Dog Rules

Riley is almost six.  He has gotten quite interested in being the Alpha Dog of this pack this winter.  Now that G is home 24/7, Riley thinks the rules need to change. In his favor.  This morning he thought the day should begin (for G as he knows better than to try this with me) at 6 am. With his breakfast. (G made him wait until 7) And as soon as G folded up the morning newspaper, Riley assumed the "going for a walk" position next to the table and G's chair. Riley is stubborn about not moving one inch away from this position--and following G closely if he walks away. He's on his walk as I type.  Then lunch will be served.  A nice nap. A ride in the car.  A few visits to the compost pile. Then at around 3:30 he will see if either one of us will be tricked into feeding him dinner early.  Riley will keep trying until he actually gets fed at 5. Then he will lick the kitchen floor while I cook dinner. He'll then sleep until 9 or 9:30 when he pushes his way into my space for the nightly vigorous ear rubbing.  More sleeping after that until bedtime.

Riley "front loads" his day.  Which is perfectly fine with me.  G, on the other hand, is getting tired of all the long walks.  I remind him that last winter--it was ME doing all the walking.  And no one felt sorry for ME.

Once the weather warms up, the snow melts etc, G will be doing "outside" things and Riley will happily sit on the grass and watch him.  We just have to get to that point.

I DID make all the things I listed yesterday.  Meatballs (enough for four meals), breaded eggplant to layer with sauce and cheese and a homemade carrot sheet cake with frosting.  G hasn't had any yet so I don't know if he likes it or not.  He liked the meatballs and eggplant.  He had to have some of each.  Riley had so much floor licking to do--always a mess when I bread eggplant and fry it.  I used to be careful when cooking--but now, with the dog, no one knows I was messy.

I started seeds for leeks and yellow onions.  I may start seeds for red Italian onions today.  Then get the heating thing set up and germinate the seeds.  I like growing onions.  They taste good and don't spoil quickly so I actually get to use them.  I haven't used much of the garlic I grow--because I need to replant the biggest cloves in October for next year.  Eventually, I'll get to keep some for cooking.

My future Garden Plan is to ONLY grow things that I actually like to eat. (I've said this before and folded) More tomatoes of early varieties, more cucumbers, zucchini and Kabocho squash.  Some green beans. The onions. Rhubarb. Kale.  Carrots & Beets.  The last two give me the lowest yields and the most problems.  I always have a few cabbages in the garden.  Lots of insect damage.  I am going to use a systemic on them this year. It's sort of safe since it takes so long to grow a cabbage.  I am giving up on lettuce.  And I will be giving Fennel and Eggplant one last chance.

Big news from yesterday was that I finally reprogramed all of our Season's Pass things from regular stations to the new HD stations.  I figured out how to use the remote buttons to do the right things and not the many, many wrong things it has been doing since we bought the new television.  We noticed that we suddenly had a new version of TiVo when we hooked up the new HD television.  Nothing worked as it had.  And now, to make things even more frustrating, it seems that the TiVo lets me enter Netflix without me actually wanting to enter Netflix.  Sigh.  I'm a Simple Girl.  I don't like many layers of complexity when all I want is to watch my favorite programs. Not be shuffled off to watch past seasons.  Or, worse still, to be offered a Season's Pass to some terrible crap new show they are trying to people to watch, EVERY SINGLE TIME I MAKE A MISTAKE.  It's enough to give me a very bad headache.