Scrouge is a word!

I don't mean "scrooge" as in Ebenezer! Scrouge rhymes with gouge.

I think the first time my husband heard the word "scrouge" was in a conversation about Grits. We were at my, Alabama born, Mom's place and she asked if Grits was scrouging us. My Canadian husband had never heard the word so we immediately got into debate about it. Mom pulled out my Dad's old dictionary from his university days in Arkansas. Sure enough, right there in black and white was the word. Scrouge: to crowd, press or squeeze. Since then, I've looked in a number of Canadian dictionaries and can't find it. Even as I'm typing this I'm getting the dotted red line underneath the word indicating a spelling error.

We still joke about it, but if there's anyone who is an expert at scrouging it's Grits! Last night, since Bob was working, I decided to let Grits sleep on my bed with me. It's hard to believe a 20 pound dog could just about scrouge me right off my king size bed, but that's exactly what happened. All night he was right up against me. If I moved an inch, he followed. At one point, I'm sure he was pushing me with all 4 paws. Maybe he thought he would like the bed all to himself. Who knows!

One thing I do know is that "scrouge" is definitely a word... in our house at least!

Mom's Bad Morning

This morning was not a good one for Grit's Mom. Yes, that's me. I refer to myself as his "Mom" even though I don't refer to Grits as my son, child or furchild. That would be weird!

I woke up this morning feeling, more than usual, like I should just stay in bed. Staying up late to watch SNL's Christmas special might not have been the best idea after all... but it was funny.

My husband and I had a plan to drop Gritsy off at Dogsville (doggie daycare for those of you who don't know), then I would meet Bob at the Suzuki dealership where we would drop off my SX4 for service and then Bob would drive me to work. Grits needed to go to daycare because Bob is working 9pm to 7am tonight and would need to have a nap this afternoon without our sometimes demanding dog bothering him.

I had my travel mug filled with home made coffee (Serious Coffee of course!) plus my lunch, a snack for Gritsy's lunch and my purse. Bob had put Grits in the kennel in backseat and as I normally do, I put my travel mug on the roof of the car while I got organized. Then I hopped in and backed out of the garage. Right away I noticed a clunking noise when I drove over the deep ruts in the hard packed snow on our street. It sounded to me like I had left the hatch in the back open. So I stopped and checked the back door and the dog's kennel. The snow and ice everywhere is starting to melt so when I noticed some muddy liquid running down the windshield I didn't think anything of it. I was glad we were taking the car in for service, because if the noise didn't stop we could tell Suzuki about it. But it was probably a hunk of ice or a rock in my wheel well. So off I went. Once I got a couple of blocks from our house I noticed the noise again and looked in my rear view mirror to see what appeared to by my travel mug bouncing away from me down the road. It's a good thing there was no one right behind me as that stainless steel mug might have smashed someone's windshield!

I looked down at my empty cup holder and said to Grits, "Ah... that's what the noise was!" and drove on. Any other day, I probably would have stopped but as you can tell, I wasn't really with it this morning. I hadn't had my coffee yet! Luckily there's a Starbucks on the way!

We made it to Dogsville in one piece and I told Marian my story, but in the process forgot to hand over Grits' snack. It's not the first time I've done that this week either.

When I saw Bob at the dealership he said he would take the kibble to Dogsville. He did and Grits, who had already been giving Marian dirty looks by this time, was VERY happy to see the food... and Bob as well.

Later Bob called me to tell me he had been back home and saw that our snowy streets had been plowed. Long gone (until spring anyhow) was my coffee mug thanks to the extra $2 million our mayor had arranged from the "rainy day fund" for snow removal on side streets.

I'm not really sure what I've learned from all of this and if Grits had anything to do with it. Perhaps some days it's better to just stay in bed... or I should NEVER stay up past 10pm... or I should ask Santa for a new travel mug... or I should NEVER forget food for the dog... or I should just shake it off and get on with my day.

The last one I think... that's what Grits would do!

Our Apologies...

Grits and I have to apologize for not writing much lately. To be honest, we didn't think anyone was reading, apart from my sister and the girls at Dogsville. Thanks Patty!

This weekend we watched the movie, Julie & Julia. Grits slept through most of it, but I really enjoyed it and was inspired to check my blog to see if anyone had commented. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had received my first ever comment outside of facebook. Thanks Jerr!

Grits and I really would enjoy seeing more comments from our readers, and I'm going to try to write more often (and take some better pics) and not let life's distractions get in the way...

Halloween

Halloween is very stressful for our security specialist, Grits. All night he sits looking out the front door window, ears perked up waiting for the next intruders to arrive or up in the office window barking at everyone walking down the street. As far as he's concerned we shouldn't be letting all these kids in their crazy costumes come bang on our door. It's just a bad idea! Thanks to Gritsy's efforts all the evil doers stayed away and today he is exhausted after being on guard well past his unofficial bedtime of 7 pm. I'm glad we only had 35 kids come round and we are safe... until next year that is!

Onyx is Grits' girlfriend...

Onyx is Grits' girlfriend... well in his dreams she is! About once a week or so we run in to our neighbour's walking their beautiful American Eskimo dog (Photo of Dog similar to Onyx). She always shows up perfectly groomed sporting her soft, bright white fur and a pink collar. Grits is a pretty good looking dog, but she makes him look scruffy by comparison. All Grits can do to try impress her is to run around in circles while tethered to his leash. He is fast, but this is literally getting him no where. She just moves out of the way, not even bothering to say hello, while she waits patiently for the humans have a quick chat. My husband suggested that if Grits could show her his big bone (beef bone that is), Gritsy might have a chance. If only he had pockets he could bring it along for the walk...

Be thankful for time with family and friends...

Grits most enjoys the days when we are all at home together! We sit by the fire, surf the web, go for walks, play, watch TV and of course nap. Even better is when his extended family comes to visit! This weekend Grandma (Bob's mom) came over for Thanksgiving brunch. We made waffles, sausages and Bob's special yummy potatoes while Grits enthusiastically enjoyed the same thing he eats everyday, his kibble and a carrot for dessert. Then we all sat around and enjoyed our coffee while Grits got a nice head/tummy rub squished between Bob and me on the couch. He really does have the best life and he reminds me that my life is pretty great too! And that we're lucky to be able to spend time with our family and friends. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Forgiveness

The other day, I got home from work and since it was starting to rain, I decided to take some beef barley soup out of the freezer to have for dinner. I went down to the furnace room, grabbed the container of frozen soup and then went back upstairs and started to watch Dr Phil or Oprah. About a half hour later, I began to wonder where Grits was. I looked in the office first, but no Grits, then in the bedroom, the closet and the guest room. Still no Grits. Then the living room, kitchen and laundry room. Your starting to get the idea now. Finally, I checked back in the furnace room again and that's where Grits was... alone in the dark furnace room. Poor Grits! Once free, he quickly followed me up the stairs. I tried to pet him and tell him I was sorry, but he just turned to face me and barked at me when I tried to touch him. I'm pretty sure he was trying to tell me he was really mad at me!

I worried that he thought I had done it on purpose, or that he was being punished. It really bothered me that I couldn't explain it to him. By dinner time all was forgiven, but of course I felt guilty for the rest of the night. I wonder if he knows that's why he got to sleep in my bed...