A little rant and cough never killed anybody.

Ok, I must vent, just a little. Today begins my second week of classes. Last week, not so bad. This week...I pick up the following responsibilities: 1)Practicum (planning a symposium for nonprofits that should be awesome. Note that practicum is a requirement of my program - we must do three. Otherwise, yes, I might do something like this, but I would probably be more likely to do something that paid...) 2) New Venture Business Planning (I'm PSYCHED for this class, which I intend to utilize to develop a business plan for The Heart Project - hopefully to incorporate at the end of the calendar year....we'll see. However, I also know it's going to be an intense 7 week class. And at the end of it..I don't get a fall break. Lame.) 3) Voice lessons (THIS should be fun -- I need a creative outlet!!! Note, though, that this is to satisfy an elective requirement for my program. Are you noticing a pattern? That perhaps my program actually REQUIRES us to all be overachieving overcommitters who will work themselves to the bone and work for free?)

I also seem to have picked up a cold. This is what is making me irritable at the moment. I woke up this morning with that tell-tale throat tickle. I drank water. I sucked down vitamin C and zinc drops. This thing isn't budging. It's the worst to know you're about to get sick and feel completely powerless against it. Doom. It's impending doom. And I'm so EXCITED for my voice lessons! Must be mostly better by Saturday....MUST BE!

In other news, Boomer's bladder is easily twice as big as Pepper's. How can I be so sure? He exploded with urine this afternoon as I released him from his crate. It was kind of amazing. I was gone for perhaps 1.25 hours. He had a lot to drink beforehand, and I'd taken him out and he'd peed a little. So, I come home, I open the door to his crate, and the next thing I know I'm wet. And so is the floor over the span of about 4 feet. So, of course, I took him out to see if he needed to go anymore. Of course not! I came in and checked the crate -- apparently he had been leaking for a good while, as there was a SUBSTANTIAL amount of pee in the crate as well. I felt bad for him. He probably was sitting in there thinking he had to pee REALLY bad, and he had NO IDEA how long it would be until someone came home to let him out. From the look of things, I was just barely too late. Now he needs another bath. At least he doesn't hate them NEARLY as much as the Pep. He pretty much stands there and just lets us poor water over him. Actually, his first stop on his tour of the house when we first let him off his leash was the bathtub. He hopped right in and peed. Really, it was the best place in the house for him to go - drain, easily washed, etc.

In case you couldn't tell, Boomer's having some housebreaking issues. We were told he goes to the door, and we've seen this a couple times, but between him being somewhat out of sorts and unclear about our routine, and him sitting very quietly and nicely by the door while we get work done.....well, his bladder is big and makes for big messes. So, tomorrow we'll probably get to work training him to hit a bell on the door when he needs to go out -- so we'll HEAR him when he's trying to tell us he's going to cost us our deposit....Hopefully Pepper (whose bladder is pretty small, and who's acted COMPLETELY housebroken since the arrival of Boomer), will learn from The Boom. At least this means we'll be able to tell who went potty in the house!

Ok, that's my rant. Off I go to bed. MUST GET RID OF COLD!