Happy Saturday!

First, the update on the little patient: She's doing great. Even her toenails look better. We don't have to return to the vet for a month, hooray!

On other matters: Last week was good, bad, frustrating and fun. I've started calling what I do my Real Estate Volunteer Work. 'Nuff said. I am petitioning the Universe to send me a couple of qualified buyers who want to live on a paved road in a normal neighborhood.

The last prospect I had fell through, but not before I went into the wilderness to locate and preview the property he wanted, which was halfway up the side of a mountain, accessible by a single lane dirt driveway which had a ditch on one side and a drop off the side of the mountain on the other. As I'm driving up what was a "road" only in the most generous sense of the word, I'm just praying that there will be a place to turn around up there (there isn't always - if the property hasn't been maintained it tends to wash out and such) because the thought of backing down filled me with dread, and wondering if I have cell phone service. That time there was a place to turn around, thank God.

I'd been thinking that I am afraid of these things because I'm just a chickenshit flatlander from Florida who hasn't got her mountain groove on yet, until I talked to another agent in the office a couple of days later. He's been selling here for years and said the same thing - he dreads properties like that, and lives in terror of getting stuck, going off the road, etc.

Dear Universe: Please send me a few qualified buyers who want to live on paved roads. Is that too much to ask?

On a much more fun note: I got to meet a fellow Knitter's Review old-timer in person! Marie, aka KnitKnut, lives in Asheville and is just delightful. We had a very enjoyable lunch, and we need to get together again soon, because I realized later that I didn't get a chance to ask her about her writing (we did discuss the writing program at UNCA - she even brought me a brochure). We talked about everything under the sun, but not much about knitting. :-)

The Granddaughter and Dogs Bonding Project made another giant leap forward when her parents brought her over for dinner Tuesday night. We have't attempted dinner here in months, because, frankly, Murphy's a PITA. We started the evening with a ball game to tire them out, which worked to a degree - Murphy did get too tired to play ball, but not tired enough to leave her alone - he hadtohadtohadto kisskisskiss his beloved every chance he got.





She has figured out that he's annoying but he does love her, and is developing tolerance for his stalker-like attention, if not his doggy breath:




By the end of the evening she was running around so Murphy would chase her, and leaning forward to get kisses from Sophie. I think we need another visit or two like that, with mom and dad present for reassurance, and then she'll be ready to perhaps spend a solo evening with me and the dogs. A good time was had by all.

It has been really hot here for weeks - Florida hot. Miserable hot. Can't touch the steering wheel in the car hot. Just walking the dogs is torture hot. "I uprooted my life to move to the mountains for THIS?" hot. But we have a rainy weekend in the forecast, and then (oh please let it be true) next week's highs should be in the low 80s! That's going to feel incredibly good.