Sounds of Suburbia...

Oh, the sounds of a surburban neighbourhood. Birds chirping, music pumping, squirrels squawking and...

...oh yes, barking. I'm currently listening to an orchestra of dog yips. Well, orchestra is a wee bit poetic. Not unless it's one of those orchestras where someone plays the saw, someone else plays a pickle-tub drum and someone else is attempting to play the trumpet without knowing how. Needless to say, it's a horrible sound.

Yes, the Dog Whisperer's beasts are at it again. Sadly, this week, we don't even get a break at lunchtime. Apparently, because Son of Dog Whisperer is done with school, it seems that his parents are rotating schedules to stay home. This means the beasts aren't crated and are free to run out at lunch and yip at my puppies who HAVE been crated and merely want to do their business and have a short time outside before I have to re-crate them.

Still, there are other sounds I can hear. The squirrels, for example. They do, in fact, squawk. Well, actually, it's more like they click. It's a peculiar thing but they go up in the tree and click at us, sounding like they're trying to spit. It's a weird sound but it happens rather a lot. Also, the squirrels seem to not be as agile as you'd expect squirrels to be. We've now witnessed several of them trying to play trapeze in the trees but wildly swinging instead, missing the branches and falling several levels below before finally getting a grip. It makes a weird rustling sound, sort of like you'd see on Lost when the smoke monster was approaching. If you didn't watch Lost, you're probably not sure what that sounds like. It sounds like trees rustling.

Naturally, there's the sound of lawnmowers too. I mowed tonight too. It was a bad night to pick. It's humid again and I think another storm is on the way. This is the kind of humidity that leaves you sweating and lightheaded after you've only mowed a little. Still, the lawn is mowed for now. It grows so quickly, I'm constantly amazed. The grass and the weeds grow quickly, my plants don't. I'm not sure how that works.

The puppies are ok with the lawnmower. They're still terrified of the hoover but they don't mind the mower. They like to lie down in my path and then scurry away as I approach. They've taken to digging holes in the lawn now. I think it's because they can smell bunny. The rabbit who used to live under my toolshed rather likes to taunt my puppies. He lays down right where Rory's favourite hole-digging spot is and waits until the puppies come out. Then he lets them get a couple of feet away and then he runs. He's fast and I don't think the puppies will ever catch him. I'm also amazed at how he seems to get through a solid fence with no holes. That baffles me at my parents' house too. They have rabbits and they're always running through the fence but I can never figure out how they get out.

Nevertheless, until the bunny starts eating my swiss chard or squash, he's welcome. He's an ok sort of pest. I'm constantly thankful that we only have furry squirrels and bunnies to worry about. My good friend, Ms. P, lives in Texas and has a dog named Burt who is part dachshund, part chihuahua. He's a lovely little thing. He got bit by a copperhead snake two days ago. He's going to be ok thanks to a trip to the animal ER but I can only imagine how scary it was. We have some rather large worms in our backyard but, thankfully, no snakes. I'm hoping Burt makes a speedy recovery.

Ah, there, finally, the dogs next door have stopped yipping. And yes, they WERE barking the entire time I've been blogging. Welcome to our life. I've given up on the privacy fence. Given that the dogs bark at any noise or movement, I have a feeling it wouldn't do very much anyway. On the plus side, Larry-the-potential-serial-killer has volunteered to raise a secret neighbourhood campaign to get the police involved. I'm not sure I'm ready for such drastic action but it's nice to have an ally. The thing is, I like the Dog Whisperer's wife and Son of Dog Whisperer is a little odd but he seems like a nice kid. I want to like the Dog Whisperer himself but he's sort of, uh, well...hard to like. I think it's his blatant ignoring of his yippy dogs combined with his desperate attempts to lure my dogs to the fence. Sookie barks at him. She doesn't bark at anyone else like that- not Possibly-Joe, not Larry-the-potential-serial-killer or Wife of Dog Whisperer. It's just him. Then again, sometimes I'd like to bark at him so I can't blame her.

If you can't beat them, join them...right?

Happy Friday!

Panic-Inspiring Weather Reports....

The thing with spring is that it doesn't seem to last very long. You go from winter to spring and then, suddenly, just as you're enjoying pleasant days with balmy breezes and cool nights, summer comes creeping in, far too prematurely and steals away the balm with humidity and dryness.

That's what's been happening here. For the past week, our temperatures have been in the mid to high 80's with a ton of humidity. It means that it's hot outside in the sun and with the closeness of the air, it feels even hotter. It also means that the mosquitoes are already out in full force. I'm horribly sensitive to mosquito bites. Instead of a little bump, I get a mound that sometimes swells as much as up to an inch across. That, sadly, is not an exaggeration. Last night, during my deadly nightshade genocide, I managed to accumulate no less than six bites, all now swollen and inchy. The worse thing is that I was wearing bug spray!

Still, I'm not really complaining that much. There could be worse things. Tonight, we had a major storm, probably the first really severe one we've had this year. It was the type of storm that makes you jump with the ferocity of the thunder and the lightning feels like it's coming in the windows after you.

I was afraid for the puppies just because they tend to startle at loud noises. Ironically, they didn't seem bothered by it at all. In fact, Rory went outside to find out what the noise was all about. Meanwhile, I'm in the house trying not to jump at the thunder. I like storms but I made the mistake of putting the news on. I don't think there's a quicker way to go from simple jumpiness to complete worry than watching the local weather. They interrupt regular broadcast television to bring you "Storm Event Updates". This would be fine but weatherpeople tend to be drama kings/queens. If you're feeling even the slightest bit susceptible to worry, they bring it right out of you and have you convinced that there's a tornado forming outside your window. They breed fear with their dramatic reporting of heavy rain and strong winds. Stupid me was worried we were going to have a tornado before they'd finished their reporting. I began to worry the puppies would get struck by lightning outside because the weatherman kept saying how dangerous the lightening was. Then I was afraid they might drown because we were going to have heavy flash flooding.

The moral of the story is don't listen to the weatherman. For one thing, they're never right. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I don't know how weathermen/women manage to keep their jobs when they're wrong so very often. This morning, the weatherman I watch on Fox 19 Stormtracker Weather informed us all that we might want to pack our lunches because the weather was going to be horrid around lunch with the storms.

At lunch, the sun was shining and there was blue skies overhead.

Of course, I actually don't watch the morning weather because Frank Marzullo and the Fox 19 Stormtracker Weather might actually be accurate. I've started to watch it because I enjoy the moments of obvious tension between Frank and the morning news host, Rob Williams. There have been several snarky interchanges between the two men where they obviously dislike one another immensely but cover it up with a smile and a tense laugh.

It's sad but I really enjoy those moments. It makes the news more fun. Sometimes, I wish one of them would just completely lose it but I highly doubt they will. Nevertheless, I do enjoy watching Frank get annoyed at Rob because Rob dared say something about the weather. Frank does NOT like it when Rob tries to give a weather forecast. That's when things get tense. For example, Rob said something like, "It's shaping up to be a nice weekend," and Frank's response was, "Oh, are you predicting weather now, Rob?" And then there was a very tense moment of silence when you could tell Rob was trying not to leap across the studio and strangle Frank.

Sometimes, I'd like to strangle Frank. His weather reporting isn't particularly accurate and he loosens his tie rather too much. Also, he's the one with phrases like, "impulses of rain" and "pop-up fog." Still, the annoying thing is that he's become part of my morning routine and being a creature of habit, it's not likely I'm going to start watching something else in the mornings. It's the channel that's set on my TV and at 6 a.m., I'm not exactly coherent enough to channel-surf.

Still, at least he did get it right that we'd have storms at some point today. The storm is over now and the world looks flattened and wet from my window. The humidity hasn't left which leads me to think the storms aren't finished yet. I do like a good storm.

As long as I don't watch the news while they're happening.

Happy Thursday.

Deadly Nightshade Discoveries...

It felt weird starting the work week on a Tuesday. It wasn't bad but it felt odd. It was nice to have those sudden, unexpected realizations that it was, in fact, Tuesday and that there were less days to go until the weekend than there usually are when you start work for the week.

It was a quiet day in the office. Days after holidays usually are; everyone's tired and crabby because they want to be back at home, sitting in the sun, working in the garden...whatever they did to enjoy their Monday. I was quiet too but mostly because I was tired from my early morning starts over the weekend. Ironically, the puppies did NOT want to get up this morning and would rather have continued sleeping. It's too bad they don't feel like that on days when we actually can sleep in.

I spent the day in the office working quietly on my project. I did sneak in a bit of research though. I've been trying to figure out what a shrub in my garden is. I've searched everywhere to find it and I can't find anything that meets the description. It's a very pretty little plant- dark green leaves, purple stems and clusters of little purple flowers with yellow tongues.

Well, after several attempts to search out the name of this pretty plant, today I found it. It turns out it's deadly nightshade- a very toxic plant. I've heard of it, naturally but I didn't know what it looked like. It's supposed to be fatal to animals if they eat the berries. Since I have two curious little pups who like to eat things from nature, I wasn't about to take any chances. I now no longer have deadly nightshade in my garden. It was pretty but it's not worth the risk.

I find myself becoming more of a 'mother' with my dogs every day. Pulling up the nightshade was the canine equivalent of putting stickers on the poisonous chemicals used in the home and putting a lock on the door so kids can't get them. I also find myself treating them like children- they know the tone of my voice when I'm not happy with them and a simple "What'cha doin' " brings them scurrying back from wherever they've disappeared to in order to make mischief.

So, even though it took a while, I'm glad I discovered the name of that plant. I think I got it all. We spent the evening pulling it up and getting bitten by mosquitoes. I also had to chop down part of a sapling tree. The old lady who owned my home had two enormous trees at one point but she had one cut down because she didn't like it and the other was damaged in the storm. The one that was damaged continues to grow branches from the stump. At first, I didn't mind it because it was a nice backdrop for my flowerbeds around it. I've quickly realized that it's not such a good thing. The limbs are very flimsy and elastic and all it takes is some heavy rain to flatten the big branches to the ground and promptly flattening all my flowers beneath it. I've chopped off a lot of the problem branches so hopefully that will help.

I'm finding gardening and yard maintenance to be an ongoing battle. I planted vegetables which are doing ok but the weeds around them are doing much better. The more I weed, the more weeds grow. I keep pulling them and still they grow. I would rather like to find out if there's anything I can do to stop the weeds growing. I have weed killer but I'm a bit tentative about that because of the puppies. I've tried mulch. I'm reluctant to lay down landscaping fabric because I think it makes the ground beneath it too claylike and hard to work. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm open.

Still, the one nice thing about weeding is that it gets me out in the garden after work. It lets me get down on my knees in the dirt and be at one with nature. Also, it lets me be at one with the puppies because they really like to launch themselves at my face because it's closer to their level than usual. It's nice to spend time outside with them so I won't complain too much.

Of course, I will complain that I have to mow the grass again tomorrow if it doesn't rain. The Dog Whisperer has just mowed his and it makes mine look twice as long as it really is. This time he's abandoned his diagonal mowing technique and gone back to the normal straight rows. Of course he did mow shirtless but I didn't look. It's best that way.

Happy Wednesday!

Lazy Holiday Weekends....

I love long weekends. It's so nice to have three days to just do whatever you want. Regular weekends are just a little too short especially when you spend Saturday running errands/doing tasks you didn't get a chance to do in the week and Sundays are spent trying to relax or, worse, continuing those errands. The three day weekend gives you one extra day that is pure weekend- time to actually unwind and relax.

My weekend was spent with my friend Saz who flew in from Washington D.C. She was originally supposed to come in February but thanks to the mountains of snow that was dumped on the DC area in February, she had to postpone.

This time, it was the opposite of snowy. It was very hot and rather humid. Nevertheless, we managed to make it work in our favour. Neither Saz or I are what you'd call 'outdoor gals' or, really, even in the realm of being even remotely outdoorsy. Thus, we find our favourite entertainment inside and so the heat of the briskly approaching summer didn't bother us much at all.

It was nice to have a human friend to talk to. I love my puppies but they're not much on conversation. Also, it's nice to have someone to talk to who isn't going to run off with my shoes or try to nip my nose. If Saz did, I'd be worried. Fortunately, she didn't. We spent the weekend just relaxing. We did some shopping, did a girly day with a nice brunch and mimosas, pedicures and seeing "Sex and the City 2."

It seemed like a great idea except that "Sex and the City 2" was pretty awful. It was just a cheap attempt to continue the popularity of the TV show and the first movie. It was full of cheap gags, bad puns and a ridiculous romp in the Middle East that lasted FAR too long and made you cringe. It also made you dislike one of the main characters immensely.

Still, even in spite of the bad movie, we had fun. Saz got along very well with Rory and Sookie who decided that jumping on her head was their new favourite pasttime. I got to cook for a guest which is always fun, particularly when you don't disgust them. I also got to see how it felt to play a hostess in my own home.

I have to say, it felt pretty nice. It's nice to have the space to give guests their own room. It's nice to have a dining room table to set for a nice dinner and it's especially nice to be able to know that it's my house.

It's actually been a year now since I put in the bid on this place. In a week or so, I'll have been a homeowner for exactly a year. In that year, I've learned things about painting, mowing, putting down new sticky floor tiles and growing my own vegetables. I've also learned to cook much better than I ever could, finished a novel and published one. I've also adopted two puppies who have become the centre of my domestic world. I've learned not to despise my job most days. I've learned that while neighbours can be very nice, their yappy dogs make them seem far less so.

Most of all, I think I've learned that owning a house is a good thing. I'm proud to have made the move and I'm proud to be able to have guests and entertain like a real grown-up. The house I bought from the nice old lady last year has finally become my home. Well, mine, Sookie and Rory's home, really.

Now that Saz has left, the house seems really quiet. A little time remains of the long weekend so I think the pups and I will probably grill outside for dinner. It seems like the right thing to do on a holiday and now we have a house, we can grill. I still need to learn how to do THAT a little better but we're working on it. It all takes time...right?

I hope you all had good long weekends. Happy Tuesday to you all!

The Lure of the Long Weekend....

It's going on Friday and it's the Friday before a long weekend. There's nothing better, in my opinion. Unless, of course, it's the Friday before a vacation, preferably one that lasts a couple of weeks. Since I don't get those very often- if at all- I'll take what I can get and a long weekend will do quite well, thank you.

My long weekend will be spent hosting my first overnight non-parental guest in my house. My parents both came down one night but it was the night before I was going to have minor surgery so it was really them just being good parents. My mum came down one other time but that was a very quick trip. No, Saz's visit this weekend marks my first real weekend visit I've had.

I have to admit, I'm not nervous per se because it's Saz and she's not going to walk around and judge my house but, in a way, it's my first foray into true adulthood that I actually have a spare bedroom and not a pull out, wire-framed futon that squeaks whenever someone moves, no matter how much you oil it. It'll be nice to be a grown-up host and make breakfast for my guest as well as dinner.

Oh, who am I kidding, I'm just thrilled that I'm going to have someone to feed. As much as I like cooking, it's a little anti-climactic to make something that I, at least, think tastes rather good and be the only one eating it.

But it's not just about the food although, when I'm involved, food usually plays rather a large role because, as you've probably learned by now...I love food. Though, lately, I've been a good Monkeypants and cut back on the junk in an attempt to lose some weight. I've been successful but I'll never be the size four I was in my youth. I'd sigh but, frankly, I think that I might have been too skinny and there's something to be said for some curves and a little more up-top than there used to be. Not that there's much up-top but, in my mind at least, it feels like there's more.

Anyhow, it's also about showing off my house which is slowly but surely starting to look the way I want it too. I still have the 1970's style family room that has the most hideous curtains in the world and is badly in need of paint but the rest of the house is coming along. Of course, this means I have to obsessively clean my house as I did last weekend and I did tonight.

Unfortunately, tonight, I discovered that while I was hoovering, nothing was being picked up. This lead me to discover a blockage in the hose of the vacuum cleaner. I thought it'd be easy to unblock. Silly Captain Monkeypants- when is anything every easy.

I had to find something to clear out the blockage. I tried a metal stake from the garden but that was not strong enough. I tried a broom handle. That was too short. Eventually, after much sweat and energy, I manage to dislodge a solid mass of everything that I've vacuumed up in the past few weeks. Vile, to say the least. Although, I have to admit, there was definitely a feeling of triumph as the blockage finally gave way to my furious attempts to dislodge it.

I only usually say it after incidents like that but sometimes, it'd be nice to have someone else to unblock the hoover. I love my puppies but they don't talk back. Also, their lack of opposable thumbs means they're useless when it comes to installing new TV's or unblocking the hoover. Also, they can't mow the lawn or take out the rubbish. In fact, aside from being hopelessly cute, they're biggest talents involve digging holes in my lawn, eating and bringing the outside...inside.

It doesn't mean I love them any less. It just means that they look at me like I'm mental while I'm doing things like unblocking vacuum cleaner hoses.

Still, they're good company, even when they attempt to run off with the screwdriver when I'm not looking. They also try to eat batteries and change the TV channel. Now that they're good at- all they have to do is sit on the remote control.

I think, however, we're now officially ready for our visitor. If not...well, she's coming anyway. I think she'll excuse a few pieces of grass and a lot of puppy toys everywhere. I'll just make her dinner in return. Hopefully that'll make up for it.

Unless I cook her something revolting.

I better not think of that. I'll just think forward to three lovely days off work with good company and some quality puppy time. I think that's the best approach. I hope you all have great weekends.

Happy Memorial Day!

Elephants,TV's and Terminator Eyes

Today was quite a busy day in many respects. It started out much the same as usual except instead of having to drive to the office, I pretty much rolled out of bed, went to my computer at home and logged on. I actually got permission to work from home for a few hours because I had splurged and ordered a new television from Amazon.com and I had to be home to accept delivery.

The nice thing about working at home is that...you're at home. The bad part is...you're at home and the last thing you really want to do is work. Still, I actually did work while the puppies were good little girls and amused themselves for the morning. Of course, given that they're used to sleeping all morning in their crate and they didn't even nap before I left for work around nooon, they were pretty tired when I left.

I actually had a nice productive day at work too which made the afternoon go pretty quickly. After work, I had an eye appointment because my eyes have been very red for the past three weeks and will not allow me to put contacts in them. I've been looking like the Terminator whenever I try. It turns out that I might be allergic to my contact solution which I didn't consider. Silly me switched brands because I didn't think it would make a difference but when I think back, that's pretty much when I started my zombie-eye phase.

This evening, I managed to get a prescription filled, mow the lawn and hook up my TV. I have to admit, I'm quite pleased I managed to do it by myself. The problem with being a single woman is that sometimes, you have to be resourceful. Take for example, the fact that I bought a TV stand from a furniture store. I didn't want to pay delivery because it was literally right around the block from my house. However, the stand- a sofa table, really- was far too heavy to be carried and far to large to fit in the boot of my car.

I told the saleslady that I'd find a way to pick it up. I knew a couple of people at work who would be nice enough to help and, sure enough, a friend with a convertible was very kind and willingly volunteered her car's back seat. The TV stand fit very well and we got it to my house with no trouble at all.

The thing is, even though I usually find a solution, there are times when I do feel a little helpless being alone. There are things which really require two people- like assembling a TV stand and mounting the TV on it. Except I've grown used to doing things by myself and I managed not only to get the TV on the stand but also to relocate my old television. This, I'd like to say, was no mean feat. It's a 27 inch regular old TV and compared to my new flat screen weighs roughly the same as a small elephant.

(Speaking of elephants, I had a HORRIBLE dream last night- I was at a farm and the farmer-lady told me I could see all the animals. For some reason, I really wanted to see the little piglets so I went to check them out. Except the piglets had tusks and weird sewn-up-mouths and looked a bit elephantine. Well, turns out that their mother WAS an elephant and I was attack by an elephant. It was terrifying. I managed to get the elephant to stop attacking me by using some dog-training techniques. Then, just as I thought it was ok, I found out Sookie had been hit by a car. Like I said, horrid dream. Aren't you glad I shared my weird subconscious with you?)

Anyways, I did manage to move my elephant-TV as well as the old stand that it's been sitting on. I also managed to get the TV working which turned out to be quite easy. The only sad thing is that it's an HD TV and I don't yet have HD television coming in through my cable box. According to Direct TV, I have to pay $200 to get a new receiver. We'll see about that. I'm going to try the old, "my contract is up soon and I'm thinking of switching to Time Warner Cable- can you counteroffer" technique. It's actually not that much of a fib. I could probably get a pretty good package deal from them.

So, now I have an nice new TV on a nice new TV stand and my living room looks a little like a herd of elephants went through.

(I must be on an elephant kick. I wonder if there's any meaning to that?)

Having a messy living room is not good because I spent forever cleaning in anticipation of Saz's visit this weekend and now I have to do it all over or, at least, vacuum.

Still, it's been a productive evening even if Sookie and Rory didn't get their walk. I don't think they minded. Since I had to drive by Larry's house on the way to the pharmacy and he was out in his front yard, chatting. I noticed that Larry was using the up-close-and-personal chat method that he uses with me and I felt slightly better. Also, I noticed that the neighbour was clearly trying to back away. Again, that made me feel better.

All in all, this has been a weird day and I know the puppies are confused at their change in routine. They've been following me around all night and are currently clamouring to get on my lap. I better go attend to them. I think sitting down with a cuddly pup or two might be just the way to unwind after a day like this.

Thanks, as always, for reading. Happy Thursday!

Dog Walking Encounters...

It was another sunny, warm day today. It was, in fact, quite beautiful outside. I think spring is definitely giving way to summer, slowly but surely.

The pups and I decided to take advantage of the weather and take a walk. Generally, this is actually quite an ordeal as they absolutely despise their harnesses. Sookie runs away the minute I pull them out and I have to go outside and wait until she gets distracted by a bird, squirrel, rabbit or bug before I scoop her up and take her inside where I put on her harness with much whimpering involved.

Then, of course, I have to carry her outside because she has a fear of going through the door. I think I mentioned that I accidentally shut her tail in the door once but, in my defense, she was afraid of the door before then. Dogs have weird quirks. I used to watch Gilmore Girls- still one of my all-time favourite TV shows. Lorelei Gilmore (namesake of my Rory) had a dog named Paul Anka which was the quirkiest dog ever. He was afraid of peas and didn't like to go down steps. I used to think it was quite silly and cute but not at all realistic until I got Sookie. Sookie doesn't like to take treats from me with her teeth. She gums them and promptly drops them on the ground and then wraps her paws around them, delicately chewing away. She's afraid of her harness and the front door. She thinks when I invite her to sit up on the sofa with Rory and I that I'm going to...do something bad and she runs away. Sookie, in short, is a little quirky. And, of course, I love her dearly.

We did eventually make it outside for our walk where we managed to get about ten feet when we ran into the non-Dog-Whisperer next-door-neighbours. They're a very nice couple but very chatty. We haven't seen them in a while and so we stopped to say hi. Then they insisted on getting two of their three dogs- their corgi and their King Charles cavalier spaniel- and bringing them outside on a leash to meet the girls. This was cute at first except Rory got a little excited and started to chomp on Lance's ears. Lance is the spaniel. It's weird for me to call a spaniel lance because I have a friend named Lance and he looks nothing like a spaniel.

Lance became annoyed with Rory, naturally. He turned his back and that was that. Then the corgi came out and I can never remember his name but it's something like Timmy. Rory decided to try to bite his nose. Rory is very playful and likes to jump on things. This list of things she likes to jump on includes: the sofa, worms, birds, bumblebees, Sookie, Sookie's tail, Sookie's ears, my feet, my shoes, sticks, rocks, other dogs, other dogs' noses, other dogs' ears...you get the picture. She's a jumper.

The corgi was not impressed. He barked. Then Sookie had to bark. Sookie has a bark that could seriously break glass. It's very high-pitched. It sometimes hurts my ears. The sound shocked the dog-whose-name-is-something-like-Timmy and he backed away which prompted Rory, naturally, to try to jump on his head. To make matters worse, Son-of-Dog-Whisperer walked by with a large, orange, plastic toy pistol. He pointed it at the dogs. The corgi went nuts. Then Lance went nuts. Then Rory got excited and tried to ride on Lance's back. Lance stomped away. The corgi licked Sookie who was lying down, peacefully observing the mini-chaos. She got up and walked away.

I think my neighbours were a little sorry they'd decided to bring out their dogs. I tried to control the girls but, well, they're puppies and they like other dogs. Actually, let me correct that, they seem to like other dogs who do not yap continuously and annoy the crap out of them by standing at the fence and barking every time they move like, say, the Dog Whisperer's beasts. Of course, I may be projecting a little bit there.

Anyways, we managed to leave the neighbours with a friendly 'have a great evening' and we continued on our way. Then two bunnies happened to run across the road, chasing each other. Rory decided she had to have a bunny. Fortunately, she was on a leash and I have a pretty firm grip. Sookie laid down because that's what dogs do when they see bunnies...right? Ok, I admit...Sookie is a bit strange.

I got Rory to calm down and we continued along without incident until we go to Possibly-Joe the plumber's house. He was on his room blowing leaves off it. I'm not sure why his roof has so many leaves on it, to be honest. He doesn't have many trees around him- not ones that are tall enough to drop leaves on a house. It was a bit odd, to tell you the truth. He threw us a friendly wave but his blowing-thingy alarmed the puppies who get a bit skittish around electrical-noise-making-things. Sookie hides when I hoover the floor. Rory usually runs away although she did bravely try to bite the hoover once. Then she ran away.

We managed to get by Joe and his leaf blower thing although the girls had tangled up their leashes around my legs. This was a complicated untangling affair because I was wearing a skirt and I had to lift my legs quite high. I hope no one saw my underwear.

After Joe's place is the most precarious part of our walk...Larry the Potential Serial Killer's house. I didn't see Larry as we started to pass by. I heaved a sigh of relief.

Silly Captain Monkeypants! He was in his back yard! With visitors! He came to shout "hi" over his gate but Joe's blower was noisy and he couldn't hear my "hi" response.

So, he came running out to say hi to 'the fellas'. His guests were left behind. He greeted me with a "I haven't seen you since the last time I saw you!". Uh, yes...that is a very true statement. He seemed to abandon his guests to his back garden. Eventually, though they came out and introduced themselves as Robin and Mona.

I have absolutely no idea who Robin and Mona actually were but they seemed quite nice. They left quite quickly to pick up someone else. I was a little alarmed because Mona, the driver, had started backing up from Larry's driveway before Robin had got in and Robin had to sort of run to hop in the car. Also, since the puppies, Larry and I were standing right behind the car, it was doubly alarming. I pulled the girls to safely and Mona and Robin peeled out.

Ok, so they didn't peel out but they left in a hurry. Larry wanted to show me his "to-made-as" (translation: tomatoes). I declined. I think one of my issues with Larry is that he's an 'up close and personal' chatter. He really has no concept of "This is my space, this is your space." So, talking to him involves casually backing away. Tonight, I tried that and my flip-flops and the leashes got a wee bit tangled but, fortunately, it didn't involve any accidental underwear showing moments.

I excused us from Larry by saying that the puppies were hot and needed water which, for the record, was not a fib. It was just a very convenient reason to escape. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that Larry seemed quite disappointed. I think Larry is quite lonely. I feel sorry for him but I'm not sure I want to be that friendly to Larry, if you know what I mean.

The girls and I began our final stretch towards home. Once we got to our front garden, Sookie promptly laid down, refusing to budge. This is my cue to pick her up and carry her back through the front door. All in all, the ten minute walk took about 40 minutes tonight. Fortunately, I had time to spare and didn't have anything else planned.

As I said in my last blog, living in a neighbourhood is fun. It turns a simple walk into an adventure of sorts because you never know who you're going to meet.

Well, except for Larry. We always meet Larry.

Sigh.

Happy Wednesday!