Happy Father's Day to all.
It is early Sunday morning, and two out of the three here are awake. My niece is still sound asleep on the couch. The rest of her family is coming up to visit latter today. We are going to have hot dogs and hamburgers. I do not think it is going to be a BBQ per say as I do not think my father has a grill. It is just as well as it is quite soggy outside. Even Ruffles does not want to spend much time outside. Hopefully the sun will come out latter and dry things a bit.
I hope everyone has a great father's day.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Supper.
My niece joined us at my father's place today and is staying overnight. We went out to Supper with a friend of my father's.
One thing that struck me was that he spoke a lot about my brother's two kids, and the children of a family friend who has become a daughter of sorts to my father. Heaven forbid that my girls should be a subject of conversation.
It has always bothered me that my father has not had much of a relationship with my daughters. Even when I was married, and he had full access to them, he seemed to visit my brother's family much more than mine.
I know that this is, in a way, petty jealousy, but it bothers me.
One thing that struck me was that he spoke a lot about my brother's two kids, and the children of a family friend who has become a daughter of sorts to my father. Heaven forbid that my girls should be a subject of conversation.
It has always bothered me that my father has not had much of a relationship with my daughters. Even when I was married, and he had full access to them, he seemed to visit my brother's family much more than mine.
I know that this is, in a way, petty jealousy, but it bothers me.
A Very Nice Shabbos Evening.
I went to Hadar Hatorah last night, and it went very well. They were very accepting of Ruffles, and she behaved extremely well. I davened Mincha and Maariv for the first time in a very long time. Between Mincha and Maariv , the Rosh Yeshivah gave a shiur. Ruffles sat quietly through the shiur. Personally, I have heard the Rosh Yeshivah give this particular lecture before.
After Maariv we went down into the basement dining room. The tables were formed in a "u" pattern, and I was sitting at a corner so Ruffles was able to sit next to me. I gave her the first table food ever. I decided that on Shabbos, and Shabbos only she can have some table food. It will be interesting to see how it will affect her bowel movements in the next couple of days. She had some Challah, Gefilte Fish, and a little bit of chicken from the soup. I cooled off the chicken before I gave it to her.
It was a very nice evening, and I was very happy with how well she behaved.
After Maariv we went down into the basement dining room. The tables were formed in a "u" pattern, and I was sitting at a corner so Ruffles was able to sit next to me. I gave her the first table food ever. I decided that on Shabbos, and Shabbos only she can have some table food. It will be interesting to see how it will affect her bowel movements in the next couple of days. She had some Challah, Gefilte Fish, and a little bit of chicken from the soup. I cooled off the chicken before I gave it to her.
It was a very nice evening, and I was very happy with how well she behaved.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Hadar Hatorah
It has been a very long time since I was at a Shabbos table. I almost forgot what it was like. Today, a friend of mine at work invited me to go to Hadar Hatorah which is having it's last "in Shabbos" before going to the mountains for the summer. So Ruffles and I accepted the invitation and we will be there for minchah, and will stay until after the meal.
It should be an interesting, and hopefully enjoyable evening.
It should be an interesting, and hopefully enjoyable evening.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Common Sense is Not Common Anymore nor is Common Courtesy.
Overall, my workplace has been very accommodating for Ruffles and I. However, there is one issue that I have had problem that the Management has chosen not to do anything about. The bathroom on my floor has a handicapped stall. More often than not I have to wait for another person to finish using the stall. I am the only handicapped person on the floor that I know. I can not use the other stalls as they are too small to bring Ruffles into. I can not use the urinals as that would position Ruffles in the middle of the bathroom and if someone comes into the bathroom who is afraid of dogs, and there are quite a few at my work, then it would not be fair for them.
People seem to think that I want the handicapped stall to be my personal bathroom. What they fail to understand is that I would not mind if someone uses the handicapped stall if the other stalls are being used. All I ask of people is the common courtesy to use the open regular stalls when they can and use the handicapped stall as a last resort. I do not think that this is so much to ask of people?
I have been over this issue with management several times with no results. They will not even put out a simple memo asking people to only use the stall as a last resort.
Luckily, I had no problem on Wednesday, but I have had some confrontations with fellow employees as I point out to them that they are using a handicapped stall.
Some people I just do not understand.
People seem to think that I want the handicapped stall to be my personal bathroom. What they fail to understand is that I would not mind if someone uses the handicapped stall if the other stalls are being used. All I ask of people is the common courtesy to use the open regular stalls when they can and use the handicapped stall as a last resort. I do not think that this is so much to ask of people?
I have been over this issue with management several times with no results. They will not even put out a simple memo asking people to only use the stall as a last resort.
Luckily, I had no problem on Wednesday, but I have had some confrontations with fellow employees as I point out to them that they are using a handicapped stall.
Some people I just do not understand.
A Mixed Bag
I have not written in quite a long time. This is partly due to my recently getting involved in Facebook, and partly in my losing my Internet connection. I have a signal now from my upstairs neighbor. It is not the best signal as I can only get it from a part of my apartment, but it is a signal none the less. I am contemplating, if no other solution is possible, to get my own Internet but I can hardly afford it at the moment.
Little Girl is sick right now. She got something over last weekend, and was feeling better on Monday, but had a turn for the worse yesterday. I will not be seeing them today because of this, and because I am getting a cold myself. It is ironic because I originally called off this weeks meeting due to Little Girl's sickness and my going to my father's place for Father's Day. He has his own medical issues at the moment and does not need a cold on top of them. The irony is that I may not be going now because I am sick. I will see how I feel tomorrow, but I do not plan on taking any chances. My brother and his family will be at my father's as well and I do not want to get any of them sick.
I gave Little Girl her birthday present, belated, last Thursday. I got her a Dora three wheel scooter. She loves it! What I did not anticipate was that Big Girl loved it as well, and now she wants a three wheel scooter as well. Big Girl has a two wheel scooter already, and I just recently found out that she is having a hard time riding it. She is having a hard time balancing. So I will get her one in the next week or so.
They are both becoming much more comfortable with Ruffles. I have started to pick them up at the bus stop again, and we walk with Ruffles to my house. I keep Ruffles on a tie down when we are in my apartment. Before, Little Girl was so afraid of Ruffles that she would not be in the same rrom with her. Now she has gotten to the point where she will be in the room with her so long as Ruffles is on tie down. Big Girl will play with Ruffles while on tie down. She will throw her a toy and Ruffles will throw it back to her. It is cute. Neither of them has gotten to the point where they will pet Ruffles or give her a treat, but that will come with time.
Ruffles is progressing nicely. She still has some issues with scent and dog distraction but we are working on it. We went to a park two weekends ago. There was supposed to be a dog run, but we did not find it. We did run across other dog owners who were also looking for the park. In the end we came across a pond that was partially fenced so that dogs can swim. I took off Ruffle's harness and let her off leash. She ran into the pond and swam like there was no tomorrow. I have heard of other labs loving swimming but this was the first time I saw Ruffles swim. I heard from one of her puppy raisers on Facebook that she would swim a lot when she was a puppy. I was planning on going there again today, but I am not feeling well and it is raining. The one concern that I had was that there were a lot of dogs and they got into a pack mentality. I became invisible to Ruffles and she would not come when I called to her. There were two times when a bunch of the dogs ran out of the swim area into an adjacent part of the park. My heart stopped the first time as I thought she was gone, but shortly after the pack ran back into the pool. I like that she had some free time, got to exercise, and had a good time, but I do not like how uncontrolled the situation became. I had to have this young girl call her over and take her by her collar to get her to leave the pond. I may try it one more time but I will do some obedience training when we get there. Otherwise, I will have to find a more suitable place for her to run and play.
Work is going well. I got a gift card from my store out of the blue for my sales numbers from the week prior. It was nice to be recognized for a job well done. Yesterday, I was supposed to come in at 100o hours, but I forgot and I got to work at 0900 hours. I did not realise this until about twenty minutes to 1800. I told my manager and he let me go an hour early. This was nice as I was planning on meeting with a friend who flew in from England the night before. We hung out a bit and then I went home.
That is all for now. I will try to keep this blog updated at leas twice a week from now on. I was standing outside of work yesterday as I waited for my friend from England when some walked up to me and asked me if I had a blog. I respond that I did and he asked for the URL. Apparently, my blog has been a subject of discussion amongst some people at work. I asked him if it was positive or negative discussion, and he replied that it was a mixture of both.
Well, it would appear that I will need to write more to keep the discussions going. I already have the subject of my next post.
Little Girl is sick right now. She got something over last weekend, and was feeling better on Monday, but had a turn for the worse yesterday. I will not be seeing them today because of this, and because I am getting a cold myself. It is ironic because I originally called off this weeks meeting due to Little Girl's sickness and my going to my father's place for Father's Day. He has his own medical issues at the moment and does not need a cold on top of them. The irony is that I may not be going now because I am sick. I will see how I feel tomorrow, but I do not plan on taking any chances. My brother and his family will be at my father's as well and I do not want to get any of them sick.
I gave Little Girl her birthday present, belated, last Thursday. I got her a Dora three wheel scooter. She loves it! What I did not anticipate was that Big Girl loved it as well, and now she wants a three wheel scooter as well. Big Girl has a two wheel scooter already, and I just recently found out that she is having a hard time riding it. She is having a hard time balancing. So I will get her one in the next week or so.
They are both becoming much more comfortable with Ruffles. I have started to pick them up at the bus stop again, and we walk with Ruffles to my house. I keep Ruffles on a tie down when we are in my apartment. Before, Little Girl was so afraid of Ruffles that she would not be in the same rrom with her. Now she has gotten to the point where she will be in the room with her so long as Ruffles is on tie down. Big Girl will play with Ruffles while on tie down. She will throw her a toy and Ruffles will throw it back to her. It is cute. Neither of them has gotten to the point where they will pet Ruffles or give her a treat, but that will come with time.
Ruffles is progressing nicely. She still has some issues with scent and dog distraction but we are working on it. We went to a park two weekends ago. There was supposed to be a dog run, but we did not find it. We did run across other dog owners who were also looking for the park. In the end we came across a pond that was partially fenced so that dogs can swim. I took off Ruffle's harness and let her off leash. She ran into the pond and swam like there was no tomorrow. I have heard of other labs loving swimming but this was the first time I saw Ruffles swim. I heard from one of her puppy raisers on Facebook that she would swim a lot when she was a puppy. I was planning on going there again today, but I am not feeling well and it is raining. The one concern that I had was that there were a lot of dogs and they got into a pack mentality. I became invisible to Ruffles and she would not come when I called to her. There were two times when a bunch of the dogs ran out of the swim area into an adjacent part of the park. My heart stopped the first time as I thought she was gone, but shortly after the pack ran back into the pool. I like that she had some free time, got to exercise, and had a good time, but I do not like how uncontrolled the situation became. I had to have this young girl call her over and take her by her collar to get her to leave the pond. I may try it one more time but I will do some obedience training when we get there. Otherwise, I will have to find a more suitable place for her to run and play.
Work is going well. I got a gift card from my store out of the blue for my sales numbers from the week prior. It was nice to be recognized for a job well done. Yesterday, I was supposed to come in at 100o hours, but I forgot and I got to work at 0900 hours. I did not realise this until about twenty minutes to 1800. I told my manager and he let me go an hour early. This was nice as I was planning on meeting with a friend who flew in from England the night before. We hung out a bit and then I went home.
That is all for now. I will try to keep this blog updated at leas twice a week from now on. I was standing outside of work yesterday as I waited for my friend from England when some walked up to me and asked me if I had a blog. I respond that I did and he asked for the URL. Apparently, my blog has been a subject of discussion amongst some people at work. I asked him if it was positive or negative discussion, and he replied that it was a mixture of both.
Well, it would appear that I will need to write more to keep the discussions going. I already have the subject of my next post.
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