Dogs Dogs Dogs

Is that like Van Halen's "Girls Girls Girls"?

We watched the Westminster Dog Show last night. For those not in the know, this is the MOST PRESTIGIOUS dog show in the country (if not the world), if they do say so themselves.

For the rest of us? A chance to watch an amazing variety of furry fluffy barky dogs, and find out a little bit about the breeds. And some of them are amazingly furry and fluffy, and groomed within an inch of their lives. And some are clearly groomed but much more natural looking, and oh so everlasting cute. And invariably I find myself thinking, "you know, we could get a dog," which is emphasized by all three children bringing up the subject as well.

But we're not getting a dog. We have no fence (biggest issue) and most of our family lives thousands of miles away, so when we travel to see them a couple of times a year, we'd have to do something with the dog. Cats, I can have a neighbor's child come in once a day and they're fine. Can't do that to a dog. Yes, I know there are kennels and walkers and such, but still, it's much harder.

But I love watching the dogs. They're on again tonight, 8pm est on USA. Tune in and see the tongues wag!

Random Sunday Night Thoughts

We had beautiful weather this weekend. It hit 60 F today. 60! In February! We opened all the windows. We closed them again about an hour later, because, after all, it was 60 outside, and while that's relatively warm, it's not really warm.

We finally put the cover on our trailer. It's in storage, but still outside, and the day we took it over there (in November), it was dark by the time we got it parked. So we kept saying we would go back and put the cover on. But every time we thought about it, it was raining, had just rained, was snowing, or still had snow on it. But today was the perfect opportunity, and now it can be protected. At least until we take it off again in a couple of months.

I cast on a sweater. A top-down v-neck from Knitting Pure and Simple. I went to the yarn store, thinking I would buy a new yarn for the pattern I had (a cardigan, same company), because I'd decided I didn't want that pattern in the yarn I had bought for it. Found a LOVELY wine-colored alpaca/silk blend. Just the right weight. Way way WAY too expensive. Bought a $5 pattern for the yarn I already have. I've done about 8 rows so far. This may take a while.

I've been a complete schmuck. Adam's mom called and left a message on Friday. I haven't called her all week, and I haven't called her back yet. No reason, just haven't. I feel bad, which makes me not want to call her back because I don't have a good reason, so that makes it worse. I have to call her tomorrow morning. As soon as Rachel's on the bus.

Actually made some progress cleaning up the kitchen and the craft room this weekend. If I applied myself, I could be done with the craft room in two hours or less. But there are things I am putting off deciding about, so it's easy to get distracted.

Speaking of getting distracted, I've now been distracted from finishing this post. Time to wrap it up. On to a new week.

Role Models

I've been thinking about this whole Michael Phelps thing. There are those who say, "eh, he's a young man who made a mistake, no big." And there are those who say, "He's a role model, he should know better, now what do I say to my kids?"

I'll say up front that I lean towards the first camp.

But I think the bigger discussion is about role models in general. Like it or not, people in the public eye are held up as role models. It is hard for me to tell how many of them "choose" that designation. We certainly put star athletes in that position, musicians, actors, politicians? Not so much anymore, but certainly Barack Obama is a role model.

Dictionary.com gives multiple definitions.

1. a person whose behavior, example, or success is or can be emulated by others, esp. by younger people.
2. A person who serves as a model in a particular behavioral or social role for another person to emulate.
3. someone worthy of imitation; "every child needs a role model"
4. A person who serves as an example of the values, attitudes, and behaviors associated with a role.

There are subtle differences here - there's a difference to me between "serving as a model" and "worthy of imitation."

Back to Michael Phelps. I think he still is a role model. I think he is a wonderful example of how dedication and hard work can achieve unbelievable goals. I also think we ask a lot of our role models - we expect all of their behavior to be exemplary all of the time. And in this day and age of instant communication, that includes their private behavior. How many of us can say that we are "worthy of imitation" ALL the time? And lest you say, but wait, I'm not a public figure, well, yes, you are. There are people who know you, and especially if you have children, they're watching you a good portion of the time. You may be more inspiring than you know.

A model is not the real thing. A model is a mock up or facsimile, used as an example. A model may, for example, be hollow inside (John Edwards comes to mind). But a model can still give us an example of something worthy of imitation. Something to strive for, with the awareness that real people are, well, real. They make mistakes, the role models (of all levels of fame) apologize, and they strive to learn from those mistakes. That's the behavior we should be imitating. That's the lesson we should be passing on to our kids. That's the real-life role model that all the 12-step programs use - one day at a time, don't beat yourself up, learn and grow. Our current president has admitted smoking pot. But somewhere along the line, he learned that it was not compatible with achieving his goals, he learned from his mistakes, and now look what he's done!

Rather than being disillusioned with Michael Phelps as a role model, use it as a teaching moment that real people make mistakes. Role models 'fess up, learn their lesson, and continue to be worthy of imitation. And having compassion for people, in all their imperfectness, well, that's a lesson a good role model teaches us, too.

One of these things is not like the others...

A friend pointed out to me that I hadn't revealed which card was mine.

Sorry, I thought it was so obvious that I couldn't believe that nobody got it.

I made the pirate card (4th from top). When we first got the invitation, I was trying to think of something clever and different, technique-wise, that could still be done in 10 minutes.

And then I thought about Adam, and how we need to send him a "thinking of you" card. And, well, one thing led to another, and pirates were an obvious choice.

Many stampers struggle with "guy" cards. So many stamp sets are florals, or "cute", it can be really hard to make a more masculine card. And yes, I know my card has pink on it. It needed an accent.

Aftermath

Yes, my fears about this morning were well-founded. JC got up just fine, bless his early-bird heart. William actually got out of bed a little better than usual. Go figure. He was still a little grumpy, but since he got up on the early side, we had time for a cuddle on the couch.

Rachel got up complaining that her stomach felt funny, and she didn't feel very good. Classic post-late-night syndrome. I thought about insisting that she go to school. I thought about the fact that William threw up Saturday night - just once, and then he felt fine, but still. I thought about an excuse not to go to the gym. I thought about not getting to go to the gym. I thought about taking a nap, too.

I let her stay home. Call it a mental-health day. She seems to do this a couple of times during the school year - if it was more often, I'd call her on it. As it is, she'll be back at school tomorrow (barring snow day) and won't have missed much. Of course, she'll have extra homework to do on her birthday, so she gets "punishment" after all. (Insert evil laugh here).

Super Super Bowl

I really enjoyed the Super Bowl this year. We had a few friends over, we ate mostly stuff from the freezer and leftovers, we did spend the afternoon cleaning but the house needed it anyway.

And it was a good game! There were even a few good comercials.

What more could you want? No, I didn't care strongly who won, so no matter what happened it was exciting. Not quite as exciting as last year when I did care, but that's ok. Next year is another season.

Of course, I'm not looking forward to tomorrow morning - we let all three kids stay up to watch the end of the game. And, unlike in Pittsburgh, the chances of us having a delayed opening tomorrow are slim to none. Oh well. I just have to bomb them out of bed - in theory, I could take a nap during the day.