Mundane

I admit that I haven't had much to blog about lately. Life has been routine and mundane. But before I get going too much, I have to warn you all that the "r" key on my keyboard is being funny, so if a word is missing an "r," please bear with me and don't think I'm bad at spelling! Although I probably do plenty of that with any particular blog.
One thing on my mind lately is how long it's been since we've been back to Kansas. The last time we were back was the 4th of July! And yet time has FLOWN by since then and we've had so many of our friends and family come out that it doesn't seem like that long of time has passed. Anyhow, I am getting super excited for Christmas when we will have 5 whole days in Kansas! That is pretty impressive, considering the combination of Matt and my work schedules. :) I can't wait to see everyone.
I've been really busy with school, but I am really really enjoying it and I'm soaking up everything I can because I can use it at work too. I just finished a project on map projections, which was pretty basic stuff, but at the same time, just remembering all of it as a "refresher" really helps me put things into perspective at work. We also have weekly quizzes and chapter readings that really make me dust off my brain and think critically about things. My biggest irk is that I think our professor likes to try and trick us with the wording, but it could just be all the dust speaking. It is so nice to have one of my co-workers in the class too. Our discussions are very helpful to my success (so far) on everything.
And I can't sign off without talking about Matt and the dogs. Matt gets back tonight from one of his bi-monthly trips to Madison, WI. I have to say that I will be glad when these are over. The only realy benefit I get from him being gone is a couple evenings of distraction free time to focus on school. :) But when he is gone, it reminds me of the past year when he was on evenings and we rarely saw each other. Anyway, I'll stop my complaining now because he only has one trip left, at least this year.
Perdi is learning lots of things from her brother, Pongo, and not all of these are good habits. But by far one of the cutest is that she is learning to howl. Until a few days ago, she mostly just yipped and yapped. But one day, she was out on the deck and Pongo and I were howling together as we usually do. (I know, it sounds weird, but it's how he tells me he's mad at me for cooping him up all day.) Well Perdi started howling out on the deck when she heard us. And now she howls with Pongo and I when I get home in the afternoon. It cracks me up! I am such a sucker for the beagle howl. (Unless it is 11 pm and Pongo thinks he hears something we should know about.) Perdi can't howl very long before she starts coughing, which makes it that much cuter. I have to say that Perdi is smarter than I give her credit for, since she has been picking things up from Pongo lately. She just prefers to use her wisdom the destruction of things rather than to do tricks and other fun things. :)

Scaredy Dogs

Our dogs are scared of cats. It's a fact of life. Pongo spotted a cat in our yard after we got home from a family walk last night. He howled and howled, but wouldn't go near it! I believe the reason for this is that he and Perdi were both exposed to our cats Zenda and Cali (who live in Manhattan) at young ages. Zenda promptly swatted them in the head when the curious puppies got too close to her. They have been scarred for life and scared of all felines ever since. Even metal ones.

They were getting braver by the time we took this video. I wish we had grabbed the camera sooner. It was so funny watching them run and howl at a metal cat decoration!

By the way, if you can't see it, there is a tennis ball underneath the cat that they are trying to work up the courage to snatch. I think we say something about it in the video, but it makes more sense if you know what they are trying to do.