In which we visited a farm, and Kim got duck poop on her shirt.

Kim came home to meet the dog this weekend. She got here last night, and Sonny was happy to see her! He was sleeping on the floor in her bedroom this morning when I woke up. It was very cute.

I didn't realize how late she stayed up last night, and I didn't care anyway. I woke her up at 9 to start getting ready for the Alpaca Festival! Rachel and I have been planning to go to this event all week!

It wasn't all that early anyway. I went out at 9 to get an Egg Mcmuffin with RA, and I woke Kim up before I left. I told her I would bring back some breakfast for her if she got up and dressed while I was gone.

When I got home, she was up, and it didn't matter that she wasn't dressed, because Maddy was taking a nap, so we couldn't go yet. Finally Rachel said she was going to wake the baby up to go!

On the way there, Rachel and Ash took Maddy in their car, and Kim and I drove our van. Kim was complaining a little about a song that was playing in the car, because she said she had to listen to it the last time she was home, and then it got stuck in her head but it drove her crazy because she only knows one line! I am tired of all of my CDs, and can't get excited about listening to any of them, so I invented a new game - CD roulette. You reach into the CD notebook, and pull something out without looking at it, and whatever it is, you have to listen to it.

It was a great day to be outside! The temperature had dropped overnight to something like 57, and the leaves are starting to turn colors. We drove out to the country to find the farm where they were holding the festival, and we only had to turn around once to find the right road.

The Alpaca farm was beautiful, and so clean! We looked into the barn, and it was spotless! There were supposed to be displays from eight Alpaca farms, and there might have been for all I know. There were big Alpacas and small ones - the baby Alpacas were the cutest things!

We really enjoyed looking around at everything. Maddy was riding in her sling on Rachel's hip, Ash was carrying his new camera, and I was hoping to find some yarn for sale!

The first thing we saw was a pen containing some goats, baby ducks in a smaller pen, and some big white ducks with cool fluffy topknots! What kind of ducks are these? I never did find out, but here is a picture of Kim holding one:



Kim spent most of the time in that pen, corraling ducks. It was pretty funny to see her slowly sneaking up behind them, and herding them into the corner so she could hold one of them.

We showed the ducks to Maddy, and she was entertained by them. She looked at everything and seemed interested in all of it. We showed her the alpacas, who were so cute! They didn't seem to be as interested in us, though, and they were shy of being petted. We were trying to coax one of them to let us pet his topknot, and then we saw Kim, luring them to her with a handful of grass! That's when we started calling her the Alpaca Whisperer!



I did manage to score some Alpaca yarn, which is possibly the softest thing in the universe! Also, someone pointed out that there was a woman spinning yarn on a spinning wheel by the barn so I went right over to take a look, and it was someone I know from the Fiber Festival! She had some of her homemade soap with her, so I bought a couple of bars of that as well as some lovely Alpaca yarn!

On the way home Kim reminded me that we had talked about going to the apple orchard, too, and I was so tired, but she really wanted to go. I did talk her into stopping at home first so we could eat some lunch and use the bathroom! When we were ready to go out to the orchard, Rich and the dog decided to go with us.

We drove out about 30 minutes North to get to the orchard, where Kim got her cider, some donuts, and an apple-caramel pie! We bought a bag of apples, too, and at the last minute I thought of getting a caramel apple for Rachel. She loves those, and she was very grateful to get it.

It's been a long day, and I'm so tired!

In which Sonny takes a little trip.

So Sonny is doing very well at housebreaking, and he is charmingly friendly and cheerful, but his hobby of humping legs? Very annoying. Sonny will be making a little visit to the vet tomorrow to get some shots and have some surgery. I'm sure he will come home a humbler dog, one who is less apt to molest us. He can find a new hobby, like maybe crochet.

In which we do not name our dog Sir Buttered Wafflebutt.

Okay, here he is:



I called him Pinky Johnson all morning, and laughed every time I said it, because I think I am so darn funny, but Rich didn't think much of that name, if you can believe that, and he was calling him Waffles. We both called him Waffles for a while in the afternoon, but I think we are agreed that we will just let him keep the name he came with, so his name is still Sonny.

First day with the new dog.

Some of the names for the new dog that we have tried and rejected:

• Sparky
  
• Snoopy
  
• Lord Wafflebutt
  
• Stinky Boogers (thanks, Beck!)
  
• Snickers
  
• Hobbes
  
• Dumbass (well, we haven't completely rejected it, it's his default name)
  
• Foogerhead
  

None of these names were quite right, so we are still calling the dog Sonny, in theory, but mostly we call him The Dog.

I told Axel about the new dog when I saw him at work tonight, and he told me about a childhood friend who named his dog Patches, but the poor kid's father insisted on calling the dog Pinky Johnson. When I stopped laughing, I told Axel that is my pick for my dog's new name, and I'm going to start calling The Dog Pinky Johnson immediately!

I gave The Dog, I mean Pinky, a bath this morning with some dog shampoo I bought years ago, and for some reason never threw away. I tried bathing our sheepdog Babs once, and there is nothing on earth like the experience of hoisting a 100 lb dog into the bathtub and keeping her there against her will while she makes every effort to jump back out of the tub! I never washed my own dog again, but I still have the shampoo.

This dog is so good-natured and cheerful that he was perfectly okay with getting a bath, and he is easy to lift in and out of the bathtub, too! He smells much better now!

I got a crate and some dog bowls at the store this morning, and RA bought him a beautiful purple braided rope for playing tug-of-war. The Dog (Pinky J.) didn't seem to be familiar with tug-of-war, but he's catching on.

In which I lost my mind and woke up with a new (used) dog.

So last night I was on a walk with Rachel, Maddy and Ash, when I got a phone call from Rachel's friend Kat. She was driving back from Chicago, where she had gone to her aunt's house to pick up a dog.

Kat loves animals and she has three dogs, and now this aunt, who seems to be a little nutty, is moving to Montana to live with her daughter, and she wanted Kat to take her dog - supposedly this is temporary. So Kat and her mother went to pick up the dog in Chicago, and ended up coming home with the dog, a cat, and an extra dog! She said her aunt was keeping this other dog in a crate and that it has been staying in the crate for hours at a time, and also seemed to be afraid of the aunt!

So Kat said she had to take the dog, because the aunt was just going to take it to the pound, but Kat couldn't bear to let her do that, so she brought the dog home with her, but since she already has 3 dogs of her own, plus now her aunt's dog and a cat, she wanted to know if I could take the dog. That's when I temporarily lost my mind and said yes, and now I have a dog at my house.

Oh man. This dog is not housebroken at all! And he's three years old! He is very friendly, and is having a great time playing with a squeaky rubber duck that used to be Maddy's but it is the dog's toy now. It was a set of three ducks, a Momma and two babies, and Maddy only played with the babies because they are small. The Momma was too big for her to hold, but it's just right for a smallish dog to squeak the heck out of!

I shut the dog in the bathroom last night so he wouldn't pee all over the house while we were sleeping, and he was fine. He is used to being in a crate, so I imagine the bathroom was like a castle to him! I'm going to look for a crate for him at Walmart today, just to sleep in or to stay in when we aren't home, until he is housebroken. When he's housebroken, we'll just use the crate for traveling or for when we are going to be gone from home for a few hours.

The cats hate him, of course. They are avoiding him like crazy, and I put a baby gate across the doorway between the dining room and the kitchen, and closed the french doors between the living room and the dining room, so the cats have the dining room and the downstairs bathroom to themselves - a dog-free zone!

My new dog's name is Sonny. Rich says he is too old to change his name, so I guess it will stay Sonny. Kat's Aunt said he was a Lhasa Apso, but he isn't. Rich took a look at him and says he is a Cockapoo, which is better, since they have a good temperament and are smart, like poodles. Also, they don't shed much, so that's good! He's laying by my feet now, chewing his squeaky duck.

In other news, Maddy crawled last night! She was trying to get a little cracker that was just a bit farther than she can reach, and she crawled two steps to get it! Rachel immediately laid a little trail of crackers for her, and she crawled again, twice, to get the crackers! So apparently when properly motivated, Maddy can do new things! Just like Kung Fu Panda!

Pedicure socks are open-toed!

Kim got up early, packed her car and went back to school this morning. She didn't even forget anything! Well, she did forget something, but she came back for it. When I woke up this afternoon, I called to see if she got back okay, and she said she had already unloaded her car and was on her way to class.

So with Kim gone, when Maddy came over to play tonight, I had her all to myself - Rich was at Tae Kwon Do. She looked through the toy basket and I had to make the one toy work for her over and over, because she is too little to make it spin around, but she really likes the spinning!

Then she got distracted by my phone because Kim was texting me, so I let her play with it for a minute. She is not so interested in the toy cell phones. Then I remembered that Rich's old cell phone was upstairs so I ran up and grabbed it, and she had that one to play with (chew on) so I could rescue mine and wipe the drool off of it.

Maddy has had a terrible diaper rash this weekend, so I decided to give her a dry diaper to help keep her skin in good shape. I took off her diaper, and her bum looks much better, by the way, and then I remembered that Rachel read on the internets that you should let their bottoms air-dry and leave them uncovered to help heal them, so I didn't put a diaper on her right away. Like a sucker, I left her bare for a few minutes, and of course she peed on the floor, and also on the little one piece thing she was wearing.

I mopped her up and put a dry diaper on her and dressed her in a dry nightgown I had from when she was smaller, so it was a close fit, and she was a little annoyed with it. I distracted her with a bottle and a Youtube video of Voltaire, and then Ash came to pick her up and take her home. Whew!

Tomorrow I have a chemistry test that I have been reviewing for all weekend, and I just had a text conversation with Kim about it.

Kim:
Good luck on ur test. Don't panic!

Me:
I will use my Rescue Remedy drops and not sit staring in terror like a deer in headlights.

Kim:
U will be ok. Do u need a Xanax?

Me:
No, I will be too tired in the morning. If I take a Xanax I will pass out with my face on the desk and drool on my paper.

Kim:
Haha, so pass on that idea.



Okay, I'm going to study now. When I'm done reviewing, I will just relax and knit on the pedicure socks I'm making for Kim.

Labor day weekend.

I'm tired of the month of August, in which I was on antibiotics for cellulitis almost the entire month, and I'm tired of taking antibiotics, which gave me an allergic rash, and I'm tired of taking steroids to chase away the rash, and the antihistimines to stop the itching.

But now it is September, and the weather is beautifully cooler, and I finished the last of the antibiotics on Saturday, and I'm almost done with the steroids, and hardly need the antihistimine at all, and all that, along with the much cooler weather, is really making my whole life look better.

Kim is home for the weekend, and has been in her old place on the couch, with her laptop on her lap and cats sitting next to her. Sando hasn't been around as much as we would have expected, because he's working every day this weekend, but he came over after work on Saturday and signed my copy of his book, and then stayed until late.

Kim and I have cooked a little, and taken a walk every day, and today I showed her how to repair a hem on one of her favorite t-shirts, and gave her a little sewing kit to take back to school with her for future repairs.

It's not very exciting stuff, but it's been nice.

Everywhere I go, damn, there I am.

So it's my day off and I had a dentist appointment - just a cleaning. I went to that, and look ma, no cavities, so that's good. Then I had to stop at the store for cat litter and milk, and one of those roasted chickens that you take home hot so you don't have to cook it yourself, so I got that, and for some reason, the whole store and everyone in it was annoying!

I was trying to be zen as I got my few things and then as I checked out, the bagger was being all cheerful and friendly, and for some reason that I haven't figured out, she thinks we are good friends (maybe because I've been shopping there a long time? I don't know.) so she was being all chatty about the stuff I was buying and it was just getting on my nerves.

She was babbling about the cat food I was buying, and I don't know why I responded at all, except that it is expected of one, to be civil, and I made a remark about cats peeing in the house and that they don't even deserve to be fed, and omg, she told me about the psychology of cats and how they have to mark their territory and if I have moved to a house where other cats have been living, that is why the cats are peeing, because they can smell that other cats have been there...

I could not be bothered to tell her that we have lived in this house for 16 years and the cats have nothing to be marking territory for, unless they are just trying to show us who is boss, so I just shrugged and walked away and did not roll my eyes right to her face, which I think shows great personal growth.