Friday, March 5, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Sturgeon Spearing-What Are the Chances?
I am participating in Six Word Saturday, hosted by Cate at Show My Face.
ce.
Posted by Aunt Julie at 4:56 PM 11 comments
Monday, February 15, 2010
"Children As Pets" - The Cat Years
gets the credit.
I just realized that while children are dogs-
loyal and affectionate-teenagers are cats.
It's so easy to be a dog owner. You feed it,
train it, boss it around. It puts it's head on
your knee and gazes at you as if you were
a Rembrandt painting. It bounds indoors with
enthusiasm when you call it.
Then around age 13, your adoring little puppy
turns into a big old cat. When you tell it to come
inside, it looks amazed, as if wondering who
died and made you emperor. Instead of dogging
your doorsteps, it disappears. You won't see it
again until it gets hungry-then it pauses on it's
sprint through the kitchen long enough to turn it's
nose up at whatever you're serving.
When you reach out to ruffle it's head, in that old
affectionate gesture, it twists away from you, then
gives you a blank stare as if trying to remember
where it has seen you before. You, not realizing
that the dog is now a cat, think something must
be desperately wrong with it. It seems so antisocial,
so distant, sort of depressed. It won't go to family
outings.
Since you're the one who raised it, taught it to
fetch and stay and sit on command, you assume
that you did something wrong. Flooded with guilt
and fear, you redouble your efforts to make your
pet behave. Only now you're dealing with a cat.
So everything that worked before now produces
the opposite of the desired result. Call it, and it
runs away. Tell it to sit, and it jumps on the
counter. The more you go toward it, wringing your
hands, the more it moves away.
Instead of continuing to act like a dog owner, you
can learn to behave like a cat owner. Put a dish
of food near the door, and let it come to you. But
remember that a cat needs your help and your
affection too. Sit still, and it will come, seeking
that warm, comforting lap it has not entirely
forgotten. Be there to open the door for it.
One day, your grown-up child will walk into the
kitchen, give you a big kiss and say "You've
been on your feet all day. Let me get those
dishes for you."
Then you'll realize your cat is a dog again.
(For Soccer Boy, who at 14, is still all dog!)
Posted by Aunt Julie at 2:45 PM 3 comments
Labels: children, children as pets, dogs, Soccer Boy
Friday, February 12, 2010
Thank You For Your Service, Ryan
Posted by Aunt Julie at 9:55 PM 12 comments
Labels: Six word Saturday
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Beating the Winter Blahs
I have a major case of cabin fever, as you may have guessed from the beach countdown. So I decided the laundry room needed an overhaul. After all, it is the first thing people see when they come into my house. Unless they use the front door, and we just don't.
The laundry room gets lots of use. It's where all the wet shoes and boots get kicked, where the dogs eat, and the laundry gets done. And it sure showed.
The walls were dinged and dirty, some of the hooks were broken, one of the bifold doors was off it's hinges...the list goes on.
So I got ready to paint, then realized that even a fresh coat of paint would not fix what ailed my walls. They had been repaired many times. The texture on them was uneven. It was a mess.
I called a plaster man, who retextured my walls with a process call "skip troweling". They look
amazing! Then I painted. Had a neighbor put a decorative edge on an oak board I bought for the new coat rack. I stained it, and put on new, big wrought iron-looking hooks. Tossed the old
grungy rug and put in a new one. Put new hinges on the bifold doors, and bought a slick new airtight container on wheels for the 40 pound bag of dogfood we keep just to the left of the washing machine. Made a new valence for the window.
There was a moment when I entertained the idea of painting it a fun color-terra cotta or lime green. But in the end, as it always does, boring beige won out. Actually, the color is "Muslin", from Benjamin Moore, and it is really quite nice. Goes with everything. Very neutral. It is close to a color the realtors here call "relocation beige". Houses of executives of the big companies in town new on the market get neutralized with this color. All the fun colors go, in an effort to appeal to the masses, who can then turn around and paint terra cotta and lime green.
So, I realized that my house is "neutralized."
Does that mean I am ready to relocate, maybe to someplace warmer? I know the mid-Atlantic states have tons more snow that we do, but their cherry blossoms will still bloom on schedule, while we are still frozen.
Darn! Now I have the winter blahs again.
Posted by Aunt Julie at 8:42 AM 2 comments
Labels: beach vacation, cabin fever, winter blahs
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Forty-Eight Days And I'm Here...
Posted by Aunt Julie at 11:14 AM 8 comments
Labels: beach books, Six word Saturday