and so it goes

I should have known when I was sitting here wallowing in boredom and self-pity that my party would soon be over, and I should have done some more laundry, or grocery shopping, or even picked up a vacuum. But no. I didn't. And so the tides turned, just like that. Yesterday, although I had designated the day as a 'stay at home and catch up because next week might be crazy' day, I worked. There were three jobs that were not going away. One was gym, and the other was at an unfamiliar school. The third was only a half day at one of my better schools, so I decided that I'd take a quick shower and if the job remained, I'd do my duty and take it.

It remained. The day wasn't too bad, it was an active fifth grade with a bunch of cute kids who knew they were cute, but unfortunately haven't realized that they are not nearly as cute as they used to be. Their cuteness to me wore off about fifteen minutes after the teacher left the room. But we didn't have a terrible time, for the most part they did what they were supposed to be doing. Then I came home and I called and took all of the kids' money out of their mutual funds so we can put it in bank accounts for their college funds. We'll probably put Megan's in our own name now since it's our money anyway. Of course, we will have to take a tax hit but that's only if the stinkin' funds made money, and I have a feeling they may have not. I was shocked at the small value of the initial shares, just under $2000, and that's nine years after I opened them with probably about that same amount of money. The rest was from contributions we have made over the past few years. I wonder how much we lost on that part, if any.

Anyway after that I paid my own bills and then fed the kids and Kevin and I had dinner at the local Mexican restaurant, always very good to do. Megan has been getting out a little earlier as she is preparing for the meet next week, so that was also a pleasant switch. And Brian stayed in and claimed to be tired, but stayed up late on xbox anyway.

Today Megan had to see the dermatologist, our bi-annual donation of $90 to his practice, as all he does is look at her face and write the prescription for the vitamins she's been taking, and the topical medication that she uses only occasionally. I bet the pediatrician could do this at a fraction of the cost. Then we hit the mall, fairly disappointing, and the weather was terrible, so I came home and got a lot of shopping done on amazon. One click shopping is the best! I even got the golden retriever calendar that I didn't see at the mall. I was worried when I didn't see it that it was a bad sign! We always have a golden retriever calendar: it's what has kept Molly alive for 14 years!

The week is going to be crazy. Tomorrow we have church obligations in the morning, an open house on our block (a party, not a realtor's) in the afternoon, then the church's annual spaghetti dinner at night. I have a job for Monday and will also possibly have the same job Tuesday (long and confusing story) and the rest of the days are in question. The teacher I have is on a jury, so I released two half day jobs so that I could be available, worried that it would make me look bad but thinking it was best for everyone, and then found out that I may be called in for my OTHER regular class instead, for Wednesday and Thursday (rumor has it.) Why do all my people always go out at the same time? But it looks like I may work every day this week, although I hope not Friday. Megan has that big meet and I have to take her there at 7am Friday. There, I told the long and confusing story in spark notes form.

And in other news, I looked into the puppy lemon law a little and found out that Gimpy is still in his 'warranty' period of 180 days. I called the vet and they will write up a letter stating that he is unfit for sale. The consumer apparently has the right to keep the animal and try to cure it (I didn't realize but I could have exercised this right in the beginning with the ear mites, coccidia, and giardia as well, but I was just so ashamed that I had bought a puppy mill puppy for the second time that I just sucked it up and ate the cost.)

But this time, if he ends up needing expensive corrective knee surgery, then I will at least have the law on my side, for all the good it will do. And this is where their overcharging gluttonous ways come back to haunt them: their liability is "limited" to twice the purchase price of the dog. So their 'bargain' price of $1199 will limit their liability to almost the entire cost of the surgery, if he ends up needing both knees done. If he only needs one, it should more than pay for the whole thing, this imaginary payout.

But I'm sure it won't be that easy. This is my first and hopefully only experience with this type of situation, and they do it all the time, and probably know very well how to twist the knife and elude the law. They can require me to see their vet but I think there is no disputing that the dog's knee pops out of place several times an hour. And the last thing I want to see is him go through surgery; although that is not quite true. The LAST thing I want to see is him go so lame with bad knees and arthritis that he can't be helped at all anymore, before his time. So stay tuned for the saga, I hope it doesn't turn ugly but I'm afraid it has the potential to do just that.