I didn’t get to sleep in this morning, the way I’d intended. That didn’t stop Harriet from going back to bed, though.
Tag: Harriet
Princess Di
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 the Spy
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.
In the Sun
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.
Harriet Approved
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.
Unintended Training
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.
Mystery Solved
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!
Wake-up Calls
I suddenly woke up at 2am and remembered that I had to renew my domain name. Oops! It expired yesterday. All is well, though. Those 2am reminders are a pain in the ass, but they usually make enough of an impression that they stick with me.
Still haven’t decided what to do about my computer. Also, still cranky as hell about it!
A cute Harriet story:
I’ve been letting her hang out on the patio, on a tie-out, while I’m in the living/dining room and can keep an eye/ear on her. This allows her to have time to mooch around, eat grass, lie in the sun, and watch the wee woodland critters, all of which she enjoys tremendously.
There are usually other dogs outside, most of them hanging out on upper balconies. Harriet knows she’s not supposed to bark (I bring her in as soon as she does), so when the other dogs bark at her, she’s taken to MOOOing back at them. She sounds *exactly* like a very small cow. It is crazy cute. You can actually see when she is getting ready to moo, because she stretches out her neck–just like a cow!–, lowers her head, and takes a deep breath. Then, she purses up her lips and MOOOOOOOs.
Mr. Fishy Fish
Miss Brown with Mr. Fishy Fish, mere moments before his sudden and tragic demise. RIP, Mr. Fishy Fish.
Smile!
Harriet and I played a game of soccer with an empty ice cream container. Obviously, she won (and quite pleased with herself, too!), but that’s to be expected. Four feet beat two, right?
For a while now, I’ve been mulling over switching at least some of my Flickr stream to a Creative Commons license. While I was hunting for images relating to the potato famine, I was very happy to find some that were CC licensed. That made up my mind for me. It just seems to be a community minded thing to do. Not that I think my photos are anything special, but if someone did want to use them, now they can. I extended it to artwork, too.
That doesn’t mean I’ve given up my copyright. That’s still mine. It just means that folks may use my images and artwork without asking for permission, given that they A) attribute me, B) the use is not commercial, and C) they share alike.
In other meta-news, lordy! I had a ten-fold increase in unique visitors yesterday. I don’t know what accounted for the spike. Very weird.
red paper boat 