Camping Part 2

It was around 3pm when the pugs finally calmed down and Justin was able to start cooking lunch. I was feeling a lot better about camping by this point. I think it may have had to do with the beer, music and snacks.

By this point, we were in a little bay all alone, just the two of us and 3 barking pugs. We put the pugs in the tent trailer, set them up on the beds so they can watch us, and went down to the lake. We were able to swim alone for a couple of hours. It was very peaceful and relaxing. THIS is what camping is all about. I get it now. After our swim and a bit more relaxing, Justin started getting the fire ready and the BBQ started. I nearly had my mind made up about camping, I loved it.

Then this happened....

Before we went in the lake, I had put sunscreen on but did not realize that it was expired. 2 years ago it still wouldn't have been safe for use. So I had basically put almost nothing on my pale, white skin. For 2 hours in the sun. Awesome. After 35 years, you'd think I would be keenly aware of making sure that I was slathered in working sunscreen. You'd think that, wouldn't you? 

After our fun times in the lake, I started to not feel so good. I think the sunburn started to make me feel a little queasy. Queasy enough that I wanted to go lay down. After a few minutes my tummy started to talk to me, telling me that I am going to need to find a toilet. I gritted my teeth and told my stomach that there was no way in hell I am going to use the pump toilet that Justin brought. I reminded my stomach that we had made a deal to hold it until the next day when we got back home. Apparently, my stomach did not sign that agreement so all bets were off at that point. Mental note: get all agreements with body parts in writing, signed by a public notary with a binding contract to submit to arbitration should either one of us not keep our part of the bargain.

You guys, I had no choice but to use the pump toilet that Justin brought. I had to use it in the tent trailer...next to our beds and in the kitchen. Though, the alternative would have been much worse, I guess. I know I'm sounding like a whiny baby and there are so many other people who do this on a daily basis or just plain go to the bathroom in a hole in the ground. I get it. But let me refer you the section of yesterday's post where I say that I prefer my comfort zone. Bottom line (no pun intended) I had to go to the bathroom in the toilet. #2. Ugh!!! It was not as bad as I thought, but then again at the end of the trip, I was not the one who had to empty out the tank.

Once I started feeling a bit better, the pugs and I relaxed a little in the tent trailer. I had all three pugs on my bed. Then I think one of the pugs thought they were the in that nursery rhyme, 10 in a Bed, because before I knew it, there was one two on my bed. PugZilla fell out of the tent trailer. He came back around to the front door of the tent trailer singing:

"There were ten in a bed and the little one said 

"Roll over, roll over" 
So they all rolled over and one fell out ."

I think Olive was jealous that PugZilla was the one to sing the song because not more than 10 minutes later on the opposite bed, she fell out. She knocked over the beer that I had and spilled it all over herself.  She smelled like a booze-hound the rest of the camping trip. Both pugs are fine but I think that solidified their thinking that camping was not meant for them. If they could talk, they would tell Justin and I to, "Go have a good weekend by yourselves...really, we are ok at home alone. No, we won't throw big parties with our friends. We will even do the dishes for you if you don't take us with you."

As the evening wore on we sat by the fire. I thought for a fleeting moment to bring a sweatshirt but decided that it was way to warm out. You'd think that after 35 years of living on the earth, I would grab that damned sweatshirt in certain anticipation of being cold. I certainly needed one by this point. But I shivered through while roasting marshmallows, which was awesome. I didn't think that such small sugary puffs of deliciousness could change my mind about camping, but really, it totally did.

The lake paired with the beer, snacks, relaxing, marshmallows and Justin will get me to camp again. I have 4 more times to see if I like it. Right now, I'm split right down the middle and  unsure if all of the preparation is worth it or not.

Camping Part 1

Justin and I have a tent trailer. We bought this tent trailer for $50 about 6 years ago. Justin made that happen. There was a guy on Craigslist that needed a laptop. We had just been given a laptop through a friend because the screen did not work. Justin was able to have it fixed for $50. So he traded the laptop for the tent trailer. It's a decent tent trailer. It is from the 1970s and it shows. But the guy who traded it to us had reupholstered the inside. So all in all, it's not terrible.

When Justin brought home the tent trailer we had many discussions of how I do not think I would like camping. I don't like being dirty. I don't like the idea of going to the bathroom anywhere other than a bathroom with a toilet that flushes. I voiced all of my concerns and in an effort to step out of my comfort zone, I told Justin that I would go camping a total of 5 times. I wanted enough time camping to be able to make a decision.

I went on my first real camping trip this past weekend. Justin, I and our three pugs went to Pyramid Lake, about a 45 minute drive from Fernley.

I did not realize how much work camping is. I understand now the reason why people go camping for more than one night. One night of camping was probably not the best idea I've ever had. I just wasn't able to commit to a longer period of time because I didn't want to go to the bathroom in a non-bathroom environment. I figured if it was just one night I could probably hold it until I got home.

I woke up at 7am on Saturday morning to start packing and preparing the food. We kept it simple but it still took a while to bag up what we needed. PugZilla got out of bed with me and stood in the kitchen while I chopped up fruit. He is a fruit whore. He loves it so much. He can tell when we pull out a piece of fruit from the refrigerator. He has a 7th sense for it. That and ice cubes. It's his "fruit and ice cube" sense. All pugs have that, right?

It took PugZilla and I an hour or so to get everything ready. By that time, Justin was up and started getting other things ready that we would need, like toilet paper. He did not know that I wasn't planning on going to the bathroom until I got back home, so I let him pack it...you know, just in case.

It took 2 hours of packing and getting things ready before we could leave. And another 2 hours to drive to the lake and pick out a camp site. And another hour and a half to get the tent trailer opened and unpacked and bedding ready, etc, etc, etc. The working part of it seemed to never stop. 

Finally, during a particularly stressful few minutes during the set up I asked Justin for us to take a break and take the pugs down to the lake. We parked about 100 yards from the shore up on a little hill. We started walking down the hill and all three pugs started to follow. Once we were about half way down the hill, Martini (aka Miss Priss) decided that it was too much for her, she climbed back up the hill and under a set of rocks. Justin had to go back up and carry her down to the lake. After we put the dogs into the water for a little bit and cooled them off it was time to go back to the trailer and start cooking lunch. Olive and Martini decided that they wouldn't walk back up, so we had to carry them. We decided at that point that they are not camping  pugs. As Justin's Mom said, they are house-pugs.

Garage Sale Fury

We had our garage sale several weeks ago. We have never had a garage sale before, so we each had our whole lifetime to gather items for this sale. In fact, we had so many things to sell that our neighbors thought that we were moving. We are not moving. We just had so much crap (crap to us, treasures to others) to get rid of.

Most people were nice and polite. But let me tell you about a pain in the ass couple. They came to our garage sale with their sons. The were interested in one of Justin's small remote controlled mini cars. They bought one for $10...a steal because that had originally cost Justin about $80. Then Justin said that for $10 he would give throw in an even better one as well. Sweet, right? The wife misunderstood somehow and thought that Justin said $17 total. He did not. And she went straight into bitch mode. Serious bitch mode. But because we own a business here we can't just haul off and say what we want to (unless I post it on my blog and keep the people anonymous). Justin handled himself well with the wife and did not give her attitude back and just gave her the $3 discount and sucked it up.

Everything was fine, right? Oh no. I get a knock on our door Saturday (2 weeks after the garage sale) from the husband, saying that the $7 mini car did not work...that his kid was upset...that he was upset...that he came back to our house the night of the garage sale and left a note on our door (which we did not get) saying that his kid was crying and they want us to fix the mini car. And the guy was upset pointing blame to Justin; that Justin was "talking up" the car. He basically accused Justin of selling a non-working item. I handled it well, especially for being woken up at 9:00 am on a Saturday morning and told him we would look at it.

But I was pissed. And I'm still pissed. First of all, the wife talked Justin down $3 and was completely rude to him. Second, Justin would not knowingly sell a thing that wasn't working. Third, we put on a Haunted House for the whole town each year, we own our business here, does he really think that we would purposely sell a non-working item? Fourth, really...who comes back to the place of a garage sale and wants their money back or for you to fix an item? We aren't Wal-Mart. And for him to have already left a note and then still come back? Really? Can't he teach his kids a lesson that sometimes life isn't fair and sometimes things that you buy at garage sales don't work or sometimes parents are too stupid to figure out how to charge a remote controlled car and get it running? But no, the guy came back, 2 weeks later over $7.00 at 9:00 am on a Saturday morning.

After consulting with Justin, who got up right after the guy left...we decided our best course of action: to not look at the car and give the guy his $7.00 back. We left the money on our door. Later that afternoon we noticed the envelope was gone. Later that night, Justin looked at the car and was able to charge it and get it running, with no issues.

Love, death, dreams and throwing up

The night before Justin's surgery I had this dream that Justin died. I think I was overly anxious about his surgery. I dreamt that his surgery did not go well and he died during the procedure. It was extremely real in my dream...the surgeon came out of the OR to tell me the news and how sorry he was, etc. The dream went on in great detail of what followed, I had to call Justin's parents, friends, family, etc.

The whole dream was too real for my liking. In fact, so real that I woke from my dream and threw up. I was that upset, the dream was that real.

I don't know if that is a testament to how much I love Justin...but I can tell you in all of my years of dreaming that I have had several dreams that I could have sworn were real, but never have I made myself sick from them.

Company Picnic

Justin and I went to Tahoe yesterday for a company picnic thrown by my office. It was the first time that Justin and I had gone to Tahoe to hang out, ever.

We had a fantastic time!

In fact, Justin and I went parasailing. Oh yes, that is right. I went parasailing. Off of a boat. Up 1400 feet. Justin and I tied to a parachute together. Yes, me. The one who had that awful (to be posted at some point in the future) parasailing incident in Puerto Vallarta.

When Justin brought it up, at first I was scared to death of the idea. But I had made a resolution (not New Year's) to do more things that push my limits outside the box. So I decided to do it, to make a memory. And boy, did I.

It was one of the best experiences. I think I should have freaked out more than just being nervous. But for some reason a great calm came over me and told me everything was going to be fine. Plus it helped that Justin was there telling me to enjoy myself. And wow, did I!

I would have posted all of the 18 pictures they took of us, but none of them came out. I should be getting a couple of pictures from one of my coworkers (who didn't go parasailing, just came on the boat for a free ride) who was awesome enough to take her camera....hopefully those will come out.

Betrayal...Marmite Style

The first time I went to England I had barely turned 22. It was then when I was horribly introduced to a product known as Marmite. I say "horribly" introduced because it is a distinct and vile tasting product. It is a spread: a brown, thick, repugnant, nasty spread. One, who has no taste buds, would typically spread a thin layer of Marmite on a piece of buttered bread. Or spread it a little thicker on a piece of hard cheese like Cheddar or blue cheese like Stilton. Or if you are sick (with a cold or the flue) you can take a decent amount and mix it in a mug of hot water and it turns into a yeasty-beefy drink. N-A-S-T-Y.

The company, Marmite, actually has a "love it or hate it" campaign in England. Really, people either love it or hate it. There is NO in between. This is their homepage:



Under their "nutrition tab" you can find the following description:

Marmite is not only renowned for its errr, distinctive flavour, but it's also a good source of B vitamins, completely vegetarian, is a low fat food and is very low in sugar.

Marmite contains none of the major allergens. Some people might have a reaction to celery extract, a minor component of the spice extract that is listed in the ingredients.

And the ingredients are as follows:

• Yeast Extract
• Salt
• Vegetable Extract
• Niacin
• Thiamin
• Spice Extracts
• Riboflavin
• Folic Acid
• Celery Extract
• Vitamin B12

So for the past 10 (TEN) years I have had this solid stance on Marmite. I can think of no better word than vile. When I eat it, it really makes my face pucker and I spit it out. I can't even think of a food that I would actually spit out, except for Marmite.

The last few times that Paul (from England) has stayed with me and Justin he has talked about brining it over for Justin to try. Well, when Paul was out here for Halloween he did exactly that.

Since it had been 10 years since I had last tried it, I decided to try it again. It made my face pucker and I spit it out. Then Justin tried it. And I figured since he was my husband he would equally hate it and we would both talk smack about the product to Paul who is an avid lover of Marmite (gross!). But something unnerving happened. Justin actually liked it. After he tried it on toast he wanted to try it on cheese and liked that even better.

I felt betrayed. More betrayed than if Justin would have cheated on me with a $20 hooker. That betrayed, yes. How on earth could MY HUSBAND like this repulsive spread they call food? Seriously, there is something wrong with a world in which Marmite exists as food and not as rat poison.

So out of the "kindness" of Paul's heart he left the jar here for Justin. Marmite now lives in our house. It is a reality that I never thought would come true.

80s life

So my co-worker, Neely, and I have discovered that the two of us use to watch the same great 80s kids shows. We also, get this, would audio record our favorite TV shows to listen to at a later date (before homes actually had VCRs). Then I found out that she would make home movies...actual movies...like murder movies, etc. Which, because of Justin, I had the pleasure of doing as well.

There was one summer and a couple of video tapes that Justin's parents HAVE to have somewhere at their house, of me, Justin, my sister and our next door neighbor - Corbin, making MacGyver type videos. Justin and Corbin had even made a stunt dummy - his name was Jim. But he was referred to as "Stunt-Dummy-Jim." He was a jacket and pair of pants stuffed so he would look more like a human as he was thrown off the roof. I would LOVE to see one of those videos! If I ever get the chance of seeing it, it will for sure be posted on You Tube!

Slow Week

This past week was a slow week for me. Nothing really exciting happened. Really, even my weekend was pretty boring. You don't believe me?

Saturday I woke up. Played a game on the Wii for a few hours. Ate breakfast. Watched TV. ALL DAY. Justin and I didn't do anything. Oh no, that is not true. We managed to squeeze in some time to play a few games of Scrabble. But I don't like playing games with him one on one. He's mean. Well, he doesn't throw it in my face that he has won, but he really plays to win. He does things to screw me out of a turn, etc. He plays like he means it. And there is nothing wrong with that, I guess. But I don't play that way, I play to play. (Except when it comes to trivia games, then I'm all about the smack talking, etc.) But he just doesn't play to play. And I don't like that. I don't think that when it is just the two of us, why try to play to win? It's too mean.

Anywho, Sunday came and that was "get things off of the damned to do list" day. Dishes? Done. Laundry? Done. Hanly's Hounds invoices to customers with a kick ass newsletter, as always? Done. Clean out the refrigerator? Done. Spray my shirts and Justin's shirts with my not so new stain removing-not so secret process to get rid of all of those nasty stains that have been building up? Done. (Oh and I have tried Goo-Gone instead of De-Solve-It and Goo-Gone does not work.)

Well, that was it. My weekend in a nutshell. Fun, huh?

Thanksgiving

It was a long weekend. I'm actually looking forward to getting back to work. Thursday was spent not cooking. Doing some laundry, washing some dishes, getting ready to go to a classic Reno buffet with my Mom and Step-Dad for Thanksgiving dinner. While that was nice, it was not something I'd want to do again. Because I missed having leftovers, so I cooked a full turkey dinner on Saturday. My Mom and Step-Dad came over, which was really nice, but because I'm the one who spent all day cooking, everything just didn't taste as good. I had to wait until last night for left overs to actually taste it all, and it was quite good.

Then after we all were full and sleepy we all headed to Reno to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Which was fantastic! Since my Mom has troubles walking up or down too many stairs, we purchased handicapped seating. Awesome seats! We were in our own little section to ourselves, not cramped in the normal seating. This was the first time that my Mom and Step-Dad had seen TSO, they really enjoyed themselves...giving thanks that I brought earplugs for everyone. Next year, I'll have to remember sunglasses as well...their lights are CRAZY BRIGHT!

Friday was spent over my Mom's house putting up Christmas lights. Buying and putting them up. The whole process was 9 hours. But her house looks fantastic! We hooked up all of the lights to this light box (this is it, except it was from Costco and plays 40 songs and you can hook up 6 different light sections) it kind of produces this effect, except in only 6 different sections, by far not this crazy. Thankfully, she doesn't have neighbors directly across the street.

We do. And it was ok with them that we set one up in our yard. Justin hooked up our system on Saturday, while I was cooking. So we now have several people (that we've seen) a night driving by our house and stop to watch a song or two.

Let the Holidays begin!

Reheated Pizza

There is a new rule in our house: If pizza ingredients include anchovies, that pizza is NOT TO BE REHEATED in our house. EVER! Oh the smell. It really was a terrible, terrible smell. If you don't believe me - buy a pizza, be totally gross and get anchovies on it, stick it in the refrigerator then reheat it and watch yourself and everyone around you gag. And if you are Justin, laugh maniacally while you might not gag but everyone (me) around you does.

His latest entry

http://thescooperreview.blogspot.com/

That is all I have to say about that.

Surprise Surprise

I came home yesterday for lunch to a sight I have never seen before. Our Hanly's Hounds office was mysteriously clean. Not just a little clean but the whole thing clean...for real. Who could have done such a thing? This guy:

The Deal

So I am hosting a really cool spa party on Friday. And I have to clean the house before then.

This was our conversation last night:

Melanie: Can you steam clean before the party if I dust and vacuume?

Justin: Sure. But you have to come with me pet sitting tonight.

Melanie: But I was going to dust and vacuume while you were gone.

Justin: Dust now and I'll vacuume before I steam clean.

Melanie: But you also have the dishes to do.

Justin: I'll vacuume and steam clean if you do the dishes and come with me pet sitting.

Melanie: How is that a deal?

Justin: And I'll clean the guest bathroom - toilet, trash and mop.

Melanie: If you have the mop out, can you mop the kitchen floor too?

Justin: Fine.

Love Notes

Justin's socks are EVERYWHERE! I'm surprised you haven't found any of his socks at your house. Justin takes his shoes and socks off wherever he feels like. And then as Justin is taking his shoes off he has trained Pugzilla (and Pugzilla has subsequently trained Olive) to take his socks off...as a game. Pugzilla and Olive will tear off Justin's socks, mostly, with Justin's help and then carry his smelly socks in their mouths...aren't you glad you let them lick you on your face now?

Well, I decided to do laundry earlier this week ~ before I went to work. And in the middle of gathering all of our clothes, I picked up Justin's socks that were strewn all around our bedroom. I followed them down the hallway and continued to pick them up in the living room, dining room, family room and kitchen. I became fed up. I figured I would leave Justin a cute note on our White Board. (Which is where we write down our To Do lists, Grocery lists and Love Notes.)

Here is a picture of the whole white board:


And this is the note I wrote to him:

He woke up that morning and found my "random" note waiting for him. It made him laugh 5 times.

The Scooper Review's Masthead

Justin started his own blog. The Scooper Review. He asked me to create a masthead for him. I started one and didn't like it. So we tossed around a couple more ideas. He said he wanted a dog butt on one end of the masthead and didn't care about anything else. He found a picture for me:


Okay. I thought I could work with that. (It's a towel holder by the way.)

So Sunday morning I played in Photoshop. (Have I told you in the past 5 minutes how much I love that program???) And I was able to change that dog butt towel holder into a cartoon dog butt. In only like 15 easy steps!

So this is what I created.


How awesome is that? Did you notice the precise placement of the first "O" in scooper? That's right...it's a bunghole.

Harry Potter book

My Mom ordered the last Harry Potter book for me, my sister and her about 3 months ago. I didn't believe that Amazon would deliver the books on the release date (they amazingly did!) so I dragged Justin out on Friday night to Walmart to get the book at 12:01 am Saturday morning. We drove down to Walmart at got there at 8:00 pm to get a wristband to hold our place in line and then left...we went to dinner, which was nice...we drove around Reno...we got some ice cream...we went to the Grand Sierra Resort (formerly the Hilton...I'll blog about this later).

We arrived back at Walmart by 10:30 pm and there were about 30 people in front of us...no biggie. I asked Justin to go get me a fold out chair from the garden section while he wandered around the store. I waited in line, perfectly happy sitting there. I was sandwiched between two women who were obviously huge fans of the books and going through all of the possible endings and backing up what they think with mad facts from the books. They also painstakingly critiqued all of the movies, etc. Neurotic but fun. The time flew by and we got our book just after midnight. I'm actually glad that we went there and waited in line because it was an experience to have 300 other people at this Walmart waiting for a book...it was pretty cool.

Now the other reason why this Walmart trip was so freakin' cool is that JK Rowling walked through the door to sign the newly released books.

Did your heart just stop? I'm kidding...she didn't walk into a Walmart...in Reno...but really, our trip was awesome because we picked up a Wii for my Mom and Ken (we volunteered to wait in line on Sunday morning for a Wii for them at a Circuit City). Justin and I went to the tech section of Walmart earlier in the evening to look at Wii games and didn't spot the Wii consoles. Note the plural of console, there were TWO Wiis there and we didn't see them. It wasn't until we grabbed our Harry Potter books that Justin saw a random customer with a Wii console...so we hightailed it to the back of the store with our Harry Potter books in search for the Wii. AND THEY HAD ONE LEFT! So we grabbed it, all of the accessories, the games, etc. that my Mom asked for and checked out back in the tech section. Oh, did I forget to tell you that Walmart, in their ingenious wisdom had THREE whole registers open up in the front of the store for THREE HUNDRED Harry Potter fans? Yeah, so we were more than happy to check out in the back of the store with NO ONE in front of us in line.

That was why our trip was so awesome...we avoided having to wait in line at 8:00 am on a Sunday morning, instead I can write this. And now it's back to the Harry Potter book...I'm half way done and determined to finish TODAY!

Make up sex

Why is it that make up sex is so great? Is it because both parties are so emotionally exhausted after 10 hours (yes, 10 hours) of unsettledness that finally being on the same page is the best feeling in the world? Or is it that my defenses are down and I'm not thinking about the normal stuff most women do while having sex...grocery lists, random things that happened during the day, listing out what should be done rather than sex...and I am actually focused on Justin 100%.

Whatever reason it is fabulous. But I think even more so than that, it is knowing that after each marathon argument like this we are closer and stronger than before.

My Father-In-Law is funny

Justin's parent spent the weekend with us here in Fernley and what a great time we had. We all played our newly acquired Wii and had a blast. Then we showed them the "Dick in a Box" video on YouTube that we love so much. They thought it was very funny too. That was Saturday.

Then Sunday evening before they started getting ready to leave, Pugzilla (our 5 year old Pug) was sitting on Justin's lap. Pugzilla heard a noise and jumped down, using Justin's eh..hem, "man junk" as a spring board. (This behavior is typical of both Pugzilla and Justin.) Justin made his grunt of displeasure noise, as almost any man would having a 40 pound anything use your balls as a springboard. Justin's Dad looks at him, which great fatherly concern and says, "You should have put your junk in a box."

Perfect reason for having kids...

"How old were you when you and Corbin and Hez met?"

"I met Corbin in the second grade but I don't know how old I was."

"You were probably 7."

"But I'm not sure how old I was."

"You were 7."

"But I don't know how old I was."

"You were 7! Geeze!"

"How do you know that?"

(annoyed) "In kindergarten you are usually 5. First grade, makes you 6. Second grade, 7."

"We don't have kids, I don't need to know that stuff."

"Thats it! We are having kids just so you know that stuff!"

True Love

Justin opened my Social Security Statement telling me just how much money I have earned. This is what I heard Justin saying...

Babe, if we can convince the government you are 62 we will get $1018 per month.
(reads down...)
If we can convince the government you are 70 we will get $1804 per month.
(reads down...)
If you are disabled we can get $1652 per month.....Babe, get me the bat!