The Median Sib

I should have knocked on wood yesterday afternoon when I declared to my son and daughter-in-law that Jake (our new puppy) had been PERFECT.  We hadn’t lost a second of sleep because of new puppy whimpering.  We hadn’t had a single mess to clean up.  He’s six months old, and I foresaw housetraining as a breeze.

Soon after uttering those words, RT and I went out to eat with Joey and Meleah - leaving Jake in his crate in our bedroom.  We got home a couple hours later.  I walked into the house and knew instantly that our streak of puppy luck had run out.  The house REEKED of doggy poop.  I had walked into the house via the side door, and Jake was in his crate in the back of the house - a LONG way away, and yet even from that distance, there was no mistaking what had occurred.  The odor was so strong I was afraid that perhaps he had gotten out of the crate and managed to spread “mayhem” throughout the house.  Fortunately, he had remained in the crate.  So at least the damage was semi-contained.

RT took Jake, the crate and the new bed and puppy toys (which had been in the crate) outside.  It took over an hour to undo the worst of the damage.  Apparently the “accident” occurred soon after we left because Jake had had time to thoroughly stomp it everywhere - knocking bits and pieces on the carpet outside the crate and working it well into his new bed and over his toys.  RT scrubbed the crate.  The new bed is still sitting outside.  I don’t want to waste the $20+ we spent on the bed, but then again, the idea of putting it into the washing machine is more than I can stomach.  The toys will be thrown away.  RT put Jake in the jacuzzi and gave him a good bath.  My mother will say, “Carol, the jacuzzi can be cleaned!”  And that’s true.  Still, I will never use that jacuzzi again.  When we build the new house, we’ll have a tub in the barn for animal needs.

While RT cleaned up Jake and the crate, I cleaned up the carpet in the bedroom.  I picked up the pieces of poop that Jake had knocked out of the crate and onto the carpet, scrubbed the carpet with cleanser and then sprinkled baking soda over it to TRY to get rid of some of the odor, and then turned the AC to below 65 degrees in order to get the air circulating more.  Despite all that, I still smelled dog poop all night long.  Even now, I get a whiff of dog poop every now and then.  I wonder if it’s real or simply phantom poop smells?

RT insists that it’s HIS fault - that he should have given Jake more time after eating to take care of business before we left.  Live and learn, I guess.  In our almost 3 days of owning Jake, RT says that he has figured out Jake’s schedule of elimination.  According to RT, Jake does #1, then #2A, #2B, and #2C. Don’t even ask me what he means by that! He tells me we were lucky last night because Jake only did #2A in the crate.  He did #2B & #2C when RT walked him later.

Today Jake’s having a great day, though.  RT took him to work with him, and Jake sat at his feet during a two-hour meeting.  Then RT took him to the vet to get a check-up and all the needed shots.  The vet said that Jake would probably be around 50 pounds when he is fully grown.  He is 34 pounds right now.  RT and Jake came home for lunch - which I fixed since I’m on fall break.  RT insists that Jake will go with him to work each day.  I guess that’s the advantage of owning his own business.  There’s no one to tell him he can’t bring his dog to work.  I wonder how long that will last?  RT loves Jake so much, it could very well be a permanent thing.  And that’s not a bad thing.  

I still have high hopes for Jake.  However, there will be a pad under the crate from now on.  Here’s a photo of Jake and Ron on the airplane yesterday.

Yesterday, RT and I flew to Georgia to visit my mother for awhile.  Out of our seven siblings (of which I’m the median one) - five were there.  My sister-in-law, Vicki, made a HUGE pot of chicken and dumplings.  I love chicken and dumplings.  It’s the ultimate comfort food, and it’s really good for  you.   Here’s an easy recipe for homemade chicken and dumplings.

You’ll need:

1 can refrigerated biscuit dough  (If you really like dumplings, you can use 2 cans.  It just depends on how much  you’re making.  There’s no hard and fast rule here.  Vicki made such a huge pot of chicken and dumplings, she probably used five or more cans!)

chicken (a package or two of boneless chicken or a whole chicken)

chicken stock (one or two cans of chicken broth)

salt, pepper, poultry seasoning

1 onion

2 carrots

2 stalks celery

1 cup plain flour

Place the chicken in a large pot and cover with water.  Add the chopped onion, grated carrot and finely chopped celery to the water.  Season to taste with salt, pepper and poultry seasoning.  Simmer until the chicken is well cooked.  Remove the chicken from the pot and let the chicken cool.  Leave the vegetables in the pot with the liquid.  Once the chicken is cool, remove the meat from the bone and cut or tear into bite size pieces.  Set the chicken aside.

Place the flour in a small bowl.  Open the can of biscuits and cut/break each biscuit into about 8 pieces.   Put the pieces into the flour and coat well.  The flour is what thickens the liquid.  So use it generously.

Bring the reserved liquid to a boil.  Add additional chicken stock, if desired.  It depends on how much chicken and dumplings you are making.  Sometimes I add a drop or two of yellow food coloring to make it “prettier.”

Once it is at a rolling boil, drop the biscuit pieces into the liquid one at a time.  Stir gently to keep them from sticking to the bottom.  Make sure each biscuit piece is well coated with flour before dropping it into the liquid.  After it has simmered for awhile, add the chicken back to the liquid, and it’s ready to serve.  Prepare a salad or vegetable, and you’ve got a perfect meal. 

I’m looking for a good recipe for whole wheat dumplings so that RT will eat them.  Since he is pre-diabetic, he doesn’t eat hardly anything that has plain flour in it.  When I get a good recipe for whole wheat chicken and dumplings, I’ll let you know.

 I just finished re-reading Touching Spirit Bear, a children’s novel (older elementary and middle school, grades 4-8) by Ben Mikaelsen.  The main character, Cole, has been physically and emotionally abused by his father since he was very little, and he lashes out at others as a result.  The author, Mikaelsen, takes up this serious issue and writes about it sensitively and without resorting to profanity or vulgarity.  As a parent and a teacher, I appreciate that.  

After years of being in trouble with the law and after severely beating a younger child, Cole must face either prison or “Circle Justice”, a Native American way of dealing with anger and violence.  Cole doesn’t submit to Circle Justice easily, and his anger, rebellion and his eventual forgiveness of others and himself are skillfully portrayed in the story. 

This morning while reading The Cotillion email, I saw that Kathleen of Right Wing Sparkle has decided to quit blogging.  As I read her last post, I found myself agreeing with her.  What use is blogging anyway?  I’ve gone through so many stages of blogging: I’ve loved it, hated it, tolerated it, been frustrated with it, felt driven to do it, have been offended by it, laughed at it, and had fun with it.  Some posts take hours of tedious work.  Others write themselves in minutes.  When I think of what I’ve written, I’m proud, ashamed, embarrassed, happy all at the same time. 

One time I got so frustrated at what I perceived was the futility of blogging that I started deleting posts, and I deleted about 30 posts before I realized that I didn’t have to delete anything - I could just stop writing.  And so I stopped - for about a day.  Then I was back at it - minus about 30 posts that are gone forever.

When I think about the blogs I read regularly, 99% of them are blogs that I agree with politically or philosophically.  When I DO read blogs from a liberal perspective (which is not my perspective), I refuse to comment.  My comments won’t change anyone’s thinking, and it would only cause hard feelings. 

Then there are the idiots that make blogging a pain - the people who create commenting spam and email spam.  I wonder if there are truly people left on earth who still fall for all those stupid ads and get-rich-quick schemes.  Does anyone still click on links embedded in comments? Apparently the answer is yes because despite the spam blockers I put on the comments for THE MEDIAN SIB, dozens of spam comments still get through to my “comment moderation” page each day.  I then must spend time classifying them as spam and deleting them.  And idiots are still using my web address to send out spam to others.  So each day I must deal with numerous “returned emails” from spam sent from my web address. 

It’s easy to get caught up in traffic - how many people visit THE MEDIAN SIB each day and how many people comment.  My competitive nature kicks into gear, and I want to write about something controversial in order to get more hits and more comments.  Then I have to remind myself that increasing traffic is not my purpose here.

It comes down to the question of whether or not THE MEDIAN SIB makes a difference or serves a purpose.  And, for me, it does.  I know I won’t make a difference it anyone’s thinking.  Sometimes I might provide new information or a different way of looking at things.  Mostly, though, my blogging is for me.  It makes a difference to me.  It’s a form of journaling and communicating. It helps me work through my ideas and thoughts.  It helps me solidify my thinking. 

We don’t have the opportunity to sit down and discuss all our thoughts and opinions with our loved ones.  When I’m long gone, there will still be THE MEDIAN SIB floating around in cyberspace with my words there for my children and grandchildren to read, if they’re so inclined.  Thus, it is also a way of documenting my life.

Greta, at Hooah Wife and Friends wrote this:

“We are all stumbling through life, just some of us do it on a blog, out loud, for the world to read.” ~Greta~

Amen.

 Beth at My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy also talks about how the world needs more Sparkle.