We started the weekend hanging out at Amanda's house on Friday, then meeting back up with her that evening to exchange kids for the weekend. She got Ben, we got Rho. Below, the kids are looking at the above clouds after we finished dinner.
The entire weekend, in fact most of last week, centered around the above muttlet. She's started leaving the yard-every time she's out. Even if we are out there with her. She just goes through the fence. So I bought smaller fencing and put that up, nearly killing myself in the process via a few dozen small cuts, some of which bled like I had been stabbed in an artery and scared me quite a bit. I have blisters, gashed palms, bruised hands and the self-portrait of my leg and butt below show a tiny percentage of the mysterious bites/rash that cropped up on my lower torso after standing in brush trying to zip tie new fence to old fence. And this is not including the new un-photographed spate of poison oak on both feet and ankles.
When all was said and done, she now simply uses the new, smaller spacing as foot holds to climb up and over the fence. Short of electrocution or razor wire, I am unsure how to keep her in the fence and have simply opted to wait for her disappearance. At least I have some warning this time. And, this is my last dog, I won't be going through this again.
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| don't panic, it's no more than my bathing suit shows |
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| Jake and Rhoen, this amused me for some reason, him walking around and her perched up there with a toy dragon. |
The weekend went well, Saturday we mowed and worked on the fence, that night we watched Hansel and Gretel:Witchhunters, which was okay, but I really thought they used the F-word too much, it was almost forced in there and awkward. It didn't need to happen is all I am saying, it added nothing to the story.
Then we watched Beautiful Creatures, which I got mainly to annoy Jake, but it turned out to be surprisingly good (as we were expecting a Twilight-type plot and the girls were well prepared to egg it on) and I found myself going from irritated with the way-the-heck overdone 'Suuh-thern' accents to being a little smitten with everyone involved. Kind of like True Blood to be honest, and speaking of True Blood, I had no idea Ryan Kwanten was Australian, though now that I know it's astonishing how Australian he looks.
Sunday, it rained and in the afternoon, Matt took Chan to buy a ukulele, which I was told at first was around $25 for an entry-level uke, then it was $70 for the better quality that would hold up longer and we were going in halvesies and then they came home and it was more than twice that and no halvesies to be seen! I can't complain much, she never asks for anything and she's had it less than a day and has worked non stop on chords, I imagine her fingertips are going to look like mine by tomorrow.
In between providing my puppy with some mental stimulation via a VERY expensive wrap-around climbing wall, I read. I read the final Sookie Stackhouse novel, Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris. I read Niceville by Carsten Stroud, which is to be the first in a series I have no doubt. I read The Death of Bees by Lisa O'Donnell, I tried reading The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis and could never sink into it and gave up after the first 100 pages. I also read 50 Hikes on the Cumberland Plateau and Off the Beaten Path in Georgia.
I loved the way the Sookie novels ended, I was satisfied, even happy with it all. It was pretty well how I wanted things to go, but I know many of my friends read the series and I don't want to blow the ending, just say, 'Yippee!' because I like the man she ends up with. If I got to pick anyone from the series, it would have been him. *sigh*
Niceville is creepy, I spent most of the book having no clue what was going on, I imagine the next book will back fill some of the local legends and explain what the heck happened. It was a ghost/revenge/abduction/murder/Native American lore/time travel/spy/Southern Gothic story with some elements of WTF added in.
The Death of Bees was really good, I read it in about 3 hours. It starts off with young 2 sisters burying their parents in the backyard. The narration switches between the sisters Marnie and Nelly and their neighbor, Lennie. It is a single story book, those are kind of hard to find these days. Seems like everyone is doing a series.
And that's it. This week is looking pretty laid back here at home. At work, Matt's job is being restructured with a new boss and some 'streamlining' and more than a few fired people. I am not going to think about that, he's not worried and so I won't be either. I do feel bad for the people losing their jobs, but from what I understand, they are dead weight and the company is trying to stay afloat. You can't work in an ever-changing business and refuse to learn anything new or change your own self. The last time they had a round of lay-offs, things improved, so I hope that is what will happen this time as well.
