2002-12-30 - 9:14 p.m.

On the internal soundtrack: "I Know Him So Well", thanks to Amanda :)

YAY! My brother's bone scan was completely negative -- "no more surprises in these bones", he said -- as well as the lung x-ray. Apparently that type of tumor can also appear in the lungs. So he's got a clean bill of health.

I wasn't expecting any other result, but it's still good to hear and know for sure.

He's got two more months on crutches. Yuck. But it's winter anyway. It'll be good to be walking again by spring.

When I mentioned offhand that I didn't really like "Molly" as a pseudonym for the dog and wished I'd thought harder about it, Poindexter demanded that I change it to "Vixen", which is what he was bugging his mother to name her. (Her real name suits her PERFECTLY and has personal meaning to MIL, too.) Poindexter thinks any female to whom he loses his heart is a vixen, as though she's taunting him somehow. Hence, when I wear a sexy outfit around the house, I am a "little vixen". (He calls it "taunting"; I call it "advertising".) I'm not sure about how I feel about competing with a five-pound dog in this department. ;) However, since she resembles a deer and there's a reindeer named Vixen, I'll go with it.

Anyway, suddenly I'm considering the possibility of getting a small dog. (Most likely a minipin, since fluffy small dogs are too ... fluffy. It's bad enough having to maintain my own long hair, let alone someone else's.)

This is extremely frightening. We have this mantra -- "No kids, no pets, no plants." "Plants" meaning "houseplants" which have to be watered by someone else if we travel. I've got a couple of houseplants, so we've violated that rule, but I just let them thirst while we're away (one's an African violet anyway; another's a cactus). Now with both of us completely taken with the MIL's dog and the grown minipin visitors, we wondered aloud at the possibility of a dog. If we violate that rule, what's next? Kids? Eeek.

Well, all of the houseplants except the cactus were given to me by a neighbor who was moving to the Pacific Islands, so I'm not directly responsible for this. I still prefer fake houseplants. Perhaps I should get a stuffed animal, then.

But after watching Poindexter coo over Vixen like that, and seeing how well-behaved and affectionate she is, it's rather tempting. Plus I'm home all day and can give a dog lots of attention.

Although technically she's a lapdog -- and she does love cuddling -- my favorite thing is to just watch her running around the house and playing with people. She follows MIL around and watches everything she does with great interest, even loading the dishwasher. She jumps up on Papa and tries to burrow under his arm to sleep. She sits by the sliding glass doors and keeps an eye on things. She barks madly at the beagle across the street. It's adorable.

On the other hand, dogs poop and puke and get sick, much like children. And I'll have to train it carefully. That's part of what scares me about parenthood. RESPONSIBILITY.

For now I'll just enjoy visiting with Vixen -- we expect MIL to bring her when she visits Philly -- and browsing the Minipin rescue sites (like this one) and adoption stories. If we ever DID get a dog, it wouldn't be for a few years, once we're done with the heavy-duty work (roof deck, kitchen & bath remodeling) on the house.

I got the gas bill today and it was TWICE AS MUCH as it was for the previous month, at $160. I was shocked. I didn't remember our gas bill in Virginia being more than $100 in winter, even though it was a bigger house, and we have the same gas heat, etc. that we had there. Then I remembered that we now heat the house for an extra 9-10 hours a day compared to when we were in Virginia, because I am home all day during the week.

So, tonight, we were at Home Depot picking up a new disposer. (The geezer's BRAND-NEW garbage disposer had croaked, as we'd been expecting, since it appears that he put PAINT and PAINT THINNER in it, the MORON. And it's been leaking, so I had to have a 2-quart container underneath it.) The lines were horrendously long, and I could see Poindexter getting tense. He HATES waiting in line like nothing else. So I told him about the gas bill, and suggested he go get me a space heater for the office. This way I can leave the rest of the house at 60 degrees all day and still have a toasty office.

After fussing a bit ("Well, don't you use the kitchen?" "Only to microwave lunch; I eat in the office."), he wandered off and got us one. He pointed out that it will also be useful in the rec room, which is half-underground and always very cold. Now I'll just see how the gas bill looks (and the electric one) next month. I'd imagine the thing will pay for itself pretty quickly, if I'm only heating the one room and don't go crazy pushing it up to 85 and working naked (as sorely tempting as that may be ... just wait 'til summer, though! That'll save some AC money!).

In order to have a more clear separation between work and home, I generally stay in the office all day and don't use any other rooms in the house. I won't use the cafe table or dining table to eat, and I don't work on the couch, comfortable though it may be. When I lived in San Jose, I got cabin fever occasionally and needed to get out. I suspected that it was because I lived and worked in the same space. I don't know for sure, but I'm not getting cabin fever these days, so that's good. I'm sure the instant messenger programs are helping too -- back in San Jose (5-6 years ago) I had to use Unix's "ntalk" and it was slooooow back then.

Anyway. We also got a 40"x60" piece of posterboard, which I think will serve as a screen for the projector. The layout of the rec room is such that there are no usable walls -- we have to put the couch against the useless sliding glass doors and hang the screen in front of the wall with the stairs and storage space door. I think this will work really well, plus it was only about $10 at the office supply store. Good deal.

While I was writing the above, Poindexter was installing the disposer. I went down to see how he was doing, and he was all finished. I was very excited. I hugged him and kissed him and thanked him and told him how wonderful he was. He looked at me with that combination look of "My wife is nuts" and "Well, I like being fussed over like this, anyway." I didn't realize how much the disposer bugged me. Plus, he looked sexy as hell with his hair all floppy from the work.

Meanwhile, I'm just ecstatic about having a working disposal that doesn't leak. And I have so much ROOM underNEATH it now, for the cleaning supplies! Heh, the 15-year-old me is probably groaning and rolling her eyes in boredom right about now. I think nothing quite marks grown-up-ness as getting excited about appliances and cleaning supplies.

Gratuitous photo of the day -- me again with Vixen:

While in Florida, I had bad hair days all week. I had nailed down my styling technique for DRY weather here in Philly, and had to fuss with adjusting it for the extra humidity in FL. On the last day, I finally got it right, and I was having a GLORIOUS hair day and wanted to take some photos to preserve it forever in memory. Poindexter suggested that I pick up the dog and look at her and talk to her to make the photos more natural. It's so funny that she's asleep in half of them (see yesterday's). She's a snuggly little thing.

I don't know who's more in love with her, me or Poindexter. I can't WAIT 'til she comes to visit.

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