Someone's got a case of the Mondays.

t /Office Space

I am having eggs and tea for breakfast, I refuse to allow even references to the possible Mondayishness of today harsh my mellow.

Also, w00t, Fay! Yes, you should have another crack at it.

Plus, I agree that erika's story that was posted is a good one.

sick ick not gone. So don't want to go to work. Uggg. Plus, with all this talk of sour milk, now my apartment has that smell, yet I do not have any milk! And it smells like it's coming from the dishwasher!?! So confused.

Yay Fay!

Popping back to the dog discussion to make one plea from the Me/Millan camp...the gentle leader is a great training tool but should not be used as a lifestyle choice. I know so many dogs, mostly Labs, come to think of it, whose people have used the GL some much...without proper attention to walking form...that the hair on their noses is actually worn off under the Leader strap. This is not what they are meant for!

Also, for super exuberant dogs, you can use the sort of harness where the lead clips onto the chest, causing the animal to veer to the side when they pull too much.

Always reward the dog when s/he is walking where you want them to (preferably with their jaw line at the seam of your trouser) rather than chastising them for being out of alignment. Having a treat ready to reward them for doing it right is a great way to get them interested in doing more of THAT!

Also, for super exuberant dogs, you can use the sort of harness where the lead clips onto the chest, causing the animal to veer to the side when they pull too much.

That's the harness I have bonny. And goodness knows that Jasmine is treat-oriented.

In other news, I'm in a foul, foul mood this morning. Email from Nate's teacher that he forgot his daily planner, which is a requirement for homework and the like, instilling responsibility. This is after a weekend where he left a paperback novel at school that he was supposed to be doing work from (I made him buy a new copy out of his own money and he'll be donating it to the library afterwards).

I also found out that a doctor's appt. for tomorrow that I've been stressing over for two weeks had to be canceled and rescheduled for next week. Yay! Another week of stress! What fun!

I'm going to be taking my aggression out on my Golden Globes fashion recap.

I'm back at work! Yay? Wearing pants I hate because I can't get back into my jeans yet (ow).

In re dogs, I get annoyed with the people who either won't put a leash on their dog (Fluffy needs to run free!) or use one of those retractable leashes in such a way that the dog is essentially unrestrained. My building allows dogs, the rules restricting them to one dog of limited size (40 pounds I think) per apartment. Which is largely ignored. One of my neighbors was set upon by three small dogs - whose person had the retractable leashes, only not retracting - and while they were chewing on his cuffs and nipping at his ankles the person kept saying "they don't bite! they don't bite!" ... ignoring the evidence that they did.

And a lot of people don't seem to understand that leashes are a Good Thing in the city where there's actual traffic. I once rescued a dog that ran out into rush hour traffic with his person screaming hysterically. He was quite happy to be retrieved and held until he could be returned to his person. (sorry for the rant - irresponsible dog owners make me cranky)

Thanks for the kind feedback. Although sometimes I still think it's odd how in touch I am with my inner ghetto dweller. Although it was supposed to be for a Dylan anthology so where else would a crime freak like me go? But it felt like a coming-out of a sort to share that side of myself with a disability mag; I'm not sure why.

Retractable leashes are of the devil. When I did my walk workshop, I *begged* people to trade them in and get static leads. I even convinced the shop owner to add a discount to the deal. Nobody bit. Sigh.

Todd, I'm with you. When I walk down the street and see an owner hauling their dog back. I'll ask, "Is your dog friendly?" In the time they take to hem and haw about 'sometimes yes, but you never can tell', their dog is on Bartleby. Dude, no is a perfectly acceptable answer.

Dogs on retractable leashes are without exception the least-trained dogs I see on the street. Dogs off-leash tend to obey verbal commands well enough to, say, not come over to my stroller and start sniffing my kid. Dogs on retractable leashes tend to come with owners on cell phones.