Pencil Portraits Drawn From Photos - Pencil Portrait Artist Darla Dixon

This first paragraph is dog training stuff. Just go on to paragraph two if you are totally bored of hearing people talk about their dogs. Oh, if you are sick of people talking about their kids too, you might as well skip paragraph 3 also. BUT if you really like vacuum cleaners, then today is your lucky day! Check out paragraph 2!

Today was proof that Shetland Sheepdog expert Frank was totally right. He told me that he had trained his Shelties to urinate and defecate on command. Yes I know that sounds really strange, but I tried his tips and it does look like it's working. He told me to say "go hurry" or "hurry!" when I wanted the dog to urinate (ok that one was easy, the dang dog always wants to urinate, right?), and then say "good hurry!" when he did it. Then to say "Go-two!" when I wanted the dog to do #2 and then say, "GOOD TWO! GOOD TWO!" with lots of praise and treats when he did it. The idea behind this is to get your dog to do their stuff in YOUR own yard, not to do it in other peoples' yards. No cleaning up problems, no angry neighbors this way. Ok, I figured it was worth a shot. So after 4 "good hurries" I took Laser to 'his #2 area' and told him to go two. I almost fell down when he actually did it! His reward for doing these behaviors was a nice long walk this morning, which I was barely awake for. The good news is, if you see me walking my dog by your house, you won't have to worry about an unwelcome mess! Laser is also learning to sit by the door (inside or outside) until I walk in first and say "OK!" What a smart dog. I think he could learn anything, except maybe do things that require opposable thumbs.

Last night we went to Fry's Electronics again (oh I love that place) and I got a Professional Dirt Devil vacuum. It was only a bit more than other models yet has a 6 year warranty. We are going to really put that thing to use, with all the kids and the dog tracking in stuff. It is bagless, and I can see so much dirt that it is getting up that our old vacuum was missing. Our old vacuum got up lots of fuzz but I didn't see much dirt. The Dirt Devil is picking up almost enough dirt that I could plant flowers in it! (slight exaggeration). Anyway, click on the link and check out it's funky retro look. Strange to have a vacuum cleaner that reminds me of a retro diner.

Tomorrow the girls are going on a field trip to Warm Springs
for a visit to the "Little White House. It was here that Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in 1945.
The weather is so great here right now and the azaleas (except mine) are in bloom. It is a great time to be in Georgia.

Darla