Busy Week Ahead

I got an inquiry on the Low Riders from someone who wants all three of them. She's a little technologically challenged and has had trouble returning the application I e-mailed her. But she gave me quite a bit of information in her initial inquiry, including contact info for her vet. Her husband built ramps in their house for her old Dachsie, so he could go everywhere they did. She says "it's only two steps, but that's a lot when you're only four inches tall!" She's had Dachsies for 40 years. I spoke with her on the phone today, and I'm sure she's going to provide a great home for the boys. I'll check the vet ref in the morning, and then I'm going to do her home visit tomorrow afternoon. She's an hour the other side of where I go to teach my Monday class, about 2 hours from here, so as long as I have to go into class I might as well go the extra hour and get the home visit done. Roux is ready to go now, since he's already neutered. I'll take him along tomorrow when I do the home visit, and if everything's OK and they want to have him tomorrow, I'll leave him there. The other two can't go until they're neutered on May 8.

I put Parchesi the Boggle puppy up on petfinder last week and have been deluged with applications, most of them either bad or just mediocre. But I got a good one tonight, so I'll check the vet ref on that one tomorrow and maybe get the home visit done next weekend. My sis is coming out next weekend, I think, maybe I can get her to do the driving if I pay for the gas. Parchesi's scheduled to be spayed May 12, which is a Monday, so she'll probably be with me until Friday that week.

I got a great application for George. I struggled with the decision to make him available for adoption, because I love him dearly and he adores Dudley. But I feel strongly that he belongs with someone else, and when I got this application I knew I'd found the right home. I'm even more sure after talking to his potential adopter today. They're in southeastern Pennsylvania, and though I'm usually reluctant to place an animal so far away, they're going to love George and he's going to be just fine there. They'd be willing to drive all the way here to get him, but shoot - it's 11 hours one way, so coming to get him would take the entire weekend. (Not to mention cost them a fortune in gas.) I'm trying to figure out a way to get him transported part of the way, somewhere close enough to them that they could get there to get him and get back in one day. Eastern OH or western PA would be good, I've just got to find a ride for him that far. The other option would be to try one of my flight attendant contacts, and if I can't find overland transport for him I might have to do that. But I'd have to wait until I could afford to get a health cert ($40) and buy a Sherpa carrier (George is too big to fit into an 11" tall hard carrier), and then it might still run $75 for him to ride in the cabin with the flight attendant.

I got the floor in my half bath primed this afternoon, and spent a sweaty, frustrating hour and a half getting 2/3 of the floor - just 12 square feet - covered in self-stick tile. That was the "easy" part, the only place I couldn't put down a whole tile is where the heat duct comes up through the floor. And I had a hard time even cutting that opening out because, of course, the rectangle wasn't square at the corners and the sides weren't straight. This house.... there isn't a straight line, square corner, or level foot of flooring anywhere in the place. I'm having a helluva time trying to get the tiles down so there are no gaps between them. I managed to get them nice and snug in most places, but there are a couple that have small gaps. They're not easy to see when I'm standing up, but there's enough of a gap there that any liquid that hits the floor is going to seep down through. I'm going to have to fill those gaps with something, maybe a little tub caulk applied with a toothpick? The tough part is left to do, cutting to fit around the commode, the water line, and the threshold. I'm so disgusted right now I'm not even going to think about touching it again until Tuesday or Wednesday.

I did some research into paint for the cement floor in the family room, and I think I've found a paint that will give me the durability I'm looking for but not run me an arm and a leg (about $22/gallon, and $12 for a gallon of sealer/primer). An oil-based paint would be even more durable, but it's got a long drying time - not even light foot traffic for 24 hours. That's just not practical, as the sliding door in the family room is how the dogs get out into the yard and they have to go through the room to get to it. The latex-based "porch and floor" paint is OK for light foot traffic after just 6 hours, so if I put everyone to bed and paint the floor, it'll be dry enough in the morning for dogs to walk on, though I might put down some cardboard for the big dogs to walk on just to be on the safe side. I haven't decided on a color yet.

I'm so tired of looking at these plain light beige walls. Dull, dull, dull. I played around with the color painter at the Behr website, and I've got some ideas now about what colors I want. I found an interior paint that has Scotchguard in it. It's called Sensations, and it's available only at Ace Hardware. I'll have to go to Home Depot to pick up the Behr color chips and have Ace match them. (I want the paint with Scotchguard, it'll make cleaning so much easier. Not just on the windowsills, either (dirty little cat feet), but on the walls themselves, particularly on the corners that tend to get dirtiest.) I'm going for some bright-ish colors, a light robin's egg/sky blue for the living room and 2 dining room walls, with a rich rose for trim and the other two dining room walls, and the palest tinge of pink for the ceiling. It's not as garish as it sounds, I think it'll be pretty when it's done. At least it won't be boring any more. For the bedroom I think a pale dusty pink, with a rosy-taupe for the trim. For the half-bath, pale blue on the walls with a delft blue for the trim. It's going to take me all summer to get it done, but I will get it done. I need to finish getting pet screening in the rest of the screens and the sliding screen door, too.

I checked the ruby-throated hummingbird 2008 migration map the other day and the first hummers were seen south of me early last week, so I made nectar today and got the feeders filled and hung out. I can't wait for my little friends to return.