you're the man. a very short, annoying man.

I think that my brain may explode from the nine thousand pieces of contradictory advice given to me by random strangers about how to train my dog. Oh my god, people! I have my own ideas, thank you!

I will say that most of them have been helpful and sweet, and lots of fellow dog-people have given me tips that have been useful ("Twist up a wet piece of washcloth and then freeze it. He can chew on it to help with the teething.")--on the other hand, you get stuff like the guy across the way who was all "Gee, he really challenges you, doesn't he?" Um, yes, dumbass, he's eight weeks old. Also? Not a productive way to engage me in conversation when my puppy is snarling and yanking at the hem of my jeans. I have enough problems right at that very second. Thanks.

Everything from sheer insanity ("When he's being bad, just flick him in the head." Aaigh! No!) to the most extreme form of weird which I got this morning, from a woman who I have to say was lovely and obviously very warm-hearted, but she spent five minutes telling me that puppy school was a waste of my time and money while relating that her dog broke her finger and ate razor blades while he was little. Um, you're seeing how these things don't add up to my taking your advice, yeah? Although apparently he's a therapy dog now, so what do I know? I know I'm keeping razor blades well out of Helo's reach. That's what I know.

detente

We thought "Mr. Biteyhead" was too long to yell at the park.

Let there be rejoicing in the land! The puppy has a name. Everybody, meet Helo. (Sounds like HEE-lo.) Helo, meet everybody. He seems on his way to the meeting of everyone, making friends all down the street. spook has already had the experience of a stranger coming up to say "Does he have a name yet?" Now we can finally say yes.

I knew that a puppy would mean going up and down the stairs of our building nine million times a day. What the hell. It's good for my asthma and good for my leg muscles. What I didn't know was that having a puppy would be good for my marriage. We've been a little snippy with each other for the last few days, what with the sleep deprivation and peeing incidents, but yesterday we played with Helo till he conked out and then went for a lunch date at one of the restaurants we used to visit a lot. It was a shiny afternoon, the kind you have at the beginnings of things when the air seems a little clearer and everything seems to be a little brighter than usual. Today has been a very long day of trading chores (laundry, cooking, watering plants, training the dog, walking the dog, shopping for food, cleaning out the fridge, a mountain of dishes, changing the cat litter) and I notice that we're both being careful to offer help where we can, to praise one another for our valour in the face of adulthood. Ah, yes, adulthood, that state of being where all the shit you have to do doesn't stop just because there's other shit you have to do. So overrated.

Anyway I'm happy.

p.s. thanks to my mom, who taught me this philosophy: if the dog pees on the floor and I have to keep wiping it up, that's one way to get the floor clean.

shameless puppy shots

be my, be my baby

It was love at first sight. He was asleep with his head in his water dish. How could I not love that? Yes, y'all, meet the newest addition to my family. So new, in fact, that he does not yet have a name, although the way things are going he's in serious danger of being called "Baby."

He's an English Bulldog/ Catahoula Leopard Dog cross, and he's so lovely, I am freaking out. News as it develops, of course.

I'm happy, hope you're happy too

Lentil soup. Gettin' my ass kicked at Scrabble. Sleeping a great deal. Autumn weather.

So far, my kind of weekend.

While the rest of the world goes sadly dragging back to work tomorrow, I am free 'till Wednesday. This is a good thing, because now that the weather has changed I have remembered nine hundred projects that I was in the middle of and want to complete. Bean and spook and I were talking over dinner last night about the weird burst of fall energy before it starts to get dark really early and suck your will to live. I think we've all agreed it's a good thing.

Does anyone have any ideas about how to extend it? I have hopes that this winter will be more nesty and less hibernate-y. I'm gonna watch football and Battlestar Galactica and bake and knit and mebbe see if they'll let me train the little ones at work. (Nothing gets me going like good old exasperation.)

It seems like the last year was a virtual whirlwind and now that everyone's moved or married or divorced or gone to school, perhaps there will be some settling in. I'd like that.