SKUNKED!

A house across the street is being renovated. To that end, trees have been cut down and a shed has been removed from the backyard. Rumor has it that a family of skunks have been evicted, and are seeking new digs in the neighborhood.

Zuzu, being a rat terrier, has a high prey drive when it comes to rodents. (Unless, of course those rodents happen to be family!). Twice this week she has sought to "make friends" with the skunk family; twice this week a skunk has taught her what she thought of that idea! So how do you get rid of skunk smell? Here are our solutions, in reverse order of effectiveness...
3. Tomato juice (well, we only had low sodium V-8.) Zuzu figured what dripped off of her in the tub she could drink. At least she had a treat that wouldn't raise her blood pressure!
2. Mixing 1 quart of hydrogen peroxide, one quarter cup of baking soda, and 2 T dish detergent such as Dawn. It makes a foaming mixture that in theory helps to oxide the venom. Zuzu doesn't like it so much cause you can't drink it; Peggy doesn't like it cause you can't mix it up until right before you use it so you are searching for the ingredients and trying to make it happen while the dog is reeking. Which leads us to Peggy's favorite cure....
1. Massengill! That's right, that old feminine product does a great job! It comes pre-mixed and measured, so it's just a matter of holding the dog and rubbing it on her. We keep a supply just for skunks!

The downside for Zuzu is that she is banned from the bed and put in the crate to sleep when she gets sprayed. Hopefully, she'll sooner or later learn to leave those black cats with the white stripes ALONE!

A Special Weekend

I grew up in Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, NY, five miles north of the US Military Academy at West Point. When I lived in Cornwall, we lived at 8 Idlewild, while the Marsh's lived at 6 and the Lukaciks lived at 7.

In 1965, when I was 9, Connie Marsh, the mom of the Marsh family, broke her leg. Her husband, Cliff, was a physician, and they decided to build a pool in their backyard so Connie could have therapy. And the pool did get used--by the neighborhood kids! Connie sat by the pool with the other mom's and played games and cards. At suppertime, it was not unusual for everyone to bring what they were planning for dinner and we'd have a neighborhood potluck. The bottom line was... I generally spent at least as many waking hours during the day at the Marshes as I did at my own home.

In 1974, my family moved away from Cornwall. The Marsh children grew up and moved away--to New Hamphire, California, and Arizona. Cliff passed away about 1977, and Connie moved from Idlewild to Cliff's office building in town.

Last summer, Connie passed away, having moved to Arizona about six months prior. She was, I believe, 80 when she died.

This past weekend, a memorial service was held for Connie down by the river in Cornwall. The Marsh children came from around the country, the Lukaciks were there, as well as my mom, my brother and me. It was a special time to reconnect with childhood friends who had a significant impact on my life as well as to say goodbye to a dear friend and a generous woman. My decision to go was rather impetuous--I decided on Thursday to go on Friday--but I'm so glad I did. I have no regrets.

What Else We've Been Doing...

It's summer... here's some of the other things we've been working on....
---What we're reading and watching....
Peggy and Abby read "Because of Winn Dixie" and then watched the film. We both enjoyed it.









Peggy is reading Eric Metaaxes' "Amazing Grace--the Story of William Wilberforce". British history can be a bit tedious (sorry, Becca) but it's worth the work.












Peggy and Steve watched Pursuit of Happyness--we both gave it 4 (out of 5) stars.




Abby is now reading some of her Magic Tree House books.


We discovered the game of Clue as a family. We can all play together, which is really cool. Abby likes to be Miss Scarlett; Andrew is Colonel Mustard.

***What we're buying....
The Grammar School has revised (translate--made stricter) their dress code for next year. It impacts my children mostly with what my daughter wears. How so?--skorts will need to come to the knee, shorts will need to come at least to mid-thigh, and--the worst-- girls need to wear collared shirts. Ask anyone who knows my daughter well--- no one has seen her in a collared shirt!
So we've been shopping and have purchased a few polo shirts that she likes. She's even worn a couple of them when she hasn't had to! I also found two pairs of cute size slim capris at the Talbots 40-70% off sale. What a find! She wears those most days when it's cooler

An Interesting Fourth!

We had quite the interesting 4th of July this year. As is usual, the City of Wheaton Jaycess had their parade. Wheaton has a LONG parade. It is a testimony to free speech (lots of politicians), free enterprise (lots of businesses) and free candy (no explanation needed!) People go out the day before to put their lawn chairs out to stake their place on the parade route. The parade lasts at least two hours. It makes for a long morning.

After the parade, we were invited to our friends, the Carlson's, for a picnic. It was a warm, upper 80 degree day, and the Carlson's have an in-ground pool in their backyard. The children got some great exercise... and Andrew did some great floating! The children were literally in the water for four hours straight!

After the Carlson's picnic, we came home and got ready to go the fireworks at the fairgrounds. The city puts on about a $35,000 fireworks display, so it's pretty spectacular. The downside was that Steve was with the kids and I got separated from them, so we didn't get to watch it together.


Finally, it was time to come home. The fairgrounds parking lot was pretty packed, and it was close to 10:30 by the time we made it home. Andrew came into the living room and commented that Zuzu had chewed on a battery which was on the living room floor. We threw it away without really looking at it. Then Abby noticed something on the living room ceiling. We assumed, in the darkness, that it was something like a dead moth... until we turned on the light and had a closer look. It was a hole in the ceiling. WHAT? We then fished the "battery" out of the trash can, only to discover it was really a bullet. We contacted the police the next day--after we figured this all out--and the local police department has launched a criminal investigation. We figure someone was shooting a hunting rifle into the air to "celebrate" the fourth. As the law of gravity states, what goes up, most come down. And down it came... through our roof, through out ceiling, and onto our living room table, from which it bounced unto the floor. The police now have the bullet as evidence and for ballistics testing, but here's a photo of the hole in our ceiling. We are all thankful we opted to go to the fireworks!

The White Picket Gate

We have a gate in front of the breezeway of our house. This poor gate has been through the mill... it was relocated after we moved into our house so that the dogs could come in and out through the laundry room in muddy weather. After we got Zuzu, Steve rebuilt it with some leftover lumber as tiny Zuzu proved to us that she was agile enough to jump over it. The gate looked like it had been remade!

I am not the queen of home makeovers, but I guess I'd watched enough episodes of Property Ladder, Flip that House, and Extreme Makeover to realize that the gate needed help! So I set out to paint it this weekend, with the help of my intrepid Abigail and Andrew. They thought helping mom was great fun until the neighbors came calling with the magic words, "Want to play?" So I wound up finishing up myself. Hopefully you can tell the before from the after!