Holy Paychecks Batman, More Work!

(Source)

After just two short weeks in my current position, my boss has offered me a full time job. It was really unexpected but upon further consideration I think it's a fabulous opportunity for me and for E and I together. The salary will allow us to save more so we might be able to work towards a decent down payment. It has fantastic health, vision and dental. There is some travel involved. They pay for lunch everyday. It'll look fabulous on a grad school resume. While I was nervous at first, I'm getting more and more excited about it. The only thing left is to make a decision about what to do with classes while working which is tough because it's so tied up in other factors:

Option A: 
- Full time job
- Part time school (no tuition)
- Loans roll over
- I keep parental insurance
- Possible pro-rated salary due to insurance not needed

Option B: 
- Full time job
- No school
- Loans go into repayment
- I take job insurance

Once I get the job squared away, we need to deal with the temptation of moving. Although I'd obviously love to, we shouldn't jump the gun and move out. Our current location means I am approximately 5 minutes away from work and we'd never be able to afford to live that close on our own. No rent means more savings. A house vs apartment means Milou has a backyard with a dog door. Plus, when my mom adopted Tintin we promised her that we'd be there for awhile so he and Milou could play together and run out their puppy energy. Without us being here with our puppy, she would not have adopted such a young dog. I also essentially run the house which is going to be difficult to do with a job or a job+school. I don't relish sharing the responsibilities since I'm a control freak I love doing them but I'm going to have to. I'm also fairly sure my mother and sister might off each off if left to live alone.

Ideas? Thoughts? What would you do? I'm hoping the salary will make the decision for me but I don't know if it will for sure.

BJ's Birthday Party Drunkfest

Late Saturday night, E and I piled Pony and E's friend D into our car and drove out to Granada Hills where we met M and C, the parents of the ever adorable Roxie, for E's friend BJ's birthday party. Phew, that's a lot of letters. We knew going into the party that it was going to be an epic night of drinking, so M and I put on our best tolerant faces and let the boys loose. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, E is a huuuuge lightweight and one beer is usually enough to give him a nice buzz. He doesn't normally drink so once a year or so I become the designated driver for a night of debauchery. This one definitely took the cake though!

M looking capital H.O.T. hot! Photo C/O M's phone

Not being a drinker, the first thing E did was break the cardinal rule of boozing "Beer before liquor, never been sicker". I don't drink so I can't speak to the validity of this statement, but he did get really wasted really fast. The entire group from E's bachelor party was there so D made them summer camp awesome matching shirts to commemorate their night of strip clubbing.

Panda, stranger, and E drinking Irish Car Bombs. Photo C/O Panda

Since no party is complete without a pinata, BJ's friends brought a Booziata filled with little travel sized bottles of hard alcohol. I'm fairly certain that E has only had hard alcohol once before years ago so the party was a whole new ballgame.

E with the Booziata. Photo C/O Panda

The booziata was tied to the slats of the backyard gazebo and the party goers were blindfolded with an overshirt so they could swing drunkenly at the moving transformer with its shot glass shoulder pads. I was fairly sure the fan was going to become a casualty but it miraculously survived. We couldn't say the same for the pool stick bat, that broke in half and went sailing across the pool during the first attempt.

E with his loot. Photos C/O Panda

After a couple beers, an Irish Car Bomb or two and a couple of those shiny little bottles, E was loudly oogling one of the girls who was drunkenly swinging her ass in his face and pole dancing. I think it was the 50 proof apple vodka that he downed in just a few minutes though it was tough to tell, it could have been any one of those pictured above. 

Beer Pong, an Olympic sport. Photo C/O Panda

Generally, E is a very lovable drunk who hollars about how much he loves me in between swigs. His very infrequent boozing doesn't bother me much as long as he's safe and keeps his hands to himself though the girl in the red dress' behind and E passing out on the kitchen floor did test the limits of my patience. 

Bodily restraining E from falling over/making a fool of himself/falling in the pool. Photo C/O Panda

After E, J, D and C bonded over their drunkenness, there was a couple hours or so of drunk rock band which was most amusing to watch. E was by far the drunkest acting one there even though others had consumed comparable amounts of alcohol. One girl even threw up so E was regulated to singing since motor coordination isn't a strong suit of the inebriated.

Pony standing over passed out E. Photo C/O Panda

Ultimately, the boys had a fantastic time and M and I kept careful watch to make sure they didn't get into too much trouble.  We even got enough food and water into E to prevent a hang over and everyone was presentable at breakfast the next morning despite getting home around 3am.

The 40 Dollar Steak Crew, AKA E's Bachelor Party Crew. Photo C/O Panda

Oops we did it again...

This evening, we piled everyone into the car to go see a little sheltie girl we were hoping to add to our family. Her name is Karma, she's 5 years old and we were hoping she would love our family as much as we wanted to love her. When we finally got there an hour and change later, we were surprised to see that she really was quite a little girl, about the size of our cat Devlin and quite different than our boy Pippin was.

Karma. You can't tell but she's actually the size of a large cat. 

We brought Milou in the back and let them attempt to play together but Karma wasn't super into it. The real star of the show was a 10 month old boy named Troy. He was oversized just like Pippin was (about 6 pounds overweight actually, so really just like Pippin) and he and Milou hit it off instantly. We were really torn since we'd gone for Karma and weren't sure if we could handle a second puppy. We wanted an adult who wouldn't require as much training, who would be easy and calm.

It took us two hours of agonizing in the backyard with Milou, Troy and Karma and we were split pretty evenly about which dog we should get. E insisted that Karma was the one for us and initially my mom agreed with him, even though she prefers larger dogs. My sister L and I were increasingly feeling that Troy was the one for us. We went back and forth and back and forth and honestly I would have taken both dogs if they'd let me, they would have fulfilled different emotional needs.

Ultimately, we decided that while Karma might be the calm girl we want now, Troy would eventually grow into the better dog. Karma was already fairly set in her ways at 5 years old while Troy was young and maleable, easier to acclimate to our cats and train. He and Milou were perfectly matched and would grow up together. By the time E and I moved out, Troy would be the adult with the even temperament that my mom wanted. Karma might be the better dog for my mom by herself, but Troy was the better dog for our family.

Troy, 10 months and 34lbs of Pippin look-alike

He's going to need a new name and will require a lot of training but we just couldn't pass him up. We brought him home this evening and after being perfectly behaved in the car he's settling into life at our house. We're going to start crate training him and will put him on Milou's raw diet tomorrow morning.

He has a few health problems we need to keep an eye on, namely his weight, dull fur, urinary crystals, and weak back legs. It seems like a lot to be taking on but I'm fairly sure that all of it can be remedied with good nutrition. A raw diet should restore the oil to his fur, eliminate his urinary crystals and reduce his weight. The reduction in weight plus the building of muscle should strengthen his back legs and I'm hoping he'll be happy and healthy in no time.

In the meantime, does anyone have any suggestions for a name? We like weirder names, Pippin, Milou, Haji, Devlin etc.