Happy Anniversary!

Good news, world.  My air conditioner works!  Turns out I am not crazy and there was a problem.  But not a hugely expensive problem.

Truly Wednesday was a day full of amazing discoveries.  My air conditioner works, therefore Lena and I were able to sleep in our OWN bed last night.  The one I paid for.  In the house where I keep most of my stuff.  I say most because I do keep a few things at my parents' house.  Still.

Once the A/C was under control at a relatively minimal cost (relative to the $2000 I was afraid it would be), I made a Target run.  Not too exciting to some, but keep in mind that I have not made a full-on Target run for two months.  Pretty exciting to me.

In this Target run, I managed to acquire many essentials along with the inevitable impulse buys.  Such is par for the course at Target.  I went in to get laundry detergent, juice, milk, water and a baby gate.  I came out with laundry detergent, juice, ALMOND milk in two flavors, water, a baby gate, season one of "Modern Family," Triscuits, KaBOOM! bathroom cleaner, 409 Spray, Raid bug killing spray, OFF! mosquito repellent, a new retractable leash (in pink) and hamburger buns.  Don't judge.  It was all necessary.

I returned home to an excrement and urine-free properly air conditioned home to find my dog calmly awaiting my arrival.  It was nice.  I then proceeded to put away groceries and spray Raid around all my outside doors.  Don't worry, I kept Lena away from the spray as directed by the instructions.  No worries.

Today I am testing out the baby gate.  You see, I am embarking on a new phase of life for my dog.  I really REALLY hate kenneling her when I am out and have long hoped to be able to trust her to be unconfined during the day.  I am realistic about this; I realize that there may be some accidents.  That is why I bought the Bissell Spot Bot several months ago, right?

This is also the purpose behind the baby gate purchase.  While I do not think that Lena would actually choose to spend much time upstairs, there really is no need for her to have access to the second floor of my house while I am away, so I am trying out the gate to see if it will help her remember to stay downstairs.  If push came to shove, I am certain that my dog could scale (or leap over) this impediment, but I don't think she has much impetus to do so.  Her water dish and toys are all downstairs.  Plus she has access to a couch, two chairs and her dog bed.  Plus my living room is carpeted. 

I am strongly tempted to go home at noon to let her out, although she has been known to hold her bladder all day while kenneled.  Again, I am OK with accidents.  When I see the state of my house this afternoon, I may change my tune, but for now I am fine.

On a different note, this weekend is going to be a strange one for me.  Why?  I have absolutely nothing planned for it.  No homework, no parties, no trips.  It will be even weirder because this is normally the weekend that I go to Ely, MN with my mom and friends for our girls' cabin weekend extraordinaire.  We have known for a long time that this year was not going to happen (although it would have been our 10th anniversary).  I doubt that we will attempt to do any of our normal activities down here in civilization, so we will just have to renew our antics next year.  I wonder if the local fisherman will miss us.

To change the subject yet again, it appears that I have now been blogging on this blog for one whole year!  In the grand world of blogging, I don't know how that rates, but I am pretty impressed with myself for not abandoning the endeavor last August.  My stats and follower list may not impress that many, but the fact that anyone reads this at all is enough for me.  Here's to another year!