Kicking The Habit

 People often say getting a puppy is like having a baby in the house. No, it's not. Babies are diapered - here, we just keep the steam cleaner ready to go and plugged in. He manages to go outside more than inside but he also goes about 437 times a day which means our shoes have to be ready to go too so we can race outside before Reuben adds to the stain collection. On the hand, you cannot stick a baby in a crate while you go to work during the day - and Reuben has not seemed to mind it. The big issue with us both working is we have to dash home at night, 9 hours is not easy on a puppy and he does have accidents in the crate but we just keep a supply of clean blankets and when we're home he's outside. He'll be big enough to leave out  of the crate at night in a couple of months so that will make me feel better. We did the grocery shopping today, that's another issue. We need to rein in the spending around here, we've turned our weekends into a shopping trip every weekend. The other day I was ready to turn into CVS - then stopped myself and  asked WHY. The answer was simply I had time before seeing a client, pure and simple. I didn't need anything but had I gone in it would have been an easy $30 of things I don't really need, just want at the moment. So for awhile, no more yarn shop, no more Old Navy sales - if I go in a store for an item, it's that item and back out. Today I wanted seeds for my garden, bulbs for the bald spot in the yard  and we needed to go food shopping so we went to Wal-Mart  and could get it all in one place - I looked at the clearance rack, the yarn bins - but there was nothing I needed - and it's silly to 'save" $10 on an item you already have 2 of at home. But it's just like any bad habit - and that's really what it's turned into, a habit - you just have to keep telling yourself no. I went to Bed Bath and Beyond to buy a frying pan ,bought it and then home. We had bought one of those Orgreenic pans they advertise on TV, you know the one they demonstrate blowing an egg out, sliding burned cheese, etc. Good luck with that! I used it a couple times to make scrambled eggs in the morning and you pretty much need a crow bar to pry whatever it is you're cooking. I was even frying up onions USING OIL and it all stuck! So I'm back to Teflon and screw the environment. In knitting news I'm on the edging of the shawl finally - but I have to say it went pretty fast. Today I'm on call and it's spitting rain so not much to do but answer the phone and watch HGTV.