The wild life ain’t wild anymore

It’s so beautiful out today.  I love this property, with all the trees waving in the wind and the two fawns that have taken up residence (I think their mom might have died in a car crash).  Poor babies are eating all the red tomatoes and yellow roses.  They do not like the pink roses.  Pink must taste bad.   They wait for the tomatoes to turn red.  Actually, not just turn red but be soft and ripe.  It is now a game of wits between us to see who gets the tomato at the proper maturity.  They won the other night and got the three I planned on picking the next morning.

This morning I opened the door to let irritating Chihuahua out and a rabbit was sitting in front of the door munching the grass.  Probably the same rabbit who is eating the blooms on my melons.  I do think mother nature is winning this year.  Between the late blooms, due to cool weather, and the animals, I’m not sure what we are getting out of the garden other than peppers.  Anyway, the rabbit would NOT move.  Just refused.  I knew the Chihuahua would take out after the rabbit and I wanted the rabbit to have a chance and also not to beat the tar out of the dog, so I said “shoe.”  The rabbit munched away.  I knocked on the inside of the door.  The rabbit munched away.  The dog actually went back in the house (we were on the porch) and laid back down and the dumb rabbit was still munching away.  I think my wildlife has gotten tame.

I have two gardens this year.  I planted vegetables in the very sparse rose garden, where a bunch of roses came up in the beginning but didn’t do much with the cool weather.  I took care of them this year too.  But, I have two new plants that are doing great.  One is a yellow rose and one is varigated and I just love it.  Will post a picture later.  The vegetables were doing great too, before the orphans took up residence.

And, then we have the square foot back garden and the pumpkin patch that is invading our yard.  These are some of the numerous blossoms.

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Clouds, dogs and “Bunny in a Bowl”

Monday night, the sky was a quilt of clouds.  I could see the sky blue stitching in between the shapes.  It shows a bit in the upper left corner. Now, if it would not have been midnight, when I let the dog out, and saw this sight, I would have grabbed my tripod, but no, I shot it free hand and so this is all I have to offer.  The moon was full too.

And, then there is the matter of the irritating little Chihuahua sleeping with her head buried under the blanket.  I guess she did not want to be disturbed.

And, finally, just why is the visiting rabbit (Charlemagne) sitting in her dish???  She has a food and a water dish, and I used to put lettuce and carrots in this one, but she much prefers to sit in it, so now the most I put in is a bit of chewable hay.

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The case of the “Pooping rabbit”

I have apparently solved the case of the “Pooping rabbit” and, yes, I did watch Monk last night.  I love Monk. He’s like a member of my family and Tony Shalub is an awesome actor.

 

Apparently, when you move a rabbits food and water dish to another corner, even though it is not the poop corner, the rabbit will display its displeasure by pooping (gosh I so want a “d” word there) okay, will display its displeasure by dumping it’s poop into its food dish.  Not real strong.  Will have to work on that.

 

In case you are wondering, I have decided I really need to get a life, as I scored 19 out of 20 in a Harry Potter quiz the other day and was actually rather irate at the 20^th question because I could answer so much about Harry Potter but not the reason “Filch or Quirrel” was named the name they were named.  So, I need to get a life.

 

Digressing done: Now, I had not moved the dishes to her normal poop corner.  I’m not that dumb, but I put them in a different corner and visiting rabbit now happily eats and drinks in that corner and poops back where she was.  However, she does like to sit in the corner I had put the dishes in.  Guess it was the only way to express her displeasure. 

 

Sure glad people can talk or it would be a messy, messy world.

 

I could have titled this: What do pooping rabbits, Tony Shalub and Harry Potter have in common?

 

Absolutely nothing!

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Blogs, politics, lists and CAKE!!!

I was killing time this morning, like I have so much extra to kill, well, I really do, I just don’t want to do what I should be doing with it.  Somehow, I think this sentence has way too many commas in it.  I copied and pasted it to MSWord and they are not offering any corrections, so any editor/agents out there, just pretend I meant to do that—Stream of consciousness thing and all.

 

 

 

Anyway, in killing time this morning reading all the neat blogs about Sarah Palin and now I have added an Alaskan blog *Mudflats* to my daily read.  Who could resist this information?   Okay, now that’s another thing you agents/editors need to ignore—my politics.  I was actually going to write about an email I received from a friend, who is so stressed out about the state of politics, I fear for his sanity, but then I remembered that I am not supposed to write about anything controversial.  Ooppps!! Too late for that.

 

 

 

Anyway, again, I only got as far as C’s, in my daily blog troll.  *Cranky Fitness* provided this morning’s blog inspiration with her list.  First, I have to say, who can resist a blog with cupcakes as its banner?  Okay, a nice piece of wedding cake might be better for us cake connoisseurs.  Since her blog is about fitness, I’d say this whole cake thing is off limits; except on your birthday.  Or when you go to a wedding.  Or on the Ides of March. Or—–

 

 

 

This, cakes and lists, is something I have in common with *Pollyanna Rainbow Sunshine and the Needles of Doom*.  This is the team who has a whole blog, nearly  (I haven’t read the whole thing yet) made up of lists; and, I know for a fact that one of them would join me in my cake quest or possibly in doing many unmentionable things to Viggo Mortensen.  

 

 

Back to the lists: I find I do get more things done when I make lists. When I was doing Body for Life faithfully, I think it was the fact of having a chart to fill out for exercise and also for what I ate. Those were lists that kept me on track; and away from cake.

 

 

 

Now-a-days though, my lists look something like this.

 

1. Six am  do dishes- no room for dishwasher in this blasted house.

2. Seven am wake boys

3. Feed visiting rabbit and clean the poop out of her food and water dishes.  What is her problem?

4. Water dog, then take her for a walk in the yard and to water the garden.  Talk lovingly to baby watermelons. We will be so drowning in watermelons at some point.  Tomatoes are just starting to get red.  I may go on a tomato and watermelon diet.

5. Call the class ring company and order a replacement for JRockGuitarMan’s class ring.

6. Remind JRock that I will have his hide if it ever disappears from his finger again.

7. Tell EMT Boy he looks good in suit of visiting son, Starky

8. Tell Starky he looks good in cowboy hat, boots, shirts and jeans of EMT boy.  (Hey, they get worse as Halloween gets near.  One year we gave them a box of costumes for Christmas and it was their favorite gift.)

9. Go to mom’s town tomorrow: see vet (for dog pills, not for me), go to license bureau (for mom’s handicapped tag), help her with pacemaker check by phone (which she can do on her own), out to eat (always) grocery store, farm stand for tomatoes and watermelon since mine aren’t ready to pick yet. (never buy a watermelon at Marsh — worse one I ever had). 

 

 

 

I have stretched my limits of punctuation and patience in this blog, so am off to work on my novel to bed.  I shall put my headphones on and listen to Harry Potter yet again.  I have been listening to the CD’s for three years now.  Since memoiries from my last visit in Wyoming roll around in my head too often at night.  The CD’s only put me to sleep because I have them memorized by now. So, new books on tape only work when I am painting or throwing pottery and want to be reading.  Music doesn’t work either.  Both of them just make me stay awake to hear more.  But, my brain calms right down with the soothing voice of Jim Dale.

 

 

 

Sleep well!

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The world revolves around irritating little Chihuahua

Okay, I started a post this morning about lists and had it linked to three other blogs and then it just grew and grew and grew and got really boring.  So, here’s something else:

 

“Oh, is she out yet?” Husband says as I get up to let her in, after she has been kind enough (and this doesn’t happen often) to actually bark to let us know it is hot out there and, she says, “If you don’t let me in, I will run to my water dish, drink till I puke and then lay on my side panting for an hour.”

 

And, it isn’t like I hadn’t just, not two minutes before,  checked on her and closed the door and announced, “She’s not ready to come in yet.”

 

Even the local bunnies cater to irritating little Chihuahua. She likes to charge out the door at them. Sometime “they” turn out to be a clump of dirt or a pile of leaves, but a lot of times there is actually a bunny out there. They always seem to be eating in the same spot and half the time the Chihuahua goes out that door and does not see them. When she does, she takes off after them and they run.

 

The Visiting Bunny, in a cage, must irk her because, since Gaffer and girlfriend left, she has totally ignored it. “I don’t see it. It’s not there.”

 

Today, she took off after one outside and it was getting so far ahead, that the bunny sat down and waiting for irritating little Chihuahua to catch up, before running again. I am not kidding you.  Even the bunnies cater to her.

 

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Labor Day Weekend

This is one of those “off the cuff” blogs; because no one is home anyway, nor posting to their blogs.  I have never considered Labor day to be a prime holiday; but last night someone near me was shooting off major fireworks and no one is posting to their blog.  Gosh, you would think people have a life or something.

 

So, these are things I have noticed lately.

 

I love the writings and blogs of Crazy Aunt Purl and so does 88.5% of the blogsphere.  No matter what blog I check out, it seems they have a link to *Crazy Aunt Purl* on their sidebar.  I must say, it makes you feel at home.  Congrats! Crazy Aunt Purl.

 

I found out this week, that if you do a post on Viggo Mortensen, your readership will double overnight.  Mention his “girlfriend” and it will triple.  Thanks and Congratulations to Viggo!

 

That of the X# of blogs linked to on my sidebar (cannot be specific because I added blogs today), only two blogs (of those I had on this morning) have posted this weekend:

 

1.      Velvet Cerebellum The Velvet Cerebellum has posted this weekend and that was about a yarn orgy, so who could wait to post that? 

 

2.     My mother’s poetry site, which I made a commitment to post to every day for a year.  Of course, I post it, and I, obviously, have no life since I am also sitting here, posting to my blog. 

 

That a rabbit will poop in her food dish if: a wasp is in her cage, or she is lonely, or she just doesn’t like the food she is getting.  The rabbit isn’t telling, so I’m only guessing here. Perhaps she will not do it again though, as when I cleaned it all out and refilled it, she ate like a hungry pig.

 

That irritating Chihuahua cannot recognize a family member when they are walking past the house on the driveway.

 

And, that I just collated my blog links between this site and My Favorites because it will make things quicker, and I am killing time.

 

And, as JRockGuitarMan sits patiently and awaits his turn on the dial-up, I now will get offline and work on my book. 

 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

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Okay, this post is out of order. So shoot me!

Daily Overview: August 22, 2008

AQUARIUS

January 20-February 18

 

You are starting to notice little peculiarities in something at work or at home that should be perfectly normal It’s a good time to investigate further, though you may need to keep things quiet.

 

Gaffer and girlfriend were packing and cleaning all night. They tried very hard to be quiet and I did get some sleep early on but they were scheduled to leave at 5am and , as morning drew closer sleeping was tough. Hugs all around, get back to sleep, alarm goes off to wake the three high school boys up. Usually, the EMT boy gets up early and I can just lay there and hear him moving around and go back to sleep; knowing he will wake the other two up.

 

This morning, silence, not a creature was stirring. So, I reach for the cell phone to call and wake him up. Isn’t that what a cell phone is for? Drats! Husband and I share cell phone and the cell phone is on its way to the airport. Get up, go downstairs, knock on all doors, go back up, fall asleep.

 

EMT boy comes up and says something in his “teenage” speed talk (I thought only girls spoke that fast). I wake up, he comes closer, repeats his mouth of marbles, and I knock over my water. He comes closer and repeats it for the third time. I understand it this time. I do not remember a word, but I know I understood it. Don’t THINK it is urgent.

 

Husband comes back from drive to the airport. In some odd world, he thinks I am awake and speaks to me. Wakes me up. He goes down to “take a nap.” I fall back asleep for last time, with the thought in my head that I am now the babysitter of little rabbit and he needs to get out of his travel cage and into the big cage.

 

I get up a bit later, shower, dress and tackle the rabbit situation. Big cage needs cleaning, BAD! I take it out to hose it down. Water pressure is miniscule. Finally get cage cleaned, papers and bedding down. Water, food and lettuce in bowls in big cage and rabbit in. But, during that process I find one of our many water leaks is under the kitchen sink.  Everything under the sink is wet and mildewed.

 

And, this is why, a few days later, when I went out to water and feed the garden and found the water pressure non-existent, and then hooked up to the faucet on the other end of the house,, at great personal exhaustion as hose was nearly buried, turned it on then, thought I should check it as a few years ago it had flooded my mother’s computer. And, it was supposedly fixed, AND I checked and a waterfall was soaking EMT Boy’s room, that I had a major temper tantrum about my husband never, ever, ever touching anything to do with water again.

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Let’s Play: Boys Rooms! or DID YOU KNOW?

In the last couple of weeks, I have felt well enough again to start cleaning the house. You know that television show where they show you just how bad of pigs some people can be? Well, I have entered the room of the “child” and realized, that’s my home.

 

It has been a long recovery and with too many people, in too small a house, and the rest of them being men, who think cleaning is to use the sprayer, at full throttle, to rinse dishes, thus ensuring that that area of the kitchen also receives a shower —- well, you see my life.

 

Since the last two years of my life has consisted of me going from the treadmill to the couch, I have not traveled the vast wastelands referred to as:

 

BOYS ROOMS!

OR

DID YOU KNOW?

 

1. That JRockGuitarMan (youngest boy) is able to now provide homework from six months ago? Mind you, it’s too late!

  

2. That, while EMT (middle boy) keeps his room clean, he will manage to leave his stuff in every single other room of the house?

 

3. That a three month visit can turn your screened-in porch into a rabbit warren store room?

 

4. Did you know that Gaffer and girlfriend are able to amass more plastic drink cups, from fast food restaurants, than McDonald’s buys in one year? 

 

5. That one carefully emptied lower shelf, in the bathroom, is not enough for a college girl’s makeup and that the teeny tiny counter in the bathroom will be unable to hold the extra roll of toilet paper because it too is covered with makeup?

 

6. That just one day before Gaffer and Girlfriend are to leave, (The flight is scheduled for 8:45 am tomorrow, meaning they have to drive off just after 5am) and they are off on a stay at the State Park and this is what their room looks like?

 

7. And, that this is the sum total of dirty laundry and garbage (including those drinking cups) from the cleaning they HAVE done? 

 

GOSH, I WILL miss them.

I really will!

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Rabbit Karma, Vegetables and the Olympics

Okay, you may ask what Rabbit Karma, Vegetables and the Olympics have in common. Absolutely nothing! It was just my morning and last night, all wrapped up in one. 

 

This morning, poor little irritating Chihuahua received her rabbit karma. Outside, for her morning constitutional, she spotted a rabbit in the car parking gravel area. If the rabbits are on the grass, and they don’t move, she often overlooks them. Obviously, she has poor eyesight and no sense of smell.

 

This morning though, she must have been tired and only gave a deeply throated half bark upon spotting the rabbit. However,

 

The bunny took offense and chased after the Chihuahua. Irritating Chihuahua took off for the house. She turned around to give the rabbit even lower volume little ruffs several times, then came in the house to hide her humiliation.

 

 

 

We did go out later, after the rabbits were done with their breakfast, and checked out the garden. I am proud to say that, I now have an almost red tomato. I have sprayed the plants twice for whatever nasty thing was eating through all of the growing tomatoes and, I think, they will need one more spray as this isn’t the healthiest tomato on earth, but it is looking better.

 

 

 

The green peppers are healthy and my baby watermelons are growing.  This one is now tennis ball size.

 

I’m not sure what has happened to the cantaloupe and pumpkins. Perhaps the rabbits ate the shoots or maybe I am just not recognizing them. I wish the rabbits had eaten the Mustard Spinach as it was bitter. We liked the New Zealand spinach though. I think maybe they did eat the Buttercrunch lettuce.  Things seemed to just disappear. My garden is a wee bit out-of-control.

  

You can almost see the three active Square foot gardens here. I plant marigolds in front. Last year a turtle lived in the fourth square but, seeing as his home wasn’t planted this year, I guess he moved on.

But, I do think the fuzzy shoots of watermelon, mixed with their flowers and those of the Marigolds are awesome.

 

AND, speaking of awesome, isn’t Michael Phelps awesome? Last night was, believe it or not, my first day of Olympic watching. I totally missed the opening ceremony because I was in Wisconsin. I wish they would show it again sometime. I will try not to miss the finish.

I will say this. China has presented the most beautiful venue of any I can remember seeing. From the buildings to the inside walls, it is just gorgeous. They paid attention to the details; carvings, painting, lighting, etc and it shows. 

It doesn’t hurt to have things like Michael Phelps victories to watch either. Dara Torees just proved that 41 is the new 20. And the 26 mile women’s marathon kept me up last night. The last mile I just kept repeating, in my brain, “don’t trip” “don’t trip” “don’t trip.”

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Dog lips and the rabbit

Do dogs have lips? Oldest boy says they are chops. But, since we seem to see human traits in mom’s chihuahua, I think of them as lips and she seems to be spending an inordinate amount of time, licking her lips/chops since our company arrived.

Watching the Bunny

 

We have a visiting rabbit. It is a cute little black rabbit with a very large head. Or, maybe it’s body is just small. The owner has a harness for her, which makes her body even smaller and her head look bigger.

Needless to say, Mom’s chihuahua is obssessed with the rabbit. The rabbit runs back and forth on the couch and the dog runs back and forth on the floor – licking her lips.

Dog and bunny and book Death Watch

 

We have wild rabbits in the yard and she will either totally ignore them or take off at a run after them. We are pretty sure she could never catch one, and it seems more like a sport to her than this “domestic” intruder is.

 

 Master’s Daughter has a rabbit, in a cage, and every visit chihuahua spends some of her time barking at the poor bunny in the cage. She doesn’t snarl at the bars or anything. She just yaps. Bunny just ignores her.

I think she needs to take time off from sitting on my mother’s lap and going “Na.Na.Na. Na.Na..  I get fed in the frontroom and you don’t.” to Master’s Daughter’s dog. That little confrontation usually ends, after five days of being taunted, in Master’s Daughter’s dog grabbing irritating chihuahua by the throat.  You would think the chihuahua would learn, but she does it every visit.

I’m afraid this relationship more closely matches the title of the book I just finished, Death Watch. 

Eyes on the Prize: dog and bunny

It does allow me to use one of my favorite movie lines, however (keep in mind, I am easily entertained) “Put the Bunny back in the box.” In this case, it would be a cage. ( This is my fourth edit and I just caught that. cage=Nicholas Cage=Con Air, the movie the line is from. Told you I am easily entertained.)

Anyway, with visiting bunny, irritating little chihuahua stalks the rabbit with a single-minded determination, all the while, licking her non-lips/chops. It’s the same lick she does to let us know that she really, really, really wants a treat, or chicken (her favorite food), or another treat.

 I guess now, it is the same lick she uses to let us know she wants rabbit.

Mommy may I have rabbit?

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