i somehow convinced Chewy not to sleep on me. we've taught him a new command - "get down". this one was needed, as he is always up in my face. and he is always on the couch, in the way. now that he knows 'get down', we can get him off the couch without a fight. if you try to pick him up and put him down off the couch, he rolls over onto his back and goes limp. any dog, no matter the small size, is hard to handle once they go limp. he knows this and figures if he's enough of a pain in the ass, i'm lazy enough that i won't fight him. thus the "get down" command. it was an intense morning of training. he doesn't respond to anything but negative input. so it was hard to train him so the message would get through without getting loud with him. i have to read up on the internet on how to train a dog. i know how to train cats, that's easy. training the dog is hard so far. he's too clever. he's manipulative, and he knows me.
tomorrow's the big day. we've got almost all our groceries. it's been harder to do without a vehicle, but he got it done. i'm making a ham/swiss/cheddar quiche and cheesy green bean caserole with french onions for dinner. today i will help doc clean off the table so we can eat there properly tomorrow. and i'll give the living room a proper clean once the sun comes up. get it ready for the tree. doc won't be able to get to storage before tomorrow night, his bike won't be fixed, so the decorating will happen in stages. but the bulk of it will be done tomorrow night on cam.
speaking of which, i need to trouble shoot the old laptop that the cam is on. the image isn't uploading right now, and i don't know why.
i'm so excited to start the holiday season. and doc doesn't know why. and neither do i? pure childlike joy? let's go with that. it's not that i'm getting presents this year. hell, i can't even decide what i want. i'm going to end up going to amazon.com and getting a couple of books from my wishlist. i wasn't able to get doc a compost bin, but i did get him a new seat cover for the truck. he likes that sort of thing. manly stuff. he knows what he's getting, but it's getting wrapped up and put under the tree, anyway.
in fact, i am wrapping a number of boxes and putting them under the tree, the cats have to have something to hide behind under there. i'm hoping we won't have a problem with the cats. i see Tulip scaling the tree. she will be a problem. the others? i don't know. they've never seen a big tree before. i've always had table top trees they couldn't get near. i think i will put cat toys in the lower branches instead of ornaments so they drag those down instead of xmas pretties.
time for a confession: i love youtube. i don't watch anything but Doctor Who stuff and music videos, but i love it. i have been able to find music i haven't been able to find anywhere else, and now that i have a tool that converts the youtube video to mp3, i am in heaven. doc has found a new favorite band, and i'm going to make him a CD of them to listen to in the truck. finding the 3 hour xmas medly i linked to yesterday was the crown jewel in my youtube rule. there is one Mariah Carey song on it, and it includes Feliz Navidad, which i hate, but other than that, it is a stellar three hours of solid xmas classics. it's been playing here constantly. doc actually turned it on when he went to bed last night for me. wasn't that cool? so i woke up alone in the room because he had gone to bed in my room, but i woke up to xmas music. so cool. and i converted it to mp3 and took the hour to download it and i'm burning it to disk for Kelli for xmas. this mix is way more comprehensive than the mix i sent Kelli a couple of years ago. the mix i tout as my Ultimate xmas compilation.
which reminds me, i need to work on Kelli's xmas present today and tomorrow. i want to send it out next week so she has the music in time to listen to it on her mp3 player before xmas. i'm sending her DVDs of the movies i've collected (a short, but distinguished list of cult movies and muppet classics) complete with nice, hand designed labels (thanks Tech Fairy!!) and the new xmas CD.
did you hear lady gaga is doing a thing with muppets on thursday on tv? i hear there's not enough muppet, a bit too much gaga, and i don't know yet what channel it's on. but i'm really excited. i don't care for most of her music, but i love la diva. i loved her thanksgiving special last year. it was so out there that she would do something so down to earth. and i remember thinking, all this is missing is muppets. so now they've got the muppets. i also read that the next album she's coming out with is all duets with Tony Bennett. i'll get that album. i love it when she actually sings.
we've got sausages for tomorrow!! i've got to take them out of the freezer. a packet of brown and serve and two packets of regular (they are small packets) one for immediate, to munch while cooking and bustling around in the morning, and two for accompanying the cinnamon rolls. do i want orange juice for mimosas? or do i want more egg nog for coffee and cookie eating? i have until 9 to decide, then i have to call doc and get my grocery list in. it's either/or because doc has to carry them home on his back, and he's not a pack mule.
do people still go to the movies? i went to one a few years ago, but it didn't make an impression on me, i can't remember what it was. and i saw the Pantom Menace when it came out on my birthday. but the only movies i see are on Netflix or cable. or downloaded, right, forgot that. doc gets movies sometimes, but our interests don't cross right now. he's all interested in the super hero stuff, and i am bored right to tears with superheroes. never saw the pull. and i dated quite a few comic geeks. never got it. the comics i liked we're Sandman and Exquisite Corpse.
speaking of Sandman, it's finally time for me to delve back into the wonderful world of Neil Gaiman. i have a copy of Anansi Boys i've been dying to get into, but i found it while reading Brautigan's "The Abortion", so i had to finish that first, which i did yesterday. great book, i recommend. get it on kindle, it's an afternoon's read.
please, everyone, send nice thoughts to my mom so she will feel okay contacting me. if she has anything for me, doc has said we can go pick it up. because i don't see them coming over here in this particular timeline. the holidays pull me toward family, a nice encounter with my mom, whether she has anything xmasy for me or not, would go a long way toward the holiday cheer.
the sky is starting to lighten ever so slightly. in another hour the sun will be up. then i can do some stuff up in here. heh. okay, i won't say that again.
time to turn off the news and turn on the xmas music. it inspires me.
here's also hoping, while we're hoping, that my ebay sales go through after tomorrow. or i will consider myself a horrible failure. my jewelry used to sell, but it mostly sold to friends. i need strangers to buy it!