Category: Pets

Crankypantsing, Pets, Photography

Procrastination

Shelly

Something is blooming. With a vengeance. When I woke up, my eyes and skin were itching like crazy. What’s odd, though, is that I’m not congested or sneezing. I’m not complaining, mind you. The itchies are a royal pain in the behindermost parts, but nothing either Claritin or Benadryl won’t cure.

What I am complaining about, though, is that I have to mow the grass today. There’s no putting it off any longer. I didn’t do it last weekend, so it’s ridiculously long. I’m procrastinating because I really don’t want to do it. It’s nightmare to mow at the best of times. Letting it get this long makes it ten times worse. The good news is that it’s only in the low 70s today and really breezy. It’s a fairly cloudy, too, so it shouldn’t warm up much more.

Also, this is Day 1 of my six-day mini-vacation. Yay! I don’t go back to work until next Thursday. That means lots and lots of time for arting and, if I can get it sorted, some web design. As soon as I get the damned lawn mown, I can get started on Fun Stuff. Have I mentioned that I’m procrastinating?

And, now for some gratuitous cuteness:

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Pandora and Elliott, nappin’ out

Pets, Photography

As Promised Yesterday…

Shelly

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Pandora (AKA Mistress Eeevil Kitty)

Pandora is in charge of making sure that my work table is kept clear and that all stray socks, wash cloths, and scraps of paper are deposited by the front door. She’s 16 this month and is still going strong. Every morning, I wake up to her running crazed laps up and down the hallway.

Pandora is the only cat I’ve known who is absolutely fearless. While I was moving the furniture around last weekend, the dogs both hid. Not Pandora! She was constantly underfoot, checking out what I was doing and looking to see if I’d unearthed anything Interesting. I’ve moved around a lot since I got her and have never seen her stressed about being in a new place. As soon as her carrier is opened, she’s out and exploring her new queendom. Every trip to the vet is a new adventure–she schmoozes with everyone and noses around, getting into everything she possibly can.

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The Studio

That’s Elliott in the last picture. He’s a mamma’s boy. Whenever I’m working, he sleeps under my feet. When I’m not working, he sleeps under my computer desk. The desk looks like a hunk of junk, but it’s an antique primitive piece. I should take better care of it than I do, but I don’t have the space to store furniture I’m not using. Plus, it’s the perfect size and height for what I need.

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And, because we haven’t had a landscape photo in awhile…

Pets, Photography

Spring

Shelly

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The weather has been almost unbearably pretty the past few days. The birds and bugs are back with a vengeance and the trees have a green halo of freshly opened leaves. I took some time yesterday to get a few photos of the new growth, as things change so quickly.I’m also still figuring out this new camera. I love the camera itself and am happy with the pictures, but I’m not so happy with the software that came with it. I ended up uninstalling it, which might have been a mistake. It appears that, if I do not use Kodak’s software to do the initial cropping, Hello will upload the uncropped image as the thumbnail. The thumbnails above do point to the correct, cropped images, though, so it’s not as bad as it could be.I thought I’d get around it by uploading this set of photos to Flickr, instead, but Flickr seems to be cranky today.

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The new grass is tender, and must be especially sweet and tasty. The dogs spend hours grazing. They’re quite businesslike about it: rip, chewchewchew, rip, chewchewchew. I love watching them grab the blades in their tiny front teeth and the sound as they pluck the grass from the ground.

Pets

Beautiful Day

Shelly

It was pouring down rain early this morning, when the dogs got me up. It was so disgusting out that I went back to bed for a couple of hours, hoping it wouldn’t be as gross when I woke back up. My plan worked. This has been one of the most gorgeous days we’ve had, yet. The sun has been nice and bright and there has been a nice scattering of puffy little white clouds. I’m not looking forward to hot weather, but after a grey and gloomy winter, I’m enjoying the increasingly sunny days.

With all the rain we’ve gotten over the past week, the grass is starting to perk up. I love the contrast of the intense green against the still-brown trees and the golden grass of the fallow field next door. The dogs are enjoying the tender new grass, too. They both spent a good part of the afternoon grazing, like a miniature herd of baby cows.

Pets

Rainy Day

Shelly

After a stretch of almost too-gorgeous weather, today turned gross and rainy. Pandora is napping on top of the heat register. Leave it to a cat to suck up all the heat in the house. The dogs had a riotous game of biteyface in the mud and are now sacked out for their after dinner naps–Harriet on my bed (with her binkey) and Elliott on the couch.

Pets

Lemons!

Shelly

There have been lots of discussions in the dog groups about weird things our dogs will eat. Sunday night, I tried grapefruit. Both dogs said, “More, pleaseandthanks!” While I was at Babbs this morning, I picked up some lemons, with the intention of seeing what they’d make of them. Elliott ate a few pieces, but was less than thrilled (he’ll eat anything I give him). Harriet is a little more picky, but will give most things a try. Surprisingly, she really seems to like lemons. Altogether, she ate about a quarter of a lemon, peel and all.

Art, Bookarts, Pets, Photography

The Blustery Day

Shelly

It’s cold and snowy and windy today. The weather is supposed to clear up this afternoon, but in the meantime, it’s snowing sideways (30mph wind gusts) and the roads are icy. Yuck.

In arting news, I started on a new book last night. It’s an itty bitty (3/4″ x 7/8″) alphabet book, made out of left-over Cartiera Magnani paper (I just can’t stand to throw any of it away). Lord only knows how I’m going to manage to bind something that small, but I’m sure it’ll be an interesting experience. I’ll post pictures as I finish them.

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Oh, and yesterday was Elliott’s 11th birthday. That photo was taken earlier this winter. Harriet, ever the fashion plate, is modelling the latest in Metal-wear for dogs. Elliott, bless his little heart, is standing all penguin-footed. That’s my silly dork!

Pets

The Sun Came Out to Play

Shelly

Capricorn Bash 2005 is over–great friends, great food, and great fun was enjoyed by all. I got a Kibological selection of DVDs from Mr. B (Romper Stomper & Never Cry Wolf) and groovy slippers and art supplies (including a set of hole punches and a butt-load of various glues) from Mrs. B. We then adjourned for a silly-fest at Ms. K’s house, where I laughed so hard I ended up with a sore throat. That sort of laughter is good for the soul.

And, guess what? The sky cleared up yesterday! It’s pale blue today, but there isn’t a cloud to be seen. We ended up getting a few more inches of rain on Wednesday night/Thursday, so the river is back up again. It’s not as bad as it was last time, though, thankfully. It’s supposed to crest Sunday, so I’m hoping I can get out and get some pictures. The poor folks in Spencer who live near the river haven’t takend down their sandbag barricades yet. That’s probably a good thing.

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Froggy Says: We Got 3″ of Rain

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The sun came out to play, so I took some pictures of the dogs enjoying the good weather. They both came inside afterward with their feets caked in mud and huge smiles on their faces. The wee critters were out and about, taking advantage of the good weather, too, and providing lots of entertainment for the dogs. Work on the Moon Crater continues.