About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
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January 28, 2013
I almost have to laugh.
Immediately after my health and fitness update, feeling like stopping all my pain meds including the anti-depressant intended to reduce and manage the pain was actually working out pretty well, everything hit the skids.
Two days of flu symptoms: fatigue, sore throat, cough and dizzy head, enough so that I, le Workaholique, called off work early both days, followed up by the most incredible fibro flare I’ve had in months. Tiny trains of pain running over my limbs, taking one out at a time so that by 10 am I was a sniveling wreck. And lest wandering right off the balcony was on my mind, the better to end my misery, my brain would quite literally tighten up and spin every time I stood for more than 90 seconds. Timed.
The most I could handle was a few episodes of West Wing, bless PiC for figuring out that’s what I’d want because heaven knows I was barely forming real words, and then trying to sleep it off.
I’d like to redeem a coupon for one lost Saturday, please.
Sunday was blessedly slightly better, standing upright was not proscribed so the massage previously scheduled for noon stayed on. This is the first time I’ve had one so close to a flare and it was a bit worrisome how it’d work out.
As usual, she hurt me. But it was for a good cause. My usual mental litany of “what the crap is going on with my muscles?” and “how do you get knots like that?” lasted for about half the massage, and half was just good and relaxing. Which meant I had time to start thinking about things like money.
I pay an astronomical $95/hour. I buy gift certificates at 10% off, but tip well so it may as well be $105. The base cost of the service is reimbursable from our FSA because this is for a documented health condition, so the money is pre-tax after reimbursement. Oh, how I love FSA! (And how I hate that it’s been capped.)
I was paying half that for a lot of places in the area but none of them were any good, I always came out of the appointments feeling vaguely dissatisfied and rumpled. Here, I have the services of one amazing masseuse who tailors every single treatment to my needs, pays attention to what I say, asks how the pressure is every single time, and exerts an amazing amount of pressure. She’s working hard for her money! And, I think I mentioned the luxury of the spa itself before. It’s non-essential, obviously, but the lotion, hot towels, lounge with snacks, water and tea, and a shower with fresh towels are all perfectly lovely. And cost money. As does the hire of the person to attend to the laundry, cleaning the shower after each person and stocking the snacks in the lounge. After a good maundering think, I supposed that it’s quite possible the masseuses are really taking home about $40-60/hour at most, because the business has more overhead than a more spartan establishment and has to make a profit as well.
The things that make me feel better, honestly.
As upset as I was on Saturday, the breaking of the good streak, the feeling that no good streak will ever last, the fear that I’ll have to keep living in fear or worry no matter how hard I work at eating healthy and keeping fit … I do really have to be grateful that I’ve only been feeling ill and in pain on and off for about four days so far this stretch and the fibro part relented after a couple days. It really could easily have gone for ten times that long. Knock wood that it doesn’t but I will be grateful for every improvement, no matter how temporary. Not cheerful, but grateful.
January 24, 2013
Fitness
Two thirds of the way into January, this “working out” thing is … working out?
I wanted to go to the gym (free, or already paid for in the HOA fees) about two times a week. That sounded nice and doable.
Thus far: I’ve clocked gym-time about two times a week and walked/jogged about 15-25 minutes once a day. Later in the month, once in a while, I fit in two walks. (Walks: courtesy of Doggle) On occasion, he’s feeling frisky and takes me for a bit of a gallop!
The first day out, in December, I jumped on the elliptical for 20 minutes and predictably crashed and burned. This is a common problem whenever I attempt a fitnessy thing: go fast, go hard, go plant yerself in the corner for the next week or three. Seriously – that stunk. I felt thoroughly mocked – neener neener wussypants! You can’t even do 20 minutes on the elliptical!
Sigh, whatever.
Cranked it back down to 10 minutes at the lowest level for the next few visits. That sounds pathetic when I say it out loud: I worked out for ten minutes! whoo! But yes, ten minutes. I was that easily tired out and trying not to break myself again. Then cautiously came up to a very easy 15 minutes. 15 was a frustrating plateau. After every workout, I was still flat tired. Heavy-limbed and struggling heavy breaths. Where was that second wind I always flew on after pushing through a wall? Right. I left that behind in my youth. *grumble*
In the last visit (Week 3, January) I forgot to stop early and went the whole 20 minutes without triggering a great deal of pain or exhaustion. Interesting ….
To start the 4th week, I tried 20 minutes at Level Two. Finally broke a sweat and HR140, pain holding steady at a mere 4 or 5 points on a 10 point scale. Ten minutes of stretches afterward. Balance stretches, strengthening stretches, yoga stretches. Stretches and reps of things I haven’t done in 10 years. I could feel my spine crunching a bit, not a fan! But my quads held up under the abuse.
Second visit of the week, arrogance got the better of me and I hit the StairMaster for a few 300 step reps. That was followed by a day of regret. Though I can’t be sure if it’s the exercise or the change in weather.
I found myself thinking of the Good Ole Days. When splits were easy, when I could out-limber nearly anyone – more stretches held for longer, all making my muscles lean and long and smooth. Looking around the gym stoked a strange feeling. Nostalgia mixed with questions. Will there be a day when I can do circuits again? Maybe. Sure as shootin, the idea that I might find myself in shape enough to do something neat like running in a race remains a hazy hope.
Today, I’m doing what I can and it’s twice as much as I could two months ago. Color me grateful.
Next month will be more of the same. Slow and steady, working up to slightly longer intervals that won’t put me flat on my back. Let’s see whether 30 minutes is on the horizon.
Health
I quit my medicine regimen 3-4 weeks ago. A long term, long acting pain management anti-depressant, heavy hitting narcotics, a cocktail of over the counter pain relief: all now only as needed. It might not be how I’m supposed to handle the anti-depressant but my doctor went out on leave without leaving contact or alternate information so I can’t really ask.
This seems to be the right approach right now. My head is slowly clearing up. Fewer days, whether I’m registering at a 4 or an 8 on the pain scale, are spent convinced that this life, any life, is not worth living. More days are filled with some kind of activity: physically, mentally, intellectually. My internal motivation combustion engine feels internalized again. Mostly. A bad day, an unmotivated day still crops up every so often, as it will.
So far as diet goes, it’s been generally healthy with the exception of a few pizza nights. Not surprisingly, we’ve got decent alternatives to the travesty of a Domino’s run: Zachary’s in Berkeley and Di Napoli in the Peninsula. Both were unanticipated treats from other people but served to redeem my faith in the existence of good pizza.
Fruit and veggies made a more prominent appearance this month after a couple stops at the produce shop down the road. It was an amazing haul for remarkably little money, each time. Produce shopping makes for happy though I’m not sure it’s going to be the key to staving off the flu or whatever is trying to break through.
No great predictions or plans here: For now, it’s one step at a time lest cripplingly bad pain days snowball into a whole other thing.
January 21, 2013
Funny About Money’s ruminations on the one-day, one-housekeeping task approach reinforces the idea that simple /= always easy. For a little over a year now, I’ve been doing a similar thing with our housework despite my preference to do big-clean-days which are both time and energy monsters.
More sensible, it seemed, to take it in turn: do the routine things that will drive me batty if not done regularly, and insert one other chore. It’s like a special housekeeping menu.
Routine: dishes every day, trash and recycling when it’s more than half full, picking up the kitchen after cooking.
Insert one: Brush the dog, human laundry (full wash, dry, fold and store), dog laundry, vacuuming. Full counter wipedown (instead of the clean as you go). Clear out the fridge or freezer. Clear the dining table of the inevitable pile of things. Pick up the bedroom and living room.
It doesn’t seem like much but there are plenty of days where I’ve worked 13 hours, cooked dinner and cleared up afterward only to curl up in the corner, refusing to do any more. And any time I tackle more than one optional chore, I find myself sucked into a snowball of more related chores. Well heck, that happens anyway.
- Clearing the table leads to needing to file and/or shred paperwork. Which leads to filling up the recycling that needs to be taken out. Which also means I’d need to pick up all other recycling because why not take out everything?
- On the other hand, properly starting a chore like laundry means all the clothing, or towels or toys shed randomly in various places gets picked up so it goes both ways.
- Vacuuming, oh vacuuming. As we get more things, we have more things the dog can shed on. So the decision: do a half-arsed job or go whole hog? Whole hog means pulling out everything he might have shed on, vacuuming and wiping them down, vacuuming behind, under, and over everything. Three guesses how often whole-hog turns into half-arsed? 🙂 There are times I’ve considered vacuuming him. Like when my pants are so furry from crawling about and hugging Doggle that I take a few passes at them.
The interesting thing is, while I’m in favor of exchanging money for time, and just as importantly, money for energy, within reason, it seems more obvious to the outside observer than to me that hiring a cleaner would be as a good an investment in protecting my health and sparing PiC’s energy as any other thing we’d try. Priorities, right? After all, do I need to be the one vacuuming or could a good cleaning service do it just as well?
Obviously, a good cleaner could do just as well.
My three objections:
A) It’s work but not that much work. Especially when I lower my cleaning standards. 😉 So is it really worth it? (maaaayybe)
B) I don’t want to hire a cleaner and then spend time cleaning before they get here. That’s annoying. I have better things to do with my paid for time. But I know PiC would be inclined to do this. This is a houseful of neurotics.
C) Cost: I’m not prepared to give up something to afford a cleaner just yet.
The assumption is that we have plenty of Disposable Income between the two of us. We do have enough to live comfortably now, with a few luxuries like eating well and traveling occasionally (on a budget of course), but that’s about it if we’re going to keep saving because I still pay a good chunk of Dad’s living expenses. I spend about $20K/year right off the top for his regular expenses, excluding medical or emergencies, and that’s less than ever before. He’s been working himself to the bone to make enough to pay for the utilities, gas, groceries, and any necessary incidentals. I can’t and don’t begrudge what I do still pay but that’s also money not available to pay for cleaning.
Still, I wonder whether it’d be worth stretching or wiggling the budget to make it happen.
Does anyone have help at home? What does it entail and how much does it cost?
January 19, 2013
I had a great conversation with twitter friend @neauxlah who shared her experience living through Katrina and subsequent hurricanes, and the insurance circumstances involved.
Disclaimer: Her experience discussed here are specific to Katrina so as she’s cautioned, many things may have changed since then. Having lived through a number of these incidents, Katrina was the worst. The most comprehensive information she’d found for FEMA wasn’t, unfortunately, available during Katrina. (I’ve updated the link from the “How you apply” page that won’t load to the Response Recovery page.)
First, meet @neauxlah: She’s lived in New Orleans for 14 years and been a resident of the Gulf Coast for most of her life. She’s worked in the insurance industry for six years and has another three years of experience in a law firm that handled all sorts of insurance claims. Both jobs taught her how insurance works, what coverages are necessary and more: she carries “ample coverage-renters, auto, medical, disability, etc and have never, ever had any problems with claims or payments.”
Her first few tweets caught my interest:
Flood Ins is a gov’t prog & is more every year to cover something that happens every 3-4 years.
(We) pay more towards our coverage so that we can use more of those Fed dollars.
As someone who received Fed aid during Katrina I had to pay that money BACK. With interest.
And of course, I wanted to know more, a lot more, about how it worked back then, more than could easily be tweeted. @neuxlah was kind enough to answer my questions:
If you have insurance you MUST recover from your insurance carrier FIRST before FEMA will even consider you…
Recovering from your insurance carrier in regards to flood/homeowners ins is an ongoing process. It takes a LONG time.
Q: Is hurricane damage is covered as part of regular insurance or does it have to be purchased as an additional rider?
A: Hurricane damage is a part of regular insurance but it has a separate deductible. It could be a flat of say $2-5,000 or it could be a percentage of the damage.
Also, most insurance companies won’t cover wind and hail damage in this area anymore and the majority of home and business owners now have to obtain that coverage through the insurer of last resort: Louisiana Citizens. Most states have an insurance organization like Citizens. They are always more expensive then a regular insurer.
Q. What’s the average or usual amount of time you should expect to put into the paperwork? And then how long does it take to get the money back from insurance?
A: The amount of time can vary depending on the insurer and the natural disaster. Most require that some form of payment be issued between 15-30 days from the date the claim (loss) was filed. However when it is a very large and catastrophic loss all of that goes out of the window. Ex: I didn’t receive any actual FEMA aid (a loan) until December and Katrina happened in August.
*Note* If you are unable to live in your home/apartment most policies cover housing. Those payments are issued fairly quickly- usually less then a week. But payments for actual losses can take much longer.
After you have exhausted all your ins THEN you can ask for assistance from FEMA in the form of a LOAN.
Q: Is there a period of time during which you must apply or do you have to prove you have exhausted the insurance somehow? Provide a letter from insurance?
A: Yes, there is a time period, usually a year or two from the date of loss, and yes, if you are a homeowner you do have to show proof that you have exhausted your insurance coverage first. That is relatively easy, though. If you manage your insurance online you should be able to print out proof of your policy limits as well as proof of payments towards your loss (or claim).
Q: What’s the usual interest rate from FEMA? How long is the loan typically good for? Do you get to apply for a variety of loan type? (ie: any kind of amount, length of time, etc?) Do you have a grace period to pay it back once your insurance comes in?
A: FEMA loans are made through the SBA and at the time I had my SBA loan my interest rate was around 3%. My loan was very small in comparison to most people and I had to re-pay it in six years vs their repayment agreements. I received my loan in November 2005 and my repayment didn’t begin until December 2006. This wasn’t a problem for me because once I received my insurance payment I just paid SBA back.
IF you don’t qualify for a loan then yes, you can apply for grant assistance. It is NOT easy, and it is NOT overnight..
FYI-most people qualify for the (low interest) loan. you have to be damn near in bankruptcy to get aid.
Q: So after exhausting your insurance and after applying for a loan you can get assistance. Is this again one of those “prove you have no means” situations? You have to pull all your bank accounts or something?
A: No. FEMA/SBA will ask about other assets during the loan process and before loaning money for your actual property they will ask for proof of the amount of the loss and proof that you have exhausted all other coverages. But I was not asked to use all of my savings towards my property damages prior to obtaining the loan. One thing I JUST realized: when I obtained my loan I wasn’t working ( I lost my job due to the Hurricane). I had NO income and they knew that! Hmm. I can only assume because of the nature of Katrina, a lot of rules weren’t being enforced.
If you don’t have insurance you pay the loan back over a certain # of years.
You can get a grant after trying everything else but that’s like six months later. Six months!
Q: Is the grant the same as aid?
A: I would consider the grant the same as aid. As with the grant they will ask for proof of your losses and once they have obtained sufficient information, the grant will be processed. I know people who rented and did not have flood insurance who received aid. Most of them did not receive any money until December/January.
Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions, @neauxlah!
~~ ~~ ~~
One of the reasons I’m so interested in disaster insurance and the practical applications thereof is, I’m just a nerd like that.
The other reason is: we live in Earthquake City, Earthquake State. This isn’t as scary as it could be, I’m not a newcomer to this sort of thing. We lived on a major faultline right through my early 20s and were close enough to feel our fair share of the Northridge quake back in the day. Shakes and quakes were pretty normal in SoCal. But just because nothing ever took us out before doesn’t mean we’re invulnerable.
And then I learned more about insurance. Once I went through all the kinds of damages that regular insurance will not cover if caused by an earthquake, I realized: well shoot. Once we own property, basically no costs would be covered in the all too likely event of an earthquake.
PiC asked me whether we should drop our earthquake rider recently, because it’s pretty expensive in comparison to our regular coverage for home or auto.
To my mind, it’s not prohibitively expensive (feels like it, but it’s not) in comparison to the risks we’re protecting against:
Walls in damages;
Structural damage;
Cost of living if the home is unlivable during repairs;
Cost of replacing essential belongings and furniture should it be damaged or destroyed- there’s also a difference in whether the company will give you the amount it costs to replace or just the “value” of the item. In the case of furniture, we have high-original-value, low-replacement cost items in the insurance’s view. We would need to opt for full-replacement-value in order to be able to afford them again. Especially since they were almost all good opportunity buys: from Craigslist or last season clearance sales.
If we have enough money to easily replace the majority of our belongings without breaking a sweat, or enough assets to cover the cost of repairs and living expenses, then I don’t see a problem with self insuring. But until then? I’d like to have that insurance for its original purpose: protection against risk of loss.
Does anyone else live in an area where natural disasters are common enough you’d need to be insured separately? Or even when you can’t get insurance for such a thing?
Would you make a different choice about insurance?
January 15, 2013
Our food spending this year was astronomical.
That is, in some ways, surprising.
I eat a lot less than before. No stress eating either. You’d think that’d reduce food costs somewhat but it really didn’t matter: PiC more than makes up for my here again, gone again appetite. While I skip meals when flying solo, being with him means at least one meal will happen a day. And if I’m Chef, even if I’m not hungry, I’m still compelled to make a real meal. Maybe to avoid the judgment when it’s looking like the five KitKats and a mini Snickers bar style dinner but also because cooking’s therapeutic. Besides, for someone that loves every single thing I try my hand at, even the things I think suck? Who would mind?
Anyway, the point is: this year’s food budget? Mostly for two people? Was, in a word: dammmnnn.
We spent nearly the exact same amount on Groceries as on Eating Out. Groceries included frozen meals, convenience foods, snack foods, fresh food, canned food.
With so many 12-14 hour days, there was just no time or energy to do fancy or creative meals on the weekdays. Instead, we’d make up big meals on weekends, freeze portions for later, experimented with new “quick” recipes. Not all of the experiments were successful, not in my opinion, but I evidently married a man who’d eat anything I make. Super helpful when you have a complex about food waste!
The ugliest pot pie ever. But it sure was tasty…
When I cook, I do a fair amount from scratch. Lots revolves around chicken, the affordable protein we love. I make stew, pot pies, roast our own chickens, and once every several months, put up chicken broth. We try different grains in bulk, and avoid red meat*. All of this nets pretty minor savings, but I enjoy the cooking and we both like simple healthy meals at home. Bonus: It keeps my roasting skills polished. No horrific dried out turkey for Thanksgiving for us, my favorite meal of the year. Can you imagine ruining 20 lbs of turkey?
*I love steak but have an irrational fear of ruining it so I refuse to cook it. PiC does not love it like I do.
Double roasting. The honey cooks faster and make it look like it’s burnt but it’s just extra delicious, extra crispy skin. I’m loving the new roasting pan.
We had convenience and frozen foods as patches for no-cooking days, and traveling weekends when no cooking would happen. Pretty sure we also paid for groceries for other people on occasion. That’d be included in here. Couponing is an as-and-when activity instead of a weekly past-time.
Eating Out included: fine dining, treating friends to meals or snacks or anything food, special occasion meals, casual dining, fast food, drinks.
For day to day life, where we used to have a cap on the number of times we’d eat out or order in, this year has been rough enough that I finally just stopped fussing about sticking to an artificial number. Yes, it’s more expensive, yes, it’s not always the healthy choice and no, I’m not going to sweat it. Bottom line, we needed to eat, our working weekdays were far too long some days to do anything but come home and forage, and we could afford it.
A deconstructed kebab from Tuba Restaurant. We get to try new fancy-ish stuff in the city when visitors come to town!
Food, all kinds of it, both “high-end” and the remarkably pedestrian stuff we enjoy, was a spending priority for us, a clear trade of money for time or mental health, clocking in at about $6500.
It’ll be interesting to see this coming year’s spending. I have more opportunity to make time to cook on weeknights now, and if we eat out, it’s on weekends instead. Will it balance out or stay the same?
January 10, 2013
Specifically, the Dominos in Millbrae.
Last Friday, I had an overwhelming craving for pizza. This happens. What hasn’t happened in a while is that I specifically wanted to give Domino’s up here in the Bay Area a try. I have a tried and true place in Southern California and that’s what gave me the idea: we have several Domino’s competitors much closer to us but I remembered my good old days of ordering a Domino’s pizza (or two … I was a hungry teenager) once or twice a month and it felt like a good time to go back to the classics.
Bad Call.
We went well out of our way during a night full of errands to pick up two pizzas (because two people, two pizzas, right?)
It took us a fair while to finish the errands, get home, unload the car, walk the dog, get the rest of dinner on the table. When we finally sat down to eat, it was pretty cold but best of all: PiC found hair in the pizza!
All together now: GROSS. I couldn’t believe I’d sent positive reviews via the online app before eating but I’d never ever had this happen over a lifetime of a whole LOT of pizzas so I didn’t think to wait until we were done. Almost bemusedly, mostly horrified, I watched him pick out the hairs, and I sent a new message about the hair, nearly automatically.
After a few minutes I realized, well, that’s not going to do anything. I called the store, explained what happened and asked for a refund.
The female taking the call interrupted me to talk to someone else, then came back: what?
I couldn’t tell if the “what?” was for the explanation, the refund, or just a general ambiguous blanket “I really wasn’t listening,” so I asked if she’d caught anything I’d just said at all. “Umm, no.”
There were four or five males in the shop and one female when I left it, none of them wearing hairnets mind you, she picks up the phone but can’t be bothered to listen to the caller?
I explain again: we picked up our order about an hour and a half ago, but we found hair in the pizza. I’d like a refund.
“Well, first of all, we don’t give refunds anyway, but you waited two hours to call.”
Oh, yes, I delayed my call because I wanted to spend some time with my hair laden pizza. And that totally invalidates the fact that there was hair in my pizza. That ticked me off. And she wasn’t really listening to me anymore so I doubt she noticed I got frosty when she asked if I wanted to talk to the manager. I just took the number and hung up. At that point, I was livid.
Because, hi, fine print of Dominos:
What’s that? You have a guarantee?
“If you are not completely satisfied with your Domino’s Pizza experience, we will make it right or refund your money.”
I’ll tell you what, what I like even better than unhygienic pizza? Being lied to.
It was late, I was fed up with that crap. I didn’t want to speak to another person over the phone so I (politely) wrote to Corporate. And I get a response saying (summary):
Oh we’re so sorry, we have to let the location know, so please wait three days for them to respond. If you don’t hear back, let us know.
I was angry but not totally unreasonable. I waited three days. Silence. I wrote back to Corporate informing them of the silence. The onus was now on them to “make it right.” By refunding my money at this point. A “we’ve passed this note on” confirmation came back.
Days later: still silence. I’m done waiting.
Domino’s: This location definitely no longer has my business or my support. But since the company has gone silent and hasn’t bothered to honor their guarantee I don’t see why they should have my business either. Considering my household spent over $3000 eating out alone last year, a cut of that might have been nice but in this booming economy, who needs another customer, right?
And I’d like my money back, thanks.
January 8, 2013
10. His fearsome visage still gives some strangers pause but his calm (stoic) personality has won over more than a few dog-phobics. One person who used to run away from him on sight thinks he’s actually pretty cool, now.
9. Since surgery, and Christmas, he’s been super bouncy. As in, his hind end swivels up and gets air time when he’s excited about something. When we’re going for a walk, and when his papa gets home.
8. Dad is still his NUMBER ONE but he’s been slightly more affectionate and attentive to me and I’m loving it. ie: He’ll come to “say hi” to me after one walk a day, and touch noses with me. But I only get 3 seconds to react and touch noses with him.
7. He’s got this hilarious fascination with babies in strollers. Covered strollers pique his curiosity more than a Thanksgiving turkey leg in reach. Literally.
6. He hasn’t any mental connection with his hind end. His tail smacks into walls, he’s perturbed. His tail knocks over things, he jumps like he’s been attacked. His rear *ahem* toots too loudly and he runs away in fear of his own bum! The last is most insulting when you’re sharing an office with him and he leaves you with the gift of Silent and Deadly gas bombs. “What was that? Ew. It’s smelly in here, bye!”
5. One time only: He’s signaled that he really wanted to go out, seriously guys, let’s go. Normally, he just waits til he’s told we’re going out, then he dances in place as we prep for the walk. One day, he went into doggy dance mode, stalked us, danced some more, stalked his dense humans from room to room until he couldn’t take it anymore, then reached out and whacked his da with his paw.
6. One time only: A few weeks after surgery, he was so excited about a walk that he reached down and grabbed his sling. He’s never done that before or since.
5. Social interaction: He has a small collection of toys that he will carefully select from, one at a time, to carry out for the afternoon and show off when it’s his self designated play time. We’re allowed to play catch for about five minutes at most, and then he takes the toy and settles down with it and a “please leave now” air.
4. Strange talents: He can hear me putting on pants from any room in the house.
3. Vocalizing: He used to match PiC snore for snore.
2. Innocence: He nearly bit me (accidentally) once when we were playing and immediately turned it into the biggest ohhh-what’s-over-theerrrree YAWN.
1. He lets me lay on top of him for a full squishy hug.
I wish I could share so many pictures of him but he’d out us in a flapjack second. I’d love to see and share photos of your little and large darlings, though!
So all of this is to say, Doggle is wonderful and in 2012, he cost about $8500. We love you, Doggle. We love you.
