I’ll start blogging over on blogger: I was going to say, maybe.

I’ve long said that I would love to have a doggie communicator, but if its the one I read about in Yahoo!News, I think I’ll wait. According to the article, Computer can help your dog communicate,

Hungarian scientists are working on computer software analyzing dog barks that could allow people to better recognize dogs’ basic emotions

It goes on to list the emotions they tested:

have tested software which distinguishes the emotional reaction of 14 dogs of the Hungarian Mudi herding breed to six situations: When the dog is alone, when it sees a ball, it fights, it plays, it encounters a stranger or it goes for a walk.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty good at detecting these emotions in my dogs as well. The alert bark when an intruder/stranger walks by, asking them if they want to go for a walk… those are the easy ones. I want the emotions when my dog is sick and I need to figure out if we need to go to the vet or not. Not if they want to go for a walk (the answer is always YES!).

I completed my first big knitting project. I found the pattern over at hello yarn for a felted knitting tote complete with danger poison sign and every thing. I knew that was the bag for me! 

It took me over a month to complete but that was with the holidays, a trip to SF, Wii playing, being too sick to knit and everything else thrown in there. I learned a lot. Didn’t turn out too bad. I’m pretty happy.

returns!

My friends went to Northampton and all I got was this smashed penny. Actually I love that they brought me back a smashed penny. It makes me feel terrific knowing that people are thinking of me ON THEIR VACATION!

Today driving home for lunch I saw a business pickup truck for “The Gopherman.” You might think it was some kind of pick-up/delivery business, but no, it is a pest management service with the fabulous tag line “Keep their furry buns on the run.”

We celebrated the new year by finally pulling out our summer garden and planting our winter favorites. George has a photo of the last of the tomatoes over at I’m Not One to Blog, But… I’m always torn about pulling out the old crop to put in the new, those poor tomato plants were still producing tomatoes and flowering. Ok, they aren’t great tomatoes any more, but they are tomatoes nonetheless. The basil still had leaves, but the plants were very woody. The chili peppers were still turning red while others were being sun dried. But, if we don’t pull these out, it means we don’t get to grow chard, arugula, lettuce, or Kale. So summer gets the heave-hoe, and winter gets the welcome dirt (and hopefully some rain).

Other good news in the garden, I found a frog in the frog house I made for the frogs living in my compost bin.

Happy New Gardening and Happy New Year!

It has been so hot here this week I think a smashed penny from the desert is most appropriate.

I just completed a “First Hat” knitting class at Knit & Pearl with my good friend Queen Whackamole. It was acutally my first knitting class after the queen showed me the basics of casting-on, knit and pearl. I’ve been wanting to learn to knit for some time now, but I didn’t know it would be this much fun or this addictive. So, without further ado, my first hat:

no matter how much you paid for that gas, you can’t take the nozzle with you.

I saw someone drive away from the gas pump with the nozzle still in his gas tank. No I always envisioned this creating a big mess of gas and that it would be really dangerous. Turns out, that’s not so. It is kind of like the tail of a lizard, the hose gets severed at the joint, and the gas pump it fine and the hose and the nozzle ride away with the truck.

We had one of those Aikido in daily life lessons last night in class. In Aikido, we have the person helping a person practice, an uke, and the person practicing. Each person is helping the other grow. The uke is engaged, extending ki, and trying to help the other person be successful in the test or throw we are practicing. The person practicing is also “helping” the uke go where they are extending their energy. It is also about helping things happen and not struggling to make them happen. Using force in an Aikido throw gives the uke something to resist, something to struggle against. If you approach the throw as if you were helping them go in a particular direction (moving with me), the uke happily and easily follows. 

Voting today, I saw a great example of the opposite of this. When I signed in to vote, got checked off, one woman started in on another poll worker, who was busy putting out voting instructions. “She needs a ballot” the woman said in a bossy tone to the other poll worker. The co-worker replied, “then give her a ballot. Stop bossing me around or I’m going to be sick today.” If you grate on peoples nerves and bug the crap out of them, they are are going to resist you. We need to approach things in a more positive way. Perhaps if the woman approached her colleague in a different way, we would of all been happier.

I also have a great location to practice this in my daily life, lucky me. At work! We have the most antagonistic work relationship I’ve ever seen. We seem to be working against each other more than we ever work together. Maybe I can help change this.