Good grief, Consuela, I would have lost my shit with that kid. And his parents.

Zen- what did you say to the locksmith?

I decided to go with the truth. Apparently I was visibly annoyed enough to lend credence to my tale. He went in the house with me to write out the invoice and saw me feeding and fussing over the cats, and the police haven't showed up at my door, so I guess he felt okay with it.

Oh my god, that story makes me clench in anxiety.

I got up earlyish this morning to get my fruit and vegetable boxes because it was 90F and I didn't want to let them sit. Granted, HOT out, but the fruit box seemed heavy as hell. No wonder: 6 Valencia oranges, 5 Packham pears, 5 Gala apples, 5 White Nectarines, 5 Red Beaut plums, 4 kiwi, 2 limes, 2 mangoes, a lemon, and giant fucking pineapple.

Yeah, I'm never going out of town again. At least not for more than a few days.

My niece used to catsit for me until she moved out of town. Then she referred me to her petsitting friend M., who has proven to be reliable and trustworthy. Without them I'd be a mess every time I went out of town. I can of course ask my neighbor to watch them, considering the many times I've watched her cats. Wish I trusted her judgment more.

I pay someone to come in who makes a business out of petsittng. I had to when Ozzie needed daily shots, and I got too used to not worrying about it to switch to anyone else.

NOODLE!!!!!

2 hour nap. then weed pulling and laundry.

I pay someone to come in who makes a business out of petsittng.

That is actually what I did when I was gone for a long time.

Man, I love this weekend. Since getting home from the beach, I have sat on my ass quite a bit, AND done laundry AND made lemon muffins. And there are two more weekend days left!

Yeah, this is why it's been such a saga with care for the dog this summer. Last time we did a camp like this, we bought a kennel and housed him on the campus. But this year (different camp) we weren't allowed to do that, because we were staying in someone's basement while the missionary cabin was being rebuilt.

And then we got here and the kennel prices had nearly doubled. And we never were able to track down the person who had offered free kennel services. So we've been balancing me being at my folks' place with the dog, and then he was kenneled last week, but I'll be with him again the next two weeks. We'll have to see how it closes out.

But we did have, in fact, petsitting offers. But both of them were from the guys that, while in Arizona, lost the dog multiple times. Out there, while not good, it was a recoverable mistake. But here, in a big unfamiliar city? No chance.

So I know people are feeling like we're being too something about this, but I don't care. We'll be overprotective, but we'll have good care for him. We won't put him in those crap kennels. We will check out any potential care. And if we can't find satisfactory care, I'll stay with him. It sucks, but that's how it is.

My mom has a nice fenced yard for him and would really like to care for him, but she would fuss about him the whole time. And she doesn't have the capacity to deal with it if he bolts. For example, we had him shut in the garage while the lawnmower guy was working. He left, and mom let him out into the yard, but without checking, and he'd left the gate open. Fortunately the dog was all lolling around in the garage and never noticed, but if he'd gone out, he would have taken off for sure.