Beautiful Weather, Mundane Days...

Today was one of those sort-of-nothing days where not much of any significance happened at all. I was woken early to the wonderful sound of Dog Whisperer’s Beasts barking themselves into a frenzy very close to my bedroom window. They like to stand at the gate and bark. My window is probably six feet from the gate. Thus, when they bark and I’m trying to sleep, it’s frustrating. Even Rory had a good moan about it. My pups used to sit upright when they’d hear the yapping. Now, like me, they grumble and try to shut it out so we can sleep longer. I find that amusing.

When we did finally get up, it was to a day at work that was busy but not terribly productive, if that makes sense. I’m trying hard to fill jobs but the ones we have are the hard ones that no one in Cincinnati has been able to fill. I did manage to get two interviews set up for candidates but since it’s for the same job, it really only counts as one since only one of them can get the job.

I also did lose a candidate who my account manager and I have been working very hard to make happy. He got an offer from our client which was a very good offer. Unfortunately, he had another job offer- ironically from my old company- for a lot less money.

For some reason, he decided to reject our offer and take the one with my old company. I’m sure something about it appealed more but, well, I can’t help but think he’s making a bit of a mistake. It’s not just about the money. When we met with him, he told us he was looking for a position where he could move up, learn new technologies and rise in his career. I don’t think that’s possible at my old company, honestly.

Still, it’s his choice. I didn’t tell him that in my soon-to-be-published novel, Emmy goes to Hell, there’s a whole level of Hell dedicated to my old job. Maybe I should have done. Still, he made his choice and as frustrating as it is, there’s nothing I can do about it.

Aside from that, my day was rather dull. I had another candidate come in who’s been out of work for a while. He actually lives in my neighbourhood and the dogs and I walk by his house on our sojourns fairly regularly. He was very nice but a little odd. Still, at the very least, it was nice to meet another neighbour.

All-in-all, it wasn’t the most exciting day on the planet. My boss is out of the office. This, of course, means that Mr. Lazy Account Manager in our office left at 1 p.m. Today, he had a stomach ache. Last week, he left each day by 3 p.m. One day, he had to pick up his kids, another day, one was sick, another day, he had to go help his wife, another day, he had a meeting. He’s very good with excuses. He only does it when my boss isn’t around. Also, since he tells our administrator his reason for leaving, it’s oddly different from what he tells the rest of us. While I think it’s nice to get out of the office early once in a while, he’s got to the point where everyone knows he’s just not doing any work. Well, everyone except my boss and I have a feeling that, thanks to my endearingly interfering coworker, he’ll know very soon.

Fortunately, it’s a beautiful day outdoors which redeems the somewhat dull indoor day. On days like this where it’s in the mid 70 degree range, my favourite thing to do is sit outside and either read or, as I’m currently doing, edit the proof copy of Emmy Goes To Hell. I got it back from the publisher last week and while I like the cover, there was still quite a lot of edits to make inside. It’s nice to sit outside with a cold drink, my book and my pen. Usually, I have a Sookie trying to sit on my lap which not only makes it a little hard to edit but, also, makes her sister rather jealous and having two dogs on my lap is just downright uncomfortable. I don’t have that much lap.

The trouble with the evenings is that they go so fast. By the time I get home, walk the pups and make dinner, the evening is waning away. I probably could cut down on the time I spend making dinner but where’s the fun in that?

On the plus side, after a slightly dull day at work, it’s a sheer pleasure to sit outside and relax with the pups milling around my feet. Except for the barks of the Beasts next door, it’s a peaceful thing to do. While I still hate their incessant yapping, I’ve got to the point where I can literally ignore it when I’m outside. It’s all I can do.

Besides, it’s an even nicer pleasure when they finally go inside and, suddenly, there’s a blissful silence.

That makes it almost worthwhile.

Happy Wednesday!

Hot Spring Days

We seem to be having a heatwave. We’ve officially had 90 degree temperatures for a couple of days now and we’re supposed to get up near 100 degrees on Wednesday.

I’m not enjoying the heatwave. While it’s normal in July and August, it’s just plain bizarre in June. June is supposed to be a transition month- the gentle balmy spring gives way to the more aggressive temperatures of the summer. June is NOT supposed to be summer. Not yet.

It’s odd, really. In April and May, we had near-record rainfall. We haven’t had rain in quite some time. Well, that’s unless you count the odd shower we had on Saturday when I’d just put my nice furniture outside so I could work on the floor project. The sun was shining, the skies were blue and then…it rained. It was most bizarre. I’m pretty sure if I hadn’t put the furniture outside, it wouldn’t have rained. It’s that whole Murphy’s law thing.

So, it’s really dry at the moment and hot. It’s also quite humid. It makes it hard to be outside for any real length of time. I try to still walk the dogs every night but I have to plan our route carefully. Rory lays down in complete protest whenever she’s hot and tired. It’s a little embarrassing when I’m walking and then, suddenly, I have a dog laying horizontally on the ground, refusing to move. I almost carried her yesterday but then I realized that it would be a little ridiculous to carry a dog when we were on a walk.

The neighbourhood seems to be suffering the heat too. There are less people out and about and more people sitting in lawn chairs. My neighbourhood seems to be very big on putting chairs on the front stoop and watching the rest of the neighbourhood. I feel as though I’m doing something wrong by sitting on my back patio in private when every other house has someone sitting outside.

The lawns are also suffering a little. Two weeks ago, there seemed to be an unspoken contest to see who could keep their lawn the shortest and tidiest. I didn’t compete. At best, my lawn looks ok but I can’t be bothered to try for those diagonal lines that seem to be in fad. Also, there seems to be a certain height of grass that the Meticulous Mowers aspire to achieve whereas my mower seems to mow on short, shorter or very short.

Now, the lawns are being left a little longer because mowing is a bit more of a challenge in this heat. In my case, I have to mow tonight because the grass is getting long and it’s inconvenient for my low-lying dachshunds as they run their normal path. I find it interesting that dogs have a regular path, by the way. My girls have a very set pattern when they get outside. The grass has a track built into it from their constant runs in this pattern. My parents’ dogs are the same way.

In this heat, the girls start out running but within moments, they become more sluggish, their tongues start lolling out of their mouths and they only give it a short time before they run inside to the cooler air conditioned shelter. Sookie will splay out on the kitchen floor which is cooler than the carpet. Rory will gorge on water and come away from the bowl still slurping so that the floor gets rather wet and drippy. Then she’ll inevitably come and try to lick me which is rather a wet experience.

Still, I’m trying not to let the heat deter me from doing stuff outside even though it’s hotter than it should be. I did plant some flowers yesterday. I need to plant some vegetables too althoughmy seedling harvest this year is pathetic. For every pack of seeds I planted, I think I got maybe 5 plants at most. I’m not sure why. I’m hoping for some zucchini, at least. I can get tomatoes and peppers from elsewhere.

It’s just that when I do garden, I come inside all sweaty and crotchety. Even when I’m working inside, that happens. My un-tiling project this weekend was in the one room of my house that wasn’t air conditioned. As a result, I’m quite glad I didn’t have anyone around to snap at and bark at- I wasn’t very pleasant. Unfortunately, during one of my waspish periods where I was very hot and rather sick of scraping tiles, Son of Dog Whisperer and his little friend rang my doorbell. They wanted me to buy a bottle of warm water for $1. They had their lemonade stand again and were trying to solicit from me. Normally, I might have been more polite but given their behavior last time combined with my rather crotchety frame of mind, I firmly told them I was too busy to mess around and they needed to not ring my doorbell again. They wanted to know what I was doing and when I told them I was redoing the floor, they started asking questions. I was a little rude, I know but I closed the door and said, “not today, sorry but I have to get back to work.”

I feel a little bad because I know I was quite mean to them but, honestly, if I didn’t tell them straight, they’d probably have started begging for money again and I was not about to indulge them. There’s a line between being cutely enterprising and being downright obnoxious and they far crossed the line last time.

Besides, it was hot and I was grouchy.

I’m trying not to become too grouchy on a regular basis even though it’s hot. I find that it doesn’t do to stay out too long in the heat. Regular air conditioning breaks are a good way to make it tolerable. Besides, this is only the start of the Dog Days of Summer and I better get used to it.

Still, I can’t help but wonder if maybe, just maybe, Spring will back for a little while and we’ll get our 75 degree days with a light breeze.

I’ll keep hoping as the thermometer begins to climb. It doesn’t hurt to hope…right?

Happy Tuesday!

I Need Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

I miss the sun.

It’s funny- I always complained that there was too much sun when I lived in L.A. and I missed non sunny weather too much. Now it seems, I’m unable to be content and now I’m complaining that I don’t like the rain.

The thing is, I do like rain. I like it a lot. It has a place. It’s necessary to make things grow. I’m just a little fed up of it. We haven’t had a real spring sunny day in a very long time. Last week, when the sun did actually shine it was on a very hot, muggy day that didn’t feel very springlike at all.

Today, we have a constant drizzle. It’s grey. It’s cold. It’s very un-Maylike. I’m a little sad about that. I like spring because it’s refreshing and pretty and green.

This spring, so far, has been grey, wet and green. It hasn’t been very refreshing.

I keep trying to see the bright side of all the rain. It’s not that it’s even good for the garden because the garden is so saturated, there’s nowhere for the rain to go. I’d say that it was nice to have an excuse to stay inside but I don’t want an excuse to stay inside.

Still, whining doesn’t help the fact that the sun isn’t supposed to shine much this week and, so far, the weather for the weekend is yet more rain.

It also doesn’t help the fact that I think everyone in this corner of the world feels the same way. Still, things could always be worse. Given the flooding down south and the tornadoes in Alabama, I think we’re pretty lucky.

It’s actually amazing how much the weather affects our moods though, isn’t it? In October, we welcome the first real ‘cold snap’ of the year and the dropping temperatures and welcome the autumn chill so we can start wearing warmer clothes, drinking hot beverages and enjoying the pumpkin-infused Fall. Then, by the beginning of January after the glow of the holidays is over and all that’s left is a stark new year, we’re longing for warmth and sunshine.

After a period of greyness like we’ve had, I’ve noticed that almost everyone feels the same way: sluggish, slightly crotchety and irritated that we’re being deprived of time outdoors. After all, here in the Midwest, we spent December through March inside because it was too cold and snowy/rainy to go outside. By April, we want to embrace the springtime.

It was ok in April. Though we got fed up of rain, the saying goes “April Showers Bring May Flowers.”

It’s just that May seems to have forgotten the flowers and is continuing with the showers.

I feel like a toddler that has been trapped inside too long. I want to run around, tilt my face up to the sunshine and smell the lilacs. Instead, my lilac bush appears to have given up and died because the roots got too wet. I’m sad about that. I had about two days of blossoming lilacs and they the bush started to go a rather alarming shade of dying green. I want to sit outside on my patio and feel the cool Spring evening start to move in on the warmth of the day.

Still, there is one bright side to all this rain: There’s always hope for a sunny tomorrow. When the sun does shine, we appreciate it more. This is why, in my neighbourhood, at the mere hint of sunshine, the cacophony of a hundred mowers rises into the air.

In the meantime, some people actually have decided that drizzle and light rain is a perfectly acceptable accompaniment to mowing and the sound of a lone mower often accompanies the greyness. The kids on my street have started playing outside when the rain is light, wearing raincoats and playing their normal games. I suppose there comes a time when you realize that the rain isn’t going to stop but it shouldn’t stop you.

Maybe that’s what I need to take from this. I need to get myself a pair of non-leaky wellington boots and a rain jacket and ignore the fact that the rain is coming down. After all, when it’s wet, the weeds come up a little easier and it’s easier to dig.

After all, that’s how the world has functioned through the centuries, right? By adapting and evolving. So, maybe I’ll adapt and evolve and pretend that I live in Seattle where it rains a lot.

In the meantime, I’ll just keep up that hope that, maybe, just maybe, it won’t be raining tomorrow.

Happy Tuesday!

Busy Project Days

I'd say that I can't believe the weekend is over already but, really, I can. I can't say I haven't used every minute of it either because...I feel like I have.

My busiest weekends always end up seeming to be the ones where I don't have anything planned. My original intention was to get the tiling on my Tuscan room floor done. However, due to the unexpected expense of a termite extermination as well as having to buy a new lawnmower, the floor tiles were a little else on which to splurge.

Besides, Saturday ended up being a rainy, gloomy day and I needed to have a sunny, warm day on which to tile so the pups could be outside and I could put all the stuff currently on the floor of the Tuscan room outside so I'd be able to work. In the end, I had a very pleasant indoor sort of Saturday in which the pups laid around being lazy while i cleaned. I did some reading. I watched some movies. It wasn't the most productive day but I don't feel like it was a wasted laze. I needed that laze quite badly.

Sunday was quite the opposite. I decided to make it Project Day. I ended up building a nice trellis on the edge of my patio so that I could sit and have a bit of peace from the yappy dogs next door. I also made a neat little garden around the trellis so I can plant some honeysuckle and have it grow to give me complete privacy. During the trellis project, I realized that in order to move all the sod that I'd dug up to make room for the trellis, I really needed a wheelbarrow.

This is something that's been on my list of things to get since I moved in. So, I went to buy a wheelbarrow from Lowes. It turns out that wheelbarrows don't always come assembled. I did not know this. The particular wheelbarrow I wanted (read: The most inexpensive) was all sold out of the assembled model so I ended up buying it in three parts: The buckety part, the handles and the wheel and assembly stuff.

I thought, "Oh, it's a wheelbarrow...how hard can it be to build?" And I loaded the pieces up in my car and headed home.

Silly Captain Monkeypants. Considering I have trouble with even the simplest instructions from IKEA, I should have realized it'd never be easy. Building a wheelbarrow is quite complicated. There are cross bracy thingys, handles and all sorts of nuts and bolts. Long story short...I was successful. In between the taking all the parts out of the box and being successful is a series of rather rude words that I shouted a few times, a couple of minor injuries to my fingers and several "oops, I did that backwards" moments.

Still, I have a wheelbarrow. I also have a trellis. I have no honeysuckle because Lowes didn't have any. I will have some soon. I also have two very tired pups. They decided the best course of action for themselves while I went about my project business was to run around outside the whole time. Now they're sleepy. I am too, for that matter. I'm also a little sore.

However, in the long run, I'm very pleased with my day since it was absolutely perfect outside- sunny, warm and breezy. I find that on weekends with days like this, it makes the thought of Monday much more bearable.

Also, I'm tired enough that my brain has shut down and doesn't have the energy to be disappointed that I have to work tomorrow which definitely helps with the Monday thing. It also means that my blog will be a little shorter than some of my waffles because, well, forming cohesive sentences is getting harder by the minute.

Which, really, is how I usually begin Mondays anyway so I'm in good shape.

Happy Monday!

Thankfulness for Near Perfect Days...

I think, as a human race, we like to complain a lot. It's pretty much second nature for most of us. I'm not excluding myself or putting myself above anyone by saying this. Just reading back over my blog posts for the past couple of months and I'd be a resounding hypocrite if I said I wasn't one of the complainers.

It's easy to complain. We go on Facebook and we complain in our status about work, about the weather, about Obama, about daycare, about food...pretty much about anything that annoys us.

There's nothing wrong with this. As it is for me, for most, it's a coping technique. If we say out loud what's bothering us, what's bugging us, we suddenly feel much better. We get it out of our system. If we tell the world of Facebook that other drivers are terrible and that we're sick of people who don't clean up after their dogs...it's out there. Our complaint is heard and even though it doesn't correct the situation, we feel better.

Yet, the thing is, I think that we get so hung up on complaining about what's wrong, we forget to remember what's right. I'm the first to blog and whine about a bad day at work. Yet, for all the bad days, there are good days too.

Today was one of them. It was about as perfect as a day can get in its own special way. Thus, instead of complaining about everything, I want to acknowledge that for all the bad Mondays in life, there are also wonderful Sundays.

For me, my day began early. The pups and I went to bed at a decent time last night so we could get up at 7:30 a.m. this morning. We awoke with the alarm and I had the luxury of having a Sookie snuggled on one side and a Rory on the other. When we did get up, it was at the same time that the sun was just beginning to shine. I let the pups out, I got dressed. Our day began. My parents were coming down and I because I'm a fanatical cook, I wanted to make sure everything was on schedule and ready. Thus, I'd made two batches of soup yesterday (clam chowder for mum, black bean for mum). I'd also made the custard for creme brulee.

All I had to do today was make the dough for the bread, let it rise, bake it and do some last minute prep for lunch. I managed to get all this done, have a cup of coffee while still enjoying a somewhat early morning walk with the pups. We watched the sun rise into the sky while enjoying the peace of a quiet Sunday morning. My parent arrived in good time. We had a nice lunch and I got to spend the day with my parents while also enjoying a trip to Jungle Jims.

The weather was about as perfect as you can get. It was balmy with a warm wind. As a result, we got to sit out in my newly redecorated Tuscan family room and enjoy the warmth of spring. My dad helped me move the heavy stove that was the only thing standing between me and redoing the floor in my Tuscan room. We had a nice dinner and, after I bid my parents farewell, I took the pups for another walk. The walk was perfect. For a spring night, it doesn't get any better.

We enjoyed the last moments of daylight. The weather was warm and windy. The tulips have started blooming in response to this unexpected beautiful spring day and their bright red colours were a lovely contrast the sunny yellow daffodils that are still in full bloom.

In short, days don't really get much better than this. It was the type of day where I didn't once stop and be sad that I'm still single. I got to spend time with my parents and my dogs and enjoy the lovely warmth of spring. Thus, as I was walking with the pups tonight, I realized that I was 100% content. I couldn't complain about anything. And I realized that this doesn't happen very often in life. There's always a Monday or a bad day at work to stand in the way.

I'm sure if I thought about it, I could find something to complain about today but the thing is, I don't want to find something to complain about. That's a rare thing. Thus, for once, I wanted to acknowledge the rare thing instead of finding something, anything to complain about. It's too nice of a feeling not to share.

I hope that, for all my readers, that you have days like this too. Because days like this make all the other days just a little bit better, no matter how bad they are. Nothing major happened. I had no major revelations. It was just a lovely, relaxing, fulfilling day.

As I always say, it's the small things in life that make it worthwhile and in my case, today was full of a million small things. For once, I don't mind that the weekend is over and that means another Monday tomorrow. I don't say it often and...maybe I should. Somedays it's just nice to anti-complain!

Happy Monday!

Commerical Seasonal Disorder and Other Rather Random Musings

It was snowing when I went home from lunch. It wasn’t the good, fluffy type of snow that I love but the cold, not-quite-sure-if-it-should-be-rain-or-snow pellets that actually sting a little when they hit you. It’s a peculiar juxtaposition to see the bright yellow daffodils bowing their heads in the grey day.

It’s hard to know what to do when the weather is like this. Just yesterday, I was overly warm as I walked the pups around the neighbourhood wearing just a light cardigan. Today, I had to dig out my winter coat and I’m not sure it’s going to be warm enough to walk the girls. They quickly got used to the warmer weather and this morning, when I let them out, they trotted right back in and gave me an accusing stare as if to say, “Where’s the sun? Give it back!”

The weekend is also supposed to be grey and gloomy. I had plans to work out in the garden. Right now, my Tuscan room redesign project is at a standstill. The room is done except for the floor and getting a few pieces of furniture and I can’t do the floor until I get my dad to help me move the rather heavy cast-iron stove that dominates the room.

I should use the colder weather as an excuse to indulge in some of the activities I can’t justify when the weather’s nice. Staying inside and doing jigsaw puzzles, for example. Curling up on the sofa and watching bad movies would be another one. Even though I could do these things when the weather’s nice, I feel horribly guilty and feel as though I should be doing something more useful.

The problem with getting a taste of spring is that you quickly get used to it. I had mentally accepted the fact that it was time to start planting seeds and landscaping when, in fact, it really is too early, just as it is every year when I do the same thing. We’re still getting snow. Since most of the seeds I have state that they shouldn’t be planted until danger of frost is passed, it’s definitely far too early to think about planting them, especially when we’re still getting snow, never mind frost.

I’m pretty impatient my nature. I do recognize this fact but it doesn’t change it. This is why I want it to snow in October and why I want the weather to turn warm in April. I love winter and I like it when it arrives and passes but when spring starts being a possibility, I want it to be spring. The only season I don’t anticipate is summer. I’d rather have a very long spring and go right to autumn. Summer is hot, humid, full of bugs, flamingos and pink plastic drinking glasses.

You may wonder how flamingos and pink plastic drinking glasses belong in that sentence. It’s because when I think of seasons, my brain automatically jumps to associations. Spring is full of pretty flowery gardening gloves, little garden ornaments and seeds. These are what signify the season in the stores. Then when summer is nearing, the displays change to plastic tableware, patriotic stuff and paddling pools. Autumn is fake leaves and scarecrows. Winter is hot chocolate, gloves and snowman stuff.

I am quite aware that I’ve allowed commercialism to invade my perception. It’s not a good thing. Yet I can’t help it. It’s happened and I am a victim of Commercial Seasonal Disorder (CSD). It’s a new condition. I invented it. Feel free to use it.

So, it’s established. I suffer from CSD. Thus, when I think of summer, my brain thinks of plastic novelty ice-cubes in the shapes of summary things like fish and flamingoes.

What flamingoes have to do with summer, I do not know but doesn’t it seem like they’re featured a lot during the summer? Whoever decided flamingoes were summary? Is it because they’re bright pink?

Oops. I went off on a tangent. Imagine that. Back to the topic at hand- My impatience.

I’m impatient for spring now. I’m not angry with winter for intruding on the next season. After all, spring trod on winter’s territory. I appreciate the last minute snow. It’s just…well….my mind was already harvesting the first asparagus spears and that’s a little hard to do when there’s frozen precipitation coming down around my head.

Also, I’ve already bought seeds and my flowery gardening gloves and thusly given in to my CSD for Spring. Therefore, it should be spring.

We’ve also moved the clocks forward. SPRINGed them forward. Well, sprung, really but it doesn’t have the same emphasis on the season if you say sprung. Although, now I think about it, people say “I wintered in Florida” and “we summered in the Hamptons.” Do they say “we springed in Myrtle Beach or “We sprung in Myrtle Beach.”?

I apologize. I’m exposing you to a little more of how my mind actually works than usual. Normally, I filter my thoughts a little more when I blog so that you don’t know how strange I actually am. My mind has a tendency to wonder about odd things. For example, I’ve always wondered when they change the light bulbs on traffic lights. I’ve never seen them do it but obviously, they must burn out. I could look it up online, I suppose but I like to wonder. It’s harder to wonder with the internet at your fingertips to give you an instant answer although it is convenient, I suppose.

But sometimes, you don’t want to know….you just want to come up with a fictional answer of your own. For example, a candidate was asked “Why is a manhole cover round” in an interview. This, apparently, is a question that Microsoft ask their candidates. There are all sorts of logical answers online to be found. My first response is because it’s easier for a man to climb through because his head is round. This is not the correct answer, not is it logical. The power of the internet told me how wrong I was. I don’t like finding out I’m wrong. I like to wonder things. I suppose I don’t have to look them up but, well, I’m also fond of closure so I’m compelled. This is a personal issue but along with my impatience and my CSD, I do recognize it and as I and G.I Joe always say, “Knowing is half the battle.”

Doing something about it is the other half of the battle, I think. Of course, I don’t think G.I. Joe ever explained that. He might have done but I’m not really a G.I. Joe fan. I just steal his phrases. In England, our version of G.I. Joe is Action Man. I’m not joking. Boys play with Action Man. Girls play with Sindy. We have Barbie too but the British fashion doll is Sindy. I always thought she seemed a bit of a priss but I still had one. I had a Barbie too. I didn’t really play with them. I just cut their hair, changed their clothes and then got bored and picked up a book instead. Yes, I was a nerd but knowing is half the battle, remember?

It turns out that this is a self-awareness blog on my part. I had no idea it would end up that way but, well, that’s what happens when you have absolutely nothing to blog about and end up just randomly typing. Now I’ve established that I know a) that I am impatient, b) I have Commercial Seasonal Disorder, c) I need closure and d) I’m a nerd.

I appreciate you staying with me if you still are reading. You’re very kind.

I think, however, that this blog proves that it’s been a long week and I might just be ready for a weekend, even one that is unplanned and supposed to be cold and unspringlike. Never mind, Spring will take grasp soon enough and I’ll probably be blogging about how much I hate mowing the lawn.

At least I’m consistent.

Happy Friday, have a great weekend and thanks for reading!

The Arrival of Spring

It is a very warm day here in my little corner of the Midwest. Given that it was snowing less than two weeks ago, it’s interesting that it was over 70 degrees today. The air has that almost humid feel that makes everything feel a little clammy.

It makes things interesting. Given that it’s the first day of spring today, the warm temperatures provide the urge to convert everything to spring. This means taking the down comforter off the bed and replacing it with something lighter and taking out the clothes I packed up at the end of last summer and switching them with my winter sweaters.

It’s still too early, however. By Thursday, the schizophrenic nature of the Midwestern weather will take us back to the low 40s. I suspect people will be shivering.

What’s interesting is that just a few weeks ago, we would have been rejoicing at the sound of temperatures in the 40s. We would have taken off our winter jackets and embraced the balminess of the higher temperatures.

Yet now we’ve had a taste of warmer weather, we’re greedy and ungrateful and we balk at such coldness that doesn’t belong in the Springy world of outside.

My theory is to just go with it. I like the fact that we haven’t settled on a climate yet. I like that we’re still in for some cold nights before it starts to stay warm for good. I sleep best when it’s cold outside. The pups do too. We snuggle together and wake up rested and groggy. It’s hard to achieve that same level of unconsciousness when it’s balmy outside. Even when it’s time for the air conditioning to come on, you can’t fake yourself into sleeping as deeply as you do when it’s winter and hibernation feels like a tempting prospect.

Yet even with the colder temperatures, it’s pretty clear that spring is here to stay. My garden and the others around me are boasting golden clusters of daffodils. The tulips are coming up and will have their turn to bloom in a month.

Unfortunately, with the spring flowers, the weeds are starting to appear too. My garden is coming back to life with more green popping up in the muddy soil every day.
The grass has also started to grow which means that it will soon be time to mow. As I’ve mentioned, it’s not my favourite task but I do rather like coming home from work, mowing the lawn and then relaxing on the deck with the puppies as I admire how much tidier the back yard looks.

All the signs that winter is passed and spring has her grip are appearing. Unfortunately, like the weeds, the signs are not all good. The Dog Whisperer has taken to leaving his beasts out for longer periods of time which means their annoying yips are driving me a little crazy. I have decided that this year, if I’m working outside in the yard and the dogs next door still continue to bark non-stop, I’m going to talk to the Dog Whisperer or, more likely, Wife of Dog Whisperer. I’ve now lived in my house for over a year and have one summer under my belt. Thus, the fact that they said their dogs would get used to me and stop barking has become a bit of a lie. Also, since the dogs bark at every living thing that moves, it’s unlikely that they ever ‘get used’ to things. It’s just hard to relax in the warm spring air when there’s three dogs barking persistently through the fence.

The barking dogs are a nuisance but not enough to deter me or the pups from staying outside. We’ve already inspected the garden to see what signs of life there are. Most everything is coming back to life with the exception of one rose bush that clearly didn’t survive the winter. More likely, it didn’t survive the fact that two dachshunds decided to make it a digging site and it’s now practically sitting on top of the earth rather than being embedded in it.

Yet, dead rose bushes aside, the rest of the landscape is growing greener by the day as if someone is slowly dragging a paintbrush over it. The grey days of winter seem to have passed and Spring has taken her hold.

Despite the fact that I’ll miss the snow and coziness of winter, it’s time to let go and embrace the brighter days of spring and summer.

I don’t think that will be too hard.

Happy First Day of Spring!

Generational Continuity

For all my complaining yesterday about gloom and Mondays and tornado sirens, Tuesday came along and made amends for the dour day we had yesterday.

It’s beautiful out there. We started with a cold morning and a thick frost but by lunchtime, the temperature had climbed up to 50 degrees, the sun was shining and the first crocuses were blooming in my garden.

There’s something definite about seeing the first flower of spring bloom. It’s just like the first snowfall of winter- you know it’s welcoming you into the season and there will be much more to come. The daffodils will follow the crocuses and the tulips won’t be far behind and, from then on, it’ll be flower after flower as spring unfolds and gives way to summer.

If you haven’t noticed, I’m huge on the changing of the seasons. I find it fantastic how there are four such different parts of the year. When the season change approaches, I grow impatient. The only exception to this is spring moving into summer. I’d be much more content if late spring just stuck around and went straight into autumn. I’m not a creature of summer. It’s not a season of beaches and swimming pools to me, of family cookouts and long days. To me, it’s a season of mosquitoes, humidity and searing heat.

It’s funny. When I read that, I realize that I sound just like my mother. Except her negativity is towards winter, not summer. She’d take searing heat, humidity and mosquitoes any day over snow and ice, cold and wind. I find that slightly fascinating. We’re very much alike but also different.

It’s actually funny how we grow up and become more like our parents than we ever imagined. It’s something we fight in our younger days. As teenagers when we have vicious fights with our parents, we swear we’ll NEVER be like them.

Then, as time passes, life happens and we realize that not only are we more like them than we’d like to admit but, also, we’re pretty proud of that fact.

There are times when I’m not always happy that I’m like my dad in some ways. Sometimes, it’s not necessarily a good thing. While we inherit the good qualities of my parents, we also inherit the bad. I think the trick is knowing that and being aware of when you’re channeling your mum and dad and NOT in a good way.

It’s definitely a generational thing. I can see my grandparents in both of my parents. My mum acts quite a lot like her mum some days and that’s just plain amusing. It’s funny to see her get snippy when I suggest it even though she knows I’m right. My dad acts like his mother a lot too but he doesn’t always have quite the same humour about it.

Either way, it’s refreshing to know that into each generation, a little bit of the generation before exists. I like that notion. It’s like a chance to improve on what’s already good and work on the stuff that needs to be improved. We can fight it but there will always be a little bit of our parents and ancestors in us.

It’s actually a lot like I said the other day in my blog about my dogs. They’ve been raised in suburbia and spoiled rotten and yet their instincts to hunt, disappear down rabbit holes and try to capture prey in just part of them. From the dachshunds that were bred to hunt, generations later, my girls still have that need in them even though they were never taught or even raised in an environment that cultivated that.

For me, it just means I have to block a lot of holes such as underneath the tool shed and the propane tank. I also have to deal with a lot of holes being dug in the garden. As spring moves in with full force, I intend to use those holes to plant trees in my garden. It’s nice of the girls to help even if that wasn’t their intention. I can’t change their nature just like I can’t pretend I’m not a product of both my parents.

Although neither of them is terribly fond of snow so I’m not sure where that came from.

That must be all me. Maybe that will be what gets passed to the next generation. Who knows?

Happy first day of March and Have a great Wednesday!

Planning Ahead For Springtime

So I think Spring has gone away again. Here in my area of the Midwest, this just means lots and lots of heavy rain and grey, gloomy days. Further north where my poor parents live, they’re getting predictions of snow. Not just a snow shower either but significant snowfall.

I actually feel bad for them. I think I’ve crossed that line from my love of winter to seeing the tempting light of spring at the end of the tunnel. Snow is lovely but it’s much lovelier in January and the months before.

Still, as I keep reminding my mother who tends to be a little like Eeyore at the mere mention of the S-N-O-W word, even with this latest onslaught of wintery precipitation it can’t stick around indefinitely. Unlike the snow falls we get in December and January which stick around and just make the world into a frozen blanket of whiteness, the snow that falls in February has an end date…that of the oncoming spring. While the cold temperatures can continue through April, they’ll be interspersed with warmer, balmy days that let the daffodils bloom, the tulips bud and the lilac to appear from nothing.

That doesn’t seem to help my mum though. I can almost hear her curling up in the fetal position whenever I talk to her and mention the snow. It’s just a fact of life, one I’ve come to accept over the years.

The thing I like about spring is the newness of everything. What lay dormant and grey in winter is suddenly budding with green. Even now with the reappearance of wintry weather, my garden shows the first sign of new life. My grass is greening up. The roses have the teeniest little buds of new leaves that have appeared on the brittle brown stalks of last year. The daffodil stalks have poked their heads out of the earth ready to respond to the sun the next time it appears.

For me, I like that spring gives me the chance to try new things. This year is going to be the time when I actually turn my outdated, senior-citizen decorated family room into a Tuscan villa room of relaxation. I was going to attempt this last autumn and went so far as to buy a paint sample in the colour I thought I wanted. Silly me, however, went to Lowes. You’d think I’d have learned my lesson there. I’d like to state, for the record, that despite the fact that Lowes states they can match any paint colour if they have a sample, they actually can’t.

I took in a pretty orange paint chip that I’d actually found at Home Depot. Since Home Depot isn’t as close to my house, I figured I’d see how Lowe’s did at matching it, just for a sample. Well, they did horrible. The colour was more of a peach than an orange colour. I dabbled quite a large spot on the wall. I subsequently hated it. I’ve decided not to go with orange but more of a yellow colour. I’ll be going to Home Depot for my paint.

I just have to wait a little longer. My family room isn’t heated. I have one of those portable oil heaters in there which helps but it’s not warm enough to stay out there for any length of time.

So, I’ll have to wait until it’s spring and it gets a little warmer.

I also want to embrace newness in the garden. This year, I plan to try to banish Mr. Bunny from my vegetable patch and prevent him and his squirrel buddies from devouring the seedlings of my vegetables before they become more than a seedling. I’m not quite sure how to do this but I’ll figure it out.

I have some landscaping I’d like to do and some planting.

I also want to steam clean my carpets which bear the reminders of the winter in the form of puppy prints and other debris from wet and frozen days.

I’d also like to slowly start to redo my bathroom but I recognize that this might be beyond my skill level. I’m also a little afraid because this is my only full bathroom with a shower and if I start to redo it, I won’t have a shower for a while. I’m fond of taking showers, The idea of standing outside with a hose does not appeal.

I’d also like to do the inevitable spring cleaning that comes when the sun begins to shine and the dust and cobwebs that have been slightly easy to ignore as they’ve arrived slowly over the winter suddenly become more prominent.

So, you see, I have lots of things I want to do this spring. It’s just too soon and I need to be more patient. Spring will come when its ready and it’s not quite time yet. I should let winter finish having her say and embrace the excuse of being able to stay inside and semi-hibernate. That’s one of my favourite parts of winter.

It’s just that when you start seeing the first fresh asparagus in the stores, the first blooming tulips and other signs of spring, you can’t help but want to jump the gun a little. It’s inevitable.

But, for now, I’ll just sit back, enjoy the heavy thump of the rain and let my mind start planning. It may not be time to actually do anything yet but it never hurts to plan.

Maybe it’s not so bad that winter is back for another spell. Given my list of projects, planning might take a while.

Ah well, I have to start somewhere.

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

Concrete Pig and Other Walking Adventures

This has felt like quite a long week. I don’t know if it’s because the weather has been so much like spring and I’m feeling more trapped indoors than usual or it has, in fact, been a long week.

Still it’s Friday tomorrow and that means that the reset button will be pushed and work won’t begin again for two days. There are far worse things in life than a weekend.

So far, my weekend is wide open. It’s supposed to be beautiful on Saturday and rainy on Sunday. Of course, today’s forecast was for it to be near 70 degrees and sunny when, in actually, the thermometer is lurking right around the 58 degree mark and it’s gloomy and rainy looking out there.

I’m hoping it doesn’t rain. It’s been nice to be able to walk the pups around the neighbourhood each night when I get home from work. For a while, we seem to have been the lone walkers and though we might run into the odd neighbour or squirrel, there haven’t been many dogs and their owners walking. Last night, that changed. The weather was lovely so it must have seemed like a good walking opportunity for everyone else in the neighbourhood. Thus our normally peaceful soujourn around the ‘hood turned into a case of “dodge the other dogs.”

With Rory, that’s easy. She’s a peaceful little soul, happy to sniff the path on which we walk, wag her tail at squirrels and to check and make sure I’m still behind her at certain intervals. Sookie, it’s not so easy. Sookie has become far more worried about other dogs over the winter. Before, she used to get a little worried as we passed other dogs on leashes. Now, she gets very upset and barks and tries to chase them.

It’s a little stressful as a dog owner. I know the correct response is not to yank her back on the leash but, instead, condition her to look at me instead of at the other dogs. However, we’re at the beginning of that training so at the moment, she’s going a little ballistic.

I’m noticing that a lot of dog owners and their canines are crossing the street before they pass us so we don’t have an up-close-and-personal growling and lunging encounter. I choose not to take this personally because I’m noticing that the other dogs are going just as crazy as Sookie when they see not only my girls but any other dogs in the neighbourhood. This does not even include the dogs that are home as we walk by.

My neighbourhood can only be described as “dog friendly.” For every three houses, there seems to be at least one dog. We have come to recognize the house where the giant, angry German shephards live and we’ve come to expect that they’ll hurl themselves against the fence to try to get out to chase us. We know where our friend, the beagle with the mournful bark, lives. We say hi to him because he’s sweet and friendly and we can tell he’s just saying hello when he barks. The big black dog of unknown parentage is another story. He is mean. He can also jump rather high. I’m a little worried about him because his growl and bark is definitely very hostile. Sookie, who somehow is ok with the confined dogs, does not like him. As soon as he hurls himself at the gate as though to jump over and get us, she looks up at me, her ears go flat and she growls in defense.

We walk by that house quickly.

We’ve also taken to walking quickly by the house with the concrete pig. It’s a cute lawn statue that’s not quite life-sized but still a substantially sized pig. Sookie does not like this pig. She has decided that Concrete Pig is her enemy. She is not afraid of Concrete Pig but she does try to go after it the same way she does with the broom when I’m sweeping the floor at home. That is to say, she bravely lunges at it when it’s not moving but as soon as I start sweeping, she runs away in fear. With Concrete Pig, she edges close to it and barks her “I’m not afraid of you,” woof but if I so much as say “Oink!” in response, she’s backed away quicker than if you can say, well, “Oink.”

The one lady I will always make sure we don’t encounter too closely is the lady who, at first, I thought was a professional dog walker. She has five large dogs and one small one that she somehow manages to guide around the block quite regularly. It turns out…they’re all hers. They’re rather angry dogs and I’ve seen her get pulled along behind them as they spot some prey down the street. Thus, we make sure to make her walk easier by getting out of her way as well as making it less terrifying for the pups.

Mostly, our neighbourhood dogs are friendly so it’s not a huge problem. I’d just like to be the pet parent with the well-behaved dogs, not the growler who doesn’t play well with others.

In short, the warm weather is nice but it’s made our solitary walks a little less solitary. I suppose with the warmer weather, that’s to be expected. It’s just something we’ll have to get used to. I’m hoping Sookie gets used to the company too. She tends to be ok when we go over the park after we’ve passed by a certain number of dogs. She settles down. Thus, I know it’s possible. It’s just going to take a little training, that’s all.

Sometimes, I really wish I lived next door to the real Dog Whisperer. That would make life easy. Also, it’d make life much quieter because it would mean there weren’t three yappy dogs next door.

Still, if life was that easy, it wouldn’t be much fun…would it?

It might be a little quieter though!

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

Spring Awakening

Spring is usurping Winter’s territory.

Two weeks ago, our lawns were covered with piles of shoveled snow. The roads were matte white with salt. It was too cold to stay outside for long, even when wearing a thick winter coat and gloves.

Today, it was over sixty degrees, the sun was shining and the sky was blue. Even the most stubborn piles of snow and ice relented and disappeared. I caught sight of the first green of daffodils poking up in my back garden.

I will say, it’s a nice change. I could actually wear something other than bulky sweaters and trousers to work today. My coat was a lighter one than usual. The puppies are spending much longer outside than they have been and are having the best time playing and tussling in the balmy air.

It’s no surprise or secret that I love snow. I blog about it far too often but I do love it. However, I also love Spring. I love the creeping greenness that begins to take over the gloom and spreads until the lawns are a carpet of new grass and the trees are a haze of new leaves. Normally, Spring doesn’t get her due- Summer greedily pushes in with her humidity, dry earth and heat. All of a sudden, it’s not longer time to plant but, instead, time to maintain things that you’ve planted. The weeding you intended to do isn’t finished but it’s too hot outside to do much for long periods. So, despite my love of Winter and her snowy magic, I’m quite happy if Spring starts a little earlier this year. I’ve been very fortunate and have had lots of snowy days this winter. If I didn’t get any more, I’d still be satisfied.

I know it’s too early to celebrate the change of the seasons. Calendar-wise, Spring isn’t due for another month. However, these days, whether it’s global warming or just the evolution of the earth, the seasons seem a little different these days. Summer seems a little hotter. Winter doesn’t seem quite so cold.

When we first moved to the States, I remember days when the wind chill was 30 below and they cancelled school because it was too cold to be exposed to the air. Now, it seems that it just doesn’t get that cold anymore. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still frigid but it lacks that Antarctic slap of cold that I remember. I know in England, their seasons have changed a little too. It used to stay mostly in the 70’s during the summer. Sometimes, it would climb into the ‘80’s but not frequently. When we’d go to the beach, we’d wear our swimming costumes with a towel over us as we shivered. The ocean was freezing but after a while, we adjusted and it started to feel warm. Yet when we weren’t swimming, we’d often be covered with goosepimples because it wasn’t really warm enough to be at the beach but, well, we wanted to be and it was summer and that’s what you did.

Now, for the past few summers, it’s been downright hot there. Last summer, our relatives were complaining of it being in the ‘90’s. There isn’t much air conditioning in England so I can only imagine how unbearable that felt. Winter too has evolved. We used to maybe get one or two snowfalls a year in the UK. Sometimes, it’d be deep enough to build a snowman but not terribly often. This year, they had a massive snow/ice storm that stranded people at airports, kept people stuck inside their homes and pretty much crippled the southern part of the country.

So, I think it’s true that the climate is evolving, at least in the evidence I see. Thus, following this logic, I think it might actually be ok that Spring is spreading her wings over our part of the world and making us forget the dreariness of winter. It’d be ok if she stayed, too. It would give us longer to plant and get our gardens ready and give us more flowers.

It’s easy to forget the dark days of winter when the world is blah and grey, there’s only cold and damp, no snow to make things seem even remotely magical when the sun is shining and you can throw your head back, soak up the sun and enjoy the warm breeze on your cheek.

Of course, despite the fact that I say it’s ok if Spring stays, the truth is that she’s still treading on Winter’s territory and, at any time, Winter can stand up and take control again. Granted, it would be the type of control that an ousted leader who is waiting to be replaced has but nevertheless, she has the right.

Still, for now, we have a taste of Spring and even if Winter edges her way back in, it’s going to lack the oomph that she had before because we now know that no matter what she throws at us, it’s only a short while before her time is up and she has to step back and let Spring have her say for good.

I, however, don’t mind if Spring borrows a few of Winter’s days. It’s a nice change and change can be a very good thing indeed.

Happy Thursday

A Preview of Spring

This weekend, here in Cincinnati, we had a preview of spring. As much as I love snow and the permitted indoorness of winter, I can't say I minded the preview at all.

It was in the 50's for the first time since, I think, November. By some climate's standards, that's not warm at all but for us Midwestern folk, after weeks of below zero temperatures, it felt balmy, warm and just plain wonderful.

I took advantage of the weather and made sure that the puppies and I went for as many long walks as possible. We took the one mile route around our neighbourhood twice on Saturday- once the regular way and the other in reverse.

Then, today, we went over to the park for the first time since the beginning of
November. We clearly weren't the only ones with the same idea because it was very busy with runners, walkers and dogs.

We had a lovely walk. The paved part of our walk was nice. The pups had the best time walking on the grass which, until this weekend, has mostly been hidden by snow.

It was actually interesting to see that the lakes and ponds in the park were still frozen over. Given the warmth of the day, it felt surreal to see a winterscape in an other wise springlike day. The boathouse was abandoned and the boats outside it were stuck solid in a bed of ice. I suppose I always thought that once winter fell upon the land, the days of going to the park was over. Being an indoor kind of Monkeypants, it never occurs to me that there are things to do outside in the frigid temperatures. Yet everywhere there were signs that activities had continued in the park during the icy times. The lakes had signs on them warning people to stay off the ice. There were places for 'designated ice activities.'. I suppose I should have known but it was still somewhat of a surprise.

It seems that people also continue to take their dogs to the park in the winter. I walked the pups outside when it was doable. I did think about taking them over to the park but it seemed a little daft in the snow and ice.

Yet, clearly, it wasn't daft to some people. The evidence of their winter activities was everywhere. Clearly, people don't feel the need to pick up after their dog when the weather isn't great.

Well, actually, in my experience at the park, it doesn't really matter about the weather. There are responsible dog owners who do clean up their dog's poop and then there are the ones who just don't care.

It's annoying. As disgusting as it is, dogs like to smell other dogs' poop. When there are mounds and mounds of it along a trail, it's a little irritating to constantly have to watch where Rory and Sookie are heading. I had to yank them back quite a few times. I also had to watch where I was stepping because it was all on the paved trail as well as on the grass.

I don't get it. I take several grocery bags every time I walk the pups. I use one as a 'glove' and one as a recepticle for the poop. Then, when it's done, I drop the bag in the nearest trashbin and use my handy dandy hand-sanitizer to clean my hands. It takes less than five minutes. The park even provides bags for dog owners to clean up after their animals. So why is it some people think it's ok to let their dog make a mess in a public area and then leave it?

Ok. Rant over. Once we were past the main part of the trail, we got into the more wooded area. I had expected it to be muddy but I hadn't considered that it'd still be snowy and icy. I should have realized because much of the trail was in the shade but in the giddiness of finally having a nice warm day, my brain hadn't considered that it was actually still winter.

Still, the puppies and I navigated the ice and mud quite well. The puppies, having four legs, managed better than me. I had to make them slow down a few times so I didn't slide on the ice. Fortunately, I never fell which was quite an accomplishment. The puppies had a field day exploring the mud and grass and smelling the smells of the winter.

By the time we were done, the pups looked like they'd been off-road trucking. They had a coat of mud all over them. They didn't seem to mind. By the time we made it back to the car, they were wet, muddy and covered with debris from the trail. Yet their tails were wagging and their eyes were bright.

We went for another walk this evening, just to appreciate the fact that the day wasn't yet over. Even though I'm certain winter will be back to reclaim her season a few more times, I think spring is definitely starting to let us know it's her time soon. I saw the first shoot of a daffodil as we walked this evening and the first teeny buds of spring on the trees.

No matter how much winter fights it, I have a feeling she will lose and before we know it, spring will have her hold. I don't know about you but I'm ready for it.

Although I wouldn't argue if we had one more snowfall first.

Hey, I can't help it. I love snow.

Happy Monday!

Lovely Lazy Weekends

It's been a very grey sort of weekend. The sun peeked out for a few moments today but, aside from that, it's been grey and rather angry looking out there. We were supposed to have some snow on Saturday but although we had a heavy snow shower, it ended up alternating between rain, snow and greyness. In the end, the tiny bit of snow we had melted and it turned into a mushy world outside.

I'm not complaining though. I took advantage of the greyness and decided to have a very lazy and relaxing weekend. Even though I did useful things like laundry, grocery shopping and cleaning, I also made sure to watch some dvd's, do a jigsaw and generally just take advantage of the fact that I didn't have to do anything.

It's been a while since I had a weekend like this. During the summer, it's harder because I feel like I should be outside doing something productive. In the autumn, there's still enough warm days that I try to take advantage of them by being outside. When spring rolls around and the weather gets a little warmer, I tend to feel like I should get outside and get some fresh air because the winter makes us feel cooped up.

Thus, winter is the only season where it's mostly acceptable to pass a day with the TV on, a puppy in your lap and a jigsaw in front of you. Certainly, there are more productive things that I could be doing but there's nothing pressing. Granted, I probably should be taking advantage of being inside by writing but between books, I like to have a hiatus to recharge my creativity and mind and I'm still on that hiatus after finishing "Emmy Goes to Hell." I'll probably pick up with a new novel in a couple of weeks but, for now, I'm allowing myself a mental vacation. These are necessary, I think. They help avoid writers' block. They help make sure that the new book is 'fresh' and not writing on the waves of the one I just finished. Also, they help my brain just get back to a place where it's open to all new ideas.

So, I didn't write. I simply enjoyed the greyness of the day by being inside, warm and cosy in my house. I cooked because what's relaxation without a little cooking? I made soups- butternut squash on Saturday and the Olive Garden's zuppa toscana recipe for dinner tonight. For me, soups are my very favourite comfort food. Thus, having a comfortable weekend requires soup.

The only problem I'm having is that the dogs seem to be feeling cooped up. I did walk them even though it's been cold but Rory especially seems...bored. Sookie will curl up the sofa to sleep but Rory will sit on the floor, watching us. Then she'll start barking to let me know I should be paying attention. Or, she'll bark at Sookie because she wants her to play. I've been playing a lot more with her but it still doesn't stop her from sitting on the floor and sighing. It's a little...perplexing. She and Sookie still go outside and play but the garden seems to lack the excitement it usually does. They don't seem interested in their usual activities of hole digging, bird/squirrel/bunny hunting and chasing or their favourite game of tearing around the garden running after one another and then rolling around in the grass.

Since they're both eating and playing at times, I know nothing is physically wrong. I can only assume that they're feeling a little trapped by the greyness of winter. There's no snow to burrow under, only soggy flat grass which makes their paws wet, muddy and cold. The squirrels aren't out much. The bunny is mostly hibernating. They still chase birds but they fly away and then they're bored again.

The problem is...they're dogs. They're not like little children with cabin fever who you can take out to a movie or the mall or the circus or something. You can't sit down with a dachshund and do crafts to engage their minds- they'd just eat the paper and glue and be done with it. I play tug of war and "hide the squeaky" toy but this does not last long.

Thus, I think we'll just have to find activities. I'm making sure to take them on walks so they're at least getting exercise and I don't feel like they're sleeping the day away. I just wish, sometimes, they could talk and they could tell me what they wanted to do.

Ah well, half the fun is trying to figure it out. I tried to show Sookie my jigsaw but she tried to eat the pieces. Rory is having quite a lot of fun attempting to sit on my head whenever I sit on the sofa. She jumps up and sits on the back of it and then, lo and behold, I'm wearing a dachshund hat.

Still, in a few weeks, spring will be nearer and the days will be longer, the ground will dry out a little and outside will be filled with the first signs of spring. I'm sure this will bring new bunnies, squirrels and birds for them to hunt and chase.

In the meantime, it's still winter and I'm planning on taking advantage of the comfort of having to stay indoors.

Now, if I can just convince the pups of that. I'll keep working on it.

Happy Monday!

Online Training Makes for a Chaotic Day...

Well, we never did get our bad weather here in Cincinnati. The freezing rain was gone by morning due to some extremely gusty winds that dried up all the moisture. This was good news for driving, bad for the very distant hope of a snow day. The winds, while quite nice to listen to while tucked up warm in my bed, disturbed the pups who bolted awake anytime a gust hit the house during the night.

We also had a slight emergency when the fibreglass cover over my outdoor pipes unsecured itself from the house and started to blow across the yard. I ran out in my boots, pajamas and coat and secured it but, needless to say, at 5:30 a.m., this meant I wasn't going to get much more sleep.

It seems that many of my friends to the north had bad weather and thus had a snow day. I tried not to envy them as they posted on Facebook. I could have used a snow day just because I had completely forgot until I got to the office that my boss had signed me up for online training not long after I started and the training was...today.

This meant six hours of my day were to be spent listening to a lady walk me through a PDF presentation about how to be a recruiter. If I'd have done the training when I first started, it would have been very helpful. However, having been in the job for over three months now, much of the training was more of a, um, "well, duh!" type of situation.

It also didn't help that I had to keep the phone receiver glued to my ear for periods of up to an hour and a half without a break. My ear is still hot from listening to the lady talk. What made it worse was that there were these periods when we had to read some of the worksheets before we could move on. It really only involved skimming. I did this in two minutes. The lady gave us eight minutes of radio silence before we could move on.

On the plus side, I could multitask. While I was training, I scheduled one candidate for a follow-up interview, got feedback from another candidate about his interview that happened this afternoon and also got the good news that one of my candidates had been offered a position.

This, on a normal day, is considered pretty good activity. I'd say that since I was multitasking, it was pretty darn good activity.

After the training finished, I had a ton of work to do including talking to my candidate who had the job offer. She's an Indian lady who is very nice but as is quite typical in her culture, defers to her husband. This meant that I had to talk to her husband and tell him every detail about the job as well as negotiate her rate with him. He ended up agreeing which means his wife will accept the job. This was my first time dealing with a husband. I've been told it will happen many more times.

I finally left the office late only to discover it was snowing. I took time to turn my face up and greet my favourite white frozen substance before I got in my car. I'm glad I did that because by the time I got home, I had an email from my boss with a new job opening and a strong suggestion that I start working on it tonight. He also sent it to my fellow recruiter. Thus, since I got home, I posted the job on Monster.com, posted it on my Linked In profile and contacted seven potential candidates.

I'd like to think I'm done now. The pups are feeling neglected. My Szechwan chicken stir fry needs to be prepped and cooked and, well, I'd quite like to sit down so I can enjoy "Friday Night Lights" and "Top Chef."

When I look at my day, it's probably a very good thing it wasn't a snow day, really. Even though the idea of sitting at home, doing very little but enjoying the excuse to do very little sounds nice, there's something to be said for having a good, productive day at work. There's something else to be said about having to come home and work for a little while and not minding.

I find this to be a pleasant realization. I find it even more pleasant that I can say after three months of learning and working, I actually love my job. It's been a long time since I've said that and it feels really good. It definitely makes up for not having a snow day.

Since it's still winter, I could still get my chance at a snow day. However, Punxatawny Phil might contradict that since he saw his shadow today and this means we should get an early spring.

Ah well, that would make a lot of people happy so I won't complain. I love spring as much as winter in it's own way.

Besides, no one said it didn't ever snow in the spring.

Happy Groundhog day!

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.

A Bouquet of Pencils...

What is it about Mondays that is so thouroughly exhausting? I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that the past two days were the weekend and thus, they were fun. Just as you finally get relaxed, it's Sunday night and by Monday morning, you have to start all over again.

This particular Monday wasn't exhausting for any reason. It just was. I had far too much fun with the puppies this weekend and going back to work and having to crate them back up was hard. I knew they didn't want to be shut up just as I didn't want to be confined to my cubicle.

Nevertheless, it's part of the routine that is the reality of life. It's not all bad. By Wednesday, Monday will seem like a distant blur and the reward of Friday will lie ahead.

I signed two books today. I find myself asking if the requester is serious. I don't think I've quite accepted the fact that I'm an actual 'author' now. I have a book. People want me to sign it. Better yet, people really seem to be enjoying it- which is the whole reason I published it in the first place. There's nothing more rewarding than someone telling me how much fun it was and how they couldn't put it down- and that's now happened enough times that I've stopped thinking people are being kind.

It's just strange to sign the books. I think I need to get a decent pen. Currently, I've been signing them in a cheap-ish ballpoint pen that I pilfered from my company. Well, honestly, I didn't even pilfer it. Our company likes to give out pens. When they change design as they seem to frequently, they divvy up the pens to the employees. Thus, I have a cup full of ballpoint pens which write fine but...not well, if that makes sense.

To be honest, I prefer pencil anyway. I have a little cup with almost two dozen pencils in it. I call it my "Bouquet of Pencils". It makes me happy but I can't explain why. It gives me satisfaction to look at my pencil bouquet and choose the one I want to use. Maybe it's a regression thing; when I was a kid, I wanted no more than to cast aside childish pencil and move onto a more permanent pen. These days, I just like pencils. It's hard to explain the things that really make us happy in such a simple way though, isn't it?

So, between my bouquet of pencils, being asked to 'autograph' two books and having two little puppies to come home to, my Monday could have been far worse. These days, I try not to dwell on work like I used to because there's simply no point. I still dislike the politics of it all and there are many practices I despise but, well, as I've learned to say to myself whenever I feel slightly paranoid...it's just a job. It pays the bills, it feeds my puppies and it lets me splurge on Mario Batali cookware once in a while. When you have a Rory and a Sookie to come home to, even some of the worst days seem a little better as soon as I toss a tennis ball in the back garden and watch their little legs work to outrace the other.

As I always say, it's all about the simple things in life: puppies, pencils and Spring days...even on Mondays.

Happy Tuesday!

Never Enough Mulch...

This was the type of weekend you just want to put a lid on and keep it forever because it was just so close to being perfect.

The weather, for a start, was beautiful. It's cool at night, warm in the day with just enough of a breeze to make you sigh with happiness.

I also didn't have any set plans which means it was a free sort of weekend. Those are sometimes the best kind.

I also got to hang out with the puppies almost the whole time which was fun but I think I've exhausted them. I think they'll sleep well tonight.

I spent almost the entire weekend outside. I've realized that while I love having my own house, it takes quite a bit of work. Take, for example, my garden. Not only does it have rather a lot of lawn to mow but the part where I would like to do my planting is overgrown and weed-soaked. I think the nice old lady who sold me the house was just beyond doing too much outside and by the time I moved in, it was too far gone to save last year. This year, I'm trying to get it in order. I spent much of Friday night, Saturday afternoon and today weeding, digging and putting down mulch. I'm two thirds of the way across the vast expanse of weed country.

It's amazing how much mulch you need for a garden. I've learned this before but this year, it was reiterated. I went to Home Depot to buy mulch. I bought eight bags which cover 2 cubic feet each. I competently managed to load them into the boot of my car with no assistance, laughing a little as men with big trucks got assistance from the Home Depot employees to load up just a couple of bags. I like doing that type of thing, honestly. It's a good way to get in shape without doing anything out of the ordinary. Also, I'm proud of my car for holding the mulch. Someone did tell me to 'buy a truck' when they saw me loading but given that I managed to get all eight bags in, close the lid and still have a little room, I say that I don't need a truck, thank you very much.

However, eight bags of mulch, in reality, does not cover much. I went to Lowes and bought three more bags, this time each bag had 3 cubic feet in them. I think I need at least another ten bags. I have thought about buying it in bulk and having it delivered but I don't know where I'd store it. The truck wouldn't be able to get out back where I want it laid and I don't think putting it in my front yard would help. So I will continue to buy it by the bag.

Of course, it doesn't go as far as it should because I've discovered that my puppies love mulch. They find it irresistably chompable, carrying large pieces of bark joyfully across the garden and going back for more. They also like to dig. They also like to try to remove the gardening gloves from my hand, dig up seeds I've just planted and run away with my flowerpots.

In honesty, gardening with puppies is actually rather fun, even if it is a little harder work. They keep me company and keep me entertained.

It's nice to be able to spend an entire weekend outside and come inside and kick back for the night. Given that I also shampooed the carpets yesterday, it was no wonder that 11 p.m., I found myself snoozing on the sofa in the middle of an Iron Chef America episode. I don't think it's just the puppies who are getting worn out.

I've also worked up a truce with the Dog Whisperer. Well, his wife, anyway. She's very nice and we talked about the dogs. She's trying to calm them down and told me she has some of those shock-collars which they're going to try if they don't calm down. They tried the strategy of only letting one of their three yappers out at a time and, honestly, for the most part, it worked. THey are slowly but surely getting better. Of course, it doesn't stop Mr. Dog Whisperer from coming out and sticking his fingers through the fence to try to coax the puppies but I don't think there's any cure for that. You can't stick a shock collar on him.

Though I'd like to try.

In all seriousness, I might be getting the hang of this neighbour thing, just as I'm getting the hang of the homeowner thing. It's all about small steps. Cover a little bit of ground as I weed each time and, eventually, it start looking like something. Along the way, I uncover strange little pleasantries like the randomly scattered spring onions in my weed patch. They're healthy little things and I always have a need for scallions so I was quite pleased to find them. I'm not sure why, exactly, they would be there but who am I to question the nice little finds like that?

All in all, it's been a wonderful, if exhausting weekend. I even got to write, taking my laptop outside to the patio, drinking a beer and letting the puppies play. I think we call that a compromise but I'm all for compromises on days like to day.

I hope the week continues to bring nice weather. Maybe I can make some headway on my weed patch.

Although that means more mulch. Groan.

Happy Monday!

Short Blog, Long-Bodied Little Puppies...

It's chilly out there tonight. For the past week or so, we've had abnormally high temperatures and tonight, for the first time in a while, we're experiencing average temperatures for this time of year.

I like it when it's chilly like this though. That's the beauty of both Spring and Autumn. You can have warm, balmy days and then, at night, a nip enters the air and reminds you that Winter is not that far ahead or behind.

The nicest part about nights like this is the sleeping factor. I sleep deepest when it's cool outside and I can bury myself in the covers of my bed to stay warm. These days, I also have two warm, furry little dachshund puppies who like to drape themselves over me while I sleep. People have told me that I should be crating them at night but, truth be told, my bed is rather high and they've never had an accident. Instead, they have found ways to wake me up, usually by enthusiastically nuzzling my face to let me know they need to go out.

I actually don't mind. It's become a routine. We go to bed fairly early and usually get up somewhere between 2:30 and 3:30 a.m. Then, at 6:15, we get up for the day. It's an early start but I'm used to it now. I go to work early so I can take a long enough lunch to come home and feed the puppies and uncrate them for an hour.

The only problem I'm having is that, being puppies, they require a lot of attention. They're currently yipping, their way of yelling at me, because I'm in my office blogging instead of sitting with them on the sofa.

It makes it hard to write anything because I have to watch to make sure they don't have any accidents. I'm hoping when they get a little older, they'll be a little more independant. For now, I have to steal snatches of time to be able to get anything done. Vacuuming scares them so I wait until they're outside. Cooking dinner requires less clanging and banging than usual.

It's definitely a different way of life for me, the quintessential independent Monkeypants. Now I have these two, fuzzy, warm, bundles of responsibility and they rely on me for everything. I suppose I should mind, but I don't. It's hard to mind when I see them looking up at me with those puppy-dog eyes of there. I never thought I'd be such a pushover as a pet-parent but, alas, I am.

I suppose there are worse things in life.

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

Appreciating the Now...

It's actually hot outside today. It's the type of day that inspires people to mow their lawns and walk around the neighbourhood. I will not be mowing my lawn. I did that last week and I'd rather put it off for as long as I can.

The Dog Whisperer mowed his lawn. I know this because I came home at lunchtime to let the puppies out and he was outside, mowing the lawn without a shirt on. Sadly, he's not the type of man you really want to see without a shirt on. Thus, my lunch hour was not as peaceful as I'd like. Also, the neighbour on the other side of the Dog Whisperer was also home. He's rather strange. In addition to also having three very noisy dogs, he just...watches. Today, he used the super-special gate that he and The Dog Whisperer open on their fence to allow the dogs to share the yards and came over to stare at the puppies more closely. He doesn't speak. He just...stares. He finally asked me how old they were. I've tried to introduce myself; he just...stares. Tonight, his wife used the super-special gate. She's much friendlier and nice, much like the Dog Whisperer's wife. They actually talk and don't stare. Ok, so they fawn over the puppies but, well, they're definitely worth fawning over. That, I don't mind. It's more of the staring that I don't like.

I suppose I am a bit of an anomaly on the neighbourhood. It's a mixed suburb with either young couples or old folk. I'm not a young couple, I'm a single woman, mowing her own lawn. You don't see much of that in my neighbourhood. It's usually the men mowing or, if they're super lucky, their kids.

I don't mind being an anomaly though. Aside from the fact it would be rather nice to have a handyman husband who could do things like, say, build a privacy fence and replace toilets. Also, it'd be rather nice to have a husband in general. However, having tried online dating and not having much luck, I think, for now, I'll stick with the puppies. While they cause a bit of havoc and require a bit of looking after, they're puppies and it's acceptable to put them in a crate. Probably not so much with a husband.

It is nice to own my own home. This past year, things have changed for me. I've made the transition to being a grown-up. I've published a book, I've bought a house. I've adopted puppies. Despite the fact that I'm not completely fulfilled at my day job, it's become tolerable. In a way, I couldn't really ask for more. Granted, we always want more but it doesn't mean we need it. For now, I think I'll hold fast to my dream that people will continue to read my book and enjoy it. I'll take pleasure in the puppies and being independent. I'll look at the things I do have and appreciate it.

Even when it involves having to watch the Dog Whisperer mow his garden shirtless. Sigh.

Happy Tuesday!

The Joys of Spring and Easter...

Happy (belated) Easter to you all!

I didn't even mention Easter in my blog last week. I think I was so incensed with the Dog Whisperer that I let him get in the way of my love of Easter. Fortunately, the puppies and I spent the weekend with my parents so we didn't have to deal with him any more. I'm quite glad about that. I also spent some time with my dad, estimating the cost of a privacy fence. He did offer to come help and while I'm really hoping he follows through, sometimes, with my dad, you have to wait a really long time until he's ready.

Even so, I know that if I can get help building the fence myself, it's going to cost way less than if I hired someone so maybe that, alone, is worth the wait.

It's always nice to spend a weekend with my parents, especially Easter. Since I had Friday off work, the puppies and I headed to Indiana on Friday morning. We couldn't have asked for lovlier driving weather. It was a warm spring day. I passed so many hosts of golden daffodils swaying in the breeze that Wordsworth would have been proud. When we got home, the puppies got to frolic in my parent's large fenced-in garden and I got to spend time with my mum and dad.

Saturday was not quite so warm though. It was actually very English in its very nature. One minute, it would be sunny with blue skies and the next, the rain clouds had rolled in, the wind cooler and then, suddenly, it's pouring with rain. It was definitely an April Showers sort of day.

And then, today, came Easter and another lovely Spring day. Our drive back home was just as pretty as the drive to my parents. It seems so strange that just a little over a month ago, the roads were frozen and snowy. Actually, when I was mowing my lawn the other night, I actually did stop and marvel at the fact that not so long ago, I was shovelling the driveway, piling up onto the four-foot snowdrifts that marked the sides of the driveway. Now, not too many weeks later, I'm mowing the grass in the exact spot.

It's a strange thing but I think that's one of the reasons I love Spring. As I've said before, one of the things I missed most during my California days was the change of the seasons. While winter is cooler and wetter, there's no dramatic reawakening of the world the way there is here in the Midwest. Here, you see the trees go from resplendent Autumn colours to bare structures, fighting the winter wind. And then, suddenly, little dots of green begin to appear and Spring officially begins to arrive, greening up absolutely everything, brightening the world more each day.

It's so nice to see the little Japanese cherry tree that I planted last Autumn blossoming with white flowers. It's lovely and I managed to keep it alive. It's like a strange sense of completion. I've now been in my house during Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring. Even though it's a few more months before I can say I've been a homeowner for a year, I finally feel like a homeowner. It's my house. Sookie and Rory probably helped like that- helped it feel more like a home. Yet, still, now when I mow my grass, I do so because I want it to look nice, not because it's what I'm supposed to do. I go to Lowe's and Home Depot and I don't think, "ooh, I could now buy stuff because I have a house!", I think, "Cool. I see things I'd like but what do I actually need?"

Of course, aside from repair stuff, I don't really need anything but it's nice to look and see what I'd like to add to the house.

Though I think the first thing definitely has to be that privacy fence.

Happy Monday and Happy Spring!