A day in the life of Morrison

Ah, to be a puppy.  Here are some random thoughts and photos of a "usual" day for Morrison the puppy....(in no particular order and told in Morrison's voice..)

Ah, one of my favorite activities...eating the garden decorations...I will consume this flower...it is made of metal, but I can do it (note the bent petals...)

 I like to run and make Liberty chase me.  Then I chase her.  Then she chases me...then she is tired and pants...

so I try to get the people to come chase me...they usually aren't interested.  Well, except the Boy, but he's not home right now...

 Trick of the week...if you don't come when called, the people shake this bag and yell "puppies"and sometimes they feed me when I come.  Sometimes they don't...its confusing.  They keep saying something like "intermittent reinforcement"...I just think its mean.

 I help the people by eating all the green things in the yard.  This was a pot of lavender that had survived an entire year outside, including several snowstorms this year. I have chewed it down to the dirt so it won't bother my people any more.

 The Boy and I call  this the "dirt pile"  It is a good place to play and makes everyone say things like "blech"!!!

 This is a spot I like to dig--there are mice under that deck and I will get one.  I may have gotten one the other day, the people yelled a lot...I'm not sure, it could have just been a wad of dirt.

 Ah, some of my finest work...have you ever flipped a flower pot into the air and listened to it break on the deck?  NO? Oh, you are missing out!  It is so much fun! And that blue hippo is next on my list--I like to carry him around the yard and listen to the people chase me.  I'm going to get him off the table.  I am.  Really.

 This is my friend, Fish.  I like to bark at him.

 And my other friend, Monkey.  I eat his ears.  And throw him in the air.  And try to take him outside.  Monkeys should get to go outside, right?

 This was my toy box.  I ate it.

 Dirt is your friend.  Embrace the dirt.

 Anything she can do, I can do better......

 I like to go outside at night and early in the morning and watch for mountain lions and coyotes.  I act like a freak, bark a little, whine a little, dance around, and the people freak out.  Especially when there has been a report that there really was a mountain lion in our neighborhood.  He, he, he...I'm so funny.

Playtime with Liberty is always fun--here we are in the PCA (Puppy Containment Area).  She's pretending to not want to play, but I know she's totally into it.

 Another fun game--dump the food and water bowls, walk through them, leave muddy prints, chase the food nuggets around the kitchen.  Fun for everyone!

And naptime...Liberty really wants me to have the whole bed...I know she does.

Random thoughts on the Pet herd

I've come to the conclusion that the current annoying habits of the pet herd are due to a lack of pet leadership.  No, we don't need anymore pets.  Let me explain...

The first pet that came to live at the Suburban Ranch (back when it was more of an Urban Ranch) was MJ, the Bunny Cat Princess.  Her story, according to the Denver Dumb Friends League, was that her previous owners adopted her as a kitten, allowed her to roam the neighborhood and gave her up after she had four litters of kittens in less than 2 years.   (Dude, I can tell you how to fix that...) She was about 3 when we brought her to live with us, and for many years we had more video of her than the human children, as we filmed that foolish cat for HOURS after her spay surgery (she was HILARIOUS...I wonder if we still have that?...hmmm)  We spoiled that cat and made her fat.  Then, Mr IM's sister asked if we could watch Cass, her  kitten, for the summer.  We said, "sure!".  It was then that we realized MJ's fabulous leadership skills...She trained Cass the kitten to do all the things that kittens should do and loved it.  When Cass went home, we found Tigger (the "tiny headed kitten", because his brain, well, just isn't that big...) and MJ trained him (sort of...as well as she could...good job, MJ).  MJ went on to train Indy the dog as well as put the fear of MJ into Alice the Cat.  (Alice did not reap the full benefits of a MJ run training camp, as MJ was pretty sick by the time Alice arrived at the Ranch, however, Alice does have a healthy respect for growling animals).  Indy also had the benefit of us being friends with the owners of her mother, Truffles, so until Indy was 3 or so, we could periodically take her over to their big yard and let Truffles remind her who was in charge (Truffles, not us..).  We took Indy to puppy training class, and as there were no human children yet, spent hours teaching her to behave. (Including the amazing trick of putting a plate of food on the floor and telling her to "leave it"...and she would...) MJ and Indy then "trained" Tigger, Liberty, and Alice to be good minions, but not good leaders....

Without the guidance and leadership of MJ and Indy, we have Liberty, who thinks she is a 110 pound puppy, teaching Morrison (who is a 30 pound puppy) how to "puppy".  Tigger and Alice are not participating in the program (like MJ would have), as they are clueless and old (Tigger) and angry and aloof (Alice).  I think the solution is to find some MJ and Indy fur and have them cloned.  Yep, that's my plan.  Maybe I could have them cloned together as some kind of hybrid cat/dog creature....I think I've seen a horror film about that?

The good news though, is that Morrison is settling in and shows signs of being smarter than Liberty (sorry Liberty), or at least less scared (some of Liberty's odd habits probably have to do with whatever happened to her before we rescued her).  Morrison is making progress in the "leave it" department and is getting pretty good at taking food nicely.  I have high hopes that she can exhibit some leadership skills for this clueless herd....(perhaps even convincing Tigger to stop singing the song of his people at 3am?).  Ah, well...only time will tell!

Ah, January

Well, Good Evening before another semi-significant birthday!  Big plans include, um, work, and going out to dinner somewhere.  Anywhere, as long as I don't have to cook or clean up, right?

Let's see...I can tell it is January--even in Colorado I feel the lack of winter sunshine.  In protest of the endless driving in the dark, I'm leaving my outdoor lights up until the last day the HOA will allow them (January 31, for the record) and then I may replace them with simple, white, twinkle lights...my own little protest.  I have three new classes this semester--two are repeats (with different students) of classes I taught last semester and one is a support lab type class.  So far I'm enjoying all my classes.  I have several students new to me, and get to continue my two favorite classes of the year, so its all good.  Three of my classes even have windows....so I can see daylight once in a while!

Morrison the puppy is settling in well--she actually sleeps better than Tigger.  Mr. IM and I are awakened nightly, several times nightly over the last week, by Tigger's song of his people.  Last night he stopped for a few minutes when I got out of bed, scooped him up, and plopped him in bed with us. My theory is that he gets cold...so I think I will knit him a sweater and force him to wear it. We'll see how that goes... (probably not well, given his history with sweaters).  Morrison goes to bed between 8 and 9 most nights--if she stays up until 10, she is like a sleepy toddler and has to poked, prodded and sometimes carried up to her upstairs kennel.  She goes out between 5 and 5;30 (Mr. IM takes her out at 5 when I get in the shower, however, her laziness has refused a couple times and has waited for me to get her at 5:30).  Alice and Tigger still detest the puppy, but Liberty seems to (sort of) love her.  She at least likes drooling on the puppy, which leads to lots of baths for Morrison, which Morrison loves...

The Girl has joined a club volleyball team as a practice player (don't know if I mentioned that yet?) so that fills my weekends while Mr. IM and The Boy are skiing (snowboarding).  The Girl and I continue to try to keep up with Downton Abbey...waiting impatiently for January 26, when the whole season will be available (for a fee) from Amazon and we can just binge watch the whole season (between volleyball events, while the boys are in the mountains)

I have already finished a couple great books--Charles Martin's newest, of course, will probably go on my top 10 (and it is only January 11...11.5 months to go in this year) and I really enjoyed Ready Player One...a dystopian novel with an 80's trivia twist--if you remember the 80's you might enjoy it...it you loved video games in the 80's (or dungeons and dragons) you'll probably really love it.  I'm also getting ready to finish book 3 of the Blackcoat Rebellion series by Allie Carter--teen lit at its best, but entertaining.  Unfortunately, it will be YEARS before there is another Diana Gabaldon book....maybe I'll have to do something useful!

Good Night, from Morrison and I!

Top Ten Books of 2015

Ok...here we go... My top 10 of 2015.....(in no particular order).  I've included the months so you can read my "original" blurbs if you want to...

1.  The Shadowy Horses (Susana Kearsley)--February
2.  A Lesson Before Dying (Ernest Gaines)--June
3.  Saint Odd (Dean Koontz)--March--Makes the list because it was a nice ending to the series, which was one of my favorites.  It will be interesting to see what Koonz does next.
4.  The Boston Girl (Anita Diamant)-April--Just looked to see if Diamant has anything new and I don't see anything yet...sigh.
5. Outlander and sequels (Diana Gabaldon)--May through December  (not cheating, can't choose just one...some are better than others though...)
6. Come Rain or Come Shine (Jan Karon)--October--Again, a nice ending to the series (or at least a nice "new" book to the series)
7.  A Fall of Marigolds (Susan Meissner)--August
8.  A Life Intercepted (Charles Martin)--July
9.  Career of Evil (Robert Galbraith)-December
10.  Tricky Twenty-Two (Janet Evanovich)--only if you've read the other 21 books though, I suppose

Honorable Mention:
*The Rosie Project (Graeme Simsion)--September--only gets honorable mention because I made myself read the other other two books to find out how everything ended.
*Magnus chase and the Gods of Asgard:  The Sword of Summer (Rick Riodan)--October--maybe was one of my top 10 ,but I didn't read it until October and the list was getting full.  I think if you love Riordan books, you'll enjoy this....and if you don't, well, you won't...
*Go Set a Watchman (Harper Lee)--September--still not sure I really liked it...but it was thought provoking.  It's on the "read again someday" list
*Bossy Pants (Tina Fey)--July--
*Tattoos on the Heart (Gregory Boyle)--May


Year in Review:
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December's post won't be live until January 2, and I'm writing this beforehand...but I'm confident you can find December if you haven't read it yet!

What I read in December 2015

At first I

 wasn't sure I had read much, then I realized I read three Diana Gabaldon books...at 800 pages each, that is something I guess....

1.  Career of Evil (Robert Galbraith)--I'm always nervous when I wait a long time for a book, but the long-awaited books this month were worth it.  This is book 3 in the Cormoron Strike series, (not so) secretly written by J.K. Rowlings under the Galbraith pen name.  I did find the ending a bit odd, and wonder where she is going to go with it...but I'm sure she has a plan!

2.  Thy Rod and Thy Staff (Debbie Viguie)-another long awaited sequel, no idea what number this is, but it is part of the Psalm 23 mystery series.  Still entertaining, but each book seems a little shorter and a little more rushed.  As my mom says, "I just have to keep reading until the two main characters get married, then I'm good".  Luckily for me I didn't have to buy this one--Dad figured out how to loan it to me, so I read it that way.

3.  Superior Storm (Tom Hilpert)-I really like this series--I think there are four books in it now.  I read number 1 when it was free on Kindle, then bought number three.  This is number 2, don't know how or why I skipped it, but Dad loaned it to me, too and I enjoyed it a lot.  I hear that #4 is out now.  Series is about a pastor in Northern Minnesota who solves mysteries.

4.  A Breath of Snow and Ashes (Diana Gabaldon)--yeah, I know they are trash...but such entertaining trash.  I finished all the books that are written...now I guess I wait with everyone else for the next book...due out in 2-5 years :)

5.  Tricky Twenty-Two (Janet Evanovich)--Long awaited--enjoyed it--Stephanie Plum solved more mysteries and got into more trouble.  Good book, fast read.

6.  An Echo in the Bone (Diana Gabaldon)

7.  Written in my Own Heart's Blood (Diana Gabaldon)

8.  Lost Hero on CD (Rick Riordan)-I would have sworn that I had read this when it first came out, but there were parts I didn't remember.  The Boy and I are working our way through the series in the car, so we didn't make a lot of progress this month, because we didn't go many places during break.  If you enjoy Riordan books, this one is good. (And the reader doesn't do annoying voices, like the reader for Percy Jackson...so, yay!)

9.  The Ruins of Us (Keija Parssinen)-Recommended by my cousin.  About a Muslim couple and what happens to their family when the husband takes a second wife.  It was interesting, set in Saudi Arabia.  Good, fairly quick, read.  Lots of thought provoking passages about couples in general and relationships with almost grown children.

10.  Pawn (Aimee' Carter)--Recommended by my friend, T, who we all know never steers me wrong. This is another dystopian Young Adult read (I giggled when I looked it up and it actually published by Harlequin Teen...words that do not appear on the cover anywhere!).  The Girl actually read the first few pages when she waited for me to run into the grocery store and has only put it down when I take it to read it.  About a girl who becomes the unwilling stand-in for a princess.  Good read, book 1 of a trilogy.

I also "read" The Outlandlish Companion 2 (Gabaldon)--flipped through it, looked at what I wanted to, but really didn't read all of it and started reading Seal of Honor. It was interesting, but I don't know that I'll finish it, it spent a lot of time with the family, waiting to find out if Michael was dead or missing, I had a hard time reading it.  Up first on the agenda for the new year is the newest Charles Martin book.  (I'll start it later today).

Grand total for the year?  124 books.  I'll post links to the year's book posts on the "top 10"...stay tuned, I'm working on it...I'm having trouble narrowing it down...