Mindy's Stole, Part 3

Today we realize two things: Number One - there's going to be a lot of looking at the same thing for a while as I knit the basketweave end, and Number Two - at the rate I'm knitting, this might be done for next Christmas. You can see the diagonal lines a bit better this week, but it looks really bad right now. (Note to Mindy and anyone else who hasn't knit lace: All lace knitting looks horrible before its blocked - this is normal and to be expected.) So, in order to give you a reason to come to the blog, I give you Gratuitous Canine Eye Candy!
He had just woken up when I got this picture and his ear is wrong side out. Lately, any sign of the camera has been his signal to jump around like a nutcase so I haven't gotten any good pictures of him - just some really scary closeups of his mouth as he tries to get the camera. We have made some major headway in his evening behavior lately. I decided that since he has two ways to tell us he needs to go outside, I would only respond to the one I like - going downstairs and sitting on the landing until I see him, before he goes all the way down to the back door. I would ignore the rude one - jumping around and barking at me - and see how long it would take for him to use Plan B. I realized when I did this that I might be using the carpet cleaner a bit while he figures out why Mommy is ignoring him, but I hoped that he would be smart enough to figure it out pretty quickly. Ignoring him paid off. The first time I did it, I could tell that he was a little confused and he tried jumping around and barking even more. I kept ignoring him. He had to sit down to think about that one. Then he went to the stairs and started down. I immediately followed him and told him what a good doggy he was! He tried the barking thing a couple of more times, but for the most part now he's just heading to the stairs if he really has to go. Its so much nicer than being barked at! He hasn't had an accident in the house with the changes we've made either. He seems to have figured out that he can hold it most of the evening until its time to go to bed, so he just plays or naps and I've actually gotten some knitting done lately. I think that since he likes to be with us, he really only wants to start downstairs by himself when he really has to go to the bathroom.