Wimpy snow storms and earthquakes

Well, the "big snow storm" we were suppose to have last night sputtered out...again.
Since we've moved here, we haven't really had much snow to speak of.

I'm not complaining, mind you.
But the kids hate it when all their friends are having snow days back in Kzoo and they have to go to school. Makes it hard for them to not miss Michigan on those mornings.

But I am starting to understand the "looks" and comments I got from some of the neighbors when they saw my snow blower from Michigan. "Wow. That's a really big snow blower you have there."

They all have these wimpy little blowers that are about 12 inches wide and sound like they run on the motor of a toy remote car.

We have a man size snow blower. You know, Troy-Bilt, Briggs and Stratton 9.5 horse power, 5 speed and 2 speed reverse, 26 inch auger. It's huge. Even has head lights (that's what I always tell people because I really don't know much about motors and such...head lights, now that's impressive!)

I feel like Tim Taylor when I use it. Tempted to make one of his husky "oh oh oh" noises and then point it over at my neighbors driveway and bury them.

But I've only used it once since we've been here. I actually like the peace and quiet of shoveling once and a while, especially when there's only a little snow.

The big news around here is the earthquake we had this morning at 4:00 am. The epicenter was less than 10 miles from us and it was a 3.8 (this has all been revised since this morning- originally they said 4.3).

All I know is that it scared the living day lights out of all of us.

I was asleep on the couch downstairs with Ace (long story, he's being a bit of a bad puppy) when the whole house started shaking. There was this deep rumbling noise and Ace was running in circles barking. It lasted about 5 to 10 seconds, enough for me to run around the house while things were shaking all around me, look outside, and then run upstairs. Hubby said "what the heck was that?" we couldn't believe it would be an earthquake. Earthquakes in Illinois? Whoever heard of such a thing.

One of our cats came from Tony's room into our bedroom. His tail was huge and all the hair on his back was standing up straight. It took me a while to find the other cat this morning. He was hiding in between some moving boxes in the basement. Poor guy.

Ace did the same barking running in circles at about 5:30 am again. The news said we probably wouldn't feel any aftershocks but I'm wondering if Ace did.

There were some pretty interesting stories on the Chicago News this morning from people saying their animals alerted them before the quake actually hit. Everything from dogs to cats to birds.

I wasn't sure if it woke the kids or not. None of them came out of their rooms but when I went to wake them up for school Bud rolls over, puts the pillow over his head and says "I'm tired, that earthquake kept me awake last night."

Like we had ten of them last night and it's nothing new to him.
Mac jumped up and said "was that an earthquake at 4 am?" and Tony said "my bed was banging against the wall and I thought it was the puppy".

I'm still shocked that none of them came out of their rooms, scared.
As for me, I made the Hubby hold me tight and fought the urge to go get all my babies and bring them into our bed (yeah I know they are all grown up size) and I really wanted Nae there.

I guess that's a mom thing.

The secret to Ace and the game of fetch

Travis over at I Like To Fish got me addicted to this site where you can make your own motivational pictures. It's called big huge labs.

I wouldn't call my creations "motivational" but I had a lot of fun messing around with some of my pictures.

I think I've finally figured out what is wrong with Ace and why he won't fetch.

It's because he is male.

Plain and simple.

We were out on the golf course again yesterday, playing Ace's version of fetch. I have pretty much given up on him bringing it back to me. And I guess I could use the exercise. So we were getting into the routine of me chasing him around looking like an idiot.

All of the sudden Ace stops and growls. I look over in the direction where he's staring and see one of my neighbors has come out with her cute female pit bull and they are watching us. I tell Ace to settle down and I throw the Frisbee.

And guess what he does. He brings it to me perfectly. He actually places it in my hand! As soon as he releases it he looks over his shoulder at the other dog watching us, then back at me giving me the "throw it! throw it! throw it!" look.

I throw it again, afraid to hope that we are on to something. But he does it, he brings it right to my hand. I'm praising him like crazy but he seems more intent on looking at the other dog to see if she is still watching.

So that's how it went for the next ten minutes while the other dog watched. It was great! Picture the theme song to "Chariots of Fire".....Ace is running full speed. He is leaping gracefully in the air. He looks beautiful. He brings it to my hand each and every time. He actually leaps in the air and catches the Frisbee in his mouth for the first time!

I was so proud.

Then the other dog left.

And Ace dropped the Frisbee 30 feet from me again and gave me the "come and get it chubby!" look.

Stupid dog.

Here's one more picture I made with one of the twins that I thought I'd share.

Have a great day!

gotta get a dictionary.

It's always entertaining for me to have all the kids together in one room and listen to them talk.

Over Thanksgiving break (yeah this is one of those posts that I started writing forever ago and kinda forgot about it and now since I have nothing else to say...well, you know) we revisited a conversation that we've had a few times in our house.


Tony claims that the meaning of certain words really don't mean much and you can insert them into any sentence at anytime and the meaning of what you are trying to say won't vary much.

Being that I LOVE words and finding out their meanings and discovering new ways to string them together to get a point across, I had to adamantly disagree (actually, this drove me crazy).


He choose the example "supple" for a word to be used anywhere and any time.

And for months now he will randomly insert it in sentences. Not very often. Just enough to get me to stop what I'm doing and give him "that look" (you know--the mom version of rolling her eyes but with a little bit of "I'm gonna smack you if you keep this up" look thrown in too--you know what I'm saying).

Then he gives me one of his "I'm the baby and I know you think I'm cute" smirks.

He uses it as an adverb:
"I ran supply today in gym class."

He uses it as an adjective:
"You should have seen that movie. It was really supple!"

He uses it as an interjection:
I'm showing him something in a magazine and he says "Supple!!! Mom, Supple!!!"

The worst part is I've never liked this word. As soon as I hear it always think of breasts. As in, "the woman had supple breasts". As in, large....I'm not sure where that comes from.

I thought maybe I should put a stop to this, you know, I didn't want Tony doing this outside of our home and offending someone (or maybe just because it bugged me so much). So I thought I'd look up the word just so I could explain it clearly to him.

And this is what I found....

Sup.ple:
adj. sup·pler, sup·plest
1. Readily bent; pliant.
2. Moving and bending with agility; limber.
3. Yielding or changing readily; compliant or adaptable.

I am so wrong about the meaning of the word. How did I come up with this? I guess it can be used in a sentence describing breasts but not meaning what I thought. Maybe I didn't pay as much attention in English class as I thought.

I don't know why this word bugs me so much (even more now). It grinds on me inside. I think that sounds crazy, but it's the way it is.

And of course, Tony probably realized this from the beginning and that's why he takes such joy in throwing it in when ever he can.

The whole thing reminds me of one of my favorite scenes from The Princess Bride.

Here's a little clip for you.

Oh, and I'm Vizzini....."Inconceivable!" I mean "How Supple!"

The Hubby figures out the secret to a long marriage

http://enviroletbuzz.com/archives/images/2008/toilet_paper_correct_direction.gif

The Hubby and I are sitting alone in the living room the other day watching TV.

I don't even remember what we were watching. I don't really watch much TV. Hubby always has control over the remote. I'd rather read a book or some blogs or something.

This commercial came on for some toilet paper roll thingie. It spins on the wall so you can instantly change it so the flap of toilet paper is hanging either "over" or "under".

The Hubby gets my attention "hey look at this" just before they show it.

Hubby says "Did you see that?!"

I say "Yes....that is brilliant."

He says "We would never fight over how the toilet paper hangs again!"

I say "When have we ever fought over that?"

He says "I don't know. Which way do you like it?" (he should know this because I'm the ONLY one that ever puts a new roll on. I always find it sitting on top of an empty roll. I've asked him several times how come he can be in there forever and not just put a new roll on...)

I say "We've been married twenty years and you don't know? I like it to hang over the top."

(I also confess that in the past I've gone to peoples houses and changed it to the way I like it...you know, maybe they've never tired it that way and then when they see what they are missing out on they will be like "wow! this way is so much better" and then I will have made difference in the world....come on, don't tell me you've never done this.)

He says "Hmmm, I like it to hang over the top too! Maybe that's why we get along so well and have been married this long."

Yeah. I'm sure that's it.

Ace doesn't seem to have a preference.

I'm pretty sure it has more to do with the fact that I never ask for the TV remote.

I'm starting to believe my dog is just plain stupid

Yes.... I've heard it a millions times.

I'll be taking Ace for a walk and someone will say "is that a Border Collie?"

and I'll say "Yes" and then they will say "you know, they are supposed to be the smartest breed of dog there is...."

My neighbor told me "they are the Einstein of the dog world" "off the chart when you compare other dogs IQ..."

Blah, blah, blah.

What I really want to say is "Well not this one! I think he might have been dropped on his head before we got him"

I even blogged about it before.

Here's some more of the things he has done/does and my thoughts at the time in italics:

~running full speed into the front porch step, which would hit him square in the chest and he would gasp. He did that over and over for months. "Oh, he's just a puppy...he'll learn."

~as he got older he would try and leap over the front step and always leap 2 or 3 strides too soon and smack his face on the step. He would also do when trying to get on the bed or couch. "maybe he has something wrong with his depth perception.... Do dogs ever wear glasses?"

~"playing" with the cat. He will stand there and the cat will be on his hind legs slapping the sides of Ace's head over and over. It's like a bad Three Stooges skit. "maybe he thinks this is how cats play?"

We did go to puppy kindergarten. And he did pretty good there, I thought.

The trainer there did warned us.

She told us to be careful, Border Collies are SO smart that they pretend not to get things just because they don't want to do them or to try and manipulate you.

I kinda wish I had never heard this.

Then I could go on just believing that I have a really stupid dog.

Instead I'm finding that I'm playing mind games. Trying to figure out what Ace is really thinking.

Not good. Here's an example.

It all has to do with fetch.

I have been trying to take Ace out everyday to get some exercise.

I've heard all about how if they don't get enough, they can get destructive.

So I decided the best thing for Ace is to go onto the golf course behind our house and play Frisbee. I figure I will throw the Frisbee, Ace will do a lot of running and fetching. Much better than just a walk on the leash around the neighborhood. Get those most out of our time out in the freezing weather.

All good except Ace has other ideas.

I throw the Frisbee.

Ace runs and gets it.
Then I spend 10 minutes chasing after him to get the Frisbee back.

"oh! I'm sorry did you want this"

So I'm thinking that he thinks this is a game (because he's supposed to be an Einstein- right?).

A game I really don't want to play.
I want him to be a normal dog. I throw, he fetches, we go home, he takes a nap and stops chewing on my furniture, the end.

So I quit chasing him. (that'll show him)

He still won't bring it to me.

Ace will run past me and leave it about 30 feet away and then crouch in his "I'm ready to go position"

If I don't go over and get it he starts whining. Eventually he will go over get the Frisbee and flick it in the air (like he's saying see this fun thing? I'll just have fun without you then.)

So I just stand there and watch him and he starts to whine louder pushing it around with his nose.

I have tried everything.

~Praising him continually as soon as he catches it and starts to run towards me....and stopping when he runs past.

~Praising him only when he gets near.

~Ignoring him completely

~Walking away

~Using my "stern voice" and saying "drop" or "come"

~Treats

this has been going on forever. No matter what he won't bring it back to me. And I don't give in. It ends up being a huge frustration. I only throw the Frisbee once or twice and we play battle of the wills the rest of the time and eventually go home.

"Frisbee? what Frisbee? I have no idea what you're talking about."

I've spent a lot of time standing on that golf course freezing my butt off trying to figure out what is going on inside his head.

I've come up with two possibilities

#1. He is just plain stupid.

#2. He is obviously concerned with the large amount of time that I spend sitting on the couch blogging and the lack of exercise I'm getting. He also notices the extra pounds that I've put on from not moving around enough and he is concerned about my health.

Yeah. and now I'm feeling pretty insulted.

I think it might be safer to go back to believing my dog is just plain stupid.