Puppy Promotion

Well, Petey became a part of our family a month ago today. I can honestly say he has done quite well as the family "kitchen" dog. He has been an extremely good listener and only seems to have accidents when I do not get to him fast enough. We have kept him in the kitchen because, as I am sure you can guess, there is no carpet there. The entire rest of our house is carpeting and I did not particularly care for the idea of him going all over the house--especially this time of the year. I can just imagine how odiferous the house would become in this heat! LOL. Anyway, he has been so excited about his new promotion from "kitchen" dog to "household" dog that it seems we are starting all over with the housebreaking process. If you could see me, you might picture my fingers entangled in a head now only half full of hair! LOL. Ah well. It's really not that bad. In fact, he seems to be getting the idea already, I just have to be on guard at all times.

We had yet another busy weekend. Saturday was the annual garage sale days in town so Nick and I had our first official yard sale. I have to say, I dreaded it all week. To me it just seemed like a lot of work with very little payoff. My inclination was to simply give it all to charity and go camping or fishing, but we had the sale. And it was actually rather fun! Sure it was a lot of work, but not overwhelming. We got to talk to a few interesting people. I think my favorite was this couple who only garage saled for books. They appeared to be in their early twenties and were quite interesting. The guy told me that he just couldn't resist buying a good book--even if he had a copy of it already. If he didn't want to keep it, he would just pass it on for somebody else to read. Of course, he said he could never pass up a copy of The Hobbit, no matter how many copies he had. I remembered reading it as a girl and could see how it could be a favorite.

I'm not so nuts about books that I will buy several copies of the same one--although, the idea of passing them on to others is a great way to encourage others to read--but when I was younger I would never have dreamed of throwing away a book or selling one. When I was in college I vowed to myself to never get rid of my texts--they were so symbollic of that era in my life. In fact, my fantasy was to someday have a house big enough where I could have a little library of sorts. It didn't have to be huge, but I wanted it to be filled with all the books I had read. Ah, but alas, there I was on Saturday, with a big box full of college texts, and a piece of notebook paper taped to it with the word "free" written on it.

You guessed it! I caved. With our lack of space, I felt forced to get rid of what I really did not need. I mean, what would I really do with a text on Ancient Civilizations or Organic Chemistry? I didn't get rid of anything that had any sentimental value, though. I kept all of my writing texts and literature books. I could never part with them. In fact, I have to admit that a majority of the texts were my husbands'. I think he felt the same as I, but he kept the ones that meant anything to him, as well.

We got rid of a lot of junk on Saturday. What we did not sell, which was also a lot, we took to the Salvation Army that evening. Now when we move into our new house next month there will be that much less to move.

Yesterday was Nick's birthday so we spent the day celebrating that and trying to stay cool. He picked on me because I gave him two boxes of ceramic tile and two bags of grout for his birthday. Pretty insensitive, huh? I know, but I will be making a trip to the Boot Box in Meadville pretty soon to get him something a little more fun.

I have to admit that I am thankful that all the June birthdays are done for a while. With Danielle, Nick, his brother, and sister all having June birthdays, as well as father's day, it seems as though every weekend is a party. Now it is time for a little quiet.

Well, I need to go write a query letter for an article that I want to write so I had better sign off for the day. Hope I didn't bore ya too much. Later!