Good, Good, Bad, Good

Its been a while since I blogged. I’m getting lazy. There just hasn’t been anything very interesting to write about. So I’m going to catch up a bit by talking about the past couple of weekends.

Quick Summary:
Last weekend (specifically Saturday) Good
This Friday Good
This Saturday Bad…:(
This Sunday Getting Better

Long version:

Last weekend was nothing overly special. Friday night Band Mom and I stayed home with Things 1 & 2 and hung out around the house. Saturday we had lunch with Band Mom’s Mom and my folks at Red Lobster. After lunch my folks took Things 1 & 2 with them and headed out to see the new movie How To Train Your Dragon in 3D. Band Mom and I took her mom home, then headed home ourselves for a while.

We decided we were going to have dinner at the casino and then play a bit. We got there and decided to play a little before eating. We weren’t there 10 minutes and Band Mom already started a good win streak. We then met up with our friends Double D, Mrs. D and Jags. Band Mom was doing so well we kinda skipped dinner. Then at 11:00pm Band Mom won a drawing for $1000 Free Play. She was rolling in luck this night. We ended up stopping after that and getting some grub. Then playing more. Do you know how hard it is to spend $1000 in Free Play. we ended up staying at the casino till like 6 in the morning and she only spent half of her free play.

Sunday afternoon I got the girls back and it was putz around the house cleaning day for the rest of the day. I also made plans with my folks to watch the girls on Friday so we could head back to the casino so Band Mom could use the rest of her Free Play before it expires

Friday came and after work I dropped the girls off to my folks. Since it was Mrs. D’s birthday, Band Mom made plans to go to dinner with Double D and Mrs D and also KJ and Princess. Mrs. D wanted to go to a restaurant called Hokkaido. Band Mom and I never new this place existed. It was awesome! It reminded Band Mom and I of some of the buffets we visited when Band Mom’s folks lived near DC. There was a ton of selection and just everything you could want. A Mogolian grill, sushi (not the cheap stuff on most Chinese buffets, but real stuff), Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Korean. Everyone had an awesome dinner.

After dinner, Band Mom and I headed to the casino to play out her free play, while the others went to see a band. The casino treated us both well. Band Mom used her Free Play to great advantage, while I finally had a winning night, breaking a few month losing streak on my part. When we got home Pooh was asleep. She was home because on Saturday she was babysitting for a friend of ours.

Then Saturday happened. This was the bad day. It started out innocently enough. When I got up I called to see what the little ones were up to. I made plans to take Pooh over to visit around 1:30 and then drop all the girls off to Band Mom’s Mom’s to visit and take her shopping for a little bit. While they were all gone Band Mom gave me a haircut. Then in the late afternoon everyone was home.

We were figuring out what we were going to do for dinner. Then I let the dog out for a bit. This is were things started going bad. He started barking to come in. I went out to let him in and something was wrong. He couldn’t stand up. His hind legs weren’t working. Now he’s been having problems with his hips for a couple of years now. The vet said it was arthritis. He has good days and bad days, but never anything like this. Some times he would fall out of nowhere, but get right back up and act like nothing happened. But not this time.

Band Mom started calling all of the vets in the area, while I sat outside with the dog keeping him company. It wasn’t looking good. She finally found a 24 hour emergency clinic in Wheeling. And they offered euthanasia. That seemed like the only option. He was obviously in so much pain. So I picked him up and got him into the back of Band Mom’s truck. And we drove to the clinic. It seemed like the longest drive ever…

We got there and discussed our options with the vet and the only plausible option was to put him to sleep. So the vet gave him a dose of Special K to calm him before the final shot. This was probably the hardest time of the day. Waiting for that final shot after all decisions were made. We finally got through it all. I loaded him back into the car to take home and bury.

While we were gone Pooh took Things 1 & 2 to my folks for a little bit. She had to go babysit. So on the way home we picked up the girls and all headed home. They all went inside while I dug the grave in the back yard. After what seemed like forever, Band Mom and I lowered Loki into his final resting place, then the girls came out to say there last goodbyes. We refilled the hole and all went back in sided. Band Mom had made some pizza and wings while I was digging since she and I hadn’t eaten all day and it was now around 11 at night. We all sat and ate a little. It was one of the quietest nights in our household ever. Everyone hit the sack way earlier than any of us normally would on a Saturday night.

Sunday came and we were all up kinda early for us. So I proposed heading out for a nice brunch to try to lift everyone’s spirits. Pooh was visiting her Dad’s so she wasn’t there but everyone else was. By the time we all got ready it was a little later than we planned on heading out. So I suggested we head to Robinson and have a nice buffet lunch at Golden Corral and after lunch we could stop at Pet Land and LOOK at puppies. If everyone promised there would be no crying when we didn’t buy. This was supposed to be an information gathering visit. Seeing what type of dogs everyone liked so later on down the road we could discuss getting a new puppy that everyone agreed upon.

I loved my dog. I would want another midsize dog or according to Band Mom a big dog. Something that could act as a protector. Band Mom wanted something smaller. In his later years Loki was could only be handled by me. And he was big enough to be scary. He wasn’t fast in his old age, but he still had some massive teeth and crazy jaw power. Band Mom didn’t want that worry again in the future. So we were focusing on dogs that even when full size could be handled by Things 1 & 2.

The three of them decided they wanted to visit with 2 of the dogs that were there a long hair chihuahua and a miniature pincher. They put us in a little visit room and brought out the chihuahua. This thing full size would be smaller than the steel toe boots I was wearing, I wasn’t real comfortable with something that my fat ass could easily step on and crush to death. There was another family waiting to see the same chihuahua longer than us so after a few seconds with the puppy, with apologies, our sales person took the dog to the other family and brought us the mini pin. This dog was bigger, but still way small and full grown could be picked up by Thing 2. The dog immediately bonded with Things 1 & 2. It came in our room and went right over and laid on their laps and started playing with them. Band Mom instantly fell in love…I admit it was awesome to see Things 1 & 2 really click with a dog. Loki was around before them and was in all reality my dog. He tolerated the rest of the people. When we had Daisy, that dog was just insane and too hyper for the girls (and Band Mom and I). This dog was small, affectionate, playful, but not hyper. So how can Dad say no to all that….

We brought the new puppy home obviously. His name is Jet. I think everyone is happy with the decision to take him home. He took the car ride home very well. He sat between the girls on the back seat and didn’t freak out at all. At home, he was very well behaved on his fist night. No messes in the house. No chasing the cats.

The new morning routine for Thing 1 is to let Jet out of his crate and take him out to potty. Then give him some breakfast. She did well on the first morning, lets hope it keeps up…

A post script about things happening when they are supposed/need to…

Saturday having everyone home when all the problems happened was very odd…Thing 1 was invited to a sleepover birthday party on Saturday. Unfortunately for her, she forgot the invitation at school on both Thursday and Friday. So she didn’t have a phone number to RSVP. Friday night and Saturday during the day, she tried to get a hold of another friend who was also going to the party to get the RSVP number. She had no luck with many phone calls and a couple of emails. If she would have RSVPed she would have been at the party. Since she was at a party Thing 2 would have wanted to do something. That probably would have been staying at my folks’ by herself since she didn’t get to go to a party. Pooh was only home because she agreed to babysit for a friend of ours. Otherwise she would have been at school. Band Mom and I had gone out on Friday, so we were kinda planning on staying home on Saturday anyway. It is very rare to have all 5 of us home on a Saturday evening any more. I’m glad everyone was there and able to say goodbye…