Showing posts with label dog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dog. Show all posts
Sunday, September 7, 2014
FIXED LINK: Hammy and his baby sitter
Hammy in a ball and his baby sitter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwh_yXH1OUg
Friday, August 29, 2014
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Tuesday at home
Poor Patrick has a cold. He's coughing, his head hurts, and he feels nauseated. I begin this post with this description because it's the reason that I delayed my walk with Cathy from 8:30 to 9 am this morning. And I'm so glad I did, because Sierra Skyped us at 8:30 this morning! I answered on my Galaxy Player, so she couldn't hear me, but I could hear her. And we could see each other.
It was funny trying to respond to her, first with rudimentary ASL (which she doesn't know), and then with little signs Pat made for me to hold up. I think Sierra was as glad to see us as we were to see her. All of our antics cracked her up!
After our walk to the boat launch (I rousted Aspen out of bed so Dash could come, too), my lungs were pretty thrashed. I've detoxed from my daily 24-hour allergy meds, and am completely clean now. But it feels like I've got asthma when climbing hills.
I got online and paid some bills, then the boys and I headed out for lunch at Quizno's. Mmm-mmm-mmm: Toasty! We haven't had Quizno's in ages.
We headed over to the motorcycle shop to pick up the belt for Pat's quad, and Aspen tried out the different quads that they have for sale. He's really interested in getting a bigger quad.
Speaking of which, he had his phone interview with Home Depot yesterday. I don't know what the next step is supposed to be, but at least they let him know that it's a 20-29 hr/week stocking job. They said NOT to go to the store to inquire, but it seems like he should go to the store and make himself known.
He's still on the waitlist for his classes, and no one has contacted him about the entry code for the one class that is not full and for which he has all of the pre-reqs fulfilled.
I am plugging along, updating my online lectures, and am getting ready to start working on my report on my inferring sexual interest study. Different things keep interfering with my getting to work on that. . .
The weather is beautiful up here right now. . . upper 80s and sunny. It's great for our break from school.
It was funny trying to respond to her, first with rudimentary ASL (which she doesn't know), and then with little signs Pat made for me to hold up. I think Sierra was as glad to see us as we were to see her. All of our antics cracked her up!
After our walk to the boat launch (I rousted Aspen out of bed so Dash could come, too), my lungs were pretty thrashed. I've detoxed from my daily 24-hour allergy meds, and am completely clean now. But it feels like I've got asthma when climbing hills.
I got online and paid some bills, then the boys and I headed out for lunch at Quizno's. Mmm-mmm-mmm: Toasty! We haven't had Quizno's in ages.
We headed over to the motorcycle shop to pick up the belt for Pat's quad, and Aspen tried out the different quads that they have for sale. He's really interested in getting a bigger quad.
Speaking of which, he had his phone interview with Home Depot yesterday. I don't know what the next step is supposed to be, but at least they let him know that it's a 20-29 hr/week stocking job. They said NOT to go to the store to inquire, but it seems like he should go to the store and make himself known.
He's still on the waitlist for his classes, and no one has contacted him about the entry code for the one class that is not full and for which he has all of the pre-reqs fulfilled.
I am plugging along, updating my online lectures, and am getting ready to start working on my report on my inferring sexual interest study. Different things keep interfering with my getting to work on that. . .
The weather is beautiful up here right now. . . upper 80s and sunny. It's great for our break from school.
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Sunday at home
We had a busy day at home today, full of glamour and thrills.
After watching Sunday Morning and drinking our coffee, I sorted the laundry and got it started. Then I sanded the front door, stained it, and varathaned it. Meanwhile, the boys worked on the shed.
Aspen and I made chicken salad for dinner while Pat practiced his archery. During dinner, Pat brought Sierra's hamster down in a plastic container so he could play in the same room as us. Brodie found that fascinating!
Now my shoulders and forearms hurt from my day of labor, and we're relaxing in front of the TV.
Friday, August 22, 2014
Sierra left for Ireland today
After a fitful night sleep, I awoke to the realization that the day has come: My baby is leaving for three weeks in Ireland.
Even her brother, who hasn't risen before 10 am in weeks, got up to give her a farewell hug at 7:30 am this morning. (You can see me in the mirror in the bathroom, if you look closely.)
So, she piled into her boyfriend Chris' Passat, with only 44 lbs of checked luggage and a backpack for her carry-on. I stood on the porch and waved as they pulled away, and came back inside. Pat had his archery equipment in hand, kissed me goodbye, and headed out to the range to meet a new member who wanted a tour.
I couldn't settle down to my normal morning routine of knitting, drinking coffee, and watching TV shows on my DVR. I had a restless feeling, so I used my energy to record some lectures for my Introductory Psychology online class (you can check them out on YouTube -- my channel is creatively named jillseiver).
After finishing the chapter, I decided it was time to go harass Aspen, who had returned to bed after Sierra's departure. His dog, Dash, was sleeping on the foot of the bed, so I decided to tease Aspen by trying to get Dash to jump on him. "Get your Daddy!" I exclaimed, while tapping Aspen's hip. Dash gave out a low growl. "That's weird," we both agreed. So I tried again, tapping Aspen's hip and saying "Get Daddy!" Dash growled louder. Was he playing, or was he really trying to protect Aspen? One more tap provided the answer, as Dash yelped, jumped to his feet, and clamped my forearm in his mouth. Aspen growled, "NO!" and pinned Dash to the bed (I'm pleased that my retired wrestler can still win in the 65 lb Border Collie category). Dash was confused, and submitted immediately. Then Aspen banished him, and Dash fled to hide under Big Pop's desk. Aspen is determined to eliminate that biting behavior, and immediately took Dash out for a vigorous bout of Frisbee, followed by some training.
After a yoga session, I sat with Aspen to get him to sign up for his fall classes. He's been dragging his feet all summer, and now we have only 4 weeks until the quarter begins. He has two classes in his major that he has to take as prerequisites for all of the other classes he must take (he's majoring in software development). Of course they're both full with waiting lists. He's pretty lucky though, because one class has only one student on the wait list, and the other only has 4. It's possible that people could get dropped for non-payment and he could get rotated in. But this close to the start of the quarter, it's not a sure-thing. He is learning that he should listen to my advice regarding school! :-)
He finally got a call-back from Home Depot about the job application that he submitted last May. But again, he foot-dragged about calling back until he finally called 15 minutes after the call center closed. So now he has to wait until Monday.
Did I mention that he's 18? It's so fun to fulfill the stereotype. LOL
My student from Eastern WA University with whom I am conducting a study came over to analyze the data that has come in so far. It may sound weird to have a student over to my house, but this whole thing is sort of weird, because her kids attended the same home-school group that my kids did. Her oldest son and Sierra were pretty tight a few years ago (friends, flirty), and Sierra was the lead in the Shakespeare plays that my now-student directed. It's all very inbred! Small town! Anyway, unfortunately we did not have adequate respondents in two out of the three categories of participant that we need, so we're back to recruiting. At least she was here to help me be brave while Sierra is flying around.
After my student left, Aspen went out to start the briquettes for grilling the steak. I came down from my evening shower and asked what was burning. Pat said I was smelling residual smoke from starting the briquettes, but I thought it smelled like current smoke. Finally, after dinner, Pat smelled the smoke and noticed that no smoke was coming out of the BBQ. That's odd. So he looked out and saw a lot of smoke under our back porch roof. That's odd. He went outside to investigate, and saw smoke coming out of the storage closet where we keep our Girl Scout style fire-starters (egg crates filled with dryer lint and candle wax). The door was slightly ajar, and as he walked toward it, he saw the flashover as the smoldering fire burst into real flames. Three 18-egg egg crates were fully engulfed inside of our storage closet! He grabbed the crates and rushed toward the backyard, inadvertently fanning the flames, so he threw the crates onto the stone patio as soon as he could. Here are the remnants:
OMG -- that could have been a disaster! He managed to catch it right before it became a real house fire. My rescue swimmer is still my rescuer and hero! Aspen is completely unaware of anything that could have caused those egg crates (which he had carried out to the BBQ, broke off one, lit the fire, then returned the extra crates back to the closet) to catch fire. But logic tells us that some heat got close to those fire-starters, and they smoldered to life over the next half hour.
As we all recovered and caught our breaths, Pat said, "Sierra's right -- we couldn't even make it one day without her!" She's known it since she was little -- we're incompetent and need her to live.
We miss you, Sierra! :-)
Even her brother, who hasn't risen before 10 am in weeks, got up to give her a farewell hug at 7:30 am this morning. (You can see me in the mirror in the bathroom, if you look closely.)
So, she piled into her boyfriend Chris' Passat, with only 44 lbs of checked luggage and a backpack for her carry-on. I stood on the porch and waved as they pulled away, and came back inside. Pat had his archery equipment in hand, kissed me goodbye, and headed out to the range to meet a new member who wanted a tour.
I couldn't settle down to my normal morning routine of knitting, drinking coffee, and watching TV shows on my DVR. I had a restless feeling, so I used my energy to record some lectures for my Introductory Psychology online class (you can check them out on YouTube -- my channel is creatively named jillseiver).
After finishing the chapter, I decided it was time to go harass Aspen, who had returned to bed after Sierra's departure. His dog, Dash, was sleeping on the foot of the bed, so I decided to tease Aspen by trying to get Dash to jump on him. "Get your Daddy!" I exclaimed, while tapping Aspen's hip. Dash gave out a low growl. "That's weird," we both agreed. So I tried again, tapping Aspen's hip and saying "Get Daddy!" Dash growled louder. Was he playing, or was he really trying to protect Aspen? One more tap provided the answer, as Dash yelped, jumped to his feet, and clamped my forearm in his mouth. Aspen growled, "NO!" and pinned Dash to the bed (I'm pleased that my retired wrestler can still win in the 65 lb Border Collie category). Dash was confused, and submitted immediately. Then Aspen banished him, and Dash fled to hide under Big Pop's desk. Aspen is determined to eliminate that biting behavior, and immediately took Dash out for a vigorous bout of Frisbee, followed by some training.
After a yoga session, I sat with Aspen to get him to sign up for his fall classes. He's been dragging his feet all summer, and now we have only 4 weeks until the quarter begins. He has two classes in his major that he has to take as prerequisites for all of the other classes he must take (he's majoring in software development). Of course they're both full with waiting lists. He's pretty lucky though, because one class has only one student on the wait list, and the other only has 4. It's possible that people could get dropped for non-payment and he could get rotated in. But this close to the start of the quarter, it's not a sure-thing. He is learning that he should listen to my advice regarding school! :-)
He finally got a call-back from Home Depot about the job application that he submitted last May. But again, he foot-dragged about calling back until he finally called 15 minutes after the call center closed. So now he has to wait until Monday.
Did I mention that he's 18? It's so fun to fulfill the stereotype. LOL
My student from Eastern WA University with whom I am conducting a study came over to analyze the data that has come in so far. It may sound weird to have a student over to my house, but this whole thing is sort of weird, because her kids attended the same home-school group that my kids did. Her oldest son and Sierra were pretty tight a few years ago (friends, flirty), and Sierra was the lead in the Shakespeare plays that my now-student directed. It's all very inbred! Small town! Anyway, unfortunately we did not have adequate respondents in two out of the three categories of participant that we need, so we're back to recruiting. At least she was here to help me be brave while Sierra is flying around.
After my student left, Aspen went out to start the briquettes for grilling the steak. I came down from my evening shower and asked what was burning. Pat said I was smelling residual smoke from starting the briquettes, but I thought it smelled like current smoke. Finally, after dinner, Pat smelled the smoke and noticed that no smoke was coming out of the BBQ. That's odd. So he looked out and saw a lot of smoke under our back porch roof. That's odd. He went outside to investigate, and saw smoke coming out of the storage closet where we keep our Girl Scout style fire-starters (egg crates filled with dryer lint and candle wax). The door was slightly ajar, and as he walked toward it, he saw the flashover as the smoldering fire burst into real flames. Three 18-egg egg crates were fully engulfed inside of our storage closet! He grabbed the crates and rushed toward the backyard, inadvertently fanning the flames, so he threw the crates onto the stone patio as soon as he could. Here are the remnants:
As we all recovered and caught our breaths, Pat said, "Sierra's right -- we couldn't even make it one day without her!" She's known it since she was little -- we're incompetent and need her to live.
We miss you, Sierra! :-)
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