Ngaire's post

Hi, my name is Ngaire. It's the middle of the night and Miss Katie needed something to do, so I asked her if she would type a post for me. (She said she was foolish and had iced tea with caffeine in it for dinner...dummy.) She also promised to add photos in the morning. Ha! Ivy isn't the only special dog around here.

First of all, I need to tell those of you who don't know, that my name is pronounced "Nyree"(think Nyree Dawn Porter). Isn't she glamorous? I have a certain amount of glamour, don't you think?

It's pretty funny how Americans try to say it if Miss Katie and The Tramp don't write it phonetically for them! It's a Maori name from New Zealand. Miss Katie likes it because it's pretty. I certainly like it, and I know The Tramp likes it partly because it confuses people here. He's a bit quirky, but we love him lots. :-P (I asked for doggy smiles too!)

Miss Katie says this has been an "interesting" week. It's been wet and rainy so we've been stuck inside a lot. Ivy especially, manages to get so wet and dirty running outside. She's been hosed off several times this week (tee hee...sometimes it's good to be tall) so Miss Katie made sure our runs outside were brief on the wet days. I have to admit it's been pretty fun having Ivy here. It's great to have someone to run really fast with and we have loads of fun wrestling. We get training time too though Miss Katie has to separate us for that. Ivy likes to get all the toys out of the baskets but I still have to squeak them for her. And she won't play fetch with me outside (I don't get that!). But it's ok, at least I get to squish my tennis balls without interference.

Miss Katie is also pleased that the hummingbirds still come, no matter how much of a ruckus we make!
Not to toot my own horn, but I do behave like a lady most of the time. Ivy, on the other hand, is still practicing...majorly! She woke Miss Katie up the other morning by chowing down on the leg of the bed. Let me tell you, that didn't go over very well! She also likes to gnaw on the legs of Miss Katie's stool while she's typing. Maybe it's 'cause she's not allowed in my space under the counter. I'm pretty easy, but that's one place I draw the line. I was here first after all! So Miss Katie's been looking around for better stuff for Ivy to chew. Ivy didn't know about rawhide so I had to teach her. Miss Katie says so far, so good...but I'll bet she'll have to come up with a new strategy next week! :-P

Miss Katie has been working on her quilt guild's newsletter this week and she's also been sewing. I know she finished her swap blocks and took them to the post office.


She was also gone a bunch of Tuesday to a BSR class.
Once again the instructor said there was something wrong with her sewing machine so she had to stay after class to get it adjusted. I've heard the word "lemon" used several times lately though I'm not sure what it means. I know Miss Katie was very relieved to get her laptop back from the Apple Store (though it has to go back again!) but she gets even more bent out of shape if her sewing machine doesn't work! Sometimes that kind of stuff is good for me though. I get more hugs on days like that! Miss Katie ascribes to the theory that stroking and hugging furry creatures makes people feel better. Fine with me! I try to stick real close to the sewing machine just in case!

So anyway...after the class, Miss Katie finally machine quilted the table topper that's been waiting in her UFO pile. She said these were test churn dash blocks from her first swap. She thinks the binding looks a little wavy 'cause it was old fabric out of her stash and it must be part polyester (whatever that is). Apparently it didn't shrink like the rest when she washed it. She says it has stuff like "cables" and "feathers" quilted into it. Whatever! I figure it's just fine for our kitchen.


She's also getting ready for the next mystery quilt. (Like she doesn't have enough UFO stuff?) I heard her say it's called Old Tobacco Road and that she's determined to use her stash and all the thrifted shirts for it. She brought two more loads of thrift shop stuff home this week. I just love to check it all out before it gets washed. There are soooooo many interesting smells. One of them I just couldn't get enough of and had to stick my head all the way in the washing machine while she was loading it to get the full effect before the smells were washed out! After that the shirts are only interesting to Miss Katie. She spends lots of time cutting them up and finding places to stash them. I'm not sure what the attraction is, but oh well.

The last couple of days have been about house cleaning. Not only did me and Ivy come in with wet feet every day, but Miss Katie's Middle Daughter and her SO were coming for a visit! They arrived at Nanny and Papa's house in the middle of the night. I guess that was really Friday morning? So in the morning Miss Katie finished vacuuming and washing the floors. Vacuuming is one of my jobs! I love to chase the noisy part of the vacuum cleaner.


I nip and bite at it to make sure it does the job properly...just like I do to the lawn mower outside. You can't trust these things to work the way they're supposed to without supervision! So Miss Katie used the floor attachment to do the master bath, then she put it down in the hallway while she vacuumed the carpet in the bedrooms. When she finished the carpets, she turned the machine off, and wandered all over the house muttering to herself for a long time! She was getting really hot and sweaty and aggravated but I didn't know why.

Then Papa came to the side door and all &^%$#@ broke loose! When the door opened, Ivy slipped out between Miss Katie's legs and went for a run around the neighborhood. A nice neighbor man stopped and got out of his truck to help. It was pretty funny watching Miss Katie running all around the wet grass next door in her flip flops. But I, of course, behaved like a lady and stood in the doorway with Papa when they went out of sight behind the trees. I could hear the yelling, then her sweet talking Ivy. When they came back into view, Miss Katie didn't care how wet Ivy was, she was carrying her!

Phew! So when that excitement was over, Papa followed Miss Katie into her study with the box of papers he was carrying (turns out it was the copies of the newsletter) and guess what she tripped over in there? The floor attachment to the vacuum cleaner! Well darn, if she had just asked me I could have told her that Ivy carried it off while she was doing the carpets.So Ivy spent a bit of time in her crate while Miss Katie finished cleaning and then went down the road for lunch and to see MD and SO. They came to see us this afternoon. Yippee! That was so great! I haven't seen them for such a long time. Me and Ivy had more quiet time this evening while everyone went out for dinner. It must have been good 'cause there were no leftovers for us! Miss Katie says despite how it looks, they weren't drunk either! :-P


So that's all I can think of to say for now. I'm pretty sure we're going back to bed now. Good night!