Manual

Dinner at the condo

Sunday evening, we went over to the condo to have dinner.  It was delicious to say the least.  And Christie and Darren are quite the hosts.  We had a great time, as did Avery, though she was a little drama queen.  I think all the tears and screaming came from her.  She's all up for rough housing with Henry, does well for a while, then decides to scream.  We also observed her several times telling Henry that, "We have to share!" which when you watch what happened next clearly means to Avery she gets the toy.  Her stellar behavior in public doesn't extend to places which she's very familiar with.  Bummer.  

Skirt

The skirt is almost Avery's.  I can feel it.  She just has to make it through the night without throwing a fit.  Within the rules, she's allowed to come into our room as long as we don't have to get up and do anything to make it happen.  This is what usually happens.  We often don't even wake up when she comes into our bed, then wake up and there she is.  Fine by me.  As long as it doesn't disrupt my sleep, do what you like, my dear.  However, last night, she decided to request milk and a bib and then kicked her feet and demanded things.  I eventually got her calmed down without much effort on my part, but that blew her chance of getting her skirt today.  I'm crossing my fingers she gets it tomorrow.  I want her to have the pay off to the good sleep-routine behavior to reinforce how nice it is to follow sleep-routine rules. 

Front Yard

The removed all the grass from our front yard, as well as some dead bushes.  Then they dug trenches for the electrical wiring to go in.  After that I think the landscaping will start.  I also think the corbels for the eaves of the house, as well as the arbor above the garage, are scheduled to go up this week.  We settled on a darker stain for the front deck, but I'm not sure when that will happen.  Garage doors should be in this week or next.  I'm anxious for this all to be finished.

D still doesn't like the color of the house at all; I like it in some lights. 

Dogs

Conan heads home tomorrow.  Thank goodness. He's driving both D and me crazy this time. The worst is when I take him for a walk.  He's a skittish dog in general, so when he gets spooked, which is all.the.time, he does this crazy thing when he backs up at full speed.  Twice he has backed up very hard directly into my knee.  Grrrrr. 

Eddie is doing OK.  We woke up to poop this morning because it was too hot to have him sleep in the garage last night.  It's so not a good way to wake up in the morning.  It just gets the day off to such a bad start. 

Turtle's perfect.  My perfect dog.  Except for the shedding.  

Pathway

I did some manual labor! On Sunday, I headed to Home Depot and bought some paving stones.  Then I proceeded to dig out an area behind the gate that leads into our backyard and installed a little walkway to keep it clean.  The is in preparation for buying bark dust for the entire run since the dogs seem to prefer to poop on bark dust - and it looks nicer.  Anyway, I failed to buy sand to go with the paving stones, so I'll do that at some point this week, then remove the stones and redo it.  The hard part is done, so it shouldn't be too bad.  Considering it has cost me only $26 so far, I'm happy enough. 

Voice

My voice is somewhat back, but I talked so much yesterday that it's very raspy today.  Avery's in school tomorrow, so I hope to remain silent for the most part tomorrow.  I hope never to experience laryngitis again.