"Hey baby, guess what?"
"What?"
"John and Helen are going out later, but I happen to know that Jen will be coming by to feed us."
"So?"
"Pay attention. This is the plan. We eat all our kibble, and then when John and Helen come back, we look really pathetic and frantic."
"And?"
"And Helen will feed us again."
"Will she really fall for that?"
"Trust me."


It worked. OK, in the real world they probably didn't have advance notice. But they do have this very strange relationship, wherein sometimes Tilde lies on her back and Blue nuzzles her -- we call that the Venus phase -- and sometimes Blue nips at Tilde until she starts chasing him while snarling and (because apparently snarling tickles her nose) sneezing. That would be the Mars phase.

Jen and I went to see Indiana Jones. It was OK. Very fun in spots. Could have been shorter. Nice to see Karen Allen again. Loved Cate Blanchett's hair.

This weekend I bucked tradition and did not go up to the cottage with the rest of the family. Blue and I had a quiet weekend at home. (He has yet to see the cottage.) Almost too quiet. Saturday I went to the annual Beaches Garden Society sale (my uncle John was volunteering) and did what all the books say you should not do, i.e. wander around aimlessly without any kind of plan, saying "Oooh, that looks nice" and buying whatever caught my eye. I think I ended up with an OK selection despite this, and the prices were certainly right. It was a bit of a mixed bag, though. I spent the rest of the day creating a table listing plant name, height, spacing, colour, sunlight and moisture requirements, and anything else that seemed useful. Then I made another grid of height vs. sunlight requirements and put all my new purchases on it. Then I put the plants that are already in the garden on it, on the theory that if they've survived this long they're probably in OK conditions. Then I had a nap. Then I made a plan. Then I dithered for a while. I finally shoved the new plants in the ground yesterday -- we'll see how they do. Not one was over $7 and most of them were about $2.50, so I'm not too bothered.

Sunday I went to choir, an event remarkable in that I left Blue home alone with a voice recorder on (something I've been meaning to do for a while). I was gone almost 3 hours; there was a bout of intermittent howling for 10 or 12 minutes about 20 minutes after I left, and then complete silence. And he greeted me in complete silence without jumping up -- a minor miracle! He was wagging his entire body so that it was forming circles, and had a chewie in his mouth. It was extremely cute.

Monday I met pretentiousgit at Harbourfront for the Toronto International Circus Festival. An old acquaintance of mine, Seth Bloom -- we were kids together in Kenya, more than 20 years ago, and our parents have kept up and his parents now live in Rome -- was performing and I'd promised to come down. Very glad I did, as it was a great show. Was complaining that Harbourfront never seems to publicize its stuff very well -- does anyone else find that? Or is it just that I don't read the right papers? Anyway, it was great to catch up a little with Seth and meet his wife and fellow performer Christina. But it was COLD. pretentiousgit pointed out that it is not unknown for it to snow on Victoria Day weekend. But STILL.

The rest of the family came back from the cottage while I was out and kidnapped my dog, but they brought him back eventually. I bought groceries and Jen and I watched some Monarch of the Glen (season 2; we are going through in order).

Our Green Bin is in pitiful shape, i.e. barely bin-shaped at all. The raccoons got at it twice over the weekend.

I have much more work to do on the house, but all in all it was a decent weekend.

The problem with doing yoga once a week (on Thursdays. At lunch, in a spare office) is that I am spacey for the whole afternoon and very stiff and sore (good stiff and sore, though) the following day.

Hurray for Friday, though! It's gorgeous here. If I'd known it was going to go up to 25 I might have worn a skirt.

Followed instructions when picking up Blue yesterday evening with MIRACULOUS RESULTS. (Said instructions were: Call ahead to ask aunt & uncle to put him out in the back yard. Enter the house. Ask them to let him back in. Wait in the hall. Once he spots me, calmly pre-empt the customary BOUNCE! FLING! IT'S YOU! OMG OMG OMG! with high-value treats.* Have him sit. Keep on with the treats. And it WORKED.) Other dog owners have already commented on the change -- we saw the Golden that he hates this morning, and I took him into a driveway and had him sit and fed him treats and he was great, and the Golden's person remarked on how good he was being.

*Turkey franks and string cheese, in this case.

The long-awaited appointment with the dog behaviourist was last night. Went really well! Some highlights:

- Blue is a nice dog. (We knew this, but it's good to have outside confirmation.) Many of his behaviour issues are down to being a 2-year-old. He will eventually grow a brain, but probably not for another year or two.
- Even though I got him from the breeder, having bounced through several households he is functionally a rescue dog, and that also plays into the behaviour.
- She's not quite sure what's up with the separation anxiety, but we have a bunch of stuff to work on: here-you-stay-in-this-room-while-I-go-downstairs, practice tying up and going into stores a whole lot while on walks, leave for a few hours a day with some frozen bones to occupy him, etc.
- Lots and lots of work on manners, in the house and out. No bouncing around barking mindlessly and building up adrenaline. No greeting other dogs on leash. In the presence of other dogs, cats, squirrels, etc., give lots of space and keep him working.
- Italian meatballs are yummy.
- Tying his leash to my belt to free up my hands works astonishingly well.
- We'll be trying a citronella collar.

In other news, AAARGH TTC STRIKE. (Probably.)

Blue has been eating things that disagree with him, and puking. (A shard of bone this morning, from goodness knows where, and then he picked up a frozen mess of Something at the beach and ate half of it before another dog owner caught him and I could pry the rest of it out of his gullet.) I was concerned enough to take him to the vet on the way back from our walk this morning, and indeed he started puking again on the way over. Vet prescribed 2 days of meds and special food, in case, but wasn't too concerned. I'm staying home to give the meds (if I can get this cotton wool out of the vial, that is) and keep an eye on him. Silly dog. We're going to work on the "Out!" (as in "Spit it...") command as soon as he feels better.

My computer doesn't think it's Daylight Saving yet. Actually, I'm not sure I do either.

On the plus side, nice quiet time to work. And I can play music without bothering officemates. And it's gorgeous and sunny.

Not the world's most productive weekend, but pleasant.

Books read in last couple of weeks:

Earthquake Weather, Tim Powers (reread -- bought it for $1 from the library's discard pile)

Bad Kitty, Michelle Jaffe. I haven't laughed so much in a while.

Consolation, Michael Redhill. Toronto's One Book this year. Was indeed fun to see others reading it at the same time, and I love the glimpses into Toronto's possible past.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Winifred Watson. Discussed here.

Late Nights on Air, Elizabeth Hay. Last year's Giller winner. For a while I was afraid it was going to be unbearably depressing, and there is indeed a great deal of sadness and loss in this book. But it's excellent and evocative and not remotely grim.

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen. Reread. One day I hope I will again be able to read this book without mentally comparing the 2005 movie version with it in my head and telling the movie "See? SEE? You are wrong! Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong!" Nearly there, but not quite.

Huh. Is that all? Read parts of:

The Dark Stuff, Nick Kent. Excellent music writing (as far as I can tell -- I don't read a great deal any more), remarkable for its near-total absence of women. I realize it's the nature of the game, but it got irksome after a while.

Very Good, Jeeves!, P.G. Wodehouse.

Didn't manage to get any farther with:

From the Fifteenth District, Mavis Gallant. Canada Reads is over anyway. Maybe another time.

Blue and I went to the off-leash area down at the beach this morning, as we generally do; he had a fine old time galloping all over the place with a good crowd of dogs who were playing at the right level. I was just thinking about heading home when a new batch came in, including a medium-size curly blond dog that I realized, in retrospect, I'd met before. I pieced all of this together in retrospect, in fact, so this anecdote probably makes me sound quite dim. To wit:

The crowd had not been around long when the curly blond dog (male) peed on a woman's coat. The male owner -- cheerful, hearty, middle-aged -- said exactly what he said to me, viz. "You can't stand still for too long! Gotta keep an eye out!" The woman seemed only mildly annoyed, and they chuckled a bit over the incident, which surprised me, because it was a wool coat that she's probably going to have to get dry-cleaned. Anyway, this is when I knew I'd seen dog and owner before, because a week ago the same dog peed on my leg. Luckily, my jeans go in the washing machine.

Shortly after that the dog and Blue got in a bit of a snarly dominance-game scrap. The man grabbed Blue, who was on top, and we determined that nobody was hurt. Man and dog headed off down the beach while I hung onto Blue, who was annoyed. The woman -- who, it gradually dawned on me, was the co-owner of the curly blond dog and thus presumably the wife of the other owner -- told me curly blond dog was 3 years old and not neutered, and this happened sometimes, but they didn't see any point in getting him neutered because he didn't mark and didn't have any discipline problems and everyone else's dog was neutered so it didn't really matter. I pointed out that other dogs tend to go for unneutered males more often, but I was preoccupied with Blue and reflexively assuming it had mostly been his fault, and also hadn't quite connected up the two incidents, so it didn't actually occur to me until later that what I should have said was "Lady, your dog just PEED ON YOUR LEG. You have a problem."

Assignment 2. Once again, I am pulling together the group essay. Situation is better than it was 2 hours ago, in that the person whose entry was missing in action has now sent in her stuff. It's in point form, but that's much better than the entry that appears to have been cobbled together without attribution or any kind of critical assessment from various reports (or maybe just 1 report -- it's all one paragraph and really shouldn't be, so it's a little hard to tell). The other 2 people have done a fine and acceptable job, just like last time. I think it'll be OK in the end, but ah, group work. How fraught with peril you are. (Particularly in a continuing education course where the academic backgrounds of the participants are, how to say this without sounding snobbish... mixed.)

Anyway, as I say, don't intend to stay up all night for this one. People can bloody well take what they get, and it's not due until Tuesday anyway.

Jen and I went out for lunch today and while we were out my dog ate:
- a breakfast pita that was sitting in its bag on Jen's counter
- part of a bag of low-fat carrot muffin mix that was sitting on my counter
- slivered almonds ditto

He gnawed on:
- an empty Gladware container that had held yogurt, also on Jen's counter
- an empty Gladware container that had held my lunch yesterday, out of my bag
- a Buffy the Backside Slayer bar, which apparently was not to his taste, also out of my bag

He rejected:
- three Bath Ballistics, also in my bag
- a jug of maple syrup on my counter (thank goodness -- that could have got messy)

Amazingly, he was not very interested in dinner. Otherwise he seems quite all right. Well, except that there's still some muffin mix caked in his beard. I thought his aunt raithen would likely prescribe belly lifts, so I have done some.

Brat.

GIP. Also, the model just graduated from his first obedience course as Top Dog (consistently good from start to finish! whee!). AND he won the Musical Mats game.

We have a few issues we need to work on -- for starters, he's currently spending weekdays with my lovely Aunt Helen (she of the house reports) because he cries all. day. when left home alone and the neighbours (one of whom works at home) were complaining. (Actually, the word they used for the noises was "howling".) But she says he's no trouble. And we're getting a behavioural consultant (I know, could I be any more yuppie? how the hell did this happen?) except not until I fill out the incredibly long questionnaire, which I've also been avoiding.

Nevertheless, he continues adorable and generally very good and I adore him. Even if he does become one massive snowball on days like today.

Still not very good, but hey. The planets have aligned, the camera and software and Internet are all present on the same computer, and now, three weeks later, the moment you've all been waiting for!

Presenting Blue:



( More inside )

Yep. That's my dog.

Last night on the Longest Commute in History (for me, anyway -- left the office at 5:30, got home at 7 after an hour on the streetcar which is unusually bad even for the 501) I had nothing to read. Woe! So I read over some guy's shoulder instead. It was something called Protect and Defend, by one Vince Flynn, who if you believe his Google results is a bestselling author, and the few passages I read were so bad that I was tempted to snatch it from the guy's fingers and hurl it out the window. If I could have reached the window, which is not at all certain, because the streetcar was so packed that people were regularly having to yell "Get off the steps!" so the driver could shut the doors and we could go somewhere. Anyway. I digress. (Model numbers of weaponry in the midst of action sequences: usually a bad sign, IMO, although to be fair it seems to work for lots of people.)

An actual sentence from the book:

Before Rabb could ask what he meant, a group of Kurds burst through the door and started shooting at their leader just then.

It was a long, hard trip home, I tell you. I was very glad when I got a seat, because then I could write Christmas cards.

Blue continues adorable. His breeder told me he loves to look out the window, and she wasn't kidding: one of his new favourite spots is the back of the couch. Picture a 35-pound fluffy dog perched on the back of a couch, staring out the window. It's hilarious and cute. Must take photos.

My mum and I drove to Brampton in not-yet-horrible snow on Saturday to look at a young Airedale who needed a home. And as Jen and her parents said, what were the odds that the two of us would drive all the way to Brampton to look at an Airedale and come back without him?

So as of Saturday I am the proud new owner of Blue. He is adorable: on the small side for an Airedale, about 35 to 40 pounds. He's 20 months old, so still fairly puppyish, but house trained and knows his basic commands (although we will be enrolling in obedience school just to make sure we speak the same language). He's really sweet-natured. We were a bit worried about how he and Tilde will get on, but so far so good -- he's fascinated by her, and while she is a bit put out ("You brought a strange dog into MY HOUSE! And now there's this boy following me around all the time!") they seem to be getting on OK. They seem to have evolved Tilde's game of sit-on-the-couch-and-drop-squeaky-toys-on-the-floor so that two can play (she tosses toys at Blue, and he takes them and squeaks them; she hasn't yet gone on to take them back, but I'm sure this will come).

This may turn me into a morning person. We got up at 7 and walked on the beach and watched the sunrise. No going off the leash yet, but it was fun. I only got in to work at 10:25, but considering I had to return the rental car, brave the slowed-down-by-snow subway (with medical emergency on the train ahead), and go to the post office (raithen, your gift is on the way! finally!), it could be worse. I don't think I'll have problems in the usual way. Heartrending barking as I left the house. I hope he doesn't do that all day.

I did other stuff too, but that's what's occupying my head.