I've been putting off writing an update for a few reasons:

1. Recovery from the holidays. Seriously. I must be getting so old but I just needed to shut. down. for a good long while.

2. I lost Sapphire. She was 15 so this is not unexpected but it was truly dreaded. She finally lost the use of her hind end and she would never ever be one of those dogs that tolerates the little wheelie deals even though I would totally be one of those owners that would rig something like that up to keep my beloved pookie a while longer. Sapphire was my first greyhound, my partner for the last 12 years and one of those presences in your life that truly influences it. Even though she was a dog. She was the perfect woman. Girly, tough, loved harder than anyone else, played harder than anyone else, and completely in charge of all that surrounded her. I miss her to bits.

3. Job change. My contract ended so I'm rustling up new sources of funding. I'm also feeling like it is WAY past time I just got my own business going. This is silly. But it is so comforting when someone wants you in their organization and you have pot lucks and Christmas parties and lunches with people. If I can hurry up and get a few multi-million dollar contracts I can hire people and start having those again. Tell your friends.

That's it. Those are the only reasons. Not great but there you go.

Knitting has slowed way down as I try to get caught up on life things. (my Christmas lights are still up) I had a bunch of books on order at the library and all of a sudden everything came in at once. So I read the first 4 books of Game of Thrones in epic time and I'm now trying to fit in American Gods and my monthly book for my Vaginal Fantasy book club. Not to mention a gazillion little Mrs. Jeffries books that are like book popcorn. Light, easy and always good. I can knock those out in a day and still get a fair amount of work done.

The rest of the dogs are good. It is just Frankie and Oscar now. A name theme and I didn't even mean it. Plus they are boys so the whole weiner thing works a couple of ways.

Weight is down a bit. The weight loss is dragging out. Man, it is true, you do lose so much slower when you get a little older. I'm down over 20" all over so that is lovely. I can see it in the fit of my clothes finally. The trouble is, you lose weight from the top down so that means none of my bras fit and now my belly sticks out farther than my chest. Not fair. Plus, my rings aren't fitting now. I think I'll need to lose some more before I can just pop the ring on another finger.

I'm still kickboxing and still really enjoying it. In fact, in a "what has happened to me" moment, I asked for a medicine ball and a Bosu ball for my birthday and was really excited to get them! Plus my dojo got some new dummies and I managed to score one of the old ones so I have it set up in my garage and can punch and kick whenever I fancy! Hooray. But also, how strange. When did I turn into this person?

Random bit #1:

I did finally get all the lights up and it looked adorable. However, I have very irritating neighbors who got their lights up the day after Thanksgiving and took them down the day after Christmas. I looked like a slacker getting them up and a slacker today since they are still up. I like lights during the winter months because they brighten up the grey scenery. However, I think I'm starting to look foolish. I may have to venture out today and take them down. Sad face.

Random bit #2:

Christmas with the family was lovely and I enjoyed myself immensely. I absolutely hate the drive to Arizona because I hate driving but I'm so happy that is all over that it almost makes up for it. I scored some great stuff for gifts and managed to hit a bullseye with almost all the gifts I gave. That feels really good.

Random bit #3:

The dogs are great, even Sapphire. Her spirits are high, she is eating very well, she is still shaky in the hind end but everything else is strong. I love her to bits and am glad for every good day we have. It turns out Oscar is petrified of the fire in the fireplace. This is a nuisance because we had a wee bit of snow today and the family room gets a chill that only the fireplace can help. I have a good heater but that room has old sliding glass doors and a cat door so I think a lot of cold air gets in there. I had a fire yesterday but the poor boy spent the whole day trying to get in my arms and I finally felt guilty. I didn't want him to be miserable but her certainly was. I am working on a new strategy.

Random bit #4:

I managed not to gain any weight over Christmas. This is huge because I wasn't careful at all. However, I haven't lost any weight this week and I'm starting to wonder if I just need to stay away from the scale all together. I've been eating super healthy and I feel pretty good but I find myself falling into that old "diet" mindset that really just results in a shame spiral for me. Hate those.

Random bit #5:

I have to buy a new phone and a new TV. I really don't like buying toys that cost that kind of money. I have the money, that isn't the problem but I just don't enjoy it like I always thought I would when I was poor and couldn't afford anything. I don't know why I rain on my parade like that. I just want someone to tell me what I need and then I'll do it. I have to stop reading all the product reviews and agonizing over it.

Random bit #6:

I feel like I've been grumpy all week with companies for being stupid. Grumpy with Comcast because I got a phishing email with someone using their name and account. I forwarded it to them because I used to work at one of the largest online companies in the world and I specialized in that kind of abuse so I know that they need to jump on this but their customer service agent didn't read my email and just sent me an email educating me about phishing. I stayed very polite but since one of the things I do is customer service training, it chaps my hide when the agents don't completely read the email. They just skim for keywords and then send an unhelpful response. So that irritated me. Then I had a really rude call from PayPal because I had a negative balance. They had their Collections people call me. I asked why an automatic email wasn't generated the second I went negative. The agent couldn't answer that. She just kept repeating her shpiel about they weren't designed to hold a negative balance. Seriously. That kind of crap for $45 over 9 days. I could have fixed it in 3 seconds if an email had just been sent. She also wanted me to pay over the phone and I told her there was no way I was giving card numbers to someone on the phone. Irritating! This is on the heels of them freezing my account over Christmas because I used the card at gas stations on my road trip. Somehow that was suspicious behavior. Really? No one travels over Christmas?

Random bit #7:

The above paragraph made me grumpy again. So I'm going to focus on the snow falling outside (yay!) and some hot chocolate. I got all of my errands done yesterday so I don't have to leave the house today. I can just putter around and nest. I love that.

I think the weight maintenance is likely due to my regular work outs I've been enjoying. I didn't work out Thanksgiving week as much as I normally do but I got a couple days in there and I made sure they were cardio (rather than weight training which is what I actually enjoy the most). Now over Christmas my dojo will be closed and my group won't be meeting and I'm really bummed about that. I feel like I've finally gotten in the habit (which is SO hard) and I'm enjoying it, have had some success, and really hate to lose the momentum. So I'll have three weeks off and I'm trying to come up with some alternatives. People say walk a lot but that isn't a great work out for me. Because I have a bum knee it ends up hurting, I end up compensating with my other leg and, quickly, my toes start to go numb. So I don't last long and I certainly don't hit the maximum of my stamina.

I have a little added incentive though, I signed up for HBBC (Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge).

I am a bit competitive so this is usually a good way to inspire me. Now it is entirely possible I'll be busy and distracted and won't follow through with this but I'm sure going to try. If I just give myself an hour every morning to do something active. Anything to make me sweat, I think it will be a good thing.

I've already decided I'm definitely signing up for the next 10 week UBC program and I think this may be the course where I start to actually see results. Up to now there has been a big difference visually. Even the scale doesn't show much weight loss but I can really feel the muscle I've been building under the fat and muscle weighs more than fat so I wasn't expecting the scale to be dramatic at first. I'm hoping the first UBC program of 2012 is where I get to actually watch my body and scale change.

On the knitting front: I'm totally behind. I've slacked off and have only one Christmas present made. I'm working on another right now and trying to get in a few rows during work (like a smoke break only healthier). I found myself stuck today because I needed a couple of stitch markers but I didn't have any here. That was when I figured out a straw...

Could make excellent stitch markers.

I feel very clever.

So I'll sum it up in a general impression. I have few pictures because my phone died every day by noon. I think it was the traffic app I had installed. Quite frustrating. I have a few terrible pictures I took with Mom's camera but nothing else.

The Oregon Convention Center was filthy with knitters. I have heard we had over 6000 attendees which is not too shabby! They have a lot of big round banquet tables set out in the public area for people to sit at and knit and this is the nicest way to strike up a conversation and meet someone new. My first day I met a woman who had flown in from Australia just for the Summit. I met a lot of Canadians. One Toronton told me that the border guard asked her, "What IS it with all the knitters?"

Wednesday night was the teachers' dinner and I'm always so shy at these. I forced myself to sit at a table that was almost full so I would have to talk to people and really enjoyed all the women at the table. They were smart, funny, really nice, and completely the kind of people I'd like to hang out with. I mentioned that I had done informal polling in my classes last year and found math/sciences to be over-represented in knitter professions. I had one class that had two surgeons and two nurses in a single class (one nurse had just come off the night shift). So the teachers around my table did a quick check and everyone at that table was either a mathematician, in high tech, or medical. I would love to see some formal data. I think it is really interesting and wouldn't have made that prediction. I paid attention in the classes I attended this year and from general conversation I learned that I was taking classes with pediatricians, rocket scientists (seriously!), neuroscience research scientists, a Fulbright scholar, and a retired math professor. The theme for me became, "don't let looks fool you" because all these super-smart, super-educated women were in jeans, t-shirts, and Birkenstocks. Not a power-suite or super-hero cape to be seen!

The class I taught went extremely well. It was a relief this year to have fewer classes than I had last year. I had more time for classes myself and time to shop in the marketplace (where the most amazing vendors were set up selling one-of-a-kind knitting loot). My students were wonderful and engaged and I enjoyed them all so much. It is hard to show the cool stuff I learned in class. You will just have to picture me looking at Japanese knitting books now, knitting very well-fitting socks in a pattern I came up with after seeing a beautiful sweater on someone else. I took a spindle spinning class and that has some instant-gratification progress I can show. The thicker, slightly fuzzy part of the yarn on the right is what I spun last year after trying to teach myself spinning. The thin, tight yarn on the left is what I can do now after a brilliant spindle spinning class.

This spinning is done from something called roving which is basically cleaned and combed fleece off a sheep. This is an example of some fleece I bought for the spinning class. It is already dyed so it will spin up into pretty yarn. You can kind of read the label in one of these pictures. It says it is 100% Blue Faced Leicester which is a breed of sheep. Isn't that cool?

The classes I took were awesome! Wonderful instructors and really interesting subjects. Most classes were 3 hours long and absolutely flew by. I had one class that was all day and that seemed to be over too quick also. My instructors were amazing and skilled and just really really interesting. I wanted to visit with each of them but all the students wanted to (completely understandable) so I didn't get to talk to anyone much. I'm hoping that I can connect with them after Summit a little.

I wish I had given myself a day off (Summit was Thursday through Sunday) because it was really hard to come back to real life Monday. It felt like everything had changed and why didn't everyone know? How could I schlep back to my cubicle and act like the last 4 days didn't happen? Not easy. I have both my knitting bags as well as my spindle here like I'll be able to do something with them.

I'm still tired and horribly behind in regular chores. I need to pay bills, do laundry, vacuum, etc. I've announced to everyone that will listen that next weekend is for me and I'm not going anywhere or doing anything. Time to re-enter real life!

I'm in the midst of preparing for Sock Summit. I'm instructing again which is a huge honor and opportunity for me to hob nob with some of the most amazing people I have ever met. The Sock Summit teachers are bright, accomplished, and incredibly interesting. As I listen to each of them I find myself thinking, "I want to be like that when I grow up!" I was so intimidated and overwhelmed by the experience at Sock Summit '09 that I barely talked to anyone and I wrote down even less. This time I want to do better so I am more participant than observer and I want to remember all the cool stuff going on!

I've also been working with an amazing non-profit called The Soluna Institute. Soluna wants to address diversity issues and especially gender diversity. We started out focusing on gender diversity but it just became obvious that it was impossible to extract gender from general diversity conversations. I'm really proud of what we'll be launching next month. We are trying to expand the diversity conversation and really get everyone to talk about it in terms of action and start small strategies that will help evolve a corporate culture. This isn't about "we should do this" but really it is "how can we make this work for us?"

Summer hasn't been terribly enthusiastic in our corner of the world. I'm not complaining. I don't like the heat but I do like sunshine and we seem to be getting sunshine and cool mornings. I think it is about perfect. I did manage to grab a shot of my honeysuckle I was talking about before. If I can keep that thing going and get the clematis at the other end, maybe we can hide that ugly porch.

Don't let the ribby greyhound in front worry you. She is actually a very healthy weight but right when I took that picture she was sniffing something deeply (probably poo). I free-feed the dogs which means I just leave down bowls of food all the time. This works great for the greyhounds but Oscar, my beagle mix, has gotten tubby. Actually tubby is a kind description. He and I really need to start walking!

I'll leave you with some adorabuhlness. Frankie covering his nose but leaving his fanny hanging out. Doesn't it look bare nekkid?

I'm not crazy about hot weather. I spent too many years in Arizona enduring it. I seem to have little tolerance both emotionally and physically. One look at my fair skin and red hair and you really understand that I'm genetically predisposed to bogs or moors rather than deserts. Moving to the Pacific NorthWest had been the plan since we moved away when I was 9. I knew I wanted to live here and it only took me over 30 years to get back. I don't mind the rain and gray. Well, there is a point in the Spring when I think even the most web-footed of us are ready for some color and dry weather. Once Spring starts giving us greenery, I can forgive the rain again. Now that we are solidly ensconced in June I'm feeling Summer knocking on our door with these gorgeous peonies.

Last weekend we had two days above 80 degrees. Most Oregonians were thrilled. While I was thrilled for some dry, sunny weather, I was not thrilled for the heat. It did make everything in my garden spring to life so I sucked it up and enjoyed the beauty around me.

The honeysuckle are busting out as well as my wee Clematis. The Clematis is my new favorite vine. I have these terribly ugly metal supports for my porch. The big 70s curly-cues. I hate them and I've started trying to hide them with flowering vines. One support is completely hidden by a monster honeysuckle that may take over the entire porch. I had a jasmine that was killed off this winter by an unusually long freezing spell. I've tried Morning Glory there a few times and had no luck. A few weeks ago Trader Joe's had these lovely little Clematis plants. I couldn't resist. I love these showy, almost gaudy, vines. I know they can get enormous so I put it two supports over from the honeysuckle hoping they wouldn't fight each other. I was starting to feel sorry for myself as it just sat there. I know, logically, the roots are getting established but I admit I had high hopes for this little vine. Yesterday morning I noticed that suddenly, the Clematis has grown over a foot in a week. She is starting to shoot up and bless her little flower-heart, she has grabbed a hold of the ugly curly-cue supports herself and is twining around happily. I can't wait. She has also put out a couple buds so I'm back to singing the praises of Clematis.

I took a willow furniture making class. This was something offered by my local nursery and I thought it sounded like fun and is certainly not anything I've ever done before. So I signed up and had a really fun day! It was absolutely exhausting because my poor hands and arms are used to being at a keyboard all day making very fine movements. I'm just not used to hammering at all. It was a bit brutal to be outside building furniture in the heat but totally worth it. I'm so pleased with the final product.

One of the things I appreciated about the class was the combination of beauty and practicality. The instructors guided us in the building so everything we created is structurally sound. All the furniture has little touches like the bottom of this table. You probably wouldn't see this until you bent down and really looked at the base of the table. Adding to the strength of the piece is this lovely bit of curly willow bracing the bottom base.

I spent way too much time playing with the different woods and colors getting as much color variation as possible. I'm told these will weather to a brown but I can't believe it would all be the same brown since they are different woods. There is alder, maple, and willow here. Everything is amazingly sturdy

And finally, I'll close with the obligatory dog picture. Frankie basking in a wee patch of sun after tearing up the tidy futon to make it more comfortable. My dogs seem to be against folded blankets of any kind.

Now the good news is, these were delicious. The bad news is, they had kind of a strange texture. They weren't very sweet at all (which I love) and they were a little cakey. So I poured the rest of the batter into a 9x9 pan and tried it as a coffee cake.

This worked much better. The texture was about spot on for a dense, little cake. Very coffee cake-ish (if a little dry, which is why you need the coffee/tea). I put in chopped pecans so the cake had this wonderful pecan flavor. I love pecans in baked goods. I'll finish a bag of Pecan Sandies before chocolate chips any day. Even though I loved that it wasn't very sweet, it was calling for something to finish it. A cream cheese frosting. I tried to whip up a cream cheese frosting and was again faced with a runny finished product. I poured it over the cake anyway and called it a cream cheese glaze. It looked pretty and tasted absolutely wonderful. The only thing I would do differently would be to poke a bunch of holes in the cake so the glaze would run down and leave lovely little, tangy columns of glaze in the cake.

The cake actually got better after a few days. As it got a little stale, it got chewier which I enjoyed. Clearly I'm not your average baker.

We have a new addition to the dog family. One of Mom's greyhounds died suddenly a couple months ago. She just dropped in her tracks and I'm sure never felt a thing. It was absolutely devastating for my Mom who was talking to her one second and couldn't get her up the next. It scared my Mom that she couldn't lift her dog (greyhounds may be skinny but they are kind of big and can run as heavy as 80 or 90 pounds). Because Mom's last dog can't be an only dog (she just gets so depressed without a doggy friend) we looked to the Bichon Frisee rescue group for a little, fluffy guy that Mom could easily lift.

Welcome Sammy Adams to the family. He is a very sweet, cute pookie. It has been strange for Mom getting used to a doggy-dog again. Greyhounds are more like cats or horses so if you like doggy dogs, this is generally not the breed for you. I had a similar big adjustment with Oscar when he joined the family but he is at least a hound so there are a lot of similarities in behaviors like rooing. I think Sammy has been a good fit and he is clearly a happy boy.

We will be off to the beach this weekend to visit with Sammy Adams and Godiva. I'll wrap this up with a flattering picture of Godiva. She sleeps with her mouth open. What a lady!

Spring in the Pacific Northwest can be a frenzy of activity. The world around us springs to life so quickly that I frequently can't keep up (I'm told by many that they can't either). We tend to have a lot of rain but the temperature is mild so the lawn grows five inches overnight (I'm only exaggerating a little), the trees burst into bloom, the crocus, daffodils, grape hyacinth, and tulips put on a dramatic show, and I'm racing about trying to get seeds planted for the summer. These tulips are very typical of my Spring experience. Stunning beauty while I'm still trying to cope with the challenge of Winter/Spring (note the mess in the background from multiple, muddy dogs). This can end up being really stressful for me because, while I'm a casual housekeeper at best, I don't like things dirty. Messy is OK, dirty bothers me. And in the Spring, with all the rain and mud, my house is dirty.

I've learned to prioritize and get help. I decided to bring in a lawn crew to help me get caught up (once you get the grass cut the first time and get the weeds out, it doesn't quite grow in such a frenzy the rest of the season). This is kind of hard for me because I enjoy doing the yard but there is just too much between both yard and inside and outside the house (it is also time to do the roof and gutters).

I've also jumped on a Groupon for carpet cleaning. I need to do this about twice a year during our rainy seasons (yes, believe it or not, Oregon has rainy seasons when it surpasses the normal, lovely drizzle). The hay has helped tremendously and was one of the smartest things I've ever done. I'll be doing this again for sure. It really reduced the mud coming in and is mulching down nicely into my lawn. My poor lawn is almost solid clay so it really needs the organic matter.

I wish I could say I'm consoled with my knitting but that has slowed way down. Part of it I think is just that I'm busy with other things and part of it may be these socks. These were my April socks so I've missed my first deadline.

There is no reason for stalling on these socks. I love the colors, it is knitting into a heavenly, soft fabric; there are a lot of color changes that should entertain me to no end. There is just something I'm not enjoying about knitting with this yarn. It isn't very stretchy so I'm wondering if that is part of it. My hands to seem to hurt a lot when I work on them but I don't know if that is because the yarn hurts them or because I'm bored and don't want to work on it. I'm so close; probably three inches away from starting the toe so I need to suck it up and stick it out. These are supposed to be my socks and I'm really looking forward to wearing them.

I'm starting to feel oppressed by my "things" again (this happens in the Spring and Fall) so I've been going through my baskets and bins thinking I really need to have an epic organization of these and get them under control once and for all. I think there is a lot I can get rid of and never even miss them. That in mind, why I succumbed to these lovelies the last time I was at the Knitting Bee I'll never know. I just absolutely fell in love with them and have kept them close by to pet often.

I think if I clear out the long grass, weeds, gutters, dirty carpet, and some of the stash, I will feel like I can breath again and focus on creating rather than just fixating on removal.

By all accounts, I should have an easy life and a clean house. After all, I'm single so I should only have to take care of me. I don't have children so the way I leave my house is the way it should look. I'm a working professional so I should have disposable income for small luxury items. My responsibilities are few and I can just focus on me. Wait...something is wrong here. Why are none of these true and why do I feel like a harried single mom? I decided to write out my day to see what I'm doing all day and try to figure out why I am always a day late and load of laundry behind; kind of like a "time budget."

5:45 am - It is getting bright outside so Oscar the Guard Beagle thinks we should be getting up. He knows he isn't allowed to actually get us all up so he starts making a lot of noise. He sighs, groans, licks his paws, shakes to rattle the tags on his collar, whines very quietly, and just generally walks about the bed making it impossible to sleep anymore. Any sign that I might be up and all bets are off so I try to stay still and breath heavy for as long as possible. If he catches me peeking or stretching he starts bounding around the bed licking me and walking all over me. Oscar the Guard Beagle is quite overweight so you don't want him walking on you at any time. Last night I dreamed I had a small elephant. That should tell you what it feels like to be stepped on by him.

6:02 am - Sweet Old Girl has an accident so I have to jump out of bed and get all the dogs outside quick to minimize the poo in the house. That is always the goal. Less poo in the house is a plus! I keep an eye on Sweet Old Girl for a minute to make sure she can walk around and squat OK today. Her back end is getting shaky. I have that moment of, "I don't want to lose Sweet Old Girl."

6:05 am - Run back into the bed room to gather up everything that got pooed on. This isn't unusual so basically my bedroom is draped in fleece blankets. This means I just have to gather up all the fleece blankets she walked across and take the cover off the bed. These all go into the washer immediately to minimize the smell in the house. This is our second goal. Stinky houses suck.

6:08 am - Go back down the hallway on my hands and knees with a wipe to get any droplets. Yeah, my life is glamorous. This is what I worry about instead of what martini bar I will hit tonight.

6:13 am - Run outside to hiss at Oscar the Guard Beagle to stop barking. He protects us from terrorist squirrels. I never have to worry about terrorist squirrels with him around.

6:14 am - Run back outside to hiss at Frankie to stop barking. Daisy does not want to play with him first thing in the morning. She is not a morning dog and he is being obnoxious.

6:14:30 am - Hiss at Frankie to stop barking at me. I do not want to play with him. No one wants to play with him. Shut. Up.

6:23 am - Herd the dogs back inside and make mental note not to eat any Christmas cookies from my neighbors. If I was them, I'd lace them with something to take me out.

6:24 am - Clean out the water bowl and food bowl and fill both. Go get Pepto tabs for Sweet Old Girl and pop them down her throat. Usually she gets a special breakfast of canned food to help her put on weight but after this morning, I think we'll give her tummy a break. Sweet Old Girl is very disappointed. She loves her special breakfasts. I live with the guilt that I have denied my Sweet Old Girl something and she is so old and decrepit she deserves whatever she wants.

6:25 am - Lay down clean blankets in Family Room to replace soiled blankets from yesterday. Open up house for the day.

6:27 am - Sit down to check email, Facebook, and Twitter. My time on these is limited at work so I like to get a peak before the whole day goes by.

6:45 am - I'm starving; breakfast.

7:00 am - Try to get a few things done before work. I have Mother's Day order confirmations, change Mom's Netflix address, researching ultrasonic mice repellers for Mom's beach house, I need to find some documents for the bank, etc.

8:05 am - Frankie lets me know I'm late to go get ready for work. I jump up and we all jog into the bedroom. For some reason the dogs love this routine. They don't get to do anything fun but they just love when we all go somewhere together even if it is just to the other end of the house.

8:32 am - Let the dogs out for final potty before I leave. Again, watch Sweet Old Girl to make sure she can walk and squat OK. This is a minute by minute thing folks. I also check my hanging baskets to see how dry they are. I've planted them with seeds. I try to do this every year to save money and I never get good results. I'm determined this year. I'm determined every year.

8:34 am - Hustle dogs inside, muzzle Frankie and Daisy (Never a good idea to close up two healthy, young dogs with an old dog without protecting that old dog. But these are greyhound racing muzzles so they are loose around the dogs snouts. They can eat and drink with them on. I also need to protect everything in the house from being chewed by the dynamic duo. I'm tired of replacing phones and remote controls). Put food up to prevent Oscar the Guard Beagle from eating his weight in kibble. Change TV to HGTV so the sounds coming out won't distress doggies with sirens or dogs and cats crying etc.

8:35 am - I'm running late! I baby gate the dogs into the family room. I check the no-slip rugs in the kitchen so Sweet Old Girl won't slip in there and be unable to get back up. Grab my bags and run out the door. As I walk out I notice the orchid buds are dying rather than opening up. Damn. So much for staging the dining room table to look charming when someone comes in.

9:00 am - In my seat at work. Phew! Just made it. The day proceeds with worky stuff. I get out of my chair too infrequently and am stiffening up. Ugh.

11:30 am - Run to the post office to mail something. Grab some food on the way back since I won't have time to grab something in the cafeteria. I'm mad at the cafeteria anyway for charging me $1.75 for a Diet Coke. Bastards.

12:30 pm - Back to worky stuff. I didn't have time to knit during lunch again. Shoot. I did have a few minutes to make my next play in my Scrabble-knock off game I play on my phone. I somehow craft a respectable word out of AAIYYVQ. Respectable, not great.

6:00 pm - The advantage of working a contract is that I'm hourly and must leave at a specific time. This is awfully nice after years of having my time abused by my former employer. I couldn't remember what a 40 hour work week looked like until I left there.

6:30 pm - Home! The dogs howl and bark in delight. I wade through them keeping an eye on Sweet Old Girl so that she doesn't get knocked about too much. She wants to be a part of the crew too and is leading the welcome with her high-pitched barks she does when she is happy. I get to the back door somehow and let them out. They all thunder out, even Sweet Old Girl. I keep an eye on her to make sure she can walk and squat OK. You get the picture.

6:31 pm - Yes, there has been an accident today. Not huge. The Pepto is working for Sweet Old Girl. I gather up the blankets and towels and take a cover off a dog bed. I move this morning's wash to the dryer and put in the new, poo-y load. Minimize that smell, remember?

6:33 pm - I finally get to go to the bathroom where I shed the worky clothes and put on sweats and put my hair back. It is all business at home.

6:35 pm - Run outside to shush Oscar the Guard Beagle. Tell him he doesn't need to bark like that while Frankie and Daisy play. Shoo Frankie away from Daisy who has clearly had enough of his shenanigans. Tell Sweet Old Girl to stop eating dirt. I'm starting to understand where the bad tummy has come from.

6:36 pm - Herd them all back inside because no one will stop barking or stop eating dirt.

6:37 pm - Put the food back down for everyone. Straighten up the beds and blankets that have gotten dragged about and shoved off the beds. Pick up and put away a few toys so I can walk through the room. Retrieve my shoes that Daisy has already fetched from the bedroom and brought to a bed in the family room.

6:40 pm - Check mail to make sure I don't have to do anything immediately. Put away stuff I dropped all along the way from the door to the dogs when I got home. I'm worse than a 16-year-old.

6:45 pm - Close up blinds and turn on lights for the night. It is still bright outside but I'm up so may as well do it now.

6:50 pm - Check email, Facebook, and Twitter for anything I need to do right away.

6:55 pm - Talk to Mom on the phone. I order Grandma's Mother's Day present online for her. I look up a few things for her and "fix" other things.

7:10 pm - Hang up with Mom and go back to catching up on all the social media I hear so much about from the youngsters these days.

7:15 pm - Talk to Grandma on the phone. Re-confirm our plans for Easter and promise to make reservations for what she wants to do on Mother's Day.

7:25 pm - Look up reservation phone number. Find out the business won't be open on Mother's Day. Dang, now I have to disappoint Grandma. Feel guilt because I love my Grandmother and she is old and deserves whatever she wants.

7:30 pm - Can I have dinner yet? Depending on how tired I am or how depleted the cupboards are, I make and eat a dinner.

8:00 pm - Change out laundry so I have clean towels for dog messes. If I'm lucky I actually get to do a load of my own clothes so that I have clean clothes to wear.

8:10 pm - Clean up kitchen and make a feeble attempt at cleaning something else in the house. A bathroom counter, my nightstand, take out the garbage, anything to keep some of the filth at bay (but I walk by a lot with a blind eye. We don't even want to discuss the tumble-fur accumulating along the baseboards). Straighten up the dog beds and blankets in my bedroom for tonight so I can walk around in the dark without tripping and killing myself.

8:30 pm - Sit down at my desk to get some work done. I have some resumes for friends and family that I've promised to polish up. I also need to write a blog post, gather documents for the bank, clean up some of the desk so I don't lose a bill (I'm always losing bills), do some development work for a non-profit I'm working for to help get my own consulting business off the ground, and do some research for a program I've developing. Make mental note that if I want to write a book like I've been planning I need to actually spend some time writing.

9:45 pm - Gasp at the time. Find someone has yakked on one of the blankets. Scoop it up, put it in the washer and replace it with one of the many other blankets I don't even bother putting away anymore. I just leave them folded in one of my family room chairs. Sit down and just veg.

10:00 pm - I'm done vegging. Get the dogs out for last potty. Watch Sweet Old Girl. Put away the shoes Daisy has stolen again. Close up the house for the night. Herd everyone back into the bedroom.

10:15 pm - Put away clothes flung about the bedroom from this morning. If I've managed to do a load of my own laundry this is when I fold it and put it away. Clean out and fill the dogs' water bowl. Make sure everyone is situated OK. Sweet Old Girl has a bed, she doesn't have her bad leg folded under her wonky, no squeaky toys (because there is nothing worse than being scared out of sleep by one of those being squeaked during the night). Make a half hearted pass at the bathroom mess from this morning.

10:34 pm - Fall into bed.

10:34:30 pm - Remember I didn't plug my phone in to charge (or give a dog medication, or turn on dishwasher, or hear washer bumping around from uneven load, just put something here) and have to get up quick to do it.

10:40 pm - Fall into bed. Try to read. Listen to Oscar the Guard Beagle snore contentedly next to you. Think about waking him up as revenge for this morning but reconsider because he is so darn cute.

11:00 pm - Finally pass out.

Good gravy, no wonder I never had time to get married and have kids. When does anyone else have time to do that? OK, so clearly we can see where all the time goes but I don't care. Totally worth it. Who wanted glamour anyway?

I've been thinking a lot about the animals I've lived with over the years and remembering things that make me smile. I decided I wanted to capture some of those moments and I'll share some of them as I go.

I grew up with a siamese-mix named Kit. We actually stole Kit. Well, not so much steal as kitty-sat for my piano teacher and didn't give him back. I don't think we went quite so far as to refuse to give him back but when my piano teacher said they were thinking they couldn't keep him we took advantage. Kit was an outrageously funny (without intending to be as kitties often are) slightly twisted kitty. Most everyone that we grew up with has a Kit story and likely a Kit scar. One time, when I was at my piano lesson, he jumped into the piano and started playing about so that the keys were moving on their own. I was enchanted. At another piano lesson, we heard this thump thump thumping coming from the kitchen. My teacher went to investigate and discovered the noise was coming from the refrigerator. When she opened it, Kit jumped out.

Going after food like that is a characteristic of Kit that would continue through his life. He would jump up on the counter and grab the ham/chicken/roast that was our dinner and try to run off with it. I say try because frequently, his catch was larger then himself. Towards the end of his life when his poor teeth were falling out he grabbed a chicken breast from a plate on the table and dragged it under a chair to eat. When I went to grab him and the chicken he hunched his shoulders and growled. I picked him up but he kept hanging onto that chicken; even shaking his head a little like he needed to kill it. I absolutely adored him for that spirit in his old age. I hope I'm just as hungry and fierce through my life.

Much like a family dog, Kit would run around the yard with us kids as we ran shrieking and laughing. Sometimes Kit would hide in the bushes in the front yard and when someone would walk by he would run out at them, attack their calf and then run off. He must not have really hurt anyone or they were too embarrassed to admit they had a cat pounce on them (I like to think they all thought it was funny too) because no one ever complained. I thought it was hilarious and watched from the front window to see what would happen.

When I hear scientists talk about discovering animals' higher brain function I just roll my eyes. I can tell them that cats have complicated cognitive abilities. I've seen them pretend and even do things for a laugh. We had a pool (we lived in Arizona, it is necessary to have a pool for survival) and one afternoon we left in innertube next to the pool. Kit had more fun with that innertube. He jumped inside and peered at us just over the top of it. I think he thought he was spying on us. He laid his ears flat so we wouldn't see them (we did though, we could see the whole top of his head) and tilted his head back as he peaked over the edge of that tube watching my Mom do yardwork. I don't know what he was plotting or thinking but he skulked there for nearly an hour before he lost interest and walked off. He came back to that innertube frequently enough I believe he considered it his lair.

My absolute favorite memory of Kit was his wicked, slightly sadistic, sense of humor. It was well known in the house that Kit liked to be on the bed with you but liked having his own space. If you made the mistake of putting your feet too close to him, he would reach out bite your big toe. He wouldn't bite it in the traditional sense, he actually would just take your toe in his sharp canines and sit there looking at you with a deadly gaze. If you tried to pull your toe out of his grasp, he would ever so slightly bite harder. It was not uncommon to hear a family member laughing and hollering from their bedroom, "Ow ow ow ow! Help, come get Kit!" and someone would have to go to the rescue. It was also not uncommon that one of us would stand in the doorway, laugh, and walk off leaving them to their punishment. Kit would hold the toe until he thought you learned your lesson and then he would let go and I swear he would smile triumphantly as he looked away. He never broke the skin but to this day I can't help but curl my toes when I'm barefoot and near a cat.

2. Mud in the backyard is epic. Dogs look like they are wearing 4 black socks all the time.

3. One dog got a bath Sunday and no matter how long I ran the water on his paws, the water never ran clear.

4. I curse the idiot who installed champagned-colored carpet. I will look into mud-colored carpet as soon as I recover from grocery/dog food bill.

5. One of the dogs got into the garbage and has an upset stomach. This has added additional colors to the carpet and a smell that may eat away all adhesives in the house making carpet replacement easier.

6. Got the bright idea to put down hay across the muddy back yard. There is a chance the hay will just turn my backyard into an adobe brick. I'm not completely opposed to this idea.

7. Am told I can only get hay at feed stores. I have never been to a feed store but I dreamt I had two horses so I guess I'm ready to visit the feed store.

8. Found a feed store. Bales of hay are only $6 each. Today, it is not expensive to be me.

9. My car will only carry 3 bales at a time. Decide against two horses.

10. Bales of hay smell wonderful and have improved the car. Am thinking of covering the floors in my house with bales of hay.

11. I don't have a pitchfork for bale of hay. I'm wondering what will be a suitable substitute. Barbecue fork?