You'll Be a Song I'll Sing

It was the first day to pick up my meat CSA and it didn't go as planned. I did get to get my hair and eyebrows done like I had planned. My shampooer was a man and I can now understand why some women find a man washing their hair sexy. However, all I could think about was how he was massaging my scalp using the same techniques (and some of the same places) as I massage Sammy to calm him down.

470 words today brings me to the precipice of 20k. My total word count at the end of today is 19917. Only 30083 more to go! :)

Yesterday was an all around odd day.

I woke up at 4am to the sound of Sammy getting sick. I cleaned it up and he wanted to cuddle. Surprisingly, he was still sleepy. I became a sandwich - Sammy on the left and husband on the right. For an hour I was wide awake. I went downstairs to write and spent about a half hour on the novel. At that point I got sleepy and I could hear Sammy getting restless. I went back to bed and woke up in just enough time to get ready for work. I nearly called in sick because when I was walking Sammy I had that sleep deprived almost drunk feeling.

However, I went to work which wasn't so bad. After work I came home and cleaned. We had someone clean half of the house in September right before my mother's surprise party. Starting today we're having the same cleaning done once a month. I honestly never understood it in high school when my friend would have to clean the house before the cleaning lady came. Now I do - if the surface to be cleaned is covered with papers or books then it can't get cleaned, can it?

Sammy got a Peanut Butter flavored Frosty Paws today.  He loved it.  In fact, he loved it so much, he wanted to eat the paper cup it came in.  Instead, husband and I crumpled it up and played Keep Away with Sammy.  It was a solid 15 - 20 minutes of play.  I think we all loved it.  Sammy would run back and forth between us and while he would try to grab the cup in the air or on the ground, he was very well behaved.  No biting and no getting ouf of control.

Saw Where the Wild Things Are this afternoon.  Had fish and chips at Old Bag of Nails.  Dinner was from Smackie's Traveling Smoker stand.  They ran out of brisket so we had a pulled chicken and a pulled pork sandwich.  Yummy.

Wrote 1074 words today.  Total Word Count is 8293.

Sammy was at the groomer today with Olivia.  An aggressive Wheaton Terrier was with Barb.  The Wheaton Terrier snapped at Barb so Sammy growled at him.  Then Sammy wanted to bark but he let out the high pitched bark/whine as Barb put the Wheaton Terrer into a muzzle. 

Barb, Olivia and the other ladies just love Sammy.  They were laughing and carrying on about what he did.  Sometimes I think they know him better than I do.  When I got there, he'd conned his way into walking freely around the back part of the grooming area.  It's so funny when they say he's a sweet boy and how much they love him.  He has been acting better lately but he's not sweet on a consistent basis.

Sammy's annual vet visit went well. We were late as the power went out this morning about an hour before the alarm was set to go off. He was stressed (panting) but did really well overall. They expressed his anal glands as they thought that was why he was biting near his tail. Poor dog... he'd been eating the grain free food which causes gastrointestinal issues for him and now this. There just wasn't enough fiber to push the gunk out. I'm glad he's about back to normal.

He'll probably need a dental cleaning next year. I should be brushing his teeth more often.

This Monday is his next animal trainer visit. He's been doing really well since we started his private lessons. I even got to blow dry my hair once this week without him barking.

Did anyone hear the cheers from Ohio last night?  That was me celebrating. 

The two stackable metal chairs we bought when we moved to the house were pried apart last night and are now usable.  The little plastic thingamajigs that was keeping the chairs from rubbing together while stacked in the shipping box was the issue.  Hubby's uncle pried and cut them off. 

So here is a funny Sammy story that illustrates how exasperating he is at times.

Last week I bought a nail grinder for him so I could do his nails.  I put the muzzle on him but as soon as I turned the nail grinder on he began trying to attack the nail grinder.  This is the Corgi that hates the sounds of all small appliances.  Monday night I took him to the groomers for his nail trimming because they were now talons.  While I was paying up front they set him on the grooming table and began grinding his nails.  When I returned I watched them do three of his paws.  He stood there like a good dog and practically held out his paws for them to do the trimming.  Sammy looked relaxed the entire time.

I think I mentioned this a few months ago... our friend had a butcher block in her basement that she and her family never used and we were welcome to have it. Finally, one day after remembering, hubby walked over there to get it and rolled it back. (She lives one street over.)

It's not what I pictured it would be (I thought it would be shorter since a lot of them are) but I'm very happy with it! Usually it's tucked into the corner by the dishwasher but when I'm working on something complicated or requiring multi-steps I can pull it out into the middle and work.

Oh, and Sammy loves to lick the metal. I'm not sure why and he's not coughing up any clues.

Husband is at home waiting for the plumber to bring over the new water heater and install it! 

We turned the electricity off to the pond because the hose was in the basement.  Amazingly, over a week with no water, the algae on the rocks around the pond dried up.  And after a few days of water, it hasn't come back!  The birds missed the pond but they're happy now.

Instead of going out to a nice dinner I wanted my Northstar pancakes for breakfast.  Hubby suggested the new crepe/belgian waffle place at the North Market.  We got there around 11am but they didn't open until noon.  So we bought a loaf of day old bread and thought we'd try Warehouse Cafe.  Which no longer has Sunday hours.  I was starving so we went to Surly Girl where we finally got to have their brunch.  It was yummy.  Then I found a long necked watering can for the self-watering hanging baskets on the front porch.

We went home and my in-laws said they'd come by sometime.  After a bunch of miscommunications and weeding of the lawn, we were picked up and taken to Wendy's and Dairy Queen.  Some days fancy or gourmet just isn't in the cards.  Like I told my husband, "Sometimes the company you eat with is more important than what you eat."

Hubby bought me Ratio by Michael Ruhlman and made me two CDs.  I thought Sammy gave me the gift of silence while blow drying my hair but that didn't last.  :)

Went to Comfest yesterday for lunch with coworkers.  There were some healthy choices but I went with fried.  Corn dog, french fries and a funnel cake.  Last year I went with the half slab of ribs and I brought most of it home.  (Sammy at the rest using his Ninja Corgi skills to grab them from the middle of the dining room table.)

I did some weeding this morning but mostly I cut off new branches forming on one of our trees.  Headed to Marysville in a few minutes to have lunch with my parents at Doc Henderson's.

We took Sammy to Whetstone Park tonight.  He wanted to mark every lone tree but didn't pay attention to the ones in clumps.  He's tuckered out.

Corgis must know where their owners are at all times.  Sammy is no exception.  On Wednesday last week I turned on the tub faucet.  While he was greedily having his morning sip I slipped out downstairs to make lunches.  After a minute or two I could hear him running up and down the upstairs hallway.

I stuck my head between the banister railing as he was running in my direction.  His look of relief and happiness was priceless.  It added an extra bounce in his step.

are gas.  Sammy is so gassy today!  The stomach bloat has gone away and he ate his dinner last night around 10:30pm.  I gave it to him at 7pm and he just looked at it, looked at me, and then walked away. 

We returned from our morning walk to a loud sporadic buzzing sound.  It was as though someone put a bug zapper in the living room.  The noise was from a bumblebee as big as my thumb trying to fly out a closed window.  Since there was only me to take care of it... I captured it in a plastic strainer and placed it outside.

Now if only I could find the print out of my last NaNo...

When Sammy doesn't act right I should know something is up.

He usually comes into the bathroom when I wash my hair.  And he always comes in to bark at me to tell me how much he doesn't approve of the hair dryer.

While I was drying off from my shower he went downstairs and got up to no good.  When my hair was in the state that could barely be called dry I went into the kitchen.  I found the bag of groceries I left dragged across the floor.  He opened up a bag of whole wheat hamburger buns and was in the process of eating the last one.  I yelled his name and he regurgitated what was on the way down.  (The equivalent of two buns.)  Which he proceeded to clean up while I got a paper towel.

Now I'm going to be spending my afternoon/evening taking him on frequent walks.

Seriously... this dog is a walking stomach.

It may be a while before I leave this chair...

We had brunch today at Sage American Bistro.  I have been looking forward to their Creme Brulee French Toast for months.  We had plans to meet my WI friend and her husband there for brunch a few months ago but ended up at Mimi's Cafe instead.

Since it was still early we saw Duplicity.  It was lunch time and even though I wasn't too hungry we went to Banana Bean Cafe for the first time.  I thought I would try two appetizers... the calamari and the shrimp and grits.  I was expecting the shrimp and grits to be a half or third of the size that was served to me.  It could be someone's meal.  I ate most of the calmari and I think had maybe 10 spoonfuls of the grits.  Hubby had the Little Havana Cubano sandwich which had (nasal clearing) mustard he liked. 

We got home about 3:15pm.  I put some sulfur on the hydrangea bushes (nothing is sprouting yet), cut out some coupons and have been in this chair ever since.  3pm is usually nap time around here on the weekends.  Sammy is sleeping good under my chair.  :)

So last night the garage door is opening as I pull into the driveway.

My first thought... I have a Corgi in my garage!
My second thought... That looks like Sammy!
My third thought... How did he get -
Then my husband stepped forward so I could see him.

Very funny way to come home.

Sammy had quite the evening.  He went to the groomers where he was attacked with coos, pets and rubs.  One lady was there with her beagle for training and she had a red and white corgi a long time ago.  She followed us into the grooming section and then came back later to pet him some more.  When I left Sammy he was jumping up and down behind the counter trying to get more pets before one of the ladies who loves him picked him up and took him to the back.

When I returned he was in the DIY grooming section helping the groomer get everything closed up for the night.  By the way he was leaning up against the glass door I could tell he was happy to see me.  She let him loose and he tried to get me to let him out so he could run wild in the store.  I didn't fall for his tricks.  As she brought his collar and leash for him she said that he was very good about his nails.  Then she impersonated the crying noises her corgi makes when the feet are even touched.  Corgis are characters.

I took some pictures Sunday and today of Sammy with our new camera that has a special pet/kids feature which lets me do some closeups of him.  There is a video of him acting calm and trying to figure out what to do next.  But I haven't figured out how to get it off the memory card yet (all the pictures were removed just fine).

Except for a brief visit with me he's been waiting by the front door for my husband.  This wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I thought another corgi would make me less lonely when my hubby is gone.

Friday I called into work because I had a huge lump in my throat.  Didn't feel great at all.  I slept most of the morning and made myself get out of bed at 1:30pm.  A few hours later I discovered the hose to our ice maker came out and water was all over the counter between the stove and the refrigerator.  And of course water ended up in the basement.  I had no idea how to fix it.  Hubby came home early from work.  As it turns out, the hose won't stay so we either have to get it fixed or not have ice from the machine.

Saturday watched Tin Man and the last two episodes of Battlestar Galactica Season Three.  The reveal of four (possibly five) more cylons was exciting to say the least.  I remember in the first season there was a blood test to determine if a person was a cylon or not.  Wonder if some of them got missed or had a different type of chemical makeup.

Hubby came in from the morning walk to say our garage had been tagged.  Makes me want to knock some skulls together.  I want to help hubby clean it but I know he'll refuse the help.

Friday morning Sammy had a bad start.  We were about half done with our morning walk and he heard the garbage and recycling trucks.  He refused to walk further and  ended up popping out of his collar and leash.  Sammy took off at full speed down the sidewalk.  I walked after him and then called to him.  Luckily he looked at me and then sat down when I told him too.  I called him to me and (what a shocker!) he came.  I put his collar back on and then carried him down the street.  When I set him down again his little legs were going as fast as they could.  When I was making breakfast he was trembling.  Poor little guy. 

I know Sammy is hardwired to listen to his instincts.  That's why he barks and I can't get him to be quiet.  So I was really surprised he came running back to me when I called him.

I was planning on making hamburger buns today.  Now I'm not so certain I feel like doing anything at all.

Read Devil in a Blue Dress and Kitty Goes to Washington this weekend.

This weekend I noticed bird poo on the front porch which made me ask my husband if the morning doves were back.  Then a few days later I see Papa bird on the wire by our house.  A little bit later I hear cooing from the front porch.  She's probably trying to build the nest in the corner again.  Maybe fall of 2010 we'll get a nesting place put up for them since they seem to be returning.

Had lines for a poem going through my head on my walk.  There's an author talk I may go to tonight.  But I feel guilty if I don't buy a copy of the book.  Or I could go to my writing session.  Or I could just sit on the couch.

Made "potato slabs" last night that were really good.  Disks of spiced potato goodness topped with colby jack cheese and bacon.  Yummy.  Except for the bacon they tasted kind of healthy.

I woke at 5:45am to the sound of Sammy licking.  I nearly told him to knock it off and to wait an hour but instead I just snuggled more under the blankets.  Today is the second day of rain.  We're supposed to be back to snow on Saturday. 

The mouse is now somewhere else.  I came downstairs on Saturday to find the humane trap closed.  It felt like it was heavier than before.  I took Sammy to his grooming appointment and spent way too long grocery shopping.  My coupon system sucks (they are arranged by expiration date) so I wasted at least 30 minutes looking for coupons that I knew I had but couldn't locate.  Save 28% at the store, though.

While I was gone, hubby looked inside the trap and was certain something with a tail was in it so he took it for a drive.  Upon arriving at the undisclosed location, he emptied the trap and the mouse scurried off. 

We think there was only one but only time will tell, I guess.

Today for breakfast we had sausage biscuits.  Homemade sausage biscuits.  They were yummy.  I used a biscuit recipe from Paula Deen which required baking the biscuits on the stove in a pan of butter.  It developed a lovely crust on the bottom but the biscuits weren't cooked all the way through so I finished them in the oven.  Next time I'll just give them a crust on the stovetop and bake them in the oven.  It's almost 7pm and I'm just now starting to get hungry again.