Here Comes The Rain Again

Some things happened today that were cool: I hung out, all day, with my brother. I took my wife and kids to his house, and we played Tony Hawk 3, and Age Of Empires at his house. Jeremy works all the time and doesn’t live very close, so we don’t get to hang out as often as we used to. The kids totally look up to him, and just love being around him, and he took the day off today to hang with us, so that was really, really cool.
We went to lunch, and Ryan said to us that while he was at science camp, all the kids started calling him “EMENEM”, because of his short blonde hair. So I asked him if he was the Real Slim Shady, or just one of those imitators. Ryan takes a beat, and he says, “Well, Wil, here’s your answer.” And he stands up! I totally missed it, at first, but Anne caught it…I was so stunned, when I got it…that type of subtle, non-fart-related humor just doesn’t exist in your average 12 year old. As I reflected on it, I felt really warm and fuzzy, because I see both Ryan and Nolan developing senses of humor that are very smart, ironic, dry, and sarcastic…I wonder where they got that? *grin*
Ryan is *almost* ready for his first trip to Milliways…I’ll go pick out a towel for him next week.
We do this work with Ferris, where we train her. We work on a skill for a few times, treating her when she does it correctly, and then alternating treats with praise, until she knows what it is we want her to do.
Using this technique, we’ve taught her to sit, lay down, and roll over.
What Ferris really needs to learn is to come when she’s called, and we’ve been working on that. I have her sit and stay, then I walk away to another room of our house, and call her. When she comes, I give her a treat and some praise, and we repeat.
Small problem with Ferris: she is very smart, and when she’s learning, for example, to lay down, she will hear me say, “Ferris..” and she’ll just lay down, and look for the treat. So I have to make her get back up, and start over again. Sometimes it takes awhile.
I promise this will pay off…just bear with me.
So the other day, I’m working with her, and she’s very excited, because she loves the attention, she loves having something to do, and she loves the treats and praise. We’ve been doing the “sit, stay, come, good dog” thing for about 5 minutes, and she is getting really excited. She’s got lab in her, so when she gets excited, she just about turns inside out. I have her sit and stay in the kitchen, then I go to the complete opposite end of the house…past the ballroom, the conservatory, and right into the study. I call her, and she comes running into the room, crashes into me, looks at me, and then she sits, she lays down, and she rolls over. I just about died. I don’t know if it’s translating, but it was so damn funny to me, seeing her show me all her skills, without me saying anything…
Anne and I watched “Blow” night before last. I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a bit over-edited, but I liked the script and acting. that Ted Demme is quite the director, I tell ya what.
It’s raining here in Los Angeles, the first real rain of this season, and I really love it. It’s all yummy and chewey. Tonight, for dinner, Anne made turkey meatloaf and mashed potatoes and I built a fire in the fireplace. After dinner we all sat by the fire and played Apples To Apples, one of the coolest games, ever.
Yes, today was, indeed a good day. I hope you enjoyed yours, as well.