Things that happened before 8:00 am today.

Look at this picture. I look at it and think, hey, that’s pretty good for a weekday breakfast – I guess I usually think that pancakes are too much trouble for Monday-Friday, but I don’t know why – they really aren’t any more trouble than scrambled eggs which I can whip out in 30 seconds. Pancakes just seem like a Sunday
morning thing to me and I also think that syrup is was too messy for
a weekday morning. All that stickiness makes me uncomfortable.
Breakfast for me is usually cereal or toast or even just a glass of
juice while I get a load of laundry in the washer or while I check to
see if anyone sent me email (nope!). Vince and Edda both get hot
breakfasts, Edda gets oatmeal and Vince’s selection changes everyday,
but lately it has centered around pancakes. Today, while I was still
asleep with Edda, he asked for three pancakes. Earlier this week, he
requested two pancakes and I thought he would only eat one, so I made
2 really small pancakes, equivalent to 1 regular pancake and he was
so pissed at me, breakfast was very unpleasant, but both pancakes
were eaten eventually. So today, Jeremy made two beautiful
(full-sized) pancakes, because he knew no way was Vince going to eat
three, and placed them in front of Vince. He was not happy and and he
protested very loudly and I awoke to wails and tears and unhappy
Vince who apparently really, really wanted three pancakes,
just like the picture on the package (but now that I look at the box,
I see that there are actually 4 pancakes…) He wailed for a good 15
minutes before deciding to eat half of Edda’s oatmeal. The pancakes
remained untouched.

Look, unhappy pancake boy.

I have always believed that Ruby loves to live with us, that she
would not prefer to live anywhere else. She loved living with us in
Austin where we took her to the swimming hole every weekend. She
loved living with us in New York, where her corgi pal Trudi lived
with my in-laws and we would go and see her at least once a week and
where there was snow and big fields to run around in and lots of
family around. She loved the kids even though sometimes they bit her.
She just loved being our dog daughter, even when we made her heel
or sit or wait for her food, even when we put her on a diet, even
when we made her ride 6 hours in the foot well of a Honda Accord to
drive to my parents’ house in Maryland. I saw how much she loved
being with us every time we left her with a sitter or kennel or
walker because when we returned from our trip, she would run up to us
and lick us and jump on us and say please don’t leave me ever again,
ever again, I missed you sooooo much. But now I don’t believe
that Ruby would not prefer to live anywhere else. I have to say that
Singapore has been tough on Ruby. A lot of people here are afraid of
big dogs, so when we take her on a walk, a lot of people go out of
their way to avoid her, there are a lot of screams of terror as
little children run away from Ruby and I know she’s a bit discouraged
by all this. The poor girl – she has never before experienced this
sort of reaction from people. Also, since we don’t have a car, we
can’t take her anywhere she can run off leash, so she’s stuck with the
same neighborhood park where we walk her held tightly next to us. No other doggies,
no new sights. While we were back in the States, she stayed in Singapore with
Elaine, our dog sitter (who is amazing, kind and exceedingly
competent) and when we got back, I got the distinct feeling that Ruby
did not want to stay with us, she wanted to stay with Elaine (who has
a car and a corgi – Tosh). I have to say, that with all of
Edda’s issues this year, I haven’t been devoting that much time to
Ruby and I know she is depressed about being so isolated from other
people and dogs. This morning during the 2 vs 3 pancake fiasco, my suspicious were confirmed when Jeremy
pulled out the traveling crate that we use in cars and was most
recently used to go to Elaine’s house and Ruby immediately went to
pick up the squeaky toy that Elaine gave her and ran to stand patiently by
the door with tail wagging and more eager than I’ve seen her in a long time as if to say – I’m ready to go to Elaine’s, you guys go have
your fun, don’t rush back or anything, I’m going to be just fine.