Today has been one of "those days." I had so much planned .... cleaning house in preparation for my brother and sister-in-law who are coming this week for a short visit. It should have been easily accomplished in one day.

However ..............

If it could go wrong, today it did!!

No, nothing serious is wrong. It was just one little thing after another. Most of all, it was .... The Boys!! And they challenged me today! No, it wasn't the house training. That went just fine. One little accident after I failed to set the timer and was busy with "things."

Joey and Sam found a way off the deck. I had put The Boys out there to pay for a while, and they were having a ball. Then I noticed Max sitting at the screen door, "talking" to me. Remember how he "talks"? Well, he was just talking up a storm to me for a couple minutes before I realized that he was sitting there alone. That rarely happens; the normal scenario is that all three of them are sitting together. Wherever one goes, they all go. But no, it was just Max. Uh-oh. Big UH-OH!!

So I went out and looked to be sure they weren't just resting somewhere. And they weren't. Damn. I began whistling, stepped back inside and grabbed leashes and changed from house shoes to regular shoes. I went out, whistling again, and started down the stairs, and there they were! I looked around on the deck and found a place where the chicken wire wasn't stapled well, and fixed it.

A couple hours later I put them out again. Again Max came to the window, looked in and began his talking! Again, the other two were MIA!! Crap. Whistle, leashes, shoes .... and they showed up. I did another check of possible escape spots and discovered they had learned how to jiggle the baby gate that guards the ramp, and it was loose enough that they had been able to slip out. This time I had to re consider how to hang the gate so they couldn't get out. I blocked it, redrilled and changed all the hardware. OK, now it is safe.

A little later, guess what? Yeah, I know. It is not challenge to guess that Max is at the door yammering at me and the other two are gone. ARGHHH. Whistle, shoes, leashes, and they are back again. I couldn't figure out what the heck was wrong until I touched the gate. It was swinging freely at one corner! On examination, I saw that one of the big hooks I put in was on the floor. I didn't notice that I had put it in a spot where there was not enough wood to hold it in place. So I filled the empty area with a piece of wood, glued it with gorilla glue and redrilled it.

They didn't escape again, although the next time I put them out, they went immediately to see if they could get out. NOPE!! And did they ever look disappointed!! Ha ha ha ha!! I win!! Sam stood there, pushing at the gate with his paw, then with his nose, and sat down with a disgusted sigh!

Then the vet's office called to say the the carpet cleaner I needed was finally in. That was good news, but it meant that I had to drive into Ruidoso to get it, a round trip of about 40 minutes.

Oh, yes, and before the second elopement of The Boys, I opened a cabinet to get out a baking dish and found that I needed to rearrange it. While doing that I discovered that a mouse had been nibbling at the shelf liner in the back. Eeeeuuuuu! So I took everything out, put a new box of mouse food in there, and set out to put all the things in that cabinet through the dishwasher. It took four loads and all day to make things feel safe to me. I hate mice, and here in the country, they are a fact of life. This is the first sign of one inside the house since I moved in, however. Tells me I need to replace the mouse poison in the basement. I know they are out of "food."

In between all that, I got a little house work done. More will be essential tomorrow. I'd hoped to be free tomorrow for other things, but it is what it is!

Tonight The Boys are tired. As in passed out. Look at this ..........





Joe is snoring. Sam is sighing. He'll be snoring in a minute, too.








I picked up his paw a moment ago and dropped it. He didn't budge.






Yep, he's snoring now!!







I hope tomorrow goes better than today. A nice, boring day would be just fine with me!