Even though there's not much to report really.

Though I must say, August has turned into my least favorite month of the year out here. It rains A LOT, and you'd think that the rain would cool down the place but no, its still been floating over 90 degrees for what seems like forever. Thankfully it looks like it may start cooling down in the next few weeks. And with the wet comes the bugs. I've not been that bad with allergic reactions this year- only 3 major "I think my skin is about to rip open" reactions as I bought this bottle of essential oils and diluted it in witch hazel to douse myself in. The times I got bit were the times I'd taken the dog out after I'd showered and not reapplied the spray. Still stinky but better than being covered in DEET all summer.

Now I'll break stuff up into sections, so ya'll can pick and choose paragraphs to read

Home

The SO and I are doing very well- we hang out a lot and have been going out to do new things every weekend pretty much. We've climbed a mountain that I couldn't climb at the start of the year- even still, my legs were shaking hard by the time we got down and I was cursing up a storm because we'd parked in the car park furthest away from said mountain and all I wanted to do was die in peace. Dave even made it, but we had to alternate carrying him back down because hey, no-one got any glory from climbing DOWN a mountain right?

Last weekend we drove to Fort Collins, as my SO had only been to the brewery district and I'd never been at all. Its such a cute little town! All old west Victorian buildings- I hope the roads don't get too bad into the winter because I bet it will be adorable around Christmas time! It turned out that this big music festival was going on too. There was a payed stage where some bigger acts were playing but we wandered round and the smaller free stages were all pretty decent- some jazz, some indy-rock, we had a good time!

We also did a Come Dine with Me challenge; its one of our favorite shows so we decided one weekend I'd cook a 3 course meal and he'd cook the next- it turned out really well! The main rules were, you can't cook something you've made before, which was my penalty, and you can't use anything like box cake or mixes, which was my SO's haha He took that rule verrrry seriously! We do need a pasta roller now though, his ravioli was really thick but he's now obsessed with making our own pasta lol One of the only things I'm not bothered about making from scratch

I've taken a break from home-improvement stuffs too. I figured we've only got a finite number of weekends where the weather is going to be nice enough to get out and do stuff, so I'll save my next planned projects for when we're not able to go hiking and whatnot. I did get rid of the black wall in the dining room though. I found a color scheme I like to flow from the dining area to the kitchen:



The accent wall is now the green color and we'll get to doing the kitchen come fall/winter time. I like it. It was a bit of a shock going from black to such a pale color but now I've given it a few weeks, the color stands out a lot more. And yay for some color! I'm so sick of "apartment beige"! I know my house doesn't have the layout to paint everywhere, but the pops of color in certain areas make me feel a lot more like its our actual home, and not still renting.

Pooch

Dave was doing well till the weekend, when I noticed the tell-tale signs of another butt infection. Thankfully, I already had an appointment with the vet for a wellness checkup and his Distemper booster first thing Tuesday morning, so the lump got popped there, rather than all other my living room floor like last time. He was miserable and in a lot of pain beforehand though. I felt so bad for him. He's a lot happier now, though I could have murdered him on Wednesday- I've put towels on the sofas to keep his wound from leaking all over the furniture, so naturally the contrary little jerk hasn't gone near the sofas since. Then we went to the gym, he broke into the guest room and got blood and goo all over the nice WHITE duvet cover Thank goodness duvet covers are so much easier to clean than a whole comforter! So now we're just force-feeding him antibiotics for the next week and he's getting pumpkin with every meal to sort his digestive system out. Pumpkin is cheaper than a trip to the vets every few months for sure!

School

So fucking pissed off with school. They are a bunch of money-grabbing crooks. According to their residency rules, I have to have been living Colorado for a year to qualify as an in-state student. We moved September 16th last year. Semester starts September 2nd. That's 2 weeks into the semester, I qualify, but I'm being forced to pay out-of-state tuition for the ENTIRE SEMESTER. For 2 weeks. They won't pro-rate it, or let me pay one installment out-of-state and the rest in-state. Its ridiculous. And to top things off, I have to take this $$$$ dumbass class which I've had to pay another $100 for an access code, teaching me how to use Microsoft Word and Excel. Are you kidding? raaaar! My other two classes should be fun, I just need to figure out how I order the lab kits for those.

My SO

He is in a right state with work. I've never seen him like this. He just doesn't want to be there. He takes long lunches, comes home early. And normally I'd be happy he wants to be home but this is at the expense of his happiness at work, and his career means a lot to him. He likes to work hard and be challenged, and he's not getting anything from these people.

Its this one guy, E, in particular who seems to just be holding him back. We've been out here a year and still they have not landed any local work. My SO has told E over and over again, if you have an engineering sales call, take me and I can tell them exactly what I can do for them instead of you going in clueless. E agrees and says next time. My SO will go to work and find E has gone out on a sales call without him. Its infuriating! On top of this we moved on the info that B, the head of engineering wants to retire in a few years and the people in the Ohio office moved us so my SO could take up that role. But E has basically said my SO needs more experience as a project manager and that when the time comes, they will hire someone else to take the Head position, and my SO will get there in 10-15 years. This was a major blow to my SO. Its like WTF?? What are we out here for then? All the work he's doing now, he could be doing in Ohio- why did they bother moving us for this?

And the big thing is, my SO has been doing project manager stuff for years. E is judging him and doesn't even bother to see what my SO is doing already. My SO is one of maybe 2-3 people in this office that has ambition and wants to work, and E is just letting him stagnate. I feel so bad for him right now. I've advised him that he's just going to have to play a waiting game right now, as he needs to get his PE first. Once he has that, he can put some more cards down on the table and demand some changes take place. Otherwise, he's going to look into other companies to work for around here. Companies with local projects and room to grow. But for the time being, he's going to have to grit his teeth and trudge on, poor guy.

And that is me I think. I met up with Ioanna and her SO for an hour or so for their transfer at Denver airport after they got married Braved the parking garage and everything lol They are the sweetest people I've ever met, and I'm jealous Rach got to keep them for so long! So happy for your happiness Ioanna, and I hope you didn't have to work too hard once you got back!