without running out of time!

Deadlines!  We have all had them in some fashion or another.

Spelling, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Reading homework assignments with next day deadlines--pretty much everyone had them in grade school.  As we got older, the course names may have changed but we still had deadlines.

Then off to the real world... there isn't a job around that doesn't have some sort of deadline for each and every work tasks.

As a writer, "looming deadlines," is similar to a character making it through the "darkest moment" of a storyline.  If you succeed, there is a happy ending.  If you don't, then you have to deal with trying to make sure you and your editor/publisher/agent have a happy ending by the revised deadline.

My deadline for writing my blog entries is midnight daily.  Some days I make it, others... I don't.  Today, because I'm doing laundry...  Yeah everyone wore their last pair of underwear, socks and pants!   Of course, they waited until 930pm to tell me.  ...I have time to write my blog.

I think it was a conspiracy to make sure I sat down to write my blog.  What do you think?

Without Red!

Ok, I was all set to write a post last night and our pup Red had another plan for me. I quickly set up my webcam to snap a few pictures of her, as you can see she really isn't a puppy anymore. Red is a two-year-old "Red" Golden Retriever. Weighing in at 85 lbs doesn't stop her from living her dream as a lap dog.

When Red is bored with her sister Maeve, she comes to me and puts one foot on my leg. I moved back from the laptop to give her my full attention. She took this as her cue to get comfortable and crawled across my entire lap. Sometimes she even feels like typing herself and paws at the keyboard. As you can see Red has an intense look on her face, almost contemplating as to what she could write about.

"Hmmm, let's see I could write about those darn cats in the neighborhood who seem to escape before I can catch them. No, no, I don't want to waste my time on them. Perhaps I could write about all the socks Amy doesn't know I've stashed away for safe keeping. Ha! She thinks the washer ate them. Only I know the truth--well, now you do too.

Perhaps the number of stuffed animals I can hold in my mouth at one time would be more interesting. You would be surprised at how flexible my jaw line is. I believe my record is four! Now, my sister Maeve can only hold a tennis ball with a softball in her mouth. Funny our humans think she has impressive talents doing that! Humph! I say four stuff animals, trumps two balls any day! Don't you agree?"

Without energetic pups!

We recently had our roof replaced. One of the stipulations of the contract was to keep all pets and children indoors and away from the workers.

Keeping our children out of harms way was the easy part--they were at school for the majority of the time frame the roofers ripped off the old shingles and installed the new roof.

However, the pups were a different challenge. Red is a curious dog, she loves to explore counter tops and tables. She steals socks, whole tissue boxes, head sets, ace bandages, baggies of food or anything else she deems interesting. For instance, a terra cotta flower pot one of the kids had decorated to look like a bunny. Red's curiosity got the better of her and she snagged it off the counter. She grabbed the fuzzy-ball-tail and it smashed into several pieces.

The loud noises that the roofers were making drew Red to the windows in the kitchen. She tried to peak under the pull shades covering the windows. I raised them slightly giving her able view of the backyard. Red bark a few times at the workers. Probably telling them, "Hey, I'm in here and I'm watching you." Maeve on the other hand headed to her kennel with ball in mouth and curled up. She was content to just hang in there.

After scolding the workers, Red decided to pester Maeve. Into the Maeve's kennel Red lumbered in and started to poke at Maeve with her snout. Maeve got up and came out. They wrestled over the ball some, then Maeve decided she had enough but this time headed into Red's kennel.

Then a most unusual thing occurred (ok, in my humble opinion)... Red gently pushed her own kennel door shut with her nose, while Maeve was still in the kennel. I began to laugh hysterically until my ribs hurt. Maeve didn't take kindly to her sister shutting her in a kennel, she jumped and came out ready for another round of wrestling on the kitchen floor.

Just watching them have fun made me forget about the constant banging for a few moments...