I am pretty sure that my computer will be going back to the computer doctor soon ( Windows refuses to close down, for all of it’s avowals that it is doing so)and that he will lose the information that I have on D. So I have pissed away a lovely day making a massive folder and putting a copy on Sally’s space as well as on mine. I could just wait until Monday, when I (hopefully) get the software to re-install my CD burner, but I am very, very paranoid at the moment.

Once I have finished uploading that folder, it’s time to put up Photoshop and clean out the camera. Then the computer chores that must be done before we leave will be done.

I admit, my heart is half way to Italy right now, not here at all.

Danelle was kind enough….took pity on me… was protecting herself… and sent me this link. To those of you- or, perhaps, it is just me- who cannot spell, this little thingy is a Godsend.

Thank you again-

As we have crawled through the process of renovating/ rebuilding our little Casa in Brabant, one of the things that we have been doing- room by room- is replacing the electrical wiring.

The house was last ‘wired’ in the early fifties and it showed. Typically, each room had one electrical outlet, located right below the light switch to the side of the door. As we have moved through the various rooms, I have had our very tolerant, genius of an electrician ( and I am in no way being sarcastic, the guy is a genius ) place 2 double outlets – right above the baseboards-on each wall of every room. The message the fire fighters passed on worked only too well, in my case. No, no octopi of extension cords in this house.

The renewal of the system was completed last year when we replaced the fuse box ( ? Is that what it is called ? That place that you go to when your lights go out and you fumble around trying to find a new… fuse ? plug ? thing ?) with a state-of-the-art fuse box (?). It’s very pretty, a long row of little switches, a second shorter row of switches, not a plug ( ?), thing (?) to be seen. We were assured that our power would never blow again, nope, not with this system. And we could never, no, not in a thousand years, over burden it.

So Han and I were more than a bit concerned when the power went out 4 times last week, three of which occurred in the middle of the night. And after the last one, I was unable to simply flip the switch in the second row and have life return to our home. And so, on Tuesday, the electrician came.

He is an amazing man. I explained the problem and he took off like a bloodhound, determined to find the source of the problem. Which he did.

It seems that one of our cats had decided that the perfect place to mark out her territory, to take a piss, was one of my handy-dandy, just above the baseboard electrical outlets. Liquid enters outlet, system shuts down.

And so the electrical situation was resolved, but my computer was dead. Windows would neither open or close, just sat there, announcing Windows 98 endlessly.

And so Han ( prince that he is) took my computer to the computer guy and he re-installed some vital parts that had gotten blown out, telling Han that everything was fine, all that I had to do was type in the product code number and life would be peachy.

Except someone lost the code number.

I eventually found it by drifting through my computer in the safety mode, only to find that once life had returned to my computer, all of my programs, addresses and links were gone.

But it could have been worse : for some reason, it didn’t touch the disk where I keep projects that I should be working on, and so outside of re-installing my programs, I didn’t lose much.

And we all know the moral of this story, don’t we ?

Do you know, the ‘Blank’ post was my 1000th post ? Hmmmm.

My computer is back from the Doctor, lightened of many programs ( like almost everything ). I have had to hone my skills in MS-Dos , or whatever that is called, retrieve lost codes ( that one made me feel very clever), find my MT username and password ( that one made me feel very stupid), next on the list is to find our cat Jimmy and put a pamper on her.

More later. Oh, note : go and reinstall that spell-check thing that Danelle has.

We are having an emergency visit today from our electrician.

What does this mean ?

It means that about 5 seconds after scandisk has run, he decides to turn off the electricity again.

I’ll be back later.

Scene : The bathroom. Sue is drying Meg off after her bath. Sue is singing.

Meg : Stop it, Mommy !

Sue : ( Gives a Bronx Cheer) I don’t have to stop it. That’s one of the advantages of being the Mother- I can do whatever I want. Ha ! Ha! Ha!

It has suddenly hit me that we leave for Italy in a couple of weeks. While Meggie and I will be flying there, Han and the other children will be driving and so it is time to start organizing everything.

Obviously, Italy isn’t Mars, everything that we will need for our stay can be purchased there, but who wants to have to hit a grocery store the minute that you arrive at your destination ? A small box of essentials makes life easier : toilet paper, bug spray ( bugs love Mike), the fixings for coffee, perhaps a bottle of kitchen soap and a few sponges.

Bathing suits and blow-up toys have to be located, beach towels, sandals.

Suddenly, Summer has arrived.

Han had a bit of a confrontation yesterday with one of our neighbors. This has happened two or three times before, over the years, with the same person. It usually has something to do with either our dogs or our children and yesterday it was both.

Sally and Mike were out in the yard, playing with the puppies. Elvis was nipping at Mike and per our instructions, Sally slapped him on the top of his muzzle and said ‘Nay !’. The neighbor then came out and told Sally not to hit the dog. The neighbor must have gone on for quite a while, for Han figured out what was happening , went into the yard and told the neighbor to mind their own business.

But he took a lot longer to say that.

While I do know that many people raise their dogs without ever hitting them, we will one day have two dogs weighing in at over 150 pounds each, of a breed that for many years was listed as the strongest dog in the world, entirely capable of killing anyone or thing that they choose. While very gentle by nature, it is our responsibility to make sure that our pets never harm anyone, in any way.

There are three things that our puppies get hit for ( usually a smack on the top of their nose, as that – while not hurting much- scares the piss out of them ) : biting people, jumping up against people, and growling at people. So far, these two don’t growl at people, and only one of our other three dogs ever did. A few times, when I was brushing him, Stan growled at me. Those were classic oh-fucking-shit moments, for you can’t just let it pass. I had to remain the boss at all times and taking the risk that my arm might be bitten off, I had to punch him in the nose and tell him to cut the crap. Which I did. But I can think of more pleasant ways to pass the time.

Sounds brutal, a full punch in the nose, but at that time, Stan outweighed me by a good 50 pounds and had teeth like a bear. Would you like to be confronted by a dog that large, growling at you ? Lifting his lip over his bared teeth ?

Many people use psychology with their dogs and that is fine with me. Han and I have always raised our dogs following the concept of a wolf pack, where there is a definite social order within the group, and the dogs are at the bottom and they know it . And aggressive behavior is punished immediately and not by expressions of disapproval alone.

You know, having potentially dangerous dogs is really a different experience than that of having a cute little lap dog.

You all remember Cujo, don’t you ?

Mike with Elvis, Meggie, Sally with Buddy.

Week 1 here.

Check out this ebay item .

You too can become a tycoon in the game.