Oh, god, there's a personality assessment questionnaire. I forgot about this part.

Toddson, that was a great suggestion about using the fiberglass goats as molds. I'd be afraid to scratch them up, though, especially since they're arriving pre-primed.

I talked over the etsy goat frame with bossman, and he said to work up a schedule and cost to present to him, and then if it didn't look to be too much of a timesuck, we could present it to the ED, and maybe the costs could be absorbed by the spring fundraiser if we can auction it off. I saw that ladywelder also had an adorable lamb for only $90, if we wanted to save money and not overdose on goats (although just today I saw ED refer to the fundraiser as our "goat-a-thon", so maybe not.

Thanks guys and gals! This is looking much more like a possibility, and I would feel better to be able to not be putting the kibosh on something the ED was so excited for me to do.

There's a garden somewhere that is so proud of their compost pile that they built viewing platforms to go up and look at it (it's fairly huge).

ION, my dad called today to proudly tell me that he'd finally transferred my inheritance money from Grams. And then said that if I could find a cheaper quote, I could use that money to get my car fixed.

Um, when I asked for financial help getting my car fixed, I already knew that this money was coming towards me, and was asking for separate monies, and you said yes.

I feel so ungrateful, but I am so stressed financially, and he is such a scrooge, and I'm a little resentful after all the home repairs and brand new kitchen and laundry appliances he has purchased as gifts for my delinquent brother, for the money he's gifted him for trips to Florida, because he's without a job or whatever. And whenever I ask for help with a root canal or something necessary and dire, it all comes back to how I need to get a better paying job, what am I spending my money on? I have no dental and one and half root canals on the horizon, I'm paying down two credit cards, my rent takes one whole bi-weekly paycheck. I asked for help with one thing, and I have been happily advised that I can now use the monies that were going to given to me anyway (that I had earmarked in my brain for getting ahead of the CCs and paying off the half root canal (I'm living without a crown right now). I joined the army so I could pay my own way to college, and when the additional scholarships started to surpass the other ten percent that my dad chipped in, he kept that for himself as what was owed him. For all I know it was more than what he had chipped in. When I fixed up my grand dad's yard out of my own pocket, they refused to reimburse me because I didn't have the receipts, and I got nothing from the sale of the house that I'd been living in and upkeeping and caring for Gramps while he'd been alive. The accountant advised dad to not give us a percentage, but to only hand out money as we asked for it, and then when I did, it came back to "why can't you afford that on your salary? What are you spending your money on? Get a better job".

Somewhere, my dad has a notebook of every time he's parted with money on his children's behalf, and I've a sneaking suspicion it includes diapers on it.

Again, I feel terribly ungrateful, and I wish I could stand on my own two feet. And I wish I had never asked for help with the car now. But, yo, I am very bitter and resentful. And also stressed about money, and I thought I'd seen a light that start getting me out of this hole and keep my mouth and my car from falling apart.

Ugh Zen, that's so hard! It sounds like that girl is screaming for limits. Mom needs to come up with some.

Alas, the furminator pulls too much on the hair that's still attached, so he doesn't like it much. I use a slicker brush that does a very good job.

Dustbuster.

Oof, Zen and juliebird. Sorry for the suckiness.

My sinuses also hate me, so I slept in this morning and have been diligently working from home this afternoon. I was only gone for three days, and yet everyone needed something from me in those three days.

I need to express interest in this internal posting in Dublin and then look for external jobs later.

Aww, bummer. I emailed yesterday seeing if you wanted to grab dessert. Next time!

Since it was my home email, I didn't see it until too late last night to do anything. Did you not get my response?

All this stuff by the convention center was blooming. I'm also an asthmatic, with a hard trigger for perfume/cologne, so I was primed by the flowers into a slow moving asthma attack that lasted all afternoon, trapped in a windowless, ventless room with wafting clouds of scent.

OMG, this sounds miserable.

Yikes, Zen & Julie, those both are hard, complicated, crappy situations. Good luck negotiating.

Burrell, there are no more limits to be set. I don't even know what that would mean in this situation. Her tablet has been impounded and that makes no difference to her behavior. She doesn't have a car, they don't eat out, she doesn't go out with friends. All she does is surf the internet. There's nothing else to do but ground her from the internet and refuse to let her friend come over for the weekend, which her mom has done. Now we're both waiting to see what the kid does in retaliation. She destroys things and then she's very very sorry but nothing changes.

They live way out in the country, on grandma's property, to take care of grandma. (Who is quite healthy, she's just a drunk.) Grandma built them a house where they live rent free, the cost is being grandma's servant. Neither the kid nor my friend really have anything in their lives but work/school, the internet, and taking care of grandma. I think part of the problem is the kid is bored but my friend sees no way out.

It sounds like you've got a good guess there, Zen, with the boredom. There's a reason rural teenagers statistically do more drugs, drinking, and sexing than their urban counterparts. I hope your friend can figure something out.

Juliebird, I think your frustration is valid. What happens if you sit down with your parents (not in the middle of a crisis or a fight) and lay that out for them? It often seems like parents tend to the Troubled Child and the other kid(s) get the shaft.

and it doubly sucks for those that do pick up poop, because you're constantly getting dirty looks for having a dog.

I always feel like I get approving looks for picking up poops. That could just be projection/wishful thinking on my part, though.

I think what she meant is that the non poop pickers make the poop pickers look bad - not that anyone is actively getting dirty looks when we pick up poop.