Doggy tripping

Hubby is at work and I thought I would write a quick post about Abi fluff tripping last night. Except I got to reading someone's blog and having a look at their blog roll and then decided to up date my blog reading list and 90 minutes later....you get the idea.  Thinking about it I wish there was a way I could update my site's blog roll of fantastic bloggers easy and simply by being able to copy my reading list but alas I can't and so that is a job for another day.

I was also disturbed by a phone call from Hubby who was reminding me to pick up some computer spray cleaner when I went to Tesco - I had to ask him to remind me why I was going again.  That was to have my nails done so I really should have known that and it now means I have to have a shower before I go there as I have my nails done at the salon that also does my hair and I really cannot go looking like I have been dragged through a hedge backwards.

So it looks like the accounts that were supposed to be started again at 8.30am are going to be started this afternoon!  Yes, I did do some last night - cue round of applause for finally getting round to them.....

Right back to Abi fluff.

Yesterday Hubby was working overtime and I went to pick him up.  Having put most of the weekly shop away I thought it was safe to leave the door to the hallway open.  After all, why are dogs going to try and get into a 6 pack of 7up - right?  

Yes, that is right, they didn't.  What the girlie fluffs decided to do was attack Hubby's packet of Cappuchino's that were also lined up against the wall ready to find a suitable storage space that was not in the dining room which is now my office and must not become the dumping ground for everything again after I cleaned it out ready for Christmas dinnner. Full stop, breathe.

Anyhoo, when we arrived home, as usual Freddy fluff was sat on the couch and looked at me as if to say "It wasn't me....again!" (He refuses to get involved in all sorts of doggy naughtiness after being punished once). 

Around the living room, stairs and landing were various strips of cappuchino packets.  Luckily they are hard to get into unless the dogs find the small strip that I pull back to open the packet.  They had managed to open 3.

My fault, I should have known that if it is related to anything food or drink related that Lily fluff can get into she will.  After all, she demonstrated her abilities to open zips and velcro at any early age when she 'investigated' Hubby's coat pocket and ate his iPod.

Cala and Abi fluff let Lily fluff do the deed and then they help eat the contents.  

The result of last nights endeavours?  Well, after a mad dash around the house for 20 minutes by all 3 girlie fluffs Abi fluff decided to sit on the back of the sofa waiting for anyone to go by when she would dive on them and then just at the kitchen door.  Dare to open the door and she would run in and sit at the spot in front of the cupboard where her food bowl is stored and alternately look at the top of the cupboard and then me.  

Ignore her and come out of the kitchen and she would sit on the back of the sofa, jump off, sit on my knee, move about on my knee, jump off, erratically walk around the room, get back on the top of the sofa, get off and do it all again.  For 6 hours!

Luckily she came down from her high by 11pm and slept soundly last night. 

This morning I took Hubby to work.  I returned home to no barking and Freddy Fluff sat on the sofa looking at me as if to say "It wasn't me....again!"  On opening the living room door the 3 girlie fluffs barked and ran down the stairs.  

I walked upstairs to find that Hubby had left our bedroom door open which is dangerous.  Dangerous why?  Well, Hubby has a bedside cabinet and in that drawer I place all of his "goodies" which at any one time may hold 3 or 4 different kinds of chocolate and sweets because I can't resist buying him things.  Not dangerous you may think except Lily fluff knows how to open that drawer - clever arse of a dog!

More so though she is an expert at zips and my laptop rucksack was on the floor where it has been throughout the Christmas period.  Now, both Hubby and I know to keep the door shut because if Lily fluff can smell any kind of food in a bag she will investigate at first opportunity. The girlie fluffs also know, from experience, that I also store goodies in my bags, especially when I have been travelling with work.

Lily fluff, this morning, in her wisdom decided that it was easier to investigate my bags that Hubby's drawer - after all, opening zips must be easier for her than nudging the bottom of a drawer open with her nose.  Let's just say that the dogs have eaten 2 packets of Toffets (chocolate coated toffee), half a bag of dark chocolate coated honeycomb sweets and were 2 of them were busy trying to open 2 packets of Mars Bar Bite thingies. Ripped sweetie packets are ripped and strewn across the room along with my paperwork - after all, paperwork does not taste as nice as chocolate.

People, I have just shut the door on it....... So far Abi fluff is not tripping.  She may well have stomach ache.

 

Relaxing…..or not!

Yesterday I mentioned that I blitzed the house this weekend.  Well I did that plus a lot of other chores that needed doing.  As Beautiful B was away on a short holiday and Hubby was spending Saturday with my brother and staying at his house overnight it was an ideal time to sit and relax by myself with a good book or catch up on the Sky planner which was screaming out to be watched with only had 18% of free space.  The only problem is that I cannot sit and relax when I decide a lot of jobs need completing. 

Beautiful B was on a long weekend away with Ry and his family.  Having dropped Hubby off to spend the day watching the horse racing and Grand National and win us a fortune I formed a plan of attack.

My plan was:

Saturday Morning:                 Blitz the house

Saturday Afternoon:              Do more accounts (I have been doing these for days)

Saturday Night:                    Catch up on the planner with a cross-stitch and the fluff bags

That didn’t work out – what actually happened:

Saturday                             cleaning, scrubbing and throwing stuff away

Saturday night                     less than an hour in front of the TV

Sunday                                more cleaning, scrubbing and throwing away of stuff with bit                                     of accounts thrown in

So what on earth did I do I hear you ask?

Friday

On Thursday night I had thrown some old clothes in a big bag ready for the recycling centre on Friday. 

• On Friday morning I ordered some clothes for our forthcoming long weekend at Centerparcs; seen as I am not fitting in a lot of my clothes; a result of being more than content in my marriage and having a preference for snuggling with Hubby instead of going to the gym
• Systematically emptied every bin in the house to take to the recycling centre with the old clothes and then took off to the recycling centre after work
• Played at being a Treasurer of the Football Club for a while paying for the annual memberships and collecting cash to balance and bank for last 3 weeks having a sneaky non-alcoholic drink in the process
• Rang 2 banks to discuss documentation needed for my name change on the 2 Treasury Accounts I do – what a pain!  It is such a good job he is worth it.
• Issued duplicate invoices to 2 of the snooker clubs
• Admitted to apparently being a professional person on a passport application for one of Beautiful B’s friends
• Collected mum to do the weekly shop
• Having delivered mum safely home, I picked Hubby up from work, made a quick stop at home to collect Cala and took her to the vet as she has a worrying lump near one of her legs –given the all clear thankfully though Cala deciding to leave the vet a very special present was mortifying! REALLY Cala really!!!!.
• Picked up and filled enough medication to make me rattle like a maraca.
• Took the car to the beauty salon, otherwise known as Halfords for some new eyelashes windscreen wipers and rear lights including those for the number plate – how I hadn’t already been stopped by the police I do not know (shame though; men in uniform are usually worth stopping for).
• After ½ hour of fiddling the nice Halfords man had fitted the lights (badly I was to find out) and I visited the pet shop to pick up some food for the girlie fluffs.  Despite instructions to the contrary I returned home with no only the required dog food but 2 essential fluffy squeaky dog toys because they do not have enough, they don’t, they don’t, they don’t – their toy box is just too small.
• I noticed the car sounded like it was on speed when using the indicator – great!  Less than 5 minutes out of the beauty parlour and already she was sulking.
• Drove the car to the nice doctor man at our usual garage who, after telling me off for taking her to a quack, fixed her lights up good as new so she could flash her lights at random strangers who dared to stare at her behind.
• I left vowing to never treat the car badly by providing inferior plastic surgery in the future.
• Having been out of the house for over 2 hours to do one simple job I decided to treat myself Hubby to McD’s – while the cat’s away the mice will play eat fast food.
• Snuggled with Hubby watching our daily quiz show together, bit of a play on computer games to quiet the brain and bed.

Almost forgot - fit a 7.5 hour day in at work around all of the above.

So far so good……and other than a couple of additional things, all of the above is the norm for me.

Saturday

Having been woken up at 4.30am by the fluff bags I made an early start on the dining room:

• Emptied the entire wall unit to determine what was needed and what wasn’t, splitting the items we didn’t need into recyling and the charity shop
• Removed all overflow items from the top of the wall unit as they drive me mental (I mean what must people think when they walk past the house and nosy through the window!) determined to store at least half in the cupboard space freed up by my ruthlessness
• Started in on the storage held in the bay window, throwing accountancy monthlies in recycling (Yes I have read them )
• Separated books to be flown to Spain and lovingly handed over to my Aunty S who loves reading the same thriller/crime/serial murder books as me
• Wrote a letter to include in said box to Aunty Sylvia
• Transferred pop to fridge for Hubby; I am sure he would put them in the freezer if they didn’t explode when defrosting!
• Removed loving verse from the frame given to me by my gorgeous mum over 10 years ago. 
• Hung framed photos on the wall
• Polished and swept the room 
• During this time I washed and dried two loads of washing
• Hubby woke up so I made him some breakfast and put more washing on
• While catching up with Hubby, or rather Hubby being bombarded with a blow by blow account of my dreams while he had no choice but to listen because I had made him breakfast and it would just be rude, I sorted this weeks pills into neat little piles and popped them in an organiser to make sure I a) remembered to take them and b) didn’t overdose on them.
• Following Hubby out to the car ½ hour later with a handful of bags for the charity shop, recyling and a bottle of windscreen washer fluid tucked under one arm I insisted on filling the water bottle first while convincing him what a fantastic idea it was to stop at the recycling plant before I dropped him off at my brothers - after all 2 people are quicker than one, aren’t they?
• Dropped Hubby off at my brothers with a kiss and a cuddle and drove the car directly to the garage for her annual check up desperately hoping I wasn’t going to be told she needed to be put out to pasture
• Potentially scaring the man half to death with a look of total disbelief I informed him I would not take him up on his offer of waiting around for 45 minutes when I could be home completing a job on my ‘must do today list’
• Returned home to remove everything stored in the storage area under our bed.  Abi jumped in to help investigate sniffing around the Christmas wrapping I had stored under there.  She soon jumped out when I started throwing stuff out over my shoulder for speed
• An hour in and I received a phone call to say my little car had passed it’s MOT with no repairs (hurrah).  After negotiating a later pick up I decided to throw away half of our spare bedding along with various other ex-necessities
• Returned to pick up the little car and treated her to a beauty session the car wash.  After being scrubbed and polished to show off all her bumps we took off to the shop to treat the dogs to new dog beds – after all, I had money to spare now that the little car had taken good care of herself this year
• 3 dogs beds, printer ink and an extension cable later (which by the way I think I have broken already) I surprised Fred with a dog bed big enough for him to stretch out on; ignoring the fact that it takes up half of the floor space in the living room
• Another load of washing and I returned upstairs to sort out the wardrobes – all 3 stretch 12 foot across the bedroom.  After an hour I felt much better as all clothes were now stored in colour and type order (not that I have Organised Cleaning Disorder or anything)
• I had found a pair of my shoes I could throw away and impressed myself by throwing away at least 5 handbags – none of them Radley though – oh no, they can stay in my house until they are falling apart!
• Next to be stripped bare was my bedside cabinet drawer; after a ½ hour that was cleaned and organised into nice neat compartments courtesy of Lakeland Plastics drawer dividers.
• All bedroom drawers were next on the list and two of them are now wonderfully neat and organised with more dividers (Hubby looked more perplexed at my excitement at the organisation of the drawers than impressed on Sunday when I showed him).
• Another 3 bin bags later for recycling and I was ready to polish and hoover that room after changing the bedding and deciding all this work is not good for my back complaint.  Something to do with the fact that it had started screaming in despair at what I was putting it through
• Having blitzed the two rooms it could be in I did a quick search of the living room cupboards and resigned myself to having thrown my Kindle and Season 7 of Supernatural away during a mad cleaning session on return from our honeymoon – no point crying over spilt milk; it won’t fetch them back.
• Next on the list was the ordering of Hubby’s 40^th birthday present and it was probably the quickest job I did all day long.
• After clipping the dogs nails, a quick sweep up downstairs and I was ready to play some more computer games to relax.
• An hour later and another load of washing later I was in Tesco buying a new Kindle!
• Half way through the first programme I sit down to relax too a phone call from A had me out of the house in a rush to see her and pick up Hubby who decided not stay overnight at my brothers after all.

So, that was Saturday concluded and I will admit I was grateful for my bed that night.

Sunday

For the third day in a row the fluff bags woke me up at stupid o’clock 4am so in retaliation I systematically brushed every single dog until the girlies looked like teddy bears and Freddy had at least started shredding hair quite as much.

Having woke up to an empty space Hubby came downstairs to see if I was okay; like he does every weekend; I am still unsure what he expects to find. I am always okay and have been for the past 6 years that he has lived with us.

After making Hubby coffee and crumpets we got dressed while the fluff bags danced around our ankles somehow knowing we were going to take them for a carefree run around a nearby field.

An hour and half later, I realised what a mistake it was to take the fluff bags out before 8am as the dew had assisted in the collection of enough mud on the fluff bags to turn their legs and underbellies a dark brown instead of white.  Like a little old woman I twittered about what a waste of time it was to brush them not 3 hours earlier.

Returning home I sorted through nearly 100 books to find the ones I had read so that mum and dad could take them to my Aunty S when the visit Spain. 

When visiting mum and dad and the attempt to pass secret messages about birthday presents and deliveries between mum and I without Sean noticing began.  If only he was so much easier to buy birthday presents for.  This year the whole family is clubbing together to buy him a huge present and the working together as a family will mean as much, if not more, as the present itself.

The need for heavy medication was called for to cope with the back pain as I was still insistent that I had more chores to do but today I had Hubby to help – hurrah.  He does not recall offering to power wash the garden in his drunken state the night before so after a negotiation I began power washing the garden while Hubby hovered the stairs for me.

After attempting to put the hose back on the power washer without turning the water off, the power washer switched itself off in disgust at my laziness and so far has refused to help me again.  Not to be outdone and prove to it that I could cope without its help I finished the garden with the good old hose and a brush.

As Beautiful B is insistent that she wants to move in with her boyfriend later in the year I have started to save household items for her.  As a result, I could next be found under her bed trying to store an ironing board and iron for her.

Next on the list was the need to clean the extractor fan and replace the filter.  The steamer is a great help in this area and does a much better job than simple elbow grease.  Already working near the oven dictated to my cleaning mode that it was time to clean the trays in the oven while I was there.

After sweeping up Hubby took advantage of the steamer insisting I was in too much pain to clean the floors.  I retaliated by negotiated polishing the house instead.

Hubby then banned me from doing more cleaning after noticing that I was walking around the house very gently and grimacing once I was more than half way up the stairs – blasted face, it hides nothing!

So I found jobs I could do that did not involve manual handing;

• ordering Sean’s birthday card which took an age!  Wanting to put my own verse inside requires the need to use one of the stupid card sites on the internet and trying to find an appropriate card takes far too long for my liking.
• Ordering the Apple iPad cleaner for my dad (mum and I are still in a debate as to whether I will accept the money for it from them – I insist not!)
• Completed forms for the car’s log book and my driving licence to change them to my married name
• Start yet more accounting – I am beginning to wonder if it will ever end

Since then my job has been to manage the resulting back pain which isn’t going too well, especially after a day of trying to cope with the side effects of such strong painkillers.  Even I have put off any cleaning chores and have concentrated on accounts instead.

So you see, while there aren’t a tremendous amount of chores there, some of them took ages and clearly my initial timetable of blitzing the house in ½ a day was a tad optimistic.  It’s a good job I am better at judging the time required to do tasks at work!

A belated birthday cake

My 40th Birthday Cake

Well, it's not, because I did get this 2 days before my actual birthday but as you can tell I have somehow managed to find the link that allows me to upload photographs - I swear that it was not available up until 2-3 days ago!  

I figured I would record for posperity, you know in case Beautiful B ever stumbles upon this blog before I die or after she knows about it when I'm gone.  

Beautiful B and Angel were tasked with designing the cake.  I insisted actually; Hubby had looked like a scared rabbit between headlights so it was best to hand the mantle over to 2 people who know me better than anyone else in the world - after all, there was no way I was dealing with that on top of everything else and I wanted it to be a total surprise.

In no particular order:

Giraffe - I can only assume it has a Christmas hat on purposefully because I am as obsessed with Christmas as I am with giraffes and it killed 2 birds with one stone - giraffes are all over my house - I think they are so very strange looking but so very graceful with it.  Weird?  Probably but nothing new there.

Needle & thread - very boring of me but I love to do cross-stitch patterns.  It started when I got divorced the first time (don't ask) and moved back to mum and dad's with Beautiful B.  It was the one thing that allowed my mind to quiet.  I started and so far have yet to stop.  They make for fantastic presents - mum has 4 of them, all 4 of which she kept saying she liked when I started them for me - I soon saw a pattern emerging (see what I did there.....)

Pepsi Max - addicted.  It doesn't help that I don't drink coffee, tea, milk or anything similar (milk is only good for making cereal soggy - the remainder gets drained off and the dogs love me for it).  I stopped drinking milk when I was 6 months old (see!  awkward from almost the time I was born!) and mum had to make do with giving me milky puddings to top up the required calcium.  I drank pop and cordial throughout my childhood and have drank Pepsi as long as I can remember.  I prefer full fat Coca Cola but lets face it, the constant fluctuation in weight has a lot to do with the intake of that so Pepsi Max it has to be most of the time (though not at this precise moment in time when coca cola is back in favour but only for another few weeks before I tire of being so fat again).

I drink that much of the stuff that someone once took the time to count the number of cans I drank a day (admittedly Coca Cola at the time - shout out to Glenn).  In fact, if I recall he had a 5 bar gate going......

Anita Blake (Laurell K. Hamilton) books - I read copiously, admittedly usually murder, mayhem and serial killers (they ALWAYS get caught and the good guy always wins).  I found the Anita Blake books by accident and was hooked from book 16 (though I had to go back to book 1 to start the series) and have been hooked on that series ever since.  Her imagination is astounding and I don't know of many other authors who could spin a story out and extend the story line the way she has through 20 books.

Beautiful B wanted to know what my favourite books were.  Truthfully, I don't have one but as I had to name one (pretending I had no idea why she was asking) Anita Blake books are pretty much at the top. So these books signify my love of books. 

So there you have it, a cake that tells anyone what I am like mostly.  It weighed too much for one person to pick up as it was huge and the cake maker refused to add figurines of me, Hubby and Beautiful B, plus the 4 fluff bags and a cute alien (the other loves of my life) as she said it would look to busy.  I have to say I am quite disappointed, even Angel told her that was the point - I am always busy so the cake should be too.  Mind you, on the upside - it provides a great start for the 50th novelty cake!

Cala Fluff

My beautiful little Cala bags

This is Cala Fluff - she is the middle dog.  We have grandma fluff (Lily), mummy fluff (Cala) and baba fluff (Abi) and giraffe fluff (Fred).  The 3 girls are related and as much as it is not great to say it Cala is my favourite.  She is on this earth purely to love everyone to death.  I have NEVER seen the little fluff unhappy, snappy or quiet (other than sleeping and even then she snores very loudly).  She could generate electricity with her tail.  

Abi is the only child of her's we have.  Being one of 7 in a litter Abi will not have another brother or sister living with her as we fear that Cala will pop or at least do herself serious damage if she gets pregnant again.  At only 4 weeks pregnant you could see the puppies moving like little aliens in her belly and the risk to her health is just not worth it.

Which begs the question; why did I sit at home this weekend dutifully weighing out the girls dog food into individual bags (makes for an easier life when they are nibbling my ankles off at tea time) if I was going to add an extra 50g in without realising it?  Not only did I do that once, I did it for a whole batch of 60 bags.  

I will tell you why: it was either 'The Following', 'Grey's Anatomy', 'The Biggest Loser' or some other programme that I entertained myself with while doing it.  The older I get the further away the ability to multitask goes....

So Cala along with Abi and Lily fluff is going to get fat!  You could argue that it would be a waste of my time re-bagging it all but seen as Beautiful B and Hubby will just give them what is in the bag no matter how many times I tell them to split 2 bags between 3 I suspect that over this weekend I have dutifully sat there and re-bagged the whole batch......(Yes, I am writing this in advance so that it isn't another month before I post anything!).

It's a good job I can make him laugh!

After working late last night I took myself off to the supermarket for 3 things; cheese, ham and bread – simple?  It cost me £50.  It can’t just be me that ‘window shops’ in supermarkets and adds all sorts of extras to the trolley. 

In went bottles of pop as they were “2 for £3”.  In went washing liquid as it was “Reduced to £5”.  In went clothes softener as it was “2 for £5”.  Obviously I am a sucker for special offers because my cleaning cupboard is bulging. I should just be grateful that there were lots of products promoted as “New” as I am sucker for those!  Hubby laughed his head off when he opened the boot and saw more than 3 products.

I woke up this morning and Hubby was sat next to me watching golf (I kept calling it cricket – obviously because they are both played on green grass) and after a few minutes said “Are you making me my usual coffee?” with a hint of amusement on his face.  I obviously showed no signs of moving, in fact I was rolling about with the fluff bags playing peek-a-boo with Cala’s ears and her eyes. 

Here is a lesson girls, don’t make hubby breakfast in bed (often) or make him coffee (daily) because they expect it.  “No.  You let the dogs out.  In the time they were out you could have made a coffee.  Obviously you haven’t turned your multifunction switch on this morning.”

“What about the crumpets you promised me?”

“Excuse me, I DO NOT think I promised you crumpets!”

“Yes you did. ‘Hubby, I got you some crumpets so I can make you some for breakfast tomorrow.’ That is what you said when you picked me up last night.”

“I do not think I did.  I would remember that conversation!  I may have said I bought crumpets to make you for breakfast but definitely did not commit to or say ‘tomorrow’.  You are making an assumption; as I bought them and mentioned that I got them to make you for breakfast that you associated the two and assumed you would get them this morning and you would be wrong.”

Now, my memory is rubbish – completely.  I can forget was I was thinking 2 minutes ago.  I am convinced I will have Alzheimer’s by the time I am 50 which, as an aside, gives me 10 years to get lots of living in.  I more than likely did say it but to be honest, I wasn’t admitting that because I really cannot remember saying it and that is enough for me.

So Hubby ended up with no crumpets – he did try to get me to make them for another hour though.

“So Ribena, are you making me lunch today?” (don’t ever get into the habit of making lunches daily either; I’m obviously a slow learner and bad role model to our daughter)

“No.  I am giving you some money to buy lunch as I am being lazy.” (I will admit the truth when I remember it)

“I am going to miss my sandwiches, all that nice ham and cheese and pickle….”

“Don’t be nitty picky; you know you are going to buy a ham, cheese and onion baguette because you ‘may not like other flavours’.”

“Nitty picky!  Is that even a word?!” (laughing)

“Yes and you know it.”

“No, I think ‘nit pick’ is a phrase but I am not convinced ‘nitty picky’ exists.”

“Well it does now.”

Driving to work we go around the same roundabout at least 5 days a week.  Driving around it today I looked to my left to check a car was not coming across the ‘give way’ sign to plough into us.  20 seconds later……

“Are you okay?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Did you forget that you needed to turn the wheel?”

“No!  Evidently not as I am now driving up the same road we always do after going round the roundabout.”

“Oh, because for a second I thought you had forgotten to turn and were going to plough into the railings.”

“Why, did it look like I was going to plough into the railings?”

“No.”

“Well, then it was just your worry wart button pinging clearly.”

Hubby doesn’t drive, and there is a reason for it.  When learning to drive he drove straight across a roundabout because he was glancing at the gear stick to see what gear he was in.  He never took another driving lesson.  So even if I did turn a second later than I normally do because I was glancing to see if another car was nearly upon us (which I was not….) he would have no room to talk now would he?

Hubby worries incessantly.  If he has nothing to worry about, he will find something to worry about.  I am an early riser and even though we have lived together for going up 5 years, if he turns over in bed and I am not there he comes downstairs to see ‘if I am alright.’  Peeps, I have never been not alright in 5 years!

Scatty? Yes; Forgetful? Definitely.” Kind of cute with it?  Must be because he is always laughing with me rather than at me and apparently it’s what he loves about me.  I’m very grateful for that because I’m not convinced that any other man could put up with me.

Smelling beautiful

People think we are crazy to have 4 dogs.  Well, me being crazy goes without saying and Hubby would basically let me do what I wanted (except tell a secret!! - It's our secret, why not - hmmph) and Beautiful B; well she is used to me after 17 years. 

You all know I love little baba fluffs; they give you undying love and affection, you could melt in their eyes (especially if you keep the one with Puss in Boots eyes), they are always happy and they all have totally different personalities so you ignore the bad things.....

Which include:

• gnawing the spindles of a new rocking chair
• chewing a hole in the edging of the new leather sofa chair arm
• Taking great delight at pretending to be an Andrex puppy and toilet paper the house given any opportunity
• waking me up at 4am because your bladder is still to small (Hubby's excuse for baba fluff despite the fact that she just turned 1)
• leaving the kitchen and now living room doors with what appear to be claw marks from the smallest bear ever
• ripping open any package in case there are sweets in there
• being untrainable in the art of not barking
• going out as a twosome or threesome only to be let back in and the other 1 or 2 of you then remembering you need to go out also
• getting far too excitable on the field and legging it over to the nearest giant dog and lying on your back in submission in the hope it doesn't snap you in half
• sitting on my stomach in a morning until your eyes have been cleaned so you can get the jelly bean that has now become habit
• thinking you are the doggy version of a human car wash and must ensure every inch of bare skin is cleaned at every opportunity

This list is not exhaustive.

The joy of having the back garden landscaped with beautiful paving and separated into 2 so that the fluff bags get one half while the other stays clean is that it's much easier to clean than our last concrete monstrosity.  Having 4 dogs makes for a lot of pee so a power washer was purchased and after having to admit defeat and get Hubby to help me put one end of the hose on the outside tap I started to clean the paving. 

I would ask who knew how much fun it would be but if I'm honest I kind of know how much fun it is so I merrily spent an hour in the sunny warm garden with the power washer, lots of water and puddles.  Then I sat in the sun in the somewhat gnawed rocking chair and read in the first real warm sun we have had this year.

So where does smellingly beautiful come in?  Cala fluff cleans everyone; it is her mission in life apparently.  Wagging of the tail and hugs must, apparently, come with lots of sloppy kisses - she obviously thinks it negates the need for a shower as a result.  She won't be told, it is her way of mothering us all.  Pity she cannot clean her own head because at some stage before the power wash she decided to rub her head and neck over some "wet" paving shall we say....and she stunk.

Beautiful B was tasked with giving Cala fluff a bath.  She needs cheering up and sometimes there is nothing better than seeing the sulking of a fluff bag in the bath knowing that the resultant undeniable excitement in Cala fluffs eyes are because she knows that in less than 5 minutes she will be tearing around the house with Lily fluff who waits somewhat noisily and impatiently behind the bathroom door. 

I walked in the house after work yesterday to the normal barrage of barking for Cala fluff to bark longer and louder at me as if she was telling me she had been chucked in the bath and she just KNEW it was my fault.  So I buried my nose in her head and inhaled the scent of a beautiful smelling fluff bag and allowed her the joy of licking my neck to death....

....then I went and had a shower.

Not sure the manufacturers had this in mind.....

So almost long enough for me to have forgotten about them, I ordered some headphones for Beautiful B.  They looked like earmuffs and I thought they were cute, they were in a sale and well.....I can hear her music downstairs with the existing headphones which is kinda worrying.

Having received an email saying they were to be delivered that day but having to go out I told Beautiful B that when the package arrived she could open it as the contents were for her.  Not long after my phone beeped and this photo appeared.....

I'm not sure this is what the manufacturers had in mind for them at the design stage and Cala fluff seems to be quite impressed with them.  All I can say is that I'm glad they weren't plugged in......