Little Bits of Good News

Several wonderful things happened. First, the folks at my ISP got me into Dr. G's web site again, and second, it turns out I was more intelligent than I gave myself credit for. Not only did I save all the passwords in a password protected file on my hard drive, but I also saved it in a non password protected file on my external hard drive. I also found a legal work-around for my squirrely program. Not ideal, but definitely legal. Woo-hoo! I'm back in business, Baby!!!

Lemme tell you, that external hard drive was the very best purchase I ever made since the purchase of the computer itself.

THEN, I opened a drawer in my desk, which I rarely open and there were my WordPerfect disks. I was able to reinstall WordPerfect after all (though, oddly enough, installing it appears to have erased the Password file. Guru said he had saved all the old files, but apparently he saved all the OLD files, before I created the Password file. But, since I'd already made a copy of it in a NON-WordPerfect format, I didn't lose anything. But I have Word Perfect back again. Color me happy.

Another good thing to report is that the miles to nowhere is producing results. When I first got the treadmill, my average top speed was 2.0 mph and when I was feeling sluggish, I dropped it down to 1.8. The average speed is now 2.3. Once I hit that, I leave it there for the whole time I'm on the machine, a time which is now extending from 5-10 min at a time to 10-15 min at a time. And, I hate to admit it, but I really feel better once I finish.

Starting anything like this is always a big adjustment, but apparently I'm getting into the groove and I'm exercising more than I have since my bike accident. I wish I could say that the eating was getting into the groove too, but baby steps, right?

Another good thing: we had our first really good webcam conference with Tom, Laurel and Brianna

(that's Walt's sister in back, and Laurel to the left)

Tom got his audio fixed and we could chat very well...and we almost got to hear Brianna cry, but we ended the chat before that happened. I know that looking at us on the screen right now doesn't mean a thing to her, but I hope that if we keep up regular chats, we won't just be the "distant grandparents" and at least we'll look somewhat familiar to her,between visits, as she grows up.

We are going to drive down to Santa Barbara on Thursday, so we'll have the weekend to visit with the new family, and with Walt's mother.

While we're gone, Ashley is going to move into our house with her (how many?) dogs and take care of our dogs (plus Russell). We decided this was easier than moving Russell to a new foster home. The dogs should be thrilled to have Ashley, whom they love, around. I did promise her I would clean up, though, so I have my work cut out for me between now and then. It will also give Ashley a chance to assess Russell's readiness for going back to adoption events at Petco.

I'm slowly getting Russell's trust back. Food is an amazing lure. Russell is desperate for a taste of anything I eat (I discovered last night he'll even try to steal red wine out of my glass!). After my mistake in trying to catch and cage him when he came to get a treat a week or so ago, he's been very leery of coming near me if I'm standing up, though he immediately leaps into my lap whenever I sit down.

But last night and today he actually did come and take a treat out of my hands, keeping as far away from me as possible while doing so. He also will let Walt pet him now and doesn't bark all the time whenever Walt comes into the room (though he did bark nonstop at my sweatshirt on a chair yesterday all the time I was on the treadmill!)

I'm thinking that maybe by next Saturday he will be ready to go up for adoption. He's going to make some family a really nice pet.

I came across some pictures of Bissell today and remembered how tempted I was to adopt him, and how sad it was to have him leave, but how glad I was that he'd found a good home. People always ask me how I can bear to watch these dogs go away. Actually, it's easy. I look at some of Russell's bad habits (like I did some of Bissell's bad habits)

and know that I don't have to work all that hard to break them of the habit because it will soon be someone else's problem. I get the best of these puppies, all the love they have to give. I get to feed them and cuddle them and laugh at their antics. And then when problems come up, I give them to the next family to deal with.

It's kind of how I plan to treat Brianna!!!