Tom went to work last night around midnight to interview 4 potential people to replace someone who quit. If all goes well, he got the pension form last night and we’ll be going to Casa Grande to get it notarized so we can get the ball going on getting the money. As his wife, my signature will be needed.

I usually prefer hot baths over showers in the winter, so I’m waiting for the giant tub to fill right now.

Today, we’re also going to get on PG’s ass. If they don’t send the doll or refund our money, I’m going to report them to the San Diego BBB. I don’t see how that could get me thrown in jail. However, I’m not going to let them know what color I am when filling out their forms. Some forms ask you your age, gender and race. I’m not going to fill out the race part because A, it shouldn’t matter, and B, you never know if it could be used against you. I’ve never known Chinese people, which seems to be mostly what PG employs, to cry racism the way other groups do, but it’s not worth taking chances over. We’re living in an ultra-sensitive world these days and a $20 doll simply isn’t worth risking any trouble coming to us because someone may get the wrong idea or use crutches for spite. As it is, I’m relatively sure that spite was the reason they lied about ever shipping the doll in the first place. I complained, so they ripped us off. Since they obviously refuse to send the doll, now we’ll either coax our money back from them or BBB their asses. If not so much for me then perhaps it’ll help others if they see that they can’t rip people off simply cuz they complain about their service.

Later…

God knows what they keep working on back there at the renter’s, but they’re working on something right now.

Anyway, we got in not too long ago with Little Fella, our new brown rat! I thought “Little Fella” would go well with “Little Buddy.” He’s about 3 or 4 months old, darker than Houdini, but lighter than Scuttles. I’ll get some pictures taken soon enough.

We went to Pick-a-Pet in Casa Grande. They had an excellent selection of rodents and fish, but we didn’t see any fish that interested us. We did get another colored bulb for their tank, though. We had red and pink, and I wanted more contrasting colors, so we got a green bulb to replace the red one.

Anyway, they had some rats with some pretty cool markings, but they were ladies and definitely pregnant since both sexes were mixed in. Spastic or not, we don’t need a dozen or more rats. Four’s enough, and as it is, two of them I dislike and don’t want. Besides, I like traditional brown rats. Far-out-looking rats are nice, but I like having rats that look like regular rats, too.

They had some hairless rats that were hideous.

After choosing a brown male, we both handled him to get a sense of whether or not he might be vicious or too skittish like Lady and her mistakes, but he seems pretty mellow. Kind of average, actually. He did screech at me when I first opened the box he was transported in, but he quickly calmed down enough to let himself be handled. He’s somewhat shy still, but that’s to be expected when you just left the only place you’ve ever known just to be brought to a strange place.

He’s been exploring his new house and Little Buddy’s been acting like nothing new is going on. The bitches will have to stay tanked for quite a while, as I don’t need them getting knocked up. That’s the last thing I need, though, they are getting close to when they’ll be unable to conceive. They start losing their fertility at 8 months, but with my shit luck, these things will be as fertile as a Mexican till the day they die.

I thought about it and realized that Tom’s right when he says some people can be more fertile than others. If a person loses an ovary to cancer, then they’re not as fertile. Mexicans, on the other hand, breed like rabbits. I wonder if they drop more than one egg a month.

We went out just to go out. The form hasn’t arrived yet, so we’re planning on going out for that Friday. We can’t tomorrow, cuz he has special meetings to attend during the daytime tomorrow. (which means no cheeks for sure)

After the pet store, since it’s not really hot, we left Little Fella in the car to do grocery shopping. I got a shiny-covered notebook with different colored pages for the Laughlin trip and some scented cartridges. Every now and then I get them, but to save money, I don’t get them regularly. Besides, they’re not as special if you get them regularly because you get too used to them. I got Country Garden, vanilla and Tropical Mist. I like strawberry too, but for some reason, they never seem to have that one.

I also got one of those $15 12” sitting musical dolls. Not because the doll was nice. The blue-eyed, auburn-haired Cindy’s boring, but her dress is awesome. It’s cream-colored with flecks of gold. If I ever have a doll that I really like who’ll fit into it, I’ll cut it off of this doll the way I did with some of the other musicals I had.

I’m indulging in mint candies covered with milk chocolate now since I’m going to be one hungry girl in just over a month! I’m going to stop dieting on March 1st, no matter what my weight is at that time, which should be between 105-110. I have too much muscle to get as low as 100.

Next Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, Tom’s meeting with Mom, Mary and Dave for lunch at Harrah’s casino and asked if I wanted to go. I do, but as always, the freeloaders must take precedence over everything. In order to go and still be able to serve them, I’d have to hold my schedule for two weeks and that’d be a little tough on me. Besides, as fun as it sounds, why go just to lose money and gag on cigarette smoke? We’re going to be doing that soon enough in Laughlin. He says, though, that they’re just going to have lunch, but I know them. There’s no way they wouldn’t gamble at least a little bit. Especially Mary and Dave.

PG’s latest excuse is pitiful. Getting more ridiculous by the minute. Now they’re saying they shipped the damn doll to the town of Mirana, which is also in Arizona. Oh, and now the doll’s back-ordered, too. This is such fucking bullshit (I suppose this is partly my punishment for getting the extra discounts/savings I wasn’t supposed to have)! I know they never shipped us the doll, I know they never will, so why don’t we just get our money back? For nearly two months now we’ve been fighting to get this doll! This is ridiculous! Mr. Optimist here, who never sees when people are full of shit, says they obviously shipped the doll to our PO Box number in Mirana and whoever got the doll kept it. No way. They know we live in Maricopa. They have this information on the computer. I know they’re just playing with us. First they claimed they shipped the doll on the 18th to Tempe. Then Tom specifically asked them if it was sent to Maricopa when he called the second time about it, and he said they said it was, but that it wasn’t shipped yet. Now, we’re back to it being shipped on the 18th to a whole ‘nother town, and now it’s back-ordered too, to an unknown date. How convenient. I mean, this is the first time they didn’t know when a doll was back-ordered. But that’s because the doll’s not back-ordered and it’s not coming to us. (this was a special get-rid-of-the-leftovers deal) Not to Tempe, not to Maricopa and not to Mirana. I’m just glad that if they had to rip us off this time around they only took us for $20 and not more. I’m definitely going to report them to the BBB after Tom plays email with them some more, then we’ll be done with them for good. I always like Ashton dolls better, and I’d rather get nicer dolls, even if it means not being able to afford to get them as often. At least they’re trustworthy.

The weather’s absolutely gorgeous now in the mid to upper 70s. I have some windows open. I try to take advantage of any time I can get fresh air in here, since it’s usually too hot or too cold, if it doesn’t smell like horse shit.

I wish it’d rain to put some moisture into this unbelievably dry air, but it seems each year gets drier and drier. During Tom’s December vacation, we’ll put the weather stripping on the front door so that when it does rain, it shouldn’t leak. He’ll also get under the house, tighten up the jacks, find and seal up the vent hole, and hope he doesn’t get stung by scorpions in the process.