Harriet – Page 28 – red paper boat

Autumn Musings

October 6, 2005November 15, 2015 Shelly

It’s been nice to be back on my own schedule this week, though reacclimating myself to waking up at 4am has been unpleasant. I’m also having to get used to having Wednesdays off instead of Fridays. It means giving up my three-day weekends, which isn’t ideal, but I can rearrange it if I end up hating it. Flex-time is a godsend.

I spent this morning doing a whole lot of nothing, and it felt wonderful. I did manage to make a crockpot full of green beans and potatoes. I’ve been craving them for days. They turned out beautifully. I don’t use ham or anything meaty in them, but a lots of garlic and onion, and few drops of liquid smoke, some tamari, and some liquid aminos makes a nice, rich broth.

The new car is just as delightful as I thought it would be. It handles beautifully. I’ve never been very interested in cars, but I’m finding that there are zillions of little things the new car has that make me very, very happy (like the CD player restarting at the same place in the song, instead at the beginning of the CD, or headlights that go on and off automagically). But, the biggest thing I’ve noticed is that I don’t hold my breath every time I stop at a light. I hadn’t realized just how habitually on edge I’d gotten, because the MPoD had been dying whenever I came to a stop. I also don’t have half my mind on searching for new noises and problems. I almost enjoy driving, now.

I can’t quite wrap my mind around the fact that I’m now one of those eeevil SUV owners. But! It’s not a huge-assed SUV, it’s more of a smidgeon SUV-ette. It’s nowhere near as big as some of the monsters on the road. If it were, I wouldn’t be comfortable driving it. It is lots bigger than the MPoD, though. The little gravel patch that I park on, which was more than wide enough for the MPoD, isn’t quite wide enough for the new car. Hopefully, Ralph will dump some more gravel in my parking area the next time he re-gravels the driveway.

And now for gratuitous cute animal photos.

Harriet and I were lounging on the couch, watching teevee. I was trying to get a picture of her with her eyes closed, but every time she heard the camera focusing, she opened them. Still, it’s a pretty cute picture. I love the way she curls up her feet. Her back end is raised up because her far hind leg is tucked underneath her. She sleeps in the strangest positions.

Pandora, Queen of Bones. Or so she’d like everyone to believe. She occasionally curls up on the dog’s mat, with the her bones. They aren’t meaty or yummy, and even if they were, Pan hasn’t got any teeth to chew them with, so I don’t know what the attraction is. (Please ignore the layer of dust on the stereo cabinet. I certainly do! I figure that if I don’t pay attention to it, it might go away. Or, at least, it won’t bother me.)

As I was leaving home one morning last week, there was a beautiful layer of fog between the far stand of trees and the southeastern ridge. A week later, at about the same time of day, the sun was out and sparkling dazzingly on the fallow field behind my house. Despite the warm temperatures (highs in the mid-80s), you can tell that autumn is here. The back roads have brown leaves scuttling across them, which crunch satisfyingly when you drive over them. The walnut trees started losing their leaves weeks ago (I suspect the summer’s drought is to blame) and the leaves on the sassafras trees are turning scarlet.

You can really tell, in the bottom two photos, that the leaves are turning color. The first was taken on September 15, the second, on October 5. The closer, framing trees have dropped a lot of their leaves, the far, center tree has turned brown, and the mustard is no longer in flower.

It’s supposed to cool off quite a bit on Thursday. I’m a little torn. On the one hand, I love the cooler weather and turning leaves of fall, but I’m also not ready for truly cold weather to set in. Not that I don’t enjoy cold weather–I do!–but that I don’t want to have to invest in propane just yet. I don’t even want to think what a tankful will cost. I’m still planning on moving, but now I’m weighing the pros and cons of waiting a bit. On the bright side, I now have a car that will fit most everything I own!

It’s crankypantsing time!

1. Blogger. For the past few days, it’s been really unreliable, and seems to have just crashed again. This is the third time I’ve tried to upload this post, and the third time I’ve gotten a “Cannot find server” message. It looks like I’ll have to save this as a text file and upload it before work on Thursday. But hey, it’s free, right?

2. Models who have their own TeeVee shows. Has anyone seen the Tyra Banks show? I’ve watched a couple of episodes (I’m masochistic, that way), and was gobsmacked. She had on a couple who had requested a “free pass,” so that they could go out and see other people for 24 hours. WTF?! First, why do they need Tyra’s permission to see other people? Second, why on earth do people think that’s a good idea? The rationale seems to be that testing themselves with other people will show them whether or not their relationship is strong enough to take to the next level (presumably, marriage). I’m sorry, but if you’re even considering such a dumassed thing, then it seems pretty obvious to me that the relationship is in trouble.

3. My dryer, which died last week. I’m hesitant to replace it, because it may soon be redundant. Many of the houses and apartments I’ve looked at have washers, dryers, and dishwashers provided. But, air drying doesn’t remove lint and cat/dog hair. In the interim, I guess I could go to the laundromat, but that’s a time consuming pain in the ass.

4. My television antenna, which decided to stop working a couple of months ago. So now I can now only get two channels instead of three and a half. Hrmph! I can get FOX and PBS just fine, with the addition of a UHF booster, but I can’t get CBS and NBC, which means I’m missing Survivor and The Amazing Race. (This also explains why I was watching the Tyra Banks show.) I think I’ll put this in the pro Moving ASAP column.

Funnily enough, the antenna stopped working the same day Elliott died. I’d been out mowing and weed whacking earlier that day, so at first, I assumed I’d accidentally cut the antenna line. I don’t know what’s wrong with it–I’m scared to death of heights, so I’m not about to climb up there to investigate. Ralph said he’d come take a look at it, but I’m not holding my breath.

5. The phrase “scan in.” There is no in, out, up, or down–it’s just scanning. Period. Also, I can’t stand it when people add an extraneous “the” in front of words that do not need it.

6. E-mail forwards. You may think it’s the funniest damned thing since the invention of humor, but please, for the love of all that’s good in this world, don’t send it to me. I love Teh Funni, but I’m afraid that e-mail forwards do not make the cut. Also, do not cross-post it to all your mail lists. It’s sure to be off-topic and sharing it with everyone will not make you popular. Worse, if the recipients have multiple lists in common with you, they will receive it multiple times, thus multiplying your unpopularity. yOu hAv3 b33n wArn3d.

Crankypantsing, Pets, Photography

Happy Monday

September 26, 2005November 15, 2015 Shelly

I’ve been trying to remember to take photos of the sun shining on the dewy fence. It’s all grown up and, ahem, “rustic” looking right now, which is kind of picturesque. I’m not a big fan of yardwork, at the best of times, and with the uncertainty of my living situation, I’m feeling even less motivated than I normally do. My other excuse is that we’ve been getting an unholy amount of rain recently. It finally cleared up today, after 24 solid hours of rain, but it’s hot and humid and there’s no way the grass is going to dry any time this century.

The previous day had started with pea soup fog–dangerous, but beautiful in a spooky sort of way.

And now for the gratuitous dogblogging. That’s the lovely and talented Miss Brown, doing a canine headstand. She props herself against me, then inverts herself until she’s standing on her head. She started to slide out of position when I got up to get the camera, because her support was gone. I had to act quickly, in order to get this picture, so it’s a little blurry. But I think you can get the general idea–top of head on couch, butt in air, much funny to be had by all.

Oh, and note the glowy, non-photo blue eyes. They’re proof positive that she is eeevil.

In other news, I stayed home from work today to do some more car shopping. It looks like I may end up with a Ford Taurus wagon. It’s bigger than I want, but at this point, I’ll take anything with wheels and an engine that doesn’t hemorrhage oil. Oh, and a hatchback. I found plenty of smaller cars, but none were a closer fit than the Taurus. I went ahead and got my financing sorted out, so that I can pretty much just go in and pick it up on Wednesday after co-op delivery.

I’ve also been checking out rentals in Bloomington, and am pleasantly surprised at how many ads there are for pet-friendly housing, most all well within my price range. Whew! And it’s a good thing, too, because my landfolks are really starting to make me uncomfortable.

Ralph came over on Saturday (he showed up while the SBC guy was fixing my phone line), and told me that when Katrina left, she’d broken all the windows and toilets in their old place, and had burned all his clothes. Sweet fancy Jeebus! I can’t even imagine doing something like that, no matter how pissed off I was. That’s just seriously uncool. And, according to him, the property is his. He’s supposedly coming over this weekend to fix things. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Then, this afternoon, Katrina called. She says the property is hers, and that she still wants me to sign a lease. Ostensibly, it’s to protect me. Hell, NO. I have no intention of getting in the middle of their little shitfit! I told her I didn’t think it would protect me, as leases aren’t transferable. She disagreed. I told her I didn’t want to sign anything right now, but thanks anyway. She seems to think Ralph will kick me out. So what? I don’t think he will. I like Ralph, we’ve always gotten along just fine, and I don’t think it would be in his best interests to kick me out–if he does, no biggie, I’ll just move. Then Katrina told me that she’d called Ralph and told him I didn’t want him bothering me. As in, he’s not supposed to talk to me about anything related to the property or my living here. Not only did I say nothing of the sort, but what the hell business is it of hers?! The only thing I told Ralph is that I don’t want to be in the middle of their drama. I told him I was perfectly happy to deal with him instead of her, in fact, I’d prefer it. At no time did I tell him or Katrina that I didn’t want Ralph to “bother me.”

Pets, Photography

Dogblogging

September 19, 2005November 15, 2015 Shelly

Our town’s fall festival was last weekend. I imagine it’s pretty typical of any small town street festival: lots of tacky craft booths and way too much disgusting fair food. It’s fun to wander around and look at everyone’s tchotchkes, though. I took Harriet with me, this time. She’s freaked out by crowds, and easily over-stimulated, but I figured she’d be able to handle a short outing. I’m happy to report that she did very, very well. She only got nervous twice: when the live band started playing and when a woman approached her with arms spread out and waving. The live band was playing Poison covers and the woman was clearly crazy, so I can’t blame her.

Harriet tooled around the square with her nose plastered to the ground, hoping to hoover up any food trash that’d been dropped. I’m a meanypants, so I didn’t let her have any of it. She got lots of attention from various young ‘uns, which she lives for. She also, shockingly, was perfectly okay with the strange men who petted her, even going so far as to solicit attention from one old guy.

One thing that surprised me, was the number of adults who didn’t ask before petting her. Almost all the kids asked first, which was great. Normally, it’s the other way around. Also, she got mistaken for a Pit Bull by two different people. I realize she’s petite and kinda dainty, for a Boxer, but I don’t think she looks very Pit Bullish.

Altered Books, Art, Collage, Crankypantsing, Pets, Photography

Friday Round-up (Are We There Yet?)

September 9, 2005November 15, 2015 Shelly

I Carry a Picture in My Teeth

Meme-tacularity: I normally don’t get meme-y here. They bore me to tears on other people’s blogs, but I saw this on Creating Text(iles) and it amused the hell out of me. So:

You are Joan of Arc! You don’t really want to hurt anyone, but if they attack your friends or your country and no-one else will stand up to fight them, you head into the battle. Beware though, conviction tends to get you killed. (Which Saint Are You? brought to you by Quizilla)

Basically, I hate taking any sort of leadership roll, but if I’m forced to, heads will roll. Which is not inconsistent with what the Myers-Briggs personality test has to say about me (iNFj).

Anyway, a while back, I was asked to contribute artwork for the cover of an anthology of poetry. They ultimately chose to use a page I’d done in an altered book (above). The piece was inspired by a song called John Dark (if it were a rose of another name, it would be called Jeanne d’Arc).

Craptacularity: In other news… Today got off to a less than stellar start. I woke up at midnight and didn’t get back to sleep until nearly 4am, so I’m tired and cranky and my back hurts from tossing and turning all night. The bathroom light burned out, and I had to fumble around in the dark to put a new bulb in, almost stepping on the cat in the process. While I was in the shower, the gas company started cutting down brush along the easement (at 7am!). Harriet, who is normally very quiet, decided to sound the Intruder Alert. I had to get out of the shower, see what what she was barking about, tell her the sky was not falling, then get back in the shower to finish rinsing my hair. Blech. Then, I was a dork and turned on the microwave while I was making toast, and had to go reset the breaker and re-toast my breakfast. Naturally, after the toast was done, I forgot to finish heating up my tea water.

Hopefully, all that craptacularity will mean that the rest of the day goes smoothly. I’m not holding my breath or anything, though.

Friday Dogblogging, Starring Harriet Brown the Canine Corkscrew:

Isn’t she the cutest thing ever? I love watching her wallow around. She’s one of the twistiest dogs I’ve ever met. What cracks me up is that she’ll stay in that position for quite a long time. I can’t imagine that it’s comfortable, but it seems to work for her.

Harriet’s a funny, funny dog, in both definitions of the word. She’s a typical Boxer, in that she loves to make people laugh. She’s got a great sense of humor and will do anything for a joke. She’s got a serious, sensitive side, though, and is changeable, so you never know which Harriet you’ll get. It’s like getting two dogs for the price of one. She’s nothing at all like Elliott, who was thoroughly consistent. He was always sunny and gregarious and pretty much just happy to be. Harriet is like having hot- and cold-running Boxer.

Okey Cokey Pig in a Pokey: I’m half-way through season three of The League of Gentlemen. Dear God. It’s truly brilliant. The plot keeps twisting and weaving like an inebriated acrobat. It’s funny and disgusting and I can’t wait to see what happens next. Oh, and the extras are damned good, too. I recommend re-watching the episodes with the commentary on. If you can get your hands on the Christmas episode, watch that, too. It contains three horror vignettes that are priceless, as well as tv and radio interviews and old footage.

A Bone Dry Moon: I learned an interesting bit of weather lore yesterday. A friend’s mother said that she’d been taught that a dry moon meant it would not rain. Last night’s crescent moon was dry. It was supposed to rain yesterday and today, but so far, we’ve gotten bupkis, and the radar is crystal clear. I know it’s just coincidence, but it’s interesting, nonetheless.

Image credit: A Blue Crescent Moon from Space, Expedition 13 Crew, International Space Station, NASA, from APOD.

Pets, Photography

Harriet Brown

September 4, 2005November 15, 2015 Shelly

One of Harriet’s favorite ways to pass the time is to sit and look out the front door. She’s incredibly nosy and loves to watch the neighbors come and go. There’s quite a bit of wildlife here, too, to keep her entertained: bunnies, lizards, birds, moths, and butterflies, etc.

This is an older photo I took with my Canon 35mm. I love the richness and depth I get from that camera–it’s far better than my digital. The digital camera is handy, but it just can’t take pictures like this one.

She’s been funny about using the yard lately. Without Elliott here to egg her on, she doesn’t seem very interested in exploring. She spent some time this morning, though, nosing around the perimeter and digging for moles. Then, she had a quick roll in a pile of grass clippings. She’s never been interested in rolling in gross stuff, but for some reason, she likes to roll in mown grass. I don’t mind, because it makes her smell like fresh hay. Plus, I love watching her wallow around with her feet in the air–it’s painfully cute.

When she was finished with her grass bath, she sunbathed for awhile on the porch, then stalked a blue tailed skink. The little lizard drives her to distraction. She wants to catch him in the worst way, but he’s too quick for her. After an hour or so of stalking, she finally got so frustrated that she had a melt down. It was hilarious to watch, because she suddenly got thoroughly disgusted and started howling, snorting, and stomping her feet. For all the world, it was like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum.

Altered Books, Art, Drawings, Pets

Pencil Study

August 27, 2005November 15, 2015 Shelly

I haven’t been motivated to do very much today, so I decided to watch a DVD and sketch. Harriet joined me on the couch, and was obliging enough to let me draw her paw (front left).

Dogs are sometimes a little funny about being closely scrutinized. Usually, after a few minutes of being stared at, Harriet gives me a disgusted look and hies herself to her crate in the bedroom. This time, she was quite cooperative. However, I’m a slow worker (this drawing took about 15 minutes), and this was the last of five studies, so she was getting a little rebellious toward the end.

I find Boxers nice to draw because they’re so sleek and lean. The tendons and muscle definition are obvious because there is no coat to hide them. They also have prominent veins in their legs. I think they look a bit like race horses, in that respect.

News & Politics, Pets, Photography

A Recipe, the Moon, and Some Other Stuff

August 17, 2005January 8, 2016 Shelly

I love green beans. They are quite possibly the most perfect food in the world. One of my favorite ways to make them is to sautee them with a bit of tamari and lemon juice.

(All measurements are very approximate.)
4-6C fresh or frozen green beans, cut to taste
1T olive oil (enough to lightly coat pan)
4-6 scallions, chopped
4oz mushrooms, cut to taste
2-3T tamari (you can substitute soy sauce)
a few cloves of garlic, chopped
the juice of one lemon

Lightly coat a wok or large frying pan with olive oil and bring up to medium heat. Add the scallions, green beans, and tamari and cook for about 15-20 minutes. Add the mushrooms and garlic and cook until the mushrooms are tender. Add lemon juice and turn up heat slightly. This is a good time to taste and adjust the tamari and add any other seasonings you might like. I prefer fairly plain food, so I stick to just tamari and lemon. When all the liquid is cooked out, remove from heat and serve.

The left-overs make a damnfinegood breakfast, too.

Last night, I got home a little before 8:00. It was nearly full dark, the sky had cleared, and the waxing gibbous moon was a lovely, buttery color.

I feel out of touch with the shifting seasons right now. My regular schedule is such that I’m up at 4am and out the door by 5am. I get to see the slow, subtle, daily changes in the morning light. I miss the fog and the smell of early morning. I miss the quiet, secret feel of pre-dawn. I miss being one of the first people at work.

Right now I’m on a later schedule, leaving home around 8am. That means that the sunset shift is coming as a bit of a shock. Instead of a steady build-up to fall, it feels like it’s happening all too suddenly. When I get to work, there are hordes of people and, despite the fact that it’s a library, it’s noisy and crowded and bustling. It makes me feel anxious and like I’m putting my feet in all the wrong places.

Despite the fact that Harriet’s a high strung, tweaky, high maintenance sort of dog, she’s completely unperturbed by things like loads of laundry descending upon her while she’s innocently napping. I guess that’s not really all that surprising, as she loves to be covered up while she sleeps. I expect the laundry feels nice and toasty warm to her.

Right now, in fact, she’s sleeping on the bed. Somehow, she’s managed to get one of the pillows on top of her. It’s draped over her like a blanket. She takes being comfy very, very seriously.

I’ve noticed that she’s starting to take some interest in strange noises. While she was one of two, she would leave the watch dog duties to Elliott. The house could be overrun by an army of zombies and she’d happily sleep right through it. Last night, while we were sitting on the couch watching Big Brother, the cat knocked over something in the bedroom. Harriet snapped to attention, gave me an “Aren’t you going to check that out?” look, then let out a couple of soft woofs. She’s also started to alert me to cars going up and down the drive, which is reassuring. Not that I’m concerned about traffic, but that I’m glad she’s taking interest in what’s going on around her.

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In other news, I finally finished the new Harry Potter book. It was spoiled by some asstrumpet online, so I knew what was going to happen, but that didn’t soften the blow. I’ve read a couple of blog reviews of it, all of which were unhappy about the ending. I won’t say that it makes me happy, but I do see why it was necessary. Part of the hero’s journey requires that s/he go it alone.

Some of the responses I read were hopeful that those who have died would return in the last book. I don’t think they will. I hope they won’t. One of the things that’s struck me about the last couple of books is that they don’t lie to kids about death. Death can be sudden and incomprehensible, it can happen at the hands of those we trust (but maybe shouldn’t), and it is, most of all, final. You don’t get do-overs.

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Via Bitch Ph.D. and posts to a couple of my mail lists:

Have you heard about Cindy Sheehan? She’s the mother of a soldier who was killed in Iraq. She’s been holding a vigil outside the president’s home in Crawford, Texas, waiting for him to talk to her. All she wants is an explanation from him for why her son had to die. Personally, I think that’s the least he could do for her. Bush, who is there on vacation, refuses to speak to her, though. Apparently, he needs to get on with his life. Must be nice. Some folks, like Ms. Sheehan’s son, Casey, aren’t lucky enough to have a life to get on with. Ms. Sheehan is camped out, waiting for the president to change his mind. She might be in for a long wait, so there is a postcard campaign to 1) help show support and 2) help her pass the time. Ideally, you would send a postcard a day, but I think even just one would make a difference.

Cindy Sheehan
Crawford Peace House
9142 East 5th Street
Crawford TX 76638-3037

No matter how you feel about this war, I think you’d agree that the loved ones of those who have died deserve to know what, exactly, they died for.

Pets, Photography

The Rain Came

August 16, 2005August 27, 2016 Shelly

Saturday night, a weird storm system moved in. I got photos of the beginning of it, while the sky was patchy and there was still some cloud definition. At one point, there were puffy clouds to the south and crepuscular rays streaming from behind a stand of trees to the west, all while it was gently raining.

The contrast between the hyper-saturated greens of the grass and trees in the rain and the grey skies above was striking. Hopefully, the long dry spell hasn’t killed my little walnut trees. They were starting to get pretty bedraggled and unhappy looking.

I also got some pictures of a Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly and of a Pearl Crescent. Every time I changed position, the swallowtail would flitter off until I’d settled down again.

The little Pearl Crescent barely landed before flying away, so I only got one half-way decent photo of her.

Pearl Crescent

Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus)

Female (left) and Male (right) Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Spicebush Swallowtail (black) and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (center) which seem to be mating (!), with Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (right)

Male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

And, now, the obligatory dogblogging. Harriet Brown, Queen of Bones, has been enjoying the fact that there is no one else to covet her hoard. She has taken to gathering up all her chewies, making a pile of them on the couch, then lying on them while she naps and chews.

Crankypantsing, Pets, Photography

Long Time No Blog

August 9, 2005November 15, 2015 Shelly

Cars
Because life is never quite exciting enough, the MoonPie of Delight decided to die. Of course, she waited until after I’d spent $500 getting the oil pump and some damned seal replaced, before shuffling off this mortal coil. That’s how these things happen, I guess.

So now I’m car shopping, which is pretty damned funny. I know nothing whatsoever about cars, beyond “Oooh, pretty!” Somehow, that strikes me as an ass-backwards way to go about choosing a car, but what can I say? At this point, I’m leaning toward another hatchback or a small wagon (Ford Focus or Subaru Outback?), but Jeebus only knows what I’ll end up with when it’s all said and done. I know that it will not be a sedan or coupe. I need rear cargo space that will accommodate a medium-sized dog crate and/or art. Plus, I’m just not a sedan sorta person. A small SUV would be fine, but for the few occasions 4WD would actually be helpful, it hardly seems worth the expense. The extra clearance would definitely be good (the driveway is gravel and often in serious need of grading), but again, I’m not sure it’s worth the expense.

Anyway, the result is that I’m superdamned cranky. I don’t like being carless.

Dogs
On the bright side, I found myself a little virtual dog therapy. Check out this little guy. Have you ever seen anything like those ears? I didn’t think so! I really recommend looking at the video, too, if you’re on broadband. I know I said male Boxer*, but I’m smitten. Unfortunately, he’s the right dog at the wrong time. Damn, is he ever gorgeous, though! Hopefully, someone will adopt him soon, so he can stop tormenting me.

On the homefront, Harriet is still being a sissypants about going out into the yard by herself. She’s desperately in need of another dog to hold her paw and egg her on. I don’t mind going out with her, but for some reason, she says it’s not the same as chasing bunnies with another dog, thankyouverymuch. She’s enjoying getting all the attention for her very own self, though. Boxers are not lap dogs, but evidently no one ever told her that. I spent yesterday evening, sitting on the couch, trying to balance my book on top of her. It’s a Very Good Thing she’s cute.

Arting
In other news, I’ve not been in any sort of mood to do any arting. I’ve been re-reading the first five Harry Potter books, instead. I finished the fifth one Monday and–finally!–started on the new one yesterday. If I can tear myself away from it, I’m going to spend tonight and tomorrow catching up on other people’s art.

Movies
In movie news, I saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory over the weekend. It was everything I’d hoped it would be–much creepier than Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. I’m a huge Tim Burton fan, though, so it would’ve had to’ve been pretty dreadful for me not to have enjoyed it.

I’ve also been working my way through a stack of Netflix: The League of Gentlemen, seasons 2-3 (brilliant, of course), Dogville (a wonderful Lars von Trier oddity), and the rest of Wonderfalls (I can’t recommend it enough). Another little film was recommended in one of “my” dog groups: The Miracle of the White Stallions. It’s a typical mid-’60s Disney film, but I thought it was well worth watching. It’s set in WWII Austria, so the Disnification of the war, Nazis, Americans, etc. is interesting. Plus, pretty horsies!

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* The master plan was to eventually end up with a female Sibe and a male Boxer. Since Harriet is such a fearsome bitch where other girldogs are concerned, the next dog will have to be a boy. Since the boy half of the eventual duo was to be a Boxer, that meant that the next dog was to be a Boxer boy. That’s what I get for making plans, right? Becaue, now I’m seriously rethinking them. A male Sibe-female Boxer combo can’t be too bad, can it? Those Boxer girls are such pains in the arse when it comes to bossypantsing, though, so I dunno. A female Sibe would, I think, be much easier to live with. I could go around in circles like this for days on end.**

** This should give you some idea why car hunting is making my brain explodiate.

Pets, Photography

Fog and Dogs

July 14, 2005November 15, 2015 Shelly

I took these about a month ago, when we were having a spate of drizzly, misty weather. After it cleared up, we had nearly a month without useful precipitation. Hurricane Dennis came to Indiana this week, breaking the dry spell. It’s been a lovely, soaking rain over several days–exactly what we needed. It’s not been as picturesque as the pictures below, though, so I’m using them instead.

Elliott is our dog-in-fog model. The grass was too wet for Princess Harriet to put her delicate little feetses in.

And, because I can, here’s the obligatory dogblogging. Have I mentioned that Harriet is not (not!) a fan of air conditioning? Well, if I didn’t, she’s not a fan of AC. When it cools down in the living room, she scrunches up into a little ball and moans and groans and sighs until I take pity on her sad little self and cover her up with a binkey. If I’m a meanypants and ignore her, she goes to the bedroom, where there’s no AC, and roots around on the bed until she’s got the bedding wadded to perfection. I use it as an excuse not to make my bed in the mornings, because she’s only going to mess it up. I just pull the covers up and wait until bedtime to make the bed. A) I’m lazy and B) I choose my battles.

It’s a good thing she’s cute.

Burritodog