sunday was an extremely successful SHAT & SPLAT-
the sell out meant we coudl try the purple egg drop--- and it tumbled down the chute and splattered very nicely...( having been boiled for 2 minutes in purple'd water.).. that whole process is a very scientific one...having been thru a few dozen eggs being splattered all over.. testing the fool thing... i totally forgot the preparations-- til all of a sudden it was purple egg time-- and i had to improvise the purple numbers with a magic marker...
you could not see the exact details so allow me to enlighten you.... for teh origional shatting.... the table is actually a piece of vinyl flooring with 3" squares -- because of the variation in the consistancey of the hen's produce, we put a number on each of the straight sides of each 3"square--- this means that i can... witl a very wide putty knife divide the shat on each of teh diagionals- the quantity iws sometimes obvious... but if it is not-- i have carefully prepared a very scientific balance scale--- and prepared 4 dixie cups with a wad of toilet paper -- pre balanced by addition of tiolet paper...to have all 4 cups identical- and ready to mop up and weigh the contents to determine the winner and new permanent member of the shatupon society.. plus 3 associate members.
as for the purple egg splat-- a loosely prepared system of pvc pipe allows an egg to roll down and around corners eventually landing randomly and breaking on the 3 inch squares... there are a separate set of numbers for the purple egg division.. these are placed in the middle of the 3 inch squares... and the winner is the number closest to the major part of the yolk....
i am delighted to report the purple egg niether flew off going around the corners, or broke half way down the chute-- this would still be able to define the winner, it would just make the measurement a bit more excieitng..
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and now opal-- she is getting "great with child" and slowing down considerably... trick now is to let her out and follow her around making sure when she goes somewhere to drink, the watter is fresh... and not telling here where to go or what to do... let her tell you how she feels.. she apparently has some confusion about the sofas...sometimes she wants the sofa in the tv room all to herself-- and other tiems she will go to the one by the kitchen.. and she is not thrilled to have neal join her... or people on the sofa either... people on the floor seem to be acceptable... but she has the alone bit developing... and she did not eat her supper last night.. she stared at it -- so neal ate it.
today we can start monitoring her temp.
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bailey is moving better-- she has asked for a ride up from the t tent - but yesterday she walked it all by herself...
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and renee's report cut and pasted.....
Though he wondered where Andy, Pedro and Maya went, Thomas liked the one-on-one time with only me (and the pet tortoise) in the house. (The boys took Maya on their drive 2 weeks before Thomas and I flew – the X-C trip appealed to my sense of adventure, but only for a minute or two. The thought of being crammed in a car for five full days made me shudder. Didn’t put the tortoise through that either – he got Fed Ex’d!)
Tommy was, of course, stellar in the airport and all through the flight. He has become quite the seasoned traveler. This was the first time on my own with him and I was curious how the person booked in the seat beside me would react to his or her, shall we say, lack of leg room.
The man didn’t hesitate to say, Not a problem, and simply climbed over us, wedged himself without a word into the window seat, found a spot for each foot, and fell asleep. The flight attendant had to wake him to offer an open seat. He climbed back out and Tommy and I spent the 5-1/2 hours with the row to ourselves marveling at how adaptable some people can be.
I’ve been around town with Tommy. Washington state has some definitive service dog laws regarding fraud. At the same time, the state does not grant access rights to service dogs in training, leaving it up to businesses whether they’ll allow access to pups with trainers. It made me curious what I might run into here. I couldn’t have predicted the response.
Dogs – pets – are with their owners in all sorts of places: hardware stores, coffee shops, ferries over to other islands. All thus far have been well-behaved and on leash. When people see Tommy’s vest, their reaction (in addition to ooohs and aaaahs about his size and handsomeness) is a simple, “Oh, that one’s a service dog.” There have been the occasional hand reaching out and toddler to dodge, but in general, there’s been no issue. By allowing pet dogs, expecting that they’ll be under control, appears to keep the frauds with their yappy Fluffy-in-a-fake-vest away. Who knew?!
We’re off on a hike in the Olympic range today. The park rules say that dogs are not permitted on the trails with the exception of service dogs with certification. The ‘certification’ I plan on handing them is one of the brochures that Lynne and I put together – you know, the one that refers back to the ADA that there is no certification and that they can’t require it for access. Will report back. J
Warm regards,
Renee
PS Andy is returning later this month and will have many donations for the farm (ladders, fluffies, dog beds, shelving, various cleaning supplies…I’ll send you a list and follow up with a call.)
