As the husband said: You did better than Bean.

Well, I'm actually on a jury. It's supposed to last a couple days. I'm not entirely happy about it, but I'm not mad either. Work is pretty busy right now, so I'm having to do what I can to scramble on things (I hadn't entirely prepared for being out - I was hoping not to be or at least not for more than just today), and one of my co-workers is having to cover for me. On the other hand, I'm figuring on taking advantage of having a shorter "work day" by running errands.

We got let out shortly before 4pm today, so I drove to the nearest DMV. I've done my last two driver's license renewals by mail, so I had to actually go in this time. It wasn't too bad. When I checked in, they gave me a number (G314). They have TV screens around the office to tell you when your number is being called and what window to report to (it was almost like being in Las Vegas with the Keno games, having people stare at the screens with these letters and numbers going by). Some unintelligible recorded voice was also reading off the numbers and window assignments. I ended up waiting about 15 minutes before my number came out. I paid my fee, signed various documents, took the short vision test and then went to have my picture taken. Ugh, I hate DMV pictures. Might as well be mug shots. They made me take my glasses off because the guy said the flash bounces and everyone looks like Casper. I thought that was funny. But the flash was so frickin' bright - I swear when I was done and put my glasses back on and was leaving, I could see spots in front of my eyes. They had also had me sign electronically and do a thumb print. I don't remember doing a thumb print previously. Does that show up on your license now? Or do they just keep it as a database for government/police use, or what do they do with it? The license is supposed to be mailed to me in 2 or 3 weeks.

Orkid is due for a dental appointment, so rather than me having to take a day off to do that, I'm doing it over the next couple days. Her vet is closer to home, but I work on the other side of the city, so with my hours and the drive time and the hours of the vet's office, there's no way I can normally drop her off and then go to work and then be able to leave work in time to pick her up before the office closes. And they only do dental appointments from Tuesday through Friday. So I'm going to bring her in Friday morning and drop her off for her dental appointment and then pick her up after I'm done in the afternoon. She needs to go in the day before so they can draw blood and do bloodwork to make sure she's ok for the dental stuff, so I'm taking her in tomorrow afternoon after I'm done with court.


So, Orkid has learned to be terrified of her carrier, since most of the time we use it, it's to take her to the vet, which she hates. They're really nice to her, and they think she's really sweet, but she's petrified of being there, probably because they're strangers and they poke and prod at her. I've learned that I need to take the carrier out ahead of time, because there's no way I'm getting her into it otherwise. As soon as she sees it, she runs. I just took out the carrier in preparation for tomorrow. Orkid had been napping on the nearby sofa, but when she saw/heard me take the carrier out and unlatch it, she bolted upstairs, probably to hide. I don't think she's figured out yet that when I take it out, it doesn't mean she's going then and there, so running doesn't help. She's not going to be too happy with me tomorrow when I come home, scoop her up and put her in the carrier and then take her to the vet so they can get blood from her. She's going to be even unhappier on Friday morning when she gets put in the carrier to be taken to the vet's and left there all day.