Tuesday, February 27, 2007

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK/PLANT

Just wanted you to meet the 5 newest residents at the camp:
Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo,
and
Jeffery

These guys are baby Praying Mantis' and they are soooo cute. I saved them from certain death in the "back room" & moved them to their new home on my sweet potato plant. I have NO idea what they eat, but with my luck they HATE sweet potato's, but I have a feeling that they are more likey carnivorous than not, so maybe they can find plenty of "no-see-ums" in the dirt around the plant.

THE NURSERY


See how small & defenseless they are
(that's Meeny I think)



LOOK!!! There's Jeffery
That's 2 of them...,
there WERE 5 of them yesterday...,
HMMM???...
did I mention that I think they might be
Carnivorous?


Monday, February 26, 2007

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE I PUT THAT RECEIPT???

I’m thinking about seeing if I can exchange the new Security Guard for a different model.

Ya wanna know why? Let me start by saying, I am by no means an expert at this, but I’ve been working with dogs for a couple years now, with some success. However, I think I must have done something dreadfully wrong with this one. Oh, he’s cute as all get out and ton’s of fun at times, but something seems to have gone really wrong with his circuitry.

In the last couple weeks, I’ve seen THAT look in the eyes of my 4 month old security guard. It’s the one that says
I’m looking at you and I see your mouth moving, and I know you’re wanting something, but all I hear is BLAH-Blah-blahblahblah-BLAH
I’ve been staying up beat and happy and trying different things and EVERY now and then I see a spark and I think I’m onto something, and we finish our session and all is well. But then the other day, THAT look took over again and wouldn’t go away. SOOOO, I mentally hit rewind and listened to the recording of what to do in instances like this…

“When training, it’s very important to be consistent, gentle but firm, and keep the sessions short and happy so as to avoid burn out. When you do reach a point where it seems as if the student’s mind might be wandering and he quits paying attention, then you want to either quit the training session completely, or, as another trainer puts it, “wipe the chalk board clean” by changing tactics.” (As you can tell from the reference to a Chalk Board, the other trainer has been at this a LONG time, so I trust her completely and I always try to keep her advice in mind.)

… and I decided it was time to wipe the chalkboard clean…

Here’s the problem, MY security guard is obviously NOT a “chalkboard” model. Instead, he must be one of these new fangled “computer” models. And instead of simply wiping the chalkboard clean, I must have hit CONTROL –ALT- DELETE and ESC at the same time, because I think I saw a puff of smoke, and now, instead of the cute, fuzzy, smart, interested puppy I used to have…

… there is a tall, gangly being who is all legs, big feet, floppy ears, lolling tongue and drool. And whose only interests seem to be food, fast moving objects, chewing on things, playing with balls, licking himself and humping…

OH CRAP!!!...

I’ve got a
(gasp!!!)
13 yr old boy…


NOW WHERE’S THAT RECEIPT?...