Giving Myself a Month Off

It's the end of September. October 1st is tomorrow, and I have decided to give myself the entire month of October off from blogging.

My detective friend Ash just got into town, and wow is it great to see him! Rabbit is staying with Kumo and I. Kumo... well, I doubt Kumo is ever going anywhere. Miranda has taken over my basement. School starts Tuesday. Things here are crowded, and busy, and wonderful. But I think for a month I'm going to just live my life and not blog about it.

If there's a Halloween party for stuffed animals, it won't be at my house. I'm just not up for holding a party (though I'd attend one, if someone else wanted to host one). Sorry.

While I'm gone, I'll be letting friends and family do guest blog entries, so this blog won't just sit blank for a whole month. Ash has offered to do a couple entries about lost stuffies he's found, and things he's done. Kumo has offered to do a couple entries. Even Rabbit might do a blog entry. So we'll see. It just won't be ME doing a blog entry until November 1st.

Have a great October! See you in November!

Day At The Park With Ivy

Kumo told me that Ivy had a "Teacher In-Service" day, so she was out of school all day Friday. Her Mom, instead of getting the day off, asked Kumo if she could baby sit all day, and of course she said "Yeah!"

Ivy came over about 8:30 a.m. and we started discussing all the things we could do with her day out of school. Ideas thrown out were the zoo, the museum, butterfly pavilion, all kinds of things. And the two of them discussed, and discussed and discussed.

It got to be lunchtime, so I wandered out and got some fast food for everyone. When I came back, they were still discussing.

At about 2:30 they were still discussing all the things we could do, and I pointed out that Ivy's mom would be there to pick her up in about three hours, thus limiting what we could do by a lot. Kumo was out of ideas. Ivy was bored. I suggested the park. I keep driving by and I think it's really pretty, though I've never visited, so that was where we ended up going.

The scenery was BEAUTIFUL!

Day of the Dog Trainer

So I've been thinking that once the puppies are gone, I should really invest some and get Voltaire professionally trained. My friend Mandi told me that she knew a GREAT dog trainer named Shirley and I should give her a call. I did, and she came by today to talk about training.

She brought two of her star pupils with her - Max and Suzy. Both beautiful black labs.

She said that Max and Suzy would illustrate what dog training can do and started putting them through their paces right away.

Max illustrated sit and stay -

Roll over -

Play dead -

And then she made him back up, and kneel beside her. It was really impressive.

Suzy did all those things too, but she also pointed -

And "waved hi" as Shirley called it -

And then backed up and knelt beside Max.

VERY impressive stuff. It only took one word commands from Shirley and the dogs completely hopped to it!

Voltaire, however, seemed unimpressed.

So we'll have to see.

I've decided to let Kumo keep her puppy, so we're going to have to do SOMETHING because two, wild, untrained dogs running around the house, while it is better than six (which is what I have right now) but still too many.

Rabbit in the Crowded House

She's HERE!!!

Rabbit got here about mid-morning. It's been so great to see her. We hung out up in the office for a while, just chatting and catching up (in what would later become "Heaven"). When she felt a bit more brave, we wandered down into the library so she could meet Kumo and be completely mobbed by puppies.

The school bus should pull up with little Ivy any minute now, which will make the house a bit more packed, though I know she's going to love Rabbit.

So it's all very cozy here.

Kumo is being on her very best behavior. She even cleaned out most of her stuff from the bedroom, changed the sheets and comforters on the bed for Rabbit, and all without being asked. Why you might ask?

Kumo wants to keep one of the puppies.

We've discussed that Musashi cannot stay living here (he's just too big) but she's asked me if she could keep one of the more Voltaire sized ones. One of the little boys that she's become rather attached to (apparently he sleeps right snuggled up under one of her ears, and it's breaking her heart to think that she might never have a dog sleep under her ear again.... um... okay).

We'll see. She's being really, really good. She and Rabbit seem to be getting along very well (Kumo even offered her a ride on her motorcycle, since it's such a beautiful day). And it was really nice of Kumo to fix up the bedroom for Rabbit... well, we'll see. Two dogs... hmmm.

Weirdness at the Writers' Group

Apparently weirdness is just a theme to my life at the moment.

I finally managed to get to the writer's group, which was great. I missed everyone. Cat (who is now a homeless wanderer. At least SHE doesn't want to live with me.) was there, and Antigone came. I finally got to meet Ultraviolent Bloodhorn, which was very cool. And (no longer surprising), Miranda was there too.

It was really strange, because I was reading on Wendy's laptop, and suddenly turned and there she was.

With an armchair.

I didn't even ask.

What does it say about my recent life that THAT wasn't even the weird part.

Antigone wandered over near Miranda's chair, at which point Miranda jumped off of her chair, raised her hand, and stared Antigone hard in the face. In a strange voice she said to her something along the lines of "Shadow and shade, lies and darkness, he doesn't know you... but I see you." Miranda then turned her back and walked away from her.

Just plain weird.

Who's Playing With Who?

I wonder if maybe this wasn't quite what Kumo had in mind when she was training the puppies to be "white hot balls of canine ninja fury".


(snicker)

Puppy Monsters and a Visiting Wild Rabbit

Finals are over. School is done for a whole week and a half, and I couldn't be happier. I could use a break. I aced everything, and now I'm halfway to being a massage therapist, which is pretty nifty.

In one more week and the puppies are out of here. This is GREAT news, because I'm not 100% sure they can get any bigger and still fit in my house.

They're pretty cute, but I'll be glad to see them go. I think Kumo will too, since they've taken to sleeping with her at night, mostly on her head.

Out of the blue, I got a letter from a dear friend of mine, that I haven't seen in over a year. Her name is Rabbit, and she's one of my favorite people in the universe. Rabbit's had a tough time of it, but her story isn't for me to tell. I'm just glad she's okay.

Anyway, she's coming to visit, and I am so excited! Hardly anyone got to meet her, she was kind of shy, and hopefully she'll get to meet people this time around.

Here's me and Rabbit nearly 2 years ago. Isn't she pretty?

I'm really excited that she's coming, though I have no idea where she'll sleep. But we'll figure it out when she gets here.

My house has suddenly gotten very crowded, but I don't mind so much. It'll be really great to see Rabbit. I've missed her a lot.