I know most people get excited about spring cleaning, but for me, fall is the cleaning/organizing time. All of those sunny warm days and outside time are winding down, the days are getting shorter. I hate that the most – the darkness. So soon!

But I’ll deal with it. To that end, I want the inside environment to be organized and ready. This weekend, it was time to get the office organized.

Nothing fancy here, just a small cabinet with paper and card-making tools. And on top, some knitting projects, a couple chicken-y items, a family heirloom, and a little Corgi dog from Wedgewood pharmacy. In fact, this probably isn’t even ‘organized’ to a professional organizer, but it is an improvement for me. Ahhhhh nice.

Took a break. Came back. Did a double take.

Quincy had inserted himself in this little scene. Move along… nothing to see here.

Then he realized that I had returned.

Without his mighty Invisi-cat shield, he felt vulnerable. He departed the scene.

Thank goodness he didn’t break anything. He did knock a couple things off of my desk, which Purl happened upon and chewed up.

Win some, lose some.

Harold and Giselle* don’t get a lot of face time here on the blog, other than to show their naughty side, harassing Barnie. They are noisy and great ‘watch geese,’ but fairly harmless. I say fairly because one of my friends who has taken care of them before might disagree. (hi Heather!) heh

Winter is coming, but they don’t fly. They are mostly concerned about eating up the yummy green grass before it gets covered in snow.

I am practicing and figuring out how to use a new camera. This was really the only photo of them that turned out. The rest were headless photos of their backsides; as they ignored me and munched on grass.

Here they are on a recent patrol of the yard.

They're loud. They enjoy harassing cats. They aren't flying anywhere for winter.

Enjoy these last few days of ‘summer’ (not ready to say fall yet).

* = father and son – an unfortunate naming accident

My pets and the story of their game of musical beds continues.

Argos, in particular, requires cushy comfort wherever he is. Want to calm him down in a new situation? A loud gathering? A boat on the water? Throw a bed down. Ahhhhh! He goes right to it, and gets comfy. He was even gifted his very own special bed by my friend.

Not to worry – we have several pet beds, but not one in every room. I lug the beds around depending on where we are going to settle for a bit. But sometimes I forget. Sometimes we are in a room… without a dog bed.

Argos acts insulted, sighing heavily a few times, pacing around, doing some turns before giving up and laying on the carpet. Oh, the things he must endure. Argos will stay in a room with a dog bed instead of joining the rest of us without a dog bed. Until he can resist it no longer.

Because of this, he sometimes gets beat for the best spot, as what happened the other day. Purl wasted no time getting in on the comfy-ness.

Today was the first day of school.

Sweet Sophie, as she has done for the last 9 years, resumed her position by the window to watch for the school bus. She started this job shortly after we adopted her, waiting for the bus at the end of the driveway that would take kids to kindergarten and first grade.

A few years later, that became not so cool, waiting for the bus with your mom. So Sophie and I resumed position in the house; me with a friendly wave to the driver, and Sophie with an eagle eye on the kids and the bus.

Today it was the first day of 7th and 8th grade. Time flies! Sophie still feels the need to watch for the kids and the bus.

This year, Sophie had a bus-watching apprentice. Purl was quite excited to see what the fuss was all about.

Argos, as usual, had some napping to catch up on. But he cares, too. In his own Argos-like way.

For me, fall is always the time to reconsider – to learn something new, get organized, take a new direction. Sometimes all three. I will be updating and changing lots of things in the coming weeks, which is both daunting and exciting.

For now, check out another cool use for SAND (besides Purl’s discovery of how FUN it is to dig in!).

I am loving the captions you guys are coming up for on these Wordless Wednesday posts!

This week, help Barnie speak:

Those of us on the west coast, sitting here enjoying the lazy days of summer, are worried about our friends and family on the east coast as hurricane Irene bears down on the entire eastern seaboard.

It is hard waiting, feeling helpless. Quincy has a few things to share.

Related info:

• Pets and Power Outages – About.com
• Pets Welcome At City Shelters During Hurricane Irene – CBS News New York