One of my projects for this weekend (Note: Remember, my weekend is Tues/Wed) was what Tamela calls Poop Patrol and I call the Search For Shit. I have to do this about once a week or so, or right about the time it feels like walking through my yard is akin to entering a mine field. However, unlike Tamela, I can't fling the "treasures" out of my yard. I think my neighbors would become slightly perturbed.

And the "Well About Damn Time" award goes to me, who finally got back to doing some writing. I was absolutely thrilled to hear that my Clarion pal, Daniel, sold two stories to Asimov's. But that was the reminder that I am not going to be selling much if I don't get with the writing! I just had a story come back (from Asimov's) and so now I only have two stories on the market. My great plans for working on the sequel to my other novel fizzled badly, so today I took my laptop down to the library and did some plinking on a short story that I've been mulling over since about January. I've also promised myself (and Daniel) that I'm going to have it finished by the time I leave for Oregon in two weeks.

I had the weirdest nightmare the other night about my dog. I dreamed that someone told me that there'd been a mistake and a mixup and someone else was supposed to get Zeus. It was pretty horrible for a few minutes, and then--and here's the cool part--in my dream I realized that there was no way it could be true. I told the person flat out they were full of it, because I had papers to prove that Zeus was mine-all-mine. So HA! Turned into a rather satisfying dream.

Zeus, of course, continues to do well. He's leaps and bounds ahead of all the other dogs in doggie school--probably because I work with him constantly. I'm going to have to find a different trainer after this class is finished though. She's nice and all, but she really doesn't know how to do the sort of training that I'm looking for for Zeus. She's great with basic obedience with normal, ordinary dogs, but doesn't know much about training a dog to Out(calling him off) or Guard. I talked to her a bit after class this week and asked her some questions about some problems I was having, and when her responses were shrugs with "Gee, I don't know, maybe you could try such-and-such..." I knew that I was going to have to find another trainer later on. I'd love to hire one of the Dog Boys, but I don't know if either of them have the time.

And I can thoroughly sympathize with Erin over the temporary loss of her thumb. Back when I was 17 or so I was in a pretty severe car accident, and among my injuries were a broken thumb and a dislocated thumb. No thumbs. For a month. Life becomes pretty friggin impossible with no thumbs.