Roommate????

Okay I need you all's help. I got a call from a friend last night and I could tell it was hard for her to ask - but she was wondering if she could stay with us for a bit until she got back on her feet.

She was diagnosed with Stage 3 ovarian cancer a few years back and has been a miracle so far as the doctors gave her just a few months. She has been through many rounds of Chemo and was again in the hospital over the holidays for a "hole" in her foot. She has had more bad luck than anyone I've ever known not much after her initial diagnosis her Mom died and her Dad followed not long after. Her brothers are assholes and the friend she was staying with just kicked her out. She would also bring her dog (which I had kept for her after the initial diagnosis and treatment) Shawna a rotweiler labmix and her cat.

So my question is what would you do? I talked to Grumpy and he said fine as long as she follows the rules (no drugs, no guys unless its someone she is serious with and we know ...) The room she was talking about it off our attached garage and will be my office one day. It doesn't have heat or air but we have portable units for both. The other thing is out city has a animal rule where you can not have more than 4.

I am so conflicted about this. I like my home to myself and am always happy when I see house guests leave but on the other hand if I was in trouble I'd like to think people would help me. Besides I am sure she'd offer to pay and and help clean ... . The other problem is my mother. I told her about it and she said if we did this we shouldn't bother asking her for help. And she wouldn't come up for the holidays to watch the babies while we are in Germany. But then if AJ is still with us we wouldn't need her - and she has been holding the coming up to watch the babies over our head since the day we asked her in order to get her way.

What should I do???? I am leaning towards helping my friend but then there are so many other aspects - what if she gets worse? I can't take care of her. That room is not ideal either - not very well isolated and to me smells kind of moldy. Should we do a paper saying this is short term and she has to follow the rules???????

The other thing is Sassy. I don't know how she will do with another house mate or pets. The last person that stayed with us was the one she bit. While her cat is an indoor/outdoor and would most likely just stay in that room the garage and outside but it would be mean to Shawna not to let her goof off in the back yard.

I just don't know

I petted dolphins

I love my job not only do I make money to pay the bills (well most of them anyway) but I get to travel to cool places too. Lately I have been Miss social butterfly at the meetings normally I just go to the meetings and spend the rest of the time doing homework and catching up on sleep but all the once this year have been at places I knew people. In January I went to LA were one of my former AP's joined me I also had one in Orlando and there I went to see my mom. Then last weekend the meeting in DC I had 3 different people to see - So I had dinner with a former HF and AP of mine one night then met an old friend for coffee the next day and had a late lunch with yet someone else.

So this week I am in San Diego for a meeting and here are "my Marines" stationed. (for those new readers one of the kids whose AP I was joined the Marines and she and her fiance and stationed here). So needless to say my social calendar was full for the 2 days here. After getting in yesterday I checked in and then went to get my rental car downstairs from Enterprise (a bit pricy but they were in the hotel) and headed to Sea World. You all know how excited I was about going since I had never been. It was only about 10min from the hotel and there were barely any people there yahhhhh. If you want to see all the photos go to flickr I uploaded them in the original size so you can view them big or small. I took over 160 photos but I will only post a view in order not to bore you.

The first place I went was the artic exhibition. There I met these two nice polar bears. They even had snow in their home.

They were next door to the Beluga Whales (sorry if I misspelled it) Those too were having a ball the first place you could see them above and then you could go underneigth where I got this picture from. Unfortunately they were doing some work on the Penguin exhibition so I did not get to see them I did how ever catch the Seamore and Clyde show which was sooo cute. Check out the otter. (click the picture to enlarge it)


My next show was the Dolphin Coluseum. They also had two whales there (forgot the race) that where the only once of their race that perform anywhere in the world. One was called Bubbles. Check out the flying Dolphins below. My favorite was Shamu. It was so cool to see the Orcas they did a whole show around one of the trainers - how he always hoped to see one and one day as a boy was in a Canoe and they where right there and then he became a trainer. They had 4 Orcas out all together some were pretty young and I think they were bred there. The Orcas aas well as the dolphins loved to splash and all the lower rows got soaked. I was in the top row for Shamu because I was running late. I had driven half way down the interstate when I realized that I had forgotten my Busch ID and without that I would have to buy a ticket. After the show all the trainers and (I guess) their supervisor had like a team meeting. He showed them a few gestures and stuff he wanted them to do different. After a while Shamu decided that as he is part of the team too he needs to have an input. It was so cute.

My last stop was the dolphin encounter. There I got to pet a real life dolphin well actually two it was soo cool.
I didn't do any rides since I was by myself and its kind of boring that way. I kept calling Grumpy who started to get really annoyed since he was trying to nap.
I really liked Sea world and can't wait to have kids and take them there.


Speaking of kids, they came and got me and we went out for dinner to the Hardrock Cafe. Maureen had never been there it was fun.

Sea world

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Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Sorry for the delay here is a link for the pictures I took today at sea world. (Click here for larger images) I will post more later.

practicing

Well I took some time tonight to get more familiarized with the camera and since there were some requests for puppy pictures I just had to oblige. I even took a little movie of the muds just for you all. Of course they tried to maul me toward the end but you have to see for yourself

Here is a cute one of SassyYou can even see her tail wagging.

Here is Mac isn't she a cutie????????

And here they are rough housing. If you want to see all the photos I took today click here for the kodak album.

my new toy

I just got back and I didn't have any time to sightsee I did try to take some time to figure out my new toy. Grumpy had given me a Olympus a few years ago as a christmas present and it has served me well and takes great pictures as you all have seen on the blog. However being a gadet lover I wanted a new one. I had noticed the old one was not taking as good indoor picture as it used to and so forth. Anyhow with some help from Mr. Jin I picked the Olympus SP-510 UZ (ultra zoom) . I had hoped to have some time at the meeting to go and play with it but was to busy. I did take some shots and you can see them here.

After the meeting was done last night I went to have dinner with one of my host families that moved up here to DC a few years ago. We stayed in touch and when one of my girls switched families they needed a new AP because theirs wasn't working out either and I thought they'd be a good match - well almost a year later - I guess I was right. It was good seeing the host mom and the AP.

Today after the meeting I went to the Pentagon mall which was near the hotel. That mall is one of the only two places that I know if has a SWATCH store. I have had a swatch since I can remember. They are awsome, fun designs, durable and waterproof. I tend to get a new one every year. And this is my newest one. Like it?

At the mall I met up with a good friend - get this she and her spouse may come to Germany with us in December. See thats where Jess and I met she was living in my dorm while teaching English at my college. Grumpy likes the idea since that way he has someone to talk to and go to museums too while I goof off and reminice about old times with my friends and do the boring errand stuff ect. After catching up with her I met another friend she has worked with me for years in the research stuff. Her and her cute daughter and I had a late lunch and then it was off for me.

The drive home was okay some traffic. Now its time for homework. I am off tueday and wednesday night so if the weather is nice I may the camera out and practice some more so I have it down when I am leaving for San Diego on Thursday.

Fwd:
Originally uploaded by dino0477.

This week better be over or ...

Grumpy took this earlier today doesn't Misty look like she is about to take on the world?

This week was not what it could have been. First I get a call Monday night around 7 from my scotish friend asking me if I had checked my schedule for the restaurant I told her I did and was working Tuesday and Thursday - well it turned out I was supposed to work Monday. I was mortified I have never done that.

Then all that drama with the AP and families and that manager that had no clue on what she was doing. well thankfully that is all resolved now and a new manager was assigned.

Then there is the fact that my office (the doctor) seems to be a poster child for hostile work enviroment. I can not wait to be done with school and leave there.

Mhh tonight was bad too. Well not bad since I missed Mondays shift and have to go to DC tomorrow tonight was my only shift. I had really hoped to make some money but ... I had 3 tables the first 2 tables were nice and the tip wasn't bad but then it turned out the big table that took up the rest of my section turned out to be highschool kids that went to a dance. They all ordered cheap stuff so I didn't make crap.

There are however good news, my camera came today. I played a little bit with it but will take it with me to DC and use my trip to familiarize myself with it. That way I can take awesome shots while at sea world in San Diego next week.