Baby Steps

I got the dog his new toy! It is larger than I had planned, but, it works. I also learned that those wooden spools would make fantastic patio tables, they even come with their own holes for an umbrella. They come in all sizes and can be had cheap.

He's just getting to know the new barrel, sniffing it and getting used to the sounds it makes and its weight. Its also taller than the other one - I was afraid it would be a problem, but he seems okay with it. I would still prefer it to be shorter but, the smaller ones are very small and I don't think he's fit on them.

I think he likes having the higher sides on the barrel, he can lean on them, helps him feel secure. I do wish my yard was flatter and more level, its very not and that makes it harder for him. We worked the other one in the drive way too, and that was okay. Its just harder to maneuver and its just a bigger thing. It doubles as a table too.

New Things to Teach the Dog

Rocket and I skipped out regular downtown route and instead went on a nice walk though the historic district, shorter than usual, which was disappointing but a change of scene is nice every once in a while. There was the added bonus of many, many retaining walls.

Tomorrow I'm going to get a wooden spool for Rocket to play with. I'm hoping for a small one, low to the ground maybe? I wonder if having "walls" on either side of him would make him more secure on the spool? Does that matter to dogs? What if I attached training wheels to it would that help with the process? Make it more secure?

I really want to make this work. I thin k it can work and I think Rocket has it in him to learn this new skill. Its more of a why thing. "Why" would a dog want to walk on a barrel? What can I do to make it seem like a dog friendly idea?  I do know that dogs can be taught this action and that there are large dogs that do this, although most of the evidence points to small dogs and barrel riding. I've watched goats ride on barrels so it tells me that long legs do not stand in the way of this achievement.

I think first off I'll need to see if he will roll the smaller spool and then if he will roll the spool at this new, lower height, can I translate that new behavior to driving the roll. Hmmm.

This is a lot of thought for something I may end up not getting anyway, there were a lot of sizes but what if none of them are right?  Some of them were really, really huge that I thought looked really neat but I think one of the really small ones might be the ticket. So I have a lot of choices, that means I can make the wrong one...Or even worse, I do find the right one but it won't fit in my car.

Monday

I got the car washed on Sunday. This morning it got rained on. I am happy about finding a car wash near me and while this time I went for the fancy under carriage cleaning,  they also have a very reasonable normal cleaning that I will take advantage of.  So now my car is clean, but rained on. I'm okay with it though because it was mostly about the under carriage cleaning anyway, I'm pretty sure that whatever was under there from the snow and ice did its damage all ready but I at least kept it from hanging around even longer and doing worse over time. The exterior of the car looks very smart now.

The interior looks like a war zone.

Speaking of the dog, Rocket and I took a very nice walk through the warehouse district this evening, Rocket did some very nice jumping and climbing and working out. When we came home, I had him roll his barrel a little bit.

Before our walk, he tried on his new snow shoes! I think they are fantastic, he thinks they are torture devises and I am the most evil dog person ever. I think next winter and on very, very hot days, he will be happy his his feet are not touching the pavement. Spoiled thing.

Back to the barrel, I do think that maybe having a small sized wooden cable thing would be nice for him to learn to walk on, it would hopefully be wider, heavier and move a little slower? He has a hard time balancing all four legs on the barrel we use now, I think its too tall and too light and it moves too fast. I need something shorter, heavier and slower to teach him on. I know he can do this because he has done it on accident and I think he could do it for real with some work. What I really need to work on is how easily distracted he is! There is no end to the fun things he could so but can't because he gets distracted by everything. He is  much more focused  if I have treats handy but it snot always handy to keep treats around.

Whats the point of teaching him all these fun things if he can't do them in front of an audience? Its too much fun to watch him do what he can do to keep him bottled up in the yard. I have a tiny niece and nephew, they should get to see him do these fun things! I'm the only one who gets to see him perform? A You-Tube Star is in the waiting! Progress must be made.

Warming up to Spring

I did as close to nothing as possible this weekend and I still got jobs accomplished! I slept late but still got the back lawn mowed and checked out an antique store - sadly, too well lit and not enough stuff and no dust to speak of! But they have time to get themselves stocked up and dusty before I got back there.

Friday night, I found my costume for next Halloween, $3 at Kohls, totally worth the investment I think. I also found a new skort to replace my old one that had gotten too big. I don't care what fashion people say about skorts, I love them. Long Live Skorts!

Saturday, I mowed the back yard so now both yards match, I'm going to have to hit the front yard again sometime this week and that's kind of a drag, I wouldn't, but the hipster mowed his and I will not be neighbor shamed by the hipster and his semi-annual mowing!

Doesn't that look nice? I am also going to call my weeds "ground cover", it sounds much nicer and is actually a better word than "weeds" because it is a ground cover. It makes it easier to take care off, makes me feel better about the condition of the yard and is more inclusive. Ground Cover.

I also got tired of playing hide and seek with dog bombs and now I can at least see them to remove them. I'm really looking forward to getting Garden 2015 in the ground and moving but we're a long way from there at present. I have to decide if I want to continue with my current irrigation system or if I want to go with my very good sprinkler that will hit everything and use less hose and be simpler, if waste more water through evaporation and watering everything in its reach regardless. I don't know, I'm going to have to think about it and what I'm planting and where I'm planting it. The drip hoses might be the better route still.

After mowing the ground cover, dog and took a rest and enjoyed the sun. My phone told me it was 42 degrees, but I think it was confused. In its defense, I was wearing multiple layers

Sunbathing  42 degree style.

Sunday, I took dog-dog out in the yard again and I pulled out his  rolling barrel and his hoop and he was still able to work with both! I've been using his jump to keep him loose, but I haven't really worked the hoop in a while and I put the roller up a long time ago. He seems happy to see both and we worked on them for about hour before Rocket got tired and lost interest in performing. He did a great job! He also kept trying to ride the barrel and that was exciting - not entirely possible, because I don't think there is enough surface space on it and its too light, a larger, heavier barrel might work better. I need one of those large cable spools the phone company uses. They are very heavy though and I'm not sure how I would be able to maneuver one around much less get it into my car to show others how talented my dog is ( totally would be!). Something to work on.

Friday Cat Blogging

I am a Maxinista

I finally went shopping for my ice tea and soda! I feel so relieved  that my  hydration needs are covered at last.  I also bought a fabulous 100% wool Brooks Brothers ladies sweater for $30! Not at the same place I bought the soda and ice tea though.

I had hoped to find a Easter appropriate frock at my favorite discounters but the sweater was the only thing that took my bait. I guess I do kind of have the frock thing taken care of all ready but its fun to shop for  Easter frocks. There is something about pastels and florals that is very calming, together they are just about hypnotic.

The sweater I came home with  is much more useful and I will have it and wear it for years and years. Dress styles change but a good sweater is forever.

Its quite nice - no one is going to accuse Brooks Brothers of being hip or on trend or pandering to the youth market, but its lovely and it was on-sale.

Wednesday

I wanted to go shopping afteroushe walked the dog but then I was tired and so I didn't, I actually need to go to the grocery because Lowe's is has my ice tea and orange soda as their weekly specials and if I'm in that neck of the woods, I want to see if I want something to wear to Easter and that is not going to happen if I stay at my house. But we walked and then we came home and I made the mistake of sitting down and didn't go out.

I did get up and empty the dishwasher and  take some stuff out to the recycle but not a lot of mileage there. The dog was sleepy, its hard to get excited about getting up and getting out when the dog is snoring on the couch. I can't run errands over lunch or after work so if I am going to get things done, they re going to get done in the evening. If I can't get motivated to run my errrands when I can run them during the week, they don't get run and  I end up having run around like a crazy person all weekend. Not restful.

Next month, I'm going to buy that fancy lamp I saw at Wayfair. I decided that I'm just going to do it. I saw the Ikea lamp I was leaning towards on Craigslist and in real life, it looks flimsy. It looked like it could be flimsy and the shade too papery on the site but is looks like it is flimsy and the shade is too papery. Just say no to flimsy lamps and paper shades. And yes it will cost more than my couch did, but I also will not spend a lot of time worrying  about  It bursting into flames. I could have cheap and a fire hazard or pricier but sturdy. It works  itself  out. You have to put some value on your state of mind.

Yay for decision making.

when do you  clean your bathroom sink?

- first thing  in the morning when you can't  see and don't  care about  the slow drain

-  right before you go to bed because it seems like a good time to tidy and maybe if I run a lot of  hot water down the drain it will loosen up that drain over night.

Oh my God! Me too! We are so the  same person! Go us.

Okay. I think that if you all ready get up at 0'Dark Thirty in the morning and you can only barely hear your alarm over the pouring rain and thunder, that you should just be able to call it day and go back to sleep.

Graying Out

Dogger spent the day playing in daycare and got featured on their Instagram feed and that was awesome and then we came home and had dinner and young dog and I went on a long walk. It was a great day for Rocket.

Not a great day for me, I can't find my gray shoes! I can't imagine where they went, all the other shoes are all together in shoeland and the gray pair has become separated from the herd. Its worrisome because now I'm beginning to wonder if I even have gray shoes and so here I am searching for something I don't even have - this says all kinds of less than wonderful things about my mental health and those are such great things to be thinking about while you a searching for something you know is here somewhere but what if it really isn't?

I'm going to find them. I know the dog didn't eat them because he hasn't eaten shoes since he was a puppy - or more truthfully, he hasn't been in a situation where he was granted unsupervised time alone with shoes since he was a puppy.

They could be in the downstairs bedroom being camouflaged by everything  I had to shift out of the living room ahead of the painting. I  keep that door closed now because I like being happy.

Found them! They were in a bag under the dining room table! I must have worn them on one of the last snow days and I brought winter boots to slosh back and forth in the snow and them to wear around the office. I kept running across the boots and never thought about why they were front and center and the shoes were not. Yay. Not Crazy.

Sigh.

It was  not a good day in DTR  . It still oddly quite hours later when I had dog downtown for his walk. I do wonder that when the building is finished and all the work is done if there will be any thing that says three men lost their lives to make this place, that people died there. I doubt it, but at the very least, a plaque, something that remembers those men.

I hate to say this but... I got a late start to lunch and I am so glad, if I had left on time I would have been right there it as this was happening. As it was I was there an hour later and it was still awful.

Garden Update 1 2015

Work. Work. Work  Filled the larder, tilled the garden, mowed the lawn, did a lot of laundry and took the dog for long walks. I rewarded myself with a trip to a cafeteria.

I also finally got my tax refund and called the painter and set up when he's going to paint my place. Its not as soon as I would have liked, but its going to get done and that's what I need to concentrate on. I can spend the time tidying up and cleaning the corners and getting the place ready for the painter to do his thing. I don't want to hear about my housekeeping from "Elden"

He's going to be here for a week, painting in the evenings after he gets off work. I see myself walking the dog quickly after work and hitting one of the places downtown before heading home. Hopefully it have warmed up by then and won't be raining. The place is going to look really nice after he's done.

The garden is going to be different this year. I'm going to move the peppers into the garden extension, to get them away from the shade causing tomato plants,  and hopefully, up production. I'm going to be growing container corn again and not growing green beans for the first year in memory. The harvest has been less then awe inspiring the last couple of years so I'm benching them for a season. I'm also not planting potatoes this year, too carby for me now, and I was getting over extended garden-wise. I'm going to get rid of my non-productive berry plants too and replacing them with more more attractive elephant ears and lavender.

I'm going to be putting in a lot of tomatoes and peppers though, and I had good luck with a admittedly, carbtastic corn on the cob, that I am just going to eat because I like them and corn is easy to gift.

Friday Cat Blogging

I am invisible

Yay for Politics

And damn it, I am still 1st Vice Chair. I had been hoping that someone else would want the gig, but sadly,  no one did. We did however make our  quorum and actually went over our quorum at that for the first time in years! It was very exciting.

It would have been more exciting without the endless speeches about how miserable it is for our handful of Democrats in the House and Senate downtown. It doesn't raise our morale at all or make me happier to be a Democrat. On the upside, no one cried into the mic either, so we did see seen some improvement.

 The GOP voters here believe that we should take care of our mentally ill by electing them to office.  They hate the idea of warehousing their  severely mentally ill brethren in icky hospitals or grungy group homes. They want them in the State House! Where the Party can proudly show off how they don't let a little things like galloping, out of control unmedicated mental illness keep them from making laws! The first order of business for the House GOP when they came back into session was to update the state seal to feature a tin foil hat and AK-15 and then  they quickly changed the elitist Latin inscription  to "O'Bummer is a Sekret Muzlimist". The GOP doesn't  feel we need more beds for our mentally ill, we need more districts for them to represent.

I'm not sure what the Democrats did while all this was happening, held hands in the cloak room  and sang We Shall Overcome I imagine.  Too much to ask for them to actually come up with real legislation themselves. Perhaps we should start electing a few of them ourselves. I've met our fringe and they are just as wacky and unreasonable  as the loons the GOP routinely gets elected, I think its something the party should explore. We might get some legislation passed, its worth a try, at we should be willing to do anything to get Democrats elected. We have tried being reasonable and it doesn't work.

Exciting Times

I spent too much time this afternoon being pretty sure that it was already Thursday. It's Wednesday, all day. Tomorrow is not Friday, its just Thursday. I have two more days to get through, I have to say, as the week goes on, the alarm goes off earlier every day.

Thursday  eveningI have my  make up precinct meeting. I am hoping that it threatens snow again so that maybe we can not have this one either. I really don't want to go, even more than the last time when I only thought I really didn't want to go because ti was really cold and raining. But now I know what "not wanting to go" feels like and I really don't want to go.

So I'll be there, I am not going to try for a officer spot because I want to not go to the local conventions this year, I never want to go to the local conventions but as an officer I have to go to them because no one else goes, but now, we have a Chair who does go, so I really don't have to attend these nightmares. Next year I'll try for an officer position because it will be an election year and a lot more fun. This year however, I won't have to give up my Saturdays to go to the boring, non-productive meetings and do nothing, I can put my garden in on my schedule an not go to exciting places like Lillington or Pittsboro or the thriving metropolis of Fayetteville. All of them make Raleigh look like the Seattle in the nineties.

This year three whole Saturdays more than usual, are mine. Today after work I went to the post office and  I bought stamps and later, after dinner, I paid bills. Woooo.

Hurry up and wait

I have to say, there is something oddly thrilling about packing up your clutter, I do miss my snow globes though! In a perfect world my whole collection would be reunited and displayed together in all their glory.

Those boxes behind the couch are the books and DVDs that were on the shelves. Most of them are most likely not going to be coming back into the room. I know it still looks messy, but it s work in progress and we all have different standards. I can't wait for my rebate check to get here so I can unleash the painter and get this job done. I think the room is going to look really slick once fresh paint is on the walls and wood work and the new curtains are up. The carpet is also on the way out, but it has a separate TBA timeline.The torch lamp is also on its way out soonish, to be replaced by an arc lamp, the rando furniture will be a dark burnt orange.

HGTV lies about so many things!