Saturday Chatting

 Isaac is on his way, although I doubt we will see much more than some rain.  DIL's sister is on  a week long mission trip to Haiti.  At the moment, they are stuck in Miami...plane was supposed to leave today, but I wonder if it will get out before Tuesday.  If they ever get there, I'm sure they will have their work cut out for them!  Any prayers or good thoughts would be very appreciated!

What a wonderful mission. Prayers and good thots headed their way.

Pickle relish is DONE.  Fridge garlic dill, check, 6 loaves of zuchinni bread baking (that'll shut the guys up about alllll the zucchinni coming out of the garden and hardly any bread, and the starter is, well, started for the roasted garlic chibotta bread.  My house is clean as a whistle, laundry ready to go out on the line, garden picked for the day, seeds processed to dry for next year, oh and basil, chives, dill and thyme are chopped on on the drying rack.  I think I deserve an iced coffee and a smoke about now!

Just finishing up lunch.  Miss Riley piggie ate three cheese quesadillas.  There aren't big, just a small tortilla with a slice of muenster cheese, but I was like WOW!!!

We are going to spend much of the day out front in the pool.  The weather had been so so for a week or so which was a good remind to me that we need to get out and enjoy as much of summer as we can while it is still here.

puppy gas 

Hope you get some energy soon Julie.

I took Shane to PetSmart and my worst fears came true. He's so barky if someone greets him and if you ignore him, he barks even more :(. It's the one area that I've read and read about and just can't figure out how to tackle it. I've had some success with anticipating the problem and treating while he stays calm but at this point, I'd need to carry a suitcase of treats. The trainer there suggested squirting him in the face with water :\

 Dodger's like that right now. A swift Knock it off then a treat when he's quiet seems to help. If a person ignores him, he'll bark louder so I'll ask the person to wait a sec, spin on my heel and walk to a point where I get his focus back on me. Then walk back to the person, if he barks, spin and walk away. Rinse and repeat.  It helps if you set him up with a helper that you know he's gonna bark at. He'll also learn that the only way he gets to great a person is if he's quiet.

glenmar

The one thing I've heard a lot is to teach them to bark on cue and then reward for only those barks.  Never did figure out how to do that though.....

DS #2 is the only person that can actually make Max bark and he does it by getting down on all fours and pretending to be a dog and barking himself.  Somehow I don't see myself doing that.

Lisa, that's great about Riley eating the quesadillas.  Tortillas and cheese make a really good meal.

I had just finished telling DGS (whose name is Isaac) that the "tropical storm soon to be hurricane" is named Isaac when DS #2 came and told me that the next one in line is named Joyce.  How weird is that?

Joyce

 That's funny, Joyce!

Can I just say how much I HATE our new health insurance plan? Yes, I know I've complained about it before. ($9,000 deductible, nothing's covered except one annual visit...) Well our vision and dental were supposed to stay the same. I had my annual eye exam on Friday and found out that they now only cover the basic, thick plastic lenses for glasses. I order to get the same ones I have now (thinner plastic, polished edges, uv coating, anti-glare coating, anti-scratch coating) I have to pay $338. For just the lenses!!