Ramblings

Yesterday was my birthday, and today I am sort of celebrating it. I am going to make a vegan red velvet cake and hopefully go to the Loving Hut. The Loving Hut is interesting, it is a franchise run by a cult of sorts led by a woman known as Supreme Master Ching Hai. For all my hatred of religion, I can't find them harmful, just naive.

I've been thinking a lot about politics, (which is common.) Despite being very far left, my general opinion is that we need moderates in this country at the moment to keep things moving smoothly. Listening to conservative talk radio has convinced me that at least half the conservatives refuse to see this, and are batshit insane. The one I hate the most, who actually makes me rage, is Mark Levin, whose only saving grace is his strange love of dogs. If the other hosts push away liberal attempts to communicate with them, he crushes them in seconds with naming calling and instant hang-ups. He yells at and insults his own audience, and his rantings remind me of Hitler in their ferocity. Furthermore, he has gone so far as to say Reagan created, what was it, 40 million jobs?, crediting his success as part of three or four successive presidential terms after him. This must be how conservative logic works.

Ultimately though, I am most disappointed in the left. In their failure to follow through with promises and their failure to act like mature adults. In Obama's failure to close Guantanamo, with prisoners kept there outside of any legal means of trial, many of whom may simply be guilty of speaking in support of Saddam or terrorist groups, rather than being terrorists. If they are even guilty of that. If he really needed a state for a prison, force one, pick a very red state. I volunteer Florida, our voters are idiots and we are the closest. It's not super red, but it always does something stupid. This year it is the early Republican primaries.

I am disappointed in Obama's failure to raise taxes for the rich, which could have kept medicare, medicaid, and social security funded for a long time. Reagan lowered taxes for the rich so drastically, and shifted the tax burden to the poor and middle class, and Obama could have fixed that easily with a majority in the House and Senate. Instead he pushed that abortion of a bill, Obamacare. Something that was so far from the original picture that it was damaging to the poor and the middle class who live paycheck to paycheck. People shouldn't have to pay for universal healthcare through anything but taxes, and the rich should carry the burden.

As has been said in the past, no one ever became rich on their own. And as I would add, there were many backs, heads, and feet they had to crush to get there. Them having an "option" to write a check to the government isn't enough. I'm not hugely concerned about the middle class, like many Americans. They put themselves in debt and live beyond their means, though it is often as a product of society. I am much more worried for the poor. They suffer the most and have the least representation because they suffer from lower education rates, lower voting rates, higher propensity for crime, all due to poverty and living conditions and lack of funding to aid them. The rich whine the loudest, the politicians promise the middle class the most (but rarely deliver the full amount,) and the poor get pushed away every time.

Obviously I am for full redistribution of wealth and I think their are certain rights that the government owes its people, such as housing, food, clothing, education to college, health insurance, and other necessities. It's not impossible to pay for these. I just don't believe in a speedy path to communism. More of a slow crawl that slips into it gradually enough to get people used to it.

My Neighborhood

Okay, to sum up the past few weeks, I have been doing relatively good in my classes, but regularly failing my quizzes for financial accounting while passing the homework. I have no idea what grade I will get, but I am not immensely worried because I can retake a D, and a C is a good sign. Meanwhile I have been working with tutors to try and seriously understand accounting. I think the tests just rush me at 10 questions with 6 mins for each question, (divided down from the hour the test takes.)

Not bad for three internet courses really, though I have a midterm report coming up I am a bit edgy about in Personal Business. Not really my field, but I have a ton of sources to pull from.

Bêlit is growing so big! She's starting to behave better too, and learning tricks. Definitely no more sleeping on the floor with her though. She is too dominant for that not to send the wrong message. The vet says obedience and agility classes are a bad idea until she is fully vaccinated for parvo, which has been frustrating for us, because, for awhile, she was nearly unbearable with how difficult she was being. But it seems to be a rare occurrence now.

Here's the real news though. A few days ago some supposedly gang connected members of our neighborhood, (freshly moved in,) broke into the house of the animal abusers' across the street. They had waited until everyone was gone but the women. They beat the old woman with a wrench and sliced her up with a razor. Even better, the cops apprehended them, sat them right in front of the house where anyone making statements to them could be seen by the assailants, and stood outside the old woman's house for 20 minutes yelling "police!" while being too chicken to go in.

Finally my boyfriend's mom went over there and made it clear there was a woman injured in the house, as the young woman that had been there had left to get help. It's possible their family is playing at gang wars too, and this is the start of worse. Especially since, from what I have heard, that 8:00 AM beatdown was the last of a crime spree by guys that involved shooting a man further down in the neighborhood and ripping off the nearby Handy.
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The cousins and such of the criminals, who are going to be tried for attempted murder apparently, put the word out that they'd fuck up anyone they found out was involved in getting their relatives caught. So everyone is scared, especially since a few of the girls in our neighborhood were outright threatened for no reason.

We are putting multiple motion sensor lights up, doubling the doors (a door within each door,) and if it gets worse, getting a shotgun and loading it with rock salt. I don't think Sherry or I have it in us to kill someone, I think maybe Chauncey might if it were a really bad situation, but you had better use a gun you pull. Rock salt will drop any intruder hard and that "sha-shick" of a shotgun being cocked is a good deterrent on its own. The rottweiler and the mix lab we have won't hurt things either. I am still very very scared, though, and so is Sherry.

We can't walk Bêlit at night now, or really even down the street at all, because as a purebred, she's prime for theft. She's worth enough money that she could get taken quickly if we are unable to defend her. Instead we go to nearby Muse (pronounced muce, not muse like the greek myth,) There we drop by our friend Robbie's house and walk her down his long, mostly deserted road.

So obviously there have a lot of update, and poor Sherry is really stressed. It's her birthday today and later we are surprising her with a triple chocolate cake I made and chocolate covered strawberries we got as a gift from her significant other, Bob, since he can't get down here right now. I had enough frosting to make 19 cupcakes, and am giving six to the nice neighbors, six to Chauncey's aunt Denise for her and Stuey, and six for Robbie, who has been having a horrible time with his back due to a collapsed disc. (The last one is sort of in limbo, I can't eat it, since none of this is vegan.)

I wish Chauncey, Sherry, and I could get out of this neighborhood. It was mostly safe before. Now it's so scary.

Next update I'll post more pics of Bêlit. She is so big and cute!

School and Stress

Bêlit is parasite free, though still low on pakcell levels. She is getting healthier though, and we settled on $800 payment from the breeders. We are getting screwed technically, and they had the nerve to be indignant and suspicious of us, but it was better than fighting all the way to small claims court.

School started, I've had a few small breakdowns, burned through almost all my Xanax at the beginning of the month, and am now doing a bit better. Hopefully I can handle the stress now without a benzodiazapine. I am really enjoying accounting, but I need a tutor, as I am not doing well. I got a 58% on my last homework assignment, though I got an 80% on the last test. I want to do better.

Already one of my classes is talking about the midterm report. Talk about heavy stress! I wouldn't be able to handle any of this if it wasn't all online.

I haven't been able to read at all, or take breaks. I spend way too much time freaking out, and balancing the puppy with school work is hard. Hopefully, I'll get the hang of it soon.

"Beef" Stew

This is a really easy seitan stew if you are willing to put the effort into making the seitan (it’s easier than it sounds.) The seitan recipe is from the Veganomicon. The spices are mostly ripped off from a beef stew recipe. You need a crockpot for this.

1 batch Seitan, lightly pan fried in Sriracha and a minced garlic clove

5-7 small red potatoes, quartered

2-3 carrots, peeled and chopped, or  ½ cup to 2/3 cup prechopped carrots

1 white onion, diced

½ container baby bella mushrooms

½ cup frozen corn

1 can chickpeas

½ bag green beans, snapped in half

1 clove garlic, minced

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon white sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon vegan Worcestershire sauce, (an example is Annie’s)

2 ½ cups water

2 ½ cups vegetable broth

Put all ingredients in the crockpot and mix thoroughly. Cook for 12 to 24 hours on high. Enjoy!

When I make this again, I might add 2-3 tablespoons cornstarch at the beginning to thicken it. Chauncey said it would be better a bit thicker. Just a side note.

More Bêlit

We've been running back and forth to the vet over these few weeks trying to get the puppy better. She still has one parasite out of the four she had and her pakcell levels went from the original 11% to 25% to now 21%. This means she is losing blood, possibly because the hookworms died and their release actually caused a bit more bleeding. Now we have her on more medicines.

We are seriously considering a health care plan for her and have this at the moment, at least for sixty days. The paperwork hasn't come to us yet though. We can afford these visits and her regular maintenance far less than even up to $100 a month. That's the top plan. It even includes kennel stays if you are hospitalized for a period of time.

Bêlit rotates between being weird about food and no energy to eating heartily and having energy. We just took her for a very long walk to the park because she wasn't going to the bathroom, which was successful. She ate afterwards, which made my boyfriend and I very happy. It should be a good day.

School starts on the twenty third. I am very nervous about my accounting class. We had some pre-homework and I didn't have a very good retention rate when I read the first chapter. It just didn't stick with me. I am going to have to really work hard for this. I have no idea how I'll do accounting 2. Plus, there was a wonky math problem, one I didn't understand at all. That makes me even more nervous. Oh well, we'll see.

The puppy goes to the vet in a little under a week, assuming all goes well. Hopefully it will.

Late Night Update

So it has been an interesting few days.

First off, the puppy is absolutely wonderful, and so cute. She is a little shark, and wants to eat our hands, feet, fingers, and toes all the time, along with anything else she can grab. She spends half her time sleeping and half her time playing and does both as adorably as possible. Also, she loves to have her belly scratched.

However, the breeders scammed us. I won't talk about what recourse I have, other than there are rules about this in Florida, because I may be taking them to small claims court, but they sold her to us with a chronic case of hookworms, along with at least three other parasites that required her to get an emergency blood transfusion. It pretty much cost us the price we paid for her to begin with. They are refusing to pay for the bills at this point. I will be making sure they have a very hard time selling their puppies from now on. I'll go to every site I can find and hunt them down and I intend to alert the AKC and Better Business Bureau. So regardless of how the case goes, they will have a hard time of it, I will make sure of that. Poor Bêlit nearly died.

Still, I am glad we got her, she is an absolute gem. She is also a holy terror, and keeps both of us up all night with walking schedules. but that is par for the course for puppies.

I am worried about her relationship with the cats. Finch has already smacked her with her claws. We were scared she got her eye, but she didn't. Still, Bêlit cried like crazy, and I don't want her to see cats as a threat to the point she becomes a cat killer. I need her to avoid them, is all. We have to socialize her with my mother's clawless cat, Nala. Nala likes dogs and has even headbutted Bêlit in greeting. The puppy was lethargic from lack of blood at the time though, so they need a new meeting. I worry for Nala. She'll now have to face the shark. We'll keep an eye on them though.

Bêlit Time!

Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow!!!

We have a malamute puppy waiting for us, she is the cutest thing and we have named her Bêlit! Awesomely, there is also this reason for the name Bêlit.

We visited the breeders before, and they have a great set up, with air conditioned kennels, and long waits between pregnancies for the bitches. Kalua, the mother, had nine puppies, two boys and seven girls! We are picking Bêlit up a week or so early, with their permission. I haven't seen her in about a month, I wonder how big she has gotten.

Yesterday we went out and bought a ton of dog supplies, mostly in pink. I got her a collar instead of a harness until I know whether she will be pulling on the leash, and what size will fit her. I will be training her personally with the help of a few books.

Of course this means potential mental scarring for the cats, and we have to watch them around her because they have claws. Hopefully, giving them lots of love will let them know they are just as good and we love them just as much. My cats are fairly dysfunctional, so I expect a good bit of adjustment time.

But pictures!

First Bêlit and then a group picture of the girls.

 

Then the mom and dad. The mother is Kalua, and the father is Sampson. Such beautiful examples of malamuttery.

I can't wait! I just hope she rides well in cars. It should be fun though. I will update with more pics once I have her.