Usually, vacations whiz by and the next thing you know you are back at work trying to recover from your vacation. This vacation was long and not in an enjoyable way. I knew traveling with the dog was going to be trying--it was a seven hour drive, after all. But that turned out to be the easy part. Our wonderfully easy-going dog--the dog who loves every person and every dog and every cat--hated my mother's dog. Well, only when she was standing up, wavering on her dysplastic hips. Still the growling and snarling and snapping really gave us the full flavor of the hatred. Also, not a fan of my dad. Again, when he was standing up on his wonky hips. (I don't think his are dysplastic.) But after the emergency phone call to the animal behaviorist, I calmed down a lot. Turns out, Stella just saw her opportunity to become top dog and wanted to cull the pack a little. The only thing we could do in the short term was keep them separated. Although it wasn't easy, it made things much simpler.Stella also kept waking up at 3:30 am--stress and sleeplessness cocktail, charming. Since I was in a house full of people, I had to take her outside. I could have slept all day and not made up for the awakening. Finally, two days before the vacation ended, we decided to let her sleep in her bed rather than in the crate. She slept until 5:30 the first day and 6:00 the next. I never thought being rudely awoken at six am would seem like such a relief! (We decided we were on to something, and Stella is sleeping in our room on her own bed. Today, 6:30--and I woke her up!)
After the day of rain (and I do mean 24 hours) the weather turned autumnal, so there were no more beach days, though we did take Miss Stella for a walk on the beach, leashed. And perhaps if I were a smarter one, we would have taken a few leashed walks on the beach before we went off leash. Next time I bet we'll all enjoy ourselves more.
And for a review of the month in stitching
- finish Anna's stocking--nearly, just need a few strands to finish the personalization
- finish Brett's stocking--YES!
- finally sew AB stash and dash bags--um, no
- stitch Hinzeit Sisters for sissy--yes, this is what I did on my summer vacation (see below)
- make a dozen bookmarks for the dude--didn't get any made, but I did find some good patterns and ideas
- finish finish one project for me--nope
Hinzeit "Sisters"
Stitched with Caron Waterlilies "Cherry" (101) on unknown fabric
Mill Hill "Martini"
For this month, I plan to:
- finish mom's mermaid
- finish Granny's martini
- sew a purse for my aunt
- sew those AB stash and dash bags
- sew two messenger bags
- stitch a small piece for each of my Harry Potter crazed nephews (2)