Today Baron showed a new attitude towards the scooter since Patch is no longer around as competition. He seemed to enjoy a *run* with the scooter as long as Patches was here. Patches just LOVED trying to catch up and beat the scooter. Baron would join in with no hesitation. Once Patches was gone, he wouldn’t budge however. He would shy away from it and nothing would convince him to attempt to run alongside it or even to chase it.

The past couple weeks, however, has seen the Beast not taking Baron out to the local park area for what had become a *daily run*. This was partly due to the fact that Baron was not being as good about the *come* command as he had been and the fact that the weather had been very cold, nasty and windy. Baron is a bit of a wimp with cold and/or wet weather. He won’t go out to do his *business* until he can absolutely no longer hold it in. Then he will run out, take care of business and run right back to the door to come in. He will then try to burrow under the covers of my bed to warm up so I have learned to close the door when the weather is bad. He can really mess up a nicely made-up bed in about two seconds flat. Then I have to drag him out of it and the room. My mother didn’t raise any fools (well, not many anyway) and it only took a time or two for me to learn.

Today was rather a nice day even if the high was only about 55 degrees. The Beast cranked up the scooter and decided to give it another try with Baron. Lo and behold! Baron was up to a chase and had a ball chasing the scooter (and almost beating it at one point until the Beast goosed the gas) around the circle a couple times. He came into the house exercised and very calm. He didn’t even try to burrow under the covers of the guest room bed although THAT door was open. He just calmly plopped down by my feet and curled into a ball. He was sound asleep in about one minute. I definitely urged the Beast to get him into the habit by doing it every day the weather and street conditions allow. I also want him to do it a couple times more every week since now is the time to start building muscle mass on Baron.

We have been taking him outside in front since the workmen are done with their clearing and leveling now. Baron was both interested and intimidated by the equipment and would get aggressive at times. We couldn’t let him out front without being on the leash while the men were working because of that.

He loved for us to *scare* him or act like we were going to attack him. He will wheel away from us at a dead run then circle back to have us do it again. The Beast started hiding from him when he would run away to circle back and you could see the confusion on his face when he would turn and NO Beast could be seen. He would stop, then start checking where he last saw him only to have the Beast pop out and startle him whereupon he would break into a run again and the game would be on. It was always the Beast hiding then jumping out to startle Baron.

I started hiding on Baron here in the house and he would come looking for me when he decided I had been gone too long. When I would jump out of hiding with a loud *BOO*, he would turn, run, hit the linoleum in the kitchen and you would hear him skidding all over the place until he hit a cabinet or a chair before he got his feet under him again. It was just too funny for words at time but he loved it. He would bark and turn to run if I didn’t continue the game.

Well, today he turned the tables on us, so-to-speak. He was running around outside this afternoon when he suddenly *disappeared*. We couldn’t believe it but we just knew he was *hiding* on us. We walked slowly around and saw his nose s-l-o-w-l-y, inch-by-inch, peep out from behind the truck until he saw where we were and he pulled his head quickly back behind the truck. The Beast and I went along with it and walked unconcerned around like we were looking for him and, sure enough, when we got to that side of the truck, he pounced out at us, barked once and was off like a shot. We almost fell down laughing since we knew he was playing hide-and-seek on us. He kept it up, hiding behind the travel trailer, the side of the garage, even the garbage can which was close to the junction of the house and garage. The funniest hiding spot, though, was a tree at the back of the lot where we park the travel trailer. It was just wide enough to hide his head and the rest of his body was sticking out like a sore thumb. But he thought we couldn’t see him. This went on for about a half hour and WE were the ones who finally called a halt to it. He was disappointed I think but he was so darn proud of himself for finding so many hiding spots and being the one to jump out instead of vice versa. This will be a game he will probably want to play for a long time because he thinks he is so smart now to have figured out.

Right now the tired little 70lb puppy is curled up on the floor next to the Beast (who is playing Hearts on Pogo) and he’s sound asleep. He probably won’t wake up until he’s hungry which should be fairly soon. I have a hunch he will sleep very well tonight. I know I will since fresh air does that to me and I got enough of it to have my hands still aching from the cold (the temp was in the low 40′s while this game was going on…and I, too, am a wimp)

I packed up most of the ornaments and Christmas decorations today. I had bought some special containers last week specifically to try cutting down the number of boxes that would need to be stored in the attic. So far, I have cut down four boxes and might just eliminate two more by the time I am done. It will make the Beast happy and I will know that many of the items will no longer be subject to the predation of insects and rodents. I want everything packed up and stored in the attic before the new furniture is delivered this Friday.

I am not all work and no play however. I couldn’t stand just looking at the ceramic figurines the Beast bought me for Christmas so I started painting the lighthouse today. All lighthouses have their own unique color schemes (this I learned from a friend who’s hobby it is) but I really don’t care about that. I haven’t seen any so far that I think are attractive so I do my own *thing*. I started to follow the picture that came with it and realized it was mostly white with a little black top section. I thought it ugly so…..well, suffice it to say that, although the lower section is white so far, the top I did leave black (with some minor revisions to the window sections since I think they ARE supposed to be able to show light through them) and then another section is a nice beige/brown brick area. Lots more to do on it but I like the way it looks so far. By the way, if anyone knows of a craft shop that sells craft rouge (a specific type of cake powder used in shading), would you leave me the information in the comment section? Even if there isn’t one here, I can always try to track it down via the internet. The manufacturer’s name would be helpful if nothing else.

Well, time to get dinner on the table. I made some bean soup with ham and need to make the crusty rolls to go with it. Thank goodness for the Pillsbury doughboy and the crusty dinner rolls you can find in the freezer at the stores. I love being able to make just two, three or the whole package of 10 if necessary. Especially since you can’t buy decent crusty rolls here. Just another thing I miss about Chicago. **sigh**

Love you all and have a great weekend.

I am still amazed that Baron was fascinated by all the lights I had decorating the inside of the house but he never…not once….bothered them. He just looked and looked the first two or three days and then ignored them entirely. He also never bothered any of the presents under the tree or the ornaments on it. He gave them all a sniff or two but that was it. Amazing behavior as far as I am concerned.

My apologies for the long delay in updating this blog. I can only say that I really got *into* buying gifts for my son, daughter-in-law and their three children. I hadn’t spent a Christmas holiday with them in over 7 years and this time I wanted to give them actual gifts and watch them open the presents. My son brought the family down from his home in Tennessee the day AFTER Christmas. I made dinner, watched everyone (including my son) open their gifts except for my daughter-in-law and the youngest grandchild, Traci. She started getting sick on Christmas and was running a high fever the day after. She was generally listless so my daughter-in-law stayed home with her. I really had hoped to watch her and Lisa open their gifts but I sent them home with my son. I did get a report that she just loved the velour outfit and cute top I bought her as well as a *Learner* crochet kit that shows her how to make a cute hat and scarf. She also got some cute Princess jammies that she immediately put on.

My granddaughter Amy is artistic and they wanted to encourage that so I had a ball putting together a shitload of acrylic paints in almost every color they had plus some sealer and acrylic varnish. I bought canvases of different sizes and some special paper that you can use acrylic paint on that came in a pad of twenty-five or thirty, I forget which. I also got her a variety of brushes from the very fine to wide and flat. Some sponge *brushes* and a palette completed the box I packed. It was well worth the effort because her face was a study in amazement when she opened the box. I could tell it was a hit and she spent an hour looking at all the colors and inspecting everything else.

My grandson is 15 and in the Marine ROTC in high school. He’s on the drill team (which I just love after seeing my son on one when he graduated from boot camp when he enlisted in the Navy). I bought him some tops in camo (which he loves for paintball but I didn’t know that when I bought them). I got him a couple of those as well as a couple of others in beige and brown. He put one of the shirts on immediately and kept telling me how comfortable it was.

My son I gave a present that every household needs. It was an 18V cordless, reversible 3/8 drill with an assortment of bits, including the ones for screws. It also had a sander, a small saw (I can’t recall what they call it at the moment) and a really great light, also cordless. The set came with two rechargeable batteries for them. I thought my son would fall off his chair when he opened THAT one.

As a joke, I also gave him some socks and underwear. My sons used to hate the fact that two of the gifts they received every Christmas was new underwear, t-shirts and socks. After my son was married a couple years, he said to me *I really miss those presents now, Mom*. At the time, we laughed about it but I remembered. He laughed when he opened up the boxes and said to me *You might have meant it as a joke, Mom, but I really need these*, which brought on a bigger laugh from all of us.

His mother-in-law came with them since she was visiting them for Christmas and Reta and I always got along well. She lives in the Ft. Lauderdale area and works for a dermatologist there. I know her so I got her a gift set (keeping in mind that she flew in and might have limited room in her suitcase). It’s one of those Relaxation ones but has an eye mask and a neck pack that you can heat in the microwave or put in the fridge. It’s lavendar for relaxation and she just loved the smell of the lotion, the shower gel and the bath salts. Reta is the type that works hard and she is the office manager now so that means more stress than usual. I wanted to give her something she would like and I did from her reaction.

Dinner was a success. The ham was wonderful, mashed potatoes perfect as well as the bean casserole. I had made some cranberry relish which no one had had in a long time. Reta had never had it and ate quite a bit of it. We also had nice dinner rolls, sweet potato casserole and red eye gravy. I had made pumpkin pies and an apple pie. I sent home a whole pumpkin pie and half the apple pie with my son as well as lots of the leftovers so that Traci and Lisa would have some of everything. I even sent home some deviled eggs and some of the shrimp we had for snacking on while dinner was cooking.

Unfortunately, I overdid myself and suffered for it the next day. I was in such pain that I couldn’t get upright for most of the day. Even the pain pills didn’t help much but did keep me from screaming. That and the heating pad worked finally, just in time for me to go to bed again.

Baron spent most of the day trying to *barter* one of his chew bones for regular food. He went to everyone and would put it in their lap then take a step back. If they didn’t react, he would push his nose into their side and step back again. I told everyone to just say *No* and they did. He took back the chew bone and went on to the next person. He finally flopped down in his kennel and gave out an audible sigh and laid down, sighing again. We all burst into laughter because it was just too darn funny to see him *act* like he was being ignored and not allowed to join us in our fine dining.

The Beast and I went out today (yes, today was a good day for me. Relatively pain-free and I haven’t taken a pain pill at all). We ended up at Badcock furniture and bought a new living room set. I just love it. It’s a brushed fabric in burgundy. We bought two recliners, a loveseat to match, a new coffee table with storage boxes built into it as well as matching end tables. I can use the boxes in the end tables for magazines and I intend to keep my current afghan project in one of the coffee table boxes. Now here’s the best part. The love seat is actually two recliners. And it is long enough for me to take a nap on but shorter than the couch we currently have which will give us more room in the area where we will put it. I get everything delivered next Friday. My niece, Tara, is taking everything we have in the living room for her family room. She already has my rattan couch, chair and ottoman and is looking forward to having the rattan end tables as well as the rattan coffee table.

We also gave her my freezer since we don’t need it any more. Our freezer in the refrigerator holds more than enough for us, including some *stock up* items. I buy a lot of chicken to cook up for the dog, as well as some for us. I never thought I would be the kind of owner that cooked up special items for a dog but here I am. He does, however, have a wonderful coat on him and is very healthy according to the vet. He got his last shots the day we left for Florida for the closing on our house there. I have discovered a few *pet friendly* motels (Motel 6 is one of them)
and we stayed in them during our drive there and back home.

The closing went well and our money was wired directly into our account by the title company. That is part of the reason we went out and bought the new furniture. Now there are only a few other items we will buy and that’s pretty much it for us except for putting new counter tops on our cabinets. We are putting granite counters on the cabinets and tile down on the kitchen and laundry area floors.

I think it’s time to finish this *journal* and crochet some more of the afghan I owe my great-nephew. I had hoped to give it to him as one of his Christmas presents but didn’t get it finished with everything else I was doing. Even shopping for Christmas gifts had me coming home to take a couple pain pills and lay down for an hour or so. Oh well, it’s over now so I can start putting away all the Christmas stuff so it’s cleared out before the new furniture is delivered. I want to clean the carpet again before then so my week will be busy again. Thank goodness I still have pain pills left

Love you all. I wish you a wonderful, healthy and prosperous New Year. Be kind to one another and be sure to tell those you love that you do….and do it often.

I have spent the last three days cleaning in preparation for our trip to Florida for the closing on our house there. It makes me sad since that was the house we had built that was supposed to be the last one. We added a lot of special features that this house doesn’t have and I miss already. But time marches on and things change so we go down there to sign the papers and say goodbye to a different way of life. Now we can fully embrace the new life we are leading and get local insurance coverage, drivers licenses and declare homestead on this house for an even lower tax bill next year.

I also did a lot of washing. Not just clothes but bed linens and scatter rugs. There’s a method to my madness….I don’t have to worry about any house cleaning when I get home from Port Charlotte. I can concentrate on finishing my Xmas shopping and decorating while the Beast is over in Fort Lauderdale doing his consulting work. He also gave me the assignment of going to Lowe’s and scoping out the stoves there. I’ve been looking at a lot of places since I am going to get a better stove in here come hell or high water. The Beast has looked at the ones they have and he swears they have several stoves I would like. He said just get what I want since the price won’t matter so I will, either there or somewhere else. He also wants to replace our living room furniture (I am shocked since what we have in there is almost brand new but is leather and has proven a bit …well, cold for this clime). He told me a few places he wants me to check out what they have and we can go and look together once he gets home. Oh, the reason he hopes I find what I like at Lowe’s is because they will deliver and install the stove before he gets home…LOL.

We have talked a lot about my traveling back here with Baron by myself. Baron is a bit big and muscular the Beast feels and can be distracting while driving. The Beast feels HE can deal with him being stronger than I am but is worried about me being alone and Baron acting up. I wasn’t worried about it except for one thing. We haven’t had any kind of restraint to protect him if we make sudden stops for any reason. I have imagined him being a 60 lb. projectile and, at best, falling on top of one of us in the front.

Today we bought a doggie safety *belt*. It’s really a neat little rig, easy to put on him now that we’ve got the proper adjustments made (I had to do this because the Beast has so little patience and was cussing and swearing because he just didn’t *get it*). Baron, to our surprise and laughter, loves it. I mean he acted like he was wearing a new suit or some such thing. He strutted around with it on and gave us a hard time when we took it off him. We locked him into the seat belt in the back seat of the car and found he has enough *slack* to lay down if he wants but he can’t come forward (or fall forward) and that’s what we wanted. Laugh all you want but I feel both he and I will be much safer now.

I packed the suitcases and all we need is the last minute items that we will use in the morning. The Beast just ran up to Walmart to pick up some pre-made sandwiches for while we are on the road tomorrow. Also things like cheese (for him), my Sprite Zero, some milk and whatever strikes his fancy once he’s there. I am cooking up some chicken and some rice to take with us for the dog (we add it to his kibble). We’ll put everything in the cooler tonight along with enough ice to keep it so that we can get out of the house bright and early in the morning.

I should be back by Sunday evening if all goes right and I will let you know how things went when I get back here.

In the meantime, be happy, get those Xmas chores done and all the presents wrapped and under the tree. Fill your life and others with holiday cheer (and liquor MAY be involved here ). Tell your family and friends you love them as often as you can. We just lost a dear, dear friend who will be greatly missed. I still can’t believe he won’t be here in this world any more. We loved him like a brother. His death was totally unexpected so that is why I say….tell them often that you love them…while you can. You just never know…..!

Baron turned six months old on the 9th and has become a sort-of teenager in the doggie world. This time period lasts about six months or more from what we have been told, learned from other dogs we’ve owned and the vet’s warnings.

Baron is the second male doberman that we have owned. The first was named Damien and he was aptly named. He was more attached to my son, Mark, than anyone else in the family. He was, primarily, a very good watch dog when we lived in a changing neighborhood. My son adored him and Damien would protect my son and play with him but gently. He (Damien) and Mark would often raft down the canal in back of our house on a floating dock. The canal was not deep so Mark used a long pole to raft them. I still have the cutest picture of them on the makeshift raft. He was, however, a red doberman and in high demand for breeding. His lines were excellent and so was his lineage. We ended up selling him to a breeder after about two years because he was becoming a bit uncontrollable when ANY female dog was in heat. They must be able to *smell* it for miles. He broke through our screened patio with no problems and we were tired of our local police coming to the house for one of us to fetch him home. My son, I think, never really forgave us for that but we both worked long hours at the time and he needed more attention and training than we were able to provide.

Baron has reached that stage in his life where he now is constantly *testing* us and we have to prove that we are the ALPHA figures in this household to a dog that we knew when we bought him was a dominant-type personality. He is already 24 inches at the shoulder, his chest has broadened, his neck requires an 18 inch collar and he is over 60 lbs. He appears to be heading towards a maximum shoulder height of 28 inches and will be between 75 and 80 lbs when he finally reaches maturity (if I let him live that long!). Dobermans do not reach maturity until they are between 18 months and 2 years old.

He is very playful but can be defiant if he is not ready to stop. He recently started NOT coming when called and will not only run away but he actually will hide on us as if it were some game. He also started something new and that is trying to eat the food in our hands or on the table. He stopped trying for food on the table by his own actions. We had more than half a large pizza on the table in it’s box. I was at my computer and so was the hubby. It wasn’t until the Beast went to get himself another piece of pizza that he discovered the pizza was gone. I mean there wasn’t so much as a crumb left. He came in to ask me if I had possibly put it away but I was totally shocked. We found a little pizza sauce on the floor and you could tell the box had been nudged open and also was closer to the edge of the table from when we had closed it. Why did Baron stop trying for food on the table? He got a tummy ache from the pizza. I mean he felt so rotten after eating all that pizza that he was *off* his food for two whole days. He had to have made the connection because when I made a homemade pizza last night, he actually went and laid down in his crate when he smelled it. We have never fed him food off our plates. He doesn’t get leftovers unless I cut up some leftover meat and add small amounts of it to his kibble. We have always used Natura puppy food mixed with brown or white rice, cooked carrots and cut-up chicken. He has the most wonderful coat on him and it shines with good health. The luster alone impresses people that see him.

Since the pizza episode, he will smell what we have in our hands if we happen to be on the couch or in the recliner but he won’t go near the food when we sit at the table. Some lessons are hard ones I guess, even in the doggy world.

We did break down and buy a dog training book and it gives us access to online videos of the training techniques outlined in the book. We also purchased what is called a *pinch* collar that looks like a torture device when it’s on his neck. It does NOT ever tighten up like a choke collar thank goodness. It’s designed to mimic what the mother dog’s do or the alpha male does in a pack when they do not like their behavior. We found that it takes just a tiny, quick tug and the behavior immediately stops and the dog becomes submissive. It’s the most amazing thing I have seen. It’s not something you can KEEP on the dog since the *teeth* would be both uncomfortable and, perhaps, dangerous when the dog lays with his head down. It is ONLY used during training sessions or when you want to break him of a bad habit (like jumping up on people). I will keep you apprised of how the training goes.

I told you about the puppy that the Beast found and brought home to feed. It was really a cute little female that desperately needed someone to love and love it. Baron was so excited at first because he thought he had a new playmate. She, however, was so fearful and so young that his behavior changed to aggressive around her. We had to keep them apart for most of the time she was here.

The puppy was allowed access to the outside all the time because she never went off our property. In fact, she never went far from the kennel we had for her in the garage. She would venture to the field across from our house if I or the Beast went outside and walked across so that she would get some exercise. It’s several acres and she would run and smell things and calm down after about a half hour of walking the uneven terrain.

There was a crew of men working on that area, filling in the trenches along the street and leveling the various homesites being sold. I am hoping that it was one of them that took the pup home with them because she disappeared. She had gained weight in the time we had her and looked healthy. The Beast had spoken to the men working because we wanted the lot we own, next door to our house, to be cleared and leveled. The rear portion of that lot had a huge pile of dirt and rocks and brush that had grown on and around it. We started trying to clear the brush for access to the pile this past summer (with my niece’s sons help) but found it to be more than we could really be expected to do on our own. We needed a bulldozer.

We asked for a price to clear it since we were willing to pay to have it done. The foreman called the man who owns the other properties here to find out what he wanted to charge and, lo and behold, they wanted the dirt pile so it was free! We can now repark our boat and the travel trailer for easier access to both. Knowing the Beast, however, he will procrastinate for months. We shall see.

I pulled down all the boxes of Christmas decorations and supplies from our attic access in the garage. The Beast did give me a hand. I got the boxes down and passed them to him at the foot of the ladder. He stacked them up at the back of the garage but *I* was the one that brought them all into the house. It really didn’t surprise me since he is such a *bah humbug* type person about Christmas. I, however, just love it. I love to buy and give the presents to the people I love. This year will be the first time in seven years that I will get to see some of my grandkids open the gifts I have bought for them. My son, his wife and their three kids will be coming down on the 26th and we will exchange gifts then. I really didn’t expect anything from them since they have just started being able to live without it being a *week-to-week* existence. They are also working on paying off my daughter-in-law’s college loans before they HAVE to start paying on them. They have been paying at least the interest on the loans each month and have now started paying something on the loans also. I’m very proud of both my son and my daughter-in-law for their determination and hard work. She has managed to keep a B average (it would be A if she were better at math) and has made the Dean’s List twice. My son is working for a major corporation, with contracts with hospitals all across the country. He has several assigned contracts that cover their computer systems and programs. They call him when they are experiencing any kind of problems. It requires being able to figure out what is wrong and how to correct whatever the problem is that they are having. He also has to document everything he did or recommended so the technician on the other shifts that also have responsibility for the same contracts know what was done. The sheets are examined by his superiors on a daily basis and his performance is rated. He has been an exemplary employee in that aspect and has also solved a few problems that others couldn’t solve.

His family now has complete medical and dental coverage. That is something he has not had until now. He also has all the other benefits that working for a major corporation offers like a 401K plan, paid vacations and sick pay and he can work extra hours for additional time off. There are a lot of other benefits but I don’t remember them all. He loves his job and still has some clients he has taken care of that will wait for his days off for him to come and clear up problems that THEY have. It’s a nice source of extra income for them and it means we no longer have to worry about them any more.

So, I started doing my interior decorations after getting the boxes down and I also have lights that I use around my bookcase and my etagere. I decided this year to use twinkle lights on the bookcase since I have Santa’s sleigh and reindeer on the top. I just liked the look of it. I had not, however, thought about Baron’s reaction since this is his first Christmas experience. He was, and is, just fascinated by the twinkle lights. He will stare and stare at them for long periods of time. It makes me wonder just what he’s thinking.

He hasn’t bothered any of the decorations but he hasn’t seen the tree yet. Since we are traveling to Port Charlotte for the closing on our house there, I figured I would wait until I return to set it up and decorate it. We are leaving on Wednesday morning and will get to Port Charlotte on Thursday evening. The closing is on Friday and I will leave to come home on Saturday morning. That means I will be home on Sunday at the latest since I stop for the night after about 8 hours of driving. We are taking both our vehicles since The Beast is going over to Ft. Lauderdale for a week to do some consulting work for an old client of his that he’s had for almost 30 years. He won’t be home for a week. I would normally accompany him to Ft. Lauderdale and spend time with Sister C but we are traveling with Baron. He will return home with me. *C’s* condo association does not allow any animals at all and he’s actually too big to take there anyway. He’s also too rowdy yet (being a puppy still no matter how BIG he is) for C’s hubby to handle after having major back surgery. I would be terrified that Baron might cause him to fall and hurt him in any way.

The Beast gave me my Christmas present early since we were taking the trip to Port Charlotte. He gave me my own Garmin GPS and I was thrilled. I have wanted one of my own since learning how to use his. What’s funny is that it is actually the model just ABOVE his Garmin and it has a noticeably brighter screen. I love it. It’s the best Christmas present he could have gotten me.

This has turned into a major entry so I had better close for now. I gave my niece, Tara, a shitload of Christmas decorations and also made her two ornaments for her tree. I did them in the blue, silver and white that she told me it was. They turned out beautiful. Tara said they used a lot of the decorations outside the house (there were rope lights as well as a couple long strands of the small lights that most people use these days. He boyfriend is coming over when I get back from Port Charlotte to help me put up the outside lights on the house. I’m going to use one of the presents I bought for the Beast to put them up (I bought him a small extension ladder….7 ft that extends to 12 ft). It will allow us access to the gutters to clean them out and make putting the outside lights up a snap.

Well, love you and have a great weekend and week. Remember to get your Christmas cards out and to tell all your friends and family that you love them. Be happy.

Baron continues to be a source of both frustrations and amusement. He has been very bad about jumping up on people so we have taken another tack since the most frequently used methods by trainers have not worked (block with knee, rolled up paper, etc.). We decided it’s time to grab his collar when he starts it and make him sit and calm down. We know he only jumps up when he’s excited but he has to learn that this is NOT acceptable to us. We had to do it three or four times yesterday (Sunday) afternoon but it seems to be working much better than any other method. We shall see.

Another funny thing that happened was that Baron apparantly has decided that pillow fights are acceptable play here. He saw the Beast and I throwing pillows at each other the other day and knew by our laughter that this was OUR play. He decided he was going to do the same thing when he wanted to play and we had not reacted to it. He seems to want to play just when you get busy doing other things.

When we did not react and I went into the bedroom to make our bed, he grabbed a pillow and really tried to hit me with it (as he had seen me do to the Beast). I swear, I could see him winding up. I had told him *No, Baron* when he went to *throw* it at me and I heard a *riiiiiiiip* and suddenly there were feathers flying in the air. It figures that he would grab the oldest feather pillow we own and I had noticed the fabric was getting a bit thin. That will show me that I should get a new pillow or a zip cover when I first see it.

As the feathers flew, Baron’s mouth actually dropped open and he acted like this was a fascinating new toy. He had feathers on him and started bouncing on the bed and trying to catch the feathers in his mouth. I heard the *click, click* of his teeth while I was trying to grab his collar and get him off the bed so the feathers could settle. It’s a bit hard when you are laughing and angry at the same time but what did he know? I brushed off the feathers and kenneled him so I could let the feathers settle, gather them up and put them into the pillowcase then remove the offending pillow to a safe place until I could deal with it. He is not allowed in the bedroom any more while I am changing linens and making the bed for obvious reasons. We have a LOT of feather pillows in this house and I do not want to go through THAT again!

My sister says it’s our karma but another stray/lost/abandoned dog found it’s way to us a couple days ago. We found out later than she and another litter mate had been dropped off and abandoned a day or two before the Beast found her. She was laying in the field nearby, crying and shaking. She was so pitiful. We think she is only 8-9 weeks old and she’s a gorgeous little thing. This time, since we know she was abandoned (her litter mate was taken home by a neighbor), we found a local shelter that doesn’t euthanize animals unless they have been there for months. She is adorable and looks like a purebred terrier of some kind. It’s familiar to both the Beast and me but we can’t put our fingers on the breed. We think someone will see her and adopt her. She is too young to be around Baron who plays too rough for her (and is too darn big to play with her so we keep them separated). Today she will make the trip with the Beast to the shelter in Arab and we have some dog food, paper towels and a few other things on their *wish list* to donate to them. They said that they would notify us if no one adopted her in a reasonable amount of time. My niece, Tara, said she thought she was adorable and would love to take her home but her lease says no animals. I told her she had enough on her plate keeping body and soul together and feeding her four kids and we all laughed at that since she often complains about how expensive it is with having to buy pull-ups for one child and disposable diapers for the baby. The baby will be 1 year old shortly. Hard to believe it. Time really DOES fly and it seems to fly faster the older you get.

It looks like we will be making the trip to Port Charlotte for the closing on our house. It means spending a week (Baron and me) at the Beast’s aunt’s house there. THAT makes me nervous because her house is more like a knick knack shop than a house, if you know what I mean. I am hoping that she will be home by then so I don’t have to stock up her fridge and freezer for while I am there BEFORE the Beast makes his trip over to Ft Lauderdale to do some consulting work for a long-time client of his from when we owned our AC business. He figures it will more than pay for our trip down there.

Ordinarily, I would go with him and stay at Sister C’s house for the time he was doing his consulting. They supply a place for him to stay so he doesn’t have to do much driving there (and the traffic is just horrible but especially bad for him with some of his afteraffects of the strokes). But…with having Baron with us, it’s impossible for me this time. He’s too big and still too much of a puppy. With her hubby still recovering from major back surgery and not being steady on his feet at times, I wouldn’t even think of taking the chance. And Baron is now close to 60 lbs but still looks thin. I think he’s just growing so fast, we can’t bulk him up. He burns up a lot of energy at the parks we take him to so that he can run and play. He loves one park in particular because of the ducks there. He just loves to chase them and, I swear, the ducks know that he’s really not trying to catch them because they don’t fly far and they seem to take turns enticing him. Maybe they like the exercise too.

You can tell this area is not used to snow during the winter because the weatherman was discussing how a half-inch of snow shuts the cities down (schools close, more accidents from the people not knowing how to deal with driving in the stuff, etc.). Then he asks the other news people if they know the record snowfall for this area. I almost died to hear it was 17-and-a-half inches!!!! It was, however, in the 1950′s (phew) and hasn’t been more than a half-inch since then. With our luck, this is the season that will see that record matched or exceeded. Just watch this space for that information later on this winter.

Baron has also started to realize that my computer/craft room if off limits to him unless I invite him in here. In fact, he actually resisted coming in the first time I invited him. It was really funny. I had to take his collar and tug it to make him realize that it WAS an invitation to come in. The Beast needed him kept out of the rest of the house when he removed the little female puppy from the kennel she was in so he could put her in the garage temporarily.

We had the smaller kennel out there, complete with blanket and an oversized pillow. We had also covered it to protect her from drafts although she seems to have a good, thick coat on her. We suffer from empathy and hate the cold so we didn’t want to take any chances. The Beast put the heat on out there set at 65 degrees so that it wouldn’t be TOO cold for her. The covering over the kennel was to protect her from drafts. *sigh* Maybe it is our karma.
God sends the helpless to people like us says my sister. She might just be right. I guess I should get used to it. There might be another couple of strays/lost/abandoned animals in our future because we have a lot of puppy food in this separate bag that we used for Patches. If the amount still in it is any indication, we definitely have a few more in our future. *sigh*

Well, I have to get dressed and make a trip to the post office before the Beast takes the puppy to the shelter. I am out of stamps and have a few bills to mail out plus my Christmas cards. Yes, I actually got those done over the weekend. *grin*

Have a great week and a wonderful day today. May your weather be mild and your life happy. Love you all.