Good morning

Greetings on a random day! This made my no-day-in-particular XD

Lazy Chocolate Cake

Chocolate Cake the LAZY WAY

This is when I was in a hurry and took a bunch of shortcuts and it still came out great, so I do it like this now.

1-1/2 cup flour

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup cocoa powder

2 eggs 

1 cup milk

1/2 cup butter 

2 tsp vanilla extract

350 F, greased pie plate 

35 - 40 min 

Coffee and China

That is fun! Not exactly the origin of coffee as a thing, but it was somewhat along those lines.

Darling drinks coffee. I told him the history of how the tea went into the harbor and coffee became American, and now he likes it even more.

“I don’t need it and they can’t make me want it” is a very American sentiment that, unfortunately, isn't heard much any more. 

When's the last time you gave something up because the consumption of something else would be better for the nation? 

Maybe we could just stop buying things from China. The money masters embedded in the jugular of what's left of the US Gubmint sell us out, and we don't seem able to stop them, but they can't make us buy things from China. At least we could stop with the optional spending. 

Good luck living without a cell phone. Don't know if you've tried it lately. But do we have to own a TV? We could just not own a TV. We wouldn't die. 

If we continue to lavish the last remnants of our wealth on other nations not of our own people, we as a people are going to die. Is that okay? Make sure you think about it and say "Yes, that's okay with me" before you spend another buck towards our national destruction. 

As soon as they have something we can’t live without, they own us. "They" is whoever it is who has the thing that we can't live without. 

Some time ago I went into a big box craft store to get one specific tool that was made in China. It was just a plastic overlay with a grid for $6. I really needed it. It would have taken me a long time to make something similar with any materials in my possession. So I desperately rationalized, all the way into the far back corner of the store, but hated myself for a sell-out with every step.

I passed aisles full of cute useless crap - 

 

A SIGN that says "HELLO PUMPKIN"?? I didn't even notice that one until just now. Let's go buy a grown in USA pumpkin and write "Hello Pumpkin" on it with a permanent marker. 

I was hoping nobody actually buys that garbage, but unfortunately, there's probably a reason it was the biggest and closest aisle - so that rich, bored, thoughtless women can pop in there between their nail appointments and Pilates class and pick up signs to advertise, "I live in a FARM house! I'm so Blessed! I'm so Grateful!" 

This was the cart in front of me in line. 

The Made in China labels were easily visible on some of it. And she needs that for WHY? Our economy's going down in flames, we have old men without roofs over their heads, women who won't have children due to financial insecurity, children eating cheap processed food, but oh yeah, "Here's everything I need for my cute autumn themed party! It even matches my purse!" 

Sigh. 

Oh, yes. Coffee. Sorry. 

I was going to say, and then digressed as usual, that I don’t really get it with coffee. Coffee tastes like dirt with a stick stirred into it. Adding sugar and cream makes it palatable, kinda like eating paper napkins with frosting inside.  

I do like tea, but not enough to invade somebody else's country for it. Not gonna say these places aren't justified in trying to get revenge on us. But we don't have to roll over and consent to die! We don't have to help them kill us. We could try admitting that our ancestors were wrong, and decide not to follow their selfishness and greed. 

I'm fine without tea leaves. Herbal infusions are just as good. Peppermint is nice, so's orange peel, chicory, or honestly I'd take any pathetic walnut shell Ersatz that becomes necessary, to be independent. A dip of honey in hot water is delicious and warms the tummy first thing in the morning.  

I do not need any drink, or food for that matter, bad enough to pay taxes on it-- umm haha ha. That’s a good way to get skinny fast. 

Oh, another thing. (This is just random chatter, and that's what the blog is for.)  

Two of my children like coffee. There's no accounting for taste.  One of my children likes Twinkies. We saw the movie Zombieland, and they were all a little puzzled. Me too, as I might have had a Twinkie at some point in my childhood but I don't really remember it.  So we all set out on a Twinkie expedition - luckily no zombies around -  secured a box of them and eagerly sampled this strange new substance. Four kids and I said EWWW and dropped the unfinished Twinkie into the trash.  One of them loved it. 

Dog Food Bag Shopping Bag

Folding up dog food bag to throw away, and it occurs to me that this is an awesome, thick, strong bag. What a waste. Can’t I reuse it for something? Checked internet for reassurance / validation, and there’s pics of everybody’s dog food bags made over into shopping bags. 

Here’s my entry.

It was so easy and quick! That great old fifties Singer 301A with a handle on the flywheel punches through that thick plastic material without a blink. 

It is a very artistic illustration of paleo puppies gathering in the sight of their victim. Don’t they look happy? Look at the dog nearest us smiling! Luckily we have kibbles now, so no more buffalo have to give their lives… ummmm… 

Oh but those pestilence of DEER are another story. They ate my sunflowers down to stalks, completely destroyed a nice tomato plant with baby tomatoes on it. They've ruined the grilles of three vehicles so far. I feel really good about feeding some of them to my dog. 

Three Useful Movie Quotes

From three of my favorite movies come principles that have occurred to my memory at useful moments. 

1) Batman Begins

Rachel sees Bruce acting like a spoiled wastrel while she's trying to clean up corruption in the city. 

In shame, Bruce tries to tell her that's not who he really is. 

She says: 
"Bruce, deep down you may still be that same great kid you used to be. But it's not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you."

 

Rachel asks Batman who he is, and he says, "It's what I do that defines me." 

It's true. We should go by what people have done recently, rather than sentimentality and nostalgic excuses. 

2) Flight of the Phoenix, the remake 

I love this movie, esp the characterizations. Elliott, the aircraft designer, is just about the same degree and style of autistic as I am. I very feel that particular character - capable of occasional brilliant solutions, but generally not going to do very well in life because he doesn't want to admit how much the outcome depends on the emotional reactions of other people. 

That's unrelated to the quote I want to share  :-) 

Here is a thought that sometimes helps me along when the going gets tough. It certainly sustained me through those dark twenty years when there seemed to be nothing to hope for and no dreams. 

"I think a man only needs one thing in life. He just needs someone to love. If you can't give him that, then give him something to hope for. And if you can't give him that, just give him something to do." 

3) Open Range 

One of my top favorite movies, right up there with The Mummy Returns - and I've gotten some weird looks for claiming The Mummy Returns as my favorite movie, but it is! For several reasons! Not for any great quotes, though. 

Open Range is packed full of cowboy wisdom. "You're men, aren't you?" 

Here's the quote I like so much: "Most time, a man will tell you his bad intentions if you listen, let yourself hear." 

SO VERY TRUE and as I look back over some of the psychos I've had to deal with, there was almost always a verbal warning. Usually, there's a warning, and then a laugh, as the listeners "realize" they didn't mean it and are just being shocking or making a joke. 

No, they mean it. They're telling you their bad intentions. The question is whether you will let yourself hear. 

Let people define themselves, and then have the grace to believe them. 

Bonus: 4) Unforgiven 

A movie I only watched once, and didn't like. I prefer the sentimental, black and white, Zane Grey version of the West. 

But my darling asked what this blog post was about, and is glad to offer his favorite quote from a Clint Eastwood western. 

"Well, he should have armed himself if he was going to decorate his saloon with my friend." 

Now that's a quote! -- he says. 

A few posts from Twitter/X

X isn't much of a name. I'd say the new owner should have left it alone. "Twitter" was a thing; although previously an English word, it wasn't used much and was very googleable. How do you search for "X"? It'll have to be explained for the rest of its life. 

In fact it seems to have already settled down into "Twitter / X" 

I had some hope with the new owner, and went back to give it a try. First it made me pick a new password, then asked why I'd changed the password, and none of the options were "because you made me". 

Then it wants me to select my pronouns. The problem is that I speak English, and in English the singular object doesn't get to pick his, her or its own pronoun any more than two or more persons or things have any choices besides "they". 

I went away in mild annoyance. 

But the app was there on the phone, and one night I had something to share, and thought I'd try just ooooone more time! 

It does seem like there should be a platform for sharing. My stuff goes on my space, but other stuff that I've found floating around - well, it seems presumptuous to put that on my space as if it was mine. It's not mine. 

Argh for the particular, the persnickety, the punctilious ones of the world. What can we do? Everything should be just so, but often isn't. 

So I posted a couple of links on Twitter / X, intending to go back later when I had a keyboard and add my comments. 

Found out there's a one hour window for editing your own posts. 

They can be deleted, so that's what happened. 

Here's what I posted on Twiiiii - X and then removed. 

https://www.slashfilm.com/1412312/beekeeper-trailer-is-honey-flammable/

Happened across the trailer for The Beekeeper, and my darling for some reason thought I'd be interested, because, "I thought you liked Jason Statham?" 

1) not like that! I used to need to like random movie actors, but those days are over because I like my darling! and 2) not necessarily although there were a couple of his movies, Parker, most notably. It took me a while to think of the other: Spy! That was just bloody funny. I don't necessarily approve, and yet I've watched it several X. The part where the fat lady kills a guy and then barfs on him... yeah, NO, hahaha. And Ford's over-the-top boasting was so perfect. Don't we all know a guy like that? He's been everywhere, done everything, and now lives to tell you way too much about it. 

And Wrath of Man was okay. Somewhat. 

But I watched the trailer, and of course immediately ran to do "what any sensible person would do", with honey and fire. Conveniently, there was already a fire going, so I dribbled some honey on a flat piece of kindling and put it in the flames. It wouldn't light. After some time it eventually bubbled and carmelized, but didn't burn. So I hit the internet and was amused by this article. "'Honey is natural napalm' is another of Hollywood's lies along with 'ventilation ducts are always large enough to crawl through' and 'people can walk away from explosions without flinching'" 

The article says burning is a test of real honey - real honey burns, sugar water carmelizes - and that jar said "raw, local, natural" honey! Isn't there anything you can trust? 

I also belatedly observed the distinction between flammable and combustible, which is so basic that I'll add it to my list of things I've learned after age 40 that I really should have known before. Funny how I'm still coming across those. 

https://youtu.be/ltcu5Cx8A7I

People in the south when it's freezing 

This amuses me because I'm that neighbor, or aspiring to be. Now that I've learned to get out of bed when the bedroom is twenty degrees and get the fire started, I can at least show off, which is little consolation but at least SOMETHING. Humans get used to things. If I'm used to the cold, that means I'm tough and awesome! Right? 

https://youtu.be/b9fLRr9fi4A?si=BfziSnDoLYHrmne_

A lady playing O Holy Night on handbells, and besides gorgeous, it's just mind blowing the level of calm and coordination she demonstrates. 

UPDATE April 2024 - whoaaaa seriously??? 

https://time.com/6969931/elon-musk-x-australia-albanese-stabbing-censorship/

Okay I take it all back and now I'm gonna be a Twiiii - X fangirl all the way. Wow! Big Brother of Australia orders big tech to REMOVE reports of a factual thing that actually happened and THEY ALL COMPLY??? Including the American ones! Except Twitter / X. 

Just in case you don't think 98% of "reality" (everything we think we know that didn't happen right in front of our eyes) is a fabricated lie. 

They don't say this preacher did not get knifed by a guy screaming Muslim slogans, they simply don't want anyone to see it - because it's TOO DISTRESSING. 

Too distressing to whom? In the opinion of whom? 

"We're not calling for censorship, only for common sense." 

They prefer people to have nicer, warm fuzzy feelings, by simply not knowing what's going on. Hmmm. Well, that isn't just like every sci-fi mind-control-society movie ever, or the book 1984 (which I read in 1984 when I was 14, and was very upset by it) AT ALL, is it. 

Ugh. 

Don't have time to rant much right now  :-)  okay, more later. 

See you on Twitter or whatever the new owner wants to call it! Where I'll be posting everything I can think of and clicking the ads, too! 

Twenty Below

It began to get cold while we were down in the valley, shopping. It's usually ten degrees warmer down there, but it was getting shockingly cold. 

One of my favorite things while shopping is to leave Darling to check out like an adult, while I take the dog and run on to the next destination.  

But the wind chill was terrific. I had winter gloves, scarf, hat, etc, but my cheeks felt like somebody was scouring them with sandpaper. I didn't even make it out of the parking lot. I turned around without a trace of shame and dived back into the truck. My face hurt so badly that I put hand cream on my cheeks, which helped a bit. 

"I'm not one of those wussies who wants to be dropped off at the door" ummmm, yes, I actually am. When I was done shopping, I called to be picked up, and waited inside the building.  

When we came home it was minus 4 deg F; by the time the groceries were unloaded it was -6, before bedtime it was -10.  

Jeff didn't go to bed. 

I put two down comforters on the bed and two long fleece robes on myself before I got in. No worries about waking up sweating. I was just warm enough, and slept well. 

I woke up at 4:30am, and my poor husband was on the couch wearing his big coat and wrapped in blankets, keeping the woodstove blazing, and it was 42 deg in the living room. 

He went to bed and I fed the flames. If that stove wasn't going hard, it would get very cold in here. 

Jeff had some old wire crates that he kept just because they were cool. They're now very handy for carrying firewood inside. We usually burn through two crates' worth in 24 hours. That's with letting the stove go out when we go to bed. 

The last few days we've been burning around the clock, and filling those boxes around the clock. 

Okay, I'm impressed. It's not Alaska - SING WITH ME --> "When it's springtime in Alaska, it's fortyyy beloooowwww" 

But this is the coldest I've ever felt. Nature is not joking around. Earth doesn't feel hospitable. We wouldn't last very long out there. Can't take gloves off, def can't touch anything metal with your bare skin or it will keep you.  

Last winter when we camped out here, I woke up one morning to 20 deg inside the trailer. I remember a sensation of fear. We're afraid of things that might kill us, and the air felt like it was trying to kill us. 

Jeff put up skirting which helps a bunch, and he's been adding insulation in every crack in this RV. The window blinds are a thick textile that trap air, so they're kept pulled down. 

He tried to run the generator, but it wouldn't run. Too cold. This model of generator, if it had been sold in Canada, would have had a cold weather kit installed, but it wasn't so it has bluetooth remote control instead, so we can turn it off without going outside. Thanks, that's so helpful! The only problem is that we can't turn it on because it doesn't work in the cold. 

The trailer batteries have gone dead, and we have candles. It is really pioneer days now, except for watching movies on our phones haha. 

Today I went out twice, as briefly as possible, with as much warm clothing as I could pile on. Firewood is my job, and I had to throw the stick a bit for the poor doggie so she doesn't go nuts. But she's not as eager to be outside as she usually is, and she's glad to come back in. Her black fur coat isn't enough today. 

I don't have any trouble sleeping. The cold itself is exhausting. Jeff stays up to keep the fire going until I relieve him so... nighty night! About 9pm. 

That's what I wore to bed, plus a scarf. I dashed out to pose with the thermometer because yay, and then straight back in again.  "Getting dressed" implies a moment of being dangerously UNdressed, and that's a NOPE. I'm wearing the same long robes daytime and nighttime, just like they did in the middle ages. 

Jeff says it was -22 in the middle of the night. 

Do I look happy? Well, I'll tell you what's missing. There's no self-doubt, there's no intrusive thoughts, there's no regrets, no bad memories, no toxic chatterbox in my head right now. I just don't want to freeze. I'm tryna stay warm. It makes things pretty basic and it's a relief! 

Anyway who wouldn't be as happy as a piglet when there's light white and dark white, light brown and dark brown, and dark green, and sunshine and blue sky? The snow makes it all very, very quiet. 

I gotta tell you about a great bit of clothing / equipment I made! It was an old sleeping bag of a straight square shape. I trimmed off the ends to make into sleeves. It's much too fat to fit under the sewing machine. I hand stitched some of the seams with heavy thread, and others are still safety-pinned, but it works fine  :-) 

It is a game changer and attitude changer. It's like a suit of armor against the cold. Just step into it, wrap the front around and there's instant protection from that freezing environment. I can move around enough to do basic work, and it's large enough to get dressed inside it! 

Monkey Bars a Few Years Ago

Here’s a fun memory.

This was in the early days of freedom, when we were still kinda in shock, and very much enjoying how lovely it was to have a normal life.

We had some rules right away for saving money. One is “that engine doesn’t start for anything less than two miles”, so we walked to most errands. There were playgrounds nearby that we passed.

I watched the kids playing on the monkey bars, and remembered that I had loved to do that, long ago. Who says I can’t try? By age 45 my hands were pretty out of it.

It wasn’t even so much a grip strength thing as that the soft skin on my hands just couldn’t bear it. I gave a try, and had to stop within moments. I went home with hurting palms. A few days later they were okay again, and I tried again. 

A dozen times of that and I had callus again like I did when I was young.

Not much. How about the sheets I bought lately?

I have been making a pile of underdresses quick while I still have electricity! Oh sure, I don't need electricity and they can't make me want it, but the electric sewing machine is definitely faster 🙄

The stripey one is LINEN. It's hard to find linen for any decent price these days. I got that chunk on ebay. The advertised length would be just barely enough to make something, then it was a few inches short. The seller was a snot, offered a percentage of the total price less than two dollars by way of compensation, so I left bad feedback and used a triangle cut from a giveaway linen skirt to fill in. 

And this red and white check was my darling husband Jeff's grandma's old tablecloth! 

EMBROIDERED tablecloth I got for 50c at an estate sale because it had a stain right in the center, becomes "priceless heirloom folkish blouse" - right? 

There wasn't enough fabric so I filled in the lower part of the body with other random white cotton. 

This is my new style for a new freezing home. I actually hate wearing clothing to bed, but a little less so when the bedroom is 20 degrees. Haha it's going to get less than twenty but that's the lowest I've woken up and experienced up there so far! 
So this is a wrap nightgown. It's the same deal as the most ancient tunic garments that cross in front and tie. I put two big snaps on the two front flaps under the armholes which are really long. It's NO FUN getting naked to get dressed when it's c-c-c-cold! So I can get dressed inside that big baggy flannel garment which retains at least a little of my body heat, or just wrap some other warm outer layers around it for a while and change into real clothes later when (if) it gets warmer. And IF the bed gets nice and warm to the point that I'm back to disliking jammies, I can easily squiggle out of it or at least one half of it so I don't have to feel it any more. I've tried it and very pleased with my "invention" (what humanity's been wearing for aeons until recently). 

Remember the blue linen I posted about long ago that I bought for medieval dress-up but never cut because it was so pretty and I couldn't decide what to make it into? (This picture does NOT do that sky /robin's egg blue justice) 

Well, it's cut, because my cold new home requires clothing. Staying warm is important. I learned it in the excellent book: 

"98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive" but my own personal donkey also appreciates the need to be warm. So the linen was cut into any random shape that made it so I could wear it. 

Life is much better in linen!  Cool in summer, warm in winter! 

That's not linen but I couldn't resist a set of cotton bedsheets in the most glorious, vivid, rose shade of deep pink. Those will become clothing. 

And now a word about my personal style. Got to thinking about it the other day. The year of birth matters slightly less to me than to those who were raised in the stream of civilization, since I was isolated by both force and preference. But there was some current time influence and the mid 70s loved this stuff: 

That one's a bit earlier, but there I am, right up to date with the cottage look before it was invented (long after it existed hahaha) 

A Sense of Awe

I just read a good article about the "sense of awe", 

https://lifehopeandtruth.com/god/prayer-fasting-and-meditation/how-to-pray/praise-god/sense-of-awe/

If we're just going for that feeling of WHOA - funny thing is,  I easily remember the last time I had it. 

It doesn't include the feeling of standing on the edge of something which, for me, is more like NOPE  :-D  

Last time I had the distinct physical reaction of awe wasn't even the rather large waterfall I walked beneath a few days ago, or any sunsets, gorges, bridges or stars. It was the Rainier Building in Seattle, which I just found again by putting "building with narrower base". 

It was probably twenty years ago that I last wandered beneath that, looking up, and out again because I had shivers, and under again because it was just so awesome, five or six times. 

And that is awesome. (It really does BUG me when people yell "AWESOME" to show approval over the most non-awe-inspiring things, like "You remembered the ketchup! Awesome!!!") 

Would you like a bowl of mud?

Darling says at once, "Yes!" 

He's been around here a while, he knows what's up, hehe. It's going to be some form of not very thrilling chocolate dessert. 

This is GOOD FOR YOU. 

He says, "That's what you do - make dessert taste like dinner." 

But here I sit, eating a bowl of chocolate pudding and I feel happy. 

This is: 

4 c almond milk 

1/4 c coconut sugar 

1/2 c cocoa powder 

1/4 c beef gelatin  

and 1/4 c melted coconut oil 

I mix the powdered gelatin with the dry ingredients then dump into the almond milk, because that's easier than the usual methods. 

Cook it to scalding, then add some vanilla and put it in the fridge a while, and stir occasionally. 

YUM! 

It has more gelatin than strictly needed because I was reading about how good that stuff is for you. 

This is "Life by chocolate"  :-) 

Thoughts from Today's Message

The speaker shared a cool quote, which, when I looked it up, led to another just as insightful.

I made that from a phrase from the sermon, with a background from Freepik, and words added using Android app "Collage Maker: Grid Art"

Using a phrase from the sermon: 

https://www.youtube.com/live/ANRSn-mETyc

There were a couple other thoughts that helped. What about talking about "what great things God has done for you"? 

I've been suffering somewhat after the post about miracles. It was in Drafts for a year. I'm self-conscious about it. Isn't it kinda silly to say, "God spoke to me"? Won't I be scoffed at? Doesn't that imply that I think I'm somebody really special? Or maybe a little soft in the head? Maybe I should keep that to myself. 

But as I've explained to a few people, after all these years inside my own head I'm familiar with what my own thoughts sound like. Some of em are smart, others are horrible and cause pain, some are weird and make a mess it's hard to clean up. I have some really great random ideas sometimes that came from way down in my subconscious mind rather than conscious, but here's the thing-- I know what all of those sound like.  

When God put a word into my mind it was completely different. No mistaking that for anything that came from me. I didn't wake myself up at five in the morning. I didn't suddenly make myself humble and teachable. I didn't suddenly decide to study the other side's point of view. That word REST did not come from me. 

And I simply MUST talk about it. I've put off talking about it too long. It's a tiny just-for-me miracle that I get to talk about even in my normal, unworthy voice. It happened. Don't know why. I can't explain it. But it happened to me and thank God for it. 

Watch Pratt & Whitney At Its Finest

 

https://youtu.be/-oTGrPbtRa4

Love the internet, where you can even find groups of fans of particular makes of airplane engine. How about that.

Well, there is just something about a “certain kind of engine sound” but I didn’t know what was different about them. Turns out it’s the sound of Pratt and Whitney, so rumbly-majestic-orderly they give me shivers. 

The other biggies are RR and GE, and some may favor them, but there’s no accounting for taste and those sound like jet engines to me. I like P&W. 

There went an hour of my life I’ll never get back, sorting out which breed of jet engine I prefer. Yay.

Salsa for the Timid

Spotted this in the grocery store tonight and laughed so hard I barked. Darling turned around to see what was wrong. 

I remember a joke "If you know what Pace Extra Mild Picante Sauce tastes like, you might be a white chick."  Yep, I might be, and here's my salsa, labelled accurately. 

He says, "Timid! That's you! Until somebody offends you." 

:-) 

Me: Friend of Harbor Seals

One cool thing about living at a marina is one day you're walking home to your boat and there's a new baby seal that wasn't there yesterday.  

Mom quickly urges the baby to swim, and most importantly teaches him to get out again. 

That's the very first time the baby managed to get out of the water, and I was there to watch! 

They took up residency on a section of dock right behind our boat, which wasn't the greatest spot because it was a thoroughfare leading to many other boats. They might have been better off on the exact finger of dock where the birth happened which has much less traffic. But okay, we get lots of seal pictures! 

Not very many days later, Baby is filling out nicely and looks half as long as Mom already. 

They're gone most of the day fishing, but sleep up there at night. 

Jeff says harbor seals want to sleep on the dock because it's warmer. Cold water takes away their energy, so their survival is directly connected with how often they need to jump in. Whenever someone comes along, they watch, hoping the people don't get any closer because they don't want to have to go into the cold water again. 

I don't want to get any closer. I'm just trying to get home to my boat home so I walk in a nonthreatening way around their corner, making soothing baby talk. 

The night before last, we came home from shopping with a cart full of bags of groceries. Only the baby was on the dock. Mom had jumped in the water at the first sound of the cart. But since it turned out to be "you guys", she hopped back out of the water right in front of us and lay down! 

But then, unfortunately, I casually pulled a bag out of the cart too fast and without any baby talk to prepare them. They both bailed. Splish, splish. 

"That was just one grocery bag too much," Jeff said. 

Or maybe they heard about that lady in Oregon who carried a baby seal home in a shopping bag and killed it. 

Last night they had lain down for the night and I came walking around the corner in the dark. When they heard someone coming they both started hurrying towards the water, but then they realized it was me and stopped. 

I said, "Nice puppies, good puppies, stay there, it's just me" and they stayed still and watched me walk by only five feet away. 

I feel so honored! 

There's a video that goes here, I'll add it as soon as I find it :-) 

The challenge is to write some words, add some pictures and actually post. "Finding the video" is mastery level one step beyond that and one step beyond me. But I haven't given up! 

Mar 2023 ::remembers:: oh yeah, I put it on Youtube.