Pooped

This hasn't exactly been a relaxing vacation. I wonder if I could take another week off?

Let's see--Saturday night the tree fell on the house.

Sunday and Monday I spent a good part of the day either calling the insurance company or waiting for them to call me.

Christmas night I was invited to dinner with some faculty members from the department and their teenage boys.

Thursday I spent chasing around (via phone)trying to get someone at the insurance company to talk to me. Finally got connected with a guy who said he'd be out tomorrow (more than a week after the tree fell) sometime between 12 and 2. I also talked to someone about fixing the chimney and removing the tree, and someone else about the possible damage to the west edge of the roof.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon with my brother and his family and my sister and her family, which was fun, but tiring. I'm not used to people. I'm such a hermit. And I love my family, but even with family I have trouble interacting with more than a couple of people at time. This was 7 people. But it was still fun. The serial-killer teddy bear went over well, I think, and my sister and sister-in-law were both impressed with the beaded tassels I put on the end of my sister's needle-keeper. My brother and sister (and her husband) were very interested in our aunt's letters, which I had made copies of for them. My sister hadn't been able to find the pictures and things of our father as a boy, but she brought a scrapbook one of his friends gave her when he (our dad) died, of cartoons he'd drawn over the years. Most of them to do with university life, clever and amusing, with a bit of a bite. There were xtra copies of a few, so I helped myself to show my bosses at work that even after 30 years, nothing much has changed! My sister, bless her heart, gave me subscriptions to Vogue Knitting and Interweave Knits. We all took lots of pictures, and I downloaded and distributed mine last night.

We had snow yesterday, the fourth weekend in a row we've had bad weather, but today it's sunny and warmish and the snow is melting. I had to re-tape the plastic over the south window because all kinds of cold air was coming in (cheap tape). And the dried putty on the east windows is letting moisture from the house condense on the storm windows so we can't see out. I'm trying to figure out how to put plastic across the three windows and still be able to operate the blinds (since they're mounted inside the casing--if they were mounted outside, I'd just work around the mountings and cover the whole thing as if it were a patio door or something).

I was supposed to take the Ts over to a friend's, but when I called she was thinking 3, and that's just too late--the temps are already starting to drop by then--and besides I didn't want to hang around waiting all afternoon to take them out. So I packed them up in the van, went to Walmart to use my gift card (I can't wait to see the giver's face when I tell him I got a 1-pound pack of chicken jerky (Walmart is the only place in town that carries it now, damn it), a picture frame for a picture of Timber to add to my photo wall, and a set of little plastic storage cups that I'm going to use to teach the Ts scent discrimination--I'm sure that's not what he meant when he said "get something fun for yourself"), stopped at Hy-Vee to get them their semi-raw food rolls that I've been mixing into their kibble instead of canned green tripe--I'm not quite sure this stuff is as good for them, but it is saving me some money--and some alfafa sprouts and coffee and cheese for me. Then I brought them home and they ran around outside for half an hour or so. I think I'll take them out again at 2:30, then go do the cat. They put a new kind of litter in her box that's supposed to last for a month, but she's got kidney problems like many elderly cats, and I think I'm going to dump that litter and put in some fresh--it looks pretty grody to me.

Then tomorrow I get to sit around and wait for the insurance guy to show up and see what he has to say (mental note: crate Ts).

My sister and her family stopped by on their way out of town yesterday to look at the chimney and say hi to the Ts. What a mistake. I've been apologizing ever since. They're so quiet and gentle and snuggly and funny with me, I forget that they lose their tiny minds when we have company, particularly Timber. If they'd been able to stay longer he'd have settled down eventually--say maybe 45 minutes or an hour. Taenzer did a little better, except for the occasional sudden impulse to surge up into someone's face and slather them with kisses, whether she'd been invited or no. But Timber was just wild and uncontrollable. I was mortified. I'm supposed to be a good trainer and have well-behaved dogs. Obviously I've failed the Ts miserably. I'm wondering if I can hire the teenage boys from Wednesday night to come over every week and get him used to having people around. I've been trying to come up with a good training plan.

Bless his heart. This morning I was in the living room with Taenzer. Timber came into the kitchen very tentatively with his ball in his mouth. I called him, but he kept glancing at Taenzer, and I caught her giving him the evil eye. Poor guy, no wonder he spends so much time back in the bedroom by his lonesome little self. So I crated her and spent an hour playing with him, and he's just so generous and smart and sweet. Mental note: don't let Taenzer bully Timber, and make Timber-time every day. Of course she was mad when she got out of the crate and inclined to go after him, so I had to go after her. I don't mind if she's pack alpha, but I have to remember that all that snuggling she does is sometimes more in the interests of keeping him (and previously Annie) away from me than out of simple affection. The brat.

Well, I think I'll take them out again, then go do the cat. Then maybe take a nap!