Update

I thought that I'd take a break from my busy (that's code for "nonexistent") life to update everyone on what's been going on in my world. Wow, not that much, come to think of it. Let's see, I gave my dog a bath on Saturday (she didn't like it). Bonnie didn't care much for baths, but she never put up as much fight as Scrappy does. Scrappy doesn't let anyone touch her for any other purpose than to pet her. So, as she has a bit of mange or some other form of mites, and as she has fleas, we have to reguarly persuade her to let us rub some mange medicine and flea powder/spray into her skin. By persuade, I mean we have to tie her with a short piece of rope to a sturdy, immovable object, like a large tree. That is, of course, assuming you can catch her, for when you come out the door, she'll get up, tail wagging, ears all perked up, and then she'll see the rope or spray bottle in your hands and she'll run, and you'll be hard-pressed to find her for the next few hours. One of the last times I put the mange medicine on her, I came out of the door with my latex gloves (I can't let the medicine touch my skin), and she bolted. I found her under my Dad's van and I had to literally crawl under it and drag her out. She's a smallish dog, maybe forty pounds - so it's not a difficult business to carry her, which I have to do every time that I have to retrieve her from under the van or some other clandestine hiding place. Anyway, last Saturday, she didn't want a bath, but I was so careful not to let her see the soap, the rope, or the brush. I came after her when everything was in place. She wagged her tail, but refused to come to me. I tried to be nice and called her and petted her and invited her to come with me, but she refused to budge, so, I had to pick her up (she hates that, by the way) and carry her squirming body to the other side of the house. I tied her up (it's so much better now that she wears a collar) and gave her the bath. She didn't like it, but she looks so pretty now! And everybody loves to pet her! Maybe she'll remember that when it comes time to give her another bath. Hmm.

Leo, our gargantuan cat also received a bath. I usually get stuck giving him the baths, so he has learned to avoid me and only me everytime he hears the bath water running. My routine is this: I get the flea soap, a large cup, and some smelly-good soap (gardenia this time) and place it all next to the tub along with a large towell. Then, I get the water running at a comfortable temperature. And then I go on the hunt, looking for Leo. I found him easily this time, but as soon as I picked him up and walked two feet, he started his yowling. Yowling is like a very mournful, low, pitiful meow. I never pay it any heed (hee hee hee), so I just walked into the bathroom, closed the door, pried his claws out of my skin, and plopped him in the tub. He too did not like his bath, but he was so pretty and smelled so nice afterward. I always feel sorry for him right after the bath because, in my Dad's words, he looks like a drowned rat. Anyway, that ends my tales of animal bathing.

In other news, I have poison ivy. I have no idea how I got it. Let me rephrase: I know how I got it, I'm just confused as to the when. I picked dewberries with my Dad last week, in many a poison ivy and poison sumac infested area, but my poison ivy didn't make an appearance until Sunday night. Anyway, we went berry picking again yesterday, and have come to the conclusion that someone knows of our berry picking place because the place was devoid of the plethora of berries we normally find. But we picked our few and then searched along the road and found some more - in areas abundant, ridiculously abundant in poison ivy and sumac. But I don't think I got anymore, whew! But my Dad had a free sample of this wash that is supposed to prevent poison ivy from developing if you come into contact with the plant and is supposed to drastically reduce the itching and length of time of the rash if you apply the wash after the fact. You know what; it really works! I don't itch, and I think the rash is going down already. If only they had had it when I was a kid!

I went to my optometrist's this morning for a routine eye exam. Everything is normal. My vision has only changed a slight bit over the past two and a half years - nothing to warrant a change in my perscription, which is very good. However, now I am sitting here with my sunglasses on because the Doctor had to dilate my pupils, so my eyes are now extremely sensitive to light. My eyes look really weird - one pupil is huge, the other is really small. I have 20/40 vision in my right eye, 20/60 vision in my left, which basically means that what a person with normal vision sees 40 or 60 feet away is what I see 20 feet away (what they see at a farther distance is what my near vision is - if that makes any sense, not that it matters).

I apologise for any misspellings, puntuation errors, or gramatical mistakes. I can't see very well right now, so I'll come back later and fix everything. Till then; toodles!