The family dog

It is not in the title, but we also have a dog.  When we first got married, we had two cats and they were friendly personable cats that let you pet them and hung out in the same room as you, but having a dog is different.  A dog truly becomes a part of your family, especially if you have kids.

To begin with, I never, ever, thought I would be a dog owner.  Growing up, my brother and I had to take care of the dogs.  My stepmother fancied herself a "dog breeder" of some kind which really meant she was amazed how much she could sell a puppy for if it was a purebred, so she decided that she would buy another Pekinese and we could sell the puppies.  Somehow two Pekineses turned into anywhere from 3-7 Pekinese dogs, and my brother and I were responsible to feed, walk, bathe, and care for the dogs.  Anyway, when I left for college, I swore I would not get a dog ever.  I even told my wife that before we got married,  Funny what you will do sometimes when you fall in love.

So, our dog is named Lulu.  Dana never wavered, always wanted a Welsh Corgi, and finally asked that the dog would be her Mother's Day present.  I had always said that the kids needed to be older so they could take care of the dog (as I enjoyed the experience so much) but my sister finally said, "if you wait until they are teenagers and are old enough to take care of the dog, they will take care of it for four years and you will take care of it for the next fourteen after they are gone."  Lulu is a Welsh Corgi and spends her days either trying to convince you to throw a ball or toy, eating, sleeping, or listening for someone to pick up their car keys and then look really sad and pitiful that you will not take her in the car.  She has staked out the spot at the top of the stairs in the central hallway as her spot.  You can see people coming from all directions and force people to step over you, too.  Why would she move?  She is the dog and the true owner of the house.  The only time she does move is during mealtime, and then she has strategically placed herself behind one of the kids who are messy eaters in case crumbs fall to the floor. She has been wonderful with the kids and that is truly the best part. Delaney will hug her and lay on her like a pillow, Andrew loves dressing her in Halloween costumes, and she checks on them when they go to bed and will wake them each morning. I started walking her each morning more as a way for me to lose weight, but now it is more for her. As soon as I get out of bed in the morning, Lulu will follow me until I have her leash in her hand. That is when they jumping starts. She has short legs, so she always comes back from the walk, tired, with her tongue hanging out.  No matter though, her favorite part is when we return home and she rolls on her back in our front yard.  She will come bounding up the stairs, drink from her water bowl, and then take up her spot at the top of the stairs and make sure the kids get out to school.  Her life is pretty good.

Yard work on the weekend

Growing up as a kid, among all my chores, the one I detested the most had to be an hour of weeding.  Nothing that I can remember was a reviled as much as the hour of weeding.  Every time my mother would set the timer and we would have to sit in the flower bed and pull weeds until the timer went "ding".  I am sure I probably spent more time digging in the dirt than actually pulling weeds out of the ground, and now that I have my own children, I am sure that I had to be one of the worst whiner, complainer, excuse makers there ever was when it came to pulling weeds.

So, this past weekend was the first nice day of spring and what was I looking forward to the most...yard work!  I clipped and pruned and cut bushes.  I planted lettuce and beets and peas in the garden and made my daughter help me as you protested in vain because she wanted to go and play with her friends in the neighborhood.  I mowed the lawn front and back and even did the edging to make it look really nice.  The only reason I stopped either Saturday or Sunday was because we had to eat dinner and it was getting dark.  So why the change?

It must be something about being able to see an accomplishment and pride of home ownership I am sure, but honestly, I enjoy it because I get to choose which weds to pull or which shrubs to prune.  I think that is it.  I also enjoy working in the garden with my children, even with all the protests of unfair child labor laws that I am forcing upon them.  Yes, I listened to them complain about how cold, tired, hungry, bored, thirsty, and just plain old wanted to play with their friends one afternoon last October as we planted tulips bulbs in the ground.  They each thought they were beautiful when they bloomed this Spring, and Andrew had even taken a bulb and soaked it in a glass of water with food color to try to change the color of the tulip.  He insists that it is a slightly darker shade of orange than the rest of the tulips.  Delaney complained this weekend as we planted peas, but I know that she will be the first to pick them off the vine and eat them a few weeks from now.

In short, I want the yard to look nice because I was taught that way and it is actually easier to take care of than an overgrown jungle.  But I want my children to learn to take of things too, and that they can grow flowers, fruits, and vegetables, with a little care.

New meanings for old words

In the past week, I have discovered two words that have disappeared from our language and been replaced with other terms.  The days of watching police shows on TV and hearing them talk about a suspect are gone.  Nowadays, police speak of "persons of interest".  There are no longer suspects that police apprehend or question about some crime.  When did that change?

• From the Channel 13 Action News website, "Las Vegas Metropolitan Police have arrested a man that was being sought as a person of interest in the first homicide of 2012."
• From Channel 2 Florida Coast News, "Police in Maine who say they suspect foul play in the disappearance of Florida firefighter Jerry Perdomo have named Daniel Porter a person of interest." 
• From the VeroCoast News, "A person of interest is being interviewed in connection to the first homicide of the year in Indian River County. Sheriff Deryl Loar Monday morning called the homicide an "isolated incident."

Aren't these people suspects who will most likely be prosecuted for a crime?  According to Dictionary.com, the term suspect is a noun meaning "a person who is suspected, especially one suspected of a crime, offense, or the like".  The first time I can remember hearing the term"Person of Interest" was 1996 during the bombing at the Atlanta Olympic Games and police didn't want to scare their suspect away, so they called him a person of interest.  Now, it seems that people are to scared of slander, lawsuits, or just hurting people's feelings so police or seek persons of interests and not suspects.

The other word that I found out of place in the last week or so is the term "suspended".  Rick Santorum "suspended" his campaign for president of the United States last week. Once again, according to Dictionary.com, the verb suspend means, "to come to a stop, usually temporarily; cease from operation for a time".  Baseball games are suspended when the rain comes and then play resumes when the rain passes.  Same with golf tournaments. 

• With the weather radar showing storms littering the area and the forecast expecting rain through the night, tonight’s game has been suspended due to rain. The game will be resumed Saturday night at 8:37 p.m. in the bottom of the second inning, where tonight’s game left off.  

Does this mean that Rick Santorum real start his campaign again in a few weeks or months?  In case you were wondering, Herman Cain, Jon Huntsman, and Michele Bachman have also suspended their campaigns too.  So, why do presidential candidates "suspend" their campaigns instead of just saying, we have stopped running for President because the voters chose somebody else.  As with all things politics, it is about the money.  There is one candidate who terminated his campaign for president last week,  Tim Pawlenty announced that after supporters of mitt Romney had helped pay off over $500,000 dollars of debt his campaign had run up, then he finally terminated his campaign. 

So, I gues the only person who has used the word "suspended" accurately in regards to their Presidential campaign was Mitt Romney.  Mitt Romney suspended his campaign for President in February 2008, and then started again in Jun 2011.  Judging by that example, hang on to your lawn signs because Santorum, Bachman, and Cain will be running again in 2016.