Michael Jordan

We have Michael Jordan's distant cousin living at our house. It's our dog.

When Gary is sitting in his computer chair and Riley wants to get on his lap, he does a vertical jump that looks like he is doing a quick floating upwards with no effort. I think he really is an athlete.

Of course when he sits on the back of the couch and I'm sitting on the couch, when he jumps down on my leg, he feels like he's 50 pounds. He's really only about 13 pounds.

When he gets up on Gary's lap, he often tries to get on his chest. Gary holds him there and then he stretches out with his paws and kind of pets Gary and licks his ear. Riley is very affectionate and a little bit demanding. Good times!

Random Thoughts

It was good to see family yesterday on Thanksgiving: my cousin Kay (she hosted the event) and her husband and two kids, my two aunts and their husbands, my nephew Caleb and wife Mandie, my cousin's aunt and uncle on her dad's side, two dogs Skiddles and Hairy (both girls). We laughed a lot, ate a lot, talked a lot. Kay and I got to go through some of my Grandma Rose's jewelry and pictures. I brought some of the stuff home. It's not really my style, but I may wear some of the pins. I mainly brought stuff home to be able to touch my grandmother's life.

I watched the most recent Indiana Jones movie this morning on pay-per-view. I liked it a lot. Yay for Harrison Ford and his being able to keep up with the action!

The dog is sitting on my foot right now. I like it.

I'm home alone today except for the dog. He's a good boy.

I know someone through a co-worker who was going to shop most of the night last night. I am mostly a non-shopper, so I don't understand shopping all night. I think that ranks right up there with the torture of water dripping on the forehead.

I wish I had some elves to put up the Christmas tree and decorate the house. I guess I do have elves named Gary and Aaron, but I think they are more trolls when it comes to Christmas decorating (although they usually will help setting the tree up and getting the boxes of decoration for me. I guess I shouldn't look a Christmas troll in the mouth ((or the ear, nose or eye))). Don't you like all those parentheses?

My husband has two containers of peanuts sitting on the computer table. He called me a little while ago and told me that I shouldn't give the dog any peanuts out of the jar but to give him peanuts out of the can. He doesn't want the dog to know there are peanuts in the jar. He doesn't want to get him starting begging when he sees the jar, but it's okay if he begs when the can is open. My husband is a dog whisperer.

I left my coffee and scoop at Kay's house. Humph.

Fiber

The dog is hungry most of the time, but he doesn't always want to eat his dog food when it's served. He always hopes to get a little bite of human food, either accidentally or on purpose.

At various times of the day, when he really needs some that especially has fiber, he finds a Kleenex or several Kleenexes and has a little snack.

The other night I was sitting on the couch with a small blanket over my legs and lap. He got under the tent and was very quiet. I thought he was just enjoying the warmth and security. I was WRONG. He was eating a Kleenex.

The moral: Where there's a will, there's a way. OR Fiber is where you find it. OR If your master doesn't feed you properly, go scrounge for yourself. OR If you keep your yap shut, no one may see that you've done wrong.

Duets and Trios

We had special missionary/church anniversary meetings at church on Friday, Saturday and both services on Sunday. They were all good.

Part of my and Gary's responsibilty was to be involved in special music. Gary sang a solo on Friday; we sang a duet on Saturday; and the we sang in a mixed quartet on Sunday night.

When we practiced Gary's solo at home on Thursday, we started hearing a lovely, thin little high duet part being sung along with Gary's solo. It was our sweetly musical little dog. He was howling with a very delicate voice along with Gary. He was mostly on pitch. He sang with his eyes closed and his nose pointing up to the ceiling. It was a surprise. We didn't know we had gotten a musical puppy.

Then on Saturday Gary and I were practicing our duet. Riley sang with us again. It was really an enjoyable trio. We may have to take him to church someday to sing with us. He may, however, detract from the message of the song. Oh, yes, he rocks back and forth to the beat.