Thursday, June 26, 2008

Just Stuff

I seem to have some sort of cough, and I attribute it (at least partially) to having slept with all the fans running on high for a few nights in a row. The cough woke me up around 2:30 today and I finally remembered that (duh) we have cough medicine. And lo and behold -- it did what it's supposed to do.

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Slider-dawg is being a very good boy, keeping me company. Someday I'll post pictures of the doggies, but for now, just know that Slider is a white/cream terripoo, leggy and super-soft, with big brown eyes, a beautiful black nose, and the good-smelling kind of dog breath. And don't forget about his adorable faux-hawk. Last night I tucked him under a blanket with me on the couch and he fell asleep on his back, in my arms, with his face turned toward me. I really could've died from the cuteness. Very dangerous.

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My dad is in town for a few days, being put up by his city in a swanky hotel next to the ballpark, for a meeting involving city government. Last night I drove out to meet him for dinner, and we wound up touring the church where I work. Since it was Wednesday night, there were a lot of activities going on, and he was impressed by the extensive facility and the friendly, welcoming congregants and pastors. It was nice to just hang out with him for a while, showing him this place of comfort.

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My son's dad continues to occasionally surprise me with his narcissism. Rather, he doesn't surprise me as much as he disappoints me. Luckily I can more or less predict his reponses to things, and my disappointment is less about the individual incidents and more about my disappointment at having once chosen this person as a partner. At the same time, I'm grateful for his negative behavior at times, because it has strengthened me in unexpected ways. This is a good thing.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

I Tend to Hug This Kid a Lot

Tonight in the car on the way home, all was silent, until my son spoke. "Mom," he said, "this might sound a little bit weird, but when Daddy and you and I die, I want a really big grave so we can all be in there together. And the dogs."

Friday, June 20, 2008

Two-Dog (and One-Boy) Night

Phew. I should get back to sleep, but I may have a sympathetic touch of...something. Suzy-dawg woke me up with a bout of coughing or dry heaving, and I leapt to my feet to put her in the kitchen in case she barfed. She didn't, but continued to cough for a while and seemed slightly down, like she was still not feeling good. I knew she'd been eating the new dog's food a bit, so I thought perhaps it wasn't agreeing with her. Eventually I went upstairs to the bathroom; she followed me and settled into her regular sleeping spot next to my desk, where she continued to hack intermittently and look depressed. I thought maybe she had a fur ball, but still nothing came up and after a while she curled up and fell asleep. Of course, upon my coming upstairs, the new dog, Slider, awoke from his position next to my son and barked at us once or twice. The little guy is still getting used to the new noises here; he alerts when he hears car engines start up outside, or when the neighbors' dogs bark. I suspect it'll take a little while for him to get used to everything. Hey, it took me a while, too. ;^)

Anyway, Slider's bark woke up the kiddo for a second; he sat up and said hello to me, then fell back asleep. Bless his little heart; I know he loves that Slider (named after a baseball pitch) wants to sleep with him. Suzy always wants to be wherever I am.

Now that the creatures are calm, I feel better, too. Still, it's after 5:00 a.m. and the sun is starting to rise. I may be up for the day. The morning birds are starting their one-note songs. I once emailed the Audubon Society to find out what bird it was, but after listening to audio files of the birds they listed for our area, I couldn't figure it out. I do know a black phoebe built a nest under my deck (and repeatedly pooped on the neighbor's car that was parked there), and I recognize the distinctive call of mourning doves, but the one-note song remains unidentified. I mentally attribute it to "the wakey bird" for now.

So the wakey bird is calling and I'm still up. The dogs will likely want to go outside soon, and I probably won't get any more sleep until tonight. But at least the little creatures are feeling better (or are asleep), and that's a good thing.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

A Few Things

My son dreams about baseball. More than once he's awakened and told me about a particularly high-scoring game about which he dreamt. The scores are usually extremely lopsided, like 50-2. I just have to love this. Of course, he also woke up crying one night because he had "a terrible dream, the most terrible dream ever -- you won a medal at a dog show and you wouldn't let me touch it!" That was memorable, too. ;^)

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I kinda hate to admit this, but I miss Little League season a bit. The games were long and excruciating at times, but they were fun overall and the kiddo loves to play. I think we're heading toward fall ball. The kiddo and his dad spent Father's Day watching a minor league game an hour away. We celebrated F-Day with my dad the day before, and my dad gave the kiddo a bike. Such a fun weekend.

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It sucks so much that Tim Russert died. That's all I can say about that.

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We're getting a dog. A real dog. What's that you say? We already have a dog? Well, Suzy isn't a real dog; she's a dog imposter. Recently, though, she's started learning how to take food off the table when we're not looking, so there's hope for her yet. ;^)

Anyway, I've long thought Suzy needs a dog buddy -- one that's secure and confident, to keep her company during the day and maybe have a positive effect on her. The kiddo and I have visited the animal shelter and Humane Society for the past couple of years, and finally I felt like it was time to adopt. The dog we're picking up this week isn't the dog we set out to get, though. On Thursday I fell in love with a six-year-old male Labrador Retriever. I spent all day Friday just thinking of great names for him, and when we returned on Friday, his card said "Claimed." Good for him; bad for us. He would've been awesome for us and Suzy. The kiddo had fallen in love with a couple of black Chihuahua mixes; one had been adopted when we returned, so we met the female in the interation yard. She was extremely eager to please, but really nervous; I figured we already have an insecure dog and I don't want another one.

After more passes through the shelter, we met a Jack Russell mix that was also nervous: nope. Then we met a blonde spaniel that couldn't have cared less about our existence: too far on the other end of the spectrum. Last, we met a terripoo (terrier-poodle mix, which I've been told I should call a poorier just for fun) and he seemed like a good mix of confidence and friendliness. After sniffing around the yard for a bit, he came over to us for a few scratches and pats, then resumed sniffing the yard, then came back to us, and so on. He's extremely skinny and his hip bones are protruding, so it's obvious the little guy was on his own for a while. No problem; we'll help him gain a few pounds. His coat is cream/apricot-edged and curly-wavy, with a little poof on top of his head that suggests Bedlington Terrier, although I think it's just the way he was groomed. He's three years old, so five years younger than Suzy, and seems to have a good amount of energy that'll make him a good walking partner for me. Although he's not exactly a dude magnet, he seems like he'd enjoy trips to the dog park, whereas Suzy takes one look at the dog park and settles down next to me.

This is going to be fun.

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Speaking of fun, my sister recently celebrated a milestone birthday by...SKYDIVING! It was her first time, and she went with our other sister and her girlfriend. Holy cow. She went hot-air ballooning about five or six years ago, and I thought that was kind of daring, but she was pretty blase about the skydiving trip -- she said she was pretty calm during the dive (which she made with with an experienced diver fastened behind her) and she landed on her feet. Yowza. Now I'm waiting for the tattoos and piercings. ;^)

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Hmm. Suzy was dozing next to my desk and suddenly bolted out of sound sleep to run a few feet, then returned to her sleep spot and curled up again. Maybe she was dreaming about baseball. Gotta catch those pop flies.

Time for me to head off to dreamland, too.

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Those Small Moments

Let's just say baseball consumed our lives for a while there. I think I may be too tired to tell stories about it, although I never say never.

In other news, recently I was out with my son at night after yet another baseball game, searching for a high school graduation gift for our next-door neighbors' daughter. After finding nothing that seemed appropriate, I remembered that teenagers always like money, so we bought a nice card and popped some cash inside. Done. On the way home from the store, I mentioned that we'd better hurry because Suzy-dawg was probably pretty upset about still being in her crate. "How mad do you think she is, Mom?" asked the kiddo. "Oh, about like this," I replied and began screaming in a raspy voice, "'WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?? GET MY LAWYER ON THE PHONE!! SOMEONE'S GOING TO PAY FOR THIS!!"

The kiddo laughed so hard he couldn't breathe. When he finally did catch his breath, I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw him smiling and looking out the window. "I love it when you do that, Mom," he said, chuckling. And that was the most awesome moment of my whole day.