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Zoe doing her best to look like she doesn't care about a dog treat,
incentive for her to stay on our front porch while I take her picture.
Zoe doing her best to look like she doesn't care about a dog treat,incentive for her to stay on our front porch while I take her picture.
1- I finally ordered a dog-containment system. Ordered last week with cheap-skate shipping--it should arrive about a week from now. I hope it works.
The base installs by plugging it in, then the wearer of the collar can go anywhere within a 90 foot radius of the base unit. (Adjustable.) This should let Zoe go out the door and even go around the house without leaving our lot. It will be a relief not to worry about her being a nuisance or getting into trouble.
Lucy adding water to the fish bowls.A good time to talk about the effects of hot water on fish.
2-Lucy's fish are (mostly) still alive.
75% of our fish are still alive. About a week after I brought the four fish home, I found one of them floating at the surface. I had never flushed a fish before. This motivated me to go down to one fish per bowl. I have two bowls, so I had Lucy pick two fish and give them names.
The lucky (or unlucky) third fish lives in the pond behind Grandma Judy's house. Baby Fish and Ken are still with us and I am finding that I really like fish-keeping. It's therapeutic and at moments, meditative. (Never having "done" bonzai, I can't say for sure, but I can imagine that there is a similar feel to both.)
I'm faking it!3-I have managed not to bite my nails for about 5 days (in a row).
It helps that I am trying my best to prevent Lucy from learning this bad habit of mine. One thing that I have found helpful is that I encourage Lucy to catch me biting my nails. When she sees me biting my nails, she'll say, "Mom, don't bite your nails!" She's good at getting lots of feeling into it.
Since I was a little girl, many, many hours have gone into plotting, scheming and devising ways to get me to stop doing lots of things: sucking my thumb and biting my nails have been the main puzzlers. The first that I remember was a plan conceived of by my Grandma.
Note of little consequence: I have one Grandma and one Granny. Grandma sometimes goes by G-ma, Granny sometimes goes by Gran. I have always thought this much preferable to Grandma Xyz and Grandma Pdq. My grandfathers were Granddaddy and Grandpa.
My Grandma made me a dress (probably one of my all-time favorite dresses) with boat-shaped applique pockets. The dress was red and white striped and when I wore it, I felt exceptional. Grandma made a deal with me. She gave me a bunch of pennies to keep in my pockets. These were my pennies to keep--unless she caught me sucking my thumb. I guess money has never motivated me much.
My parents put a cast on one hand to make the offending thumb inaccessible. This worked. I no longer sucked my right thumb. I switched to my left. I would have liked to have been there when they explained to the doctor why I needed a cast. Maybe they brought a note from my dentist. Ha!
My parents had a dental appliance installed that prevented my thumb from touching the roof of my mouth. It didn't work. My parents painted my thumb and fingernails with nasty stuff that was supposed to keep me from wanting them in my mouth. This taught me perseverance. Sure it was terrible at first, but it was only a thin layer. It didn't take long for it to dissolve.
When I was school age, it was perceived peer-pressure that helped me stop sucking my thumb. The nails? I still lose them completely from time to time. This usually happens late at night while I watch TV or a movie. Even when I don't bite the nails, my cuticles rarely escape unharmed. Maybe hypnosis could help me stop. But then, I don't really believe that hypnosis works. Accupuncture? Maybe I should watch the fish more.
Ken and Baby Fish in holding together while I clean their bowls.
In case you are interested:
Here is something I read this morning which I liked and agreed with a lot, although I have never leaned towards atheism. In the future, after Tenille and Don post something more recent, you can follow the above link and find the Under the Banner of Heaven post.
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Special challenge for the next 90 days: I challenge you (and myself, of course) to say nothing negative about yourself or others in the next three months. This means that you avoid saying unkind things about yourself or anyone else to yourself or anyone else--even strangers--for three months.
You are exempt if you are required to do this sort of thing for work. But you are only exempt when it is required to responsibly fulfill your work duties.
Special challenge for the next 90 days: I challenge you (and myself, of course) to say nothing negative about yourself or others in the next three months. This means that you avoid saying unkind things about yourself or anyone else to yourself or anyone else--even strangers--for three months.
You are exempt if you are required to do this sort of thing for work. But you are only exempt when it is required to responsibly fulfill your work duties.
