Adolescent Phase?

Should I be worried that all of a sudden Rudy is barking a lot at people, sometimes growling, and that he almost attacked Stinksy last night?  Or is this normal 5 1/2 month puppy behavior?

He's become posessive so that sometimes if we are just on the couch and one of the cats jumps on the couch, he starts barking at the cat.  And then last night we were eating dinner on the couch.  He was sniffing around and stuff.  Then, Stinksy walked into the room, not even near us, and Rudy started barking and went after Stinksy.  Stinksy jumped up on the shelves.  I grabbed Rudy, but I just couldn't help wondering what would have happened if Stinksy didn't get to the shelves on time?  Would Rudy have tried to bite him with his big huge pearly white teeth?  I hate to think of that.

Then a while after I got home today, for no reason, Rudy started to bark at Stinksy again.  And then he turned the aggression on me and started to bite me and bared his teeth at me.  And a couple times after, he was going into bark mode, but we nipped it in the bud before he started.

We don't plan on leaving him roaming around the house when we aren't home, but it's worrying.  Why is he getting worse?  I mean probably because we have been working a lot and not taking enough time to train him after work.  But it's scary because he's bigger.  And our big fear was having a big dog that was scary.

Well, we are due for another training session - it's been several weeks since our last because of work, and going to Michigan and 4th of July, etc.  We gotta get her back to whip him back into shape!

I don't want to have a big scary dog.

The FH is out of the office

You know everyone else is taking the WWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLE week off for 4th of July.  So, I feel like slacking today.  I already wrote a food blog today, which I never do anymore, and that really drained all the blogging energy out of me.  So, instead I will just show you my photo composition from about a month ago.  I think I want to blow up this picture and hang it on the wall up there in the dining room!

Gargantuous pile

This is why my post tonight will be very brief.

Messin With Mother Nature

So, my plan was to rest today and to fold the laundry.  I didn't do the laundry.  I did take a fifteen minute nap, which was nice.  

So, instead of taking it easy, I went with Rudy to the park at 8 am.  It was hot and muggy.  And a lot of families had already claimed their shelters and had their grills rolling at full blast.  I was bathed in sweat by the time I left.  Bathed.

So, of course, I was so sweaty that I had to go home and clean the pool  The automatic cleaner wasn't functioning properly, and the skimmer wasn't on yet.  So, I nudged the skimmer, and it turned on.  It's solar, so, sometimes if if hasn't turned on and the sun is out, you can just nudge it and it starts paddling away.

As for the automatic cleaner, I had gorilla glued the leaf canister last night, so I reattached it to the hose line.  And then I cranked the pump.  And the cleaner started working again the way it was supposed to.  

I also had to adjust the ph of the pool.  I probably should have waited several hours before going in, but I went in after an hour or so.  I didn't get burned or anything, so that was good.

While I was waiting for the pool chemicals to take effect, I took the one dead potted plant out of the pot.  I replaced it with a weed from the lawn.  There are these weeds that look fernlike.  I thought that maybe they are the baby plants of those exotic looking trees that I see in other people's yards.  So I dug one up and put it in the pot.  I figured by looking at weeds, that some of them come from plants that we buy at the Home Depot or the nursery.  So, the plants spread seeds and stuff, and they end up in other people's yards as weeds that they pull.  Then they go to Home Depot and spend loads of money on the same plants that they just spent hours pulling and throwing away. 

Then I took a larger potted plant, a Hawaiian Ti plant that Rudy chewed down to the stump, and I planted it in the ground.  I don't know if it will grow, but it has a better chance in the ground than in the lanai with Rudy sharpening his teeth on it.  

In that pot, I planted the catnip that I had gotten yesterday.  I left it on the lanai, so between the cats and Rudy, I don't know if it will last.  But really, I buy the catnip for that cats, so if they want to destroy it, that's really their prerogative, isn't it.

Then, I took some wheatberries and soaked them and put the in the garden and covered them with soil.  

After that, I did some weeding.  I took one big weed that looked like a flowering succulent, and I put it in the hanging planter that I had already put a flowering succulent weed in two days ago.  

So, yeah, I pretty much toyed with Mother Nature today.  Then I picked up the FP and went to the boss's party.  He happened to be directing parking when we pulled up, so he saw the new Mini.  I didn't necessarily want him to see it.  Because, on my salary, how am I affording a brand new Mini?  But he saw it.  He complimented it.  Who wouldn't.  It's the awesomest car I've ever had and probably will ever have.  So, we stayed a couple hours, ate some good food, then came home to tend to the puppy.  We were hopeful that he wouldn't be scared of fireworks.  No such luck.  Luckily, we still have an old rawhide to soothe and occupy him.  I don't really like rawhides, because that was the first thing he got a hold of that made him posessive and growl and snap at us.  But in an emergency like this, I'm glad we have it.  I'm sure Rudy is glad we have it too!

Then there was the pigeon problem to deal with.  These pigeons have been building a nest in the outside beam of the lanai, and I had been chasing them out, but they keep building.  So today, I was way more aggressive.  I put a glove on, I got the step ladder, and I cleaned out all the sticks that I could reach.  But, I knew they would just keep getting sticks.  There was a whole pile of sticks on the ground below that either had fallen or I had pushed out.  So, I needed to put something there to deter them.  The first thing I saw were beer cans.  So, I flattened them slightly so they would stay in place, and I put them in the nook.  

There's Nothing Like

watching mind candy like the Twilight movies to take a mental vacation.  So, this morning, after Rudy cut our walkies very short, I found a website that I could stream Twilight Eclipse from.  I hooked the computer up to the TV, and I had to hook up the ipig too for sound.  And I closed the blinds and watched a teen vampire movie at 10 am.  It was the worst of the first three, but I watched it and I was riveted for the first hour and 45 minutes, but then it got kind of long.  I totally enjoyed all the melodrama camp though.  I mean what girl wouldn't want to be caught in a love triangle with an overprotective gentlemanly pale golden vampire and a tanned shirtless passionate werewolf?

Anyhoo, I was able to pretty much blow off the whole morning and not do one productive thing before 12 since I actually am off tomorrow as well!

So, yeah, tomorrow is a holiday, and there are things that I won't be able to do, like get the car fixed.  But, I can still fold the neverending laundry pile.  Basically, we stopped folding laundry about 2 weeks ago, so we just pick through the clean pile and then wear clothes and add it to the dirty pile, wash it and add it back to the clean pile.  The closet is a mess, but it's so overwhelming to think about folding the laundry and organizing the closet too.  So, I really need to at the very least, fold the laundry, I guess.

Oh, and go to the boss's party in the afternoon.  And that's it.  And celebrate our anniversary.  Oh, and figure out if I am working on Thursday or not.  And that's it.

So, I'm going to watch some more mind candy before hitting the hey.  Goodnight.  Happy 4th.  Don't blow your fingers off with firecrackers.

Sleep already

So, I had one Stella Artois, and one glass - about 10 oz of Rogue Chocolate Stout.  And I'm tired.  So... hopefully that will help me sleep.

Yes, I am using alcohol as a sleep aid.  Because I don't want to get back into my Nyquil addiction.

Of course, I could just stay up and watch my guilty pleasure Monday night show, Lost Girl.  But, no, I'm taping it.  The responsible thing to do is to go to bed now and not get sucked into it anymore.

So, I will most likely stay up and watch it.

Anyway, technically, I don't have to do anything for two days!!!  Besides when we went away the other weekend, I haven't had two days off in a row... since... I think since I started my job.

Although, my boss, the cult leader, is having a 4th of July party.  So, since I've been such a nonparticipant, I HAVE to go.  Not, that it won't be a great spread, I'm sure.  It's just, I'm so out of practice with socializing, the thought of going to a work party makes me uncomfortable.  This company is so large with so many people.  What if I am introduced to a bunch of people and quizzed their names later?  Seriously, they might do that!!  Anyway, even if we are enjoying ourselves, we can only stay a little while because I can't bring the doggie to the party anyway, and we can't leave him all cooped up too long.

And it's also our 20th anniversary.  20 years since the first kiss.  Actually, to be technical, I think today is the anniversary of the first kiss, but we just use the 4th of July - kind of like the way they do federal holidays on Mondays.

So, yeah, we didn't discuss it, but today is our anniversary.  Damn.  I was 18.  So young and hopeful.  My life - our life - didn't go exactly as I expected or planned.  But, no regrets.  I'm happy to have shared over half my life with my Food Pimp, the love of my life.  So, happy anniversary, my love - and sweet dreams.

Bad Call

Those sleeping pills last night were a bad call.  I took one and a half generic Tylenol PM last night.  And the drugs were thwarted mainly by my cat, The Fuzz.  I guess she felt better after we scrubbed her stinky poo butt clean and shaved off her big tangled clump of fur.  So, she came to bed and stood right next to me and meowed loudly in my face - at 12 am.  It startled me awake from a deep sleep.  And then she kept doing it every couple hours.  

Also, Rudy made his normal restless dog noises.  He is so loud, it sounds like a grumpy old man or some kind of monster or something.  

And then, some of the FP's friends called at 3:30 am!!!!  His phone was on vibrate, but when I heard the buzz, it woke me up (again from a deep sleep)  and I thought it was my phone alarm clock going off.  I jumped out of bed to turn it off, when I realized it was the FP's phone next to the bed.  

Anyway, I want to go to sleep early tonight, but I don't want a repeat of last night.  So, I'm thinking I should just go au naturale - and hope that I can get a good night's sleep for once!!!!