The 5 Day Puppy_______________________ P.S. Ranger School Day 1

We had a puppy for 5 days. She was the cutest thing ever. We acquired her the Saturday we  took our 10 mile ruckmarch down the River Walk. She popped out from behind a woman walking down the track and started following us about 3 miles into our hike. She kept it up for 2 more miles, running in between our legs and really trying to foul us up on the whole cadence-while-marching thing we had going, more or less. :) To my surprise, Lou wasn't the least bit annoyed with her! In fact, when we got to our 5 mile turnaround point, he gave me some water to feed her and then when we decided it would be inhumane to make her walk the 5 miles back, he calmly took off his 50lb. rucksack and made her a little bed in the top of it, waterproofed, of course. :) She rode back there the whole way home and it was the cutest thing ever.

We decided since she was wandering around, but had a little pink collar we would take her home and put an ad in Craigslist in case the owner was looking for her. 4 days passed with no calls and I started getting very attached to the little stinker. She learned to go outside for all business, eat and not climb on our "coffee table" (that would be Rubbermaid container) and was the perfect puppy even for a Black Lab Despiser like me. Then, the fatal day came. I was sitting in David's Bridal trying on a dress for my friend's summer wedding and my phone beeped *text*. The message read,"Do you have that dog?" When I replied in the affirmative the mysteriously mute owner texted back "She's mine." I have to admit, it was an emotional moment....I kinda sniffled. Then, I called her, got the whole story of her trip to Disneyland and return home to the renegade dog-sitters who claimed that the angel dog had run away. Her verbal threats of violence against said sitters if only she could get away with it followed. So, I went home, took a nap with Little Girl and then when Lou got home told him the whole sad story. I took her home that night and felt like a really bad puppy-foster mom who had abandoned a helpless puppy to the clutches of a scary woman with neon green eyeshadow and 4 day unwashed hair, along with two tubby unwashed pre-teens who appeared to dislike taking dogs for runs as much as they loved Fritos. It was a bad evening for me. It didn't make it better that when I gave Little Girl to her, she set her on the ground and Little Girl took off running for me and car, tail wagging. I did cry. That's the truth. Lou was really good to me though, he even hopped right off the computer and left Call of Duty to comfort me when I arrived home sobbing at the injustice of the whole situation. But, now life is just fine....but I do still miss her.

Other news of the week. My herbs are growing and looking well for now! Of course I have to admit that I bought them as partially grown plants at Walmart, after killing two different batches of herbs from seeds. Ugh.
I also planted a tiny garden in the backyard, right off the pallet which houses our new grill. We love that grill! Its so wonderful to make food and not heat up the kitchen. One tiny hint: always remember to turn the grill OFF after grilling. Only difficult to remember the first time. But in my defense, I was raised on charcoal grills and you know, they just GO OUT. No turning the knob to righty-tighty for them.

The pallet is also full of life, many spiders reside under it (Lou is certain there's a nest of black widows) a chipmunk and an enormous toad. Just wear shoes when you go out back, you never know what animal might be lurking around that pallet!

I have two baskets of hanging pansies that I'm trying to freshen up the front porch with. One of the baskets was looking a little puny, so I took extra care to water it. I was horrified when I pulled the basket down to investigate the reason for its demise and found this.................

Only they were drenched at the time and looked like the victims of a water-boarding experiment. Fortunately I remembered that in the wild birds and baby birds get soaked all the time by torrential rains and most of them don't die as a result.

As a matter of fact, it seemed to be helping them to built up immunity to the trials of a bird's life and they flew the nest a week later. Now I have a recovering pansy basket, I've managed to water it almost back to a healthy state.

 I managed to make my first wholly free-style drop poached egg, using Julia Child's cookbook as a guide!

 And found these at the annual Fort Benning wide yardsale, along with some very classy German kitchen knives. (information I only know because of Sarah's education in kitchen knives, which is much more extensive than mine) :) The chairs are going to rest in southern New Jersey, at Lou's parents' home. They are so very early American, in my humble opinion.

 About Ranger School: This is Day 1, as yesterday was Day 0. Its like being a kid and counting down days to vacation time again. Remember how you would say (we would),"Today doesn't count, because its today. Oh yeah, the day we leave doesn't count either, because then we're ON VACATION!" And somehow in the bargaining with days phase we would manage to shave off at least 2 or 3 of those pesky "days til vacation". Well, at Ranger School they do it the same, only not. They don't count the first day as the first. Nope. Its "Day 0". Its like adding days to your life, while the instructors take years off. Today was a long day of waiting. Wondering if Lou was going to call and say,"Come pick me up, Honey." And then we'd wait another month for Ranger School Class June 2010 to start and begin the process all over again. He hasn't called yet so I think that's good news. The big physical fitness test was this morning, followed by the CWSA....stumped yet???

That would be the Combat Water Survival Assessment (CWSA). According to the website, candidates must be able to complete a 15-meter swim in ACU's, boots and equipment. I think they drop from a 40 foot distance after working their way out across the water, but I can't remember all the specifics. Thinking too much about it makes me nervous.
My good friend had her husband come home today. She told me that they are pushing hard to get as many guys out as possible in the this first week, and that 70 soldiers have already been dropped from school for an anomaly in their medical paperwork, unable to complete a requirement on the pt test to the RI's(that would be Ranger Instructor) standard, or missing items from their rucks. It sounds like a bad place to be, like they're just looking for you to miss something so they have an excuse to send you home. Makes sense though, as the class is much too large at the moment for the RIs to handle.
Enough of Ranger School for the moment, as you guys probably aren't wanting to hear all the additional worries and rumors.....
Thank you for the notes of encouragement and prayers sent up on our behalf. They mean a lot.