A great deal

Heading to the Grand Palace yesterday, a very nice Thai man offered us an incredible bargain. The Grand Palace was apparently closed yesterday in the morning for a royal family visit. So instead, this guy pointed out some other cool places to visit in the morning and then suggested coming back to the palace at 1. He looked at our map and highlighted a few locations. And then suggested that a tuk tuk ride (a three wheeled moped type thing) might be the best way to catch in all the sites. The tuk tuk driver would wait while we visited each site and the whole morning would cost us about 40 bhat, little over a buck. Not a bad deal actually. And really who wants to go some where that's closed anyway. Beware, the man told us, of tuk tuk drivers who charge more than 40 -- this is the thai local rate. Especially yesterday, which was a holiday so all tuks were running at a discount. Pretty killer deal huh?

And lo and behold, while we're standing there, trying to walk away but also a little curious, a tuk tuk happens to drive up. Talks to our helpful host for a second about the places to visit and says he'll do it for a 100. No, no, our host said -- just 40! The tuk tuk driver quickly agreed and would have practically pushed us into the tuk tuk if we had let him.

Fortunately, we had been warned by our hotel to stay away from tuk tuks AND people that told us the Grand Palace was closed. Still we hadn't been prepared for such an elaborate concoction. It was pretty good, had me even wondering if it was too good a deal to pass away.

As we firmly walked away, our very kind host yelled out how stupid we were for insisting on still going to the Grand Palace.

About a block away, we were met with an identical (seriously verbatim) story. Same list of must see tourist attractions, same reason why the palace was closed, a different tuk tuk driver that reluctantly agreed to a reduced "local" rate. G said he was watching more closely this time and saw the guy wave the tuk tuk over when it seemed like he had made the kill.

Anyway, for a closed palace, the place had hundreds of visitors walking around when we finally got there. I wonder what its like when the royal family isn't in town.

Winners and losers . . .

So its all over now. . . the wedding, the honeymoon. And its a little weird, suddenly having nothing to do. I think I got used to being busy, that I don't know how to deal with all the new time on my hands. It kind of makes me want to almost do nothing at all -- the whole week I've been walking around kind of dazed and feeling lazy, thinking it'd be nice to just sleep all day, even though there's still work and lots of clean up around the house.

While opening our gifts and emailing/reveiwing our vendors, its been hard to not go back and analyze everything, good and bad. So it occurred to me the other day that I kind of have a hit list and shit list brewing in my head now. By that I mean the people who came through (in sometimes little but totally awesome ways), and the ones that I'm probably going to be po'd at for a while. So on the whole, general hits were friends who were flexible, helpful, letting me throw random tasks at them without blinking, or letting me talk about wedding stuff ad nauseam. People who asked to bring guests politely (one person offered to pay cuz they knew it was last minute!), or were nice when I told them they couldn't. The team players! People like that are total troopers in my book and will be rewarded when I figure out how.

On the other side of the spectrum, aka my new #1 pet peeve -- bailers. You know, people that backed out at the last minute or thought they "might have to" right when we were finalizing our numbers with the caterers. People that promised to help but bailed. Or better yet, people that said they wanted to help but had so many restrictions that it was easier to just not ask. Its sad but I have a little mental note now.

Overall, though, the wedding itself was AWESOME. I almost can't believe how well it all turned out. And its so nice to be finally married. During the next week, I'll try to post up little recaps and pictures from the 2nd wedding and the honeymoon. And then, it really will be all over and life will go back to normal. I guess I'll have to find something new to fill up my time.

Wedding RSVP's

I guess I've been naive. I used to think there were really only 2 ways to respond to a wedding invitation but apparently there are actually several options.

1. Say yes by promptly returning the pre-paid RSVP card or say yes online at the wedding website
2. Say no by doing one of the above

. . . both #1 and #2, of course, being the traditional responses

3. Don't respond until well after the deadline
4. Don't respond at all
5. Call, saying you "will most likely attend with your 13yo uninvited daughter but its too early to tell"
6. Tell a mutual friend that you'll be coming
7. Invite yourself and inform the couple that you will be coming (no invite required)
8. (My personal favorite) Promptly return the card adding who ever you think may be interested in coming: the invited couple, grown kids, plus a mystery guest -- basically bringing an entire unnamed and uninvited entourage

And of course, I'm waiting for these responses as well . . .
9. Don't respond but show up AND
10. Bring some additional people with you

Where everybody knows your dog . . .

Its now official. I think that our dogs are probably the best known by vets in the Hollister and Santa Cruz areas. I had been thinking that Gregg's "tough" male dog has been the only healthy one of the bunch. But recently, G noticed a little mole or tick on his nose that we've been concerned about. So finally, yesterday G took him to the vet and what do you know, its a tumor! Probably benign but they'll have to remove it and make sure. What almost cracked me up about the whole thing was that G said he spent a good half hour discussing our other dogs' ailments and issues, because they've been referred to specialists now and the vet was curious about their progress.

BTW -- Bandit has Cushing's disease. All that leaking and peeing? Its because she has little tumors in her pituitary gland. It got quite a bit worse before it got better -- lots of appointments and tests before they identified the problem. She started eating poop (I guess because dogs with Cushing's are constantly hungry and thirsty). She woke up several times a night to drink water and/or pee. It was fun. Finally, though, after about 2 weeks of meds, she had her first full night's sleep last night! And both G and I noticed quite a bit more energy when we've been walking her lately, so apparently all her lagging this last year was all connected to this.

Mia's hip stem cell treatment worked really well on one hip and not so much on the other side. So we're going to try it again. To try to do something different, the vet gave me some meds to help regenerate cartilage which I have inject into her several times a week between now and the treatment. All I can say is that I've been staring at that needle wondering how I ever thought med school might be an option for me.

Between the lot of them, seems like we're at a different vet each week, and the vet bills will probably almost equal the wedding bills before we're through.

Anyway, I'm sure everyone was dying for the doggie update, so there you go. :)

Circus life

Gregg has been away this week for work, so I've been hanging with the dogs. Normally, that's not that big of a deal, but this week has been ridiculous.

First of all, Mia is still recovering. She's got these big shaved patches on her stomach and hips. She seemed to perk up right after the surgery but then started limping about a week ago and hasn't stopped. I feel terrible watching her hobble around. Feel terrible, that is, until she starts growling at Bandit, at which point I just want to beat her. Yeah, she's been growling pretty non-stop at Bandit. I don't know if its just her being edgy or her being possessive of my attention. Probably both. Over the years, she's learned to tolerate Gregg's dogs, but I think she's still an "only child" at heart. Even as I write this, she's growling at Tucker for jumping on MY bed, though there's plenty of room for them both. And definitely she's been getting some extra lovin' with the whole surgery thing, but I guess that's not doing much for her personality. Anyway, she growls at Bandit. Bandit -- never one to be scared -- comes closer to check her out. Tucker starts barking and running over to protect me (from Mia, I guess). And I start screaming at all of them. This is seriously the cycle we go through at least 5-6 times a day (more when I was home all weekend). I'm guessing the neighbors are about one step away from calling the cops on me. Once Bandit and Mia even got into an all out fight. I'm sure that's helping with the recovery process.

And, Bandit started leaking. By that, I mean, she seems to be leaving puddles of urine EVERYWHERE. The house smells like a urinal, I kid you not. Its totally disgusting. I've been walking around the house constantly spraying febreeze, pouring Resolve where ever I see spots in the carpet, lighting candles, and freezing my ass off with the door open just to get the stink out. No luck. I have no idea what's up. Granted Bandit's an old dog, but she's never had even a little leakage problem, let alone a gushing issue. Plus it turns out that she might have a heart condition too. Apparently the normal heart rate for a dog is about 130. Hers is about half that. So today, we had a vet appt to figure out the peeing problem. Friday, we go back to the vet to get xrays for the heart, and next week, an EKG with a heart specialist. I'm not even thinking about how much the vet bills are going to be.

Basically, I feel like I'm living at the zoo -- lots of growling and smelly living quarters to boot. Like seriously, I should just put a sign on my door and sell tickets, between vet visits of course. . . You know, come smell my house and tell me if it makes you want to puke too, take in a dog fight, etc.

So of course now, if you've been following along, you'll see the full extent of my dilemma from yesterday!

Dilemma

I can't find my little MP3 player. Not that that's a world crisis or anything, but here's the thing. I think the maids took it. I know, its a total cliche and I feel ridiculous for thinking it. But I don't know what else could have happened to it. I don't really take it around with me. I use it only when I go running and then come in and leave it on one of the console tables, either by the back door or the front, depending on which way I come in. And those are pretty much the only places it hangs out. Which is why I'm sure it must have been the maids. What else could have happened to it?

But of course I feel like a total idiot because I haven't gone running in weeks, so I'm not sure exactly when it disappeared. And we did switch maid services a little while ago, so there's a tiny tiny possibility it was the old maids (no pun intended!). Though I'm pretty positive I went running after the switch.

So what do I do? I don't want to accuse them and be wrong. But if it is them (and I'm 95% sure it is), then I don't want them cleaning the house anymore. But they do a pretty decent job otherwise. Plus I don't want to be even more of a cliche and go through all the maid services in town. The reason we switched is because I was pretty sure the last ones had lost the house key. So . . .

one last push . . .

This year, I've received more emails and seen more blog posts about political issues than ever before, and I love it. I hope this isn't just me and my circle of friends. I hope that its indicative of the entire country. Because whatever your thoughts or beliefs, the most important thing any of us can do is go out, get informed, and vote.

In 2004, approximately 64% of voting-age citizens turned out to vote. I guess its not bad compared to some years, but it still appalls me to realize how many people don't take advantage of their opportunity to have a say in the political process. Whatever the reasons are for not voting, believe me, I've been there -- too busy, totally indifferent about the candidates, hate standing in line, forgot to register. I don't believe there's been single election where I haven't felt one of these. Last time, I forgot to re-register when I moved and was just thankful it wasn't a presidential election year. But I didn't get to make the difficult choice between Obama and Hilary!

I wonder if our general abysmal record when it comes to voting isn't indicative of a larger problem -- is it just me or as a society, do we just not discuss politics? I rarely engage in political discussions with friends. While I tend to have strong opinions, I don't really go around talking about them. And (maybe as a result), I actually don't really like having prolonged conversations with people that disagree with me politically. I'm not sure its like this world wide. Traveling around, I feel like I've encountered much more animated political chatter in other countries. In India, for example, at least in my family, sounding off on politics is an almost daily occurrence. And it seems that no matter what the level of education or socio-economic background, people are enthusiastic about having an opinion and making it known. They recognize the value of being part of the process and take advantage of the opportunity.

I don't know what the numbers are in other countries so I might be totally off base. But whatever -- there's no reason why we can't have a 100% voter turnout in our country. I'd love to see everyone get excited about politics. And more than that, to see everyone really get informed and vote for the right reasons, rather than what a 2 minute commercial tells them. My biggest fear this year is that too many people will get in that voter box, where no one else can see them, and give into that little racist voice in their heads that says a black man can't be president. Or, in California, that people won't recognize that Prop 8 isn't about a moral values but denying a minority group certain fundamental constitutional rights.

So I'm off now to vote for Obama and NO on Prop 8. I hope you do the same, of course. :) But more than that, I hope you take the time to read about the candidates' positions, the arguments for and against the ballots, and vote. Its not too late!!