It's like high school all over again....

Do you ever have one of those moments where you feel like the nerdy kid in high school talking to the popular football player or cheerleader? You know... like you picture the good looking football player in his team jacket looking all slick and cool and you feel like a hunchback geeky girl wearing a threadbare, outdated dress (which your parents made you wear), big glasses, and stringy hair... and every word that comes out of your mouth sounds like the dumbest thing you could possibly say? I had that today.

I spoke to a couple of people on the phone who are the equivalent of the popular, talented, smart, and of course good looking, football players of my high school days. They are what I would call "cocker royalty" in the dog show world. These people have had tons of success in the US show rings where I am the pipsqueak from Canada who is trying to play in their game.

I'd like to think I carried on a normal phone conversation with these guys (hah!) but I was constantly questioning every word out of my mouth.... Was it stupid? Was it bragging? Did I sound arrogant? Was I funny? Did I accidentally imitate their accent? If I did, were they offended? Do they know I respect them? Do they think they are better than me? I should be respected, too... don't they know that? Do they even know where Canada is? Do they know where Alberta is? Do they care? Do they question every word out of their mouth like I do? Could I BE a bigger loser?

NO!!!!!!! I am the BIGGEST loser ever!!!!!

Imagine that dialogue running through your head with every word you say.... it's a little stressful. No wonder I sounded like a dork.

The joy of the pressure washer....

I don't want to sound like a commercial for pressure washers but.... these things are AWESOME!!!!!!!

I took out the pressure washer yesterday to clean out some crates. It not only blasted away the dirt, it actually made the crates a different colour! You know how a layer of dirt can get in the little crevices on the textured surface of a crate? Well once that dirt is blasted out of there the crate looks so fresh and new again :)

I also had some crate doors with rust on them.... now they are rust free as the pressure washer will blast that away too :)

Careful if you have any chipped areas on a painted surface... the pressure washer will make those wee chipped areas larger and larger with every blast of water.

The only thing I found the pressure washer could not remove was rust stains on plastic. Strange how it will remove actual rust but not even a dent in a rust stain.

I also accidentally found another use for the pressure washer... it will "fold" weeds that are growing in the cracks on your sidewalk or driveway. It won't actually get rid of them but if you aim the wand towards the weed from one end of the crack, the pressure will actually make the weed fold down into the other end of the crack and your driveway/sidewalk will appear to be weed free for a while LOL. A band-aid solution, I admit, but one worth considering if you are just looking for a temporary fix to your weed problems.

To shower or not to shower.....

That is the question. Don't get me wrong, if I am going out where I might be seen by friends, neighbours, or even strangers, I'm not leaving the house without a shower. It's just gross to think otherwise.

However, when I'm at home and feeling lazy, it's tough to find the motivation to shower.... especially when the agenda for the rest of the day includes getting even dirtier (housework, dog grooming, etc) and I'm going to have to shower after the dirty work anyways.

I mean let's face it... who is it hurting? I live alone with dogs.... they seldom complain about my BO (they are very considerate that way). So why bother showering? Just to say I've done it? Doesn't make sense to me.

So I'm going to take my stinky body away from the computer, have some lunch, do some housework, groom some dogs, and maybe even power-wash the crates...... THEN I'll have a shower :)

Update on "The Dumbass Brick" situation

So yesterday I felt really screwed around by the Brick (see yesterday's post below). I vented to Valerie and Susie about it and they were very supportive and encouraged me to cancel that order and buy a new dining room set somewhere else so the horrible saleslady wouldn't get my commission money. I thought that was a good idea but given that I actually liked that set (and had a tough time finding another one that I liked) I was reluctant to follow through....

Until I remembered that United Furniture Warehouse is actually the same company and they could possibly order the same set for me. So I went into UFW to see what my options were and, not only can they order it for me, it was $300 cheaper! So I placed the order with them with the intention of cancelling the order from the Brick the following day (today).

So this morning I called the Brick to cancel the order. That went fairly smoothly. Then about 5 minutes later I got a call back from the Brick saleslady I originally bought from (and got the run-around from yesterday). She said she got her manager to look into it and they CAN get me the set on Saturday AND they'll match the price I got at UFW!!!! I guess it takes the threat of her losing her commission money to get any kind of customer service. If she had made that call yesterday then she wouldn't have lost money out of her pocket... stupid woman! But I said forget it.... I'd rather get the stuff in a month from UFW as they have treated me much better and are worthy of my hard-earned money. :)

The results are in and... who do I need to know to get a delivery made on time?!?!?!

The results are in and I have new colours in my main bathroom. Thanks to everyone who gave their opinions. I ended up going with olive green accented with ivory. These colours were already in my living room so there was a continuity component to that descision. Also I found a shower curtain in those colours so I went for complete co-ordination of the bathroom :)

Okay, so last Friday I went from store to store to store (literally every furniture store in Lethbridge) looking for a dining room set that:

1. I liked
2. Was able to be delivered by this Saturday (8 days from purchase date)

I ended up buying a set from the Brick (not my favorite store but they were able to meet my criteria above). They said delivery could be as early as Tuesday this week, most likely it would be Thursday this week, but the absolute latest would be Saturday of this week (family dinner is on Sunday so that was fine). They also said they would call the day before delivery to arrange a convenient time to drop it all off at my house.

So today (Thursday) I still hadn't heard anything so I called the store to make sure it was coming on Saturday. The lady who picked up the phone said "Oh, didn't you know that item was on back order?". Ummmm, NO I DIDN'T KNOW YOU STUPID COW!!! (okay, I didn't really say that but I wanted to). So she put me through to the saleslady who I bought it from. This bitch went into total defence mode... "that's the warehouse's fault, not mine" and then "I told you it could come later than Saturday" which, by the way, is a bald faced lie!!!!! No apology, no "lets work on a solution", just passing the buck and accusations. Is this what passes for customer service from the Brick? Give me a freakin' break!

Okay, my rant is over. But guess who I will never buy any furniture from ever again! LOL

Bathroom Poll......

I have decided to get a new shower curtain for the main bathroom in my new house instead of putting up the same old one I've had for years. And since I'm doing that I will also get all new matching towels for public/guest use (my ensuite is for private use and those towels will stay the same).

The bathroom is currently very neutral.... beige walls, beige tub and surround (with silver fixtures), beige/off-white counters, and wooden fronts on all cabinets (6 doors all together so there is a lot of wood). So the poll question is, what colour should I go with in the main bathroom? It has to match the neutral surroundings and keep in mind that it should be a fairly muted/grown-up colour (no lime green or neon pink) to keep in tone with the rest of the house. Any and all suggestions will be considered. Thanks :)

Long time, no blog

I'm back.... hooray!!!!! :) My computer died on me about 6 weeks ago. It took a really really really long time to get repaired/replaced but it finally did and now here I am. :)

Lots has happened in the last 6 weeks. My house sold so everything had to be packed up. I had packers come in and do the bulk of it... I would SOOOOO recommend that :) They packed up my entire house in just a couple of hours - it was awesome. Then the movers came to store my stuff for two weeks before I got possession of my new house.

Then I went to Sturbridge, Mass to attend the US Cocker National Specialty show with my girl "Mercedes". I still can't believe it but she won Winners Bitch for a huge 5 point major from the Bred By Exhibitor class :) As one person put it... I had been struck by lightning... it's a once in a lifetime win! What a thrill!

Then I came back to Lethbridge to move into my new house and that's where the chaos started! The delivery of my new bedroom & living room furniture was delayed but arrived within 36 hours of when it was expected. This has been the most successful scheduled delivery to date! My office furniture was supposed to arrive on Friday but was a no show - no phone call or explanation at all. They showed up on Monday when I wasn't home but luckily my brother was there and able to receive it (thanks Ben).

Then all my worldly possessions were supposed to arrive from the moving company on Saturday but the moving truck broke down on the way so it was a no show. I have called the company multiple times to try and arrange delivery of my stuff but it is still up in the air (5 days after it should have arrived). Unfortunately, phone calls have gone unreturned and promised calls from their end haven't been made. I've had to call them multiple times and every time I talk to someone I get the run around with promised answers that never materialize. So I am NOT impressed with Jay's Moving and Storage in Calgary. They say they are working on it but in the meantime I am losing on call pay, I'm paying mortgage on a house I'm not living in, I'm paying Valerie rent and causing her stress with just being in her house..... it's all crazy.

Hopefully things settle down soon. It'll be better for everyone if I can just get in my new house.