I missed Will this morning on yahoo! by about half an hour. The thing was, I'm normally up at this time, it's just I'm off today so I got out of bed a little later than usual. The other thing is, I was up at 530 but decided it was too early for anyone to be on and went back to sleep for about 45 minutes. Then I woke up and I thought it's around the time someone would be on if they were going to be on and then I just had this strong feeling that today someone would come on because I wasn't there. Sure enough, that's what happened. I'm so mad at myself now. I haven't talked to him for a while, Thomas either, but I just got a letter in the mail from Thomas. Opportunity to communicate with either of them is so few and far between with a lot of worrying in between. It really sucks.

At least I know he's ok though. I was worrying after reading that 11 soldiers were injured after a mortar attack at their camp or whatever. Of course the names weren't released right away or even which units they were in. I caught a glimpse of Thomas on Yahoo! yesterday, although was not able to talk to him so I'm assuming he's ok. Hearing from Will this morning even if I wasn't there assures me that he too is ok.

Murphy was sleeping on the couch snoring but he got up because I was standing by the door on a call. I get better reception standing there. I'm glad I get any kind of reception at all and I'll say that my GSM reception is way improved over what I was getting on my TDMA phone, as much as I liked that old 8260. Still works too, I gave it to my nephew because he loves phones. I'll have to send him the charger so it will keep lighting up.

Murphy is in the house now, for good. He was recently diagnosed with hip dysplasia and arthritis, a result of the HD. He's got daily supplements to help his poor joints, as well as pain medication, which I haven't given to him yet because it has a lot of side effects so I'd rather not. He doesn't seem to be in any or a lot of pain. He does limp a lot, which breaks my heart to see, but he still seems very happy. I cried a lot the night I found out, and the day after as well. In fact I called in to work the day after because I would break out in little crying fits and I was worried about his first full day after being diagnosed. There are a lot of changes and routines that have to be or have been made as a result. The medication, twice a day, exercise, twice a day. Walks or swimming, 20 minutes at a time. No running, no jumping, no wrestling, no more sprinting up the hill on the way home, no fetching tennis balls, no playing with Josie (parent's dalmatian). Life in the house is pretty boring for a 1 yr old dog, still technically a puppy, full of energy but it's the only way to make sure he doesn't do the restricted things. If left on his own, in the kennel with Jo, he'll wrestle, he'll run around, jumping off and around rocks, tossing tennis balls up in the air and doing sommersaults after them.

So far any plans I may have been making as far as my "career" goes are temporarily, permanently parking lotted. I don't know that W can be trusted to make sure the dog gets walked everyday twice a day or that he'll get his medication twice a day. So far, he's been pretty good at the walks, I've been walking him in the morning before work and W's been doing the evening/night walk. I've been handling the meds though. I don't know that W fully understands what's going on with Murphy. Yesterday they came back from their walk all hot and sweaty, with Murphy limping pretty bad. They had been running. I reminded him that M was not supposed to be running anymore. He said I didn't tell him that. I know I told him that, repeatedly. The only thing I can think of is that I was probably crying when I told him and I have a feeling he tunes me out whenever I'm crying.

We're looking for one of those orthopedic beds for M, the ones with the convoluted egg shell stuff. Found one at PetLand Kahala but they wanted $80 for it. Thought we might wait until after we move to the mainland because it will most likely be cheaper there and then we won't have to add it to the stuff to move, not that it'd really take up that much room or anything. For now M seems to prefer sleeping on the couch anyway, I'm not sure if he'd even take to sleeping on the floor on a doggy bed. We most likely won't be moving the couch with us though because it's really a cheap piece of crap anyhow. It was like $350 for the whole set, that is couch, two end tables, coffee table, chair and ottoman. We'll probably have a moving garage sale or something. If Lil' P were here they might like it but they don't plan on coming back for a while, if ever. I'd give it to my sister but again, she's on the mainland and I don't know if it's worth moving. I'll ask her I guess, maybe if I disassemble it, it won't appear so bulky and all. I'm sure they could use it to, last I saw, they didn't have any or very good furniture. Not that it's very good furniture, but it's better than what she had.

Got a lot to do today, more painting. We're selling our house and my mom wants it done so bad, she said all I have to do now is paint the major wall parts and she'll go in a do the trim. I know it's because she doesn't like the way I do it. I use painter's tape, which I have gotten some really great results with, in some rooms. In other rooms it's a big horrible mess, paint peeling off, chunks of plaster coming up,etc. My g-pa says this is due to the surface of the wall where the paint and tape is being stuck to. Whatever the reasons, I'd say it's probably a good idea to stop using tape in this house, except on places where it won't contact paint, like around the baseboards. I lack the patience to stand there with a tiny brush and paint without tape, but my mom seems to think she can do this. In fact, that's how she always paints, which she was always very quick to point out to me, as well as whisper to others, literally, behind my back. She never has to use tape, she just gets up in there with a little brush, blah blah.

Anyway, my fax is finally coming through. The fax that will change my life??? Maybe, but doesn't everything have the ability to change our lives?