And I say, "be careful what you wish for."

Yesterday, I spent much of the day mentally grumping about having to go to work last evening... how I was too tired... tired of working in the salon... tired of giving up my time... etc. I wasn't able to make it to work last night, and it turns out that the alternate made me wish I had been spending my hours anywhere but at home.

I arrived home yesterday afternoon, per the usual, with twenty minutes to change, eat, and let the boys out before I left for part II of my day. Unfortunately, I arrived home, opened the door, and was met with the disgusting smell of poo-poo. Samson is too young and immature to wander freely in the house, so he spends his day in the crate. Beau, however, meanders freely at will. Not just one boy was sick, both boys had accidents - one all over the house and one all over the crate, which meant all over himself. I called in to work to let them know that there was no way I was going to make it, then set about cleaning up after the boys. Such a nasty mess. Samson's crate was taken outside to be scrubbed and hosed off, the floors were scrubbed clean, then mopped (I have hardwood floors and area rugs), and rugs were cleaned as best I could before making a run to the store for actual carpet cleaner (I recently acquired the area rugs). What a chore! Poor Samson was filthy, so, despite only having access to cold water, he got a bath in the front yard. He did not say, "Thank You." By the end of his bath, he was pretty calm, but he wasn't too thrilled up until then. Luckily, it was 85 degrees yesterday, so it was still warm enough for him to dry off. I didn't get done cleaning until 7:30 (I started around 5:00). So, we ran to Home Depot, and I bought a new vacuum cleaner, carpet cleaner, and we got parts for our evaporative cooler, which we're hoping to get installed this Thursday since it's quickly becoming summer here. Samson chewed the cord off the cooler earlier this year, so the first project is to change out the power cord on Thursday - that should be fun! We came home and finished cleaning the carpets, and I got to use my new vacuum sweeper! It was so beautiful... the area rugs were all fluffed... it made me happy. Vacuuming has always been my favorite chore... I'd sometimes spend extra time vacumming to attempt to get all the lines consistent... then, people would have the nerve to walk across my freshly vacuumed carpets, which would be so disappointing. Wow, I'm rambling here. Anyway, I have a new vacuum for my new area rugs (I just had a stick vacuum before for the hardwood floors), and I'm quite pleased.

Anyway, so we went to bed about 10:30, and about 2:30 AM, I woke up to Bryan going, "Oh no, Beau..." Still groggy from sleep, I asked, "what'd Beau do?" He replied with, "you don't smell that?" Suddenly becoming alert, I sniffed and knew right away that I had another cleaning project in front of me. The real challenge began with attempting to get the lights on to see where the accident had occurred, prior to stepping in said "accident." It turned out to be Samson who had gotten sick in his cage, so he and Beau spent the rest of the night outside with quick access to the bathroom. Poor boys. I feel so sorry for them! I cleaned up Samson's mess, then headed back to bed to get a few hours of sleep before morning. I didn't want to come home to another mess, so despite the fact that I hate leaving the boys outside in the yard when we're not there as I worry that Samson may one day realize that he could jump over the fence if he were so inclined, the boys remained outside today. The gates are padlocked so they can't open the gates and let themselves out, but I still worry that they might be provoked during the day. I'm sure they are fine; I don't think Beau would go far anyway, but Samson might be easily distracted by say... a fly.

So, that is my gross, disgusting, smelly tale from yesterday. I think that I would have rather got paid to wash a dog, then torturing one for free with cold water in my own front yard. Samson's hair got pretty curly though with the bath :).