Curiouser and Curiouser

So, lots of win to report:

- Was able to give living room and bedroom mini-makeovers for less than $100 each, and they look awesome. Still lots of cleaning to do, but yay! I'm hoping that uDon will see the look I'm going for and approve of paint chips.

- Dog is a-go! uDon has agreed to write him into the lease (along with a refundable pet deposit), and pick-up date is set for the middle of July. The female (a very sweet tricolor) is due in May, and the dad is a black-and-white, so the B+W color is a totally reasonable expectation. I wouldn't mind a tricolor, either. The female is a phalene, though, but her last litter were all papillons. AND it'll be less expensive, since he's a male, and it's my first choice breeder.

- The second floor is moving out, and we're splitting the two floors between the four tenants already here and two new ones, just like we'd hoped. We're planning to treat it like one big apartment.

- After Fox (no, seriously, Fox called our ISP) issued a cease-and-desist on someone in our building, uDon checked our IPs and, since it was no one in our apartment, could restore our internets. Yay! And now we know that the reason the internet's been crap for a while was because someone was a torrent hub storing copyrighted material of epic proportions. I look forward to it improving.

- Possible new job! Vet practice is very interested in me since I can be both tech and receptionist (two part-time positions right now that add up to full time and I can replace any full-timers that will be leaving) as well as a new business venture of theirs for me to help spearhead. They want my resume, and are coordinating an interview. ZOMG. I had to call elenuial, who was in the middle of something, to tell him. I really, really hope this works out well.

- Calcifer hasn't skipped a meal in over two months! And he's eating faster and faster every week. Howl is still fat. =(

- PAX East this weekend, staying with our lovely host instead of at the crazy hotel. Excited again!

There was more, but right now, this is all I can think of. I will reward myself for hours and hours of hard work by playing Sims 3 a bit and eating mint milanos.

And finally, dogs are awesome. Case and point: a husky calming a fussy baby by singing. Not howling, singing like he would to the pups. Apparently, it works on baby humans, too. (You only need to watch until about a minute in.)

Totally buying corsets. And not cheap ones, either, but mid-range.

Some will definitely be leather. And underbust. Because I need an underbust corset, and I've wanted one for ages.

I might be buying like, three of them. And the guy will combine shipping like whoa - so if anyone's interested, let me know and we can hop on the corset train!

The last few months have cemented it.

I want a Papillon.

They might not be very popular, but I don't care. It came as a surprise to me, as I'm very much a big dog person, but when I whittled my lifestyle needs down, these little guys have matched up in every way.

My three base requirements for a dog are as follows:
- Between 10 and 35 pounds so that I can easily carry/transport it in an emergency
- Have at least marginal grooming requirements that motivate me to be aware of its hygiene, low-allergen breeds preferred
- Be highly intelligent and receptive to training/obedience

Papillons are amazing dogs. I've always loved them, but the more of them I've met recently, the more in love with the breed I've fallen. They're toy spaniels, essentially, meaning they're about a foot at the shoulders and 12-15 pounds but have the work ethic/desire to please of their hunting relatives.

They're also in the top ten breeds of The Intelligence of Dogs, a study that measured both the ease of training and obedience level of the AKC recognized breeds.

So, easy to train, motivated, capable of entertaining themselves, human-oriented, cute as hell!, single-coated, and ridiculously loyal dogs. And it's extremely easy to train them to be near-silent, too. I want a dog whose brain I can really work and then reward them by letting them snuggle into my lap.

This is the breed for me.

I know I'm not ready for a dog yet. Not this year. But when I get a more stable situation, it's going to happen.

Until then, I can only wait and fidget.

I am now very adept at assembling Cyberlox falls. I have two sets of bouncy pigtails and a long, fire-colored swishy ponytail for elenuial.

This will be awesome.

-Haz

Those ponytail hair-boingies are awesome. Do the makers have a website or something?

LOOK AT HIS CUTE LITTLE FACE.

They had a few clutches of black/whites this year, and they are so short and squat and sweet and PATTERNED LIKE COWS. SNAKE COWS.

And they only need tiny tanks with little more than bedding and a water dish.

Man, do I want one.

-H