Spring? Cleaning

I've been struck by the cleaning bug. I think it might be a tad bit late for actual spring cleaning, but hey, at least it is happening! Having clean counters and a gleaming sink makes me feel so good, right down to my toes.

Now, if someone could come up with a good solution to crayon bits that have been ground into the hardwood. :\ I suspect that I am going to have to get a bit of metal (flat-head screwdriver, chisel, something to that effect) and scoot around the floors on my butt, picking at each bit. What a pain. I'm not sure sure how the crayon pieces have become one with the ground. I do know that the ones by the computer desks have been accidently rolled over with the chairs, but the bits in the living room? No clue. And I'm going to have to replenish my stock of Magic Erasers to remove the giant circles drawn on the walls.

The dogs are not a fan of cleaning. This usually means lots of vacuuming, which only really bothers the whippets. Athena usually sits on the bed upstairs, shaking and whining. Wallace follows me around, then retreats upstairs to bark a bit. Silly dogs. Plus it means the possibility of a bath, depending on if the dog towels are clean. And no one likes a bath!

I secretly suspect this cleaning fever has been triggered by the fact that my mom is coming to visit next month. basically, this means I will get my house spotless within the next week or two, only to have it trashed again by the time she actually gets here. :D Not that she really cares either way.

On a side note, it appears a snake has moved into the bush in our front yard. Just a plain ol' garter snake. He's dark green, with yellow racing stripes and I think one orange stripe going down his top. Wallace likes to sniff him out, and then his best pointer impersonation, baying an awful lot like a beagle. The snake just recently shed his skin, and left it on the front step as a present. Ooooh boy did that freak Wallace out! I've got some pictures that I'll have to upload. It's too funny.

Now, as a dedicated sighthound owner, I always have my hounds leashed or under control in some fashion other than voice. But somehow Wallace isn't like Athena or Achilles. I can take him around the backyard and into the front without being on the tie-out or leashed. This makes me so giddy. He dislikes being out in the fenced in yard with the other dogs because the play among three dogs is just a bit too rough (plus he prefers being wherever I am). So we do a little tour of our yard, with frequent recalls to remind him of his obedience. We chase each other, do butt-tuck zoomies about the yard... We've even had some serious distractions out there. One was our neighbor and her little white dog. He ran over, I called, he returned. The second was much bigger. A dakrat. By a dakrat hole. Where lots of other dakrats live. He saw the dakrat dash, his ears perked right up, and before he could take off, I got his attention and he settled down. Needless to say, we had a good romp about the backyard in victory. I am very proud of him. And since he is a much more outgoing dog, I am thinking that when we have disposable income again (ha, with the gas prices and food prices?) I would like to enroll him in obedience class. I could see him doing much better than Athena, because it won't be such a fight dealing with just being in the room. Poor Athena, she just despised going to the class.

And on a less interesting side note... I seem to be having a problem with my vets office. They have been acting very cold and snooty the past few times I have been in. I need to take Wallace in to get his sutures out (had a neutering and they had to go in to retrieve his retained testicle), and I am so not looking forward to dealing with them. Which is SUCH a shame because I have always enjoyed going in there. I don't really know what's up, but it's frustrating.

/sigh