Welcome to my new blog.

Hi, Peeps -

If you're here, it's probably coz I mailed you to let you know I moved, on accounta my old blog got compromised, and also because I was really sick and tired of Matthew never answering mail or doing anything to resolve problems, despite the fact I was shelling out over $50 a year for him to do so. Fuck that. So I'm here now.

As you may have noticed, I didn't pull that punch. I'm not likely to, either. Let's face it, I've gotten cranky. I'm gonna work on that, but some days just don't lend themselves to the happy. Sorry, but if that blog title didn't tip you off to my status as curmudgeon, I don't know what else will...

Let's see...since last I posted to Katiedoyle.diaryland.com, I have gotten another puppy, bringing the total of dogs to two, and lost a cat, bringing the total of cats to 0, and thus bringing the number of total pets down to 2. It sucks, and I'm still hoping Meows will come back, but it's harder every day to keep hoping that. She disappeared at 5pm Monday, which is the last time anyone on the block saw her. :( I really wish she'd come back.

The new puppy is about 3.5 months old and is named Napoleon. AKA Barky Bark, Monster, and The Dark Lord of the Sith. He's short, bossy, and thinks he rules the world. I'm working to disabuse him of that notion. Like Razzle, he's a shepherd-rottweiler mix, but his mom was the rottweiler half, and he's looking pretty rottie. He also weighs more than Razzle did at this age, even though he's not as tall and long, and he can already pull me down the hillside and is seriously determined to get his teeth on anything you leave lying on a countertop, despite being way too short to reach it (most of the time).

Razzle is still doing well and growing into quite the cool young dog. He's now 8 months old and a very cool cucumber much of the time, though he is really horrible at coming when called and needs to go to puppy classes so we can work that out. I call him Grasshopper, because he's a really zen puppy. We also still call him Monkey or Razzle Monkey, and sometimes Razzledazzle. :)

I've started a new website with Calli (Auntie Em), called - funnily enough - Katie & Calli. We'll be posting photographs and other things we make and probably selling them, though there's much to work out in that regard first. Logistically speaking. For now, we just have a community blog.

I went back to work in telly at the beginning of the year, but I finished the show in June, so I'm unemployed. I was supposed to return to the Big Chain Bookstore, but they have now adapted the Walmart business model of overworked, underpaid, underscheduled employees, and that fell thru. I'm still considered a seasonal employee, though, so I get to keep my employee discount (woohoo!), and surprise, surprise, they also paid me for this year's vacation days in August, so I also got a check I did not work for or expect for over $150. Nice. :)

I have started a book review website too, but I'm still trying to get all the components in place for that one. It will be a community site doing book reviews and recaps of classic novels. I'm hoping to sell ad space and maybe make a little money on it. Dragonfly Jewelry is languishing. I just haven't had the time to spend on it, between working the hours of television and then having to deal with a puppy who thinks everything on the planet was put here for him to eat and who isn't the least bit shy about expressing himself. Loudly.

Other things are going on too, but they're all stressful and crappy, and I don't want to go into them. For now, let me just say hi. I missed you guys. :)