Don't get me wrong. I'm TOTALLY NOT complaining. Just the opposite, in fact.
It's been good for me to spend some time jus' chillin' as my kiddos would say. I've been able to get some things done around the house...have cleared some cobwebs from the old brain...and made some decisions to make some plans for overhauling some things. (Maybe not the most decisive statement...but hey! it's a start!)
I keep sticking my hand in the air to pick up extra hours on random days tutoring kids for that blasted TAKS test. And while I'm extra-jazzed about the money (gotta love getting paid $25 an hour to work with a handful of kids at a time, eh?) ...I realized a couple days ago that I have created myself a schedule that is not conducive to traveling long distances for any length of time. Therefore, the dog and I will be Texas-bound til the first of August.
Thankfully, the dog and I are becoming better friends. It's due in part to my recent discovery of the Animal Planet show, "It's Me or the Dog". I decided the other day that if the uber-psychotic dog on the show could be taught to sit and stay...there might be hope for Freddy. So I got a jar of smooshy training treats at ye local Petsmart Shoppe....and we've been working on it. He's doing pretty well....most of the time his little butt drops to the floor immediately when I hold the treat and say "sit". Other times, you can see that his butt wants to comply....but his brain is holding out. You can almost read the thought bubble, "Lady, seriously. If you think that I'm going to give you what you want each and every time you ask...you've got rocks for brains. Don't you realize I'm in charge here? I may weigh only 10 pounds...but I am most assuredly The Boss. Okayyyyyy, now that I've sat here and stared at you for a while, I'm going to go ahead and sit. But don't get it twisted. It's not because you told me to. It's because I've decided that I want to. There. I did it. Now give me my damn treat."
Last night, I was on the computer in the office....and I heard ripping from behind me. I turn around to look. This is what I saw:
The little punk had pulled the rug back onto itself....so he could chew on the fringe. I told him "No"....he looked at me, tilted his head for a brief moment, then went back to redecorating. I went to get the camera, figuring he'd have run off by the time I got back. Oh no....he was still at it.
(I'm just glad it wasn't the rug that QuasiRoommate's hubby brought me from Iran. Otherwise, the title of this post would be: "What Happens When You're Arrested by the Animal Cops")
It took a couple of tries to get him to understand that "no" meant "quit chewing on the damned rug"....
But he finally gave in. We then had us a little photo shoot. I took about 20 pictures...but I'm still not a pro at synchronizing the digital camera delay, so most of them were profile shots of the pooch. There were 2 extra-cool ones, however!!
So...all in all...I'm enjoying spending my summer jus' chillin' !!
~hasta