case of the stolen candy cane

my alarm went off as usual this morning.. i gathered myself, a sweatshirt and went to get logan out of his crate. as with every morning, i open the crate, which is next to my side of the bed, and i look into the darkness at the world’s groggiest puppy. logan is NOT a morning dog. instead of standing up and walking out of the crate, he reaches forward with his front legs while still laying down, making the most ridiculous, quietest little noises.. not quite whimpering because he’s not sad, little “meh meh”’s.. i say to him, “come out logan, come on”.. which then starts his tail wagging.. and wiggling forward.. but still.. most days i just pick him up.. and he starts his day by washing my face. but really.. i have never known a dog to be such a sleepy head. some mornings his antics are enough to have me giggling.. he is such a weirdo!

so after acquiring logan and scooting brodie downstairs we all went out to the backyard for a little bit. on the way back in the house i noticed a missing item. we have a small, yet slightly tacky, christmas display on the front of our house and our teeny ivy garden.. just some lights, bows, a wreath, a snowman and a few two-foot tall candy canes.. we had 8 candy canes.. this morning we only have 7. we do live in a city, and our “front yard”, all 3 feet of it, is right on the side walk.. so we have always worried about someone stealing our decorations. but we got through halloween with no thefts.. and we had a ton of stuff.. but seriously.. someone stole one big candy cane. now our side walk looks odd because there are 4 on one side and only a sad 3 on the other. i’ve heard all the news stories about stolen baby jesuses and whatnot, and it’s always depressed me. but this.. this is just ridiculous.. what is someone going to do with one candy cane? the spirit of christmas is so dead already in our society replaced by commercialism and greed.. i’m hurt. and if someone takes my snowman, i’m getting a gun.

in other news.. steve talked to his dad last night. when people ask how he’s doing, the answer is “not good”. and really, why wouldn’t he be a wreck, his wife, life partner, best friend of over 30 years is gone.. way before she should be. and to add to the insult, he is alone in georgia. he spent some time with steve’s sister in the bahamas (she lives there) but went home to start dealing with the aftermath. in their conversation last night it was decided that he will sell the house in georgia and move up here with us. we will find either a 2 family house or a house with an in-law apartment. the worst part of steve’s mother’s death, other than the fact that steve will never see her again and all the obvious sadness there, is that his father is now totally alone in georgia.. he goes home to an empty house filled with memories, his entire family lives up here. thinking about him alone there breaks our hearts. it only feels natural to live with him. even before it was talked about i was thinking about it.. and i know steve was too. it’s pretty much the perfect answer to this situation. steve’s dad will be around family, we will be with him, steve and him will be able to spend time together, i will get to know my FIL better, if we ever have kids they will have grandpa right next door, financially it makes sense.. we will help pay the mortgage, our money will stop being thrown in the garbage.. there will be a permanence that we have never had (i have been moving and renting for 11 years.. i have lived in 11 different places).. steve and his dad will have major bonding experiences doing house stuff.. i can’t think of a bad thing about it. we laid in bed last night talking about all this.. trying to find a reason that it wouldn’t work out. but we couldn’t come up with anything. i think as long as we have our separate spaces we’ll be fine.. and that’s mostly for our dogs.. we have two, he has two. which is another reason this situation will work out well.. if my FIL wants to jet off to the bahamas to see his grandson or to go see his parents or brothers, we are living right there, we can watch his house and take care of his dogs. this will save everyone money and bring us closer together. i think it is so incredibly important for steve and his dad to be physically closer (they are usually several states apart) during their mourning.. they need each other and i need to see them together. hopefully all this will help them both. .. now the hard parts, selling the georgia house… and finding a new house.. this feels very right, although steeped in sadness.

i’ve been thinking about starting a new project of sorts. being a puppy raiser for guiding eyes for the blind. i am conflicted a little about doing it though. i know it’s a wonderful thing, i’d be good at it and i would feel good for doing it.. but. i have a few worries. i don’t want logan or brodie to feel neglected at all. i know my heart is big enough, but there is only so much time in one day. and i know that ultimately the puppy is not ours and after living with the puppy and loving the puppy for 18-20 months, we will have to give him or her back. i know that will be hard.. but good.. knowing that puppy will be someone’s eyes. there are lots of meeting, trainings and time involved in puppy raising. which is a good thing, especially since i need the distraction.. but i worry about the other animals. we will be able to bring this puppy anywhere because it’s a guide-dog-in-training.. and hence the other dogs will be left home sometimes. i know brodie probably won’t care much.. he’s so laid back and indifferent to most things. but logan is so attached to me.. can he share me? i still really want to do it. i applied online and the local rep called me yesterday.. i will call her back later today. i know we have to go to puppy raising school first..

still no AF.. lots of headaches i’m sure from the estrogen withdrawal. we got a huge donation yesterday.. i send out my many many thanks.. i can’t even express how grateful i am. we still have a ways to go (see ticker, even though right now i have the end amount at $10,500.. it will more likely be $6000-7000) and we still have to meet with the head RE about the study.. i’m not sure we’ll have enough money in time for the TV show (they want to be able to shoot the whole IVF cycle and it would need to be over by the end of march, which is when they are done shooting the show).. i know we will have the money at some point in early 2009, but probably not as soon as i would like. which would be now. i would love to start in january.. but it’s looking less likely.. when is that obama stimulus check supposed to happen??!! maybe santa will bring me the rest of the money. i’ve been kinda good this year.

i hope the person who stole our candy cane gets coal in their stocking.