ThePurrfectNanny's Blog

Yesterday finally the big day was there. I saw “The Secret”. I was mesmerized and would not want to stop listening and learning more and more. I heard about the law of attraction many years ago but back then, still young and way too many other “important” issues on my mind, I never made it following trough. But there were always certain believes I had in my life and when I’m really honest, they all came true. Had I only started earlier to focus more on the law of attraction instead of dwelling in my own sorrows sometimes, the things which did not go so well might be better now. However I strongly believe that faith is the most important strength a human has. We are helpless and lost without faith. I always was strongly drawn to Buddhism and despite having been raised as a catholic girl, I loved the good of both religions, the believe that we are all the same, regardless of rich or poor, that we have to follow certain laws and never to intervene with nature. Mother nature was always one of the most fascinating forces I could think off. So, I for my part will continue believing that all I dream off is already there and that makes me for sure a much happier human being.

For me the Dalai Lama is one of the most inspiring people on earth, he is my personal hero and I can not wait to meet him next Sunday at the event hosted by Drepung Loseling Monastery, the only branch of the original monastery, founded sixteen years ago in Atlanta. Westerners might consider it as the Dalai Lama's "home church" according to Atlanta Magazine.

On the other hand, Georgia is striving to be China's largest economical trade partner. Trade between GA and China grew by 29 percent (compared to 20% nation wide) in 2006 and Georgia want China to think about us first when it comes to foreign business relations.

Well, I have to agree what Rachel Pomerance for Atlanta Magazine has to say: "I'm not sure about working with a nation that shipped us tained pet food,  not to mention tained human food, vitamins, cosmetics and toys. What about China's pollution and human rights problems?". In fact, I would prefer to see "Made In America" on products we buy instead of "Made in China".

Now, I believe Atlanta is somewhat in the dog house. The President of the United States is already verbally attacked by China of hosting the Dalai Lama and China seems to be very upset about it. Let's see what happens when his holiness comes to Atlanta this upcoming weekend.

Beate

I love living in Dacula but it starts frustrating me. Is it me and do I expect to much? I think I just expect people doing their job, don't I?

Let me tell you what happened. Last Thursday Yasmine, my daughter and I went to orientation day at Dacula Middle School. It was the hottest day in Atlanta that day and we had to squeeze ourselves into a group of about 100 people to get to a board with about 50 letter size lists of bus schedules which we barley were able to read.

After going trough all that and almost fainting, being crowded on such a hot day, we finally figured our home was not listed. We then went up to see the teacher,  who hat no clue how else we could find out about our bus pick up time,  but telling us that we had to go back down to the board and just find out.

Luckily we run into a very nice lady who know more about the school system - she happened to be the principal. She told us that there was a table with people helping with bus schedules. Why the teacher did not know that is a riddle to me but irrelevant.

 When we came to the table we were told that our home is not listed on all those schedules on the wall because we live on a main road!

 That opened my eyes why we were not able to find it in the first place. I finally felt taken care off and we were promised to get a call about the time the bus would pick up my daughter. I felt  great to know that and we went home.

We are still waiting on that call today on the first day of school at 7:45 AM.  Of course we have been proactive and called the cluster transportation office - but what good does that do, only an answering machine is picking up. The same at Dacula Middle school where I left a message as well, asking how they can help me.

There are three gas stations close by where I live, actually two are on my road, Harbins Road in Dacula. One is right around the corner off 316, I believe it is a Texaco and the other one is just a few steps from my house, a old rotten gas station - run by a guy named Doug. The third one is a great gas station in Bald Springs which also has delicious lunch for take out run by a very friendly guy where I like to fill up my car and get lunch when I come home from the barn after riding my horses. However lots of times I also stop at the old gas station when I am out of gas. I don't really like the idea to go in and pay instead of conveniently pay at the pump, but what can you do.

Lately I run into some problems with all three of the gas stations but here is how the owners/managers handled it.

1. Situation number one. I wanted to put gas in the car in Bald Springs and after I run my credit card trough it came back with the message "please see the cashier". I went inside the gas station and was friendly told there was a problem with the satellite transmission and I had to pay inside and the guy apologized for the inconvenience I had to go trough. Of course that was not a problem for me at all and I did what I was told and moved on.

2. Situation number two. Just a few days later the same situation occurred at the gas station Harbins Road/316. I also went inside and asked the Arabian guy behind the counter friendly if there was something wrong with the system. I was rudely screamed on I had to learn how to use the credit card, I would not know what I was doing. I said: "Excuse me?" I did excately what I do for almost 30 years and it worked always for me, except there was something wrong with the system. He got even more mad with me. What got me most was that I had to defend myself, although there were about 4 or 5 American men standing behind me not saying a word to help out. So much for southern Gentlemen. Where are they? Seems there are a lot of cowards out there but nobody has the guts to help a lady out when it comes to rude treatment.

3. Situation number three. Yesterday I had to fill up my car. Since I will never ever use the gas station at Harbins/316 I went to the old one on my street, thinking my neighbor should know me meanwhile and even he is more expensive and I have to go inside I would at least be treated right. I could not have been more wrong. I went inside, asked to pay $20 for gas and even talked about the weather while waiting for the payment to go trough. I was in a kind of a hurry since I had to go to orientation day with my daughter to school and was already running late. So I rushed out, started pumping and looked up in the blue sky and started day dreaming. After a while I turned around and to my surprise I realized that gas was still running despite I only bought $20 of gas and it showed an amount of $29 meanwhile. I was shocked, not only did I not want to spend so much, I was in a hurry and had no time and means to go back in and pay for another $9 of gas I did not buy in the first place. Luckily the door just opened and another customer walked out. I asked her if she just could tell the guy to come out because I had to tell him something was wrong with his pump. He walked out and I said, hey it did not finish after it gave me my gas. I am willing to pay you but can I just pay it when I come by next time. I was stunned not giving me a civilized answer as I expected as a yes or no, he screamed and I mean it - he went ballistic. He accused me I wanted to steal his gas and drive off and on and on he went. I said, hey wait a moment, let me get my wallet out of the car, I'll pay you - you don't have to worry about me - I am not a thief. When I went in he kept screaming at me. Of course I went mad than too and screamed back, telling him that I don't appreciate his ton at all. All I did was asking him friendly if I could take care of it next time, because I was a) in a hurry, b) I'm his neighbor and I thought as a favor he would have done  and c) I don't think it was my fault that he had running more gas in my car than I originally bought. He screamed again that I wanted to drive off, I could not convince him otherwise. What a jerk. I asked him again, what is his point, I asked him a question and when he denied it I went and got my wallet. So how can he say I wanted to drive off and steal. I look at it that he frauded me out of my money.

Needless to say, I am just done with the lobby of the gas station managers/owners.

 There is no customer service, nobody is helping you out or is friendly, they are all so frustrated and letting our their bad mood on their clients.

If I would treat my clients like that I would be ashamed. But well, they live off alot of people who just drive by and don't need someone to come back.....

When I heard about nine-year-old Annaijh Rolaxshot to death in her home in Atlanta a nagging question came up for me once again. Should guns be outlawed for the public? I'm not sure and it seems I can not make up my mind about that issue. If it was not be so easy for everyone to have a weapon maybe some crimes would not happen, but than again - how easy would it be for just the bad guys still to buy a gun illegally? Would that make everyone a victim beside the bad boys and shouldn't we at least be able to defend our selves, our homes, our children from some freaks? One thing for sure gun ownership in the wrong hands turns out far to many times as a fatal mistake.

What are you guys doing in this burning heat? I have no idea anymore where to hang out without getting almost a heatstroke. Drinking gallons of water does not really help and I feel I am melting away. Any ideas for some nice places to visit preferable in the shade or air-conditioned. Last thing we did was a extended visit to the Fernbank Museum, that was really cool and cooled us down and we had a lot of fun, but I'm running out of ideas. Who has more ideas?

Involvement or not and innocent until proven guilty  should not only be Vick's right but good for every one accused of wrong doing. What I don't like is the high mighty arrogance Vick handles this case. Has it not happened in his former home? Was it not his breading stock used for the dog fighting? Would he show at least some remorse that he is horrible sorry that this happend on his property  with his own family and his dogs it would shed a much better light on him. His statements, he gets support all over the world, everywhere he goes made me laugh so hard that I almost dropped of my chair. As if someone over in Europe or another continent even would know who Vick is at all. He does not have the status of a Denzel Washington or a Bratt Pitt. Much to learn Mr. Vick.....

According to My Fox Atlanta, Rodent poison has been found in pet food blamed for the deaths of at least 16 cats and dogs, a spokeswoman for the State Department of Agriculture and Markets announced today. Read the full article there. By now, you are probably fully familiar with the avove mentioned extensive national recall of many brands of pet foods. Sadly, several dogs and cats have been sickened, and a few have died as a result of eating contaminated food. This is a tragic event, and our hearts go out to the families who are dealing with the heartache of the situation. We want to reassure you that none of HealthyPetNet’s products, we carry are affected by this recall. At present, authorities believe the illnesses to be caused by contaminated wheat gluten. None of HealthyPetNet’s products include wheat gluten or wheat products of any kind. It is time for people to rethink their pet food choices and become aware that one big company  produces almost all the commercial pet products and just put it in a different bag or pouch. Please don't let that happen to your beloved companions and keep your eyes and heart open for better products. Your furry friends will thank you for that and in my experience your cost of vet care will drop too.

Last year we wanted to escape the hectic city life and moved into the country. Bingo, biggest mistake in my life. I don't want to get into all my reasons why I am glad to move back to Gwinnett but one of the reasons is surely that I am horrified about some issues in the country. Not that I don't treasure a nice country side but I am disgusted about all the trash along the roads. Why can't people just pay someone to pick their trash up instead of spreading it out on the side of the road? You should think people know better. Luckily the cities have systems in place to take care off some people's bad habits,  but the country communities don't have those resources. But we should not depend on the city/community we are living in on solving our trash issue.  This is our planet and if you want your kids and grand kids to enjoy it, you need to show them how to take care of our planet. My request to all of us is keep the city clean and the country as well!  

ATLANTA (FOX5) -- Some pet owners claim they've discovered a new diet that's helping their dogs live longer, healthier lives. Many veterinarians say it's a bad idea and suggest you think very hard before you switch your dog to a raw diet. Click video for more information. Amanda Davis reports.  
I thought for the longest time that Raw Food Diet might not be the smartest choice when I was approached to carry and recommend it to my clients. I found Life's Abundance the number one holistic pet food, recommended by holistic vets and all or my critters are very happy with it. You can learn more about it at www.PurrfectPetHealth.com. Boy I am glad that I trusted my feelings about Raw Food. Share your opinon with me what you feed and why.

Am I the only one feeling that the dynamic of CL’s pet section has changed so much to the worse in the last 6-12 month? I have posted a block about that on www.purrfectpethealth.com/blog already days ago. Read about it please. This morning I went to check out CL again and there were two posts I wanted to look at but they were gone again, flagged down by CL's secret police. How to you feel about CL? If you know of a similar website without flagging system, please let me know since I am so tired of people trying to controll our mind and controlling what I can see and what is inappropriate in their narrow minded opinion.