Good morning, Ahh that’s better … little too early in the day for 12 pitch on our type. OK ok. We’re ok, you’re ok … oh and we’re singing nursery rhymes in our head, and NO we don’t know how that happened. When we were waking up this morning, we realized that we were writing a blog entry, or at least had been doing it in our sleep. I don’t recall that happening before. It’s ok. Rich warned us before getting to the computer that the Internet was down. It’s raining, so we’re not totally surprised, but would have preferred to see what I like to see right away. Again, we were mentally set to blog so it isn’t a large problem, but really does hold me at my word.
I got up about twenty minutes ago and did a few doggy things. Rich let me know he was going soon and when I asked, he didn’t mind the company. Actually, there is quite a bit of company in that we’ve been watching Maury’s dogs now for five days while he was out of town. It’s been a good week with them here, though is actually some work involved. But, it hasn’t been impossible. We’re still having trouble with training Dakota, but he does understand the concept of outside … just that if we don’t come up with the idea first of getting him out there, he is willing to leave me a little surprise. It’s annoying.
With Maury’s dogs here, we’ve initialed a treat system so that if all THREE dogs go to the bathroom both ways in one outing – THEN I will treat. I don’t think they understand my system and I really don’t want Dakota getting used to treats every time he does something that I expect of him, but for the time being – with ALL the possible trips out to the bathroom, we are exceedingly happy when they can all do what I want them to and another part of the treat system is that I can get the doggy treats, turn around and play the game, “Who’s sitting?” Hehehe they are all getting REALLY smart about that. It’s at a point of being more normal than not to turn around and EVERY one is already sitting. Those are the dogs that get their milk bone first. Good system. We’re still having problems with Lady at the back door, but that’s gotten better too. She is the one that gets over-excited at being able to go outside, and she has the toughest time waiting for her leash to be put on. I’m pretty sure we’ve talked about the cable leash system, but as to the reminder, we have three out back and they DO get tangled, but again the situation isn’t impossible.
I like the bathroom system in most respect because it is something fairly easy for me to do if we keep on top of things. Basically, the leads are long enough so that when I’m not using them all three are ready right outside by hanging them onto the porch rail – at an arm’s length WITHOUT getting caught up with the door. Then I am able to pull them inside, and the order is always Lady, then Max, and then I have to call Dakota over because he’s a couple steps in back of the other two, and then when all three are hooked, we open the door and let them out to do what they can. I haven’t come close to losing a dog yet! Good system! They like to stand at the top of the stairs and look out over their terrain first, but usually it’s not too long before they all head down the stairs, and they KNOW it’s to do their business. We’ve been very good about picking up the litter so that stuff doesn’t get traipsed through the house and they seem happy with it too. It must be natural for dogs, but they all seem to use the farthest length of their lead before dropping their poops. SOOOO they like a nice neat work area J
Good boys and girls! Usually, it is Max that lets me know when the group should be going out, and no … NOONE likes to go out by himself, though Dakota will soon be looking for his own spots to pee. His tendency with his cousins is to follow them so that where they go, he goes. I think it’s something to do with marking where if they go, and THEN he goes, he’s remarking the territory as still his. We’re allowing that as new host rules. AND, he’s for the most part been a very good host. He shares his toys nicely and allows me to pet other dogs. The easiest is sharing his petting time with Max, who likes to be pet in excess LIKE Dakota. Lady tries to get in there sometimes, but it’s been a little tougher though I have gotten down the pet where two are being petted with the same hand at the same time … That’s not as enjoyable for me though. Works in a pinch!
Lady will sometimes push her way through, but lately she’s been coming up to me and laying down when no one else is up on my lap. And, then at those times she’s a really cozy fit! Hmm, maybe I could show some pictures, I’ll back track and put them at the top of the page. Just a few, right?!
There, I narrowed it down to my five favorite! You might have noticed, we really feature the shots where all three of them are together, because it seems to represent something very important to me – in their camaraderie. I really like how both dogs have seemed to accept Dakota into their fold. There have been a few times that we’ve noticed Max letting Dakota get closer to him too. That was a big goal of the week (since Monday) that they are more trustworthy of each other. Max definitely is the lead dog where play is concerned because if the other two play too rough then it is he that will settle it down. I would say that Lady takes the harder course with food in that she’s more needy than the other two and will if not watched carefully, take from the others – especially Dakota if she finishes before him which has been EVERY time even though they are both getting two cups. Dakota likes to take a bite, and then puts his head up to crunch the pieces, and he will look around to see how everything else is going. With Lady and Max – they are mostly staying close to the food with their mouths and will only periodically look up to check the others. They don’t chew as long as Dakota will. Lady and Dakota are pretty much even as to their playing abilities, though Lady Plays more, because she plays with both the other dogs, where again – play between Dakota and Max isn’t as normal. They do seem to be getting in three ways with the tug of war toy so that’s cool, at least Dakota isn’t ALWAYS pushed out. I think that Lady is also the one who wants to play the longest. There’s been a couple times where her desire to play has left me feeling a little bad for her because she will just walk around with the toy trying to put it in someone’s direction. It’s like awe Lady! Won’t anyone play with you?!
The guys at that time will likely either be laying down, or otherwise being petted by me. It’s not abnormal to be petting Max and Dakota at the same time. Thinking of it now – it’s usually Dakota with our right hand and Max toward our left. Hmm, have to watch that and observe it its really true or just something less true. I THINK it’s true.
They are all letting me know that although they’ve been up with us that they didn’t really make it past the first half hour. I hear gentle breathing noises behind me. Sometimes though like earlier this morning, I looked around for them and found them all sleeping out in the sunroom with Dakota claiming his spot on the little couch out there. It seems to be HIS area!
Dakota is more apt when tried to claim more of my space. He’s worked hard for that position and I’m reminded he really does consider me his owner when it comes to lying down with me after everyone else has settled elsewhere, or when I have claimed space on the couch – WITH the dogs … yes there’s plenty of room for the four of us, well it’s always Dakota and us head to head. I’m not sure if he’s watching out for me, or if he’s just guarding his spot, but we feel very comforted by the part that someone wants to be with us so much. I think we share a close spot all the time and most of the time it’s because we don’t uninvited him or we’ll actually call him to be closer. I consider it though one of the things he does for us as a service dog. I had no idea he’d be so good with staying close to us, but it really is a treasure.
I know, I know … when is she going to get off the dog subjects? Hehehe. Sorry, we have been around them A LOT this week and we’ve got a lot more to talk about. We’re observers by nature, and we’ve loved watching the three of them together. I don’t want to directly compare my kids with dogs, but it IS similar in that there are three of them and it’s what we used to do with the kids. Pretty much you set yourself to be around, and then you observe all the relationships that are happening and how well people are getting along. Its soooo much of a treat! BUT, we can move on a little bit here, just to change things up and give you SOME diversity. BUT, I’ll really have to think what else is happening.
AHA! There you go … we can check off something new just happened. We are using the 2013 version of Microsoft Word, and we’d seen a little notation down where the page had been numbered and we found it a special tool to help with the editing. After we were done with the few edits – it said something like we were ok to go on – forgot the term, but it was phrased more like have a good time writing Hehehe. Cool! I’m pretty sure I could get a page count, but we are testing out a “BLOG POST” tab. I couldn’t set it up formally, because we forgot a password, AND again our Internet is down, but I’m hoping for good things when it comes up again. The real treat is if it catches the formatting as to paragraphs, and if it inserts pictures correctly without extra guidance. It looks like the only other button is one that is specifically for “PUBLISH.” I HOPE it works! It be a nice turn of cards. Hmm, checked out the other layouts with “Read mode” and “Print layout” along with web layout that it’s in now. None of those really put in page numbers. Ahh the print layout will give me page such and such of the total. It’s saying we’re on 10 of 10 right now, but part of that is because each of the pictures AND the title page each took a page – so in reality I’ve only written four pages, but I guess that is about normal for an hour of work? Don’t know.
Hmm, it looks like it will give a page count on the bottom, but it won’t let me insert page numbers in a blog post. The blog post format was something that happened back during the first stages of getting a new doc to be working on. I don’t know if it would let me convert back, but that’s not something I want to do anyway. I do like this print mode though as to being able to see two pages side by side, and it allows me to see the whole page. I’m sure this feature was on the old MS Word, but I hadn’t used it before. It’s really interesting to have access that I can SEE (print is big enough) the page before. I usually don’t have much tying into as far as my old thoughts just written out. Hehe maybe that would get irritating after a while. You know, live in the present!?
Hmm, that is interesting. We just turned to the next page and instead of giving me a side by side version, it gave me like two eyes and a mouth version – ok, you’d have to be Ann to understand it, maybe I’ll give you a picture of it in a second. Basically, though it is allowing me to see the previous two pages and it is also letting me see the third immediate page I’m typing on, except the third page is centered which is very comfortable. I don’t think I ever liked starting a page where I have to be typing WAY to the left on a big open screen. Hmm, this is very pleasant!
Here this is a picture of what we’re seeing.
See – two eyes and a mouth!
Now that I’m 2/3rds a page down, we are getting the side by side version. I’m not sure if it is because we’re far enough down, or it was natural when adding a picture. No big deal really, but it is fun having a new Word.
Hmm, we could talk about that! Not this last weekend, but the one before that, Cari and Joe stopped out WITH Ramsey. We had wanted them all to meet Dakota AND we’d missed Cari’s baby shower and had wanted time to present them with our few things. But, the funny part was … and now we’re thinking we talked about this in a previous entry, but we shared our copy of Adobe with him, and he shared his copy of Microsoft 365 with us. It was a good trade. In the middle of things, we did see a copy of something animated, and we’re thinking that is something that happened due to the Adobe flash program. We were soooo excited that Joe was getting the tools although we hadn’t thought of it before, it just came as a natural idea after he’d seen the programming. Basically, he had used adobe before when he was a kid while I was in MN, and so he could go back and understand the value of the programs. I loved sharing something of value with him – any of our kids really! But, this time it was his turn. AND, then as the opposite reaction – he could do the same although neither of us had thought that before either, but we’re talking about him sharing this Word and the other MS programs. Truly a gift!
I don’t think Maury was to be left undone – though it came up in a totally different context, but he shared this week too. When he’d dropped off the dogs on Monday, he stayed for a couple of hours, and he thought I wouldn’t know anything about it, but he showed us an app he was sharing with Ame. And, it was? Of all the things it could have been, he had fallen into interest – particularly when home on medical leave – the “UtopiaTV.com” experience. I just laughed and laughed and told him that Rich and we were watching it too. Of all the reality shows out there that I’d happen to have fallen for the same one as one of my kids – it’s just a really funny feeling. So know we’re sharing that and I’ve got 24-7 access to that – WHEN my Internet is working.
Hmm, just took a look and saw that my TweetDeck had gone out about 10 hours ago – all the way across all my lists. I am wondering now if having left on my feed bounced me off line – SOOOO we’re going to save and shut down and reboot to see if that corrects the Internet. It’s about 5:30 am now and it’s no longer raining, but if it was a problem with the company, thinking they are not up yet to fix it. BUT, we better make sure it’s not just our problem – or we’ll be waiting here for something we could have corrected. OK, brb.
Shoot, we’re back and the Internet is still down. Fortunately, it’s a weekday – so hopefully soon someone is in the office and it will be an automatic fix. Now that we’ve got Maury’s Utopia “fix” we would like for it to be working!
AHA! We did a hard reset – I think that’s what it is … where you unplug the Internet cord and then plugged it in again AND WALLAH! She’s up and running! Have to remember to do that sooner next time!
We’re back again... it is now about 10:30 am and several things have happened. Wow! It’s been 5 hours since we were here! First thing is that we got very tired and went back to sleep for quite a while. We’ve had a couple of rounds with the dogs as to coming in and out, and they have of course been fed and we’ve talked to Linda, and then took our shower and got dressed and maybe messed around on the computer a little bit. Oh and we talked to Maury. Ok this is important, but we turned on Utopia … a couple of the people are fishing for blue gill off the dock. AHA! Now people are starting to gather or wake up at the barn, because Aaron is cooking. Boy … I could lose another whole day like this. Probably have lost two days adding all the bit of time together. Not sure if we want to or don’t want to get into this, but Maury gave us the tools and now we are making a choice not to turn it off. Maybe if we can focus mostly on the writing and just leave the rest in the background. I do feel a sense of confidence being in on what’s happening at Utopia. I’m sure that’s how they real in the revenue *sigh* As to Maury – we expect him in about an hour or two. I think they are finishing up on his car, but he didn’t ask them how much. Shoot that wasn’t a good call. Maury just called from the garage of his girlfriend and said the battery is dead. He couldn’t recall his place and after calling Honda we found we didn’t have their Honda Care coverage. We gave Maury our credit card and he is going to have to call a tow truck for a jump.
Hmm, back. It’s now about 1:30 pm and we’ve gotten a few more things done. We still have Utopia in the background, but we went out with the dogs a couple times, picked up the poops AND brought them for another ride around the block. They really enjoyed it, but at the end both Max and Lady were hard to manage. Max wanted to stop and Lady wanted to pull into the yard. We did the best we could and got them back inside. I should have had them out yesterday, because I think today they fell through on some of the skills they’d built. Most the dogs around the block were inside, though still barking when we passed and the one place at the opposite end of the block had their two dogs out on a post so got up and barked at us each of the three times we passed. Dakota was great, but Max really wanted to go. We had to stop and calm him down … for Lady today – there were times she wasn’t really pulling and that was great. It would take regular walks to get it right. I’m sure that Maury will have other times we can sit and we’ll try it again then. I don’t know if he’s going to want to try it. I was thinking that he could take Dakota the first time and then try it with his dogs. That give him a chance to get used to the scooter and how it should be, and then he would naturally have the strength to handle his dogs pulling part. I think it would be a good thing for him to get used to while he’s here. The only part though is that I don’t want the dogs stopping to go to the bathroom. We were very careful to get the dogs outside before the walk and after the walk. I think they are doing really good.
We are still having problems with Dakota in the bathroom part. We might have started that discussion before. I’m not sure … maybe it was talked about with Linda. Not sure. We’ll let it pass this time.
Back to the Utopia … we really like the new guy – he’s a farmer philosopher who’s talking to the one guy that goes with Hex about the conflicts in the east … His main thing is to have real conversations instead of the small talk. And, he added the part where people ask silly questions because they want attention and to start a dialog. The other guy that this one is competing with – is a ditzy woman who is a housewife a follower with no skills … and she like has other people do stuff for her. She’s of no value in the group other than she has big artificial breasts and that might be good for one of the guys, but he would like – the contractor one, be like – ok, she’d be good once in the sack and he would then want to get out of the relationship. Everyone likes the philosopher … he’s like been around the world, and wear’s deer skin clothing that he made himself. I like it that he’s getting in relationships with the guys and the girls, and then as another fluke – he’s assisted in the births of several baby’s and so would be a good person to have around for Amanda who is due in about 8 weeks.
That was interesting too. There was a meeting with Amanda and her doctor yesterday that we caught and we really enjoyed that. The doctor did a really good evaluation and I’m glad that we had a chance to hear it. There are other things that are going around this week like Red left and we were REALLY happy about that. We didn’t catch the part about how it happened, but just glad for the release in conflict - No one has had an argument since. I know this sounds silly to have a conversation on a reality show, but we really are interested in the show. I don’t know how it is different from other reality, but I’m thinking there is less competition and only one person gets turned out a month so it’s not an every week event. I think after that event, then they take a vote between two new people like this woman and deer skin guy, but there won’t be any contest … the guys just interesting AND with skills. He’s weird, but in a good way. The other lady – she drives me crazy with her lack of listening skills although she seems to want to get in conversation and “help” though she complains about helping. Maybe it’s legit, but sometimes you got to hold back.
I like this one – the guy he doesn’t talk about others except in a learning mode of how to learn from people relationships.
We asked Maury and he accepted going out for dinner tonight. I don’t think he had any real plans though the rest of the weekend/week sound busy. I’m not sure where to go. Rich left us $40 but then we remembered we had another $20 on the dryer. I don’t want to go out too fancy for the expense, but don’t want to go to a diner either. Maybe with the new found money, we can go the train restaurant. I don’t think we’ve ever been there, and then we can have a couple Bloody Mary’s WOOHOO!!!! I think we could do an earlier dinner, not sure how the later meal time is – we usually go off hours when it’s not too busy … I know we brought Dakota with us once, so maybe we could do it again … shoot forgot about that. Still have Dakota to be concerned with. I would want of course to bring him with, but we’re a little intimidated because he hasn’t been out in such a long time. Plus, we’re already leaving the other two dogs behind.
I’ll have to think about that some more.
I did do some picking up in that I cleared the living room, did the dishes and counters and got the folded clothes put away. The dogs had another really nice play time and they are all zonked now. They are all out in the sunroom. I think Maury could be by anytime now. It’s about 2 pm. He said that he got someone to start my car for about $65 … but, that they wouldn’t take the credit card so I think he went to the bank and got some money from his bank. I don’t think he’s got much in there, but we’ll see. Hmm, that’s an option too! Maybe we’ll talk to him and let him know if he’d rather stay in for dinner and have Rich’s chili with me, then he can take the money that we would have spent on dinner. I think that might really be the better option. I know that Rich is going to say that the money is for me, but if I choose to give the money for one of my kids that IS my best option.
I respect Maury is having difficulties making ends meet, but that he got in a very low cost vacation and is deepening the relationship with his friend. Life doesn’t stop just because money is tight. As long as he’s honest in the relationship about it. We’ve probably spoken too much so we’re going to back out now, but I really do have a lot of pride in Maury and his brothers. They each like us have their good and less good qualities, but for the greater part, they are my kids and I love them to pieces. Don’t think it’s up to me to persuade them with my choices – they are very independent.
I do like that I had a chance to take Maury’s dogs while he’s been gone. All around it has been a good experience and for not only me but all three dogs – it’s been a good choice. They’ve each had such a good time. Minimal damage was done and it wasn’t really hard to take care of the bathroom needs, though we wish that Dakota wouldn’t have had any accidents. That’s not Maury’s dogs’ problem, it was mine and Dakota. I really like Maury’s dogs and how well they play with Dakota. They’ve really accepted each other as part of the same pack.
There is a little extra plus in that even though we’re trying to treat the dogs all equally, there are times too when Dakota or me has asked each other for our own special time, and I think that’s helped him a lot – to think there is still an anchor on our relationship and he’s not getting lesser because he’s sharing me with others. I can see when he gets tired and needs special time, but as well I am excited to see Maury’s dogs meet with him and how he gives them special time as his dogs. I don’t think ANYone pets dogs as much as me, but that’s kinda my own thing … petting them gets me good solid feelings of being connected and that feels really good – without having to go way out in the stream on others.
Hmm, Dakota is up and now the other dogs are … I wonder what they are seeing. Hmm, they are blowing it off and just changing position so definitely not Maury yet. Whoops there’s a few barks from Lady!
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After Maury and his dogs left, Dakota got moody :(
