I'll Never Make it as a Hippy!

No matter how many kids I pop out on the floor of my strawbale house. I'll never reach hippydom! I love my soap and hairbrush too damn much!

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/110412366.html

The Naked Chef

Chiawana High School

So last fall the people of Pasco finally approved a bond for a new high school to be be built. It is long overdue, it was overdue when I was in high school. Luckily the High School will be minutes away walk from our house. We have a clear line of site view of the property it is going to be on. Granted this will increase noise and traffic but if we're still here in 10 years Chloê will have a short jaunt to get to class.

Immediately after they passed the bond, I told someone, I think it was my mom or Kenny's mom, that I thought they should name it Chiawana High after the Large Park on the Columbia River that is about 1 mile away from the Future High School. Yesterday I was was feeling curious and went to see what they did decide to name it. Low and behold it was Chiawana High. Someone must of read my mind.

Chiawana is a Native American word meaning "father of water" or "big river."

I was interested in what other names were up for debate.

Two board members voted for Cesar Chavez, a civil rights leader -- President Ricardo Espinoza and Vice President Saul Martinez. Three board members voted for Chiawana -- Bill Leggett, John Hergert and Pete Felsted.

There must be some tiny old evil white racist guy within me because I am very glad it wasn't named after the mexican leaders proposed. Then again,I don't think that I'm necessarily glad that it wasn't named after them, just more happy that the new name refelcts the city's heritage better.

100th Post

Well this is my 100th post... pretty nifty eh :)

MMM what specialness should I write for my 100th post.

Steve Irwin was killed yesterday by a Sting Ray. The sensitive person that I am, the first thing out of my mouth was, "I wonder if he poked it with a stick?" I immediately checked www.irregularwebcomic.net to see what the "cartoonist" (short for a better title) had to say. He does lots of Steve Irwin satire. Though today the comic of the day is different, yesterday it was a random Steve Irwinish one... of him waking up on the hospital bed no less.

I'm working on finishing a poncho for Chloê's birthday. Not even halfway done, I have to set aside more time for it.

Chloê has two gymnastics exhibitions comming up, one at Sausage Fest and one at the Firey Foods Festival.

Malcolm and I are moving right into loose leash training and targeting. It's going super.

Kenny has begun his hardest term yet with Ancient Irish History, Business Ethics and Speech. Hard as it is, he seems to be plugging away at it. (Only 7 weeks left till the next term honey.)

Nic misses Chloê terribly during school time, he sits at the window singing her name.

Ainsley is giddy as ever and it seems that school time away makes the time after school with Chloê more special. They play together till bed time.

All in all (except for poor Steve Irwin) things seem to be going fantastical!

Click, Treat, Good Boy Malcolm!

Last week I called around to the local pet training centers to get a "price check" on training programs in the area. At about $100.00 every 8 weeks, for 1 hour a week training, and who know's how many different classes we'd need to take, it was too much for me right now. Even with my 20% off training coupon from the humane society. Since Malcolm is destined to be a huge dog with lots of muscle we need to get him trained now while he's still a puppy! First we'll try home schooling and see how that goes.

I went to the library on Friday and checked out a great book by Pat Miller titled, The Power of Positive Dog Training. It was a quick read with great instructions and pertinent stories and information. I was finished with most of the book at least through instructions for the 3rd week of the program. I went to pet smart and picked up a $1.50 training clicker and some "high" reward treats. For most of the time I simply use kibble. We do about 4 to 5, 15 minute workouts a day and it's going fairly smoothly. I do use a smoked sausage cut in quarters and then in small pieces for the first session. It really helps to get his attention on learning the new material I introduce then. We're all done with all the activities the book has us do the first week. I think we'll just keep practicing until next Friday. As you can see in the video, he's got: Sit, Down, and Stand.. He responds to his name (most of the time). Spin and Twirl are new activities we're working on (It's only the 3rd day) I need to figure out how to get him doing it with the command and a small hand gesture instead of the luring.

I ordered a 2 1/2 inch jingle bell from eBay for $1.99. Next week he learns to target and we can learn how to ring the bell to go out to the bathroom.

I Know it's Late, Sorry Grandma's

 
Nic and his new bus stop buddy, Carson.
 
Chloê's bus
 
Getting off the bus
 
Chloê looking for us.

The first full day went well. Though, like the future computer nerd she is, she complained, "they made us go outside." She said they did art and music... she got to play a real xylophone and she sat at a table with another girl and two boys. I hear there are 15 boys, 9 girls in her class. And I was suprised to hear that she was the only Chloê. After we thought we named her something fairly unique we met a lot of Chloê's. But luckily she's the only one in her class. She says, "we played 'Who's Name' with a fuzzy ball and we played with blocks".

She was really happy with her school and her teacher and is becomming good friends with our neighbor Kensie.