I give up!

I put the emersion heater on last night ready for my bath on Wednesday, in preparation for Thursday's in-person medical appointment.

 

I told Steve, so he knew full well that there would be warm water for the next two days.  He also knows that a bath takes a full tank of hot water, based on my last two baths.

 

I woke up this morning with the emersion heater going which meant someone had been using the hot water.  Steve.  Again.

 

I came downstairs and he was getting washed in the kitchen sink so I asked him if he'd used the hot tap.  "Yeah, why?" he asks, so I explained again that I needed a full tank of hot water to half fill the bath.  "There's still plenty left for you for tomorrow 'cos I've only used a [kitchen] sink full that'll be replaced by the morning" he replies.  Yeah, when he has another wash ready for his medical appointment and there's no way that there will be a full tank of hot water in 5 hours, so I'll be left with yet another tepid bath or having to boil the kettle to get any kind of warmth at all.

I'm gonna fill the bath up with the last remaining dregs of hot water then get Steve in to feel the temperature to see just how little hot water he leaves me with, then I'll leave the emersion off until I have my 6-weekly shower (so that I can wash my hair before it gets cut) and just boil the kettle to fill the bath up to get a very shallow but hopefully warm bath each time I've got a medical appointment or we're going to see Steve's family (we haven't been to see my mum since August 2010 - nope, not a typo, it really has been over a decade since I last saw her).

Steve is my carer but not only does he do buggar all to deserve that title (and I've got spreadsheets to prove just how little he actually does a week) but he's selfish too, and doesn't think twice about blaming me for things that are his fault but taking all the credit for the things I've done right that he's had buggar all to do with, like sorting out the recycling, paying for the groceries - we got a pack of 24 toilet rolls yesterday, so took them off next weeks order and the £7 I saved was spent on a 1.4kg meat lasagne for Steve as well as garlic bread and salad because it was a £7 meal deal, but apparently I'm the selfish one.  It's a huge blow-out if I get £4 of stuff for myself, but Steve's stuff that I can't have either because it's not suitable for vegetarians (like his lasagne) or it's got an allergen in (like the garlic bread) is well into double figures each week - usually around £12 but next week is gonna be approaching £20 and if the groceries go over budget then it's my limited stuff that gets taken off.

Steve got 6 bottles of lemonade with yesterday's groceries, but still decided to have one of my bottles last night so he's still got 6 bottles for the next six days and I've got 2 less already (I brought in a bottle for myself this morning) and I can guarantee that Steve'll be wanting at least one more of my bottles before the end of the week too.

He seems to assume that my life insurance will go to him instead of the Dogs Trust too, even though it's me paying for it I don't get a choice about who gets the money when I kick the bucket.

I've taken my pills though and the virus scan is under way, so time to support D now, which I don't get any credit for either, then I'll have to make Steve's breakfast for him 'cos he won't do it otherwise, despite telling everyone that he makes all my meals but in reality only usually does two or three for both of us for the entire week.

I really have had enough of being taken for granted now.

Missing Mitzi so so much right now

I thought I was coping OK with losing Mitzi, but I've just seen her collar, harness and lead on my way back from the bathroom 🚽 and I'm in floods of tears again.  😭

For those of you who only knew her when she was an old lady, let me tell you all about her and give you her life story while she was with us.  Settle back and get comfy 'cos this is gonna be a looong and emotional post.

When my father passed away the day after our anniversary back in 2010, Steve suggested that we rehome a dog from the Dogs Trust to help me with my grief.  I jumped at the chance and we drove over there that same weekend.

We looked around but couldn't find our dog.  I spotted Mitzi sitting in the back of her kennel looking all sad and ferlorn but because she only had half a body of fur, Steve really didn't fancy it, even when she came to the front for some attention.  I fell in love with her right then, but Steve was thinking about how expensive it'd be to have her treated, so I reluctantly agreed to keep looking.

When we went back to the desk and said that we couldn't find any dog that was right for us, the Dogs Trust volunteer asked what was essential for us in a dog.  We said a small dog that was house trained, the volunteers eyes lit up and said that she had the ideal dog for us, then disappeared and brought Mitzi back a little while later.

Steve was there thinking of money again and asked how much it would cost to treat her skin and get her fur to grow back.  The volunteer said that the Dogs Trust would pay for her entire treatment until she was well again, she just needed to be bathed with a prescription shampoo every other day that the Dogs Trust would let her chosen vets know about if we decided to rehome her.  I think Steve let out a relieved sigh or his eyes lit up or something at hearing that and he fell deeply in love with her straight away too.

We took her for a walk to see what she was like on the lead and she was absolutely fantastic.  The more time Steve spent with her the more he loved her too and we'd decided by half way that she was the dog for us.

 

When we took her back to the reception desk, we had decided that as soon as we had got everything ready here at home, she was coming home with us.

 

We told the volunteer that Mitzi had stolen our hearts and that she was going to be our dog.  I think the volunteer squealed with delight at that point lol  Apparently Mitzi had been with them for the majority of her life because of her skin and not having any fur so to hear that she finally had a home was music to the volunteers ears.  The volunteer said that all potential adopters had to go to a talk about looking after rescue dogs and how to help them to adjust to their new life in their furever home and that we would need a home inspection after that, but if all that was fine and dandy, then we could come and collect her.

She came home with us about a month or so later and immediately went exploring.  Decided that she would sleep on our bed instead of in hers, but that was totally OK with us because she was a member of our family now, so should sleep where the other two members of the George family slept.  She still had her bed here in the living room for during the day, but usually spent her time on the sofa instead lol

Happy months passed and her skin quickly improved.  Pretty much by the end of 2010 she had a thin covering of fur over her entire body again.

After about 2 years, Mitzi started to put on a lot of weight, so her vet prescribed her some obesity food and advised us to take her on longer walks to help her shift the weight.  That's when I started taking her out twice a day instead of just once, but her weight stayed the same and nobody could work out why.

She was on the obesity food for getting on for 7 years until a locum vet discovered earlier this year that Mitzi had issues with her thyroid, so she was put on meds for that and the weight dropped off her in under a month. She was put onto some senior food, 'cos she was 10 years old by that point and she was a happy puppy again, just significantly slower and less playful due to her age, but she was feeling more like the puppy that she had been all those years ago.

Literally a few months later, she went off any food we tried her on - wet dog food, dry dog food, moistened dry dog food, human food, salmon, tuna, scrambled eggs - she barely touched any of it.  The longer she went without eating, the more we worried about her.  Helen took her into the vets and they did blood tests on her.  The next evening the vets called with the results and you all know the rest... she was 11 years, 4 months and 1 week old when me and Steve made the heart-shattering decision to let her go.

She had a good life and was a happy girl until the last few weeks of her life.

I will always love and miss you, Mitzi T Doggington III

Pills taken, virus scan running, website updated...

...electricity just about to be sorted out.  Steve's on the phone to them now and I really can't afford a penny more.

 

Need to cancel the Dogs Trust stuff though, which I'm not at all happy about.  I've already cancelled everything except the groceries and life insurance but Steve's cancelled buggar all of his payments which I don't see as fair at all 😠

 

Just done a bit of...

...rejigging, coding and uploaded a more organised navigation on my homepage - if you've been recently then hit Ctrl F5 'cos there's a couple of changes to the navigation as well as photos and videos of our senior puppy, but if you haven't visited for a while then there is more to see and it's more organised now too, so go and take a peek and leave me a message in my guestbook?  Please?

➰➰➰

Steve's just had a message about the puppy... she's on a combination of wet and dry food for the moment "until her dental stuff is sorted out, then she can go back onto her normal food".  Basically it sounds like her teeth have been playing her up which is why she was so reluctant to eat, but mixing the wet and dry is working for her right now, so when the dental stuff is sorted she'll hopefully be back to her usual cheeky, happy, cuddly, terrier self soon.  Considering her age (11.5 years young) and that she didn't have the best start in life (she's a rescued puppy courtesy of the Dogs Trust who came to us with half a body of fur that the Dogs Trust had been treating since she was given up by her previous owners), she's been a really good, mostly healthy, addition to our little family!

Children with cancer UK

Just had a phone call from children with cancer uk about joining Linda's lottery for £1 a week which I did in an instant, then he said about doubling my chances for £2 a week, I did that too and I've already decided that if I win the lottery then it's going straight back to them to fund more research into childhood cancer.

I think I've said on my blog fairly recently that cancer and children are close to my heart so CWC and Dogs Trust are the only charities I support now 'cos I lost my dad to cancer back in 2010, I love children and we got the pup from the Dogs Trust so I want to support those two charities as much as I can!

The pup has just made a new friend!

Steve had 2 carers come out to see him this morning and one of them has just made friends with Mitzi and her little tail was wagging like anything!  I think it was the first time this carer had been because Steve said he gave the carer Mitzi's life story and the carer really wanted to see her before she left.

Mitzi is such a friendly girl and makes friends with whoever pays her attention!

She's really grown in confidence and friendlyness since we got her 6 years ago and I couldn't be without her now!  The Dogs Trust made her into a fantastic little girl who slotted right in to our house and I think she knows she's got a furever home with us now so her confidence and friendliness is really shining through!

Does anyone know, please...

... anything about clicker training dogs?

I'd love to train Mitzi using a clicker, but I know precisely nothing about how to use it!

According to the Dogs Trust site, you use the clicker as a sort of signal that the dog has done what you've asked and they get a reward after you've clicked the button when they do it.

Doesn't the dog get a bit reliant on the clicker thing though?  Could I use a toy instead of food or use her breakfast kibbles to reward her or something like that?

The pup is a bit overweight so don't want to use much food in her training so that she keeps loosing the weight but at the same time, I want to reward her when she does well too!  Could I maybe insert the clicker training in between the walking and feeding her so that she still gets the same amount of food but she has to work for it maybe?


I'm interested to know what you all think to this!

Just bought Mitzi...

...a Dogs Trust harness that is made for Westies so I know it's the right size for her and not only is it a walking harness, it's a car harness too which is what I've been searching for and spent fifty quid on 3 harnesses that either didn't fit her (the first one), was for use in the car only (the second one) and the third prolly won't be useable for walking either knowing my luck, but even if the third one is suitable for walking as well as in cars, it'll be a spare is all!

Either that or I'll put it on Freegle again!

Either way, Mitzi will have at least 1 harness next week!

Wish me luck!

Just sent Speckles' Diary off to a SCBWI to see what age she thinks it's suitable for and the overall feel of it and stuff.

I wrote it for YAs but after KISS being knocked out of the UV longlist at the first hurdle because it was more suitable for MG than YA I'm not so sure any more!

This year will be my writing year and I won't query agents until I've got every single MS the best it can possibly be during the first half of the year and won't start even thinking about the queries until at least August then I'll query at least 3 agents at a time and work methodically through the Yearbook until NaNo then take it from there.

Got to plan out my next NaNo novel soon too!  lol

Impressive stuff IMO!

I've written 31k words since 8 September to yesterday which is only 17 days... impressive stuff or wot!  Couldn't have done it without the SCBWI BI members though!  It's not free to join but just these last 17 days has been so worth it!

Quick edit of the first draft

The combination of numbers and words in Speckles' Diary was annoying me last night, so I've just edited the first draft and made it more... what's the word... samey?  The word begins with an s, I just can't think of what it is now!  lol

Just finished Speckles' Diary and I'm now in tears

Just over 51k words written and it's finished how I wanted it to finish so now I've just got to get out of Speckles' head in October, write 120k in November for NaNo then start editing and start work on my other WIP during 2016!

Just over 48k written now, so I'm on track for finishing tomorrow!

I'm very nearly finished writing the first draft of the novel I'm writing... just under 2k to write tomorrow and that's it until November.  I've had a bath today and still managed to write the 2k words and I've got an assessment tomorrow morning then write the final 2k and it's done!

That's today's writing done then

Just finished writing today's 2k words to take the current word count to a huge 46,052 so far.  So close now!  The end is in sight a week sooner than I was thinking too!

Yay! I'm so close to finishing it now!

I've now written a total of 44,025 words in my Dogs Trust novel so in less than 6,000 words I'll have finished the book and get ready for clearing my head in October, ready for November's NaNo when I'm planning on writing 4k a day to make 120k by the end of November but it's already planned out and I don't have online communities to worry about any more so I can just concentrate on clearing my mind for my NaNo novel throughout October and write it in November.

I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed writing but the last couple of week's have re-awakened my muse and I've got the time and space I need to just concentrate on that now... it's been literally years since I could last do that!

I'm planning on writing at least 2 novels a year starting in 2016 as well as picture books and early readers too.

Just over 42k words written now

Just finished today's 2k words so I'm going to take me pills, read the forums and head to bed now.  I definitely prefer writing first thing in the morning... I'm more creative, wordy and motivated then and it gives me a couple of hours to do what I want to before heading to bed!

38k words written now!

Still on track with writing my Dogs Trust novel but I'm wiped out so I'm heading to bed now... I seem to write better in afternoons and evenings so hopefully I'll be able to write the daily 2k on Wednesday after the assessment and we're having our hair cut on Monday evening so hopefully I'll have written the 2k by the time my FIL comes to pick us up but it's no great shakes if I haven't!

36k written now

I've spent most of this afternoon researching toothache in dogs with only the remedy of using ice to numb the tooth and gum but without the knowledge I needed which is what happens when a dog goes to the vet for toothache?  I've sort of skirted around it for now but I need to find out what happens before tomorrow morning otherwise I'll be hit by writer's block again  :-(

880 words left to write then that's it for the day!

Didn't get to bed until gone 10pm last night but was up before 8am this morning so I really am going to have an early night tonight!

I'll hopefully be in bed by 6pm!

Yeah, right, like that's going to happen in reality!

34k written now, so it's bed time again

I'm wiped out so I'm heading to bed and I won't get up until I'm ready to tomorrow!