| leatherman's log |
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September 2011 |
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| Week One: |
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| LeftOvers |
| In looking through my
photo storage folders, I saw that I had some pictures from last
month that I hadn't presented to you. So here are a few more
pictures, and though they may be "leftovers", some of these are of
important people in my life and important issues to me. |
I do so miss all of my friends in Ohio.
Don't any of you think that I don't think about y'all. In the back
of my mind, I'm always scheming as to how I can get a trip back to
see you all. It's been too long; but I still love all of y'all.
Here's a good picture of Angie and Becca that I snagged off of
Facebook. Anytime the rest of you up there want to be featured here,
all you have to do is send me a picture of yourselves, and I'll post
it. |
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To be all about the band
spirit, Becca first bleached her hair, and then colored it blue!
I'm not so sure about "Blonde Becca"; but I loooooove blue-haired
Becca!! |
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| I have more news about
some of the Clarks later on in this update. |
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| This picture, leftover
from the Charlotte Pride Festival, struck me as incredibly funny.
Amongst all those going to hell (according to this "religious"
signage) are Hindus, Mormons, "Party People", "Luke Warmers" and
"Sports Nuts". Sports Nuts?? Wow, hell is going to be awfully full
of Cleveland Brownies, Steeler Fans, and fans of the Carolina
Panthers. |
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Plus, I just love the
beautiful "flaming" font used for the word "homosexuals".
(insert Gay Flamer joke here
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| A Pool
Party |
| My summers just don't feel
the same without having pool parties; but I was able to attend a
pool party this Labor Day. Some friends of mine down in Rock Hill
with a pool invited me to a party they were holding. |
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| These are the friends who
held the New Years Eve party I attended. I had never been in their
backyard before and just loved it with it's large deck (like the one
in our backyard) that dropped down level by level until it reached
the pool. Interwoven through the greenery surrounding the deck was a
small path that also ended up down by the pool. |
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| Although the property is
right within the city, because of a hill on one side, a creek on the
other, and a small bit of woods hiding an apartment complex, this
backyard pool seems to be nestled as far into the woods as the pool is at
my house. They've even had some fallen tree - fence damage just like
I've had. |
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The pool was very nice, with a deep end
going down about 8 feet. The only bad thing was that because the
nights are already getting cooler, just like my pool, their pool
water was getting cooler. Luckily the sun was out so several
of us played in the pool for a while. |
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Travis had a lot of
friends come over for his birthday party, and had a lot of gifts
too.
He seemed very surprised by all the gifts and really enjoyed all of
them. |
I made some of my famous "Positive Cookies" (Chinese Almond Cookies)
and decorated them with orange and lemon flavored icing. However, I
had an issue with the orange icing. When I tinted it and looked at
it in the kitchen the night I made the cookies, I swear it looked
"orange"; however outside by the pool, it was definitely "pink" and
not "orange".
But that was okay!
With the "flamingo" theme going on, my pink and yellow cookies
totally matched the decor and theme of the party. |
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| Joanna and I eating,
drinking, and chatting by the pool. |
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NO! This is not Leatherman beginning to do drag.
This is Leatherman cutting up for his good friends, Joanna, Tom and
Christine. The three of us had previously attended Travis' New
Year's Eve party and the party for Bruce's birthday. At the first
party, we played games and all the guests got gifts. I received a
gag gift of this bra. I'm sure there are some pretty crazy pictures
of all of us wearing this bra on our heads, over our faces, and
across our chests. There would have been even funnier pix later if I
had brought this bra to the second party, so that we could have worn
it with Christine's pink "Lady Gaga" wig. |
Christine has had to leave
us and return to England and so wasn't with us at this pool party.
However, she was still with us in spirit - and in our hearts. So
this picture, though it makes us look like a bunch of crazy drunks
doing drag, is our way of sending our love to Christine and saying
we wish you were here with us in person. I know I and our "red
haired love child"
miss you much Christine, and wish you the best in your new beginning
over there in merry ol' England. |
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| Our great hosts, Travis
(in the blue) and Bruce (in the red) |
The Birthday Boy, Travis, gets a hug
from either side by mikie and Bruce. |
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some of my new friends in
South Carolina
Tom and Joanna, Travis and Bruce |
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Week Two: |
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| Volunteer
Work |
| I've spent a lot more time
during this week doing volunteer work down at
Catawba Care. |
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All of these boxes are being filled
with an assortment of condoms, lube, testing instructions, and info
about the agency. We'll be passing them out at the end of an
upcoming event at Winthrop University. I'll have more about this
(and pictures!) late on in this update. |
| Here's the board, the candy, the
pamphlets, the banner, and condom packets all ready for another
outing. I'll be using these materials at an upcoming event over at
Winthrop University. |
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Sometimes I do volunteer work that's
not so much in the public eye. I spent a couple of days labeling the
latest agency newsletter. This isn't the client newsletter that I
put together; but it's the general agency newsletter that goes out
to donors, supporters and friends of Catawba Care telling them about
the agency. This edition shows where the agency gets all of it's
money and where those monies are spent. It also gives out the great
news that the agency has paid off it's mortgage on the new building
already!! |
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| Helping Hands Volunteer
Fair |
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The supplies I picked up at the clinic
the other day were for the Helping Hands Volunteer Fair over at
Winthrop University.
Winthrop is very proactive about having their students do volunteer
work in the community, so every year they host this fair to give
their students the opportunity to network with agencies in the area
who utilize volunteers. |
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One of our newest volunteers, Brian,
was a great help - and we had a great event. We talked nearly
non-stop and garnered 3 times as many volunteer applications as we
got last year. |
| It was a beautiful day
with beautiful weather and we had a great time talking with the
students. |
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| We met up with the student that interned at Catawba Care
last year and several students that are hoping to intern with us in
the upcoming year. We also met up with students interested in our
upcoming "2nd Annual World AIDS Day Video Competition" - interested
in producing some video entries for our competition. |
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| 2nd Annual
World AIDS Day Video Competition |
Speaking of the video contest,
Catawba Care is hosting the competition again and it'll be
coming up fast. The award ceremony will be held at Winthrop
University again on December 1st. After getting enough fans
to our face book page we got a much nice URL for the page -
one without numbers and stuff. Our URL is
http://www.facebook.com/CatawbaCare.WAD.Video.Competition
While it's still a long URL it's a pretty one. Stop by, LIKE
us, and keep up on all the latest news as the contest moves
along and as we come up onto the award show and announce
this year's winner. |
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Needless to say, getting geared up for this event, I've created a
few more vids. I'm working on a whole series called "Did You Know?"
that'll dispel some of the myths about HIV. My friend Bill made me
some letters H-I-V and I've been setting them up in places and
taking pictures of them to use in this series. Make sure to visit
the Catawba Care YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/catawbacare)
to check out the three I've completed so far. |
| leatherman the
Volunteer |
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I couldn't help but mug for the camera while I was volunteering at
the agency the other day. |
| Storm
Damage |
| We has some serious wind
in the thunderstorms the other day - so much that it blew the
trellis over! |
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| Luckily, the rain kept the
rose bush soft and pliable so it was damaged. |
| I was able to stand the rose
bush and trellis back up. With a little help from Dennis, we got the
trellis leveled and hooked back into it's mooring. |
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| The very next night,
another storm blew through and knocked down the trellis again! |
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Even though the rose bush come through undamaged again, the bottom
of the trellis was pretty broken up. |
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Unfortunately, there was no way to set the trellis back up, so there
was only one solution to "fix" this problem. I carefully pruned all
the vines off the trellis and left just enough of the trunk of the
bush and some leaves to keep the plant aliv. Over the Winter, I'm
going to rebuild the "feet" on the trellis. Hopefully in the Spring,
the rose bush will grow again to cover the trellis. |
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I really hated chopping up the rose bush; but I'm not surprised it
was so heavy as to topple the trellis.
There was a LOT of rose bush vines wrapped around that trellis. |
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| Late Summer
Blooms |
| I'm not certain what this is; but it
looks good in the planter in front of the shrubs that hid my part of
the yard. I should try to thin and spread this out for next year. |
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The zinnias are still growing and
blooming! |
| And the morning glories outside my
bedroom window are still growing and blooming every day. |
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But there is a sign of Fall in the air.
The "Hearts-a-bursting" are starting to "burst" open around the
yard. |
| The
Troubles |
| The troubles have been
hitting me up again. You'd think getting an oil change would be a
good thing; but then you'd be thinking wrong. |
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| It seems when the nice man pushed down
really hard to twist my radiator cap back on (after checking the
fluid levels), he pushed so hard the OLD hard molded plastic top of
the radiator developed a crack. By the time I got down to Catawba
Care, the engine was steaming like crazy. That's when I found the
crack. I've temporarily fixed it with patching compound; but a new
radiator will have to be in my future. |
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| Ever since I had to leave
my water bed behind at Jim's house, I've been sleeping on an air
mattress, which has actually worked out pretty well. In Ohio, I used
an electric blanket to help keep the bed warm. Here in SC, I can
flip it up behind the sofa in my bedroom, and at night pull it out
after I open up the sofa/bed and have a decent mattress at a decent
size. |
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However, about every 6 months, the
mattress develops a leak! That's not too bad when you think that me
and the dogs sleep on it every night. And it only costs about $30 if
the hole is so bad I have to replace the mattress. Luckily though,
I'm usually able to patch the hole and go another 3 or 4 months.
I guess 6 months have gone by because my mattress developed a small
leak. I took it outsize and hosed it down, found the hole, patched
it (I have all those pool and float repair kits), filled the
mattress back up and have been sleeping fine for several weeks now |
| The
Beginning of the End of the Season |
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| With the cooler nights,
the pool water has been dropping daily (because this above ground
doesn't retain heat as it radiates away from the sides all night
long). Any day now is going to be the "last day" for this year that
I'll be in the water. |
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| I take pictures everyday
expecting it to be the last one --- but not yet! |
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Me and my shadow |
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If I'm not going to take the pool down yet, I'm at least going to
start packing the floats away. |
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| That means it's time to
deflate the floats. |
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a sad day at the pool |
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| To keep the cover from
sinking into the pool (without any floats), I threw a handful of
noodles out into the water. |
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| The Last
Day |
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| A couple of pix of me in the
pool for the very last time this season. |
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Finally the LAST day of the pool
arrived. I've been waiting for a day that wasn't rainy and cool, so
that I could get warmed up in the sun before getting into the cold
water one last time. And I did have to get into the water one last
time because not only was there a screw-on drain cap on the outside;
but there was also a plug on the inside. So I HAD to get into the
pool to pull the plug that was down at the bottom edge of the pool. |
Of course, the drain was
some odd size and I couldn't attach a hose to it to drain the water,
so I improvised - like I did last year. |
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| Using an old section of
rain gutter and a folded up tarp, I let the water drain down the
gutter, across the tarp, out the fence, and down the hill. Of
course, at the last I still had 2 inches of water that I had to let
"tsunami" across the yard by stepping on the rim and just letting
the water flow out. |
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| Going, going, gone |
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| I packed away the
pump/filter, then took the ladder apart and stored it away too. All
that is left now is to let the tarp and liner dry, roll them up, and
store them away; but that's a project for another day. |
| Club Chaos
@ Winthrop University |
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Back in the Spring, the University held
a dance where the improv team "Skin Deep" acted out skits about
over-drinking, date rape, and sexual promiscuity. The event went
over so well they decided to do it again this semester. Catawba Care
was a big part of this event with give-aways, information, and
condoms. |
Last year, my buddy Sandy
worked this event; but at the very last minute (just a few hrs.
prior to the event!) she had to bow out because she went into the
hospital!
Sandy's been having this bad problem with one of her legs and now it
has spread to the other. Finally, during a scan done by the hospital
today, a diagnosis was made - blood clots! So Sandy has been
admitted to get treatment and finally get better! |
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Luckily, Bill was thinking
about helping out, so I called him quickly and confirmed his
assistance. And what a great assistant he was!
Bill has been great at all the events he has been helping with. He
really gets out there and engages the people in the crowd. |
What a crowd it was too! There were
probably a hundred more students than last time, so the place was
packed and jumping. |
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| These
condoms-and-information filled red boxes were our take-home "gift"
for all the party-goers. |
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Mugging for the camera -
as usual. LOL
At least this time I wasn't having to take the pictures all by
myself. |
Surprise Bill!
If Bill is going to be hanging around me much, he's going to have to
get used to the camera flashing around him a lot. |
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| Within moments of the close of the
program and nearly all of our boxes were handed out. By the time we
packed up to leave, we had no boxes, no shirts, no glo-sticks, no
condoms, no cups, no pens, no nothing left! |
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| A Great
Surprise for a Bad Day |
| Maybe I've worked too much
lately, or maybe the pollen has gotten to me; but I woke up this
weekend not feeling well after a night of waking up every couple of
hours with a killer headache that wouldn't go away. So I took some
Tylenol and some antihistamines - and then I took some time puking.
After that I felt a little better and took a shower which helped me
feel even a little more better. That was a good thing too because I
got a surprise phone call. |
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| My BFF (Best Friend
Forever) throughout my adult life is Richard Clark who lives up in
Ohio, with his wife Angie and their kids Ritchie and Becca. Richard
is a truck driver and usually doesn't get to travel I-77 and be
anywhere in my neck of the woods. However, this Saturday, Richard
was down in Columbia and headed up my way. Since he had a couple of
hours that he could hang out in the area, he wanted to see if we
could me up. Thankfully, I was feeling better (I would have gone
even if I was still feeling pukey!), so he called when he got closer
and we met up at a truck stop just down the highway. |
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Richard is looking pretty good still.
There's more gray in his beard than I remembered; but he's doing
okay for his age and with his diabetes problem. |
Not bad looking for a couple of old
men, huh?
I don't quite remember when we met; but I'm going to guess that it
was around 1987-1988, so we've been friends for close to 25 years.
Although at times, I would have to say that Randy or Jim were my
best friends, they were actually my partners; but Richard has always
been there and always been my best friend. |
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| Even though it was a
really great and uplifting thing to spend time with Richard today, I
have to admit I got all teary-eyed as I drove off leaving Richard to
gas-up his truck and head out to his next stop. I sure hope that
Richard is able to get this way again because I really enjoyed
seeing my BFF once more. |
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Week Three: |
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| An Unwanted
Email |
Up until now the Internet
has always been good to me; but an odd incident showed the bad side
of the net.
I woke up the other morning to see this email |
From:
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Ethan
Mihalovic ethanmihalovic@gmail.com |
| Subject: |
you killed jim. and maybe randy too |
| Message: |
i know what you did. |
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| Pretty crazy, huh? I mean
like evil, hateful, rude, and wacko! No, I don't know any "Ethan";
but I'm doing some sleuthing and have reported this email. I'll keep
you updated if I find out anything more. |
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Week Four: |
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| Catawba
Care @ a Safety and Health Fair |
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I thought my most recent volunteer work
was going to get rained out. The day started with showers, fog,
thunder and lightning on my way to Rock Hill. It cleared off a bit;
but just as we got the tent set up, it began to pour down rain
again. However at exactly the time when the event was supposed to
start the rain stopped and the sun came out. |
The rain gave us a
beautiful cleaned off parking lot (for Compare Foods) for our event
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and a LOT of humidity! Boy did it get sweltering fast! |
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| This was a Safety Fair
geared to the Hispanic community. There was a bicycle safety
training area, giving out free helmets. UPS had a demo truck that
showed their blind spots on the highway. The Rock Hill Fire Dpt. was
there with the "Smoke House" trailer that demonstrated to kids how
to get out of a burning house. The City Police were there with a
SWAT truck and a robot! Emergency Services had a booth that taught
children to use 9-1-1. |
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| Another area was set up to
examine child car seats, and they replaces ones that were damaged or
inappropriate. |
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| Of course, along with the
hospitals and other vendors, Catawba Care was there too. |
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Our Latina Prevention
Staff Member, Denise was there, with her husband too. She had found
out about this event very late and when she attended their final
planning meeting, she was surprised to find that she was the only
Hispanic person on the committee reaching out to the Hispanic
community.
It was great that she and her husband were there too! I don't speak
Spanish!! So I helped set up the booth, packed bags and bags full of
Spanish HIV and STD literature, while she and her husband spoke to
most of the visitors. The day worked out quite well that way, and I
think we had a good outreach to another segment of our community. |
| Leatherman
in the Kitchen |
| I was busy in the kitchen
as the month drew to a close. |
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| While in Ohio, one of my
friends would occasionally make this excellent meal - a tuna ring
with cheese sauce. |
| Since I haven't had it in over three
years now, I gave it a try. It takes some prep to put it all
together; but oh is it every yummy. |
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| This past weekend, I was
invited over to a dinner party. Tom and Joanna (from the pool party
earlier this month) invited Bruce and Travis, and myself over for
dinner. Joanna asked me to bring dessert. I would show you pictures
of the peanut butter balls that I made; but I forgot to take a
picture - and we ate them all. I also made cake balls and I'll be
able to show you pictures of them next month. Unlike the peanut
butter balls, the cake balls were dipped in white chocolate - and
things didn't go so well. White chocolate seems to be a bit more
finicky to work with and I only got half the batch dipped. So I have
a bag of frozen balls (that sounds terrible!!)
in the freezer, that I'll dip when I pick up some more chocolate. |
| Friends of
Mr. Kitty |
| Well, it wasn't a rabbit
this time; but Mr. Kitty brought some new friends into the house for
us to meet. |
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| One evening, Mom began
yelling because the dogs and cat seemed to be up to something in the
living room. When I turned on the light, we saw that Mr. Kitty had
brought a mouse into the house and was busily playing with it while
the doggies were watching. While Mom jumped up onto the stool in the
living room and screamed about the mouse, I ran out to the shed for
a shovel and broom to use to catch the mouse. |
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| After catching the mouse,
I threw the mouse outside and Mr. Kitty ran outside too. He happily
continued to play with his mousie friends until the mouse no longer
moved. Late on that evening, Mr. Kitty brought us ANOTHER mouse!
This time I made sure the mouse was dead before throwing it out the
door. I asked Mr. Kitty to NOT invite any more of his friends into
our house. |
| A Project
for the Dogs |
| Though the pups aren't
really outside dogs, they haven't been the best inside dogs here in
their old age. So Bill and I worked on putting together a dog house
for them. I plan to teach them how to use it this Fall, so they can
stay outside a bit more, enjoying the weather and NOT peeing in the
house. |
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Bill had already sketched
out the design and the project really went together pretty well.
It's stable and even has insulation. I think it should be big enough
for all three guys, as you want it to have enough room; but not too
much either. |
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| Completed with insulation
AND a sliding window! A house with some style! |
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| Transported to my house,
put back together, and on the deck ready to use. |
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| Just like teaching them
about the doggie door, I shoved the dogs into the dog house so they
went inside at least once. They've nosed around and gone in some;
but no one has laid in there yet. It'll take some time; but I'm sure
they'll get used to using it as the Fall goes by. |
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