If it barks like a dog it's a...parrot?

Song of the day: “Mmmmmmbop” by Hanson. I know! I’ve no idea where that one came from. I haven’t even heard it recently. Hah.

Well, I’m instantly drawing a blank here, seeing as it is already half an hour to midnight, it’s not all that strange, but what the heck. Let’s see if I can remember SOMETHING of the past three days, eh?

There were the visiting dogs to walk in the mornings, which is a bit of our special time. They rush outside, jump against me a few times, and then head on out into the bushes to do their thing. My dogs will be bouncing up and down in front of the cabin windows, going downright bonkers. Poor darlings. They don’t like to share me. Hah.

Then, while I’m doing laundry, the visiting dogs will be at the window of the porch office, and I will chat with them a little. Which reminds me. This morning, Charlie (the new green parrot) joined in on the melee when the dogs started barking. I kid you not. He barked at the top of his lungs, mimicking Micky, I think. I almost choked on my laughter, really. That is so like us. We end up with a parrot that tries to go for our throats when we let him out of the cage, and barks like a dog. *sigh*
You’d think that Tika would do the same, but nope. Not our pretty red and blue Tika. That would be totally beneath her…she’s an arrogant little bugger. Hah.

Though there was rain on Saturday still, the weather has vastly improved since Sunday with the appearance of the sun and a cool western wind. Seriously, this weather is heaven. Fresh air, bright sunshine, makes you want to stay outside 24/7 just to soak it all up.

Grandpa and I spent some time cutting glass. Seeing as we finished hanging the old terrace doors in the carport, the remaining sections of the opening still needed to be closed. We could just have hammered the lot shut, but since we’ve decided to do it nice this winter, we went for glass.
An interesting thing, cutting glass. I did a small glass every now and then, in the past, and always messed up, but all in all, this venture of cutting four large windows, didn’t go all that bad. Gotta be careful doing glass, though. Ended up with a few cuts, one glass splinter and a scrape on my palm because I braced on the table where small pieces were lying about. *sigh* I would like to state for the record that I never claimed to be the smartest of the litter. Hah.

But anyway, except for one window, where I apparently went wrong somehow (big brother had to fix that since he usually does the glass cutting round these parts) everything fit and is in place. Works well too. Once the stove is on for the dog food it gets real nice and toasty in the carport. Yay. I am so going to enjoy that this winter.

Gada is not doing all that well. Her front paws are starting to hurt more now, and I think that the pain pills are only taking the edge off, darn it. Then, of course, I did something stupid. I started calculating, and came to the conclusion that Knight II will be six this year, which gave me a faint panic attack, since that means that he is rapidly approaching the average age of Great Danes. Double darn. Seven to nine years is the marker, and though the sensible part of me says that the statistics don’t mean anything and that he could live to a solid ten years, but what do emotions have to do with sensible, right? *sigh*

Right. The Opel. Had it towed this morning, and got the report in this afternoon. The alternator went again (darn second hand stuff) and there’s a hole in the tube of the gas tank, meaning that we’re looking at a repair job of about 300 bucks. Aaaargh. What is it with these cars, for crying out loud? Soon I’ll have to start selling my organs or something. Won’t have it back until Thursday or Friday. Stupid cars.

There was the whole carglass debacle. Remember the broken back window of the Land Rover? Our appointment was today, and though we arrived on time and were told that the replacement would take about 45 minutes, we ended up waiting for a solid two hours. *sigh* Practically snoozed in the chair while we waited, which seemed to be the theme of the day since I was friggin’ nauseus when we got home, and ended up going to bed for half an hour, to try to sleep it off. Was a little better afterward.

Dogs caught a rat today. Since our wild cat has been snacking on the dog food, he’s been catching less rats, meaning that we’ve got about ten of them haunting the carport. Nasty little buggers. They did chase the mice off, though.

Funny thing ‘bout Chaos. He was barking on my porch this evening, and get all excited, so I finally got the hint and chased him inside the cabin. He dashed ahead of me, threw his front paws onto my bed and stood their barking, and hopping on his hind legs until I lifted him up. Jeez. Crazy dog. He’s some character. You could practically follow his thought process. “Finally she gets it. Come on, Boss. Lift me. Lift the Chaos. That’s it. Time for bed.” And then he flops down on the mattress and promptly falls asleep.

There was a donation trip again. You remember the friend with the store, right? Got a nice batch of veggies and bread for the dogs, which is always a plus. In particular since we also got a full bag of overdue meat, which had the dogs quiet and salivating while the lot boiled on the stove. I kid you not, they were gathered around the stove, staring at the steaming pan as though they were hypnotized, occasionally whiffing the air in full appreciation of the aroma. It was hilarious…just as the next morning when they got to eat the treat. Not a crumb was left in the end, and I literally had to drag Chaos and the fat girls out before they stuffed themselves too much. Even Knight II ate his full bowl, which I could have notified the press about for the rareness of the event.

Cooking was part of the days, of course, with today as the most prominent one. Seeing as tomorrow is a working day (putting up a fence, of course) I also made a potato/veggie salad, added to the mash potato, pumpkin, pepper, leek and onion mix. Gawd that worked out well. It was seriously delicious, and I almost ate too much.

Went for a jog tonight, which was high time, and didn’t go as well as I’d hoped. The most important thing is I did it anyway, so who gives a fig about the quality of the jog. The distance was met and I survived. It doesn’t get much sweeter than that. Hah.

Been doing some random reads through the book before starting on the first edit. I need to feel confident that most of the scenes I added fit, and that the flow is right before I start on the epilogue. Added to that, I’m curious. I remember writing the broad strokes of the main idea on which I started to write, but as for the details, they’re blurry at best. What I’ve read so far works, though.

The pool is starting to become downright nippy at the moment. I took a dip yesterday as well as today, and it isn’t funny anymore. The coolness hurts your head, and my skin actually itches afterward. Soon, once the temps really start dropping, it will be too cold for dips, darn it.

Been dealing with loads, and loads of laundry. What with the bad weather last week, laundry piled up, didn’t dry, and thus there’s plenty of it at the moment. Got overfull baskets and lines, but if this weather holds up, I’m confident that I’ll hack my way through it in the end. Now I’m only hoping that the weather will hold.

Loaded up the car this afternoon. Sand, cement, fence, tools and whatnot. All’s packed up and ready for tomorrow. Got lunch prepared, bottles are filled, and if only I manage getting to bed in time, I’ll be a happy camper. Heading out. It’s past midnight.

I get a new floor!

Song of the day: “Mirrors in the sun” weird to have this one, seeing as it’s from when I was like, tiny. Seven, or something. Sally Oldfield. I know, I know, can anyone say: New Age kid? Yikes.

Gotta keep it short, ‘cause I’m running behind and I really should get a few pages of the latest project written down. Sure I did a few on paper today *gasp* but seeing as it doesn’t count until it’s on the computer, I’ve got to get jumping. Hah.

Okay, what to write, what to write? Gawd, I’m starting to blank out again. Seriously, if I don’t remember right this instant this blog is…Glass! Yes, big brother and I spent several hours sorting through our glass supplies, organizing the stacks and cutting a lot of them for the greenhouse. Phew. Memory one surfaced, quelle surprise. Got about ten of them done, meaning that we have another…oh, seventy or so more to go. Yay.

Ohhh where is memory number two? Where, where, where…nope. Nothing yet. Darn it. Oh yeah: Made a small table on wheels so mom can put it up against her work table whenever she’s working on her quilts. It’s hard to keep it away from the dogs without some place to prop it up on.

Three. Oh this one isn’t hard to remember at all. I don’t know where it snuck off to, but here you have it. Big brother and I spent about an hour laying out what will soon be…can I have a drum roll?…my very own hard wood floor in the sitting room of my cabin. Can you believe it. It is reddish, in case you’re wondering. Looks a little like mahogany, but whether it is or not is up for grabs. It’s going to be gorgeous and seriously, I am going to take pictures. Hah.
Oh, déjà vu…I wrote that before, didn’t I? *sigh* I know. I will though.

We harvested of course, but didn’t need to water the plants until today, due to the rain we had.
The dogs were both miserable and ecstatic, seeing as they enjoy us going down to the yard, while they abhor us working in the old paddock working with the glass. Poor darlings.

Mom and two of the sibs went to an art market and sold some of mom’s work. Apparently they didn’t enjoy the crowd as much as they do the second hand scene, but they managed to get some networking done at least.

Tenant was rather cheerful today, which is always a good thing. She was thrilled that we started on her wall today, meaning that we were busy with installing these long white panels over the natural rock wall that has been a thorn in our eye for the past few years. What with the new tile floor underneath it, the place is really starting to shape up. Soon we’ll be able to pour concrete on the remainder of the floor, then lay the rest of the tiles, et voila, the bungalow will look spic and span (sp?). Hah.

Writing. Did a count yesterday and apparently I've got the story done and connected except for two scenes for more than a hundred pages, meaning that with the fifty or so that I still need to write, I'll be done. Yay. Then there will the edit, the...okay, not thinking of all that now.

Gawd, I’m blanking out again, so I’m going to leave it at this. I’ve only got two hours left to do some serious writing so I’m outta here. Better luck next time, I guess.