Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.


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A funny

funky art 033 This morning  Katie and I were wandering around the house picking up the last bits of holiday party trash.  We both kept hearing a sound that sounded like ice scraping down the roof.  But we didn’t have ice on the roof.  Katie would bark, I’d check out the windows.  Nothing.  We’d start working again.  Then the same noise would happen and off she’d go to bark.  We’d look out all the windows.  Nothing.

Eventually we were in the kitchen and I heard the noise again.  As Katie ran off to bark I looked up.  And there, on the kitchen skylights were several mourning doves, eating birch seeds that had fallen on the glass which was covered in ice.  They were sliding down the window as they ate, then they’d flap their wings and get back to the top, then slide down again.  Silly birds!

Even more silly was the dog, who has no concept that something might be up in the ceiling!  I couldn’t get her to look up.  She just ran around growling and barking each time a bird slid down the window.  Finally I picked her up, held her chin up and when the birds flapped their wings she finally noticed.

Now she’s sitting in the kitchen staring intently up at the skylights.  On guard.   If those terrorist birds arrive again she’ll be ready!  Can’t get anything past a vigilant sheltie girl!  No siree!

Katie 1395


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A busy day for the Sheltie girl…Mama's back in town!

Katie got to spend almost 3 weeks with her Dad while I traveled about.  No school.  No responsibilities.  Just playtime and nap time..oh…and SUPPER TIME!  This morning I told her that we had Rally class later in the day.  So she immediately asked to go outside to her play pen, where she took a long nap in order to prepare for the riggers of school.

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Silly girl.  How she can sleep outside when it’s below freezing is beyond me!  Then we went to school where she did surprisingly well given no one has worked with her in so long.  She didn’t need to get acclimated to the building and was ready to get to work as soon as we arrived.  She still won’t heel worth a bean, but we’re working on it.  I wish I had pictures of her sitting in the long sit line with all the other really big dogs.  Maybe I’ll ask the instructor next week if it’s OK to take a non flash picture when they’re all in their long sit.

I’m having my husband’s extended family here for dinner on Saturday and there was much coming and going today as I began to prepare.  Lots of pots and pans and things banging around in the kitchen.  Katie was very observant.  After awhile she got quite antsy and I figured out that she wanted to play!  That worked out great as we had moved all the living room furniture against the wall in preparation for putting up rented tables in the middle of the room to seat people for dinner.  So there was a giant space in which to play fetch!  Great idea Katie!

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We had lots of fun until I, while talking on the phone and continuing to roll the ball past the dog, accidentally rolled the ball under a chair where she couldn’t get to it.  She told me off for sure!

Katie 2146I never was that good at multi-tasking.  So anyway, after her long day, she’s now upside down next to me in bed, sound asleep.  While I’m wide awake of course.  This is going to be trouble tomorrow morning when she’s UP and READY TO GO at her typical 6:30 or 7:00 a.m.

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Sigh.

Katie 2138


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Welcome home Mom!

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I arrived home yesterday evening, tired and with a terrible cold.  Katie was excited to see me and disappointed  when I went to bed early.  Today she’s been bugging me all day, barking at my coughing and sneezing, always under my feet. She’s antsy to play and the tiny bit that I threw the ball didn’t seem to satisfy her pent up energy.

This evening as I was putting ornaments on the tree I thought that she had gotten tired of following me around because she wasn’t underfoot.  Good girl I thought…you’ve settled back down!  I guess being gone for 17 days caused me to have a brain freeze…because I forgot that a quiet Sheltie is almost always….into something BAD!  Katie 2110

She was soooooo busted!  But I guess it doesn’t count if I laughed all the while I was cleaning up the shredded tissue.    Now she’s tring to make up by being the Sheltie on guard.  She thinks it gets her off the hook…I guess it does.  Silly girl.

Katie 2114


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More museums

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Today I tried to do as many inside things as possible because it’s bitter cold and the wind is just whistling down the Mall.  So I visited the Botanic Garden, The National Art Museum and The Natural History Museum.  The warm gardens were wonderful and made my cold feel lots better.  At the art museum I got lost among the Dutch masters.  I hadn’t thought I liked Dutch art, but I was wrong.  Especially the portraits which really caught my imagination.  And there was a marble bust of a little boy done in 1460 that looked just like my brothers did when they were young 500 years later.   Made me realize (again) how little has really changed over time.  This is titled “Ill Matched Lovers” by Quentin Massys and was done in 1520.  Who knew they had this kind of sense of humor way back then!

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And the Natural History Museum brought back lots of memories from when I visited it as a kid.  Especially the big elephant that greats everyone in the rotunda.  My favorite part of the museum was the section of it that dwells on the ocean.  Made me remember that as a kid I wanted to be an oceanographer.  Wonder what happened to that dream?

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Though I really have enjoyed my time in DC I’m getting tired of traipsing all over the city in the cold and wind.  And I miss my own home, my husband and of course my Katie girl.  Tomorrow I’m going to Arlington unless the weather is too horrible.  Sunday I fly home.  Can’t wait to get there.

Katie 2076


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Happy Thanksgiving

Katie and I want to wish all of you a Very Happy Thanksgiving! We have much to be thankful for and your friendship is high on our list, right behind family and health!  We hope each of you has a special holiday with those you love.  I’m going south to visit family and won’t be home for over a week.  Don’t worry though, Katie is going to party it up with her Dad!

Katie 2041


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Thanks Ludo!

Gee Ludo, while your Mum is away you have been very busy!  Katie got a package in the mail from you, and she was very excited!  She begged me to open it, but I told her she had to wait until her Dad was home so he could see what it was too!

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This morning we opened it up.  First out of the bag was the Pedigree Meaty Sticks which Katie was VERY interested in sniffing…until she heard me rattle the paper wrapping a bit as I struggled to extract……a PINK doggie stuffie!!!!!!

WELL!  Katie grabbed that even before I had time to take the tag off and ran off with it!

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Notice the eyes.  She’s saying “This is MY toy and you can’t have it!”  She’s not so much about sharing.  I chased her around a bit trying to get a good picture, and steal it from her to cut off the tag.

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Katie 2101Finally I got it away from her, cut off the tag, and made her take a picture with the toy so you all could see how cute it is. (The toy, not Katie.  Katie, as you can tell, is mad at me.)

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As soon as I released her from her sit, it was back to this:

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She hasn’t even noticed the other bag of treats, the “Scrumptious Rolls of Red Fish!”  The bag says:  “Remember – dogs who don’t get lots of fresh water get poorly, grumpy and sad!”  True!  The bag made me smile, but then I haven’t opened it yet for that wonderful aroma of fish –  “dried in the cool Icelandic air, these delicious rolls are made with 100% red fish skin to make the perfect fishy treat for your dog.  What a lucky dog!”  Katie is going to LOVE these!  As soon as she stops playing with pink doggie that is!

Thanks Ludo!

Katie 2092


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PS: a little bit of this and a little bit of that

For those of you interested, here is a link to an Ann Arbor review of the concert I went to.  If you scroll down to the bottom you can see Dr. Nel play the piece he played for the encore.  The one that made me cry.

http://www.annarbor.com/entertainment/aaso-review/

And for those dog lovers out there, Katie and I were in obedience class tonight.  She was “on” right from the start, though she threw up right at the beginning of the heeling.  Don’t know what that was about, she was fine the rest of the class.  During the long 3 minute sits and longer downs I was standing away from her, arms folded, watching her watch other dogs get up and I thought – “Sometimes I just love you so much Katie-girl!”  She was SO GOOD!

Katie 2076


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Invasion of the fog

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Seems fog is the theme from across the country this week!  We woke up to it today as well.  And it’s not burning away with the rise of the sun, though the weather people said it would be gone by now.  I don’t really mind, it’s pretty in a soothing sort of way.

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Katie was outside in her pen, enjoying the challenge of watching for squirrels in the soupy light while I look for more pretty things in the backyard.

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Here’s one, a beet from my garden that I threw out into the yard for the deer.  The fog has frozen around the edges of the leaves.  So beautiful!

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My computer shows the local weather at the bottom; “Dense fog, 38 degrees.”  I have lots of things I should get done this morning.  But the fog has ways of slowing me down.  And that’s OK.  All the better to notice.

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It’s fun to look for other kinds of pretty now that the leaves have fallen.  If you take the time to look you’ll see pretty is everywhere.  All the time.


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New Park

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It was a beautiful day today, warm and a bit sunny.  So Katie and I went to the park; a new park today, as our favorite one is filled with hunters.  Katie got lots of sniffing in, and we met some other dogs too. Everyone was out to enjoy the last bit of our Indian Summer in November.  They predict snow next week!

We worked a bit on our recall…

Katie 2069…but mostly we just hung out.

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Can’t have a better day than this one was!

Katie 2061