Meaningless, meaningless.

I'm feeling moody and depressed right now. It has been uniformly overcast these past few day; overcast, sticky and hot. None of the movies I want to watch are on TV. I have reached the end of the internet and it no longer interests me. I always tell Mr. Legs "never feel trapped; you always have options." but I don't know if it's true anymore. The kids are screaming at each other in their bedrooms.
I had a little sleep this afternoon and woke up totally disoriented; It was one of those unremarkable, reality-based dreams that don't seem like dreams. It took me a minute to realize where I was. Fiesta is going on right now. Maria was so excited about the whole thing and I promised her I'd take her somewhere fun like the carnival or something, but I will not be able to.
This whole job thing makes everything look terrible. I wish I knew how to cheer him up about it.
Regret is choking me.

Weight Pulling

I took Swiper to his first weight pulling class yesterday, and he did great! He pulled 20 pounds for about four hours, around and around and around. He didn't mind the harness at all, and James, the instructor, was very pleased with him.



Here we are debating the benefits of pulling through the mud puddle vs. stopping all this nonsense and going home.



Seriouly though, he did great. He would have gone all day if I could have kept up. James kept checking Swiper's skin temperature to make sure he wasn't overheating but he was fine. We stopped every ten minutes to let another dog share the harness, but she was a little overweight and got hot quickly so she couldn't pull as long. Some one brought his husky and Swiper lapped him twice. I think using the backpack every morning is the reason he was so nonchalant about pulling the sleigh.




I really had a good time; I love all these people and their dogs.

I'm sick. Pity me.

Yeah, the title says it all.
Yesterday We went to a pitbull group meetup. It was a lot of fun. It was breezy and sunny and the park was really beautiful. Swiper got to hang out with dogs his size, only a few of whom mocked his rockin' new collar.



My sewing machine's stuck, so I had to sew the whole thing backwards, but we're taking it to be cleaned & repaired tommorow.
ANyway, the meetup was alot of fun. Here's some pictures:









That last one is Tyrone, who may be my favorite member of the group. Last time I saw him he had an undiagnosed medical condition. He had very little hair, his skin was scaly and icky-looking, and he just looked like the living dead dog. Now he's on some thyroid meds and he's jumpy & wiggly like a puppy should be. He was especially fond of Lenora, he planted himself in front of the stroller and licked her feet.

Brief synopsis of the past few weeks:

I made a cart harness that was too small for Swiper, so here it is on Charlie. After these pictures I ripped it up and fixed it, but I still haven't sewn the neck strap on.


Here is Swiper's really cool collar that is now covered in some as yet unidentified stinky paste.


This our fish tank. The beta and the guppy have died, but the goldfish seems to be fine.







This is the opossum that Swiper caught inside our house last night. I had to pick it up with a pair of tongs and carry it outside. It did not seem impressed, but at least Swiper didn't actually hurt him. Just slimed his fur really good.




This our new back door. We put it in all by ourselves. At 11pm. I think that's probably why the neighbors hate us.

Charlie

Here he is, in all his toothy glory:


And my knee. Pretty cute, huh? And so polite. hasn't barked yet. It's been fun having him here. Cynthia's especially fond of him, but hopefully he'll find a good home soon.

Foster home

We made kind of a split-second decision to foster a dog from the pitbull group.
The woman who rescued him will keep looking for a permanent home, but she can't keep him at her home right now so we offered to take care of him till the end of May.
He's pretty cute...A red heeler/english bulldog mix; Quite a bit smaller than swiper, but the same basic shape. I'll get some pictures up later.

Quitting

Well, it's that time of the month again...Time To Quit Smoking And This Time We Mean It. Really.
I think we had our last one Monday. So that would make this three days san cigarettes. Not bad, considering that usually we relapse after about eight hours. I'm trying a new approach this time; When I diet, I put on a piece of unfamiliar jewelry and everytime I see it I think "You're not depriving yourself of food, You're giving yourself the gift of smaller pants."
Now I'm thinking, "You're not depriving yourself of tobacco, you're giving yourself the gift of not having to tell the kids you've only got six months to live."
We're doing pretty good so far. I have this really harsh post-nasal drip, which tastes like an ashtray and makes me not want to smoke anyway.
Of course I'm eating like crazy, so I stocked up on snacks which will probably take longer to kill me than cigarettes.
There are things they don't tell you about quitting in the brochures...Constipation, joint aches, deep black depression and an inability to think clearly, wrapped up in a sense of impending doom.
But I think it's getting better now, and we may actually make it to the end of the week alive. There's a kite festival this weekend, that should be fun. Also, I'm going to try to wrangle Mr. Legs into taking Swiper to the dog park on Sunday to go hang out with the pit bull people.