Electric Dog

I'm having fun with the title of each blog!

We took our beautiful beagle back to the vet to confirm if he thought she was pregnant. He was pretty sure he could feel one of the individual puppy embryonic sacs and estimated that she could be around 5 and a half weeks.

So if he is correct we could have puppies in 3 to 3 and a half weeks. There is still no guarantee ... we will have to wait and see, but he sent us home with plenty of reading material.

Bella could be a mum just a week before her first birthday!

Interesting times to come .....

Today we also received our electricity bill which to my delight was only $1 more than our bill last quarter. I have been switching off lights left, right and centre ... we are almost down to the equivalent of candle light some nights.

I am also switching off the computer monitor any unneeded power points and cutting down on our usage of the air conditioning. Instead of keeping it on all night I turn it on in KT's room a few minutes before she gets dressed in the morning, in time for dressing after her evening bath and also to warm up her room before she goes to bed. I have added extra blankets to her bed for the evening.

Uni will sometimes turn on the one in the lounge room but I switch it off as soon as I can. I also turn on the one in our room for a while just before we go to bed to avoid going to bed feeling like an ice block ... but I don't see the need to have it on all night once I've gotten warm ... although I do admit both KT and I are going to bed with a thermal undershirt on underneath our PJ's.

I am trying to stick to the 4minute shower thing for the sake of water conservation and also reduced heating costs ... although I do sometimes find that hard to do in winter when the shower is so lovely and warm. It is much more comfortable since we got our new hot water system (a few years ago) the old one was useless.

I am only using the econo option and fast wash options on our dishwasher too ... but they get the dishes clean so I don't see much point in using the longer hotter dishwasher settings. I used each of them once just to test them out at Uni's request ... but found that some of our plastic utensils got blasted and discoloured under 70 -75 degree water heat.

I am also thinking of doing the electricity audit to see if there are further ways to cut down on our electricity costs. I really didn't like having $500+ electricity bills we used to have ... and ideally would love to cut them below $300 if possible.

The biggest test of course will be the next bill ... due in September because that one is traditionally the highest ... covering all the winter months (most of June, July and August) ... I would be thrilled if that one were only $1 more than this one!!!

new computer

We are getting a new computer!

One with 6 times the amount of memory we have now!!!

Hooray!!!

I have spent the last few days clearing things off the old computer and reorganizing and saving photos, documents etc onto disk.

It is great to be able to do this because last time we got a new computer the old one had crashed and we lost a lot of information and were left a bit in the lurch. This time we have been proactive and I have regularly made back ups of photos in particular.

With a new computer I should be able to properly organize my photos again and view video on my own computer!!!

As an added benefit all this extra computer work has meant that I have improved my blog and even learnt a thing or two in the process of saving and transferring information. Rather than copy the details of my favourite websites onto paper I have shifted them here to this blog!

Very excited and very happy and so fed up of waiting for the old computer to finish what it is doing and keep up with me.

half way through the year

Last month my bellydancing classes ended after nearly 4 years.

The class had been getting smaller and smaller and eventually there were not enough numbers to keep the group together.

Most of the dancers have joined other local dance classes but at this stage I have no idea what I am going to do.

I think it could be a good chance to try something new like a different style of dance or a different activity altogether ... (or perhaps revisit an old interest like guitar or piano lessons).

At the moment though things have been so hectic I haven't really had a chance to miss dancing or think about what will replace it.

Kougra was sick during the last week of dancing and then the week after when she went back to school I had a zillion things to do that I hadn't done while she was home!I also had to hit the shops and stock up on plenty of warm winter clothes for her to wear at school. That and the fact that I had to look for a birthday present for B meant that the week went by very quickly.Then we had a small family party for B on the June public holiday and that was the week Uni noticed that Bella appeared to be showing possible signs of doggy pregnancy. We took her to the vet but he couldn't tell us for sure because apparently female dogs commonly have phantom pregnancies after they come into season and physically it is difficult to tell a real one from a phantom one.

We also had to deal with an issue at school where an older boy had been chasing Kougra around in the playground and purposely pushing her and knocking her to the ground.It was only by chance really that I found out what was going on ... we happened to go to the toilet straight after school one day and on our way out of the school grounds (at a time later than we normally leave) K pointed out a boy in the school yard to me and told me in a "tears just below the surface" voice that he was the one who pushes and knocks her over in the playground.

At that stage I thought it was an isolated incident that had perhaps happened that day and we talked about it all the way home. It turns out that the boy had been regularly bothering her in the playground most days at both lunchtime and snack time and whenever she went to find a teacher he would run away. The only time she could get any peace in the playground was when the kids do "outdoor learning" which is Prep only playground play.

After discussions with her dad that afternoon about how to handle the situation, we decided to talk to K's teacher and explain the situation to her and see if she could help.When I spoke to Mrs S she said she hadn't heard anything about it from K, but she understood the gravity of the situation and didn't want K to feel threatened in the playground.

Luckily for us she would be on playground duty the next day and she asked K to point out the boy to her. Detective K found him and Mrs S gave him a talking to. He apparently didn't realize she was a prep kid and thought she was a grade 2 like him. He came up to her in the playground later and apologized to her (of his own accord) and they made "friends".

The week after, K was able to finally complete a full circuit of the monkey bars which apparently she has been working towards so far this year, but had been having trouble achieving as a result of trying to dodge the boy in the playground... along with the other playground traffic etc.

So we have had plenty to think about, sort out etc.

And just as that was all sorted K developed a bad cough and stayed home from school for another week.

This week is the last week of term and thankfully it has been a good fun one and we will finish on a positive note.

May camping trip

Letter to Pops about camping trip 19th May 2009

Dear Pops

I love you. I love you (written by Kougra the second time around)

We went camping last week.

We played with a ball and a Frisbee and a hula hoop and I showed my mum and dad how to do heel kicking and hula hooping with the hula hoop around your waist.
I was in charge of the pegs when we put up our tent.
My favourite things about camping were doing a "butcher ball race" you run up a steep hill and someone kicks the ball from the top of the hill down to the bottom, while the kid races down the hill and tries to get to the bottom before the ball.
The first night a mother possum and a baby possum came and ate the leftovers from my bowl of "Son of a gun stew".
We got to pat them and the baby possum would snatch the bread from my hands and would run up the tree.
Then a fierce possum came and tried to attack the baby possum.
I gave it a name, its name was Poss.
Even when the mother possum was eating the bread she would still let us pat her.
When they finished the food they went away and we had dessert, toasted marshmallows by the fire!!
Then we went into our tent and told bedtime stories and went to sleep.

Love from all of us.

Kougra (signed in her own writing)

organization

I am being driven mad by the amount of stuff we have in and around our house. I spend hours outside tidying and prettying up the garden because I know that my efforts there will not be destroyed by a kougra hurricane every day.

This week though I got stuck into action ... enough is enough.

Kougra is home with me and we are both sick but I am determined to sort our house out one step at a time.

I have been trying to reuse and recycle and not waste things ... but it has meant that I have ended up with piles of bottles and useful containers of all shapes and sizes in assorted piles around the house.

I cleaned up a big 90L box that used to hold rainwater ... but developed a split in the bottom, and I am now using that as my useful box. Anything that I plan to keep for artworks or recycling into something else, will go in here but once I have a couple of each type of container ... or once the box gets full I will be throwing out any excess I have.

I have also started throwing out bits and peices of Kougra's things the minute I think they are no longer required.

We have also started a tidying game in the evening ... it was slow to take off but has increased in popularity now that both of us and a timer are involved.

What happens is I set Kougra a task and she gets to choose how many minutes she thinks it will take her. I set the timer and if she finishes first - she "wins". I then set her two more tasks ... ones that will have the most impact as far as tidying the loungeroom is concerned.

Then Kougra chooses 3 tasks for me to do in a certain amount of time ... and between us ... we get the living areas of the house looking pretty respectable!

I have also got piles of different things that I need to deal with, either putting things away or deciding what to do with them... I started by clearing a few of my downstairs piles and am encouraged by my success so far.

no clearer

After the visit to the vet we are no surer of our pooch's condition. The vet couldn't really feel any pups inside her but he said he would have a better idea if we brought her back in two weeks.

He said based on the changes we had noticed in her and the way they had happened he had a gut feeling that she might be pregnant ... but based on what he could feel now he was 90% sure she wasn't pregnant.

Confusing? YES definitely ....

Will have to wait and see.

points collection

I wrote this post and saved a draft of it and then it got lost!

So this draft will be much more to the point.

I have been collecting fly buys points and credit card points and farm town points.

The first two theoretically pay you back some cash but I am wondering if it is really worth bothering now that I am trying to limit our spending and save more to put towards our mortgage.

Fly buys give you approx 2 points per $5.00 spent so to redeem a $20 gift card you need 2500 points which equates to a cumulative spend amount of approx $6250. This works out to about 0.32 of one percent back for every dollar you spend ... or one third of one cent per dollar or 1c back for every three dollars you spend. Not that much really!

My credit card awards is slightly better in that you get 1 point for every dollar you spend and to get $20 cash back you need 4000 points which equates to a cumulative spend of $4000. This works out to 0.5 of one percent for every dollar you spend ... or half of one cent per dollar or 1c back for every two dollars you spend.

Then of course the bank charges all its clients whose customers pay with credit cards a surcharge anyway so the reward money they give you .... eventually .... comes straight from their customers and so isn't really hurting the bank at all.

Then in order to get 4c a litre off petrol you have to spend at least $30 at a grocery store ... it turns out this is the best deal of all surprisingly!!! And admittedly while you are paying this money you may also be accumulating credit card and/or fly buys points .... $30 ... 10c back from fly buys or 15c back from credit card.

Hmmmm glad I did these figures ... certainly puts things into perspective

points collector ... this is the version I wrote originally and thought was lost ... but now is found

I have just realized just how prone I am to pathologically collecting points.

I have spent countless hours the last 5 months collecting points on farmtown.

I collect points with my credit card and collect flybuys points.

While the last two theoretically give me money back ... it is so miniscule I may as well not be getting any.

e.g. to earn a flybuys $20 reward you need to have collected 2500 points you need to have spent $6250 in a flybuys affiliated store ... admittedly there are many of these ... but I wonder if it is really worth it ... especially if you specifically shop somewhere based on the fact that you will get points and then perhaps end up paying more for a product than if you had shopped around.

With the credit card you need to have spent $4000 on your card to accumulate $20 cash back therefore it would be $5000 to get $25 cash back or 0.5% cash for every dollar you spend.

Comparatively the rate for flybuys rewards is 0.32% or one third of a percent per dollar you spend.

Phantom Pregnancy?

It is one month since our pooch went on heat for the first time.

She was in the local dog kennels during that time and the staff were aware of her situation.

Also extremely aware of her situation was the male desexed dog in the enclosure with her, who "mated" with her.

As far as we know she has not had a chance to mate with an entire dog but we have both noticed that her nipples are quite big, she is putting on weight... and she has also gone off her food (although both these last two could be attributed to the fact that Kougra has been feeding her (LOTS!) She has also been much quieter of late and not as keen to run around like mad .....

Online research indicates that going off food, behaviour changes and changes in nipple size are good signs of pregnancy BUT apparently dogs are quite prone to phantom pregnancies where they act and react as if they are pregnant after having been in season.

Anyway it is off to the vet tomorrow to see if he can shed any light on the subject.