Catching up

Well,it's snowing. Very pretty, the evening air filled with snow, and the light reflecting off the flakes. I think they're predicting 2 inches. You'd think it was the Blizzard of the Century the way people are running around gassing up their cars and buying bread and milk. This seems very weird to me; these are the same people who drive those big honkin' SUVs with 4-wheel-drive. Course those are also the same people who drive like total knuckleheads...

And having just come in from shoveling for the 2nd time, I'd say it's going to be more like 4 or 5 inches. The Ts are thrilled, though. They just LOVE snow! :)

I'm a bit stuck on my knitting. Last time I tried on the alpaca sock, it looked like I had another 6 inches to go. Not being the most patient person in the world, I was appalled by the idea of not only finishing this one but then having to knit another one! Argh! (I know, this was my idea--I didn't know what I was getting into. It wouldn't be so awful if I were using Mountain Colors Weavers Wool.)

I am getting work done on my friend's socks, but I stopped working on the cuff of one to re-knit the foot of the other. When I tried it on, I decided it was too floppy and too short, so I ripped it back to the heel, went down a needle size, and decreased an extra 4 stitches at the gusset. Once again, this is fairly appalling, because Apple Laine is a hefty yarn, as sock yarns go, and here I am working it on size 0 needles! Argh! I'm going to have to learn to knit more tightly so I don't have to use teeny tiny needles--I mean, if I'm knitting Apple Laine on 0s, I hate to think what I'll need to get a good sock fabric using Schaefer Anne!!

There was a funny thread on socknitters--"extensive yarn stash and nothing to knit"! I had to laugh, because it's so true. Either you have a pattern you want to make, but not the right weight yarn or enough of a particular yarn, or you have a gorgeous yarn and can't find the right pattern for it.

I did some grocery shopping. Went out to a store I don't usually shop at because they have this new dog food: Homestyle Select. It's "gently cooked," comes in a refrigerated roll. I got chicken for the Ts: http://www.homestyleselect.com/products/adult-cvr.htm I'm not sure about this stuff--I haven't seen anyone mention it on any of the dog lists I'm on. The ingredients aren't *too* bad, except for the brewers rice and dried egg product. You're supposed to feed guys the size of the Ts around 2 pounds a day--you just slice off a chunk and hand it over. I'm thinking of using it as a supplement instead of the canned green tripe--it would certainly save me on shipping costs--so I weighed out half a pound for each of them and added it to their regular food. They were both thrilled, thought it was wonderful. In fact, Taenzer refused to eat her regular food and went around looking to see if there were any crumbs of the other stuff that I might be hiding in my hand or Timber might have missed. So I'll try it for a month or two and see how they do on it.

I would like to start an alternative dog supply business here in town, with grain-free kibble, frozen raw foods, canned food like Merricks and Nature's Variety, training treats like Zukes and supplements like Solid Gold and Missing Link, and good books and DVDs about positive-based training. But I have no vet training (not that they get much training in pet nutrition) or animal nutrition background, so people would think I'm a quack or a zealot. I don't think I'm a zealot, but I do think people can do better for their pets than to feed them grocery store pet food. Er--I'll stop the lecture (rant?) before it gets started.

I've spent the past several nights happily uploading music from my laptop to my mp3 player. Now I want to put on some T-pics. Well, what I really want is one of those little keychains that you can load digital pictures on. I won't always have the mp3 player with me, but I'll always have the keychain.

I've also been working on a new blog-- http://genealogicalswamp.blogspot.com , if you want to look at it.

And training Ts, a bit. I don't know if you've checked their scoreboards at the Levels Training site, but Taenzer's one test away from passing Level Two and Timber's two tests away. For some reason this week he decided he'd never done the distance exercise before, had no idea what I was talking about, and really didn't care. *sigh* So we're going back to the beginning to retrain. My biggest fault as a trainer is that I want to go too fast--which is one reason I have German Shepherds! They're not what I used to see called a "push-button" breed, but they're smart and easy to train if you know how to work with them. All breeds are trainable, of course, but some breeds are easier than others.

As I read this over, it sounds like I've been busy, but in fact I've been a lazy bum.