Abby's Night Out

Even though Wednesday was Abby's birthday, we didn't plan any sort of celebration because.. well, she's a dog right? She doesn't know what day it is... However, what I did do is leave the garage door open (while she was out in the yard), then forget to close it when I let her in, then continue to be absorbed in a very complicated homework assignment. When August came home, maybe an hour or so later, he says "Where's Abby?" and from my desk I go "uh I don't know..." "The door's open"... AAAGH. "Was she wearing her collar?" "uh.... no?"

(We've gotten in a bad habit of taking it off her because she makes a lot of noise jingling the rabies tag as she scratches her neck at 2:30 in the morning...)

So, the hours from 5:30 - 6:30 were spent making laps around the neighboring blocks, whistling, calling, etc.. - all the while knowing that Abby never really goes anywhere when she's out alone. She's a pack animal. Unless of course if someone were to walk by, and especially if they had a dog of their own. In that case I have no doubt that she'd follow {harass} them all the way home and never think twice about her old pack.

Around 6:30 I went in to make some flyers. Of course the printer is out of ink. By #4 they are completely illegible. I put up those 3 on nearby stop signs, and then drove to Kinko's where I bought 100 more copies. At this point August is convinced that she's been kidnapped by a bad person to be turned into a cage fighter. Or at least picked up by someone who loves her so much they just keep her.. (ha ha.. yeah right..)

By 7:30 I'm taping up the 1st of the new 100 flyers and my phone rings. Its a neighbor from 3 houses down, and I happened to put one of the original flyers on the stop sign right in his yard. Coincidence?? :) Turns out he was in his yard when Abby made her escape. No doubt she headed right for him to say hello. He promptly loaded her up and took her to the Humane Society, which I did not think to call because we were absorbed with whistling and calling until well after they closed... They did post her on their "Lost&Found" website later in the evening..


So August retrieved her at 9:00 am the next morning. They did not lecture him on responsible dog ownership as I assumed they would, but she did have to be registered as a canine resident of Longmont (cost: $25/yr). This I find hilarious, since I'm not sure what city services she uses. I suppose she used the humane society, but we had to pay an additional $55 for her overnight stay.

Regardless of the fees and wasted paper (what can I do with 100 "Lost Dog" posters?), we were very relieved to find out that she was safe and very thankful that God had answered our many fervent prayers! Other morals of the story:

1. Dog collar is now a permanent fixture, even though it now makes twice the amount of noise as she has to wear an additional "City of Longmont" tag.
2. We should probably get to know more of our neighbors.
3. Is it safe for me to have children? Will I get absorbed in something and not realize they've wandered out the front door? Maybe we should have them implanted with some sort of LoJack tracking device, just in case...

Birthdays All Around

Dear Abby is officially two years old. Not that she acts her age or anything... What is that in dog years? 14? She may be a little bit developmentally challenged. We love her though.

Its been a busy birthday week, my new sister-in-law yesterday and sweet Papa tomorrow - its his 90th! Too bad only perhaps one of the three will see this post.

Regardless, a very happy birthday to all!!

Staining

Well, I keep putting off blogging about our latest project - the mantel - because we were supposed to be done.. um.. several days ago. However we are not.. so I'll update anyway, don't want anyone out there to think we're slackers.

Noticing that the fireplace looked kinda wimpy, we decided to build it a new mantel.. They do that kind of stuff on HGTV all the time. Plus, it gave us a chance to try out August's new [very old] radial arm saw. The construction really didn't take that long, better part of a saturday.. Since then we've done 4 coats of stain with several days off in between. Hopefully we'll be able to put the finished product up soon!

The Weather

Immediately after Labor Day it turned fall here in CO. This is very bizarre to us all. Its been in the 40s at night, and so naturally my Mississippi-born internal clock thinks that the holidays are just around the corner. I fully intend for our living room to look just like this in a few months. Okay maybe not, but there will be snow on the ground - what a nice idea huh? And there is a fabulous blue Christmas tree already growing in the front yard. Oh, and our fireplace has an on/off switch. We already fired it up once the other day, and I'm in love.

Speaking of dimmer switches

BD is so right! Check out the dimmer switch masterpiece:

We have wood floors!

We have had a fabulous Labor Day Weekend with 2 visitors - Wanda and Bill. We have done some of the usual tourist stuff - national park, Coors, etc - and also some house work. The recessed lights are DONE and the carpet is gone!! The recessed lighting turned out to be quite simple. Well, maybe not so simple for August who did all the work in the attic. Actually all I did was change the layout several times and screw in the light bulbs. The upgrade is really nice though, and the can lights are not that expensive.

One thing we did learn: dimmable fluorescents may sound like the coolest thing since sliced bread, but they are not. Not yet anyways, we need to give them a few more years to refine the technology. They don't dim all the way, at about 30% they just flick off. The light itself is too "blue", and as you dim them it turns more blue. And, they cost $12/piece. This compared to the incandescents at $3... So, we took at $60 worth back to Lowe's and bought the regular ones...

Here are some pictures of our adventures: