Ugh

The evening had been going so nicely; I met up with my friend, Gretchen, in Alexandria and had dinner with her at Faccia Luna where we caught up on a bunch of stuff. After we finished eating, we headed down to Mount Vernon for a reception in honor of the new exhibit celebrating the 150th anniversary of the public opening of George Washington's estate. We mingled a bit and then took in the sights; the exhibit was very nicely done and the bonus for me was seeing a porcelain object that the gallery had sold to Mount Vernon as well as some silver that we had appraised prior to the pieces being donated to the organization; a little blast from the past! Once we had our historical fill, Gretchen and I headed off to our respective homes. The drive was relatively traffic-free and pleasant, and I was looking forward to taking care of a few chores, like putting away a load of laundry and unloading the dishwasher, and then calling it a night.

I got home and prepared a snack and a shot of insulin for Tricia; she hasn't been feeling well the past few days, but this morning she seemed back to her old self, so I wasn't really expecting the mess that I encountered in the master bathroom. Vomit was everywhere; on both bath mats, the floor, her water fountain, and the coup de grace, on the floor of the closet. I sighed and went downstairs to get the mop and some paper towels. As I came back up the stairs, I noticed Sandy acting weirdly in the guest bathroom--she then ran out into the hall and promptly started doing the poop scootin' boogie. For those of you without pets, this translates to the animal in question putting itself in a semi-seated position and then dragging itself across the floor in order to dislodge poop stuck to its butt and/or fur. I yelled, "SANDY, NO!" and grabbed her but not before she had managed to make a nice poop streak across the carpet. I flipped her over and inspected her bottom, which to my chagrin was caked in poo. I put her down to grab some toilet paper and she made a run for the first floor; I chased after her and caught her in the powder room; I managed to get some of it out of her fur with toilet paper and then I shut her in the bathroom and told her she couldn't come out until her butt was clean. I was ok with cleaning up vomit, but I was not about to add scrubbing poop-smeared carpeting to my list.

I cleaned up the mess in the master bathroom and threw the soiled bath mats into the washer. By this point, my back was killing me. Scrubbing the floor is not a pleasant task when you're 36 weeks pregnant. I then got the Spot Bot out and had it work on the vomit in the closet while I folded and put away the load of laundry already in the drier. Once that was done, I put the Spot Bot to work on the poop-streak in the hallway and unloaded the dishwasher. I figure I went up and down the stairs at least 15 times in the first half an hour of being home. I am sooooo ready for bed. And a massage. And maybe some new cats.