11/26

The kitchen smells wonderful. there are no food smells -- nothing's cooking -- but we vacuumed, mopped and have kept Bentley out for a couple of hours now and it smells like a nice sanitary kitchen again. We're gonna try to begin "crate training" tonight (I know, we were supposed to have done it his first night home, but we couldn't bear the crying.)

I just realized how much money trouble I'm in. well, I guess it's not as urgent as "trouble," just that I have a lot planned and a little saved. There are the basics, like paying the monthly stuff (once again, thank God I threw out the cell phone. I've never once missed it) and the necessary extras, like Bentley's shots coming up next month, and Christmas gifts, and the unnecessary thing that I really really want and am going to have, the feb. SF trip.

At Costco today I saw this thing that I wanted so much -- more than I wanted that tide schedule Baby G, more than I wanted that big tray of croissants. It was a bottle of dutch vodka with Vincent Van Gogh images on the back, which you could see through a clear pane in the frosted glass. I wanted that bottle. It was beautiful. It was $25. I wouldn't even drink the vodka, I'd just keep it on my desk and look at it all the time. Or let someone else have the vodka and fill it up with water. But most likely just keep it unopened. But I couldn't justify spending $25 on a bottle of something I wasn't going to drink, or even on a beautiful bottle I would just look at and enjoy all the time. So I left it. Because I have to buy plane tickets and stuff.

But I did get to buy something else exciting -- a 3-pack of kirkland surface disinfectant wipes. Doggie-ness has infiltrated the entire house, and dearly though we love the doggie, it's nice to have things smelling lemony fresh. And thrilling to have thick, absorbent disinfectant sheets with which to wipe up fresh messes.

Oh! bentley's here! we're all taking turns keeping him awake till it's Absolutely Bedtime. when we're successful, he sleeps for 4-hour stretches. Which still means getting up at 4:30 a.m. sometimes but hopefully tonight, the first night of "crate training," we will all be allowed to sleep till our normal wake-up time (6-ish.) It doesn't seem like a huge difference on paper but at 4:31 it is most definitely a gargantuan difference. I feel the worst, most spiteful anti-canine sentiments at 4:30 a.m. every day. But once I wake up a little more, it's impossible not to love the little pest. Yaps and nips and poop and all.

time to watch news

... I hate it when my system decides to be lactose intolerant.

Dad came home from Maui. wonder if he notices the super-clean kitchen floor. Lemony freshness!

Wonder if E's B is done with Ocean sports site. I copy edited. Back to my nappy roots.