One step forward, two steps back.

I swear, I cannot win for losing lately. I know these are not a big deals, but still I am irritated.

I had to take Thor to the vet to get his shots to go to the kennel while we are on vacation. As a rule, I think dogs are overvaccinated, but whatcha gonna do? He went yesterday and I was pleasantly surprised that the bill was only $52. Pretty good deal for rabies, distemper and bordatella. While there though, I had the doc look at this growth in his mouth and she says it has to come out. It is surely benign but will cause trouble anyway--so now he is scheduled for that on November 9 for $205.

Today, I am scheduling my referral dives with the dive shop in St Martin. We have to do four. I assumed that would happen in two sessions, like two mornings of two dives each. Um no. The way this shop does it is to do the first one at 2 pm on Monday--which means we cannot go to St Barts or Orient Beach that day. The second one is at 2 on Tuesday, so another day out of whack. Then Wednesday we start at 9 am and knock out the last two dives. I had been concerned that the first dive at least would be a pool dive and I would feel like I had not had enough time in the ocean. But I was also worried that there will not be enough time to do everything I want to do on this trip---which is a dumb thing to worry about, we have almost 8 full days and will be back for a day in February with Carrie and Doyle while we are on our cruise.

I no longer need to worry about that. There was a mixup and we now have to ADD pool dives to the deal. This means we will have full days on Monday and Tuesday and 3/4 day on Wednesday---and of course, have to pay more money. I do not really care about that as it is so absurd after all, but ... and how can adding a pool dive or two add that much MORE time? I am sure I do not know.

On the scuba front as well, I have heard an unfortunate rumor that I am going to see octopus on this trip. Now everyone who knows me knows that it gives me the shakes to even type that. Give me a man eating shark and one of them shocking sting rays over over a damned octopus or a squid any day. And This after I was coming to terms with the whole eel thing which has been bothering me more than it should. Barry calls them "those snake like bastards", and I suspect he will pee himself when he sees one--he is deathly afraid of snakes and snake like bastards.

That is a heck of a problem for me to be whining about, isnt it?

Now Barry has decided he has nothing to wear on vacation and wants to go shopping. If you could see his closet, you would laugh, there is enough in there for 10 people. He probably has 15 swimmers, and thinks he needs a new one and where do you get that in Illinois in October.

He also does not want to wag my camera all over so wants to buy a really tiny digital to carry in his pocket. He has been asking about this for a long time, as he wants to take one biking with him--so we are off to look for one after work today. cha ching! I am still taking mine with me, I have news for him.

But, I have dealt with AQHA today who actualyl FIXED a problem I was having with their upoad photos form for registrations. And I got four more submitted, leaving only two more to do and they are not under a time crunch yet. God knows what I named them or how hideous the photos are, but I do not care. The point is they are in and they are not late!