Spring Break

Well, I am on Spring Break right now, so I have no fun kid stories to share. I suppose I'll just have to talk about my own life for a while. (I won't be hurt if you want to stop reading here. It's bound to get zzzzzz(snort)zzz. Whaaa? Oh. Where was I?)

Since I have two glorious weeks off from work, what do you think I've been doing?

A fair amount of work, to be honest. I even met with my teaching partners at one of their homes and we worked the day away planning how we're going to get all the math we need taught done before the state test next month, and ate homemade Pho. Yum!

Oh, and I got them signed up on Twitter!

If you're not on Twitter, let me just say you're missing out. That joint is hopping with cool stuff! I get tweets daily, loaded with wonderful websites and techie ideas that I can't resist trying out while I sip my coffee in my pajamas with a cat on my lap until four in the afternoon.

For example, SpeakingImage.org is a find! You can import images, add text to image, create a wiki to go with it, and collaborate with others! I've already created three that I'm going to use with my unit on electrical circuits when I get back! This would be a great way for students to show their understanding of a given topic.

Now, back to me...

We are dog-sitting for my vacation. I did the math. That is 22 legs in our little home now, 20 of which are hairy. (We have a parrot and I have been busy. Don't judge.)

Our temporary house guest is Louie. He's a spunky and fun little guy who belongs to my mother. He also piddles for no apparent reason, so he's got a cloth diaper tied around his waist to cover his squirter. (Judge all you want. He has no shame about this.)

Some Louie Fun Facts:

His breed is an unknown mix of some sort of shaggy brown mutt mixed with a sea otter. He's perpetually scruffy and looks like Benji if he'd be cut off at the knees. No amount of brushing can tame his locks, and his coat snags everything on the ground and hangs on to it until he gets on my couch evidently.


He desperately wants to please, but has absolutely no impulse control, which makes for an interesting mix of trying to follow commands while not being able to control his body in any way. He's in a war with himself and the winner is yet to be determined.

His inability to control himself has led to our cats perching on our counter to watch the shenanigans with a fair amount of amusement every time we need to put his leash on. I think they think it's some sort of sport or something, but I wish they'd find a way to help out rather than just being lookie-loos.

He's very curious about our two cats, but they have the weight advantage (they are BIG cats) and he seems to know that so he keeps his distance.

Oddly enough, he does not recognize the weight advantage most other dogs have over him and tries to pick fights with all of our neighbors' dogs. Our neighbors are used to our friendly Siberian Husky and are decidedly put off by her tiny bodyguard.

He's not had a lot of experiences in life. We take our dog all over the place with us so she's very used to car rides, sitting under my chair on restaurant patios, and shopping at the dog friendly mall near us. Louie... not so much. Therefore, he makes a lot of squeaky, unsure, whiny sounds for the first 20 minutes of any new experience.

Not.
Embarrassing.
At all...

Due to his nervousness, he's unpredictable around strangers. Our dog, while she looks like a wolf, is very calm and has proven herself trustworthy around children and adults. Louie, while he looks cute and cuddly, will take your hand off with the quickness of a ninja if you try to pet him. Amazingly, A LOT of people try to pet him! Out of necessity, my husband and I have developed a game plan. One of us walks the dogs and the other jogs alongside like the secret service, making sure no one tries to touch him.

Despite all his quirkiness, I really love the little guy and so does my dog. They play constantly and sleep in a little pile of wet noses and tails in his little dog bed. Well, 1/3 of my dog fits in the dog bed so Louie uses her as his bed.

She is going to be devastated when Louie leaves. We humans are fun...

but we're no Louie.