weather, weather everywhere (& washing!)

Oh, I very nearly cried on Monday - the weather's been so cold & wet recently I hadn't got a washing done the week before last at all so was sitting by the weekend with 2 weeks' worth to do. Despite England proclaiming heatwaves and the hottest day of the year on Sunday, as usual it didn't reach us and we had warm but very humid conditions, resulting in no washing drying outside but the heating not coming on so no drying inside either!

So Monday dawned with wet clothes hanging everywhere. Richard assured me it was to be nice (dunno where he gets his weather info from) so I hung out some of it and carried on with my work. Unfortunately I looked up at about 12 and noticed it was p'ing it down - aaaaargh! Toon late - it was all soaked again (what little had dried).

That was it! The last straw - everything possible into the tumbledryer. Defeated by the weather....

PS I'd like to add that it was good drying weather yesterday (typical) so I got the big stuff done - bed linen, more towels and the sofa throws. Today - same but due apparently to rain later - this time I'm not leaving the house without taking everything in. Call me paranoid...

Tell me, are we getting a summer this year?

break-out

Whoopee! Just waiting for Emily to come over then we're off to break M & M out of doggy prison. Can't wait - it's almost the best bit of a holiday, coming back and collecting them. Murphy leaps on you and then heads straight for the car.. Maddie just leaps on you - the place we leave them now hand them over on the lead so she's never had the chance to run free - thank goodness! Lord knows where she'd end up.

Downloading the photos from yesterday, some goodies.. well done Nick! Everyone dressed up and I managed to get a new dress out of it - assumed everyone would be wearing the same thing from day to evening, should have known better.. So a mad dash to Monsoon and got a very nice dress just as they were closing. silver linings...

Here are the best - Andy & Emily, Nick & Elle, me and Richard (who was very proud...)

glam queen

Had Maddie groomed recently, she's all neat and tidy again. Got into trouble for her ears and back leg feathers being such a mess though, but what cann you do when she runs away as soon as she sees a brush? Can't spend her entire life dragging her out of her den, that'd be cruel. I'll have to creep up on her more I suppose, it works for the teethbrushing - I wait til she's happily ensconced on a sofa then cuddle up and bring out the toothbrush - she  associates it with yummy poultry-flavoured toothpaste now so doesn't run.

Nick's graduation today, main problem - what to get him? I was all for a graduation teddy-bear of some kind but Richard thought that a very bad idea so I've ended up getting him a (very minimal, masculine-looking) photoframe. Bo-o-oring! och well, what ever I get will probably be abandoned in a corner somewhere anyway so I won't take it personally. It's the thought that counts, right?

and back to two

..but we miss Charlie! He and Maddie would run around upstairs and down together; Murphy always stays at the bottom, he's much better trained! They get on fine and it was quite fun seeing them all together...

On a separate note, I took Maddie to her first Highland Games to see how she'd cope with the crowds and the noise. I am proud to report she's a proper Scottish dog - not at all fazed by the pipes or drums - indeed more interested in dropped chips than anything else (should've known) although she did look at the practising pipe bands in some interest for a while before deciding I needed dragged off somewhere where there was more food!

and then there were three...

So we have Charlie staying with us for the next few days. He's a lovely chocolate lab, very even tempered and calm - turns out he's not even afraid of the hoover! Although he's a bit scared of men. However we've had him visiting before so he's used to Richard - he settled down on the sofa last night cuddled up to him - to the annoyance of Maddie who kept getting up and shoving him off whichever sofa he was on! Even Charlie was getting fed up with it and grumpy-growled at her.

Can't say Gizzy's too impressed with the appearance of a THIRD canine companion!

Breaking news...

...spaniel foiled by fence!

Numpty-heid ran head first into one this morning. She was quite surprised to find it there, she clearly hadn't seen it at all and was planning on going through to stand on a wall and stare at the field on the other side (as she had been doing all along the path this morning).

To be fair to her it was relatively fine chicken wire and her eyesight's not the best, but it made me laugh!

hope

I have cautious hopes for the Silver Award for Maddie, we did 1.50 minute sitstay in the forest today and could probably have done more but I didn't want to push it. She has to do 2 minutes for the test so that's OK. And we practised her getting in and out of the car in a controlled fashion today - tick! As long as you keep saying "waaaiit!" in a stern voice, guess what? She does!

Not sure how she'll do on the "under control walking on the lead without pulling" for this one, you have to do it outside and she's good inside but pulls all the time outside. More work required I think. Still, there's hope....

Not again! (sigh)

got home from work today to discover the BRAND NEW tube of doggy toothpaste I started last night is gone - well, the bits are all over the floor and the contents, judging by the marks on the carpet, have certainly been on the floor even if the evidence has now been disposed of... (i.e.licked off)

Great! And when I tell him, Richard will only say it serves me right for leaving it on the windowsill, which Maddie can easily get to via the sofa (and we know the sofa is hardly no-man's-land for either of them!) he's right, of course, but that doesn't help. The wee sneak...

On the plus side her breath smells of poultry-flavoured toothpaste now so maybe it'll do her teeth some good before it disappears!

what a star!

She was SOOO good last night! (Maddie, that is) We were at her obedience class and starting to work on the stuff needed for their Silver Award (well, one can but try!) One of the things was "in your bed" - now Murphy is very good at this (except recently when, upon being told this, I caught him heading for the couch!) but Maddie tends to make a beeline for the nearest thing she habitually lounges around on e.g. Murphy's bed. Last night however she promply headed for the folded towel (makeshift bed replacement) and lay down on it - magic!

Oh how proud I was! (wonder what she'll do to bring me down to size next week)

Scots v English

a message for Richard (not that he'll read it, being off globetrotting again) - you'll love this!

Moment of fame

recognise anyone?
- That's Emily, at that's the place she works now, seems to be loving it.  She's been on the local news and is in the paper today apparently, so we must remember to buy one!

In other news, Maddie's taken to lying beside the catflap. I thought she was waiting for someone to come out and play with her but Richard & Nick reckon she's guarding it so the cat can't get in! Inter-species warfare!

happy days

btw must share what fabulous weather we've had yesterday and today - temp in the mid-20s and wall to wall sunshine - not even a cloud in the sky!!!!! This is only the second time since we lived here (8 years) that I have walked out with the dog(s) at about 8am in flipflops and no jacket. Unbelieeeeeeeveable! (for those of you that live in warmer climes, at all times during the year I'm usually in jeans, boots and at least my dogwalking jacket (an old Berghaus one of R's), although in summer I skip the fleece). Call me cynical but we're going to pay for this!

See the picture? Not a cloud! That's above our back garden! (The lines aren't clouds, they're telephone wires, they don't count)

Business as usual

well Daddy was duly got from the airport and is back; the welcome he got from our two heroes! So now Maddie's back to ignoring me (it's good to know your place, isn't it?)

I'm struggling with keeping updates on Twitter, Facebook and this - in my head they're all the same, just different lengths - Twitter the shortest, then FB then on here I can waffle away as much as I want - but if I've already made a comment on Twitter and a slightly longer one on FB what's the point? Think I'll have to make a point of saying different things on each. Information fatigue - giving it out, not processing it this time!

A missed opportunity?

I so haven't taken advantage of Richard being away! Instead of watching what I want to on TV all  night and going to bed when I want, I've spent the whole week so far juggling all these jobs and working til the wee small hours.. Here I am again - got up at 5.45am to trot the dogs round the track for 10 minutes before heading into town for church then heading home and doing a solid 3 hours research job. Almost forgot I was supposed to go into law job early before going for lunch with Fiona - arrived (complete with all the bits and pieces for dry cleaning, shoe repairs etc) just in time to go for lunch. So after there was a frantic hour trudging round the dry cleaners, various repair shops, Guide shop (for badges for tonight), bank etc then back for a couple hours law work. Then homewards to give blood then walk dogs before Guides (no way was there time for food - again). Thank the Lord Emily had already walked and fed them, I'd forgotten that was arranged!

Home at 9.45pm after Guides and just spent another 2 and a half hours on research job and it's half twelve and I'm knackered!

PS had to take the car to Guides - got half way there on foot (GORGEOUS day - 25C at 6pm!) but the cat followed me and when we got further than she's used to she started mieowing (rare) but refused to leave me so I had to go home (she followed me) and take the car instead. sigh. Daft moggy!

limitations

I just can't do everything! It's a frustrating reflection, but one I must come to terms with. I'm still juggling three jobs plus looking after the dogs (and trying to be their daddy as well as tough-mum) and living in the real world. Argh! Let me explain - I set the alarm early to go for a run (with the dogs) before hitting whichever job I was most into at the time) but have ended up with a huge blister on my heel due to taking the dogs out last night in shoes (no socks) I don't usually wear - so no running and a long(relatively) lie instead.

Then a bit of shimmying round the kitchen clearing up after last night before settling into some blog-research. Cue absorption until I realised at 1.45pm I was supposed to be picking up Zoe to take her to tennis class (she's 3) at that exact time. So I just had enough time to gather the stuff I wanted to put into drycleaning (still in the car, btw) before heading out - still in jeans and flipflops (well I walked the dogs in my crocs and no socks so save the heel and got more blisters on both feet) and no makeup. Tennis went well (from my point of view, I got to sit for half an hour and interact) then I even managed to drop her off in good time to meet her mum and older sister at the schoolgates!

Off to work as a lawyer - jeans an' all (I know but no clients to see) til 6 at which point I rememebred it was Wednesday and Maddie's training evening - no chance! Have to leave at 6.10 to get there so she got a night off. Had Emma, a Guider coming at 7.30 to go over my learnings from camp (sitting my test later this summer) so just had time to take the dogs out for their evening perambulation (cue another style of shoe and more blisters) before she arrived.

Then, although I'd intended to spend the evening continuing job no. 3 (case study for book) I spent part of it doing more lists for camp and wrestling with the girlguiding UK website (it is not letting me on and I need on to amend and print off the Permission forms for camp to hand out tomorrow evening aaaaargggh) before concentrating on the case study.

Thank God Richard's away I've gone through more wine than I intended (and a lot more chocolate, but then I haven't managed a proper meal yet today) and have the iPod on loud and it's almost 1am, and I have to get up at, like 6am cos tomorrow's a holiday of obligation (see Catholics) there's three masses and I can only make the 7am one..... I'm sensing I'm losing continuity here (I lost the ability to type about 20 minutes ago) so I'd better go to bed.

PS after poor Emma being confronted with Murphy giving her the heavy "love me" vibes (stares, shadowing and hand-licking), Maddie the general "will you play with me?" interest (hovering with tennis ball in mouth) and then Gizzy with the cat-stare (fe-e-e-ed me!) - she coped very well - I spent 20 minutes outside throwing the ball for Maddie but she still avoids me in the house so what can you do?

I REALLY must go I'm definitely havering now...  glass of wine anyone?