OH! And I never told you about my dogsitting experience last week.

First off, I was a wee bit nervous...the only other animal I ever cared for for its owners DIED on my watch. (Granted, it was a rabbit, and it was 7 or 8 years old and died of old age, apparently, but still, it was upsetting to say the least). So I was concerned that somehow Sweeti would go to the big Milkbone factory in the sky while I was supposed to be watching her. Of course that did not happen.

My second concern was that she'd get so bored/lonely/upset when there wasn't someone there, that she'd piddle on the carpet. That didn't happen either. (But when I was there, I was adamant about letting her out and seeing to it she stayed out for a while, to do whatever she needed to do).

The first time I went over, the dog didn't seem all that pleased to see me. "Yeah, yeah, I know" I said, "You were expecting your owners. But you've got me." Eventually she warmed up to me and let me scratch her ears and she went outside when I suggested she do so. I sat with her for maybe a half hour just to keep her from being too lonely.

The second time I went over there, she was more eager to see me (it was getting later and maybe she was getting more lonely). I sat on the glider swing in the backyard with her for a while, then when I started to get cold and went back indoors, I sat and read and she sat with her head on my knee and looked up at me. Periodically I'd scratch her head or pat her back to remind her that I was (at least marginally) paying attention to her.

About 10 pm that night her owners called me at home - they were back successfully, and "She didn't look too lonely or too sad so you must have done a good job"

Oh, the other thing - the woman told me there'd be "something on the kitchen table" next to the dog's treat jar for me. I thought, "Oh, that was nice, they got me a thank you card." Because that was really all I expected - it's not a big deal to go over and pet a dog for a while and make sure it can go out to tinkle.

But apparently it was a biggish deal to the people.

Because there was also a $50 gift card ($50! I really didn't want to accept it but I felt like it might be churlish not to do so) for Dillard's in the thank you card. I was pretty floored, as to me, $50 is a LOT of money (I probably would have baked a loaf of bread for the person in a similar situation) and really, I felt like what I had done was not that much.

(Dillard's, for those unfamiliar, is a semi-upscale department store. Kind of like Macy's.)

But when I mentioned it to my friend, she was all, "Oh, but making sure our dog was cared for was very important to us" and she didn't think the card was at all out of line. So okay.

So I'm thinking I may go down and spend the gift card tomorrow. I don't know. I still feel like I need to practice up more for my recital (even though I can play the piece mistake-free about 90% of the time). But it's been a LONG time since I've been out of the house to do more than grocery shop. So I'm thinking of taking tomorrow morning to go there, and to the JoAnn's (just to see if there's ANYTHING I want that's not on sale, so I can use a "50% off any one regular priced item." Clever JoAnn's. They put the pricey stuff on a lesser sale, then give you a good coupon that is only good on non-sale items) and to the "real" grocery store and to the Target and such. Because I think it's been since the end of Spring Break that I was really out for much shopping.

Besides, you never know when those gift card things start running out. I know some places they start to 'decay' the longer you wait to spend them.

Not sure what I'll get - I'll probably look at the clothes but if I can't find anything there, I may spring for some new towels. I bought one set of towels there a while back and am reminded that good towels (and good sheets), while expensive, are one of those things that make life a little nicer.