Write (a blog)

Jinx and Hex are learning how to get off the sofa by themselves. It’s a monumental task for such little guys. But Jinx looks at it as an opportunity for BASE jumping. Hex is not so much of a thrill seeker.

of door to door sales, (besides do not do door to door sales), is do not insult your potential customer.

I never buy anything from a door salesman, but I am a nice person and if I’ve decided to answer the door, I will be pleseant when they start their speech. So I open the door and am greeted by two younger, nicely dressed people, a guy and a girl, probably in their early 20s. The girl immediately starts her peppy salespitch, and the guy just stands there smiling. She says “since I can see that you’re a nice person, here’s a free 2 liter of Sprite just for talking with us.”

Oh crap. This is already getting cheesy. Why did I open the door??

She makes small talk asking about my home and how long we’ve lived here and how they can show us how it can be easier to clean and care for our home. And would I mind if “he” grabs something out of the van so they can demonstrate.

Sure.. whatever.

He comes back with a two boxes, and one says KIRBY along the side. So I stop them there and inform them with a smile, “Oh, I just sold my Kirby not too long ago.” She asks why and I tell her “because I got a Dyson, which I like much better, so I’m sorry, but I’m not interested.”

Undeterred, she continues with her cheesy smile and peppy sales pitch. She tells me, I kid you not, “You’ve made a big step down!” I tell her that I didn’t think so because my Dyson is cleaning my carpets much better than my Kirby did. To which, I’m paraphrasing here, she basically says that my vacuum is nothing but a cheap piece of plastic like any other that I can buy at Wal-Mart or K Mart.

I was kinda surprised by this and the fact that she said all that with the same huge smile and peppy chatter. So I told her, “do you realize you’re insulting me now?

She immediately tries to backtrack and tells me that that’s not what she meant. I tell her that she’s insulting my decision to go with a Dyson, and the fact that I like my Dyson better, and telling me that my vacuum is crap. “No, no, it’s just that blah blah blah…” I cut her off and said I didn’t appreciate being insulted, handed the Sprite back, and closed the door. Nice sales tactic.

Of course all the good zingers come to me after I’ve closed the door. But oh well. At least I let her know I wasn’t happy.

And dammit. I shoulda kept the Sprite.

A few weeks ago I posted about a little problem with my new bug, the rear glass was coming loose from the convertible top. But thanks to the awesomeness that is the Tom Bush Regency dealership, Purl went in to have her glass repaired, free of charge.

But, not 2 days after she got home, I noticed the glue wasn’t holding. Pierre made another call to the dealership and quick as a whip, he was told they were ordering a new top for us. And Purl went in on Monday to get her new lid, again, free of charge. *blink blink*

Just like that, all new again. Only thing is, I can’t put the top down for seven whole days. *sigh* Oh the sacrifice…

Almost everyone who has seen the puppies first asks, “are they teacup?” Bleh.

I just sigh, smile sweetly and say “they’re little.”

No, they aren’t “teacup”. There’s no such thing as a “Teacup Chihuahua”, or a Pocket Size, Tiny Toy, Miniature or Standard Chihuahua for that matter. There are big chihuahuas and there are little chihuahuas. Mine happen to be little. Both of their parents are little too.

I didn’t buy my pups. They were both given to me by a long time friend who’s chi recently had a litter. There were 4 puppies, but one was stillborn, another died after 2 days, and Jinx and Hex are the remaining two. The fact is that these two may have health problems from being so small. Although the vet said they both seem to be very healthy, Hex is less active than I’d like him to be. I have him on a high-calorie supplement to encourage him to gain weight. Jinx is small too, but she’s a ball of energy so I’m not so worried about her. I give her the supplement too, however, because chi puppies are susceptible to hypoglycemia. I’m just trying to keep them healthy, because they are the sweetest little balls of love ever.

Besides, if they were any sort of cup, they’d be a “coffee cup” in this house.

Sydney and I made a little video of the puppies last night. Nothing too exciting except a lot of cuteness!

We just got back from the vet and Doc said they’re healthy little pups! Their heart and lungs sound good and their poo was free of worm, but they’re on a mild wormer just as a precaution. They had their first round of shots and we’ll go back in 3 weeks for the next round. Since Chi pups are so small, they can’t get all their shots at once like bigger puppies can. Jinx weighs 1 lb and Hex is just 14 oz. They didn’t even get their free puppy packs because they’re too small for em yet! lol

No words… just… love love love.

See more in the puppy gallery!

You know I’m crafty, so it really shouldn’t be a surprise that I made a crate cover for the babies’ home.

Oh wait, first of all, I didn’t tell you that we settled on their names! The little girl is “Jinx” and the little boy is “Hex”. We had lots of ideas for names, but these won out in the end. Jinx & Hex are sure to be a little bit of magic and mischief mixed into one.

Anyway, back to my craftiness. I’ve been preparing for their arrival by buying all the necessities including their crate. And instead of buying one of the three or four generic colors of crate covers, I figured heck, I’ll make one.

That’s how I roll. Why buy when I can make, and customize and personalize as I want?

It’s put together like a quilt with a cotton batting. The fabric is black with little cream colored paw prints (the black and cream match our decor). It attaches with velcro and is machine washable. Personalized with their names embroidered in metallic silver thread.

Ok, maybe they’re gonna be spoiled… just a little bit.

But the best thing of all? They had their first puppy food meal and if all goes well with weaning, we can bring them home this weekend!!!!! *insert happy dance here*

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In other news, my herb garden has passed it’s prime and I started over. I am trying to save 4 of the 7 herbs and transplanted them into pots. We’ll see how it goes. I know the transplant was traumatic for them because they’ve never been in dirt, and to make matters worse, their roots were all tangled and matted into one big mass under the Aerogrow growing surface so I had to tear them apart. But here they are after a few days, and they seem like they might be ok. But I’m not holding my breath.

The basils (on the left) look much better than the cilantro and parsley, but the basils have always been bigger, healthier looking plants.

If they die, eh, it was worth a shot. You’re not *supposed* to transplant them, but whatever. They just want me to buy more herbs. Which I of course did anyway, and have replanted my Aerogarden with seven new herbs. It’s a selected mix from the “Herb Chef Pack” and the “Italian Herbs” kit. I still have 14 more herb pods to plant after this session.

The new herbs include cilantro, savory, lemon basil, sage, epazote, garlic chives and napolitano basil. Come back for updates as they grow! And um, what is epazote anyway?