Blazing Texas heat, overworked air conditioner. I’m working from home about half the time, and my dogs want in-and-out, in-and-out, every hour that I’m here.

That’s my normal summertime routine, and I’m used to it, but I realize that it’s crazy. I decided to count the number of times in a day that I stop what I’m doing to either open or close the back door.

I used this knitting row katcha-counter, and I faithfully clicked every single time I had to walk to the back door for a dog.

Here’s a slice of how this normal summertime day went:
7 am – I’m just waking up, Abe wants out. Counter = 1
7 – 10:45 am – Door stays open, no activity.
10:45 am – Door closed, a/c on. Abe and Tippy are outside.
10:46 am – Abe and Tippy in. Counter = 2

10:48 am – Tippy acts like he wants out, false alarm. Counter = 3

10:50 am – Ike and Tippy out to work on their tans. Counter = 4
11 am – Ike in. Counter = 5
11:20 am – Tippy in. Counter = 6

11:50 am – All dogs in, I leave the house to run errands.
1:30 pm – I’m home, all dogs out. Counter = 7
1:51 pm – I’m trying to eat my lunch, but I stop to let dogs in. Counter = 8

2:10 pm – Ike is sweet.
2:11 pm – Abe and Tippy out. Counter = 9.
2:13 pm – Ike says he wants out, false alarm. Counter = 10
2:22 pm – Tippy in. Counter = 11
2:30 pm – Tippy gets really worked up about something in the backyard and MUST GO OUT. Counter = 12

2:30 pm – Nothing to get worked up about after all.

You get the idea. I was working from home for the rest of the day, so this went on and on. Want to know the grand total?

Yes, that says FIFTY-ONE. Fifty-one times that I stopped what I was doing to let a dog in or out. INSANE.

You might be wondering why I don’t just tell the dogs “no” when they want to go outside for the tenth time in one hour. That’s because I honestly can’t tell if they want to go out to pee, or to chase squirrels. Going outside to pee is important.

I realize that a doggie door would allow me to increase my work-at-home productivity by at least a million percent, but installing one is no easy task. My current door won’t accommodate one, and it looks like I’ll need to cut a hole in a wall instead. All that aside, I can’t even be sure the little bastards will use it once it’s there.

Here’s a cute photo of Abe, since he doesn’t appear anywhere else in this post.

Gotta run. Tippy just shoved the back door open again.

Two posts in one day. Ca-razy!

Anyway, just a note to let you know that I fixed the comments. I didn’t realize there was anything wrong (other than the fact that you folks strangely stopped leaving comments) until I was told that leaving a comment required logging in. Boo! It must have happened when I updated WordPress months ago, but I didn’t notice.

But now it’s fixed! So now you can discuss how bad my dogs are in the video below.

xo
S t a c i

I read somewhere that Basenjis are difficult to train because they need to repeat an action or hear a command FORTY times before they learn it. This is complete hogwash. Basenjis only need to experience something ONCE for it to become a habit, provided it is a habit they enjoy doing. The video below is proof.

Here’s the story…bedtime is usually a very calm and quiet routine at my house. The dogs are always sacked-out by 8pm, and when I’m ready for bed I take their collars and turn off the lights in the house. Then they follow me into my bedroom to continue sleeping. Calm.

I made a mistake last week that upset this applecart. Abe was being silly at bedtime, and he tried to get Tippy to play with him. I thought it was cute and funny, so I very foolishly encouraged the behavior by roughhousing a bit with Abe. Tippy and Ike joined in, and it became a complete circus. A totally fun circus, yes, but a very bad idea at bedtime.

So this is what I’m left with. Three dogs that have adopted a new bedtime routine that includes behaving like crazed monkeys. Enjoy my pain in HD quality.

Back on December 14, 2007, I started a photography project. One self-portrait a day, posted to flickr, for one year. I decided to do it for two reasons. First, as a diary. I took the photos I wanted to show myself when I’m older. Second, to get better at photography. On December 14, 2008 I completed the project.

I gave myself a couple of weeks without taking photos, then on December 31, 2008 I started a new project. I still took a photo everyday and posted it to flickr, but they didn’t have to be selfies this time. Any ol’ photo would do.

I did well on this project for a while, then I lost my mojo. I would miss days at a time, then post photos I wasn’t really proud of. On December 6th of last year, 324 days into the project, I hit ‘Pause’. I didn’t give up on the project, but I decided to allow myself some time to get my mojo back.

Tick-tock, tick-tock, time passed. I didn’t think much about photos at all, and I even found it difficult to remember to pull out my camera for important things! How easy it was to get out of the habit. Then, a few weeks ago, I found myself sort of sad that I didn’t take many photos anymore. I actually caught myself thinking this: I wish I had a reason to MAKE myself take photos again.

DUH, Staci! Dummy! You paused your photo project! Hit ‘PLAY’!

So I did. I’m only a few days into resuming the project, but the mojo is there. I’m enjoying it again, and even working to understand more elements of photography and light. Someday I might make the brave move to change my camera settings to something other than “auto”.