Musings on time and puppies

Tomorrow is the last day of August. I'm not at all sure where the month went. It seemed to just happen, without any startling moments. Okay, launch of my new book was a high but not startling--I knew it would happen. Otherwise, the days just seemed to blend into each other. Sometimes I think this is good--I don't want to be thinking, "Omigosh, is it only Tuesday?" You know what they say about time flying when you're having fun, and I guess that's what happened to me. But at my age, I always hear "Time's winged chariot drawing near." A big part of me doesn't want time to pass that quickly. I think I have to learn to savor every minute, but I do savor special moments: reading an interview with me on a blog this morning--http://lisahaseltonsreviewsandinterviews.blogspot.com/2011/08/interview-with-mystery-author-judy.html--check it out because I thought it read pretty well. And this afternoon, with Jacob standing on the porch, waving at the crossing guard, and calling "Mr. Booker, Mr. Booker." I explained the guard was too busy directing traffic and helping people across the street to hear him. We finally agreed that Jacob could go to the curb but not step off. To his delight, Booker finally saw him and called, "Hey, buddy!" Of course, every student at that school is Booker's buddy, but I didn't tell Jacob that.
Maybe time goes by so quickly because I'm occupied with animals (more than with writing, though I wish it was the other way around). I'm running this geriatric center for a dog and a cat--today I scraped my thumb with the sterile needle I was about to use to infuse Wywy. Bled and bled, and tonight it's sore. Sometimes I wonder if it's like a nursing home, where they're waiting to die, but both Wywy and Scooby have a good quality of life and I work hard to ensure that. Wywy can still get enraged by the puppy, but Scooby plays with her a bit. Again, I need to slow down and sit outside while the dogs play. I try to balance time with them, and this afternoon I left Sophie with Jacob and kept Scooby in the office with me. He was nervous and wanted to go to his bed. My neurotic dog! Can't do much about the cat except try to keep him healthy. Happy? Who knows with cats?
Sophie is a joy and a trial. We were at the point that we had one accident-free day and several with only one accident, but now we've regressed. Countless accidents today, even when I'd just taken her out. One was because I missed her signal but she gave no signal for most. The classic wisdom of grab her and whisk her outside does no good--by the time I make it to the back door from the office (her favorite pooping ground), she's forgotten the urge. Then again, right now she's curled at my feet, as sweet and calm as she can be. I just worry that she'll never be housebroken. It's been years since I housetrained a puppy, and my attempts with older dogs have been a failure. I'm a bit at my wit's end here--and a bit nervous.
I think back though to days when I watched mindless TV because I didn't have much else to do, days when I went to bed really early out of boredom, days when I didn't have much to do at my desk, and I thank the Lord for all the work that's piled up, for all the things I should do and haven't gotten to, for the busy life I have. I guess that's why time is flying--and I really wouldn't have it any other way. Life is good.

A long day but a wonderful dinner

All my days have been long this week, since the arrival of Sophie.  She's now contentedly chewing on my shoes. I know it's a horrible precedent, but I'm letting her because they're so stretched out and awful I can't keep them on my feet, and I have new replacements. But if she goes after the new shoes, we'll have a discussion. I seem to spend my days saying "No" to electrical cords, throws and rugs with fringes, etc. Nothing daunts her.
However, Scooby continues to be afraid, and I continue to put them together in the evening, even if only for an hour. I pet and love Scooby the whole time he's in the office with her. I've had to move my wicker chair out of the office every time I bring Sophie in here because she chews on it--which could be fatal. But the worst is that she jumped out of her playpen three times today. Breeder suggests some kind of netting, which I think is a good idea. This weekend, we'll change the wicker chair for the overstuffed one in my bedroom--the plaid throw can go on the overstuffed chair without dragging on the floor and tempting Li'l Bit, as I sometims call her. She is so full of life and happy she's just irresistible.
The cat is another big problem--I think his body is shutting down. He ate very little yesterday and peed less, ate nothing today. Tonight when I came home from dinner I took care of the older animals first--put Scooby in the office with treats, picked up Wywy to get his food out of the fridge. He peed all over the kitchen floor and me (while I was holding him), then yowled when I put him on his counter for food and seemed to stagger a moment. I'm afraid the inevitable is coming. Jordan had a cat that got so weak and bad that Christian finally persuaded her they would have to put it to sleep the next day--the cat died in her sleep that night. I wish such an end for Wywy--I hate to make that decision, but I don't want him to suffer.
Bright note in my day: Betty, Jeannie and I celebrated our June/July birthdays with dinner at Taverna, an Italian restaurant I'd not been to before. We had a wonderful, seasoned flatbread for an appetizer, then each had starters--they both had shrimp (I swear they do that because they know I can't eat it) and I had carpaccio, which I can never resist. This came with paper thin slices of pecorino and a salad of greens with a creamy dressing and lots of capers. Wonderful. I had a flourless chocolate cake with a molten chocolate center set on zabaglione (there wasn't much of it) and raspberry sauce--just four little dots on the plate, but it was all good. Now I'm full and happy. Scooby having endured an hour in the office with Sophie is happily in his bed, and Wywy has slunk off somewhere. I'll have to go look for him and love on him.
Is it any wonder that when I took a nap today I really, really didn't want to get up?

The $8,000 leg of lamb

I fixed a leg of lamb tonight for neighbors Jay and Susan, former neighbor Sue, and good friends Elizabeth and Weldon. I told Jay weeks ago if he found a home for that sweet stray lab, I'd fix him a leg of lamb. He said tongiht, "I saved you from a broken hip," and I told him maybe that's worth $8,000. It's called the $8,000 leg of lamb because I once served it to company and a guest called me the next day and offered $8,000 for the recipe. At the cost of lamb today, that's not too far off. Basically, you make a gratin of sliced potatoes, onions, and tomatoes, interspersed with salt and pepper, chopped garlic and crushed thyme. Then you put a cake rack on top of the 9x13 pan with the gratin and top that with the bone-in leg of lamb, seasoned only with salt and pepper. The idea is to turn the leg every fifteen minutes--I don't remember that from before, and I have to say it was a Herculean task. But what I forgot is that you should pour white wine and olive oil over the veggies before adding the lamb. No wonder there wasn't much juice for basting. But still the veggies cooked in the lamb drippings and were delicious. Jay helped me with timing--I was afraid it wasn't cooking at all, but he finally decided that neither my oven nor my meat thermometer were accurate and pulled it at just the right time. Interior was quite pink, exterior medium rare for those who like their meat brown. It was really really good. I want to do it again, the right way, but with the cost of lamb, I won't be doing it soon. It was the perfect meal for Elizabeth and Weldon on their gluten-free dairy-free diet. We six ate almost all of the veggies but I have quite a bit of lamb left. To me, one of life's delights is a cold lamb sandwich with lettuce and mayo. It will be a good week.
Sue brought her new dog, Jack, a lab mix maybe a year old or a little more. We thought he would play with Scooby in the backyard but Scooby soon tired of nip and tuck--he's an old man without Jack's energy and he told Jack to back off. So Jack promptly jumped the fence and had to come in the house where he was much calmer than Scoob would have been with all that meat and all those people. (Ok, we put the leftover roast in the microwave just to hide it from him.) Jack and the cat encountered each other a couple of times, which didn't faze Jack but angered Wywy. We worked it out, and mostly while we sat and visited, Jack lay at our feet. Sue's got herself a really good dog.
This morning Jacob and I went to church. I think I got more out of it than he did. I went with a heavy heart about the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear meltdown and about the problems of a family member, and I talked to the Lord about these things, enjoying the solitude and peace of the music and atmosphere of the sanctuary. Houston's sermon, as always, was right on, and I was comforted when he said he, too, just can't wrap his mind around the devastation in Japan. Jacob on the other hand came out of Sunday school--well, maybe it's just day care--electrically alive and ecstatically talking about a little boy who pooped in his pants. All I could hope was that the other children didn't tease the child unmercifully and embarrass him, but Jacob's behavior gave me little hope. When and how do you teach chldren about compassion? We drove to and from church with the top down on the car, which Jacob loves-it's so much easier to strap him in with the top down. I may end up doing that in the dead of winter.

Memoir class, animals, and a good mystery

I taught my memoir writing class at TCU today. I use the word "taught" lightly, because my only function is to spur discussion, and some of the pieces people write do that without any input from me. I try to get the class to see the submissions not as an isolated piece of writing but as a partial statement of who the writer is today. It amazes me that some people, one I've known for years, have stories in their backgrounds I'd never have guessed. The different approaches to life and its ups and downs are fascinating, but with a few exceptions I don't find this group ready to come to grips with the hard things in their lives. Still, it was an interesting and lively hour. My theory is that memoir is the story of how you got to be where you are today. I drove one of the class members back to her office, and she said, "I'm really enjoying this. It makes you think." I guess I couldn't ask for more.
My animals, both in their dotage, are changing their habits. I read today about the importance of socialization of your animals--i.e., dogs left outside. Well, my Aussie is outside all day, because he, a rescued dog, can't be trusted in the house without supervision.. I used to think chasing squirrels kept him active and interested, but now that he's eleven, I've noticed him lying in the sun while squirrels parade on the grass. I bring him in after supper, take him to my office, and give him treats--but as soon as he eaten his treats, he wants to go drink water and go to his bed, next to my bed. No more lounging lovingly at my feet while I work at my desk And my eighteen-year-old cat has gone back to sleeping at the foot of my bed, which I really like. He doesn't spend as much time on my desk, and while I miss the companionship, he was often in the way of what I needed to do. But I think that he sleeps on the bed so he can watch for my first restless moment in the morning and yowl to be fed.
I didn't get much done today, and I blame it all on an author. A couple of weeks ago Hank Phillipi Ryan offered ten free copies of her new novel, Drive Time, to the first ten who responded. I was one of the lucky ones and got the book. It introduced me to a whole new series and a protagonist I really like. Hank is an investigative reporter for a Boston TV channel, and so is her protagonist, so she knows whereof she writes. She's created a character who's determined, smart, and oh-so-career minded but who is also very human. I'm only about a third of the way through, but I've not done much else today besides the class, some e-mail, and my bike workout. Thanks, Hank, for giving me another reason to put off getting back to my own novel! I swear when I finish this, the only fiction I'll read is my novel--I've been away from it so long that I'll have to read from the beginning to get myself back into the story.
Our Texas weather continues to be absolutely lovely, so I took Hank's novel and a glass of wine to the porch tonight and enjoyed both thoroughly.