I am sorry too. I hope maybe it’s not forever. You two sounded good for one another~Z

Uh, yeah. It wasn’t forever. It was for about two days.

We’re idiots.

Here! Watch a video!

Thanks, Chas, for the well wishes but it wasn’t meant to be.

We made a clean break this evening. All personal items have been returned to their rightful owner and the girls said goodbye.

Amber is crying. She really loves Rich. I knew this would be hard for her. Amie is suprisingly OK, but she’s stoic like her mother so I don’t really know what’s going on in her head.

I don’t regret letting them meet Rich. I don’t even regret dating him. He showed us that there are men out there who will treat women and children the way they’re meant to be treated.

I wish him well and hope that he finds a good woman who will appreciate him. And I really hope that he gets to a point in life where he is able to trust a woman to love him without always looking over his shoulder to head off any wrong before it can blindside him.

The New Guy (who has been around for about six months now so I don’t think he’s new any more…but calling him The Guy sounds dumb so I guess I’ll have to think of a new internet name for him…if he sticks around) and I are, uh…hell, I don’t even know what we are. I can tell you what we aren’t right now, and that’s communicating.

I don’t know what happened. I mean, I kind of know, but then I get to over-anylizing everything that happened (which is really not much) and I’m just stumped.

Here’s how it went down in a vague way:

Him: You suck.

Me: Yeah? Well YOU SUCK MORE!

Him: Oh, hell no, I do NOT suck more and HERE ARE ALL THE REASONS WHY I DO NOT SUCK MORE.

Me: Whatever.

Us: The End.

And the best part? This alllllll happened over text message and email. Yup. You read that right. Two grown adults are in a snit because of things said DIGITALLY. And neither of us has been the bigger person and picked up the phone to discuss anything. Which is OK, if he wants to be silent I’m cool with that. I’ve mastered the art of being silent. (Which was kind of one of the reasons he thinks I suck…in a round about kind of way.)

The question that I REALLY have is: What do I tell the girls? They’ve already asked why he has to go “shopping” on House night (the night we all pile onto my bed and watch the new episodes). It seems that he made an impromtu visit to my house before I got home to return a Wii game that was misplaced on top of his TV. (BTW, you also ran over the lid to my trashcan and it’s now cracked. Thanks for that.)

I’ve had some discussions with my mother and my sister, who are a little bit distressed because the family adores him and they don’t want him to go away forever. The general consensus is that he and I need to take a few days to ourselves and then talk. (Uh, yeah, because if we had STARTED OUT talking instead of texting we might not be in this mess.) Taking a few days I can do, no sweat. Talking? Ugh. I hate rehashing and dusting off all that internal bullcrap that makes me the fiercely independant person I am. Probably the same way he hates unwrapping his internal bullcrap that makes him a marshmallow. In a perfect world we could skip over all that and get to the “normally ever after” segment of life. But, alas, the world is not perfect.

So, that’s what’s going on in my life right now. That and I switched my cell phone plan to much lower minutes because I was paying that 1400 minute price to use up 360. And also I have to go clean the rat cage, separate the boys from the girls, and clean the rabbit.

Rabbit! Yes! I adopted a rabbit from Petco! Did you know that people are allowed to abandon their small animals on a table at Petco and people like me (who has been wanting a rabbit forever (!) can just pick it up, cage and all, and take it home for free? Awesome for me but sucks for the rabbit who had no effing clue why it was left on a table like clearanced retail merchendise.

I’ll give the rabbit her own post later in the week. Pictures and everything! Right now I have to go clean some cages before House comes on.

I’m so excited! I resubscribed to a Pit Bull mailing list and I found a new rescue to volunteer with! It’s all breed but they have a “sub group” that does Pit Bulls exclusively. I have to go through an orientation but I’ve already been asked if I’d be willing to sit down and help them devise a plan to educate, “market”, and follow up on Pit Bull adoptions. I really think I can make a difference there.

I can’t wait! I’ve missed rescue and this group will give me a chance to jump in with both feet and be as involved as I want to be without having to “penetrate” the core group of volunteers.

Squee!

Same old thing, just a different day. I’m moving at a steadily furious pace at work to keep up with with my workload. My evenings and weekends are flying by. I have to work all day tomorrow and all day Friday.

I’m hoping that Thursday and the weekend slow down some. Rich’s son is here visiting for Thanksgiving and I’d like all of us to have a good time. The girls will only get to see him tomorrow and possibly for a couple of hours on Thursday. And while I know that dad and son will want to spend some quality man time together I’m looking forward to the three of us spending some time together as well.

Time to go to the airport!

So. The girls decided they wanted some pet rats. Their hamsters died a couple of months ago and I like rats so I said “OK!”.

We went rat shopping. Rats are hard to come by when you’re actually looking for them. And, of course, we bought pet store rats, which is dumb because they aren’t socialized or nip trained.

This is Chocolate Chip. C.C. for short. She came from Petco. She was skittish at first but she’s calmed down a lot. She likes climb into jacket pockets and she just spent about an hour riding around in the hood of my sweatshirt. Which she peed in. Gross. She belongs to Amber.

This is Mousse. She bites, which is why she’s in the cage instead of in Amie’s hand. We’ve tried working with her but she just isn’t into us. At. All. I’ve got little rat sized punctures on my fingers from trying to pet her. Luckily the bites don’t hurt but they sure do bleed! She belongs to Amie.

These are the NINE babies that Mousse was knocked up with when we bought her. Which is probably why she bites. She’s a protective little snot. You should see what we go through to capture her in that little plastic cage so we can clean the big cage and handle the babies. Seven of them look like the mama. There’s also one solid white one and one that’s tan and white. I’m keeping the tan and white one. I’ve already named it Chai. (Yes, after my Starbuck’s drink. Shut up.) I can’t tell the sexes on all of them yet but I know we’ve got at least three boys.

I have no idea which one this is. I’m not sure if you can see or not…but their eyes aren’t even open yet. They just got their fur…they’re about two weeks old. Their eyes should be open within the next few days.

When they’re five weeks old we’ll be separating the boys from the girls and putting them up for adoption, in same sex pairs, on Craigslist. The girls would like to keep them all. I told them they’re nuts. We’re keeping the one I like and adopting out the rest. The girls are naming them all after some type of chocolate. Except for Chai, which they’re both giving me a hard time about.

So, how do I make sure that none of them are destined to become snake food? I haven’t decided yet. It wasn’t all that long ago that I was feeding rats to a snake. I felt bad about it but that’s what I signed up for when I bought the snake. The snake stayed at Pete’s house when we moved. I have no idea if it’s even still alive. Amie wants to draft a contract, conduct an interview, and do a home check. This child has spent WAY too much time in the world of rescue. I told her we are not going through all of that. I’ll figure out some way to make sure they go to homes as pets.

So, anyone want to adopt a pair of ratties?

Hee!!!

I love you honey!

The more lima beans you put on my pizza, the more chances I have to flick them til they bounce off your forehead.

you support puppy mills. This is not news. But rarely do you get to SEE what it is you’re supporting.

I’m not going to show you footage of an acutal puppy mill. I’m going to show you footage of an auction where “castoff” stock is sold. Some are breeders that are no longer useful. Some are puppies born with defects.

When you see the cute puppies at the pet stores…remember where they came from. Don’t buy. Adopt instead. I can guarantee that a high percentage of the dogs you see in shelters and rescues were once cute puppies in a pet store.