Looking for My Mind...

If you see it, please email me regarding its whereabouts. Or send it back, postage guaranteed.

I don't know why I haven't posted. I think I spend the month of April more or less in limbo. Every year. I can't get anything done. Well, I spin and knit but aside from that, I'm not motivated. I need a catalyst. I'm bummed out.

Blue, green, and white BFL and some Halloween superwash merino,
both from Amy King of Spunky Eclectic. Both spindle-spun and the BFL is a Navajo 3-ply.

My dog won't behave. He keeps chewing my stuff, including a handspun, handknit sock which thankfully has no holes in it. We must have come home JUST as he dragged it out through the dog door to the patio. The back yard is an overgrown symphony of stuff with ragged edges and dog tooth marks adorning the remainder. We're going to AZGRC's SwimFest tomorrow and I looked at my blog post of it from last year. Watching Chance made me cry. :(

My best pal moved back home to live with her mom due to her lack of employment. :(

I need a mountain to climb, so to speak.

Blogger won't upload my photos. :( But that's not the mountain I want to climb. (OK, it finally did after an hour! #$*^%^@@)

I hope May is more productive. I'll let you know.

Eventually.

Journal Spank for February 5th

Oh that Ricë. She is a prolific blogger and I really admire that. There are plenty of things I like about this woman I've never met and one of them is that she has orange hair. I wish I had pink hair. I nearly did once when my hairdresser didn't get that I was joking. But aside from that, one of the other things I like about her is that she provides plenty of prompts for journaling, both serious and light-hearted.

Here's the entry for today: a syringe she conned out of her doctor's receptionist the other day, and a binder clip. I used a drawing pencil to render them but switched to a red brush point Pitt Pen for the page itself. I wish that all these lovely colors came in other points. I like the Fine, Medium, and Broad nibs in addition to the brush points. But do I want to pay $12 for a set of four of each color? And yes, you just know that I'd have to have all four of every single color! It's one of the things we princesses do.


And I had to include this photo of Cody. The other day, Chance bolted through the dog door with his favorite blue bone in his mouth. (This is the second one of these he's had. The first one was totally destroyed. So far, this one is faring better.) After playing tug with Nana, with me, and with Cody, he guarded it for a little while. Then he dropped it on Cody's feet and went back outside. "Guard this for me, dad!"

And Cody did for about an hour.

Dog Paddle

Last weekend, Nana and I took the boys to an AZ Golden Retreiver Connection event, their annual Swim Fest. Chance was looking forward to belly-smacking into the pool with a few tennis balls in his mouth and Cody just wanted to doodle around in the water.

It didn't really turn out that way. There were over 100 people in attendance and 79 dogs! it seems that most of the dogs had Chance's idea and most of them were a lot less shy than he turned out to be!

That's Cody up front, sitting on the step. Chance is the three-legged one on the far side of the pool who waffles about getting in on the other side of the pool and eventually does, swimming across the pool, grabbing a pink tennis ball and getting out. That's my puppy! And he's gotten up and come to find me everytime I've played this video because he hears me calling him. He might be a goofball, but he's a good boy and he's ours!

Oh, and the voice you hear most of is moi. Yes, I know that I sound just like Papa Smurf! :(

Such Good Dogs!

We're trying to teach Chance that he doesn't always get his own way. Often, if you are ignoring him, he'll growl, arf, or just lean against you hard. Usually he starts out with holding a toy in his mouth, whining, and wiggling, all the while wagging his tail madly and getting so much in your way that you have to pay attention to him. (We don't.) He also barges in anytime you're petting or playing with Cody. That sure isn't fair to poor, sweet Cody. Cody's so accepting of everything and is just now really blossoming and showing us his own personality.

The other day, I threw a toy for Chance and then threw one for Cody. Chance came back, saw Cody's toy, and barged right in to scoop it up, dropping his own. Poor Cody just droops a little when Chance does that or takes the toy right out of Cody's mouth. Lots of times, Cody doesn't even bother to go after toys we throw because he knows he isn't as quick as somebody else is! Cody is a lover, not a fighter. But he really does like to play, if he gets the chance without Chance!

So I decided to throw Chance's toy, then once he'd brought it back and been praised, I'd make him sit and stay, hold his collar, and throw Cody's toy, holding Chance back (and praising him for being so good) so that Cody would have the opportunity to play too. Chance got pretty good at waiting for Cody to retrieve his toy and bring it back. And Cody was SOOO proud of himself for fetching! He trotted back so proudly holding his soft turtle toy and even wiggled just a little. He just loved being praised for fetching! Cody is such a little love bug! Chance is a sweet puppy but he can be overwhelming and it's our job to teach him to be a good boy.

It really makes me happy to see the boys settling in so well and becoming such good dogs!