Ellen's Nest

Only A Mommy Could Love

This is my baby, Annie, who is just seven years old. She is a perfect dog. I couldn't ask for a dog with a better personality. She's a bichon, and they have a tendency to be very polite, obedient, and loveable.

This is my other baby, Cayla. She is just one this month. We call her the "goat" She chews everything. (Like a hole in our leather couch) She climbs all over the furniture and runs away when she is caught doing something bad, which is quite often. She makes me laugh and brings life into Annie. Cayla is a Lhasa Poo, but there is no poodle there, I think. They are a pair.

Happy Thanksgiving

Not Too Enthusiastic Down Here

I haven't been around to visit much lately.  I will be around soon.  I'm tired, working more because the Florida season is starting, and probably keeping to myself more.  So much has been going on, but nothing worth  talking about.  I can complain about customers, but why.  Tomorrow it will be someone different, or something else, and life is too short.  I've just been hanging out with Mike, playing with my dogs, and playing games on the computer.  I'm not bored.  I'm just not overly excited about much right now.  So, that's where I am.  (Not even taking pictures.)  Usually the holidays perk me up, but...  We'll see. 

Blah, blah, blah.  :)

They're Back! or Florida Whiners

I keep getting booted off the network. It's frustrating.

This is my last cartoon of the day.  It's very appropriate for all of us in south Florida.  I have to tell you though, I'm very impressed with my town.  The clean-up has been spectacular.  Everyone is fixing yards, cutting down trees that were damaged - and there were tons!  Local people seem to be helping each other out somewhat and most of the power and streetlights are working.  People are doing it on their own (without FEMA), but we have the capability to do this here.  There have been a lot of internets comments about the foolish people who didn't prepare, or who stayed, and that irks me.  Come sit in our shoes for awhile.  Leave your home to possible looters, or leave your pets behind.  Risk sitting on the interstate in 150 mph winds, because you just never know which way the storm will turn.  Broward County didn't expect what they got, nor were they warned about anything like it.  They were told the storm would be dying down by the time it reached them.  I'm sick of reading about Florida whiners.  I haven't met one yet!

I'm tired of the people (okay, I'll say it, Northerners) pouring down to their winter homes 3 days after the extraordinary county clean-up and saying relatively nothing happened.  YOU WEREN'T HERE!!!  You didn't see.  You are dumb.  We had a h-u-r-r-i-c-a-n-e!  That's why your pool cage is in your pool, and NO, I'm not going to get it out.  It weighs umpteen pounds.  Yes, there is a lot of debris in your pool, including the neighbor's palm tree.  Yes, we have been there.  You had no power.  We did what we could.   

Okay, I'm better now.  (Am I a Florida whiner?)

Is It Friday?

It feels like Friday.

Another Monday

Monday has been my day off all summer.  (As well as Tuesday and Thursday after noons, of course.)  Last Monday my office manager told me it was getting really busy and I needed to start coming in.  I've been expecting it.  I told her the minute they needed help I'd be t.here, but of course I'm disappointed.  The Florida season is hitting though, and everyone is starting to come down. 

I went in today and got these looks like "What are you doing here?  It's so slow.  I never said to come in...".  So, I stayed for an hour and went shopping.  Gah!  I stopped at Lowes and bought  4 outdoor chairs on clearance for $10.00 a piece and 2 end tables for $7.50 each.  I couldn't pass them up and they're comfortable and perfect for my yard.

When I got home I took the dogs for a walk and then finished upholstering a chair that has been 1/2 done forever.  I just got tired of working on it, but now I was tired of looking at it.  I just have to put a little strip of edging on it and it will be perfect.  If I don't do it, no one will even notice.  Sometimes I think it is fun to do things like that.  Other times it is sheer drudgery.  At least the major part is finished and it looks clean and fresh.

I have so much clutter that I'm trying to weed through.  I don't need so much stuff.  It just accumulates.  My dining room table is covered with "things I have to do" and even when I get the table uncovered junk seems to pile up again.  It's ongoing.  Right now, among other things (like a pair of shoes I need to return), there is a broken lamp on it.  The UPS guy came to the house the other day.  Cayla ran to the door and somehow got the lamp cord twisted around her leg.  The lamp, which I really like, came crashing to the ground.  It scared the daylights out of the poor dog.  She was timid for a good hour.  Anyway, I still like the lamp and want to try to fix it.

I have to get the truck and go back to Lowes.  I have a little car and there is no way I could have gotten 4 chairs in it.  All of a sudden the day is slipping by.

No Comment

Tomorrow

Mike is having minor surgery tomorrow morning.  I'll be glad when it's over.  The good thing is that it's outpatient.  The bad thing is that it's surgery.

Hopefully we'll be home by noon.

My Dogs

I love my dogs.  Cayla, the one I took home 3 months ago is the biggest player around.  She gets along so well with Annie, because Annie loves to play, too.  It's amazing how much joy animals can bring into your life.

We've never leashed our dogs because at one time we were in a semi-rural area.  We had Snoopy then, and he stayed in the area.  He never crossed the main road, and he walked down the sidewalk like all the other civilized travelers.  We'd let him out.  He'd hang around outside until he wanted to come home, never bothering anyone, and he'd wait at the door.  Snoopy was very good.

We got Annie about the time we had a building boom on our dead-end road.  Snoopy showed her the ropes about cruising the neighborhood.  They pretty much stayed together, but there was more traffic.  A few newcomers would let us know they were out.  They thought the dogs would get hit. (Our older neighbors knew better.)  We started to keep a watchful eye on the dogs, and go out with them more, just because of the increasing traffic.  (Nobody really complained.)

After having him for over 15 years, poor old Snoopy died a few months ago.  I got Cayla on a whim.  I do NOT let her out ever unless she is on a leash, because she has no clue about the sidewalk rule and the traffic is so different than it was ten years ago.  I take her for walks on the leash all of the time and Annie walks with us unleashed.  They both love to go on these walks.  When I get 1/2 way down my dead-end road I'll let Cayla off the leash so she can run.  People stop and tell me how cute they both are and call them babies, etc...  Of course I'm proud, because I love them.

For the first time ever, I have a neighbor who is complaining about the dogs.  I feel uncomfortable taking them for walks. (But I still do.)  It's not like the dogs are soiling her beautiful lawn.  She is an old woman who just doesn't like dogs.  Today Cayla was running on her lawn having a grand old time and while I was thinking, "Oh great...,"  the woman opened her door and started signaling to me to "get the dog off her lawn".  I did, of course.

I'm just sharing here, not asking for advice.  I'm too stubborn to take advice.  This woman has lived on the street as long or  longer than I have.  (Our street is either people who have been here for 20 years, or newbies, which are popping up everywhere - and I really like some of them.)  The neighbor across the street from the dog-hater has a huge RV and when he turned it around in her driveway she put out a sign that said "No driving in driveway."  They've been neighbors forever.  They took the sign and threw it in the trash, and that was the end of it.  I don't have a sign to throw in the trash.

I'll just keep walking my dogs, I guess.   They're so cute!!!  I should take pictures.

Growing

Lisa's birthday is today.  She's 19.  I talked to her a little while ago.  A few friends and she celebrated last night with margaritas in the dorm room - her roommate has a blender, which I guess is going to become the infamous blender.  She's a girl after my own heart - margaritas.  They drank them in plastic cups, which seems a crime, but I'm not getting involved. (Presentation is 1/2 the fun.)  They had fun celebrating.

19 years ago... I was thirty.  I don't know where the time goes at all.  Age certainly creeps up on you and then BAM! 

When I was 19 I dropped out of college and spent 6 weeks backpacking around Europe (*shudder*) with my best friend.  That was the thing to do back then.  There was a whole army of kids doing the same thing over there: some alone, some in twos, some in groups. We went to at least 9 or 10 different countries from Denmark to Greece and at the time it was the best thing I had ever done in my life.  I grew up a lot and learned a lot about the world and people.  That's where I learned about the rest of the world's attitude about Americans and first saw soldiers with machine guns standing at guard in train stations.  The whole trip, including airfare, cost me $1,000.00.  We were really roughing it and met all types of people. I found out that year I was hooked on traveling and seeing how other people lived.  I also was a bum that year.  I worked on and off, spent a lot of time in dark bars, did what I wanted, and hung out on Cape Cod.  Actually, it was a wonderful year, looking back, but my parents didn't think so. They were not happy with me and worried, I'm sure.  Growing up is hard.