Missing Mia

Nip and Tuck

I was always fascinated by how different dog’s personalities can be. It has been very interesting to see how Mia develops her relationships with my boys. We still have problems inside the house, Jack simply will not accept her presence, he barks like he is insane and pants all the time, circling her and making sure she does not move a step away from this tight circle, the limits he establish for her . Matisse is relaxed and even will lie down and let her sniff at him. True now she really is trying to engage him into playing so she nips and teases, well she is a girl!

Every visit I try to let them have time inside, after 7 minutes I give up and take them all to the backyard where things are much nicer.

Luckily the weather has been great and she spends most of her time running after one of the boys, she does not show any interest in their balls, but as soon as they are running to catch she is running after them. Hey it is still great exercise and she does look like she is having fun.

She got mildly interested in an empty soda bottle and some twigs but her attention span is about 2 seconds’ tops and anyway the boys are way more interesting. I am amazed that Matisse let her steal his stones, I mean Jack never did but if he tries to steal Matisse’s ball the big guy just goes and gets it back from Jack’s mouth. Not so with the lady!

After an hour of running around I can take her back to her house and she is happy to go to her crate, when I get back home I can see the boys are ready for a nice nap, and I swear they both look like they have a content smile.

The only problem so far is that Mia shows a tendency to nip. At first I thought was ok, since she was not doing the boys any harm but now she has been trying to nip at the back of my legs if I don’t pay her 100% attention. Of course those small teeth don’t hurt much but I think it is a very bad idea and should be stopped early or it can develop into a nasty habit.

For now when she nips I tuck her into a sitting, let’s hope she is a fast learner.

The Lady and the Bug

Miss Mia

Top Model Material

I knew it would take a bit of getting used to but I did not expect Jack to react so badly to his new “sister”. I am in charge of Mia for the next 10 days. She belongs to a neighbor and I was the one to offer to take care of her cute puppyness. It is very hard to resist the charms of a young Golden Retriever. 

Today I started with her first visit to our house and our boys. I knew it worked well when Princess came to visit two weeks ago, it took a while but they all had a great time outside. Not to happen today since it has been raining buckets!

I cannot say it was totally unpredicted since whenever we take the boys for a walk and Mia is out at her backyard my boys had shown this same behavior, Matisse is very eager to go check her out, very gentle, sniffing her but not being over interested. Jack on the other hand has always barked like mad and usually He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed ends up taking Jack home and I stay with Matisse to visit.

She is very young, under 4 months old, and thankfully also very calm even when facing a non-stop barking reception from Jack. Matisse was curious about her, I was quite happy with my old boy reaction; he would let her sniff him and even kiss him a bit. He totally kept his cool, and also a bit of smug look, like “oh well she is just a kid” attitude.

Initially my idea was to keep her here for a couple of hours but I decided an hour was enough for this first visit.  He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed even took Jack with him and kept him in the office for a while, let Matisse and Mia have some private time away from the barking machine.

By then she was trying to engage Matisse into playing, she barked at him a couple of times but the big old guy just look at her, turn his head to the side and I almost could read his thoughts as in: “she is kinda of amusing but I am too old for that”.

She already lost her baby fat, although still very much a puppy one can already see the potential for beauty there. The gorgeous blonde/red hair and long legs that will make her Gisele Bundchen of the canine world!

Actually she even has a very fashionable name: MIA! 

Dirty Job

Last Saturday the Historical Society held their “Under the Stars & Stripes Dinner”. We actually did not see any stars as Hanna hit here and it was pouring monkeys. I am not kidding. I'm exaggerating, but that's different. They end up having to transfer the event, which was to be held under tents at the Society gardens, to a Ballroom in town.

I had plans to go in costume, but alas I never manage to make an appointment to check the costumes at the Theater in town, they had a good deal to encourage the guests to attend the party properly attired. Some of our friends did and I was envy.

The dinner was provided by a catering service in town, and she followed a menu from the period. It was maybe the best dinner we had at a party; even He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed was impressed.

I have been planning to go there for a cooking class for months. He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed gave me a gift certificate for the place for Christmas last year but their website is not updated and I keep meaning to stop there to see what they are offering, but since they are located at a part of town not in our regular route, I never did.

Sunday was spent on much needed home improvement projects, He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed decided to clean the roof. There were all sorts of green things growing on it. If there is any upside on loosing the big tree is that the roof will not be covered with sap leaking stuff. He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed said he would hose the green things down but when I looked he was on the roof!

The day was one of those picture perfect days, not uncommon after a big storm. The sky was an intense blue; the sun was shining, the temperature was just about right, enough to warm up the skin but not enough to make a person hot.

When he decides to do something there is very little I can do to make him change his mind (more like nothing at all) so I knew the best thing was to get busy with something else. I have been planning to take down my giant sunflowers, they are like small trees. They are way passed their prime and there have been a couple of accidents, like cars hitting their giant heads. It is always a bit sad to cut them down but there always be next year.

After lunch He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed asked me: “Do you want to clean the grill?”

I went all like: “No! Do you see these manicured nails? I intend them to last at least a week”

I don’t get my nails done that often so when I do I try to preserve them as long as possible.

Of course his mind was set on doing it so he spent the next 3 hours doing a fantastic job. It does disturb me a little, as in I feel guilty for not being the one doing it but guess what? I got over the guilt feelings and let him do the job. I still have grease free nails. (yes I have heard about rubber gloves but I am useless wearing them)

I had cleaned the grill before but it cannot compare to the degree to which he does it.

Now I almost feel like not using the grill evah!

It will be such a shame to make it all dirty again.

A happy lady was out last night

This time it did not even hurt getting old!

I had a fabulous birthday. Before we left for dinner we got a visit from our Brazilian friends and their precious princess, I cannot believe how much she had grown and I don’t think I ever met a happiest kid. They got me a gorgeous gerbera and a cake, I am telling you I felt celebrated like never before. I miss having them as neighbors because although they still live in town we had hardly been together since they moved. I know how hard they work and how busy they are so it did move me that they came to wish me a happy birthday.

Later we went to da Capo for dinner, He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed was in an extra nice mood and I had a fantastic time, with good friends, good food and plenty of reasons to feel lucky.

Older and Happier

I feel Grrrrrrreat!

I have been having a sensational birthday!

It has been beyond my expectations, and yeah I said I was trying to keep them low but alas, I am bad about that.

My day started at 6:00AM with my friends from Canada singing me happy birthday, not just any happy birthday song but a tradition from Guatemala, they are supposed to wake you up, as early as possible and sing this cute song! How cool is that?

I got a truly romantic card from He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, one of those you can see he took his time to choose carefully.

Before I had time to get ready to go out for special girl time with special K my mom called, she did make me feel very loved, and was dying to tell me she had sent me flowers, she manage to refrain herself, just tried the enigmatic approach with a  “you will hear from me later”. Just an hour ago I got the longest stem pink roses I ever seen in my life, I actually did not knew roses could have stems that long! (I will post pics later).

I tried to call my twin sister but she was already at her gym so she was the one to call me back, it is not a competition but we always try to beat each other to say Happy Birthday first!

Even my stepfather called me, it was a complete surprise.

Yesterday I got a lovely card from my mother-in-law with a check (hey I already spend it on that haircut today) and today my sister-in-law sent me a truly sweet e-card.

Off I went to have hair done and a great time with special K, we always have the best time, and Jane is a genius with scissors!

Special K took me to lunch at the country club, and it was great since it feels like summer again so we sat at the patio with the view to the golf course! She did use her iphone to take pics of me, and I got her new look too, so now she has to email me them so I can show off here!( yeah I am envy of her i-phone but I truly don’t use a cell phone that often to justify having one)

I got back home to find another card from a friend and a cute smiley mug filled with flowers and big box of Swiss chocolate truffles from my “family” in Montreal.

I tell you this birthday has been blowing my mind with so many surprises and feel good moments!

I am off to get all dolled up for dinner with He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed at my favorite restaurant…

…To be continued

and I think I should!

This weekend has been exceeding any of my expectations!

He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed was in a great mood Saturday morning and proposed breakfast at George’s, seems like we have doing it a lot more often and I assure you no one here is complaining.

We had a lovely breakfast and when we were leaving George’s I mentioned that I was disappointed my fried Gail had to work because I wanted to take advantage of a $20.00 I got from Kohl’s and get a new pair of sneakers, since I got back to the gym and mine are showing some serious signs of wear and tear.

He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed turned to me and said: “If you want I can take you there right now”, I had to look closer to be sure it was my husband, I almost asked him what have him done to the guy I am married, the one that has an extreme allergy to all things connected with shopping. I thought better of it and just accepted the offer graciously, promising not to take advantage of such nice offer.

I have to say for the past 3 days he has been in some sort of let’s start celebrating your birthday in advance mode, which pleases me to no end.

Later on the same day we did some grocery shopping and I dare to indulge myself to a lobster, got it steamed right there at the grocery store and made sure to buy He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed a nice steak since he is not into any seafood stuff. We had a delicious dinner and watched a movie, felt like dating with the advantage of not having to drive to different houses.

Yesterday we had a surprise visit that made my boys extraordinarily happy. It was the very first time they had a “girl” come play with them. Megan was in town and she brought Princess to play with the boys. She had been here once before but it was a 15 minutes visit, sure included sniffing around all parts but it was raining so we never made to the backyard. Princess is an adorable bulldog around 7 or 8 months old, very used to being around other dogs since she goes to dog-camp.

Matisse was adorable around her, very gentle, interested but not annoying, Jack took his time to accept the visitor, he was not so sure what was that about but after 15 minutes they were all playing nicely on our backyard. We had a couple of hours of fun; I just love to see them all interact.

He-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed accepted an invitation for us to go to da Capo for dinner and keep Megan company since her hubby is busy at their kitchen, him being the restaurant chef. I was almost in shock since I did not think he would like to go so soon, we have been there last Thursday, but again I suspect it has to be connected with celebrating my birthday in advance mode.

Today there were some plans to go with Megan to the Country Fair but she decided to spend more time with her husband before she has to head back to Pennsylvania.

Did I mention that the weather is just about spectacular? I am almost afraid to brag in case the gods might get jealous and think I have been having too much fun.

I know Gustav will do some damage down south but around here it has been the best weekend of all summer. Today I spent most of my time just doing stuff that needed to be done, including weeding the front garden and ironing tons of clothes but I even made it to the gym and got my 4 miles of exercise, so all in all I  FEEL GOOD!