Once again, Harriet turned on the water works while I was eating rice. Rice, for chrissake! For some reason, rice and french fries make her drool buckets. Please note that she made two drool bubbles. Miss Brown is a talented girl.
And now for a cuteness chaser. The Princess Di eyes crack me up every single time.
Harriet likes to keep an eye on Across the Hall Neighbor. As you an see, she’s got just enough line to crane her neck around the privacy fence.
I have been a lazy, bad blogger lately. Mea culpa. Between being easily sidetracked and willfully procrastinating, I’ve gotten a whole lot of nothing done. That’s not entirely true, though. I’ve gotten boring stuff done, like laundry and cleaning and putting away the hundreds of CDs that collect and breed around the stereo and computer.
What I should have been doing, though, is rearranging the bedroom and studio. I have to have the rooms swapped around before Monday morning, because the cable person is supposed to come and set up my modem and phone. Wheee! No more AT&T! Before that can happen, though, the computer has to be moved to the other room, because that’s where the phone and cable jacks are near each other. It’s a pain in the ass, but a good one. The current bedroom is actually the larger room, and it would be nice to have that extra space for the studio, instead of wasting it on sleeping.
But, because of the laziness and the procrastination and the gnat-sized attention span, I haven’t really gotten much accomplished moving-wise. Instead, I’ve been downloading and watching episodes of Big Brother UK (no, really) and hunting for new music. I’ve also been swearing at the phone company because my DSL keeps going crashing. Despite my lack of interest in getting things ready for the cable folks, Monday cannot come quickly enough.
There is never enough time to just sit and watch Miss Brown bask in the sun. The weather here has been spectacular the last few days, and Harriet has spent a lot of time outside, enjoying it. The black Lab on the 2nd floor balcony next door has gotten used to her being outside, and now just smiles and wags at her. It’s very sweet and companionable. The white Pit Bull on the 3rd floor balcony still has a snit whenever she sees Harriet, though I’m happy to report that her owner has been paying closer attention, and has been bringing her inside when she gets obnoxious. This makes Harriet happy, because she can go back to being a lazy sun worshiper. And that makes me happy, because I love watching her sunbathe.
Another keyword search that turned up was “turbocharged boxers.” My first thought was, “Of course they are turbocharged!”
And speaking of Miss Brown… I have mentioned before that she is kind of tweaky, and is generally afraid of men? She has decided that she really likes Scott. While he was over working on Mr. Computational Device, Harriet kept trying to crawl into his lap. She even wagged her nubbin at him, which was awfully cute. I don’t think she’s ever been that friendly with a guy, before, with the exception of my brothers.
Scott is Harriet Approved.
SCENE: A small dining room in a small town in the middle of nowhere. The scent of jasmine rice wafts on the warm, spring air
[Miss Brown, tantalized by the smell, settles herself and waits patiently. She knows her turn will come…]
[Eventually…]
[Slingers, though, wait for no one.]
Yes, she was drooling like that over rice. Plain old rice. Something is seriously wrong with my dog, I think.
I’m not a fan of recreational barkers, so it is a good thing that Miss Brown is a fairly quiet dog. Indoors, she only barks for good reason, and even then, it’s just one or two warning barks. When she barks outside, it’s always because she’s seen another dog or a critter. When that happens, I give her one bark. On the second, I tell her to hush. If there is a third, I immediately bring her inside. The intended lesson is that recreational barking is not in her best interests, if she wants to remain outdoors.
Well, yesterday afternoon, Harriet was hanging out on the patio, basking in the sun. I was sitting inside the door, on the couch, binding a book, when I heard her make her little let-me-in “Yip.” I was in the middle of a stitch, so I didn’t look up immediately, but I thought it was odd that she’d be wanting back inside so soon. She usually basks for an hour or so when the weather is good. When I let her in, I saw that one of my neighbors was out with his two Pugs.
Somehow, Harriet seems to have taken the “recreational barking is Not Allowed” rule and turned it into the “I’d better go inside if there are other dogs out” rule. I’m okay with that, I think, but it’s not exactly the lesson I was trying to teach her.
Still no computer, but slightly less cranky, onna counta I think I’ve figured out what to do, computer-wise. Instead of getting a bare bones kit, I’m just going to get a basic machine. It doesn’t have a DVD burner or a ton of RAM or a card reader, but I’ve already got those things, and I know how to install them (blindfolded and in my sleep, even). I’m also going to get an external drive case, so I can use (and hot-swap) my current hard drives without having to actually install them. It’ll end up being a money saver, because a box with room for a second hard drive will cost more than the price of the hard drive case.
Anyway, I’m planning on ordering it tomorrow, so it should be here sometime next week. Yay!
Also, I am cat sitting Saturday-Wednesday, which should be interesting. It’s a 2x/day drive-by job, not board or live-in, but it’s on my side of town, so it should be pretty easy to do, schedule-wise. I went over to meet the cats a couple of weekends ago, and the male is a total mush. It made me miss my big-headed orange boy. The female is a bit stand-offish, which is typical of cats. She’s a senior, and will require pilling, which should be fun. After months on end of pilling Rory, though, I think I’m well qualified in the cat pilling department!
Do you ever have one of those days that should be skipped? When you know you should just go back to bed and try again tomorrow? Well, it’s early yet, but today seems to be heading down that path.
I got up this morning–after being kept awake half the night by Mr. Upstairs stomping around his apartment–to find that some jerk had parked a U-Haul behind my car. What the hell?! So I had to wander around the apartment complex, looking for a likely suspect. Knocking on strangers’ doors is not on my to-do list, and having to do so at 6am is enough to make my head implodiate. I did finally find our neighborhood asschapeau, though, by knocking on doors of apartments without curtains.
Speaking of Mr. Upstairs, I had to call and complain about him again. The office person said that the complaints do go in his file, and that after so many (she didn’t quantify “so many”) they will take action. She didn’t say if action meant fines or eviction or what, and I didn’t ask, because I was too cranky. It was good to find out that he really is being given written notification of each complaint, and that they are anonymous. Not that he couldn’t figure out that I’m the irritated party, but still.
In better news, Miss Brown received another compliment on her deportment. I believe the exact words were “What a good dog!” Ha! She is charming, for sure, but believe me, it is all a carefully calculated act. Also, while outside on her tie-out, she played peek-a-boo with my across-the-hall neighbor, who said it was very cute. Neighbor said she went out on her patio, and Harriet had her head craned around the end of the privacy fence partition, watching her. She called to Harriet, who ducked back around to our side of the partition. I was watching Harriet from inside my apartment, and it was pretty darned cute.
And speaking of my across-the-hall neighbor, she solved the Mr. Raccoon mystery! She puts out food for the stray cats, and Mr. Raccoon has been thieving it for years. He’s apparently quite brazen, and will hang around her patio and even peer into her window at dinner time.
Also, three more two-page spreads in the Equations art journal. If I keep this up, I may finish it before next Giftmas!
I betcha didn’t know that sea lions could step dance! I had to rewind the tongue-sticking-out part about eleventy times. Very, very cute.
And more animal cuteness, in the form of Physics for Dogs. This is similar to Miss Brown’s It Could Happen theory.
red paper boat 