"The Secretary Next Door"

The attorney in the next office over had to leave the building and asked if I could hold something to be picked up later in the day. (No problem, of course.) Then he called the other party to tell them he'd left the materials with "the secretary next door."

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Let me say that again: "the secretary next door." I mean, I'm sitting here on the Group W Bench - sorry, I mean, in my tastefully decorated office with all the diplomas on the wall, doing that legal thing and billing for it at a pretty impressive rate thankyouverymuch, and looking back on my 16 years of legal experience and 7 years of college and all . . . and suddenly I'm "the secretary next door." (Tears hair out, bangs head against wall, takes deep breath, and moves on.)

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Lessee . . . Saturday was one of my better days at the market. To top things off, Patty Akers from Gaelic Sands (the silk painting lady) stopped by my booth with several lengths of silk, so we could pick out exactly what size and weight to use for my next project. You see (and this is very cool), I'm going to paint silk shawls for the wedding party to use during my brother's wedding this fall. Doesn't that sound great? The dresses are going to be a copper color, and the flowers will be mums in warm fall palate, so Patty has invited me to her studio to make floralesque swirls and abstract resist images and generally just play. I need to make a run to Appleton as soon as my bonus check arrives to pick up my dress and give us a target color, and then order the silk blanks from her company - and then it's playtime!

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I got a call from Rick just as I was packing up from market on Saturday. I'd stayed up late the night before to finish one of the pirate hats, then left the remote on the beat up little couch which is the only piece of furniture where the dog is allowed. The next morning she was sitting there when he went in, and in no uncertain terms told him that he was NOT getting near "her" couch or the remote laying on it. Keep in mind that she'd met him a week ago Sunday, then not seen him again until he got home late Friday night. So from what she knew, this was an occasional visitor to the house with undetermined privileges and a big question mark in the "trustworthy" category. Just the same, this kind of behavior is not going to work. I talked to boss lady about it, and she gave me the name of a local trainer. Nora and I had an emergency first session with her on Saturday evening and signed up for a full series starting tonight. But I did learn that Nora knows her obedience commands very well (whereas I'm a bit hazy about the whole thing), and that she needed a better collar, a better leash, and at least 4 miles of walking a day. Oh, and an umbrella insurance policy wouldn't be a bad idea.

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Gulp.

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So we walked 4 miles on Sunday, after which the dog just kind of lay there for the rest of the night. Me too. But I'm not ready to give up on her yet.

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Finally, I present you with an image of my new hen, who replaces the little red hen killed last week by someone else's dog. Notice how many feet she has sticking out from underneath her feathers? She's supposed to have 13 chicks under there, but she's not planning on letting me count them just yet.

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