Words Carl knows

New family game one February Saturday morning.  The kids have created a shared list of "words Carl knows", and all of the group are contributing to it.  

Surprising?  Carl knows "Guinness" as well as "Beer"!  Who teaches these to their dog?  Turns out Guinness is the name of one of his doggie friends from the park.  He knows several names of dog friends and he knows my Prisoner's name, too.

I noticed that I use a different set of words with Carl than his "mom" and "dad" do.  Kind of like a little kid knows that when at Grandma's house we habla Español.  Not that it's a foreign language, there are enough English words to build whole different dog-vocabularies specific to whose house he's in.  I use longer / more words than they do.

"Out" versus "Outside".  "In" versus "Inside".

Silence, repetitive nature of life, "am I weaning myself from blogging"?

It's been nearly a month since I posted a blog.  Yes, I'm still breathing, but when I'm being a bit of a hermit, and life just gets repetitive, and all I'm writing about is life, because, gee, you don't want to be controversial or offend someone by talking about politics (which is going to be taking up a lot of space in my brain for some time here)... well, silence tends to ensue.

The medical stuff keeps on trickling on:  had my annual mammogram as rescheduled. I've received the snail mail "it's normal" letter.  I finally got off the dime and scheduled the "every ten years" colonoscopy... has it really been ten years?  Yes, it has.  Sigh.  The verification of the phone number was enough to make it clear:  they still had my land line on record.  The verification of insurance, same-same, I was still working and on work's insurance back then.  The kids will provide transport and monitoring, but the appointment isn't until June.

Of course, the kids' lives are far more active and interesting than mine.  My son started a new job the last week of February, but he hasn't entirely left the old one.  The two of them finished up their foster parenting classes, and have an up-coming home visit the end of March.

I have been sorely tempted by photos/videos of puppies, born the end of January, and hand-raised by a trusted person.  BUT, I know better, so have resisted up to this point.

The Girl Scouts are selling cookies in their little booths, in rotating spots for limited hours.  I am pleased with myself for having resisted this food temptation, as well.

See?  The end of February, beginning of March... it's a time when change is in the air!  The time when you're likely to get your hair styled differently, change your diet or exercise plan, or, in my case, call up the lawn and landscape people and schedule an evaluation / advice appointment.

Friday morning comedy

The repetitive part:  a dusting of snow, and a grocery order pick-up.  

But then, in my rush to watch a taped show (the finale of The Traitors, on Peacock)... I managed to try to balance my oatmeal on a knee, and whoops, slip, slide, spill...  The leg of my jeans, the pet cover AND the slip cover on the couch, and the carpet!  Yikes.  No, I did not photograph the evidence, but I ran for the paper towels, mopped up, stripped the couch and now am on my second load of laundry associated with my home-grown slapstick of the day.

Had Carl been in residence, I would have had less "clean up on aisle ten", because he loves oatmeal and blueberries, and would have slurped it right up, but The Prisoner is not tempted by most human foodstuffs.  But there you have it, a klutz story to lighten up your day!

Hope everyone has a good Spring-forward (why are we still doing this) weekend, and that the warmer weather returns soon!

Life is good.  Spark on!