How can this be the Monday before Thanksgiving?!?! At least the weather is feeling a bit more seasonal though turning the heater back on left me sneezing and hacking. It always does and eventually my stupid sinuses will figure it out. Life. It is what it is. 🙄 So…last week happened. And there was a weekend. There was writing, a magic ghost dog, Bedlam, and pretend Cuban sandwiches that were pretty darn tasty.

Let’s start with the writing. I hit 50K over the weekend and while that’s a “win” with National Novel Writing Month, the book isn’t finished. I was shooting for around 50K words and The End. Yeah, not happening. It’ll likely be closer to 60k, but that’s okay. The writing continues and it’s flowing and damn if I’m not enjoying this book. I’ve made myself laugh AND cry and sprinkled in some awwwws to boot. Now, if my readers will just react the same way. Still planning on being finished and ready to send off the publisher by the 30th. My final NaNoWriMo word count will shift as I go through edits.

Remember when I featured Zeta and Brodie on Tuesday Treats and Titles? With the Cuban Sandwich Appetizers? I made them last week, with the idea of dinner-size rather than apps. I couldn’t find deli pork loin, so I ended up buy thin-sliced pork sirloin and frying it up. I’ve also figured out–which I’ll try the next time–how to get the pickles on the inside.

Bedlam. It was awful. My Cowboys lost and the Sooners were big jerks. FYI, I actually attended a semester at OU and my whole family graduated from there. I’m an OSU fan because that’s where Lawyer Guy graduated. ‘Nuff said. Moving on.

Ghost dog. Who is either a reincarnation of Houdini, or magic. Last week, I went out to feed the ferals and only one was hanging around. A Siberian Husky was standing on the front walk sort of watching Shylock. I called to the pup but he backed off so I followed and shooed him home. Siberians are known as escape artists and tend to wander but they can usually find their way home. Well, a bit later, my boys are in the backyard and Boone is barking his intruder challenge bark. I hustle out there and see the husky on the other side of the fence with Boone and Jake both right there sort of challenging him. Exceptn when I get closer, he is NOT outside the fence. He’s inside it! Please understand that we have an 8-foot chainlink fence on two sides and the other two sides are 8-foot cedar privacy fences.

This is a long story, so bear with me. I snap a picture of him and I go to the Nextdoor App and post about him, saying I’d delay calling animal control until later in the day, to give the owners a chance to claim him. A lady who lives sort of in the area contacts me but in comparing pictures, my ghost dog is not her missing Siberian. I finally call the local animal welfare in the afternoon and they have a husky who just appeared at the shelter that morning, and that scratched on the door to be let in. The animal control officer described the husky she had, which matched the dog the neighborhood lady had lost. I told AC that I’d contact the lady, left my contact info on the ghost husky (he has a white face with masking only around the ears, hence…ghost) and said we could keep him for awhile as the shelter was full.

An hour or so later, AC calls. The owner of “my” husky is at the shelter. I say it’s fine for him to come to the house to pick up his dog. He gets lost. We aren’t that hard to find. AND, it turns out that he live across the street (catty-corner) and four houses down, so basically a block away. Anyway, the husky’s name is Zeus and he was very happy to see his dad. LG and I talked to him about the “care and feeding” of Siberians. They are very much pack animals and either want to be with their humans or with their doggy pack. Zeus is an only dog. So we wave goodbye and they drive off home.

Now, fast forward. We’ve eaten dinner and I’m carrying dishes to the kitchen to wash up and I’m staring at the back door. Which is open, with Zeus standing there halfway in, halfway out. I. Kid. You. NOT! So we call the owner. He comes back. I’m out there in the dark and I find where I think Zeus got through the fence. I jerryrig it to keep him out until we can make proper repairs in daylight. The damn dog keeps finding ways to get into the yard. We stop calling the owner and just shoo Zeus out. He knows where he lives. And Boone and Jake are no longer that thrilled with having a third doggo around. And Loki? The cat disappears for hours when Zeus has gotten inside. That’s like…Tuesday/Wednesday, right? Also Zeus came about 3 a.m. one morning and scratched at the front door to be let in. LG chased him off.

Fast forward to Friday night. Spaghetti dinner at the American Legion Post. I SHUT AND LOCK THE BACK DOOR. Jake and I head to the post to meet LG. I come home, LG is still there. We walk in and Jake goes on alert. THE BACK DOOR IS OPEN!!! I’m freaked and digging my pistol out of my purse. And then Zeus walks around the corner. *headdesk* It gets better. I shoo him out, trying to keep my boys inside as I slip out and I shut the back door behind. The back door that IS STILL LOCKED. And I’m outside. I can’t get back inside. Keys are in the house and the garage door doesn’t have an outside keypad. *HEADDESK* I call LG, he comes home to let me in. He finds where Zeus has managed to bugger up the chainlink on the gate. He rewires it, goes back to the Post to finish up what he was doing. The dog is gorgeous and way too smart for his owner’s good but a total pain in my (and my critters’) ass! He’s lonely. We tried to tell the owner. FYI, I STILL can’t figure out how he managed to get through a locked door. Just sayin’…

So that was my week and weekend. Words and a magic dog. What’s up in your world?