Um, hello October

Went to S-town today to look for new thermal drapes for the living room and dining room. I usually have good luck in the mall at Penney’s but not this time. Colors wrong — good grief what WILL go with our yellow walls?! — and by the looks of it, I’d have to order them anyway. No 63″ lengths to be found.

Phooey.

Then DH pipes up.

“When the family room is done, we will be in there all the time. It will be warmer.”

Oh.

Then I started looking for an “in between” coat — somewheres between a hoodie and a winter coat. Penney’s didn’t have anything, so we walked down to Bergners. They didn’t have anything either and the prices were way out of my budget even if they did. I’m so used to finding what I want (except coats) at Goodwill that it would have to be a really good deal for me to get a brand-spanking new coat.

On our way back I showed DH the “Fur Babies” store where  they think it is cute to put puppies in baby beds. I griped about this in a previous post somewhere…

So we left the mall empty-handed.

DH needed socks and I wondered if Farm & Fleet would have a coat to suit me, so we stopped there.

Bingo!

DH found socks.

I found the type of coat I’ve been looking for at a reasonable price.

Sophie got new treats and a new collar!

Yay!

Oh.

And it snow-flurried all the way to S-town.

…and to top it off…

Monday was not kind to me.

I don’t know if I was just slow or the amount of work dumped on me was not humanly possible to complete in one day.

I never know for sure, but today seemed to be both things ganging up on me at once.

So I just slogged through what I could get done — (Thank You, God…) — stopped at the store after work for dinner fixings — (ham, scalloped potatoes, Mediterranean vegetables) — and the drug store for my prescription — (Oh look! Candy bars on sale…I’ll have one of those and those and those…no, I didn’t even try to resist…) — and headed home.

DH was tearing into more of the family room demolition and not quite ready to eat.

Sophie, however, was more than ready to eat, so I filled her food cube and away she went chasing that thing all over the living room.

Eventually DH called it quits and came in to the smell of ham and potatoes cooking away. It was pretty good if I say so myself.

Next in the evening’s routine is a walk with Sophie — usually uptown and around and back.

Remember when Soph was having issues walking past the drug store? Well, she is at it again. In fact, this weekend, I gave in and picked her up and carried her past the store and put her down at the corner.

This time we were going to walk past — no carrying allowed.

Sophie started balking in about the same place again, but I wasn’t having any of it. She was getting further behind me, but I kept walking. At some point I was pulling a bit — not hard at all, just enough for her to know I meant business.

Oh that was well and good UNTIL HER COLLAR SLIPPED OVER HER HEAD!

I don’t know who was surprised more – Soph or me.

Soph looked at me and then at her collar dangling on the end of the leash. You could see the little wheels begin turning in her head…

Soph started to scamper away.

SOPHIE!!!

I should tell you that a collar-less Sophie is not unlike a year-old child that is thrilled to run around nekkid without a diaper wadded between those widdle legs…

SOPHIE, TREAT!!

She circled back and looked.

Sophie, come!

Ah. Now that’s why we keep practicing the basic commands.

SHE CAME BACK!

I grabbed her by the scruff of her neck — hoping she wouldn’t bolt — picked her her up, and put that worthless collar back on her. After tightening it up, we took an abbreviated walk to “normalize” things.

Once home off came that collar and back on the old one.

So while this Monday was not kind to me, I am glad that Someone stepped in and said “she’s had enough for one day,” and let this story have a happy ending.

**********

NP: two fans and the air conditioner. Dratted “flame-on, flame-off”

Thank you, Julia…

…I just made — and am presently eating — an omelet a la Julia Child. It is soooo very good!

The weather was gorgeous for the three day Labor Day weekend around here. Let’s see:

Saturday I went to see Julie & Julia in R-town with H and Southern Cousin. What a fun movie! Meryl Streep did an excellent job of portraying Julia Child. H and I agreed it would have been better just to have a biographical film of Julia, but this one was fine.

Soph and I then had a big adventure Sunday, when I decided that we should cross the highway downtown and head towards the park on the other side of town.

First we were nearly run over by a driver doing an illegal “turn on red”… I mean really! How could you consider plowing over a pretty little dog as Sophie?

Next once we were across the highway, I saw a woman walking a dog…um…two dogs and one was crossing the road towards us.

Ah yes.

You have seen the invisible dog on a leash? This was a dog on an invisible leash – a pug mix type dog – and it was headed our way.

Lucky! Lucky! The woman was also crossing the street and hollering for the pug. Looked to me that she was holding the business end of a retractable leash… an invisible leash.

Well — whatever she was doing — I was scooping up Sophie and wondering if the pug was serious or not…

“…Uh — are you going to be able to get your dog…do you need help?”  I ventured.

No…they got this dog from a shelter…it doesn’t know it’s name…Lucky! Lucky, come here!

What?! Dear Lord, this is wrong in so many ways…

But away the dog walker (?) went, away from us, because Lucky (might want to consider changing your name, doggie) changed directions and was going to the tanning salon, I guess.

Soph and I went on our way — past McDonalds — but we didn’t quite make it to the other park. Nice as the weather was, it was getting humid and Soph was a-panting pretty good. So we turned around and went home. Like usual Sophie gulped down some water and came into the living room to stretch out on the cool tile.

Monday H came by for lunch. DH grilled hamburgers and brat patties outside while I had the baked beans, coleslaw and peach cobbler ready inside. It was YUM. Afterwards Hil, Soph and I went to the state park and visited the Chief — a huge statue formally known as the Eternal Indian – or something like that. Soph is always just a bit intimidated by the Chief, but she is getting a bit better. However, her tail doesn’t make an appearance until we are going away from him…

Anyways — today is Tuesday, so back to work for me.

Need to exercise first if I ever can tear myself away from this blogging thing…

Sunday doin’s

…recently back from a lovely afternoon with Southern Cousin, which included going to the theatre to see The Proposal, a walk, and a trip to Culvers for a turtle sundae.

During our conversation at Culvers, I found out she didn’t know who Victor Borge was. He is always good for a laugh and since she’s been needing one, I sent her the link to youtube.

_______________

Before that trip to R-town, I was outside filming the flowers and while finishing that up, a lady came by walking a Pembroke corgi! How cute!

______________

NP: Late night news.

Soph?: Sacked out on the floor — she piddled her bedding so it took a trip to the washer/dryer.

Mood-o-meter: Somewhat melancholy. My knees hurt.

Lest you believe

…I had a perfect day yesterday — I managed to spill part of a root beer float and then sat on it whilst getting in my car.

The indignity of it all.

However my ice cream cone — that I did not drop a bit of whatsoever — was mighty tasty.
———–
AND THEN — went to a Starlight Radio concert in B-town. It was at a nature preserve. Did I think for one minute that it was an OUTDOOR venue and LAWN CHAIRS might be nice to sit on?

Oh no.

So I stood during the concert-where-everyone-else-was-seated, hoping that I didn’t put the musicians off any…

…until DH went back home, grabbed the chairs, and came back — an eighteen mile round trip.
———–
Today however was putt-putting right along — really busy at work and the time went fairly fast. Got home after work and told Soph we were going for an uptown walkie, when I saw the answering machine blinking.

“This is so-and-so. We need to schedule your house appraisal.”

Now doesn’t this look nice?

I knew this was coming — we are refinancing our house with the idea of getting it paid for before we <insert hysterical laughter> retire.

I was hoping for just one of those “drive by” kind of appraisals — silliness sometimes reigns in my head — but I guess it should be done properly.

So how in the world am I suppose to get this place put together for a decent first impression? We always have the “lived in look” downstairs, which doesn’t bother me much — but the upstairs! Egads! It’s basically storage and stuff strewn about — not the two bedroom area it should be.

…and the basement. That has to be DH’s realm…

———–

Did I mention that we are also getting ready to go on vacation?

———–

NP: The tv weatherman, two fans and the air conditioner

What’s Soph doing? Pushing around her food cube. You should see her — she could do quite well in soccer.

Mood-o-meter: exasperated

Dear Diary, What a day it’s been…

It’s Wednesday, right?

How come it feels like I’ve had three Mondays this week, each day getting progressively bizarre…

“It’s over. Will tomorrow be the same?” *

I hope not.

**********

*Dear Diary — Moody Blues’  Ray Thomas

Bad dog.

… it is a way too early morning here — Sophie got me up at 4 AM yesterday AND today. Don’t know why she’s doing it, but I can’t get back to sleep at all. My mind starts to race and why sure, it would be great to solve the problems of the world — I never get anywhere with that either!

And my head hurts. Bleah.

Walldogs!

This is just one of the many murals painted by The Walldogs who visited P-town a few weeks ago.

Too cool, huh?

Next visit I want to get pictures of them all. Some are found in alleys like this one and others are in more prominent locations. All of them have some sort of historical significance to P-town — gee, even I remember some of them…

At any rate, the tourist traffic is increasing in ol’ P-town and these murals will surely help!

And now for another bulleted list:

• I really must not confuse a burst of energy with a reason to overextend myself. I got my second wind late last Thursday and made pulled chicken, potato salad, carrot salad, and fruit salad for the holiday weekend — and went to bed at midnight. Mind you, I’d been getting, oh, five hours of sleep on the previous days.
• And because of the aforementioned stupidity, I felt like I was sleep-walking until late Sunday afternoon. That’s right. My kids come to visit and find their mother in a different time zone.  I told them it will get worse.
• It already has.
• I get this wild idea. Since Sophie has been waking me up at 4:30 AM every morning, why don’t I shuffle her feeding times to 5:30 AM and 5:30 PM — maybe her clock is in her stomach.
• And indeed it is in her stomach. Sophie is not pleased that I am making her wait for her din-dins.
• However, it seems to be working!!! Soph slept past 4:30 AM!
• Now if I can manage to set the first alarm on our clock (5:3o AM) to come on instead of the second — which comes on at 4:30 AM.
• That’s right. I am awake and Sophie is snoozing still.
• I am hopeless.

It is a bit warmish out…

…so instead of a walkie, Sopher and I are playing a game.

It doesn’t have a name. I wouldn’t call it “fetch” exactly. It’s more of an “exchange.”

To play this game you need several destuffed stuffed animals with holes in them. Take two of the bigger formerly stuffed stuffed animals and shove in smaller stuffless animals.

You now have  two stuffed animals that are full of formerly stuffed animals.

Throw one of the now-stuffed (formerly unstuffed stuffed) animals for Sophie to catch. Whilst she is catching it, hold out the other newly stuffed animal out for her see — shaking it vigorously, but not so’s to make the small destuffed animals to come out.

Sophie then abandons the first animal — which she has had time to destuff — and is attracted to the second fully stuffed animal.

Throw it! She will chase it!

Then go get the first unstuffed stuffed then destuffed animal and restuff it.

Repeat.

Now isn’t that fun?

*************

NP: The local weathercast.

On the telly tonight: Lark Rise To Candle…was it “ford?”

Dinner tonight: BBQ, carrots, coleslaw.

Mood-o-meter: A bit excited. I may have found a new source for Cook family genealogy info from a relative in Massachusetts! Also a bit down: DH will be working late tonight.