swamped

I've been insanely busy. One of the cats is sick and I have to give him pills twice per day. Plus he wasn't eating so I also had to syringe-feed him twice per day as well. He's much better now. The pills will probably continue for the rest of his life. He's starting to eat on his own so I'll quit the syringe feeding.

I don't know if I ever mentioned that I did sign up for the doggie training class. After six weeks he basically did not graduate. We're supposed to take him over to the trainer twice a week and they work on him. I don't know if we'll do that. They said I should run/walk him daily to get that energy out. So for a week now I've been walking him daily. We're working on loose leash walking where he doesn't forge ahead of me. So the walks have been like a daily session of tug-of-war. Yesterday he was better towards the end, when he's all overheated and thirsty and less able to fight. With all that I have to do with him and the cat, I've been getting into work ridiculously late. We have rather long days at work so it's dark by the time I get home in the evenings.

I'm still working on the house (removing the bad caulk job on the fascia, prep for paint then paint), but progress is extremely slow. I don't get much done from week to week.

I'm sure I have other things to share. But apparently not when I'm sitting down and ready to blog.

the weekend

We attended a friend's ceremony of final vows (religious life stuff for those not familiar).
We attended a musical production at a small college.
We went to the cemetery and visited graves of loved ones.

in the not too distant past:
We saw the movies Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Hancock, & Batman the Dark Knight IMAX

piano fun

wow. I am very surprised to find videos of Andre Watts on YouTube. Here is a lovely find: Listz's La Campanella. And here is another wonderful piece Beethoven's Op. 31 no. 2 in D minor first movement there; check out the third movement too.

Surely everyone is familiar with Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. The first movement is most familiar, but all are good. The third movement is spectactular.
first movement Wilhelm Kempff on a Steinway & Sons
second movement
third movement

And any Chopin you pick would be nice. Here's one just at random: Piano Sonata No. 2 and here with Andre Watts.

Bach Invention #14
Ravel's beautiful Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte
Schubert's Op. 90 No. 11
one of many variations of Pachelbel's Canon in D
my favorite Richard Clayderman piece: A Comme Amour
a popular Paul de Senneville/Richard Clayderman piece: Ballade pour Adeline
MacArthur Park seems like a really fun piece
Michel Legrand Windmills of Your Mind
Henry Mancini Somewhere in Time

Not piano, but one to leave you energized: Yolanda Adams Victory

Friday Five

I ran across today's Friday Five at An Unseen Hope

Friday Five: What You Absolutely, Positively, Can't Leave Home Without

From Singing Owl:

We will be at a chaplain's convention when you all are answering the Friday Five Questions. I'll look forward to reading your answers next week when I get home. At the moment we are trying to get the car loaded so we can hit the road, so this will be a simple F.F. This running around madly in order to leave has me wondering: what are the five things you simply must have when you are away from home? And why? Any history or goofy things, or stories?

Aside from clothes and toiletry:
1. Money or some way to pay
2. watch
3. cell phone
4. info to get me to my destination (name and address, telephone number, reservation info if applicable, sometimes a map)
5. Big Ben I pocket knife (a b-day gift from long ago from my bro; it's probably only 2 inches when closed)

no mat

me: When I leave for work tomorrow, I will take the mat out of the crate.
Tonto: No, he's been good. I think it will be fine. Just leave it in there.
me: ok

end of next day: dog, crate, small pieces of blue foam, bye-bye mat

It is so VERY difficult to like this dog. He's been nothing but trouble, hassle, and very costly.

bed saga

Over 65 pounds of puppiness is very destructive, so doggie is crated most of the time. So much time on a plastic floor results in bald spots (calluses) at the pressure points. We've been trying to find a solution. The K-9 Ballistics bed didn't work; he tore apart the plastic zipper in minutes. Then we tried fleece mats--no zipper, no stuffing, no stitches. That's lasting; he's not eating up the entire two fleeces we gave him, though a little bit does disappear each week. Unfortunately, the fleeces just get pushed off to the corner of the crate.

We tried another stuffed bed that was on sale for $20. Yup, it tore in minutes. I've since sewn back up the hole in the bed and now he gets it when he's out in the house (under supervision). In the photo, the cat is enjoying that bed while doggie is crated.

We tried a foam play mat (found through Amazon); it comes as a pack of four 2ft square mats. I estimated a 2ft x 3ft mat, so I used 1 1/2 squares. It survived one night but was torn to pieces by the end of the following day. I still had 2 1/2 mats left. So I've put the mats together with all the interlocking fingers on the inside and the outsides are cut edges something like diagrammed below. I made the mat 24 1/2 x 39 inches so that it would fit the crate more snugly, making it difficult for him to get to the edges. We've decided that we'll remove the mat from the crate when we're gone. Let's hope it works.