, I received letters of recommendation from both of my local VP’s. And I cried.

I can’t believe I’m not working with the people in my local office anymore - i miss them. We all got along really well, and respected each other. Surely after all this passes, we’ll be able to get together for lunch, etc. The friendships won’t end, if they're real.

My salesmen and saleslady friends are all checking up on me, and it seems I’m the topic of conversation all over the oilpatch. With that being said, there’s a lot of conjecture going on, and I heard last night that I’ve already taken a new job. This isn’t true. What did Tom Cruise say in that movie? "Show me the money!" Well, if you follow me at all, you’ll know I have a saying for that: “If they’re talking about me, they’re giving someone else a break!”

So...we’re definitely heading to the mountains, and we’ll be gone at least a week. We’re going to escape all the noise, grab the dogs, and drive to the vacation rental ThatManILove secured tonight. It’s beautiful, on a mountaintop, and it was just built in 2008. Granite countertops, deck surrounding the house, I can’t wait!

Upon our return, I’ll definitely start looking for my next new gig. Until then, God bless you all for your constant support. I’ll never forget you, my blogging family!

Mountains or Lake? Lake or Mountains??

I’m excited about looking for another job, and will be sending out resumes and talking to people. ThatManILove, I , and our wonderdogs are going to hit the highway and get away from it all for a couple of weeks, and just be quiet. We need a vacation anyway. TMIL wants by the water - I’m wanting the cooler climes of the New Mexico Mountains. Maybe I can find him some fly fishing, and get my wish too. While we’re deciding which way we should go, enjoy some more pics from Saturday.

This is Chuck the English Bulldog. He’s having a good time, and if you can’t tell, he’s running. Yes, a 60 lb 5 month old dog can make some major tracks, even if he can't catch Buckshot the Vizsla pup! Chuck is a sweetheart with an awesomely sweet personality. We look forward to seeing him again soon at the Dog Park!

Zanna and Buckshot, the Vizsla pup

These two bird dog babies wore each other out at the dog park Saturday. Meet Buckshot, the 6 month old Vizsla. I don't know who was more tired, Zanna or Buckshot. But they're fast friends now! And Buckshot, a la The Three Little Bears, found a pool "just her size"!

Rattlesnakes Can Be Hazardous To Your Health

Zanna learned her lesson after the first time she saw the snake. When she got shocked, she flipped over backwards. In the bottom picture, she sees the second snake, and is readying to run back to the gate, where we are standing. She got there post-haste. She is no dummy.

This yellow lab, Buck, has been through two rattlesnake bites at two different occasions. His body language is screaming: I am not even going near that snake, I smell it. Just let me go back to my owner, please. Now!

Dawn found us at the Llano Estacado Bird Hunting Assn.’s annual De-Snaking Clinic. This is a clinic which exposes dogs to rattlesnakes, training the dogs that rattlesnakes are hazardous to their health.

Basically, the snake’s mouth is sewn shut, and an e-collar is placed on the dog. Another trainer takes your dog out, and if the dog shows any curiosity at all towards the snake, the dog is shocked. This makes the dog associate pain with the rattlesnake.

Zanna was very curious - one time. On her second try, she smelled the snake, and wouldn’t go close. And that, folks, is exactly what you want.

By the way - local vets are suggesting the rattlesnake vaccination shot...and we get our dogs vaccinated bi-annually with the rattlesnake vaccination. Rattlesnakes have, in recent years, been migrating into populated areas in Midland County. Check with your veterinary professional to see if the vaccine is available in your area.

Do I Really Know This Many People?

We worked from 3 p.m. until the late hours of the night importing my 5000 + contacts into my Mac, so, oops, I may have missed a day of the 30 day challenge.

I’ll make it up to you later, I promise, with entertaining stories and lots of laughs.

Yeah, I've been laughing - a lot! And that, me maties, is a very good thing...

I Cannot Make This Stuff Up

I’m going to be writing this in a delayed fashion, because...

1. I’m still in a little shock

2. I’m still returning voice mails and e-mails and that’s taking up huge portions of my day. People are pouring out love, though, and I thank you for all your sweet and straight up comments. I love you all!

So. It’s Wednesday morning. I woke up at 6 a.m., a little late for me. Zack the Wonderdog was snuggled under the covers next to ThatManILove. I stealthily crept into the TV room, popped open the Mac (another story in itself) and started returning e-mails. I worked on this hard for about an hour.

And then, I lay back down on the couch and crashed.

At 9:30 a.m., ThatManILove came in to the room, concerned that he woke up and I wasn’t by his side. He said, “Babe, your phone’s been ringing off the wall.”

He gave it to me, and, dang. The voice mail was full AGAIN - 14 messages, and 15 e-mails. He started laughing. And then, he said, “Well! I checked my phone, and I have two messages, and three e-mails.” I just looked at him. He said, “Well, okay, yeah...they’re from yesterday.”

He is so funny.

He asked me if I wanted to go eat breakfast somewhere. Did I? No. I wanted to bury my head under the covers, but I knew that I could not do that. I had to get busy.

We compromised. He offered to make me cinnamon toast...a comfort food that hails back to my youth.

So off he went to the kitchen, dogs in hot pursuit. I hear him banging around, and before long, I smell cinnamon and butter. Yummmm. In a second, though, I smell something burning, and I cry out to him. He quickly assures me he’s got it, and in a minute, he comes back into the TV room bearing cinnamon toast. His is burned, but mine is not.

He sits down by me, and grabs a piece of toast, and bites into it. Immediately, his face screws up. Something’s not right. He spits it out.

I say, “What’s wrong?”

He smells of it, then reaches out for my plate.

He says, and I kid you not, “I put salt on it instead of sugar.”

And off he goes to make the real thing. You think we’re turned a little sideways by all this job deal? ThatManILove is a gourmet cook, I swear. The dogs wouldn’t even eat it.

I laughed until I cried. I did. It's never boring around here.

Another Lite Post

I know.

Don't shoot me. I'm just posting this to keep going on the 30 Day Challenge. I no longer am working where I was. I'll fill in all the details tomorrow.

I have to go to sleep now, I'm exhausted. But...all is good!

LitePost

I promised to post every day for 30 days. Tonight, this is all you get...

Tomorrow, an entirely different story...and the start of a new Janie adventure.

Sleep with angels, y'all!

Sunday Snoozer - August 2, 2009

This is a Sunday Snoozer post. (I just made that up, but you can copy it and utilize it anyway you want.)

Sunday’s the day of rest, right? So here’s the deal. Pre-post your Sunday Snoozer post, make it fun, pictures, whatever…so you can snooze from posting, and take your day of rest at worship, with your family, or whatever floats your boat!

Your readers, while they’re resting and reading blogs, stumble upon yours, and laugh, or smile, or look at pictures of your beautiful dogs wrestling over a pretty pink tennis ball.

With that, enjoy the Zack and Zanna while they bust it over the pink tennis ball!

The chase...

The push...

Zanna loses the ball...

The takedown...

And it all begins again...

Part 4 And FINALE - Free James Taylor Tickets to Tanglewood!

Not quite back on track, but here goes!

As you remember, we had drawn for two sets of tickets to the James Taylor Tanglewood Concert with Sheryl Crow and Yo Yo Ma.

The winners were seats 1&2 – Terri, aka Pepsi’s Mom, from Kansas – and, Jeannie S, seats 3&4from Connecticut. Both of these ladies wanted these tickets to bless (a) a daughter and (b) a friend recovering from cancer. I think that’s really cool.

So, remember, we started with 6 names, typed out, cut up, dumped into my cool yellow bowl.

And then we drew names here:

And the winners are (and yes, Ryan Seacrest is off for the weekend, so there will be no more delays):

Barbara, from Connecticut - you’ll hear more from her later…she won seats 5&6~

And…

Evan, from West Michigan, who won seats 7&8:

Here's his entry:

My wife gave me a fathers day and birthday gift (I turned 53 on July 22) to go to the concert in Tanglewood but was only able to get lawn seats for the Sun. afternoon concert with JT and the Boston Pops. We live in West Michigan and are going drive the 12-13 hours even if this is the only concert we can take in. We have been looking on line for months for tickets to the Sat. concert with Sheryl Crow. We have been effected by the 14% unemployment rate here in Michigan and because my job is directly related to the housing market things have been really slow. Being able to go hear my favorite artist, James Taylor, in seats where I could actually see him without binoculars would be so awesome. Let me commend you for your gracious gift no matter who you choose. You could have gotten a ton of money for these tickets and to give them away shows you are person of real integrity. God bless!! You can contact me at evan@********** if I am selected.

Well, Evan, your wish came true! Happy 53rd Birthday! I hope you give your lawn tickets away, in turn!

Congrats to the winners!!! Y’all e-mail me your contact info and addresses, and I will be mailing out all these tickets no later than Monday, August 3, 2009. I will most likely mail them receipt confirmation, so you must sign to receive them.

Have fun , thanks for playing in the contest and we’ll catch you on the next one.

After this morning’s activities with my WonderDogs, who knows, there may be some spotted hounds up for grabs in the near future!

Saturday to do list:

(1)Take Zack and Zanna to run at the dog park so they'll quit driving me crazy (not too far of a walk, anyway - to crazy, that is!)!
(2)Meet TexasRed and ThatManSheLoves for the very first time and share lunch! YEAH!
(3)Go see Elder Son team rope at the Lamesa Rodeo – I’m excited – if I’m lucky, I’ll get to post pix of him roping…

Free James Taylor Tanglewood Tickets Part 3.5

I know I’m supposed to be drawing for the next set of tickets…but…

We’ve been through all sorts of drama at our office today, and I just don’t have it in me to post. I've been through four booms and busts in this oilpatch, and though it's always exciting to work in the oilfield, the busts are never fun. And I have to be at the Oilman's Sporting Clay Shoot first thing in the morning.

With that being said, the contest will have to wait another day, y’all just bear with me! And I'm not dragging this out just to play the 30 day challenge, I swear.

I promise, it will happen.

Stay tuned, it will be worth it!

Free James Taylor Tanglewood Tickets - Part 3!!!

Okay, we are now back from our regularly (it seems that way) scheduled commercial. Ryan Seacrest has taken a bathroom break.

Just to catch you up, we did our first pair of tickets drawing, and the winner is Terri from Kansas. This is a quickie run through of the second pair of tickets (that you really didn't even know existed, now, did ya???)

Remember, we started here. And now, Terri's out of the loop, because she gets tickets #1 & 2. Which is really cool, 'cause her just out of college, broke, cellist daughter who lives in New York loves YoYo Ma, and they're going to have a mom/daughter date at the James Taylor concert on August 29th! (everybody politely clap, please...)

And then we did this (but not really this picture, this picture is yet another rerun. Remember?). All the names were dumped into the bowl, after being equally folded up so as not to pick any of my favorites. And then our representative designee from Acme, BeepBeep and BLAM picked the second name.

And here are the winner tickets, seats #3 & 4, so...whoever wins these will be sitting next to a person, definitely, from Kansas...and another from New York! Y'all had better be nice to each other and send me pictures (because I'm always on the hunt for more blog fodder...).

All of the above proceedings were checked and double checked by Zack the Wonderdog, who's now chewing on his 5th rawhide. He's more than ready to get this process over and done. He also knows, however, from whence his rawhide cometh, so he'll be with us until the end...whenever that may be. He, after all, is easily bought.

The winner is: Jeannie S from Connecticut! Here’s her entry.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi Jane,Please submit my name into your 'James Taylor' contest. I'm especially interested in winning these tickets for a friend. My friend just finished his cancer treatment this spring and is a huge fan of James Taylor! This would be a great surprise! Just the thrill of entering this contest is so pleasing and exciting! I just came across this announcement today, a day before the contest. I can't believe it! Thanks for your generosity and thoughtfulness in offering your tickets to this superconcert.

Carpe Diem

Jeanne S

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don’t you just love people who love to bless others? That’s how Jeanne’s spirit struck me – she’s a giver. And who knows, maybe she’ll become a blogger in her spare time!

Thanks so much for playing…oh, WAIT! WAIT! Ryan has made another announcement.

Yup, you guessed it – we’re going to keep going.

We’re going to have another drawing for yet another pair of tickets. I didn’t tell you about these, either…but we’re almost through! I think, anyway...

Here’s drawing number three:

And the winner is…

Right. Like you think I’m going to tell you today? I’ve got a 30 Day Post Challenge happening, and through no fault of your own, you’re a part of it. All of you.

After that, are there more, you ask? Hmmmm. Surely not!!! But...mebbe so, mi compadres!

That Janie Girl

Free James Taylor Tanglewood Tickets - Part 2

At the last post, Ryan Seacrest had left the building, and my impartial accounting firm had drawn the winner name for the free James Taylor Tanglewood August 29 Tickets.

Which was confirmed by Zack, my third party impartial accounting firm who really liked the yellow bowl. (His interest wanes fast…he’s on the rawhide bone, now.)

And the winner is…. may I have a drumroll, please??? PLEASE?

Terri, aka Pepsi's Mom, who hails from northwest Kansas! (Maybe I should have had ThatManILove wash the popcorn butter from his hands first.) Terri, you have won seats to James Taylor, Section 20, seats 1 & 2!

Congrats, Terri – I think I have your mailing address, so be watching out for them, you postmaster you!

Here was Terri's comment on my blog. Though she lives in Kansas, I know her through field trialing our German Shorthairs (and actually, she was grandma to Zoie the WonderPup #1, who we so tragically lost last year - click the link to read the story) - so how cool that Terri got the first set of tickets! (Clue, clue)

Wellllll....I already have a vacation scheduled for the last week of Aug. I am going to see my totally broke, just out of college, daughter. She just happens to live in Coxsackie NY, a hop and a skip down the through way to Tanglewood! I love James Taylor, and she is a cello player who would love to see YoYo Ma! Janie, you are such a generous person! Even if I don't win, this has been a blast posting! LUKE 6:38

So, how awesome is it that Terri won? Now, if you didn't win, don’t close out and never come back to this blog…I decided to keep going. What, you say? Keep going? Are you crazy, Janie?

The answer is...Yes. But if you're a regular reader of this blog, well, then you know that already.

We had another drawing for yet another pair of tickets. I didn’t tell you about these, but this is so much fun, and what the heck did I buy all these tickets for, anyway? I was supposed to sell the rest of our tickets on one of those sites, but I looked at ThatManILove and batted my big brown eyes, and thus this contest was birthed!

Here’s drawing number two:
And the winner is…

Dang that Ryan Seacrest channeler! He's back and calling for another commercial break!

The winner post will go up tomorrow for the second set of tickets!

After that, are there more, you ask? Only. The. Shadow. Knows. And, maybe, the impartial accounting firm of Acme, BeepBeep, and Blam…

Don't you EVEN change that channel. Ya snooze, ya lose!

Free James Taylor Tanglewood Tickets Winners....Part 1

Okay.

The deal has been done.

The name has been drawn.

I’ll take you through the steps. Nobody get out their shotguns yet, okay? Because, really…I can probably outshoot you. Not that I would try or anything, but my Beretta Teknys does have a 30” barrel. (Which does nothing for my accuracy, I might add...but I look dang good!)

Here’s how it all went down.

First, I went into Excel and noted all your names. If your name isn’t on this list, either you excluded yourself via e-mail, or said you lived too far away to participate – but hey, thanks so much for commenting!

And then, I cut the names up all sweet and on the lines, I might add. All the names were uniform in size. Remember, the renown accounting firm of Acme, BeepBeep and BLAM was peering over my shoulder.

Then, we had the bowl selection. Our unrelated third party did this selection. He favors yellow. It makes his eyes shine.

All the names were dumped into the bowl, after being equally folded up so as not to pick any of my favorites.

And then our representative designee from Acme, BeepBeep and BLAM picked the first name.

And the winner is...

(To be continued…)

ThatManILove is channelling Ryan Seacrest again...