Ladybugs

It's rare to capture all three animals in the same shot.

Riley thinks she's a cat.  And those are my socks over there by the lamp.  I was trying to decide which crazy pair to wear with my work outfit.

PSA

My picture from a couple days ago:

No, I was not taking pictures while driving, why do you ask?  I was struck not by another car, but by the dark sky behind us and the storm ahead of us.  I promise to TXT L8R.

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/15131

It's obviously a slow day at work.

This article inspired me to take more pictures.  I think the idea of taking a picture every day is impressive indeed and it got me thinking about what I might take a picture of if I wanted to sum up the day.  Lately I have had many moments I wanted to share and could not reduce it enough for a Facebook update.  I would seriously like to dump a lot of "friends" so I could feel more free to post things that the people closest to me would be interested to know.  Ant keeps telling me how he doesn't have many friends and I tell him that nobody has 600 friends- most people have a very small circle of friends that they are really close with.  That circle changes, too, depending on what's going on in your life and who you see day to day.  I got a letter from Rachel the other day and she called herself my "East Coast Friend."  I feel lonely out here and I do spend most days in my own little cocoon, not talking to anybody but the dogs.  Say what you will about that, but they are always very excited to see me.

Yeah, so Rachel and I are reduced to letters for a while.  We do hold out hope that we can be in the same nursing home together.  And maybe working means that I'll have vacation time and enough money to go visit her in secret at some point.  It was unbelievably fortunate that she could come stay with us for two months back in 2006.  It does suck to live so far away, but let me tell you over and over how much I love being here.  When I go back to the East Coast, I'm happy to see the people I love, but I'm always reminded of how much I don't want to live there.

But back to these photos.  I'm intrigued by this idea and what occurred to me is that I do not take enough pictures.  Our camera is a little too fancy to be carting around everywhere and the camera in my phone takes a picture about 10 seconds too late.  Then there's the storage/organization issue.  Different cameras, different locations, boyfriend making off with hard drives and computer screens...  I need to look into this cloud thing.  That's what kills me about digital cameras- I have ended up with fewer pictures because they're stored everywhere.  At least in a shoebox you know it's all there, even if it's terribly disorganized.  Yeah, I need to figure out that cloud thing.  But that was a boring paragraph.

After reading the article, I thought of important days and what I might have photographed to document them.  And what about the other days?  I want to try.  I need an art project anyway.  I'm sure I'll be a big flake and abandon this idea after about 3 days (if that) but working in a cubicle is making me feel like a zombie.  Maybe I will post my photo project here and that will in turn inspire me to write more.  It's a win-win!  Just don't make fun of me when I forget all about it.

Riley wins an Oscar

The only benefit to having no yard was being able to drag the dogs out on a leash to potty when it was raining.  Now that we have a yard, they just stand at the open door and make faces at me if it’s nasty outside.

Of course, my dogs are two of the most spoiled creatures on earth.  They believe, like the cat does, that the slider should remain open at all times so that they are never trapped outside.  They are couch babies, my dogs.

So in the mornings, I call the girls to let them out before I leave for work.  Chris is still at home, but he won’t be awake for a while, so I have to let Riley out unless I want him to step in poop first thing.  Jasmine is not as much of a problem.  She likes to stay in bed as long as possible, and I let her because she would rather explode than potty inside.  This is a rather endearing trait in Pit Bulls, but they make up for it by being vomit machines.  Jasmine will get up if she needs to go, so if she doesn’t show up I just let Riley out and let it go.

This morning I had to get them both up because Chris was riding in with me.  I let them out and Riley immediately reappeared at the door.  This happens a lot, especially at night when it’s cold or excessively windy.  There was no way she could have pottied already so I stood at the door and told her to go.  Each time, she’d walk away from the door, look back to see if I was gone, then go wait at the door again.  After 15 times of yelling at her to go potty, you’d think that she just didn’t need to go, but you don’t know how stubborn she can be.  She was probably just hoping that I’d be dropping breakfast materials.

Jasmine showed up at the door, so I opened it and asked, “Did you go potty?”  She looked at me, tried to interpret why I was standing in the way, gave a doggie “Eh, whatever” and turned around to go play with Riley.  As soon as she bolted, she winced, lifted her left front paw, and started licking it.  She hurt that paw recently while chasing the monster into a ditch.  Jasmine gave up playing and limped into the house with Riley on her heels.

I told Riley to stop and she turned back towards me and sat down on the rug.

“Did you go potty?” I asked.

Riley looked at me sadly and raised her paw as if she was hurt, too.

I laughed my ass off and let her go back to bed.

It's important to have plans.

Easter was fine and Ant is in Topaz.  He made me very proud yesterday with his behaviour and I had a tough time saying goodbye.  Chris came home after the game and we spent a short evening together celebrating our anniversary before his very busy week at work.  It'll be quiet nights with the dogs all week, so I think I'll start the next horrible 1000 piece puzzle.  I'll set up on the kitchen table and threaten the cat with eviction if she steals anything.  I'm ready to go home and start on it now, but I've got another 5 of work and a healthy dog walk to take care of first.  I got a text from Chris- he's coaxing a few last loads out of our dying washer before the new one is delivered on Sunday.  Depending on how much we get done, I may not have to go to the laundromat!  And he's already taken the dogs out to the park.  Excuse me while I swoon.

I'm looking forward to some silence this week.  I'm going to try hard to keep some chores going every day- how horrible would it be to get to the end of the week, have the house looking like a pigsty and no one to blame for it?  The kitchen's clean, the living room's passable... the bathroom's small, maybe I'll get that out of the way.  I think I'll go make myself a list.  I won't follow it, but it will make me feel productive.

I keep trying to remind myself to make a nametag for my cubicle.  I want to find a print of the peanut butter and Jenny jars that I made for book arts, but I've had that idea for weeks and done nothing about it.  In the meantime, people are calling me Jennifer and that just will not do.

Tonight's To Do List

Walk dogs
Find pb and Jenny jars
Clean bathroom
Start puzzle

For dinner I'll have a frozen quiche, orange bell pepper slices, and Riley poking me with her nose under the table.