Today's the day!!***UPDATED***

Click HERE to donate to St. Baldrick's.
In about 4 1/2 hours, all this curly goodness will be gone.If you've been meaning to make a donation to St. Baldrick's, now's the time! I know how easy it is to put things off, despite the best intentions. Life, and it's craziness, has a tendency to get in the way, doesn't it? Hell, I haven't even put my donation online yet!! I'm doing it as soon as I hit "publish."

Stud's time slot for getting shaved is 1:00 pm. It's only 8:30 here, so you KNOW he's still asleep! I did kiss him up a bit when I went down to make my coffee a little while ago, and he was starting to stir. I think I'm going to give him until 9 before I start screaming at him. tee hee!
We (I) had a VERY long day yesterday. I had to drive Stud to school, which my 'regular' readers know means almost an extra hour added to my morning. Or should I say subtracted? Whatever, all I know is CSJ has gotten me really spoiled this year by driving him just about everyday. It just seems so inconvenient when I have to do it now, despite having handled
it by myself for the past 12 years!! Stupid, right?

Anyway, after a LONG Friday with my rugrats, I had to rush home because Dorky Dog had a vet appointment. I sped to Stud's school, snatched him up and rushed home. Stud ran in to change out of his school clothes while I cleared some stuff out of the back of the car, then loaded Buster in with his ramp. That poor old thing! I don't think I've ever mentioned his ramp before, but he's so old now, that he can't make the jump/climb into the car. Thankfully, one of my dad's friends gave me this really cool ramp a while ago for him, otherwise, I'd have to literally pick him up and put him in the car. Um, hello, he's still a big boy, weighing about 70 lbs. THAT'S not a viable option! (Holy crap! I just Googled 'dog ramps' so I could put that link here, and not only found the exact ramp, but I had NO idea how expensive it was. Wow, the kindness of others never ceases to amaze me. My daddy has great friends, which I'm sure is directly related to the fact that he's freakin' AWESOME himself!)

Anyhoodles, after Buster's vet appointment, he had an appointment at the doggie spa for a bath and FURminator treatment. (LOVE the FURminator!!) Because the grooming session takes a few hours, I figured I'd try and run some errands out in that area instead of driving all the way home. (My vet and groomer are both located inside of a PetSmart that, mostly thanks to traffic, is about 45 minutes from home. It didn't make sense to drive all the way home to just turn around and drive back.) Stud and I ended up driving out to the bar, picking up dinner for us and my brother on the way. It was nice to visit for a bit, but he was pretty busy, so we didn't stay long.

After we ate we went shopping for a little bit before the groomer called to say Buster was ready. And, wow, did he look adorable when I picked him up. I really should have taken some before and after photos so you could see the magic of the FURminator! From there, we drove over to my parents' because I had to drop some things off from my brother, and we visited there for a while. Finally, around 10, we HAD to go because I just couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, despite having a few espressos with my mother. That stuff has absolutely NO effect on me. If anything, it puts me to sleep. Weird, right?

When I got home, there was a message on my machine from the niece of my neighbor, letting me know that she had taken a fall down her basement stairs and was in the hospital. I was devastated. I haven't been able to shake the anxious feeling I've had ever since I heard the news. Actually, the burst of adrenaline that occurred after hearing the news and talking to her niece snapped me awake and kept me up for hours.

I know logically, there is NO way I could have known she fell, but I can't stop feeling like I could have done something. No one really knows how long she was lying at the bottom of the stairs, bleeding, because she had absolutely no recollection of the fall, or even being up out of bed. She just remembers waking up and literally crawling up the stairs to call 911. They put 12 staples in her head, so it's a pretty large gash. Her other niece told me that she's basically in pain all over, which makes sense after falling down a flight of stairs. I just feel so terrible for her. I'm actually kinda sitting here typing to kill time before visiting hours start at the hospital.

Well, it's 9 now, so I can go bother Stud until he gets up out of bed. Yay! As soon as he showers and gets dressed, we're going to hit the florist, then the hospital, then we're off to get shaved! Well, HE'S getting shaved, I'm going to stand around taking pictures and video for you guys. You're welcome!

***UPDATE***

Here's our little pumpkin right before the shave. There was a woman standing next to me, watching her own son get shaved, and she immediately commented on Stud's beautiful hair.
As promised, I took video. I'll warn you now, it's a little long, and pretty boring.

Brushing off the hairs.

And, there he is! The hairdresser left it pretty long. If I remember correctly, she's the same woman who shaved him the first year, and left it long then,too.
I told him it's just the right length to make him look like a little gang banger. Don't you agree?
When we went to buy a plant to bring to our neighbor, he spied this little guy, and went nuts. He HAD to have him!
How hilarious is this kid?! He even took pictures of it and texted them to his best friend. I don't get it, but whatever, it made him SO happy, I couldn't stop laughing!!


He's trying to make them look tough here. Did it work?He was cracking me up with this thing. I finally had to bust out the camera in the car and capture some of the nuttiness! Again, these are kind of long, and probably boring to everyone but me.